October 8, 2019

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table is pleased to announce that its next meeting will occur on Tuesday, October 8, 2019 at 7:00pm at our NEW meeting location, The Maryland Veterans Museum, 11000 Crain Highway North, Newburg, MD 20664.

Guest Speaker:  Janet Croon

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table invites you join us as Janet Croon shares with us her award winning book, “The War Outside My Window: The Civil War Diary of Leroy Wiley Gresham, 1860-1865.

LeRoy Gresham was born in 1847 to an affluent and prominent slaveholding family in Macon, Georgia. As a young child he suffered a horrific leg and back injury that left him an invalid. Educated, inquisitive, perceptive, and exceptionally witty, the 12-year-old began keeping a journal in 1860—just before secession and Civil War tore the country and his world apart. He continued to write even as his health deteriorated until both the war and his life ended in 1865. His unique view of a waning age is published here for the first time in The War Outside My Window: The Civil War Diary of LeRoy Wiley Gresham, 1860-1865. Edited and annotated with meticulous care by Janet Croon, The War Outside My Window: The Civil War Diary of LeRoy Wiley Gresham, 1860-1865 captures the spirit and the character of a young privileged white teenager witnessing the demise of his world even as his own body is slowly failing him. Just as Anne Frank has come down to us as the adolescent voice of World War II, LeRoy Gresham will now be remembered as a young voice of the Civil War South.

Janet E. Croon holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, Modern European History, and Russian Language and Area Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1983), and a Master’s Degree in International Studies from the University of Dayton (1985). She has been teaching International Baccalaureate History for nearly two decades and developed a deep interest in the Civil War by living in northern Virginia. This is her first book, which as awarded the 2018 Douglas Southall Freeman Award for best book on Southern History.

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