William Charles "Jack"Davis (born 1946) is an American historian who was a professor of history atVirginia Tech and the former director of programs at that school'sVirginia Center for Civil War Studies. Specializing in theAmerican Civil War, Davis has written more than 40 books on that subject and other aspects of earlysouthern U.S. history, such as theTexas Revolution.[1] He is the only three-time winner of the Jefferson Davis Prize forConfederate history and was awarded the Jules and Frances Landry Award for Southern History.[2] His bookLone Star Rising has been called "the best one-volume history of theTexas revolution yet written".[3]
Following his graduate studies, Davis began his professional career in publishing as an editorial assistant at Historical Times, Inc. inHarrisburg, Pennsylvania, from 1969 to 1972.[4] He went on to serve as editor ofAmerican History Illustrated andCivil War TimesIllustrated magazines from 1972 to 1976.[5] He later became president of the National Historical Society (1976–1982), executive editor of Historical Times, Inc. (1982–1984), and corporate editorial director of the same company (1984–1986).[6]
From 1986 to 1990, Davis was president of Museum Editions, Ltd., a book and product packaging division of Cowles Magazines, and continued as a book packaging and sales consultant from 1990 to 1992, including representingSalamander Books ofLondon in the U.S. market.[7]
In 2000, Davis became a professor at Virginia Tech, where he served as director of programs for the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies.[1] He retired from this position in 2013.[9]
He was chief consultant and on-screen historian for the Arts and Entertainment/History Chanel series “Civil War Journal,” and has served as historical advisor for numerous television and film productions here and in the UK.[11] He has also served as a voluntary cnsultant to theVirginia State Police linvestigating “cold case” homicides.[12]
In 1996, Davis authored the bookThe Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy, a critical examination of mythical claims made byneo-Confederates andLost Cause members regarding theConfederacy and theAmerican Civil War. Davis states that "it is impossible to point to any other local issue but slavery and say that Southerners would have seceded and fought over it."[15] However, Davis contrasted the motivations of the Confederate leadership with that of the motivations for individual men for fighting in theConfederate army, writing that "The widespread northern myth that the Confederates went to the battlefield to perpetuate slavery is just that, a myth. Their letters and diaries, in the tens of thousands, reveal again and again that they fought and died because their Southern homeland was invaded and their natural instinct was to protect home and hearth."[16]
Over the course of his career, William C. Davis has authored or edited more than fifty books, many of which have become standard works in the field of Civil War studies. Among his most acclaimed publications areJefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour, widely regarded as the definitive biography of theConfederate president,[17] andA Government of Our Own: The Making of the Confederacy.[18]
In 2015, Davis publishedCrucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee – The War They Fought, The Peace They Forged, a comparative biography examining the military careers, personal lives, ethical perspectives, and political views of both generals.[19] The work received the Jefferson Davis Award from theAmerican Civil War Museum, the John Y. Simon Award from the Ulysses S. Grant Association, and theRichard Nelson Current Award of Achievement from the Lincoln Forum.[1]
Davis has served as an editor, conference speaker, and lecturer at academic institutions, with presentations before organizations including theAmerican Historical Association, theSouthern Historical Association, and theSmithsonian Institution.[7] His scholarship extends beyond the Civil War to subjects such as 19th-century political culture, historical memory, and biography.[1] He has also written on piracy inThe Pirates Laffite[20] and on the early Republic inLone Star Rising.[21]
In his later research, Davis turned to lesser-known figures, includingLoreta Janeta Velazquez, an alleged Confederate soldier and spy whose memoir he exposed as largely fictional in a recent biographical study.[22] He is currently editing a collection of Civil War-era letters between Confederate general Gabriel Wharton and his wife, Nannie Wharton.[23]
Duel Between the First Ironclads: The Famous Civil War Battle at Sea Between the Union IroncladMonitor and the Confederacy's Virginia, the Redesigned and RebuiltU.S.S. Merrimack (1975; 2nd ed. 1994)
The Battle of New Market (1975, 2nd ed. 1993)
Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War (1977, 2nd ed. 1995)
The Orphan Brigade: The Kentucky Confederates Who Couldn’t Go Home (1980; 2nd ed. 1993)
'A Government of Our Own': The Making of the Confederacy (1994)
The American Frontier: Pioneers, Settlers, and Cowboys 1800-1899 (1995)
A Way Through the Wilderness: The Natchez Trace and the Civilization of the Southern Frontier (1995)
The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy (1996)
Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis (1998)
Lincoln's Men: How President Lincoln Became Father to an Army and a Nation (1999)
The Union That Shaped the Confederacy: Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens (2001)
Portraits of the Riverboats (2001)
An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate Government (2001)
The Civil War Reenactors' Encyclopedia (2002)
Look Away! A History of the Confederate States of America (2003)
A Taste For War: The Culinary History of the Blue and the Gray (2003)
Lone Star Rising: The Revolutionary Birth of the Texas Republic (2004)
The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf (2005)
The Rogue Republic: How Would-Be Patriots Waged the Shortest Revolution in American History (2011)
Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee—The War They Fought, the Peace They Forged (2015)
The Greatest Fury: The Battle of New Orleans and the Rebirth of America (2019)
"Gabriel and Nannie Wharton", inFinal Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves, edited by Brian Matthew Jordan and Jonathan W. White (2023)
