Podcasts about civil war round table

Benjamin Grierson's Union cavalry thrust through Mississippi is one of the most well-known operations of the Civil War. There were other simultaneous operations to distract Confederate attention from the real threat to Vicksburg posed by U. S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee, but Grierson's operation, mainly conducted with two Illinois cavalry regiments, has become the most famous, and for good reason. For 16 days (April 17 to May 2) Grierson led Confederate pursuers on a high-stakes chase through the entire state of Mississippi, entering the northern border with Tennessee and exiting its southern border with Louisiana.  The daily rides were long, the rest stops short, and the tension high. Ironically, the man who led the raid was a former music teacher who some say disliked horses. Throughout, he displayed outstanding leadership and cunning, destroyed railroad tracks, burned trestles and bridges, freed slaves, and created as much damage and chaos as possible. Grierson's Raid broke a vital Confederate rail line at Newton Station that supplied Vicksburg and, perhaps most importantly, consumed the attention of the Confederate high command. While Confederate Lt. Gen. John Pemberton at Vicksburg and other Southern leaders looked in the wrong directions, Grant moved his entire Army of the Tennessee across the Mississippi River below Vicksburg, spelling the doom of that city, the Confederate chances of holding the river, and perhaps the Confederacy itself.   Novelists have attempted to capture the large-than-life cavalry raid in the popular imagination, and Hollywood reproduced the daring cavalry action in The Horse Soldiers, a 1959 major motion picture starring John Wayne and William Holden. Although the film replicates the raid's drama and high-stakes gamble, cinematic license chipped away at its accuracy. Based upon years of research and presented in gripping, fast-paced prose, Timothy B. Smith's The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grierson's Epic 1863 Civil War Raid through Mississippi captures the high drama and tension of the 1863 horse soldiers in a modern, comprehensive, academic study. This talk, based on the book, will bring you along for the ride.   Timothy B. Smith (Ph.D. Mississippi State University, 2001) is a veteran of the National Park Service and currently teaches history at the University of Tennessee at Martin. In addition to numerous articles and essays, he is the author, editor, or co-editor of more than twenty books with several university and commercial presses. His books have won numerous book awards, his trilogy on the American Civil War's Tennessee River campaign (Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, and Corinth) winning a total of nine book awards. He is currently finishing a five-volume study of the Vicksburg Campaign for the University Press of Kansas and a new study of Albert Sidney Johnston for LSU Press. He lives with his wife Kelly and daughters Mary Kate and Leah Grace in Adamsville, Tennessee. In 1974, The Civil War Round Table of Chicago established the Nevins-Freeman Award, and bestows it annually on an individual whose advancement of American Civil War scholarship and support for the Round Table movement warrant special recognition. The award itself is designed as a generous financial donation to a historical preservation project chosen by the recipient. This award is named for two men whose legacies have come to be synonymous with the Civil War era: Historians Allan Nevins and Douglas Southall Freeman.  A list of the awardees can be viewed on the Chicago CWRT website, at https://chicagocwrt.org/anfa.html. The Nevins-Freeman Award

For more Info: WWW.ChicagoCWRT.Org  The Union XII Corps was formed in June 1862. The corps, which joined the Army of the Potomac only a week before Antietam was small, numbering just over 7,600 men. Easily overlooked, Army of the Potomac leadership and historians since have largely glossed over this corps' contribution at Antietam. Nevertheless, this small corps ended Confederate attacks into the Miller Cornfield and East Woods, successfully defended the Dunker Church Plateau from Confederate assaults, and captured the West Woods, which had been the goal on the Federal right all morning. Chris Bryan will provide a brief overview of the period from the Battle of Cedar Mountain until the corps' entry into Maryland, including its condition resulting from this period. The talk will then examine the XII Corps' participation in the Maryland Campaign and its fighting at Antietam, including some new findings discovered through recent archival research.  M. Chris Bryan's Cedar Mountain to Antietam: A Civil War Campaign History of the Union XII Corps, July –September 1862 begins with the formation of this often-luckless command as the II Corps in Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia on June 26, 1862. Bryan explains in meticulous detail how the corps endured a bloody and demoralizing loss after coming within a whisker of defeating Maj. Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson at Cedar Mountain on August 9; suffered through the hardships of Pope's campaign before and after the Battle of Second Manassas; and triumphed after entering Maryland and joining the reorganized Army of the Potomac. The men of this small corps earned a solid reputation in the Army of the Potomac at Antietam that would only grow during the battles of 1863.  Chris Bryan is a native of Greencastle, Pennsylvania. He earned a B.S. in History from the United States Naval Academy, an M.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John's College, Annapolis, and a Masters in Historic Preservation from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a focus on architectural investigations of Chesapeake region antebellum domestic and agricultural outbuildings. The former Naval Aviator works as a project manager in Southern Maryland. Cedar Mountain to Antietam is his first book. 

For more info: WWW.ChicagoCWRT.Org  Patrick Brennan, a long-time student of the Civil War and published author, has teamed up with his technology-astute daughter Dylan Brennan to bring the largest Civil War battle to life in the remarkable 2-volume study: Gettysburg in Color. Volume 1 covers Brandy Station to the Peach Orchard, and Volume 2 covers The Wheatfield to Falling Waters. Rather than guess or dabble with the colors, the Brennans used an artificial intelligence-based computerized color identifier to determine the precise color of uniforms, flesh, hair, equipment, terrain, houses, and much more. The result is a monumental full-color study of the important three-day battle that brings the men, the landscape, and the action into the 21st Century. The deep colorization of battle-related woodcuts, for example, reveals a plethora of details that have passed generations of eyes unseen. The photos of the soldiers and their officers look as if they were taken yesterday. 2  The use of this modern technology shines a light on one Gettysburg photographic mystery in particular. Colorizing some of the battle's "death" images revealed the presence of Union and Confederate dead that may help determine the previously unknown location of the photographs. That may also be a "first" when it comes to Civil War photography. Pat Brennan is the author of Secessionville: Assault on Charleston (1996), To Die Game: General J. E. B. Stuart, CSA (1998), and more than twenty articles for a variety of Civil War magazines and journals. Pat is on the Editorial Advisory Board for The Civil War Monitor and his work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune. He has lectured around the country on the Civil War and Bob Dylan. Dylan Brennan works on the broadcast video production team at Tasty Trade, a real time, online financial network based in Chicago. 

MDJ Script/ Top Stories for Dec 30th        Publish Date:  Dec 29th      Commercial: Henssler :15   From the Henssler Financial Studio, Welcome to the Marietta Daily Journal Podcast.  Today is Saturday, December 30th and Happy 87th Birthday to HOF pitcher Sandy Koufax. ***12.30.23 - BIRTHDAY - SANDY KOUFAX*** I'm Keith Ippolito and here are the stories Cobb is talking about, presented by Credit Union of Georgia.  Cobb Unemployment Drops Below 3% Kennesaw Council Newcomer Ready to Take on Wildman's Civil War Surplus Cobb Civil War Round Table Examines Gen. Joseph E. Johnston   All of this and more is coming up on the Marietta Daily Journal Podcast, and if you are looking for community news, we encourage you to listen and subscribe!    BREAK: CU of GA    STORY 1: Cobb Unemployment Drops Below 3% In November, Cobb County's unemployment rate dropped to 2.8%, down from 3.1% in October but higher than 2.4% in November 2022. The county's labor force increased by 295, with 431,345 employed and 12,226 unemployed. The rise in unemployment is attributed to individuals re-entering the workforce post-COVID-19. Economist Roger Tutterow notes that the increased unemployment rate isn't concerning if job cuts aren't occurring, highlighting a significant increase in employed workers. Marietta's November unemployment rate was 2.7%, while Smyrna's remained at 3.2%. Cobb County's unemployment rate is lower than Atlanta's (3.1%) and Georgia's (3.4%), both below the national rate of 3.7%. STORY 2: Kennesaw Council Newcomer Ready to Take on Wildman's Civil War Surplus Madelyn Orochena, newly elected to Kennesaw City Council, aims to close Wildman's Civil War Surplus, a Confederate-themed store in the city's downtown. Orochena, who views the store as a hindrance to progress, plans to pursue legal action or code enforcement to shut it down. While previous blight complaints were dismissed, Orochena, an arts enthusiast, hopes to transform the downtown into a vibrant destination with a diverse range of shops. She initiated a mural installation near Wildman's, emphasizing her commitment to public art. Orochena also advocates for pedestrian safety, affordable housing, and the city's overall growth and improvement. STORY 3: Cobb Civil War Round Table Examines Gen. Joseph E. Johnston Historian Richard McMurry discussed Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at a meeting of the Civil War Round Table of Cobb County. McMurry's latest book, "The Civil Wars of General Joseph E. Johnston," provides a critical analysis of Johnston's campaigns during the Civil War. Johnston, once considered a premier Confederate general, faced challenges defending Atlanta against Gen. William T. Sherman. McMurry's research debunked long-held myths about Johnston, revealing his strategic shortcomings and conflicts with fellow officers. The discussion delved into Johnston's Atlanta campaign, which ultimately resulted in Atlanta's fall to the Union Army led by Sherman.     We have opportunities for sponsors to get great engagement on these shows. Call 770.799.6810 for more info.    We'll be right back    Break: ESOG – TEDS   STORY 4: No. 2: Democratic Cobb Commissioners Defy State by Drawing Their Own District Lines The second-ranking local story of 2023 in Cobb County involves a redistricting controversy that unfolded during the first Board of Commissioners meeting. The Democratic majority, leveraging Georgia's home rule powers, replaced the state-approved commission district map with its own, challenging the legality of the move. Republican Commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill abstained from voting, leading to their removal from the dais. The dispute centers on whether Georgia counties can independently draw district maps. A lawsuit, initiated by Gambrill and continued by Cobb residents Catherine and David Floam, challenges the county's map, seeking a declaration of its unconstitutionality and validation of the legislature's map. The court is expected to issue a ruling soon. STORY 5: No. 3: Cobb School Board Map Thrown into Question by Lawsuit The third-ranked local story of 2023 in Cobb County involves a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Cobb Board of Education's districts. The lawsuit alleged an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, leading to a federal judge's order for the General Assembly to draw new districts by January 10. The judge issued a preliminary injunction, preventing future elections using the current school board map. The school district, which spent over $1.3 million defending the map, appealed the injunction to the 11th Circuit of Appeals. The contentious issue revolves around accusations of packing and bleaching voters based on race, with the school board's Republican majority drawing the map after the 2020 census.   We'll be back in a moment    Break: DRAKE – INGLES 6     STORY 6: Judge upholds new Georgia congressional, legislative maps U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ruled that federal judges lack the authority to redistribute political power between parties, upholding Georgia's new legislative and congressional maps. The maps were redrawn during a special session following lawsuits alleging Voting Rights Act violations. Jones ordered additional Black-majority districts, aiming for Democratic gains. Despite legislative leaders crafting maps to maintain Republican advantages, Jones ruled that partisan decisions alone don't violate the Voting Rights Act. He upheld the new maps, including the elimination of a coalition district, deeming it moot. Rep. Lucy McBath plans to run in the new Black-majority district, emphasizing the importance of voters' will. STORY 7: No. 4: Books, Bans and 'Good and Evil' The culture wars hit Cobb and Marietta school districts as book bans ignited tensions. Cobb Schools Superintendent Chris Ragsdale fired teacher Katie Rinderle for reading "My Color is Purple" to students. Despite protests, the Cobb Board of Education upheld Rinderle's termination, prompting an appeal to the Georgia Board of Education. In August, Ragsdale removed "Flamer" and "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" for "sexually explicit content." Marietta Superintendent Grant Rivera followed suit, sparking protests. Both superintendents faced criticism and support for their decisions amid a broader debate on book censorship and education.     Break: Henssler :60  Signoff-   Thanks again for hanging out with us on today's Marietta Daily Journal podcast. If you enjoy these shows, we encourage you to check out our other offerings, like the Cherokee Tribune Ledger Podcast, the Gwinnett Daily Post, the Community Podcast for Rockdale Newton and Morgan Counties, or the Paulding County News Podcast. Read more about all our stories and get other great content at MDJonline.com.     Did you know over 50% of Americans listen to podcasts weekly? Giving you important news about our community and telling great stories are what we do. Make sure you join us for our next episode and be sure to share this podcast on social media with your friends and family. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home Briefing and be sure to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.   Produced by the BG Podcast Network   Show Sponsors: henssler.com ingles-markets.com cuofga.org drakerealty.com esogrepair.com com   #NewsPodcast #CurrentEvents #TopHeadlines #BreakingNews #PodcastDiscussion #PodcastNews #InDepthAnalysis #NewsAnalysis #PodcastTrending #WorldNews #LocalNews #GlobalNews #PodcastInsights #NewsBrief #PodcastUpdate #NewsRoundup #WeeklyNews #DailyNews #PodcastInterviews #HotTopics #PodcastOpinions #InvestigativeJournalism #BehindTheHeadlines #PodcastMedia #NewsStories #PodcastReports #JournalismMatters #PodcastPerspectives #NewsCommentary #PodcastListeners #NewsPodcastCommunity #NewsSource #PodcastCuration #WorldAffairs #PodcastUpdates #AudioNews #PodcastJournalism #EmergingStories #NewsFlash #PodcastConversations See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 Mark Zimmerman on “The Brutal Retreat from Nashville 1864”  For More Info: WWW.ChicagoCWRT.org  Mark Zimmerman, a member of the Nashville Civil War Round Table, will present an hour-long slideshow, The Brutal Retreat from Nashville 1864, based on his self-published book, Mud, Blood and Cold Steel. The presentation details the 10-day, 100-mile retreat by John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee from Compton's Hill in Nashville to the Tennessee River in northern Alabama. The Confederates were pursued by the infantry and cavalry of George Henry Thomas, including the cavalry of James Harrison Wilson, which was armed with repeating rifles. The harrowing retreat was conducted in the dead of winter through rugged and inhospitable terrain. Mark is a retired newspaperman who belongs to numerous Civil War and historic preservation organizations. He has self-published eight non-fiction books, including four on "the late unpleasantness." His latest book, Fortress Nashville, was named a Top Ten Book of 2022 by Civil War Books & Authors. He is also a Tennessee Squire with modest landholdings in Lynchburg. He was born and raised in Rockford, the gritty city at the top of Illinois, and spent seven years as a Packers fan in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He is also an avid fan of the University of Tennessee Volunteers. He has led tours of historic sites in Nashville and has presented at Shiloh National Military Park, Johnsonville State Historic Park, Fort Defiance Interpretive Center, and Fort Negley Interpretive Center. 

Charles Knight on “Robert E. Lee” For More info: WWW.ChicagoCWRT.ORG Douglas S. Freeman's Pulitzer Prize-winning three-volume biography of Robert E. Lee is a masterful reconstruction of the man's life. So exhaustive was Freeman's research that he often boasted he could account for every hour of Lee's life from West Point until his death. Freeman's Lee is thorough, but it isn't THAT thorough. Often neglected in Freeman's Lee and other studies of the general or of his various battles and campaigns is what Lee was doing when he wasn't in the spotlight. Charles Knight's new From Arlington to Appomattox: Robert E. Lee's Civil War Day by Day, 1861-1865 recreates those four years of Lee's life--at least as much as is possible at 150+ years distance. It is often forgotten that in addition to his duties as a general, Lee was still a husband, father, and friend. He lost a daughter, sister, two grandchildren, daughter-in-law, and his home during the war. In2 this presentation Knight shares some of the results of years of research into Lee's actions during the war years; previously unknown sources, inconsistencies that confused Freeman and dozens of other historians over the years, memorable anecdotes of Lee's daily life, and other historical "nuggets" that came to light in his research. Charles Knight is native of Richmond, VA, where he developed a love of history at an early age. He has worked at museums and historic sites for more than 20 years in Virginia, Arizona, and North Carolina, and has given historical presentations to audiences across the country. He is the author of Valley Thunder: The Battle of New Market (Savas Beatie, 2010), From Arlington to Appomattox: Robert E. Lee's Civil War Day by Day (Savas Beatie, 2021), as well as numerous magazine and journal articles, and was a historical advisor on the 2014 film Field of Lost Shoes, about the Battle of New Market. Knight is currently working on a biography of Confederate general and railroad magnate William Mahone; a history of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Honor Guard company; and editing the memoirs and papers of Gen. R.E. Lee's aide Charles Venable. Knight is the curator of military history at the NC Museum of History in Raleigh and resides in Holly Springs, NC, with his wife and children.

Robert Girardi on “Union Prisoners of War at Camp Douglas” For More info: WWW.ChicagoCWRT.ORG Douglas, located on the south side of Chicago, was Illinois' largest Civil War training camp. More than 40,000 volunteers mustered here. In February 1862, the camp was converted to accommodate Confederate Prisoners of war. About 24,000 Confederates were held there during the war, of which 6,000 died. Their story is well-told. Yet lesser known is the story of the thousands of Union POWs who were held in the camp while awaiting exchange. After the surrender of Harpers Ferry in September 1862, the captured Union soldiers were interred in parole camps. More than 8,000 of these were sent to Camp Douglas. These soldiers occupied barracks recently vacated by Confederate prisoners and were subjected to the same poor sanitary conditions and privations. Their uncertain future and lack of understanding 2 of their status led to a breakdown in discipline. This is an account of their troublesome experiences in Chicago. Robert I. Girardi has a Masters Degree in Public History from Loyola University. He is a lifelong student of the American Civil War and has studied all aspects of the conflict. He is a past president of the Chicago CWRT and is the author or editor of nine books, and numerous articles and book reviews. He was a board member of the Illinois State Historical Society and was guest editor for the 2011-2014 Sesquicentennial of the Civil War issues of the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. His most recent article, "Reconsidering Major General Gouverneur K. Warren," appeared in the July 2020 issue of North and South Magazine. He is currently working on a military biography of Warren.

Chicago Civil War Round Table Meeting for December 2022: Garry Adelman on “Midwest Civil War Photo Extravaganza” For more info: WWW.ChicagoCWRT.ORG Join American Battlefield Trust Chief Historian Garry Adelman for a lively photography presentation covering all manner of Midwestern events, people, and places. While the Midwest proper hosted a limited number of battles and campaigns, the Midwest states hosted hospitals, supply deports, manufacturing hubs, prisons, camps, railroads, and more! Midwesterners themselves played an outsized role in the conflict ... and where they went, so went photographers capturing images on glass and metal for a public hungry for this relatively new technology! Combining then-and-now photographs, details, maps, and other media, Mr. Adelman will tell the story of the Civil War Midwest mainly through the revolutionary wet-plate photography process, the truly unique individuals involved in the birth of photojournalism and more. From Wilson's Creek to Johnson's Island, from Wood Lake to Cairo, Mine Creek, Milwaukee, Crown Point, Keokuk, Ann Arbor, and the Wigwam, come to understand the 1860s Midwest in a manner available nowhere else! A graduate of Michigan State University and Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Garry Adelman is the award-winning author, co-author, or editor of 20 books and 50 Civil War articles. He is the vice president of the Center for Civil War Photography and has been a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg for 27 years. He has conceived and drafted the text for wayside exhibits at ten battlefields, has given thousands of battlefield tours at more than 70 American Revolution and Civil War sites, and has lectured at hundreds of locations across the country including the National Archives, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. He has appeared as a speaker on the BBC, C-Span, Pennsylvania Cable Network, American Heroes Channel, and on HISTORY where he was a chief consultant and talking head on the Emmy Award-winning show Gettysburg (2011), Blood and Glory: The Civil War in Color (2015), and Grant (2020). He works full time as Chief Historian at the American Battlefield Trust.

Civil War Round table of Chicago November 2022 Meeting. The Nevins-Freeman Address: Mary Abroe on “Historic Preservation and Civil War Battlefields: An American Story” For More info: WWW.ChicagoCWRT.ORG Founded by Congress in August 1890, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park is our first federal battlefield park. Later that same month, passage of legislation that set aside funding for preserving battle lines and buying land to mark troop positions provided the basis for what became Antietam National Battlefield Site. Rounding out the five "granddaddies" that constitute the nucleus of our national battlefield park network are Shiloh (1894), Gettysburg (1895), and Vicksburg (1899). At a time when there was no National Park Service as we know it and only a few other "national parks"--like Yellowstone and Yosemite, both of which were western wilderness parks--the Civil War preserves of the 1890s set the precedent for all national historical parks (of whatever designation) going forward. As a result, those turn-of-the-century military establishments are among the premier historical properties of the entire National Park System. Additional Civil War sites joined their predecessors over the next 120-plus years, but whether we consider Chickamauga or Mill Springs (KY)--in 2020 the most recent addition to the System--the immediate thought for many, if not most, is "killing fields." And so they were. But, over time, as men and women lived, worked, and remembered on those grounds, layers of human motives and actions also shaped them. In that way, preserved battlefields have plenty to reveal about Americans' understanding of the Civil War and their resulting urge to preserve its sites as memorials, patriotic symbols, tourist destinations, documentary evidence, and outdoor classrooms. The battlefields also are full of stories about local communities, whose people, through no choice of their own, became witnesses to history and neighbors of the places where it happened. This presentation focuses on what modern Civil War parks tell us about their meaning and preservation at the hands of successive generations of Americans, ourselves included--those who, over the decades between the 1890s and the early twenty-first century, have continued to shape those landscapes. Mary Abroe holds a BA in history from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana and a PhD from Loyola University Chicago. She is retired from teaching at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois. Dr. Abroe is vice chair of the Board of Trustees of the American Battlefield Trust and a director of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation. She also is past president of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago.

On April 02, 2022, the Hudson Mohawk Magazine Network Roaming Labor Correspondent Willie Terry attended the Underground Railroad Education Center, "FreedomCon 2022 Conference" at Hudson Valley Community College. In this segment, Willie interviewed Matt George, Program and Education Chair of the "Capital District Civil War Round Table" at the conference.

Mark Laubacher on "The U.S.S. Red Rover: Hospital of Firsts" For More information visit WWW.ChicagoCWRT.org To adequately treat illness and trauma afflicted upon military personnel during the US Civil War, a true military hospital ship for use on internal waterways was built. Originally, USS Red Rover was a hospital ship for the Union Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla operating on the Mississippi River. Red Rover would go on to become the first US Naval hospital ship in late December 1862. This was a hospital of many firsts, commencing with females who served as nurses aboard Red Rover. They were paid crew members, working in various capacities comprised of African Americans and a group Sisters of the Holy Cross of St. Mary from Notre Dame in Indiana. Ultimately, 8 African American women were on the Navy payroll by the end of the war, including Ann Stokes, who would eventually earn the title of "nurse," and go on to draw a pension from the Federal government following the war. The success of the Red Rover was a direct result of the contribution of civilian women working as nurses aboard the vessel. From June 11, 1862, to March 31, 1865, Red Rover admitted 1697 patients and touted a survival rate of over 90%. The injuries and illnesses of the sailors of the gunboats ran a broad spectrum. Such women pioneers would ultimately lead to the creation of the US Navy Nurse Corps in 1908. Mark Laubacher is an RN and paramedic working as a Certified Specialist in Poison Information since 1992 at the Central Ohio Poison Center located at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio. Prior to this, he was a full-time staff nurse at Children's Emergency Department for 4 years. He received his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Capital University in 1989. He is also currently a faculty member for Grant Medical Center Paramedic Program in Columbus, Ohio. Having delivered over 500 presentations, he routinely presents at the state and national levels on various topics of toxicological emergencies.

CWRT Meeting Jan 2022: Rob Girardi on "General John E. Smith, Galena's Forgotten General" For more info: WWW.ChicagoCWRT.org Galena Illinois boasts that it sent nine generals to the Civil War, the most famous of whom is Ulysses S. Grant. Many cannot name the other eight generals, but in addition to Ely S. Parker, Jasper Maltby and John Duer, there were two John Smith's. John Corson Smith fought in most of the major battles of the Army of the Cumberland, but this talk focuses on John Eugene Smith. Our Smith operated a silver shop on Main Street in Galena near the Rawlins law office and the Grant Tannery. John E. Smith befriended U.S. Grant and was instrumental in restoring Grant to the army. He is the player behind the scenes in many well-known events of the war and is perhaps the most important unknown general of the war. Robert I. Girardi has a master's degree in Public History from Loyola University of Chicago. He is a past president of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago, a fellow of the Company of Military Historians, and is on the Board of Directors of the Illinois State Historical Society. He is a popular speaker and consultant on all aspects of the American Civil War. He has written or edited many books on the American Civil War, including The Military Memoirs of General John Pope, Campaigning with Uncle Billy, The Civil War Memoirs of Sgt. Lyman

Michael Hardy on "General Lee's Immortals: The Lane-Branch Brigade" For more information: WWW.CWRTChicago.com Over the course of four years of exemplary service, the North Carolina brigade commanded first by Lawrence O'Bryan Branch, and then by James H. Lane, fought on the most storied fields of the war. Some of the most well-known Civil War engagements, like Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg, saw the Branch-Lane Brigade in the forefront of battle. The brigade's career includes spectacular battle honors and dazzling successes, such as saving the entire Army of Northern Virginia twice at Spotsylvania Court House. Yet, there were also devastating losses and costly mistakes, most notably, the mortal wounding of the legendary Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville. The story of this brigade is one marked by glory and tragedy, from the first days of the war to the lingering effects long after Appomattox. General Lee's Immortals: The Battles and Campaigns of the Branch-Lane brigade tells this remarkable story. Michael C. Hardy has a passion for history. Over the past three decades, he has written about people, places, and events that are frequently overlooked in the grand, sweeping narratives. He is the author of twenty-four books. His articles have appeared in numerous national magazines, and Michael has been featured on Civil War Talk Radio and in the recent "Blood and Fury: America's Civil War" on the American Heroes Channel. In 2010, Michael was named the North Carolina Historian of the Year by the North Carolina Society of Historians, and in 2018, General Lee's Immortals, his history of the Branch-Lane brigade, was honored with the James I. Robertson, Jr., Literary Prize. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama, and, since 1995, has called western North Carolina home.

Dr. Jennifer M. Murray is a military historian, with a specialization in the American Civil War, in the Department of History at Oklahoma State University. Murray's most recent book publication is "On A Great Battlefield: The Making, Management, and Memory of Gettysburg National Military Park, 1933-2013," published by the University of Tennessee Press in 2014. Murray is also the author of "The Civil War Begins," published by the U.S. Army's Center of Military History in 2012. She is currently working on a full-length biography of George Gordon Meade, tentatively titled "Meade at War: George Gordon Meade and the Army of the Potomac." Murray's essay on Meade in "Upon the Fields of Battle: Essays on the Military History of America's Civil War," explores the leadership decisions of Army of the Potomac in the final days of the Gettysburg Campaign. Specifically, Prof. Murray places President Abraham Lincoln's expectations of a decisive victory by Meade over Robert E. Lee's Confederate army within the broader context of military history and argues that battles of annihilation are incredibly rare and thus Lincoln and northern citizens' expectations misplaced. Consequently, General Meade's leadership during the pursuit from Gettysburg, culminating in the actions at Falling Waters, must be understood within the broader contours of the feasibility of annihilating a citizen-soldier army and the rarity of coupling a battlefield victory with an aggressive pursuit of the enemy forces. Prof. Murray's previous experiences include working as a historian for the Department of Defense in the Pentagon for a year before she took a job teaching history at UVa-Wise. Murray worked as a seasonal interpretive park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park for nine summers (2002-2010). She received her Ph.D. from Auburn University in 2010.

Connie Langum: The Battle of and for Wilson's Creek For More Info: WWW.ChicagoCWRT.org On February 14, Connie Langum will speak on "Wilson's Creek." This first major battle in Missouri, in 1861, was one of the bloodiest battles of the early war: A Confederate victory, which saw the death of the Union army commander. She will discuss why six hours on August 10, 1861 were important and then cover the battlefield's journey to become part of the National Park Service. She will also cover recent developments and our current renovation of our Visitor Center. Ms. Connie Langum is a 28-year veteran of the National Park Service and is currently duty stationed at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in Republic, Missouri, where she is the Park Historian. She has a BA from Missouri Southern State College and an MA in American History from Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. She is the Historic Weapons Supervisor at Wilson's Creek and enjoys giving small arms and artillery programs to the public. Connie is a lifetime member of the Newtonia Battlefields Association, and actually grew up a mere 15 miles from the battlefield. She is involved with the American Battlefield Trust and serves as Program Chair for the Civil War Round Table of the Ozarks. Connie and her husband Rick live in Springfield MO and are kept busy by their 16-year old daughter Madeline.

Stuart Sanders on Perryville Under Fire. For more info go to WWW.CWRTChicago.org The 1862 Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, laid waste to more than just soldiers and their supplies. The commonwealth's largest combat engagement also took an immense toll on the community of Perryville, and citizens in surrounding towns. After Confederates achieved a tactical victory, they were nonetheless forced to leave the area. With more than 7,500 casualties, the remaining Union soldiers were unprepared for the enormous tasks of burying the dead, caring for the wounded, and rebuilding infrastructure. Instead, this arduous duty fell to the brave and battered locals. Former executive director of the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association, author Stuart Sanders presents the first in-depth look into how the resilient residents dealt with the chaos of this bloody battle and how they rebuilt their town from the rubble leftover. The talk is based on his book "Perryville Under Fire: The Aftermath of Kentucky's Largest Civil War Battle." Stuart Sanders worked for nearly 10 years to preserve and interpret Perryville, Kentucky's largest Civil War battleground, before coming to the Kentucky Historical Society, first to oversee community field services, then as our History Advocate and now as the Director of Research and Collections. Stuart brings his experiences as a preservationist, interpreter, outreach specialist, author of three books and speaker to his current duties, communicating the relevance, value and significance of Kentucky's history. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and completed Developing History Leaders.

Date: April 12, 2005 Speaker: Terry Winschel Topic: Union Victory at Vicksburg: Crucial to the outcome of the war - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

John F. Marszalek: The Nevins-Freeman Award Address: The History of the Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant Named after famed historians Allen Nevins and Douglas Southall Freeman, the Nevins-Freeman Award is the highest honor the Civil War Round Table of Chicago can bestow. It is awarded for an individual's contributions to Civil War scholarship, and their dedication to the Round Table movement. Past award winners include Bruce Catton, James M McPherson and Wiley Sword. This year we are proud to give this award to a distinguished author and historian, John Marszalek. John F. Marszalek retired in 2002 as a Giles Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Mississippi State University. He taught courses in the Civil War, Jacksonian America, and Race Relations. He is the author or editor of thirteen books and over two hundred fifty articles and book reviews. Sherman, A Soldier's Passion for Order was a finalist for the Lincoln Prize, and his first book Court Martial, A Black Man in America was made into a Showtime motion picture. He continues to lecture widely throughout the nation and has appeared on the major television networks. He serves on the board of advisors of the Lincoln Forum, the Lincoln Prize, the National Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, and the Monitor Museum (Newport News, Virginia). After John Y. Simon's death in July 2008, Marsazalek was asked to serve as the Executive Director and Managing Editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association and The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant project. These papers are now located at Mississippi State University. On April 13th Professor Marszalek will talk about how Grant's memoirs came to be written, and its history up to and including the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press publication of (eds) John F. Marszalek with David S. Nolen and Louis P. Gallo: The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, the Complete Annotated Edition. The edition was published in October 2017.

Gouverneur K. Warren is remembered as the Savior of Little Round Top. He was highly regarded for his education and competence, but also accused of being too cautious by the generals who removed him from command. His record belies this, however. But Warren has suffered in the history book because of the long reach of his enemies. Here, the facts are reevaluated with some unpleasant revelations. Robert I. Girardi has had a lifelong fascination with the Civil War. He has studied all aspects of the war, and has tramped over many of the battlefields and related sites. He has collected artifacts and memorabilia and has read through thousands of documents, letters, and diaries written by participants, thereby developing an understanding of the important issues of the war and a sense of what the soldiers experienced. Robert Girardi earned his M.A. in Public History at Loyola University of Chicago in 1991. He is a past president of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago and a past vice president and newsletter editor of the Salt Creek Civil War Round Table. He belongs to two other Civil War round tables in the Chicago area. He is a fellow of the Company of Military Historians and is an associate member of the Sons of Union Veterans. He is on the editorial review board of the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society and was the guest editor of the 2011-2014 Civil War Sesquicentennial issues. He was the winner of the 2010 Chicago Civil War Round Table's prestigious Nevins-Freeman Award. In 2012 he was named to the board of directors of the Illinois State Historical Society, and sat on the board of directors of the Camp Douglas Restoration Society 2013-2018. In 2014 he was awarded the Milwaukee Civil War Round Table's Iron Brigade Association Award for Civil War scholarship. He was an extra in the movie, Andersonville.

The morning of Wednesday, July 20th, 1864, broke warm, promising another sultry summer day. It would spawn the first offensive action for the new Southern Commander, John Bell Hood and his gray forces as he took over the defense of Atlanta for the Confederate States of America in the fourth summer of the war. What began as a golden opportunity to repel Northern General William Tecumseh Sherman and his blue legions from the gates of the Gate City, as Atlanta has been called, became a day of missed chances, broken dreams, and for a number of the Rebel leaders' soldiers, a grave. The Battle of Peach Tree Creek marked the beginning of the end for the Confederacy, for it turned the page from the patient defense displayed by General Joseph E. Johnston to the bold offense called upon by his replacement, General John Bell Hood. Until this point in The Georgia Campaign, the Southern Army had fought primarily in the defensive, from behind earthworks, forcing Sherman to either assault fortified lines, or go around them in flanking moves. At Peach Tree Creek, the roles would be reversed for the first time, as Confederates charged Union lines. On March 9th, author Bob Jenkins was note that Peach Tree Creek marked the beginning of the end for the Deep South and the Confederacy. Peach Tree Creek would be the first in a series of defeats and set-backs from which the South would not recover. Before Peach Tree Creek, there remained some semblance of hope for victory and Southern Independence. After Peach Tree Creek and the defeats at Decatur and Ezra Church which quickly followed, there could be no more hope of a military win by the Confederacy. After Peach Tree Creek, and its companion battles for Atlanta, the clear-hearing Southerner could hear the death throws of the Confederacy. Robert D. (Bob) Jenkins is an attorney, practicing in Dalton, Georgia. A life-long Civil War enthusiast, Bob has given numerous battlefield tours and lectures on the Atlanta Campaign. His first book, The Battle of Peach Tree Creek, Hood's First Sortie, was published in 2013 by Mercer University Press. His second book, To the Gates of Atlanta, covered the 1864 Atlanta Campaign from Kennesaw Mountain to Peach Tree Creek.

Date: February 10, 2017 Speaker: Bob O'Neill Topic: Cavalry During the Peninsula Campaign - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: March 10, 2017 Speaker: Paul Kahan Topic: Simon Cameron, Lincoln's First Secretary of War - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: April 10, 2017 Speaker: Diane Monroe Smith Topic: Command Conflict in the Overland Campaign - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: June 10, 2017 Speaker: Don Sender Topic: The Custer Debacle - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: September 10, 2017 Speaker: Ed Bonekemper Topic: False Remembrance of the Civil War: The Myth of the Lost Cause - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: October 10, 2017 Speaker: David A Powell Topic: Chickamauga: Barren Victory - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: November 10, 2017 Speaker: Tom Clemens Topic: Special Order 191 and the Maryland Campaign - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: December 10, 2017 Speaker: David Dixon Topic: The Lost Gettysburg Address - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: March 10, 2015 Speaker: Tom Huntington Topic: My Search for George Gordon Meade - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: August 10, 2014 Speaker: Lance Herdegen Topic: Gettysburg: A fight for the Colors - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: September 10, 2014 Speaker: Frank Varney Topic: General Grant and the Rewriting of History - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: November 10, 2014 Speaker: Steve Towne Topic: Detecting Deserters and Disloyalty: U.S. Army Intelligence Operations in the Midwest during the Civil War - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: December 10, 2014 Speaker: Jim Ogden Topic: The Engagement at Reed's Bridge - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: February 10, 2015 Speaker: Leslie Goddard Topic: Gone with the Wind and Civil War Memory - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: December 10, 2015 Speaker: Dave Keller Topic: Camp Douglas - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: April 10, 2015 Speaker: Michael Burlingame Topic: The Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: May 10, 2015 Speaker: Eric Leonard Topic: Cartel, Code, and Consequences at Andersonville - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: June 10, 2015 Speaker: Gary Adelman Topic: 4D Civil War Photography Extravaganza - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: September 10, 2015 Speaker: Dale Phillips Topic: The Capture of New Orleans - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: October 10, 2015 Speaker: Dennis Frye Topic: John Brown: The Spark That Ignited the War - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: November 10, 2015 Speaker: Philip Leigh Topic: Trading with the Enemy - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: January 10, 2016 Speaker: David Moore Topic: Gen William S Rosecrans - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: February 10, 2016 Speaker: Don Doyle Topic: The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: May 10, 2016 Speaker: Glenna Schroeder-Lein Topic: The Soldier's Home in the Civil WarCall - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: June 10, 2016 Speaker: Dale Phillips Topic: Ben Butler and the Federal Occupation of New Orleans - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: October 10, 2016 Speaker: Lance Herdegen Topic: The Music of the Iron Brigade - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: November 10, 2016 Speaker: Dave Connon Topic: Iowa Copperheads - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: December 10, 2016 Speaker: Bjorn Skaptasan Topic: What I saw of Shiloh: Ambrose Bierce Goes to War - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: January 10, 2017 Speaker: Richard Summers Topic: Richmond Redeemed: Enduring Lessons in Leadership from the Siege of Petersburg - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: April 10, 2016 Speaker: Greg Biggs Topic: Nashville: The Siren's Song of the Western Confederacy - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting