Saturday, January 10, 2009

48th Anniversary Meeting - Jan 18

Meet our Speaker: Charles Roland

On our 48th anniversary we are proud to welcome back a life member of the LCWRT, Charles Roland He has last visited us in January of 2005, and we are very excited to have him back. He is currently Emeritus Alumni Professor of History at the University of Kentucky. A native of western Tennessee, Charles Roland received his B.A. from Vanderbilt and his M.A. and Ph.D. from LSU. Dr. Roland was a combat Infantry captain serving in the European Theater in World War II and was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service and the Purple Heart for wounds received in action in the battle of the Ardennes.

Charles Roland has held many positions in his distinguished career. He has been a Historical Technician for the National Park Service, a history Instructor at LSU, Assistant to the Chief Historian of the United States Army and a visiting Professor of Military History at the United States Military Academy. He was a Professor of History at Tulane University from 1952 to 1967 and Chairman of the History Department from 1967 until 1970, when he became Alumni Professor of History at the University of Kentucky.

Among his published works are The Confederacy, 1960; Reflections on Lee: A Historian’s Assessment, 1995; A History of the South(co-authored with Francis Simkins), 1972; An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War, revised edition 2002; and the definitive biography of Confederate icon A.S. Johnston, Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics, new edition 2001. He is the general editor of the 13 volume New Perspectives on the South series published by the University of Kentucky and has published numerous other articles and essays on Civil War and American history. He recently completed My Odyssey Through History, Memoirs of War and Academe, which contains his account of his service in World War II and the Battle of the Bulge.

To find his available books at www.amazon.com click Here

2009 Field Trip: Chancellorsville April 15-19

The LCWRT Spring Field Trip to Virginia will study the Campaign and Battle of Chancellorsville. National Park historian Greg Mertz will be our tour guide. The dates for this trip are April 15-19. We will be studying the entire campaign including cavalry raids, Second Fredericksburg, Salem Church, and all related Stonewall Jackson sites.

The Wilderness in Crisis!

The never ending fight with rampant development gone wild continues as now the site of the Wilderness Battlefield is threatened by none other than corporate behemoth Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart execs have convinced the Orange County Board of Supervisors that controls development that it is a good idea to build a 141,000 square-foot-supercenter on 52 acres at one of the most historically significant crossroads in America, the intersection of the Orange Turnpike and the Germanna Road. This is directly adjacent to the Wilderness Battlefield and will open the door for the explosive building of strip-malls, fast food restaurants, gas stations and other stores. Already the Wilderness Crossing development that would pave 900 acres of the Wilderness countryside and rural landscapel is in the planning stages ready to move forward if Wal-Mart is successful.

Arrayed against the world’s largest company and the misguided county supervisors are 252 of America’s leading historians and preservationists who have recently sent a letter to the Wal-Mart executives. "The Wilderness is an indelible part of our history, its very ground hallowed by the American blood spilled there, and it cannot be moved," read the letter signed by James McPherson, James McCullough, Ed Bearss, Ken Burns and nearly every other historian you have heard of. According to McPherson, "Every one of these modern intrusions on the historic landscape degrades the value and experience of that landscape." And he added that a Wal-Mart development at the proposed site would take development in the area "a quantum leap higher." Wal-Mart plans to proceed even though there are four other Wal-Mart’s within 20 miles of the proposed site.

To learn more about the Wilderness crisis, visit www.wildernesswalmart.com and www.civilarwar.org and find out what you can do to help stop Wal-Mart.