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.  

American Civil War Battlefields 

Battle of Wildcat Mountain 

Camp Wildcat 

Laurel County, KY

Photos and Text courtesy of  LCWRT Member Holly Jenkins-Evans

The Battle of Wildcat Mountain, also known as Camp Wildcat, was located outside London, Ky. The Laurel Home Guard Reservation was the site of CSA Gen. Felix Zollicoffer's camp.

Fought on October 21, 1861, this small battle was the first Union victory in Ky, effectively ending the Confederate incursion under Brig Gen. Felix Zollicoffer. Zollicoffer and his force of approximately 5400 men had entered the state and occupied the Cumberland Gap. The camp at Wildcat Mountain was established by Col. Theophilus T. Garrard and his small force of 975 men under orders by USA Brig. Gen. George H. Thomas in order to block the Wilderness Road and secure the river ford on the Rockcastle. After Garrard's request for reinforcements, Thomas ordered Brig. Gen. Albin Schoepf to reinforce the heavily outnumbered Garrard, the Union forces numbered approx. 7000. Schoepf and his troops arrived at Camp Wildcat on Oct 20. The nest day, the Union troops were able to repel the Confederate attacks. Zollicoffer and his troops retreated to Cumberland Ford by the 26th. 

If  Zollicoffer had been successful, the Confederates would have been able to occupy the important central area of Kentucky, along with its forage, horses and potential troops with a force of 5400 and few losses. With the loss at Wildcat Mountain, they would have to make a much costlier and ultimately unsuccessful attempt a year later in October of 1862. 

American Civil War Monuments
Memorial Arch 
6th and Washington St., Heritage Park
Junction City, KS

Photo and Text  by LCWRT Member Holly Jenkins-Evans

This impressive, 35 foot high Civil War Memorial Arch stands in Heritage Park in Junction City, Kansas. Not bad for a town with a population of 2684 in 1880. Planned and built by the veterans of the Union Army, as a tribute to the those who died during the American Civil War, the arch was dedicated on September 8, 1898. The arch is 23 feet wide with a white bronze soldier atop as well as two 8-inch mortars.

The following inscriptions are both on the arch itself and on replica plaques on a pedestal behind the arch, recently dedicated on April 9, 2019.

Left front of the arch:

In God We Trust 

In Memory Of

The Soldiers And Sailors Of

1861-1865

Who, Inspired By Patriotism

Freely Offered Their Lives;

For The Maintenance Of

An United Country

Right front of the arch:

1861-1865

Total Enlistment 

2,778,304 

Killed in Battle 

67,050 

Died of Wound Received in Action 

43,012 

Died from Other Causes 

240,458

Announcing Our 537th Meeting
Saturday, April 13

The Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign 

Presented by Chris Mackowski 

Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor-in-chief of Emerging Civil War and managing editor of the Emerging Civil War Series. He is a professor of journalism and mass communication at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, NY, and historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield in central Virginia. He has also worked as a historian for the National Park Service at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, where he gives tours at four major Civil War battlefields (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania), as well as at the building where Stonewall Jackson died. Chris has authored or co-authored a dozen books on the Civil War, and his articles have appeared in all the major Civil War magazines. Among the books Chris has authored or co-authored are The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson: The Mortal Wounding of the Confederacy’s Greatest Icon-and the Birth of Its Greatest Legend, Fight Like the Devil: The First Day at Gettysburg July 1, 1863, and That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy, May 1-5, 1863. He was a 2014 finalist for the Army Historical Foundations' Distinguished Book Award for Chancellorsville's Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church. Chris has had six of his plays produced and he serves on the national advisory board for the Civil War Chaplains Museum in Lynchburg, Virginia. His latest book is The Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign. 

The Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign

 The stakes for George Gordon Meade could not have been higher. After his stunning victory at Gettysburg in July of 1863, the Union commander spent the following months trying to bring the Army of Northern Virginia to battle once more and finish the job. The Confederate army, robbed of much of its offensive strength, nevertheless parried Meade’s moves time after time. Although the armies remained in constant contact during those long months of cavalry clashes, quick maneuvers, and sudden skirmishes, Lee continued to frustrate Meade’s efforts. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Meade’s political enemies launched an all-out assault against his reputation and generalship. Even the very credibility of his victory at Gettysburg came under assault. Pressure mounted for the army commander to score a decisive victory and prove himself once more. Smaller victories, like those at Bristoe Station and Rappahannock Station, did little to quell the growing clamor—particularly because out west, in Chattanooga, another Union general, Ulysses S. Grant, was once again reversing Federal misfortunes. Meade needed a comparable victory in the east. And so, on Thanksgiving Day, 1863, the Army of the Potomac rumbled into motion once more, intent on trying again to bring about the great battle that would end the war.