CWRT-DC's Previous Meeting:
DAVID G. MOORE
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
at Ft. McNair Officers' Club, Washington, DC
(see directions here) or (download them in pdf here)
6 pm: Social Hour (cash bar)
7 pm: Dinner ($36 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)
7 pm: Dinner ($36 for dinner and lecture)
8 pm: Lecture ($5 for lecture only)
Reservations required: Email (preferred) to susankclaffey@cwrtdc.org
or call (202) 306-4988 by 5:00 pm, Thursday, March 3rd. Or make reservations through our Meetup Page by clicking HERE.
TOPIC:
GENERAL WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS AND THE UNION VICTORY
About the Topic:
This meeting we will take a look at the Civil War
career of Union General William Starke Rosecrans, also known as "Old Rosy." We will examine his
military successes and their contribution to Union victory in the Civil War.
Rosecrans, a product of West Point, won the first
major campaign of the war in the 1861 West Virginia campaign. He then went on
to victories in northeastern Mississippi in 1862 at Luka and Corinth that enabled
U.S. Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. As commander of the Army of the Cumberland, Rosecrans
opposed CSA General Braxton Bragg in Tennessee at Stones River and in the
Tullahoma Campaign. Rosecrans succeeded in driving the Confederates out of middle
Tennessee and the city of Chattanooga, a key transportation hub.
These victories set up the battle of Chickamauga.
Rosecrans lost that battle to Bragg, though he managed to retreat and retain
possession of Chattanooga for the Union. The Confederates occupied the high
ground around Chattanooga and Rosecrans' troops found themselves besieged and starving
until rescued by Grant. Grant relieved Rosecrans and he was reassigned to
command the Department of Missouri. Rosecrans defended Missouri from
Confederate invasion in 1864 (Price’s Raid) and ended his Civil War military
service there. Old Rosy was highly regarded by his men both during and after
the war.
Our speaker will examine why Rosecrans was removed from
command four times despite his military successes and delve into the important
role politics played in the Civil War. Mr. Moore’s portrait also reveals Rosecrans
as a man who promoted many advances in medical care, transportation and
cartography; a man interested in engineering as well as theology.
About Our Speaker:
David
Moore has been a history
guide on the east coast for over 35 years, specializing in the mid-Atlantic
area. He calls Washington DC home. Moore’s interest in General Rosecrans came
about quite unexpectedly when he stumbled upon Mrs. Rosecrans' grave while searching
for the grave of Mary Surratt in Washington's Mt. Olive cemetery. That chance
encounter led Mr. Moore to wonder where General Rosecrans is buried. He discovered
that Rosecrans was buried in Arlington and learned, or so he thought, from a
guidebook about Arlington Cemetery that Lincoln offered Rosecrans the vice
presidency in 1864. Mr. Moore later learned that the story was not true, but his
interest in Rosecrans was already piqued and the rest, as they say, is history.
Mr. Moore spent more than 20 years researching General Rosecrans' military career. He turned his research into his book, William S. Rosecrans and the Union Victory, published in March 2014. His book is part of the collection of over 100 libraries in the United States, Canada and several countries overseas. In the acknowledgements to his book, Mr. Moore credits the accessibility policy (and the support from a dedicated library staff) at the great network of libraries, public and private, throughout the United States for helping his book become a reality. He also explains how his interest was not so much to describe how the particular battles were fought but their important consequences, which are largely unknown to the American people.
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