Mark Smith, Ph.D.

Mark A. Smith, Ph.D.

EDUCATION

Ph.D., History.

The University of Alabama, 2004.

Fields: U.S. History to 1865, U.S. History since 1865, Military & Naval History.

Dissertation Title: “The Corps of Engineers and National Defense in Antebellum America, 1815-1860.”

M.A., History.

The State University of West Georgia, 1997.

Thesis Title: “A Tactical Analysis of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain with respect to the Tactical Precepts of Dennis Hart Mahan.”

B.A., History.

Kennesaw State University, 1995 (Cum Laude).

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Director of the Honors Program. Current.

Fort Valley State University, Honors Program. February 2022 to Present.

Oversees the day-to-day management of the Honors Program and serves as the primary advocate for its students, staff, faculty, and program initiatives. Recruits and advises students in collaboration with Enrollment Management and Academic Advising. Plans and implements appropriate engagement programs for honors students. Led the effort to restructure and revitalize the Honors Program, including student requirements, governance, administration, to ensure program and curriculum rigor and enriched experiential learning for honors students.

The Fuller E. Callaway Professor of History. Current.

Fort Valley State University, Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences. February 2022 to Present.

This endowed chair is awarded to teaching faculty with the rank of full professor who have demonstrated excellence in both the classroom and their scholarship.

Professor, Tenured. Current.

Fort Valley State University, Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences. Fall 2017 to Present.

Taught first half of U.S. History Survey, Georgia History, Historical Methods, the American Revolution and New Nation, and U.S. Military History.

Associate Professor, Tenured.

Fort Valley State University, Department of History, Geography, Political Science, and Criminal Justice. Fall 2010 to Fall 2017

Taught both U.S. History Surveys (including an honors version of U.S. History to 1865), World Civilization since 1500, Georgia History, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jacksonian America, the American Revolution and New Nation, Colonial America, U.S. Military History, and Historical Methods.

Assistant Professor.

Fort Valley State University, Department of History, Geography, Political Science, and Criminal Justice. Fall 2005 to Spring 2010

Taught both U.S. History Surveys (including an honors version of U.S. History to 1865), World Civilization since 1500, Georgia History, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Old South, Jacksonian America, and the American Revolution and New Nation.

Part Time Temporary Instructor. University of Alabama, History Department. Fall 2003, Fall 2004-Summer 2005.

Taught American Civilization to 1865, Honors American Civilization to 1865, and American Civilization since 1865.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

• Society of Civil War Historians, 2017-Present.


• Georgia Association of Historians, 2006-Present.


• Society for Military History. Member, 1999-Present.


• Society for the History of the Early Republic. Member, 2005-2017.


• Southern Historical Association. Member, 2001-2002.


• American Historical Association. Member, 1998-2005.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

• Editor, Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians, February 2017-Present.


• Member, Editorial Board, Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians, February 2015-February 2016.


• Member, Executive Board, Georgia Association of Historians, May 2013-February 2016, February 2017-Present.


• Member, Editorial Board, U.S. Military History Review, July 2013-Present.


• Local Arrangements Committee, Georgia Association of Historians, Annual Conference, February 22-23, 2008, Fort Valley, Georgia.

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

The Linda Piper Award.

The Linda Piper Award is given by the Georgia Association of Historians once every three years in recognition of service which promotes the awareness and appreciation of history in the state of Georgia. February 2020.

Summer Dissertation Fellowship.

Awarded by the University of Alabama History Department to A.B.D. Doctoral Candidates to assist in the completion of their dissertations. Summer 2003.

Frank Lawrence Owsley Memorial Scholarship.

This monetary award is given each year to a graduate student of superior competency in American History at The University of Alabama; it is awarded by the History Department each spring to a student nominated by the faculty. 2003.

Dissertation Fellowship.

Awarded by the University of Alabama History Department to A.B.D. Doctoral Candidates to assist in the completion of their dissertations. 2002-2003.

Albert S. Hanser Award.

Awarded by the University of West Georgia History Dept. for the best graduate paper (“How Can Man Die Better? The Union Attack at Cheatham’s Hill”). 1996.

Mark A. Smith, Ph.D.

Professor Smith (he/him) was born in Kennesaw, a suburb of Atlanta, in 1972. Growing up just five miles down the road from Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, site of one of the largest engagements of Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign and home to some of the best-preserved Civil War field works, Dr. Smith’s interests in history, the American Civil War, and military engineering may have been a foregone conclusion.

After a misspent year majoring in electrical engineering at Georgia Tech, he decided to follow his passion and make a career as a scholar of the past. He came to Fort Valley State University in August 2005, having completing his final graduate degree at the University of Alabama the previous December.

During his career, Professor Smith has researched and written about coastal fortifications from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, military engineering in the Mexican American War and the American Civil War, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Professor Smith’s personal and professional philosophy is best embodied by the Corps of Engineers’ motto, “Essayons” (or “Let Us Try”), because no success is possible without a willingness to confront and overcome challenges.

Mark A. Smith, Ph.D.

BOOKS

Fortifying the Union: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the American Civil War (tentative title). (Under contract since 2 September 2020 with) The Corps of Engineers Office of History, expected publication 2025.

Shield for the Republic: The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Defense of the Coast, 1776-1950 (tentative title). (Under contract since 6 August 2019 with) The Corps of Engineers Office of History, expected publication 2024.

Engineering Security: The Corps of Engineers and Third System Defense Policy, 1815–1861. University of Alabama Press, 2009.

A Volunteer in the Regulars: The Civil War Journal and Memoir of Gilbert Thompson, US Engineer Battalion (Voices of the Civil War Series). University of Tennessee Press, 2020.

ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS

“Rivers, Rails, and Wooden Bateaux: Civil War Pontoniering in Virginia.” Army History, No. 132 (Forthcoming, Summer 2024).

“The Curious Case of Clancy Collins: A Rochester Case-Study of Civil War Motivation and Desertion.” New York History, Vol. 104, No. 2 (Winter 2023).

“A Crucial Leavening of Expertise: Engineer Soldiers and the Transmission of Military Proficiency in the American Civil War.” Civil War History (March 2020).

“Introduction,” in James. T. Holmes, Movements and Positions in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain: The Memoir of Colonel James T. Holmes, 52d Ohio Volunteer Infantry, ed. Garth D. Bishop, introduction and annotations by Mark A. Smith. McFarland Press (October 2018).

“The Third System and Its Critics: The Effectiveness of Antebellum National Defense Policy.” The Coast Defense Journal, Vol. 30, No. 4 (November 2016).

“Joseph Gilbert Totten and the Third System of Coastal Defense.” The Journal of America’s Military Past, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Spring/Summer 2016).

“‘The Hardest Work and Hardest Fighting’: The Engineer Company in Mexico and the Origins of American Combat Engineering.” The Military History of the West, Vol. 45 (June 2016).

“The Politics of Military Professionalism: The Engineer Company and the Political Activities of the Antebellum Corps of Engineers.” The Journal of Military History, Vol. 80, No. 2 (April 2016).

“Engineering Slavery: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Slavery at Key West.” Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 86, No. 4 (Spring 2008).

“The Fall of Fort Pulaski and Its Implications for National Defense Policy.” The Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians, Vol. 26 (2005-2006).

“Sherman’s Unexpected Companions: Marching Through Georgia with Jomini and Clausewitz,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. 72, No. 1 (Spring 1997).

CONFERENCES, LECTURES, & SEMINARS

“So Vociferously Called For: The Engineer Department and Third System Construction in the Civil War.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Kennesaw, Georgia, 17 February 2024.

“The Engineer Depots in the Civil War: Toward a Reassessment of the Corps of Engineers.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Valdosta, Georgia, 5 February 2023.

“The Fort at the Rip Raps and the Meaning of Names.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Athens, GA, 25 February 2022.

“The Strange Tale of William Collins: The Desertion and Enlistments of One Union Soldier.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Virtual due to COVID-19, 5 February 2021.

“’Volunteers in the Regular Army’: A Brief Statistical Analysis of Union Military Service Patterns.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Augusta, GA, 7 February 2020.

“Movements, Positions, and Memory: James Taylor Holmes Remembers Kennesaw Mountain.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Columbus, GA, 2 February 2019.

“Bridging a Gap: Diffusing Military Engineering Knowledge in the Early Civil War.” Middle Georgia Chapter of the Military Officers’ Association of America (MOAA), Warner Robins, GA, 12 October 2018.

“From Company to Brigade: Diffusing Military Engineering Expertise in the Army of the Potomac.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Macon, Georgia, 17 February 2018.

“Confederate Monuments Forum: History, Heritage, & Artifacts,” Middle Georgia State University, Macon, GA, 6 September 2017.

“‘Who Shows Them the Way but the Sappers’”: The Engineer Company in the Mexican-American War.” Society for Military History Conference. Jacksonville, Florida. March 30 – April 2, 2017.

“‘Who Shows Them the Way but the Sappers’”: The Engineer Company in Mexico.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Rome, Georgia. 26 February 2016.

“The American Civil War: Causes & Consequences.” Roundtable Discussion and Moderated Debate, Middle Georgia State College, Macon, GA, 15 April 2015.

“The Politics of Military Professionalism: The Engineer Company & the Political Activities of the Antebellum Corps of Engineers.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Statesboro, Georgia. 20 February 2015.

“Responsibility and Accountability: Joseph G. Totten and the Political Activities of the Antebellum Corps of Engineers.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Athens, Georgia. 28 February 2014.

“Joseph G. Totten and the Limits of Antebellum Military Professionalism.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Savannah, Georgia. 25 February 2011.

“The Corps and the Slave: Army Engineers and Slavery in Key West, Florida.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Fort Valley, Georgia. 22 February 2008.

“Funding and Support: Congress and the Third System of Coastal Defense.” Ohio Valley History Conference. Johnson City, Tennessee. 20 October 2006.

“The End of an Era? The Siege and Reduction of Fort Pulaski.” Georgia Association of Historians Conference. Columbus, Georgia. 9 April 2005.

“Expertise and the Rise of Responsibility: The Corps of Engineers & Military Professionalism in Antebellum America.” Society for Military History Conference. Charleston, South Carolina. 27 February 2005.

“Engineering Continental Defense, 1816-1861.” Society for Military History Conference. Knoxville, Tennessee. 3 May 2003.

“Engineering Security, 1816-1861: The Corps of Engineers and the Formulation of National Defense Policy in the Antebellum Era.” The University of Alabama History  Department Brown Bag Seminar. Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 29 April 2003.

West Point Summer Seminar in Teaching Military History. United States Military Academy. 4 June – 29 June 2002.

BOOK REVIEWS

Larry J. Daniel, Engineering in the Confederate Heartland, in Journal of the Civil War Era (forthcoming, 2023).

Stanley M. Totten, The Brilliance of Charles Whittlesey: Geologist, Surveyor, Military Engineer, Civil War Strategist, in Ohio Valley History (2023).

John F. Marszalek, Lincoln and the Military and Edna Greene Medford, Lincoln and Emancipation (combined review) in the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association (2018).

Thomas F. Army Jr., Engineering Victory: How Technology Won the Civil War, in Civil War Book Review (2016).

Samuel J. Watson, Peacekeepers and Conquerors: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1821-1846, in U.S. Military History Review (2016).

Robert D. Jenkins Sr., To the Gates of Atlanta: From Kennesaw Mountain to Peach Tree Creek, July 1-July 19, 1864 and Robert D. Jenkins Sr., The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood’s First Sortie (combined review), in The Georgia Historical Quarterly (2015).

Eugene D. Schmiel, Citizen-General: Jacob Dolson Cox and the Civil War Era, in U.S. Military History Review (2015).

Thom Hatch, Glorious War: The Civil War Adventures of George Armstrong Custer, in Civil War Book Review (2014).

William G. Thomas, The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War, and the Making of Modern America in Civil War Book Review (2012).

George C. Rable, God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War in Alabama Review (2011).

Russell Bonds, War Like The Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta in the Journal of Southern History (2011).

Roger S. Durham, Guardian of Savannah: Fort McAllister, Georgia, in the Civil War and Beyond in Civil War Book Review (2009).

Thomas Reid, America’s Fortress: A History of Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida in the Journal of Southern History (2008).

Donald B. Connelly, John M. Schofield and the Politics of Generalship and Allan Peskin, Winfield Scott and the Profession of Arms (combined review) in Civil War History (2007).

Michael B. Ballard, Vicksburg: The Campaign that Opened the Mississippi in The Journal of Military History (2005).

John E. Clark, Jr., Railroads in the Civil War: The Impact of Management on Victory and Defeat in Southern Historian (2003).

John Lauritz Larson, Internal Improvement: National Public Works and the Promise of Government in the Early United States in Southern Historian (2002).

Harry W. Pfanz, Gettysburg–The First Day in The Georgia Historical Quarterly (2001).

Anne J. Bailey, Chessboard of War in Southern Historian (2001).

C. Edward Skeen, Citizen Soldiers in the War of 1812 in Southern Historian (2000).

James M. McPherson and William J. Cooper, Jr., eds., Writing the Civil War: The Quest to Understand in Southern Historian (1999).

ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES & OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Author, “Embedded Artist,” Civil War Times, October 2021.

Contributor (multiple articles) to American Civil War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection, edited by Spencer C. Tucker (Santa Barbara, CA: ABCCLIO Publishers), 2013.

Contributor (“Fort Bowyer”) to The Encyclopedia of the War of 1812: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by Spencer C. Tucker (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Publishers), 2012.

Contributor (“Fort Pickens, Florida”) to The Civil War Naval Encyclopedia, edited by Spencer C. Tucker (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Publishers), 2011.

Contributor (multiple articles) to The United States at War: Understanding Conflict and Society [electronic database], edited by Paul Pierpaoli (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Publishers), 2005.

EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE

Editor, Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians, 2017-Present.

Editorial Board Member, Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians, 2015-2016.

Editorial Board Member, United States Military History Review, 2013-Present.

Editor, Southern Historian, 2001-2002.

Assistant Editor, Southern Historian, 2000-2001.