We are pleased to present the 2025-2026 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 2025-2026 PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Location of the Meetings:
Holiday Inn, 6001 Rockside Road, Independence, Ohio 44131
We anticipate that all of the 2025-2026 meetings will be held in person.
September 10, 2025
“Black Americans in Mourning”
Speaker: Leonne M. Hudson
When John Wilkes Booth killed Abraham Lincoln, he took the nation from heady jubilation brought on by the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s army to deep sorrow caused by the shocking loss of the person who had steadfastly led the country through the Civil War. This sorrow was arguably most profound among Black Americans, because for them Lincoln was their greatest benefactor and the best avenue for them to fully gain civil rights. But the sorrow among Black Americans was due to more than just the future implications arising from the loss of Lincoln. Black Americans also mourned Lincoln’s death because of all that he had done for them. This made Lincoln’s death a deeply personal loss for them, in the same way that a child mourns the death of a parent. This presentation is based on Dr. Leonne Hudson’s book Black Americans in Mourning: Reactions to the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Dr. Leonne M. Hudson is Professor Emeritus of History at Kent State University. Dr. Hudson received a Ph.D. from Kent State University in 1990, and his specialty is 19th Century U.S. history. His research interests are focused on the period encompassing the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. Dr. Hudson has authored a number of books in this area, including Black Americans in Mourning, and he has been a speaker at the Lincoln Forum.
September 26-27, 2025
Annual Field Trip – Vicksburg, Mississippi: The Vicksburg Campaign
This year’s annual field trip is to Vicksburg National Military Park, where we will study the 47-day siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Dates do not include travel time. Detailed information about the 2025 field trip is available on the Roundtable’s website in a downloadable PDF.
October 8, 2025
“Hell by the Acre”
Speaker: Dan Masters
The Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro) took place from December 31, 1862 to January 1, 1863. The battle was a victory for the Union, but it was a very costly victory. The battle had more casualties than Shiloh and Antietam, but is lesser known. The victory in this battle was important for the Union, because it came soon after two serious defeats, one at Fredericksburg and one at Chickasaw Bayou. Dan Masters’ presentation about the Stones River Campaign is based on his new book Hell by the Acre, which is a narrative history of the Stones River Campaign in 1862-1863 in the Western Theater.
Dan Masters is a descendant of five Union veterans of the Civil War and has been deeply involved in the study of that conflict since the late 1990s. He has written ten books, numerous articles, and more than 800 blog posts about the Civil War, much of his work focusing on the Western Theater. His third book, Sherman’s Praetorian Guard, won a local history publication award in 2018. In 2022 he released the first in a three-volume trilogy titled Echoes of Battle: Annals of Ohio’s Soldiers in the Civil War, the second volume of which was released in February 2024. In addition to regularly writing on his blog, Dan Masters’ Civil War Chronicles, he also recently published Hell by the Acre: A Narrative History of the Stones River Campaign.
November 12, 2025
“United States Colored Troops (USCT)”
Speaker: Edward Gantt
The Union did not allow Black enlistments early in the Civil War. However, Black enlistments were eventually permitted beginning in the middle of the war, and Black men of the United States Colored Troops were critical for the eventual Union victory. Over 180,000 African Americans enlisted, and there were 175 USCT regiments, which comprised about 10% of the Union Army. The men in the USCT regiments fought with courage and distinction, and their performance refuted the prevailing notion about their fighting ability. President Abraham Lincoln asserted that “without the military help of the black freedmen, the war against the South could not have been won.” Moreover, the service of the men in the USCT laid the groundwork for enhanced social equality after the war. Because Black men had shown that they were willing to fight and sacrifice for the nation, this provided the impetus for civil rights advancement and for greater equality for all Black Americans, although the struggle for civil rights continued for many years.
Captain Edward Gantt, Retired U.S. Navy Flight Officer, began an association with the 23rd Infantry Regiment, USCT, reenactors and living historians in 2014. He is a member of the 54th Massachusetts Civil War reenactors in the Washington, D.C. area. His military service includes serving in combat for 12 months in South Vietnam as a helicopter door gunner and crew chief. He then graduated from Howard University, after which he again joined the armed forces, attended the Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School, and was commissioned a Naval Flight Officer in 1978. He subsequently served in several F-14 Tomcat squadrons and had a number of overseas assignments while flying over 2,000 hours, including from aircraft carriers. After 30 years of active service, he retired in 2003 and began a career as a public school teacher.
December 10, 2025
“Bleeding Kansas: The War before the Civil War”
Speaker: Andrew Mangels
The date that is traditionally used for the beginning of the Civil War is April 12, 1861, the date of the bombardment of Fort Sumter. While this date does mark the start of the Civil War, itself, armed conflict related to the Civil War was happening prior to April 12, 1861. One of the most intense and best-known locations of this pre-Civil War conflict was Kansas. This presentation will examine the politics and protest in Bleeding Kansas before the Civil War, beginning with the Missouri compromise of 1820 through the massacre at Centralia in 1864, with plenty of Jayhawkers and bushwhackers in between.
Andrew Mangels is the director of the Westlake Porter Public Library. Since moving with his family from Kansas City, Missouri to Westlake in 2007, Andrew has been involved in many community activities and organizations such as Kiwanis and Rotary. He also is the chair of the Advisory Board of Connecting for Kids, an organization serving families who have a concern about their child’s development. In addition, Andrew is the president of the Carolyn L. Farrell Foundation, an organization that helps individuals and families cope with Alzheimer’s and dementia illness.
January 14, 2026
The Annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate
Topic: “Other than Ohio, what was the most important state, North or South, during the Civil War era?”
At the time of the Civil War, there were 34 states in the United States, and two more states (West Virginia and Nevada) were admitted during the war. Of the 34 states in 1861, 23 remained in the Union, and 11 seceded to form the Confederacy. Whether it was as a source of manpower, of foodstuffs, or of manufactured materiel or for some other reason, each state was important to the war. But which state, other than Ohio, was the most important state during the Civil War. Ohio is excluded from the debate due to potential bias because the Roundtable is located in the Buckeye State.
Each debater will present a brief argument to make his or her case to the attendees at the meeting, and then each debater will take questions from the attendees. The assembled members and guests will then vote to choose which debater made the most compelling case. The winner will, of course, receive fabulous prizes. As in past debates, William Vodrey will serve as moderator.
February 11, 2026
“Citizenship and Politics: How They Evolved during and after the Civil War”
Speaker: Brian K. Mitchell
Brian K. Mitchell, Ph.D. will discuss his book, Monumental, about Reconstruction and the appointment of Oscar Dunn to serve as acting governor of Louisiana. Dunn, the first African American to be the lieutenant governor of a U.S. state, served during Reconstruction. Dunn also became the first African American to be the acting governor of a state when Louisiana’s governor had to leave the state to recuperate from an injury. Dunn was born into slavery, and during Reconstruction he worked for the implementation of rights to Blacks, such as the right to vote. Moreover, he did this at a time when white supremacists were attempting to regain power in Louisiana through racist laws and violence. Dunn, who was an honest, generous, and effective government official, died in office under suspicious circumstances. A monument planned for him shortly after his death was never built when proponents of the Lost Cause came to power and suppressed the factual history of Black accomplishments during Reconstruction and replaced that with a narrative that Black politicians were incompetent.
Dr. Brian K. Mitchell, a native of New Orleans and a frequent speaker at the Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg, received a Ph.D. from the University of New Orleans in 2011. His Ph.D. is in urban studies with a concentration in public history. Mitchell’s writing and research deal primarily with race, violence, and the Elaine Massacre. He is the author of numerous papers, book chapters, and books, and he is nationally recognized for his public history and digital humanities projects.
March 11, 2026
“Lincoln’s Cabinet: The Other Guys”
Speaker: William F.B. Vodrey
Judge William Vodrey will explore the careers and service of the lesser-known members of Lincoln’s “team of rivals.” William has given a series of presentations to the Roundtable about members of Lincoln’s cabinet. These include William Seward, Edwin Stanton, Gideon Welles, Salmon Chase, Edward Bates, and James Speed. In this presentation, William will discuss other and lesser-known members of Lincoln’s cabinet.
William Vodrey, a judge in the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga County, is a past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and a member of the American Battlefield Trust as well as the Blue and Gray Education Society. William has given numerous presentations to the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and to other groups.
April 8, 2026
“Civil War Medicine”
Speaker: Fred Marquinez
Dr. Fred Marquinez will discuss medical practices during the Civil War. At the beginning of the Civil War, the U.S. Army Medical Department was ill-prepared to handle the overwhelming number of casualties produced by the conflict. It is said that the Civil War was fought at the “end of the Medical Middle Ages,” a time of transition in medical knowledge. Papers on antisepsis and “germ theory” would not be published until years later. However, the experience gained by surgeons, the development of a system to deal with mass casualties, and the improvements in public health and nursing as well as other innovations all led to dramatic improvement in the care of wounded and ill soldiers. New standards in trauma and military medicine were established, some of which are still in use today.
Dr. Fred Marquinez is a Medical Oncologist and a Clinical Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University. A lifelong Northeast Ohioan (born in Akron and raised in Kent), Dr. Marquinez graduated from Northeast Ohio Medical University in 1985. He completed an internal medicine residency at St. Thomas Medical Center (now Summa Health-St. Thomas Campus) in Akron and a hematology/oncology fellowship at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He is also a Flight Surgeon and the Commander of the 179th Medical Group in the 179th Cyberspace Wing, Ohio Air National Guard, United States Air Force.
May 13, 2026
“General Winfield Scott Hancock, Commander of the U.S. Second Corps”
Speaker: Brian Burtka
Winfield Scott Hancock was a household name in the nineteenth century. Today, this presidential candidate is barely remembered outside of Gettysburg discussions. Born in 1824 just outside Philadelphia, Hancock was a career officer in the U.S. Army. During the Civil War, Hancock rose through the ranks and became one of the best Corps commanders in the Union Army. He is known as “Hancock the Superb.” After the Civil War, Hancock continued his military career. In 1880, the Democratic Party nominated Hancock for President. He lost in one of the closest popular votes in U.S. history. Hancock died in 1886 on active duty in New York City. This first-person portrayal brings his story to life and shows why Hancock was a household name.
Brian Burtka, S.J., is a high school teacher at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland. A native of Detroit, he completed his M.A. in Public History from Loyola University Chicago in the spring of 2024. During this time, he interned at Manassas National Battlefield Park. Brian began reenacting in 2013 and has portrayed multiple impressions and people over the years. Brian’s interest in Winfield Scott Hancock began during his first trip to Gettysburg. Brian began portraying Hancock in 2023 and portrays him at reenactments across the Midwest. Brian can be found at many local events in Ohio, and he is frequently found with his political rival at the James A. Garfield Civil War Roundtable. For more information about Brian, please see his website. For more information about Hancock, please see the digital biography Brian created during Hancock’s bicentennial in 2024.
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 6:00 p.m.
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 eight 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.