Field Trips – The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable

Vicksburg Field Trip – September 2025

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

Dates: September 25-28, 2025
Location: Vicksburg, Mississippi
Participants: 35 members and guests

Editor’s note: The photographs in this field trip report were generously provided by Jose Esparza and Steve Pettyjohn as indicated for each photograph.

The Trip

The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable conducted its 2025 annual fall field trip to Vicksburg, Mississippi from September 25-28 under the leadership of President Judge Charles Patton with the able assistance of Field Captain and Adjutant Bob Pence. The Vicksburg Campaign is one of the most important military campaigns in U.S. history and demonstrates the generalship of Ulysses S. Grant at its best. Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign has been hailed by many military historians as brilliant and worthy of being called Napoleonic. However, due to its geographic location in the Western Theater of the Civil War, the Vicksburg Campaign has always taken second fiddle to Gettysburg in the Eastern Theater.

Gettysburg Field Trip – September 2024

By Gene Claridge III
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2025, All Rights Reserved

The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable embarked on one of the largest-ever Annual Field Trips, with 67 enthusiastic participants traveling from Northeast Ohio to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – a journey of approximately 5.5 hours. This year, we were also honored to be joined by members of the Cape Fear Civil War Round Table from Wilmington, North Carolina, the Bucks County Civil War Roundtable from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and our sister roundtable, the Northeast Ohio Civil War Round Table. For four days, the group explored key sites of the Gettysburg National Military Park, engaged with expert historians, and deepened their understanding of one of the most pivotal battles of the American Civil War. Under the leadership of Roundtable President Gene Claridge, and with the dedicated efforts of Past President Bob Pence as Field Trip Coordinator, the trip ran smoothly and was a resounding success. Below is a recap of our unforgettable experience.

List of Roundtable Field Trips

The following is a list of past Cleveland Civil War Roundtable field trips indicating the year and location of the field trip.

Chickamauga and Chattanooga Field Trip – September 2021

By Steve Pettyjohn
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2022, All Rights Reserved

Day 1 – The Tullahoma Campaign and Chickamauga

The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable held its annual field trip from September 24-25, 2021, visiting the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battlefields. Under the leadership of Roundtable president Mark Porter, we had another outstanding field trip. We were able to spend Friday on the Chickamauga battlefield with guide Robert Carter, who walked us through one of the most complex and confusing Civil War battlefields. He provided a series of very helpful maps to help us with understanding the various moves during the battle. Our dinner speaker that evening was Professor Andrew Bledsoe of Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee. Dr. Bledsoe used an excellent set of maps to describe the Tullahoma Campaign and the opening moves of the Chickamauga Campaign. On Saturday we visited Lookout Mountain, Orchard Knob, and several sites on Missionary Ridge with legendary National Park Service guide James Ogden. His comments were supplemented by even more maps, as this more straightforward battle still had its complexities.

Gettysburg Field Trip – September 2008

By Paul Burkholder
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved

From Thursday, September 25 through Sunday, the 28th, twenty-five of our members, led by president Jon Thompson, participated in the Roundtable’s annual field trip, this year to the hallowed ground of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The club’s return to Gettysburg was driven in part by the ongoing work being done by the Park Service to restore the battlefield to its 1863 state, in part by the opening of the new Visitor Center there, and in part by the unveiling of the freshly restored (and moved) Cyclorama. Without cutting to the chase too quickly, let me report with some relief that those responsible for these changes have produced admirable results on all counts (save, perhaps, for the funding of these many projects, but more on that later).