JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- East Tennessee State University alumnus Dr. Brian D. McKnight recently received the seventh annual Dr. James I. Robertson Jr. Literary Prize for Confederate History.
The Robert E. Lee Civil War Library and Research Center, Woodbridge, N.J., presented McKnight with this award for his 2006 book, Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia (University of Kentucky Press). The prize is named in honor of a renowned Civil War historian who teaches at Virginia Tech.
McKnight earned his M.A. in American history from ETSU in 1999 and went on to earn his Ph.D. in history from Mississippi State University. Now an assistant professor of history at Angelo State University, San Angelo, Texas, he has two forthcoming books - To Perish by the Sword: Champ Ferguson's Civil War and Life and Culture in the Coal Towns of Wise County, Virginia - as well as other works in progress.
