May 2022 Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table Meeting

May  10 , 2022

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table is pleased to announce that its next meeting will be held Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 7:00pm at The Maryland Veterans Museum, 11000 Crain Highway North, Newburg, MD 20664.

Guest Speaker:  Bob Crickenberger

 

 

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table invites you to join us as we welcome friend of the Round Table Bob Crickenberger, who will speak to us tonight about The Prisoners of Point Lookout.

Seeks Ghosts: The Ghosts of Point Lookout Part l

Discussions regarding the prison camp at Point Lookout usually begin with the prison being a horrible place including prisoner rations, disease, shelter, etc. Seldom, if ever, does anyone exam the process a prisoner went through once they arrived at Point Lookout. Points such as How did they get there? Where did they arrive from? What were they wearing? What was the process they went through once they arrived? How were they assigned once in the prison? Questions such as these will be examined and discussed during this session.

Confederate POWs at Point Lookout Prisoner of War Camp ...

Retired as a Production Coordinator for the Prince George’s County Department of Printing, Bob has taken an active role in the preservation of our Southern Maryland Civil War history. A volunteer at Point Lookout State Park since 1978, Bob is also the founder and chairman of The Friends of Point Lookout, which has been in existence since 1985. As well as being a member of the Round table, Bob is also a member of the Sons of Union Veterans Sgt. James Harris Camp #38.

Please come out and join us as we learn more about the events and people that contributed to our own rich Southern Maryland Civil War history.  Attendance is free, but membership is recommended. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns at bsunderland@somdcwrt.org or at 443-975-9142.

 

September 2021 Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table Meeting

September 14, 2021

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table is pleased to announce that its next meeting will occur on Tuesday, September 14, 2021 at 7:00pm at our NEW meeting location, The Maryland Veterans Museum, 11000 Crain Highway North, Newburg, MD 20664. 

Due to Charles County Board of County Commissioner updated mandates, masks will be required for all in attendance.  Seating will be limited to 4 people per table.  Thank you for your support and understanding.

Guest Speaker:  Donald Shomette

Join us this evening as we return to in person meetings and welcome acclaimed author Donald Shomette, as he discusses his latest book, Anaconda’s Tail: The Civil War on the Potomac Frontier, 1861-1865.

In his lecture, Mr. Shomette will reveal to us his in-depth research undertaken in producing Anaconda’s Tail: The Civil War on the Potomac Frontier, 1861-1865,  bringing to light for the first time both the Union’s efforts to deny Southern Maryland’s support for the Confederacy and to quell the incredibly resilient resistance to Federal occupation. By melding official records, diaries, letters and local traditions, he has unveiled a forgotten story of Southern Maryland and the Northern Neck of Virginia, as well as the U.S. Navy’s Potomac Flotilla that is both compelling and enormously readable. Modern students of military history can find much to guide their studies of asymmetrical warfare and rebellion here. The casual reader will be enthralled by the intrigue, adventure and daring do of seafaring guerilla, spies, and the innumerable heroes and villains hitherto lost to history.

Donald Grady Shomette completed his undergraduate work in graphic design and art history at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York. In 1997 he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Baltimore for contributions to history, science and the arts. His early career included stints at the Wall Street Journal and Grolier Publishing in New York City, and with the Washington Post in Washington, D.C. For more than two decades he served on the staff of the Library of Congress and simultaneously as director of Nautical Archaeological Associates, a non-profit research organization, which conducted, among others, the first underwater archaeological surveys in the states of Maryland, New Jersey, and Arkansas.

As a historian Shomette has served as a cultural resources management consultant for numerous states, various agencies of the U.S. Government, museums, universities, and non-profit research establishments. As a marine archaeologist he has worked in the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe under the sponsorship of such institutions as the National Geographic Society, the National Park Service, the U.S. Navy, and various educational foundations and museums.

Shomette is the author of twenty books, the most recent being Navigational Hazards (2020) and Anaconda’s Tail: Civil War on the Potomac Frontier, 1861-1865 (2019). He is a contributor to three international encyclopedias and five anthologies of history and archaeology. His many scientific and popular articles have appeared in such publications as National Geographic Magazine, History and Technology, Sea History, and the American Neptune. He has appeared in documentaries on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, Maryland Public Television, NBC, CBS and the BBC. For more than a decade he served as a lecturer for the Smithsonian Journeys Program in the Great Lakes and along the entirety of the North American Atlantic Seaboard.

His other endeavors have taken him into the field of historic cartography for the National Geographic Society, and into recorded sound and music as lyricist and music producer for Millstone Landing Productions. Among his most recent projects was instigation and development of the first National Marine Sanctuary system in the Chesapeake Tidewater at Mallows Bay on the Potomac River, site of the greatest assemblage of historic vessel remains (1776-1976) in North America. His current publication effort is entitled Siege: The Canadian Campaign of the American Revolution, 1775-1776.

Thrice winner of the prestigious John Lyman Book Award for Best American Maritime History, and twice winner of the Marion V. Brewington Award for Best U.S. Naval History, Shomette has also been honored with the Calvert Prize, the highest award in Maryland for historic preservation. He is a current resident of Calvert County, Maryland.

Attendance is free, but membership is recommended. Please contact us with any questions at bsunderland@somdcwrt.org or at 443-975-9142.

 

 

October 2016 Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table

October 11, 2016

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table is pleased to announce that its next meeting will take place on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 at 7:00pm at the College of Southern Maryland’s Center for Business and Industry, Chaney Enterprises Conference Center, Room BI-113, at 8730 Mitchell Road in La Plata, MD.

Guest Speaker:  Robert O’Connor

http://boboconnorbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/authorphoto.jpg

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table welcomes Bob O’Connor, who will share with us his research about the approximately 209,000 soldiers who served in the Union armies and navies.  He brings to light the number of Colored Troops held as prisoners of war in Confederate prisons.  While historians have found 776 such prisoners, Mr. O’Connor has found evidence of 2,642!  Mr. O’Connor will also bring some local flavor to our gathering, as he discusses some of the U.S Colored Troop soldiers that he discovered who enlisted from Southern Maryland.  From Petersburg to Olustee, from Ft. Pillow to Salisbury and all the way to Andersonville, Mr.O’Connor will shed light on these courageous freedom fighters.

Bob O’Connor lives in Charles Town, WV, where he is retired and dedicates his time to being a full time author.  His interest in history dates back to 1958, when he visited Galesburg, IL for the 100th anniversaty celebration of the Lincoln v. Douglas debates.  The featured speaker that day was Carl Sandburg!  Mr. O’Connor would go on to serve as Director of Tourism in Washington County, MD and became intimately familiar with Antietam National Battlefield and Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park.  He helped bring to fruition two marvelous events held at Antietam that we all enjoy today; The Independence Concert, held each July and the Memorial Illumination, held each December.  Mr. O’Connor has written and published eleven books about the Civil War and four times has been named a finalist in national book award competitions.  To learn more about Bob O’Connor and his works, pleases visit his website; http://boboconnorbooks.com/.

Attendance is free for all, but membership is recommended.  For information, contact the Round Table’s president, Brad Gottfried, at bgottfried@csmd.edu or 301-934-7625