The Civil War Person I Would Most Like to Converse with – Patrick Cleburne

Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage? Patrick Cleburne

By Paul Siedel
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2025, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate at the January 2025 Roundtable meeting was: “Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage?” Five members made presentations on the topic; the article below was one of those five presentations.


It was while working as a reporter for the Memphis Commercial Appeal that I sat down with General Patrick R. Cleburne, a division commander in the Confederate Army of Tennessee, in January of 1864. Over glasses of superb Irish whiskey, we discussed his proposal to tap the untapped resource of over one million Africans held in bondage and to offer them their freedom, if they would only take up arms and serve in the Confederate Army.

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The Civil War Person I Would Most Like to Converse with – Robert E. Lee

Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage? Robert E. Lee

By Jake Collens
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2025, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate at the January 2025 Roundtable meeting was: “Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage?” Five members made presentations on the topic; the article below was one of those five presentations.


General Lee, as you know, I am from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I want to thank you for sitting down with me today to discuss some of your thoughts and feelings about the “late unpleasantness.” I know you have been reticent to go public in the past, and I appreciate this opportunity. I want this to be an agreeable conversation, so I have brought along buttermilk to help make things pleasant.

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The Civil War Person I Would Most Like to Converse with – Thomas Francis Meagher

Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage? Thomas Francis Meagher

By Terry McHale
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2025, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate at the January 2025 Roundtable meeting was: “Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage?” Five members made presentations on the topic; the article below was one of those five presentations.


The date is May 20, 1863. The location is Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher’s quarters on the Rappahannock River outside Fredericksburg, Virginia. Several of us have gathered to mark the general’s last day in command of his famed Irish Brigade – a brigade that has proven its mettle at every battle fought by the Army of the Potomac since Bull Run. Aside from myself, there are a small number of somber “well-wishers” including Colonel Patrick Kelly, who will be promoted to lead the shell of this once proud brigade, and Father William Corby, who is on leave from his teaching position at the University of Notre Dame to serve as the brigade’s chaplain.

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The Civil War Person I Would Most Like to Converse with – Ulysses S. Grant

Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage? Ulysses S. Grant

By Emily Dickinson
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2025, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate at the January 2025 Roundtable meeting was: “Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage?” Five members made presentations on the topic; the article below was one of those five presentations.


Out of respect for General Grant’s reputation, I asked him to join me for a steaming hot cup of London Fog rather than the Woodford Reserve or glass of wine I might normally offer a guest. After the pleasantries were dispensed, I told him I was most interested in hearing his thoughts on how the Mexican-American War influenced his decisions during the Civil War. How did it help shape a second lieutenant (and later acting captain) into the illustrious General of the Army of the United States? The general most graciously answered my musings by splitting his experiences into two sections: first, how his experiences shaped what would become “Grant the General” and second, how they gave him insight into the men he would fight beside and against.

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The Civil War Person I Would Most Like to Converse with – Daniel Sickles

Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage? Daniel Sickles

By John Syroney
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2025, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate at the January 2025 Roundtable meeting was: “Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage?” Five members made presentations on the topic; the article below was one of those five presentations.


General Sickles: Why did you advance your 3rd Corps forward on July 2, 1863?

Before I interpret General Daniel Sickles’ decision to advance, one must remember that when General Sickles was asked why he does not have a monument at Gettysburg, he stated, “The whole damn battlefield is my monument.”

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The Great Debate of 2025: Opening Remarks

Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage?

By William F.B. Vodrey – debate moderator
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2025, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate at the January 2025 Roundtable meeting was: “Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage?” Five members made presentations on the topic; the article below was the opening remarks made by the moderator of the debate.


We’re here tonight for the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate, named after my longtime predecessor as moderator, Dick Crews. Dick once told me that the debate got its start as a Roundtable tradition because of the difficulty of finding speakers who were willing to travel to Cleveland in January! In moderating again tonight for, God help us all, my 21st year, I stand on the shoulders of giants, including Dick.

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The Great Debate of 2025

Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage?

The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2025, All Rights Reserved


The January 2025 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable featured the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate. The topic for debate was the question: “Which individual from the Civil War would be the most interesting to sit down and speak with over dinner or a tasty beverage?” There are many individuals from the Civil War who would be interesting to have a conversation with, and the 2025 Dick Crews Memorial Debate examined the question of which of these individuals would be the most interesting, at least in the opinion of the debaters. Five debaters, each of whom chose a different person as the most interesting, presented arguments in support of their stance on this question. Below are the texts of those five arguments, along with moderator William Vodrey’s opening remarks.

Debate moderator William Vodrey (far left) and debaters John Syroney, Jake Collens, Emily Dickinson, Terry McHale, and Paul Siedel (left to right)
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General Meade at Fredericksburg

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable Historian
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2024-2025, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2024 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable.


In late 1862, President Abraham Lincoln appointed General Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Union Army of the Potomac in the wake of Burnside’s conquest of the famous bridge on the Union left flank at the Battle of Antietam. General Burnside formulated a plan for a rare winter offensive to build on the momentum of the Union strategic victory at Antietam. Relatively simple, Burnside would march his 140,000 troops, organized into three “Grand Divisions” of two corps each, south across the Rappahannock River and overwhelm what he had hoped to be a modest defense near Fredericksburg, Virgina. The march southward went surprisingly well, but the all-important pontoon bridges needed to cross the Rappahannock were tragically delayed. Consequently, the skeletal defenses on the Confederate side, which was south of the river and near the town, were adroitly reinforced by General Robert E. Lee in command of the 80,000-man Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. That said, Burnside’s army was nearly twice the size of Lee’s. On the very day of the December 2024 Roundtable meeting, that is, December 11, Union batteries on the commanding high ground on the north side of the river began a bombardment of the town.

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Elihu Washburne – The Indispensable Civil War Congressman

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable Historian
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2024-2025, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2024 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable.


The new Republican party had just elected its first president, Abraham Lincoln from Illinois. Soon thereafter, Honest Abe boarded a train and headed for the capital, where he would be inaugurated. Excited northern crowds greeted him at every stop. But in D.C., among those enthusiastically waiting for his incognito arrival was a longtime and huge supporter from Galena, Illinois, Congressman Elihu Washburne. Washburne had not only given his unwavering support to Lincoln during his presidential bid, but had ardently supported him in nearly all of his political campaigns, including Lincoln’s 1854 and 1868 unsuccessful runs for the U.S. Senate. In the mid-1850’s, Washburne helped found the new anti-slavery Republican Party. But for now, so connected with Lincoln was Washburne that he rented a private home for Lincoln a few blocks from the White House. However, it was deemed a better political choice for a newly elected president to stay in the more public Willard Hotel.

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General Meade’s Proposed Pipe Creek Line

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable Historian
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2024-2025, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2024 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable.


At the Roundtable’s 2024 field trip to Gettysburg, the participants climbed to the top of the Lutheran Seminary cupola to view Chambersburg Pike as it rises off to the west. While standing in the cupola, they imagined the scene witnessed by General John Buford and others as these Union observers gazed at the Confederate troops raising a cloud of dust while they were marching toward the defensive positions of Buford’s troopers. The field trip participants heard about and saw the ground that the Union I Corps crossed to meet the Confederates head on as the cavalry defense yielded to the infantry of the Union’s First Division and especially the elite Union “Iron Brigade,” which was also featured in my April 2024 history brief. The battlefield guide described how the commander of the First Corps, General John Reynolds, led his troops from the front at the edge of Herbst Woods. But Reynolds was too close to the fighting, and he met an instant and untimely death from a Confederate bullet to his neck.

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