Richard W. Smith Lecture

Richard W. Smith Memorial Service

The Richard W. Smith Memorial Service has been recorded and can be viewed here. 

2025 Richard W. Smith Lecture in Civil War History: 

This lecture took place on September 29, 2025 at 7 pm in Benes Room AB in the Hamilton Williams Campus Center.  Dr. Brooks Simpson (Arizona State University) presented the lecture: "Thunder in the Valley: Grant, Sheridan, and Hayes Triumph in the Shenandoah Valley, 1864."  This recording is now available to stream here.

Richard W. Smith Lecture in Civil War History

Dr. Smith promoted the importance of learning history from the first time he stepped onto Ohio Wesleyan's campus as a professor in 1950.  His teaching focused on early US History including topics such as the American Frontier and the Civil War.   Dr. Smith's remarkable legacy includes being awarded the President Herbert Welch Meritorious Teaching Award in 1975, establishing the Epsilon Zeta Chapter of OWU Phi Alpha Theta as a charter member in 1954 and serving as the faculty advisor, publishing his book: Bishop McIlvaine, Slavery, Britain & the Civil War in 2014, and having no fewer than 18 of his former students having continued their education through the doctoral level. For his students, Dr. Smith was a demanding instructor as well as inspiring and popular who succeeded in instilling in them a lifelong love of learning and history. He retired in 1986 and was active and attended lectures as an emeritus professor including attending the 2024 Richard W. Smith Lecture at 100 years of age.  

His former students, Evan Bukey, Evan Corns, and Lloyd Ferguson initiated the funding which created The Richard W. Smith Endowed Fund in Civil War History.  Through many donations from alumni, colleagues, friends, and community members, this Endowed Fund supports the Richard W. Smith Lecture in Civil War History and has given the OWU History Department the opportunity to bring in top historians on the subjects surrounding Civil War History which honors Dr. Smith's legacy to educate students and the public about the Civil War.  Dr. Smith passed away on July 1, 2025, but his legacy will continue on through the memories and experiences of his students as well as through the support provided by the Richard W. Smith Endowed Fund in Civil War History. 

Past Lectures

• 2024 – A Tale of Two Slave Traders: Lincoln and the Destruction of the Transatlantic Slave Trade – Jonathan W. White, Ph.D.
  Stream OWU Video | Press Release
• 2023 – The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil War – Kenneth W. Noe, Ph.D.
  Stream OWU Video | Press Release
• 2022 – An End or Beginning: Lee's Army After Appomattox – Caroline E. Janney, Ph.D.
  Stream OWU Video | Press Release
• 2021 – General William S. Rosecrans and the Pitfalls of Command – Mark Grimsley, Ph.D.
  Stream OWU Video | Press Release
• 2020 – No Lecture due to COVID-19
• 2019 – Generalship and Army Culture: A Study of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac – Joseph T. Glatthaar, Ph.D.
  Press Release
• 2018 – The Transformative Fourteenth Amendment: The Constitutional Amendment That Reshaped America – Michael Les Benedict, Ph.D.
  Stream OWU Video | Press Release
• 2017 – U.S. Grant: Soldier and Stateman – Joan Waugh, Ph.D.
  Stream OWU Video | Press Release
• 2016 – "Every Man Looked like a Soldier:" The U.S. Colored Troops and the Civil War – John David Smith, Ph.D.
  Press Release
• 2015 – The Final Battles of 1865 and the Ongoing Civil War – Peter Carmichael, Ph.D.
  Press Release
• 2014 - Sherman's March to the Sea: A Reconsideration - Dr. Mark Grimsley
  Press Release 
• 2013 – Gettysburg: The Waterloo of the Rebellion – Allen C. Guelzo, Ph.D.
  Press Release
• 2012 – The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery – Eric Foner, Ph.D.
  Press Release
• 2011 – Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief – James McPherson, Ph.D.
• 2010 – The Many Lives of Mary Todd Lincoln – Jean H. Baker, Ph.D.
• 2009 - Lincoln and His Admirals - Dr. Craig L. Symonds
• 2008 – 'The Judgements of the Lord Are True and Righteous Altogether.' Abraham Lincoln, God and the American Civil War – Richard J. Carwardine, Ph.D.
• 2007 - Taking Leave: Fugitive Slaves and the Coming of the Civil War - Dr. Richard Blackett
• 2006 – Rich Man's War, a Poor Man's Fight?  Soldiers in General Robert E. Lee's Army – Joseph T. Glatthaar, Ph.D.
• 2005 – Ulysses S. Grant's Legacy: Yesterday and Today – John Y. Simon, Ph.D.
• 2004 – The Problem of Slavery and the Civil War in American Memory – David W. Blight, Ph.D.
• 2003 – A Contested Historical Landscape: Understanding and Interpreting the Civil War – Gary W. Gallagher, Ph.D.
• 2002 – The Global Impact of the American Civil War – James M. McPherson, Ph.D.

Historical Interview with Dr. Smith

(shown at the October 26, 2023 Smith Lecture)