March 8, 2016
Come out and join us from 5:10pm – 6:47pm as our series of Civil War movies continues prior to the regularly scheduled Round table meeting tonight. Movies will be shown 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. Admission is free!
Tonight’s Feature: “Field of Lost Shoes“
Based on a true story, culminating at the Battle of New Market, VA in May 1864, this film follows a group of teenage cadets sheltered from war at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) who confront the horrors of an adult world when called upon to defend the Shenandoah Valley. Leaving behind their youth, they must decide what they are fighting for.
Starring David Arquette, Keith David, Lauren Holly and Tom Skerritt as General Ulysses S. Grant, the movie starts with Lincoln appointing General Ulysses S. Grant as Chief of Union Forces. Grant acts decisively, bringing total war to the pristine Shenandoah Valley, the breadbasket of the South. The superintendent of VMI volunteers 274 young cadets to protect the valley. They march northward toward the strategic valley choke point of New Market, VA. On the day of the battle, Confederate General John C. Breckenridge, former Vice President of the Unites States and now commander of southern forces in the Valley, is faced with a horrible decision to order the young and inexperienced cadets into battle.
Please join us after the movie for our regularly scheduled meeting from 7 – 9pm, where Carol Randell will discuss Southern Relief Societies.
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.
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.