Craig L. Symonds is a noted author, historian, speaker, and a professor emeritus at the United States Naval Academy, where he formally chaired the History Department. A former Naval officer himself, Symonds has written over a dozen books on American Naval history, President Abraham Lincoln, and the Civil War. For his most recent work, Lincoln and His Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War, Symonds was awarded both the Benjamin Barondess Award of the Civil War Roundtable and the Lincoln Prize in 2009.