Announcing our 546th Meeting
Sunday, November 17, 2019

The Lost Gettysburg Address

Presented  by David Dixon

         
David Dixon earned his M.A. in history from the University of Massachusetts in 2003. He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and magazines. Most focus on Union sympathizers in the Civil War South. 

David spoke at the 2016 Sacred Trust Talks in Gettysburg and has delivered nearly 100 talks to audiences across the country. He appeared on Civil War Talk Radio and other podcasts. He hosts B-List History, a website that features obscure characters and their compelling stories. You may download free pdf versions of his published articles on that website at www.davidtdixon.com.

David’s latest book is the biography of German revolutionary and Union General August Willich and will be published by the University of Tennessee Press in September 2020. It highlights the contributions of more than 180,000 German-American immigrants to the Union effort in the Civil War. Transatlantic radicals like Willich viewed the war as part of a much larger, global revolution for social justice and republican government. David is currently writing a biography of U.S. and Confederate Congressman Augustus Wright of Georgia.

The Lost Gettysburg Address

Few remember Edward Everett's oration that preceded Lincoln's famous address, but hardly anyone is aware of Kentucky native Charles Anderson's oration, which concluded the day's events. The speech was never published, and the lost manuscript only recently uncovered at a ranch in Wyoming.  Dixon argues that the three featured speeches of November 19, 1863 need to be viewed as a rhetorical ensemble to better understand the political context of the Gettysburg dedication.  The back story to this is the saga of Anderson himself, a slaveholder who sacrificed nearly everything to help Lincoln save the Union. An escapee from a Confederate prison in Texas, he became Lincoln's emissary to Great Britain. He then nearly died commanding a Union regiment at Stones River. He eventually became governor of Ohio. These are just some of his amazing adventures during the war.

In Memoriam

Dr. James I. “Bud” Robertson Jr. 

July 18, 1930 – November 2, 2019

     We regret to inform you that James I. “Bud” Robertson Jr., passed away on Saturday, November 2, after a long battle with cancer.  He had spoken at our round table over 40 times beginning in the 1960’s and always looked forward to coming to Kentucky.  He will be greatly missed by all the Civil War community.  

     William C. “Jack” Davis said, “For fully six decades Bud Robertson was a dominant figure in his field, and a great encouragement to all who would study our turbulent past during the middle of the 19th century,. Moreover, amid a conversation that can still become bitter and confrontational, his was a voice for reason, patience, and understanding. In the offing, he has become virtually ‘Mr. Virginia,’ a spokesperson for the commonwealth past, present, and future. His voice is now sorely missed — and irreplaceable.”

Announcing Our 545th Meeting
Friday, October 11, 2019 

The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

Presented by Robert Lee Hodge 

 Born on Stonewall Jackson’s birthday, Robert Lee Hodge has had a keen interest in America’s Civil War history since age 4. Over the course of more than 30 years, Hodge has worked on several history-based films—from dramas like ABC’s North and South and TNT’s Gettysburg and Andersonville, to many programs on The History Channel, Arts and Entertainment Channel, and the National Geographic Channel, to his own Civil War documentaries, which have won 5 Telly awards and a regional Emmy in 2007. Hodge has been featured on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation and Soundscapes, NBC’s Late, Late Show, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, the PBS program Going Places, and C-SPAN II’s Book TV. Robert has also written for The Nashville Tennessean, Civil War Times, America’s Civil War, The Washington Post, and North and South magazine. He played a major role in, and appears on the cover of, the New York Times’ 1999 best-seller Confederates in the Attic—hosting Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tony Horwitz on an eclectic and memorable Civil War tour-de-force of historic sites. 

 Robert has been a historical researcher, primarily at The National Archives and Library of Congress, working with nationally-recognized experts. He also was principle researcher on Time-Life Books 18-volume series Voices of the Civil War and The Illustrated History of the Civil War. Hodge’s interest became preserving historic green space when he interned with the National Park Service’s Civil War Sites Advisory Commission in 1992. He has organized battlefield preservation fund-raisers that have garnered over $160,000. He also serves on the board of directors of the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (the CVBT); an organization that has protected over 1,300 acres at Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, The Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, since 1996. Hodge was featured on the National Geographic Channel and Time magazine in 2011, wrote for The Washington Post during the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, and was a researcher for the U.S. Army in 2013. In 2016 he wrote the script for the film at Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage. In 2017 he appeared in The Wall Street Journal and on National Public Radio’s Kojo Nnamdi Show and Chinese Central Television about Confederate monuments and Civil War memory. 

In 2019 Hodge started blogging for the Emerging Civil War. ECW is currently running his “Yellowhammers and Environmentalism” series about Evander Law’s Alabama Brigade’s route of march to Gettysburg. He’s also writing about the loss of historic green space.

American Civil War Monuments
Civil War Soldiers' Monument
Main Street and Elm Street, Route 1
Searsport, Maine

 all photos courtesy of LCWRT Member Holly Jenkins-Evans

This granite shaft with marble plaques was erected in 1870 between Mt Ephraim and Goodall Streets in coastal Searsport. then  moved in 1896 in front of the then new Masonic and Odd Fellows Hall on Main Street near Elm.  On two marble plaques the monument lists the names of 18 Searsport men who fought and died from these Maine units:  the 4th, the 1st Mounted Artillery, the 1st Cavalry, the 2nd Cavalry, Heavy Artillery, and 2 who enlisted in other states:  the 13th NY Artillery and the 113th ILL Regiment. It is flanked by a pair of iron cannons.
 From https://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=46641 : 
"Local legend claimed that one of the tablets had been engraved with the name of a living man who had paid a volunteer to enlist in his place. The enlistee was killed but the name engraved was the surviving individual. Subsequent research in 1982 by Charlene Knox Farris revealed legend to be fact."

Re-dedicated July 4, 1990.

Inscription:

A Tribute To Our Citizens Who fought in defense of the Union 1861-5 

Announcing our 544th Meeting

Sunday, September 15, 2019        

Inglorious Passages

presented by Brian Steel Wills

We are pleased to welcome back to our Round Table Brian Steel Wills.  He is the director of the Center for the Study of the Civil War Era and Professor of History at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia, after a long tenure at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. 

He is the author of numerous works relating to the American Civil War, including a new volume – The River Was Dyed with Blood: Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow.

His other titles include: A Battle From the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest Reprinted as: The Confederacy’s Greatest Cavalryman: Nathan Bedford Forrest. This work was chosen as both a History Book Club selection and a Book of the Month Club selection.

He also authored The War in Southeastern Virginia, released in October 2001, and No Ordinary College: A History of The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, (2004), both by the University Press of Virginia. Gone with the Glory: The Civil War in Cinema appeared in 2006. An updated edition of the James I. “Bud” Robertson, Jr., Civil War Sites in Virginia (Virginia, 2011) arrived just in time for the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, and in 2012 and 2013, Brian authored George Henry Thomas: As True as Steel and Confederate General William Dorsey Pender: The Hope of Glory.

In 2000, Dr. Wills received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the state of Virginia, one of eleven recipients from all faculty members at public and private institutions across the state. He was named Kenneth Asbury Professor of History and won both the Teaching award and the Research and Publication award from UVA-Wise.

Inglorious Passages

"Inglorious Passages received the Harwell Award at the Atlanta Civil War Round Table for the best book of 2017, and it was a finalist for the 2017 Emerging Civil War Book Award.  In my talk, I will try to shine a light on those stories of individuals that went to war and didn’t come home and try to understand the full element of what those stories involved.  I think back on a Georgia recruit who’s spelling was challenged, but he would talk about the “vakants” in the ranks, and he said that those folks would not be able to rejoin the circle of friends—and he couldn’t spell “circle” either—or be around the fireside. Those places would never be filled. That made me think that those individuals need not be forgotten."

American Civil War Monuments
Soldiers Monument
Belfast Memorial Hall, Church St. 
Belfast, Maine 

 Photos and text courtsey of LCWRT Member Holly Jenkins-Evans

This very simple granite shaft is situated in front of Belfast's Memorial Hall. Sited with field pieces, it was dedicated on May 30, 1924. The cost of $1750 was paid for by Grand Army of the Republic groups and private citizens.
  
Very simply inscribed:
GAR 
The Boys of 1861 to 1865

Announcing Our 538Th Meeting
Saturday, May 11  

How Johnny Got His Gun: The Confederate Supply System

Presented by Greg Biggs 

The son of a World War Two U.S. Army Air Corps/U.S. Air Force officer, Greg Biggs is a Chicago area native.  He attended college at the University of Tampa in Florida and Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas.  He has been a student of military history for 55 years with interests starting with the ancient Greeks and going through military affairs of today. Within this he specializes in the Revolutionary War, Frederick the Great, the Napoleonic era and the Civil War.  He is also a student of tanks and armor doctrine as well as World War Two in all theaters.  Greg lectures on the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War Two across the country to roundtables, museums, historical societies and conferences.  

     Greg was also lead historian on the Civil War Fort Defiance Interpretive Center project in Clarksville, Tennessee. Greg's Civil War articles have been published in Blue & Gray Magazine, Citizen's Companion, Civil War News, Civil War Regiments journal, Civil War Trust's Hallowed Ground, Battle of Franklin Trust's Battlefield Dispatch and several Sons of Confederate Veterans publications as well as a chapter in a recent book on the Tullahoma Campaign and has a forthcoming article in Civil War Times.  He has also done research for several noted Civil War authors and their book projects. 

     Greg is also a recognized authority of Civil War flags.  He has been published on the topic numerous times and has consulted with museums, auction houses and private collectors over the years. He is a text editor and essayist for the authoritative Flags of the Confederacy web site (www.confederate-flags.org). An experienced tour guide, Greg has led many Civil War battlefield tours for civilians and staff rides for the U.S. Army and the Israeli Air Force including the Fort Donelson Campaign, Civil War Clarksville and Guerrilla War, the Tullahoma Campaign, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, the Atlanta Campaign and Where The River Campaigns Began - Cairo, IL to Columbus, KY. Greg lives in Clarksville, Tennessee with his school teacher wife Karel and their four cats (named for Civil War cavalry officers). He is president of the Clarksville CWRT and program chair of the Nashville CWRT and has been involved in the CWRT movement since 1987 while living in California.  

How Johnny Got His Gun: The Confederate Supply System

An examination of the Confederacy’s military supply system, surveying the food, manufacturing and raw materials areas of the South.  Covering the military departments that handled various aspects of supply, this also looks at the great Confederate supply successes as well as the failures, in addition to their effects on military campaigns.  A number of myths will be debunked such as “the agrarian South” which was actually quite industrialized.