Roundtable Articles

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2020-2021, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2020 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Please recall last month’s history brief where we left off with the end of Grant’s creative…

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2020-2021, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2020 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Please recall Grant’s campaign in the West to capture Vicksburg where we left off at the…

The Southern Victory of 1865:Was the Confederacy a Viable State? The Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Was the Confederacy a viable state? Could it have survived as a nation? If so, what made it viable? If not, what did it lack? The 2008 Dick Crews Debate…

The Southern Victory of 1865:Was the Confederacy a Viable State? By William F.B. Vodrey – Debate ModeratorThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Debate at the January, 2008 Roundtable meeting was: “The Southern Victory of 1865: Was the…

The Confederacy Was NOT a Viable State. By C. Ellen ConnallyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Debate at the January 2008 Roundtable meeting was: “The Southern Victory of 1865: Was the Confederacy a Viable State?” Five members…

The Confederacy WAS a Viable State. By Paul BurkholderThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Debate at the January 2008 Roundtable meeting was: “The Southern Victory of 1865: Was the Confederacy a Viable State?” Five members made presentations…

The Confederacy WAS a Viable State. By Hans KuenziThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Debate at the January 2008 Roundtable meeting was: “The Southern Victory of 1865: Was the Confederacy a Viable State?” Five members made presentations…

The Confederacy Was NOT a Viable State. By Peter HolmanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Debate at the January 2008 Roundtable meeting was: “The Southern Victory of 1865: Was the Confederacy a Viable State?” Five members made…

The Confederacy WAS a Viable State. By Thomas E. Stratton-CrookeThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Debate at the January 2008 Roundtable meeting was: “The Southern Victory of 1865: Was the Confederacy a Viable State?” Five members made…

By John HildebrandtThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved If, as William Faulkner postulated, at least once in the life of every Southern boy, it is 3 p.m. on a warm July afternoon in the shallow valley that separates Seminary Ridge from Cemetery Ridge, it is also…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2003, 2007, All Rights Reserved On July 7, 1865, Mary E. Surratt was hanged in the Arsenal grounds at Washington’s Old Penitentiary Building, having been convicted of conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Also executed were Lewis Payne, George…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2003, 2007, All Rights Reserved Author’s Note: In reality, Mary E. Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865 in the Arsenal grounds at Washington’s Old Penitentiary Building after being convicted of conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. ____________________________________________ Related…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2002, 2007, All Rights Reserved Sir Winston S. Churchill remains, four decades after his death, perhaps the most admired Englishman of all time. His indomitable leadership as British prime minister during World War II and his close personal ties to both…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved Michael Kraus, curator of the Pittsburgh Soldiers & Sailors Monument and Museum, offered a very interesting and original program at the Roundtable’s October 14 meeting. He spoke about the Civil War on film, and his own involvement…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: The Roundtable’s September 2013 meeting was held on the twelfth anniversary of the horrific events of 9/11/2001. Past president William Vodrey opened our meeting that night with the commemoration below. ____________________________________________ On this day in…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013, All Rights Reserved Author’s note: I recently again took part in the Straight Dope (straightdope.com) Poetry Sweatshop. Participants are given one hour to write a poem that includes three randomly-provided words. The words provided this year were: “present,” “passing,” and…

By Paul BurkholderThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved I was born the same year as the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable (1956), which means I grew up in the 1960’s. As I reflect on the 60’s, I marvel at the density of events. From 1963-68, we experienced…

By Paul BurkholderThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in May 2012. It was the final President’s Message of Paul Burkholder’s Presidency. ____________________________________________ Our May meeting ends my term as president of the Roundtable. I suspect I…

By Paul BurkholderThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved I think the historiography of the Civil War – the story of how the Civil War history was created and handed down to us – is as interesting as any other aspect of the Civil War. There may…

By Karen R. LongCleveland Plain Dealer Book EditorOriginally Published: Monday, September 19, 2011Copyright © 2010 Cleveland Live, Inc. Editor’s note: The novelist Robert Olmstead spoke to the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable at its September 2011 meeting. In attendance that night, at the invitation of CCWRT member William Vodrey, was Cleveland…

By Greg Biggs, President, Clarksville TN CWRTThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in October 2014. ____________________________________________ I read with interest the Dick Crews op-ed on how Shelby Foote got it wrong when he called Nathan Bedford…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in October 2014. ____________________________________________ Way back in the year 2000, when William Vodrey was President of our Roundtable, Shelby Foote was our big name speaker. You can argue…

By Patrick BrayThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014, All Rights Reserved Sesquicentennial observations of the Civil War will end in April 2015. This past August marked the beginning of centennial observations of World War One (WWI), a conflict to which the Civil War has been compared. In this analogy…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2006, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published as part of the Roundtable’s 50th anniversary celebration in November 2006. ____________________________________________ Early Years I was a Johnny-Come-Lately as far as the Civil War was concerned. Forty years ago I was…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: Mel Maurer is a past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and served for many years as its Historian. The address below was delivered at the November 9, 2016 meeting of the Roundtable commemorating the…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved In Tony Horowitz’s Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War (Random House, 1998), he devotes a chapter entitled “Dying for Dixie” to the killing of a neo-Confederate in Kentucky devoted to the Confederate flag by…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved July 9, 2015 saw Nikki Haley, the governor of South Carolina, sign the bill removing the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the state capital. This ended a decades long struggle. The flag came down the next…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved Confederate President Jefferson Davis is memorialized in monuments at various locations in the South. They have now come under fire, with demands that some be removed from public grounds. In New Orleans, the Remove Racist Images coalition and…

By Sid SidloThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: At the time this article was originally published in The Charger in the fall of 2001, Sid Sidlo was editor of the The Ramrod, the newsletter of the North Carolina CWRT. ____________________________________________ Hitting a distant target…

By Sid SidloThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the spring of 2001. Its author, Sid Sidlo, was then the editor of the North Carolina Roundtable’s Ramrod newsletter and long-time friend of the Cleveland CWRT. ____________________________________________…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2001, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2001. ____________________________________________ Among the many responsibilities of the Union and Confederate quartermaster departments was that of furnishing army supply wagons, the mules and…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved The American Civil War saw many innovations in military warfare. One of the most significant was the use and strategic importance of railroads in moving troops and supplies to the armies. In 1860, the United States had 200…

By Sid SidloThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: At the time this article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2002, Sid Sidlo, a long-time friend of the CCWRT, was editor of the North Carolina CWRT’s newsletter, The Ramrod. ____________________________________________ It…

By Syd OverallThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from a presentation made by the author to the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable on February 12, 2014. ____________________________________________ The Union Blockade The Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter was a 33-hour, one-sided ordeal…

Reviewed by William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2002, 2007, All Rights Reserved The March 9, 1862 clash of the ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merrimack) has always had a tenacious grip on the American imagination. It is easily the best-known naval engagement of…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright (c) 2004, 2007, All Rights Reserved The United States Navy, steeped in tradition and history, honors its remarkable service in the Civil War through the names of many of its ships today. First and foremost is the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz-class…

By Greg PizzutoThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the fall of 2001. Horace Lawson Hunley, a lawyer and planter from New Orleans, understood the importance of the shipping trade to his beloved Confederacy. Hunley and…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2003, 2005, All Rights Reserved On April 14, 1861, after an extensive bombardment, the outnumbered and outgunned Union garrison of Ft. Sumter surrendered to the Confederate forces in and around Charleston harbor. U.S. Army Maj. Robert Anderson insisted, as a condition…

By Matt SlatteryThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2002. ____________________________________________ Many of the books on the Civil War (the fighting Civil War) deal with the strategy of the governments, North and South,…

By Matt SlatteryThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the spring of 2001. ____________________________________________ In the history of war much has been written of the drama, the excitement and the glory of battle. Little ink has…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the Winter of 2001. ____________________________________________ A strange sight on a Civil War battlefield was the Zouaves. In the Civil War, where a marksman could drop a soldier…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the spring of 2002. ____________________________________________ The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York was a very confusing place at the beginning of the American Civil…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the Spring of 2000. ____________________________________________ The reason the United States doesn’t have 51 states is due to the failure of General William T. Sherman to act adding…

By Dan ZeiserThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in December 2002. ____________________________________________ The age-old question. The two best-known generals of the war. The commanders who battled one other at the end of the war. Lee’s surrender…

General John Bell Hood, CSA and the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, November 30, 1864 By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved Confederate General John Bell Hood, commander of the Army of Tennessee, sits on his horse on Winstead Hill looking north towards the village of…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Whatever hope the rebellious South had for continuing its fight until the North grew tired of the bloody struggle died – not with the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 – but rather on…

By Dr. Michael DoryThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a presentation made by Dr. Dory to the CCWRT in April, 2009. ____________________________________________ Background On December 15, 1863, Major General Q. A. Gillmore proposed certain operations in Florida to Major…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2001, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2001. ____________________________________________ The Battle of Stones River took place between December 31, 1862 and January 2, 1863. The fighting started as it had…

By Daniel J. UrsuThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved Fort Ward is one of the 68 forts eventually built by the North during the Civil War that ringed Washington, D.C. as protection against southern invasion and raids. As with many of the forts constructed for this…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2002. ____________________________________________ I was stationed on Governors Island during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962. Lying 500 yards off the southern tip…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the spring of 2001. ____________________________________________ Two days after the disastrous Union defeat at Bull Run, Richard Yates, Governor of Illinois, sent a dispatch on July 23, 1861…

By John FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved About the Letters The following letters were given to one of our members by a kindly fellow from Tallmadge, Ohio, named Bob Lowry, after the member addressed a group there. They appear to have been written in 1862…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved After again watching the 1959 film The Horse Soldiers, I decided to revisit Grierson’s Raid. The movie starred John Wayne (as a stand-in for Col. Benjamin Grierson) and William Holden as the surgeon assigned to his brigade for…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014, All Rights Reserved This October 19 marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. It was one of the most dramatic events in the entire Civil War. Riding his horse Rienzi (memorialized in the stirring…

Compiled by Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the spring of 2001. ____________________________________________ The 51st Ohio Volunteer Infantry was formed from the Dover/New Philadelphia area of Ohio in October of 1861. After training, the…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved Third of three articles in a series on cemeteries in Cleveland’s western suburbs. Lakeside Cemetery overlooks Lake Erie in Bay Village, now a bedroom community but in the 1860’s a region of orchards and truck gardens at the…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved Second of three articles in a series on cemeteries in Cleveland’s western suburbs. Rockport Pioneer Cemetery is located on a small, tree-shaded hill in Fairview Park, Ohio. Earliest burials predate the establishment of Rockport Township in 1814. Four…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2004, All Rights Reserved First of three articles in a series on cemeteries in Cleveland’s western suburbs. Evergreen Cemetery in Westlake, Ohio is located on Center Ridge Road and bordered by greenhouses, a nursery, and soccer field. Across the busy highway, a…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved The historic term of our good friend and member, Neil Evans, as President of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument Commission has come to an end – giving us this opportunity to reflect on the man and his service…

By Paul SiedelThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved The largest Civil War training camp in Northeast Ohio was Camp Cleveland, located in the Tremont neighborhood just to the south of downtown Cleveland. Along with the U.S. General Hospital it covered approximately 80 acres and according to…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2002. ____________________________________________ Cleveland and Cuyahoga County contributed a large percentage of its manpower to the American Civil War. The federal census of 1860 showed…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved Introduction Five Ohio-born Civil War veterans later became President of the United States. William Tecumseh Sherman might have been a sixth, but he famously refused to be nominated. The first was Ulysses S. Grant, the victorious hero and…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013, All Rights Reserved During the Civil War, 134 Ohioans (either born or living in Ohio at the war’s outbreak) were generals in the Union army. Three comprised the triumvirate of the Union’s pantheon of military heroes: U.S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman,…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved During the 2009 Cleveland Civil War Roundtable field trip to Gettysburg, our group laid a wreath at the monument honoring the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI). This Ohio regiment, known as “The Fighting Fools,” is perhaps best known…

By Paul SiedelThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved Not too long ago while visiting the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in downtown Cleveland, Ohio I overheard a docent telling someone that the last Civil War veteran from Cuyahoga County died in 1943. His name was Peter Diemer.…

By Tim Daley and Richard T. PrasseThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument commemorates in stone, bronze and glass the service of those enlisted and appointed from Cuyahoga County during the Civil War. Their names are captured in marble inside the Monument’s…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014, All Rights Reserved On August 27, 1864, Confederate prisoners played a base ball (as it used to be spelled) game on Johnson’s Island near Sandusky, Ohio, on the grounds of the U.S. Army prison camp there. The Confederate and the…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014, All Rights Reserved The Ohio History Connection (the newly rebranded Ohio Historical Society) on November 8 hosted a symposium on Ohio’s home front during the Civil War. Nine historians, professional and amateur, explored various topics in three panel discussions. First…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013, All Rights Reserved On April 6, Mel Maurer, Chris Fortunato, and I went to Georgetown, Ohio to attend the ceremonial rededication of U.S. Grant’s boyhood home. Georgetown is just east of Cincinnati, about four and a half hours’ drive from…

By Daniel J. UrsuThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved If you believe, as I and many others do, that the Civil War would not have been won by the North but for U.S. Grant, then a visit to his boyhood home in our own State of…

By Daniel J. UrsuThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved Not only did the abolitionist John Brown, the “Meteor of the Civil War” as proffered by poet Walt Whitman, live part of his life in the northeastern Ohio Village of Hudson, but did another military leader of…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the Winter of 2001. ____________________________________________ “The History of mankind,” said the old Scotsman Thomas Carlyle, “is a history of its great men; to find out these, clean…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved Conscript is not a word frequently used in discussing soldiers in the Civil War. In his book They Went into the Fight Cheering: Confederate Conscription in North Carolina, Walter Hilderman III, a man of the South, said the…

By David ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the spring of 1999. ____________________________________________ In the beginning of the Civil War, the Confederacy won many decisive victories. As the war continued, however, the Confederacy weakened and…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: Following is a Sept. 12, 1864 letter written by General William Tecumseh Sherman, Commander of the Western Theater of the War, to James M. Calhoun, Mayor, and E. E. Rawson and S. C. Wells, representing…

By John C. Fazio & Carol BuchananThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: In February 2005 CCWRT past president John Fazio published his article The Vigilantes of Montana in The Charger, the CCWRT newsletter. The article was later republished here on the CCWRT Website and…

By Carol BuchananThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011 Carol Buchanan, All Rights Reserved As he helps to bury a murdered friend, attorney Daniel Stark (the protagonist in my historical novel God’s Thunderbolt: The Vigilantes of Montana) wonders how to find the killer and bring him to justice: If. If’s…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved Previously, I have argued in these pages that the decisive battle of the Civil War was not Gettysburg, as so many assume (though its critical importance cannot be denied), but Spotsylvania and Grant’s literal turning south that…

By Matt SlatteryThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in The Charger in March 2002. Its author, Matt Slattery, wrote it shortly before his death in December 2001. Even at 90 years of age Matt was still looking at new ideas…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved The year 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court decision in Ex Parte Milligan. In 2012, I wrote about “Lincoln’s Suspension of Habeas Corpus” for The Charger. In this archived article I recounted the…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved As the United States celebrated its Centennial in Philadelphia in July 1876, President U.S. Grant was nearing the end of his second term in office. Saddled with scandals affecting high officials in his administration, Grant had given up…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved In addition to the murder of General “Bull” Nelson, Union General Jefferson C. Davis is also remembered for what occurred on December 9, 1864 at Ebenezer Creek, Georgia. As Sherman’s army neared Savannah in its March to the…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved The American Civil War was much seen through the cameras of a group of early photographers. The best known was Mathew Brady. Before the war, Brady prospered by doing portraits in his New York City studio. His most…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Introduction On my mother’s German side from Western Pennsylvania, I had a great-grandfather and two of his brothers who served in Pennsylvania volunteer regiments in the Civil War. Even though the Irish on my father’s side had not…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: A debate on the cause or causes of the Civil War was held on January 10, 2007 as part of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable’s monthly meeting. It was an intercollegiate-style debate, i.e., two on…

By Dan ZeiserThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved Of course, you say, the Constitution caused the Civil War. By recognizing and institutionalizing slavery, the war was inevitable. But this is not the only reason that the Constitution caused the Civil War. There was another, perhaps more…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2000, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the fall of 2000. ____________________________________________ They say when it rains, it pours. And just when the United States was locked in a deadly struggle with…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007 Weider History GroupThis article originally appeared in the October 2004 issue of American History magazine. ____________________________________________ The cost of political greatness, it’s been said, is to be forced to campaign long after your death. That’s certainly true of George Washington,…

By Peter HolmanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved One hundred and forty years ago, a man hailed as a modern Robinson Crusoe made a brief appearance in newspapers across the world and continues today to impact genealogists, historical societies and miscellaneous bloggers throughout the world-wide web.…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Lincoln Memorial University must be in Illinois or Washington, D.C. or Kentucky, right? No, no, and no, Lincoln Memorial University is in one of the strongest of Confederate states, Tennessee. Ah, but located where in Confederate state of…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2004, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from a chapter of Dale Thomas’s book, Lincoln’s Old Friends of Menard County, Illinois. After his failure to win the Whig nomination for Congress in 1843, Lincoln wrote to a political…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2003, All Rights Reserved ____________________________________________ Artemus Ward In 1857, Charles Farrar Brown became the local editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and began to write articles about an itinerant showman named Artemus Ward. Later moving on to Vanity Fair in New York…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved Contents Introduction Genesis The Proclamation Interpretations Effects The Thirteenth Amendment ____________________________________________ I. Introduction The Emancipation Proclamation is probably the strangest document in American history; strange because it is susceptible of at least three interpretations which appear to…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article is excerpted from a book on the Lincoln assassination by the author, Decapitating the Union: Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin and the Plot to Assassinate Lincoln ____________________________________________ The First Riddle: What Was the Name…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2002, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in The Charger in March, 2002. ____________________________________________ During Career Day at Bay High School in 1990, Professor David R. Bush talked to my students about archaeology. He invited me to observe…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the spring of 2002. ____________________________________________ On the way to Washington, three days after his 53rd birthday, President-elect Abraham Lincoln stopped overnight in Cleveland for his only visit…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2000, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: James M. McPherson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, amongst other Civil War books, spoke at The Western Reserve Historical Society in April 2000. This report on McPherson’s talk by then…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This is adapted from an article that originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of The Charger. ____________________________________________ In February we honor all those who have served as President of the United States. By coincidence,…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved John Wilkes Booth was an agent of the Confederate Secret Service. It is not known, and may never be known, when or exactly under what circumstances he was recruited and accepted his role as such, but that…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved I am of the opinion that major historical events, and some minor ones too, occur only in the fullness of time, which is to say that they occur only when conditions are ripe for their happening. Attempts…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: John C. Fazio is a past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and the author of numerous articles on the Lincoln assassination as well as the book, Decapitating the Union: Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Just east of Petersburg Virginia – near the rim of “The Crater” on Sunday, January 29, 1865 – a white flag appeared on the Confederate side of the lines. A delegation of commissioners from Jefferson Davis (Alexander Stephens,…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2006, All Rights Reserved Abraham Lincoln an unscrupulous lawyer? That was one of the charges made against him in his senatorial race against Steven Douglas and later again in his run for the presidency. Lincoln, so it was claimed, had altered the…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2004, All Rights Reserved Robert Todd Lincoln – “Bob” to his family and friends – was dubbed the “Prince of Rails” during his “Railsplitter” father’s 1860 campaign for president, after a visit to this country by England’s Prince of Wales. Robert was…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2003, All Rights Reserved This April (2003) marks the 138th anniversary of the assassination of our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. Here are some random facts and figures in the life of this great American guaranteed to tell you something about him you…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved I escaped with John Wilkes Booth – a bit of an exaggeration since he escaped from Washington, DC – after assassinating President Lincoln – in 1865 and I did it in 2006, along with my son Rick and…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2006, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The article below is the transcript of a speech given by the author to the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in November 2006. ____________________________________________ I’m honored to speak tonight on…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The Lincoln Forum (www.thelincolnforum.org) is an organization that “endeavors to enhance the understanding and preserve the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.” Founded in 1995, the Forum meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The Lincoln Forum (www.thelincolnforum.org) is an organization that “endeavors to enhance the understanding and preserve the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.” Founded in 1995, the Forum meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The Lincoln Forum (www.thelincolnforum.org) is an organization that “endeavors to enhance the understanding and preserve the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.” Founded in 1995, the Forum meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The Lincoln Forum (www.thelincolnforum.org) is an organization that “endeavors to enhance the understanding and preserve the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.” Founded in 1995, the Forum meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The Lincoln Forum (www.thelincolnforum.org) is an organization that “endeavors to enhance the understanding and preserve the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.” Founded in 1995, the Forum meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on…

By Mel Maurer and William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved We will not be surprised if everyone who comes to this web page shouts, “Fools! With at least 16,000 books on Abraham Lincoln written over the years, how could anyone hope to boil them…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved Tony Kushner, screenwriter of Steven Spielberg’s movie Lincoln, and Sarah Vowell, author of Assassination Vacation, appeared at the Maltz Center on November 29 as part of Case Western Reserve University’s Think Forum speaker series. CWRU Prof. Jerrold…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved This article addresses President Abraham Lincoln’s wartime suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus and recounts the cases of John Merryman, Clement Vallandigham, and Lambdin Milligan. The cast of characters includes many Ohioans. Suspension of the Writ of…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: The article below is the text from Mel Maurer’s presentation to the Roundtable on May 14, 2008. ____________________________________________ “Jesse James,” said Carl Sandburg, “is the only American who is classical, who is to this country what…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved Ulysses S. Grant, his wife, Julia, and their family had always enjoyed their annual vacations at their summer home on the beach in New Jersey. However, the summer of 1884 would be different from all the rest. As…

By Mel MaurerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved I was first introduced to Balthasar (also Balthazar) Best by his great grandson, Bill Lasswell, almost two years ago (2003) on the battlefield at Gettysburg. My grandson, Eric, and I had just parked near the Pennsylvania Monument on…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Civil War prison Andersonville was only in operation for fourteen months, but is considered the most notorious United States prison. During this short period of just over a year of operation, 45,000 Union soldiers would suffer miserably and…

By Dale ThomasThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2001, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2001. I did not have any ancestors who fought in the Civil War since they were still back in Europe, but my wife,…

The Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Contents Turner Ashby Nathaniel Prentiss Banks Braxton Bragg Don Carlos Buell John Bell Hood James Hewett Ledlie Irvin McDowell John Pemberton Strong Vincent John Thomas Wilder Henry Wirz Henry Alexander Wise Editor’s Note: This page contains a collection of brief…

By Dan ZeiserThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved We are all familiar with the business theory known as the “Peter Principle.” According to this concept, a person continues to rise in an organization until he or she reaches a level that requires more ability than the…

By Dan ZeiserThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2006, All Rights Reserved The debate has raged for decades. Was it George H. Thomas, Ulysses Grant, Robert E. Lee, William T. Sherman, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson? Each of us has his or her favorite. There are good arguments for those mentioned above…

By Dan ZeiserThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Yes, I’m from Ohio. And yes, I love to point out the great accomplishments of fellow Buckeyes. And there is no doubt that he was a key player in the Civil War – one that we Buckeyes love…

By Dan ZeiserThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved I have often thought that Ulysses Grant exhibited far different command skills in the West than he did in the East during the Civil War. Generally, my thoughts were that Grant used maneuver much better in the West…

By Dick Crews The Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2004, All Rights Reserved Jefferson Davis would have described himself as a loyal American. His heroes were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, James Madison, and Zachary Taylor. All these American heroes were Presidents, Southerners, and slave owners. His heroes founded…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the fall of 2000. ____________________________________________ William G. Brownlow, civil war editor and preacher was called by everyone “Parson Brownlow.” He was the editor/owner of the Knoxville, Tennessee…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the fall of 2000. ____________________________________________ The most well-known person from the Civil War to be hanged for war crimes was Henry Wirz. He was the commandant of…

By Dick CrewsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2001, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2001. ____________________________________________ Prior to the Civil War, and indeed during the War, people continually talked about the Abolitionists. Southerners of course hated them…

By Peter HolmanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2004, All Rights Reserved When the news of the surrender of Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861 was telegraphed to Michigan, Captain George Gordon Meade of the U.S. Topographical Bureau anticipated early relief from the remote duty of surveying northern lakes and…

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2019-2020, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Our speaker this evening will be focusing on Colored Troops during the Civil War. As…

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2019-2020, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2020 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ Since this month’s regular meeting falls on Lincoln’s birthday it was thought appropriate to highlight…

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2019-2020, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ The “war was won in the West” – or so they say – and has…

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2019-2020, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ We pick up from my September 11, 2019 history brief, with Confederate General Price maneuvering…

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2019-2020, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. ____________________________________________ On September 11, 1862, it could be said that the North was doing well and…

By Matt SlatteryThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the Fall of 2000. ____________________________________________ In the winning of battles no other commander in the Civil War, North or South, equaled the slow moving, keen-minded Virginian, George…

by E. Chris EvansThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved Is the idea of the great Italian revolutionary warrior Giuseppe Garibaldi trading in his famous red shirt for a Union officer’s blue frock coat incredible? Is the idea improbable, even impossible, especially since this man would be…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: This article is the transcript of a presentation made by the author to the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable on March 8, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. ____________________________________________ Abraham Lincoln, elected President of the United States in…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved March 9 to 27, 1847. Polk’s nasty little war of conquest against our southern neighbor was on. (“We had to have California.”) This was the war that Ulysses S. Grant would later characterize, in his Memoirs, as…

By Peter HolmanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved The Confederate raider CSS Alabama put in at Saldanha Bay in the Cape Colony (Western Cape in present day South Africa), 160 sea miles northwest of Cape Town on July 29th 1863. Captain Rafael Semmes’ vessel was desperately…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved Introduction Ohio general George Crook had one of the most adventurous and interesting Civil War and post-Civil War military careers. This included participation in many of the major battles of the Civil War (both East and West), acrimonious…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014, All Rights Reserved As Eugene Schmiel concludes in his biography of Jacob Dolson Cox, he was a Renaissance Man in the Gilded Age. Schmiel recounts his many pursuits as a Citizen-General. These include his life as a lawyer, politician, corporate executive,…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2002, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in December, 2002. ____________________________________________ A funny thing happened on the way to Atlanta. The warriors – William Tecumseh Sherman, 43, lean, tough, methodical, ruthlessly efficient and…

By Bishop Beverly TuckerThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2001, 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: The article below is a transcript of a talk given to the Roundtable on October 19,1959 by the Rt. Reverend Beverly Tucker, PhD, Bishop of the Episcopal Church of Northeast Ohio. The talk was…

by Dr. Paul FinkelmanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: Dr. Paul Finkelman is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy and Senior Fellow in the Government Law Center at Albany Law School, Albany, New York. He has published over twenty…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: An abbreviated version of this article along with biographical sketches of Francis and Arabella Barlow and John and Fanny Gordon first appeared in the Charger in 2005 and then in 2006 on this website. The…

John C. FazioThe Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2006, All Rights Reserved All right, I admit it. I’m an incurable romantic. I love those touching, poignant scenes that reflect the best that is in us, if not always the strongest. I’m talking about Spencer Tracy grabbing John Carradine’s shirt, under his…

John C. FazioThe Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2006, All Rights Reserved The Civil War is filled with touching, poignant, human interest stories, which is not surprising given the human drama that comprised this American Iliad. Examples abound of men who had cushy private lives and could therefore have easily avoided…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from the presentation William Vodrey made before the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable in February, 2006. Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1974 novel The Killer Angels and the movie Gettysburg reintroduced a new…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved In a very real sense, the Civil War’s first casualty fell not at Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861 (Pvt. David Hough, killed during a post-bombardment salute to Old Glory), or even in Alexandria, Virginia, on May…

By Jean RhodesThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved Katherine Jane Chase, the daughter of Ohio politician, Salmon P. Chase was the envy of the Washington social set during the war years and beyond. By the time Kate was born on August 13, 1840, her father had…

By Barbara and Charles WhalenThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: The ‘scenes’ that make up this article were excerpted from The Fighting McCooks – America’s Famous Fighting Family by Barbara and Charles Whalen and appear here through the courtesy of the authors. ____________________________________________ It…

By Dr. Max R. TermanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: The following excerpt comes from the recently published novel Hiram’s Honor: Reliving Private Terman’s Civil War by Max R. Terman and appears here through the courtesy of the author. (Another excerpt from this book…

By Dr. Max R. TermanThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2009, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: The following is a second excerpt from the recently published novel Hiram’s Honor: Reliving Private Terman’s Civil War by Max R. Terman and appears here through the courtesy of the author. (The first excerpt…

The 1864 Confederate Invasion of Maryland,the Battle of Monocacy, and Jubal Early’s Move on Washington, D.C. By Marc LeepsonThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from Marc Leepson’s book, Desperate Engagement: How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and…

By Clint JohnsonThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: Clint Johnson is the author of a dozen Civil War-related books. His latest, Pursuit: The Chase, Capture, Persecution and Surprising Release of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, will be published in June 2008. This article is adapted…

By William F.B. VodreyThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2003, 2010, All Rights Reserved The New York City Draft Riots of July 13-16, 1863, were by some measures the most bloody and devastating riots in American history. At a time when the Civil War was raging on battlefields, rivers and…

By Jason EmersonThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from Jason Emerson’s book, The Madness of Mary Lincoln (2007, Southern Illinois University Press), recently named “Book of Year” by the Illinois State Historical Society, and appears here through the courtesy of…

By Nat Brandt with Yanna Kroyt BrandtThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2010, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from the book In the Shadow of the Civil War: Passmore Williamson and the Rescue of Jane Johnson and appears here through the courtesy of the authors. ____________________________________________…

By Edward H. Bonekemper, IIIThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: Edward H. Bonekemper is the author of several Civil War books. His latest, Grant and Lee: Victorious American and Vanquished Virginian, was published in 2007 by Greenwood Praeger. This article is an excerpt from…

By Edward W. Bonekemper, IIIThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s Note: Edward H. Bonekemper is the author of several Civil War books. This article is an excerpt from the introduction to his latest book, Lincoln and Grant: The Westerners Who Won the Civil War, and…

By Dr. James H. Bissland The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from Dr. James Bissland’s latest book, Blood, Tears, & Glory: How Ohioans Won the Civil War, published in 2007, and appears here through the courtesy of the…

By Greg BiggsThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: Greg Briggs has authored or co-authored several books and many articles on the Civil War. He has held executive positions with several Civil War Roundtables and preservation and historical societies and is a member of the…

By Greg Biggs The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable Copyright © 2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: Greg Briggs has authored or co-authored several books and many articles on the Civil War. He has held executive positions with several Civil War Roundtables and preservation and historical societies and is a member…

Prologue: The Players By Nora Titone The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable Copyright © 2010 by Nora Titone, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from the book My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry That Led to the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Nora Titone and appears…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved This is the final installment in a four-part series by past Roundtable President John Fazio reviewing the current scholarship on the question of whether John Wilkes Booth and his band of conspirators, in their attempt to behead…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved This is the third installment in a four-part series by past Roundtable President John Fazio reviewing the current scholarship on the question of whether John Wilkes Booth and his band of conspirators, in their attempt to behead…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved This is the second installment in a four-part series by past Roundtable President John Fazio reviewing the current scholarship on the question of whether John Wilkes Booth and his band of conspirators, in their attempt to behead…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved In this four-part series, past Roundtable President John Fazio reviews the current scholarship on the question of whether John Wilkes Booth and his band of conspirators, in their attempt to behead the Union government, acted independently or…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: John C. Fazio is a past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and the author of numerous articles on the Lincoln assassination as well as the book, Decapitating the Union: Jefferson Davis, Judah Benjamin…

By Hans KuenziThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved In late May 1861, Jefferson Davis, the former Mississippi Senator and the reluctant president of the seceding Confederate States of America, moved the capital of the CSA from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, Virginia to boost the morale of…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Clark W. Griswold, Sr. in the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation: “I’m retiring.” Retired NFL quarterback…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Raise a glass of the bubbly to toast the bubbly. Not champagne, but America’s beverage: Coca-Cola,…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. The topic of the presentation at the April 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. In the years leading up to the Civil War, feelings of hostility were high on both…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. The last painting from life that was made of Robert E. Lee was done in Lexington,…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. “War is all hell.” “War is cruelty and you cannot refine it.” These words of William…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2011 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. The phrase “fratricidal war” has been used to describe the Civil War as a way of…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2011 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Sometimes connections to the Civil War are convoluted and unexpected. For example, if Civil War enthusiasts…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2011-2012, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2011 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. William Tecumseh Sherman and…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the June 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. One of the truly enjoyable aspects of the Civil War is the memorable quotes that were…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. I am nervous every time I present one of these history briefs, because I know that…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. One interesting bit of trivia about the Civil War is the identity of the highest ranking…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. At the time of the Civil War neither side, Union or Confederate, had an official national…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. In October 2012 Facebook announced with great fanfare that its social network had exceeded one billion…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. In 1995 the U.S. Post Office issued a series of stamps to commemorate the Civil War.…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. What do the following historical figures have in common: Ferdinand Magellan, Roger Bannister, Yuri Gagarin, and…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. There are some who consider Robert E. Lee the greatest military leader of the Civil War.…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2012-2013, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2012 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. There is a joke about the Civil War which asks the question, “Why were so many…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. People with even a little knowledge of the Civil War likely know that Robert E. Lee…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. During World War II many American women worked in factories to produce materiel for the war…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. One of the most iconic images from World War II is Rosie the Riveter. It is…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. One interesting piece of Civil War-related trivia is the last U.S. president who was a slaveowner…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. The honor system is something that is familiar to almost everyone. It is defined as a…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Many people share the blame that there was not a peaceful resolution of the issues of…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. “Four score and seven years ago.” With this creative phrasing of the age of the United…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. If at first you don’t succeed, find a career in something that you’re good at. This…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2013-2014, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2013 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. On June 6, 1863, General John Hunt Morgan and over 2,000 Confederate cavalrymen left McMinnville, Tennessee…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. On May 13, 1865 the last battle of the Civil War came to an end, or…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. To paraphrase Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. During the Civil War the United States Navy committed a maritime violation of British sovereignty, which…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. The acclaimed movie Lincoln focuses on passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. But before this Thirteenth Amendment…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. One of the topics that Civil War enthusiasts enjoy debating is the question of which Civil…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. On to Richmond! This was the battle cry in the North at the beginning of the…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Anyone who has an email account has received them: those forwarded emails that relate some preposterous,…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. The Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and Saul and the men of Israel were…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2014-2015, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2014 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. In the early morning hours of April 12, 1861, a projectile from a cannon that may…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Anyone who has watched television in Cleveland has almost certainly seen one of the commercials that…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. In 2012 the sports website Bleacher Report published its choices for the best player ever to…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Rightly or wrongly, some months of the year in the U.S. are dominated by a holiday…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. There is an old joke that is intended to convey the lesson that in order for…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. The opening lines of the official state song of what was once one of the 13…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Near the end of the movie Glory there is a depiction of the attack by the…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. A popular movie trivia game is Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The object of the game…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. “In times of peace sons bury their fathers; in times of war fathers bury their sons.”…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2015-2016, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2015 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. If a person-on-the-street quiz were done in Cleveland, and the participants were asked to name the…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. The Civil War has been called the first modern war, because many innovations that had been…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. “And now you know the rest of the story.” This is the tagline that was used…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Destiny is defined as “the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person in the…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. There is a witty quote about history repeating itself, which conveys the notion that history repeats…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. American men who were born between 1944 and 1950 were automatically entered into the first of…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Prior to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ astonishing and (dare it be said) historic championship that they won…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2016-2017, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2016 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. September 14, 2016 was the date of the first meeting in the presidency of the second…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. One stereotypical expression that is associated with a life-threatening experience is to say that his life…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. On August 31, 1976 a district court in New York City ruled that former Beatle George…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. According to a recent survey by the International Dairy Foods Association, the best-selling flavor of ice…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the January 2019 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. On September 4, 1957, Ford Motor Company introduced a car that it predicted would revolutionize American…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. When the calendar moves to December, among the things we can count on are cold weather,…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Not surprisingly, whenever Confederate military forces invaded the North, feelings of fear and anxiety were raised…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2018-2019, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. The stereotypical first assignment for students who are returning to school after the summer is to…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. There is a well-known axiom that all is fair in love and war, or, as the…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the April 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. America, love it or leave it. People who lived during the 1960s are familiar with this…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the May 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. Near the end of May, we in the U.S. participate in an annual remembrance of those…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the February 2018 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. The word sarcasm comes from an ancient Greek word that literally means to tear the flesh.…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. One of the most famous quotes in U.S. naval history purportedly occurred at the battle of…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the October 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. The statement, “An army marches on its stomach,” has been attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, but it…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. I remember when I was much younger, maybe age 12, my father took my brother and…

By David A. Carrino, Roundtable HistorianThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017-2018, All Rights Reserved Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2017 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable. In its most basic sense, immortality simply means to live forever. However, there are several different…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved Historian Phillip Thomas Tucker claims about the Pickett-Pettigrew Charge on the third day at Gettysburg: According to Tucker, Lee’s plan was to have simultaneous assaults not only by the Pickett-Pettigrew force accompanied by flying artillery and follow-up reinforcements…

By John C. FazioThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved The recent dismantling and removal of Southern statuary, monuments and other symbols relating to the Civil War and its aftermath has, not surprisingly, generated a lot of heat between those favoring the same and those opposed. It…

By Paul SiedelThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved A Visit to Fort Jackson Another Civil War site off the beaten path and one that is well worth visiting is the National Historic site incorporating Fort Jackson at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Fort Jackson is…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved On March 22, 1865, 13,480 Yankee cavalry in three divisions left their camps at Eastport, Alabama on the south shore of the Tennessee River for the biggest raid of the Civil War. Armed with Spencer carbines whose purchase…

By Dennis KeatingThe Cleveland Civil War RoundtableCopyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved Edward H. Bonekemper III, our September 2017 speaker on “The Myth of the Lost Cause,” writes of Jubal Early in his 2015 book: Early, who faltered at Gettysburg, lost the Shenandoah Valley and his corps, been relieved of…

By David A. Carrino The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable Copyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved Part 1 of a 6-part series Prior to the Civil War, the four daughters of Robert E. and Mary Lee lived idyllic lives in a home with beautifully scenic surroundings, and they looked forward to…