:Charles P. Roland

{{Short description|American historian and army officer (1918–2022)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Charles P. Roland

| image =

| alt =

| birth_name = Charles Pierce Roland

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1918|4|8}}

| birth_place = Maury City, Tennessee, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|4|12|1918|4|8}}

| death_place = Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.

| occupation = Historian, professor

| years_active = {{circa|1940}}–2022

| known_for = Professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky

| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|

| notable_works = Research of the American South and the American Civil War, president of the Southern Historical Association, president of Louisiana Historical Association, executive committee member of Kentucky Historic Society, professor of the Harold Keith Johnson Institute

| spouse = {{marriage|Allie Lee Roland|1948|2018|end=died}}

| children = 3

| module =

{{Infobox military person

| embed = yes

| branch_label = Branch

| branch = United States Army

| unit = 99th Infantry Division

| rank = Captain

| battles_label = Conflict

| battles = World War II (European theatre)

| awards = {{ublist|Bronze Star|Purple Heart}}

}}

Charles Pierce Roland (April 8, 1918 – April 12, 2022) was an American historian and professor emeritus of the University of Kentucky who was known for his research field of the American South and the U.S. Civil War. Roland was a captain in the United States Army and a World War II veteran. He served as the elected president of the Southern Historical Association and contributed to several other historical societies.

Early life

Born in the western Tennessee town Maury City{{harvp|Williams|2003|p=75}}. on April 8, 1918, Roland grew up as the son and grandson of a family of teachers{{cite web |url=https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/tom-eblen/article208298324.html |last=Eblen |first=Tom |website=Lexington Herald Leader |title=Civil War historian turns 100. His first lessons were from battlefield veterans |date=April 8, 2018 |access-date=September 7, 2019 |language=en}}{{cite news |url=https://uknow.uky.edu/campus-news/retired-uk-professor-and-civil-war-historian-celebrates-100th-birthday |title=Retired UK Professor and Civil War Historian Celebrates 100th Birthday |last=Piercy |first=Lindsey |website=UKNow |location=Lexington, KY |access-date=September 7, 2019 |date=April 11, 2018 |language=en}} in Henderson. As a child in the American South, he heard numerous primary accounts of the Civil War from veterans, saying in an interview "There were quite a number of veterans of the Civil War living in that area".

First graduating from Vanderbilt University in 1938, he had studied under poet John Crowe Ransom. He became a high-school history teacher for two years in Alamo, Tennessee, before moving to Washington, D.C., to start work as a historical aide for the National Park Service. Roland would continue in this role until middle of January in 1942 when he was inducted into the United States Armed Forces.

During World War II, he would serve as a captain in the 99th Infantry Division in the European theatre and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star over the course of his deployment. He later received his master's degree from George Washington University and then his doctoral degree at Louisiana State University after the war.

Academic career

Roland served in several academic capacities throughout his career and authored a considerable amount of published works on the American Civil War.{{harvp|Harris|1991|p=1}}. Around 1959–1960, he was awarded a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.{{cite web |title=Charles P. Roland |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/charles-p-roland/ |website=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation |access-date=November 23, 2019 |language=en}} In 1981,{{cite web |last1=Holdzkom |first1=Roslyn |last2=Sellars |first2=Linda |last3=Howard |first3=Dawne E. |last4=Canada |first4=Rachel |last5=Fasig |first5=Danielle |last6=Seifert |first6=Julie |last7=Abernathy |first7=Gergana |title=Southern Historical Association Records, 1935–2009 |url=https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/04030/#d1e12831 |website=Wilson Special Collections Library |publisher=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |access-date=November 23, 2019 |at=E. Pictures. |language=en |type=Finding aid |date=April 2019}}{{harvp|Higginbotham|1982|p=3}}. he was elected president of the Southern Historical Association.

Starting in 1970, following his employment by Tulane University, he became a professor of history emeritus at the University of Kentucky; a position he would hold until he retired in 1988. That same year, the University of Kentucky established the Charles P. Roland Fellowship to support university students, according to the institution, pursuing research "...in American history, especially the history of the Civil War, race relations and the American South."

Additionally, he served as the elected president of the Louisiana Historical Association, the Harold Keith Johnson Visiting Professor of Military History at the United States Army Military History Institute and Army War College, an executive committee member of the Kentucky Historical Society, and the chairman of the Department of the Army Historical Advisory Committee. At various times throughout his career, he also taught and lectured at West Point.

Personal life and death

On January 23, 1948, Roland married Allie Lee Roland. They remained married for 70 years until her death on April 26, 2018,{{cite news |title=Allie Lee Roland |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/kentucky/obituary.aspx?n=allie-lee-roland&pid=188937005&fhid=8238 |access-date=November 23, 2019 |work=Lexington Herald-Leader |date=May 6, 2018 |type=Obituary |location=Nicholasville, KY |language=en |via=Legacy.com}}{{cite web |title=Obituary for Allie Lee Roland |url=https://www.clarklegacycenter.com/obituaries/Allie-Lee-Roland?obId=3073660#/obituaryInfo |website=Clark Legacy Center |access-date=November 23, 2019 |location=Nicholasville, KY |type=Obituary |year=2018 |language=en}} shortly after Roland's 100th birthday.{{cite web |last1=Hollingsworth |first1=Randolph |title=Charles Roland |url=https://kath-online.org/2018/05/04/charles-roland/ |website=Kentucky Association of Teachers of History |access-date=November 23, 2019 |language=en |date=May 4, 2018}} They had three children.

Roland died at his home in Lexington, Kentucky, on April 12, 2022, four days after his 104th birthday.{{cite web |title=Charles P. Roland |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/kentucky/name/charles-roland-obituary?id=34282339 |website=Legacy.com |publisher=Legacy |date=April 17, 2022 |access-date=April 21, 2022}}

Bibliography

= Books =

{{cite book |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |title=The Confederacy |year=1960 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-72451-5 |url=https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo41677971.html |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite book |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |title=Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics |year=1964 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-9000-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/albertsidneyjohn00rola |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite book |last1=Roland |first1=Charles Pierce |title=The improbable era: the South since World War II |date=1976 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington |isbn=978-0-8131-4619-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/improbableerasou0000rola_i0i6 |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite book |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |title=Louisiana Sugar Plantations During the Civil War |year=1997 |publisher=LSU Press |isbn=978-0-8071-2221-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dIUyRV0bO3oC |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite book |last1=Roland |first1=Charles Pierce |title=Jefferson Davis's Greatest General: Albert Sidney Johnston |year=2000 |publisher=McWhiney Foundation Press |location=Abilene, TX |isbn=978-1-893114-20-3 |oclc=42786225 |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite book |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |title=My odyssey through history: memoirs of war and academe |date=November 2003 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |isbn=978-0-8071-2853-4 |url=https://lsupress.org/books/detail/my-odyssey-through-history/ |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite book |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |title=Reflections on Lee: a historian's assessment |date=October 9, 2003 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |location=Baton Rouge |isbn=978-0-8071-2911-1 |edition=Louisiana pbk. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9-i5reANPacC |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite book |last1=Roland |first1=Charles Pierce |title=An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War |year=2004 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-2300-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s0N_sEf_1ggC |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite book |last1=Roland |first1=Charles |title=History Teaches Us to Hope: Reflections on the Civil War and Southern History |year=2010 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-2917-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DuUCgfHAO7kC |ref=none |language=en}}

= Articles =

{{cite journal |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |last2=Robbins |first2=Richard C. |last3=Johnston |first3=Eliza |title=The Diary of Eliza (Mrs. Albert Sidney) Johnston: The Second Cavalry Comes to Texas |journal=The Southwestern Historical Quarterly |date=April 1957 |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=463–500 |issn=0038-478X |jstor=30237724 |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite journal |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |title=Albert Sidney Johnston and the Shiloh Campaign |journal=Civil War History |date=December 1958 |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=355–382 |doi=10.1353/cwh.1958.0017 |s2cid=143883766 |issn=1533-6271 |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite journal |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |title=The South, America's Willo-o'-the-Wisp Eden |journal=Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association |date=Spring 1970 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=101–119 |issn=0024-6816 |jstor=4231114 |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite journal |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |title=Louisiana and Secession |journal=Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association |date=Autumn 1978 |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=389–399 |issn=0024-6816 |jstor=4231817 |ref=none |language=en}}
{{cite journal |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |editor1-last=Higginbotham |editor1-first=Sanford W. |title=The Ever-Vanishing South |journal=The Journal of Southern History |date=February 1982 |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=3–20 |doi=10.2307/2207294 |issn=0022-4642 |ref={{SfnRef|Higginbotham|1982}} |jstor=2207294 |language=en}}
{{cite journal |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |editor1-last=Williams |editor1-first=Kenneth H. |title=Becoming a Soldier |journal=The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society |date=Winter–Spring 2003 |volume=101 |issue=1/2 |pages=75–92 |issn=0023-0243 |ref={{SfnRef|Williams|2003}} |jstor=23384516 |language=en}}
{{cite journal |last1=Roland |first1=Charles P. |last2=Lawrence |first2=Frank |title=Why We Need Our Slaves |journal=Civil War Times |date=November–December 2007 |volume=46 |issue=9 |pages=52–58 |publisher=Historynet LLC |issn=1546-9980 |id={{EBSCOhost|27137078}} |ref=none |language=en}}

= Interviews =

{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=James Russell |title=On War and History: Charles P. Roland Discusses "An American Iliad" |journal=The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society |date=Autumn 1991 |volume=89 |issue=4 |pages=362–376 |issn=0023-0243 |jstor=23381931 |language=en}}
{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Kenneth H. |last2=Cooper |first2=William J. |last3=Roland |first3=Charles P. |title=Slavery, the Civil War, and Jefferson Davis: An Interview with William J. Cooper Jr. and Charles P. Roland |journal=The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society |year=2003 |volume=101 |issue=4 |pages=400–456 |issn=0023-0243 |jstor=23387081 |ref=none |language=en}}