Contact: Kenny Rowlette, Director, National Civil War Chaplains Museum, 434-582-2087, kgrowlet@liberty.edu  

LYNCHBURG, Va., Feb. 20 /Standard Newswire/ -- The board of directors of the National Civil War Chaplains Research Center and Museum Foundation at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia recently voted unanimously to accept the nomination of Chaplain (Colonel) John Wesley Brinsfield, Jr., Retired, as a member of the board. Col. Brinsifeld is the Chaplain Corps Historian at the Army Chaplain School, Ft. Jackson, South Carolina.

Brinsfield is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, and a member of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. He has a B.A. degree from Vanderbilt University, a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, a Ph.D. in Church History from Emory University, and a D. Min. in Ethics from Drew University. From 1972-73 he held a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship at Mansfield College, Oxford, and a Leopold Schepp Fellowship at Wesley House, Cambridge.

Dr. Brinsfield served on active duty for 28 years as an Army Chaplain. He taught history, ethics and world religions at the US Army Aviation School, the Army Chaplain School, in the Department of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and at the U.S. Army War College as Director of Ethical Program Development.

His military awards include a Bronze Star, a Legion of Merit with one oak leaf cluster, six Meritorious Service Medals, two Army Commendation Medals, one Army Achievement Medal, and numerous service ribbons.

He is the author or co-author of seven books including Religion and Politics in Colonial South Carolina; Encouraging Faith, Supporting Soldiers: A History of the Army Chaplain Corps, 1975-1995; Faith in the Fight: Civil War Chaplains; The Spirit Divided: Memoirs of Civil War Chaplains—The Confederacy and the Union; Courageous in Spirit, Compassionate in Service: The Gunhus Years 1999-2003; and A History of the Army Chaplaincy: The Hicks Years, 2003-2007 as well as numerous articles and editorials for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times.

He is a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendents in New York and the Atlanta Civil War Roundtable.

The mission of the National Civil War Chaplains Research Center and Museum is to educate the public about the role of chaplains and religious organizations in the Civil War; to promote the continuing study of the many methods of dissemination of religious doctrine and moral teachings during the War; to preserve religious artifacts; and to present interpretive programs that show the influence of religion on the lives of political and military personnel.