The organization meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month September through May. Meetings are held in the Williamsburg Regional Library Theatre located at 515 Scotland St in Williamsburg, VA, unless otherwise posted. The meetings begin at 6:30 PM. Membership is open to the general public.
January's Speaker
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
January 28, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Alex Rossino
“Calamity at Frederick: Robert E. Lee, Special Order 191, and Confederate
Misfortune on the Road to Antietam"
Join us on Tuesday, January 28th for the meeting of the Williamsburg
Civil War Roundtable, commencing at 6:30 PM in the Williamsburg Regional
Library Theatre. The library is located at 515 Scotland Street
in Williamsburg.
The program will also be presented online via a Zoom link for our
members and friends near and far. The details for the Zoom link will be
provided by a follow-up announcement several days prior to meeting date.
On Tuesday, January 28th, Alex Rossino will present “Calamity at
Fredrick: Robert E. Lee, Special Order 191, and Confederate
Misfortune on the Road to Antietam”.
The loss of Robert E. Lee's Special Orders No. 191 is one of the Civil
War’s enduring mysteries. But there is a LOT you have never been told.
In this meticulous study, Dr. Alex Rossino presents a bold new
interpretation of the evidence surrounding the creation of the orders,
their distribution, and their loss outside Frederick, Maryland, in
September 1862.
Rossino makes extensive use of primary sources to explore these subjects
and other important questions related to the orders, including why
General Lee thought his army could operate north of the Potomac until
winter; why Lee found it necessary to seize the Federal garrison at
Harpers Ferry; what Lee hoped to accomplish after capturing Harpers
Ferry; where Corporal Barton Mitchell of the 27th Indiana found the Lost
Orders; and if D. H. Hill or someone else was to blame for losing the
orders. The result is a well-documented reassessment that sheds new
light while challenging long-held assumptions.
A resident of western Maryland, Dr. Alex Rossino is an independent
historian and author. He earned Master’s and Doctoral degrees in History
at Syracuse University before working for nine years as a historian at
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Dr. Rossino turned
his attention to the American Civil War in 2011 and after several years
of research, he produced Six Days in September: A Novel of Lee's Army in
Maryland, September 1862. The book proved to be popular among historians
and enthusiasts alike, leading to a sequel titled The Guns of September:
A Novel of McClellan's Army in Maryland, September 1862, which came out
in September 2024. Dr. Rossino also returned to writing history,
producing Their Maryland: The Army of Northern Virginia from the Potomac
Crossing to Sharpsburg in September 1862 (November 2021) and
co-authoring with Gene Thorp The Tale Untwisted: General George B.
McClellan, The Maryland Campaign, and the Discovery of Lee's Lost
Orders, which came out in January 2023. His most recent history,
Calamity at Frederick: Robert E. Lee, Special Orders No. 191, and
Confederate Misfortune on the Road to Antietam (October 2023), completed
his in-depth study of the Lost Orders saga from the Confederate
perspective.