The Lost Generation

Shannon Moeck speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.

On March 13, 2014, Shannon Moeck presented the first lecture in a new five part CPN Thursday series entitled The Civil War Through Different Lenses (2014).

Of the 151 men of the Pelican Rifles of Louisiana that left their community to serve in the Civil War, 119 did not return. Of the 32 soldiers who survived, 31 were wounded, meaning that only a single young man came back physically unharmed. Companies raised from a single community often resulted in the loss of an entire generation of young men.

Shannon Moeck is a park ranger at Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park. After attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, and spending a decade there as a music promoter and a retail manager, she moved back to the Shenandoah Valley where she attended Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown VA. Her passion for history was re-ignited when she took a world civilization history class. Ms. Moeck joined the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove staff as a seasonal hire during the park’s inaugural season as an interpreter in 2010 and completed her dual degrees in the spring of 2013. She is now a full time permanent ranger on the team. Currently Ms. Moeck’s responsibilities include interpretation, volunteer management, web site management, social media co-ordination, and is assisting in the development of the park.

The lecture series was organized by award-winning historian and Charlottesville-based author, lecturer, and cartographer Rick Britton in conjunction with the Senior Center in Charlottesville.

Click here to listen to all five parts of this series.