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 phillipgreenwaltMaryland 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, blody-autumn-coverThe 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.

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 JarvisThe 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.

February 2014 Southern MD Civil War Round Table Meeting

February 11, 2014

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table is pleased to announce that its next meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 11, 2014 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 LaPlata.

Guest Speaker:  Steward Henderson

The Southern Maryland Civil War Round Table will host a presentation Steward Henderson, historian with the Fredericksburg and stewardhendersonSpotsylvania National Military Park, where he has served in this capacity since May 2007.  Mr. Henderson has a life-long interest in the Civil War and is a co-founder of the 23rd Regiment United States Colored Troops, which is affiliated with the John J. Wright Educational and Cultural Center Museum in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.  Mr. Henderson retired from Sun Trust Bank as a Senior Vice President in the Retail Group of the Greater Washington Region in 2005, after a 35 year career in the financial services field. He attended Howard University, the Institute of Financial Education, the American Bankers Institute and the Consumer Bankers Association Graduate School of Retail Bank Management.

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 drjamesirobertsonProfessor Emeritus from Virginia Tech and author of over 20 books, whose works includeStonewall 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 flyerat 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.

Inaugural Meeting of Southern Maryland Civil War Roundtable

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The Southern Maryland Civil War Roundtable is proud to announce its inaugural meeting to be held at the College of Southern Maryland on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 7:00 PM in the Business and Industry Building of the La Plata Campus, Room 103/104.  Meetings will be held the second Tuesday of the month during September through May.  Annual membership will be $30; a small fee will be charged for attendance by non-members.

Guest Speaker: Kevin Knapp

The Roundtable is also proud to announce that Kevin Knapp will be the guest speaker for its inaugural meeting.  Mr. Knapp is a retired Army Officer, professional balloon pilot serving on the Balloon Federation of America Board, and Civil War Balloon Corps enthusiast. He has owned and operated the modern “ARMY” Balloon since 1993 and shares oral and living history as Thaddeus S. C Lowe, Chief Aeronaut, of the Army of the Potomac’s Balloon Corps. In 2006 Kevin was the co-pilot for the winning team of the America’s Challenge Gas Balloon Race flying from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Citra, Florida – 1,478 miles in 60 hours and 45 minutes.

Kevin Knapp’s portrayal of Thaddeus Lowe has been featured at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, by the US National Park Service Civil War Defense of Washington, Fort Ward, and Gaines Mill Battlefield, as well as the cities of Fairfax, Falls Church, Gloucester, Manassas, and Yorktown Virginia’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Committees. He was also a contributor to the History Channel’s “Man, Moment, and Machine’s” segment on Civil War Ballooning called “Lincoln’s Flying Spy Machine.”

Balloons During the Civil War

Balloons were used for surveillance and reconnaissance during the Civil War by the Union Army from 1861 through 1863 and by Confederate Army in 1862. The North made over 3,000 ascensions with seven balloons and the South made less than 10 ascensions with two. Years after the war the famous Confederate Artillery Officer and observer in the Confederate’s second balloon, E.P. Alexander wrote. “I never understood why the enemy abandoned the use of military balloons … Even if the observers never saw anything; they would have been worth all they cost for the annoyance and delays they caused us in trying to keep our movement out of sight.”

In this presentation you will learn about the first air to ground telegraph; the first field hydrogen generators; the first air directed artillery fire; the first aircraft carrier; the first time two opposing forces had aircraft in the air at the same time; and the beginning of U.S. Military Aviation.

Additional Information

The program is open to the public. For additional information contact Southern Maryland Roundtable President Dr. Brad Gottfried at bgottfried@csm.edu or 301-934-7625.

The roundtable will host monthly meetings, the second Tuesday of every month from September through May, and will feature a guest speaker, usually an author or historian, who will present an aspect of the Civil War, followed by group discussion. Attendees with an interest in the Civil War will be asked to join the Roundtable for an annual fee of $30 to defray the cost of speakers, newsletters and field trips.