The Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meetings

Fergus Bordewich on Congress at War For more information go to: WWW.CWRTChiago.org "Congress at War" tells the story of how the oft-maligned U.S. Congress helped win the Civil War a new perspective that puts the House and Senate, rather than President Lincoln, at the center of the conflict. This perspective on the Civil War overturns the popular conception that Abraham Lincoln single-handedly led...

David Sutherland on VMI's Civil War Legacy  for more information visit WWW.ChicagoCWRT.org  In June 1920 just after World War I then US Army Colonel George C. Marshall, a VMI graduate, persuaded his mentor, General of the Armies John J. Pershing, a West Point graduate, to visit the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. VMI's superintendent hosted General Pershing, toured hi...

Connie Langum: The Battle of and for Wilson's Creek For More Info: WWW.ChicagoCWRT.org  On February 14, Connie Langum will speak on "Wilson's Creek." This first major battle in Missouri, in 1861, was one of the bloodiest battles of the early war: A Confederate victory, which saw the death of the Union army commander. She will discuss why six hours on August 10, 1861 were important and then co...

January 10, Pam Toler spoke on "Heroines of Mercy Street: Nurses of the Civil War." In this talk, Pamela Toler tells the story of how thousands of women with little or no experience with nursing volunteered to serve their country during the Civil War, taught themselves how to do the job under adverse circumstances (including hostility from the surgeons with whom they worked), and created a profess...

Daniel R. Weinberg has been president and sole owner of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, Inc. since 1984, having previously been co-owner from 1971. Since 1933, the firm has had an international reputation as experts in the buying, selling, appraising, and authentication of historical, artistic, and museum artifacts. The shop has conducted appraisals for libraries, museums, banks, insurance companie...

Ethan Rafuse: 'Back to the Chivalric Days of Yore': The Valley Campaign of 1862.  In 1862, Union armies took the offensive throughout Virginia in an effort to win battlefield victories that, it was hoped, in conjunction with a policy of conciliation toward the people of the South, would bring the rebellion to an end by the end of the year. In the Shenandoah Valley, Federal forces initially se...

James Lighthizer: The Nevins Freeman Address: Battlefield Preservation  On October 11th Jim Lighthizer, President of the American Battlefield Trust, will discuss the history of Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War battlefield preservation in America, and how place-based education on this land can teach present and future generations of Americans about their country’s history, values a...

Janet Croon: The War Outside My Window Our September speaker, author Janet Croon, will present the edited diaries of a young teenage boy who wrote thoughtful and wistful observances of the changing world in Macon, Georgia, from 1860-1865, as he battled his own deteriorating health.  LeRoy Wiley Gresham was born in 1847 to an affluent slave-holding family. After a horrific leg injury at age 12...

Doug Dammann: Elmer Ellsworth and His Zouaves In the summer of 1860, young lawyer Elmer Ellsworth and a civilian militia company of 50 men from Chicago set out on a twenty-city tour. In those days, volunteer militia companies held drill competitions, and Ellsworth hoped that his unit's new "Zouave" training (based on semi-gymnastic maneuvers modelled after those of French Algerian soldiers) would...

Every Civil War buff knows there are never enough maps (enough GOOD maps) to illustrate a battle or campaign. Our April speaker, Dr. Brad Gottfried, has addressed this concern by embarking on a journey to map every campaign in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War. His most recent effort, The Maps of the Fredericksburg Campaign, will be the subject his talk to our group. While most know of the futi...

Micheal Larson and John David Smith's Dear Delia chronicles life in the famed Iron Brigade as told through 155 letters home. Young's insights, often poignant and powerful, enable readers seemingly to witness the Civil War as he did. Few topics avoided Henry's careful eye. Bluntly honest with his emotions and opinions, he left little doubt as to where he stood on the questions of the day. His corre...

Gouverneur K. Warren is remembered as the Savior of Little Round Top. He was highly regarded for his education and competence, but also accused of being too cautious by the generals who removed him from command. His record belies this, however. But Warren has suffered in the history book because of the long reach of his enemies. Here, the facts are reevaluated with some unpleasant revelations. &nb...

Before the famed journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley journeyed into Africa to find Dr. David Livingstone, he fought at the Battle of Shiloh as a private in the 6th Arkansas Infantry, CSA. Taken prisoner there, he became a "Galvanized Yankee," serving in the Union army and navy. He recorded his war experiences in a chapter of his Autobiography, which was prepared before his death in 1904,...

Paul Kahan: The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant: Preserving the Civil War's Legacy  In his most recent book, The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, Kahan tackles a presidency vilified as one of the all-time worst, and shows its circumstances, accomplishments, and failures equally and fairly. Unlike most (all?) political leaders, Grant was less than obsessed with becoming president, announcing to...

It is well known that Indians fought in the Civil War and that several Indian wars occurred at the same time as crisis of the union, but that is not the focus of this talk. “The Civil War as an Indian War” will be an illustrated lecture exploring how the experience of American Settler Colonialism shaped the American way of war in general and the Civil War in particular. Understanding the tactics o...

Tim Smith: U. S. Grant and the Vicksburg Campaign: For nearly nine months, Ulysses S. Grant tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate river city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. He maneuvered and adapted numerous times, reacting to events and enemy movements with great skill and finesse as the lengthy campaign played out on a huge chessboard, dwarfing operations in the east. This reexamination of the...

The recent publication of Ron Chernow’s massive biography of U.S. Grant culminates the modern historical trend to laud Grant as a general and as a president. The latter proposition has attracted critics. Not so Grant’s reputation as a general, which authors such as Ed Bonekemper have praised.   On May 11th, author Joseph Rose will contend that General U.S. Grant’s vaunted military reputa...

John F. Marszalek: The Nevins-Freeman Award Address: The History of the Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant Named after famed historians Allen Nevins and Douglas Southall Freeman, the Nevins-Freeman Award is the highest honor the Civil War Round Table of Chicago can bestow. It is awarded for an individual’s contributions to Civil War scholarship, and their dedication to the Round Table movement. Past awar...

The morning of Wednesday, July 20th, 1864, broke warm, promising another sultry summer day. It would spawn the first offensive action for the new Southern Commander, John Bell Hood and his gray forces as he took over the defense of Atlanta for the Confederate States of America in the fourth summer of the war. What began as a golden opportunity to repel Northern General William Tecumseh Sherman and...

SHOW LESS If asked to name the six lieutenant generals who served as infantry corps commanders under Robert E. Lee in the Army of Northern Virginia, Jackson, Longstreet, A. P. Hill, Ewell, and Early, would probably be followed by John Brown Gordon. Yet, the sixth was Richard Heron Anderso--in terms of seniority, if not ability. Despite a mediocre performance as division commander at Gettysburg, Le...

The Battle of Ezra Church was fought on July 28, 1864, near Atlanta, the third in a series of unsuccessful attacks by General John Bell Hood’s Confederate Army of Tennessee on General William T. Sherman’s Union army. After the July 22nd Battle of Atlanta, Sherman decided to cut off Atlanta’s railroad supply lines, thus forcing the Confederates to withdraw without a direct assault. To accomplish th...

Date: December 10, 2017 Speaker: David Dixon Topic: The Lost Gettysburg Address - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: November 10, 2017 Speaker: Tom Clemens Topic: Special Order 191 and the Maryland Campaign - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: October 10, 2017 Speaker: David A Powell Topic: Chickamauga: Barren Victory - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting

Date: September 10, 2017 Speaker: Ed Bonekemper Topic: False Remembrance of the Civil War: The Myth of the Lost Cause - Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meeting