CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

 

JOSEPH SCOPIN, JR.

TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2015

at the 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 noon, April 10

The Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia will host Historian Joe Scopin at its monthly meeting on April 14, 2015. 

TOPIC:
"Lewis Cass White"

About the Topic: 
Just when you think everything about the Civil War that can be said has been said, along comes a previously unknown batch of historical materials that sheds new light on everything. Our speaker, Joseph Scopin, Jr., experienced such a moment in 2011 while he was cleaning out the basement of an elderly relative.  Hidden among a lifetime of moldy, water-logged debris, Mr. Scopin unearthed a bag of handwritten reminiscences, daily notes from diaries, correspondence, speeches, newspaper clippings and photos, and other odds-and-ends belonging to Lewis Cass White, a Civil War veteran of the 102nd Pennsylvania Infantry.  No one seemed to know how the material came to be in a Bethesda, Maryland basement and Mr. Scopin wasn't sure just what he had found. Fortunately, he reached out to our very own Civil War scholar, Benjamin Franklin Cooling III, who did.

The materials Mr. Scopin uncovered in that moldy, long ignored basement were rescued and published in a new book, “As I Remember:  A Civil War Veteran Reflects on the War and Its Aftermath.” The book presents new, never-seen in public, original source material from the collection of Lewis Cass White, a soldier in the 102nd Pennsylvania Volunteers. It includes hand-written histories and reminiscences, daily notes from diaries from 1861, 1862, 1863 and 1865 and an original diary covering part of 1861. White participated in 24 battles, including Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, Salem Church, The Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Fort Stevens, Winchester and Cedar Creek. The collection includes correspondence to and from other veterans and veterans associations, speeches, newspaper clippings and other related ephemera. The retrieved documents are transcribed and some have been reproduced in full color and augmented with Civil War era illustrations.

Of particular note to those of us in the DC metro area, are several first-hand accounts of the Battle of Fort Stevens, the only time a sitting president has been under fire. White was there and requested assistance from his colleagues in memorializing this “small event” that he believed had large consequences. Materials include a diagram, reproduced in color, from Surgeon C.C.V. Crawford, who was wounded while standing close to President Abraham Lincoln, and a seven-page account from Lieutenant George Jewett, who was also standing close by the president. Several items include quotes from President and Mrs. Lincoln. The events became a part of White's life after the war, as a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and particularly in his efforts to memorialize the battlefield of Fort Stevens, where he took up residence.

Gordon Berg, did a delightful and information review of Mr. Scopin’s book, and you can read it on our website at:  http://cwrtdcreviews.blogspot.com/

About Our Speaker:  
Joe Scopin, a native of the Washington DC area. He received an associate degree from Montgomery College and a bachelor of fine arts in communication art and design from Virginia Commonwealth University. He started his career as a designer and illustrator, including 2 years as art director for the National Art Education Association and several years operating his own design studio. He worked as an editorial art director for The Washington Star and The Washington Post.  Mr. Scopin joined The Washington Times in 1982 as magazine art director and he became its overall Art Director in 1983. He left the Times in 1984 to assemble and head an expanding graphics department for United Press International.  
Mr. Scopin returned to The Washington Times in 1987 as Assistant Managing Editor/Design and Photography. He managed the art department and art directed a major redesign implemented in 1987 and designed Saturday and Sunday editions introduced in 1991. He oversaw several other redesigns and art directed special sections and several books for the Times until his departure in 2010. 

Starting Scopin Design, he has since worked on several projects, including “As I Remember,” a book presenting Civil War material found in a relatives basement. He serves on the Board of Directors and consults on exhibition design for the Mooseum, a Montgomery County Dairy museum.

Mr. Scopin's work has received recognition from various design organization, including the Society for News Design, the New York Art Directors Club, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Print and Communication Arts magazines. He has been a member of the Society of Newspaper Design and the Society of Publication Designers. 

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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:

C.R. GIBBS

TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2015

at the 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 noon, March 6


The Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia will host Historian C.R. Gibbs at its monthly meeting on March 10, 2015. 

TOPIC:
"1st Regiment USCT"

About the Topic: 
Historian C.R. Gibbs will speak of the creation of the United States Colored Troops and their service during the Civil War. Over 180,000 African-Americans enlisted in the USCT, constituting 10% of the Union Army by the end of the Civil War. Soldiers of the USCT served with distinction in every theater of the war and nearly 40,000 never returned. Although placed in segregated units, the Civil War service of African-American soldiers marked a major advancement toward equal civil rights and helped create opportunity for Black Americans.

About the Speaker:
C.R. Gibbs is the author/co-author of six books and a frequent national and international lecturer on an array of topics.  He has appeared on the History Channel, French and Belgian television, and wrote, researched,and narrated "Sketches in Color," a 13 part companion series to the acclaimed PBS series "The Civil War" for the Howard University television station.

The Smithsonian Institution's Anacostia Community Museum features Mr. Gibbs among its scholars at the museum's Online Academy website. He is also a D.C. Humanities Council Scholar.

In 1989, Mr. Gibbs founded the African History & Culture Lecture Series whose scholars continue to provide free presentations at libraries, churches, schools, and other locations in the Washington-Baltimore area.  In 2002, he authored "Black, Copper, and Bright," the first book ever written on the District of Columbia's African-American Civil War Regiment.  In 2008, he was awarded by the mayor of the District of Columbia for excellence in historic preservation public education. In 2009, Mr. Gibbs was honored by the Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust for many years of articles and presentations on African-Americans in the U.S. armed forces. 

Mr. Gibbs provided historical commentary for WUSA Channel 9 for both the dedication of the King memorial and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

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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:

ERIC W. BUCKLAND

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

at the 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 noon, February 6


The Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia will host Eric W. Buckland at its monthly meeting on February 10, 2015. 

TOPIC:
"MOSBY'S RANGERS"

About the Topic: No military leader achieves greatness without having singularly outstanding and talented subordinates executing his orders; such was the case with John Singleton Mosby.  And although much has been written about him (and he remains the “face” of his command), there would never have been a “Mosby” had it not been for the men—Mosby Men—who rode with him.  Our February presentation will focus on these men. 

Mosby's Rangers, the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry, is one of the most famous units of the Civil War.  A battalion of partisan cavalry in the Confederate army, it was commanded by Colonel John Singleton Mosby, the “Gray Ghost.”  Exactly how to categorize the Confederate 43rd Battalion was a controversy even at the time of the war. Were they soldiers, partisan rangers, a unit of guerrillas hiding among civilians, or simply a loose band of marauders? The memoirs of John Munson, one of Mosby's men, recalled that Mosby himself avoided using words like "troops" or "soldiers" or "battalion" and favored "Mosby's Men" or "Mosby's command" to describe them.  The Union Army and Northern newspapers called them guerrillas.  Munson noted that "the term (guerilla) was not applied to us in the South in any general way until after the war, when we had made the name glorious, and in time we became as indifferent to it as the whole South to the word Rebel."

The 43rd Virginia was formed on June 10, 1863, at Rector’s Cross Roads, VA.  Mosby, acting under the authority of Robert E. Lee and the Partisan Ranger Act of 1862, raised a company in January 1863. The Confederate Congress passed the Partisan Ranger Act to authorize the formation of such units.  Initially just one company—Company A—by the summer of 1864, Mosby's battalion had grown to six cavalry companies, one artillery company, and numbered nearly 400 men.  In February 1864, the Confederate Congress revoked the authority of all partisan units except for two and one of those was Mosby’s Rangers. At the end of the war, the battalion never formally surrendered; instead it disbanded on April 21, 1865 after attempting to negotiate a surrender with Major General Winfield S. Hancock in Winchester, Virginia.

The unit gained fame for its lightning raids on Union targets, its success in disrupting Federal communications and supply lines, and its talent for consistently eluding capture. After their raids, Mosby’s troopers melted into the civilian population until called together for a new mission. With speed and the element of surprise, they were able to successfully strike much larger bodies of enemy troops.  Perhaps their most celebrated feat was the capture of Union Brigadier General Edwin Stoughton at Fairfax Court House in March of 1863. The modus operandi of the 43rd Virginia was to conduct small raids with up to 150 men but usually 20 to 80. They entered Federal lines undetected and quickly executed their mission, withdrew rapidly and dispersed among the welcoming local Southern sympathizers to effectively melt into the countryside.

Their area of operation was Northern Virginia, roughly from the Shenandoah Valley to the west, along the Potomac River to Alexandria to the east, and bounded on the south by the Rappahannock River.  Most of their activities were centered in or near Fauquier and Loudoun counties, in an area known as "Mosby's Confederacy.”  Mosby's command, however, operated within the distance a horse could travel in a day's hard riding, which included an area 25 miles in any direction from Middleburg, Virginia, and included raids into Maryland.

Colonel John Singleton Mosby, was the 43rd’s first and only commander.  According to John Munson, Mosby welcomed volunteers hungry for the glory of the fight and the appeal of booty.  He looked for intelligence, valor, and resourcefulness in his men, but according to Munson, "what Mosby liked best was youth.  He agreed with Napoleon: that boys make the best soldiers . . . mere boys, unmarried and hence without fear or anxiety for wives or children.” A few of Mosby’s partisans were men in their 40's but most were in their late teens or early 20's. In fact, two of his men who were paroled after the war in Winchester were only 14.

Join us as Eric Buckland recounts the stories he has found about the men who rode with Mosby.  Mosby was extremely fortunate in the quality of the men who rode in his command.  If the individual excellence of the men was not clearly demonstrated by their actions during the war, it was most certainly displayed as they matured and moved forward with their lives once the war ended.  These men went on to become noted physicians, lawyers, ministers, lawmen and millionaires. Their stories add a palpable human aspect to the Civil War and to the America that came out of that crucible. They are stories that must be told......and remembered.

About the Speaker:  Eric W. Buckland is the author of five books about the men who rode with the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry – “Mosby’s Rangers.” His books include Mosby’s Keydet Rangers, which recounts the stories of the 58 men who matriculated at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and rode with the 43rd. His other books on Mosby’s Rangers tell the stories of another 120 Rangers.

Mr. Buckland was born in Kansas City, Kansas, but his family soon moved to Connecticut where he was raised. Upon graduation from the University of Kansas in 1977 with a B.A. in English, he began a military career and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army. Mr. Buckland served for 22 years and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1999.  The majority of his military career was spent in Special Operations with assignments including the Special Forces, Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs.  During his military career he received numerous awards including the Ranger and Special Forces Tabs, the Master Parachutist Badge, the Special Operations Combat Diver Badge and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. Mr. Buckland is currently employed at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy as an International Policy Analyst.

Mr. Buckland's interest in Mosby's Rangers started when he was a boy and grew during his time with the military. His first book, Mosby's Keydet Rangers, was a tribute to both the Rangers and his youngest son, who was then a “Rat” at VMI. While researching for that book, he discovered bits and pieces of information on other Rangers who were not affiliated with VMI.  That material became the genesis for his next books on Mosby’s Men.  What fascinates him most about the War Between the States are these stories about the men who fought in it which have put a "face" to the war for Mr. Buckland.

For his Civil War scholarship, Mr. Buckland was presented the prestigious United Daughters of the Confederacy's Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal in June 2011 for his book Mosby's Keydet Rangers.  In October 2013, he was honored with a second award of the Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal for his “Mosby Men” series of books.

For information on Mr. Buckland, his books and his research, visit http://www.mosbymen.com/.

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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. ELIZABETH VARON

TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2015

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 January 9


The Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia will host Elizabeth Varon at its monthly meeting on January 13, 2015. 

TOPIC:
"Appomattox: Victory, Defeat and Freedom at the End of the Civil War"


About The Topic: Dr. Varon will argue that Grant and Lee, as well as the sides they represented, held intensely different ideas of what the end of the war would mean.  As a result, Appomattox would not be the start of a national reconciliation but rather of a bitter argument over exactly what the war and surrender meant and what sort of nation would emerge from its crucible.

Robert E. Lee saw Union victory as might over right. The South had merely been worn down by the North’s relentless war machine.   Dr. Varon’s view is that Lee in no way felt that his cause had been justly defeated.  His old values remained intact and after Appomattox he would demonstrate a restrained resistance to the new order of things as would many former Confederates.  Dr. Varon does not see Lee as the proud yet resigned old man that will spend his post war years trying to rebuild his side as a model of reconciliation and forward thinking for a reunited country. She sees him as outraged over the defeat, the Union’s conduct of the war, and its effects on Virginia and the South.  If anything, her assessment is that Lee grew evermore angry up until his death in 1870.  Despite his public restraint and resignation, in private his frustration and bitterness were always just beneath the surface.  Although assuredly committed to peace, Lee was equally committed to restoration—the restoration of the South's political power within the reestablished Union and of the continuation of white supremacy.  Those feelings and that vision of the war were embraced by many Confederates and conservative northerners and stimulated Southern resistance to reconstruction.

Ulysses S. Grant did not see a future about restoration but about transformation.  He and most people in the North saw the Union’s triumph as that of “right makes might” and proof of the moral superiority of a free society.  For most African Americans, the surrender was the beginning of freedom itself.  Grant was committed to making the war mean something transformational in the history of the United States.  He viewed the surrender as the beginning of that new chapter and he never quit trying to get that new chapter started. 

The irony is that Grant was defeated in the peace.  The politics of Reconstruction would ultimately best Grant as they did virtually everyone who tried to honor the promise made to the slaves and to the nation of a new birth of freedom as envisioned by Abraham Lincoln.  In the end, Appomattox disappointed both generals and both sides. The fighting of the armies was replaced by new political battles over realizing the potential that slavery’s end promised the freedmen.

About The Speaker:  ELIZABETH R. VARON is the Langbourne M. Williams Professor of History at the University of Virginia.  She is author of We Mean to be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia (1998) and Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy (2003), which was named one of the "Five Best" books on the "Civil War away from the battlefield" by the Wall Street Journal.  Dr. Varon's latest book is Appomattox: Victory, Defeat and Freedom at the End of the Civil War, which will be the subject of her presentation.

Dr. Varon graduated from Swarthmore College, and from Yale University, with a Ph.D, and was professor of history at Wellesley College, and Temple University. She is a member of the Distinguished Lectureship Program of the Organization of American Historians and the winner of the 19th annual Daniel M. & Marilyn W. Laney Book Prize given by the Austin Civil War Round Table, Inc.

For more information about Dr. Varon, please visit: http://history.virginia.edu/user/334 

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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. 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/