Lesley J. Gordon

Lesley J. Gordon earned her BA with High Honors from the College of William and Mary and her MA and PhD in American history from the University of Georgia. Since 2016, she has been the Charles G. Summersell Chair of Southern History at the University of Alabama. She is the author of three monographs: General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend (University of North Carolina Press, 1998); A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut’s Civil War (Louisiana State University Press, 2014); and most recently, Dread Danger: Combat and Courage in the American Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2025), which was a finalist for the 2025 Gilder-Lehrman Lincoln Prize. She has also coedited four volumes of essays and authored multiple book chapters, articles, and book reviews. Gordon served as editor of the academic journal Civil War History (2010-2015), and President of the Society of Civil War History (2022-2024), as well as the chair of the Editorial Board for the University of Alabama Press (2022-present). During the 2024-2025 academic year, she was the Charles Boal Ewing Chair in Military History at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Ten Things I Can’t Do Without

1. My family & friends
2. Our dog, Jupiter
3. History—writing, reading, and teaching it
4. Coffee
5. Exercising in some form most days
6. Alabama football (Roll Tide!)
7. Spotify—wide range of tastes from bluegrass to alt to classic rock to pop
8. Glasses or contacts—nearly blind without them
9. Trader Joe’s Scandinavian Swimmers
10. Candy Crush (14-year streak!)