Upcoming CCWRT Program…
Wednesday, May 13, 2020 @ 6:30 pm
May Roundtable Meeting Canceled
Message from the President
May 2020
America faced many challenges during the Civil War. Today America faces even more challenges as we deal with the coronavirus. The current conflicts between the authority of the federal government and the states are sadly reminiscent of questions that arose in the 1860’s. As the Roundtable looks to the coming season, the officers and I have been in frequent contact regarding the immediate future of the organization. We hope that all members will read their emails and check our website and Facebook page for updates. Paid members will soon receive an email instructing them on how to vote for the 2020-2021 officers. Please respond as soon as you get the email.
While we hope to return to Judson Manor in September, we are cautious in our expectations. Since Judson is a retirement community its management may continue to limit outside guests for the forceable future. We have investigated and are prepared to change locations if necessary.
Vice President Steve Pettyjohn has worked diligently in preparing for the field trip scheduled for September 25 – 26, 2020. Again, we will keep you posted as to any possible changes.
It has been a pleasure to serve as President of the Roundtable. It was an exciting year and I feel that the team effort made by the officers and executive committee has led to many changes that will lead to a healthy future for the organization. In passing the torch to Steve Pettyjohn I know that the organization will be in strong hands. I plan to continue to work with the officers to do whatever I can to strengthen and perpetuate the legacy of our great organization and the history of the Civil War.
C. Ellen Connally
FULL 2019-20 PROGRAM SCHEDULE>>
Meeting Time: Meetings begin with a social hour at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 and the program at 7:30. Meetings typically end by around 9.
Meeting Location: Meetings are held at Judson Manor (the former Wade Park Manor residential hotel), 1890 E 107th St, Cleveland, OH, at the corner of East 107th Street and Chester, just off University Circle.
Reservations: You must make a dinner reservation for any meeting you plan to attend no later than the Sunday prior to that meeting (so we can give a headcount to the caterer). Make your reservation by sending an email to: 
.
From the Charger
Newsletter of the Cleveland CWRT
- Civil War Photography
By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved The American Civil War was much seen through the cameras of a group of early photographers. The best known was Mathew Brady. Before the war, Brady prospered by doing portraits in his New York City studio. His most…
Read More » - The Irish in the Civil War
By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Introduction On my mother’s German side from Western Pennsylvania, I had a great-grandfather and two of his brothers who served in Pennsylvania volunteer regiments in the Civil War. Even though the Irish on my father’s side had not…
Read More » - Did the Institution of Slavery Cause the Civil War?
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: A debate on the cause or causes of the Civil War was held on January 10, 2007 as part of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable’s monthly meeting. It was an intercollegiate-style debate, i.e., two on…
Read More » - The Constitution Caused the Civil War
By Dan ZeiserThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved Of course, you say, the Constitution caused the Civil War. By recognizing and institutionalizing slavery, the war was inevitable. But this is not the only reason that the Constitution caused the Civil War. There was another, perhaps more…
Read More » - The War that Never Was: Britain, the U.S. and the Trent Affair
By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2000, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the fall of 2000. ____________________________________________ They say when it rains, it pours. And just when the United States was locked in a deadly struggle with…
Read More » - George Washington: Hero of the Confederacy?
By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007 Weider History GroupThis article originally appeared in the October 2004 issue of American History magazine. ____________________________________________ The cost of political greatness, it’s been said, is to be forced to campaign long after your death. That’s certainly true of George Washington,…
Read More » - Five Hundred Dead and a Hoax that Lives On
By Peter HolmanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved One hundred and forty years ago, a man hailed as a modern Robinson Crusoe made a brief appearance in newspapers across the world and continues today to impact genealogists, historical societies and miscellaneous bloggers throughout the world-wide web.…
Read More » - Where is Lincoln Memorial University? What Was One of Lincoln’s Biggest Tactical Errors of the Civil War? What’s the Connection Between The Two?
By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Lincoln Memorial University must be in Illinois or Washington, D.C. or Kentucky, right? No, no, and no, Lincoln Memorial University is in one of the strongest of Confederate states, Tennessee. Ah, but located where in Confederate state of…
Read More » - Lincoln and the Black Hawk War
By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2004, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from a chapter of Dale Thomas’s book, Lincoln’s Old Friends of Menard County, Illinois. After his failure to win the Whig nomination for Congress in 1843, Lincoln wrote to a political…
Read More » - Lincoln and Cleveland
By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2003, All Rights Reserved ____________________________________________ Artemus Ward In 1857, Charles Farrar Brown became the local editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and began to write articles about an itinerant showman named Artemus Ward. Later moving on to Vanity Fair in New York…
Read More » - The Proclamation That Saved a Nation
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved Contents Introduction Genesis The Proclamation Interpretations Effects The Thirteenth Amendment ____________________________________________ I. Introduction The Emancipation Proclamation is probably the strangest document in American history; strange because it is susceptible of at least three interpretations which appear to…
Read More » - Lincoln’s Assassination: Three Riddles
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article is excerpted from a book on the Lincoln assassination by the author, Decapitating the Union: Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin and the Plot to Assassinate Lincoln ____________________________________________ The First Riddle: What Was the Name…
Read More » - Johnson’s Island
By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2002, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in The Charger in March, 2002. ____________________________________________ During Career Day at Bay High School in 1990, Professor David R. Bush talked to my students about archaeology. He invited me to observe…
Read More » - Lincoln Visits Cleveland
By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the spring of 2002. ____________________________________________ On the way to Washington, three days after his 53rd birthday, President-elect Abraham Lincoln stopped overnight in Cleveland for his only visit…
Read More » - James McPherson Speaks On Lincoln
By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2000, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: James M. McPherson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, amongst other Civil War books, spoke at The Western Reserve Historical Society in April 2000. This report on McPherson’s talk by then…
Read More » - Mr. Lincoln at 200
By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This is adapted from an article that originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of The Charger. ____________________________________________ In February we honor all those who have served as President of the United States. By coincidence,…
Read More » - Booth in the Confederate Secret Service
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved John Wilkes Booth was an agent of the Confederate Secret Service. It is not known, and may never be known, when or exactly under what circumstances he was recruited and accepted his role as such, but that…
Read More » - Lincoln and History
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved I am of the opinion that major historical events, and some minor ones too, occur only in the fullness of time, which is to say that they occur only when conditions are ripe for their happening. Attempts…
Read More » - On Inconvenient Truth and Convenient Fiction
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: John C. Fazio is a past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and the author of numerous articles on the Lincoln assassination as well as the book, Decapitating the Union: Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin…
Read More » - The Fox and the Hedgehog: The Hampton Roads Conference
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Just east of Petersburg Virginia – near the rim of “The Crater” on Sunday, January 29, 1865 – a white flag appeared on the Confederate side of the lines. A delegation of commissioners from Jefferson Davis (Alexander Stephens,…
Read More » - Abraham Lincoln and the Case of the Altered Almanac
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2006, All Rights Reserved Abraham Lincoln an unscrupulous lawyer? That was one of the charges made against him in his senatorial race against Steven Douglas and later again in his run for the presidency. Lincoln, so it was claimed, had altered the…
Read More » - “The Prince of Rails”: Robert Todd Lincoln
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2004, All Rights Reserved Robert Todd Lincoln – “Bob” to his family and friends – was dubbed the “Prince of Rails” during his “Railsplitter” father’s 1860 campaign for president, after a visit to this country by England’s Prince of Wales. Robert was…
Read More » - Abraham Lincoln: There’s Nothing Trivial About Him
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2003, All Rights Reserved This April (2003) marks the 138th anniversary of the assassination of our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. Here are some random facts and figures in the life of this great American guaranteed to tell you something about him you…
Read More » - I Escaped with John Wilkes Booth
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved I escaped with John Wilkes Booth – a bit of an exaggeration since he escaped from Washington, DC – after assassinating President Lincoln – in 1865 and I did it in 2006, along with my son Rick and…
Read More » - Lincoln at Gettysburg
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2006, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The article below is the transcript of a speech given by the author to the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in November 2006. ____________________________________________ I’m honored to speak tonight on…
Read More » - Notes On the 2012 Lincoln Forum
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The Lincoln Forum (www.thelincolnforum.org) is an organization that “endeavors to enhance the understanding and preserve the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.” Founded in 1995, the Forum meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on…
Read More » - The Lincoln Forum – 2010
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The Lincoln Forum (www.thelincolnforum.org) is an organization that “endeavors to enhance the understanding and preserve the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.” Founded in 1995, the Forum meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on…
Read More » - The Lincoln Forum – 2009
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The Lincoln Forum (www.thelincolnforum.org) is an organization that “endeavors to enhance the understanding and preserve the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.” Founded in 1995, the Forum meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on…
Read More » - The Lincoln Forum – 2008
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The Lincoln Forum (www.thelincolnforum.org) is an organization that “endeavors to enhance the understanding and preserve the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.” Founded in 1995, the Forum meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on…
Read More » - Three Days in Gettysburg with Lincoln: The Lincoln Forum – 2007
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The Lincoln Forum (www.thelincolnforum.org) is an organization that “endeavors to enhance the understanding and preserve the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.” Founded in 1995, the Forum meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on…
Read More » - The Essential Lincoln Bookshelf
By Mel Maurer and William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved We will not be surprised if everyone who comes to this web page shouts, “Fools! With at least 16,000 books on Abraham Lincoln written over the years, how could anyone hope to boil them…
Read More » - The Lincoln Legacy: The Man and His Presidency
By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved Tony Kushner, screenwriter of Steven Spielberg’s movie Lincoln, and Sarah Vowell, author of Assassination Vacation, appeared at the Maltz Center on November 29 as part of Case Western Reserve University’s Think Forum speaker series. CWRU Prof. Jerrold…
Read More » - Lincoln’s Suspension of Habeas Corpus
By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved This article addresses President Abraham Lincoln’s wartime suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus and recounts the cases of John Merryman, Clement Vallandigham, and Lambdin Milligan. The cast of characters includes many Ohioans. Suspension of the Writ of…
Read More » - Jesse James – The Last Rebel of the Civil War?
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: The article below is the text from Mel Maurer’s presentation to the Roundtable on May 14, 2008. ____________________________________________ “Jesse James,” said Carl Sandburg, “is the only American who is classical, who is to this country what…
Read More » - Wounded Lion: U.S. Grant’s Last Campaign
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved Ulysses S. Grant, his wife, Julia, and their family had always enjoyed their annual vacations at their summer home on the beach in New Jersey. However, the summer of 1884 would be different from all the rest. As…
Read More » - Balthasar Best and the American Dream
By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved I was first introduced to Balthasar (also Balthazar) Best by his great grandson, Bill Lasswell, almost two years ago (2003) on the battlefield at Gettysburg. My grandson, Eric, and I had just parked near the Pennsylvania Monument on…
Read More » - Andersonville’s “Clerk of the Dead”
By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Civil War prison Andersonville was only in operation for fourteen months, but is considered the most notorious United States prison. During this short period of just over a year of operation, 45,000 Union soldiers would suffer miserably and…
Read More » - An Ancestor at Shiloh
By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2001, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2001. I did not have any ancestors who fought in the Civil War since they were still back in Europe, but my wife,…
Read More » - Officer Profiles: Short Biographical Sketches of Civil War Officers
The Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Contents Turner Ashby Nathaniel Prentiss Banks Braxton Bragg Don Carlos Buell John Bell Hood James Hewett Ledlie Irvin McDowell John Pemberton Strong Vincent John Thomas Wilder Henry Wirz Henry Alexander Wise Editor’s Note: This page contains a collection of brief…
Read More » - The Peter Principle and George B. McClellan
By Dan ZeiserThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved We are all familiar with the business theory known as the “Peter Principle.” According to this concept, a person continues to rise in an organization until he or she reaches a level that requires more ability than the…
Read More » - The Most Effective Political General
By Dan ZeiserThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2006, All Rights Reserved The debate has raged for decades. Was it George H. Thomas, Ulysses Grant, Robert E. Lee, William T. Sherman, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson? Each of us has his or her favorite. There are good arguments for those mentioned above…
Read More » - The Most Overrated General
By Dan ZeiserThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Yes, I’m from Ohio. And yes, I love to point out the great accomplishments of fellow Buckeyes. And there is no doubt that he was a key player in the Civil War – one that we Buckeyes love…
Read More » - Ulysses Grant: Dual Personality?
By Dan ZeiserThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved I have often thought that Ulysses Grant exhibited far different command skills in the West than he did in the East during the Civil War. Generally, my thoughts were that Grant used maneuver much better in the West…
Read More » - Was Jefferson Davis the Reason the Confederacy Lost the War?
By Dick Crews The Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2004, All Rights Reserved Jefferson Davis would have described himself as a loyal American. His heroes were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, James Madison, and Zachary Taylor. All these American heroes were Presidents, Southerners, and slave owners. His heroes founded…
Read More » - The Civil War’s #1 Pain in the Butt: The Life of William G. “Parson” Brownlow
By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the fall of 2000. ____________________________________________ William G. Brownlow, civil war editor and preacher was called by everyone “Parson Brownlow.” He was the editor/owner of the Knoxville, Tennessee…
Read More » - John C. Breckinridge – He Should Have Been Hanged
By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the fall of 2000. ____________________________________________ The most well-known person from the Civil War to be hanged for war crimes was Henry Wirz. He was the commandant of…
Read More » - The Angry Abolitionist – William Lloyd Garrison
By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2001, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2001. ____________________________________________ Prior to the Civil War, and indeed during the War, people continually talked about the Abolitionists. Southerners of course hated them…
Read More » - An Uncivil War: General George G. Meade & the Pennsylvania Reserves in Northern Virginia, October 9 to December 6, 1861
By Peter HolmanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2004, All Rights Reserved When the news of the surrender of Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861 was telegraphed to Michigan, Captain George Gordon Meade of the U.S. Topographical Bureau anticipated early relief from the remote duty of surveying northern lakes and…
Read More » - The Underground Railroad in Ohio
By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2019-2020, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Our speaker this evening will be focusing on Colored Troops during the Civil War. As…
Read More » - What was Happening during the Civil War on or about Lincoln’s February 12th Birthday?
By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2019-2020, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2020 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Since this month’s regular meeting falls on Lincoln’s birthday it was thought appropriate to highlight…
Read More » - The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou: Grant’s First Attempt to Vanquish Vicksburg
By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2019-2020, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The “war was won in the West” – or so they say – and has…
Read More » - The Second Battle of Corinth and the Start of the Vicksburg Campaign
By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2019-2020, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ We pick up from my September 11, 2019 history brief, with Confederate General Price maneuvering…
Read More » - “The Civil War Was Won in the West” – or so they say
By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2019-2020, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ On September 11, 1862, it could be said that the North was doing well and…
Read More » - The Rock of Chickamauga
By Matt SlatteryThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the Fall of 2000. ____________________________________________ In the winning of battles no other commander in the Civil War, North or South, equaled the slow moving, keen-minded Virginian, George…
Read More » - Giuseppe Garibaldi, General-In-Chief, U.S. Army?
by E. Chris EvansThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved Is the idea of the great Italian revolutionary warrior Giuseppe Garibaldi trading in his famous red shirt for a Union officer’s blue frock coat incredible? Is the idea improbable, even impossible, especially since this man would be…
Read More » - William H. Seward and Civil War Diplomacy
By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: This article is the transcript of a presentation made by the author to the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable on March 8, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. ____________________________________________ Abraham Lincoln, elected President of the United States in…
Read More » - Intrepid Mariners: John Winslow of the USS Kearsarge & Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved March 9 to 27, 1847. Polk’s nasty little war of conquest against our southern neighbor was on. (“We had to have California.”) This was the war that Ulysses S. Grant would later characterize, in his Memoirs, as…
Read More » - A Brief Sketch of the Life and Death of Lt. Simeon W. Cummings
By Peter HolmanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved The Confederate raider CSS Alabama put in at Saldanha Bay in the Cape Colony (Western Cape in present day South Africa), 160 sea miles northwest of Cape Town on July 29th 1863. Captain Rafael Semmes’ vessel was desperately…
Read More » - George Crook
By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved Introduction Ohio general George Crook had one of the most adventurous and interesting Civil War and post-Civil War military careers. This included participation in many of the major battles of the Civil War (both East and West), acrimonious…
Read More » - Jacob Dolson Cox
By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014, All Rights Reserved As Eugene Schmiel concludes in his biography of Jacob Dolson Cox, he was a Renaissance Man in the Gilded Age. Schmiel recounts his many pursuits as a Citizen-General. These include his life as a lawyer, politician, corporate executive,…
Read More » - The Sword Was Mightier Than the Pen
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2002, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in December, 2002. ____________________________________________ A funny thing happened on the way to Atlanta. The warriors – William Tecumseh Sherman, 43, lean, tough, methodical, ruthlessly efficient and…
Read More » - Family Reminiscences of the Confederacy
By Bishop Beverly TuckerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2001, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The article below is a transcript of a talk given to the Roundtable on October 19,1959 by the Rt. Reverend Beverly Tucker, PhD, Bishop of the Episcopal Church of Northeast Ohio. The talk was…
Read More » - Making a Covenant with Death: Slavery and the Constitutional Convention
by Dr. Paul FinkelmanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: Dr. Paul Finkelman is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy and Senior Fellow in the Government Law Center at Albany Law School, Albany, New York. He has published over twenty…
Read More » - The Barlow-Gordon Controversy: Rest In Peace
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: An abbreviated version of this article along with biographical sketches of Francis and Arabella Barlow and John and Fanny Gordon first appeared in the Charger in 2005 and then in 2006 on this website. The…
Read More » - John and Fanny – A Love Story
John C. FazioThe Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2006, All Rights Reserved All right, I admit it. I’m an incurable romantic. I love those touching, poignant scenes that reflect the best that is in us, if not always the strongest. I’m talking about Spencer Tracy grabbing John Carradine’s shirt, under his…
Read More » - Francis and Arabella – A Love Story
John C. FazioThe Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2006, All Rights Reserved The Civil War is filled with touching, poignant, human interest stories, which is not surprising given the human drama that comprised this American Iliad. Examples abound of men who had cushy private lives and could therefore have easily avoided…
Read More » - Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: Scholar, Citizen, Soldier
By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from the presentation William Vodrey made before the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable in February, 2006. Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1974 novel The Killer Angels and the movie Gettysburg reintroduced a new…
Read More » - Lovejoy of Illinois
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved In a very real sense, the Civil War’s first casualty fell not at Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861 (Pvt. David Hough, killed during a post-bombardment salute to Old Glory), or even in Alexandria, Virginia, on May…
Read More » - A Report On: American Queen: The Rise and Fall of Kate Chase Sprague, Civil War “Belle of the North” By John Oller
By Jean RhodesThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved Katherine Jane Chase, the daughter of Ohio politician, Salmon P. Chase was the envy of the Washington social set during the war years and beyond. By the time Kate was born on August 13, 1840, her father had…
Read More » - Scenes from The Fighting McCooks
By Barbara and Charles WhalenThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: The ‘scenes’ that make up this article were excerpted from The Fighting McCooks – America’s Famous Fighting Family by Barbara and Charles Whalen and appear here through the courtesy of the authors. ____________________________________________ It…
Read More » - Andersonville’s Whirlpool of Death
By Dr. Max R. TermanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: The following excerpt comes from the recently published novel Hiram’s Honor: Reliving Private Terman’s Civil War by Max R. Terman and appears here through the courtesy of the author. (Another excerpt from this book…
Read More » - The Great Battle of Gettysburg
By Dr. Max R. TermanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: The following is a second excerpt from the recently published novel Hiram’s Honor: Reliving Private Terman’s Civil War by Max R. Terman and appears here through the courtesy of the author. (The first excerpt…
Read More » - “The Rebels are Upon Us”
The 1864 Confederate Invasion of Maryland,The Battle of Monocacy, and Jubal Early’s Move on Washington, D.C. By Marc LeepsonThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from Marc Leepson’s book, Desperate Engagement: How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and…
Read More » - When Miles Met Davis
By Clint JohnsonThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: Clint Johnson is the author of a dozen Civil War-related books. His latest, Pursuit: The Chase, Capture, Persecution and Surprising Release of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, will be published in June 2008. This article is adapted…
Read More » - Blood in the Streets: The New York City Draft Riots
By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2003, 2010, All Rights Reserved The New York City Draft Riots of July 13-16, 1863, were by some measures the most bloody and devastating riots in American history. At a time when the Civil War was raging on battlefields, rivers and…
Read More » - The Madness of Mary Lincoln
By Jason EmersonThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from Jason Emerson’s book, The Madness of Mary Lincoln (2007, Southern Illinois University Press), recently named “Book of Year” by the Illinois State Historical Society, and appears here through the courtesy of…
Read More » - In the Shadow of the Civil War: Passmore Williamson and the Rescue of Jane Johnson
By Nat Brandt with Yanna Kroyt BrandtThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from the book In the Shadow of the Civil War: Passmore Williamson and the Rescue of Jane Johnson and appears here through the courtesy of the authors. ____________________________________________…
Read More » - Why Grant Won and Lee Lost
By Edward H. Bonekemper, IIIThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: Edward H. Bonekemper is the author of several Civil War books. His latest, Grant and Lee: Victorious American and Vanquished Virginian, was published in 2007 by Greenwood Praeger. This article is an excerpt from…
Read More » - Lincoln and Grant: The Westerners Who Won the Civil War
By Edward W. Bonekemper, IIIThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: Edward H. Bonekemper is the author of several Civil War books. This article is an excerpt from the introduction to his latest book, Lincoln and Grant: The Westerners Who Won the Civil War, and…
Read More » - Blood, Tears, and Glory
By Dr. James H. Bissland The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from Dr. James Bissland’s latest book, Blood, Tears, & Glory: How Ohioans Won the Civil War, published in 2007, and appears here through the courtesy of the…
Read More » - Decisive Battles of the Civil War? None
By Greg BiggsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: Greg Briggs has authored or co-authored several books and many articles on the Civil War. He has held executive positions with several Civil War Roundtables and preservation and historical societies and is a member of the…
Read More » - Fort Pillow and Ball’s Bluff: A Response
By Greg Biggs The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable Copyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: Greg Briggs has authored or co-authored several books and many articles on the Civil War. He has held executive positions with several Civil War Roundtables and preservation and historical societies and is a member…
Read More » - My Thoughts Be Bloody
Prologue: The Players By Nora Titone The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable Copyright © 2010 by Nora Titone, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from the book My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry That Led to the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Nora Titone and appears…
Read More » - Confederate Complicity in the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln – Part 4
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved This is the final installment in a four-part series by past Roundtable President John Fazio reviewing the current scholarship on the question of whether John Wilkes Booth and his band of conspirators, in their attempt to behead…
Read More » - Confederate Complicity in the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln – Part 3
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved This is the third installment in a four-part series by past Roundtable President John Fazio reviewing the current scholarship on the question of whether John Wilkes Booth and his band of conspirators, in their attempt to behead…
Read More » - Confederate Complicity in the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln – Part 2
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved This is the second installment in a four-part series by past Roundtable President John Fazio reviewing the current scholarship on the question of whether John Wilkes Booth and his band of conspirators, in their attempt to behead…
Read More » - Confederate Complicity in the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln – Part 1
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved In this four-part series, past Roundtable President John Fazio reviews the current scholarship on the question of whether John Wilkes Booth and his band of conspirators, in their attempt to behead the Union government, acted independently or…
Read More » - On Trees and Forests: Correcting History’s View of J. Wilkes Booth
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: John C. Fazio is a past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and the author of numerous articles on the Lincoln assassination as well as the book, Decapitating the Union: Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin…
Read More » - The Search for the Lost Confederate Gold
By Hans KuenziThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved In late May 1861, Jefferson Davis, the former Mississippi Senator and the reluctant president of the seceding Confederate States of America, moved the capital of the CSA from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, Virginia to boost the morale of…
Read More » - Famous Last Words
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Clark W. Griswold, Sr. in the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation: “I’m retiring.” Retired NFL…
Read More » - The Pemberton Who Succeeded
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Raise a glass of the bubbly to toast the bubbly. Not champagne, but America’s beverage:…
Read More » - Man, Not Myth
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The topic of the presentation at the April 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War…
Read More » - Preston Brooks’ Caning Collaborator
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ In the years leading up to the Civil War, feelings of hostility were high on…
Read More » - Europe’s Artistic Ambassador to the Post-Civil War United States
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The last painting from life that was made of Robert E. Lee was done in…
Read More » - Compassionate Confederate
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ “War is all hell.” “War is cruelty and you cannot refine it.” These words of…
Read More » - All Her Hopes
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2011 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The phrase “fratricidal war” has been used to describe the Civil War as a way…
Read More » - General Slocum and the General Slocum
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2011 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Sometimes connections to the Civil War are convoluted and unexpected. For example, if Civil War…
Read More » - Forgotten Heroes
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2011 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. William Tecumseh Sherman…
Read More » - The Rising of the Sun and of Gods
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the June 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ One of the truly enjoyable aspects of the Civil War is the memorable quotes that…
Read More » - Dear to Democracy
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ I am nervous every time I present one of these history briefs, because I know…
Read More » - The Highest Ranking Officer in the Confederate Army
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ One interesting bit of trivia about the Civil War is the identity of the highest…
Read More » - The Other Star Spangled Banner
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ At the time of the Civil War neither side, Union or Confederate, had an official…
Read More » - The Social Network of Civil War Dead
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ In October 2012 Facebook announced with great fanfare that its social network had exceeded one…
Read More » - Two Lost Causes
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ In 1995 the U.S. Post Office issued a series of stamps to commemorate the Civil…
Read More » - A Musical Historical First
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ What do the following historical figures have in common: Ferdinand Magellan, Roger Bannister, Yuri Gagarin,…
Read More » - The Only Man to Beat Robert E. Lee in an Even Fight
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ There are some who consider Robert E. Lee the greatest military leader of the Civil…
Read More » - Well-Known Obscure Places
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ There is a joke about the Civil War which asks the question, “Why were so…
Read More » - Robert E. Lee’s Invasion of Ohio
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ People with even a little knowledge of the Civil War likely know that Robert E.…
Read More » - Rosie the Riveter and the Bloodiest Day in American Military History
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ During World War II many American women worked in factories to produce materiel for the…
Read More » - The Day Rosie the Riveter Died
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ One of the most iconic images from World War II is Rosie the Riveter. It…
Read More » - The Last U.S. President Who was a Slaveholder
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ One interesting piece of Civil War-related trivia is the last U.S. president who was a…
Read More » - Adversaries under the Same Flag
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The honor system is something that is familiar to almost everyone. It is defined as…
Read More » - John C. Calhoun’s Other Tomb
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Many people share the blame that there was not a peaceful resolution of the issues…
Read More » - The Other Gettysburg Orator
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ “Four score and seven years ago.” With this creative phrasing of the age of the…
Read More » - The Major General Who Wasn’t
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ If at first you don’t succeed, find a career in something that you’re good at.…
Read More » - The First Confederate Invasion of Ohio
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ On June 6, 1863, General John Hunt Morgan and over 2,000 Confederate cavalrymen left McMinnville,…
Read More » - The First, and Second, Battles of Selma
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ On May 13, 1865 the last battle of the Civil War came to an end,…
Read More » - A Doubly Exemplary Singular Civil War Accomplishment
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ To paraphrase Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to…
Read More » - One War at a Time, Again: The Chesapeake Affair
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ During the Civil War the United States Navy committed a maritime violation of British sovereignty,…
Read More » - The Other Thirteenth Amendment(s)
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The acclaimed movie Lincoln focuses on passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. But before this Thirteenth…
Read More » - The Decisive Battle of the Civil War: An Unlikely Nomination
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ One of the topics that Civil War enthusiasts enjoy debating is the question of which…
Read More » - On to Richmond!
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ On to Richmond! This was the battle cry in the North at the beginning of…
Read More » - The Fabricated Letter of Robert E. Lee
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Anyone who has an email account has received them: those forwarded emails that relate some…
Read More » - The Civil War, Chapter 17, Verses 1-51
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and Saul and the men of Israel…
Read More » - Repositioning History’s Demarcations
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ In the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, a projectile from a cannon that…
Read More » - The Medical “Rebellion” within the Union Army
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Anyone who has watched television in Cleveland has almost certainly seen one of the commercials…
Read More » - The Best Confederate General from the Buckeye State
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ In 2012 the sports website Bleacher Report published its choices for the best player ever…
Read More » - Erin’s Spartans in Gray
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Rightly or wrongly, some months of the year in the U.S. are dominated by a…
Read More » - The Slave Who Captained the Ship to His Freedom
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ There is an old joke that is intended to convey the lesson that in order…
Read More » - Whose Maryland?
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The opening lines of the official state song of what was once one of the…
Read More » - Some Other South Carolina Rebels Who Fought for Secession
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Near the end of the movie Glory there is a depiction of the attack by…
Read More » - Six Degrees of Simon Bolivar Buckner
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ A popular movie trivia game is Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The object of the…
Read More » - A Civil War Greek Tragedy
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ “In times of peace sons bury their fathers; in times of war fathers bury their…
Read More » - A Civil War First, or Not
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ If a person-on-the-street quiz were done in Cleveland, and the participants were asked to name…
Read More » - The Southbound Underground Railroad
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The Civil War has been called the first modern war, because many innovations that had…
Read More » - “The Rest of the Story”
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ “And now you know the rest of the story.” This is the tagline that was…
Read More » - Destiny Personified
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Destiny is defined as “the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person in…
Read More » - Rosa Parks’ Historical Rhyme
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ There is a witty quote about history repeating itself, which conveys the notion that history…
Read More » - A Hanukkah Gift for All Americans
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ American men who were born between 1944 and 1950 were automatically entered into the first…
Read More » - The Union Army’s NBA Regiment
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Prior to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ astonishing and (dare it be said) historic championship that they…
Read More » - The First First Lady
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ September 14, 2016 was the date of the first meeting in the presidency of the…
Read More » - Abraham Lincoln’s Little-Known Important Legacy
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ One stereotypical expression that is associated with a life-threatening experience is to say that his…
Read More » - Marching Home to the Beat of a Purloined Melody
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ On August 31, 1976 a district court in New York City ruled that former Beatle…
Read More » - A Life Flavored with Sweet Vanilla and Bitter Injustice
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ According to a recent survey by the International Dairy Foods Association, the best-selling flavor of…
Read More » - Two Wars at a Time: The War within the Civil War
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ On September 4, 1957, Ford Motor Company introduced a car that it predicted would revolutionize…
Read More » - It’s a Wonderful Connection
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ When the calendar moves to December, among the things we can count on are cold…
Read More » - The Enemy Within: The Confederate Invasion of the White House
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Not surprisingly, whenever Confederate military forces invaded the North, feelings of fear and anxiety were…
Read More » - What I did on my Summer Vacation
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The stereotypical first assignment for students who are returning to school after the summer is…
Read More » - The History that the Victors Chose Not to Write
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ There is a well-known axiom that all is fair in love and war, or, as…
Read More » - America, Love it or Leave it
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ America, love it or leave it. People who lived during the 1960s are familiar with…
Read More » - The First Memorial Day
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Near the end of May, we in the U.S. participate in an annual remembrance of…
Read More » - Sealed with a Kiss
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The word sarcasm comes from an ancient Greek word that literally means to tear the…
Read More » - The Man Whose Torpedoes Farragut Damned
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ One of the most famous quotes in U.S. naval history purportedly occurred at the battle…
Read More » - The Chief Chemist of the Confederacy
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The statement, “An army marches on its stomach,” has been attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, but…
Read More » - Like Father, Like Son…or Not
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ I remember when I was much younger, maybe age 12, my father took my brother…
Read More » - The Most Fulfilling Kind of Immortality
By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ In its most basic sense, immortality simply means to live forever. However, there are several…
Read More » - A Review of Pickett’s Charge: A New Look at Gettysburg’s Final Attack by Phillip Thomas Tucker
By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved Historian Phillip Thomas Tucker claims about the Pickett-Pettigrew Charge on the third day at Gettysburg: According to Tucker, Lee’s plan was to have simultaneous assaults not only by the Pickett-Pettigrew force accompanied by flying artillery and follow-up reinforcements…
Read More » - Some Thoughts on the Removal of Southern Civil War-Related Symbols
By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved The recent dismantling and removal of Southern statuary, monuments and other symbols relating to the Civil War and its aftermath has, not surprisingly, generated a lot of heat between those favoring the same and those opposed. It…
Read More » - Civil War Travelogue
A Visit to Fort Jackson By Paul SiedelThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved Another Civil War site off the beaten path and one that is well worth visiting is the National Historic site incorporating Fort Jackson at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Fort Jackson is…
Read More » - Wilson’s 1865 Raid
By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved On March 22, 1865, 13,480 Yankee cavalry in three divisions left their camps at Eastport, Alabama on the south shore of the Tennessee River for the biggest raid of the Civil War. Armed with Spencer carbines whose purchase…
Read More » - Jubal Early: Lee’s Bad Old Man
By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved Edward H. Bonekemper III, our September 2017 speaker on “The Myth of the Lost Cause”, writes of Jubal Early in his 2015 book: Early, who faltered at Gettysburg, lost the Shenandoah Valley and his corps, been relieved of…
Read More » - Lee’s Daughters
By David A. Carrino The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable Copyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved Part 1 of a 6-part series Prior to the Civil War, the four daughters of Robert E. and Mary Lee lived idyllic lives in a home with beautifully scenic surroundings, and they looked forward to…
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