Damon R. Eubank

Damon R. Eubank (born 1959) is an historian at Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, Kentucky, principally known for his study of the family of U.S. Senator John J. Crittenden, In the Shadow of the Patriarch: The John J. Crittenden Family in War and Peace.^[1]

Background

Eubank was born to Ralph Eubank of Vine Grove near Elizabethtown in Hardin County, Kentucky, and Elizabeth D. Eubank (1928–1992).^[2] Since his mother's death, his father remarried, and Eubank's stepmother is Louise Eubank.^[3]

In 1977, Eubank graduated from North Hardin High School in Radcliff in Hardin County. He then procured his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981 from the then Campbellsville College, having studied under Professors Bobby Russell Himes (1931–2008) and William Edward Bennett (1943–2006) in history and political science, respectively. He then obtained his Master of Arts in College Teaching from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.^[3]

Eubank is a member of Campbellsville Baptist Church. He and his wife, the former Lori Jadwin, have two children, Lorin and Micah.^[3]

Scholarly pursuits

In 1989, Eubank received his Ph.D. from Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. His dissertation from Mississippi State was published fifteen years later in 2004 as Response of Kentucky to the Mexican War, 1846-1848.^[4] Earlier, in 1992, Eubank published an article based on the dissertation. This selection is entitled "A Time of Enthusiasm: The Response of Kentucky to the Call for Troops in the Mexican War".^[5]

In his work on Senator Crittenden, Eubank tells the family story from the contributions of the children of the patriarch. George B. Crittenden (Confederate) and Thomas Leonidas Crittenden (Union), held significant opposing commands during the American Civil War.^[1] Daughter Ann Mary Crittenden's domestic life, stable in the antebellum years, was in time shattered by the turmoil of war. Several other Crittinden siblings were leaders in their respective communities. The divisions of war were followed by the rapprochement and reunion of the family but after Crittenden's death. Most of Eubank's book focuses on the Civil War. The pressure to succeed, which the patriarch placed on his sons, seemed to have handicapped both men in their commands, Eubank concludes.^[1]

In 2009, corresponding with his book publication, Campbellsville University named Eubank its 17th recipient of its "Excellence in Teaching Award."^[3] Eubank has developed a new course on the Holocaust and plans to take a group of students to Poland. He is developing an ancient history course, with the expectation of field study in Italy and Greece. He is a member of the Southern Historical Association, the Society of Civil War Historians, the Kentucky Historical Association, and the Filson Club. He is a member of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Committee and the Kentucky Bicentennial Committee. He serves as a book reviewer for The Alabama Review: A Quarterly Journal of Alabama History, published by Auburn University,^[3] West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional Studies,^[6] and Louisiana History,^[3] published by the Louisiana Historical Association through the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

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