I’m launching a new weekly series each Monday to highlight what I’m reading, watching, listening to, and experiencing in public history. Stay tuned on Mondays for these “Monday Dispatches.”

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In 2015, I was finishing my senior year studying History and Communications at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. I was writing an honors thesis about World War II, completing an 18-credit semester, and working nearly full-time at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, greeting visitors and giving tours.

I was exhausted and uncertain about my future. What did I want to do after graduation in May?

I had no idea.

I knew I loved history but felt burned out from school and work. When offered a full-time job at the Museum post-graduation, I hesitated – unsure if history and museum work was my calling.

Then, in the spring of 2015, I discovered a summer internship with the National Park Service at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Virginia. It paid only a small stipend and provided free housing but required a full-time commitment. Yet it presented an opportunity to try something new, work at a fascinating battlefield, and evaluate my career direction.

I got the gig and moved to Virginia just days after graduating from Hood. I was set for the most important summer of my life at “FredSpot.”

From mid-May through early August 2015, I learned the craft of public history from some of the most talented park rangers in the National Park Service. I practiced public speaking and historical interpretation at Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House battlefields. I learned how to handle difficult questions and present effectively during large public programs.

The young historians and seasonal rangers I worked alongside became lifelong friends.

That summer, the world began to change dramatically, and with it, public history at Civil War sites evolved rapidly.

The week Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy, we witnessed the horrifying racist massacre by Dylann Roof at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Roof embraced the Confederate battle flag and in a white supremacist screed posted online, railed against America’s multi-ethnic democracy forged during the Civil Rights era.

Unknowingly, these two threads – Trump’s political rise and the resurgence of violent racism and reactionary politics – would shape the next decade of national discourse and historical interpretation.

After Charleston, my colleagues and I faced unprecedented hostility at Civil War battlefields. Arguments and protests erupted around Confederate symbolism. Public and academic historians, advocating for an honest reckoning with slavery, white supremacy, and the Civil War’s legacy, found their conversations thrust into national prominence.

The park’s chief historian, John Hennessy, emerged as a leading voice, featured prominently in media like the Washington Post, guiding the critical reevaluation of how Civil War history is interpreted at historic sites.

tschubel · History at Sunset: Remembering the Civil War Today

Witnessing these profound changes clarified my path – I realized I wanted to contribute to these vital discussions as a public historian.

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Video featuring myself and my fellow interns and seasonals at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in the summer of 2015

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After this transformative summer, I returned to Frederick, Maryland and accepted a full-time position as Program Coordinator at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.

For the next six years, I proudly applied lessons learned at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania to my role at the Museum. Eventually, I helped lead efforts to update the museum’s branding, removing the Confederate battle flag, and making it a more inclusive and welcoming environment to all who wished to learn the remarkable Civil War medical legacy.

A decade later, my summer internship at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park remains one of the most influential periods of my life. Many other historians share this sentiment, citing transformative experiences at this same park over the years.

And to be slightly political – I’m deeply concerned about current threats facing the National Park Service. Known as “America’s Best Idea,” the Park Service preserves cultural resources, educates the public about American history, and inspires historical thinking in future generations.

Losing these precious historic places and the valuable people who interpret their stories would be a disaster with lasting impacts felt for generations.

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Read these stories that were generated from my time at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park

Killed at Spotsylvania Court House – The Workman brothers of Wiconisco, Pennsylvania

A Chaplain at the Battle of Fredericksburg | John C. Gregg, 127th Pennsylvania

A Civil War officer’s grisly amputation at Spotsylvania Court House on May 10, 1864

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