William Lesko Barney

1943 - 2025

FAMILY REMEMBRANCE by Sina Barney:

William Lesko Barney, 82, went to meet his beloved Elaine on April 28, 2025. He died peacefully, at his home of 45 years, after 4 months of hospitalized illness. He is immensely missed.

Bill was born February 2, 1943, in Wilkes-Barre PA, to William Barney and Mary Sczygiel Barney. The extended family operated a successful "truck farm" in nearby Kingston. Growing up, Bill had a great love for baseball (his prized card collection was the hardest loss from "The Flood" of Agnes in 1972), a deep fondness for dogs (tales were told for years of Jippy and "your Uncle Rom", who was in fact a border collie) and an early passion for history (see: The Rest Of His Life). Bill's early education was entirely within the Wyoming Seminary system, culminating in a degree from their prestigious prep school in 1960.

At Cornell he met the love of his life, Elaine Elizabeth Friedmann, from Brewster, NY. It was Elaine who urged Bill to be true to self, and pursue his lifelong dream of becoming an historian, just as he supported her in completing her RN, and later her MSW. They married on June 10, 1967, and welcomed daughter Kristina Elaine on September 22, 1969, in Manhattan. Jeremy William followed, on April 10, 1973, in Hopewell, NJ. When the time came to choose which university town best fit their vision for their young family's future, the winner was Chapel Hill, where Bill was offered a position at UNC... and the rest is History.

Bill was a benevolent and reassuring father to his children, and an oft-bemused but supportive Dad to his teenagers and ever after. He and Elaine showed such genuine interest in their kids' friends, pastimes, and music that those same friends now cite the Barneys as a parenting example they wanted to emulate. The result is in the now-young-adults who grew up knowing Bill from group potlucks and New Year's traditions through 2024.

Bill was a wry and gentle man, with a runaway sense of humor. His family was blessed with laughter and in-jokes, travel both near and far (after knocking out the Civil War battlefields), a succession of indulged dogs, a focus on physical and mental fitness, and the comfort of a safe base always, a home where expression was encouraged and learning valued.

Bill loved his profession so very much; he was never gunning for retirement, and after Elaine died in 2012, he was firm that he would continue teaching and guiding students as long as he was still able to both execute and enjoy. He taught his entire semester in Fall 2024. He died on the last day of classes for Spring 2025. He never had to retire: brilliant to the end!

He was a beautiful man.

He was predeceased by his parents, his wife Elaine, and his sister Mary Ann Malcolm. He is survived by daughter Kristina (Sina) of NC, son Jeremy of CA, sister Carol Barney of PA, and many nieces and nephews.

The family wishes to thank the staff of UNC Hospital-Chapel Hill, Select Specialty Hospital-Durham, Hallmark Homecare, and Amedisys Hospice.

A celebration of Bill's life will be held at a future date, to be announced.

PROFESSIONAL TRIBUTE by Miguel La Serna, Chair of UNC Department of History:

The Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill mourns the passing of our esteemed colleague, William L. Barney, Stephenson Professor of Civil War history. A leading scholar of nineteenth-century America and the Civil War era, Bill's career spanned over five decades of dedicated scholarship, inspired teaching, and institutional service.

Bill earned his B.A. from Cornell University in 1964 and went on to receive his M.A. in Medieval History in 1965 and Ph.D. in U.S. History in 1971 from Columbia University. He began his academic career at Trenton State College in New Jersey before joining the faculty at UNCChapel Hill in 1975. Over the course of his incredible fifty-year career at Carolina, he also held visiting appointments as a Fulbright Professor at the University of Genoa in 1987 and as a Visiting Professor at Duke University in 1996.

Since joining the UNC faculty in 1975, Bill helped define and elevate the university's reputation in nineteenth-century U.S. and Civil War history. A nationally and internationally respected scholar, he authored or edited more than a dozen major works that reshaped understandings of sectional conflict, secession, and the Civil War's social and political legacies. Among his early publications were Road to Secession (1972), The Secessionist Impulse (1974), and Flawed Victory (1975), all of which helped recast debates about the origins and outcomes of the war. His methodological innovation and interdisciplinary reach were exemplified in The Passage of the Republic (1987), a definitive treatment of nineteenth-century American transformation, and his widely adopted textbook Battleground for the Union (1989). Professor Barney's later works reached both scholarly and public audiences. His editorial leadership in A Companion to 19th Century America (2001), contributions to The American Journey textbook series, and his role as consultant for "The Southern Homefront" digital archive demonstrated his belief in history's power to educate broad publics. His 2008 biography, The Making of a Confederate: Walter Lenoir's Civil War, based on original archival research, revealed his continued intellectual vitality and creativity. He further deepened scholarly discourse with The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Civil War (2011) and Secession Winter (2013). His final two book projects represent the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship. Rebels in the Making: The Secession Crisis and the Birth of the Confederacy (2020) offered the most comprehensive treatment to date of the secession movement in all of the slave states. Its sequel, Rebels Unraveling: Freedom and Coercion in the Confederacy, accepted by Oxford University Press shortly before his death, challenges conventional interpretations by showing how Confederate nationalism frayed under the pressures of conscription, hardship, and moral erosion. Together, these works cement his place as one of the most original and influential historians of the Civil War era.

Beyond his scholarship, Bill was a master teacher and mentor. Known for his wisdom, candor, and dedication in the classroom, he rarely missed a class in his fifty-year teaching career. He guided generations of undergraduate and graduate students through the complexities of U.S. history, supervised more than twenty doctoral dissertationsmany of which became published booksand was recognized for his excellence with a Fulbright Fellowship and UNC's Bowman and Gordon Gray Term Professorship. His courses, whether in intimate graduate seminars or large undergraduate lectures, consistently challenged students to confront the enduring legacies of slavery, war, and inequality in American life.

Bill was also a dedicated citizen of the university and profession. He served on virtually every major departmental committee, mentored junior faculty, and contributed actively to strategic initiatives. His service extended nationally through his involvement with the Southern Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians. Bill leaves behind an indelible mark on the field of Civil War history, on the University of North Carolina, and on the countless students and colleagues fortunate to have worked with him. He will be deeply missed and long remembered for his intellectual rigor, generosity of spirit, and commitment to the transformative power of historical scholarship.