Book launch - America the Civil War and Me by Dr Huw Griffiths

America, the Civil War and Me is a personal journey through the United States in search of the people, places and stories of the American Civil War. Travelling from Boston and New York to Washington, Richmond, Fredericksburg, Antietam and Appomattox, the book combines history with the experiences of travelling through modern America.

Famous events and individuals are brought to life alongside lesser-known stories discovered in archives, libraries, battlefields and chance encounters along the way.  At the heart of the book is a largely forgotten story: the remarkable contribution of Welsh people to nineteenth-century America and the Civil War. 

Drawing on years of research into Welsh-American newspapers, letters and other contemporary sources, the book explores how Welsh immigrants experienced and responded to the conflict, particularly their strong opposition to slavery. Part history, part travelogue and part personal reflection, America, the Civil War and Me is ultimately about discovering how the past survives in places, communities and individual stories—and how a journey across America also became a journey into Wales’s own history.