Speakers Bureau

Roundtable members available for group talks

Robert Boyda

Former Roundtable President
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  • Nathan Bedford Forest
  • John B. Gordon
  • Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign

Dick Crews

Former Roundtable President
Member, Lincoln Forum
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  • Dan Sickles
  • William T. Sherman
  • John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Assassination

John C. Fazio

Former Roundtable President
Member, Lincoln Forum
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  • Abraham Lincoln / Jefferson Davis Debate: A one act play about an unplanned for meeting of Lincoln (Mel Maurer) and Davis (John Fazio) during the Hampton Roads Conference in February, 1865. The two are discovered by a reporter, Franklin Boyd (William Vodrey), who, in asking them questions, precipitates a debate as to the causes and conduct of the Civil War.
  • Braxton Bragg: A Dour Martinet
  • Causes of the American Civil War
  • Eye of the Storm (A review of Robert Sneden’s Memoir re Andersonville)
  • Francis and Arabella; John and Fanny: Love and War (The intersections of the lives of Union General Francis C. Barlow and his wife, Arabella, with Confederate General John B. Gordon and his wife, Fanny)
  • Intrepid Mariners (The saga of the U.S.S. Kearsarge and the C.S.S. Alabama and their commanders)
  • Lovejoy of Illinois (A biography of Elijah Parish Lovejoy)
  • Spangler Was Innocent! (The miscarriage of justice against Edman Spangler, an alleged conspirator against Lincoln)
  • The Barlow-Gordon Controversy: Rest in Peace (The controversy surrounding the meeting of Generals Barlow and Gordon on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg)
  • The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
  • The Great Kidnapping Myth (The ruse that concealed the attempted decapitation of the United States Government in the closing days of the Civil War)
  • The Montana Vigilantes (Frontier justice to secure newly discovered gold for the Union)
  • The Proclamation That Saved a Nation (The Emancipation Proclamation)
  • The Sword Was Mightier Than the Pen (Wartime correspondence between Confederate General John Bell Hood and Union General William Tecumseh Sherman)
  • The Turning Point: The Wilderness and Spotsylvania
  • Thus Always With Miscreants (A biography of John Wilkes Booth)

John C. Harkness

Former Roundtable President
Member, Company of Military Historians
Member, Ohio Gun Collectors Association
Supervisor, Alloy R and D, Brush Wellman Inc.
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  • Materials and Processes in the Manufacture of Civil War Small Arms

Mel Maurer

Former Roundtable President
Roundtable Historian
Member, Lincoln Forum
Member, Civil War Preservation Trust
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  • The Battle of Franklin
  • Lincoln at Gettysburg
  • Abraham Lincoln, There’s Nothing Trivial About Him
  • Jesse James – The Last Rebel of the Civil War?
  • Abraham Lincoln / Jefferson Davis Debate: A one act play imaging a meeting of Lincoln (Mel Maurer) and Davis (John Fazio) during the Hampton Roads Conference in February, 1865. The two are discovered by a reporter Franklin Boyd (William Vodrey) who in asking them questions engenders a debate on the major issues of the Civil War.

William McGrath

Former Roundtable President
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  • C.S.S. Alabama and U.S.S. Kearsarge
  • U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia

Dale Thomas

Retired U.S. History Teacher
Member, New Salem Lincoln League
Former Roundtable Historian and Webmaster
Archivist, Olmsted Historical Society
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  • Lincoln, An Old Friend of the Family
  • Silent Witnesses, Civil War Veterans Buried in Local Cemeteries
  • Corp. Nathan W. Hawkins of Rockport, Ohio: A Civil War Soldier with Two Gravestones

Jon Thompson

Retired English and Civil War History Teacher
Roundtable Vice President
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  • The Civil War Letters of Private Alfred Weedon, 26th Ohio Volunteer Infantry – A Hands-On Lesson in History

William Vodrey

Former Roundtable President
Member, Civil War Preservation Trust
Member, Blue and Gray Education Society
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  • Blood in the Streets, The New York City Draft Riots
  • Political Graverobbery: The Confederacy and George Washington
  • The Gettysburg Address: Lincoln Redefines America
  • What If…?: An Overview of Civil War Alternatives
  • Lee, Jackson and Longstreet: Traitors All?
  • The Last Duel: the U.S.S. Kearsarge vs. the C.S.S. Alabama
  • Brown Water, Black Ships: U.S. Navy Operations on the Mississippi
  • Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: Scholar, Citizen, Soldier
  • Lincoln’s Commando: William Cushing and the Sinking of the C.S.S. Albemarle
  • Clash of Ironclads: The U.S.S. Monitor vs. the C.S.S. Virginia
  • The war that Never Was: Britain, the U.S. and the Trent Affair
  • Dennison, Tod and Brough: Ohio’s Civil War Governors
  • Raid!: The Confederacy Comes to St. Albans, Vermont
  • Abraham Lincoln / Jefferson Davis Debate: A one act play imaging a meeting of Lincoln (Mel Maurer) and Davis (John Fazio) during the Hampton Roads Conference in February, 1865. The two are discovered by a reporter Franklin Boyd (William Vodrey) who in asking them questions engenders a debate on the major issues of the Civil War.