April 2013 Southern MD Civil War Round Table Meeting

April 9, 2013

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table is pleased to announce that its next meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 7:00pm on the LaPlata campus of the College of Southern Maryland, in the Business and Industry Building, Chaney Enterprises Conference Room Room BI-113.

Guest Speaker:  Peter MacNeill

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table (SMCWR) will host a presentation by licensed Washington, D.C. tour guide Peter MacNeill on Civil War forts in the Washington, D.C. area.  The forts varied from rudimentary structures to magnificent M4034S-4211engineering marvels and all were constructed to help keep the enemy out of Washington. MacNeill will lecture on location and composition of forts and their strategic purpose. While most of these forts are gone, some, like Fort DeRussy, Fort Foote, Fort Marcy, Fort Stevens, Fort Ward and Fort Washington are partially or wholly intact.

Peter MacNeill’s fascination with American military history began while watching John Wayne and Errol Flynn movies with his father on Saturday mornings in the 1950’s. Since moving to the Washington, D.C region in 1971, Mr. MacNeill has passed the National Park Service Gettysburg battlefield tour guide exam and in 1992 began a career as a licensed Washington, D.C.tour guide specializing in veteran’s military reunion tours and Civil War battlefield tours.  Mr. MacNeill estimates that he has visited Antietam and Gettysburg thousands of times.

Information and registration details for an April 27, 2013 tour of an umber of Civil War forts, led by Mr. MacNeill, will be available at the SMCWR meeting on April 9.  The SMCWR hosts monthly meetings the second Tuesday of every month from September thru May. Meetings are free and open to the public, but membership in the round table is highly encouraged.  Annual membership is $30.  For more information contact SMCWR President Brad Gottfried at bgottfried@csmd.edu or 301-934-7625.