About Us

PRESIDENT

Thomas Van Winkle 

Tom has served on the CVBT Board of Directors and in the capacity of CVBT Communications Director since 2007. Tom was elected President of CVBT in May of 2016. He has served as Newsletter Editor, Battlefield Preservation Director, Membership Director and as a five-term President of the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield in Spotsylvania, VA. He is former Secretary of the Friends of Fredericksburg Area Battlefields. Tom has written historical and preservation articles for The Civil War News, The Free Lance-Star, Culpeper Star Exponent, Wilderness Dispatch, The Skirmish Line, and magazines including On the Front Line and Blue & Gray as well as chapters in several books. Tom is employed by Ally Financial Insurance Division serving as an automotive dealer Fixed Operations Specialist, Loss Cost Control Specialist, Forensic Auditor and Lead Field Staff Trainer in the United States. Tom also served as Producer, Writer, Director and Editor as a partner in Heritage Media, LLC. creating several historical films and a TV series.

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VICE PRESIDENT | EDUCATION DIRECTOR

Eric Powell

Eric Powell has been in education for more than 30 years. After graduating from Radford University with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences in 1990, he taught social studies at Stafford High School for 18 years. He was named the 1997 Stafford County Teacher of the Year, the 1998 Region III Virginia Teacher of the Year, and won Brenton S. Halsey Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Virginia Historical Society in 2001. Since 2008, Mr. Powell has served as a Social Studies Specialist for both Stafford and Spotsylvania County Schools, and as the Instructional Coordinator at Post Oak Middle School. He has two master's degrees: one in history and one in educational leadership from Virginia Commonwealth University. Additionally, Mr. Powell is an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Mary Washington.  He is a member of the 47th Virginia Infantry, Co. I, “The Stafford Guard” and serves as the Inspector General of Longstreet’s Corps. He conducts numerous living history programs for school children throughout the region.

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Secretary

Kevin Rousseau

Mr. Kevin Rousseau is the former Commandant’s Distinguished Chair for National Intelligence Studies at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Representative to the Combined Arms Center/Army University. As an Army officer, his assignments included the 82nd Airborne Division, the 3rd Armored Division, and the Joint Staff J-2.  After retirement from the Army and prior to serving at the CIA, Mr. Rousseau was an Assistant General Counsel at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.  At the CIA, he served as an analyst, instructor, and manager.  His most recent assignment at the CIA was as the briefer to the Associate Director for Military Affairs. He has served on multiple deployments to the Balkans and to Afghanistan. Mr. Rousseau has a BS from the United States Military Academy, an MS in Strategic Intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College, a JD from the George Mason University School of Law, an LLM in International Law from New York University, and an MS in Strategic Studies from the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies.

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DIRECTOR OF LANDS

Michael Greenfield

Mike served as a National Park Service ranger from 1974 to 2004, working at Blue Ridge Parkway, Everglades, Assateague Island, Fort Necessity, and Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania. As a field ranger, he actively protected lands and resources and worked at solving survey issues. Mike oversees CVBT battlefield land purchases and manages current property needs.

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GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

Kevin Leahy

Kevin Leahy has had a lifelong interest in history with a particular passion for the Civil War. That passion led to an undergraduate degree in History from Radford University. Kevin started his career with the National Park Service as a Park Ranger before leaving to work for the United States Marine Corps in Quantico, VA. Upon moving to Spotsylvania County, he joined the CVBT board and was heavily involved in the fight to save the May 1st battlefield at Chancellorsville. Following the victory at Chancellorsville, Kevin then led a Political Action Committee that saw the election of a preservation minded majority to the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors. He was appointed to the county's Planning Commission and the Economic Development Authority. Stepping away from local politics, Kevin devoted his time to coaching youth soccer and is currently on the coaching staff of the Massaponax High School Boys Soccer program. Kevin and his family (along with a dog, a bird, and 4 gerbils) live in Spotsylvania County. This is his third time serving on the board of CVBT.

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TREASURER

Dave Bohmke

Dave grew up in Southern California and graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. He has over 40 years of banking experience on both coasts having arrived in Fredericksburg in 1997. A frequent visitor to Civil War battlefields near and far, he sticks to reading books rather than writing them. Dave is a past president and over 20-year member of the Rappahannock Rotary Club.

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PARTNERSHIP / OUTREACH

Brent Feito

Brent Feito is a historian and museum professional based out of Furnace Mountain, Virginia. He discovered his passion for Civil War history as a child touring battlefields in central and northern Virginia with his family, and continues to pursue this passion in his personal life and career. He became involved in Civil War living history at age 9 when he learned to play the fife and drum. In his teens, he mentored the renowned historian Brian C. Pohanka, where he assisted him in the publication of his life’s work on the history of the 5th New York, Duryee’s Zouaves. He attended college at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he studied history. During this time, he pursued several internships with preservation organizations as well as the National Park Service.

 

Returning to Virginia after college, he began work at a historical research firm where he performed historical research for various causes in the National Archives, as well as smaller libraries and archives around the country. In 2012 he joined the museum media firm Cortina Productions where he served as a Creative director, leading museum design teams in the creation of new exhibits and programming. Institutions he worked with include the National Museum of American History, Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, The National Air and Space Museum, and the National Museum of the United States Army. Brent left Cortina Productions to pursue his passion for history education, and currently works for the Army Historical Foundation. There, he develops programming, tours, and digital offerings for donors and the public in service of their mission to support Army History Education and the National Museum of the United States Army. Recently, he co-led a tour of the Muleshoe Salient with Robert Lee Hodge and Tom Van Winkle as a joint effort between the Army Historical Foundation and the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust. 

 

Brent resides in an 1855 log cabin on the side of Furnace Mountain with his partner, Lara, a librarian at the Library of Congress, and his cattle dog Finn. In his spare time, he plays traditional music of the southern Appalachians on banjo and fiddle, and spends time in his barn where he has a small shoe shop where he hand makes detailed reproductions of Civil War era shoes. He continues to participate in Civil War living history programs, and is an active member of the North South Skirmish Association where he competes in Smoothbore Musket and Rifled Musket target shooting competitions. 

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Chris Mackowski, Ph.D.

Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor-in-chief of Emerging Civil War and managing editor of the Emerging Civil War Series. He is a professor of journalism and mass communication at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, NY, and historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield in central Virginia. He has also worked as a historian for the National Park Service at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, where he gives tours at four major Civil War battlefields (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania), as well as at the building where Stonewall Jackson died. Chris has authored or co-authored a dozen books on the Civil War, and his articles have appeared in all the major Civil War magazines. Chris serves on the national advisory board for the Civil War Roundtable Congress.

A graduate of Towson State College with a Bachelor of Science degree, Michael worked for the National Park Service for thirty years in six different park areas including four in Virginia. He served as the Supervisory Park Ranger for Resources Protection at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park from December 1986 through February 2004.

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Robert Lee Hodge 

Born on Stonewall Jackson’s birthday Robert has had a keen interest in Civil War history since age 4. Robert interned for the National Park Service's Civil War Sites Advisory Commission. Robert has worked on films – from dramas like ABC's North and South and TNT’s Gettysburg and Andersonville, to many programs on The History Channel, Arts and Entertainment Channel, and the National Geographic Channel, to his own Civil War documentaries that have won 5 Telly awards and a regional Emmy in 2007.  He has been featured on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, Kojo Nnamdi, and Soundscapes, NBC's Late, Late Show, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Time, the PBS program Going Places, C-SPAN II’s Book TV, and has written for The Nashville Tennessean and The Washington Post. Robert has been a historical researcher at The National Archives, the U.S. Army, and the Library of Congress, working with nationally recognized experts. He was principle researcher on Time-Life Books 18-volume series Voices of the Civil War and The Illustrated History of the Civil War.  Robert played a major role in, and appears on the cover of, the New York Times' best-seller Confederates in the Attic — hosting Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Tony Horwitz, on a memorable tour-de-force of historic sites. 

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Peter R. Kolakowski

Peter earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Ripon College and a Master’s of Public Administration from American University. He has been a resident of the Fredericksburg area since 1972.  He served in the U.S. Army and has been employed in executive management positions in Virginia local government in Fredericksburg, state government working for VDOT, and at the federal government level for the U.S. Navy at Dahlgren.  He has been active supporter of preservation and history projects throughout his career

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Gordon C. Rhea

Gordon C. Rhea received his B.A. in history from Indiana University, his M.A. in history from Harvard University, and his law degree from Stanford University Law School.  He served as Special Assistant to the Chief Counsel of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities for two years and as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington D.C. and the United States Virgin Islands for some several years.  He has been in the private practice of law since 1983. Gordon has recently been appointed to the position of Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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Mr. Rhea has written eight award-winning books about the American Civil War, including The Battle of the Wilderness, The Battles at Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, To the North Anna River, Cold Harbor, On To Petersburg, Carrying the Flag, In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee, and Stephen A. Swails: Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction.  He has lectured across the country at the invitation of numerous historical societies, universities, and historic preservation organizations on topics of military history and the Civil War era and has served on the boards of several historical societies, history magazines, and historical preservation organizations.  Mr.  Rhea conducts tours for organizations that raise funds to purchase and preserve historical sites related to the Civil War era, including the Civil War Trust, the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust, the Blue and Gray Education Society, and the Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield. He has also appeared multiple times as a historian and presenter on nationwide television programs, including productions by The History Channel, A&E Channel, Discovery Channel, and C-Span.

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Eric J. Wittenberg

Eric J. Wittenberg is an award-winning historian, speaker and tour guide. His specialty is Civil War cavalry operations, and much of his work has focused on the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps and on the Gettysburg Campaign. He is the author of 22 published books on the Civil War and more than three dozen articles that have appeared in various national magazines. He is also deeply involved in battlefield preservation work, including his work with both the American Battlefield Trust and the CVBT. He presently serves as the program coordinator for the Chambersburg Civil War Seminars and Tours and served as a member of the Governor of Ohio’s Advisory Commission on the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War. He is a native of southeastern Pennsylvania and was educated at Dickinson College and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He is an attorney in private practice. He and his wife Susan and their golden retrievers reside in Columbus, Ohio.

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Dave Herold

​Dave serves as Senior Commercial Executive at C&F Bank in Fredericksburg, VA. Dave also is current President of the Fredericksburg Evening Rotary Club. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1982, he spent 5 years in Florida with Southeast Bank, where he completed their year-long “money-center bank” credit training program. He returned to Virginia and spent 15 years with Central Fidelity Bank, later to become Wachovia Bank. He temporarily left banking for a 12-year stint in the building industry in Northern Virginia, where he served as a Project Manager and Department Supervisor. Dave has been a resident of Fredericksburg for the past 23 years. He is also on the Board of the Spotsylvania Lions Club. Dave has a love of history and especially the history in and around Central Virginia.

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