Daniel Zeiser gives a lecture on George H, Thomas - Perhaps the Most Underappreciated General of the War

Rouseau led brigade at Shiloh, and led a Division at Perryville and Stones’ River. Later, he led a cavalry raid during the Atlanta Campaign, and defeated Forrest’s cavalry and infantry during Hood’s Tennessee Campaign.  After the war, he served in Congress, was involved in acquiring Alaska from Russia, and, at the time of his death, was in command of the U.S. Troops in Louisiana. Rousseau was born in Kentucky and was a lawyer in Louisville at the beginning of the…

Michael D. Coker The 2020-2021 Cincy Round Table schedule will begin in September with Michael D. Coker from Charleston, SC as our speaker. Mr. Coker, a Charleston native, has had a lifelong passion for history. From 2000-2009, he served as the curator of the visual materials collection for the South Carolina Historical Society.   During that time, he co-authored S.C. Historical Society publication "Historic South Carolina- A Pictorial History" and wrote the essay "The Civil War at Charleston" for The City…

While numerous books have recounted the history of medicine in the Civil War, little has been said about the drugs that were used, the people who provided and prepared them, and how they were supplied. This talk will provide detailed discussion of the role of pharmacy. Among the topics covered are the duties of medical purveyors, the role of the hospital steward, and the nature and state of medical substances commonly used in the 1860s. This last subject would become…

The Second Battle of Winchester was critical to the success of the 1863 Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania. In three days of fighting, Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, destroyed the command of Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy, who had disobeyed his orders to abandon the town and withdraw his troops. Ewell performed brilliantly during this battle, leaving the Confederate authorities to have high expectations of him. This talk will discuss the often-overlooked Second Battle of Winchester.

The presentation is based on the research done for writing his 2018 book, TO MY BEST GIRL – Courage, Honor and Love in the Civil War: The Inspiring Life Stories of Rufus Dawes and Mary Gates. The life of Rufus Dawes was much more than his battlefield heroics, exceptional as they were. His remarkable experiences involved family and friends, their lives on the home front and on battlefields elsewhere. The wartime courtship between Rufus and Mary Gates is the central…

Harriet Beecher Stowe rose to fame in the 1850s as an advocate for abolition and an ally to African Americans.  By living in Cincinnati for 18 years, Stowe was able to write the anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  The book demonstrated the realities of slavery and served as a beacon for changing public opinion in the North.  The story will include a history of the Beecher families Cincinnati house and the ways in which it has continued Stowe’s legacy. 

Grant's character, along with his treatment of African-Americans, American-Indians and Jews, matured from first-hand experience during the Civil War, as well as his Presidency. Grant's support and leadership in civil rights, was decades ahead of his time. He stood up for their rights, despite widespread opposition from the south and the American public. Their determination, coupled with his support, unleashed opportunities they had never experienced.

William “Extra Billy” Smith, the oldest and one of the most controversial Confederate generals on the field at Gettysburg, was also one of the most colorful and charismatic characters of the Civil War and the antebellum Old South. Known nationally as “Extra Billy” because of his prewar penchant for finding loopholes in government postal contracts to gain extra money for his stagecoach lines, Smith served as Virginia’s governor during both the War with Mexico and the Civil War, served five terms in the U.S. Congress, and was one of Virginia’s leading spokesmen for slavery and States’ Rights. Extra Billy’s extra-long speeches and wry sense of humor were legendary among his peers. A lawyer during the heady Gold Rush days, Smith made a fortune in California and, like his income earned from stagecoaches, quickly lost it.

It was the single bloodiest day in American history. This lecture discusses the people and places associated with the lost order as well as explores the questions: “Who lost the order – or was it lost?”, “Who found the order?”, and “What were the cascade of events that occurred as a result of the lost order being found?” among others.

This presentation covers the genesis, the preparation, the promulgation, the interpretations and the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation, perhaps the strangest document in American history. Discussed are the moral imperatives that inspired the war measure as well as the more concrete motives of preventing foreign intervention in the war and depleting Southern manpower—the engine that drove the Southern economy—and, the opposite side of the same coin, increasing Northern manpower, especially in Union armies. Also discussed are the Thirteenth Amendment and how the two documents were viewed by later generations of African-Americans.

The May meeting of the Round Table welcomed back to the podium Wayne Motts, chief executive officer of the National Civil War Museum. Wayne and his colleague, James A. Hessler, have written a new battlefield guide Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg: A Guide to the Most Famous Attack in American History. Wayne was prepared to tell us everything we wanted to know, and in some cases to disabuse us of things we thought we knew, about that singular event. It is…

The timing could not have been better for a 23 year old military man to write his name into the history books. On June 29, 1863, George Custer was promoted to Brigadier General and placed in command of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade. Without doubt Custer took advantage of that opportunity before, during, and after the Battle of Gettysburg. Within sixteen days of almost continual fighting Custer's Wolverine brigade would fight at Hanover, Hunterstown, East Cavalry Field, Monterey Pass, Hagerstown, Williamsport, and Falling Waters. This presentation explores not only the numerous engagements of the brigade, but also the reactions of Michigan Cavalry troopers to their youthful and newly appointed young commander.

This talk will describe in graphic detail the disintegration, during the Civil War, of Southern plantation society in a North Carolina coastal county. He will detail the struggles among planters, slaves, yeoman farmers, and landless white laborers, as well as a guerrilla war and a clash between two armies that, in the end, destroyed all that remained of the county's social structure. He will examine the failure of a planter-yeoman alliance, and discusses how yeoman farmers and landless white laborers allied themselves against planters, but to no avail. He will also show how slaves, when refugeed upcountry, tried unsuccessfully to reestablish their prerogatives--a subsistence, as well as protection from violence--owed them as a minimal condition of their servitude.

An in-depth discussion about how one of the  most important Civil War Diaries was found, how it came to be published, the genius of the young teenager who wrote it, and the amazing insights we gain from it.  LeRoy Wiley Gresham was born in 1847 to an affluent slave-holding family in Macon, Georgia. After a horrific leg injury left him an invalid, the educated, inquisitive, perceptive, and exceptionally witty 12-year-old began keeping a diary in 1860--just as secession and the Civil War began tearing the country and his world apart. He continued to write even as his health deteriorated until both the war and his life ended in 1865.  The War Outside My Window captures the spirit and the character of a young privileged white teenager witnessing the demise of his world even as his own body slowly failed him. 

A string of battlefield victories through 1862 had culminated in the spring of 1863 with Lee’s greatest victory yet: the battle of Chancellorsville. Propelled by the momentum of that supreme moment, confident in the abilities of his men, Lee decided to once more take the fight to the Yankees and launched this army on another invasion of the North. An appointment with destiny awaited in the little Pennsylvania college town of Gettysburg.

Historian Dan Welch follows in the footsteps of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac as the two foes cat-and-mouse their way northward, ultimately clashing in the costliest battle in North American history.

Based on the Gettysburg Civil War Trails, and packed with dozens of lesser-known sites related to the Gettysburg Campaign, The Last Road North: A Guide to the Gettysburg Campaign offers the ultimate Civil War road trip.

Greg Biggs has lectured across the country on Civil War topics primarily on flags and the Western Theater as well as the Revolutionary War. Greg leads tours of the Fort Donelson Campaign, the Tullahoma Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign and Where The River Campaigns Began: Cairo, IL to Columbus/Belmont, KY for Civil War groups, individuals and U.S. Army Staff Rides. He is the president of the Clarksville Civil War Roundtable and an officer of the Nashville CWRT.

When we hear the name John H. Morgan, it usually brings to mind the dashing leader of a small band of gallant raiders, but by 1864 Morgan was a shell of his former self, and his command was no longer the gallant band of 1862 and 1863.  This talk is about Morgan’s Last Raid, with a focus on the fighting at Cynthiana, but will also provide a few insights to Morgan’s lack of control and discipline during this campaign.

In September 1862, Cincinnati was under assault from an enemy whose goal was to pillage and burn the city, leaving destruction and fear in their wake. The assault was a major event that helped define the resolve of the citizens living in the Tristate region. Over 60,000 volunteers poured into the hills of Northern Kentucky to stop the Confederate onslaught that ripped through Kentucky virtually unchallenged, before turning north to threaten the Queen City. This is their story of leadership, patriotism, selflessness and courage.

A hard look at the element itself--water for life, water as an agent of infection, water in military planning, etc. The "etc." is why water can be considered "the forgotten element."

This Danville, Va., native is the author or editor of more than 20 books that include such award-winning studies as Civil War! America Becomes One Nation, General A.P. Hill, and Soldiers Blue and Gray. His massive biography of Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson won eight national awards and was used as the base for the Ted Turner/Warner Bros. mega-movie, “Gods and Generals”. His latest book is After the Civil War: The Heroes, Villains, Soldiers, and Civilians Who Changed America. The recipient of every major award given in the Civil War field, and a lecturer of national acclaim, Dr. Robertson is probably more in demand as a speaker before Civil War groups than anyone else in the field.

Union Col. Frank Wolford was a celebrated Civil War cavalier and rival of Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan. Wolford, who formed the 1st Ky Cavalry, took part in more than 300 battles and skirmishes, during which he was wounded seven times. In addition to detailing Wolford's military exploits, Blair will detail Wolford's political career including his staunch opposition with President Abraham Lincoln over the use of black soldiers in the Union forces. Ronald Blair is Frank Wolford's great-great-nephew.

In an effort to treat the enormous number of soldiers wounded during the Civil War, rapid advancements were made in American medicine. This presentation will focus on the background, conditions, and personnel that led to these advancements. Dr. D’Onofrio will present this talk in the guise of Ohio Civil War Surgeon General, Robert Nelson Barr, in period uniform. His talk will be reflection of Dr. Barr's thoughts a few months after the Civil War ended.  Peter D'Onofrio is the president of The Society of Civil War Surgeons, the largest non-profit, international, educational organization dedicated to the study and preservation of Civil War era medicine and surgery.

Daniel Harvey Hill and Alexander McD. McCook had their Civil War careers badly tarnished because of their performance at the September 20, 1863 Battle of Chickamauga. McCook, commander the Union XX Corps, was routed off the battlefield, and Confederate corps commander Hill had such a falling out with army commander Braxton Bragg, that Bragg relieved Hill of command a month later. Nevertheless, both men had long and distinguished careers after the war's end. Hill became a writer, editor, and educator and McCook a professional soldier. This talk explores each man's role in the epic battle of Chickamauga and the fascinating story of their postwar lives.

No Longer Accepting Dinner Reservations for this Event
Selma was transformed into the Confederacy’s second most important war manufacturing center, outside of Richmond. Essential to the Confederate war effort, especially with the construction of the CSS Tennessee ironclad and the Brooke cannon, Selma provided critical support to Confederate operations in the field, in places including Mobile, Charleston, and Atlanta. An impressive network of ironworks was developed in Alabama to supply the sprawling Selma Arsenal, Ordnance Works, and Navy Yard. A series of well engineered earthworks and fortifications were constructed around Selma to defend this critical industrial center. As a testament to the importance of Selma, it produced “half of the cannon and two thirds of the fixed ammunition” for the Confederacy in 1864-1865. The largest cavalry raid of the Civil War, under the command of Major General James H. Wilson, targeted and destroyed Selma during the final stages of the Civil War.

The Shenandoah Valley was considered the breadbasket of the Confederacy and was used as the Army of Northern Virginia avenue of invasion as it advanced towards Gettysburg in 1863. Now in the summer of 1864 Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant ordered Phil Sheridan sweep the Shenandoah Valley “clean and clear". To lose the valley would mean to lose the state, Stonewall Jackson had once said. That prediction would be put to the test as Sheridan fought with Jubal Early for possession. Historian Phillip Greenwalt will discuss the Shenandoah Valley battles of 1864 and the campaign that ultimately determined the balance of power across the Eastern Theater.

Imagine clearing out your family attic and finding an old wooden box jammed with hundreds of letters written during the Civil War. You soon discover they are written by two brothers serving in the First Vermont Brigade of the Union Army. The letters offer an eye witness description of the battles of the Peninsula Campaign, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Cedar Creek as well as an in-depth account of regular army life. Using the letters, Carleton Young and few other researchers were able to weave together their dramatic war-time narrative into a book entitled Voices From the Attic: The Wiiliamstown boys in the Civil War.

In her bestselling memoir, The Woman in Battle, Loreta Janeta Velasquez claimed to have posed as a man to fight for the Confederacy, but in fact she never saw combat. Always a sensational press favorite, Velasquez displayed throughout her life an uncanny ability to manipulate popular media and to benefit from her fame in a way that prefigured celebrities of our own time. After the Civil War ended, she created a phony mining company, coned North Carolina residents to back her financially in a fake immigration scheme, and attracted investors to build a railroad across western Mexico. Velasquez was one of the first women to venture into journalism and presidential politics. In Inventing Loreta Velasquez, acclaimed historian William C. Davis delves into the life of one of America’s early celebrities, peeling back the myths she herself created to reveal a startling and even more implausible reality.

As the Civil War was drawing to a close, former Missouri governor Sterling Price led his army on one last desperate campaign to retake his home state for the Confederacy, part of a broader effort to tilt the upcoming 1864 Union elections against Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans. In The Collapse of Price’s Raid: The Beginning of the End in Civil War Missouri, Mark A. Lause examines the complex political and social context of what became known as “Price’s Raid,” the final significant Southern operation west of the Mississippi River.

Before the invention of the phonograph, music was primarily disseminated by way of printed sheet music. To make sheet music more marketable, publishers hired artists to design attractive patriotic covers. Theresa Leininger-Miller will share with us her study of illustrated sheet music published during and just after the Civil War. These gems of popular culture will be examined for both their artistic merit and historical significance.

Few remember Edward Everett's oration that preceded Lincoln's masterpiece, but hardly anyone is aware Charles Anderson's oration, which concluded the day's events. Anderson was raised on a Louisville slaveholding plantation, graduated from Miami University in 1833, lived in Dayton, Ohio for twelve years then Cincinnati for the next 13 years. In 1844, Anderson was elected to the Ohio Senate and made a name for himself in opposing Ohio’s Black Laws. After moving to Texas in 1859 for health reasons, he…

The Oct. 2016 speaker, Richard Swigert, brought to the CCWRT the story of the CSS Shenandoah. The Shenandoah began life as the Sea King, a cargo ship built in England in 1863. Its main purpose was to transport tea between the China and the UK. One year after its launch, the Sea King was secretly bought by the CSA. The Confederacy wanted to convert the ship into a commerce raider to replace the Alabama which had been lost. The hitch in their plan was that the United States government declared the south could not build/buy a ship of war. The solution was to buy another ship, The Laurel, to be used as a tender vessel so that the conversion could take place at sea. The Laurel was stocked with all the officers and the nucleus of the commerce raider's crew, together with naval guns, ammunition, and ship's stores needed to convert the Shenandoah to a ship of war. The two ships secretly rendezvoused at sea and there the conversion took place.

The CCWRT welcomed David G. Moore to our meeting of Sept 15th. 2016.  David brought an in depth look at the life of General William Rosecrans.  Rosecrans was a person of whom there were differing opinions, not only in respect to his military career, but his private life as well.  David's book digs deep into the life of a man dedicated not only to the ideals presented by emancipation, but a man who understood that his God had work for…

After Program Chair Dan Bauer led a tepid Penn State “shout out,” he introduced William A. Blair, Ph.D., a professor of history at Penn State University, founding editor of The Journal of the Civil War Era, and author of several well-regarded Civil War books. Dr. Blair described how both the federal government and private citizens often deprived those considered “disloyal” of civil liberties enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. He described how soldiers, on their own initiative or with the Administration’s…

“It’s a shame a book like this has to be written.” This is the opening sentence of the introduction to Stephen M. Hood’s book, John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General. Mr. Hood, who goes by the nickname “Sam,” was the engaging and entertaining speaker at our April 21st meeting. A self-proclaimed amateur historian and ‘C’ student from a non-Ivy League university, he never expected to be the one to bring General Hood’s papers to…

At our March meeting, Michael C. C. Adams, Regents Professor of History Emeritus at Northern Kentucky University, spoke about his 2014 book, Living Hell: The Dark Side of the Civil War. Prof. Adams grew up in, holds a Ph.D. from, and has been on the NKU faculty since 1972. His first book, Our Masters the Rebels, won the Jefferson Davis Prize. His 1994 book The Best War Ever, a history of the American experience in World War II, is widely…

At our February meeting, Gene Schmiel told us the story of the amazing life of Jacob Dolson Cox, a self-made “Renaissance man” who was, at various times, a military leader, office holder, university and business executive, scientist, and historian. Mr. Schmiel is a retired Foreign Service officer who holds a doctorate from Ohio State and who has taught at several eastern Universities. His book Citizen-General: Jacob Dolson Cox and the Civil War Era was published in 2014 and is a…

At our January 21st meeting, we were treated to a very interesting and well-researched powerpoint presentation titled “Countering Mallory’s ‘Infernal Machines’,” a deeper look into the Confederacy’s attempt to counter the strength and numerical superiority of the U.S. Navy. Our presenter, Gary Johnson, of the Cincinnati Civil War Round Table, is a U.S. Navy veteran who spent many years working on submarines. With this first-hand knowledge of the inner workings of the navy, Gary was able to attain a firm…

At our November 19th meeting, on the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, we had a most appropriate “double-header”: two speakers relating to the 150th Anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg (fought July 1863). This was one of the largest attended events held during the Civil War Sesquicentennial. First, we welcomed CCWRT member Bert Sheard, who showed us a number of photos he took at the commemoration, and gave us his spectator’s perspective on the event. As Bert mentioned, the…

At our October meeting, Michael W. Panhorst presented “Lest We Forget: Memorial Art & Architecture of Civil War Battlefield Monuments.” It was an illustrated “brisk hike through 150 years of history and a half dozen battlefields.” Mr. Panhorst, from Auburn, Alabama, is an historian of art and architecture, curator, teacher, and historic preservationist. He has lectured widely and has published his photographs in numerous magazines. The earliest Civil War battlefield monuments were funerary, sponsored by soldiers to mark the sites…