The Chambelain CWRT opens up the new year with a visit from Bill Green, well-known reporter, on Thursday, January 15th. Bill is on of the best known reporters in Maine but what you may not know he is one of us, a Civil War buff. His fascination with the Civil War was magnified by a trip to Gettysburg in 1982. He reports his interest became "like a disease" in the 1980's. While he has visited several battlefields, he considers himself mostly a reader.
Bill will be speaking to us on the Governor's election crisis of 1879-1880 and Gen. Chamberlain's part in it. In answering some questions about the event, he will ask some of us. Was this Chamberlain's finest hour? Did he leave accounts of the action that were more dramatic than the actual event?
A native of Bangor, Bill graduated from the University of Maine in 1976. As a freshman at U. Maine he worked as a cameraman at WLBZ. He recalls, "The first night I worked, March 17, 1972, I was asked to stay late and run camera for the news. As they played the opening music, and the camera light came on, I remember thinking, I'm going to do this until I'm 65." Bill first appeared on the air as a sportcaster on WLBZ in 1975 and six years later moved to Portland to anchor weekend sportcasts on WLBZ and WCSH. IN 1993 he began to focus on feature stories and documentaries which eventually lead to his popular program "Bill Green's Maine."
In 1999, Bill was selected as a bone marrow donor. His 5 part series on the transplant and his meeting with the 11-year-old recipient whose life he helped save won the award for best television coverage from the National Marrow Donor Program in Minneapolis. Bill continues to stay in touch with his recipient, who lives in Michigan.
Bill and his wife Pam have two children Sam and Emily. When asked if he has lived in Maine all his life he responds, "Not Yet!.
To refresh your memory, here is the list of generals:
| Most Competent Confederate: | Most competent Union: | |
|
1. Robert E. Lee 2. Thomas Jackson 3. Patrick Cleburne 4. Nathan Bedford Forest |
1. Ulysses S. Grant 2. George Thomas 3. Winfield Scott Hancock 4. Phil Sheridan 5. William T. Sherman |
|
| Least Competent Confederate: | Least competent Union: | |
|
1. Braxton Bragg 2. John Bell Hood 3. Richard Ewell 4. Jubal Early 5. Joseph Johnston |
1. Nathan Banks 2. Benjamin Butler 3. Ambrose Burnside 4. George B. McClellan 5. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick |
Charles Plummer, our Moderator, needs no introduction to most of our membership, but, for the one or two who have not heard of him, he is a long-time member of the Round Table and frequent guest doing first-person portrayals of notable figures from the Civil War including Generals Joshua L. Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet and Dr. Abner Shaw. During the summer months he serves as a tour guide at the Chamberlain Museum in Brunswick.
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was murdered by John Wilkes Booth, and Secretary of State William H. Seward was brutally stabbed in his sick bed. Clearly a conspiracy was afoot, perhaps also targeting Ulysses Grant, who had planned to accompany the President to Ford's Theater that night. Convinced that Jefferson Davis and the Confederate leadership were responsible for these crimes, Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt set out to punish all of Booth's local accomplices, and also to make Davis and his supporters pay for instigating the war in the first place. But Holt faced stern opposition, not the least of all from Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson. Holt and Johnson's struggle for control of the federal government's response to the assassination epitomizes the fierce tensions and conflicts that threatened post-Civil War efforts to reunite the nation.
Prof. Leonard is well known to our members having spoken to us on three other occasions. In November of 1996 she spoke on "Women Soldiers and Pseudo-soldiers in the Civil War," in 1998 it was "Women as Spies and as Soldiers in the Civil war," and in 2000, Survey of Mary Surratt and the Lincoln Assassination."
Our speaker for the first meeting of the 2003-2004 year will be Paul Ledman who will present a talk on his book A Town Responds which is an in-depth study of how a northern town responded to the increasing demands for manpower over the course of Civil War. The relationship between the demographics of the town and the profile of its soldiers is analyzed against the backdrop of national events. Federal draft legislation after 1862 had a profound effect on how the town reacted to the war, and this impact is examined in detail.
By using the 1860 census and other sources, an overview of the town is developed in terms of its occupations, wealth, agricultural production, and family structure. The study also includes a comprehensive profile of the men who served the town during the war--their ages, occupations, marital status, time of enlistment, units and fate. Compared against a backdrop of critical events of the war, patterns regarding wealth, occupation and enlistment characteristics are revealed.
At the time of the American Civil War the town of "Cape Elizabeth" included the entire area of present day of South Portland and Cape Elizabeth. It was populated primarily by farmers and folks who made their living by the sea. Utilizing local newspapers, and military documents the author examines how the Civil War changed their lives forever.
How much support was there for President Lincoln and the abolishment of slavery? Who served in the Union armies, when did they serve and how did some make sure they didn't have to? What was the cost to the town? How did public opinion reflect the changing war news? How was the town able to bear the human and financial costs of the war?
We look forward to having these questions answered by Mr. Ledman.
Paul Ledman received his BA in Geology at SUNY Binghamton, his JD at the New York Law School and an MA in History at the University of New Hampshire. He has worked in Oceanography, practiced law, owned several businesses and now lives in Cape Elizabeth where he teaches high school.
On Thursday, October 9th, our guest was Eric Campbell, Gettysburg Battlefield Guide. He explored the Gettysburg campaign and battle through the letters of the Union and Confederate soldiers involved. Campbell feels that this fairly unexplored topic takes on a new perspective of the most famous battle in American history by using the words of the soldiers themselves, from letters written just before, during and shortly after the campaign. By using this approach much of the hindsight and analysis that has been piled on through the hundreds, if not thousands, of books and other writing since the battle, are peeled away. Who better to tell this story than the Union and Confederate soldiers who experienced this landmark campaign?
What did soldiers think of the war, the campaign, their leaders, the causes for which they fought, the outcome of the battle, its impact on their units and armies? What kind of trials and hardships did they endure? What were the physical and mental impacts of combat upon these men? Topics like these and many more are examined through the hundreds of letters, diaries and other writings Campbell has reviewed in preparing this program.
Eric Campbell is a native of south central Pennsylvania. He earned his B. A. in history from Mt. St. Mary's College in 1985 and has worked at Gettysburg National Military Park for 15 years, as both a licensed battlefield guide and a park ranger. His book, "A Grand Terrible Drama: From Gettysburg to Petersburg, the Civil War Letters of Charles Wellington Reed" was published by Fordham University Press in 2000. He currently resides with his wife, Heather and children, Sarah and Samantha, in Knoxville, Maryland.
Gilbert Vanzant, 79th Ohio after a year in the Union Army, wrote the following, "Well, a little past ten years old, I, with my father and friends, on the 9th of August [1862] entered Camp Dennison; and how proud I felt with my little drum on my back a-going in the army as a drummer boy, and be with the brave soldiers who had started out to defend our country 'I have been in the army almost one year now, and have spent the time and enjoyed myself bravely."
Dennis Keesee is a lifelong resident of the Buckeye State, Ohio and he owns perhaps the most extensive Union boy-soldier photograph and memorabilia collection in the United States. He has collected such artifacts and Ohio-related Civil War photograph for nearly two decades.
A frequent contributor of articles and images to several historical publications, Keesee is a restaurateur by profession. He lives with his 10-year-old son Corey in New Albany, Ohio.
On October 17, 2002 our speaker was Michael A. Riley, one of the country's foremost authorities on John F. Reynolds.
In the early 1980's the homestead of Major General Reynolds in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was an adult bookstore. Thus began a crusade by Riley to save the home of the valiant Civil War general by educating the local public about the heroic military career of their native son.
Not only does Mr. Riley bear a striking resemblance to the late General, but through many years of research and contact with the remaining Reynolds family members, he has become a biographer of him as well as a Civil War reenactor portraying this much admired figure. His book, "For God’s Sake, Forward," is considered required reading for Civil War enthusiasts and fans of its officers.
Mr. Riley served as historical consultant and actor's double for Ron Maxwell's Civil War movie epic, Gettysburg. He continues to educate Civil War organizations, historical groups, college students, and school children with his living history portrayals and by teaching history classes.
Michael Riley is a member of the 30th Pennsylvania, Co. E, as was his great-grandfather, John B. Riley. He is also employed as a historical consultant for Dale Gallon Historical Art in Gettysburg where he has written numerous essays for publication.
Mr. Riley is currently working on the Reynolds' family papers and editing them for future publication. He resides in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Frank Wicks started work in the professional theater in 1958, acting with Warren Beatty. He worked in more than 25 productions in New York City in the 60's and 70's as an actor, stage manager, producer, and set and lighting designer.
Wicks was a founding member of the Long Wharf Theater, stage managed the world premiere of Saul Bellow’s "Under the Weather" at the Spoleto, Italy Festival (starring Shelley Winters and Jack Warden,) and also worked there as assistant to Gian Carlo Menotti, managing productions of "The Saint of Bleecker Street" and "The Old Maid and the Thief."
Wicks went back to graduate school at the age of 50, received a masters degree in Education, and taught teenagers with emotional disabilities in a Maine high school. He is currently Managing Director of The Theater Project in Brunswick, and director of the newly formed 55 Plus Center Acting Ensemble. Wicks has published dance and theater criticism, book reviews, and is the author of Integrating Software in the Curriculum, a book for educators working with students with special needs.
Wicks moved to Maine to work with the Maine State Music Theater and settled on Orr’s Island with his wife, Sukanya, and their two sons. "Soldier Come Home!" is his first play.
Kid Wongsrichanalai, a Bowdoin College senior, spoke to us about, "The Courage of Two Bowdoin Men that History Forgot, Fessenden (Class of 1823) and Hyde (Class of 1861)."
Kid was born in Boston, MA on Dec.25, 1980, attended kindergarden and first grade in Birmingham, Alabama, completed elementary school, junior high school in Bangkok, Thailand, where he now lives. He attended Concord Academy in Concord, MA for his junior and senior years in high school and is a now a graduating senior in the Bowdoin College Class of 2003.
Kid has worked for Prof. Patrick Rael in the Bowdoin History Dept. for two summers and spent his fall semester junior year at Gettysburg College in a program called "The Gettysburg Semester" where he spent the entire time learning about the civil war. He came to Bowdoin because of Gen. Chamberlain's connection to the place and is looking into graduate schools in history for next year. Kid has been writing for the Bowdoin College paper, the Bowdoin Orient, for the past four years. He has done articles in the paper on Chamberlain, Oliver Howard, William Pitt Fessenden and Thomas Worcester Hyde.
Fessenden and Hyde are two names very well known in Maine but most people really don't know a lot about their accomplishments and contributions to this still budding nation. Our speaker did fill in the spaces for us.
Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory
David Blight, Professor of History at Yale, was our speaker at our meeting on Thursday, March 13th Dr. Blight's talk explored the relationship of the reconciliation of North and South after the Civil War to American race relations based on his recent book Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (Harvard University Press, 2001). This book has received seven book awards, including the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize. Four awards came from the Organization of American Historians (an unprecedented number in one year,) including Merle Curti Prizes in intellectual and in social history, the Ellis Hawley Prize in political history, and the James Rawley Prize in the history of American race relations.
Professor Blight did discuss the range of forms of Civil War memory in the 50 years after the event using examples from immediately after the war, from the 1880's or 90s, and from the fiftieth anniversary in 1913 at the Blue Gray reunion at Gettysburg. The aim of the talk was to show the consequences of the American reunion for American race relations.
Professor Blight has a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin Madison and has also taught at Harvard University, and at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, He was a senior Fulbright Professor in American Studies at the University of Munich in Germany in 1992-93. He lectures widely on Douglass, Du Bois, and problems in public history and in American historical memory and teaches summer institutes for secondary teachers and for park rangers and historians in the National Park Service.
Most of us know Lew Wallace as the author of the Ben Hur books but how many know that he was a Major General in the Civil War? Monocacy National Battlefield Ranger, Gloria Swift and her colleague, Gail Stephens, did address the Civil War military career of the general, including his swift rise to Major General at the age of 35, the controversy at Shiloh that led to his banishment from the field and finally, his success as the Union commander at the Battle of Monocacy, also known as the battle that saved Washington, which restored his military honor in the eyes of the Federal High Command.
Gloria Swift was born in Washington, D.C. and graduated from Northern Arizona University with a degree in American History. Specializing in miliary history, Gloria has been an interpretive ranger with the National Park Service, working at such sites as Gettysburg National Military Park and Harper's Ferry National Historical Park. Her current duty station is her favorite, however. She feels that the story of Monocacy and its importance in our nation's history has been overshadowed by other battles far too long and is working to help develop the park and share its important story with visitors.
Gail Stephens was born in Wyoming and attended Colorado College and George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where she graduated with a degree in International Politics. She spent her next 26 years working for the defense department, first as an intelligence analyst and then in management at various levels. When she took early retirement in 1994, she was a member of the Department's Senior Executive Service.
Upon retirement, she began to pursue a lifelong interest in history, focusing on the Civil War.In May of 1997, she began her volunteer service at Monocacy National Battlefield where she quickly developed an intense interest in this little known but important battle and the men who fought there. One of her duties was to assist Ranger Gloria Swift with a research project to locate primary source information on the battle, a project which continues today. This sparked her interest in Major General Lew Wallace whose military career she feels has been overlooked by modern historians. She continues to research Wallace and hopes to write articles on his controversial service in the Civil War.
A citizen soldier from New York Dan Sickles is also one of the Union's most controversial commanders. A man of
loose morals but enormous contributions. Sickles is known for his unauthorized move on the second day [which still brings
on immediate debate] at Gettysburg where he also lost a leg. However, Sickles is also known for the murder of his wife's
lover which won him his freedom based upon America's first plea ever of "temporary insanity." After the war, Sickles also
had romantic relations with the Queen of Spain which proved a great embarrassment on both sides of the Atlantic.
But Dan Sickles is also responsible for the wide expanse known as Central Park in New York City and the driving force
that established Gettysburg National Military Park.
On May 3, 1914 Dan Sickles died a broken and poor man. He was laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery and ever since, the mere mention of his name sparks heated debate.
On Thursday, May 15th Al Gambone will speak to us on this fascinating (yes, I said fascinating) man who traveled
with and was admired by the high and mighty despite his very wayward ways.
Al Gambone is a native of Norristown, PA. He attended Lowell Technological Institute (now Lowell University) when he studied chemistry and mathematics,later he attended Mattatuck Community College in Waterbury, CT, where he studied philosophy and religion. His interest in the Civil War was spurred by the five generals that hailed from his hometown, Hancock, Hartranft, Zook, Slemmer and McClennan, individuals he knew nothing about. He decided to write about all five but only completed three in the process, his personal library on the war has grown to about 3,000 volumes.
In his correspondence planning for his visit to Maine Al said, "I can do General Sickles though that gets a little
earthy." Naturally, we said "Do Sickles."
50,000 Canadian-born soldiers fought
for the North and the South in the American Civil War,
Mark Vinet, our June speaker will explore their history.
In April 1861 troops of the new Confederate States of America opened fire on Union-occupied Fort Sumter and launched a bloody four-year war that killed at least six hundred and twenty thousand men including thousands of Canadians who fought in the war.
In accordance with Britain's foreign policy towards the War, Canada was officially neutral. This, however, did not prevent approximately fifty thousand Canadian-born soldiers from serving in both armies. Four Canadians attained the rank of Brigadier General and twenty-nine were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Throughout the War, Canadian public opinion was divided for various reasons, including religion, language, culture, economic class, and moral background. The Civil War was the culmination of the reciprocal, sometimes parallel, but often intertwining influence of both the United States and Canada on each other's historical, territorial, political, economic, and social development. Following the War, two new nations emerged.
Historian, author, professor and lawyer Mark Vinet was born in Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada. He shares a bicultural English and French ancestry and is fluently bilingual in both languages. He is the founder of the Canada Civil War Association and the North American Historical Institute, which presents a series of lectures by Mark Vinet on Canada and the American Civil War. He is the author of a new book entitled "Canada and the American Civil War: Prelude to War", available online at www.markvinet.com or www.amazon.com, and is also the author of a Civil War book written in French. Mark Vinet is the host of a daily radio show on CHOD-FM that deals with history related topics.
In addition to our speaker, we will be presenting the Joshua L. Chamberlain History Prize and the Warren B. Randall Award that evening.