cleveland – The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable

Confederate and Union Generals in Jackson’s Valley Campaign – Other Than Jackson Himself

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable Historian
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2026-2027, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2026 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable.

For its 2026 field trip, the Roundtable went to the Shenandoah River Valley to study Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Valley Campaign. Hence, this history brief focuses on four of the commanders involved in that campaign, other than General Jackson himself. The four commanders are Confederates Lieutenant General Richard Stoddert Ewell and Colonel Turner Ashby, and for the Federals, Major General Nathaniel P. Banks and Colonel Erastus B. Tyler.

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas at Mrs. Balfour’s

By Brian D. Kowell
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2026, All Rights Reserved

The weather was nasty, cold, windy, and rainy in Vicksburg, Mississippi on Christmas Eve 1862. The Civil War, supposed to last only 90 days, had dragged on now for 21 months. Despite the inclement weather, Mrs. Emma Balfour was determined to celebrate the season by hosting her annual Christmas Eve ball.

Seward’s Icebox and the First Civil Rights Law in America

By David A. Carrino
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2026, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in March 2026.

Civil War enthusiasts are familiar with the fact that William H. Seward, the man who was the secretary of state throughout the entire Civil War, was also the person who, after the Civil War, orchestrated the purchase of Alaska for the United States. This purchase was in keeping with Seward’s stance as a staunch proponent of Manifest Destiny. By negotiating the purchase of Alaska, Seward redirected Manifest Destiny from its westward advance to a northern leapfrog over Canada (which was known as British North America at that time) and into a territory that Seward had long believed would become part of the U.S. Seward had set his sights on Alaska well before he entered into purchase negotiations in 1867, as indicated by his 1846 assertion that “our population is destined to roll its resistless waves to the icy barriers of the north.” Seward was such an ardent advocate of Manifest Destiny that he even had designs on absorbing both Mexico and British North America into the U.S. (It is not known if Seward, in a presaging of a 2026 presidential craving, wanted to also assimilate Greenland.) While Seward was never able to acquire Mexico and British North America, he did oversee, in addition to the acquisition of Alaska, the annexation of Midway Island by directing the U.S. Navy to occupy it and claim it for the U.S., which thereby pushed Manifest Destiny far westward into the Pacific Ocean.

Rhode Island: The Smallest State’s Contribution to the Union Cause

By Dennis Keating
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2026, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in January 2026.

During the Civil War, Rhode Island provided 25,236 volunteers to the Union’s armed forces. That included 8 infantry regiments, 3 cavalry regiments, and 14 artillery batteries. Of the over 25,000 Rhode Islanders who served, 1,685 died, including Brigadier General Isaac Peace Rodman at the battle of Antietam.

“Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dula”

By D. Kent Fonner
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2026 All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in May 2026.

Tom Dula (pronounced “Dooley” based on the Appalachian dialect that pronounces a letter “a” ending a word like a “y” – “Grand Ole Opry” for example) served in Company K, 42nd North Carolina Volunteers. Dula, after his service in the Civil War, including time as a POW at Point Lookout, Maryland, returned to Wilkes County, North Carolina, to his home in Happy Valley on the Yadkin River. Prior to the war, Dula had an affair with a woman named Ann Melton, the wife of a local farmer, James Melton. When Dula returned in 1865, he soon resumed his relationship with Ann Melton, but eventually cohabitated in a cabin in the woods with Ann’s cousin, Laura Foster.

Armistead, Ashby, and “The Star-Spangled Banner”

By Brian D. Kowell
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2025, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in October 2025.

On September 14, 1814, lawyer Francis Scott Key stood aboard a truce ship outside Baltimore Harbor and watched through the night as the British bombarded American-held Fort McHenry. As the sky lightened and he glimpsed the American flag still waving above the ramparts, the inspired Key removed a letter from his pocket and began to write verses upon the back. The finished poem was later titled “Defense of Fort McHenry” and put to music as “The Star-Spangled Banner.”¹

A Civil War-Era Invention That Literally Was a Game-Changer

By David A. Carrino
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2026, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in February 2026.

The Civil War is often called the first modern war because many advances in technology and in military practices had their first widespread use during the Civil War. This is articulated nicely and succinctly in an article on the website of the Chicago Historical Society: “The Civil War demonstrated for the first time how industrial technology had transformed the nature of warfare.” After the Civil War, wars and the methodology of waging war would never be the same as before, a fact that European nations cruelly learned in World War I. Rifled muskets, ironclad warships, the use of railroads to transport troops and supplies, faster and better medical treatment of the wounded, the use of the telegraph to enhance the speed of communication, surveillance balloons, and trench warfare all experienced their first widespread wartime use in the Civil War. Moreover, the practice of total war came to prominence during the Civil War, which also saw the first sinking of an enemy warship by a submarine. The Union war effort was even aided by the mass production of horseshoes with a machine that could make a horseshoe per second.

Brothers in Arms: Edgar and William Abbott at Stones River – In Their Own Words

By Thomas M. Cooper
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2025, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in October 2025.

This is a story of discovery, of happenstance, of survival, of collaboration – and of gratitude.

Directly after Dan Masters’ March 13, 2024 presentation to our Cleveland Civil War Roundtable on the Battle of Stones River, I approached him about my having had two great-great grandfathers involved in that engagement – one from Ohio and one from Indiana. He asked which Indiana unit, and I recalled the 4th Battery, Light Artillery. Dan said in fact he had posted information about Capt. Asahel Bush’s 4th Indiana Battery on his website just the day before his CCWRT presentation. (See reference and website: “Reminders of the 4th Indiana Battery’s Fight along the Wilkinson Pike,” March 12, 2024.)

Lines Drawn in War: Cartographers, Cameras, and the Civil War Landscape

By Don Iannone
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2026, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in April 2026.

The American Civil War is often remembered through movement. Armies advance, lines break, and commanders maneuver across contested ground. Beneath these visible actions lay a quieter discipline that made such movement possible. Cartographers, working as topographical engineers, surveyors, and mapmakers, translated uncertain terrain into usable knowledge. Their work shaped strategy, influenced outcomes, and helped define how the war would be remembered.

These men did more than record geography. They interpreted it. In doing so, they imposed order on chaos, sometimes accurately, sometimes imperfectly, but always with consequence.