Birdsall S. Viault (1932–2012) was Professor Emeritus of History at Winthrop University (1968–1997), Rock Hill, South Carolina. He has also taught at Adelphi University (1959–1968), where he had attained his B.S. and M.A. degrees. He succeeded at gaining an M.A. (1957) and Ph.D. (1963) in history while studying at Duke University. He also studied at the Leibniz Kolleg of the University of Tübingen, Germany.