Southern MD Civil War Round Table Film Series

February 9, 2016

Come out and join us as our series of Civil War movies, shown free of charge, continues prior to the regularly scheduled Round table meeting tonight from 4:47pm – 6:49pm 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.

Tonight’s Feature:  The Conspirator

Amazon.com: The Conspirator: James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline ...

This 2010 film tells the story of Mary Surratt, the only female conspirator charged in Lincoln’s assassination and the first woman to be executed by the United States federal government.  It stars James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Justin Long, Evan Rachel Wood, Jonathan Groff, Tom Wilkinson, Alexis Bledel, Kevin Kline, John Cullum, Toby Kebbell and James Badge Dale and was directed by Robert Redford.

In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, the Vice-President and the Secretary of State.  The only woman charged, Mary Surratt, 42, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks.  Against the back drop of post Civil War Washington, D.C., Frederick Aiken, a 28 year old Union war hero and a “green” lawyer, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal.  As the trial unfolds, Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used a bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her own son!

This movie was the first completed project of the American Film Company.  Their CEO, Joe Ricketts also founded the online brokerage firm Ameritrade and is a partial owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.  Mr. Ricketts has stated that his goal is to produce high quality and entertaining feature films which will attract adult audiences and be historically accurate.  His first effort has earned high praise for its historical accuracy.

After the movie be certain to stay for the regularly scheduled Round table meeting, featuring Dr. Bradley Gottfried discussing the Battle of the Wilderness.