cleveland – The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable

The Man Who Gave Birth to the Gettysburg Cupola

By David A. Carrino
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2024, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in May 2024.

Little Round Top. Devil’s Den. Cemetery Ridge and Seminary Ridge. Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill. The Peach Orchard. The Wheatfield. The Copse of Trees. Civil War enthusiasts know these places well and comprehend the awe-inspiring magnitude of these hallowed places. These sites on the Gettysburg battlefield are indelibly etched on the roster of revered places in U.S. history. Another famous site in Gettysburg is the cupola of the Lutheran Theological Seminary. The prominent cupola looms like a somber shrine over the battlefield, seemingly brooding about the terrible carnage and profuse loss of life that happened during those three awful days. With its elevated location, the cupola would have been an excellent vantage point to observe the horror that took place around it. Because of this, it is not hard to imagine that when those who grasp the historic solemnness of those three days look up at the cupola in its lofty perch, they wish that it could recount to the onlookers the numerous frightful events that it witnessed.

Ulysses S. Grant’s Grandson and the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable

One of the noteworthy events in the Roundtable’s history was the appearance of Ulysses S. Grant’s grandson at a meeting. This meeting, which occurred on December 3, 1958, was a joint meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and the Western Reserve Historical Society. At this meeting, Ulysses S. Grant III was the speaker, and he gave a presentation titled “The Strategy of the Civil War.” Who better to discuss this topic than the grandson of the person who was the author of the military strategy that won the Civil War and thereby preserved the Union? Of note, this presentation occurred during the third year of the Roundtable’s existence. The text of this presentation can be accessed by clicking on this link.

Abraham Lincoln’s Post-Gettysburg Address Illness: How ‘Small’ Was It?

By David A. Carrino
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in November 2023.

Because Home sapiens occupies such a highly advanced position on the evolutionary scale, people too often lose sight of the fact that humans are biological units that are subject to the processes, limitations, and vagaries of biology. This reality about humans is perhaps no more evident than when mankind is helpless before a pathogenic disease. In such situations, humans, despite their lofty phylogenetic perch, become virtually powerless, at least for a time, against infectious agents that are far less complex biologically than Homo sapiens and far lower phylogenetically. Throughout history there have been diseases which, because of their severity and magnitude, had an enormous and alarming impact on society and caused fear among people as these diseases spread. Arguably the most notorious of these diseases was the bubonic plague during the Middle Ages. Another such disease was the flu pandemic of 1918-1919. More recently there was acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and still more recently COVID-19. One of the most dreaded diseases during the 19th century, as well as in earlier times, was smallpox.

The Sweetheart of a Sigma Chi

By Brian D. Kowell
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in December 2023.

“If I could only see her once more, I feel that exile would lose its terror.”¹

“[I] am growing very anxious to rec. letters, especially . . . fr. VBM . . . [she] is my chief source of anxiety. I fear I may have to go to some foreign land without ever bidding adieu to my best & most loved friend.”²

“Am at a loss to hear from VBM. Must see her on my release at all events.”³

So wrote Ohio soldier James Parks Caldwell in his diary. Countless soldiers in the Civil War wrote to their wives and sweethearts, longing to see them. What makes Caldwell’s situation unique is that he was imprisoned at Johnson’s Island Prison in Sandusky Bay, Ohio, and his sweetheart was a rebel spy.

Union Irish Heroes at the Battle of Gettysburg

By Dennis Keating
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in November 2023.

Many Irish Americans in the Army of the Potomac fought Robert E. Lee’s invading Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg July 1-3, 1863. While the Irish Brigade is best known, there were others who are also worthy of recognition for their heroism. Three of these men died on the field. This article is a day-by-day account both of individuals and of units.

History Repeating Itself, without the “Condemned”

By David A. Carrino
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2024, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in April 2024.

George Santayana famously wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Santayana’s use of the word “condemned” makes it seem like a repetition of the past is undesirable and is something to be avoided. But some things in the past are worth repeating, and one such thing happened in a small, little-known Civil War battle. Something which happened in that battle was, in a sense, repeated in a much more widely known incident that occurred in World War II.

A Civil War Actress’ Most Daring Role

By David A. Carrino
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2024, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in March 2024.

It’s been said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and this is most definitely true in war. Knowledge of things such as troop strength and position can be very dangerous for the side whose troop strength and position become known to the enemy, and the Civil War provides a number of examples of this. For instance, the fortuitous finding of Robert E. Lee’s Special Orders No. 191, which are now known as Lee’s lost orders, prompted even the glacially slow and agonizingly cautious George McClellan to step out of character and boost his coefficient of aggressiveness, at least until the time that he came to battle. Because of the critical importance of knowledge about the enemy, the Civil War has some instances when clever ruses were employed to deceive the enemy with fake information, such as John Magruder on the York-James Peninsula and Nathan Bedford Forrest at Cedar Bluff, Alabama (and elsewhere).

A Valorous but Fruitless Service: Native Americans of Co. K, 1st Michigan Sharpshooters

By Al Fonner
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2024, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in May 2024.

When civil war broke out in the United States, a bloody struggle began that stretched on for four years. The causes, stated and unstated, were many: preeminence of states’ rights, preservation of the Union, abolition of slavery, even freedom itself. Native Americans warily viewed hostilities amongst the whites with mixed responses. Some, like the Chiricahua Apache, preferred to remain neutral. Others, such as the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw who had been forced from their ancestral lands by the U.S. Federal Government to live on reservations in the Oklahoma Territory, would throw their lot in with the Confederacy. Northern tribes, such as the Ottawa, sided with the Union in hopes that their loyalty would help preserve their shrinking land and way of life. Chippewa Chief Nock-ke-chick-faw-me, in Detroit, motivated the young men of his tribe to join the colors by warning, “If the South conquers you will be slave dogs…. There will be no protection for us; we shall be driven from our homes, our lands, and the graves of our friends” (Gordon Berg, 2016).

Horseshoes Win the Civil War

By Brian D. Kowell
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in November 2023 and was subsequently published on the Emerging Civil War website.

“For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost.
For want of a horse, the rider was lost.
For want of a rider, the battle was lost.
For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”

Benjamin Franklin quoting an old proverb in Poor Richard’s Almanac

Before 1835 all horseshoes were made by hand by blacksmiths. It was a labor-intensive process. A blacksmith could make four horseshoes in about an hour. That all changed because of one man, Scotsman Henry Burden. “It was astonishing. [Henry] Burden was one of the most inventive men of the 19th century…Now, no one knows who he is,” said one historian. The fact is Henry Burden greatly aided the North in winning the American Civil War with his invention of a machine that mass-produced horseshoes.

When 1 Is Greater Than 620,000

By David A. Carrino
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2024, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in January 2024.

Everyone who labored through grade school arithmetic is familiar with the mathematical signs for greater than (>) and less than (<). Students are required to do many simple arithmetic problems just to drill into them what each of those signs means. If students were presented with the equation “1 _ 620,000” and asked to fill in the blank with the correct mathematical sign, they would have to give “<” as the answer in order to be given credit for responding correctly. But in one circumstance, the equation “1 > 620,000” is correct, and that circumstance is hauntingly described in a poem and in a story based on the Civil War.