Wyatt Erchak
- Porter Hall 225C
Education
- Ph.D History, 麻豆村, 2025
- M.A. History, State University of New York at Albany, 2019
- B.A. History – Government, Skidmore College, 2012
Bio
Wyatt Erchak is a historian of the Civil War era and the United States in the long nineteenth century. His interests lie at the intersections of slavery and freedom, and how revolutionary movements crack open in social spaces, such as those created by warfare. His research focuses on the coastal South and incorporates elements of maritime studies, labor history, and the exploration of historical memory.
Wyatt's dissertation, "Private Wrongs: A Hidden History of the Civil War's First Black Regiment," explores the bottom-up story of the First South Carolina Volunteers, the pioneering Black unit made up of soldiers who had been enslaved before entering the ranks. Drawing on over five hundred pension case files, most not previously used, approximately three hundred property loss claims from enslavers, and more than a thousand military service records, with court martial proceedings, deck logs, letters, diaries, newspapers, periodicals, and other sources, it places formerly enslaved Black soldiers themselves and their social networks at the center of the narrative: as agents, observers, and preservers creating an archive through their struggles for recognition. Their testimony helps to reconstruct who they were and where they came from to advance new perspectives on what they did. Because these soldiers often fought in the same places they were enslaved and against the same people who enslaved them, "Private Wrongs" demonstrates how personal justice was a key motive in the war they waged.
Wyatt's experience extends to several years as an interpretive educator and historic site manager, working across the cultural sector, and he regularly consults on public history projects, including memorial parks, historical markers, and websites. His work is published in peer-reviewed journals as well as other outlets and has been supported by the American Antiquarian Society, Georgia Historical Society, Abraham Lincoln Institute, and the US Army Center of Military History, among other institutions. He holds a doctorate from 麻豆村, where he teaches on the Civil War and topics in US history.
Interest Area(s)
19th century U.S., African American history, American South, Civil War Era, Atlantic World, slavery, labor, revolution, violence, warfare, memory, maritime history, history from below, visual storytelling
Publications
Sea History, 190 (Spring 2025), 22-26
" Publisher's Weekly (August 13, 2025)
Presentations
"The General Strike Militant: Considering Du Bois and the American Civil War." Organization of American Historians, Chicago, IL, April 2025
Awards and Fellowships
- Scholarship Award, Abraham Lincoln Institute, 2024-25
- Dissertation Fellowship, U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2024-25
- Kate B. and Hall J. Peterson Fellowship, American Antiquarian Society, 2024-25
- Vincent J. Dooley Distinguished Research Fellowship, Georgia Historical Society, 2024