A lecture on Jewish contributions to the American Civil War will take place Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at Gettysburg College.

Adam Mendelsohn will deliver the lecture, “Beyond the Battlefield: Reevaluating Jews and the Civil War,” in Room 260 of the College Union Building, located on West Lincoln Ave. The event is free and open to the public.

Mendelsohn will discuss Jewish contributions during the Civil War, including Jewish participation in the business of providing uniforms for soldiers.

Mendelsohn is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the new Center for Southern Jewish History at the College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C. He is currently working on a transnational study of Jewish involvement in the second-hand clothing trade(the ‘shmatta business’) in the United States and the British Empire in the nineteenth century. His book Jews and the Civil War, co-edited with Jonathan Sarna, was published by New York University Press in 2010. He is the editor of a forthcoming special issue of American Jewish History on the same theme.

This event is part of the College’s American Civil War Sesquicentennial commemoration. The College will sponsor events and programs throughout the anniversary that runs from 2011-2015 with special focus on 2013, which marks the 150th anniversary of the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Battle of Gettysburg, and President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. For more information, visit www.gettysburg.edu/cw2013 and www.gettysburgcivilwar150.com.

Gettysburg College (then known as Pennsylvania College) played a vital role in the Civil War, with more than 200 alumni serving the Union or Confederacy, and the College’s Pennsylvania Hall functioning as an observation post and hospital during the Battle of Gettysburg. On Nov. 19, 1863, College students and faculty processed to hear Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address at the Gettysburg National Cemetery.Earlier in the year, an 1851 graduate of the College, prominent attorney David Wills, had invited Lincoln to deliver “a few appropriate remarks” at the cemetery’s dedication. Lincoln stayed with the Wills family on the square the night before delivering his famous speech.

Founded in 1832, Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences with a strong academic tradition. Alumni include Rhodes Scholars, a Nobel laureate, and other distinguished scholars. The college, which enrolls 2,600 undergraduate students, is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

Contact: Nikki Rhoads, senior assistant director of communications, 717.337.6803