About the Author

Charles W. Mitchell

I am an independent historian and prize-winning author or editor of three books: 
The Civil War in Maryland Reconsidered (coedited with Jean H. Baker); Maryland Voices of the Civil War, winner of the Founders Award from the American Civil War Museum; and Travels Through American History in the Mid-Atlantic :A Guide for All Ages, winner of a Lowell Thomas Gold Award from the Society of American Travel Writers.

Presently, I am at work on a book about Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth, pairing one of America’s greatest presidents with one of America’s most notorious villains.

My focus is on Civil War-era politics and slavery in Maryland, with an emphasis on the impact of the Civil War on the civilian population. I have written about the election of 1860, one of the nation’s most consequential elections. For six years I reported stories for The Baltimore Sun’s travel section about historical sites in the Mid-Atlantic region. I’ve discussed my work on C-SPAN’s American History TV, Maryland Public Television, and local NPR radio. In 2018 I was selected as a Baltimore Historian-Scholar for contributions to the history of Baltimore and Maryland.

I chair the Publications Committee at the Maryland Center for History and Culture, where I serve as a trustee and as a book reviewer for The Maryland Historical Magazine. I’m a member of the Advisory Council of the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA, and serve on the board of the Monocacy National Battlefield Foundation. I am a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Maryland. My wife Betsy, a retired graphic designer and veteran of the Baltimore advertising scene, hand-drew the maps in Travels Through American History in the Mid-Atlantic, using original sources. We live in northern Baltimore County.

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