Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Columbus-Belmont State Park Receives LCWRT Preservation Grant

The Louisville Civil War Round Table is pleased to announce the winner of the 2010 LCWRT Preservation Grant. This grant is given annually to a Civil War site in the State of Kentucky. This years recipient is Columbus-Belmont State Park in Columbus, Ky., a 156-acre site of fortifications built by the Confederates and later occupied by Union forces. The 1861 Battle of Belmont, a raid fought to test the strength of this Confederate stronghold, marked the opening of the Union's Western Campaign. It was also Union General Ulysses S. Grant's first active engagement in the Civil War. Some of the artillery, which shelled the Union troops, and the six-ton anchor that held the great chain stretching across the river, are on display in the park. The $1000 Preservation Grant will be used to aid in the repair and restoration of a quarter mile length of original earth-works. These earth-works will be a featured attraction for both the 20th Anniversary of Civil War Days at Columbus-Belmont State Park as well as events for the coming Sesquicentennial of the Civil War in 2011. Columbus-Belmont State Park has approximately 100,000 visitors a year.

In the ten years since the LCWRT began funding a grant for preservation, we have given over $11,000 to organizations in the state. Previous recipients include Camp Wildcat Preservation Foundation, Tebbs Bend Battlefield Association, Perryville Battlefield Association, Friends of Fort Duffield, and Middle Creek National Battlefield Foundation. Cindy Lynch, the Manager of Columbus-Belmont State Park, will receive the grant at the May 2010 regular meeting.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Park Day 2010

From the Civil War Preservation Trust:

Volunteers needed for Park Day - April 10, 2010!

"Since 1996, the Civil War Preservation Trust has sponsored Park Day, an annual hands-on preservation event to help Civil War battlefields and historic sites take on maintenance projects large and small. Activities are chosen by each participating site to meet their own particular needs and can range from raking leaves and hauling trash to painting signs and trail building.

This year Park Day will be held on Saturday, April 10, 2010. The nationwide effort is underwritten with a grant from History™, formerly The History Channel, and is recognized by the U.S. Department of the Interior as a “Take Pride in America” event."

For a full list of participating sites, please visit: http://www.civilwar.org/aboutus/events/park-day/

Civil War Sites in Kentucky that are participating:

Camp Wildcat

Northern Kentucky Civil War Fortification System: James A. Ramage Civil War Museum

Fort Boone Civil War Battle Site

Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site

Middle Creek National Battlefield

Fort Duffield

Battle of Richmond, Kentucky

Octagon Hall Museum

Columbus-Belmont State Park

Battle for the Bridge Historic Preserve

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site

Please consider participating. This is an excellent chance to get on the fields, meet people and make a difference.

CWPT: 2010 Battle in the Bluegrass – The Fight for Kentucky

The Civil War Preservation Trust Conference in Lexington, KY

The nation’s leading Civil War battlefield preservation group, the Civil War Preservation Trust, will be in Lexington this June for their annual conference. You can join CWPT members and staff along with some of the nation’s best known historians for four days of fellowship and Civil War touring at the 2010 Battle in the Bluegrass – The Fight for Kentucky conference in Lexington, Kentucky on June 3 – 6, 2010.

Tours will include the: Battle of Mill Springs; Battle of Perryville; Battle of Richmond; Historic Homes…and more. Invited speakers and scholars include Edwin C. Bearss, Kent Masterson Brown, LCWRT' s Chris Kolakowski, Richard McMurray and Richard Sommers. Conference Registration Fee is $585 - a small discount is available for on-line registration. Conference fees include tours, tour guides, coaches, conference welcome packet, name tags, etc. Fee does not include hotel accommodations; you must make your own reservation. A special conference room rate of $129 is available at the Lexington Downtown Hotel and Conference Center - the conference location - until Tuesday, May 11, 2010. For the full ad and schedule or to register on-line visit their web site at:

www.civilwar.org/annualconference.

Monday, April 5, 2010

William C. Davis: Lincoln's Men

William C. Davis

On Saturday, April 10, the LCWRT is pleased to welcome back one of the great Civil War Historians of modern times, William C. Davis. Jack Davis is a native of Independence, Missouri, was educated in northern California, and then spent twenty years in editorial management in the magazine and book publishing industry, before leaving in 1990 to spent the next decade working as a writer and consultant. He is the author or editor of more than fifty books in the fields of Civil War and Southern history, as well as numerous documentary screenplays. He was the on-camera senior consultant for 52 episodes of the Arts & Entertainment Network/History Channel series “Civil War Journal,” as well as a number of other productions on commercial and Public Television, for the BBC abroad, and has acted as historical consultant for several television and film productions, including The Blue and the Gray, George Washington, and The Perfect Tribute.

He has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in History, and is the only three-time winner of the Jefferson Davis Award given for book-length works in Confederate History. His latest books are the Virginia at War series published by the University of Kentucky. Davis is currently at Virginia Tech as Director of Programs for the new Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, as well as serving as Professor of History.

2010 Fall Field Trip: Frankfort, Ky

We are planning on taking a one-day field trip to Frankfort October 17th, 2010 with a walking tour of downtown to see sites associated with the secession crisis, Kentucky neutrality, the 1862 occupation of Frankfort by the Confederates, Morgan's 1864 raid on the town, residences of notable personages from the Civil War era, and the Capital City Museum. Additionally, we will tour the Frankfort Cemetery, which contains the graves of Simon Bolivar Buckner, the Kentucky Military Monument, Confederate Circle, and Daniel Boone's grave. The high point of the day will be a tour of the Leslie Morris Park on Fort Hill, which features an 1810 log house visitor center outfitted as a Civil War era tavern, two Civil War earthwork forts, the site of an 1864 Morgan's Last Raid skirmish, and a spectacular view of downtown Frankfort. Our guide will be Nicky Hughes who is an expert on Frankfort in the Civil War. There is no charge for this trip except paying for your own transportation and lunch. We will be car-pooling to Frankfort.

Future Speakers

Saturday May 8 Barton Meyers “General Augustus August Wild & U.S. Army Counter-Guerilla Warfare”

Saturday Sept.11 Greg Mertz “Spotsylvania Courthouse”

Saturday Oct. 9 Richard McMurry “General Joe Johnston”

Saturday Nov. 13 Thomas Mays “Cumberland Blood: Champ Ferguson”

Saturday Dec. 4 Gary Matthews Odyssey of a Border State: Antebellum Kentucky During the Sectional Crisis, 1845-1860 ”