The April 9th, 1863, capture and surrender of Robert E Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S Grant's Army of the Potomac eventually led to the capitulation all forces of the Confederate States of America to the United States of America. Thus began the weeks and months journey home for the members of these Armed Forces.

This journey home is the subject over next Baltimore Civil War Round Table Zoom meeting as we present Professor Caroline E. Janney in a talk on her book; Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee's Army after Appomattox. Our Zoom will be held on Tuesday, December 20th, 2022, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Register for this event at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwucuCoqD4pGNVrzVtRuAx1jRANVXjdOLBg

You will receive an email with a link to enter the Zoom.

Prof. Janney’s book covers the period starting when word spread that Lee planned to surrender. Most remaining troops stacked their arms and accepted paroles allowing them to return home, even as they lamented the loss of their country and cause. But others broke south and west, hoping to continue the fight. Fearing a guerrilla war, Grant extended the generous Appomattox terms to every rebel who would surrender himself. Provost marshals fanned out across Virginia and beyond, seeking nearly 18,000 of Lee's men who had yet to surrender. But the shock of Lincoln's assassination led Northern authorities to see threats of new rebellion in every rail depot and harbor where Confederates gathered for transport, even among those already paroled. While Federal troops struggled to keep order and sustain a fragile peace, their newly surrendered adversaries seethed with anger and confusion at the sight of Union Troops, including United States Colored Troops, occupying their towns and former slaves celebrating freedom. 

Caroline Janney is an author and historian whose scholarship focuses on the Civil War, Memory, and Women and Gender. She holds a B.A. in Government and a PhD in History from the University of Virginia. She is currently the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War at the University of Virginia, where she also directs the Nau Center for Civil War History. She is the author of Burying the Dead but Not the Past: Ladies’ Memorial Associations and the Lost Cause; Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation, which was awarded the Southern Historical Association’s Charles Sydnor Award and the Museum of the Confederacy’s Jefferson Davis Award and was an honorable mention for the OAH Avery O. Craven Award; and Petersburg to Appomattox: The End of the War in Virginia. She is a past-president of the Society of Civil War Historians and also serves as a co-editor of the University of North Carolina Press’s Civil War America series.

 Minutes

Our December meeting was our 461st.  The meeting had 37 registrants and participants.  

Our speaker was Caroline Janney, a professor of Civil War history at the University of Virginia.  Professor Janney spoke about the aftermath of the surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.  She is the author of Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox.  

Professor Janney began by noting that “Appomattox” has frequently been described as the end of the war.  However, she said, it was really the surrender of a single army.  Moreover, in the weeks after the surrender, Appomattox had many unforeseen results.

About 26-28,000 Confederates were paroled at Appomattox.  Under Grant’s terms, these men were “paroled prisoners.”  They were not to be “disturbed” by the authorities as long as they obeyed the law.  Passes were created for the men which would serve as proof they had been paroled and as a coupon for rations.  

However, a substantial portion of Lee’s army did not surrender at Appomattox.  In fact, out of the roughly 60,000 that had left the Petersburg–Richmond area, perhaps 20,000 avoided surrendering.  Besides casualties incurred, there were several reasons for this.  Some fell behind.  Others believed the war was over and went home.  Still others slipped out of the lines.  2,000 cavalry and artillery slipped away, many of whom united under Thomas Rosser.  On April 12, Rosser actually called on the men to return to combat, saying that companies and regiments were to form without delay.  

Because so many of Lee’s men didn’t actually surrender, a question quickly arose: were these people covered by Grant’s terms?  Grant himself said that the terms should be offered to all members of the Army of Northern Virginia.  Professor Janney argued that in taking this stance, Grant was worried that a guerilla war might break out.  His surrender policy was part of his efforts to prevent this.  In the aftermath of Appomattox, men were paroled at locations all over Virginia, and in West Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland as well.  

Issues soon arose concerning the return of Confederate soldiers to their homes.  Would they be allowed to pass through Union-held territory on their way home?  Some were going home by way of the North–even passing through New York City.  Grant hadn’t expected this, and eventually ordered that the practice of giving Confederates passes to come north be stopped.  

Another serious problem was what to do with the roughly 75,000 men from Union slaveholding states–the so-called “border states”--who had fought for the Confederacy.  In many Maryland counties–including Baltimore–vigilance committees were set up to prevent Confederates from returning.  Although Grant and Attorney General James Speed said that Confederates from West Virginia could return to their state, many West Virginians were unhappy about that.  Vigilance committees were created in many counties there also.  By late May, Grant and President Andrew Johnson decided it was wise to allow Confederate veterans from the border states to return home.  Johnson’s proclamation of amnesty made the issue a moot point.  

Professor Janney said that many African Americans christened April 9 as “Freedom Day.”  At Appomattox, there were about 1,000 slaves and free African Americans with Lee’s army.  The slaves–who became free upon the surrender–were faced with the question of how to get home.  In the end, many decided to return home with their former masters.

Professor Janney concluded by stating that instead of serving as an end to the war, the surrender at Appomattox pointed up problems which the war had revealed.  Lee’s men were paroled prisoners, not on an equal footing with Union troops.  This gave them a feeling of embitterment and subjugation.  Some attacked African American Union soldiers, viewing them as a symbol of the overthrow of the old older of the slaveholding South.  The surrender was not the end of division, Professor Janney said.  On the contrary, it proved to be just the beginning.  

 Notes from the President

On behalf of our Board, I wish you all a Happy and Blessed Holiday Season! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah (Hanukkah), Ashura, Bodhi Day, Kwanza or any other festival of note, May Peace Be with You All! Please stay Covid, RSV, and Flu safe!!!!

We approach the end of 2022 in an interesting position…a good news/bad news position.

Good news 

After going from no meetings to Zoom meetings due to Covid 9, we are finally back to hosting in person (hybrid) meetings at the Parkville Senior Center.  It has been great seeing faces not scene since February of 2020.

The combination of Zoom and our Facebook page has increased the awareness and exposure of the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable. Our Zoom account lets us host up to 100 participants. We have come closest to that number with the presentations by Dr. Andy Waskie (“Meet General Meade: Victor of the Battle of Gettysburg”) and Dr. Ty Seidule (Robert E. Lee and Me”). Our normal range is between 25 and 50. Additionally, the BCWRT Facebook page currently has 1.8 thousand followers.

Now the bad news.

Our membership numbers have been in steady decline for about six years. Several factures have contributed to this reduction of members. A few members have died. Being an older organization, ill health has affected our numbers. Some members have moved from the area. (Interestingly, we have had a handful of new out-of-date members because of our Zoom presentations. We lost several members behind the Baltimore Confederate Monument controversy when, following a close vote, the membership voted to follow the Board’s recommendation that the BCWRT would encourage members to voice their own opinions to the Mayor’s Monument Committee rather than have the organization take a stand.

We are now under 30 members. Less than 10 have attended our recently restarted in-person meetings.

The BCWRT Needs your help. Renew your membership, now. Invite your friends to join. After his illness, Ray Atkins is back to processing the memberships. Membership is $25 or $35 for families. Mail your checks to:

Ray Atkins, Treasurer, BCWRT
1204 Fordham Ct.,
Belair, MD 21014

If you are not a member, please join! Invite others to join.

The bottom line is, without your membership, we cannot afford speaker, much less sponsor activities and support Civil War organizations.

 This year, Thanksgiving Day will be celebrated on Thursday, November 24. Many of us are generally familiar with the stories of the 1621 harvest feast involving the Wampanoag people and the immigrant English Pilgrims. Some are also familiar with the October 3, 1863 action of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln making Thanksgiving a national Holiday on November 26. One of the faces campaigning for Lincoln act on Thanksgiving was  the editor of the popular magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, Sarah Josepha Hale, More on her later

It of the lives and faces of regular, yet extraordinary people that will be the subject of the next Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) meeting on Tuesday, November 22, at 7:30 p.m. National Park Service Ranger Matthew Borders looks at the photos and lives of several men through his book Faces of Union Soldiers at Antietam. The meeting will occur at the Parkville Senior Center, 8601 Harford Rd, Parkville, MD 21234.

Co-authored with Joseph Stahl, this book invites the reader to walk the routes of some of the units on the field through the stories of thirty-six individual soldiers who fought on that September day. The images of the soldiers in this work, many of which have never been published before, give faces to the fighting men at Antietam, as well as insight into their lives. The Battle of Antietam, fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland, was the bloodiest day in American history, with more than twenty-three thousand dead, wounded and missing.

A 2004 graduate of Michigan State University with a BA in US History, Matthew Borders is a Park Ranger at Monocacy National Battlefield in Frederick, Maryland. While at MSU he was first an intern and then a seasonal ranger for the National Park Service at Antietam National Battlefield.  Following his undergrad years, he immediately went to Eastern Michigan University for his MS in Historic Preservation, with a focus in Battlefield Interpretation, which he earned in 2006.

Moving to Maryland in 2007 with his wife Kira, he worked as the historian for the ABPP for the next six years, personally surveying over 100 different American Civil War battlefields in the deep south and western United States. He continues to work with Antietam National Battlefield as a volunteer and Certified Battlefield Guide, as well as a Certified Guide for Harpers Ferry National Historical Site.

Welcome to all who wish to join us, in person, om Tuesday, 10/25, at the Parkville Senior Center. If you cannot attend, join us on Zoom at

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwsfu6opjspHde55dbI3yxz2o9hf1-IRbg8

Sarah Josepha Hale is best known as the author of the nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb.

The Parkville Senior Center is located at 8601 Harford Rd, Parkville, MD 21234. Enter the parking lot from Hiss Ave. and use rear entrance to Center. There is a $5.00 charge for non-members to attend the meeting.  There is NO SMOKING allowed in the Senior Center, Doors open at 7:00 p.m. with the meeting beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Covid Policy: The Baltimore County Department of Aging (BCDA) does not require masks, COVID-19 screenings or proof of vaccination to enter, although we strongly encourage masks for unvaccinated individuals!  (To the vaccinated-wear a mask if you are so inclined)

 Notes from the President

I wish to thank all who participated in last month’s BCWRT meeting. This was the first hybrid meeting of our group. It was great seeing faces that haven’t been in a personal group setting since February of 2020.

Houston, we have a problem! Our membership is down. Fewer members mean less people enjoying the knowledge shared by our members and speakers. It also means reduced opportunities for getting speakers if we have a smaller account from membership fees, book sales, raffles and other sources to pay fees.

Please tell your friends about the us. Convince them to join. Along with renewing your dues, how about gifting a membership to a relative or a friend who has interest in the United States of the mid-19^th Century.

If you have any ideas on how to increase our membership, please email me at rfordjazz@yahoo.com!

AGAIN, IT IS TIME TO RENEW YOUR MEMBER OR JOIN US. If you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2023. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

Minutes

Our November meeting was our 460th.  The meeting had 17 registrants and 16 participants.

Our speaker was Matt Borders, a National Park Service Ranger currently working at Monocacy Battlefield.  Mr. Borders and Joseph Stahl are co-authors of Faces of Union Soldiers at Antietam, a book that profiles 36 Union soldiers who fought in the battle.  The book features a carte de visite (a cheap and, during the Civil War, very popular type of photo that was the size of a visiting card) of each soldier, together with information about their Civil War service and lives as a whole. Mr. Borders discussed six of the soldiers profiled in the book.  

Major Elisha Burbank was mustered into the 12th Massachusetts Infantry in June 1861, at the age of 51.  Badly wounded in the foot at Antietam, Burbank was taken to General Hospital #1 in Frederick.  He was subsequently transferred to Suman’s House.  Infection set in, and he died on November 30, 1862.  In his carte de visite, Burbank is wearing a civilian coat and, apparently, dark blue (signifying infantry) trousers. Burbank is also seen leaning on a brace to keep himself still.  Mr. Borders said that contrary to popular belief, photos during the war could be taken quickly, but if someone moved, that could blur the image.  

Private Philip Sellers was mustered into Company F, 107th Pennsylvania Infantry in April 1862, at the age of 21. He had been a farmer prior to the war.  Sellers was listed as missing at Gettysburg.  Briefly a POW, he was paroled and sent to Camp Parole, West Chester, PA.  He later returned to the 107th and reenlisted.   On August 18, 1864, Sellers was shot in the left thigh at Reams Station, Virginia.  He was discharged for disability and died in 1909.  After the war, pension records listed him as an invalid.  In his carte de visite, Sellers is seen wearing a “greatcoat” meant as part of a winter uniform.

2nd Lieutenant James F. Simpson was mustered into Company C of the 14th Connecticut Infantry in August 1862.  He was subsequently transferred to Company D and promoted to 1st lieutenant.  Simpson may have been captured at Chancellorsville, for he was paroled not long after the battle.  On October 20, Simpson was promoted to captain of Company C.  At Reams Station on August 25, he was wounded and later resigned due to disability.  In the spring of 1865, however, he returned to the army as a captain in the 2nd Veteran Volunteer Infantry.  Simpson served in the army after the war and died in 1899.  Simpson’s carte de visite shows him clean shaven.  Mr. Borders said that there were no rules in the Union army regarding facial hair–it just had to be neat and trimmed.

Corporal Tobias Schmearer was mustered into Company A of the 53rd Pennsylvania Infantry in September 1861.  In 1863 he was promoted to sergeant and in 1864 to second lieutenant.  On June 16, 1864, he received a slight neck wound at Petersburg.  On April 28, 1865, Schmearer requested a furlough, which appears to have been granted, to “...arrange for the comfort and support of a Widowed Mother.”  He died in 1877, and his widow applied for a pension.  Schmearer’s carte de visite shows him with his coat open and an enlisted man’s vest underneath.  He is wearing a cravat–something required for officers but not for enlisted men–as well as a waterproof forage cap and three stripes, the latter indicating his rank.  

Private Charles Judkins was mustered into Company A of the 9th New Hampshire Infantry in July 1862.  At Antietam, he appears to have been wounded in the Burnside Bridge fighting, and at Spotsylvania on May 12, 1864, he sustained a flesh wound to the right calf.  Judkins was subsequently transferred to Company G of the 6th Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, originally known as the Invalid Corps.  He worked as a blacksmith after the war and filed for a pension in 1887.  Judkins was reported to have died in 1902, although it’s not known for certain that he did.  Mr. Borders said that the Veteran Reserve Corps uniform was very distinctive, and that on the back of Judkins’ carte de visite there is a tax stamp which is important in dating the photo.

2nd Lieutenant William H. Leonard was mustered into Company I, 51st New York Infantry.  In 1862, he was made assistant surgeon and then full surgeon of the regiment.  He was listed as “absent with wounded” in December 1862.  Leonard resigned in 1863 due to his wife’s failing health.  After the war, he stayed in the medical field, dying in 1901.  In his carte de visite, Leonard is wearing a dark green sash, signifying the medical branch of the service. The letters on the front of his kepi are probably M.S. (Medical Surgeon).  

 A few weeks after All Hallows Eve (Halloween) in 1831, Universal Pictures released the James Whale directed Frankenstein. In the scene where the monster is created the Dr. Henry Frankenstein character shouts; “It’s Alive. It’s Alive. It’s Alive!”

While the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable is not attempting to create new life, we are returning to live, in person dissemination of information about this period of conflict in the United States.

We will resume in person meetings on Tuesday, October 25, 2022 at the Parkville Senior Center, 8601 Harford Rd, Parkville, MD 21234 beginning at 7:30 p.m. Our speakers will be Jean H. Baker and Charles H. Mitchell, co-editors of the acclaimed book The Civil War in Maryland Reconsidered .

According to the Jonathan Pitts article in the12/30/21 Baltimore Sun. “The Civil War in Maryland Reconsidered, a collection of 13 essays assembled and edited by Baltimore historians Charles W. Mitchell and Jean H. Baker, we encounter independent thinkers from as far away as California and England and as close as Johns Hopkins University. They point out, among other things, that contrary to popular belief, Maryland judges refused to put the Dred Scott decision into effect; that more Marylanders voted, in total, for the three presidential candidates who backed the Union than they did for John C. Breckinridge, the Southern Democrat who carried the state in 1860, and that four times as many Old Line State men fought for the Union than for the South.

Maryland, in short, was less sympathetic to the Confederate cause, and more behind the Union, than generations of historians implied, says Mitchell, a self-taught Civil War expert, author and editor who got the sprawling essay project rolling four years ago.”

Dr. Jean H. Baker is a professor emerita at Goucher College. She if the author of over a dozen history books including serval works on Abraham and Mary Lincoln.

Welcome to all who wish to join us, in person, om Tuesday, 10/25, at the Parkville Senior Center. If you cannot attend, join us on Zoom at

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAkc-usrDkpGd0I3vtpTEKVhfP5cjPQulHa

As was mentioned last month, the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) met, in person at our longtime home The Parkville Senior Center. Since early 2020. We will return to our live meetings on Tuesday, October 25, 2022. Our speakers will be Goucher College Professor Emerita/historian Jean H. Baker along with author and Mid-Atlantic History expert Charles W. Mitchell. The Civil War in Maryland Reconsidered is the recent book they have edited and will discuss.

It is ironic that we return to live meetings in October since the BCWRT was founded in October 1982. Although we will be in person, the meeting will also be carried via the Zoom platform. In case you have forgotten or have never attended, the Parkville Senior Center is located at 8601 Harford Rd, Parkville, MD 21234. Enter the parking lot from Hiss Ave. and use rear entrance to Center. There is a $5.00 charge for non-members to attend the meeting.  There is NO SMOKING allowed in the Senior Center, Doors open at 7:00 p.m. with the meeting beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Covid Policy: The Baltimore County Department of Aging (BCDA) does not require masks, COVID-19 screenings or proof of vaccination to enter, although we strongly encourage masks for unvaccinated individuals!  (To the vaccinated-wear a mask if you are so inclined)

MEMBERSHIP: If you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

Minutes

Our October meeting was our 459th.  The meeting had 21 Zoom registrants and the same number of participants. In person attendance was 10.

October’s meeting was a “hybrid” meeting.  It was the first to be held in person since February 2020, and took place at the Parkville Senior Center, the location where the BCWRT’s meetings had occurred prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.  At the same time, the meeting was also available through Zoom.  

Our speakers were Jean H. Baker, professor emeritus at Goucher College and the author of over a dozen history books, and Charles W. Mitchell, an author, editor, and self-taught expert on the Civil War. Ms. Baker and Mr. Mitchell spoke on the war–and subsequent memory of the war–in Maryland.  They are the editors of the book The Civil War In Maryland Reconsidered.  

Ms. Baker and Mr. Mitchell discussed how The Civil War In Maryland Reconsidered came into being. Mr. Mitchell approached Ms. Baker with the idea of editing a book on the war in Maryland consisting of essays by a variety of authors.  The two would send drafts of the essays back to the authors for revision.  Sometimes there were two or three revisions.  Ultimately, 13 essays–each by a different author–were compiled on various aspects of Maryland’s Civil War experience.  

The book looks at old issues in new ways.  While it is true that many Marylanders fought on both sides, Ms. Baker and Mr. Mitchell argued that the story of Maryland in the war has been corrupted through a narrative that makes the state appear to have been more pro-Confederate than it actually was.  

A substantial portion of Marylanders did indeed support the Confederacy, and many of them crossed the Potomac River into Virginia and fought in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.  However, most of the state’s population supported the Union.  Even many Marylanders who were slaveholders were nevertheless pro-Union. There were a number of reasons for this, including fears of a blockade and a shutdown of the B&O railroad.  When discussing the 1860 election, much has been made of the fact that Abraham Lincoln got few votes in Maryland.  However, when the votes cast by Marylanders for all of the pro-Union candidates in the election are combined–Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and John Bell, the Constitutional Union Party’s candidate, they make a majority–more than 54 percent–of the total vote.  Moreover, In the 1864 election Lincoln received more than 55 percent of the popular vote in Maryland.  

Ms. Baker and Mr. Mitchell said that when it comes to writing about the war, there have been three basic groups of people.  One consisted of the soldiers who survived the war and their commanding officers.  They didn’t talk much about the political situation.  Instead, they largely discussed the brotherhood of battle and camp life.  The second group consisted of Marylanders who, around the turn of the century, argued that if various hypotheticals had taken place (the “If…If…If” phenomenon) had happened, Maryland would have joined the Confederacy.  During this period, there was an effort to disenfranchise African American voters in Maryland.  The third–and most recent–group consisted of university-trained scholars looking at politics, including voting, to see how people really felt.  In their telling, a much more accurate version of what happened has emerged.  

Ms. Baker and Mr. Mitchell argued that the Confederates effectively “won” the writing of history after the war.  The vision promulgated by groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy, in which the war was a “War of Northern Aggression,” became very popular.  Union veterans, on the whole, didn’t do a great deal to resist this, although African Americans fought to rewrite this version of history.  

September 2022, specifically September 17, is the 160^th anniversary of the battle of Antietam, which was fought in Western Maryland near Sharpsburg. The casualty count from that clash (USA: 2108 killed, 9549 wounded, 753 missing; CSA: 2700 killed, 9024 wounded, 2000 missing) makes it the “bloodiest day of the Civil War”. The sheer number of casualties resulted in countless funerals.

How those and other wartime funerals were conducted will be the subject of the next Baltimore Civil War Roundtable Zoom presentation on Tuesday, September 27, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. Professor Annette T. Khawane returns to the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable to reveal some of the varied funeral practices during the war.  This is a fitting follow up to Prof. Khawane’s last BCWRT presentation on Civil War era Dr. Thomas Holmes, who is considered the ‘Father of Modern Embalming.

Register for this event at  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItc-2hrjwsH90J2ph6_0b4dbAGHf3HwdxJ

You will receive and email containing the actual link to the meeting.

Annette Tyler Khawane is a graduate of Baltimore City public schools. She holds AA degree from Catonsville Community College; BA degree from Morgan State University; and MA degree from The American University. She has been a licensed mortician for over 20 years and a licensed Massage Therapist for over a decade. She has worked for various corporations in many capacities from Senior Trainer, Senior Safety Specialist; Sales Professional; Massage Therapist and many Customer Service-related positions. She is retired from FedEx after over 22 years of service. Since 2012, she has served as an adjunct professor, teaching the embalming lab for Catonsville Community College. She is also a part-time instructor at the Baltimore School of Massage and a Drivers' Education Instructor for Williams Educational Services. She has heart for teaching and believes every day you create your own masterpiece.

Minutes

Our September meeting was our 458th.  The meeting had 33 registrants and 25 participants.  

Our speaker was Annette Tyler Khawane, a licensed mortician and former Adjunct Professor of Mortuary Science at the Catonsville branch of the Community College of Baltimore County (formerly Catonsville Community College).  Ms. Khawane’s presentation dealt with embalming during the Civil War.  

Ms. Khawane began by tracing the history of embalming through the ages.  She divided it into three periods.  The first was from 3200 B.C. to 650 A.D.  The ancient Egyptian method of embalming consisted of brain removal, evisceration, immersion, dehydration (drying the body out in the sun) and wrapping (coating the body with spices).  The whole process took about 70 days.  The body parts were put into canopic jars, and artifacts were buried with the body.  The second period, from 650 A.D. to 1861, was the Period of the Anatomist.  During the Middle Ages, dissections began to be performed, including by Leonardo da Vinci.  The third period is from 1861 to the present.  

During the Civil War, both Union and Confederate soldiers were embalmed.  Military dead were usually buried on the field–there were no provisions for sending them home.  Although there wasn’t a specific, universal time for how long a body would last after embalming, the practice made it possible for those who had died to come home to their loved ones.  A written request had to be made to the quartermaster general for the dismemberment and return of the body.  

Most embalmers started out as physicians.  Dr. Thomas Holmes (1817-1900) is considered the “father of American embalming.”  Holmes, whose innovations included the creation of a patented fluid pump and a patented body bag to carry soldiers from the battlefield, was given a commission to embalm dead Union officers, and asked to embalm Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, the first Union officer to be killed in the war.  Holmes later claimed to have embalmed more than 4,000 soldiers and generals during the war (editor’s note: some have questioned this figure).  

Prior to battles, embalmers frequently approached soldiers.  The soldiers were provided with cards that stated that prepayment and transportation had been arranged.  Brown & Alexander embalmed Abraham Lincoln’s son, Willie, when he died during the war, and later Lincoln himself after his assassination.  The cost for the president’s embalming (and for sending embalmers on the Lincoln funeral train to continue tending to his body) was $260 in gold dollars.  Although that sounds like an innocent number today, our Vice President, Martin French, said that it was the equivalent of about $200,000 in today’s paper money.  Lincoln’s assassination, Ms. Khawane said, launched the funeral industry because the preservation and display of his body led to embalming–and with it public funerals–becoming popular throughout the country.  This gave a huge impetus to the funeral home industry.    

February 2020 marked the last time the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) met, in person at our longtime home The Parkville Senior Center. We will return to our live meetings on Tuesday, October 25, 2022. Our speakers will be Goucher College Professor Emerita/historian Jean H. Baker along with author and Mid-Atlantic History expert Charles W. Mitchell. The Civil War in Maryland Reconsidered is the recent book they have edited and will discuss.

It is ironic that we return to live meetings in October since the BCWRT was founded in October 1982. Although we will be in person, the meeting will also be carried via the Zoom platform. In case you have forgotten or have never attended, the Parkville Senior Center is located at 8601 Harford Rd, Parkville, MD 21234. Enter the parking lot from Hiss Ave. and use rear entrance to Center. There is a $5.00 charge for non-members to attend the meeting.  There is NO SMOKING allowed in the Senior Center, Doors open at 7:00 p.m. with the meeting beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Don’t forget, we will have a Zoom meeting for September. Prof. Annette Tyler Khawane returns to the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable to reveal some of the varied funeral practices during the war. This is a fitting follow up to Prof. Khawane’s BCWRT presentation on Civil War era Dr. Thomas Holmes, who is considered the ‘Father of Modern Embalming. Register at
 https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItc-2hrjwsH90J2ph6_0b4dbAGHf3HwdxJ
You will receive an email with a link to join the meeting.

MEMBERSHIP: If you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

Due to family illness, the planned Baltimore Civil War Roundtable banquet featuring author Kevin Levin has been cancelled. Instead, the banquet, with a different speaker, is being planned for April 2023. Kevin Levin will appear before the BCWRT, via Zoom, on Tuesday, August 23, at 7:30 p.m.

Levin will make a presentation on his book Searching for Black Confederates, The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth. While there have been claims of thousands upon thousands of African Americans Confederates since the Civil War, the stories began to explode after the 1989 release of the movie Glory, which told the story of one of the many Black regiments of the United States Army, the 54^th Massachusetts. 

Kevin M. Levin educational background includes his BA in Philosophy and History from William Paterson College of New Jersey, a MA in History from University of Richmond and a MA in Philosophy from University of Maryland. He has been on the faculty of several colleges and high schools across the nation.  He has served as Historian and Master Teacher at the Ford’s Theatre. Additionally, Levin serves on the Board of Directors of the National Council for History Education, the Advisory Committee for the Stone Mountain Exhibit Proposal, and is a Fellow for the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Register ahead of time for this event at  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZElcuqgpjktGtA4hhX5eqTTnxY6yLQo32CO. Once registered, you will receive an email link to join the presentation during the evening of the Zoom.

Minutes

Our August meeting was our 457th.  The meeting had 75 registrants and 53 participants.

Our speaker was historian Kevin Levin. Mr. Levin discussed the belief, popular in some circles today, that many African Americans served as soldiers in the Confederate army during the Civil War.  He is the author of the book entitled Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth.

Mr. Levin began by asking his audience to imagine Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia marching northward in late June 1863.  The traditional image is one of 75,000 white men.  Mr. Levin, however, argued that this is misleading.  In reality, there were also about 10,000 enslaved African American men with the army.

Ignoring the enslaved, Mr. Levin said, is to ignore how the Confederate army functioned.  Forced labor played a vital role in every aspect of support for the army.  Mr. Levin argued that it was, in fact, the “cornerstone” of the army.  The Confederacy needed to mobilize as many slaves as possible to offset its numerical disadvantage in population vis-a-vis the Union.  

Of the enslaved people who performed work for Confederate armies, the body servants (also referred to by Mr. Levin as “camp slaves”) are the group of whom we have the greatest sense of who they were.  These men functioned as a legal extension of their masters.  They performed many duties including cooking, cleaning, functioning as couriers, etc.  They were often given uniforms by their masters and were frequently on the battlefield supporting them.  Sometimes, they even picked up guns during a battle and fought alongside their masters.  The masters tended to be ambivalent when this occurred.  On the one hand, it was a demonstration of slave loyalty, on the other, it also challenged the prevailing racial hierarchy.  Unfortunately, Mr. Levin said, we really have no account of the camp slaves in their own words.  

While the service of African Americans in the Confederate army as laborers has always been recognized, in recent years it has been widely argued that anywhere from 500 to 100,000 African Americans served as Confederate soldiers.  In order to evaluate this contention, Mr. Levin discussed the policies of both sides concerning black enlistment as soldiers.  

Originally, both the Union and the Confederacy Military agreed that the war would be a “white man’s war.”  However, the Union began to recruit and enroll African Americans as soldiers in 1862.  In the Confederacy, however, things proceeded far differently.  From the beginning, there was a debate about arming the enslaved. In early 1864, Major General Patrick Cleburne, a native of Ireland, proposed that the Confederacy do just that.  Some of Cleburne’s subordinates, however, contacted Richmond, and President Jefferson Davis ordered the discussion stopped.  

But by late 1864, the issue was being widely debated. In his research on the debate, Mr. Levin didn’t find a single instance of anyone arguing that African Americans were already serving as soldiers in the army.  In March 1865, the Confederate Congress–with Robert E. Lee’s encouragement–narrowly passed a law authorizing the enlistment of some African Americans as soldiers.  Mr. Levin said that maybe 30-50 were raised but not armed, and they were actually housed in a prison.  Ultimately, he argued, the idea that there were Black Confederate soldiers–at least that there were significant numbers of them–does not stand up to the evidence.  

Mr. Levin asked: When and how did the myth of thousands of Black Confederate soldiers develop?  In the decades after the war, ‘loyal servants’ were frequently mentioned and praised in Confederate circles, but Black Confederate soldiers were not.  Former body servants frequently attended Confederate reunions.  However, the belief that there were large numbers of black Confederate soldiers, Mr. Levin argued, had its origins in the late 1970s, in the aftermath of the 1977 miniseries Roots, which vividly dramatized slavery.  This did not sit well with many Confederate heritage people.  Neither did the increased attention to Black Union soldiers which resulted from the 1989 film Glory as well as Ken Burns’ acclaimed 1990 documentary on the war.  However, it wasn’t until the creation of the Internet that the myth really caught fire.  

 Notes fron the President

We have already announced that this month’s banquet has been cancelled and will be scheduled, with a new speaker, next April. Those of you who purchased banquet tickets prior to the 2020 shutdown and this new change will find their reservations still in effect next April.

Due to illness, Kevin Levin will speak to us, via Zoom, on Tuesday, August 23 at 7:30 p.m. Register ahead of time for this event at  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZElcuqgpjktGtA4hhX5eqTTnxY6yLQo32CO. Once registered, you will receive an email link to join the presentation during the evening of the Zoom.

Last month we asked those of you who were interested in a tour of St. Paul’s Cemetery to contact us. We only received two responses. If we can bring that total to ten, we will set the trip. Email your interest to rforjazz@yahoo.com.  

Negotiations are underway for making a return to in-person programming at the Parkville Senior Center. An announcement will be made when arrangements are completed.

MEMBERSHIP: If you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

Fans of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Killer Angels and Gettysburg, the movie based on the novel, well familiar with the scenario involving the friendship between CSA Brigadier General Lewis Addison Armistead and USA Major General Winfield Scott Hancock. The story tells of two career officers whose close relationship is ended by Armistead’s mortal wounding and Hancock’s wounding during Pickett’s Charge. The question is How much of the story is true?

Author/historian Tom McMillan has tackled that question and has written a book Armistead and Hancock: Behind the Gettysburg Legend of Two Friends at the Turning Point of the Civil War. He will discuss his findings during the next BCWRT Zoom on Tuesday, July 26, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. Register for this event at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqf-yurT8uGdxhAO2dD1voJ1SkHGKvX1Ms. You will receive an email containing a link to join the Zoom.

McMillan currently volunteers as a battlefield ambassador at Antietam National Battlefield and as a docent at the Civil War Room of Carnegie Library in Carnegie Pa. He recently retired from a 43-year career in sports media and communications, including 25 years as VP of Communications for the five-time Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League. A former newspaper sportswriter and radio talk show host, McMillan has covered the Olympics, the Stanley Cup Finals, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, the Final Four, various major bowl games and numerous other major (and minor!) sporting events.

He grew up in Bellevue, Pa. near Pittsburgh and earned a degree in journalism and communications from Point Park University in Pittsburgh. He continues to serve his alma mater as co-director of the Pittsburgh Center for Sports Media and Marketing at Point Park. He resides with his family in Kennedy Township, Pa. and is an ardent supporter of Chelsea FC.

Although Tom McMillan spent a lifetime in sports media and communications, his true passion is history. His previous books are; Flight 93: The Story The Aftermath and The Legacy of American Courage on 9/11 (2014) and Gettysburg Rebels: Five Native Sons Who Came Home to Fight as Confederate Soldiers (2016).

Minutes

Our July meeting was our 456th.  The meeting had 30 registrants and 27 participants.  

Our president, Robert Ford, informed us that our annual banquet will not be taking place this year.  Kevin Levin, who was scheduled to be the banquet speaker, is unable to come to Baltimore.  However, he will be giving his presentation via Zoom on August 23 at our regular meeting time (7:30 p.m.).  

Robert also discussed the possibility of a BCWRT tour of Old St. Paul’s Cemetery, a historic cemetery in Baltimore City. He asked all who are interested in participating to contact him via email.

Our speaker was Tom McMillan, an author and historian with a background in sports media and communications.  Mr. McMillan discussed the relationship between Confederate Brigadier General Lewis Armistead (buried in St. Paul’s) and Union Major General Winfield Scott Hancock.  He is the author of Armistead and Hancock: Behind the Gettysburg Legend Of Two Friends At The Turning Point of the Civil War.

Mr. McMillan said that the book grew out of the 1993 film Gettysburg.  Both the movie and the novel it is based on–Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels–have a lot of fiction, and it’s hard to separate the fiction from the facts.  

Military service was in Lewis Armistead’s DNA.  He came from a Virginia family that had served in the U.S. military–and before the U.S. existed, in Virginia militia–since 1680.  His father and uncles served in the war of 1812, and one of them, George, defended Baltimore’s Fort McHenry.  Although Armistead went to West Point in 1833, he never graduated.  In 1836, there was a serious incident (he’s believed to have hit Jubal Early on the head with a plate).  He wrote a letter of resignation that was accepted.  However, in 1839 he was commissioned second lieutenant and fought in the Second Seminole War.  

Hancock was admitted to West Point at age 16.  During his time there, he grew seven inches.  Not a particularly good student, he was frequently picked on, and Alexander Hays came to his defense.  

Hancock and Armistead first met in October 1844 at Fort Towson in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).  The two men fought in the same regiment during the war with Mexico in 1847-8, and served in the occupation of Mexico after the war.  Henry Heth and both men were messmates during this period.  During the thirteen years before the Civil War, Armistead and Hancock appear to have rarely seen each other, but a bond between them continued.  

The personal lives of the two men were very different.  Hancock had as stable a family life as a U.S. army officer could have.  Armistead, however, lost two wives and two of his three children to disease on the frontier in the 1850s.  

When the Civil War began, Armistead was faced with a wrenching decision–which side to fight for.  The idea of fighting against the Union was very problematic for him.  Although he wasn’t opposed to slavery, his family’s history was tied up with the U.S. Army.  Ultimately, he decided to join the Confederacy to fight for his “...own country and for, and with, my own people–and because they were right, and oppressed.”

According to Hancock’s wife, Hancock, Armistead and other Confederates had an emotional farewell in 1861, and Armistead gave him his U.S. Army major’s uniform as well as a prayer book and other souvenirs.  Mrs. Hancock’s story is largely backed up by another (prior) account of the meeting.  

Eyewitness accounts of Armistead’s capture and death at Gettysburg vary considerably.  According to some, he was assisted by Union soldiers after using Masonic gestures.  However, as a Confederate general, he probably wouldn’t have been left on the field anyway.  On July 5, he died at the Spangler Farm.  Doctors were shocked when he died–his wound had not been considered serious.  

Hancock himself was seriously wounded only a few hundred yards from Armistead.  After the war, he served as military governor of Texas and Louisiana, fought Indians in Kansas, and–as the Democratic presidential nominee–lost an extremely close election to James A. Garfield in 1880.  

Although it is commonly believed today that Armistead was known by the nickname “Lo” (short for “Lothario”), Mr. McMillan believes this probably wasn’t the case.  

Ultimately, Mr. McMillan concluded that the popular image of Hancock and Armistead is  partially true.  They were indeed good friends.  But so were many others on opposite sides of the Civil War.  Contrary to the impression one might get from watching Gettysburg, they were not like brothers.  

 Notes from the President

In the middle of the University of Maryland Hospital complex in downtown Baltimore sits Old St. Paul’s Cemetery. Established in 1800, it is the graveyard for Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, one of the oldest Episcopal Churches in Maryland. The cemetery is the final resting place of such Maryland notables as Congressman James Carroll, Declaration of Independence signer and Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Chase, Governor of Maryland George Howard and Revolutionary War Continental Army Officer, Continental Congressman and Governor of Maryland John Eager Howard.

St. Paul’s also contains the graves of Fort McHenry hero George Armistead and his nephew Lewis Armistead, one of the subjects of this months Zoom meeting.

We have contacted St. Paul’s Cemetery about a possible tour. If enough members are interested in a tour, email me at rfordjazz@yahoo.com to express your interest.

REMINDER: The BCWRT Banquet will occur, in person, on Tuesday, August 23, 2022, at 6 p.m. Our speaker will be Kevin Levin, author of the book; Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth.

Those of you who purchased banquet tickets prior to the 2020 shutdown will find their reservations still in effect. If you haven’t made a reservation, send a check to our treasurer, Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Bel Air, MD 21014 410-879-8828. The cost is $35.00 per person. You can also print and mail the banquet flyer found in this newsletter. 

MEMBERSHIP: If you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

In 1915, a group of Black Civil War veterans proposed an idea for a history and memorial museum in Washington D.C. President Calvin Coolidge signed legislation to create the National Negro Memorial; however, the Depression killed the idea. Today’s National Museum of African American History and Culture represents one of the many legacies of United State Colored Troops (USCT).

Joined the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable as we explore the Legacy of African American Civil War Veterans with Marvin-Alonzo Greer, the Lead Historic Interpretation & Community Engagement Officer for the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission. The Zoon presentation will occur on Tuesday, June 24, 2022, at 7:30 p.m.

Register in advance by going to https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0udOGvqzgpG9bR9Af-1n0dWhVcfEbh7gIN  Once registered, you will receive an email link which will enable you to join the meeting.

Greer, also known as MAG the Historian, moved to Washington DC after serving three years at the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum in St. Louis. While at Soldiers Memorial, he oversaw the reopening of the museum after a three-year, $30 million revitalization of the 1930s era building.

A native of Pasadena, California, Marvin-Alonzo grew up in Atlanta, Georgia where he graduated from Morehouse College with a BA in History and a minor in African American Studies. He has held leadership and managerial roles at museums and historical institutions, including the Atlanta History Center and Colonial Williamsburg. He was awarded the Emancipation Proclamation Award for Preserving African American History and Culture by the City of Atlanta for his activism and partnership with community organizations to place neighborhoods in historical context.

When he is not working, he helps Black families trace their genealogy and has traced his own ancestry to the American Revolution. Marvin-Alonzo is a mentor and big brother to living historians and historical interpreters. He co-founded the Sons and Daughters of Ham (civilian) and The Hannibal Guards (military), two living history organizations dedicated to interpreting the lives of African Americans in the Civil War. Under his leadership, the Sons & Daughters of Ham were recognized by the National Park Service with the National Capital Region Hartzog Award for Excellence in Group Volunteering. In 2021 Marvin-Alonzo was profiled in People Magazine as a Black Activists, Artists, Historians and Changemakers You Should Follow on Social Media.

Marvin-Alonzo’s central belief is to use history as medicine by connecting communities to their past and creating honest dialogue across cultures that will inspire communities to action. Marvin-Alonzo’s interpretive philosophy is, “If history is not interesting and relevant, you’re not teaching it right.”

Minutes

Our June meeting was our 455th.  The meeting had 38 registrants and 29 participants.  

Our speaker was Marvin-Alonzo Greer, the Lead Historic Interpretation & Community Engagement Officer for the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission.   Mr. Greer’s topic was: “The Legacy of African American Civil War Veterans.”

In his presentation, Mr. Greer argued that it was during the Civil War that the United States began to take the idea of black military service seriously.  He discussed a number of African Americans who were significant for both their military service and their subsequent postwar careers and activities.

Martin Delany was born in Charles Town, West Virginia, and admitted to Harvard Medical School.  However, he and other African American students were kicked out due to protests from white students.  During the Civil War, Delany was commissioned as a major and served in different states as a recruiter of African American soldiers.  After the war, he served in the Freedmen’s Bureau and supported giving land to freed slaves.  He also ran for public office, although unsuccessfully.  Delany has been considered the father of black nationalism, and advocated the creation of a black state.  

Henry McNeal Turner joined the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) church, eventually becoming a bishop.  During the war, he served as chaplain of the 1st USCT.  After the war, he served in the Freedmen’s Bureau, built churches, and was elected to the Georgia legislature.  Turner said that black schools and churches should be run by black people.  According to Mr. Greer, he and his followers torched churches to keep them from falling into the hands of whites. Turner was disliked by many whites, and there were assassination attempts on him.  

Susie King Taylor was a teacher and nurse who served with the 33rd USCT.  According to Mr. Greer, Taylor was the only African American woman in the Civil War to publish a memoir.  After the war, she became a member of the Women’s Relief Corps.  

Charles Purvis enlisted as a nurse at a combat hospital in Washington D.C.  He went on to be a cofounder of Howard University’s medical school.  Purvis believed in universal suffrage.  

Soldiers from the 62nd and 65th USCT raised money to found Lincoln University of Missouri (originally named Lincoln Institute).  The school was created in 1866.  

Mr. Greer said that the letters of Spottswood Rice, who served as a private in the 67th USCT, tell us what the war meant to African American soldiers.  After the war, Rice became a preacher and built numerous churches throughout the country.  Every subsequent generation of his family has served in the U.S. military.  

Ann Stokes, a “self-liberated” slave from Tennessee, enlisted as a “boy” in the U.S. Navy, serving on the USS Red Rover.  Although she was one of fifteen African American women who served in the navy, Stokes was the only one to receive a pension. Mr. Greer noted that there were disparities in the granting of pensions to whites and African Americans.  Between 1861 and 1934, 92.6% of white veterans who applied for disability pensions had their applications accepted, whereas the success rate was only 75.4% for African American veterans.  Additionally, in 1890, 54% of white Union veterans were still living, compared to only 30% of African American veterans.  

Mr. Greer pointed out that even in the 21st century, racism continues to rear its ugly head–for example, in the case of an African American army officer who was pepper-sprayed by a police officer.  He closed by asking: What kind of ancestor do you want to be?  He said that the choice is one that we all must make–what kind of country do we want to have, and what kind of world do we want to build?

 Notes from the President

It’s Summertime! And the Peninsular Campaign of 1862, the Gettysburg and Vicksburg Campaigns of 1863 and the Petersburg Campaign of 1864 proved that ‘the living wasn’t easy’. The continuing Covid Pandemic, high gas prices and many other problems doesn’t make things easy today. Still, many outdoor and some indoor Civil War related events are returning to the calendar.

A few area events you may want to explore include: A Civil War Style Church Service, Sun, 6/26, 1:00 – 2:30 PM, Historic Rocky Springs Chapel, Frederick, MD; Battle of Gettysburg Reenactment, Fri, 7/1 – Sun, 7/3. Daniel Lady Farm, Gettysburg, PA; Just Passing Through: A Travelers Guide to Civil Frederick, Sat, 7/2, 2 – 3 PM, National Museum of Civil War Medicine Frederick, MD; The Civil War at Congressional: Docent Tour, Sat, 7/9, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM, Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC.

On a personal note: I began the month of June joining many of my fellow reenactors participating in the rededication of the Robert G. Shaw/54^th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial on Boston Common. The memorial, featured at the end of the movie “Glory” has just completed a two year, 3-million-dollar restoration.

REMINDER: The BCWRT Banquet will occur, in person, on Tuesday, August 23, 2022, at 6 p.m. Our speaker will be Kevin Levin, author of the book; Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth.

Those of you who purchased banquet tickets prior to the 2020 shutdown will find their reservations still in effect. If you haven’t made a reservation, send a check to our treasurer, Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Bel Air, MD 21014 410-879-8828. The cost is $35.00 per person. You can also print and mail the banquet flyer found in this newsletter. 

MEMBERSHIP: If you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

The Civil War was clearly a time of divided loyalties. From the beginning, those in power attempted to use the law to address those considered friends and foes, alike. University of Maryland Law Professor Mark A. Graber discusses the utilization of the law using his soon to be published book; "Punish Treason: Reward Loyalty".

Join the BCWRT as we present Dr. Graber  on Tuesday May 24, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. Register in advance at:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZErduCurT4pHdW-DwxyIJKSbJnBVNseDMnH You will receive an email link for the Zoom.

Professor Graber, who received his AB from Dartmouth, his MA and PhD from Yale and his JD from Columbia, is the Jacob A. France Professor of Constitutionalism at the UMB School of Law. He is recognized as one of the leading scholars in the country on constitutional law and politics. Among his many publications are:  A New Introduction to American Constitutionalism; American Constitutionalism: Structures and Powers and American Constitutionalism: Rights and Powers. In November of 2018, Prof. Graber addressed the BCWRT on his work; The Complete American Constitutionalism, Volume Five Part I: The Constitution of the Confederate States.

Minutes

Our May meeting was our 454th.  The meeting had 21 registrants and the same number of participants.  

Our speaker was Mark A. Graber, a professor of law at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Mr. Graber is the author of a forthcoming book entitled Punish Treason, Reward Loyalty.

Mr. Graber began his presentation by asking the question: When did the Civil War end?  Was it when all Confederate soldiers laid down their arms?  When the Confederate government ceased to exist?   Mr. Graber then asked: When did it legally end?  If we decide that it’s when the armies surrendered, then who decides when that took place?  

According to Mr. Graber, there were sharp differences of opinion on this issue in 1865.  Democrats and President Andrew Johnson said that the war ended when the armies surrendered, and that the president determined when this had taken place and when an individual state had surrendered.  Democrats and Johnson said that states were readmitted to the Union when they repealed secession ordinances and accepted the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.  But Republicans disagreed with this, arguing that if a state had seceded it had been destroyed as a state.  Congress, they said, determined when it became a state again.  

On December 4, 1865, in the House of Representatives, Thaddeus Stevens ordered clerks not to call out representatives from former Confederate states, on the grounds that they were not U.S. states.  The argument was that the 14th Amendment constituted the surrender terms that Congress set.  The amendment was part of the debate concerning whether the war was truly over.  

In researching the 14th Amendment, Mr. Graber used the Congressional Globe, the official record of proceedings and debates in Congress.  He found that traditional accounts of the amendment’s history have missed seventy percent of the debate about it.  Today, the emphasis is on Section 1–the section that declares that everyone born in the U.S. and subject to its jurisdiction is a citizen entitled to equal protection.  However, Mr. Graber found that during the debate over the amendment in Congress, most of the emphasis was on Sections 2, 3, and 4.  

According to Section 2, if a state disenfranchises any portion of its male population eligible to vote, it loses the same proportion of its votes in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College.  If the former Confederate states disenfranchised African Americans, Mr. Graber said, they would lose so many seats in both the House and the Electoral College that they could never control the federal government.  On the other hand, enfranchising African Americans would result in African American representatives and biracial political coalitions.  Either way, Republicans would ultimately control the South.  

Section 3 states that thoset who took up arms against the United States cannot hold office unless they are  given amnesty.  Both Republicans and Democrats agreed that secession was not a mass movement.  Under Section 4, all Confederate financial obligations were void, and slaveholders could not be compensated for the loss of their slaves.   

Mr. Graber said that during the debate about the amendment, one would never know there was a judiciary.  Most people saw power in terms of political parties.  The Republicans concluded that words on a text are meaningless unless there is a mechanism for enforcement.  If they controlled the government, there would be a measure of racial equality in the South.  

Mr. Graber asked: How could the erroneous conventional wisdom that Section 1 was considered the most important part of the amendment have persisted for 100 years?  The answer, he said, is that people see what they are looking for.  

Notes from the President

The Baltimore Civil War Roundtable last held an in-person meeting at the Parkville Senior Center in February 2020.We are currently in negotiations directed toward returning to our ‘live’ home base. Due to some planned renovations to the facility, the earliest we will be able to retorn is the fall of this year. Stay tuned for further information.

REMINDER: The BCWRT Banquet will occur, in person, on Tuesday, August 23, 2022, at 6 p.m. Our speaker will be Kevin Levin, author of the book; Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth.

Those of you who purchased banquet tickets prior to the 2020 shutdown will find their reservations still in effect. If you haven’t made a reservation, send a check to our treasurer, Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Bel Air, MD 21014 410-879-8828. The cost is $35.00 per person. You can also print and mail the banquet flyer found in this newsletter. 

MEMBERSHIP: If you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

On April 20, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation which called for the admission of West Virginia as the 35^th state of the United States, effective June 20, 1863. This followed the approval of Congress and the overwhelming passage by voter of that region.  

In Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia, authors Eric J. Wittenberg, Edmund A. Sargus, and Penny L. Barrick chronicle the birth of the West Virginia in an unprecedented study of the social, legal, military, and political factors that converged to bring about the new state.

Join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable as co-author Eric Wittenberg details this historical event, via Zoom., on Tuesday, April 26, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. Please register for this presentation at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rdOuoqjsoGdNLLdY8af10krPtd96U-Zp9. Once registered, you will receive an email link to join the Zoom.

Eric J. Wittenberg is an award-winning Civil War author. A native of southeastern Pennsylvania, Eric was educated at Dickinson College, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He is a partner in the Columbus, Ohio law firm of Cook, Sladoje & Wittenberg Co., L.P.A., where he manages the firm’s litigation practice. Wittenberg is the author of 22 critically acclaimed books on the American Civil War, several of which have won awards, as well as more than three dozen articles published in national magazines. He is in regular demand as a speaker and tour guide and travels the country regularly doing both. He serves on the boards of trustees of the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust and the Little Big Horn Associates, and often works with the American Battlefields Trust on battlefield preservation initiatives. He is also the program coordinator for the Chambersburg Civil War Seminars. His specialty is cavalry operations in the Civil War. He and his wife Susan reside in Columbus, Ohio.

Minutes

Our April meeting was our 453rd.  The meeting had 37 registrants and 28 participants.

 Our speaker was Eric Wittenberg.  A lawyer by profession, Mr. Wittenberg is the author or coauthor of many books on the Civil War.  In his presentation, he discussed the creation of West Virginia during the war.  Mr. Wittenberg, Edmund A. Sargus, Jr., and Penny L. Barrick are the authors of Seceding From Secession:  The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia.

 In 1860, Virginia encompassed not just its present territory, but all of present-day West Virginia.  However, there had long been serious tensions between the two parts of the state.  In the east, the land was fertile and largely level or rolling.  Cotton and tobacco production flourished, performed by slaves.  In the west, the land was mostly hilly and infertile, not suited to large farms or plantations.  As a result, there were relatively few slaves.  The people of the western part of the state were much closer to Pennsylvania and the Midwest than to the rest of Virginia, using the Ohio River for commerce instead of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic.  

 Following the fall of Fort Sumter, a Virginia convention voted to secede from the Union.  In response, delegates from the western part of the state held their own convention in Wheeling, deciding that if a secession referendum was approved by Virginia voters, a second convention would be called.  Following the referendum’s approval, the second convention was convened, and the delegates voted to create a new state, eventually called West Virginia.  The convention also created a “Reorganized (or Restored) Government of Virginia” with Francis H. Pierpont as governor.

 West Virginia posed a constitutional problem.  Article IV of the Constitution says that a state can only be created out of another state with the permission of the legislature of the state concerned.  To get around this, the Restored Government of Virginia claimed to represent all the citizens of Virginia, not just those seeking to leave the rest of the state.  

 In December 1862, federal legislation authorizing the creation of the new state passed and was sent to Lincoln.  However, Lincoln had a problem with the constitutional issues posed.  He polled his cabinet, asking two questions: 1.)  Is the legislation constitutional? and 2.)  Is it expedient?  On the constitutional question, the cabinet split right down the middle (3-3).  Lincoln was exasperated and wondered why he even had a cabinet.  He wrote his own opinion and found it both constitutional and expedient.   On June 20, 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state of the Union.

 At the end of the Civil War, Pierpont had been made governor of all of Virginia.  However, he was hated by ex-Confederates.  The Virginia General Assembly voted to rescind its consent to the creation of West Virginia.  The Supreme Court has “original jurisdiction” in certain cases, and Virginia went on to sue West Virginia for the return of Berkeley and Jefferson counties.  The new president, Andrew Johnson, was strongly opposed by radical Republicans, and in order to prevent him from appointing any Supreme Court justices, Congress passed legislation providing for the eventual reducing of the number of justices to seven.  

 However, when U.S. Grant became president, the legislation was repealed, and Grant appointed two (by the end of his presidency, three) more justices.  Lincoln had made Salmon P. Chase (his Secretary of the Treasury) chief justice.  Despite having been one of the three members of Lincoln’s cabinet to support West Virginia becoming a state, Chase did not recuse himself from Virginia’s suit against West Virginia.  By a vote of 6-3, in Virginia v. West Virginia the Court ruled that the Virginia General Assembly could not rescind consent for West Virginia’s creation–effectively endorsing the state’s constitutionality and retention of Berkeley and Jefferson counties.  

 Mr. Wittenberg said that the questions raised by the establishment of West Virginia remain with us still.  In 2020, Charles S. Trump IV (no relation to the former president), a state senator from West Virginia, introduced a resolution noting that Frederick County, Virginia was supposed to have been included in the popular referendum to create West Virginia, but was not. The county was invited to join the state but declined.

Notes from the President

April is an important month in the history of the American Civil War. The war began in 1861 with the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Baltimore was the scene of the first hostile casualties (Nickolas Biddle) and deaths Pratt Street Riot. The war essentially ended with the surrender of the CSA Army of Northern Virginia and the Departments of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Sothern Virginia to forces of the United States. All these events occurred in April.

The Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) will note April by having award winning Civil War Author Eric J. Wittenberg explore the details of the division within Virginia which lead to the format of the state of West Virginia via his book Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia, during our Tuesday, April, 26 Zoom at 7:30 p.m. Please register for this presentation at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rdOuoqjsoGdNLLdY8af10krPtd96U-Zp9. Once registered, you will receive an email link to join the Zoom.

Normally, our banquet is held in April. Due to the pandemic-caused two-year break, the in-person BCWRT Banquet will occur on Tuesday, August 23, 2022, at 6 p.m.

Our speaker will be Kevin Levin, author of the book; Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth.

Those of you who purchased banquet tickets prior to the 2020 shutdown will find their reservations still in effect. If you haven’t made a reservation, send a check to our treasurer, Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Bel Air, MD 21014 410-879-8828. The cost is $35.00 per person. You can also print and mail the banquet flyer found in this newsletter. 

It will be great to gather in person again!

By the way, if you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

Poll historians, history buffs, etc. as to specific events that caused the Civil War, and you will receive a variety of answers. Among the answers one might hear are the signing of the Constitution, the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, Bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott decision and many other possible causes and effects. One event you will find on nearly everyone’s list is John Brown’s October 1859 Raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

Twenty-one men joined Brown in executing that fateful attack. Unfortunately, most people aren’t aware of or know little about the five African Americans who were volunteers in that group.

Join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) as author, reporter Eugene L. Meyer introduces you to Shields Green, Dangerfield Newby, John Copeland, Lewis Leary and Osbourne Perry Anderson. These men are the topic of Meyer’s book; Five for Freedom: The African American Soldiers in John Brown’s Army. 

The Zoom event will occur on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. Please register for the Zoom at:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ldOqhpj0uE9UeUpUv-hVViZ9c4WgIQWif

Once registered, you will receive an email containing a link to join the meeting.

Eugene L. Meyer grew up in a house of 25,000 used books in the Long Island suburbs. Since January 2004, after more than three decades at the Washington Post as a reporter and editor, Meyer has been a fulltime freelancer, receiving 15 awards for his journalism and writing. He has had more than 50 bylines in The New York Times, largely about economic development issues, and written for numerous other publications, including Bethesda Magazine, where he is a contributing editor, U.S. News & World Report, Washingtonian, Columbia College Today and Maryland Life, where he garnered multiple awards for his features and his “Hidden Maryland” column.  Since December 2009, Meyer has been the editor of the quarterly B’nai B’rith Magazine, which has won several awards under his stewardship. He has written about the rise of citizen journalism and about media codes of ethics for the Center for International Media Assistance, a Washington, D.C. think tank, and about the “gig” economy for CQ Researcher. He is also on the board of the nonprofit online Washington Independent Review of Books, to which he contributes reviews and essays.

Much of Meyer’s writing is closely tied to his love of history. He also seeks to provide readers with a sense of place about where they live, work or travel. He likes back roads and forgotten places but also finds satisfaction in writing about dynamic changes in cities in suburbs. Over his long career, he has interviewed country music phenomenon Charlie Pride, former Weather Underground member Bernardine Dohrn and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, covered antiwar protests from inside and out, spent Jimmy Carter’s last presidential Christmas in Plains, Ga., covered two state legislatures and the release of the Iranian hostages in 1981, gone crabbing and oystering with Maryland watermen, and written newspaper series on subjects ranging from urban renewal and farm preservation to the Chesapeake Bay to a suburban police “death squad.”

Oh, and he also interviewed the Beatles in their dressing room — the calm eye in the middle of a hurricane — prior to their Philadelphia rock concert on Aug. 17, 1966.  He has the clips to prove it!

                                                                                              Eugene L. Meyer

Minutes

Our March meeting was our 452nd.  The meeting had 47 registrants and 43 participants.  

Our speaker was Eugene Meyer, a retired Washington Post journalist and author.  Mr. Meyer discussed five African Americans who were members of the group, led by John Brown, who launched a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in 1859 in an attempt to trigger a massive slave uprising.  Mr. Meyer is the author of Five For Freedom: The African American Soldiers In John Brown’s Army.

Of the five, Osborne Perry Anderson was the only survivor of the raid.  A printer by trade, Anderson moved to Canada following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  While in Canada, Anderson began writing articles for the newspaper Provincial Freeman.  The paper was owned by Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the first black female editor in North America.  In 1861, Anderson published A Voice from Harpers Ferry, the only insider account of the raid.  After the war, Anderson settled in Washington DC, where he died of tuberculosis in 1872.  Mr. Meyer wrote an article about Anderson entitled “Sole Survivor” that appeared in Washington Post Magazine in 2004.

John Anthony Copeland was from Oberlin, Ohio.  His family had migrated to Ohio from North Carolina.  Whites and African Americans, including Copeland himself, attended Oberlin College together.  Copeland was apprehended, tried, and sentenced to be hanged.  Before his execution, he wrote letters that were later published.  

Dangerfield Newby, of Virginia, was the eldest of eleven children.  Having been freed in 1858 when his white father moved the family to Ohio, Newby met John Brown in eastern Ohio.  Newby had failed to purchase the freedom of Harriet, a woman with whom he had a relationship (as well as possibly seven children) and joined Brown believing he would be able to liberate her if they succeeded in provoking a slave uprising.  On the second day of the raid, Newby was stationed at the entrance to the Shenandoah River bridge.  He wanted to join Brown in the engine house.  However, a sniper managed to kill him with a spike, and he was dismembered by a mob and left for the hogs.  Harriet was sold south to Louisiana but was later liberated and remarried.  

Lewis Sheridan Leary was a harness and saddle maker from Oberlin.  He and Copeland had gone to join Brown’s army together.  While attempting to flee across the Shenandoah River, he was mortally wounded.  His wife later remarried and had a daughter who went on to become the mother of Langston Hughes.  

The last of the five discussed by Mr. Meyer was Shields Green.  Green was the “mystery man” of the group.  He claimed to be descended from African royalty and met John Brown at Frederick Douglass’s home.  Douglass, Brown and Green met in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a weekend in August 1859.  Douglass said that the raid would be a trap, but Green decided to “go with the old man.”  

Mr. Meyer discussed the importance of confronting our past, however uncomfortable doing so may be, and said that the United States won’t move forward on race until Americans own their history on this issue.  He also spoke about many developments regarding race and historical memory, as well as civil and voting rights, that have occurred in recent years.  He said that the five died to make us free, but that “the struggle continues.”

According to Mr. Meyer, it appears that all of Brown’s African American soldiers except Shields Green were biracial.

Notes from the President

During the American Civil War, many battle plans had to be adjusted on the fly because of unforeseeable circumstances. Sudden weather changes, inaccurate maps, the appearance of additional enemy soldiers and disease outbreaks were among the many factors that altered or completely changed military operations.

While not on the battlefield, the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable has been maneuvering around the Covid 19 pandemic for two years. Following a reconnoitering of the Covid 19 position and the coordination of all the basic element necessary to present our event, the in-person BCWRT Banquet will occur on Tuesday, August 23, 2022, at 6 p.m.

Our speaker will be Kevin Levin, author of the book; Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth.

In order to accommodate this change, award winning Civil War Author Eric J. Wittenberg agreed to explore the details of the division within Virginia which lead to the format of the state of West Virginia via his book Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia, during our April, 26 Zoom meeting. 

Those of you who purchased banquet tickets prior to the 2020 shutdown will find their reservations still in effect. If you haven’t made a reservation, send a check to our treasurer, Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Bel Air, MD 21014 410-879-8828. The cost is $35.00 per person.

It will be great to gather in person again!

By the way, if you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

 February 2022 marks the 160^th Anniversary of the Battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson in Tennessee.  2022 also celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of Hiram Ulysses Grant, who was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1822. The stories differ on how his name was changed; however, sometime during the process of his appointment to the United States Military Academy, Hiram became known as Ulysses S. Grant (U.S. Grant). 

The BCWRT will go back to 1862 when living historian and Grant reenactor Dr. Curt Fields looks at the Ft Henry and Fort Donaldson battles on February 22, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. Registration is required and can be achieved by going to:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEtcuippzIqGNdra2U056EDCLjBjtM2W3h9

You will receive a confirmation email containing the link to join the Zoom.

Dr. Fields has a bachelor and a master’s degree in Education from the University of Memphis, Tennessee. He later earned a second master’s degree in Secondary Education and a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Curriculum from Michigan State University. He spent eight years at the Junior and Senior high school levels teaching before serving 25 years as a high school administrator.  He teaches as an adjunct Sociology professor at the University of Memphis and in Education for Belhaven University, Memphis campus. He is now an educational consultant and a living Historian.

He was selected to portray General Grant at the 150th anniversary of Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, in 2015. He was featured as General Grant, and as a Grant authority, in the Discovery Channel three-part documentary series “How Booze built America.” Dr. Fields is the same height and body style as the General Grant and represents a true-to-life image of the man as he would have looked. Additionally, he also conducts extensive research in order to share an accurate portrayal. His presentations are in first person, quoting from General Grant’s memoirs; articles and letters the General wrote, statements he made in interviews and first-person accounts of people who knew the General or were with him and witnessed him during events.

          Curt Fields                                                                                            U.S. Grant

Minutes

Our February meeting was our 451st.  The meeting had 25 registrants and 21 participants.

Our speaker was Dr. E.C. “Curt” Fields.  Dr. Fields gave an impersonation of Union General Ulysses S. Grant, discussing the events surrounding the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee in February 1862.  In 2015, Dr. Fields was chosen to impersonate Grant at the reenactment of the 150th anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House.  

In the impersonation, Grant was speaking on February 17, 1862.  This was one day after Fort Donelson fell, as well as the day Lincoln approved Grant’s promotion to major general.  Grant began by describing the background to the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson.  He said that contrary to what others have claimed, he did not lose the battle of Belmont, Missouri, fought on November 7, 1861.  On the contrary, he achieved all his objectives and therefore won.  From November 1861 to February 1862, Grant’s troops were constantly training.  However, he said, soldiers eventually must fight.  

Grant thought that the best way for him to advance the war was through rivers.  He met with Major General Henry W. Halleck and asked for a joint Army-Navy expedition to take Fort Henry, on the east bank of the Tennessee River.  Halleck initially said no, but when Grant told Commodore Andrew Hull Foote of his plan, Foote telegraphed Halleck, and on January 30, 1862, Halleck approved the plan.  On February 6, Foote’s gunboats opened fire on Fort Henry and disabled most of the guns.  By the time Grant got to the fort, the fight was essentially over.  There was a lot of rain and mud.  

With the capture of Fort Henry, the Union had control of the Tennessee River all the way to Muscle Shoals.  Grant proposed to Halleck that Fort Donelson be taken.  On February 12, Grant’s men started moving toward Donelson in the mud and rain.  Given that the temperature was around 50-60 degrees, the men began taking off their coats and stacking them.  Unfortunately for them, the night of February 13-14 was very cold.  A snowstorm occurred, and men began to lose fingers and toes from frostbite.  On the 14th, Foote started bombarding Donelson, but things didn't go well, with many of his vessels being damaged.  The following day, Grant left the battlefield to visit Foote and discuss the next move.   

When Grant left, he didn’t leave anyone in command.  There were two reasons for this.  He didn’t think the Confederates would try to break out, and he didn’t have confidence in Brigadier General John A. McClernand, the ranking general.  However, the Confederates did indeed attempt a breakout.  Upon learning this, Grant raced back to the battlefield and told Smith: “All has failed on our right–you must take Fort Donelson.”  Fortunately for them, the Confederate leadership turned out to be very inept.  The outer line of Confederate entrenchments was taken.  Additionally, on the right McClernand received help from Brigadier General Lew Wallace. Finally, General Simon Bolivar Buckner, the remaining Confederate commander, sent Grant a message agreeing to surrender (the original commander, John B. Floyd, and his second in command, Gideon J. Pillow, had fled, abandoning Buckner and the garrison).  The surrender took place the following day (February 16), although a considerable portion of the Confederates were able to walk off and melt away.

The surrender of Fort Donelson led directly to the Union taking control of Nashville–something that Grant considered a big moral and strategic victory.

Notes from the President

Thanks to all of you who participated in the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable Participation Survey 2022 in January. There were some interesting and varied responses. The Executive Committee will soon meet to analyze those responses and make some important decisions.

The survey revealed the following:

Q1 Since the BCWRT began virtual meetings in the summer of 2020, how many Zoom meetings have you attended?

Answered: 19 Skipped: 0

None of the above 15.79%, Nearly All 31.58%, 6-10 26.32%, 1-5 26.32%

Q2 Given the current status of the pandemic, how ready are you to attend in-person meetings?

Answered: 19 Skipped: 0

None of the above 31.58%, Ready 31.58%, Somewhat Ready 00.00%, Slightly Ready 36.84%

Q3 If meetings resumed during the pandemic, what safety protocols would you like to see in place?

Answered: 19  Skipped: 0

None of the above 21.05%, Mask requirement, proof of vaccinations and social distancing 47.37%, Mask requirements and social distancing 31.58%, Mask requirement 00%

Q4 If the BCWRT started hybrid meetings (simultaneous in-person and on-line) would you still physically attend?

Answered: 19  Skipped: 0

Yes 36.84%,  Occasionally 26.32%, No 36.84%

Q5 Have you paid your dues for 2022?

Answered: 19 Skipped: 0

Yes 68.42%, Will pay soon 21.05%, No 10.53%

Q6 How pleased are you with the quality of our speakers?

Answered: 18  Skipped: 1

None of the above 5.56%, Very pleased 61.11%, Somewhat pleased 27.78%, Slightly pleased 5.56%

Q7 We are scheduled to have our Annual Banquet at the Columbus Gardens (4301 Klosterman Ave., Baltimore, 21236) at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. Tickets are $35.00. Do you plan to attend?

Answered: 19 Skipped: 0

None of the above 21.05%, Definitely 15.79%, Highly likely 10.53%, Unlikely 52.63%

Again, thanks to all who participated

In the past year or so, the BCWRT have gotten some new members, some of whom live out of the Baltimore area and join us because we have been on-line. Welcome to Cheryl R. Gooch, Mel Reid, Eugene Perry and Robert Wright. (If I have accidentally omitted anyone, please let me know.

Speaking of membership, if you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

 Say ‘Hello” to the New Year by joining the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable as we initiate another year of exploring the facts about the individuals, incidents, groups, geographical areas, etc. involved in the American Civil War.

On Tuesday, January 25, Lawyer, historian and author Chris McIlwain make a return Zoom visit to the BCWRT to talk about the subject of his new book; The South's Forgotten Fire-Eater: David Hubbard and North Alabama's Long Road to Disunion.

The Virginia born David Hubbard was a Alabama transplant who served in that states legislature, the US Congress and the Congress of the CSA. McIlwain will provide many details of Hubbard’s life and influence on January 25.

Christopher Lyle McIlwain, Sr., has been practicing law for more than three decades in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His other passion is the study of nineteenth century history. He is the author of three previous books, Civil War Alabama (U. of Alabama Press, 2016), the winner of the McMillan Prize, and 1865 Alabama: From Civil War to Uncivil Peace (U. of Alabama Press, 2017). In October of 2019, McIlwain spoke to the BCWRT about his book The Million-Dollar Man Who Helped Kill a President: George Washington Gayle and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. 

Register for the Tuesday, January 25, 7:30 p.m. Zoom at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqfuutpj4uGN2BCzyRLCGsd3RQiHJliMGW You will receive a link which will allow you to join the event.

Minutes

Our January meeting was our 450th.  The meeting had 33 registrants and 24 participants.

Our speaker was Chris McIlwain, a lawyer and historian from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Mr. McIlwain spoke on the life and career of David Hubbard, a prominent nineteenth-century Alabama politician and secessionist.  Mr. McIlwain is the author of The South’s Forgotten Fire-Eater: David Hubbard & North Alabama’s Long Road to Disunion.  

Hubbard was born in Virginia in 1792.  When he was young, his family moved to Tennessee.  They owned a small number of slaves but were not particularly wealthy.  Hubbard served in a Tennessee cavalry regiment which fought under Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812.  The regiment participated in the battle of Horseshoe Bend, which essentially ended the Creek War.  The Creeks ceded about sixty percent of present-day Alabama to the federal government.  Hubbard fought the British near New Orleans and was seriously wounded and captured, though later released.

After the war, Hubbard (and some family members) moved to Alabama to buy land fertile for cotton.  Land speculation was rampant during this period, with people buying huge amounts of land and paying too much for it.  Hubbard bought over 600 acres.  In 1827–at the age of 35–he was elected to the Alabama state senate.  Although he was seen by some as an opportunist, Hubbard became a “populist” --a hero to poor farmers in the region–because of land and financial policies that were favorable to them.  

During his early political career, Hubbard managed to get a railroad built–the first in the South–which extended to the Tennessee River. This was a means of circumventing the Muscle Shoals, which made navigation of the river very difficult in northern Alabama.  Additionally, he was responsible for an amendment to the Alabama Constitution which limited justices and judges to six-year terms (this remains in effect today, with the exception of municipal court judges).  Hubbard did a great deal of speculating in Creek lands, seeking to acquire them by fair means and foul.  In 1839, he was elected to the U.S. Congress.  

As the nineteenth century progressed, tensions between the North and the South increased.  Hubbard became a zealous supporter of Southern interests–including the preservation and expansion of slavery.  After the Texas Revolution, Hubbard supported making Texas a part of the United States–in fact, he advocated secession if the state was not admitted to the Union.  In 1844, Hubbard served as a presidential elector for James Polk, who narrowly defeated Henry Clay in the election that year.  In the ensuing war with Mexico, triggered by Polk, the U.S. acquired a huge amount of territory, including California.  Hubbard was strongly opposed to the wholesale admission of California to the United States as a free state.   

John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, Mr. McIlwain argued, was hugely important to secession. The raid reminded Hubbard of other insurrections, including in Haiti (thousands of whites were massacred in Haiti after the Haitian Revolution).  Mr. McIlwain said that there were rumors, pushed by Hubbard, that some of Brown’s men had come to Alabama to start a revolt.  Hubbard played an active role in getting Alabama to secede from the Union.

During the Civil War, Hubbard did not join the Confederate military in any capacity.  He and his family spent much of the war in Tuscaloosa.  They lost everything, including a son.  After the war ended, Hubbard and his wife moved to Spring Hill, Tennessee, and after his wife died, he moved to Louisiana to live with another son, David Hubbard Jr.  He died in 1874 at the age of 81.  According to Mr. McIlwain, many of those who had been secessionists were not held in high esteem after the war–at least in northern Alabama.  

Notes from the President

Welcome to 2022. Early in the winter of 2019/2020, we began hearing news reports about a new Coronavirus Disease that had been isolated in 2019 (Covid-19). NPS ranger and author Matt Borders presented a program on The Spy Game in Maryland in January of 2020. Little did we know that our in-person meetings would soon be temporarily shutdown due to the pandemic.

You will soon be receiving a short survey which will inquire about your participation in the BCWRT in-person and/or Zoom. Since we plan to have in-person Annual Banquet in April, the survey will also question your participation in that. Please open the email and complete ASAP.

By the way. In checking with the Parkville Senior Center, they are getting ready to institute a 30-day shutdown due to the current omicron surge.

Please check the articles in this month’s Old Liner newsletter. There are a couple of pieces on the Emancipation Proclamation that you may find interesting.

We begin the year with a presentation from author Chris Mcllwain as he focuses on his book; The South's Forgotten Fire-Eater: David Hubbard and North Alabama's Long Road to Disunion. You can register for that Zoom at
 https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqfuutpj4uGN2BCzyRLCGsd3RQiHJliMGW. You will receive a link to join the meeting.

Be certain to check our upcoming events link to see the list of scheduled speakers for the rest of the year. Speakers include Dr. Curt Fields, Kevin Levin, Jean Baker, Annette Khawane and Eric Wittenberg.

Remember: Memberships allow the BCWRT to continue our Zoom presentations. Memberships will allow us to go to a hybrid in person/Zoom model when we are pandemic safe. Memberships will allow us to resume having CW related trips. Unfortunately, our 2021 active membership has become lower than our Zoom meeting participation. Speakers cost. Zoom accounts cost.

If you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

Those who prefer online payments will soon be able to play via PayPal. We will keep you informed.

 The Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) will end 2021 the same way we began 2021: with a Zoom presentation!

Join us on Tuesday, December 21 at 7:30 p.m. as re-enactors with B Company, 54^th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, will engage us in a program entitled; The 54^th Mass. Infantry Regiment, Beyond Glory. 

Many of you are familiar with the 1989 motion picture Glory, which tells a ‘Hollywood’ version of the establishment and early battles of the famed regiment. Our presentation will go beyond the film, exploring the 54^th’s activities after the noted 2^nd Battle of Fort Wagner through the rest of the war. Additionally, discover the legacy of the 54^th and learn what is involved in re-enacting the Glory Regiment.

The presentation by re-enactors Ed Gantt, Michael Schaffner, Bill Gwaltney, Bryan Cheeseboro, Bernie Siler, Ben Hawley and Robert Ford promises to be an informative and exciting affair.

You can register for the Zoom by going to:   

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rfuiurjMvE9dkVLj3EsPuKsfYO1ion8vQ

Once registered, you will receive a link to join the program.

Storming Fort Wagner/ National Portrait Gallery. Digitized by Jen Harris/NPG

Morris Island, Charleston Harbor July 18, 1863

Re-enacting the 54^th. Morris Island, July 18, 2013

 Minutes

Our December meeting was our 449th.  The meeting had 41 registrants and 27 participants.

Our presentation was entitled “The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, Beyond Glory.”  It was given by reenactors who portray or have portrayed members of the regiment.  Each of them explored aspects of the 54th that were not covered by the 1989 film Glory, which dramatized its story.  The reenactors were Ed Gantt, Michael Schaffner, Bill Gwaltney, Bryan Cheeseboro, Bernie Siler, Ben Hawley, and our President, Robert Ford.  

After Mr. Ford gave an overview covering the formation of the 54^th  through their participation in the famous assault on Fort Wagner, Mr. Gantt began a discussion of the battle of Olustee (also known as Ocean Pond), fought on February 20, 1864.  This battle–a Confederate victory–was the largest of the war fought in Florida, and the 54th (except for companies “A” and “E”) participated in it.  The battle was the climax of a Union expedition into Florida that had several objectives, including cutting off fresh beef supplies from the rest of the Confederacy, establishing a pro-Union government in Florida, and recruiting African American soldiers.  The 54th was one of three African American regiments that fought at Olustee.  The intense battle resulted in heavy casualties, particularly on the Union side.  The 54th covered the Union retreat and repulsed a Confederate attack.  When a train full of wounded men broke down, the 54th (and the 35th USCT) hooked up a rope to the train and dragged it for miles.  Today there is an annual reenactment of the battle.  

Mr. Schaffner discussed the battle of Honey Hill, fought in South Carolina on November 30, 1864.  A Union force of about 5,000 men was dispatched in support of Sherman’s approach to Savannah.  However, there was bad weather as well as not enough guides, pilots, or maps.  As a result, they didn’t know that a substantial force of Confederates was entrenched.  The Union troops attacked but were not successful and suffered far higher casualties than the Confederates.  

Mr. Gwaltney discussed the 54th’s last battle–Boykin’s Mill, fought on April 18, 1865.  Coming near the end of the war, this was also the last battle fought in South Carolina.  The 54th suffered two killed and thirteen wounded, including First Lieutenant E.L. Stevens, believed to be the last Union officer killed in the war.  Stevens was apparently killed by Burwell H. Boykin on whose family’s property the Union troops were moving through.  Boykin turned fifteen the day after the battle.  

Mr. Cheeseboro discussed individuals who served in the 54th, including William Carney, who received the Medal of Honor for gallantry at Fort Wagner, James Townsend, who was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1884, and Lewis Douglass, the eldest son of Frederick Douglass, who was wounded in the attack on Fort Wagner.  As a member of the legislative council of the District of Columbia, Douglass introduced a bill requiring restaurants to list their prices so they could not discriminate against African American customers.

Mr. Siler discussed the making of Glory (he himself portrayed a member of the 54th in the film).    He noted that in the scene where the 54th marches through Boston, the background signs are representative of the city in the nineteenth century.  In the film, they had to build a replica of Fort Wagner with the ocean on the wrong side.  Moreover, unlike in the movie, there were no naval warships in the ocean as the 54th attacked.  But, in Mr. Siler’s view, these are minor things.  He recalled that when they were getting ready to film the attack on Wagner, a thunderstorm broke out–just like it had in real life!  Mr. Siler also noted that Glory gives the erroneous impression that the entire 54th died in the assault.

Mr. Hawley concluded the presentation.  A great-great grandson of a member of the 29th Connecticut, an African American regiment, he has gone all over the country as a reenactor and marched in parades–including President Obama’s inaugural parades.  He said that by reenacting, he has learned a great deal about African American soldiers.  

Notes from the President
December 2021

It is difficult the realize that 2021 is almost over. Thank goodness that the use of modern social media has allowed us to ‘see’ each other on a monthly basis. Our last in person gathering was

February of 2020, just before nearly everything shutdown.

We are left to wonder when this pandemic will wane and come to an end. Imagine the thoughts of those field soldiers in December of 1861 who originally believed that it was going to be a short war and now wondered how long it was going to last.  

The BCWRT will continue to monitor the health situation to determine the status of our meetings. We are planning to initiate a hybrid live/online model. Additionally, we a still hoping to have our Annual Banquet as an in-person event in April.

Stay Tune!

Remember: Memberships allow the BCWRT to continue our Zoom presentations. Memberships will allow us to go to a hybrid in person/Zoom model when we are pandemic safe. Memberships will allow us to resume having CW related trips. Unfortunately, our 2021 active membership has become lower than our Zoom meeting participation. Speakers cost. Zoom accounts cost.

If you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

Those who prefer online payments will soon be able to pay via PayPal. We will keep you informed.

 It was Civil War era cartoonist Thomas Nast who gave us what is considered the modern image of Santa Claus, in the January 3, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly. On behalf of our Board, I wish you all a Happy and Blessed Holiday Season! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah (Hanukkah), Ashura, Bodhi Day, Kwanza or any other festival of note, May Peace Be with You All!

 During his testimony before the military tribunal investigating the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, John Surratt, Jr. friend and Surratt Boarding House resident Louis Weichman described Sarah Slater as a veiled lady who visited the boarding house twice during April 1865. Slater has also been described as a mysterious CSA spy and courier.

Find out more about this CW character as author Bob O’ Connor takes you into her world via his book, Veil of Secrecy: Mrs. Slater the Missing Lincoln Conspirator. The Zoom presentation will occur on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, at 7:30 p.m.

A native of Dixon, Illinois and a graduate of Northern Illinois University, Bob O’Connor’s interest in history goes back to a trip in 1958 to Galesburg, IL where he attended the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Pulitzer Prize winning poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg was the featured speaker. He has worked full time and part time as a newspaper reporter, and at various jobs — many that required writing press releases, news articles, or reports. His first published article was when he was in 7th grade – in an Illinois Historical Society for junior high students.

While Director of Tourism in Washington County, Maryland, Bob O’Connor worked closely with the Antietam Battlefield and Harpers Ferry National Historical Parks. He was responsible for starting the annual Independence Day Concert at Antietam Battlefield in July and the Memorial Illumination at Antietam Battlefield in December.

Being a resident of Harpers Ferry, WV (and his interest in Abraham Lincoln. John Brown and John Wilkes Booth) inspired him to write his first book “The Perfect Steel Trap Harpers Ferry 1859”. The book has been named a Finalist in the 2006 Best Book Awards by USA Book News. In all, O’Connor is the author of 15 books.

Bob O’Connor has been presenting an historical interpretation of Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln's bodyguard, for about ten years. (There are 400 Lincoln reenactors but only one who portrays Lincoln's bodyguard.)  He has also edited and published, in 2010, the only book Mr. Lamon ever wrote, "The Life of Abraham Lincoln as President".

Please join the BCWRT for this Zoom presentation by registering at

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ld-iqqzgiH91HZZRgX55mBhW__VPropDA 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

 MINUTES

Our November meeting was our 448th.  The meeting had 26 registrants and 24 participants.  

Our speaker was Bob O’Connor, a historian, author, and reenactor.  Mr. O’Connor discussed Confederate agent Sarah Slater.  He is the author of Veil of Secrecy: Mrs. Slater The Missing Lincoln Conspirator.

Sarah Antoinette Gilbert was born in 1843.  Her mother was from Trinidad and of French origin.  The family spoke French at home, and Sarah’s dream was to become a French actress.  Her mother took her to the Gayety Theater in Albany, N.Y. to see Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  Romeo was played by John Wilkes Booth.  

While living in New Bern, N.C., Sarah purchased a mourning veil.  She always wore it in public–it fit in with her mysterious persona.  She and her brother boarded with a man who “gifted” her ten dance lessons with Rowan Slater.  Sarah and Rowan were eventually married.

When the Civil War began, Rowan and Sarah’s three brothers enlisted in the Confederate army.  Rowan became a purchasing agent and enlisted in the 20th North Carolina Infantry.  Mr. O’Connor said that Sarah never saw him again, and that she later divorced him (secretary’s note: it has been asserted elsewhere–citing documents–that Sarah and Rowan were reunited in New York City after the war, where she did indeed divorce him).  

Sarah moved to Richmond and petitioned for a pass to travel to New York to see her mother.  However, Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon found out that two of her brothers had encouraged other soldiers to desert and that Sarah had lied about this, saying that she only had one brother and that he had died in Confederate service.  As a result, Seddon insisted that in order to get the pass, Sarah would have to act as a courier and go to Montreal.  

Sarah traveled to Montreal on multiple occasions.  Her contacts included Jacob Thompson and Edwin Gray Lee, a cousin of Robert E. Lee.  According to Mr. O’Connor, she had a brief, exciting encounter with John Wilkes Booth, and became a good friend of John Surratt.  When Sarah disappeared after her last trip, so did $649,000 from a Confederate bank account in Montreal.  Mr. O’Connor asked: Is this a coincidence?

After the Lincoln assassination, Sarah was interrogated.  However, the questions of the interrogators came from sources whose information was hearsay, and she was released.

Mr. O’Connor stated that his book on Sarah–Veil of Secrecy–is a work of historical fiction that is about 95% true.  All the situations and characters in it, he said, are real.  He also discussed other books that he has written or plans on writing.  He recently published a book about a 48-shot repeating rifle invented by a man from Staunton, Virginia that was never manufactured.  His upcoming projects include a story about John Brown’s raiders, and a trial series about people who never went to trial–including John Wilkes Booth, Jefferson Davis, and Nathan Bedford Forrest.  

 Notes from the President

November 2021

Back in the 1990’s, American Express used the slogan ‘membership has its privileges’. As we get closer to 2022, that phase holds true for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable.

Memberships allow the BCWRT to continue our Zoom presentations. Memberships will allow us to go to a hybrid in person/Zoom model when we are pandemic safe. Memberships will allow us to resume having CW related trips. Unfortunately, our 2021 active membership has become lower than our Zoom meeting participation. Speakers cost. Zoom accounts cost.

If you are already a member, please renew your membership for 2022. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

Those who prefer online payments will soon be able to play via PayPal. We will keep you informed.

Please refer to the Upcoming Events link for the current BCWRT Schedule.

Reminder: It was during the Civil War that Thanksgiving first became an official United States holiday. Wishing you a great and safe Thanksgiving.

 When it came to the Wild West, the nineteenth-century press rarely let truth get in the way of a good story. James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok’s story was no exception. Mythologized and sensationalized, Hickok was turned into the deadliest gunfighter of all, a so-called moral killer, a national phenomenon even while he was alive.

Rather than attempt to tease truth from fiction, coauthors Paul Ashdown and Edward Caudill investigate the ways in which Hickok embodied the culture of glamorized violence Americans embraced before, during and after the Civil War and examine the process of how his story emerged, evolved, and turned into a viral multimedia sensation full of the excitement, danger, and romance of the West.

Both Paul Ashdown and Edward Caudill are professors emeritus of journalism at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. They have co-written Inventing Custer: The Making of an American Legend; Sherman’s March in Myth and Memory; The Myth of Nathan Bedford Forrest; and The Mosby Myth: A Confederate Hero in Life and Legend. Ashdown specializes in literary journalism, international communication, and popular culture, and Caudill focuses on media history, the Civil War era, and the history of ideas in public memory and the press.

Please join the BCWRT for this Zoom presentation by registering at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqduCsrTwvEteEvAwTyCnlFlvTxLhqsuCF
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

                                                       Ed Caudill                 Paul Ashdown

MINUTES

Our October meeting was our 447th.  The meeting had 24 registrants and 18 participants.  

Our speakers were Paul Ashdown and Edward Caudill. Mr. Ashdown and Mr. Caudill discussed James Butler (better known as “Wild Bill”) Hickok (1837-1876). The title of their presentation was The Myth of Wild Bill: From Abolition to Afterlife.  The two men are the authors of the book Imagining Wild Bill: James Butler Hickok In War, Media, And Memory.

Mr. Ashdown gave the first part of the presentation.  He noted that when it comes to Hickok, it’s very difficult to separate the man from the myth. Hickok was born in Homer (later Troy Grove), Illinois on May 27, 1837 (although generally accepted, this date is disputed). During his youth, Illinois was the home of many stations on the Underground Railroad, and Hickok’s father built a place for slaves to hide in their home.  

In 1856, Hickok headed for Kansas Territory, where he served as a constable.  At the time, the territory was the site of its own civil war between pro- and anti-slavery groups and individuals.  Hickok appears to have been a member of one of the anti-slavery groups, possibly the Jayhawkers.  He went to work for a company that launched the Pony Express, serving mainly as a stagecoach driver.  He suffered an injury and was assigned to light duty as a result.

During the Civil War, Hickok served as a scout, spy, sharpshooter, and wagon driver.  He participated in the battle of Wilson’s Creek (August 10, 1861) the first major battle of the war west of the Mississippi and is believed to have fought at Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern (March 7-8, 1862), and Westport (October 23, 1864) as well.  As always with Hickok, many “tall tales” exist regarding his Civil War service, including the claim that at Pea Ridge, he mortally wounded Confederate Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch at a distance of over two miles, in addition to killing 35 other men in the battle.  

It was after the war that the myth of “Wild Bill” began to take hold.  Journalist George Ward Nichols interviewed Hickok and wrote an article about him that appeared in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in 1867. The article did much to make Hickok famous.  Many people made money off of the myths surrounding him, but Hickok himself did not.  The myths proliferated in books and, decades later, in movies and on TV. Eisenhower said “Read your Westerns” because, he said, they embodied American values.

The second part of the presentation was given by Mr. Caudill.  Mr. Caudill said that the early biographies of Hickok were bogus (dime novels. etc.). The later ones were better, but they   couldn’t compete with the tall tales. They are more critical and shed light on the West.  

Mr. Caudill said that the notion of the “Wild West” is something of a misnomer--more a reflection of how we want to remember things than of what the reality was. The West wasn’t nearly as “wild” as is commonly believed today. There were pockets of “wildness,” but the extent of it has been grossly exaggerated.  Additionally, he asked: Are we making heroes out of everyday thugs?

Mr. Caudill said that in American culture, violence is seen as entertainment, and “Wild Bill” fits into that.  He and others like him are seen as dominant and dangerous, but also vulnerable--Cold War values.  But for all the commemoration of--including monuments to--Hickok, Mr. Caudill said that when you look at his “resume,” it’s not very impressive.  However, he fits into the American myth of individualism and exceptionalism. Mr. Caudill said that the killing of Hickok in Deadwood, Dakota Territory (now South Dakota) was the best thing that ever happened to the town, given the fame that it brought.

Notes from the President

October 2021

October 16 -18 mark the anniversary dates of the anniversary dates of John Brown’s Raid, which began in the hills of Maryland at Kennedy Farm and ended on the Potomac River front in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). The event, like many other events of the past, is shrouded in historical fact and fiction. Indeed, there is a since of mythology to John Brown himself.

One Civil War and Wild West figure whose life accounts are covered more in fiction than in facts is James Butler Hickok, better known as Wild Bill. If you bare like me, your main image of Wild Bill is Guy Madison from the long running 1950’s TV series Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok with Andy Devine as his side kick Jingles.

Join us on Tuesday, October 26 at 7”30- p.m. as authors Paul Ashdown and Ed Caudill explore the life of this legendary character via their recent publication Imaging Wild Bill. James Butler Hickok in War, Media and Memory. I’m certain you will discover that, when it comes to Wild Bill, at times it is difficult to uncover what is fact and what is overt fiction.

Join us by registering at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqduCsrTwvEteEvAwTyCnlFlvTxLhqsuCF

You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Membership is vital to the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable. Like oil in your car, when you run low, you run into problems.

We’ve been generating great attendance numbers over the past years of Zoom presentations. We’ve been receiving positive comments on those presentations. Unfortunately, our active membership is much lower than our regular meeting participation. Speakers cost. Zoom accounts cost. Your membership fees provide the funding to make those things happen.

If you are a member who hasn’t renewed, please do so now. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families.  Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage. Soon, those who wish will be able to submit their dues on our website using PayPal. Additionally, we urge all of you the spread the word about the BCWRT. Most of you know, history can be fun as well as informative.

 Membership in the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable is $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families.  Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

A classic activity of those who have a strong interest in the United States Civil War is reading. More books have been published about the Civil War than any other event in the country’s history. Even in today’s technological world which adds eBooks and audio books to the traditional publishing platforms, the period of rebellion remains front and center.

One of the leading, if not the leading publisher of Civil War books is relative newcomer Savas/Beatie Publishing, Theodore P. “Ted” Savas, Co-Founder and Managing Director, will share his enthusiasm about discovering and sharing history through book at the next Baltimore Civil War Roundtable Zoom on Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at 7:30 p.m.

Ted Savas graduated from The University of Iowa College of Law in 1986 (With Distinction), practiced law in Silicon Valley for many years, and taught business and history classes at the college level for about 20 years. He has also been working in the publishing industry since 1990, and together with the late Russel H. Beatie founded Savas Beatie in January 2004. Savas is the author or editor of fourteen books (published in seven languages), including A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution, Hunt and Kill: U-505 and the U-Boat War in the Atlantic, and Never for Want of Powder: The Confederate Powder Works in Augusta, Georgia. His hobbies include scuba diving, smoking good cigars, drinking quality gin, and playing bass and keyboards in the hard rock band Arminius. [AR - MIN - EE - US]. He is married to the lovely Zoe.

Chances are, each of you have a few Savas Beatie books in your collection. Register in advance for this program by going to:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqduuuqTwoH9HCym4qw0dAiCIUR27cNCF9

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the program.

.

          Ted Savas 

Minutes

Our September meeting was our 446th.  The meeting had 45 registrants and 36 participants.  Our speaker was Theodore P. “Ted” Savas, co-founder and managing director of Savas Beatie publishing, a publishing house that specializes in works on the Civil War and other conflicts.

Mr. Savas, the son of Greek immigrants, spoke Greek before English.  He has loved history since he was a child and got hooked on the Civil War after reading Douglas Southall Freeman’s 3-volume work entitled Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study In Command.  He got a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in history, practiced law for 13 years, and then went into publishing.  He is also a classical pianist and has written books in seven languages.   

Mr. Savas decided to start writing articles for magazines.  In 1990, he and David Woodbury co-founded Savas Woodbury Publishers, which later became Savas Publishing.  They published a quarterly journal entitled “Civil War Regiments Journal,” as well as work on the Atlanta campaign.  Mr. Savas ended up selling his law practice and going into publishing full time.  He and the late Russel H. Beatie founded Savas Beatie in 2004.  

The Internet has killed most small, independent publishers.  But Savas Beatie adapted, producing digital books and deciding to focus on the niche Mr. Savas knows best--the Civil War.  The company does very well, although they work endless hours.   

Mr. Savas looks for something that hits him emotionally, as well as something that contributes something new--for example, looking at an old issue from a new angle.  He doesn’t like books that mainly use secondary sources because they aren’t saying anything new.  Mr. Savas thinks that the golden age of writing is today.  There have been a number of authors--Gordon Rhea, for example--who have made original use of primary sources and done amazing research and writing.  Very few of the older books, according to Mr. Savas, measure up to the standards of today.  Additionally, it’s easier to find people today who are looking for what you want to read.  

With Savas Beatie, the number of maps in a book is determined by the author.  The company rarely looks for people--the people come to Savas Beatie and make submissions, which are handled through the company website.  Mr. Savas said that writing is difficult.  Moreover, some people can write well but not research well, or vice versa. Many submissions have to be rejected.  The company books many authors from roundtables.

Savas Beatie has published the Bachelder papers, as well as Ed Bearss’ trilogy on the   Vicksburg campaign. They’re also going to reprint high-demand volumes of the Official Records--the Gettysburg volume has already been reprinted.  In the last five months, the company has reprinted about 35 books.  The Gettysburg Papers are going to be reprinted, as will the Carmen Papers, which deal with the battle of Antietam.  Savas Beatie doesn’t look for fiction, but nevertheless publishes some.  Regimental histories are harder to sell today, but submissions will be considered.  

Mr. Savas thinks that Savas Beatie should ignore the current controversies about the Civil War and keep on publishing what it has been publishing.  He doesn’t think that statues should be taken down--he believes there should be more statues, not less.  He believes that the most misunderstood campaign in the war is the campaign for Charleston Harbor and would like to see someone write a full history of that campaign.  He also believes that Beauregard and Grant could use good biographies.  For a neophyte, Mr. Savas recommends Shelby Foote’s 3-volume trilogy to get a sense of the breadth and scope of the war.  He also recommends works by Bruce Catton, Douglas Southall Freeman, and Ed Bearss.  

Notes from the President

September 2021

I am writing this on September 17, the 159th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam. The battle remains and hopefully will forever be, the bloodiest day in U.S. History. Counting both sides, the casualty count for the action outside of Sharpsburg, Maryland was 22,717 (dead, wounded or missing). This includes 3675 deaths. In comparison, the horrific attack on 9/11/01 witnessed a casualty count of 8977+ which includes 2977 deaths.

Following Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. Many historians feel Lincoln’s action changed the directions of the war and the nation.

Most of us learn the details of these and other events by reading history books. Members of Civil War Roundtables are probably among the most active readers of historically based works. Savas Beatie Publishing and its co-founder and Managing Director Ted Savas focuses on bring that history to the general public Join us as Red Savas speaks to the BCWRT, via Zoom, on Tuesday, September 28 at 7:30 p.m. Please register at:

 https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqduuuqTwoH9HCym4qw0dAiCIUR27cNCF9

Membership is vital to the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable. Like oil in your car, when you run low, you run into problems.

We’ve been generating great attendance numbers over the past years of Zoom presentations. We’ve been receiving positive comments on those presentations. Unfortunately, our active membership is much lower than our regular meeting participation. Speakers cost. Zoom accounts cost. Your membership fees provide the funding to make those things happen.

If you are a member who hasn’t renewed, please do so now. If you are new, please join. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families.  Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage. Soon, those who wish will be able to submit their dues on our website using PayPal. Additionally, we urge all of you the spread the word about the BCWRT. Most of you know, history can be fun as well as informative.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the largest battle of the Civil War and resulted in the greatest number of casualties. There were 23,049 United States casualties and an estimated 23,000 -28,000. Dealing with those some 50,00 plus wounded and dying belligerents was a monumental task during and after the battle.

According to author Ronald D. Kirkwood, the farm of George Spangler was literally the centerpiece of hospital activities at Gettysburg. He will provide details of the hospitals’ role when he speaks to the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable on Tuesday, August 24, 2021, at 7:30 p.m.

Join the program “Too Much for Human Endurance’: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg by registering at in advance at:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApdu2trDguGdbAy4LgjraG-4Tc1Jy-hP2a

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

“Too Much for Human Endurance: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg,” which was published by Savas Beatie LLC in hardcover in June 2019. The book went into its second hardcover printing in October 2019, and both hardcover editions are now sold out. It was published in paperback and audio earlier this year.

Kirkwood is retired after a 40-year career as an editor and writer in newspapers and magazines including USA TODAY, the Baltimore Sun, the Harrisburg Patriot-News and the York Daily Record. He edited national magazines for USA TODAY Sports and was National Football League editor for USA TODAY Sports Weekly. He won numerous state, regional and national writing and editing awards during his career and managed the 32-person copy desk in Harrisburg when the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012. Kirkwood is a Michigan native and graduate of Central Michigan University, where he has returned as guest speaker to journalism classes as part of the school’s Hearst Visiting Professionals series.

Kirkwood has been a Gettysburg Foundation guide at the George Spangler Farm Civil War Field Hospital Site since it opened in 2013. He lives in York, Pa., with his wife of 45 years, Barbara.

         Ron Kirkwood                                              The George Spangler Farm

Minutes

Our August meeting was our 445th.  Our speaker was Ron Kirkwood, a retired writer and editor.  Mr. Kirkwood spoke on the role of the Spangler Farm in the Battle of Gettysburg.  He is the author of Too Much for Human Endurance: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg.  Mr. Kirkwood has also served as a Gettysburg Foundation guide since 2013.  

The Spangler Farm connected the Baltimore Pike and the Taneytown Road.  During the battle, the Army of the Potomac’s V and VI Corps bivouacked on the property, which was also host to the Artillery Reserve.  19 artillery batteries were on the farm.  Among them was Battery A, First Maryland Light Artillery, also known as Rigby’s Battery, organized in Baltimore and Pikesville.  The batteries were often rushed to critical points of the battle with only minutes to spare before the Union lines broke.  

On July 1, the first day of the battle, the medical staff of XI Corps established a hospital at the Spangler farm.  George Spangler and his family were ordered to either leave their home or go to one bedroom of their house.  They chose the latter.  The number of wounded being treated peaked at an estimated 1,900 on July 4-5.  Surgeons worked night and day with little sleep.  One surgeon said that the work was “too much for human endurance.”  Mr. Kirkwood said that amputated limbs--as well as wounds and surgeries--attracted swarms of flies, and the most gravely infected wounds caused a terrible stench.  The men were crammed so close together in the barn that disease spread.  For the first several days, many wounded were forced to lie in mud in the open.  

In addition to the XI Corps hospital, on July 2-3 the 1st division of II Corps had a hospital at the Granite Schoolhouse.  Taken there were those who had fought in the Wheatfield, including members of the Irish Brigade.  Brigadier General Samuel K. Zook was taken there.  Mr. Kirkwood said you could see his heart beating (Zook died of his wounds).  Colonel Edward Cross of the 5th New Hampshire died there.  The school was torn down in 1921--only the foundation remains today.  

On the evening of July 3, Confederate Brigadier General Lewis Armistead arrived at Spangler’s.  He attracted much attention.  He was given stimulants and painkillers, and died on July 5 in the summer kitchen. His roommate there was a son of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  According to Mr. Kirkwood, Armistead was one of five Confederates known to have been buried at Spangler (although he was later reburied in Old Saint Paul’s Cemetery in Baltimore).  Most Confederates buried there remained until 1872, when they were reinterred throughout the South.  Private George Nixon III of the 73rd Ohio--a great-grandfather of President Richard Nixon--died at Spangler.  

A majority of XI Corps patients survived.  Captain Alfred E. Lee of the 82nd Ohio ended up attending his own funeral!  Many of the surgeons who worked at Spangler went on to positions of leadership after the war.  

The Spanglers finally got their farm back on August 7.  After the war, they filed damage claims against the U.S. government but ended up receiving nothing or almost nothing.  The government said that it was “...no more responsible for bringing on the battle fought there than it would have been had a tornado passed over that country causing as wide spread destruction as did that terrible engagement…”  All four of George Spangler’s children became productive adults.  The Gettysburg Foundation purchased the barn in 2008.  Most of the wood in the rebuilt barn was there in 1863.  

Notes from the President

August 2021

First and foremost, I’d like to thank retired National Park Service employee, re-enactor with the 54^th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Co. B and veteran of the movie Glory, Mel Reid, for stepping in to do his ‘first person’ presentation on “Private Mel Reid. From Plantation to Battlefield.” His presentation was secured after our scheduled speaker, Prof. Annette T. Khawane, had a medical emergency involving her nonagenarian mother. (Mrs. Tyler should be out of the hospital by the time this is published.)

Thanks also go to Co. B President Calvin Osbourne who provided emergency technical assistance when Mr. Reid encountered computer problems.

Join us on Tuesday, August 24, 2021, as the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable follows journalist and author Ronald A. Kirkwood as he explores Gettysburg via his work “Too Much for Human Endurance: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg,” Kirkwood argues; “that the George Spangler farm was the most important farm in the Battle of Gettysburg, revealing factors that have been overlooked for generations. The book and his presentation also offer newly found information about Confederate Brig. Gen. Lewis A. Armistead’s time at Spangler, the Spanglers, the Artillery Reserve and stories of the suffering and heroism of the surgeons, nurses, wounded and mortally wounded at the two hospitals on the Spanglers’ land.

Register in advance at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApdu2trDguGdbAy4LgjraG-4Tc1Jy-hP2a

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Be on the lookout for a business meeting notification via Zoom. We will have an overall update on the organization and get your feedback.

Remember: Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families.  Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage. Soon, those who wish will be able to submit their dues on our website using PayPal. Additionally, we urge all of you the spread the word about the BCWRT. Most of you know, history can be fun as well as informative.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines War as a noun meaning “a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations.” No matter the outcome, wars will lead to injuries, deaths and, inevitably, funerals. Conservative figures list a combined 624,511 deaths from the Civil War (364,511 USA and 260,000 CSA). This translates to thousands of battlefield funerals and burials.

Prof. Annette Tyler Khawane returns to the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable on Tuesday, July to reveal some of the varied funeral practices during the war.  This is a fitting follow up to Prof. Khawane’s last BCWRT presentation on Civil War era Dr. Thomas Holmes, who is considered the ‘Father of Modern Embalming. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.  Register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMudOCuqjgrE9EmNFTtscmC1rqLk5piLXpn

Annette Tyler Khawane is a graduate of Baltimore City public schools. She holds AA degree from Catonsville Community College; BA degree from Morgan State University; and MA degree from The American University. She has been a licensed mortician for over 20 years and a licensed Massage Therapist for over a decade. She has worked for various corporations in many capacities from Senior Trainer, Senior Safety Specialist; Sales Professional; Massage Therapist and many Customer Service-related positions. She is retired from FedEx after over 22 years of service. Since 2012, she has served as an adjunct professor, teaching the embalming lab for Catonsville Community College. She is also a part-time instructor at the Baltimore School of Massage and a Drivers' Education Instructor for Williams Educational Services. She has heart for teaching and believes every day you create your own masterpiece.

A photographer employed by Mathew Brady                     Annette T. Khawane

 made this image of the burial of Federal

dead in Fredericksburg, Va.,

 probably on May 20, 1864. (Library of Congress)

Minutes

Our July meeting was our 444th.  The meeting had 34 registrants and 25 participants.

Our speaker was Mel Reid.  Mr. Reid is a retired employee of the National Park Service and a Civil War reenactor who portrays a soldier in Company B of the 54th Massachusetts, the most famous African American regiment to fight for the Union in the Civil War.  Mr. Reid also served as an extra in the 1989 movie “Glory” which deals with the 54th.  In his presentation, entitled “From Plantation to Battlefield,” Mr. Reid presented himself as a man who joined and fought in the 54th.  He drew on the experiences of several real-life soldiers to present the story of the character he impersonated.  

In his impersonation, Mel was born in the mid-1830s on the Reid plantation in Reidsville, North Carolina.  His mother had been born in Gambia and was taken to the United States on the dreaded “middle passage.”  She already knew English when she arrived in the U.S. since she came from an English-speaking country.  Mel was one of eleven children, and his father may have been the master of the plantation.  Mel was required to work from sunrise to sunset and hated the plantation.  He escaped but was recaptured and flogged.  However, he later escaped again, this time successfully.   He followed the North Star to Kentucky, and subsequently to Ohio and freedom.  He eventually settled in Oberlin and started a blacksmith’s shop, married and had four daughters.  His wife taught him how to read and write.  

In 1863, Mel read about the Emancipation Proclamation in a newspaper. The article mentioned that the proclamation opened the door for African Americans to join the Union Army.  But the governor wouldn’t allow blacks to enlist.  However, the governor of Massachusetts did.  Mel went there and heard Frederick Douglass speak.  Douglas said: “No man is free until everyone is free.” Mel subsequently became a private in the 54th Massachusetts.  After a couple of months of training, the 54th paraded through Boston, boarded the steamer De Molay and sailed to Georgia.  They burned the town of Darien, returned to the area around Charleston, S.C., and successfully fought the Confederates on July 16, 1863.  The following day, they attacked Battery Wagner on Morris Island.  They were unsuccessful but proved that African Americans can fight.  The 54th’s colonel, Robert Gould Shaw, was killed in the attack.  Wagner was finally taken by siege on September 7.  

In February 1864, the 54th sailed to Jacksonville, Fl. and from there marched to Olustee Station.  On February 20, the regiment participated in the battle of Olustee.  The battle was a Union defeat.  During the retreat, the regiment loaded dead and dying soldiers on a train and manually pulled the train a long distance.   In April, the 54th returned to the Charleston area.  The regiment went on to fight in a few more battles including Honey Hill, where it fought alongside the 55th Massachusetts, another African American regiment.  At the end of the war, Mel was faced with the choice of whether to muster out and return home or to stay in the military.

In real life, Mr. Reid’s family actually was from Reidsville, North Carolina, and he is a descendant of the owner of the plantation.  

At the end of the war, there were more African Americans in blue than whites in gray.  

Notes From the President July 2021

“Summertime, and the living is easy.” DuBose Heyward, with musical assistance from George Gershwin, wrote these words in the early 20^th Century. One wonders if he would have expressed the same sentiment if he was wearing wool from head to toe and baking in the hot sun on a Virginia battlefield (or dealing with our current record-breaking heatwave)?

It was the heat, disease, wounds, accidents, battle injuries and non-battle injuries that caused the deaths of infantryman, cavalrymen, and sailors between 1861 and 1865. Some 624,511 deaths resulted in thousands and thousands of funerals and burials. Some funerals involved massive amounts of people being interned into mass battlefield graves. Some were fortunate to be sent home to be received by family and friends for services in their residential communities. Many others were something in between the aforementioned scenarios.

Join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) on Tuesday, July 27 at 7:30 p.m., as we host Prof. Annette T. Khawane in a Zoom presentation examining funeral practices during the Civil War. Please register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMudOCuqjgrE9EmNFTtscmC1rqLk5piLXpn

Like you, we are monitoring the overall situation with the ongoing pandemic. No decision has been made about when we will resume live meetings. When we do, it will be a combination of live and virtual meetings. Later this summer, you will receive a survey to help us better determine that decision.

Below, you will find a copy of the certificate we received from the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa. It notes the purchase of a Commemorative Brick in honor of Bob Mullauer. The actual brick will be installed in the fall.

Remember: Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families.  Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage. Soon, those who wish will be able to submit their dues on our website using PayPal. Additionally, we urge all of you the spread the word about the BCWRT. Most of you know, history can be fun as well as informative.

Ask most Civil War buffs who were the 10 people the United States government ultimately selected as the conspirators in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln, they would struggle to name them all.

John Wilkes Booth’s name immediately comes to mind. Those who were tried, convicted and executed for their roles (Lewis Powell, Mary Surratt, David Harold and George Atzerodt) are also easily recalled, along with Dr. Samuel Mudd. With cogitation, John Surratt, Samuel Arnold and Michael O’Laughlen can be named. Still, who was that 10^th person?

Join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, as historian Bob Bowser investigates the life of York, Pa. native and former Baltimore resident Edmund “Ned” Spangler. A carpenter by trade, was the only conspirator sentenced to just 6 years of hard labor. The Zoom presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83204853684?pwd=SG1WMUdXeEZVSWpMSkFxMTducGJYdz09

Bob Bowser is a high school history teacher at Henry E. Lackey High School, located in Charles County, Maryland. Bob holds a BS in Education and an MA in History. His main areas of research are the American Civil War and the Lincoln Assassination. For the last 13 years, Bob has been a tour guide at the Dr.  Samuel A. Mudd House Museum. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Dr. Samuel A.  Mudd Society for the last five years and is currently serving as the acting president of the Dr. Samuel A.  Mudd Society.

                         Bob Bowser                                                                                                 Ned Spangler

Our June meeting was our 443rd.  The meeting had 50 registrants and 50 participants.

Minutes

Our speaker was Bob Bowser, a historian and tour guide at the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum.  Mr. Bowser spoke on the life of Edmund “Ned” Spangler.

Spangler was born in York, Pennsylvania.  His ancestors were involved in the founding of York and participated in the Revolutionary War.  However, his own beginnings were humble.  He was born on August 10, 1825, one of seven children.  His family belonged to the German Reformed Church.  As he matured, he found a spark from Theodore Jacobs, a carpenter.  After his father suffered a crippling accident, Spangler moved to Baltimore to support the family.  He became associated with James Johnson Gifford.  Beginning in 1853, Spangler did carpenter work for theaters in Baltimore and Washington DC.  Gifford got Spangler to help build Tudor Hall, the summer home of John Wilkes Booth’s family.  He was also employed as a stagehand by John Ford.  

In Baltimore, Spangler was by no means a “loner.”  He was known as a “good-natured drudge.”  On August 29, 1858, he married Mary Brasheare.  In 1864, Mary died and Spangler began to change, becoming an alcoholic.  However, he remained a dutiful worker.  A stalwart Democrat, Spangler was a member of the American Order, a derivative of the Knights of the Golden Circle.  During the Civil War, he was very pro-Confederate.  He was also one of a group of carpenters selected by Gifford to renovate what is now known as Ford’s Theatre.  

The night of the Lincoln assassination, Spangler was working as a stagehand at Ford’s Theatre.  He removed a partition so Lincoln could feel more comfortable.  Later in the evening, Spangler was asked by John Wilkes Booth to hold his mare for 10-15 minutes.  He held the mare for a few minutes and then asked someone else to do it.  According to Spangler himself, he heard the shot fired that killed Lincoln and then saw a man running across the stage and out the exit on the left-hand side, but he didn’t know who it was.  When a coworker, Jacob Rittersbach, said that he saw Booth escape, Spangler slapped Rittersbach and told him to shut up because he didn’t know anything.  

Spangler walked off in the rain, but later returned to the theater, suggesting that he had not been part of the conspiracy.  However, he was later picked up on suspicion of having been involved.  Rope was found in a bag of his, and he was deemed responsible for keeping the passageway clear that Booth used to escape.  From mid-April to mid-June 1865, he was shackled and had a hood placed on him.  He and the other accused conspirators were poorly fed as well.  Spangler had an excellent lawyer, and the prosecution had little evidence against him.  But he was convicted, partly because Rittersbach was intimidated into saying things against him.  However, Spangler was only convicted of aiding and abetting, not conspiracy.  He was sentenced to six years of hard labor on the Dry Tortugas off the coast of Florida.

Spangler proved to be an industrious prisoner, making money to buy better rations.  He also nursed Dr. Samuel Mudd back to health during a yellow fever epidemic.  On March 1, 1869, President Andrew Johnson pardoned Spangler.  Spangler returned to Baltimore and worked for John Ford again.  In 1873, he left Baltimore and settled on the Mudd farm in Charles County, where he did carpenter work.  On February 7, 1875, Spangler died.  Having converted to Catholicism, he was buried in a cemetery connected with St. Peter’s Church near the Mudd farm.  

Notes from the President June 2021

“Everything must Change. Nothing stays the same” These are the opening words and title to a haunting and meaningful Bernard Ighner composition released on Quincy Jones’ 1974 album Body Heat.

Those words came to mind because, when writing this column two years ago, I referred to the upcoming June 2019 lecture on the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13^th Amendment of the Constitution presented by our former President Charles “Bob” Mullauer. Many of you are  already aware that Bob died in his sleep on May 18.

Just over a week before his passing, Bob and I had a phone conversation in which we talked about BCWRT membership and our future. He expressed his pleasure with the quality and variety of our speakers. I must say, I always gained knowledge from our many talks throughout the years.

I am proud to report to you that the Executive Committee of the BCWRT (officers and board members) unanimously decided to and have purchased, a brick in Bob’s honor on the Walkway of the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa. The brick, which will be installed in the fall, will read:

“BOB” MULLAUER

PAST PRESIDENT

BALTIMORE CWRT

I like to again thank all of our members who have positively responded to my membership phone calls I also like to thank those who have connected with us, via Zoom, and have become new members. THANK YOU AND ASK YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN!

If April Showers bring May Flowers, what do Mayflowers bring? Pilgrims!! OK, Ok! Bad old joke and wrong time period. However, many significant events occurred in May during the Civil War.

Among the early events was Lincoln’s call for volunteers to join the Union Army for three-year terms, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia moving to secede; the occupation of Baltimore; the CSA decision to move the Confederate capital from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, Virginia and the death of Zouave leader Elmer Ellsworth in Alexandria, Va. at the hands of James W. Jackson.

May 15, 1862, saw the launch of a ship named Enrica. Quickly renamed Alabama, this British made raider was one of the few CSA shipped that terrorized US ships throughout the war. All were the results of the efforts of CSA Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory.

Join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable at 7:30 p.m. on May 25, 2021 as author/historian William S. Connery focuses on the career of Stephen Mallory in a Zoom presentation.

William Connery grew up in Baltimore, Maryland near Patterson Park. He shares the same January 19^th birthday as Edgar Allen Poe and Robert E. Lee. He has a degree in history from University of Maryland–College Park. Mr. Connery has contributed to the Civil War Courier, the Washington Times Civil War page and other publications. In 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal for his first History Press book, Civil War Northern Virginia 1861.

Register in advance at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sc-urrDwqGNJCQl-fpBqw47863AyE3ura

William S. Connery

Stephen Mallory

Our May meeting was our 442nd.  The meeting had 35 registrants and 30 participants.  

Our speaker was William S. Connery.  A native of Baltimore, Mr. Connery spoke on Rebel Raiders on the High Seas: The CSS Florida, Alabama & Shenandoah.

Mr. Connery began by discussing Stephen R. Mallory, who throughout the Civil War served as the Confederate Secretary of the Navy.  Mallory was born in Trinidad around 1811-13.  In 1820, he moved with his family to Key West, Florida.  A Roman Catholic, Mallory served as a U.S. senator from Florida from 1851 until the state seceded from the Union in 1861.  During his time in the Senate, he became chairman of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs.

As Secretary of the Navy, Mallory created a four-point plan for the Confederate Navy:

1.  Send out commerce raiders to destroy the enemy’s mercantile marine.

2.  Build ironclads in Southern shipyards for defensive purposes.

3.  Obtain by purchase or construction abroad armored ships capable of fighting on the high seas.

4. Employ new weapons and techniques of warfare.

The CSS Florida was built by a British firm in Liverpool.  Often mistaken by Union forces for the CSS Alabama, the Florida had two smokestacks (unlike the Alabama, which had one).  The subject of much diplomatic correspondence, she was commissioned on August 17, 1862.  During this period, yellow fever decimated the crew.  

Beginning in January 1863, Florida spent six months off the coast of North and South America and the West Indies, making many captures.  On October 7, 1864, the ship was captured in Bahia Harbor (Brazil) by the USS Wachusett and sent to the U.S. as a prize.  The commander of the Wachusett was convicted of violating Brazil’s sovereignty, but Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles set aside the verdict.  On November 28, 1864, Florida was sunk under dubious circumstances after colliding with the U.S. Army Transport Alliance.  During her career, she captured 37 prizes.  

The construction of the CSS Alabama was arranged by James Bulloch, an uncle of future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.  The Alabama was built secretly in 1862. British neutrality law allowed a ship to be built as an armed vessel as long as it wasn’t armed until after it left British territorial waters.  Under Rafael Semmes, the Alabama traveled through the Gulf of Mexico (where she managed to sink the USS Hatteras, which she tricked by flying the Union Jack), the Caribbean, and the Atlantic.  The Alabama also sailed around the Cape of Good Hope (being refitted in Cape Town) and reached Singapore in 1864.  On June 11, 1864, the ship arrived at the port of Cherbourg, France.  Eight days later, she was sunk by the USS Kearsage.  During her career, the Alabama captured or burned 65 Union merchant ships and boarded almost 450.  

The Alabama was replaced by the CSS Shenandoah.  The Shenandoah traveled to the Bering Sea in the Arctic, where she did great damage to American whaling from which the whaling industry never recovered.  Learning in August 1865 that the war had ended, the ship arrived in Liverpool on November 6 and surrendered to the British.  

In 1869, the U.S. sought “Alabama Claims” from Britain.  Britain eventually paid $15.5 million--the equivalent of $325 million today.  

After the war, Stephen Mallory was imprisoned but was paroled by President Andrew Johnson in 1866.  He returned to Florida, where he practiced law and wrote opinion letters to newspapers.  His health began to deteriorate, although he was not incapacitated until almost the very end.  He died on November 9, 1873.  

Notes from the President May 2021

The old commercial line says, “Membership has its privileges”. The key to any group like the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) is members. Judging by all the positive comments we have been receiving about our Zoom presentations, most of you enjoy the privilege of knowledge and exposure garnered via our monthly meetings.

There is only one problem! Membership is down for the current year. Since BCWRT annual dues allows us to engage our speakers and, where appropriate, make donations to Civil War preservation, the effects of the reduced membership can be severe!

Some of you have simply forgotten to mail in your renewals since you are used to providing a check at the in-person meetings. Some of you have experienced problems with the U.S. Postal Service- which are being corrected.

I have spoken to some members in order to clarify status and correct any errors. I will continue to connect with you.

Whether you have allowed your membership to lapse or have never actually been a member, the BCWRT is urging all to be active. We welcome both new and old members! Yearly membership is $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families. Simply use the link below to print the form and mail your check to our Treasurer Ray Atkins. We hope to allow electric payments soon.

https://bcwrt.nalweb.net/join_bcwrt.htm

Your actions will allow the BCWRT to continue its stated purpose of providing a forum in which to discuss and evaluate various aspects of this unique period of American History. Please look at our list of upcoming events to discover the current schedule of activities for the next 12 months.

The Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) continues 2021 by hosting Zoom presentation on Tuesday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m.

Please join us on April 27, at 7:30 p.m. as Dr. Pamela Toler, author of “Heroines of Mercy Street: The Real Nurses of the Civil War” tells theirs stories in "From Unwanted to Indispensable: The Real Nurses of the Civil War".

Armed with a PhD in history, a well-thumbed deck of library cards, and a large bump of curiosity, author, speaker, and historian, Pamela D. Toler translates history for a popular audience. She goes beyond the familiar boundaries of American history to tell stories from other parts of the world as well as history from the other side of the battlefield, the gender line, or the color bar. Toler is the author of eight books of popular history for children and adults. 

Dr. Toler’s books include: Women Warriors: An Unexpected History; Heroines of Mercy Street: The Real Nurses of the Civil War; Mankind: The Story of All of Us and The Everything Guide to Understanding Socialism. Her work has appeared in Aramco World, Calliope, History Channel Magazine, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History and Time.com. 

Register (limited to 100) in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkceqvqjgiGdTcZ2Vfy1_RfiRl1NDnuPzj

Notes from the President April 2021

The month of April had a significant impact on the Civil War. There were 5 very historical Aprils during the period from 1861 to 1865.

April 12, 1861 saw the start of the war with the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. It continued with the first armed conflict’ casualties as groups of United States soldiers moved through Baltimore, Md. April 18/19.

1862 saw the April 6/7 Battle of Shiloh, along with the April 25 fall on New Orleans and the beginning of the Siege of Yorktown. A year later, April of 1863 saw the beginning of the Vicksburg Campaign and the opening of the Battle of Chancellorsville.

The Battles of Sabine Crossroads (4/8), Pleasant Hill (4/9) Ft. Pillow (4/12) and Poison Springs (4/18) are just a few of the actions from April 1864.

So much happened in April 1865 (including Lincoln’s assassination, Appomattox Courthouse and Bennett Place) that Jay Winik wrote April 1865: The Month that Saved America. If you have not read the book or seen the related History Channel documentary, it would be worth your time.

While not confined to a single month, our April zoom will focus on the year-round work of the thousands of women who served as Civil War nurses. Please join us on April 27, at 7:30 p.m. as Pamela Toler, author of “Heroines of Mercy Street: The Real Nurses of the Civil War” tells theirs stories in "From Unwanted to Indispensable: The Real Nurses of the Civil War". Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkceqvqjgiGdTcZ2Vfy1_RfiRl1NDnuPzj

Reminder: Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families.  Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage. Soon, those who wish will be able to submit their dues on our website using PayPal. Additionally, we urge all of you the spread the word about the BCWRT. Most of you know, history can be fun as well as informative.

 The Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) continues 2021 by hosting Zoom presentation on Tuesday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m.

We are fortunate to have historian, author, professor and retired US Army General Dr. Ty Seidule as our presenter for our March meeting. Seidule, Chairman Emeritus of the History Dept. at West Point, has touched off a historical firestorm with his new book; “Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause.”

A native of Alexandria, Virginia, Ty Seidule was brought up to revere Robert E. Lee. Seidule once believed that the Confederates were romantic underdogs who lost the American Civil War with honor. In his book, Seidule deconstructs the Lost Cause narrative, discusses his former hero Lee and details how he came to understand that the Southern states went to war to protect and expand slavery.

Prof. Seidule taught for two decades at West Point. He served in the U.S. Army for thirty-six years, retiring as a brigadier general. He is the Chamberlain Fellow at Hamilton College as well as a New America Fellow. He has published numerous books, articles, and videos on military history including the award-winning West Point History of the Civil War. He graduated from Washington and Lee University and holds a PhD from the Ohio State University.

Register (limited to 100) in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/.../tZwtf-iqqjwuEtYYZUKd...

Our March meeting was our 440th.  The meeting had 88 registrants and 76 participants.  

Our speaker was Ty Seidule.  Seidule, a retired U.S. Army general and Department Chair Emeritus of the history department at West Point, is the author of the recently published book entitled Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause.  

As he explained in his presentation, Seidule’s opinion of Lee has undergone a remarkable transformation.  He has gone from idolizing Lee to being severely critical of him.  As a child, he learned “Dixie” before “The Star-Spangled Banner.”  He read books like “Meet Robert E. Lee” and “Gone with the Wind.”  As a result, he saw Lee in an extremely favorable light.  

Seidule’s early sources of information about Lee reflected what is known as the “Myth of the Lost Cause.”  This was a series of ideas that became extremely popular among white Southerners in the decades after the Civil War and became widely accepted outside of the South as well.  The Lost Cause myth said that the Union only won the war because of superior numbers, resources, and money, that Ulysses S. Grant was a “butcher” who callously sacrificed his soldiers, that Confederate soldiers were the best, ever, that Lee was one of the greatest men of all time, and that Reconstruction was a failure.  Additionally, the myth said that slavery was not the cause of the war, and that slaves--at least on the whole--were happy.  

The Lost Cause myth, according to Seidule, became a basis for white supremacy.  Seidule described the South he was born into as a “racial police state.”  His hometown was Alexandria, Virginia.  Until 1846, Alexandria was part of Washington DC.  The city left DC to protect its participation in the slave trade.  Seidule attended Robert E. Lee Elementary School.  The school was named after Lee in 1961, and Seidule said this was done to protest racial integration.  Seidule and his family later moved to Monroe, Georgia.  In 1946, the area around Monroe was the site of the last mass lynching.  

Today, far from viewing Lee as a hero, Seidule sees him as a traitor to America.  In his presentation, Seidule argued that Lee chose treason as defined in the Constitution (the Constitution’s definition includes “levying war” against the United States) and violated the oath he took as a U.S. Army officer.  Contrary to the common belief that such a course of action was inevitable on Lee’s part given that he was a Virginian, Seidule said that of the eight colonels from Virginia in the army when the war began, Lee was the only one who did not remain loyal to the Union.  According to Seidule, he chose the Confederacy because he believed in slavery--the reason why the Confederate states had seceded from the Union.  

Seidule said that from 1861 to 1902, Confederates were seen by the army as traitors.  In subsequent decades, commemorations of Lee appear to have coincided with resistance to civil rights for African Americans.  The army itself was white supremacist and did not see African Americans as equals.  It honored Confederates, Seidule said, as a way of bringing white Americans together.  

Unlike his parents-in-law, Lee broke up slave families.  After the war, he was opposed to equality for African Americans, and said that he hoped that Virginia “could get rid of them.”    

Seidule has come to not only strongly dislike Lee, but to be opposed to monuments and other commemorations of him and other Confederates.  In particular, he hates the Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery.  

Notes from the President - March 2021

March 2021 marks the 160^th Anniversary of the forced resignation of Sam Houston as Governor of Texas, the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States of America and the continued rapid descent into a war that tore the nation apart. Truly, there was nothing “civil” about the war of the rebellion.

The US is currently ‘at war’ with a disease that has killed over 503,000 in just over a year compared to approximately 620,000 killed between 1861 and 1865. Therefore, we will continue to host meetings, via Zoom, for the foreseeable future. When feasible, we will move to combine our online presentations with those done in person.

I urge all of you to register early for our March 23 Zoom presentation featuring General Ty Seidule (ret.) reflecting on his newly published book “Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause.”. This book has been receiving massive coverage from the national press due to controversial and critical look at Robert E. Lee and emergence of the Lost Cause approach to history.

Ty Seidule grew up revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service in the U.S. Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor. Now, as a retired brigadier general and Professor Emeritus of History at West Point, his view has radically changed. From a soldier, a scholar, and a southerner, Ty Seidule believes that American history demands a reckoning.

Space is limited to 100 participants; therefore, register early.

Reminder: Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families.  Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage. Soon, those who wish will be able to submit their dues on our website using PayPal. Additionally, we urge all of you the spread the word about the BCWRT. Most of you know, history can be fun as well as informative.

 The Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) continues 2021 by hosting Zoom presentation on Tuesday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m.

Our speaker will be historian, author, attorney and reenactor Bernie Siler. Mr. Siler, who last addressed our roundtable in 2015, will focus on his latest work: Parallel Lives: A Tale of Two Centuries.

Using the idea that history repeats itself, Siler, who grew up one block from the historic Fort Stevens, makes a decade-by-decade comparison of events from the 1850’s and 1860’s with events from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Two examples are the hoop craze of the 1850’s and the Hula Hoop of the 1950’s along with the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy. Siler combines these facts with personal antidotes of his life during the mid-twentieth century.

Bernie Siler, a former prosecutor for the District of Columbia, is currently a criminal defense lawyer in private practice and a Civil War Historian. He is originally from Washington, D.C. and received undergraduate and law degrees from the Universities of Dayton and Cincinnati, respectively. He teaches at Montgomery College in the areas of Real Property Law and Civil Litigation. You can see some of his historical presentations brought to life in various Civil War reenactments that his 54^th Massachusetts Volunteers participates in as well as roles in the motion pictures "JOHN ADAMS", "GLORY", -"TAD", "APRIL,1865" and the TNT production "ANDERSONVILLE". Mr. Siler was also featured as an expert in the documentary that accompanied the motion picture, "The Conspirator".

Register at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqcuqorj4sG90j9XdkTOq2IWlQLI-Nh4TU

Minutes

Our February 23 meeting was our 439th.  The meeting had 45 registrants and 34 participants.  Our speaker was Bernie Siler, a lawyer, author, historian, and Civil War reenactor.  Mr. Siler discussed his book entitled Parallel Lives: A Tale of Two Centuries.

Mr. Siler grew up in a house near Fort Stevens in Washington DC.  The fort was the site of a Civil War battle on July 11-12, 1864.  Mr. Siler said that during the battle, Union troops were actually at the place where the room from which he gave the presentation is located today.  

Growing up in the 1950s and 60s, Mr. Siler became fascinated by the Civil War period.  As a child, he found a book in Takoma Library called “Twenty Days” which dealt with the Lincoln assassination.  He was intrigued by the photographs and thought that if not for an accident of birth, he could have lived during that time.  He began to imagine a parallel version of himself who actually did live in the 1850s and 60s and wanted to know how life then differed from the world he knew a century later. This was the seed from which Parallel Lives came into being.  

The book compares the Washington DC of the mid-nineteenth century with that of the mid-twentieth century.  In his presentation, Mr. Siler compared the two periods in several specific areas: Mundane Things, Family Life, Travel, Music Lessons, City Life and Culture, Court Cases, and Being African American.  

Mr. Siler found some intriguing parallels between the two eras.  For example, in both periods Washington had baseball teams called the Nationals (the Nationals of the mid-twentieth century were informally--and formally between 1956 and 1960--known as the Senators).  Washington Nationals teams in both centuries had players whose last name was Mincher (Ed Mincher in 1872, and Don Mincher from 1960 to 1966, the period when the Senators became the Minnesota Twins).  During the 1850s, there was the “Hoop and Stick” game; in the 1950s there was the “Hula Hoop.”

Mr. Siler discussed Washington’s “bad neighborhoods” during both periods.  During the Civil War era, these included Murder Bay, Prather’s Alley, and The Island.  The last mentioned was literally an island because a canal cut it off from the rest of the capital.  According to Mr. Siler, Murder Bay was so dangerous that even soldiers were warned not to go there.  It was home to many brothels and sleazy saloons.  During the 1950s and 60s, the “bad neighborhoods'' included Anacostia and Deanwood.  

In 1861, there was an enemy regime (the Confederate government) across the Potomac, in 1961, there was one across the Caribbean (Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba).  Both years saw U.S. debacles against those foes--the Battle of Bull Run in 1861 and the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.  The Civil War witnessed a race for air power--the Union Army Balloon Corps, established by Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, built balloons for reconnaissance purposes.  The 1960s witnessed a race for space power.  

Between the mid-nineteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries, the African American presence in Washington greatly increased.  In 1860, the total population of the capital was about 75,000, about 80% of whom were white (although slavery was still legal, most African Americans in the capital were free).  In 1960, the population (not including the metro area) was more than 760,000, about 55% of whom were African Americans.  Many former slaves moved to Washington.  During the century after the Civil War, the capital’s African American population increased as part of the large-scale migration of African Americans out of the South.

Notes from the President

It is February 2021, which marks a full year since we have held an in-person meeting. Thank goodness we are studying the mid-19^th Century in the 21^st Century. Neither Presidents Lincoln nor Davis could communicate using Zoom.

The BCWRT has made a $150.00 donation to the American Battlefield Trust in honor of the late Edwin Cole Bearss, the late Historian Emeritus of the National Park Service. ‘rock star’ of the Civil War community and great friend of our roundtable. The contribution abides by the request of the Bearss’ family. Additionally, we have made a $50.00 contribution to the Friends of the Public Garden in Boston, Massachusetts in support of the restoration of the Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54^th Regiment Memorial. Last month’s speaker Dr. Chandra Manning requested the donation in lieu of a fee.

In a Zoom Board meeting on February 6, it was decided to postpone the April’s Annual Banquet to a date that will be determined. This was done in cooperation with the Columbus Gardens and Kevin Levin, our speaker. A Zoom presentation for April will be announced, soon.

Currently, we will continue to host Zoom meetings, due to the pandemic. Since we have attracted the interest of many people outside of our immediate area, we will figure out a method to continue the online presentations after we return to in person meetings.

Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families.  Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage. Soon, those who wish will be able to submit their dues on our website using PayPal. Additionally, we urge all of you the spread the word about the BCWRT. Most of you know, history can be fun as well as informative.  

 The Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) will start 2021 by hosting two Zoom presentation during the month of January.

If you were with us in December, you know Dr. Andy Waskie had so much information during  “Meet General Meade: Victor of the Battle of Gettysburg” that he did not have time to finish. Therefore, Prof. Waskie will cover Meade’s life after Gettysburg until his death in a special presentation on Tuesday, January 19, at 7:30 p.m.

Our regular monthly presentation will feature history professor and author, Chandra M. Manning PhD. as she discusses the relationship between African Americans and the federal government forged in the contraband camps, which were refugee camps for escaped slaves, via her book, “Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War.” This Zoom meeting will occur on Tuesday, January 26, at 7:30 p.m.

Dr. Chandra Manning, a native of Binghamton, New York, attended Mount Holyoke College where she received her B.A. summa cum laude, in history. She then attended the National University of Ireland, Galway where she received an M. Phil in Irish history and literature. She would later go on to receive her Ph.D. in History from Harvard.

Dr. Manning teaches U.S. history, chiefly of the 19th century, including classes on the Civil War, slavery and emancipation, Lincoln, citizenship, the American Revolution, and the History of Baseball (not necessarily in that order). She began teaching at Georgetown in 2005, took leave to serve as Special Advisor to the Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University from 2015-2017 and returned to Georgetown full time in the fall of 2017.

Her first book, What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War (Knopf, 2007) won the Avery O. Craven Prize awarded by the Organization of American Historians, earned Honorable Mention for the Lincoln Prize and the Virginia Literary Awards for Nonfiction, and was a finalist for the Jefferson Davis Prize and the Frederick Douglass Prize.

Manning’s second book, Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War (Knopf, 2016), about Civil War refugee camps where former slaves allied with the Union Army and altered the course of the war and of emancipation, won the Jefferson Davis Prize awarded by the American Civil War Museum for best book on the Civil War. Eventually she intends to write something that would qualify for a prize not named for a dead Civil War president.

A former National Park Service Ranger, she has also advised historical sites, museums, and historical societies, as well as community groups in search of historical perspective. Normally, Manning is in Washington, DC on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays during the academic year, and for the rest of the week (and in the summer) lives with her husband and children outside of Boston. (During the Covid 19 Pandemic, she is doing nearly everything remotely) She has a particular interest in neurodiversity. Above all, she is a Red Sox fan.

1/19 registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsd-qvqzwuGN11ZVjCroAz-4n5WnZToUnN

1/26 registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqfuChpz8sGNYXtw4fWvLTrm1fk1Y5aH-2

Chandra Manning

Andy Waskie

Minutes

Our January 19 meeting was our 437th.  The meeting had 80 registrants and 55 participants.  Our speaker was Dr. Anthony “Andy” Waskie.  Professor Waskie, impersonating Union General George Gordon Meade, returned to give the second part of his account of Meade’s life and career.  

Professor Waskie began with the aftermath of the battle of Gettysburg.  Meade has been strongly criticized for failing to adequately pursue Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia after the battle.  But, Waskie argued, this is unfair.  Both armies had suffered severely.  Meade’s Army of the Potomac was exhausted--the army had marched all the way from the Rappahannock River in Virginia to Gettysburg and then fought a three-day battle.  Meade had to be sure Lee was indeed retreating, and he was unable to begin the pursuit until July 5th because of a huge rainstorm on the 4th.  Meade also had to worry about Lee becoming entrenched and thus making an assault very difficult.  When the army attacked on the 14th, Lee had gotten across the Potomac except for a vanguard.  At this point, both armies needed to rest.

In October and November 1863, Meade conducted the Bristoe Campaign against Lee, and in November and December, the Mine Run Campaign.  In the latter, Meade planned a big assault, but looked at Lee’s entrenchments and decided it was hopeless.  Meade subsequently withdrew north of the Rapidan and went into winter quarters.  

The rank of lieutenant general was created for Ulysses S. Grant when he came east in 1864.  On March 10, he met with Meade.  Meade said that Grant could replace him if he wanted.  But Grant said he could stay and that he (Grant) would just put his headquarters in the field with Meade.  So, Meade was technically still commander of the Army of the Potomac, but in practice Grant was the commander.  In spite of this awkward situation, Professor Waskie said, Meade and Grant got along well.  This was not the case, however, with Meade and the commander of Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps, Philip Sheridan.  Meade and Sheridan hated each other.  Sheridan did not want to be under Meade’s command, and Grant eventually gave him an independent command.  

When the army approached Petersburg, Meade ordered an attack, but the Confederates brought up reinforcements and saved Petersburg, leading to the subsequent siege of the city.  Meade participated in the pursuit of Lee to Appomattox.  He subsequently met with Lee, and the two spoke amicably.  

After the war, according to Professor Waskie, Meade went to the Canadian border and gave free rides home on trains to Irish Fenians who wanted to invade Canada to take it from the British.  He also served as commander of the Department of the East, the Military Division of the Atlantic, and the Military Division of the South.  Professor Waskie said that commanding the last mentioned was the worst part of Meade’s career.  Meade had recurrent problems with pneumonia because of his war wounds, and he died on November 6, 1872.  He is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Our January 26 meeting was our 438th.  The meeting had 51 registrants and 31 participants.  Our speaker was Dr. Chandra Manning.  Professor Manning, who teaches history at Georgetown University, discussed her book entitled Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War.

During the war, more than 500,000 slaves fled to Union lines.  Many refugee camps sprung up in both the eastern and western theaters.  While those established in the east generally remained until the end of the war, Professor Manning noted, this was not true in the west, given that Union armies in the west were much more mobile.  

On May 23, 1861, three slaves fled to Fort Monroe in Virginia.  The fort was commanded by Major General Benjamin Butler.  Butler used slave owner’s own conception of slaves as property against them, refusing to return the slaves to their owners because they were being used for the Confederate war effort.  From that point on, slaves fled to Union lines in massive numbers.  

Once the men began to be recruited into the Union army, the camp population skewed heavily toward women and children.  Conditions in the camps left much to be desired--the food wasn’t very nourishing, fresh water was a problem, and clothes were in short supply.  The mortality rate was high, and there was always massive suffering.  But there was also opportunity.  In some camps, freed slaves began to develop their own social institutions.  

Professor Manning stated that fleeing from slavery meant being filled with fear, and not knowing if your plans would succeed.  Courage and determination, she said, were not always enough to overcome obstacles.  One woman joined Sherman’s army in South Carolina and followed it into North Carolina, only to die on a beach there.  There was also the danger of re-enslavement.  

Professor Manning posed two questions: 1.) How did emancipation happen? and 2.)  How was re-enslavement prevented?   The first steps toward emancipation were taken by the slaves themselves.  At the same time, the Union army was willing to take them in and join them in their fight against slaveholders.  Both groups wanted to defeat the Confederacy and worked together to achieve that aim.  Quartermasters greatly depended on former slaves’ digging, nursing, laundering, etc.  Former slaves gained access to U.S. citizenship, and for the first time the army and government sided with slaves rather than slaveholders.  They had a greater obligation to former slaves fighting for the U.S. than to white southerners fighting against it.  Before the war, states decided who was eligible for citizenship.  After the war, the federal government did.  

Even after the war, the danger of re-enslavement was real.  To combat this, Congress passed not only the 13th amendment, which ended slavery, but the 14th amendment as well, making former slaves U.S. citizens.  Professor Manning commented that citizenship is never a one-off thing.  Upholding it continues to be our responsibility today.  

Notes from the President

Welcome to 2021!!!

It would be a gross understatement to say the 2020 was a historical year. Let us hope that the Covid 19 Pandemic, which has caused massive amounts of illness and death throughout the world, will eventually subside and life can get back to normal.

The BCWRT will return to in person meetings when it is deemed medically safe by our health officials and comfortable by you. In the meantime, we need all members to pay their dues for 2021 and we invite all interested persons to join our group. Your financial support allows us to continue the host the variety of Civil War related presentations enjoyed by all of you. 

Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are $25.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families.  Please make checks payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage. Additionally, we urge all of you the spread the word about the BCWRT. Most of you know, history can be fun as well as informative.
 

We initiate 2021 by offering two Zoom meetings during the month of January. 1/19/21-Civil War historian, educator and reenactor Dr. Anthony (Andy) Waskie returns to complete his December program 'Meet General Meade, Victor of the Battle of Gettysburg'.; 1/26/21- Harvard and Georgetown Universities professor Dr. Chandra Manning will delve into her latest work “Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War”; 2/23/21- Author, re-enactor and attorney Bernie Siler returns to the BCWRT to discuss his Brightwood section of D. C. (Fort Stevens) related book; A Tale of Two Centuries; and 3/23- Gen. Ty Seidule, Department Chair Emeritus of the United States Military Academy will discuss his new book; “Robert E. Lee and Me”.

We are currently scheduled to hold our Annual Banquet featuring author Kevin Levin at the Columbus Gardens on April 27. Due to the pandemic, this could change. Stay turned for further developments.

Our Zoom schedule continues May 25 when award winning author William Connery returns to present a talk on career of CSA Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory.  June 22 features Bob Bowser, history teacher and Acting Director of the Board of the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum, talking about John Wilkes Booth associate and one-time Baltimore resident Edman “Ned” Spangler.

See our calendar page for more on our 2021 schedule.

End 2020 and prepare for 2021 by joining the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) as we Dr. Andy Waskie in a Zoom presentation entitled “Meet General Meade: Victor of the Battle of Gettysburg”. Set your calendars for Tuesday, December 22, at 7:30 p.m.

George Gordon Meade was a career Army officer who is best known for leading the Army of the Potomac in defeating the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E, Lee, at the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863.Before the Civil War, he was known for his service during the Mexican American War and the Second Seminole War.

Professor Waskie was born in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and pursued a Languages/History major at Bloomsburg University. He studied abroad at Salzburg, Austria, and Marburg, Germany; and received a scholarship to study Slavic Languages at Charles University, Prague. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from New York University. He performed duty with the Army in Germany and Army Reserves as an Army linguist. He became a teacher of languages and history at Pennsbury School District in Bucks County for 30 years, retiring in 1999 to accept a professorship at Temple University.

Dr. Waskie was an Associate Professor of Languages and History at Temple University. He retired after 20 years of service in July 2019. He is a co-founder of the “Civil War & Emancipation Studies” Program at Temple (CWEST) in 2003.

As a Civil War historian, author and researcher specializing in Philadelphia, and historian of the life and career of Gen. George G. Meade, he seeks to promote the history of the Civil War Era and of the city. He is a Civil War historian, author and researcher specializing in Philadelphia’s role. He is a specialist on the life and career of Gen. George G. Meade whom he portrays in a “1^st person” style Living-History performance.

Waskie is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia. He serves as President of the General Meade Society of Philadelphia, and as a Board Member of several history related institutions and organizations

A charter member of the Civil War History Consortium of Philadelphia, he is part of the movement seeking to promote the history of the city. He is a Board member of Laurel Hill Cemetery; Vice President of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Civil War Museum & Library. He is an officer of Benjamin Franklin American Legion Post 405 at the Union League and historian for the Armed Services Council of the Union League. Waskie served 10 years as a PA Commonwealth Speaker/Scholar.

                  Dr. Andy Waskie                                       Gen. George G. Meade

Minutes

Our December meeting was our 436th.  By the last count taken for 2020 (on December 1), our membership was 29.  As of December 1, we had $1,968.42 in the bank with a pending deposit of $50, making our future money $2,018.42.  There were no outstanding bills, and our only future bills were for speakers and our annual banquet.  

Our speaker was Dr. Anthony “Andy” Waskie.  Professor Waskie specializes in the life of Union General George Gordon Meade and performed an impersonation of him, telling the story of Meade’s life and career.

George Meade was born in Cádiz, Spain on December 31, 1815.  His father was a U.S. naval agent and gave the Spanish king a great deal of money to fight Napoleon’s invasion.  According to Dr. Waskie, the Meade family later claimed to own Florida, which Spain agreed to give to the U.S. by treaty in 1819.  

George was raised in Philadelphia.  At 15, he entered West Point.  After graduation, his first assignment was Tampa Bay--at the time, the army was trying to “pacify” the Seminole Indians in Florida.  Meade was given the task of relocating 400 Seminoles to Arkansas.  After his one year of mandatory service was up, Meade resigned from the army, though he later rejoined it.  He served as an engineer with the United States Coastal Survey, becoming very proficient with maps, surveying, and topography.

In the war with Mexico, Meade served as a staff engineer to General Zachary Taylor, and played an important role at the battle of Monterey, receiving a brevet promotion from second to first lieutenant.  After the war, Meade helped design and construct lighthouses in New Jersey and Florida. In 1856, he was appointed superintendent of a project to survey all the hydrology of the Great Lakes.

When the Civil War broke out, Meade was a captain in the Corps of Engineers.  Although he had never led troops, he volunteered and became commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves Division.  He first saw action during the Seven Days campaign.  At Glendale on June 30, 1862, he was severely wounded.  This would afflict him with pneumonia, which he eventually died of in 1872.  The Pennsylvania Reserves performed well in the campaign.  At Second Bull Run, the reserves were among those who made a stand at Henry House Hill which stopped the Confederates from getting in the rear of the Army of the Potomac.  

Meade was praised for his performance at Turner’s Gap at the Battle of South Mountain.  At Antietam, he commanded I Corps after Joseph Hooker was wounded.  At Fredericksburg, his division achieved a breakthrough at the southern end of the field.  However, they had to withdraw for lack of support.  At Chancellorsville, Meade commanded V Corps.  When Hooker ordered a retreat, Meade opposed it. On June 28, 1863--three days before Gettysburg--Meade replaced Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac.  Robert E. Lee had invaded Pennsylvania.  Meade gave John F. Reynolds part of his army.  On July 1, Reynolds made contact with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and the battle of Gettysburg began.  Meade missed the first day, but subsequently brought the remainder of the army to Gettysburg and organized it so that it occupied a “fishhook” formation by the morning of July 2.  On that day, Meade and his army repulsed all of Lee’s attacks.  In the evening, a council of war was held and concluded that Lee would attack the army’s center on July 3, which is what happened.

It was decided that Professor Waskie would return to the roundtable to finish his first-person account of Meade’s story.  

Notes from the President

On behalf of our Board, I wish you all a Happy and Blessed Holiday Season! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah (Hanukkah), Ashura, Bodhi Day, Kwanza or any other festival of note, May Peace Be with You All! Please stay Covid safe!!!!

Speaking of the Board, following the December 1, 2020 BCWRT business Meeting, the elected officers are:  Martin French - Vice President, Lee Hodges- Secretary, Rap Atkins- Treasurer, Robert Toelle, Robert Testudine and Bill Rixham * – Board Members. Thank you for again allowing me to serve as President. (* The Asst. Secretary/Treasurer position had no candidates and Bill Rixham has decided not to serve).

Moving ahead to 2021 and beyond, we will return to in person meetings when it is deemed medically safe by our health officials and comfortable by you. In the meantime, we need all members to pay their dues for 2021 and we invite all interested person to join our group. Annual dues for the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable are 425.00 for individuals and $35.00 for families.  Please make check payable to: BCWRT and mail to: Ray Atkins, 1204 Fordham Ct., Belair, MD 21014. You can find the membership form in the membership portion of the webpage.

Additionally, we urge all of you the spread the word about the BCWRT. Most of you know, history can be fun as well as informative.

Most of our schedule for 2021 has been set (please see the upcoming events link). Over the next few months, our Zooms feature: 12/22- Civil War historian, educator and reenactor Dr. Anthony (Andy) Waskie will present his “1^st person” program, 'Meet General Meade, Victor of the Battle of Gettysburg'.; 1/26/21- Harvard and Georgetown Universities professor Dr. Chandra Manning will delve into her latest work “Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War”; 2/23/21- Author, re-enactor and attorney Bernie Siler returns to the BCWRT to discuss his Brightwood section of D. C. (Fort Stevens) related book; A Tale of Two Centuries; and 3/23- Gen. Ty Seidule, Department Chair Emeritus of the United States Military Academy will discuss his new book; “Robert E. Lee and Me”.

The Baltimore Civil War Roundtable continues with its virtual presentations by presenting Civil War historian and author, Gene Schmiel returns to the BCWRT to discusses his new four book series: “Civil War Personalities, 50 at a Time". The individual titles are: "Civil War Trailblazers and Troublemakers", "Civil War Rogues, Rascals, and Rapscallions", "Civil War Political Generals in Blue and Grey" and "Civil War Women: Underestimated and Indispensable". This program will be conducted via the Zoom platform. (This is a change in the previously announced presentation.)

Gene holds a Ph. D. degree from The Ohio State University and was an assistant professor of History at St. Francis University (PA) before becoming a Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State.  He served in five countries, including as Charge’ d’ Affaires in U.S. embassies in Iceland and Djibouti and Consul General in Mombasa, Kenya.  He resides in Gainesville, Virginia with his wife Bonnie Kathryn.  Together they wrote a book, “Welcome Home: Who Are You; Tales of a Foreign Service Family,” which, along with his book about Cox and the other books noted above, is featured on his amazon.com author’s page:  https://www.amazon.com/Gene-Schmiel and https://civilwarhistory-geneschmiel.com/

Please register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqde-orToqGdXjyHgL5BMsliF45ulwUrDB 

Gene Schmiel with the late Ed Bearrs

ALL OF gene’s BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE VIA AMAZON.COM. (SEE below). IF YOU WANT TO GET A SIGNED COPY, E-MAIL ME AT GENEOFVA@GMAIL.COM

Notes from the President November 2020

Well, we are well into November and the seems to be no let-up in the Covid 19 pandemic. Therefore, we will be meeting, via Zoom, for the foreseeable future. If you are like me, you probably hadn’t heard of Zoom two years ago. Now look!

A few of you have expressed having problems getting into Zoom. Here is a link for a simple tutorial.

 https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-Joining-a-Meeting#:~:text=1%20Tap%20Join%20.%202%20Enter%20the%20meeting,ID.%203%20Tap%20the%20Join%20button.%20See%20More

Our Zoom presentations are open to the general public. Consequently, they are not good formats for conducting BCWRT business. Members will soon receive an email for a special call, online meeting to discuss business and have our elections.

There was a lot of positive response to October’s meeting which featured Jon Goldman giving a live tour of the B&O Railroad Museum.  Again, our thanks go to Mr. Goldman and all who participated.

 Minutes

Our November meeting was our 435th.  Our speaker was Gene Schmiel.  Mr. Schmiel discussed a new four-book series entitled Civil War Personalities: 50 at a Time.  The individual books are entitled: Civil War Trailblazers and Troublemakers, Civil War Rogues, Rascals, and Rapscallions, Civil War “Political Generals” of the Blue and Grey, Civil War Women:  Underestimated and Indispensable, and Civil War Unsung Heroes and Other Key Actors “Behind the Scenes.”  

Each of these books, Mr. Schmiel explained, is designed to introduce (or reintroduce) the reader to key people in the war.  Each person is given an essay of two or three pages (along with pictures, maps, etc.) that explains the significance of the person in Civil War history and will, according to Mr. Schmiel, hopefully leaves readers with bits of knowledge they did not have before.  There are also suggestions for further reading.

Foremost among the “Civil War Trailblazers and Troublemakers” was Abraham Lincoln.  Mr. Schmiel described Lincoln as the Union’s “best political general.”  Lincoln knew that the war had a political dimension, and that the Emancipation Proclamation and recruitment of African Americans as soldiers were key steps.  He also understood that the objective was to destroy armies, not simply capture places.  Mr. Schmiel considered Benjamin Butler the worst political general.  Butler came up with the idea that fugitive slaves were “contrabands of war,” and sent troops to Baltimore to put down secession efforts there.  He became notorious for his rule over New Orleans--although he cleaned the city up and made it healthier, he was hated by the population for his infamous General Order No.28, saying that any woman who showed contempt for Union soldiers would be treated as a prostitute.  

Among the “Rogues, Rascals and Rapscallions” was William C. Quantrill.  Quantrill is a very polarizing figure-he’s considered a “hero” by some and a “barbarian” by others.  He was a symbol of divided Missouri.  After the battle of Wilson’s Creek, he formed “Quantrill’s Raiders.”  He will forever be known for the massacre in Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863 in which about 150 men and boys were killed.  

In discussing “Civil War Political Generals of the Blue and Grey,” Mr. Schmiel said that one of the best was Union Major General Jacob Cox, who served in the western theater.  Cox, who was elected governor of Ohio after the war, was a classic “Citizen General.”  On the other hand, Mr. Schmiel considered Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain to be an “overrated self-promoter.”  His defense of Little Round Top, although useful, was not critical to Union victory at Gettysburg.  Moreover, Mr. Schmiel said Chamberlain did NOT command Union troops at the surrendering of Confederate arms at Appomattox.  

Mr. Schmiel’s “Civil War Women” included Varina Davis, wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who after the war moved to New York and became friends with U.S. Grant’s widow, Julia.  Mary Bickerdyke, a hospital administrator for the Union, built 300 field hospitals for the troops.  Mary Walker was the first recognized female surgeon in the Union army.  She received the Medal of Honor and a disability pension.  

Mr. Schmiel argued that the greatest of his “Unsung Heroes” was Montgomery Meigs, Union Quartermaster General.  Meigs used his unmatched skills in logistics, and decided that the grounds of Robert E. Lee’s Arlington mansion would be a cemetery.  Major General George H. Sharpe created the Army of the Potomac’s Bureau of Military Information, which included a network of spies and systematic methods of collecting and analyzing intelligence.  According to the CIA, the methods Sharpe used were not fundamentally changed until 1947, when the CIA itself was established.  

THE BALTIMORE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE IS BACK…..at least via Zoom. Join us for our second Zoom presentation on Tuesday, October 27, 2020 at 7:30 p.m. Our guest will be Jonathan Goldman, Chief Curator of the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Goldman will show us various portions of the Museum’s collection that are related to the Civil War.

Jonathan joined the museum in 2019. Jonathan provides leadership and management of the museum's exhibitions, collections, archives, restoration, and education efforts, ensuring both the care of the museum's unparalleled objects as well as producing engaging programming and experiences for visitors. Jonathan has worked with museums to transform collections care programs, collections policies and practices, as well as develop meaningful and engaging public educational experiences. He received a B.A. in Asian Studies from Occidental College, a B.F.A. in Art Direction as well as Design for Social Impact from the Art Center College of Design, and an M.A. in Exhibition Design from George Washington University. While living in Washington, DC, Jonathan also taught at the graduate level for the Exhibition Design program at George Washington University. 

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqf-mtqDgjE9RJzBTl8IV-OQBD8arG6TAd
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Once registration has occurred, you will receive an email detailing the steps to join us via Zoom.

Notes from the President October 2020

Covid 19! None of us had heard of this in 2019. Now, it has dominated our lives for most of 2020. We hope that all of you have been keeping safe and healthy during these trying times.

It is hard to believe that our last in person meeting was in February. Those who were there may recall that I delivered an impromptu talk on Octavius Catto, the Philadelphia educator, baseball player, civil rights advocate and Pennsylvania National Guard officer who led the group that became the 3^rd USCT and helped raise 10 other Civil War regiments. (Please see the minutes). Our scheduled speaker, Dr. Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead had a last-minute medical emergency. Two weeks later, the Parkville Senior Center closed, due to the virus, and has been closed since… shutting done our meeting place.

Since that time, we’ve moved meeting speakers to 2021, including the banquet. After a few conference calls, Zoom calls and a survey via Survey Monkey, the officers of the BCWRT decided to purchase an organizational Zoom account (Zoom Pro).

Many of you participated in an excellent presentation by author Scott Mingus, Sr. as he discussed his book; Targeted Tracks; The Cumberland Valley Railroad in the Civil War, 1861-1865. An extra thanks goes to Scott Mingus for forgoing his fee.

We like to thank all of you who responded to the BCWRT Participation Survey. The results are as follows:

1. If the government reopens the Parkville Senior Center in one of its 'phases' of the Covid 19 crisis, would you be willing to attend meetings?  Yes 57.14%. No 42.86% 

2. If the BCWRT produces online meetings in which you could participate from home (Zoom, Skype,etc.) during the crisis, would you take part? Yes 85.71%. No 14.29% 

3. Do you have the knowledge and the equipment (PC, smart phone, etc.) to participate in an online meeting?  Yes 100% 

4. Since our speakers will still have to be compensated, will you still pay your yearly dues even though the meetings aren't face -to-face?  Yes 100% 

5. When the Covid 19 pandemic began earlier this year, the BCWRT already had scheduled speakers into early 2021. Monthly, we have been optimistically rescheduling those speakers to next year (2021). Are there any topics you would like to see in a presentation?  Gettysburg, Antietam, USCT and Robert Gould Shaw/ More Civil War Battles

6. Do you have any suggestions for the BCWRT? Use the Zoom platform to restart and continue meetings until the pandemic subsides./  More wartime activities. 

7. Do you have any ideas for increasing BCWRT membership? Using Zoom and advertising  the meetings more broadly should increase attendance and hopefully, membership / Appeal to middle aged people 

Using the Zoom platform and the cooperation of several scheduled speakers, we have been able to make adjustments for the next few months.

Our October meeting was our 434th.  Our speaker was Jonathan Goldman, Chief Curator of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum.  Mr. Goldman gave a virtual tour of the museum entitled From Slavery to Civil Rights.  

The B&O was founded in 1827, and was the first public freight railroad company in the U.S.  The museum is located on the site of the B&O’s foundation and construction.  It is a 40 acre campus on Pratt Street, next to the Inner Harbor.  

 Mr. Goldman showed tools that were used to build and maintain the railroad.  Prior to the war, all the southern railroads were built using slaves.  The railroads, according to Mr. Goldman, were the largest employers of slave labor--even more than agriculture.  The B&O’s first president, Philip Thomas, was a Quaker, and he banned the use of slave labor.  Mostly, Irish built the B&O.  Abolitionists would assist escaped slaves to board B&O trains from Baltimore.  

 During the Civil War, each side attacked the other’s railroad tracks.  Confederates twisted a great deal of B&O track in 1861-2.  As a result, the railroad had to shut down for a time.  The U.S. military hired slaves to repair the damage.  Mr. Goldman said that the military was the first government agency to hire African Americans.  He showed a passenger car, an iron box car (one of only two surviving iron box cars from the war) and the William Mason, the locomotive that helped take Abraham Lincoln to Washington in 1861 when he was threatened with assassination.  

Mr. Goldman also showed and discussed a segregated Chesapeake and Ohio car from the Jim Crow era.  A sign in the white section read “White Only,” and the white section was nicer than the section for African Americans.  Usually, there were separate cars for each race.  An African American would have to change seats if they arrived in a state that was segregated.  Harvey Johnson successfully sued the B&O, ending segregated travel in Maryland.  

 The Pullman Company became the largest employer of African Americans in the U.S., and allowed them to travel and see the nation in a new way.  At the same time, those in service positions were used to sell the railroad.  

 Mr. Goldman concluded by discussing current changes in what the museum emphasizes.  The emphasis on technology is decreasing, while more attention is being given to the impact the B&O had on society and culture as a whole.  

 Join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable (BCWRT) as we present WEAA-FM radio host Dr. Karsonya (Dr. Kaye) Wise Whitehead, Associate Professor of Communication and African and African American Studies in the Department of Communication at Loyola University Maryland. Dr. Kaye will talk about her book; Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis. The examines the life and experiences of Emilie Frances Davis, a freeborn twenty-one-year-old mulatto woman, through a close reading of three pocket diaries she kept from 1863 to 1865. Whitehead explores Davis’ worldviews and politics, her perceptions of both public and private events, her personal relationships, and her place in Philadelphia’s free black community in the nineteenth century. 

Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead, Ph.D., is a three-time New York Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker, as well as the Founding Executive Director of The Emilie Frances Davis Center for Education, Research, and Culture, and a K-12 Master Teacher in African American History. Dr. Whitehead has received various fellowships and grants, including a 2012 Gilder Lehrman Fellowship in American History and a 2010 NEH Summer Stipend; she is also the 2006 recipient of the Gilder Lehrman Preserve America Maryland History Teacher of the Year Award. At Loyola, she teaches communication and African and African American Studies; her scholarship examines the ways race, class, and gender coalesce in American classrooms as well as in political and social environments. Dr. Whitehead has served as a historical consultant for a series of documentaries on Philadelphia, and has worked with over 1,000 K-12 teachers to train them in how to become culturally responsive teachers in diverse environments.

In 2019, Essence Magazine selected her as a member of their “Woke !00” - women who exemplify the true meaning of being change agents and power players. Working in areas from social justice to politics to entertainment, they inspire not only us here but also others around the world. The magazine described her as follows; “Dubbed the #blackmommy activist, the associate professor at Loyola University Maryland has been a much-needed voice in addressing issues such as gender and institutional racism in Baltimore.”

Notes from the President February 2020

Remember, it’s time to renew your membership for 2020!

Dr. Karsonya (Dr. Kaye) Wise Whitehead, Associate Professor of Communication and African and African American Studies in the Department of Communication at Loyola University Maryland, will talk about her book; Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis.  This is our February 28 meeting.

Author, re-enactor and attorney Bernie Siler returns to the BCWRT to discuss his Brightwood section of D. C. (Fort Stevens) related book; A Tale of Two Centuries. This will occur during our meeting on March 24.

In conjunction with the Chesapeake Civil War Roundtable, we will present our Annual Banquet at 6:00 p.m. on April 28 at the Columbus Gardens (see flyer). Our keynote speaker will be author, historian educator and Civil War blogger Kevin M. Levin. He will discuss his recently published book Searching for Black Confederates; The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth.

On May 26 Award winning author William Connery returns to present a talk on career of CSA Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory.       

On June 23, Author and lecturer Timothy Lloyd Tilghman will address the topic “Maryland during the Civil War”.   

Annette T. Khawane, Adjunct Professor of Mortuary Sciences at Catonsville Community College, returns to focus on “Funeral Practices during the Civil War” at our meeting on July 28:

August 25 will see author Ron Kirkland focus on the immediate results of war on those who fight as he presents; Too Much for Human Endurance. The George Spangler Farm Hospital at the Battle of Gettysburg.                                                                                                                                                               

Reminder: Membership has it’s privileges…and joys. Urge your friends to join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable.  Also, renew you membership if you haven’t already paid your annual dues.

Our most recent meeting, in February, was our 432nd.  Our attendance was 10, and we had three visitors from the Old Baldy Civil War Roundtable.  As of February 25, we had $1,565.17 in the bank with no outstanding bills.  Our only future bills were for speakers and our annual banquet.  At our most recent membership count, we had 28 members.  

 Our scheduled speaker was Dr. Karsonya (Dr. Kaye) Wise Whitehead.  Dr. Kaye was to discuss her book entitled Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis.  However, she telephoned and said she could not come due to illness.  Our president, Robert Ford, gave a mini-presentation instead.  

 Robert began by discussing Octavius Valentine Catto, a prominent African American leader in nineteenth century Philadelphia.  Catto was a remarkable man--a scholar, educator, civil rights activist, and sportsman.  Born free in Charleston, South Carolina in 1839, he was the son of a Presbyterian minister.  The family moved to Philadelphia, where Octavius became a brilliant student, and later a teacher and principal.   During the Civil War, he was commissioned a major in the Pennsylvania National Guard, and was responsible for organizing and recruiting what became the 3rd USCT (United States Colored Troops) Infantry Regiment, in addition to helping raise ten other USCT regiments.  He played a major role in the passage of a bill forbidding racial segregation in Pennsylvania transit systems.  He was also a cricket and baseball player, and did much to make Philadelphia a center of Negro League baseball.  On October 10, 1871--an election day--Catto was assassinated.  There was a great deal of racial tension in the city at this time, with some whites--particularly Irish--using violence and intimidation to discourage African Americans from voting. Catto was assassinated while reporting for National Guard duty, having been called up to protect African American voters from violence.  

 Robert went on to suggest that the BCWRT take a field trip to Philadelphia.  The roundtable could go to Camp William Penn, the largest training camp for African American soldiers during the Civil War, as well as to other places, including the Union League.  Robert also discussed his background and personal experiences.  Growing up, he was a voracious reader--during the sixth grade, he read William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. His uncle was Nat King Cole’s bass player.  While a student in junior high school, Robert met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 Civil War Maryland was a place full of political, social and military intrigue. A slave holding border state above the District of Columbia, Maryland had a city with the nation’s largest population of free African Americans living among folk who conspired to assassinate the newly elected Lincoln prior to his inauguration. It served as an Underground Railroad pipeline while also serving as a ‘post office’ for secret correspondence being sent to Virginia and the CSA Army. This made Maryland a hotbed for spies.

The January 28, 2020 meeting of the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable will focus on Maryland’s intrigue as author, re-enactor and Nation Park Service Ranger Matt Borders addresses The Spy Game in Maryland.

Borders Matthew is a 2004 graduate of Michigan State University with a BA in US History. While at MSU he was first an intern and then a seasonal ranger for the National Park Service at Antietam National Battlefield. Following his undergrad he immediately went to Eastern Michigan University for his MS in Historic Preservation, with a focus in Battlefield Interpretation, which he earned in 2006. ​

​Upon graduation he taught for a year at Kalamazoo Valley Community College before accepting a position with the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program. Moving to Maryland in 2007 with his wife Kira, he worked as the historian for the ABPP for the next six years, personally surveying over 100 different American Civil War battlefields in the deep south and western United States. Over this period he also became involved with the Frederick County Civil War Round Table. He continues to work with Antietam National Battlefield as a volunteer and Certified Battlefield Guide, as well as a Certified Guide for Harpers Ferry National Historical Site.​

​Currently Matt is a Park Ranger at Monocacy National Battlefield in Frederick, Maryland. He continues to volunteer regularly as a living history volunteer portraying Federal infantry and, along with fellow guide, Joe Stahl, recently published his first book, Faces of Union Soldiers at Antietam which was published in July of 2019.

 Notes from the President January 2020

Happy New Year and Emancipation Day. The arrival of 2020 and the start of a new decade means that it has been 155 years since the end of Civil War combat in 1865. December 31/January 1 also marked the 157^th anniversary of Watch Night/Emancipation Day (Day of Jubilee) services in many African American churches. On the night of December 31, 1862, crowds gathered in places from Boston’s Faneuil Hall to Union occupied South Carolina to pray and celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation, which became effective at the start of January 1, 1863. To this day, many churches hold Watch Night services and/or Emancipation Day (daytime) services in honor of “the end of slavery and the beginning of freedom”. This past New Year’s Day, I was honored to join members of the 54^th Mass., Co. B, 23rd USCT and FREED (Female RE-Enactors of Distinction) as part of the Emancipation Day Celebration Washington D.C. at Historic Israel Metropolitan CME Church. (Formerly Israel Bethel Church). During the war, this church, pastored by 1^st USCT organizer Rev. Henry McNeal Turner, held one of the inaugural Watch Night and Emancipation Day services.

After a period of planning and scrambling, we finally have the speaker for our Annual Banquet in April, which will again we held at Columbus Gardens on April 28, 2020. Working with the Chesapeake Civil War Roundtable, we will host aurthor/historian Kevin M, Levin as our speaker. (see below and the flyer).We had planned to have NPS Historian Emeritus Ed Bearss as our speaker; however, he suffered a fall to begin the year and, as a result, is pulling out of many engagements. I have spoken with Ed and wished him well. 

Remember, it’s time to renew your membership for 2020!

We’ll start 2020 on January 28 when Author, historian, preservationist and NPS battlefield Guide Matt Borders will take a look at the “Spy Game in Maryland” during the Civil War.

Dr. Karsonya (Dr. Kaye) Wise Whitehead, Associate Professor of Communication and African and African American Studies in the Department of Communication at Loyola University Maryland, will talk about her book; Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis.  This is our February 28 meeting.

Author, re-enactor and attorney Bernie Siler returns to the BCWRT to discuss his Brightwood section of D. C. (Fort Stevens) related book; A Tale of Two Centuries. This will occur during our meeting on March 24.

In conjunction with the Chesapeake Civil War Roundtable, we will present our Annual Banquet at 6:00 p.m. on April 28 at the Columbus Gardens (see flyer). Our keynote speaker will be author, historian educator and Civil War blogger Kevin M. Levin. He will discuss his recently published book Searching for Black Confederates; The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth.

On May 26 Award winning author William Connery returns to present a talk on career of CSA Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory.       

On June 23, Author and lecturer Timothy Lloyd Tilghman will address the topic “Maryland during the Civil War”.   

Annette T. Khawane, Adjunct Professor of Mortuary Sciences at Catonsville Community College, returns to focus on “Funeral Practices during the Civil War” at our meeting on July 28:

August 25 will see author Ron Kirkland focus on the immediate results of war on those who fight as he presents; Too Much for Human Endurance. The George Spangler Farm Hospital at the Battle of Gettysburg.                                                                                                                                                               

Reminder: Membership has it’s privileges…and joys. Urge your friends to join the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable.  Also, renew you membership if you haven’t already paid your annual dues.

Minutes:

Click to enlarge each picture below.