We are pleased to present the 2021-2022 Cleveland Civil War Roundtable program schedule. This year’s schedule provides an interesting mix of published authors and scholars who will discuss a variety of topics related to the Civil War.
CLEVELAND CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE 2021-2022 PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Location of the Meetings:
Holiday Inn, 6001 Rockside Road, Independence, Ohio 44131
In-person meetings have resumed for the 2021-2022 season, and barring any future pandemic-related restrictions, we anticipate all of the 2021-2022 meetings will be held in person.
September 8, 2021
“Ohio Units at the Battle of Antietam”
Speaker: Dan Welch
Dan Welch currently serves as a primary and secondary educator with a public school district in Northeast Ohio. Previously Dan was the education programs coordinator for the Gettysburg Foundation, the non-profit partner of Gettysburg National Military Park, and continues to serve as a seasonal park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park. Welch received his B.A. in instrumental music education from Youngstown State University and M.A. in military history with a Civil War era concentration at American Military University. Welch has also studied under the tutelage of Dr. Allen C. Guelzo as part of the Gettysburg Semester at Gettysburg College. His first book, The Last Road North: A Guide to the Gettysburg Campaign, 1863, was released as part of the Emerging Civil War Series in June 2016. He currently resides with his wife, Sarah, in Boardman, Ohio.
September 23-26, 2021
Annual field trip: The 2021 field trip is to Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge. The plan is to spend one day at Chickamauga and one day at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. September 23 and 26 are travel days to and from the site of the field trip.
Further details about the field trip can be found on the home page.
October 13, 2021
“McClellan, the Peninsula, and the Navy”
Speaker: Professor Craig Symonds
Craig L. Symonds is the Ernest J. King Distinguished Professor of Maritime History at the U.S. Naval War College and Professor Emeritus of History at the U.S. Naval Academy. Professor Symonds received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Florida. He served as Professor of Strategy at the Britannia Royal Naval College from 1994 to 1995.
During a 30-year teaching career at the U.S. Naval Academy, Professor Symonds served a four-year term as department chair and held the Class of 1957 Distinguished Chair of Naval Heritage from 2011 to 2012. He was the first person to win both the Class of 1951 Civilian Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Civilian Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, and he also received the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award on three occasions.
Professor Symonds is the author or editor of 29 books, including prize-winning biographies of Civil War figures Joseph E. Johnston, Patrick Cleburne, and Franklin Buchanan. His book Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize in Naval History. He also wrote Lincoln and His Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War, which won the Benjamin Barondess Award, the Daniel M. & Marilyn W. Laney Prize, the John Lyman Book Award, the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, and the Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award.
More recently, Professor Symonds has focused on World War II naval issues. His books on the subject include The Battle of Midway, World War II at Sea: A Global History, and Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings (which won both the Commodore John Barry Book Award and the RADM Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature). Additionally, Professor Symonds received the Nevins-Freeman Award in 2009 and the Commodore Dudley W. Knox Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
November 10, 2021
“Jefferson Davis as Leader of the Southern War Effort”
Speaker: Professor Mary DeCredico
Dr. Mary A. DeCredico is Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where she has taught since 1986. Dr. DeCredico received her B.A. from Bucknell University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her specialty is the Civil War era and the Confederacy. Dr. DeCredico’s first book, Patriotism for Profit: Georgia’s Urban Entrepreneurs and the Confederate War Effort, received the Museum of the Confederacy’s Jefferson Davis Award for outstanding scholarship on the Confederacy. She has also written Mary Boykin Chestnut: A Confederate Woman’s Life, which is in its second printing, as well as several articles and book chapters. Her latest current project, Richmond Goes to War, 1861-1865, has also been published.
Dr. DeCredico also serves as a member of the editorial board of the Georgia Historical Quarterly and the Naval Civil War Museum Advisory Board. Dr. DeCredico has been awarded the Department of the Navy’s Meritorious Civilian Service Medal twice and the Department of the Navy’s Superior Civilian Service Medal twice. She was also chosen as one of 36 individuals to be recognized by the Secretary of the Navy to be profiled in a special exhibit celebrating the Navy and diversity at the Pentagon in 2012. Dr. DeCredico has been a member of the Board of Directors and the Advisory Council of the National Civil War Museum, the Georgia Historical Society, the Southern Historical Association, the Museum of the Confederacy, and the Society of Civil War Historians.
December 8, 2021
“J.E.B. Stuart and the Gettysburg Campaign”
Speaker: Eric Wittenberg, Esq.
Eric J. Wittenberg is an award-winning historian, blogger, speaker, and tour guide. His specialty is Civil War cavalry operations, and much of his work has focused on the Gettysburg Campaign. He is the author of 18 published books on the Civil War and more than three dozen articles that have appeared in various national magazines. He is also deeply involved in battlefield preservation work and often assists the Civil War Trust with its efforts. In addition, he is a member of the Governor of Ohio’s Advisory Commission on the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War.
Eric is a native of southeastern Pennsylvania and was educated at Dickinson College and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He is an attorney in private practice. He and his wife, Susan, and their three golden retrievers reside in Columbus, Ohio.
January 12, 2022
Annual Dick Crews Debate – “Fired But Not Forgotten: Of all the Civil War generals and flag officers relieved of command, subjected to a court-martial, or otherwise disciplined by superiors, which of them least deserved his fate?”
Moderator: William F.B. Vodrey
General and flag officers, both Union and Confederate, were often relieved of their duties or commands, subjected to courts-martial and/or boards of inquiry, or otherwise the subjects of adverse disciplinary proceedings for their conduct on, and sometimes off, the battlefield. The list is long, but arguably begins with Irwin McDowell following the First Battle of Bull Run and includes such luminaries as Flag Officer Samuel F. DuPont.
Apart from U.S. Grant and William T. Sherman, which Civil War officer was the least deserving of the discipline he received from superiors?
Debaters will each make his or her case to the assembled multitude attending the January 2022 meeting. The winner, chosen by majority vote of members and guests attending, will, of course, receive fabulous prizes.
February 9, 2022
“War in the West: Battle of Glorieta Pass”
Speakers: Lynn and Julianne Herman
Lynn and Julianne Herman have presented programs to Civil War Roundtables on their Civil War travels. These include Civil War in the Far, Far West, Civil War Florida, Tragedy in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania – The Allegheny Arsenal Explosion, and The New Mexico Campaign and the Battle of Glorieta Pass, the Gettysburg of the West.
Lynn Herman is the former State Representative in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives serving the 77th Legislative District, largely Philipsburg, Port Matilda, and State College areas of Centre County for 24 years (1983 – 2006). He is currently a Government Relations/Business Development Consultant and President of Hometown Sports Magazine. Julianne Herman is retired after 45 years employed as a Registered Nurse in the Operating Room, graduating from St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing. She currently serves as Secretary on the Pennsylvania Military Museum Board of Directors and as Chairperson of the Friends of the Pennsylvania Military Museum Speakers Series. Both Mr. and Mrs. Herman are Civil War re-enactors and share an interest and passion for all American history. They have served the Central Pennsylvania Civil War Round Table for several years as president and secretary, respectively.
March 9, 2022
“Grant at City Point”
Speaker: Professor Derek Maxfield
Derek Maxfield is an associate professor of history at Genesee Community
College in Batavia, New York, where he is also coordinator of the college’s
Historical Horizons Lecture Series. In 2013 Maxfield was awarded the SUNY
Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities for
his work coordinating the college’s programs related to the Civil War
sesquicentennial, which included a lecture series, annual encampment, essay
contests, and more.
Professor Maxfield holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from SUNY Cortland and a Master of Arts degree from Villanova University. He is also a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Buffalo, where he is ABD (all but dissertation). Among Professor Maxfield’s research interests are 19th century politics and culture, especially Victorian death ways and the Civil War.
April 13, 2022
“Mrs. Slater and the Lincoln Conspiracy”
Speaker: Bob O’Connor
Bob O’Connor is a historian, researcher, and the author of 18 Civil War books. He lives in Charles Town, West Virginia, is now retired, and writes full-time. His literary interests and projects include subjects and characters not widely known in the Civil War field. Mr. O’Connor has been named finalist four times in national book competitions.
His topic for this presentation is Sarah Slater, a mysterious Southern lady who always wore a mourning veil over her face. She was a confidant of John Surratt, Jr., one of the alleged Lincoln assassination conspirators. Sarah Slater operated as a message courier between the Confederate government and its Secret Service office in Montreal. She is mentioned by several witnesses in the Lincoln Conspiracy trials, but there is a great deal of confusion about their testimony. No one can describe her. Federal authorities investigating the Lincoln assassination arrested Sarah Slater and questioned her, but released her and thereby allowed her to disappear.
May 11, 2022
“Admiral Farragut and the Battle of Mobile Bay”
Speaker: Professor Bruce Tucker
Professor Tucker currently teaches history, political science, and film classes at Rutgers University’s School of Continuing Education Osher Life Long Learning Institute. Bruce holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history & political science from the City University of New York and a Master of Science degree in information systems & project management from Stevens Institute of Hoboken, New Jersey.
Bruce is also a Living Historian who presents first person historical impressions and presentations of noted figures in American naval history, including Admiral David Farragut. His performances have delighted and entertained many groups in museums, schools, synagogues, libraries and senior centers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware.
Click on any of the book links on this page to purchase from Amazon. Part of the proceeds from any book purchased from Amazon through the CCWRT website is returned to the CCWRT to support its education and preservation programs.
Meeting Times and Location
Second Wednesday of the month from September through May at 7:00 p.m.
Holiday Inn Independence, 6001 Rockside Road, Independence, Ohio 44131
6:00 p.m. – Drinks & Socializing / 6:30 p.m. – Dinner
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. – Meeting & Presentation
Dinner is $35 per person. Reservations should be made no later than five days before the meeting.
Reservations should be made via email to ccwrtreserve@gmail.com
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ANNUAL DUES – $60
The annual dues are used to support our speakers program and other initiatives (such as the technology needed for our internet sites) and to help support preservation efforts.
Dues should be sent to our treasurer, Bob Pence, at:
Bob Pence
Cleveland CWRT
1419 Honeygold Lane
Broadview Heights, OH 44147