Other Presenters
and Tour Guides

Richard Armstrong, author of Twenty-fifth Virginia Infantry & Ninth Battalion Virginia Infantry, also wrote four other volumes of the “Virginia Regimental History Series” as well as Jackson’s Valley Campaign: The Battle of McDowell.

Gary Ecelbarger is the author of Frederick W. Lander: The Great Natural American Soldier and a contributing writer to two volumes in the Time-Life “Voices of the Civil War” series. He has served as tour guide for the Marine Corps Officers Civil War Staff Ride program and conducts tours for the Civil War Education Association. Gary will present a session about Frederick W. Lander and his role in the Battle of Rich Mountain.

Hunter Lesser is probably the foremost scholar on details of Rich Mountain and the First Campaign. A native West Virginian, he has authored more than fifty publications in archaeology and history, including Battle at Corricks Ford: Confederate Disaster and Loss of a Leader. He was co-developer of interpretive signage and exhibits for Rich Mountain Battlefield, Cheat Summit Fort, and Camp Allegheny. He guides various tour groups on excursions covering the First Campaign. He is currently completing a book on the West Virginia battlefields and politics that shaped the Civil War, to be published by Sourcebooks in the fall of 2002.

Terry Lowry, author of The Battle of Scary Creek: Military Operations in the Kanawha Valley, April-July 1861 and September Blood: The Battle of Carnifex Ferry, as well as two volumes of the “Virginia Regimental History Series,” will give a presentation on the related 1861 campaigns in southern (West) Virginia. Terry is employed at the West Virginia State Archives.

C. Stuart McGehee, Ph.D., is Professor and Chairman of the History Department at West Virginia State College, where he was recently appointed Dean of the School of Social Sciences. Archivist of the Eastern Regional Coal Archives, he served as Chairman of West Virginia's Archives and History Commission for a decade. He has recently completed two films for the Virginia Tech Center for Civil War Studies, in conjunction with the West Virginia Department of Education. The films include "West Virginia as a Child of the Civil War," analyzing West Virginia statehood.

William Miller A former editor of Civil War Magazine, Bill is author of Mapping for Stonewall: The Civil War Service of Jed Hotchkiss, which won the Fletcher Pratt Award as the best non-fiction Civil War Book of the year.

Gerry Reilly, Director of West Virginia Independence Hall in Wheeling, helped create the new exhibition there, “West Virginia: Born of the Civil War.”

Richard A Wolfe, a retired Major in the U.S. Marine Corps, has focused for many years on West Virginia in the Civil War, with particular emphasis on General Benjamin Kelley and the First (West) Virginia Infantry.