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We are pleased to present the
2011-2012 Cleveland Civil War Roundtable program schedule.
This year's schedule provides an interesting mix of published
authors, scholars and Roundtable members presenting on a wide
variety of Civil War topics. Please join us for what promises to be
an exciting and stimulating year.
Printer-friendly
copy of the program schedule
September 14, 2011
Robert Olmstead
Experiencing the Civil War
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 Robert Olmstead is the Director of
the Creative Writing Program at Ohio Wesleyan University. He is the
author of four novels, a memoir, a textbook on writing fiction,
numerous short stories and many magazine and journal articles. Prior
to joining the faculty at Ohio Wesleyan, Professor Olmstead served
as Senior Writer in Residence at Dickinson College and as director
of the creative writing program at Boise State University.
His third novel, Coal Black Horse ,
follows a 14-year old Southern boy on his journey to find his
father, a Confederate soldier fighting in Pennsylvania with the Army
of Northern Virginia. Coal Black Horse earned the 2007 Chicago
Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction, the Ohioana Book Award for
fiction, was a finalist for the Southern Independent Booksellers
Alliance Book Award for fiction, and was nominated for the Dayton
Literary Peace Prize.
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Meeting Location:
Our meetings are held at Judson
Manor (the former Wade Park Manor residential hotel), located
at the corner of East 107th Street and Chester in downtown
Cleveland, just off University Circle.
Map to Judson Manor
History of Wade Park Manor
Reservations:
You must make
a dinner reservation for any meeting you plan to attend no later
than the day prior to that meeting (so we can give a headcount to
the caterer). Make your
reservation one of three ways:
- Send an email to
 .
-
Click any of the 'Make a Dinner Reservation"
links on this page.
-
Call
440-449-9311 and leave a message on Dan Zeiser's office voice mail.
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September 30 - October 2, 2011
CCWRT Annual Field Trip
Lee's Retreat from Richmond
Two years ago, Dennis Keating led
us on a trip to the Richmond area where we covered McClellan's
Peninsular Campaign and Grant's Overland Campaign. We finished
on Sunday at the Crater and briefly visited the Breakthrough at
Pamplin Park. This year's field trip will pick up this
narrative where it left off two years ago. We will follow
Grant's Appomattox Campaign, starting at Petersburg on Friday and
follow Lee's path from March 29 – April 9, 1865 as he retreated from
Petersburg to the spot of his eventual surrender, Appomattox Court
House.
Trip Itinerary:
Thursday 9/29/11
Travel to Petersburg area.
Friday 9/30/11 – Grant’s
Appomattox Campaign
Our guide Friday will be Gary Helm,
the Supervisor of Historical Interpretation and Visitor Services at
Pamplin Park. Sites we will visit this day include:
- Petersburg
- Fort Steadman
- The Crater
- Fort Mahone
- Fort Fisher
- Hatcher’s Run
- White Oak Road
- Gravely Run
- Five Forks (NPS museum)
- Forts Gregg and Whitworth
- A.P. Hill death site
- Pamplin Park
- Battlefield Center,
- The Breakthrough Trail,
- National Museum of the Civil
War Soldier
We will have dinner that night at
Pamplin Park and have the run of the museum following dinner.
Pamplin Park website.
Saturday 10/01/11 – Lee’s
Retreat from Petersburg
Our guide Saturday and Sunday will
be Patrick Schroeder, the Park Historian at Appomattox Court House
National Historical Park and the author of several Civil War books.
You may remember Patrick from when he spoke to the Roundtable in May
2005 when Mel Maurer was president. Sites we will visit this
day include:
- Southerland Station
- Namozene Church
- Amelia Courthouse
- Jetersville
- Amelia Springs
- Adeatonsville
- Sailor’s/Saylor’s Creek - 3
battlefield sites (Note: Chris Culkins, Director of the Sailor’s
Creek Park and the author of what many consider the definitive
book on Lee’s retreat may join us for our tour of Sailor’s Creek.)
- Holts Crossroads
- New visitors center museum
- Hillsman House
- Locket House
- Marshalls Crossroads
- Highbridge Musuem
- Cumberland Church
Sunday 10/02/11 – Appomattox
Courthouse
We will continue with our guide
Patrick Schroeder on Sunday morning. Sites we will visit this
day include:
- Appomattox Station
- Living history program
- Surrender meeting
- Stacking of arms
- Tour through the village of
Appomattox Courthouse
- Grant’s headquarters
- Lee’s headquarters
We will return to Cleveland on
Sunday afternoon. Contact Paul Burkholder if you would like to
participate in this field trip. Many members will be car
pooling, so if you'd like to go, but not drive, let us know so that
we can arrange a ride for you. |
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October 12, 2011
Marc Leepson
The Battle of Monocacy
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 Marc Leepson is a journalist and
historian and the author of seven books, including Desperate Engagement: How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and Changed American History
on the Battle of Monocacy and Jubal Early’s march on
Washington. He earned both his undergraduate degree and MA in
history from George Washington University.
Mr. Leepson is a former staff
writer for the Congressional Quarterly and has written for many
newspapers and magazines, including Preservation, Smithsonian,
Military History, Civil War Times, America's Civil War, the
Washington Post, New York Times, New York Times Book Review,
The
Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Detroit News, Dallas
Morning
News, Christian Science Monitor, Newsday, The Arizona Republic, and
USA Today. He has made regular appearances on radio and television,
including The Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, All Things
Considered, Talk of the Nation, To The Point, Morning Edition, and
The Diane Rehm Show.
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November 9, 2011
Dan Zeiser
The Battle of Nashville
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 The
Battle of Nashville was fought in December of 1864 and pitted the
Confederate Army of Tennessee under Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood against
Union forces under Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas. Hood led his
forces into the Nashville area following his Atlanta defeat at the
hands of William T. Sherman in an attempt to disrupt Sherman's
supply lines flowing out of Chattanooga. Rather than pursue
Hood, Sherman headed east out of Atlanta on his March to the Sea and
left the defense of Tennessee to Thomas. Hood first engaged Union
forces at Spring Hill, TN on November 29th and then at Franklin, TN
on November 30th, suffering major casualties. Union forces
withdrew across the Harpeth River to Nashville where it engaged and
essentially destroyed Hood's army in actions on December 15th and
16th, effectively ending the war in the western theater. Dan Zeiser has been a student of the Civil
War since childhood. A history major at Kenyon College, the Roundtable has permitted
him to continue to indulge his fondness for historical figures such as George
Thomas. Over the years, Dan has contributed many articles to The
Charger and has made presentations to the Roundtable on several
occasions. He is known, mostly by himself, for his quirky, yet scholarly
pieces and always appreciates the kind forbearance of members for his
historical ramblings. Dan joined the
Roundtable in 1992, served as its president in 1997, and has been Editor of The
Charger since 2004. He is a lawyer with a mediation practice here in
Cleveland where he lives with his wife and three children. |
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December 14, 2011
Nora Titone
How Sibling Rivalry Helped Spawn An Assassin
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 My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry That Led to the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln is Nora Titone’s first book and focuses on John Wilkes Booth’s relationship
with his more famous and more accomplished father (Junius Booth) and
brother (Edwin Booth) and speculates on Booth’s possible emotional
and psychological motivations for assassinating Abraham Lincoln.
Nora Titone studied
American History and Literature as an undergraduate at Harvard
University, and earned an M.A. in History at the University of
California, Berkeley. She has worked as a historical researcher for
a range of academics, writers and artists involved in projects
studying nineteenth-century America including historian Doris Kearns
Goodwin for Goodwin’s book on Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln .
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January 11, 2012
John C. Fazio
The Barlows and the Gordons
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 Civil
War history overflows with sad, ironic stories of families and
friendships made and broken by the tragic events of 1861-1865. One of
the more compelling of these stories is that of Union General Frances
C. Barlow and his wife Arabella and Confederate General John B. Gordon
and his wife Fanny. Barlow and Gordon purportedly met on the
battlefield at Gettysburg (at "Barlow's Knoll") where the wounded
Yankee Barlow was personally tended to by the Rebel Gordon.
Apocryphal or true? Retired lawyer and CCWRT past President John
C. Fazio will step to the podium to tell the intriguing story of the
Barlows and the Gordons.
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February 8, 2012
Jon Thompson
A.P. Hill at Gettysburg
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 Ambrose
Powell Hill was one of Robert E. Lee’s closest, ablest, longest
serving lieutenants. Promoted to lieutenant general following the
death of Stonewall Jackson, Hill led Lee’s Third Corps at Gettysburg
where he was largely ineffective. Was he sick, not yet comfortable in
his new command, or had Lee promoted Hill to his level of
incompetence? CCWRT past President, retired history and English
teacher, and aspiring Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Jon
Thompson will discuss possible answers to the question, “What happened
to A.P. Hill at Gettysburg?”
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March 14, 2012
The Dick Crews Annual Debate:
Lincoln and Douglas Debate
Moderator: William F. B. Vodrey
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Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas
will join us to argue over slavery, the constitution, states rights,
secession, and the fetching appeal of the former Mary Todd. It is
January 1861 and Lincoln and Douglas are meeting in the home of
Illinois politician and mutual friend Hadley V. Baxendale to provide
background for the book Baxendale is writing on Lincoln’s and
Douglas’s 1858 Senate campaign. It is a precipitous time for the
three men personally and for their country. Lincoln’s election as
president has, by the time of this meeting, already led to the
secession of four states with eight more to soon follow. Fort Sumter
is less than three months away and Douglas’s death from typhoid
fever – following his failed border states tour to plead for union –
is only six months away.
This year's "debate" is an original
play, conceived and written by the three actors with all three
performing in character and in costume.
Our Actors:
Mel Maurer (Lincoln) is a
retired executive of the Dana Corporation and past president of the
Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. An Abraham Lincoln scholar and
interpreter, Mel is a lifetime member of the Lincoln Forum.
Chris Fortunato (Douglas) is
a Cleveland area attorney, long-time member of the Roundtable and an
accomplished actor, regularly performing in both professional and
community theater productions across Northeast Ohio.
William Vodrey (Baxendale)
is a magistrate of the Cleveland Municipal Court and also a past
president of the Roundtable. He regularly gives presentations on a
wide variety of Civil War topics to Roundtables and Historical
Societies. |
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April 11, 2012
Edward H. Bonekemper III
How Robert E. Lee Lost the Civil War
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Was
Robert E. Lee the Confederate States of America's great near savior
or its own worst enemy? Were his aggressive strategies wrong
for the under-staffed, under-equipped army he led or a necessary
risk in order to draw essential European intervention? Or did
Robert E. Lee actually expect to defeat the Union powerhouse that
confronted him?
In his provocatively titled book, How Robert E. Lee Lost the Civil War,
military historian Edward Bonekemper jumps on those questions with
both feet. Mr. Bonekemper will join us at our April meeting to
discuss his book and his views of Robert E. Lee's military
performance.
Expect a fascinating discussion and a rollicking argument. Our
Speaker: Edward H. Bonekemper, III is an adjunct lecturer of U.S. military
history at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA. For 34 years he served
as a Federal Government attorney, including 11 years with the U.S.
Coast Guard and 17 with the U.S. Department of Transportation. Mr.
Bonekemper holds a BA from Muhlenberg College, an MA from Old
Dominion University and a JD from Yale Law School and is a retired
commander in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. He is the author of
several Civil War books including, How Robert E. Lee Lost the Civil War , Ulysses S. Grant: A Victor, Not a Butcher: The Military Genius of the Man Who Won the Civil War , McClellan and Failure: A Study of Civil War Fear, Incompetence and Worse , and Grant and Lee: Victorious American and Vanquished Virginian .
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May 16, 2012 - Note later meeting date!!
Ed Bearss
The U.S. Navy at Vicksburg
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 Perhaps the most famous and
recognizable of living Civil War historians, Ed Bearss has appeared
before the CCWRT a dozen times, most recently in 2000, and is an
honorary member. Mr. Bearss began his long career in 1954 working in
the Office of the Chief of Military History, US Army, before moving
over to the Vicksburg National Military Park as historian. While at
Vicksburg, Bearss was instrumental in locating the U.S.S. Cairo and
two forgotten forts at Grand Gulf, MS. In 1958, he was named
Southeast Regional Historian, and worked to develop a variety of new
parks, including Pea Ridge and Wilson's Creek. In 1966, Bearss was
transferred to Washington, D.C., ultimately rising to the position
of Chief Historian of the National Park Service, a role in which he
served from 1981-1994. Following his retirement in 1995, Bearss was
named Chief Historian Emeritus.
In addition to his work at
Vicksburg, Bearss led restoration and preservation efforts at Fort
Smith, Stones River, Fort Donelson, Richmond, Bighorn Canyon, the
Eisenhower Farm at Gettysburg, Chilkoot Pass, the LBJ Ranch, Fort
Moultrie, Fort Point, the William Howard Taft House, Fort Hancock at
the Boston Navy Yard, and the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.
Ed Bearss received his BS from Georgetown University and MA from
Indiana University and is the recipient of several honorary
doctorates. He has published numerous books and articles on the
Civil War including Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War
and Receding Tide: Vicksburg and Gettysburg- The Campaigns That Changed the Civil War
and has appeared on radio and television many times, most
notably and memorably in Ken Burns’ 1989 documentary, “The Civil
War”.
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