CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:

CALVIN GODDARD ZON

TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 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, June 5

The Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia will host Calvin Goddard Zon at its monthly meeting on June 9, 2015. 

TOPIC:
"Divided We Fall: The Confederacy Collapse"

About Our Topic:  Many have the impression that the North and South had solid support from within their respective states but nothing is further from the truth. The North was full of Copperheads, Radical Republicans, pro-war Democrats, abolitionists, and newspapers that were all divided on the issues of secession and emancipation.  And the Confederacy had its own problems and that is what we will explore in this meeting.

Our speaker, Calvin Goddard Zon, will explore each Confederate state’s opposition and its source. Opposition came from different factors including dissatisfaction with the strong central government, the draft, and even loyalty to the Union. How this opposition was expressed also varied from state to state. The Carolinas were plagued by opposition to conscription with many seeing it as a violation of states’ rights.  By 1863, there were bands of deserters and draft dodgers in the Appalachians that were raiding Confederate holdings in the Carolinas and attacking conscription officials.  Mississippi saw the creation of the Free State of Jones in protest to the draft and seizure of private property by the Confederacy. Jackson County Alabama went so far as to secede from the Confederacy and proclaim loyalty to the Union. Georgia’s governor help back thousands of men from the fighting because he deemed them critical to keeping Georgia’s government functioning.  Unionists in Georgia actually met in February 1865 to demand the Confederacy’s surrender.  Texas’ own Sam Houston opposed secession and refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America. As a result, he was summarily deposed as its governor in early 1861.

Most of this opposition was met with force--hanging, imprisonment and banishment were common punishments for those opposing the Confederacy.  But the opposition forced the Confederates to fight two wars--a war with the Union and another war against many of its own citizens. As Zon will show us, these many ripples of discontent would unite to contribute to the Confederacy’s collapse.  He will discusses opposition state by state and demonstrate how this active obstruction and resistance among Southerners played a major role in the Confederacy's downfall.

About Our Speaker:  Calvin Goddard Zon is a third generation Washingtonian. He holds a BA in history from Davidson College and an M.A. from American University.  He was a staff writer for the Washington Star daily newspaper during the 1970s, and in subsequent years a staff writer for Press Associates, Inc. and the United Mine Workers Journal. He retired as a copy editor for Bloomberg BNA's Daily Labor Report in 2012. Zon also served for six years in the U.S. Army Reserve.

His interest in the Civil War includes membership in the Lincoln-Cushing Camp No. 2 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and past service as their commander. He is also a member and treasurer of the D.C. Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He has written articles on the Civil War that have appeared in such varied publications as the Civil War News, the Progressive, the National Catholic Reporter, and People magazine.

Besides his new book, Divided We Fall: The Confederacy's Collapse From Within, A State-by-State Account, which is the subject of his June 9 presentation, Zon is the author of “The Good Fight That Didn't End: Henry P. Goddard's Accounts of Civil War and Peace.”  He presented on that work to our Round Table in 2009 and it is based on the writings of Zon's great-grandfather, a captain in the 14th Connecticut Infantry.  The 14^th Connecticut fought in every major battle from Antietam to Appomattox.

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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. CRAIG L. SYMONDS

 

TUESDAY, MAY 12, 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, May 8

The Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia will host Historian Craig Symonds at its monthly meeting on May 12, 2015. 

TOPIC:
"The Naval View of the War"

About the Topic: 

Just as the Civil War was fought on the land, the North and South fought another war on the water. A war consisting of rapid and spectacular battles and an ongoing vigilance of the coasts, rivers, and seas. Join us May 12 as the “Ed Bearss” of naval history, Craig Symonds, takes us through the Civil War on the water.

As the Southern states seceded, Union General-in-Chief Winfield Scott proposed a plan to subdue the South that emphasized blockading Southern ports followed by an advance down the Mississippi River to cut the South in two. This became known as the "Anaconda Plan" or "Scott's Great Snake" and was meant to bring the seceding states back into line without a lot of bloodshed. Because of the passive nature of the plan, it was widely disdained by a very vocal faction, including Union commander George McClellan. This bloc clamored for a more vigorous prosecution of the war and hung its hopes on the capture of the Confederate capital city.

President Abraham Lincoln responded by sending Union armies to capture Richmond as McClellan proposed, but he also implemented Scott’s general strategy, and the Anaconda Plan made a huge contribution to eventual Northern victory. Lincoln set the Union’s naval war in motion by ordering a blockade of the Southern coasts.  The intent of the blockage was to cut off Southern trade with the outside world and prevent its sale of cotton. It was a daunting assignment requiring the Union to cover over 2,500 miles of coast and, at the time, the Union navy numbered fewer than 40 seaworthy ships. Lincoln’s naval secretary, Gideon Welles, pitched in to fill the void and acquire enough boats to assure that every Southern inlet, port, and bay was made perilous for trade. The North began construction of dozens of new warships and bought hundreds of merchant ships to retrofit with a few guns for service as blockaders. Welles’ critics christened it his “soapbox navy.”

Ships alone would not be enough, however.  The Union’s blockade effort needed bases on the Southern coast from which to operate. To acquire those beach heads, the Union began a series of attacks on port cities along the southeastern seaboard in 1861. Poorly defended, they quickly succumbed to Union gunnery and fell under Union control. While never completely airtight, by late 1862 the blockade was a huge obstacle to Confederate trade. In addition to the coastal and high seas navy, the Union also had need of a “brown water navy” to support its army campaigns in northern Virginia and the Mississippi River valley.

The Confederacy had fewer resources than the North at the start of the war. The South had only a handful of shipyards, a small merchant marine, and no navy whatsoever. The Confederates would have to scramble to thwart the Union blockade and defend its ports. Yet Stephen Mallory, Confederate Secretary of the Navy, rose to the challenge, found ships, and even managed an offensive operation to attack Union merchant shipping on the high seas.

With a smaller fleet and fewer shipyards than the North, the Confederate’s naval strategy relied on making the fleet they did have as formidable as possible. They decided to challenge the Union navy with the latest in naval engineering technology: ironclads. Ironclads had appeared in Europe in the 1850s, but Union warships were still built of wood. The first Confederate ironclad was constructed from a Union cruiser, the Merrimack, that had been captured when the Rebels seized the navy yard in Norfolk Virginia. The Confederates renamed it Virginia—and replaced everything above the waterline with a skeleton of heavy timbers covered by four inches of iron plating. Though underpowered and crude, Lincoln had nothing to match her.

The Union quickly responded with inventor John Ericsson and his ironclad—the Monitor. Most of the Monitor was underwater. All that appeared above board looked like a “tin can on a raft” with a flat deck and a circular housing with two guns. Tin can it might have been, but it had the world’s first rotating gun turret, and it was amply protected with eight inches of iron. 

The Monitor and the Virginia met in March 1862 at Hampton Roads, Virginia. After a three-hour engagement—often at point-blank range—the result was a draw but it was the world's first battle between ironclad vessels. The presence of the Virginia was able to postpone Union army operations in the area for several months. The advent of ironclads made wooden naval vessels—and thus most of the Union fleet—out-of-date. Shipyards on both sides began to manufacture ironclads as quickly as they could.

Union efforts to split the Confederacy in two along the Mississippi River also began in early 1862. General Ulysses S. Grant’s army, with the support of a squadron of gunboats, moved down the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois into the heart of the Confederacy. Most of the boats were flat-bottomed barges with steam engines and heavy timbered sides. A few were iron plated. Grant’s army and this brown water navy captured Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. Simultaneously, David Farragut, commanding a similar fleet in the Gulf of Mexico, engaged the defenses of New Orleans. His objective was to move past the city and northward via the Mississippi River. In April 1862, Farragut fought his way past two formidable forts and forced the surrender of New Orleans. In July, 1863, after hard-fought campaigns against both Rebel forts and fleets, these two Union naval forces—one moving south and one moving north—would converge at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The result was everything west of the Mississippi was cut-off from the rest of the Confederacy.

In April 1863, the Union navy took on the defenses of Charleston, South Carolina. With two years to anticipate such an attack, the Confederates had positioned guns, floating obstructions, and mines to meet it. Their defenses successfully fended off the Union, and Charleston remained in Rebel hands until the war was nearly over. After its decisive loss at Charleston, the Union targeted Mobile, Alabama—the last major Confederate port on the Gulf—and Wilmington, North Carolina—the last and most important Atlantic gateway to the Confederacy. 

Mobile was defended by two large forts but these fell under Farragut’s assault in August 1864. After a failed first try, the largest Union fleet ever assembled attacked Fort Fisher in January 1865. Fisher was the linchpin of Wilmington’s defense and the stronghold fell. Wilmington’s loss robbed Robert E. Lee’s army, under siege in Virginia, of a major supply source and helped bring on the end of the war.

As the war dragged on, Mallory equipped a series of commerce raiders to attack Union merchant ships globally. These ships were obtained from Europe and most never saw a Southern port.  The Alabama, under the command of Raphael Semmes, is the best known. It destroyed more than 60 ships in a 21-month cruise and sent Union shipping interests into a panic.  The Alabama was finally confronted by the Union boat Kearsarge off the coast of France in 1864 and was sunk by Union gunfire in one of the last classic one-on-one duels at sea. 

Interestingly, the last official action of the Confederate States of America was a naval one. The Confederate raider Shenandoah was in the Pacific and its command and crew got the news of the Civil War’s end four months after all of the Confederate armies surrendered. The Shenandoah lowered her flag in England on November 6, 1865.

About Our Speaker:  

Craig L. Symonds, Ph.D. is Professor of History Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy and a pre-eminent naval historian. Symonds was the first person to win both the Naval Academy’s “Excellence in Teaching” award (1988) and its “Excellence in Research” award (1998), and received the Department of the Navy’s Superior Civilian Service medal three times.  Symonds was also awarded the Dudley Knox Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Naval Historical Foundation in 2014.

Symonds is a native of Anaheim, CA. He served as a U.S. Navy officer and became the first ensign ever to lecture at the prestigious Naval War College in Newport, R.I. After his naval service, Symonds remained at the War College as a civilian professor of strategy from 1974-1975. In 1976, he came to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. During his tenure there, Symonds became a popular professor whose Civil War classes always had waiting lists. From 1988 to 1992, he served as chair of the Academy’s history department. From 1994 to 1995 he was professor of strategy and policy at the Britannia Naval College in Dartmouth, England. After his retirement in 2005, he returned to the Naval Academy for one year in 2011-12 to serve as “The Class of 1957 Distinguished Professor of American Naval History.” 

Symonds is the author or editor of twenty-eight books, including prize-winning biographies of Civil War figures Joseph E. Johnston (1992), Patrick Cleburne (1997), and Franklin Buchanan (1999), as well as The American Heritage History of the Battle of Gettysburg (2001).  Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History, (2005) won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize for Naval History.  His 2008 book, Lincoln and His Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War, won the Barondess Prize, the Laney Prize, the Lyman Prize, the Lincoln Prize, and the Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award.  He also won the Nevins-Freeman Prize in 2009.  His book on the Battle of Midway was published in 2011. His newest book is NEPTUNE: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings, released in May 2014.

Symonds remains much in demand around the country as a speaker on Civil War subjects and all things naval history. He has spoken at Civil War Round Tables in 27 states and two foreign countries, given tours of battlefields and other historical sites and helped conduct leadership workshops based on the life of Abraham Lincoln. He and his wife Marylou live in Annapolis, Maryland; they have one son and two grandchildren.

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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:

 

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/