2014 Park Day

April 5, 2014

Fort Lincoln/Camp Hoffman/Point Lookout State Park is looking for volunteers to assist in 2014 Park Day, April 5, 2014 from 9:30am to 2:00pm. Part of a national campaign at Civil War sites across the nation, volunteers will meet at Point Lookout State PArk, 11175 Point Lookout Road, Scotland MD 20687 at 9:30am for general clean and maintenance at the Civil War facilities. The only tools needed are a good pair of work gloves and a willing spirit! 🙂 Light food and drinks (snacks/desserts) to be provided. After the working hours of this event, costumed interpreters will provide tours of the area and a weapons demonstration for all participants. (Weather Permitting!)

For more details, please contact Bob Crickenberger at 301-872-5688 or by email at crickenberger@comcast.net. See you there!

March 12, 2014

April 2014 Southern MD Civil War Round Table Meeting

April 8, 2014

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table is pleased to announce that its next meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 8, 2014 at 7:00pm at the College of Southern Maryland’s Center for Business and Industry, Chaney Enterprise Conference Room BI-113, 8730 Mitchell Road, LaPlata, MD.

Guest Speaker: Phillip Greenwalt

In preparation for our field trip on April 26,2014 to the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Battlefields, please join the Southern phillipgreenwalt Maryland Civil War Round Table as we welcome our tour guide; Phillip Greenwalt. Mr. Greenwalt will give us an overview of the sites, sounds and events from the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House Battlefields in May 1864, that we will visit in person on the 26th. These battles mark the first encounters with the Army of Northern Virginia by the Army of the Potomac under the command of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Among the areas to be discussed will be the fighting at Saunders Field, the Widow Tapp Field and the Orange Plank Road in the Wilderness and the “Bloody Angle” at Spotsylvania. These two battles set the stage for what would become known as the Overland Campaign and the desperate struggle between Grant, Lee and their armies.

Phillip Greenwalt is currently a historian with the National Park Service at the George Washington National Monument and the Thomas Stone National Historic Site. He began his National Park Service career as a historical interpreter intern at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Mr. Greenwalt holds a bachelor degree in history from Wheeling Jesuit University and a graduate degree in American History from George Mason University.

His first publication, co-authored with Dan Davis, entitled “Bloody Autumn, The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864″, part of the Emerging Civil War Series was published by Savas Beatie LLC in November 2013. Mr. Greenwalt’s second book, also co-authored with Dan Davis, entitled “Hurricane From the Heavens, The Battle of Cold Harbor”, is due out in June 2014. He is also a full-time contributor to the blog, Emerging Civil War (www.emergingcivilwar.com) and has spoken at lecture series and history round tables in numerous states.

Whether you plan on joining us on the bus on April 26th or just want to learn a little more about the first battles of the Overland Campaign as their 150th anniversary approach, plan to come out and hear Phillip Greenwalt.

February 12, 2014

March 2014 Southern MD Civil War Round Table Meeting

March 11, 2014

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table is pleased to announce that its next meeting will take place on Tuesday, March 11, 2014 at 7:00pm at the College of Southern Maryland’s Center for Business and Industry, Chaney Enterprise Conference Center Room BI-113, at 8730 Mitchell Road in LaPlata, MD.

Guest Speaker: Dr. Tom Jarvis

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round table is please to welcome back current member, Dr. Tom Jarvis. Dr. Jarvis spoke to the group last March on “The Causes of the Civil War” and is back this year to talk to us in “Why the North Won and the South Lost The Civil War“.

Dr. Thomas Jarvis The usual reason given as to why the North won the Civil War was because of its vast superiority in regard to industrial power, population and financial wealth. Yet despite these overwhelming advantages, the war lasted four long bloody years. The Confederacy survived these years with many victories over Union armies and frequently appeared to be close to wining its independence. The issue of why the North won and the South eventually lost is more complicated than just one side having economic and population advantages over the other. Tonight, Dr. Jarvis will examine the various factors that contributed to the war’s final outcome.

Tom Jarvis taught history as a Professional Instructor as American University in Washington, D.C. and is a member of the adjunct faculty at the College of Southern Maryland. He has developed two specialty courses offered at the college; “The History of American Warfare” and “The United States and Twentieth Century World Affairs”. Tom has a Bachelor of Arts in history form Stony Brook University, a master’s degree from the School of International Service, American University, and a Ph.D. in United States History from American University. He served three years in the U.S. Army, working in the intelligence field with the Army Security Agency. He retired from the Central Intelligence Agency as a Senior Executive.

We look forward to welcoming Tom Jarvis back to the podium for this presentation and to seeing you for an enlightening evening of discussion.

January 20, 2014

2014 Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table Spring Field Trip

Wilderness & Spotsylvania Battlefield Tour

Saturday April 26, 2014

9:00AM – 5:00PM

140th New York at the Wilderness

The Tour:

Join us for the 2nd annual Spring Tour presented by The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table. This tour, led by National Park Service historian Phillip Greenwalt, will begin in La Plata (CSM Campus). The cost of the trip (bus, lunch and guide) is $50 for members and $60 for non-members. Save money through early bird registration period (through March 11, 2014) – $45 for members and $55 for non-members.

Participants will board a chartered bus for the trip to the Chancellorsville/Wilderness NPS Visitor’s Center. After a quick stop, the tour will start at the command post of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on the the Wilderness Battlefield and follow through the bloody fighting at Saunders Field, down the park road to the Widow Tapp field and then back up the Orange Plank Road to where Confederate General James “Pete” Longstreet was severely wounded.

From here we will follow the Brock Road, just as the Union and Confederate soldiers would have done on May 7th toward Spotsylvania Court House.

After a delicious box lunch, we will tour the Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield, following the ebb and flow of the combat that erupted around this quiet and quaint Virginia town. Sites include the “Bloody Angle”; the spot where Union Major General John Sedgwick was killed, and retracing part of the route Union Brigadier General Emory Upton utilized to strike the Confederate line, in a prelude to heavier fighting two days later.

During the program, accounts; some well known, others lesser known will be used to explain the horrors of the battlefield, the observations of the soldiers and officers and the overall picture of what war in Virginia in May 1864 was all about.

You will have the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, stand in the spots where other generals; including John Sedgwick breathed their last and taken all together will tour a landscape that is considered one of the bloodiest in all of North America. Within 30 miles of Fredericksburg, VA (which encompasses both of the battlefields we will visit) over 100,000 men were killed or wounded. That is approximately 1/7th of al the men killed or wounded in the entire Civil War!

Come join this bus and walking tour of the 2 battles that set the tone for the rest of the Overland Campaign plus was the final nails being hammered into the coffin of the Confederacy by the Northern war machine.

The Background:

On May 5, 1864, Major General George Meade, in command of the dependable Union Army of the Potomac, being overseen by newly minted Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, made contact with Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his vaunted Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the Wilderness, west of Fredericksburg, VA.

What ensued was two days of bitter fighting through the clearings, along road traces and even within the tangles and brushes of the second and third growth forests.

With casualties mounting and no progress being made, Grant stepped into a more active role and decided to move the Army of the Potomac around Lee’s right flank toward the strategic town of Spotsylvania Court House. Lee and his army were able to get to Spotsylvania Court House first and dig in. What would ensue was approximately two weeks of fighting, including some of the most savage on May 10 and 12, 1864.

These two battles set the tone for the rest of what history now knows as the Overland Campaign. From May 5th until the armies were ensconced around Petersburg in mid-June, the two antagonists would lock horns in a death struggle across central and Tidewater Virginia.

Historians now agree that the beginning of the end of the war in the Eastern theater, and the start of the collapse of the Confederacy as a whole, began at the Wilderness on May 5, 1864. This is where our battlefield odyssey will commence.

The Guide:

Our trip leader will be Phillip Greenwalt; historian with the National Park Service at the George Washington Birthplace National Monument and the Thomas Stone National Historic Site. Mr. Greenwalt began his NPS career as a historical interpreter intern at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. He holds a bachelor degree in history from Wheeling Jesuit University and a graduate degree in American History from George Mason University.

Mr. Greenwalt’s first publication, co-authored with Dan Davis; “Bloody Autumn, The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864“, is part of the Emerging Civil War Series and was published by Savas Beattie LLC in November 2013. His second book, also co-authored with Dan Davis, entitled “Hurricane From the Heavens, The Battle of Cold Harbor” is due out in June 2014. He is also a full time contributor to the blog Emerging Civil War (www.emergingcivilwar.com) and has spoken at lecture series and history round tables in numerous states.

Come join us for a fantastic day on April 26th!

December 22, 2013

English 2840 – The Civil War in Film and Literature

The College of Southern Maryland is pleased to announce the offering of an online course that will study the works of fiction, poetry, letters, journals and movies and allow participants to learn about and discuss those works of film and literature.

Dr. Richard Siciliano, Professor of English at the College of Southern Maryland will lead this online survey, beginning January 21, 2014 through May 7, 2014. The Civil War in Film and Literature (ENG2480-115822) will examine and discuss this national conflict as it has been portrayed in the fiction of such writers as Stephen Crane, Ambrose Bierce, Michael Shaara, and others; in the poetry of Walt Whitman, and other poets of the Civil War era; and in movies such as Birth of a Nation, Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Gone with the Wind, The Red Badge of Courage, Cold Mountain, Gettysburg, Glory, the PBS documentary The Civil War, and the 2012 Academy Award winning movie Lincoln.

Since this is a web-based (online) course, all learning activities will take place online within the web-based Blackboard Learning Management System. Discussions of the readings and of the featured movies will all take place online. viewing the movies also will be possible online by using such internet movie providers as Netflix and YouTube. As an added enhancement to this online course, however, the featured movies in the course will be shown on the LaPlata campus, with an introduction and discussion held afterwards led by Dr. Siciliano and in conjunction with the Civil War Movies Film Series, tentatively planned to begin in January 2014 and continue through April.

For further information and a complete course syllabus, see the course website at: http://www.itc.csmd.edu/lan/richs/eng2840 or contact Dr. Richard Siciliano at 301-934-7826 or via email at richs@csmd.edu

November 11, 2013

December 2013 Southern MD Civil War Round Table Meeting

December 10, 2013

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table is pleased to announce that its next meeting will take place on Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 7:00pm at the College of Southern Maryland’s Center for Business and Industry, Chaney Enterprise Conference Room BI-113, at 8730 Mitchell Road in La Plata.

Guest Speaker: Dr. James I. Robertson

The Southern Maryland Civil War Roundtable will host a presentation by Civil War author Dr. James I. Robertson, Alumni Distinguished drjamesirobertson Professor Emeritus from Virginia Tech and author of over 20 books, whose works include “Stonewall Jackson, The Man, The Myth, and The Legend”, “Civil War!”, “America Becomes One Nation”, “General A.P. Hill”, and “Soldiers Blue and Gray”.

Prior to the meeting beginning at 7:00 PM, there will be a book signing beginning at 6:15 PM.

Dr. Robertson will lecture on one of his recent books: “The Untold Stories of the Civil War, Exploring the Human Side of the War” published by the National Geographic Society.

The event is co-sponsored by the Annapolis Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association.

Dr. James I.”Bud” Robertson is one of the most distinguished names in Civil War history. The Danville, VA native is a nationally acclaimed teacher and lecturer and has written or edited two dozen books on the Civil War era. His award-winning biography of Stonewall Jackson was hailed as “a book every student of the war should read and every chronicle should emulate.” The massive biography won eight national awards and was used as the base for the Ted Turner/Warner Bros. mega-movie, “Gods and Generals”. Robertson was chief historical consultant for the film.

Early in his career, Robertson was appointed executive of the US Civil War Centennial Commission by President Kennedy. He is an Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus DrRobertson12102013 at Virginia Tech where he taught for 40 years. His Civil War Era courses at Virginia Tech, attracted 300 students per semester, and were the largest of its kind in the nation.

The recipient of every major award given in the Civil War field, and a lecturer of national acclaim, Dr. Robertson is probably more in demand as a speaker before Civil War groups than anyone else in the field.

For information, contact the roundtable’s president, Brad Gottfried, at bgottfried@csmd.edu or 301-934-7625.