About the Author

Kevin Pawlak is a Historic Site Manager for Prince William County's Historic Preservation Division and serves as a Certified Battlefield Guide at Antietam National Battlefield and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. He graduated from Shepherd University in 2014, majoring in History with a concentration in Civil War and 19th Century America and minoring in Historic Preservation. Kevin previously worked at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. He is on the Board of Directors for the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association, the Save Historic Antietam Foundation, and the Antietam Institute. He is also a regular contributor to the Emerging Civil War online blog. Kevin is currently working on a study of George B. McClellan and the Army of the Potomac in the Maryland Campaign.  

Books

Pawlak, Kevin R. Shepherdstown in the Civil War: One Vast Confederate Hospital. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2015.

Orrison, Robert, and Kevin R. Pawlak. To Hazard All: A Guide to the Maryland Campaign, 1862. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2018.

Pawlak, Kevin R. Antietam National Battlefield. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2019.

Pawlak, Kevin R., and Dan Welch. Ohio at Antietam: The Buckeye State's Sacrifice on America's Bloodiest Day. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2021.

Gilot, Jon-Erik M., and Kevin R. Pawlak. John Brown's Raid: Harpers Ferry and the Coming of the Civil War, October 16-18, 1859. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2023.

Pawlak, Kevin R. Such a Clash of Arms: The Maryland Campaign, September 1862. Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishers, 2023.

Welch, Dan, and Kevin R. Pawlak. Never Such a Campaign: The Battle of Second Manassas, August 28-30, 1862. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2024.

Articles and Essays

Pawlak, Kevin. "Take a Seat at a Civil War Roundtable." The Valley Revue, February 2017.

Pawlak, Kevin. Review of Decision at Tom's Brook: George Custer, Thomas Rosser, and the Joy of the Fight, Journal of the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era 1 (2018): 97-99.

PP    Pawlak, Kevin. Review of Phantoms of the South Fork: Captain McNeill and His Rangers, Civil War News (November 2018): 39.

Pawlak, Kevin. "'The Heavyest Blow Yet Given the Confederacy': The Emancipation Proclamation Changes the Civil War." In Turning Points of the American Civil War, edited by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White, 80-101. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2018.

Pawlak, Kevin R. Voices of the Maryland Campaign. Emerging Civil War, 2018. Amazon Kindle.

Pawlak, Kevin. Review of Death, Disease, and Life at War: The Civil War Letters of Surgeon James D. Benton, 111th and 98th New York Infantry Regiments, 1862-1865, Civil War Monitor, 8/8/2018, https://www.civilwarmonitor.com/blog/loperfido-ed-death-disease-and-life-at-war-2018.

Pawlak, Kevin. Review of Phantoms of the South Fork: Captain McNeill and His Rangers, Civil War News, November 2018, 39.

Pawlak, Kevin. Review of A Fierce Glory: Antietam--The Desperate Battle that Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery, Civil War Monitor, 5/1/2019, https://www.civilwarmonitor.com/blog/martin-a-fierce-glory-2018.

Pawlak, Kevin. Review of The 96th Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War, Journal of the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era 3 (2020): 142-43.

         

         Pawlak, Kevin. "The War Laid in Our Dooryards: Civil War Photography." In Entertaining History: The Civil War in Literature, Film, and Song, edited by Chris Mackowski, 121-26. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2020.

 

         Pawlak, Kevin. "'The Elephant in the Room': Slavery in Cinema from Gone with the Wind to 12 Years a Slave." In Entertaining History: The Civil War in Literature, Film, and Song, edited by Chris Mackowski, 143-51. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2020.

         Pawlak, Kevin. Review of "So Much to Say": The Civil War Letters of Corporal Robert Bradbury, Battery D, First Pennsylvania Light Artillery, Journal of the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era 4 (2021): 118-19. 

         Pawlak, Kevin. "Gettysburg: The Fighting Man's Turning Point." In The Summer of 63: Gettysburg: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War, edited by Dan Welch and Chris Mackowski, 250-53. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2021.

    

         Pawlak, Kevin. "Music on the Spotsylvania Earthworks." In Grant vs. Lee: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War, edited by Dan Welch and Chris Mackowski, 32-33. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2022.   

         Pawlak, Kevin. "Indian Aide: ." In Grant vs. Lee: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War, edited by Dan Welch and Chris Mackowski, 269-72. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2022.      

         Pawlak, Kevin. "A Bridge for Whiskey: The 51st Pennsylvania and Its Famous Request Examined." In Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War, edited by Jon Tracey and Chris Mackowski, 193-96. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2022.

         Pawlak, Kevin. "Fitz John Porter: A Seared Soul." In Fallen Leaders: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War, edited by Chris Mackowski, 80-87. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2023.

Notable Presentations

2021-"A Seared Soul: The Fall of Fitz John Porter," Tenth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium, Spotsylvania Courthouse, VA

20     2018-"'They persevered in their glorious work': The Army of Northern Virginia's Medical Corps in the Gettysburg Campaign," National Museum of Civil War Medicine's 26th Annual Conference on Civil War Medicine, Gettysburg, PA

2018-"Today You Must Fight Harder: The Confederate Defense of the Sunken Road," 21st Annual Conference on the Art of Command in the Civil War, Middleburg, VA

2017-"Water to his Front, water to his Rear": Robert E. Lee Defends the Confederate High Water Mark at Sharpsburg, September 17, 1862," Fourth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium, Spotsylvania Courthouse, VA (view the presentation courtesy of CSPAN)

2017-"'Under Such Adverse Circumstances': The Federal Army's High Command in the Maryland Campaign," 20th Annual Conference on the Art of Command in the Civil War, Middleburg, VA