Kraig McNutt is a Civil War historian, blogger, and battlefield guide. He is also the Director of The Center for the Study of the American Civil War (CSACW), which houses his extensive personal Civil War collection. The CSACW was founded in 1995. McNutt has been a serious student of the American Civil War since the early 1980s and has been publishing Civil War related content on the Web since 1995. He publishes two major Civil War blogs; combined they respectively receive tens of thousands of views a month. He uses ScribD to self-publish most of his publicly accessible studies. He maintains the single largest Facebook group dedicated to a single Civil War battle (sorry Gettysburg) at Facebook.com/Franklin1864.
McNutt has consulted for documentaries, museums and historical organizations. His personal Civil War library is over 10,000+ volumes including numerous signed modern first-editions.
McNutt is related to several Union (Kentucky) Civil War veterans, including his 2xs GGGF who fought at Franklin & Nashville.
His children (and wife) are direct descendants of a Union veteran of Franklin. His wife is also related to more than 50 Civil War veterans from both sides, including five Confederate Generals.
Kraig is active in historic preservation. He has lived in Franklin, Tennessee with his family since 2000. His degrees are from Indiana University, the University of Kentucky, and Grace Theological Seminary.
Mr. McNutt is available for speaking at schools, Civil War round-tables, charitable events, conferences, programs, symposiums, etc. To contact him email him at civilwargazette@gmail.com
His more recent presentations (last 2-5 years) and talks have been:
- Innovation and the Civil War
- The 1864 Civil War Diary of Morris Cooper Foote (92nd NYV)
- The 58th Indiana at Stone’s River
- The Amazing True-life Escape and Story of Robert Smalls, May 13, 1862
- Tennesseans Buried in McGavock Confederate Cemetery
- Civil War Medal of Honor Winners (in Tennessee actions)
- Who Built Fort Granger?
- Indiana Regiments at Franklin
Recommendations on behalf of McNutt
Kraig McNutt is an enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and passionate student of the Civil War. He has for a number of years maintained one of the finest websites on the conflict and possesses, along with a wealth of knowledge, a deep inner appreciation of what the war meant for those who lived through it and for us their descendants. I highly recommend him to groups seeking a top-flight Civil War speaker.
“The Confederacy, seeking further legitimacy, adopted a constitution modeled on the U.S. Constitution but altered to recognize slavery specifically. They knew what their revolution was intended to protect, even if some of them would later deny it and claim they were fighting for state rights.”
Steven E. Woodworth, This Great Struggle: America’s Civil War.
Kraig McNutt brings with him not only years of study and understanding, but the necessary passion to make the cold facts of history come alive. Driven by that passion, Kraig has honed his studies into scholarship and his scholarship into understanding. As the Civil War slips further and further into a dim past, we are fortunate to have Kraig breathing life back into the story.
“I wanted to leave the whole war behind me, and yet I was seeing something on that battlefield that demanded commemoration. It was unholy ground, but I wanted to thank God for showing it to me. I would never again look at a man without wondering what crimes he was capable of committing. That seemed important to know.”
Robert Hicks, Widow of the South
Kraig McNutt presented a wonderful program on Robert Smalls who began life as a slave who later rose to be a member of the United States Congress. In between, Smalls, an accomplished boat pilot around Charleston, SC, escaped, becoming the first black Captain of the US Navy warship. He later bought the home of his former master and lived out his days there. This amazing story was presented with full command of the topic and in the very folksy style of McNutt who brought a display of items related to the story. This was an interesting and informative program and would be a very good event for any CWRT.
The Nashville Civil War Round Table
The Civil War Gazette (est. 1995) 