CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

DR. BRIAN STEEL WILLS

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2014

at Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington, DC (see map here)

6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($30 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)

Reservations required: Call (703) 578-1942 by December 5

TOPIC:
"Warriors to the End: George Thomas and
Nathan Bedford Forrest"

The Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia will host Brian Still Wills at its monthly meeting on December 9, 2014. 

About The Topic: Our December speaker, Brian Steel Wills, Ph.D. is the biographer of George Henry Thomas and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Both were Southerners. Thomas was born in Virginia and Forrest was born in Tennessee. One would side with the North and become its “Rock of Chickamauga.” The other would choose the South and become its “Wizard of the Saddle.” Wills will lead us in exploring the lives and careers of these two Civil War generals.

 George Henry Thomas was born in Southampton County, Virginia in 1816 to a prosperous, slave holding family. In fact, he would grow up to own them himself. In 1836, he entered West Point and, while there, he roomed with and became friends with another future Union general, William T. Sherman. After graduation in 1840, he would enter the U.S. Army and Thomas would live and die a United States soldier. Between West Point and the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he served in various commands and fought in the Mexican War. In 1851, Thomas was assigned duty as an artillery and cavalry instructor at West Point where he became close with Robert E. Lee. He was posted in Texas with the Second U.S. Cavalry when the war began and Thomas would choose to remain with the Union. That decision has always been a subject of speculation from the moment he made it on down to today.

Thomas’ antebellum career was a distinguished one, and he was one of a very few officers with field experience in infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Despite that record and casting his lot with the Union cause, many people in the North viewed Thomas with a jaundiced eye due to his Southern birth. President Lincoln himself would have to be convinced of his value. Thomas’ choice alienated him from his family, who never spoke to him again, and his friends, who branded him “a Virginia renegade.” Thomas was a meticulous professional soldier and those deliberate ways would give rise to whispers of being slow when ordered to act. That resurrected his old, and less glorious, nickname from his days as an instructor at West Point, “Old Slow Trot.” But, Thomas always put his duty above his personal feelings and Sherman would remark to Henry Halleck in a September 1864 that “George Thomas, you know, is slow, but as true as steel.”

First Bull Run would find Thomas in the Shenandoah Valley, but shortly thereafter he would be reassigned to Kentucky and all of his subsequent assignments would keep him in the Western Theater. In 1862, as commander of a division in the Army of the Ohio under Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, he arrived at Shiloh on the second day and too late to engage in the fighting. He went on to lead the siege of Corinth. When concerns about Buell arose, Thomas was offered command of the Army of Ohio, but he refused and continued to serve as Buell’s second in the battle of Perryville and through the rest of 1862.

When Buell was replaced by Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans, Thomas commanded a wing in the renamed Army of the Cumberland and participated in the battle of Stones River, where he put in an impressive performance. However, he is best known for his stand in September 1863 at the battle of Chickamauga. That stand earned him his nom de guerre, “Rock of Chickamauga.” He would assume command of the Army of the Cumberland just before the battle at Chattanooga and his troops would be the ones to storm the Confederate line at Missionary Ridge. Thomas would join Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign in the spring of 1864 and would strike a major blow against Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood’s Confederates at the battle of Peachtree Creek. 

When Hood broke away from Atlanta and Sherman began his March to the Sea, Thomas was dispatched to deal with Hood. Racing to beat Hood to Nashville, Thomas would win a victory at Franklin and at the battle of Nashville in December 1864. Thomas’ victories would essentially destroy Hood’s army. This won him a promotion to major general and a new nickname, "The Sledge of Nashville.” Nevertheless, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had become concerned about Thomas’ lack of aggression even before he was dispatched to deal with John Bell Hood in the autumn of 1864. When Thomas did not move swiftly to destroy Hood post-Nashville, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Grant broke up his command. Thomas was left to wait for further orders. As a result, the battle of Nashville effectively ended his direct participation in the fighting.

Thomas moved into the post-war Reconstruction period as commander of the Military District of the Cumberland. President Andrew Johnson offered him a promotion to lieutenant general with a plant to make Thomas general of the armies when Grant was elected to the presidency. Thomas refused and requested a transfer to the Military District of the Pacific. He was sent to California in 1869 and he would die there in 1870, suffering a fatal stroke while responding to an attack on his career by his military rival, John Schofield. Never having written his own account of his service during the Civil War, Thomas’ legacy would fall into the hands of others who had their own agendas and reputations to secure. A deeply private man, Thomas left little behind for researchers and he seldom discussed his personal feelings or motivations in the correspondence that does remain.

Our speaker’s other subject, Nathan Bedford Forrest, is regarded as one of the most exciting, colorful, and controversial figures of the Civil War. He was a renowned cavalryman who perfected a ruthless hit-and-run style of guerrilla warfare. Forrest terrified Union soldiers and earned the begrudging respect of William T. Sherman, who described him as "that Devil, Forrest . . . the most remarkable man our Civil War produced on either side."

Nathan Bedford Forrest was born in Chapel Hill, Tennessee where, at the age of sixteen, he became responsible for his family following the death of his father. With only six months of formal education, Forrest rose from semi-subsistence farmer to planter. He gained substantial property and wealth, mostly from the slave trade. When Tennessee seceded, Forrest enlisted as a private in the Tennessee Cavalry but shortly afterward, Tennessee’s governor authorized him to raise a regiment of mounted troops. Mostly at his own expense, Forrest recruited and equipped his command, and they experienced their first major combat in December 1861 in Kentucky. There Forrest demonstrated the common sense tactics and close-hand fighting that would characterize his military career.

He established his reputation for boldness in 1862 when he led his men out of Fort Donelson rather than surrender.  He went on to fight at Shiloh and won promotion to brigadier general after a daring raid against the Union outpost at Murfreesboro in July 1862. Forrest would spend the war raiding and destroying Union supplies, hindering their communications capabilities, and disabling miles of railroad track and trestlework to cripple Union supply lines. Forrest’s efforts were so successful that they stymied Grant’s initial operations against Vicksburg and, in 1863, halted Union raids in northern Alabama. He ended 1863 with Gen. Braxton Bragg’s army and participated in the Confederate win at Chickamauga. In the aftermath, he futilely urged Bragg to pursue the beaten Federals and would then bitterly denounce Bragg and seek a transfer when Bragg refused to do it.

Forrest went on to independent command in Mississippi and received promotion to major general in December 1863. In early 1864, he concentrated his efforts on raids against Federal communications and supply lines in Tennessee. In April, his capture of Fort Pillow resulted in the wanton killing of its Union troops by his command; 64 percent of the dead were U.S. Colored Troops. This led it to being labeled the "Fort Pillow Massacre,” which would plague Forrest for the remainder of his life.

Forrest continued to harass Union forces in Mississippi, and led a raid on Memphis that resulted in another Union retreat. He spent the early autumn of 1864 raiding in northern Alabama and Middle Tennessee until he joined General John Bell Hood in the disastrous Tennessee campaign of November and December. Forrest's rearguard action during Hood’s retreat from Nashville unquestionably spared the remains of the Army of Tennessee from total annihilation. Returning to Mississippi, Forrest was promoted to lieutenant general in February 1865 and given command of the cavalry in the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. As the war drew to a close, he failed to prevent the capture of Selma, and he finally surrendered his command at Gainesville, Alabama, in May 1865.

After the war, Forrest struggled to regain his financial status via several business ventures, but he was never able to duplicate his pre-war financial success. Though he expressed a desire to remain out of the limelight, Forrest was soon the first Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan. In the 1870s, his health started to fail and he died in Memphis on October 29, 1877. His reputation during and after the war did not suffer as Thomas’ did. Instead, Forrest is regarded as one of the greatest cavalry generals of the Civil War and a commander who understood that "War means fighting and fighting means killing."

Join us as our speaker, Brian Steel Wills, delves into the lives and legacies of these two fascinating commanders--both Southerners, but one went North and the other South and on to very different historical legacies.

About Our Speaker:  Brian Steel Wills, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for the Study of the Civil War Era and Professor of History at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. He also spent a long tenure at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

He is the author of numerous works relating to the American Civil War, including a new volume - The River Was Dyed with Blood: Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow. His other titles include: A Battle From the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest which was reprinted as: The Confederacy's Greatest Cavalryman: Nathan Bedford Forrest. This work was chosen as both a History Book Club selection and a Book of the Month Club selection.

Dr. Wills also authored, The War in Southeastern Virginia, released in October, 2001, and No Ordinary College: A History of The University of Virginia's College at Wise, (2004), both by the University Press of Virginia. Gone with the Glory: The Civil War in Cinema appeared in 2006. An updated edition of the James I. “Bud” Robertson, Jr., Civil War Sites in Virginia (Virginia, 2011) arrived just in time for the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War. In 2012 and 2013, Brian authored George Henry Thomas: As True as Steel and Confederate General William Dorsey Pender: The Hope of Glory.

In 2000, Dr. Wills received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Commonwealth of Virginia, one of eleven recipients from all faculty members at public and private institutions across the state. He was named Kenneth Asbury Professor of History, and won both the Teaching award and the Research and Publication award from UVA-Wise

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For information about the Round Table and to apply for membership, visit http://cwrtdc-resources.blogspot.com/  

CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

EDWARD H. BONEKEMPER, III

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014
(NOTE: CHANGED DATE TO ACCOMMODATE HOLIDAY)

at Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington, DC (see map here)

6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($30 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)

Reservations required: Call (703) 578-1942 by November 7

TOPIC:
"The Western Theater Campaign, 1864-65"

The Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia will host Edward H. Bonekemper, III, at its monthly meeting on September 9, 2014. 

About His Topic: From Bull Run to Chattanooga, the Union armies had fought their battles without benefit of either an overarching strategy or an absolute field commander. In 1864, the people of the North were restless and as the election approached, many of them supported a policy of peace with the Confederacy.  President Lincoln, however, never wavered. Committed as ever to destroying the armed power of the Confederacy, he needed a general who could gather all the threads of an emerging strategy to bring to bear the combined power of the Union armies and their supporting naval power against the secessionists. Ulysses S. Grant was that man. 

After Grant became Union general-in-chief in March 1864, though, the Union still had a long way to go to win the Civil War. Military victories were essential to the reelection of Lincoln and his reelection was critical to Northern victory. 

This presentation will be an overview of the 1864-65 campaigns that led to Lincoln’s reelection and the Union victory in the war. While General Grant’s Overland Campaign and other Eastern developments will be discussed, our speaker, Ed Bonekemper, will emphasize the events in the West.

Mr. Bonekemper will discuss William T. Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign which focused on opening the “Gateway to the South.” The city’s fall set the stage for his famous (or infamous) “March to the Sea.” During the March, General Sherman’s forces destroyed military targets in Georgia as well as industry, infrastructure, and civilian property which further disrupted the South's economy and its transportation networks.  Sherman’s bold move of operating deep within enemy territory and without supply lines is considered to be revolutionary in the annals of war.  Sherman then persuaded Grant to allow him to march north through the Carolinas instead of putting his army on ships to reinforce the Army of the Potomac at Petersburg.  Mr. Bonekemper will also review the Carolinas Campaign which was the last campaign of the Western Theater and destroyed everything of military value along the way.

After Atlanta’s fall, General John Bell Hood drove north and, after a brief pursuit by Sherman, George Thomas was left to deal with the aggressive Hood.  Our speaker will talk about the Franklin-Nashville Campaign and Hood’s attempt to defeat the Union force under John Schofield before it could converge with Thomas's army at Nashville. Battles at Springhill, Franklin, and Nashville ensued and the Union’s smashing victories at Franklin and Nashville virtually destroyed Hood’s forces. General Hood resigned his commission shortly thereafter.  Mr. Bonekemper will conclude his talk with a discussion of 1865 events and the end of the war.

About Our Speaker:  Historian Edward H. Bonekemper III is the Civil War News Book Review Editor and a native and resident of Pennsylvania. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in American history from Muhlenberg College and Old Dominion University, respectively, and his J.D. from Yale Law School. During his 34 years as a federal government attorney, he wrote for Navy and Coast Guard publications and spoke on a variety of topics for the Coast Guard and the Interior and Transportation departments. He is retired as a commander in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.

Mr. Bonekemper writes and lectures widely on the topics of his books, slavery, turning points of the Civil War and Union and Confederate generals. He has taught several Civil War and other military history courses and is an adjunct lecturer on U.S. military history at Muhlenberg College. He has spoken at numerous Civil War Round Tables, given nine lectures about the Civil War at The Smithsonian Institution, and lectured at The Chautauqua Institution and on numerous other occasions.

Mr. Bonekemper has published: Grant and Lee: Victorious American and Vanquished Virginian; McClellan and Failure: A Study of Civil War Fear, Incompetence and Worse; A Victor, Not a Butcher: Ulysses S. Grant’s Overlooked Military Genius; How Robert E. Lee Lost the Civil War; and Lincoln and Grant: The Westerners Who Won the Civil War.

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For information about the Round Table and to apply for membership, visit http://cwrtdc-resources.blogspot.com/   

CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

ED BEARSS

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

at Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington, DC (see map here)

6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($30 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)

Reservations required: Call (703) 578-1942 by October 10th

TOPIC:
"Turning Point:
  Grant and Lee in the Wilderness"

About Our Topic: Ed Bearss will speak on the decisions that Grant and Lee made in the immediate aftermath of the battle of the Wilderness that set the stage for what has become known as the Overland Campaign.

The Civil War dragged into its fourth year in March 1864. Abraham Lincoln made the strategic decision to place his trust and election-year prospects in the hands of yet one more military commander. In Ulysses S. Grant, Lincoln believed that he at last had the right man to take the fight to the enemy. Grant was the hero of the West and claimed an impressive string of victories at Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. The President had long prized Grant’s aggression and refused to oust him after the 1862 Battle of Shiloh and stated simply “I can’t spare this man. He fights.” Grant was given command of all Union armies, more than a half-million men, and was promoted to lieutenant general, a rank not given since it was awarded to George Washington in the American Revolution.

By May of 1864, the Union Army of the Potomac under General George Meade had been in a fruitless quest to defeat the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia since their victory at Gettysburg. Confederate commander General Robert E. Lee still retained his fearsome reputation as a wrecker of Union armies who dared to get too close to Richmond and Meade was very restrained in his pursuit. However, all that was about to change with the appointment of Grant.

Grant’s plan was to lead the Army of the Potomac across the Rapidan River and continue on to Richmond. He had the manpower, the equipment, and easily outnumbered Lee. Lee, on the other hand, was anything but beaten and viewed Grant as just another Union general he would send packing as he had McClellan, Burnside, Pope and Hooker before him. Grant's army crossed the Rapidan and slowly entered the tangle of woods west of Fredericksburg known as the Wilderness. Lee planned to pin him there and destroy him before he came out the other side.

When the sun came up on May 7, Grant and Lee confronted each other across a smoldering wasteland. Lee had fought Grant to a stalemate but had not driven him from the battlefield. And Grant had certainly not destroyed Lee. "There lay both armies," a Union aide wrote home, "each behind its breastworks, panting and exhausted, and scowling at each other." Two days of ferocious fighting in the Wilderness had resulted in some 18,000 Union casualties and Lee had suffered fewer than 12,000 casualties. Both Burnside and Hooker had retreated across the Rappahannock after tangling with Lee, what would Grant do?

Grant did not. In one of the most consequential decisions of the war, he ordered the engineers to remove the pontoon bridges at Germanna Ford on May 7 and directed his corps commanders to march toward Spotsylvania Court House that night. When Union soldiers realized that Grant was not retreating despite his losses, they cheered him. Finally they had a chieftain who would continue to fight Lee until he beat him. Lee was puzzled about what move Grant would make next. Would he renew the battle in the Wilderness? Would they sidestep to Fredericksburg and press south along the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad? Or was Grant preparing to march toward Spotsylvania Court House?

The Overland Campaign, some 40-odd days of movement and battle between the Rapidan and James Rivers, was in motion. This contest would pit the Civil War’s greatest commanders — Lt. Gen Ulysses S. Grant for the Union, and Gen. Robert E. Lee for the Confederacy — against the other in a grueling contest of stamina and cunning. Ed will review and assess the decisions made by each commander after the Battle of the Wilderness that led to the final chess match between the two supreme generals of the Civil War. The campaign that would dictate the outcome of the Civil War in the East was underway.

About Our Speaker: Ed Bearss needs no introduction to this round table or to most Civil War enthusiasts. He is a world-renowned military historian, author, and tour guide known for his work on the Civil War and World War II.  We are gratified to have him as our lifetime honorary member, yearly speaker, and chosen leader for our field trips and tours.

Ed is the author of numerous books including the definitive three volume series, “The Vicksburg Campaign.” He is a tireless advocate of Civil War preservation donating his time to many organizations and activities involved with that mission including his service on the board of the Civil War Trust. Among his many honors, Ed was named by the Smithsonian as one of its “35 Who Made A Difference.” Since 2005, the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia has recognized Ed’s contributions to our round table by making an annual “Ed Bearss Award” to a preservation cause of his choosing. To date, the Ed Bearss Award has provided more $10,000 to worthy, many times little known, Civil War preservation efforts.

Ed has worked as a historian at Vicksburg National Military Park where he did the research leading him and two friends to the long-lost Union gunboat, U.S.S. Cairo. He also located two forgotten forts at Grand Gulf, Mississippi.  He rose in the National Park Service (NPS) to the post of regional historian and was recognized as more knowledgeable on the Civil War battlefields than virtually anyone else.

During his time with the NPS, Ed led efforts for researching, preserving, and interpreting Pea Ridge; Wilson’s Creek; Fort Smith; Stones River, Fort Donelson; the battlefields around Richmond, Fort Moultrie and Fort Point among many others. Bearss was named Chief Historian of the National Park Service in 1981, a position he held until 1994. He also served as special assistant to the NPS director from 1994 to 1995. After his retirement in 1995, he received the title Chief Historian Emeritus, which he holds to this day. 

Ed’s abundance of awards and honors are too numerous to mention but some of the more recent include the 2014 DAR Medal of Honor, the Douglas Southall Freeman Award for 2014 for his book entitled The Petersburg Campaign for the best published book of high merit in the field of Southern history; the Lincoln Forum’s Richard Nelson Current Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011; and the Civil War Trust has established its annual lifetime achievement award in Ed’s name.

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For information about the Round Table and to apply for membership, visit http://cwrtdc-resources.blogspot.com/

CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

WILLIAM D. HEWITT

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

at Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington, DC (see map here)

6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($30 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)

Reservations required: Call (703) 578-1942 by Sept. 5.

TOPIC:
"Command Decisions at Gettysburg"

Summary Of Presentation:

The Battle of Gettysburg conjures up a mythology of events and personalities and is often described as a chance happening. Given this mythology, the commanders of this battle seem to be absent from the action.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Using information from his book The Campaign of Gettysburg: Command Decisions, our speaker’s presentation will review the tactics he taught at the Command & General Staff College and apply them to the battle.  Mr. Hewitt has used modern analyses to study the intelligence gathering of both armies as they maneuvered. We will look at events leading up to the battle through Mr. Hewitt's expert eyes and the prism of military thought at the time.  His talk will cover the events, the importance of time and space, and the options available to the commanders. The discussion will focus on the numerous opportunities each commander had to change history.  

Biography: 
William D. Hewitt, Lt. Col, U.S. Army (ret.) served in the Army for 31 years, including 6 years in intelligence and 25 years in armor and cavalry.  His service includes nearly four years at the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College in the Center for Army Tactics.  As an instructor, he taught officers in grades from captain to brigadier general in the art and science of army operations.  During his time at the College, he rewrote the primary tactics course for the College, supervised and reviewed all secondary tactics instruction at the College, and conducted several tactics seminars with senior army officers.  In that capacity he was required to study the journey of tactics from before the American Revolution through Desert Storm in order to update the curriculum and thereby allow students “to see into the future” and implement visionary solutions to tactical requirements.

Mr. Hewitt now lives near Gettysburg with his wife, Kathy, and has served as a seasonal Park Ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park for the last seven years. He is a regular at the Gettysburg NMP’s Winter Lecture series and has spoken to many Civil War round tables around the country.  Mr. Hewitt is an avid woodworker and makes handcrafted keepsakes from famed historic "witness trees" as well as post battle trees from the field at Gettysburg.

In addition to his book, Mr. Hewitt has written 17 articles for journals and military publications including two tactics manuals over the course of his carreer. His book received the Batchelder-Coddington Literary Award and Book of the Year honors from the Gettysburg Civil War Roundtable.

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For information about the Round Table and to apply for membership, visit http://cwrtdc-resources.blogspot.com/

CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

GAIL STEPHENS

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington, DC (see map here)

6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($30 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)

Reservations required: Call (703) 578-1942

TOPIC:
"The Battle of Monocacy:
  The Final Invasion; Jubal Early, 1864"


 Summary of Presentation:
In the fourth summer of the Civil War, a Confederate army came close to carrying off the improbable: the seizure of Washington, DC.  In June 1864, Lt. Gen. Jubal Early slipped away from the works around Richmond, where Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia faced Grant and the Army of the Potomac, and moved rapidly through the Shenandoah Valley into Maryland with an army of 16,000 veterans. Lee’s orders to Early:  take Washington, which had been stripped of veteran troops to reinforce Grant. The Union high command in Washington refused to believe the first reports of a major Confederate force moving north through the Valley and took no action. The stage was set for a race between Early’s veterans and Grant’s reinforcements. Though the Confederates did not succeed, this little known campaign is one of the most exciting and potentially most momentous of the Civil War.

Biography:
Gail Stephens has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Politics from George Washington University in Washington DC and did graduate work at Johns Hopkins and Harvard Universities. She worked for the Department of Defense for 26 years, retiring in 1994 as a member of the Department’s Senior Executive Service.

Upon retirement, Ms. Stephens began studying the American Civil War.  She volunteers at Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick, Maryland, lectures regularly on various Civil War topics, including Monocacy, Major General Lew Wallace, and the 1864 Maryland campaign.  Ms. Stephens also gives battlefield tours.

In 2002, Ms. Stephens won the National Park Service’s E.W. Peterkin award for her contributions to public understanding of Civil War history. She is on the board of the General Lew Wallace Study Museum and chairs the board of the Western Maryland Interpretive Association, which is responsible for the bookstores at Antietam and Monocacy.

Ms. Stephens has written articles on Lew Wallace and Early’s 1864 invasion of the North for various Civil War publications. Her book on Wallace’s Civil War career, Shadow of Shiloh, published by the Indiana Historical Society Press in October 2010, won the Civil War Forum of New York City’s William Henry Seward Award for best Civil War biography of 2011.

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For information about the Round Table and to apply for membership, visit http://cwrtdc-resources.blogspot.com/   

CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

ROBERT LEE HODGE

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington, DC (see map here)

6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($30 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)

Reservations required: Call (703) 578-1942

TOPIC:
"Confederates in the Attic"

Biography:
Robert Lee Hodge - born on Stonewall Jackson’s birthday - has had a keen interest in The War Between the States since age 4.

For over 25 years Robert has worked in historical based films – from dramas like ABC's North and South and TNT’s Gettysburg and Andersonville, to many programs on The History Channel, Arts and Entertainment Channel, and the National Geographic Channel, to his own Civil War documentaries that have won 5 Tally awards and an Emmy in 2007.

Robert has been featured on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, NBC's Late, Late Show, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, the PBS program Going Places, C-SPAN II, and on the National Public Radio program Soundscapes.

Robert has also written for The Nashville Tennessean, America’s Civil War magazine, The Washington Post, and North and South magazine. He played a major role in the New York Times' 1998 best-selling book Confederates in the Attic (and appears on the cover) hosting Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Tony Hurwitz, on an eclectic and memorable Civil War tour-de-force of historic sites.  Robert was a historical researcher, primarily at The National Archives and Library of Congress, working with nationally-recognized experts. He also was principle researcher on Time-Life Books 18-volume series Voices of the Civil War and The Illustrated History of the Civil War.

Robert became interested in preserving historic green space when he interned with the National Park Service's Civil War Sites Advisory Commission. Rob has organized battlefield preservation fundraisers that have garnered over $140,000 for the purchase of endangered battlefield land. He serves on the board of directors of the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, an organization that has protected nearly one thousand acres near Fredericksburg, Virginia. 

Robert will have for purchase at the dinner his Tally award-winning documentaries on the battles on Spotsylvania, VA, and Perryville, KY, as well as his Emmy-award winner on Franklin, TN.  He will also have information on how to join the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust.
 

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For information about the Round Table and to apply for membership, visit http://cwrtdc-resources.blogspot.com/   

CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

DR. KENNETH J. HEINEMAN

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington, DC (see map here)

6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($30 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)

Reservations required: Call (703) 578-1942

TOPIC:
"The Ewing Family of Ohio"

Summary of Presentation:

Dr. Heineman will discuss the foster family that raised and supported the young man who would become "General William T. Sherman."  Although lost in the historical shadow cast by their foster son, it was the Ewing family who raised him, got him into West Point, and provided him with the financial resources and political connections to succeed in war. 

The patriarch, Thomas Ewing, counseled presidents and clashed with radical abolitionists and southern secessionists leading to the Civil War. Three Ewing sons became Union generals, served with distinction at Antietam and Vicksburg, marched through Georgia, and fought guerillas in Missouri. The Ewing family stood at the center of the Northern debate over emancipation, fought for the soul of the Republican Party, and waged total war against the South.

This history is also discussed in Dr. Heineman's book, Civil War Dynasty: The Ewing Family of Ohio, which brings to life this drama of political intrigue and military valor. It is a military, political, religious, and family history, told against the backdrop of disunion, war, violence, and grief. 

Biography:

Dr. Heineman spent 18 years at Ohio University Lancaster working in Sherman's hometown. Every morning after he would drop off his kids at school, he would sit at Four Reasons and stare at the Sherman mural downtown. There was always this presence," said Heineman "But the Ewing Mansion was just up the hill on Main Street and the more he started looking into the Ewings, the more he realized there was a story here, a great story."

Dr. Heineman is now a professor of history and department chair at Angelo State University in Texas. His areas of specialization include United States social and political history in the 20th century; American immigration; urban, labor and religious history; social movements.

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For information about the Round Table and to apply for membership, visit http://cwrtdc-resources.blogspot.com/   

CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

W. STUART TOWNS

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington, DC (see map here)

6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($30 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)

Reservations required: Call (703) 578-1942


TOPIC:
"Enduring Legacy: The Lost Cause Myth"

Summary of Presentation:
Rhetoric and ritual commemorating war has been a part of human culture for ages. In Enduring Legacy: Rhetoric and Ritual of the Lost Cause, Dr. W. Stuart Towns explores the crucial role of rhetoric and oratory in creating and propagating a “Lost Cause” public memory of the American South. Enduring Legacy explores the vital place of ceremonial oratory in the oral tradition in the South. It analyzes how rituals such as Confederate Memorial Day, Confederate veteran reunions, and dedication of Confederate monuments have contributed to creating and sustaining a Lost Cause paradigm for southern identity.

Dr. Towns studies in detail post–Civil War southern speeches and how they laid the groundwork for future generations, from southern responses to the civil rights movement and beyond. The Lost Cause orators that came after the Civil War, he argues, helped to shape a lasting mythology of the brave Confederate martyrs and of the southern positions for why the Confederacy lost and who was to blame. Innumerable words were spent—in commemorative speeches, newspaper editorials, and statehouse oratory—condemning the evils of Reconstruction, redemption, and reconciliation, and praising the new and future South. Dr. Towns concludes with an analysis of how Lost Cause myths still influence southern and national perceptions of the region today, as evidenced in debates over the continued deployment of the Confederate flag and the popularity of Civil War reenactments.

Biography:
W. Stuart Towns, Ph.D., has spent more than 40 years following his passion for history.  His educational pursuits in his undergraduate and graduate studies developed a love for public speaking and the impact words have had on history, especially Southern history.

The 1950s and 1960s led Dr. Towns to the University of Arkansas on a track and cross-country scholarship; he continued his education at the University of Florida where he received his masters and doctoral degrees in Speech (1962 and 1972 respectively). Through his career he served as chair of the Communication departments at The University of West Florida, Appalachian State University, and Southeast Missouri State University. He retired in 2011.

Dr. Towns had a parallel second career in the U.S. Army, which began when he enrolled in R.O.T.C. at the University of Arkansas. He earned a spot on the United States Modern Pentathlon team; he competed in the 1964 Olympic Trials in modern pentathlon, marathon, and fencing. After completing his active duty, Dr. Towns served the rest of his military career in the Active Army Reserves in the Civil Affairs branch, mostly with the 361st CA Brigade in Pensacola, FL. He took an opportunity to become a member of the Consulting Faculty Program at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1973 and served in that role until 1996. Dr. Towns retired as a Colonel in the Active Army Reserves in 1996.

Dr. Towns’ most recent publication, Enduring Legacy: Rhetoric and Ritual of the Lost Cause (University of Alabama Press, 2012), demonstrates his interest in examining the history of southern rhetoric and oratory. He was working on an anthology of southern speeches and saw that some of the segregationist speakers in the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s were making some of the same points and using many of the same words as southern orators from the 1880s and 1890s. He soon discovered that debates of the 1990s and on into the 21st century over Confederate flags, Confederate monuments, and other memorabilia were still repeating some of the same 19th century messages. The Civil War was alive and well in southern public memory.  As a result of seeing that connection, Dr. Towns wrote Enduring Legacy.

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For information about the Round Table and to apply for membership, visit http://cwrtdc-resources.blogspot.com/   

CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

ANNE SARAH RUBIN

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington D.C. (see map here)

6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($30 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)

Reservations required: Call (703) 578-1942


TOPIC:
"Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman's March and America"

Dr. Rubin will discuss her forthcoming book and web project: Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman's March and America. Rather than retell the story of the march, this project explores the myriad ways in which Americans have remembered, retold, and re-imagined Sherman's march. It looks at the march from a kaleidoscope of perspectives (African-Americans, Union soldiers, Confederates, women, environmental) and a mosaic of sources (travel accounts, memoirs, music, literature, films and newspapers). Through the Heart of Dixie unpacks the many myths and legends that have grown up around the march, not in the service of proving them true or false, but rather to use them as a lens into the ways that Americans' thoughts about the Civil War have changed over time.  

Biography:
Dr. Anne Sarah Rubin is an Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Digital History and Education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).  She received her AB from Princeton University and her MA and PhD at the University of Virginia.  Professor Rubin joined the UMBC History Department in the Fall of 2000.  Her teaching and research focus on the American Civil War, the U.S. South, nineteenth century America, and digital history.

Dr. Rubin is currently finishing a book entitled Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman’s March and America, which is scheduled to be published in early 2014.  Her first book, A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868, focuses on Confederate nationalism and identity.  It won the 2006 Avery O. Craven book prize for the best book in Civil War history.

Dr. Rubin has also worked extensively with electronic media and is co-author of a CD-ROM, The Valley of the Shadow: The Eve of War.  That project won the first eLincoln Prize for the best digital project in American Civil War History as well as the James Harvey Robinson Prize, which is awarded biennially for the teaching aid that has made the most outstanding contribution to the teaching and learning of history in any field for public or educational purposes.

Dr. Rubin is currently President of the Society of Civil War Historians.  She is a member of the Maryland State Archives Legacy of Slavery Project Advisory Board and the Editorial Board of Civil War History.  She is also an OAH Distinguished Lecturer (2011-2014).

Dr. Rubin's website can be found at http://history.umbc.edu/facultystaff/full-time/anne-sarah-rubin/

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For information about the Round Table and to apply for membership, visit http://cwrtdc-resources.blogspot.com/  

CANCELLED.  ALL OFFICERS' CLUB ACTIVITIES CANCELLED TODAY DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER.

CWRT-DC's Next Meeting:

Ed Bearss

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington D.C. (see map here)

6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($30 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)

Reservations required: Call (703) 578-1942

TOPIC:
"The Battle of Chattanooga"

After being defeated by the Confederates at Chickamauga, General Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland withdrew to Chattanooga surrounded by Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee. The Confederates held the high ground of Lookout Mountain to the southwest and Missionary Ridge to the east.

When Grant was placed in command of the armies in the west, Rosecrans was relieved of command.  Major General George Thomas was placed in command of the Army of the Cumberland and plans were put into place to break out of Chattanooga.

Ed Bearss will take us through the events of 150 years ago at Chattanooga, including the dramatic assault on Missionary Ridge, that led to Bragg’s forces retreating and opened up the way to Georgia. Grant’s success would also get him noticed in Washington and lead to his promotion to lieutenant general and command of the Armies of the United States.

Biography:
Ed Bearss, an honorary lifetime member of the CWRTDC, is universally regarded as the unsurpassed tour guide of Civil War battlefields, no doubt in part because he has visited almost every battlefield in the country . . . and many multiple times.

Ed is the author or editor of numerous books and articles, including the definitive three volume series, The Vicksburg Campaign, and has been featured in many documentaries and television programs. He is a tireless advocate of Civil War preservation, donating his time to many organizations and activities involved with that mission including his service on the board of the Civil War Trust. Among his countless accolades and honors are the Bruce Catton Award, the Distinguished Service Award from the Department of Interior, and a Commendation from the Secretary of the Army. Since 2005, our Round Table has recognized Ed’s contributions by making an annual "Ed Bearss Award" to a preservation cause of his choosing.

Ed has worked as a historian at Vicksburg National Military Park where he co-conducted research that found the long-lost Union gunboat, U.S.S. Cairo. He also located two forgotten forts at Grand Gulf, Mississippi. Ed rose within the National Park Service (NPS) to the post of regional historian and was recognized as more knowledgeable on the Civil War battlefields than virtually anyone else. During his time with the NPS, Ed led efforts to research, preserve, and interpret Pea Ridge, Wilson’s Creek, Fort Smith, Stones River, Fort Donelson, the battlefields around Richmond, Fort Moultrie and Fort Point among many others.

Ed was named Chief Historian of the National Park Service in 1981, a position he held until 1994. He also served as special assistant to the NPS director from 1994 to 1995. After his retirement in 1995, he received the title Chief Historian Emeritus, which he holds to this day.

Ed, who turns 90 next year, continues to lead tours traveling around the United States, the Pacific, and Europe. I can personally attest to the report that " he routinely outpaces his much younger guests in charging over rough terrain, recreating the color of famous infantry and cavalry attacks." Ed indeed demonstrates his conviction that "You can't describe a battlefield unless you walk it!"
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For additional information about his presentation, download CWRTDC's October 2012 newsletter available by clicking here: cwrtdc-newsletters.  For information about the Round Table and to apply for membership, visit http://www.cwrtdc.org/ 

 

CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

 

Burrus Carnahan

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington D.C. (see map here)

6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($30 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)

Reservations required: Call (703) 578-1942

TOPIC:
"Lincoln and the Law of War"

I don’t know anything about the law of nations,” Lincoln confessed to Thaddeus Stevens in 1861.  International law, then called the law of nations, was one set of ideas Lincoln set out to master while President. By 1863 he had thoroughly mastered the principles of international law and, in particular, the law of war as it then existed. Dr. Carnahan's presentation will focus on Lincoln's ability to explain important legal concepts in plain language that was accessible to military officers as well as the American public, most notably in defense of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Burrus M. ("Buzz") Carnahan is a Foreign Affairs Officer at the US Department of State and a Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University in Washington DC.  His JD degree is from Northwestern University (1969) and he holds an LLM from the University of Michigan (1974). From 1969 to 1989, Dr. Carnahan served as a Judge Advocate in the US Air Force, specializing in international legal issues.  From 1974 to 1978, he was an Associate Professor of Law at the US Air Force Academy. 

 

The author of two books and numerous articles on Abraham Lincoln, international law, and the law of war, Dr. Carnahan has spoken on Lincoln and his era at the Abraham Lincoln Institute at the National Archives, the Gettysburg College Civil War Institute, Robert Lincoln’s Hildene in Vermont, the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky, and many other venues.  He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Lincoln Forum and in 2012 was appointed to the Scholarly Advisory Group for President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home for a two year term.

Schedule of Meeting Speakers

for 2013-2014

DATE                  SPEAKER                    TENTATIVE TOPIC

Sept. 10, 2013    Charles Ross              Civil War Acoustic Shadows

Oct. 8, 2013        Gregory Elder             Intelligence in the Civil War

Nov. 12, 2013     Burrus Carnahan         Lincoln and the Law of War

Dec. 10, 2013     Ed Bearss                    The Battle of Chattanooga

Jan. 14, 2014     Anne Sarah Rubin       Sherman's March

 

Feb. 11, 2014     Jack Hurst                    Grant and Forrest

Mar. 11, 2014     Stuart Towns                Enduring Legacy:
                                                                 The Lost Cause Myth

Apr. 8, 2014       Ken Heineman             The Ewing Family of Ohio

May 13, 2014     Robert Lee Hodge        Confederates in the Attic

June 10, 2014    Gail Stephens              The Battle of Monocacy