David J. Gerleman
David J. Gerleman
Adjunct Faculty
World History: 19th Century, U.S. Civil War Era, Abraham Lincoln, Animal History, and National Archives Research Methods
David J. Gerleman is a Fulbright Scholar and historian specializing in the U.S. Civil War era, animal history, and Abraham Lincoln. He joined George Mason University in 2002 and has taught undergraduate, honors, and graduate courses, including CORE introductory surveys in U.S. and World history. His teaching emphasizes use of primary sources, imagery, art, and music to help students understand history as an active dialogue between past and present.
Research and Scholarship:
Gerleman’s research focuses on the unheard voices of Civil War soldiers and civilians, with particular attention to the non-combat roles of animals in wartime. His long-term research project, My Companion in All Places, examines the care, use, and cultural significance of horses and mules in Civil War armies. His scholarship on Abraham Lincoln draws upon thousands of previously unknown letters to Lincoln discovered in the National Archives. In 2024, Gerleman authored a Washington Post article revealing Abraham Lincoln’s pardon of an ancestor of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The article garnered nearly one million online views and attracted widespread international attention, illustrating the public relevance of archival historical research. His archival discoveries have appeared in The Journal of East Tennessee History, where his article “Attuned to the Past: Reconstructing the Civil War Legacies of the Parton Brothers” received the 2019 McClung Award, and additional findings are forthcoming in The Civil War Monitor. His current writing projects examine Civil War body armor and the Lincoln White House.
Editorial and Grant Activity:
Gerleman served for a decade as an assistant editor with The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, where his work in the National Archives resulted in the discovery of thousands of previously unpublished Lincoln documents. He has also contributed archival expertise to documentary editing projects including The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, The Papers of Jefferson Davis, and The Correspondence of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore. His research has been supported by grants from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech Civil War centers, the U.S. Military Institute, the National Sporting Library, and the Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts Historical Societies.
Fulbright Appointment:
In 2024–2025, Gerleman served as a U.S. Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Debrecen in Hungary, where he taught courses on Abraham Lincoln and U.S. diplomatic history. He also currently serves as the chair of the Hay-Nicolay Dissertation Prize Committee given annually by the Abraham Lincoln Institute.
Current Research
"Metallic Breastworks: Body Armor in the Civil War," and "Abraham Lincoln and the 14 Year-Old Spy: Family Legend versus Historical Fact."
Selected Publications
"'Put Crepe on Your Hat': The 1864 Burning and Rebuilding of Lincoln’s White House Stables,” White House History Quarterly [Forthcoming].
“Civil War Camp Life,” The Essential Civil War Curriculum, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2025.
"James Irvine Dungan's Civil War: From POW to Congressman," The Civil War Monitor, Vol. 15, No. 2, Summer, 2025.
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, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2019.
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/nation/2025/05/21/abraham-lincoln-artifacts-auction/
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