Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr., assistant professor in the University of North Carolina Wilmington Department of History, has been elected by the NC Society of the Cincinnati as the State of North Carolina George Washington Distinguished Professor.

Fonvielle will receive a stipend of $6,000 to support his research and publication efforts regarding the Revolutionary War in N.C. He is currently researching a book on the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge.

The Society of the Cincinnati was founded at the close of the Revolutionary War by officers of the Continental army and navy to preserve the ideals and fellowship for which they had fought. The organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C., at Anderson House, a national historic landmark.

A Wilmington native, Fonvielle earned a B.A. in anthropology from UNCW, a M.A. in American history at East Carolina University, and a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, where he studied with noted Civil War historian Thomas L. Connelly.

Fonvielle earlier served as the last curator of the Blockade Runners of the Confederacy Museum. Possessing a lifelong interest in American Civil War, North Carolina, Lower Cape Fear and Southern history, his in-depth research focuses on Civil War coastal operations and defenses, blockade running and the navies. He has published books and articles on the Civil War. He was interviewed and appeared in the UNCW produced documentary Confederate Goliath.

Fonvielle returned to his undergraduate alma mater in 1996 and currently teaches courses on the Civil War, Wilmington and the Lower Cape Fear, the Old South and Antebellum America. He also teaches extended education courses.