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Meeting: December 11, 2007
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Our speaker will be James Lighthizer, President of the
Civil
War Preservation Trust.
His topic will be the recent accomplishments of the
CWPT, its current and future projects, and some discussion of how the
organization goes about its preservation work. Jim's years of public service began in 1979 when he
was elected to the Maryland State Legislature. In 1982, he was elected to
the first of two terms as Anne Arundel County Executive, where he
successfully managed a full-service budget in excess of $800 million. During
his tenure as county executive, he established a county farmland protection
program preserving over 2,500 acres. In 1991, Jim was appointed as Maryland's Secretary of Transportation. Jim created an unprecedented program that to date has saved more than 4,500 acres of Civil War battlefield land in Maryland and is the national model for the use of Transportation Enhancement funds for battlefield preservation. In December 1999, Jim accepted the presidency of the Civil War Preservation Trust, a new organization created by the merger of two other national battlefield preservation groups, the Civil War Trust and the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites. Jim had previously served as a member of the Civil War Trust's Board of Trustees. During Jim's tenure as President of the Trust, the group has saved 16,000 additional acres, and now boasts 70,000 members nationwide. Jim was also the architect of the rescue of the Slaughter Pen Farm on the Fredericksburg Battlefield, the most expensive private battlefield preservation effort in American history. In a January 2003 Washington Post article, Linda Wheeler wrote: "Jim Lighthizer knows about saving battlefields. As president of the Civil War Preservation Trust, he is devoted to the cause and has learned that a passion for history is not enough. When it gets down to land, it's all about money,' he said. "There is nothing else to it. Good intentions in land preservation are just that. They get you nowhere.'" |
 Photo courtesy CWPT |
Meeting: November 13, 2007
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Our speaker will be National Park Service Ranger and author Troy D.
Harmon. “There is a story of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 that has not been written: a story that has remained cryptic in form, hidden from history. I am referring to Gen. Robert E. Lee’s true tactical plan for Gettysburg: his intention, throughout the battle, to converge his forces upon and to seize Cemetery Hill on the Union center. Lee’s training and years of experience as a soldier led him to understand that Cemetery Hill was the key to the Union position, and from the evening of July 1 until the conclusion of the Battle on July 3, he held to that belief. When Lee referred in his official report to the general plan at Gettysburg, the objective of that plan was cemetery Hill.” So begins author and Gettysburg National Military Park historian Troy D. Harmon’s revisionist study Lee’s Real Plan at Gettysburg. For well over one hundred years, analysis of the Gettysburg Campaign has centered around a set of commonly held beliefs, among them a mistaken interpretation of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s goals for the battle. Troy D. Harmon has been a National Park Service Ranger since 1984.His assignments have included historical interpretation at Appomattox Court House N.H.P., Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania N.M.P., Independence N.H.P., Eisenhower N.H.S. and, since 1989, Gettysburg N.M.P. He also teaches courses in the History Department at the Gettysburg Campus of Harrisburg Area Community College. |
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Meeting: October 9, 2007
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Our October meeting is the 25th
ANNIVERSARY of the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable The speakers will be Ed Bearss, Chief Historian emeritus of the National Park Service and our own distinguished member of the BCWRT Board of Directors, Bob Mullauer. Refreshments will be served--Please bring some if you can!! Ed Bearss is an independent scholar and historian whose public career began at the National Park Service in 1955 in Vicksburg, Mississippi. While there, he conducted research leading to the recovery of the long-lost Union gunboat Cairo. In 1966, he transferred to Washington, D.C., and in 1981 he became the National Park Service chief historian for military sites. Mr. Bearss, winner of the Harry S. Truman Award and the Nevins Freeman Award for Civil War scholarship, continues to serve as a Civil War consultant and conducts detailed battlefield site tours and seminars for the Smithsonian Study Tours program. In 1990, he was a featured commentator for Ken Burns' PBS series, The Civil War, the most popular program broadcast by that network to date. Recently, he has appeared on the Arts and Entertainment Channel's Civil War Journal. Mr. Bearss is a combat veteran of the Pacific Theater during the Second World War. Bob Mullauer was a high school history teacher for over a decade. He currently teaches evening courses at Anne Arundel Community College in addition to speaking to a variety of groups on topics such as the American Civil War in the Western Theater, World War II in the Pacific, and the Napoleonic Wars. He has led United States Army officers on staff rides over the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battlefields. Besides Civil War battlefields, his travels include tours of World War II battlefields in the Pacific as well as Normandy, the Bulge, Verdun, and various Napoleonic sites in Europe. |
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Meeting: September 11, 2007
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Our September meeting will be our annual “Member’s Show and Tell”. This is an opportunity for
our members to bring items to demonstrate their Civil War interests and
acquired knowledge or that they wish to sell or trade.
Re-enactors – Come and talk about your unit and some of the reasons you got involved. If you have an ancestor who served in the war, tell us a little about him (or her). We encourage all of our members to take part. Some members may wish to make a short talk on the topic of their choice. Basically, anything goes. If you are interested in participating, please contact President Don Macreadie at 410-661-4479 to make arrangements. |
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Meeting: August 14, 2007
| Our speakers will be Bob Mullauer and Jerry Bayer. Bob Mullauer was a high school history teacher for over a decade. He currently teaches nighttime courses at Anne Arundel Community College as well as speaking to a variety of groups on topics such as the American Civil War in the Western Theater, World War II in the Pacific, and the Napoleonic Wars. He has led United States Army officers on staff rides over the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battlefields. Besides Civil War battlefields, his travels include tours of World War II battlefields in the Pacific as well as Normandy, the Bulge, Verdun, and various Napoleonic sites in Europe. Jerry Bayer is a former Marylander now living in retirement with his wife, Marianne, in Harper’s Ferry, VA. He is a member of various historical groups, as well as a Life Member of both the SCV and SAR. A 1971 graduate of the University of Baltimore, Jerry has spent a lifetime studying American Military History and World War II. Both He and Marianne are re-enactors and appear in the movie “Gods and Generals”. Bob and Jerry will discuss the Union and Confederate Generals killed at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-23, 1864. |
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Meeting: July 10, 2007
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Our speaker will be BCWRT Member Robert
Greenwalt, author of “1861, A Time for Glory”. Mr. Greenwalt has previously made presentations to the Capitol Hill and White Rose (York, Pa.) Civil War Roundtables as well as to various Sons of Confederate Veterans camps. He is a contributor to the Civil War Preservation Trust and the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust. An Alumnus of University of Maryland, Baltimore County, he graduated from the University of Georgia Law School in 1977. Currently practicing in the Baltimore metro area, Mr. Greenwalt is married and the father of two grown children. “1861, A Time for Glory” is a historical novel that is the product of three years of targeted research and a lifetime of general knowledge of the Civil War. Focusing on the role of the 17th Mississippi Regiment during the first year of the war, the novel includes a Northern perspective as well in the character of a Federal Congressman. The presentation for the June BCWRT meeting will be on the participation of the 17th Mississippi in particular, and Barksdale’s Brigade as a whole, throughout the war; highlighting the engagements in which they fought. A portion of the presentation will be linked to the current novel and will preview upcoming installments in the series. |
Winfield Scott Featherston,
First Colonel of the |
Meeting: June 12, 2007
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Our speaker will be Dr. B. Franklin Cooling. Dr. Cooling is a
well-known national security historian who has authored or edited numerous
publications in military, naval and air history focusing on alliance and
coalition interoperability and business and military affairs in historical
perspective. He has also worked extensively on aspects of Civil War history.
Among his publications are studies of the Civil War in Tennessee and Kentucky and defending Washington, the nation’s capital (Symbol, Sword and Shield; Mr. Lincoln’s Forts – co-authored with Walton Owen; Jubal Early’s Raid on Washington, 1864; and Monocacy, The Battle that Saved Washington). His latest book Counter Thrust; From the Peninsula to the Antietam will be published in January 2008 by the University of Nebraska Press. He is currently writing “Toward Franklin, Nashville and Beyond; War, Stabilization and Reconstruction in the Upper Heartland and, “The Day Lincoln Was Almost Shot – Fort Stevens, D.C., July 11 and 12, 1864.” A native of Washington D.C., he holds a B.A. from Rutgers University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Weidner University, the U.S. Army War College and George Washington University. He is a veteran of various government history programs and served as Chair of the Department of Grand Strategy and Mobilization, and Associate Dean of Academic Programs at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces of the National Defense University before returning to the faculty as Professor of National Security Studies. Dr. Cooling will talk about "Counter-thurst; From the Peninsula to the Antietam"; not only his forthcoming book but also a different way to begin to think about Civil War campaigns as we approach the sesquicentennial. He will have sale copies of Fort Donelson's Legacy available at $5.00 per copy. |
General McClellan enters
Frederick, MD |
Meeting: May 8, 2007
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Our
speakers will be Will and
Andrea Priest. Military and maritime historian Will Priest has been part of the USS Constellation’s Living History Program since 1982. From 1989 to 1991, he was the Education Coordinator aboard the Constellation. During this time, he developed a living history program that he took into the school system of Maryland. Since 1989, he has regularly participated in living history programs for Defenders’ Day and the Maryland Historical Society. At this time, he has implemented over 20 living history programs covering the daily lives of soldiers, sailors and marines from the 1750’s through the Korean War. Will has been a teacher for ten years and is presently a special education teacher for Care Resources. He holds an M.E. from McDaniel University. Will has been a member of the Round Table for several years and a guest speaker before and during that time. Andrea Priest is a long-time musician, historical interpreter and public speaker. She has many years of private music study in piano and voice, and she also plays guitar and hammered dulcimer. Along with the BCWRT, Andrea has presented to the Maryland Historical Society and the Patapsco Neck Historical Society. Both Will and Andrea are members of the Fort McHenry Guard. The talk will feature several pieces of Civil War period music that trace the war, the home front and the soldier's life as expressed in song. |
![Just before the battle, mother / Geo. F. Root [sheet music]](images/sheet_music.gif) |
Meeting: April 10, 2007
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Our speaker will be Mary Ann Jung.
Maryland is being INVADED! Why and what that means for Mistress Rosalie Calvert, the President and Dolley Madison are vividly brought to life in this amazing journey into the past. Mary Ann Jung has deftly combined her degree in British History and acting ability to recreate history's most fascinating women. She has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, CBS’ Good Morning and in newspapers around the world. In 2002 her Clara Barton show won honors as the Top Solo Theatrical Performance in Maryland. Mary Ann researches and writes her own programs and performs in an authentic costume, accent and attitude for her character’s era. Her unique and lively shows have been featured at the National Theater of Washington, Port Discovery Children’s Museum and the National Museum of Medicine. Since her performances are always faithful to the historical facts, this portrayal of Rosalie Carroll will give us an especially significant perspective on the War of 1812. So plan to be with us for this memorable event …. And bring a friend. |
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Meeting: March 20, 2007
| Our March meeting is our Annual Banquet. The Guest speaker is Ed Bearss. Mr. Bearss is an independent scholar and historian whose public career began at the National Park Service in 1955 in Vicksburg, Mississippi. While there, he conducted research leading to the recovery of the long-lost Union gunboat Cairo. He also located two forgotten forts at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, and was instrumental in having Grand Gulf named a State Military monument. In 1966, he transferred to Washington, D.C., and in 1981 he became the National Park Service chief historian for military sites. Mr. Bearss, winner of the Harry S. Truman Award and the Nevins Freeman Award for Civil War scholarship, continues to serve as a Civil War consultant and conducts detailed battlefield site tours and seminars for the Smithsonian Study Tours program. In 1990, he was a featured commentator for Ken Burns' PBS series, The Civil War, the most popular program broadcast by that network to date. Recently, he has appeared on the Arts and Entertainment Channel's Civil War Journal. Mr. Bearss is a combat veteran of the Pacific Theater during the Second World War. Mr Bearss will talk about the escape of John Wilkes Booth from Ford’s Theater following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. His discussion will be a lead-in for the BCWRT Spring Bus Trip on Sunday, April 15, 2007, the anniversary of Lincoln’s death. Ed Bearss will be the guide for that trip. |
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Meeting: February 13, 2007
***CANCELED DUE TO SNOW!!!***
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Our speakers will be Bob Mullauer and Jerry Bayer.
Bob Mullauer was a high school history teacher for over a decade. He currently
teaches nighttime courses at Anne Arundel Community College as well as
speaking to a variety of groups on topics such as the American Civil War in
the Western Theater, World War II in the Pacific, and the Napoleonic Wars. He
has led United States Army officers on staff rides over the Chickamauga and
Chattanooga battlefields. Besides Civil War battlefields, his travels include
tours of World War II battlefields in the Pacific as well as Normandy, the
Bulge, Verdun, and various Napoleonic sites in Europe. Jerry Bayer is a former Marylander now living in retirement with his wife, Marianne, in Harper’s Ferry, VA. He is a member of various historical groups, as well as a Life Member of both the SCV and SAR. A 1971 graduate of the University of Baltimore, Jerry has spent a lifetime studying American Military History and World War II. Both He and Marianne are re-enactors and appear in the movie “Gods and Generals”. Bob and Jerry will discuss the Union and Confederate Generals killed at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-23, 1864. |
TOP: John Sedgwick (USA), Abner Perrin (CSA) Bottom: Thomas G.
Stevenson (USA), James Rice (USA), Junius Daniel (CSA) |
Meeting: January 9, 2007
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"Jubal's in the Valley: The Long, Hot Summer of 1864" -- Why was Phil
Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley in the fall of 1864 instead of helping Grant
defeat Lee at Petersburg? Why were Jubal Early and the famed Second Corps of
the Army of Northern Virginia in the Valley? What was Lee's plan for Early?
Did Early accomplish his mission? These questions and many others associated
with the seldom-discussed prelude to Sheridan vs. Early in the fall of 1864
will be the focus of this talk. We'll see how close Jubal Early came to
success and what Grant was forced to do to suppress his audacious campaign.
Gail Stephens has a Bachelor's Degree in International Politics from George Washington University in Washington DC, and has done graduate work at Johns Hopkins and Harvard Universities. She worked for the Department of Defense for 26 years, retiring in 1994 as a member of the Department's Senior Executive Service. Upon retirement, she began to study the American Civil War. She volunteers at Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick, lectures on the Civil War, teaches courses at area colleges and gives battlefield tours. In 2002, she won the National Park Service's E.W. Peterkin award for her contributions to public understanding of Civil War history. Currently, she is writing a biography of Major General Lew Wallace's Civil War career, to be published by the Indiana Historical Society Press. |
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