David J. Gerleman
David J. Gerleman
Adjunct Faculty
World History: 19th Century, U.S. Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, Animal History, and National Archives Research Methods
David J. Gerleman is a Fulbright Scholar and nineteenth century historian specializing the U.S. Civil War era, military history, animal history, and Abraham Lincoln. Since joining Mason in 2002, he has taught a wide variety of undergraduate, honors, and graduate classes including CORE introductory U.S. and World history surveys. Gerleman motivates students to use their own interests and perspectives to forge a personal approach to history. Students are challenged to see themselves as historical actors and the past not as fixed and immobile but as part of an on-going dialogue with the present. Imagery, art, music, and primary sources are used to grab student attention, excite curiosity, and demonstrate what historians do and why it is important.
Gerleman’s research interests focus on the hidden voices of Civil War soldiers and civilians as well as the non-fighting details of animals in war. His long term research project, tentatively titled My Companion in All Places, examines the role, care, and use of horses and mules in Civil War armies and his Lincoln scholarship draws upon thousands of previously unknown letters sent to Lincoln found in the National Archives. Some of his archival finds were featured in “Attuned to the Past: Reconstructing the Civil War Legacies of the Parton Brothers” which won the 2019 McClung Award from The Journal of East Tennessee History; others are slated to be featured in The Civil War Monitor. His current writing projects concern Civil War camp life and the Lincoln White House.
In addition to working an instructor, Gerleman served for a decade as an editor for The Papers of Abraham Lincoln Project tasked with combing the National Archives for unpublished Lincoln materials. His efforts resulted in the discovery of thousands of new Lincoln documents and his archival expertise has benefitted other projects including The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, The Papers of Jefferson Davis, and The Correspondence of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore. His scholarly research initiatives have been funded in part by grants from the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech’s Civil War Centers, the U.S. Military Institute, the National Sporting Library, and the Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts Historical Societies.
Gerleman was recently selected by the U.S. State Department to serve as a 2024-2025 U.S. Fulbright Visiting Professor to teach courses on Abraham Lincoln and U.S. diplomatic history at the University of Debrecen in Hungary.
Current Research
“These Loyal Alabamians”: New Perspectives of the First Alabama Union Cavalry from the National Archives Pension Files and Records."
Selected Publications
"'Put Crepe on Your Hat': The 1864 Burning and Rebuilding of Lincoln’s White House Stables,” White House History Quarterly [Forthcoming 2024].
"James Irvine Dungan's Civil War: From POW to Congressman," The Civil War Monitor, [Forthcoming 2024].
Retropolis: “Documents Reveal Abraham Lincoln Pardoned Biden’s Great-Great-Grandfather,” The Washington Post, February 19, 2024
"As Much a Military Supply as a Barrel of Gunpowder: Horses and Mules as 19th Century Engines of War” in Animal Histories of the Civil War Era, ed. Earl Hess. LSU Press, 2022.
“Who Will Employ an Old Line Whig? Joshua L. Henshaw and the Perils of Patronage,” For The People: The Newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Vol. 23, Spring 2021.
“Attuned to the Past: Reconstructing the Civil War Legacies of the Parton Brothers of Sevier County, Tennessee,” The Journal of East Tennessee History, Vol. 91, 2019. Winner of the McClung Award
“The Campaign for Island No. 10: February 28-April 8, 1862,” The Essential Civil War Curriculum, (2019), Online: https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/island-no.-10.html
Expanded Publication List
Grants and Fellowships
Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, Fulbright U. S. Scholar, University of Debrecen, Hungary, 2024-2025.
Virginia Museum of History & Culture: Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, 2020-2021.
John L. Nau III Center for the Study of the American Civil War, Research Fellowship, University of Virginia, 2020-2021.
National Sporting Library and Museum, John H. Daniels Fellowship, 2020-2021.
Benjamin F. Stevens Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society, 2019-2020.
Research Fellowship, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, Virginia Tech University, 2019-2020.
Kentucky State Historical Society Scholarly Research Fellowship, 2018-2019.
United States Military Academy, West Point Summer Seminar in Military History, 2012
David Warren Bowman Award for Best Paper, Alabama Association of Historians, 2011.
National Historical Publications and Records Commission/ Wisconsin Historical Society, Institute for the Editing of Historical Documents Certificate, 2008.
The Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, 2005.
U. S. Military Historical Institute General and Mrs. Matthew B. Ridgeway Post-Doctoral Research Grant, 2005
Courses Taught
Reading Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln in American History and Memory
Introduction to World History
American History, 1877-Present
Virginia History and the Old South, 1607-1867
Rebels & Redcoats: America’s War for Independence, 1763-1783
The Young Republic and the Age of Jackson, 1784-1848
House Divided: 1850s America and the Coming of the Civil War
Ordeal by Fire: America’s Civil War Era
The Diplomatic History of the United States, 1776-1920
America in the Progressive Age, 1890-1920
The Era of Jazz, Gin, and Jalopies, 1919-1929
The American Century, 1900-1994
The Other Civil War: Fighting on the Frontiers
Storm Cradled Nation: The Confederate Experience, 1860-1865
The Immortal Abraham Lincoln: Man, Myth, and Reality
The House Divides: The American Civil War, 1860-1865
Themes in U.S. History, 1500-1865
Themes in U.S. History, 1877-Present
Education
Doctor of Philosophy: Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1999.
Master of Arts: Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1994.
Bachelor of Arts: Wartburg College, Waverly, IA, 1991.
Recent Presentations
“Uncle Sam’s Webbed Feet” and “Horsing Civil War Armies,” Twin Cities Civil War Roundtable Annual Symposium, April 2023.
“‘As Much a Military Supply as a Barrel of Gunpowder’: Horses and Mules Procurement,” Virginia Tech University Civil War Weekend, March 2021.
“Lincoln’s Majordomo: Benjamin Brown French and Civil War Washington,” U.S. Capitol Historical Society Scholar Lecture Series, May 2020.
“John Singleton Mosby in History and Memory: Confederate Guerilla, Federal Partisan or Southern Pariah?” National Sporting Library and Museum, Middleburg, VA, August, 2019.
“History on the Hoof: Researching New England’s Horse and Dairy Industry during the Era of the American Civil War,” Massachusetts Historical Society, August 2019.
In the Media
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/02/19/abraham-lincoln-joe-biden-pardon-presidents-day/
https://www.axios.com/2024/02/21/abraham-lincoln-biden-pardon-civil-war
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/19/joe-bidens-great-great-grandfather-was-pardoned-by-abraham-lincoln
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/02/19/lincoln-pardoned-joe-biden-great-great-grandfather-civil-war-fight/72662006007
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abraham-lincoln-pardoned-joe-biden-great-great-grandfather-moses-robinette/
https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/l-arriere-arriere-grand-pere-de-joe-biden-a-ete-gracie-par-abraham-lincoln-20240219
https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/international/article/etats-unis-joe-biden-et-abraham-lincoln-ont-un-lien-et-il-est-tres-surprenant_230055.html
Joe Biden et Abraham Lincoln : ce lien insoupçonné remontant au XIXe siècle (parismatch.com)
https://www.businessinsider.com/abraham-lincoln-pardoned-bidens-direct-ancestor-after-civil-war-brawl-2024-2