Susannah J. Ural, Ph.D. is the Frank & Virginia Williams Chair for Abraham Lincoln & Civil War Studies in the Department of History at Mississippi State University. A military historian by training, Ural specializes in nineteenth-century America, with an emphasis on the socio-military experiences of U.S. Civil War soldiers and their families. She is the author of four books and numerous articles on the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Her new book project explores the enlistment and experiences of United States Colored Troops in the Mississippi Valley between 1863 and 1865, and considers how these experiences shaped President Abraham Lincoln’s and the US War Department’s policies in the last two years of the Civil War.
At Mississippi State University, Ural serves as Professor of History and, as the Williams Chair, directs the Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana at MSU Libraries. The Williams Collection was considered the nation’s largest privately owned holding of Lincoln research and display material, and the country’s most comprehensive privately owned Lincoln and Civil War library, valued at nearly $3 million. In 2017, Frank and Virginia Williams donated the collection to Mississippi State University, and in 2022, they established the Frank and Virginia Williams Chair for Abraham Lincoln and Civil War Studies to ensure that scholars, educators, students, and the public can benefit from these incredible holdings.
Learn more about Ural and her work here.
