We are pleased to present the 2024-2025 Cleveland Civil War Roundtable program schedule. This year’s program contains an interesting mix of published authors and scholars as well as some members of our Roundtable. This year’s speakers will discuss a variety of topics related to the Civil War.
More information about the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable can be found on the About Us web page.
CLEVELAND CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE 2024-2025 PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Location of the Meetings:
Holiday Inn, 6001 Rockside Road, Independence, Ohio 44131
We anticipate that all of the 2024-2025 meetings will be held in person.
September 11, 2024
(Patriot Day)
“Swope Manor: The Grand Inn Located in Downtown Gettysburg”
Speaker: Kellie Gormly
This presentation is based on Kellie Gormly’s book Cease Firing! Life and Death at The Swope Manor and contains three types of war history stories: the soldier’s story, the civilian’s story, and the house’s story. The Swope family was the wealthiest family in Gettysburg in 1863. Lieutenant William Pohlman of the 59th New York was wounded during Pickett’s Charge and taken to Swope Manor from a field hospital to have a better environment for recovery. The presentation will recount how the story ends.
Kellie Gormly is a veteran, award-winning journalist who writes regularly for publications including the Washington Post, the History Channel, and Smithsonian Magazine. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Arlington, then a master’s degree in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield. Her professional career started in 1996 with an internship at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and since then has included stints with Copley News Service, The Associated Press, and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. After 13 years at “the Trib,” she left and has become a successful and accomplished freelance journalist.
September 19-22, 2024
Annual Field Trip – Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Battle of Gettysburg
The 2024 field trip is to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where we will study the three-day Battle of Gettysburg. Dates include travel time. More information about the 2024 field trip is available on the Roundtable’s website as a downloadable PDF.
October 9, 2024
(Bristoe Station Campaign 161)
“The Three General Presidents – Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower”
Speaker: Steve Pettyjohn
Only three Americans have held supreme military command in wars critical to the future of the United States and then have gone on to serve as president. All three created the strategy to win their wars. All three commanded the most daring campaigns of their time. Two of them are ranked by presidential historians in the top ten of all presidents, and one has gone through a 70-year process of moving up in those rankings from last place to above average. This presentation focuses on the lives and careers of these three men: George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The presentation highlights some comparisons between the three (some of which are humorous) and also notes some common traits that helped lead to their success. Topics in the presentation include how all three “learned their business,” used spies, dealt with difficult people, displayed different kinds of courage, exhibited strategic thinking, and achieved “domestic tranquility.” Lastly, the presentation addresses why these three men have different reputations, how we look at them now, and how the perception of these three has changed over time.
Steve Pettyjohn is president of Quality Assist Consulting and an avid amateur historian. He is also a past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and a founding member of the World at War Forum based at Westlake Porter Public Library. He has made presentations at the World at War Forum and at several Civil War roundtables as well as at other groups around Ohio. He lives in North Ridgeville, Ohio with his wife, a retired librarian, who tolerates his 1,500-book library and his hobby of playing war board games with friends.
November 13, 2024
“A Thousand May Fall – An Immigrant Regiment’s Civil War: Life, Death, and Survival in the Union Army”
Speaker: Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan
This presentation, from a Pulitzer Prize finalist, is a pathbreaking history of the Civil War centered on the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a regiment of immigrants with a connection to Cleveland, and their brutal experience of the conflict. The 107th Ohio was at once representative and exceptional. Its ranks weathered the human ordeal of war in painstakingly routine ways, fighting in two defining battles, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, each time in the thick of the killing. But the men of the 107th were not lauded as heroes for their bravery and their suffering. Most of them were ethnic Germans, set apart by language and identity, and their loyalties were regularly questioned by a nativist Northern press. So often it is assumed that the Civil War was a uniquely American conflict, yet the contributions made by immigrants to the Union cause are too often forgotten. An incredible one-quarter of the Union army was foreign born, with 200,000 native Germans fighting to save their adopted homeland and prove their patriotism.
Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan is associate professor and chair of the Department of History at Sam Houston State University, where he teaches courses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, American military history, and the U.S. history survey. A cultural historian of the nation’s fratricidal conflict, he is interested in the human longitude of the Civil War battles and the problem of memory. Dr. Jordan is the author of Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War, a narrative history of the men who won the war but couldn’t bear the peace. The book was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in History and, in its dissertation form, won the George Washington Egleston Prize (for best U.S. history dissertation at Yale) and Yale’s John Addison Porter Prize. In 2020, he co-edited The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans. In 2021, he authored A Thousand May Fall: An Immigrant Regiment’s Civil War, which earned a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. He also co-edited Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves. A native of Akron, Ohio, Dr. Jordan serves as the Book Review Editor for The Civil War Monitor and is a member of the Society of Civil War Historians. He is the founding co-editor of the Veterans Book Series (University of Massachusetts Press). His more than 100 articles, reviews, or essays have appeared in The Journal of the Civil War Era, Civil War History, and The New York Times.
December 11, 2024
(Fredericksburg 162)
“‘Connivers in Corsets’ – Female Spies & Smugglers during the Civil War”
Speaker: Barbara Toncheff
When 3 million men on both sides left to fight in the Civil War, they left behind the women that loved them. Many cooked and provided domestic skills, while over 400 enlisted as soldiers. However, others chose to use their feminine wiles to beguile their male enemies out of information and supplies. From commoner to socialite, both blue and gray, brave females of all ages schemed and risked incarceration and potential death if caught. Female prisoner exchanges, spy vs. spy, double agents and those who even seduced their captors are covered in this presentation. Their various clever tactics, juicy affairs and escapades are exposed in this entertaining first-person presentation by a seasoned female spy including props, photos, period news clippings, and short bios on display. Warning: Male attendees may leave never trusting any woman ever again!
Barbara Toncheff is a retired electrophysiology laboratory cardiac technician from the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus. Her long-standing passion for genealogy and Victorian history segued her into researching Civil War-era women’s daily lives and how they survived. Barbara provides a living historian presentation as a female Civil War spy-smuggler.
January 8, 2025
The Annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate
Topic: “The Table Is Set, So Who Are You Bringing Along?”
The American Civil War is full of unique personalities. From the overconfident Joe Hooker, the profane Winfield Hancock, the fervent John Gordon, to even the articulate Sam Watkins, there is a vast array of the cast of characters. Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with (over dinner or a tasty beverage)?
Feel free to discuss not only the individual and their unique characteristics, but also what topic would you want to chat with them about (e.g., Robert Gould Shaw and the training of the 54th MA, Patrick Cleburne’s thoughts before the assault at Franklin, etc.) and what beverage would you enjoy with them? Coffee with Emory Upton, whiskey with George Thomas? Each debater is tasked with preparing a five-minute case. Those in attendance at the meeting will vote for the “best Civil War guest.” As in past debates, William Vodrey will serve as moderator.
Cheers!
February 12, 2025
(Lincoln’s 216th Birthday Bash & Roundtable’s 600th Meeting)
“Lincoln’s Lawyers”
Speaker: Judge William F.B. Vodrey
Abraham Lincoln, a talented trial lawyer himself before his 1860 election to the Presidency, named two very different men to advise him as Attorney General of the United States: Edward Bates and James Speed. This presentation will discuss their service in the Lincoln Cabinet and will also examine how these two men differed from each other in their opinions regarding racial equality and how their opinions interfaced with that of Lincoln.
William Vodrey is a past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and a member of the American Battlefield Trust and the Blue and Gray Education Society. William has given numerous presentations to the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and to other Civil War roundtables.
March 12, 2025
(Red River Expedition 161)
“The Battlefield at Franklin & Memory”
Speaker: Joseph Ricci
The Battle of Franklin occupies a curious place in the memory of the American Civil War. Only in the last forty years has the battle, which occurred on November 30, 1864, received devoted attention from Civil War readers, authors, historians, enthusiasts, and visitors to Franklin’s Carter House and Carnton. Franklin is seemingly a phoenix rising from the ashes. Literature on the Battle of Franklin has increased in dramatic fashion, and readers have been treated to evolving scholarship on the fight, the soldiers involved, and the people whose lives were interrupted by the clash. The state of the reclaimed portions of the battlefield at Franklin is an inspiration to historic preservationists across the nation. To visit Franklin in the third decade of the 21st century, one would hardly know that prior to 2004, a Domino’s Pizza and a Pizza Hut stood atop the ground over which Confederate soldiers in the Army of Tennessee charged the entrenched Federal troops on the south side of town. Visiting Eastern Flank Battlefield today, one could never imagine tennis courts in the path of Brigadier General Winfield Scott Featherston’s Brigade, or golf-carts roaming in range of the guns of Battery M, 4th U.S. Artillery. This is the story of how the Battle of Franklin has been remembered and how that memory has been preserved.
A native of New Orleans, LA, Joseph D. Ricci, serves as the Historian for the Battle of Franklin Trust. Joseph holds a Master’s Degree in History from Southeastern Louisiana University. Joseph’s fascination with history stems from his early years of involvement with, and travel to, various museums and battlefields connected to the American Civil War and the Second World War. For the last two years, he has written extensively for The Dispatch magazine, produced The Dispatch podcast, and appeared in several BOFT Films productions in addition to leading tours of the three historic homes and the surrounding battlefields. Joseph is a frequent speaker to Civil War roundtables and has been a guest on several podcasts, Additionally, he has contributed essays published in the Emerging Civil War Series and is the producer and host of Home Brew History podcast, which is available on all podcast platforms. In his free time, Joseph enjoys spending time and traveling with his wife, Katharyn, and daughter, Hattie.
April 9, 2025
(Appomattox Court House Surrender 160)
“Stonewall Jackson at Gettysburg”
Speaker: Dr. Chris Mackowski
It’s the most-asked ‘What If’ of the Civil War: What if Stonewall Jackson had been at Gettysburg? It’s not just an impossible question to answer (because Jackson was dead), but it would have been such an impossible scenario to begin with. Let’s look at all the reasons why, which may help us better understand some of the assumptions people make when they ask the question in the first place.
Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Emerging Civil War and the series editor of the award-winning Emerging Civil War Series, published by Savas Beatie. Chris is a writing professor in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, NY, where he also serves as associate dean for undergraduate programs. In addition, Chris is historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield in central Virginia. He has worked as a historian for the National Park Service at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, where he gives tours at four major Civil War battlefields (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania) as well as at the building where Stonewall Jackson died.
Chris has authored or co-authored nearly two dozen books and edited a half-dozen essay collections on the Civil War, and his articles have appeared in all the major Civil War magazines. Chris serves as vice president on the board of directors for the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, and he serves on the advisory board of the Civil War Roundtable Congress and the Brunswick (NC) Civil War Roundtable – the largest in the country. He is also a member of the Antietam Institute and the U.S. Grant Homestead Association. In 2023, he was honored with the Houston Civil War Round Table’s Frank Vandiver Award and was also selected as the Copie Hill Fellow at the American Battlefield Trust.
May 14, 2025
“After Lee’s Surrender: A Country in Turmoil”
Speaker: Dr. Curt Fields as Ulysses S. Grant
The weeks following Lee’s surrender at Appomattox were turbulent and fast-moving with one significant event after another. The roles of General Grant in those events were pivotal both for him and the country. What General Grant did and why in response to those events helps to explain his foresight and the long-term effects of all that happened in the weeks following Appomattox.
Dr. Curt Fields is the preeminent U.S. Grant living historian. Dr. Fields has portrayed General and President Grant in 22 states as he travels the nation presenting his portrayal of General and President Ulysses S. Grant. As a living historian, Dr. Fields portrayed General Grant at the 150th and 160th observations of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg, he was the Grant for the 150th observation of Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House, VA, and he is scheduled to be the Grant for the 160th observation of Appomattox.
Dr. Fields portrays General Grant in the Visitor Center film that is shown at Appomattox Court House National Historic Park. He was featured as General Grant, and as a Grant authority, in the Discovery Channel three-part documentary series “How Booze Built America” (with Mike Rowe). Dr. Fields portrays General Grant, giving his life story, on the Civil War Trust website, and he was selected as the official Grant for the U.S. Grant Boyhood Home Association in Georgetown, OH, and for the opening and dedication of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University. He portrayed General Grant at West Point (at the request of the U.S. Military Academy) in January of 2019 to kick off their ‘semester of Grant’ celebration prior to erecting a statue of Grant on the plain, and he portrays President Grant in the film shown at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.
Dr. Fields was the recipient of the 2015 Grady McWhiney Award of Merit for significant contributions to the scholarship and preservation of Civil War History. He was honored to have been elected to lifetime Membership in the American Civil War Round Table – Queensland, Australia, and is an occasional contributor to their newsletter, The Bugle. He is also a frequent contributor to Civil War News. He served as a Memphis, TN, Police Officer, was an MPD hostage negotiator, and received the Life-Saving medal from the city of Memphis for actions in the line of duty.
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 seven 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.