A Tour of the Seven Days Battlefields

By Paul Siedel
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2022, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in October 2022.


While trolling through the web one day last April I came across an ad for a tour of the Seven Days battlefields sponsored by Woodbury Tours and directed by Mr. Bobby Krick, one of the foremost historians of the Seven Days Battles. As I had never studied this series of battles, I decided to attend. The tour lasted two days, June 11 and 12, 2022, so on June 10 I packed my car and my dog and headed for the Richmond Airport, where our hotel was located. That evening we congregated for pizza, drinks, and a lecture by Mr. Doug Crenshaw, author of the book Richmond Shall Not Be Given Up: The Seven Days Battles, June 25 – July 1, 1862. We all received a signed copy of the book and discussed our adventure of the next two days. The next morning we all got together for breakfast, and Mr. Krick introduced himself. He explained our agenda, and we were off at 8:15.

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A Report from the Field: The 18th Annual Sarasota Civil War Symposium

By John Hildebrandt
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved

There are relatively few Civil War sites in Florida, but for three days every winter, Sarasota is the center of the Civil War universe. This past January, my wife, Marie, and I attended the Civil War Education Society’s 18th Annual Civil War Symposium at the Helmsley Sandcastle Resort on Lido Beach in Sarasota, Florida. For most of us, the Civil War is best studied on the field of battle—be it Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, Fort. Sumter, or Vicksburg—but in the midst of an Ohio winter the beach on Lido Key is a better than fair substitute. This was our fifth symposium, spaced over the past eight years, and it has become a January tradition.

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A Visit to the National Civil War Museum

By William F.B. Vodrey
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2007, All rights reserved
(Adapted from an article originally appearing in The Charger)

Next time you’re in the mood for a Civil War-themed road trip, consider a visit to the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

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Visiting the New Lincoln Library and Museum

By William F.B. Vodrey
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2006, 2007. All Rights Reserved

Last summer (2006), I visited the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, IL. My companions on the trip were Mel Maurer and his grandson, Eric. We had a great time and hope to go back again. Anyone interested in Lincoln will find Springfield and its many Lincoln-related sites well worth the trip, but the museum is the center of it all. It strikes a nice balance between mass-market appeal and scholarly discussion of the Civil War president.

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The Changes at Gettysburg

By Dick Crews
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved

Civil War buffs such as ourselves like to argue about the most important battle of the Civil War. Tourists who vote with their feet and their dollars like Gettysburg – by far. Gettysburg receives over 1,800,000 visitors per year. No other battlefield receives over a million visitors per year.

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Report: Friends of the Hunley Oyster Roast, October 23, 2009

By John Harkness
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The Friends of the H.L. Hunley held their 5th Annual Oyster Roast in Charleston, South Carolina on October 23, 2009 from 7-10 p.m. as their major annual fundraiser to support conservation of the raised Confederate submarine. CCWRT member John Harkness and his wife, Marguerite, are members of the Friends of the Hunley and drove to Charleston to see what this event was all about.


This was our first (but won’t be our last!) “oyster roast.” You can keep your puny Yankee clam bakes. A meager dozen clams — hah! This was downright filling & FUN!!

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A Visit to the H.L. Hunley and a Dose of Southern Culture

By Paul Siedel
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved

Every year it happens; we receive invitations to fundraisers for our pet causes and each year we say, “Next year I’m going to do this.” Well, this year was my year to take in the annual “Friends of the Hunley” barbecue and oyster roast in Charleston, South Carolina. What an experience it was!

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The Bower: A Surprising Find

By Paul Siedel
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved

Last June, while attending the Civil War Institute in Gettysburg, I decided to take a detour on my way home and look for a house called “The Bower.” Located somewhere between Martinsburg and Charlestown, West Virginia, it was, during the Civil War, owned by the Dandridge Family, and the house was offered by them to General Jeb Stuart to serve as his headquarters during the autumn of 1862 shortly after the Battle of Antietam.

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Sheridan’s Butterfly

By Jim Heflich
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved

General Philip Henry Sheridan’s famed Civil War career – most notably his “hell for leather” charge at Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864 – eventually led to his post-bellum appointment as Commanding General U.S. Army on November 1, 1883 – succeeding William Tecumseh Sherman. He remained in that post until his death on August 5, 1888.

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Behind the Lines: My Life as a Yankee in Franklin, TN, Part 6

By Mel Maurer
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2004, All Rights Reserved

Part 6 of a 6-part article


When General John Bell Hood looked out from Winsted Hill in the late afternoon on November 30, 1864, the day he would lead so many men to their deaths in the Battle of Franklin, he would have seen, among other things, three miles north from where he stood, the farmhouse of Fountain Branch Carter on the immediate west side of Columbia Road just behind two lines of Federal entrenchments. The Carter cotton gin was about 100 yards from the house on the east side of the road. These structures would see some of the heaviest fighting, not only in the Battle of Franklin, but also of the whole Civil War.

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