Our speaker will be our newly elected President Earle Hollenbaugh.

Earle has been the Newsletter editor for over the last decade. He has also served the Roundtable as Vice-President and Member of the Board of Directors. Earle is a retired Analyst for the Federal Government and a long-time Catonsville resident.

Earle will be providing a PowerPoint presentation on the 1864 capture of Fort Fisher, North Carolina.

Fort Fisher, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, protected The Port of Wilmington, NC. With a railroad line running to Richmond, Wilmington was the last port that could be utilized by blockade runners supplying Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The fort, constructed over two years, was the largest earthwork fortification in the Western Hemisphere and fell only after two attempts by combined Union Army/Navy expeditions. The first attempt, failed due to incompetence and jealousy, primarily on the part of the commanding General, Benjamin Butler.

Our speaker will be our own Lee Hodges.  His topic is:  Desertion in the Civil War.

Lee will address: How many desertions were there? Who was likely to desert? What were some of the motivations for deserting? How did soldiers desert and where did they go after doing so? What actions did the Union and Confederate governments take to combat it? Finally, what effect did desertion have on the war?

"Lee has been a member of the BCWRT since 2003. He has been extremely interested in the Civil War since early childhood. He graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) with a B.A. and M.A. in history, with particular emphasis on American history and the U.S. presidency. Lee serves as Research and Analysis Specialist for the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA), a nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting awareness of issues of interest to the Iranian-American community.  Lee is a pianist and composer, and graduated from the University of Maryland College Park with a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance. Lee is also a writer and has had articles published in Washington Opera Magazine, among other publications.  Lee spoke to the BCWRT in October 2011, giving a talk on the battle of Olustee, Florida.

Our speaker will be Wayne E. Motts.  His topic is:The George Spangler Farm: 11^th Army Corps Field Hospital at Gettysburg

Seized by Union forces of the 11^th Army Corps on July 1, 1863, the previously tranquil farm of George Spangler was turned into an immense field hospital. From the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, and for five weeks afterwards, the Spangler Farm hosted some 1,900 wounded soldiers of both sides. Among the patients treated there were Brigadier General Lewis Armistead of the Confederate Army mortally wounded in Pickett’s Charge, Union Brigadier General Francis Barlow, and Private George Nixon, the great-grandfather of President Richard M. Nixon. This farm is one of the most important and preserved hospital sites from the Battle of Gettysburg. Join historian and licensed guide Wayne E. Motts as he presents the fascinating history of this significant property purchased by the Gettysburg Foundation in 2008. The farm is currently being rehabilitated.

Wayne E. Motts is the CEO of the National Civil War Museum located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. http://www.nationalcivilwarmuseum.org He has been a licensed battlefield guide at the Gettysburg Park National Military Park for the past 25 years. He is the author of the only published biography of Southern General Lewis A. Armistead who died at the Spangler Farm on July 5, 1863.

Our speaker will be Richard Manning McMurry. Richard McMurry is a native of Atlanta. In 1961 he received the B.A. degree in history from the Virginia Military Institute. He then served two years active duty in the United States Army at Fort Campbell, KY. Subsequently, he attended Emory University, receiving the M.A. degree in June 1964 and the Ph.D in June 1967. From 1967 to 1981 McMurry taught history at Valdosta (Georgia) State College. He was an adjunct professor at North Carolina State University from 1981 to 1988. Since that time he has been a freelance writer and speaker and has served as a guide/historian for many tour and cruise groups.

Richard McMurry has authored more than 100 articles on various aspects of the Civil War. In 1994 two of his books – John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence and Two Great Rebel Armies: An Essay in Confederate Military History – were listed among the one hundred best modern Civil War books as selected by the eminent historian Gary Gallagher for the magazine Civil War.

Mr. McMurry will discuss the Strategies of Jefferson Davis.

Our speaker will be Tom Clemens. Tom Clemens received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in History from Salisbury University. He was awarded a Doctorate of Arts from George Mason University. Tom taught History at Salisbury University and, since 1986, he has been a fulltime faculty member at Hagerstown Community College. He currently teaches U.S. and World History, as well as courses on the American Civil War plus History and Hollywood.

A number of Tom’s articles on the American Civil War have been published. The Maryland Historical Magazine included his Master’s thesis in one of its issues.

Tom has been giving tours of Antietam for over 15 years and has volunteered as a costumed interpreter for nearly 30 years at Antietam, Harpers Ferry, Gettysburg and many other historic sites.

Dr. Clemens is an ardent Civil War preservationist.  He is a founding member of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation, a non-profit battlefield preservation organization. Tom has been the President of this organization since 1989. He and his two daughters live in Keedysville, in close proximity to the Antietam Battlefield.

Tom’s presentation will be on the Battle of Antietam.

John Michael "Mike" Priest, the author/editor of around 12 Civil War related books, retired from teaching high school on January 1, 2011, after serving 30.5 years.  Since that time, he has traveled to Australia and to various round tables on the East Coast, speaking about topics ranging from the West woods at Antietam to Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.  Currently, as a certified guide at Antietam, he routinely takes visitors on tours of the battlefield.  In addition to the standard 2.5 hour tours he has also given specialized walks of the West woods, the Bloody Lane and nearby South Mountain.  He is currently working on a series of books on the Spotsylvania campaign of 1864.He and his wife of 43 years reside in Clear Spring, Maryland.  He can be contacted at priesjoh@verizon.net.

Mike's presentation, based upon his forthcoming book "Stand to It and Give Them Hell" (Ten Roads Publishing, Gettysburg, PA), will concentrate upon the action of July 2, 1863 at the Wheatfield.  Using a series of detailed battalion level maps, he will walk the audience through one of bloodiest spots on the Gettysburg Battlefield.  Brigades of the Union Second, Third, and Fifth Corps all saw combat in the Wheatfield, sometimes in tandem with each other.  The presentation will illustrate how the Wheatfield served as a hub for the fighting at the Rose Farm, the Devils Den, and Little Round Top.

Our speakers will be Bob Mullauer and Jerry Bayer. Bob Mullauer was a high school history teacher for over a decade. He currently teaches nighttime courses at Anne Arundel Community College as well as speaking to a variety of groups on topics such as the American Civil War in the Western Theater, World War II in the Pacific, and the Napoleonic Wars. He has led United States Army officers on staff rides over the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battlefields. Besides Civil War battlefields, his travels include tours of World War II battlefields in the Pacific as well as Normandy, the Bulge, Verdun, and various Napoleonic sites in Europe. Bob currently serves as the President of the BCWRT.

Jerry Bayer is a former Marylander now living in retirement with his wife, Marianne, in Harper’s Ferry, VA. He is a member of various historical groups, as well as a Life Member of both the SCV and SAR. A 1971 graduate of the University of Baltimore, Jerry has spent a lifetime studying American Military History and World War II. Both He and Marianne are re-enactors and appear in the movie “Gods and Generals”.

Bob and Jerry will discuss “Four Generals with missing parts”. This promises to be another lively and informative presentation from Jerry and Bob.

Our speaker will be BCWRT President Bob Mullauer. Bob Mullauer was a high school history teacher for over a decade. He currently teaches nighttime courses at Anne Arundel Community College as well as speaking to a variety of groups on topics such as the American Civil War in the Western Theater, World War II in the Pacific, and the Napoleonic Wars. He has led United States Army officers on staff rides over the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battlefields. Besides Civil War battlefields, his travels include tours of World War II battlefields in the Pacific as well as Normandy, the Bulge, Verdun, and various Napoleonic sites in Europe.

Bob will discuss the Army of the Potomac’s Overland campaign of 1864 from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor.

This month is The Baltimore Civil War Roundtable Annual Dinner. Our speaker will be Dennis Frye. Dennis is a Civil War historian well known to re-enactors, movie fans and preservationists.

He was the President of the former Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites from 1995-1998. He also has worked as a consultant in Civil War history and served as associate producer of the movie “Gods and Generals,” coordinated the 1997 and 2002 Antietam reenactments, wrote a general management plan for the Stonewall Jackson Headquarters house in Winchester, VA, and served as consulting historian for the Maryland Civil War Trails project on the Antietam and Gettysburg campaigns.

Additionally, Dennis has served as Chief Historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park for10 years, and has worked as an NPS historian at Harpers Ferry for 22 years.

Dennis will discuss the topic of his upcoming book: Harper’s Ferry Under Fire, 1861 – 1865.  It is hoped he will have copies available at the dinner.