Join Cynthiana Battlefields Foundation board members William Penn and Darryl Smith as they talk about Cynthiana on Civil War Talk Radio. Bill will be discussing his book Kentucky Rebel Town, while Darryl will talk about the Foundation.
7:00 p.m. – April 11th, 2018
You can listen using your computer or smart phone, or if you cannot listen that evening, you can visit their website and listen at your convenience.
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State, statewide and national leaders heralded the opening today [Nov. 30] of MSU’s $10 million addition to Mitchell Memorial Library, home of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library and the prestigious Frank J. and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana.
Leaders in education, history, libraries and government — including the Librarian of Congress and the Archivist of the United States — praised the 21,000-sq.-ft. addition. The facility contains a state-of-the-art museum chronicling Grant’s life and his significance in American history and a gallery dedicated to the Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana, a recent donation that was considered the largest privately owned Abraham Lincoln collection in America. With hundreds of thousands of historical documents and items housed on-site, the new addition makes Mississippi State a leading destination for research on the Civil War and two presidents who shaped the course of American history.
“The Frank J. and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana and our remarkable Ulysses S. Grant Collection have made Mississippi State and the Grant Presidential Library a truly national center for the study of the American Civil War,” MSU President Mark E. Keenum said.
MSU is one of six universities in the nation housing a presidential library. The Grant Library is managed by the Ulysses S. Grant Association and MSU under the direction of John F. Marszalek, Grant Association managing editor and executive director, and Frances N. Coleman, MSU dean of libraries.
“In 1862, President Lincoln admonished the American people with, ‘it is not that we can imagine better, but can we all do better?” said Ulysses S. Grant Association President Frank J. Williams. “I am pleased to say that with these galleries, the collections that support them, the wonderful staff that serve them and the people that use them, we have, in a significant way, done better.”
Skip Wyatt of FoilWyatt Architects in Jackson planned the overall facility expansion, and Washington, D.C.-based HealyKohler Design created the interior museum and gallery spaces. The Grant museum contains artifacts and interactive media that allow visitors to engage with the context of the times and discover intimate details of Grant’s personal life and beliefs. Brooklyn-based StudioEIS created four life-size statues to highlight different phases of Grant’s life.
Thursday’s ceremony featured remarks from Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, Archivist of the U.S. David Ferriero and other U.S. and Mississippi officials.
“I’m here to give a pledge,” Hayden said. “You will have the full resources and services of the Library of Congress to supplement and be a partner with you as you try to expand these resources here. We wanted to say that publicly here today.”
The Grant Presidential Collection consists of some 15,000 linear feet of correspondence, research notes, artifacts, photographs, scrapbooks and memorabilia. There also are 4,000 published monographs on various aspects of Grant’s life and times. The collection housed at Mississippi State is the largest single collection of Grant papers and additional items in the world.
The gallery for the Frank J. and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana displays, on a rotating basis, more than 100 of the 17,000 priceless artifacts and 12,000 books included in the Williams Collection, which the former Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice and his wife, Virginia, have amassed over several decades. The gallery exhibit includes commentary from Williams on the relevance and importance of featured items.
“Lots of people could take credit for what we are celebrating today, but it was a real team effort,” Ferriero said. “As [MSU quarterback] Nick Fitzgerald tweeted on Sunday night, ‘a program is bigger than one person. We pride ourselves on our ability to always give relentless effort.’ The results of that relentless effort are evident as I walk around this campus today.”
The new addition to Mitchell Memorial Library also contains MSU’s Congressional and Political Research Center, which houses nine congressional collections, including cornerstone anthologies on MSU alumni and former U.S. congressmen Sen. John C. Stennis and Rep. G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery. Other collections include those of U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, former U.S. Reps. David Bowen and Alan Nunnelee, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, former Mississippi Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, State Rep. Steve Holland and State Sen. Jack Gordon.
Others speaking at the dedication ceremony were:
–“Thousands upon thousands will come to see these exhibits,” Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said. “They will marvel that it is here in Mississippi and they will come to know us better. This is a great day for Mississippi’s future.”
–“There is no other library like the one we are celebrating today,” U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper said shortly before announcing he would like MSU Libraries to be the home of his congressional papers. “This structure is now a one-of-a-kind collection, including the Frank J. and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana, as well as Mississippi State University’s Congressional and Political Research Center, which houses nine congressional collections, including those of many well-known MSU alumni … If it’s OK with Dean Frances Coleman, I would like to be the 10th.”
–“Today, we’re reminded of the importance of preserving and protecting the papers and artifacts of our shared history, so that we may study it, learn from it and move forward together, stronger and with greater understanding,” said C.D. Smith, president of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees.
–“This is going to provide opportunities for all of our students in the state of Mississippi and beyond,” MSU Dean of Libraries Frances Coleman said.
–“We have been fortunate to have people working with us to make sure this project is done right,” said John F. Marszalek, Grant Association managing editor and executive director. “The result is before you now for everyone in the nation to see. Our greatest days are ahead of us.”
For more information, see the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library website at www.usgrantlibrary.org and the Frank and Virginia Williams Collection website at library.msstate.edu/williamscollection.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.
At our September 21st meeting, a Cincinnati Civil War Roundtable polo shirt was introduced. This shirt can be purchased by clicking the below link. The price is $20.50 plus a 7% sales tax for a total price of $21.94 per shirt. If 2XL is ordered there a $2 additional charge.
To avoid mailing expense, your shirt can be pickup up at the next meeting. For shirts ordered after the 5th of the month, there is no guarantee they will be ready by the next meeting.
Buy a CCWRT polo shirt, wear it with pride, and promote interest in the Cincinnati Civil War Roundtable.
My literary/historical novel, Kindly Welcome: A novel of the Shakers in the Civil War, is now available on Netgalleys, should you be interested. With the extraordinary help of historians such as Julia Neal and Shelby Foote, the book is based on the fascinating and virtually unknown diaries of Shakers living at South Union, Kentucky, during the conflict. I’m easily contacted at the above email address, should you need additional information.
Linda Stevens (lindastevens1@nullbtinternet.com)
Jayne Miller to speak before the Hamilton Civil War Round Table on Feb 14.
Topic: The Joneses
Place: Golden Dragon Buffet, Hamilton West Shopping Center, 86 North Brookwood Ave., Hamilton, OH
Come join the Cynthiana Battlefields Foundation for their quarterly Civil War speaker series at Rohs Opera House in the heart of Cynthiana! Open to the public, this event will be FREE to Foundation members, and $5.00 for all others. Donations to cover speaker costs are also accepted.
2:00 – Civil War 101
2:30 – Cynthiana Civil War 101
3:00 – David Mowery – Morgan’s Great Raid: Taking the War to the North
From July 2-26, 1863, while the great battles at Gettysburg and Vicksburg captured the attention of the American people, Confederate brigadier general John Hunt Morgan led nearly 2,500 cavalrymen on a daring raid into the North. Morgan’s objective was to distract the Union forces under Major General William Rosecrans and Major General Ambrose Burnside from building up enough momentum to wrestle the mostly pro-Union East Tennessee region from its Confederate occupants and push General Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee beyond its supply base at Chattanooga. Morgan’s incursion into Indiana and Ohio would produce the effect he desired, but it would end with disastrous results for his famous division. Mowery’s presentation will discuss Morgan’s Great Raid as it passed through three Union-held states and circumvented Cincinnati, which at the time was the seventh largest city in the United States and which served as the headquarters for Burnside’s department. Morgan’s special-forces operation represented the pinnacle of Morgan’s strategic and tactical skills and the best of his division’s raiding capabilities. No other American mounted infantry division on horseback would ever achieve what Morgan’s raiders accomplished on the Great Raid of 1863.
David Mowery has been studying the Civil War for over 35 years, and during the course of this time, he has researched, visited, and site-documented over 500 Civil War battlefields across the United States. David has been a member of the Cincinnati Civil War Round Table since 1995, and he joined the Ohio Civil War Trail Commission in 2001 to represent Hamilton County’s Civil War sites to the state of Ohio, and as a member of this volunteer group, he designed and historically validated the 557-mile John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail of Ohio. David has published two books on the subject of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan’s Great Raid through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio, including its first campaign study, titled Morgan’s Great Raid: The Remarkable Expedition from Kentucky to Ohio, as well as the official guidebook of the John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail, titled Morgan’s Raid Across Ohio. David currently serves as the Chairman of the non-profit Buffington Island Battlefield Preservation Foundation, the all-volunteer group working to save Ohio’s only major Civil War battlefield.
Every time you shop at smile.amazon you’ll be helping out the Cincinnati Civil War Round Table.
Amazon has a program known as AmazonSmile, which allows you to direct 0.5% of the price for items purchased on Amazon to the CCWRT. This is a simple and automatic way for all of us to support the CCWRT at absolutely no cost to you.
If you currently shop using Amazon, please shop at AmazonSmile instead. If you do not currently shop at Amazon, consider trying it out. When first visiting AmazonSmile, you will be prompted to select a charitable organization from almost one million eligible organizations. Please select the Cincinnati Civil War Round Table.
If you spend $100, CCWRT will receive 50 cents. That may not seem like a lot at first, but many of us buy much more than mere books. The purchase of electronics, household items, and even food on AmazonSmile all qualify for CCWRT to receive a donation. These contributions can add up and will provide funds to the CCWRT to aid in helping our programs.
You’ll feel good about supporting the CCWRT with things you would buy anyway.
So, remember, shop at smile.amazon.com and support the CCWRT.
STARKVILLE, Miss.—A $10 million addition to Mississippi State’s Mitchell Memorial Library, home of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library and the prestigious Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana, will be unveiled with a Nov. 30 celebration at the land-grant university.
The 21,000-sq.-ft. library addition contains a state-of-the-art museum chronicling Grant’s life and his significance in American history and a gallery dedicated to the Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana, a recent donation considered the largest privately owned Abraham Lincoln collection in America. With hundreds of thousands of historical documents and items housed on site, the new addition makes Mississippi State a leading destination for research on the Civil War and two presidents who shaped the course of American history.
A 2 p.m. ceremony at the Grant Library on Thursday, Nov. 30, will officially open the new space. Invited guests include Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, Speaker of the House Philip Gunn and U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper. The celebration program is open to the public.
“Mississippi State University is proud to manage and showcase the treasure trove of vital American history contained in the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library. The university and new state-of-the-art addition to Mitchell Memorial Library provide an appropriate and beautiful home to such prestigious and revered collections, including the Frank J. and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana and MSU’s Congressional and Political Research Center,” said MSU President Mark E. Keenum. “With the help of many visionary and hard-working leaders and scholars, MSU has become one of the nation’s foremost repositories for research into the Civil War era, a pivotal period in our nation’s history.”
MSU is one of six universities housing a presidential library. The Grant Library is managed by the Ulysses S. Grant Association and MSU under the direction of John F. Marszalek, Grant Association managing editor and executive director, and Frances N. Coleman, MSU dean of libraries.
Skip Wyatt of FoilWyatt Architects in Jackson, planned the overall facility expansion, and Washington, D.C.-based HealyKohler Design created the interior museum and gallery spaces. The Grant museum contains artifacts and interactive media that allow visitors to engage with the context of the times and discover intimate details of Grant’s personal life and beliefs. Brooklyn-based StudioEIS created four life-size statues to highlight different phases of Grant’s life—his time as a cadet at West Point, commanding general of the U.S. Army, the nation’s 18th president, and a statesman writing his memoirs in the final days of his life.
The gallery for the Frank J. and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana displays, on a rotating basis, more than 100 of the 17,000 priceless artifacts and 12,000 books included in the Williams Collection, which the former Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice and his wife, Virginia, have amassed over several decades. The gallery exhibit includes commentary from Williams on the relevance and importance of featured items.
The new addition to Mitchell Memorial Library also contains MSU’s Congressional and Political Research Center, which houses nine congressional collections, including cornerstone anthologies on MSU alumni and former U.S. congressmen Sen. John C. Stennis and Rep. G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery. Other collections include those of U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, former U.S. Reps. David Bowen and Alan Nunnelee, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, former Mississippi Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, State Rep. Steve Holland and State Senator Jack Gordon.
Prior to the Grant Library’s grand opening, leading Abraham Lincoln authority Harold Holzer will deliver the inaugural Frank and Virginia Williams Lecture on Abraham Lincoln and Civil War Studies. Holzer’s lecture, open to the public, will take place at 10 a.m. in the Old Main Academic Center’s Turner Wingo Auditorium. Free parking will be available at the Old Main Parking Garage and behind the Longest Student Health Center.
For more information, see the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library website at www.usgrantlibrary.org, the Frank and Virginia Williams Collection website at library.msstate.edu/williamsco
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.
In September 2018 Bentonville Battlefield and the Friends of Bentonville Battlefield will host “Two Weeks of Fury” a symposium and whirlwind tour of the Carolinas Campaign.
The schedule includes tours of Wise’s Forks, Civil War Fayetteville, Averasboro, Bentonville and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Monroe’s Crossroads battlefield on Fort Bragg. Historians taking part in the program include Craig Symonds, John Marszalek, Eric Wittenberg, Mark Bradley, Wade Sokolosky, and Mark Smith.
Further information and registration can be found at http://fobb.net/2018Symposium.aspx.
Dave Mowery will be leading a tour of Morgan’s great raid from Sunman, IN to Williamsburg, OH on Friday, May 18 and Saturday, May 19th. Tour will be caravan style and is free. More details to follow.