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January 2024 -Bruce Littell presented “The Hunley
Project.” This presentation provides an overview of the history,
significance and the recovery and preservation of the world’s first
successful combat submarine from the spring of 1861 to the present day.
The principal locations include New Orleans, Mississippi, Mobile,
Alabama and Charleston, South Carolina.
February 2024 - On February 27th, Scott Mingus
presented “Confederate Calamity: JEB Stuart’s Cavalry Ride Through York
County PA”. Many people erroneously believe that Jeb Stuart was on a
glory ride around the Army of the Potomac while the battle of Gettysburg
raged, deliberately depriving Robert E. Lee of "the eyes and ears of the
army.
March 2024 - On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, Jonathan Jones
presented “Opium Slavery: Drug Dependency Among Civil War Veterans”. In
the wake of the Civil War, many veterans struggled with lingering pain
and disabling illnesses. To cope, former soldiers often turned to
opioids. Tens of thousands became addicted to the drugs.
April 2024 - On Tuesday, April 23, Rob Orrison
presented “Twice Baptized: Misconceptions and Unique Stories from the
Manassas Battlefields. The plains of Manassas saw two major battles of
the American Civil War. As soon as the smoke cleared, many
misconceptions and myths began to take form about both battles.
Hollywood only added to these myths. This talk will highlight some
unique points of view on both battles and address some of the
misconceptions of the battles.
May 2024 - On Tuesday, May 28th Patrick A. Schroeder
presented “Forgotten Friday: the April 7, 1865, Actions in Cumberland
County, VA”. Largely overlooked owing to the events at Sailor’s Creek on
April 6 and at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, multiple engagements and
events occurred in Cumberland County largely overlooked by historians
and the public. There are four separate battles resulting in the death,
and wounding and capture of three generals and the final engagement on
the fringe of forcing Lee’s surrender in Cumberland County.
October 2024 - On Tuesday, October 22, 2024, Victor
Vignola presented "Contrasts in Command - The Battle of Fair Oaks, May
31-June 1, 1862". Surprisingly, little has been written about the
important battle of Fair Oaks (and the Simultaneous Seven Pines). The
bloody two-day affair (May31-June 1, 1862), brought on the doorstep of
the Confederate capital, was the major battle in the Eastern Theater
since Bull Run/Manassas the previous summer. It left more than 11,000
causalities in its wake and the primary Southern army of the Potomac
without its commander.
November 2024 - On Tuesday, November 26th, Christopher
Kolakowski presented “The Storming of Missionary Ridge”. The capture of
Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, capped a dramatic series of
battles around Chattanooga. It also set the stage for future campaigns
into Georgia and the Carolinas. Christopher’s presentation will examine
the battle, the soldiers’ perspectives, and its legacies.
December 2024 - On Tuesday, December 17th, Robert
“Bert” Dunkerly will present “The Significance of the Battle of Stones
River”. Stones River is one of the lesser-known major battles of the
war, fought in the middle of winter, over the ending of 1862 and start
of 1863. The battle was a hard-won Union victory and represented a lost
opportunity for the Confederates. Lingering tension in the Confederate
army's leadership plagued that force for the rest of the war.
January 2023 --
Drew Gruber presented “The Siege of Yorktown”. In the early Spring of
1862, the Union Army of the Potomac was transported from the Nation’s
Capital area down the Chesapeake Bay to the lower Virginia Peninsula
bounded by the James and York Rivers. The Union manpower of
approximately 125,000 troops marched up the Peninsula in early April
until confronting an extensive Confederate defensive line established
behind the Warwick River from Mulberry Island (present day Fort Eustis)
across the Peninsula to Yorktown. The initial Confederate defensive
force, numbering approximately 12,000 troops, brought the Union advance
to a halt. As a consequence of overcoming such a formidable defensive
obstacle, the Union high command chose to implement a siege.
February 2023 - John J. Fox presented “Fort Gregg - The
Confederate Alamo”. The Confederate Alamo is the first book-length study
ever written about the chaotic and bloody Battle of Fort Gregg. By April
2, 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant’s men had tightened their noose around
the vital town of Petersburg, Virginia. Trapped on three sides with a
river at their back, the soldiers from General Robert E. Lee’s Army of
Northern Virginia had never faced such dire circumstances.
March 2023 - J. Michael Moore presented “John Taylor
Wood and The Rebel Horse Marine”.
Join historian J. Michael Moore
for a lively discussion of John Taylor Wood's career and exploits as one
of the most successful Confederate naval raiders. The Chesapeake Bay
was a vital Union communication and supply link from Washington, D.C. to
Fort Monroe. With great ingenuity and incredible forethought, Wood
developed the “boats on wheels” concept for attacking Union
shipping. Wood earned the sobriquet of the Rebel Horse Marine with a
naval raiding career that was something out of the action-adventure
genre of fiction and foreshadowed the development of commando and
special operations warfare in the twentieth century."
April 2023 - Dr. Lorien Foote resented "Union Soldiers
on the Loose in the Confederancy".During the last winter of the Civil
War, nearly 3,000 Union prisoners escaped from Confederate prisons in
the Carolinas and fled toward Union army lines. Black and white
southerners fed, hid, and guided the fugitives across hundreds of miles
of dangerous terrain. Lorien Foote will share what the journey of
escaped prisoners reveals about Union soldier’s experiences in the final
months of the war and the transformation of the home front to a battle
front inside the Confederacy.
May 2023 - Dennis Frye presented: “Stonewall Jackson’s
Greatest Victory: Harper’s Ferry. General Lee had a problem
- Harpers Ferry. He could not continue his proposed invasion into the
United States with this strategic position in the hands of U.S. forces.
Something must be done. Lee devised a complex plan, perhaps his most
complex of the war. He summoned his most aggressive lieutenant,
Stonewall Jackson, to lead the sensitive mission. But soon much went
wrong. Despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, coupled with the
enemy's discovery of Lee's orders, Jackson in his final independent
command of the war brought Lee victory - Stonewall's most brilliant
battlefield victory. Dennis E. Frye recently retired after 20 years as
the Chief Historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
September 2023 - Hampton Newsome's presentation
covered the little-known Federal offensive against Richmond during the
Gettysburg Campaign – the subject of Mr. Newsome’s book Gettysburg’s
Southern Front. Sometimes referred to as the Blackberry Raid, the
operation was led by John Dix and provided a significant opportunity by
U.S. forces to threaten the Confederate capital and damage Lee’s
operation in Pennsylvania.
October 2023 - On October 24th Dr. Jonathan White
presented “Lincoln Destroys the Slave Trade: The Extraordinary Unknown
Story of Appleton Oaksmith” This talk explored the
extraordinary lengths the Lincoln Administration went to destroy the
illegal transatlantic slave trade during the Civil War. Using the
unknown story of a nineteenth-century sailor named Appleton Oaksmith as
a lens, Jonathan W. White will show the various (and heretofore unknown)
steps that Abraham Lincoln and his secretary of state, William H.
Seward, took to forever stop illegal slavers—including using the
suspension of habeas corpus, the use of civil courts, and an
international kidnapping scheme.
November 2023 - Michael Block presented “The
Battles of Rappahannock Station and Kelly’s Ford – November 7, 1863:
‘Only One Shout, Then a Terrible Silence”. The twin battles of
Rappahannock Station and Kelly’s Ford, which took place on November 7,
1863, are often lost in the history of the Civil War, or at best,
relegated to a sentence or two. The maneuvering and fighting that took
place in early November removed the Army of Northern Virginia from the
Rappahannock River and Culpeper County and placing the Army of the
Potomac on the Rapidan. Michael Block, a fellow Williamsburg Civil War
Roundtable member, will discuss how the November fight was planned and
executed, where Army of Potomac commander George Meade wanted to fight
and Robert E. Lee’s plan to counter any thrust across the Rappahannock.
December 2023 -
January 2022 - Kevin Pawlak presented
“In The Wake of Antietam: The Loudoun Valley Campaign of 1862”. Following the
bloodiest single day in American history at the Battle of Antietam, the Army of
the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia rested and refitted on either side
of the Potomac River. By late October 1862, the Federal army crossed into
Virginia once more, armed with a plan to capture Richmond and defeat the
Confederacy.
The ensuing battles that erupted in the Loudoun Valley and beyond raged for two
weeks and added several hundred casualties to the nation’s growing list of names
in an indecisive campaign. It proved to be George McClellan’s last campaign as a
field commander in the Civil War.
Kevin Pawlak is the Historic Site Manager of Ben Lomond Historic Site and
Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park and serves as a Certified Battlefield
Guide at Antietam National Battlefield. He graduated from Shepherd University in
2014, majoring in History with a concentration in Civil War and 19th Century
America and minoring in Historic Preservation. Kevin previously worked at
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. He is on the Board of Directors
for the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association, the Save Historic
Antietam Foundation, and the Antietam Institute. He is also a regular
contributor to the Emerging Civil War online blog. He is the author and
co-author of four books, including To Hazard All: A Guide to the Maryland
Campaign
February 2022 - Jonathon White presented "A House Built By
Slaves – African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House." Prior to the
Civil War, African Americans were almost entirely excluded from the White House,
other than as servants or slaves. However, during the war, the racial color line
was broken down as African Americans claimed the First Amendment right to
petition the government. For the first time in the history of the United States,
they saw the president as their president and the White House as their people’s
house. Between 1862 and 1865 Lincoln welcomed hundreds of African Americans into
his White House office and at public receptions. This talk will explore the
remarkable story of the relationship that developed between Abraham Lincoln and
the black community during the crucible of the Civil War.
Jonathan W. White is associate professor of American Studies at Christopher
Newport University. He is the author or editor of thirteen books, including
Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln (2014),
which was a finalist for both the Lincoln Prize and Jefferson Davis Prize, a
“best book” in Civil War Monitor, and the winner of the Abraham Lincoln
Institute’s 2015 book prize. He serves as vice chair of The Lincoln Forum, and
on the boards of the Abraham Lincoln Association, the Abraham Lincoln Institute,
and the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History at the University of
Virginia, as well as the Ford’s Theatre Advisory Council. His most recent books
include Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep, and Dreams during the Civil War
(2017), which was selected as a “best book” by Civil War Monitor; and “Our
Little Monitor”: The Greatest Invention of the Civil War (2018), which he
co-authored with Anna Gibson Holloway. In October he published To Address You As
My Friend: African Americans’ Letters to Abraham Lincoln with the University of
North Carolina Press, and in November he will publish My Work Among the
Freedmen: The Civil War and Reconstruction Letters of Harriet M. Buss with UVA
Press. In February 2022 he will publish A House Built By Slaves: African
American Visitors to the Lincoln White House.
March 2022 - Shelly Liebler presented “Fort Pocahontas -
Action At Wilson’s Wharf”. Fort Pocahontas, a little-known Civil War earthen
fortification, is located on the northern bank of the James River, less than ten
miles west of the Chickahominy River along Virginia Route 5. The Fort, truly a
hidden treasure, was purchased by Harrison Tyler, the grandson of President John
Tyler, in order to preserve the works from modern development. Mr. Tyler opens
the property to the public once a year to enable reenactors to commemorate the
battle that took place at the Fort in the summer of 1864. Among the
many lesser-known battles in the Civil War was the Action at Wilson's Wharf
fought at Fort Pocahontas in Charles City County, Virginia.
April 2022 - · Dr. Curt Fields & Thomas Jessee, portrayed
General Ulysses S. Grant & General Robert E. Lee, respectively: “Appomattox –
The Last Forty-Eight Hours”. The presentation of “Appomattox - The Last 48
Hours” tells the story of the exchange of letters that transpired between
General Grant and General Lee. The initial letter was sent from General Grant to
General Lee on April 7, 1865, hence the reference to 48 hours. General Lee
replied, and an exchange of correspondence between the opposing leaders
continued through April 8th and the morning of April 9.
We’re all familiar with the meeting that took place on the afternoon of April 9
in the parlor of Wilmer McLean’s home in the village of Appomattox Court House.
Our presenters, Curt Fields as General Grant and Thomas Jessee as General Lee,
will be in full uniform as they narrate the respective correspondence and
provide commentary related to the conditions and events that were occurring
during that 48-hour period prior to their meeting.
May 2022 - Dr. Jerry Wooten presented “Johnsonville”. Too often
the Civil War in Tennessee is defined in popular memory by its major national
battlefield parks, such as Shiloh, Chattanooga, Fort Donelson and Stones River.
In the 21st century, more so than in the past, historians have been asking
different questions of the state’s Civil War experiences. What about the long
federal army occupation? What was the impact of enslaved peoples becoming
contraband laborers? Where were Unionist supporters across the entire state, not
just East Tennessee? What are linkages between occupation, emancipation, and
free black community building? Why have we ignored—outside the battles of Fort
Donelson and Memphis—the dominance of the federal navy in the war? How
significant was control of the inland river system that divided east and middle
Tennessee in the strategy and fighting of the Civil War in Tennessee?
In December 2016, Jerry moved to his current position as park manager of
Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park located on the grounds of the historic 1853
Tennessee State Capitol in downtown Nashville. Since his tenure, Jerry has
helped transform the park from original operations established in 1996 to
another award-winning park winning consecutive Awards of Excellence for
Innovation (2018), Sustainability (2019), and Interpretation (2021).
September 2022 - Eric Wittenberg presented “Six days of Awful
Fighting: Cavalry on the Roads to Cold Harbor”. The period from May 27 - June 1,
1864, saw some of the hardest and most protracted cavalry fighting in the
Eastern Theater of the Civil War. This period was particularly important because
it marked Wade Hampton’s debut as the commander of the Army of Northern
Virginia’s Cavalry Corps. It also marked the first time that Brig. Gen. Matthew
C. Butler’s hard fighting brigade of South Carolina mounted infantrymen made
their presence felt on the battlefield.
October 2022 - Carson Hudson presented “Williamsburg: George
Armstrong Custer’s “First Stand”. Most of us are aware of Custer’s "Last Stand"
which occurred after the Civil War in eastern Montana. And many are aware of his
exploits during the latter half of the Civil War. Join us on October 25
at the Williamsburg Library Theater to learn the story of George Armstrong
Custer’s early activities and exploits as a young, commissioned office in the
Union Army of the Potomac.
November 2022 - Michael Block presented “The Battles of
Rappahannock Station and Kelly’s Ford – November 7, 1863: ‘Only One Shout, Then
a Terrible Silence”
The twin battles of Rappahannock Station and Kelly’s Ford, which took place on
November 7, 1863, are often lost in the history of the Civil War, or at best,
relegated to a sentence or two. The maneuvering and fighting that took place in
early November removed the Army of Northern Virginia from the Rappahannock River
and Culpeper County and placing the Army of the Potomac on the Rapidan.
December 2022 -
January 2021 - Steve Phan presented "The capital can't
be taken!" The Civil War Defenses of Washington
Fortress Washington
was under siege. Three years of extensive construction, expansion, and
training—all at the expenditure of exorbitant resources—had come down to a
race. The Confederate Army of the Valley District commanded by Lt. Gen.
Jubal Early, advanced south along the Rockville-Georgetown Pike on the
morning of 10 July 1864. The day was hot and humid, and dust covered the
road as the exhausted rebel force aimed to complete their campaign by
seizing the Federal capital. General Robert E. Lee’s “Bald Old Man” was
running out of time. The previous day, Early’s infantry and cavalry columns
unexpectedly ran into heavy Federal opposition along the Monocacy River on
the outskirts of Frederick, Maryland.
Awaiting the Confederate army
was one of the most heavily fortified cities in the world. By summer 1864,
the elaborate defensive system encircling Washington D.C. comprised 60
forts, 93 detached batteries, 5 blockhouses, fortified bridges, over 30
miles of military roads, and armament massing 800 cannons. Supplementing the
defenses was a garrison of over 30,000 men. The capital defenders comprised
heavy artillerist—expertly trained to operate the large caliber artillery
pieces mounted in the forts—together with a mix of infantry and cavalry
regiments. Nominally, such a heavy force entrenched in fortified positions
made an enemy advance on Washington D.C. foolhardy and desperate. But 1864
called for desperate measures by both the Union and Confederacy.
Steve T. Phan is a Park Ranger and Historian at the Civil War Defenses of
Washington. He has worked at Richmond National Battlefield Park, Hopewell
Culture National Historical Park, Stones River National Battlefield, Rock
Creek Park, and Buffalo Soldiers National Monument. A military history
scholar of the Civil War era, Phan’s research focuses on military
occupation, operational command, and fortifications during the Civil War. He
is the author of articles about Asians and Pacific Islanders in the Civil
War and the Defenses of Washington for numerous publications. He was
nominated for the National Park Service Tilden Award for Excellence in
Interpretation (2019). He holds a master’s degree in American History from
Middle Tennessee State University.
February 2021 -
Dr. Thomas G. Clemens will present “Special Orders 191”. Arguably one of the
most famous incidents of the Civil War is the loss, and discovery, of
Special Orders 191 and its impact on the Maryland Campaign of 1862. Many
authors have speculated about the effects of this event on Lee’s first
invasion of the North. Did it seal the fate of Lee’s invasion? Was McClellan
slow in reacting to its discovery? Was it part of conspiracy by a spy in the
southern army? Or was it a scheme to confuse and delay the Union forces
under McClellan? Who lost it? Who found it? Where and when was it found?
What was the impact on the siege of Harpers Ferry? Likewise, the battle of
South Mountain? Even Antietam/Sharpsburg? What did it tell McClellan and
what didn’t it tell him?
Dr. Thomas G. Clemens received his
Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in history from Salisbury University, and
his Doctorate in History Education from George Mason University, where he
studied under noted Civil War historian Dr. Joseph L. Harsh. Tom came
to Hagerstown Community College in 1978 and spent most of his 34-year career
at HCC teaching American History, retiring as Professor Emeritus in 2012.
Tom has written many magazine articles in various Civil War magazines,
many book reviews and appeared in several documentary movies and television
shows focused on Civil War topics. He appears as an on-camera historian in
the introductory film shown in the Visitor’s Center at Antietam National
Battlefield.
Tom is also an NPS-certified Antietam Battlefield Guide,
and a 30+ year volunteer there.
March 2021 - Michael
E. Block will present “A Rusty Sword, Five Friends, and ‘as perfect a beauty
ever born on the soil of the Old Dominion.” Incidents and anecdotes from the
Battle of Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862.
The Battle of Cedar
Mountain is considered by some as the opening fight in the Second Manassas
Campaign, others a one-off fight. Mike will give an overview of the Cedar
Mountain Campaign and the battle itself. But his focus will be on the
experiences soldiers who participated in the battle. Their stories are
typically lost in the recounting of the fight, so tonight’s presentation
features their tales.
Michael E. Block is a recently retired
government consultant, having served 20 years in the U. S. Air Force and 19
with the firm Booz Allen Hamilton. He was recently the Vice-President of the
Friends of Cedar Mountain Battlefield, but still volunteers for the
organizations. He has been published in Blue and Gray Magazine,
Hallowed Ground and will have his first book published, “The Carnage Was
Fearful: The Battle of Cedar Mountain”, in 2021. His specialty is the Civil
War in the Virginia Piedmont, with an emphasis on Cedar Mountain and the
Winter Encampment of 1863-64. He resides in Williamsburg, Virginia with his
wife of 39 years, Caryn. They have two married sons and three
granddaughters.
April 2021 - Chris Kolakowski presented "Perspectives of the 1862 Virginia
Campaigns“. The spring and summer of 1862 in
Virginia witnessed campaigns and bloodshed unlike
any before in North American history. Those
campaigns - Valley, Peninsula/Seven Days, and Second
Manassas - are some of the most famous of the
conflict. The results of the fighting also marked a
transition point in the Civil War. This talk will
examine lesser-appreciated aspects of those
campaigns and their contexts.
Christopher L. Kolakowski was born and raised in
Fredericksburg, Va. He received his BA in History
and Mass Communications from Emory & Henry College,
and his MA in Public History from the State
University of New York at Albany.
Chris has spent his career interpreting and
preserving American military history with the National Park Service, New
York State government, the Rensselaer County (NY) Historical Society, the
Civil War Preservation Trust, Kentucky State Parks, and the U.S. Army.
On January 6, 2020, Chris became Director of the
Wisconsin Veterans Museum, after serving as
MacArthur Memorial Director from September 16, 2013,
to 6, 2019.
May 2021
- Matt Atkinson presented "The Battle of Gettysburg – A Simple Overview”.
The name Gettysburg is synonymous with American History. Three days of
battle that brought the country from the brink of destruction to a “new
birth of freedom” at a cost of 51,000 casualties. Today, despite Gettysburg
being one of the most studied battles in the world, many Americans do not
even have a simple understanding of the battle. If you are one of those
people, this program is for you.
Matt Atkinson hails from Houston,
Mississippi. (Grierson’s Raid came through his town.) He attended Ole Miss
and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Bachelor of
Arts in History. In 2016, Matt earned a Master of Arts in History at the
University of Louisiana-Monroe. His thesis is on the Battle of Chickasaw
Bayou or, as he would like to call it - “Dead Yankees in a Swamp.”
September 2021 - Chris Mackowski
presented “The Battle of Spotsylvania’s Bloody
Angle”. For twenty-two straight hours, in torrential
downpours, up to their knees in mud and blood,
Federals and Confederates slugged it out in the most
intense sustained hand-to-hand combat of the war. A
panopoly of horror, one soldier called it. A
Saturnalia of blood. Hell’s Half-Acre. The slaughter
pen of Spotsylvania. Most remember it simply as the
Bloody Angle.Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the
editor-in-chief and co-founder of Emerging Civil
War. He is the series editor of the award-winning Emerging
Civil War Series, published by Savas Beatie, and
the “Engaging the Civil War” Series, published in
partnership with Southern Illinois University Press.
Chris is a writing professor in the Jandoli School
of Communication at St. Bonaventure University in
Allegany, NY, where he also serves as associate dean
for undergraduate programs. Chris is also
historian-in-residence at
Stevenson
Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania
battlefield in central Virginia. He has also
worked as a historian for the National Park Service
at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military
Park, where he gives tours at four major Civil War
battlefields (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville,
Wilderness, and Spotsylvania), as well as at the
building where Stonewall Jackson died. Chris has
authored or co-authored a dozen books on the Civil
War, and his articles have appeared in all the major
Civil War magazines. Chris serves on the board of
directors for the
Central Virginia Battlefields Trust and the
advisory board of the
Civil War
Roundtable Congress
October 2021 - Doug Crenshaw
presented “Fort Harrison and The Battle of Chaffin’s
Farm”.
From mid-July of 1864 until April 1865, Union and
Confederate Armies in Virginia were locked down in
static siege-like actions which were primarily
focused upon the areas around Petersburg.
The Confederate defenses that extended north of the
James River and east of Richmond, the so-called
“Henrico Front”, seems to have been unfairly
relegated as a “backwater” to the actions that were
taking place south of the Appomattox River. However,
the soldiers, both Rebel and Yank, who were hunkered
down and fighting and dying in those defenses may
have taken exception to that characterization.
In late September 1864, Ben Butler took his Army of
the James across that river to launch a surprise
attack and capture Richmond. The attack came close
to success... but why did it fail?
Doug Crenshaw studied history at Randolph-Macon
College and the University of Richmond. A volunteer
for the Richmond National Battlefield Park, he is a
Board member of the Richmond Battlefield
Association, president of the Richmond Civil War
Roundtable, and is a speaker, presenter and tour
leader. His book, Fort Harrison and The Battle of
Chaffin’s Farm, was nominated in the nonfiction
category for a Library of Virginia Literary award.
Doug has also written The Battle of Glendale: Robert
E. Lee’s Lost Opportunity, and Richmond Shall not be
Given Up! a survey and tour of the Seven Days
campaign, which was a finalist for the Army
Historical Foundation Distinguished writing
award. Doug has just completed a guidebook on Civil
War Richmond with Bert Dunkerly, a book on the
Peninsula Campaign with Drew Gruber, and is also
working on a book about the Seven Days.
November 2021 - Dr. Charles D. Ross
presented a program about the Union efforts to
implement and enforce a naval blockade of the
Confederacy during the Civil War.
On April 16, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued
a blockade of the Confederate coastline. The largely
agrarian South did not have the industrial base to
succeed in a protracted conflict. What it did
have—and what England and other foreign countries
wanted—was cotton and tobacco. Industrious men soon
began to connect the dots between Confederate and
British needs. As the blockade grew, the blockade
runners became quite ingenious in finding ways
around the barriers.
Boats worked their way back and forth from the
Confederacy to Nassau and England, and everyone from
scoundrels to naval officers wanted a piece of the
action. Poor men became rich in a single
transaction, and dances and drinking—from the posh
Royal Victoria hotel to the boarding houses lining
the harbor—were the order of the day. British,
United States, and Confederate sailors intermingled
in the streets, eyeing each other warily as boats
snuck in and out of Nassau. But it was all to come
crashing down as the blockade finally tightened and
the final Confederate ports were captured.
Dr. Charles D. Ross is Professor of Physics and
former Dean of the Cook-Cole College of Arts and
Sciences at Longwood University in Farmville.
His study of science and technology in the U.S.
Civil War has led to appearances on The History
Channel, PBS, the National Geographic Channel and
National Public Radio, and his work has been
featured in US News and World Report, Science,
Discover and several other media outlets. He
has written three books on the subject: "Trial by
Fire - Science, Technology and the Civil War";
"Civil War Acoustic Shadows"; "Never for Want of
Powder - The Confederate Powder Works". His
most recent book, “Breaking the Blockade: The
Bahamas during the Civil War" examines the effects
of blockade running on Nassau, Bahamas. Chuck and
his wife Julie reside in Farmville, Virginia.
December 2021 - Dr. Paul Severance
presented “The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies: Facts
and Wishful Thinking”. Please note the change in
presentation due to a last-minute conflict for the
previously scheduled speaker.
The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln,
being the very first time an American President was
murdered in office, had a cataclysmic impact and
effect on the American national consciousness, as
well as the very course of U.S. History since April
15, 1865 (especially with respect to Reconstruction,
reconciliation, and reunification).
Although the “formal” historical record of Lincoln’s
assassination clearly established that John Wilkes
Booth and a small cohort of sheepish, compliant
followers dedicated to Booth’s fanatical
interpretations of the threat posed by Abraham
Lincoln to the then-perceived “American Dream” of a
pluralistic democracy and a republic form of
government, engaged in a small conspiracy to kidnap
Abraham Lincoln as a “Primo” bargaining chip in
exchange for Confederate POW’s in the waning period
of the war when the Confederacy was starved for
manpower. However, as has been the case in several
high-profile political assassinations and attempts
at assassination in America, several different (and
captivating) theories have emerged, gained traction,
and achieved varying levels of prominence and
support. Arguably some of these “theories” are both
plausible and engaging (not to mention
“entertaining”). However, on closer scrutiny, they
are largely based on “snippets of evidence” and
wishful dendritic extensions (historical “linkages”
and assumed events) to achieve full-scale conspiracy
theories (much like blowing smoke into a mouse to
eventually achieve an elephant).
Dr. Severance is both a 30-year veteran of service
as an infantryman and aviator in the United States
Army. He has also served for 25 years as a professor
of strategy and, subsequently, professor of military
science at the National Defense University (NDU) in
Washington, DC, where he developed and taught
numerous courses in military strategy and warfare,
war studies, military strategy and logistics,
defense strategy and resourcing, maritime security
and strategy, and military geography. He was also
the director of the Gettysburg Studies program at
the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF),
and subsequently, the Eisenhower School for National
Security and Resource Strategy at NDU. Dr. Severance
has conducted over 275 staff rides at Gettysburg, as
well as numerous staff rides at Antietam, Manassas,
Fredericksburg, and the Seven Days Battle as well as
professional field studies at Normandy, Operation
Market Garden (“A Bridge Too Far”), and the Battle
of the Bulge in Europe. He is currently a Visiting
Professor of Military History at NDU where he
co-teaches a course on viewing the American Civil
War Through the Lens of Strategic Logic.
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January 2020 - Drew Gruber presented “The Battle of
Williamsburg…Forgotten Then…Forgotten Now”. The Battle of Williamsburg, fought
on May 5, 1862, was the first major battle in the year of 1862 between the Union
Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The battle
occurred as Union forces launched attacks against the rear guard of Confederate
forces who were withdrawing toward Richmond from defensive lines on the lower
Peninsula. Approximately 41,000 Federals and 32,000 Confederates were engaged in
the fight which resulted in the significant loss of 2,300 Federal and 1,700
Confederate casualties. On the following day, the Confederates continued their
westward march.
By virtue of the subsequent battles around the Richmond
area in the following month, the Battle of Williamsburg lost its true relevance
as a major engagement and seemed to fade from memory. By contrast, the First
battle of Bull Run, fought in July of the preceding year, saw a similarity in
forces engaged and casualties, but was afforded great significance by the
participants, the press, and those who endeavored to detail the history of that
engagement.
In August 2015, Drew Gruber joined the Civil War Trails
organization as the Executive Director. He was previously employed with the
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and was appointed to the Virginia Board of
Historic Resources by both Governors McDonnell and McAuliffe. He credits his
grandfather for his interest in history and is fascinated by the lives and
experiences of the common soldiers and citizens who lived during the Civil War
era. Drew currently resides in Williamsburg with his wife Kate, an accomplished
historian in her own right. Drew holds an M.S. from Virginia Commonwealth
University, a B.A. from Mary Washington College, and was the Lawrence T. Jones
III Research Fellow in Texas Civil War History in 2013.
February 2020 - Matt Atkinson will
present “Vicksburg – The Siege and Surrender”. The
Campaign for Vicksburg is one of the most well
recognized but understudied events during the Civil
War. The campaign to capture the Hill City
encompassed over a year in time. Last year, Matt
focused on the five battles in three weeks that
resulted in the entrapment of the Confederate Army.
This year’s presentation, entitled “Vicksburg:
The Siege and Surrender”, will focus on the final 47
days of the campaign - specifically siege
operations. The end result is the capture of an
entire Confederate army, the opening of the
Mississippi River to Union control, and the
cementing of Ulysses S. Grant’s career.
Matt Atkinson hails from Houston, Mississippi.
(Grierson’s Raid came through his town.) He attended
Ole Miss and graduated with a Bachelor of Business
Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in History. In
2016, Matt earned a Master of Arts in History at the
University of Louisiana-Monroe. His thesis is on the
Battle of Chickasaw Bayou or, as he would like to
call it - “Dead Yankees in a Swamp.”
Matt currently resides in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
with his twin girls, Emma and Aubrey, and his son
Benjamin Lee. He is employed at the Gettysburg
National Military Park, and enjoys listening to sad
country songs.
March 2020 - No Meeting
April 2020 - No Meeting
May 2020 - No Meeting
October 2020 - Lee Anne Rose
presented "Hoop Skirts and Gunpowder". On Friday
March 13th, 1863, shortly after 11:00 AM, there was
a terrible explosion at the Confederate State
Laboratory, located on Richmond’s Brown’s Island on
the James River. The explosion was blamed on
18-year-old Mary Ryan.
Learn of the works and lives of the girls and women
who worked the Laboratory, and hear some of the
names and stories of those that were lost the
fateful day.
Lee Ann Rose is the co-owner of "Shades Of Our Past
LLC”, which provides historical education and
entertainment ranging from America’s founding to
WWII. She received her Theatre Degree at Davis and
Elkins College and studied also at Richmond College
in London, England. Lee Ann Rose is not only an
historical interpreter, but also a playwright
writing such plays as “Are We Not One”, and “Back to
Our Kitchens”. She is also currently performing a
one woman show entitled “Stowaway on D Day”, a
performance about Martha Gellhorn. Along with Susan
B Anthony, she also plays Suffragist Victoria
Woodhull, and First Ladies Martha Washington, Mary
Todd Lincoln, and Edith Roosevelt.
November 2020 - Scott Mingus
presented "Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Confederate
Expedition to The Susquehanna River - June 1863 "
In late June 1863, two powerful columns of
Confederate troops approached the Susquehanna River
in south-central Pennsylvania. One, under Lt. Gen.
Richard Ewell, marched northeasterly from Franklin
County through Carlisle toward Harrisburg and the
other, under Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early, headed
eastward through Gettysburg and York towards
Wrightsville/Columbia. This PowerPoint talk covers
Early’s expedition as his division seized control of
Gettysburg after a series of skirmishes on June 26
and then two days later occupied York, the largest
Northern town to fall to the Confederates during the
entire war. Early ransomed York for $100,000 and
supplies and surrounded the town with artillery and
troops.
Scott Mingus is a retired research scientist and
current consultant to the global pulp & paper
industry. He holds U. S. patents in self-adhesive
postage stamps and bar code labels. The Ohio native
graduated from the Paper Science & Engineering
program at Miami University in 1978. While working
for Avery Dennison, he was part of the research team
that developed the first commercially successful
self-adhesive U. S. postage stamps. He has written
22 Civil War and Underground Railroad books.
Mingus and his wife Debi live in Manchester Township
north of York. For more than a decade, he was
written a popular blog on the Civil War history of
York County (www.yorkblog.com/cannonball). He
received the 2013 Heritage Profile Award from the
York County History Center for his many
contributions to local Civil War history.
December 2020 -
Dr. Rutherford will present "America's Buried History - Landmines in The
Civil War." Dr. Rutherford will trace the development of landmines from their
first use before the Civil War, to the early use of naval mines, through the
establishment of the Confederacy's Army Torpedo Bureau, the world's first
institution devoted to developing, producing, and fielding mines in warfare.
Dr. Rutherford, who is known worldwide for his work in the landmine disciplines,
and who himself lost legs to a mine in Africa, relies on a ost of primary
resources to highlight the widespread use of landmines across the Confederacy.
His work and passion spans over two decades in more than 40 countries, including
inVietnam to bring assistance to survivors, and in Bosnia, where he escorted
Princess Diana to visit landmine victims and their care providers in an effort
to bring attention to their plight.
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January 2019 - Matt Atkinson presented “Vicksburg – A
Campaign for the ages.” The Campaign for Vicksburg is one of the most well
recognized but understudied events during the Civil War. The campaign to
capture the Hill City encompassed over a year in time. Matt's presentation
titled “Vicksburg: A Campaign for the Ages” will focus on the final campaign of
1863. Grant's subsequent offensive featured five battles in three weeks,
and a forty-seven-day siege. The result is the capture of an entire Confederate
army, the opening of the Mississippi River to Union control, and the cementing
of Ulysses S. Grant's career. This is a lot of information for an hour
program so grab a chair and strap on your seat belts! Matt promises a
whirlwind program.
Matt Atkinson hails from Houston,
Mississippi. (Grierson’s Raid came through his town.) He attended Ole Miss and
graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Arts in
History. In 2016, Matt earned a Master of Arts in History at the University of
Louisiana – Monroe. His thesis is on the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou or, as he
would like to call it – “Dead Yankees in a Swamp.”
Matt grew up in
Mississippi loving the Civil War. His parents took him to local battlefields
such as Vicksburg and Shiloh. Matt always asked, Dad, did we win here?” and
Dad always responded, “No, not here.” At age seven, Matt and his parents made a
trip to Washington, D. C. On the way, they stopped at the Manassas
Battlefield. Finally! A victory! Alas, his mother was sick though and the
family had to move on. It would take another 20 years for Matt to return and he
still has yet to forgive his mother.
Matt currently resides in Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania with his twin girls, Emma and Aubrey, and his son Benjamin Lee. He
is employed by Gettysburg National Military Park and enjoys listening to sad
country songs.
February 2019 - On Tuesday February 26, Dr, Jonathon
White presented “Abraham Lincoln – Early Life”. His talk will explore
Abraham Lincoln's early life, from his birth in a log cabin in Kentucky
through his young adulthood. It will examine various aspects of his
experiences as a child and young adult, including his education, work,
travel, family, and romance. By exploring who Lincoln was as a young
man, we can better understand how he became a president who led the Union
through the Civil War.
Jonathan W. White is associate professor of
American Studies at Christopher Newport University, where he has taught
since 2009. He is the author or editor of eight books, including
Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil War: The Trials of John Merryman
(2011), and Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham
Lincoln (2014), which was a finalist for both the Lincoln Prize and
Jefferson Davis Prize, a “best book” in Civil War Monitor, and the winner of
the Abraham Lincoln Institute’s 2015 book prize. He has published more
than one hundred articles, essays and reviews, and is the winner of the 2005
John T. Hubbell Prize for the best article in Civil War History, the 2010
Hay-Nicolay Dissertation Prize, and the 2012 Thomas Jefferson Prize for his
Guide to Research in Federal Judicial History (2010). He serves as vice
chair of the Lincoln Forum, president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, and
on the boards of the Abraham Lincoln Association and the John L. Nau III
Center for Civil War History at the University of Virginia. He also serves
on the Ford’s Theatre Advisory Council and the editorial board of the
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. In 2017, C-SPAN invited him
to participate in its survey of presidential leadership. His most
recent books include Lincoln on Law, Leadership and Life (2015); Midnight in
America: Darkness, Sleep, and Dreams during the Civil War (2017), which was
selected as a “best book” by Civil War Monitor; and “Our Little Monitor”:
The Greatest Invention of the Civil War (2018), which he co-authored with
Anna Gibson Holloway. In 2019 he will publish College Life During the
Civil War (Kent State University Press) with his student, Daniel Glenn.
March 2019 - Ryan Quint presented “Determined to Stand
and Fight – The Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864”. In early July 1864, a
quickly patched together force of outnumbered Union soldiers under the
command of Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace prepared for a last-ditch defense along the
banks of the Monocacy River. Behind them, barely fifty miles away, lay the
capital of the United States, open to attack. Facing Wallace’s men were Lt.
Gen. Jubal Early’s Confederates. In just under a month, they had cleared the
Shenandoah Valley of Union soldiers and crossed the Potomac River, invading
the north for the third time in the war. The veterans in Early’s force could
almost imagine their flags flying above the White House. A Confederate
victory near Washington could be all the pro-peace platforms in the north
needed to defeat Abraham Lincoln in the upcoming election.
What
followed, the Battle of Monocacy, came to be known as “The Battle that Saved
Washington.” Ryan Quint will tell the story of the fight through the words
of those who lived it, using contemporary accounts and photographs to reveal
the determined fighting that took place through the hot hours of July 9,
1864.
Ryan Quint graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a
degree in history. He worked as a seasonal park guide at the Fredericksburg
& Spotsylvania National Military Park before moving to work at as an
interpreter for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. His first book
Determined to Stand and Fight: The Battle of Monocacy, July 9, 1864, was
published in 2017 by Savas Beatie as part of their award-winning Emerging
Civil War Series. He is currently at work on a second book about the Battle
of Dranesville.
April 2019 - Edward Alexander presented “Breaking
Through to the Other Side – Petersburg, April 2, 1865”. ‘The breaking of
Robert E. Lee's army at Petersburg was achieved through a bayonet charge by
the Union VI Corps on the morning of April 2, 1865. Failed assaults at
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, and Franklin seemed to prove the
futility of frontal attacks, but this particular Union corps demonstrated a
recurring ability to punch through fortified positions during the Civil War.
This presentation discusses the criteria necessary for their string of
successful attacks, the context of the final offensive at Petersburg, and
the dramatic story of the very first Union soldiers to reach the top of the
Confederate fortifications on the last day of the Petersburg campaign. This
decisive day of the American Civil War is brought to life using modern and
historic images of the battlefield landscape, compelling primary source
material from its participants, and animated topographic maps of the
campaign.
Edward Alexander is author of Dawn of Victory:
Breakthrough at Petersburg. He has previously worked
as a park ranger and historian at Pamplin Historical
Park and Richmond National Battlefield Park. He is
currently in civil engineering & construction but
continues his public history work as a freelance
mapmaker and a contributing member of the Emerging
Civil War organization. Edward is a graduate of the
University of Illinois and currently resides in
Chesterfield County, Virginia.
May 2019 - Robert M. Dunkerly presented “To the
Bitter End: The Surrenders of the Confederacy”.
Appomattox is the most famous of the surrenders that
ended the war, but the least representative of any
of them. This talk will explore the confusing and
complex events that unfolded in the four major
surrenders, and a few smaller ones.
Robert M. Dunkerly is a historian, award-winning
author, and speaker who is actively involved in
historic preservation and research. He holds a
degree in History from St. Vincent College and a
Masters in Historic Preservation from Middle
Tennessee State University. He has worked at
nine historic sites, written twelve books and over
twenty articles. His research includes
archaeology, colonial life, military history, and
historic commemoration. He has taught courses at
Central Virginia Community College, the University
of Richmond, and the Virginia Historical Society.
Mr. Dunkerly is currently a Park Ranger at Richmond
National Battlefield Park.
September 2019 - On Tuesday September 24, 2019,
Christopher L. Kolakowski presented “Civil War to World War: The MacArthurs
and the Buckners”. Douglas MacArthur and Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. were
prominent players in the Pacific War. Both men were influenced by their
fathers - Arthur MacArthur, the "Boy Colonel" of the Union Army and Simon
Bolivar Buckner, the last living Confederate lieutenant general. These men,
and their roles in victory over Japan, thus became prominent parts of these
Civil War veterans' legacies. This talk will discuss these four men, their
relationships, and the marks they collectively made.
Christopher L.
Kolakowski was born and raised in Fredericksburg, Va. He received his BA in
History and Mass Communications from Emory & Henry College, and his MA in
Public History from the State University of New York at Albany. Chris has
spent his career interpreting and preserving American military history with
the National Park Service, New York State government, the Rensselaer County
(NY) Historical Society, the Civil War Preservation Trust, Kentucky State
Parks, and the U.S. Army. He has published two books with the History Press:
The Civil War at Perryville: Battling For the Bluegrass and The Stones River
and Tullahoma Campaign: This Army Does Not Retreat. In September 2016, the
U.S. Army published his volume on the 1862 Virginia Campaigns as part of its
sesquicentennial series on the Civil War. Chris came to Norfolk having
served as Director of the General George Patton Museum and Center of
Leadership in Fort Knox, KY from 2009 to 2013. He became the MacArthur
Memorial Director on September 16, 2013.
October 2019 - On October 22, 2019, Ethan
Rafuse presented "The Civil War in Missouri as a Military Problem” In
1860, the voters of Missouri made clear they would prefer a middle course in
the looming conflict between the North and South, giving over seventy
percent of its votes in the presidential contest to candidates pledged to
compromise. Their wishes would not be fulfilled; instead, determined
minorities on both sides of the sectional divide decided their differences
were irreconcilable and, against the wishes of the state's great moderate
majority, plunged Missouri into war. While Union authorities were able to
secure political control of the state in 1861, their efforts to do so
contributed to Missouri being the scene of a bitter guerrilla contest. This
presentation addressed the events that plunged Missouri into war, the
personalities and dynamics that drove this process, and how Union military
and civil leaders quickly settled the state's fate but found themselves
confronted with irregular resistance that, while incapable of redeeming
Missouri for the Confederacy, make the state's wartime experience of
particularly compelling interest today.
Ethan S. Rafuse is professor
of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. His
published works include McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the
Struggle for the Union, Robert E. Lee and the Fall of the Confederacy,
1863-1865, and guides to the Antietam, Petersburg, and Manassas
battlefields. In 2018-19 he was the Charles Boal Ewing Distinguished
Visiting Professor at the U.S. Military Academy.
November 2019 - On Tuesday November 26, 2019, Peggy Vogtsberger presented "A Damn Failure - The Battle of Dam No.
1, April 16, 1862 ". Join us as we hear about one
of the local, if lesser known battles on the
Virginia Peninsula, the Battle of No. 1, fought on
April 16, 1862. Sometimes erroneously called the
Battle of Lee's Mill (they are actually separate
battles), much of this site is protected and
preserved as part of the Newport News City Park.
There are still some incredibly intact and
well-preserved Confederate and Union earthworks left
today, built in 1861-62. They can still be seen from
walking trails in the city park. As part of
McClellan's siege of Yorktown, this battle came
about in an effort to find and exploit a perceived
weakness in the Confederate defenses along the
Warwick River. For many regiments this was their
first taste of fighting. Peggy will talk about some
of the possible advantages and lost opportunities
for both sides in this little-known battle.
Peggy Vogtsberger is past president, board member,
and former newsletter editor in the earlier decades of the Williamsburg Civil
War Roundtable. Her interests are diverse, and she has given many presentations
over the years. She enjoys reading and researching and is always fascinated by
the personal experiences of the soldiers who fought in the Civil War. In
conjunction with Peggy’s preparation for this presentation, she recently
traveled to Vermont, and more specifically to the Vermont Historical Society in
order to view the George Houghton Civil War photographic album of the Vermont
troops who served on the Peninsula.
2019 - On
Tuesday 17, 2019, Nathan M. Richardson presented “Frederick Douglas Speaks on The American
Civil War”.
Beginning with John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry
until Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation,
abolitionist Frederick Douglass was a direct
influence on many events of the American Civil War.
This living history performance will include 1st
person reflections on his meetings with President
Lincoln to add colored troops to the fight. Mr
Douglass will also speak on and answer questions
about how he helped recruit thousands of colored
soldiers; including the 29th Infantry Division of
Colored Troops in Connecticut and his own sons
Charles and Lewis who fought with the 54 Regiment of
Massachusetts.
Nathan M. Richardson is a published author,
performance poet and Douglass Historian. His poetry
collections include "Likeness of Being", "Twenty-one
Imaginary T-shirts" and "Voices from the Wombs of
Wisdom." His work has been widely re-published in
anthologies, magazines and newspapers such as the
Channel Marker, The Cupola, Coastal Virginia
Magazine and the Washington Post. Now in his 5th
year of The Frederick Douglass Speaking Tour; Nathan
captures completely the physical, spiritual and
intellectual essence of the former slave, writer,
orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. A short
list of Nathan's other affiliations include the Suffolk Arts League,
the Poetry Society of Virginia, Young Audiences of Virginia, 1st Amendment / 1st Vote, and the Association
of Native & African History Professionals.
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January 2018 - On January 23, 2018, Chris Bryce
presented Grant’s crossing of the James River and the defense of Petersburg
June- July 1864.
On June 12, 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant,
secretly withdrew the Army of the Potomac from its position's in front of
Cold Harbor. From there he and over 100,000 men of the army would embark on
one of the more impressive turning movements of the war. Two days later
after some hard marching and superb logistical work, the Federals began
crossing the James River. Once across the river Grant set his sights on the
vital transportation hub of Petersburg. Defended by roughly 4,600
Confederate troops under the command of General P.G.T. Beauregard, could
Petersburg hold out until reinforcements arrived from General Robert E. Lee
who was in the dark about the whereabouts of Grant's army?
For three
days, June 15-18 Grant’s forces pressed the Confederate defenders to the
point of breaking, but the southern troops held on and inflicted staggering
losses upon the Union attackers with one regiment suffering the highest
regimental single battle loss of the entire war. By the end of June with
an infusion of Lee’s forces from Richmond the battle lines around Petersburg
began to stabilize.
In an effort to break the Confederate line Union
troops from Pennsylvania devised a plan to tunnel underneath the Petersburg
defenses and pack the tunnel with explosives to rupture Lee’s line and enter
Petersburg. Would this plan lead to the capture of Petersburg in July 1864
or would it be another example of “Wasted Valor” that had been witnessed in
front of Petersburg before?
Chris Bryce, is the Assistant to the
Superintendent/Public Affairs, Petersburg National Battlefield Chris Bryce
began his National Park Service Career in 1987 as a seasonal park ranger at
Manassas National Battlefield Park. He became a permanent employee in 1988
as an interpretive park ranger at Independence National Historical Park.
Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in History with a concentration in 18th and
19th American military history and 20th century European military history
from East Tennessee State University. He resides with his family in
Williamsburg, VA
February 2018 - On February 27, 2018 – Ralph Peters will present "Civil War Leadership and its
Challenges”. Ralph will discuss well-known commanders and others
half-forgotten, how their characters and backgrounds shaped their successes
and failures, and how the dynamic times in which they lived--an age of
technical and political revolutions--made a war that began under the
influence of Napoleon and Frederick the Great end as the first truly modern
war, with the first modern staffs; the first industrial war machine; and a
new age of mass slaughter.
Ralph Peters is a writer, strategist,
media commentator and retired military officer. He is the author of 33 books
and over 1,000 columns, articles, essays and reviews. Uniformed service,
personal interests and research have taken him to more than 70 countries and
six continents. He served in the U.S. Army for 22 years, first as an
enlisted man, then as an officer, retiring shortly after his promotion to
lieutenant-colonel to write.
A novelist, under his own name and as
Owen Parry, he has written a number of bestsellers with international
settings, as well as critically praised historical novels about the Civil
War. Ralph’s commentaries, essays and reviews have appeared in The New York
Post, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Herald, the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Newsweek, Harpers, The Weekly Standard,
National Review, The Washington Monthly, Wired, Parameters, Armed Forces
Journal, Joint Force Quarterly, Strategic Review, Armchair General, Military
Review and a range of other domestic and foreign publications.
March 2018 -
On March 27, 2018 Peggy Vogtsberger presented “Major General Patrick Cleburne”. Major
General Patrick R. Cleburne, C.S.A. was born in
County Cork, Ireland, the son of a country doctor,
on March 16, 1828. He trained to be a
druggist, but his inability to pass the Latin part
of his examinations led him to join the British Army
as a private. In 1849, he paid to get out of
his enlistment and emigrated to the United States.
Miss Vogtsberger will answered some questions:
Why did Cleburne, an Irish immigrant and a non-slaveowner,
become so enamoured of the Southern cause? What did
his proposal about slavery really say? She will go
into some detail into the language of the proposal.
Did he expect the fierce opposition to his proposal?
Did his advocacy of the proposal cost him promotion
to higher rank, as many believe? Her talk will only
speak of the highlights of his military career.
Miss Vogtsberger was former president and editor of
the Williamsburg CWRT. She founded the John Pelham
Historical Association in 1982, and a few years ago
she started a Facebook group, The Society of the
Army of the Cumberland. In 1995 she edited the
letters of Colonel Richard H. Dulany of the 7th
Virginia Cavalry, published as The Dulanys of
Welbourne: A Family in Mosby's Confederacy. Her
interest in General Cleburne began decades ago, when
she read the book, Cleburne and His Command, written
by Cleburne's A.A.G., Captain Irving A. Buck.
April 2018 -On Tuesday April 24th,
Eric J. Wittenberg is a native of Southeastern
Pennsylvania. He is an award-winning Civil War
historian whose primary focus has been cavalry
operations in the Eastern Theater and on the
Gettysburg Campaign. He is the author of 21
published books on the Civil War and dozens of
magazine articles. He has won the
Bachelder-Coddington Literary Award, the Gettysburg
Civil War Roundtable’s Book Award, and the United
States Army Heritage Foundation’s Distinguished
Writing Award. He is deeply involved in battlefield
preservation work, and often works with the Civil
War Trust on preservation efforts. He is a former
president and program chairman of the Central Ohio
Civil War Roundtable, and served on the Governor of
Ohio’s Commission on the Sesquicentennial of the
Civil War. He runs a popular blog, Rantings of a
Civil War Historian, and often travels the country
lecturing on the Civil War and leading tours. He is
an attorney in private practice, where he manages
his firm’s litigation practice. He, his wife Susan,
and their four golden retrievers live in Columbus,
Ohio.
May 2018 - On May 22, 2018, Dr. Bud Robertson presented “The Four-Legged Soldiers”.
The Civil War could not have occurred without
horses. They were the primary means of
transportation for soldiers as well as all the
equipment needed to wage battle. More of these
animals would die than did humans in the
nation-making struggle. At the same time,
thousands of troops found solace in a wide variety
of animals who served as regimental mascots. They
played a vital role in sustaining morale in a time
of suffering and loneliness. Such "four-legged
soldiers" have a little-known but valuable story to
tell.
One of the most distinguished names in Civil War
history, Dr. Robertson served as Executive Director
of the U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission in the
1960’s and worked with Presidents Kennedy and
Johnson. He then taught 44 years at Virginia Tech,
where his upper division course on the Civil War era
attracted 300 or more students per semester and made
it the largest class of its kind in the nation. He
received every teaching award given by Virginia
Tech. At his retirement in 2011, the University
named him Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of
History.
The Danville Virginia native is the author or editor
of more than 40 books, including biographies of
Generals Robert E. Lee and A. P. Hill, several works
on the common soldiers, and three studies written
for young readers. His massive biography of General
“Stonewall” Jackson won eight national awards and
was used as the basis for the Ted Turner/Warner
Brothers mega-movie, “Gods and Generals”. Dr.
Robertson was the chief historical consultant for
the film.
September 2018 -
On September 23, 2018, John Quarstein presented “Wake-Up Call – The
Battle of Big Bethel”. Noted as the first land battle of the Civil War, Big
Bethel was a mere skirmish soon overlooked by bloodier battles that would
follow. Nevertheless, Big Bethel was a baptism of fire for a nation newly
involved in civil war. The soldiers that served at Bethel would never forget
the rude awakening of shells bursting among the smartly clad Federal Zouaves
or how Henry Lawson Wyatt's body of the 1st North Carolina laid lifeless on
the field. They all knew that the war would not just be filled with parades,
and it would not be over by Christmas. Instead, the soldiers realized that
it would be a bloody desperate affair. The Union defeat at Big Bethel would
establish the battle lines in Hampton Roads for the next 10 months awaiting
the grand events of Spring 1862.
John V. Quarstein is an
award-winning historian, preservationist, and author. He is director
emeritus of the USS Monitor Center at The Mariners’ Museum and Park in
Newport News, Virginia.
October 2018 - On Tuesday
October 23rd, Dr. E. C. (Curt) Fields, Jr. as General Grant presented his
overview of the Battle of Shiloh. It has long and loudly been
asserted that Grant (and Sherman) was surprised by the Confederate attack at
Pittsburg Landing. He has been severely criticized about not having
built breastworks or dug trenches. He was held responsible by the
Northern press for the appalling loss of life at Pittsburg landing (23,746
killed/wounded), and his dismissal was demanded even unto the President in
the Executive Mansion; the President being urged to sack Grant and save
himself politically.
Was Grant surprised? Was it a failure of Leadership not to build
or dig breastworks/trenches? Was he responsible for the staggering
loss of life?
Curt Fields has been an avid and lifelong student
of the American Civil War. His interest in portraying General Ulysses
S. Grant was driven by that study and his deep respect and admiration
for General Grant.
His presentations are in first person, quoting from
General Grant’s Memoirs; articles and letters the General wrote, statements
he made in interviews or wrote himself, and first-person accounts of people
who knew the General or were with him and witnessed him during events. Dr.
Fields holds a Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Education from the
University of Memphis. He later earned a Master’s degree in Secondary
Education and Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Curriculum from
Michigan State University.
November 2018 - On
November 27, 2018, Mr. J. Michael Moore presented “The Civil War Comes to
the Lower Peninsula”. The Virginia Peninsula, situated between the James
and York rivers, was recognized as strategically important by the
Confederate and Union leaders in the first few months of the Civil War.
Located on the tip of the Peninsula at Old Point Comfort, Fort Monroe was
the only Federal installation remaining in the Upper South and provided a
base for riverine and amphibious operations. Moreover, the Confederate
capital at Richmond was only eighty miles up the Virginia Peninsula.
Richmond was a strategic target not just for political reasons but was the
Confederacy’s industrial center with the South’s largest iron manufacturing
firms, two shipyards, and five railroads. Blocking any Union advance up the
Peninsula, Confederate Major General John Bankhead Magruder commanded over
10,000 troops behind three lines of defenses with water batteries on the
James and York rivers. In April 1862, Union Major General George B.
McClellan launched the Peninsula Campaign from Fort Monroe and Newport News
Point with the ultimate goal of capturing Richmond and ending Civil War.
J. Michael Moore is employed by the City of Newport News as the curator
for Lee Hall Mansion and Endview Plantation. Mr. Moore received a Bachelor
of Arts in history from Christopher Newport University and a master of arts
in history from Old Dominion University. During his tenure with the City,
Moore has curated exhibits at several local historic sites and led
battlefield tours in Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Moreover, he is a popular lecturer for CNU’s LifeLong Learning Society.
Moore has also co-authored two books – The Peninsula Campaign of 1862: A
Military Analysis in 2005 and Yorktown’s Civil War Siege: Drums Along the
Warwick in 2012. In addition, Michael has served as the editor and
photographic editor for twelve books and written articles for Virginia
Cavalcade, North & South, Military Collector & Historian, and Mulberry
Island Notes.
2018 - On 18,
2018, Dr. Charles Ross presented “Creative Science
and Technology in the Civil War”. The Civil War
occurred at an important time in the history of
technology as the industrial revolution increased
the demand for scientifically literate men. Due to
their West Point education many of these men found
themselves on battlefields between 1861-1865 and
were able to use their scientific knowledge in
ingenious ways. In this presentation Dr. Ross
will examine two specific examples of such
application of knowledge, the mine at Petersburg and
the Confederate Powder Works in Augusta, Georgia.
He will also explore acoustic shadows, a battlefield
phenomenon that was widely observed in the Civil War
but little understood at the time.
Chuck Ross is Professor of Physics and former Dean
of the Cook-Cole College of Arts and Sciences at
Longwood University in Farmville. His study of
science and technology in the US Civil War has led
to appearances on The History Channel, PBS, the
National Geographic Channel and National Public
Radio and his work has been featured in US News and
World Report, Science, Discover and many other media
outlets. He has written three books on the
subject: Trial by Fire: Science, Technology
and the Civil War; Civil War Acoustic Shadows; Never
for Want of Powder: The Confederate Powder
Works. His forthcoming book is about the
effects of blockade running on Nassau, Bahamas.
He and his wife Julie live in Farmville, Virginia.
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January 2017 - On Tuesday
evening, January 24, 2017, Dr. White’s presented “Lincoln and Civil
Liberties”. In the spring of 1861, Union military authorities arrested
Maryland farmer John Merryman on charges of treason against the United
States for burning railroad bridges around Baltimore in an effort to prevent
northern soldiers from reaching the federal capital. From his prison cell at
Fort McHenry, Merryman petitioned the Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B.
Taney for release through a writ of habeas corpus. Chief Justice Taney
issued the writ, but President Lincoln ignored it. In mid-July Merryman was
released, only to be indicted for treason a Baltimore federal court. His
case, however, never went to trial and federal prosecutors finally dismissed
the charges in 1867.
In "Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil
War", Jonathan W. White reveals how the arrest and prosecution of this
little-known Baltimore farmer had a lasting impact on the Lincoln
administration and Congress as they struggled to develop policies to deal
with both northern traitors and southern rebels.
Jonathan W. White,
Ph. D. is an Associate Professor and Senior Fellow in the Center for
American Studies at Christopher Newport University in Newport News. He
admits a particular interest in Abraham Lincoln and U. S. constitutional
history. In addition to teaching courses in American Studies at CNU, he also
serves as the university’s Prelaw Advisor. Jonathan has authored several
books, including “Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil War”, and
“Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln”, as
well as numerous scholarly papers and articles. Dr. White is an
undergraduate of Penn State, and completed his graduate studies at the
University of Maryland
February 2017 - Emmanuel
Dabney presented “’catching us like sheep in a slaughter pen’…
United
States Colored Troops At The Battle Of The Crater”. In mid-June 1864,
Union troops assaulted Petersburg, Virginia for four days; however, a
staunch Confederate defense by General Pierre Beauregard and the arrival of
General Robert E. Lee’s army forced Lt. General Ulysses Grant to have his
troops dig in. Days later, a young officer hatched a plan for digging a mine
and blowing up a Confederate battery outside the city. In early July 1864,
Major General Ambrose Burnside decided that he wished to use his division of
United States Colored Troops in the advance of an assault to be made
following the explosion of gunpowder beneath the Confederate earthworks
outside Petersburg.
In “‘catching us like sheep in a slaughter
pen…’: United States Colored Troops at the Battle of the Crater” Emmanuel
Dabney will highlight personal stories of privates, non-commissioned
officers, and officers who participated in the battle. He will also address
the myth of all the United States Colored Troops being trained for the
battle ahead of time. The talk will also uncover some of the fates of those
men who became casualties as a result of the fighting.
Emmanuel
Dabney has worked at Petersburg National Battlefield since 2001. After
completing high school in Dinwiddie, Emmanuel graduated magna cum laude with
an Associates of Arts from Richard Bland College, graduated magna cum
laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Historic Preservation from the University
of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia and completed a Master’s
degree in Public History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
March 2017 - Dr. Ken Rutherford, Ph.D. presented
“Landmines in Our Backyard The Civil War’s Buried History”. In early May of
1862, after stalling the Union offensive on the lower Peninsula for well
over a month, Confederate forces abandoned the defensive works that spanned
from Mulberry Island to Yorktown. As the jubilant Yankees entered the
abandoned Rebel positions, they were shocked and dismayed to discover the
presence of “subterra torpedoes”, buried to retard the advance of the Union
soldiers. The presence of these “subterra torpedoes”, which we currently
refer to as “landmines”, signaled the first use of this weapon in modern
warfare.
In spite of initial Confederate bans regarding the
utilization of landmines, time and the tides of war led to the re-evaluation
of their use by the Southern leadership. Dr. Ken Rutherford’s research and
presentation will outline the numerous locations throughout the Confederacy
where landmines were utilized during the subsequent years of the conflict.
Kenneth R. Rutherford, PH.D. is the Director of the Center for
International Stabilization and Recovery and Professor of Political Science
at James Madison University. In his capacity as Director, he leads
fundraising and strategic planning for CISR, which is recognized as a global
leader in international efforts to combat the effects of landmines and
explosive remnants of war, including the rehabilitation of post-conflict
societies.
Dr. Rutherford is the author or co-editor of four books
related to issues related to the modern banning and removal of landmines. He
has testified before Congress and the United Nations, and published more
than forty articles in numerous academic and policy journals.
Dr.
Rutherford co-founded the Landmine Survivors Network, and is a renowned
leader in the Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition that spearheaded the 1997
Mine Ban Treaty and the global movement that led to the 2008 Cluster
Munitions Ban Treaty.
April 2017 - Ernie Price
presented “Marching Out Of Formation:Confederates Going Home After
Appomattox”. After surrendering their arms on April 12, the soldiers of the
Army of Northern Virginia began their individual journeys home with their
paroles and little more than the remembrance of General Lee’s poignant
farewell address.
Ernie Price will tell the rest of the story about
the journey of the soldiers as they left Appomattox. (Keep in mind, as you
read this announcement and when you attend the meeting on April 25, that the
many if not most of the soldiers were still making their way home on these
particular dates 152 years ago.) Ernie Price is the Chief of Visitor
Services and Education at the Appomattox Court House National Historical
Park. After earning an undergraduate degree in history at Longwood College
and a Masters of education at Lynchburg College, Ernie joined the National
Park service in 1997. He has been at the Appomattox location since 2008.
May 2017 - Chris
Kolakowski presented “The Battle Of Missionary Ridge”.
"The Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, was the climax of the
various Battles for Chattanooga. A great Union strategic victory, it set the
stage for the 1864 thrust to Atlanta. It also was the foundation of the
MacArthur military dynasty, because of the heroism of 18-year-old Arthur
MacArthur of the 24th Wisconsin.
September 2017 - Patrick Falci a/k/a
General A. P. Hill presented "Up Came Hill" (A. P. Hill at Sharpsburg).
At 6:30 in the morning on September 17, 1862, a
courier sent by Gen. Robert E. Lee arrived at the headquarters of Major
General AP. Hill in Harper's Ferry, VA. A battle had commenced early
that morning in Sharpsburg, MD and General Lee needed help. Lee knew he
was outnumbered more than 2 to 1 at what would be known as the Battle of
Antietam, and that A.P. Hill and his men were the only ones who could
help him. In one half-hour, Hill would have his men on the march at the
double-quick.
For 25 years, Patrick Falci has been the face of General Ambrose Powell
Hill. Before that, he spent 15 years as a reenactor with the 14th
Tennessee— Archer's Brigade, Hill's Light Division. He created the role
of General Hill in the movie Gettysburg and was the historical advisor
to director Ron Maxwell, as well as bestselling author, Jeff Shaara.
Amongst his many achievements, he served as the 3-time president of the
Civil War Round Table of New York and has been a guest speaker all over
the country for his knowledge on the Civil War.
October 2017 -Dennis Frye presented “Did McClellan
out-think Lee during the first Confederate invasion?”
We often laugh
when we think of George McClellan. We enjoy making McClellan the Union's
whipping boy. McClellan, himself, brings little sympathy to his cause. Full
of bravado, often arrogant, and sometimes insubordinate, McClellan is the
general we like to dislike. We chuckle when he claimed, following the first
invasion of the North, that it was the second time he had saved the North.
Yet when Robert E. Lee was asked after the war who was the best Union
general he faced, he responded with George McClellan. Was McClellan as
incompetent and ineffective as history has branded him? Discover some
answers as we ask: "Did McClellan out-think Lee during the 1st
invasion?"
Dennis E. Frye is the Chief Historian at Harpers Ferry
National Historical Park. Writer, lecturer, guide, and preservationist,
Dennis is a prominent Civil War historian. Dennis has numerous appearances
on PBS, The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, C-SPAN, Fox News, A&E,
and Voice of America as a guest historian. He helped produce Emmy
award-winning television features on the Battle of Antietam, abolitionist
John Brown, and Maryland during the Civil War. Dennis is one of the nation’s
leading Civil War battlefield preservationists. He is co-founder and
first president of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation, and he is
co-founder and a former president of today’s Civil War Trust, from whom he
received the Trust’s highest honor - the Shelby Foote Award. Dennis
also earned the prestigious Nevins-Freeman Award for his lifetime
achievements in the Civil War community. Dennis is a tour guide in demand,
leading tours for organizations such as the Smithsonian, National
Geographic, numerous colleges and universities, and Civil War Round Tables.
Dennis also is a well-known author, with 98 articles and nine books.
Harpers Ferry Under Fire received the national book of the year award from
the Association of Partners for Public Lands; and September Suspense:
Lincoln’s Union in Peril, was awarded the 2012 Laney Book Prize for
distinguished scholarship and writing on the military and political history
of the war. Dennis has written for prestigious Civil War magazines
such as Civil War Times Illustrated, America’s Civil War, Blue & Gray
Magazine, North and South Magazine, and Hallowed Ground, and as a guest
contributor to the Washington Post. Dennis resides near the Antietam
Battlefield in Maryland, and he and his wife Sylvia have restored the home
that was used by General Burnside as his post-Antietam headquarters.
November 2017 - Eric
Buckland presented
“John S. Mosby – The Perfect Man in the Perfect
Place”.
Colonel John Singleton Mosby, Commanding Officer of
the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry (Mosby’s
Rangers) - remains a sterling example of the
quintessential unconventional warfare warrior and
leader. The tactics, techniques and procedures he
used during the War Between the States from January
1863 to April 1865 are still studied today by United
States Army Special Forces and Rangers and by the
United States Marine Corps. Mosby’s personal
courage, intelligence, innovativeness, audacity and
innate understanding of how to plan, conduct and
command irregular operations made him a very painful
and persistent thorn in the side of Union forces
arrayed against him and a celebrated hero in the
South.
However, even strong personal attributes and
exceptional ability need to be coupled with good
fortune and circumstances in order to achieve the
type of sustained success enjoyed by Mosby and his
Rangers. “John S. Mosby: The Perfect Man in the
Perfect Place” will offer superb insight into how
John Mosby was able to utilize and adapt his
strengths and abilities to successfully fulfill his
mission requirements, confront the enemy threat, use
the operational area’s terrain to his benefit,
recruit men to his unit and garner the support and
loyalty of the local population.
Eric Buckland’s interest in Mosby's Rangers began
when he was a young boy and increased during his
22-year military career. Most of that time -
he retired from the Army as a LTC - was spent in Special
Forces. Eric had multiple deployments to Panama,
Honduras and El Salvador in the 1980’s and
believes that his military experience provides a
unique understanding of Mosby’s Rangers.
2017 - Brian Steel Wills presented “Gone with
the glory: The Civil War in Cinema”.
History comes at us in many
fashions. Cinema has offered its own version of the Civil War, often
reflecting the times in which films appear and the expectations that
audiences of those periods bring with them. Reality is less well served, but
the characters and stories that emerge are nevertheless indelible parts of
our collective culture and experience. When it comes to popular
presentations of the American Civil War, few phrases evoke images of that
conflict as powerful as Gone with the Wind, although that epic motion
picture had more to do with the adventures of a young Southern woman than
depictions of war-related themes. This difficulty in melding stories with
facts has been the dilemma of film regarding historical subjects, with
Hollywood frequently turning its focus first to entertainment values and
then to the historical foundation or framework. Nevertheless, from the
silent era to the present day, motion pictures have provided one means by
which people have connected with their past. In the process a rich
mosaic of figures has emerged for movie audiences that, in some instances,
have become iconic, and the sweep and grandeur of the subject matter has
proven particularly well-suited to the big screen of the cinema. In more
recent years, subjects have broadened to include other aspects, such as the
famed 54th Massachusetts in Glory, the smaller-scale drama in backcountry
Kentucky of Pharoah’s Army, or the struggle for passage of the 13th
Amendment in Lincoln. But, in each instance, the Civil War in cinema has
provided at least the introductory platform for learning more about the
era’s issues, events and personalities.
Brian Steel Wills is the
Director of the Center for the Study of the Civil War Era and Professor of
History at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga. He is the author
of numerous works relating to the American Civil War. His most recent
publications are The River was Dyed with Blood: Nathan Bedford Forrest and
Fort Pillow (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014), Confederate
General William Dorsey Pender: The Hope of Glory (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press, 2013) and George Henry Thomas: As True as Steel
(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2012), which was the recipient of the
2013 Richard Barksdale Harwell Award for the best book on a Civil War topic
for the year 2012 presented by the Civil War Round Table of Atlanta.
His latest work is Inglorious Passages: Noncombat Deaths in the American
Civil War (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2017), just out.
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January 2016 - Chris Mackowski, Ph.D. presented "That
Furious Struggle - Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy”. Chris
is a professor of journalism and mass communication at St. Bonaventure
University. He also works as a historian at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania
National Military Park, where he gives tours at four major Civil War
battlefields (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania),
as well as at the building where Stonewall Jackson died. With Kris White, he is
co-founder of Emerging Civil War. Together, they have co-authored Season of
Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House; Simply Murder: The Battle of
Fredericksburg; The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson; Grant’s Last Battle: The
Story Behind the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant; and Chancellorsville’s
Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church. He’s
also written books on the battles of Wilderness and Chancellorsville. Mackowski
and White have written for Civil War.
February 2016 -
Peggy Vogtsberger presented "The 32nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry, an
all-German regiment". This regiment consisted of German immigrants, many who
fled Germany as a result of the failed Revolution of 1848. Most had been in
this country slightly more than a decade when the Civil War began. Peggy will
discuss what motivated these men to endure three years of hardship and death to
fight for a country not their own. She will discuss how they perceived their
experiences as soldiers differently than those of "the Americans." The
regiment, enlisted for three years, was part of the Army of the Ohio and later
the Army of the Cumberland. They fought at Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga,
Missionary Ridge and in the Atlanta campaign. She was fortunate to discover
paintings and drawings of the regiment as well as published personal letters,
some which she will share with us during her program. About fifteen years ago,
Peggy discovered she had a personal connection to this regiment--Private
Frederick Vogtsberger served in Company H.
Miss Vogtsberger has served
as past editor and president of the Williamsburg Civil War Roundtable. She is
the author of The Dulanys of Welbourne: A Family in Mosby's
Confederacy (Rockbridge Publishing, 1995). She has long had an interest in
Major John Pelham and wrote an introduction to the reprint of Pelham's
biography, The Life of the Gallant Pelham by Philip Mercer. In October 2014
she began a Facebook group, The Society of the Army of the Cumberland, which now
has over 100 members, including (besides herself) five published authors.
She is a frequent speaker to the Round Table. She is always reading and
researching and hopes to develop a future program on General Patrick Cleburne
and his proposal to emancipate slaves during the Civil War.
March 2016 - Dr. Matthew Laird presented “Searching for Slabtown: The
Archaeology of Hampton’s Grand Contraband Camp”. In the summer of 2014, the
James River Institute for Archaeology, Inc. (JRIA) conducted an archaeological
investigation on behalf of the City of Hampton to identify and document a
portion of the Grand Contraband Camp, a large settlement of recently enslaved
African Americans who came to the Union-controlled area around Fort Monroe
seeking to begin new lives in freedom. JRIA’s targeted testing revealed a dense
concentration of intact features evidently associated with the Grand Contraband
Camp, and the subsequent occupation of African American families who purchased
lots on the property in the early 1870s.
April 2016 -
Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant (Dr. Curt Fields) is still in command of all forces of the
U.S. Army. Demobilization of the Army’s volunteer units is underway, and the
General is finally able to spend a few moments to reflect upon the momentous
events that have taken place since his elevation to overall command. The
General, escorting Mrs. Grant, discussed his recollections of the major
offensive that took place in Virginia during the late spring of 1864. He
identifies his remarks as “The Overland Campaign – Forty Days in Hell”.
May 2016 - John Quarstein presented
“The Battle of Mobile Bay”. John described the
dramatic naval action which featured the confrontation between the Union’s Rear
Admiral David G. Farragut and Confederate Admiral Franklin Buchanan. This battle
is remembered for Admiral Farragut’s famous order…”damn the torpedoes…!
September 2016 - Robert Krick presented “Frayser’s Farm / Glendale: The Penultimate Fight of the Seven Days Campaign, and a Battle Known by Six Different Names”. The Seven Days Campaign outside Richmond in 1862, so sweeping in its scope and complex in its details, remains imperfectly understood. Today the battle is best known as a failed opportunity for the Confederate army, which had the Army of the Potomac in an awkward and vulnerable situation on that June 30 afternoon.
Robert Krick has lived or worked on Civil War battlefields almost continuously since 1972. He grew up on the Chancellorsville battlefield near Fredericksburg and has worked in various historical capacities at several battlefields, including Custer Battlefield in Montana, and Manassas Battlefield. Since 1991 he has been an historian on the staff at the battlefield park in Richmond.October 2016 - Robert Orrison
presented “The Bristoe Campaign”. Most people skip from Gettysburg to the
Wilderness when studying the Civil War in the east. But in doing so they are
skipping over a very combative fall between the Army of Northern Virginia
and the Army of the Potomac, in which Robert E Lee proved that the
Confederate army was not as wounded as most believed. The events in October
1863 led the Army of Northern Virginia back to the doorstep of Washington,
DC and left a frustrated Lincoln looking for new military leadership.
Historian Rob Orrison is a native Virginian, Rob received his
B.A. in Historic Preservation at Longwood College and his M.A. in Public
History from George Mason University. He now serves as the Historic Site
Operations Supervisor for Prince William County. He also leads tours with
Civil War Excursion Tours, which he co-founded, and he’s co-author of A Want
of Vigilance: The Bristoe Station Campaign (Savas Beatie, 2015) and A Long
Road North: A Guide to the Gettysburg Campaign (Savas Beatie, 2016).
November 2016 - Scott Mingus presented “William ‘Extra
Billy’ Smith”. Extra Billy Smith, the oldest and one of the most
controversial Confederate generals on the field at Gettysburg, was also one
of the most colorful and charismatic characters of the Civil War and the
antebellum Old South. Known nationally as “Extra Billy” because of his
prewar penchant for finding loopholes in government postal contracts to gain
extra money for his stagecoach lines, Smith served as Virginia’s governor
during both the War with Mexico and the Civil War, served five terms in the
U.S. Congress, and was one of Virginia’s leading spokesmen for slavery and
States’ Rights. Extra Billy’s extra-long speeches and wry sense of humor
were legendary among his peers. A lawyer during the heady Gold Rush days,
Smith made a fortune in California and, like his income earned from
stagecoaches, quickly lost it.
Scott Mingus is a scientist and
executive in the paper industry, and holds patents in self-adhesive postage
stamps and bar code labels. The York, Pa., resident has written fifteen
Civil War books. His biography of Confederate General William “Extra Billy”
Smith won the 2013 Nathan Bedford Forrest Southern History Award as well as
the Dr. James I Robertson, Jr. Literary Prize, and was nominated for the
Virginia Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
2016 -
Sue Boardman presented a
program that cover the history of Cyclorama
paintings along with the technical issues of
painting an event on a canvas measuring
approximately 380 feet in circumference, 40 plus
feet in height, and weighing approximately 4 tons.
She will outline the history of the Gettysburg
Cyclorama paintings, (...there were several versions
made and exhibited in major northern cities…) and
focus on the Phillippoteaux painting that is
displayed at Gettysburg. Her presentation will
outline the efforts to produce the painting in the
1880’s, and then fast forward to the restoration
efforts and reinstallation in the new Visitor Center
in the early 2000 time period. In addition, Sue will
point out numerous individuals and features on the
restored canvas to enhance the interests of the
viewing audience.
Sue Boardman, A Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield
Guide since 2000, is a two-time recipient of the
Superintendent’s Award for Excellence as a
Battlefield Guide. She is a recognized expert of not
only the Battle of Gettysburg, but also an expert of
the early history of the National Park and the
National Cemetery. In 2004, Sue served as the
historical consultant for the Gettysburg Foundation
during the construction of the new Visitor Center
Museum as well as the principal consultant for the
massive undertaking to conserve and restore the
Gettysburg Cyclorama painting which was removed from
the 1960’s era Visitor Center and subsequently
installed in the new Visitor Center. The
conservation and restoration experience led her to
author a book on the history of the painting
entitled “The Gettysburg Cyclorama: A History and
Guide” in 2008. She currently adds the title of
Leadership Program Director of the Gettysburg
Foundation to her Licensed Battlefield Guide duties.
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January 2015 - Eric Campbell presented “We Scared Abe Lincoln
Like Hell - Jubal Early’s Operations in the Summer of
1864” Eric will trace the independent operations of the Army of Northern
Virginia’s Second Corps from June through September of 1864. Robert E. Lee
dispatched the Second Corps from the Richmond/Petersburg area, under the
command of Jubal Early, in June to first drive a Union advance away from
Lynchburg, then to clear the Shenandoah Valley of Union occupation, and to
threaten Washington D.C. General Early achieved those objectives with
unparalleled success and was able to maintain Confederate control of the
Shenandoah Valley well into the autumn of 1864 before being forced southward by
vastly superior numbers of Union forces.
Eric Campbell is the Chief of Interpretation at Cedar Creek and Belle Grove
National Historical Park. He has worked as a Park Ranger for the National Park
Service for over 28 years, over 20 of those at Gettysburg National Military
Park. He has authored over two dozen articles and essays and the book, “A Grand
Terrible Dramma’: From Gettysburg to Petersburg, The
Civil War Letters of Charles Wellington Reed.
February 2015 - Michael Durling
& Gina DeAngelis from Colonial Williamsburg
presented a film, “Civil War Ironclads”: from Colonial Williamsburg’s
Electronic Field Trip Series Films.
In the Civil War, both the Union and the Confederacy raced to build armored,
steam-powered warships that were the ancestors of today’s navies. In our
program, you can meet the people behind and aboard the “ironclads”—and relive
the famous 1862 battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack (Virginia).
Civil War Ironclads (Colonial Williamsburg Productions, 2014) is an Electronic
Field Trip—an interactive educational program with video, live television, and
online components—created by Colonial Williamsburg Education Outreach and
produced and broadcast by Colonial Williamsburg Productions. It premiered on
March 13, 2014 on public television and cable educational channels nationwide.
Mike Durling is the Manager of Digital Media Services
for Colonial Williamsburg Productions. He directs and edits video programs and
manages the media archives and many aspects of digital media technology.
Gina DeAngelis is the Senior Editor-Writer in
Educational Media at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
March 2015 - Chris Kolakowski
presented “The Campaign and Battle of Stones River”. On the last day of 1862
and the first two days of 1863, the Union Army of the Cumberland and the
Confederate Army of Tennessee clashed outside of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in an
engagement that was the Civil War’s bloodiest by percentage of loss. This
presentation will discuss the battle and its context, and highlight its
importance to the Civil War’s course.
Christopher L. Kolakowski was born and raised in
Fredericksburg, VA. He received his BA in History and Mass Communications from
Emory & Henry College, and his MA in Public History from the State
University of New York in Albany.
April 2015 - Patrick Schroeder presented “A Visit to Old
Appomattox With County Clerk George Peers”. Patrick will portray the persona of
George Peers, a civilian resident of Appomattox Court House, who will provide
eyewitness observations of the military operations and cessation of
hostilities in the Appomattox area in April of 1865.
May 2015 - Brian Steel Wills presented “Nathan Bedford
Forrest”. Dubbed the “Wizard of the Saddle,” and “That Devil Forrest,” Nathan
Bedford Forrest rose from private to lieutenant general in the Confederate
cavalry during the American Civil War. His application of common sense
tactics and ferocious combat leadership by example won for him a reputation as
one of the finest commanders of mounted troops on either side in the conflict.
September 2015 –
J. Michael Moore presented a program on the Atlanta Campaign. As a part of General in Chief U.S. Grant’s
grand strategy for 1864, Major General William T. Sherman’s Western armies were
to maneuver from Chattanooga against General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of
Tennessee toward Atlanta with the objective of destroying Johnston’s army and
the Confederate interior war industries.
J. Michael Moore is the curator for Lee Hall Mansion and Endview
Plantation. Mr. Moore received a bachelor of arts in history from Christopher
Newport University and a master of arts in history from Old Dominion
University. Moore has led battlefield tours in Maryland, North Carolina,
Virginia, and West Virginia. In
addition, he is a popular lecturer for CNU’s LifeLong
Learning Society. Mr. Moore has also co-authored two books – The Peninsula
Campaign of 1862: A Military Analysis in 2005 and Yorktown’s Civil War Siege:
Drums Along the Warwick in 2012.
October
2015 - Erick Bush presented “Selma - Alabama’s Arsenal City in
the Civil War”. The city of Selma, Alabama was transformed into the
Confederacy’s second most important war manufacturing center, outside of
Richmond. Key war support industrial activities were located in Selma due to
its secure location in the interior of Alabama. The Civil War in Selma also has
critical connections to Virginia, through the Civil War experiences of Catesby
Jones, Josiah Gorgas, and Franklin Buchanan. Selma was essential to the
Confederate war effort, especially with the construction of the CSS Tennessee
ironclad and the Brooke cannon.
Erick Bush is a Civil War historian, with
a specialization on the Civil War in Central Alabama. His particular areas of
focus are Alabama’s Confederate ironclads and Wilson’s Cavalry Raid in Central
Alabama. He has previously lectured on a number of Alabama and Virginia related
topics to Civil War Round Table and history enthusiast groups in England, Ohio,
Alabama and Texas. His first talk on the Civil War in Alabama was at the Royal
Army Museum in London in 2005. He has a recurring article series entitled
“Letter >From Civil War Alabama” in the magazine “Crossfire”.
November 2015 - Dr. Robertson presented – “Robert E. Lee – The
Postwar Years. Robert E. Lee has traditionally been regarded as a leader in
fostering postwar reconciliation between North and South, That has been a major
reason for the national admiration in which he is held. Recently, however,
revisionists have charged that Lee harbored a deep anger at having to surrender,
and that this anger proved a hindrance to the new union that came from the Civil
War. Dr. Robertson will present his interpretation of Lee's conduct after the
gunfire ceased.
One of the most distinguished names in Civil War history,
Dr. Robertson served as Executive Director of the U.S. Civil War Centennial
Commission in the 1960s and worked with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He then
taught 44 years at Virginia Tech, where his upper division course on the Civil
War era attracted 300 or more students per semester and made it the largest
class of its kind in the nation. He received every teaching award given by
Virginia Tech. At his retirement in 2011, the University named him Alumni
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History.
2015
- Carson Hudson presented “The President is Dead! A Photographic Study of the
Lincoln Assassination”. Join historian Carson Hudson as he tells the story of
President Lincoln’s assassination through the examination and analysis of period
photographs.
Carson Hudson is passionate about history. He is a
practicing military and social historian, published author, Emmy Award-winning
screenwriter, and circus fire-eater. He lectures regularly at museums and
colleges on a wide variety of subjects, but his particular interests are the
Civil War, military medicine, colonial witchcraft & piracy, and the history of
American popular music. In his spare time he likes to sleep.
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January 2014 - Dr. Anna Holloway
presented “The Last Voyage of the Monitor”. Although
the USS Monitor may have ended her career in a gale
off Cape Hatteras in 1862, her story does
not end there. Discovered in 1973, and the subject
of recovery operations by NOAA since then, the
"cheese box on a raft" which famously fought the CSS
Virginia (ex-Merrimack) still has stories to tell.
This lively, illustrated presentation brings the
Monitor to life by combining log entries, official
correspondence, personal letters from officers and
crew, and evidence found in the ship itself.
Anna Gibson Holloway is the Vice President of Museum
Collections and Programs at The Mariners’ Museum in
Newport News, VA, where she oversees the Curatorial,
Collections Management, Education, Conservation,
Photography & Licensing, USS Monitor Center, and
Exhibition Design functions of the institution. This
Winston-Salem native graduated from The University
of North Carolina at Greensboro with baccalaureate
degrees in English Literature and Medieval
Civilization. She received her Masters degree
in Tudor/Stuart History and her Ph.D. in American
History from the College of William and Mary.
February 2014 -Robert Doares
presented “God’s Wayward Boy: The Revolutionary
Lives of the Rev. Charles Minnigerode”. Richmond’s
most prominent Civil War clergyman, the Rev. Charles
Minnigerode of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, began
his career as a social and political revolutionary
in his native Germany, where he was incarcerated
five years for sedition before fleeing to
Philadelphia in 1839. Landing a classical language
professorship at William and Mary in 1842, he
sojourned six years in Williamsburg, where he
married, embraced the Southern way of life, and
received ordination to the priesthood at Bruton
Parish Church. Celebrated each holiday season in
Williamsburg today as the man who introduced the
Christmas tree to Virginia, Minnigerode’s ultimate
notoriety derived from his intimate friendship with
Jefferson Davis, his wartime ministry to Robert E.
Lee and numerous other Confederate military and
civilian notables, and his steadying presence during
the evacuation of Richmond in April 1865.
Bob Doares will discuss his ongoing research for a
comprehensive biography of the man. A native North
Carolinian and graduate of Davidson College and Ohio
University, Bob is a museum educator in the
Department of Training and Historical Research at
Colonial Williamsburg. Fluent in German and French,
he occupies his free time with independent
scholarship on a variety of subjects. He has
numerous published articles to his credit, as well
as a book on French decorative arts.
March 2014 - Jeff Toalson presented “Mama, I Am Yet Still Alive – A Composite Diary of 1863 in the Confederacy.” When local Williamsburg author and historian Jeff Toalson was offered access to a treasure trove of Civil War diaries, letters and journals at the Brewer Library of the United Daughters of the Confederacy he embarked on a two year effort to create a companion volume for his 2006 work: No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion – A Composite Diary of the last 16 months of the Confederacy from 1864-1865. Take a journey through 1863 as he shared selected letters from farm wives, privates, doctors, ministers, sergeants, clerks, nurses and refugees.
Jeff Toalson has a B. S. in Business Management from Missouri State University, is a 23 year resident of Williamsburg and a regular speaker at roundtables, historical societies, SCV Camps, UDC Chapters and National Park Battlefields. Jeff is the author of two books on the WBTS: Send Me a Pair of Old Boots & Kiss My Little Girls - The Civil War Letters of Richard and Mary Watkins, 1861-1865, which was published in 2009, and his first book No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion - A Composite Diary of the Last 16 Months of the Confederacy
April 2014 - Mr. Steve French presented “Captain
Redmond Burke - Stuart’s Border Scout.” In the first two years of The
War between The States, Irish immigrant Redmond Burke first served as a
scout and later personal aide to General J.E. B. Stuart. The colorful
off- told stories of his thrilling exploits behind enemy lines, spread
by newspaper and word-of-mouth throughout Northern Virginia and the
lower-Shenandoah Valley, eventually turned him into an almost mythical
figure. Mr. French’s presentation briefly examined some of Burke’s
exploits, including his adventures during the Battle of Williamsburg and
Stuart’s Chickahominy Raid, before focusing on his last behind-the-lines
mission that resulted in his death in a Union ambush in Shepherdstown,
Va., on the night of Nov. 24-25, 1862.
Steve French is a member of a number of historical organizations
including the Harpers Ferry Civil War Round Table and the Stuart-Mosby
Historical Society. He is the author of the critically acclaimed
Imboden’s Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign, which received the
prestigious 2008 Bachelder-Coddington Literary Award, the 2009 Round
Table of Gettysburg Book Award and the Jefferson Davis Historical Gold
Medal. He is also the author of Rebel Chronicles: Raiders, Scouts, and
Train Robbers of the Upper-Potomac, the Blue&Gray Education Society
monograph The Jones-Imboden Raid on the B&O Railroad at Rowlesburg,
Virginia, and edited Four Years Along the Tilhance, the Civil War Dairy
of Elisha Manor. French has written more than seventy Civil War articles
and numerous book reviews that have appeared in national and
international publications such as The Washington Times, Gettysburg
Magazine, North& South Magazine, Crossfire: The Magazine of the American
Civil War Round Table U.K., and The Southern Cavalry Review. He has
appeared in internet and television documentaries including The Civil
War in Washington County, Maryland. French’s other activities include
speaking at various round tables and seminars and serving as guide for
Civil War tours of the lower-Shenandoah Valley, Potomac Highlands, and
the Retreat From Gettysburg.
May 2014 - Dr. Jonathan L. Stolz presented “Civil War
medicine: Myths & Misperceptions”.
Medical care during the fratricidal struggle that divided our nation
150 years ago harbors many historic misunderstandings about the
insurmountable challenges that doctors from the North and South faced.
The myths and misperceptions about the two thirds of the war fatalities
from disease will be the topic of the discussion. The surgical aspects
of care will be presented at another time. The qualification of
the physicians, the various maladies, the treatments, and innovations
that took place during the war will be highlighted.
Doctor Stolz is a physician who practiced in the specialty of radiology
in Reading, Pennsylvania before retiring to Williamsburg in 2004. He has
had a longtime interest in the history of medicine in the United States.
He has taught courses at William & Mary's Christopher Wren Association
including Presidential Illnesses, Civil War Medicine: Myths &
Misperceptions, and in the 2014 Fall Semester will present Medicine in
Colonial America (1607-1783). In 1863 his great grandfather John
Christopher Keatley was appointed as one of the assistant paymasters of
the Army of the Potomac by President Lincoln.
September 2014 - Carson Hudson and Amy Miller
presented "The Civil War in Seven Songs". Using themes such as
patriotism, home, freedom, bravery, loss, and hope, this program,
performed by Carson Hudson and Amy Miller, is a compact and moving study
of the catastrophe that overtook America in the 1860s
Carson Hudson is passionate about history. He is a practicing military
and social historian, published author, Emmy Award-winning screenwriter,
and circus fire-eater. He lectures regularly at museums and colleges on
a wide variety of subjects, but his particular interests are the Civil
War, military medicine, colonial witchcraft & piracy, and the history of
American popular music. In his spare time he likes to sleep.
Amy Edmondson Miller, D.M. (FSU 1989) is Fife Supervisor for the
Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums in Williamsburg, Virginia, as well
as a performer for evening programs. In 2011, she made presentations for
the National Flute Association’s Annual Flute Convention, held in
Charlotte, North Carolina and for Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s
First Annual Early Music Festival. She has published three online
articles for Flute Focus Magazine on "Fifing and Drumming in the
Eighteenth Century". Amy recorded a CD of Stephen Foster’s music with
Carson Hudson entitled, “Hard Times: Stephen Foster Remembered.” She and
Carson performed monthly programs during 2013 at the Hennage Auditorium
entitled, “The Civil War in 7 Songs”.
October 2014 - Drew Gruber presented “Preservation
of Williamsburg Battlefield Sites”.
Listed as one of Virginia's 'Most Endangered Sites' in 2014 the battle's
continued recognition as one of the most pivotal of the war has been met
with continued misinterpretation and subsequent neglect. Drew's
presentation entitled; "Preserving Williamsburg's Battlefield" utilized new research and maps to highlight the areas which have been
lost to development as well as the opportunities which still exist for
preservation and interpretation. Additionally he discussed the
ongoing efforts of the Williamsburg Battlefield Association as well as
the battlefield’s value and relevance to our community.
Drew Gruber holds his B.A. in Historic Preservation and a M.S. in Urban
and Regional Planning. He was the 2013 Lawrence T. Jones III Research
Fellow in Texas Civil War History and is working on a biography of
Decimus Et Ultimus Barziza. He has authored several articles about the
Battle of Williamsburg and has been actively involved in the
Williamsburg Battlefield Association. He was recently appointed by the
Governor to serve a four year term on the Commonwealth's Board of
Historic Resources.
November 2014 - Edward Freyfogle MD presented “Civil
War Surgery”. His slide presentation focused on the tools of the trade
for doctors of the era, operating conditions in the field, and medical
advances gained from the medical experiences on the battlefield. While
the Union forces had many more medical staff than the Confederates,
medical care quality in the south often exceeded that available to the
Union forces. Doctors of that era were often self taught through on the
job training. The most significant medical advance from the war was the
introduction of ambulance services and triage practices.
Edward Freyfogle MD was born and raised in the heart of the Land of
Lincoln, and graduated from Lehigh University and received his medical
degree from the University of Illinois. He served in the Illinois
National Guard at Camp Lincoln in Springfield, and made a career as a
Urologist in the Army Medical Department, including multiple tours in
Germany where he served as the chief of the Surgery Department and also
at other overseas locations. He retired after 30 years of service
and settled in Williamsburg, and has been active in our roundtable and
has served as an officer in the Sons of Union Veterans.
2014 - Peggy Vogtsberger presented "The
Battle of Nashville - Annihilation of an Army", the battle, fought
15-16, 1864. Peggy presented the story of the end of Hood's
ill-fated Tennessee Campaign of 1864,the reasons why Hood entered into
Tennessee and what he hoped to accomplish. She will tell how General
George H. Thomas, who commanded at Nashville, prepared for this battle.
As always, she will go into some tactical detail so we can understand
how the battle unfolded. This was one of the most complete Union
victories of the Civil War.
Peggy Vogtsberger for years served as editor of the newsletter of the
WCWRT, was past president and a Member of the Executive Board. She
is the author of A Family in Mosby's Confederacy: The Dulanys of
Welbourne. She founded the John Pelham Historical Association.
Peggy learned of Private Frederick Vogtsberger of Co. H, 32nd Indiana
Infantry, who as part of an "all-German" regiment fought at Shiloh,
Stones River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and the Atlanta Campaign.
Private Vogtsberger, as part of Buell's Army of the Ohio, was wounded on
the second day of Shiloh, April 7, 1862. Last year after almost 30 years
she returned to tour these battlefields with a different perspective, as
she followed the footsteps of the 32nd Indiana. She has recently founded
on Facebook a new group, The Society of the Army of the Cumberland. This
was the name given by General George H. Thomas to the veterans of his
army, and General Thomas was its first president. In less than two
months, it already has 35 members, two who are published authors. She
founded the Facebook group not as one who is an "expert" on the
subject but one hopes to learn from others. Peggy has recently created
for her family a brief history of the 32nd Indiana. She is working on a
future talk about the 32nd Indiana as an example of the German immigrant
experience in the Union army.
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January 2013 - Mr. Brian McEnany presented "The West Point Class of 1862." Brian McEnany’s lecture used one of the cadet classes, the Class of 1862, to illustrate what happened at the Academy and the cadets at the outset of the Civil War. During the tumultuous months after Lincoln’s election, the cadets were forced to make momentous decisions as eleven states seceded, officers resigned or returned to their regiments and multiple resignations or dismissals became everyday occurrences.
Mr. Brian R. McEnany was born in Cornwall, New York. An Army Brat, he
traveled extensively with his family in the US and Japan.
He entered the United States Military Academy with the Class of 1962.
After graduation, he served an initial assignment in Germany, followed
by a tour in Vietnam as an advisor. In January 1984, after various
assignments at battery, battalion, brigade and division level in
Germany, Korea, the US, combat service in Vietnam, and multiple tours in
the Pentagon as an operations research analyst, he elected to leave the
Army as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Military history has always fascinated him and has now become his
full-time avocation. He is currently using his skills as an
analyst of military operations to write a narrative history of the West
Point Class of 1862.
Brian is a member of the Bull Run Civil War Roundtable and has given
presentations about this class to numerous civil war groups in Northern
Virginia, the History Department at West Point, the Brandy Station
Foundation, the Army-Navy Club in DC, a few West Point class luncheons,
the US Army’s Center for Army Analysis and AUSA’s Leminitzer Lecture
series. His article, John Brown’s Raid and West Point, was published in
the Association of Graduate’s Assembly magazine in October 2009 and War
comes to West Point was published in North&South magazine (Vol, 12,
Nr.5) in 2010.
February 2013 - The guest speaker
was Peggy Vogtsberger. She discussed "Into the Maelstrom: The Battle of
Franklin, Tennessee". Two months after the fall of Atlanta, the Army of
Tennessee under the command of General John Bell Hood marched into
Tennessee. Peggy talked about the genesis of Hood's campaign and the
Federal response to it. She will describe the lost opportunity at
Spring Hill. On November 30, 1864 Hood's army attacked strong
entrenchments at Franklin, Tennessee. It was a charge comparable to
Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, with more disastrous results. Sam
Watkins, Co. H, 1st Tennessee, upon seeing the battlefield the next day,
wrote: "It was a grand holocaust of death. Death had held high
carnival that night...I was never so horrified and appalled in my life."
Peggy described in tactical detail the battle and its effects. She
tied it up with a brief summary of the battles near Nashville and the
end of Hood's campaign.
Ms. Vogtsberger's work with WCWRT included, former newsletter editor,
former member of the board, former vice-president and program chairman.
She has also been active as founder of the John Pelham Historical
Association and author of The Dulanys of Welbourne and A
Family in Mosby's Confederacy (1995). Peggy currently works at
Colonial Williamsburg in Orientation & Admissions.
March 2013 - Patrick Schroeder presented "Myths
about Lee's Surrender" in which he discussed some of the most
interesting aspects from the books he wrote , Thirty Myths About Lee's
Surrender and More Myths About Lee's Surrender. This talk is about what
really happened at Appomattox, separating myth from fact.
Mr. Schroeder was born January 1, 1968, at Fort Belvoir, VA, and was
raised in Utica, New York. In the spring of 1990, he graduated Cum Laude
with a B.S. in Historical Park Administration from Shepherd College,
Shepherdstown, WV. He has a M.A. in Civil War History from
Virginia Tech. From the summer of 1986-1993, Patrick worked as a
seasonal living history interpreter at Appomattox Court House National
Historical Park. In 1993, he wrote Thirty Myths About Lee's
Surrender, which is currently in its twelfth printing. From
1994-1999, he was employed at Red Hill, the Patrick Henry National
Memorial. Patrick has written, edited and/or contributed to more
than twenty-five Civil War titles. Patrick resides in Lynchburg,
VA, and has worked as an independent researcher, author,
historian, and tour guide. He has been the Historian at Appomattox
Court House National Historical Park since 2002. In an effort to
protect sites relevant to the Appomattox Campaign, Patrick has set up
the "Appomattox Fund" with the Civil War Trust, to save land important
to the climatic events of April 1865.
April 2013 - Mr. Earnst presented "An
evening with a Confederate Soldier, Major Heros Von Borcke. He
took us back to that period of history in the person of Major Heros Von
Borcke, chief aide to General JEB Stuart. Although a Prussian officer he
was no mere observer. He was a fully invested Confederate and was a
prolific writer about his exploits. The audience was taken back to the spring of 1863 and this colorful character will
bring them up to date on the War thus far.
Frank Earnest is a historian and member of several historical
societies most prominently the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He has held
offices in this organization for over 20 years. Serving as his
camp's charter chaplain to International Chief of Heritage Defense to
his current position as Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
He was informed of his deep Virginia roots and his Confederate Heritage
at an early age by his maternal grandmother. Although born in
Norfolk, Virginia most of his ancestors were from the Petersburg,
Virginia area.
His ancestors served in all branches including the Navy but most
especially the cavalry. Commander Earnest is a retired United
States Navy veteran. He now resides in Virginia Beach with his
wife, Billie, who is also an ardent historian of this period.
May 2013 - Mr. Eric Douglas App, the Director
of Museum Operations at the Museum of the Confederacy, presented
"Richmond Bread Riots". He also used a self-developed virtual 3
dimension computer map of the Civil War city to identify where events
leading up to the riot and the riot itself were located in the city.
Mr. App was born and raised east of Richmond, he attended Virginia Tech,
where he received his degrees in both history and art. He has
worked at the Museum of the Confederacy for 22 of the past 23 years.
His present responsibilities, there, are wide-ranging, from restoration
and interpretation of the White House of the Confederacy and school
programming to visitor services and retail sales, from working with the
governing board to hosting VIPs, and from working with the Museum’s
attorneys, bankers, and insurance to dealing with physical plant issues.
His latest project is a virtual map of Civil War Richmond.
Utilizing open source CAD software and a mass of research on every
period building on every block, he has been able to recreate much of the
old City in a fully-interactive, near 3-dimentional format.
Tonight, Eric is here to talk about the Richmond Bread Riots, and will
use his map to help follow the route of the mob as it made its way
through the streets.
September 2013 - Dr Michael Stevens, President of
Central Virginia Battlefields Trust presented "Preserving the Land,
Preserving the Stories: Central Virginia Battlefields Trust and Its
Fight to Save America's Sacred Soil."
Dr. Michael P. Stevens, earned a B.S. from Texas A & M University and a
M.D. from Tulane School of Medicine. He served in the U.S. Army Medical
Corps from 1971-73. He entered in private practice of dermatology in
Fredericksburg, Virginia. Dr. Stevens is married to Pat and they have
three grown children.
Dr. Stevens is a member of Rappahannock Valley CWRT, Friends of
Fredericksburg Area Battlefields, Founding member of Central Virginia
Battlefields Trust. One Great-grandfather served in the 1st Maine Heavy
Artillery while the other served in Hart's Battery, Stuart's Horse
Artillery.
October 2013 - Mr. Scott Williams presented “The
Bermuda Hundred Campaign”; one of the least know campaigns of the war.
In May of 1864, Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler landed
the 38,000 man Army of the James on the Bermuda Hundred Peninsula in
Chesterfield County. Butler made tentative advances toward Richmond and
Petersburg but fell back to his defenses each time. Meanwhile,
Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard scrambled to find enough troops to
place in Butler's path. Scott's talk will highlight these actions and
the lost opportunities of one of the most overlooked campaigns of the
war. He will also discuss some of the little known events that took
place on the James River in the early days of the campaign.
Scott Williams is a Geographic Information System Analyst for
Chesterfield County. He has worked for Chesterfield County for 17 years.
He is a Volunteer for the Chesterfield Historical Society and has been
Chairman of the Military History Committee since 2006. Scott has
assisted with the preservation and interpretation of several Civil War
Sites in Chesterfield. He most recently helped obtain funding to
preserve the Confederate Gun position on the James River known as
Battery Dantzler. Scott wrote several sections of the Bermuda Hundred
Campaign Tour Guide and created all of the maps for that book. He also
created the maps for the regimental history of the 7th South Carolina
Cavalry. Scott is a 1986 graduate of Old Dominion University. He and his
wife Sandy live within earshot of the falls of the James in Richmond.
November 2013 -Mr. Jeffry Burden presented “Unionist
Gone Underground: Life in a Divided Richmond’. This talk focuses on the
widespread -- and surprisingly effective -- Unionist activity in
Richmond during the War. Elizabeth Van Lew may be the most famous such Richmonder, but she was only one part of a
widespread network that worked to thwart the Confederate war effort.
Just as Copperheads proved troublesome in the Northern states, Van Lew,
John Minor Botts, Erastus Ross, and many other Richmonders from all
walks of life demonstrated how divided the "Solid South" really was.
Jeffry Burden is a native of California, but a resident of Virginia for
the past 27 years. He received his undergraduate degree from the
University of Missouri and his law degree from the University of
Richmond.
He has long been a freelance writer on Civil War and other topics.
In 2008, he edited and released the previously-unpublished regimental
history of the 22nd Iowa Infantry -- the only Iowa regiment to serve in
the Richmond theater.
Jeffry is now serving as Commander-in-Chief of the Military Order of the
Loyal Legion of the United States, the first Civil War hereditary
organization. He follows in a line of Commanders-in-Chief
including Winfield Scott Hancock, Phillip Sheridan, and Rutherford B.
Hayes.
In recent years, he has served on the advisory committee for the
“Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission”, and also as a member
of the Commonwealth’s “Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Committee”.
He also is the current President of the “Friends of Shockoe Hill
Cemetery”. This Richmond cemetery is the final resting place
of Chief Justice John Marshall, four Virginia governors, and Confederate
Brig. Gen. Patrick Moore, as well as an estimated 300 to 400 other
Confederate soldiers. To date, the Friends group is responsible
for marking 13 unmarked C.S.A. graves, with several more in the
pipeline.
2013 - Ms Peggy Vogtsberger presented the life of
Lieut. Col. John Pelham, C.S.A. Known as "the Gallant Pelham," he was
killed at the Battle of Kelly's Ford (March 17, 1863), age 24. John Pelham
was a war-time hero of the South. He was good-looking and charismatic.
He already had gained a high reputation, if not already a living legend, even
before his death in 1863.
Ms. Vogtsberger gave her first talk to the Williamsburg CWRT on John Pelham in
1978. She returns to give this talk this month with, she hopes,
more maturity and insight. She will especially talk on the development of
Pelham's legend in the immediate aftermath of his death and the rather unusual
honors given to him. She will speak on the continued fascination that many
have on him, even today: books are still written, articles, and years ago
a character was based on him on a TV special. For that all has been
written and said about Pelham, his true personality is obscure, and even the
events surrounding his death are something of an enigma.
Ms. Vogtsberger edited the letters of Col. Richard H. Dulany, 7th Virginia
Cavalry, in Welbourne: A Family in Mosby's Confederacy (1995). She
wrote an introduction for a reprint of Philip Mercer's book The Gallant Pelham .
For years she was the editor of the WCWRT newsletter, served as its President,
and was active on the Executive Board. Recently, she returned from a trip
to Tennessee, where she began research on Private Frederick Vogtsberger, Company
H, 32nd Indiana Infantry, who fought at Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga,
Missionary Ridge, and various battles during the Atlanta Campaign. She is
researching his regiment, and has developed an interest in his brigade
commander, General August Willich.
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January 2012 Catherine M. Wright
presented "Lee’s Last Casualty: The Life and Letters of Sgt. Robert W.
Parker, Second Virginia Cavalry". The letters of Sgt. Robert W. Parker
provide a window into the daily life of an enlisted cavalryman, as well
as highlight the unique story of the soldier believed to be the last man
killed in action in the Army of Northern Virginia. In many ways, Parker
was representative of the average Confederate soldier: a modest farmer
in the antebellum years, his patriotic fervor spurred him at the
beginning of the war to enlist in the Confederate cavalry. His letters
reveal how home front and battlefront were closely intertwined, and the
importance of correspondence in sustaining that connection and the will
to fight. The role of the cavalry and Parker's tragic death are also
highlighted in the program.
Ms. Wright was born in Kansas City,
Missouri, and grew up there and in Norfolk,
Virginia. She is the editor of Lee’s Last Casualty:
The Life and Letters of Sgt. Robert W. Parker,
Second Virginia Cavalry (University of Tennessee
Press, 2008) and is a contributing historian to the
online Encyclopedia of Virginia. She was formerly
the curator at the Stonewall Jackson House in
Lexington, VA, and is currently the curator at The
Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond.
February 2012 - Patrick Schroeder presented "Zuaves: America"s Forgotten Soldiers". Mr. Schroeder was born January 1, 1968, at Fort Belvoir, VA, and was raised in Utica, New York. In the spring of 1990, he graduated Cum Laude with a B.S. in Historical Park Administration from Shepherd College, Shepherdstown, WV. He has a M.A. in Civil War History from Virginia Tech. From the summer of 1986-1993, Patrick worked as a seasonal living history interpreter at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. In 1993, he wrote Thirty Myths About Lee’s Surrender, which is currently in its twelfth printing. From 1994–1999, he was employed at Red Hill, the Patrick Henry National Memorial. Patrick has written, edited and/or contributed to more than twenty-five Civil War titles. Patrick resides in Lynchburg, VA, and has worked as an independent researcher, author, historian, and tour guide. He has been the Historian at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park since 2002. In an effort to protect sites relevant to the Appomattox Campaign, Patrick has set up the “Appomattox Fund” with the Civil War Trust, to save land important to the climatic events of April 1865.
March 2012 - Scott Patchan presented "Second Manassas". Mr. Patchan was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is a graduate of James Madison University. He currently resides in Haymarket, Virginia. Mr. Patchan is a prolific author and historian. His books include: The Forgotten Fury; The Battle of Piedmont; Shenandoah Summer: The 1864 Valley Campaign; The Battle of Piedmont and Hunter's Raid on Staunton; Second Manassas: Longstreet's Attack and the Struggle for Chinn Ridge; The Last Battle of Winchester: Phil Sheridan: Jubal Early and the 1864 Valley Campaign. Mr. Patchan has also written four feature essays for Blue and Gray Magazine on the 1864 Valley Campaign, working on two more on the Second Manassas Campaign as well as dozens of articles for other historical publications. He is currently researching and writing on the Battle of Resaca, Georgia, 1864 Atlanta Campaign.
April 2012 - Michael Moore discussed the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. Michael Moore is the curator and registrar for Lee Hall Mansion and Endview Plantation in Newport News. Moore received a bachelor or arts history from Christopher Newport University and a master of arts in history from Old Dominion University. While earning his graduate degree, he taught American history at ODU. During his tenure with the City of Newport News, Mr. Moore has curated several exhibits at local historic sites and lectured to various historical societies and civic groups. In addition, he has led battlefield tours throughout Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. Aside from his work with the City of Newport News, the Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society, the Isle of Wright County Historic Recourses, and the York County Historical Museum retain him as a consultant. Moore is the co-author of The Peninsula Campaign of 1862: A Military Analysis. Michael has also served as editor and photographic editor for eight books and written articles for Virginia Cavalcade, North & South, and Military Collector & Historian.
May 2012 - Dr. Lisa L. Heuvel and her son Sean Heuval presented "The Old College Goes to War: Exploring William & Mary's
role in the American Civil War". When most people think of the College
of William and Mary, they usually associate it with the colonial era.
However, the College had an equally rich and eventful history during the
American Civil War. This presentation will explore key Civil War-era
events on the William and Mary campus, as well as the wartime
contributions of its students, faculty, and alumni.
Lisa L. Heuvel is
a museum administrator, teacher, and educational consultant who
specializes in higher education history and Native American Studies.
She has extensive work experience with several public history
institutions, including the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and the
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Sean M. Heuvel is a faculty member with the Department of Leadership
and American Studies at Christopher Newport University, where he
specializes in military leadership, the American Revolution, and the
Civil War. His previous publications include Life After J.E.B. Stuart:
The Memoirs of His Granddaughter, Marrow Stuart Smith.
September 2012 - S. Waite Rawls III,
CEO, Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond. Mr. Rawls presented “Burying the Dead, But Not the
Past”.
A native of Franklin, Virginia, he joined the
Franklin Civil War Roundtable at age 9. He has a BA
from the Virginia Military Institute and his MBA and
JD from the University of Virginia. He is a member
of the Richmond Civil War Roundtable and former
member of the Chicago and New York Roundtables.
Formerly, he spent thirty years as an investment
banker in New York and Chicago, with
responsibilities in the capital markets areas,
including being the Vice Chairman of Continental
Bank. Additionally, he has been an Adjunct Professor
at the Illinois Institute of Technology and a
Visiting Professor at the Darden School (University
of Virginia), concentrating on the derivatives and
capital markets.
Mr. Rawls is a Trustee of the Camp Foundation, a
member of Virginia’s Robert E. Lee Commission, a
former Trustee of the Civil War Preservation Trust
and of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, a former
Trustee and President of the Alumni Association of
the Darden School, and a former member of the Board
of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute
October 2012 -Thomas "Doc" Wheat
presented "The Siege Of Yorktown". Additionally, he
focused on the use of maps in the peninsular
campaign.
Thomas Wheat was born in Tennessee in June of 1945
and developed an intense interest in the American
Civil War starting in early childhood. He went
to undergraduates school at the University of
Tennessee in Knoxville, then to the University of
Tennessee medical school in Memphis. Thomas
graduated in 1970 during the latter stages of the
Vietnam war and, rather than serving as a general
medical officer, chose to volunteer for the
Berry plan to could complete his general surgery
training at University of Tennessee Hospital in
Knoxville. He ended up making a career of the
Army for 25 years in various medical assignments
such as: serving as a clinical general surgeon,
chief of surgery at Fort Eustis, Virginia. and
deputy commander of the combat support Hospital
attached to the 82nd airborne division. He retired
from the Army in 1995 and practiced for 10 years
doing general medicine in the public health
department.
Mr. Wheat helped found the national Museum of Civil
War medicine in Frederick Maryland and the exchange
Hotel medical exhibit in Gordonsville Virginia.
He loaned his collection of Confederate medical
memorabilia to the National Park Service in Richmond
Virginia so they could establish a medical exhibit
at the Chimborazo Hospital site.
In addition to his interest in Confederate medicine
he also has an intense interest in the Yorktown
Peninsula and its role during the American Civil War
in 1862.
November 2012 - Kirsten Talken-Spaulding
of the National Park Service discussed
" Fort Monroe: Past, Present, and Future" . Built between 1819 and 1834,
the fort occupies a strategic position for coastal defense dating back
to the earliest days of the Virginia Colony. It was the place where
Dutch traders first brought captured Africans in 1619. During the Civil
War, the fort remained in Union hands and became notable as a historic
and symbolic site of early freedom for escaped slaves to find refuge.
Kirsten Talken-Spaulding currently serves as the
superintendent of Fort Monroe National Monument in
Hampton, Virginia.
Ms. Talken-Spaulding came to Fort Monroe after serving as the Bevinetto
Congressional Fellow where she worked in both the National Park Service
Washington directorate and the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee during the two-year fellowship. She began her career as a
student employee with the Virginia State Park System before launching
her 20-year National Park Service career as a seasonal interpreter at
Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
Ms. Talken-Spaulding completed her undergraduate degree in biology at
the College of William & Mary and
later graduated from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia,
SC with a Master of Divinity. Talken-Spaulding has held management
positions at Prince William Forest Park in Virginia, Haleakala National
Park in Hawaii, and Mojave National Preserve in California. She’s served
as chief ranger of National Capital Parks – East in Washington, D.C.,
and was the coordinator of seasonal employment for the National Park
Service in Washington D.C.
2012 The speaker was
Frank O'Reilly of the National Park Service. Mr. O'Reilly presented
"The Battle Of Fredericksburg". He talked about the strategic
errors made on both sides and in particular, the Union's missed
opportunity to end the war at this early stage.
Mr. O'Reilly received both a BA and MA in American History with a
concentration on Early American Military History and Civil War Studies.
He did his undergraduate work at Washington & Lee University before
joining the National Park Service at the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania
National Military Park. He also worked briefly at Independence Hall in
Philadelphia, and then returned to Fredericksburg in 1990 as the
permanent historian for the "Stonewall" Jackson Shrine and has served as
an historical consultant for the City of Fredericksburg.
Mr. O'Reilly's latest book, The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War
on the Rappahannock, received a 2003 nomination for the Pulitzer Prize
in Letters. He has written numerous articles on the Civil War and
Mexican War, and introductions to several books, including Phil
Sheridan's memoirs, William McCarter’s My Life in the Irish Brigade, and
the History of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry. He released a book on the
Fredericksburg Campaign titled, Stonewall Jackson at Fredericksburg, in
1993. Frank has appeared in quite a few video documentaries, and has
lectured extensively on military history to audiences around the world.
Recently, he presented in the United Kingdom at Oxford, on the
bicentennial of Robert E. Lee’s birth; and the sesquicentennial of the
beginning of the war in 1861. Mr. O'Reilly is currently researching a
book on the Battle of Malvern Hill and the Seven Days’ Campaign.
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2011
Jack Tuttle, Williamsburg City Manager discussed the Riverside
development and its impact on the Williamsburg battle ground.
Teresina Toepke presented "Civil War Christmas: In
The Field and On The Home Front". She shared excerpts from letters,
diaries, and newspapers of the period, along with quotes and
illustrations from popular magazines of the time. The presentation will
trace attitudes, hopes, and customs as they evolve from Christmas, 1860,
through New Year’s, 1866.
Teri Toepke attended the College of William and
Mary where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in elementary
education and then went on to receive a Master’s in Education as well as
completing additional coursework toward a doctorate in special
education. In addition to teaching in elementary and special education
classrooms, Teri has taught GED classes for the state prison system and
was an assistant professor of education at Hampton University for two
years. She moved to museum education in February, 2000, taking a
position at Endview Plantation in Newport News before going to the
Hampton History Museum in November, 2002. In the summer of 2006, she
became Director of Elderhostel Road Scholar programs at the College of
William and Mary.
Outside of her work at the College, Teri is
actively involved in several historical organizations. She is past
president of the Williamsburg Civil War Roundtable, participates as a
civilian reenactor with the 44th Virginia Volunteer Infantry, and
volunteers with the Longstreet Memorial Fund to maintain the sites of
the North Carolina and Longstreet monuments at Gettysburg National
Military Park. Joining with two fellow Civil War reenactors in The
Ladies’ Historical Review, she conducts living history programs at
fairs, schools, and museums, often appearing as her alter ego, Miss
Sallie. She is also a member of the National Council for History
Education and the Virginia Association of Museums.
November 2011 David Corlette discussed "The Improbable
Invasion: The Confederate New Mexican Campaign 1862." Mr. Corlette graduated from Gonzaga University in 1994 with a degree in
history, after writing a thesis on Civil War chaplains After serving in
the military, he worked on his graduate studies at William and Mary,
writing a Master's thesis on early American warfare and then a Ph.D.
dissertation on early Indian Wars in New England. David has published
several dozen articles in the Encyclopedia of North American Conflict to
1775, Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War, and Encyclopedia
of American Military History. He is currently editing a book manuscript,
Steadfast in their Ways: New England Colonists, Indian Wars, and the
Persistence of Culture, 1675-1715.
Mr. Corlette is currently the Assistant Director of the National
Institute of American History and Democracy, an organization dedicated
to teaching American history through a multidisciplinary approach of
history, archaeology, anthropology, and public history. Since 2002, he
has taught colonial American, Atlantic World, and modern US Military
History for NIAHD, William and Mary, and the University of Virginia. Of
particular note is a course David teaches with NIAHD, From the
Revolution through the Civil War, which analyzes trends in American
history by teaching on historic sites and at museums. Over one third of
the course is devoted to the Civil War in Virginia, and he can
frequently be found leading classes over regional battlefields, along
the canals of Richmond, or through the ramparts of Fort Monroe.
October 2011 Art Grant discussed "The Military Genius of U. S.
Grant."
Art graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1966 with a
Bachelor of Science degree in engineering and was commissioned in the
Armor Branch. His military service included tours with combat arms units
both overseas and in the Continental United States including two combat
tours in the Republic of Vietnam. He has held staff positions at all
levels of command from squadron through the Department of the Army. Art
retired from the Army at the rank of Colonel in May 1991. Following
retirement from the Army, he joined the staff of the U.S. Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence.
He has been a member of the faculty of the U.S. Army Infantry School and
was an Assistant Professor of History at the U.S. Military Academy, an
Adjunct Professor of History at George Washington University, and a
Professor of Military Strategy at the National War College. He has
authored several books and articles on the American Civil War and on
current military strategy.
September 2011 Robbie Smith of the National Park Service. Robbie discussed "Fruits of Leadership: Vicksburg and Chancellorsville." Robbie Smith is a graduate of Goucher College in Towson, Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and economics. She has been with the National Park Service for eleven years and during that period has worked at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Manassas National Battlefield Park, Vicksburg National Military Park and the Yorktown Battlefield site of Colonial National Park
May 2011 George Wunderlick discussed “Civil War Medicine in the 21st century”. The battle of Antietam may be the single bloodiest day in our nation's history, but few know it for an even deeper meaning to those alive today. It is also the birthplace of modern emergency medicine. George Wonderlick is the director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Fredericksburg, MD.
April 2011 John Bray presented "Counter-espionage and Law Enforcement during the Civil War". The discussion focused on the women who were spies during the war. John presented some interesting accounts of ladies spying, being captured and then released because "ladies" would not do anything of the sort.
March 2011 Will Molineux presented “A Young Virginia Boatman Navigates the Civil War”. The journals of a boatman who plied the waters of Virginia during the Civil War. George Randolph Wood, who was 14½ in 1861, spent much of the next three years aboard river boats and barges in the service of the Confederacy. His recollections of his experiences delivering supplies – shot and shell, hay and wood – present a rare glimpse of life aboard quartermaster vessels, often “arks” of various description that were pulled by tugs, or propelled by polls and floated with tide and current. His waterborne platform gave him opportunities to witness cruelty and compassion, to visit compatriots posted as lookouts, to observe Robert E. Lee in the field, to attend the theater in Richmond. In order to care for his widowed mother, he sneaked through the lines and, after taking an Oath of Allegiance to the United States, returned to Hampton.
February 2011 Jeff Toalson presented from his newest book, "Send Me a Pair of Old Boots & Kiss My Little Girls - The Civil War Letters of Richard and Mary Watkins, 1861-1865". The book resulted when he discovered the previously unpublished letters held by the Virginia Historical Society. He performed a reading of selected letters in character as Richard Watkins.
January 2011 George Callis presented "Union and Confederate Cavalry: Myths & Facts I Didn't Know". Some of the items to be discussed include Bugle Calls, Weapons, Flags and Jeb Stuart at Gettysburg. Mr. Callis retired from the Xerox Corporation. He is a member of the Company of Military Historians. He collects Union & Confederate Cavalry Sabers and regimental histories. George also teaches cavalry courses at Christopher Wren.
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2010 Feather Foster a local author and member of our Roundtable discussed "The Civil War Divas: A Personal Look at Mary Lincoln, Julia Grant and Varina Davis". She has been an independent presidential historian for nearly four decades, with a personal library of more than 1,500 president and president-related volumes. Her first book, LADIES: A Conjecture of Personalities was published in 2003, and she began lecturing about the “old” First Ladies at various venues in New Jersey, her native state, including historical societies, libraries, woman’s clubs and senior organizations. She has made more than 300 personal appearances, including dozens of radio and television interviews. Recently moved to Williamsburg, she now lectures about the “old” First Ladies at adult education venues associated with both the College of William and Mary and Christopher Newport University. The First Ladies, due to be released in February, 2011, is her fourth book.
November 2010 Robbie Smith of the National Park Service. Robbie discussed the importance of the City Class gunboats on the western waters and contributions to the Union war effort in that theater in a program entitled, “City Class Ironclad Gunboats: Essentials to Union Victory.” Robbie Smith is a graduate of Goucher College in Towson, Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and economics. She has been with the National Park Service for eleven years and during that period has worked at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Manassas National Battlefield Park, Vicksburg National Military Park and the Yorktown Battlefield site of Colonial National Park
October 2010 Charles Knight discussed the battle of New Market called "Valley Thunder: The Battle of New Market and the Opening of Shenandoah Valley Campaign, May 1864". Mr. Knight is Curator of the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk. He's written a book about He will be speaking on this topic. The book was released in early May 2010. He spent several years working at the New Market Battlefield as an historical interpreter and lived in one of the outbuildings on the Bushong Farm there one summer.
September 2010 Carson Hudson discussed "Civil War Williamsburg". Carson Hudson is a Civil War living historian; author of publications on the Civil War in the Williamsburg area; Civil War music interpreter; frequent lecturer on a wide variety of topics from the colonial through the Civil War eras including the Battle of Williamsburg; and a group guide for battlefield tours.
May 2010 Michael Moore presented "Jeb's ride around the Union Army a story of where he went, who chased him, and where he finished his famous 1862 excursion. Michael Moore is the curator and registrar for Lee Hall Mansion and Endview Plantation in Newport News. Moore received a bachelor or arts history from Christopher Newport University and a master of arts in history from Old Dominion University. While earning his graduate degree, he taught American history at ODU. During his tenure with the City of Newport News, Mr. Moore has curated several exhibits at local historic sites and lectured to various historical societies and civic groups. In addition, he has led battlefield tours throughout Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. Aside from his work with the City of Newport News, the Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society, the Isle of Wright County Historic Recourses, and the York County Historical Museum retain him as a consultant. Moore is the co-author of The Peninsula Campaign of 1862: A Military Analysis. Michael has also served as editor and photographic editor for eight books and written articles for Virginia Cavalcade, North & South, and Military Collector & Historian
April 2010 Dr. Bruce M. Venter presented "Myths, Misconceptions and Mistakes of the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid on Richmond." Over the years, myths and legends have grown up around one of the most controversial cavalry raids of the Civil War: the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid on Richmond in 1864. Similarly, our speaker has spent years trying to unravel the mysteries surrounding this raid and the colorful characters involved in it. Dr. Venter is a leading authority on the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid on Richmond in 1864. His interest is Union cavalry, with particular research emphasis on the career of General Judson Kilpatrick. He has lectured at numerous cavalry conferences and Civil War Round Tables on this controversial cavalry leader He is currently preparing a manuscript for book publication which expands the article he published in Blue & Gray magazine on the raid. Dr. Venter holds a B.A. in history from Manhattan College, and a doctorate in educational administration from the University at Albany.
March 2010 Dr. Jere Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Geology at the College of William and Mary presented "Landforms in the Virginia Peninsula Campaign". Dr. Johnson attended Purdue University and Indiana University, from which he received his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in Geology. After several years at an Indiana geological agency, he came to W&M in 1965 and retired in 2001. He is well known for his energetic, humorous, and non-geologist-friendly talks.
February 2010 Richard Gillespie presented a talk on Colonel Mosby's valiant battle in the burned-out buildings of William & Mary College. Richard is the Director of Mosby Heritage Organization and a graduate of William & Mary.
January 2010 Jeff Toalson told stories of the last 16 months of the Confederacy from his first book - "No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion". These will be stories from the common soldiers and civilians as written in their diaries, letters and journals. Jeff Toalson has a B. S. in Business Management from Missouri State University is a 23 year resident of Williamsburg and a regular speaker at roundtables, historical societies, SCV Camps, UDC Chapters and National Park Battlefields. Jeff is the author of two books on the WBTS: Send Me a Pair of Old Boots & Kiss My Little Girls - The Civil War Letters of Richard and Mary Watkins, 1861-1865, which was published in 2009, and his first book No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion - A Composite Diary of the Last 16 Months of the Confederacy.
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2009 Cheryl Jackson has worked with the Virginia General Assembly for over 20 years. She is currently the Executive Director of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission, a legislative body charged with planning the statewide commemoration of thr 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Her duties include planning and implementation of Commission programs, activities, and meetings; oversight of a multi-million dollar budget and fundraising initiatives; serving as Commission liaison on the local, state, and national levels; and supervision of public relations and marketing. In addition, Cheryl staffs the House and Senate Rules committees during session and is a section manager at the Division of Legislative Services with oversight of the Legislative Reference Center and Capitol Tour Guide program. Cheryl holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political science and Master of Public Administration, both from Virginia Commonwealth University.
November 2009 John Fennell, a member of the Williamsburg Round Table retired from the Agricultural Chemical Division of the DuPont Company where he was in middle management in marketing and field research. He holds BS and MS degrees in Agronomy and Crop Science from Colorado State University and a Certificate of Environmental Studies from the University of Delaware. His interest in Civil War history has spanned more than 30 years. In addition to the Williamsburg round table, he also belongs to the Richardson CWRT of central coastal Maine, where he spends his summers. John is currently in the 5th year of research and writing of a manuscript on the lives of a very large, but specific group of Civil Wars soldiers. The 288 group members had all been West Point cadets who became Union or Confederate veterans of the Civil War. John discussed the Wilson-Kautz cavalry raid of June, 1864, part of the Petersburg campaign.
October 2009 Richard Rankin is a retiree from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, where he served as an administrator. He has a B.S. from the University of Kentucky, M.B.A. from George Washington University, and a doctorate in education from George Mason University. He has taught economics at Rappahannock Community College. He is a member of the Williamsburg CWRT and has recently taught a well-received course at the Christopher Wren Association on "Nathan Bedford Forrest" and his exploits in the western theatre of the Civil War. He was "that devil Forrest" to his Union foes and was "perhaps the South's greatest fighting man" according to Robert E. Lee. His topic is "Nathan Bedford Forrest".
September 2009 Henry Kidd a recognized author and historical artist presented "Petersburg; War on the doorstep". Born in 1950 in Petersburg, Virginia, Henry Kidd is a lifelong resident of Colonial Heights. He grew up playing on the battlefields surrounding Petersburg and has studied the war and its’ people extensively. He has a great passion for this period of American history. To him, it is more than mere history, it is family pride. Many of his ancestors followed General Robert E. Lee into battle. His fine art has appeared in documentaries on the History Channel and on covers of many books and magazines. He designed the Confederate Medal of Honor.
May 2009 Dr. Jimi Elizabeth Thomas will present "A Re-examination of the Legacy of James Longstreet, Lt. General, CSA." The purpose of this presentation is to reexamine the systematic process by which James Longstreet became the scapegoat for the defeat of the Battle of Gettysburg and thus faulted for the failure of the confederate States to become an independent nation. Dr. Thomas has a B.S. and M.S. in Elementary Education and a Ph.D. in Urban Services from Old Dominion University. She is a writer and recurrent speaker on "A re-examination of the Military Record and Legacy of James Longstreet". She has held a number of teaching positions in public schools and colleges from Hawaii to Italy. She currently lives in Virginia Beach where she has held various positions as an English, History, Civics teacher as well as a Teacher Mentor and Student Teacher Supervisor.
April 2009 Dr. Thomas A. Wheat's will speak on the subject of "Early Civil War Medicine on the Lower Peninsula". Dr. Wheat, is a retired Army Surgeon and has studied CW medicine for 30 or 40 years creating a wide demand for his lectures and consultations. He has founded several Civil War museums, works closely with the NPS and is writing a book on Confederate Surgeons. He lives in Yorktown with his wife Marla.
March 2009 Dr. Ludwell Johnson will speak on a subject, for which he is probably the foremost authority: "The Red River Campaign". For those of you who do not know Dr. Johnson’s Summer Enrichment class, "The Civil War In Virginia" resulted in a spin-off by class attendees forming this roundtable in 1976. The roundtable began meeting in Morton Hall on the campus at that time. It is a great honor to welcome Dr. Johnson as a speaker to this group.
February 2009 Mrs. Billie Earnest was born and reared in Franklin, VA. Her ancestral families were from the surrounding counties of Isle of Wight and Southamption, VA, Hertford and Gates Counties, NC. Her love of history and genealogy has grown over the years to include not only her family, but also the study of the life of Major General George Pickett and his third wife, Sallie Anne Corbell from Chuckatuck, VA. Due to her extensive research on George and Sallie, she has been contacted by Professor Richard Selcer of Fort Worth, TX, and is providing research material for their pending book. Because of her research, some membeers of the Corbell/Picket families have come together for the first time in fifty years.
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