President’s Report | Welcome Back to Lexington: Brian Steel Wills

Brian Steel Wills is the Director of the Center of the Study of the Civil War Era and Professor of History at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. A native Virginian, Brian was for many years a professor of history at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, Virginia. While there, he was named the Kenneth Asbury Professor of History and received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Brian is the author of numerous books relating to the Civil War, including his most recent work, The River Was Dyed with Blood: Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow. He also wrote A Battle from the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest, reprinted as The Confederacy’s Greatest Cavalryman: Nathan Bedford Forrest, which was History Book Club and a Book of the Month Selection. He has also authored The War in Southeastern Virginia; No Ordinary College: A History of the University of Virginia’s College of Wise; Gone with the Glory: The Civil War in Cinema; George Henry Thomas: As True as Steel; and Confederate General William Dorsey Pender: The Hope of Glory, the subject of his talk for our September meeting. Brian has also published an updated edition of the James I. “Bud” Robertson, Jr. Civil War Sites in Virginia. ■