Rocky Mountain Civil War Round Table

Symposium 2011

2011-03-11T11:06:00.001-08:00

I regret to inform you all that there will be no symposium in 2011. Due to a variety of reasons, but primarily financial, the roundtable leadership has decided to cancel the event. It might resume some other year, or maybe it never will, I just don't know.

I do know that I had a great time helping to put on the events. Some years I was more involved than others but despite the hard work it was a great time. I got to meet and talk with many amazing people including some historians whose work I really admire. Made some friendships along the way and generally learned a lot.

In the meantime the roundtable plans to bring in one speaker a year. We went this route in the years before the symposium and that success is what prompted us to dream a little bigger. Maybe the one speaker a year format will expand into two, or maybe it will expand back into the symposium again.

And 2011 was going to be a good year, no need to go into details on who was going to come but I was really excited about the panel. We were going to follow the 150th as best we could and 2011 was going to be an early Eastern Theater focus. Oh well

symposium ticket sales

2010-06-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

Tickets for the 2010 Rocky Mountain Civil War symposium are now available for sale on the website. The event is October 2nd at the Community College of Aurora. It promises to be another great event.

If you have any questions please contact us at RockyMtnCWRT at aol dot com.

Symposium 2010

2010-04-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

Every year I hear from our attendees what a great time they had at the event, what a great panel we had and how much they learned. This year our theme will be Ulysses S. Grant and we will have another great panel.

Brooks Simpson, author of “Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity, 1822-1865,” will provide an overview of Grant the general.

Peter Cozzens, author of many books on Western Theater battles (among others), will talk about the relationship between Grant and Rawlins.

Although Grant led men in battle before Shiloh that battle is his first real test of army command in big battle. Wiley Sword, author of “Shiloh: Bloody April,” will discuss Grant's performance in this battle.

Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign is what really separates him from the rest of the prominent generals. John Marszalek, Executive Director and Managing Editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, will cover this complicated campaign. Grant's papers are also now available online.

Gordon Rhea, author “Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26–June 3, 1864,” rounds out the panel with a presentation on Grant as General-in-Chief.

The day will end with a panel discussion and time for books to be signed. As always there will be a book room with a ton of good books and deals.

Tickets will be $50 again, which also includes a continental breakfast and lunch. Last year we also gave away "The New Civil War Handbook" by Mark Hughes free to all attendees.

Our ticket page is not up yet as it is a bit early to be selling tickets but it will be ready soon enough. In the meantime keep October 2, 2010 open so you can attend a world class symposium on one of the Civil War's best generals, Ulysses S. Grant.

If you have any questions please contact us at RockyMtnCWRT at aol dot com.

Symposium Book Sales Final Update

2009-09-21T08:05:00.001-07:00

The symposium is about a week away so I wanted to post again about the book sales.

All of the book prices are for symposium attendees. If you don't come you won't get these deals. After the symposium we will extend those prices to anyone else out there, I'll post the list of what's left sometime the week after the event.

As you'll see symposium attendees will get a nice discount on these books. Just one more reason to come to the event. Every book is at least 15% off of retail price, one is 60% off of retail! The average discount is 26% off of retail. Click here to order tickets.

Let's recap what a symposium ticket gets you. One, admission to an incredible event with five nationally renowned authors. There are five presentations, a panel discussion and a book signing. Two, the first 50 attendees through the door will receive a copy of Mark Hughes "The New Civil War Handbook," a $15 retail value, for free. Three, the amazing deals in the book room which will include Trailhead Graphics' award winning maps and various CDs produced by Stephen Recker, including Virtual Gettysburg. Four, breakfast and lunch are provided. That is an incredible deal for $50.

Some of the books from Savas Beatie came autographed and that is now noted on this list. So we will have signed books from authors besides the ones appearing at the event. That was very exciting to see when I opened the boxes.

We also have a book, Chickamauga Memorial, so new its not even listed on amazon as available. While they are still taking preorders you can purchase a copy and get it signed.
No the roundtable did not actually buy a moving truck, but with all the books we ordered for the symposium it feels like we need one. The book selection will be much bigger than last year. There are no pre-orders, this post is just a teaser so you can plan your purchases the day of the event.

Brigades of Gettysburg by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $30.00, Retail Price $50.00

Artillery of Gettysburg - Gottfried by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $15.00, Retail Price $24.95

Maps of Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Campaign June 3 – July 13 by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $30.00, Retail Price $39.95

Maps of First Bull Run by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $27.00, Retail Price $34.95

Kearny's Own: The History of the 1st New Jersey Brigade by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $31.00, Retail Price $36.95

Men Stood Like Iron: How the Iron Brigade Won Its Name by Lance J. Herdegen (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $19.95

Those Damned Black Hats! by Lance J. Herdegen (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $32.95

McClellan's First Campaign, March - May 1862 by Russel H Beatie (cloth) - Symposium Price $36.00, Retail Price $45.00. There will also be copies of the first two volumes in the series available. Russel Beatie is bringing these himself and the price is not yet determined but it will be a substantial discount.

Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 by Timothy B Smith (cloth) - Symposium Price $20.00, Retail Price $32.95

Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged by Timothy B Smith (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $33.00

Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $31.00, Retail Price $38.95

This Great Battlefield of Shiloh by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $19.95

Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $21.95

Chickamauga Memorial by Timothy B Smith (cloth) - Symposium Price $35.00, Retail Price $43. This is brand new, amazon only offers pre-orders, but if you attend the symposium you can pick it up and get it signed. I already bought a copy, have read it and will post a review of it here in the future.

On Many a Bloody Field: Four Years in the Iron Brigade by Alan D. Gaff (paper), Symposium Price $10.00, Retail Price $17.95

Iron Brigade: A Military History by Alan Nolan (paper) - Symposium Price $15.00, Retail Price $19.95

Lee Considered by Alan Nolan (paper) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $22.50

Giants in Their Tall Black Hats: Essays on the Iron Brigade by Alan Nolan & Sharon Vipond (cloth) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $29.95

Pickett's Charge in History and Memory by Carol Reardon (paper) - Symposium Price $15.00, Retail Price $19.95

Dear Sarah: Letters Home from a Soldier of the Iron Brigade by Coralou Peel Lassen (cloth) - Symposium Price $10.00, Retail Price $24.95

Major General Robert E. Rodes of the Army of Northern Virginia by Darrell L. Collins (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $32.95 SIGNED BY AUTHOR

Sherman's Horsemen by David Evans (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $27.95

Fighting for the Confederacy: Recollections of Gen Alexander by Edward Porter Alexander (paper) - Symposium Price $20.00, Retail Price $26.00

One Continuous Fight: Retreat from Gettysburg by Eric Wittenberg, JD Petruzzi & Michael Nugent (cloth) - Symposium Price $28.00, Retail Price $34.95 SIGNED BY ALL THREE AUTHORS

Plenty of Blame to Go Around by Eric Wittenberg & JD Petruzzi (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $32.95

McClellan's War by Etahn Rafuse (cloth) - Symposium Price $23.00, Retail Price $35.00

Myth of the Lost Cause by Gary Gallagher & Alan Nolan (cloth) - Symposium Price $13.00, Retail Price $19.95

Lee and His Army in Confederate History by Gary W Gallagher (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $20.95

Lee and His Generals in War and Memory by Gary W. Gallagher (paper) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $21.95

Complete Gettysburg Guide by J. David Petruzzi (cloth) - Symposium Price $31.00, Retail Price $39.95 SIGNED BY AUTHOR

Sickles at Gettysburg by James A. Hessler (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $32.95 SIGNED BY AUTHOR

Gleam of Bayonets by James V. Murfin (paper) - Symposium Price $21.00, Retail Price $24.95

Stand of the US Army at Gettysburg by Jeffrey Hall (cloth) - Symposium Price $25.00, Retail Price $34.95

General George E Pickett in Life and Legend by Lesley J Gordon (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $20.95

Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society by Thomas L. Connelly (paper) - Symposium Price $17.00, Retail Price $19.95

Ninety-eight Days: Geographer’s View of Vicksburg Campaign by Warren Grabau (cloth) - Symposium Price $38.00, Retail Price $48.00

Colonel John Pelham: Lee's Boy Artillerist by William Woods Hassler (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $20.95

Book Sale UPDATE

2009-08-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

I posted this same blog last week but since then changes have come in, so here it is again.

A quick review of the updates:

1) All books now have prices for symposium attendees. After the symposium we will extend those prices to anyone else out there, I'll post the list of what's left sometime the week after the event.

2) Some of the books from Savas Beatie came autographed and that is now noted on this list. So we will have signed books from authors besides the ones appearing at the event. That was very exciting to see when I opened the boxes.

As you'll see symposium attendees will get a nice discount on these books. Just one more reason to come to the event. Every book is at least 15% off of retail price, one is 60% off of retail! The average discount is 26% off of retail. Click here to order your symposium ticket so you can take advantage of these incredible discounts.

No the roundtable did not actually buy a moving truck, but with all the books we ordered for the symposium it feels like we need one. The book selection will be much bigger than last year. There are no pre-orders, this post is just a teaser so you can plan your purchases the day of the event.

The size of pictures varies as I got them from a variety of sources. Some pictures were taken of books in my own library, and the rest were copied from publisher websites and Barnes and Noble's website. Some publishers only provide little pictures while some provide a nice image of the cover.

Brigades of Gettysburg by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $30.00, Retail Price $50.00

Artillery of Gettysburg - Gottfried by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $15.00, Retail Price $24.95

Maps of Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Campaign June 3 – July 13 by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $30.00, Retail Price $39.95

Maps of First Bull Run by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $27.00, Retail Price $34.95

Kearny's Own: The History of the 1st New Jersey Brigade by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $31.00, Retail Price $36.95

Men Stood Like Iron: How the Iron Brigade Won Its Name by Lance J. Herdegen (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $19.95

Those Damned Black Hats! by Lance J. Herdegen (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $32.95

McClellan's First Campaign, March - May 1862 by Russel H Beatie (cloth) - Symposium Price $36.00, Retail Price $45.00

Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 by Timothy B Smith (cloth) - Symposium Price $20.00, Retail Price $32.95

Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged by Timothy B Smith (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $33.00

Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $31.00, Retail Price $38.95

This Great Battlefield of Shiloh by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $19.95

Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $21.95

Chickamauga Memorial by Timothy B Smith (cloth). This new release might not actually be printed in time for the event but if its been printed we'll have some copies for sale.

On Many a Bloody Field: Four Years in the Iron Brigade by Alan D. Gaff (paper), Symposium Price $10.00, Retail Price $17.95

Iron Brigade: A Military History by Alan Nolan (paper) - Symposium Price $15.00, Retail Price $19.95

Lee and His Army in Confederate History by Gary W Gallagher (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $20.95

Gleam of Bayonets by James V. Murfin (paper) - Symposium Price $21.00, Retail Price $24.95

Stand of the US Army at Gettysburg by Jeffrey Hall (cloth) - Symposium Price $25.00, Retail Price $34.95

Book sale

2009-08-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

No the roundtable did not actually buy a moving truck, but with all the books we ordered for the symposium it feels like we need one. The book selection will be much bigger than last year. There are no pre-orders, this post is just a teaser so you can plan your purchases the day of the event.

The size of pictures varies as I got them from a variety of sources. Some pictures were taken of books in my own library, and the rest were copied from publisher websites and Barnes and Noble.com. Some publishers only provide little pictures while some provide a nice image of the cover. Symposium attendees will get a nice discount on these books. In some cases the final symposium price has not been determined but that will be cleared up in a week or so. I will report this blog with final prices closer to the event day.

Brigades of Gettysburg by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $30.00, Retail Price $50.00

Artillery of Gettysburg - Gottfried by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $20.00, Retail Price $24.95

Maps of Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Campaign June 3 – July 13 by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $29.00, Retail Price $39.95

Maps of First Bull Run by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $27.00, Retail Price $34.95

Kearny's Own: The History of the 1st New Jersey Brigade by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $36.95

Men Stood Like Iron: How the Iron Brigade Won Its Name by Lance J. Herdegen (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $19.95

Those Damned Black Hats! by Lance J. Herdegen (cloth) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $32.95

McClellan's First Campaign, March - May 1862 by Russel H Beatie (cloth) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $45.00

Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 by Timothy B Smith (cloth) - Symposium Price $20.00, Retail Price $32.95

Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged by Timothy B Smith (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $33.00

Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $31.00, Retail Price $38.95

This Great Battlefield of Shiloh by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $19.95

Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $21.95

Chickamauga Memorial by Timothy B Smith (cloth). This new release might not actually be printed in time for the event but if its been printed we'll have some copies for sale.

On Many a Bloody Field: Four Years in the Iron Brigade by Alan D. Gaff (paper), Retail Price $10.00, Retail Price $17.95

Iron Brigade: A Military History by Alan Nolan (paper) - Symposium Price $15.00, Retail Price $19.95

Lee Considered by Alan Nolan (paper) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $22.50

Giants in Their Tall Black Hats: Essays on the Iron Brigade by Alan Nolan & Sharon Vipond (cloth) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $29.95

Pickett's Charge in History and Memory by Carol Reardon (paper) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $19.95

Dear Sarah: Letters Home from a Soldier of the Iron Brigade by Coralou Peel Lassen (cloth) - Symposium Price $10.00, Retail Price $24.95

Major General Robert E. Rodes of the Army of Northern Virginia by Darrell L. Collins (cloth) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $32.95

Sherman's Horsemen by David Evans (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $27.95

Fighting for the Confederacy: Recollections of Gen Alexander by Edward Porter Alexander (paper) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $26.00

One Continuous Fight: Retreat from Gettysburg by Eric Wittenberg & JD Petruzzi (cloth) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $34.95

Plenty of Blame to Go Around by Eric Wittenberg & JD Petruzzi (cloth) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $32.95

McClellan's War by Etahn Rafuse (cloth) - Symposium Price $23.00, Retail Price $35.00

Myth of the Lost Cause by Gary Gallagher & Alan Nolan (cloth) - Symposium Price $13.00, Retail Price $19.95

Lee and His Army in Confederate History by Gary W Gallagher (paper) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $20.95

Lee and His Generals in War and Memory by Gary W. Gallagher (paper) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $21.95

Complete Gettysburg Guide by J. David Petruzzi (cloth) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $39.95

Sickles at Gettysburg by James A. Hessler (cloth) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $32.95

Gleam of Bayonets by James V. Murfin (paper) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $24.95

Stand of the US Army at Gettysburg by Jeffrey Hall (cloth) - Symposium Price $25.00, Retail Price $34.95

General George E Pickett in Life and Legend by Lesley J Gordon (paper) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $20.95

Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society by Thomas L. Connelly (paper) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $19.95

Ninety-eight Days: Geographer’s View of Vicksburg Campaign by Warren Grabau (cloth) - Symposium Price $38.00, Retail Price $48.00

Colonel John Pelham: Lee's Boy Artillerist by William Woods Hassler (paper) - Symposium Price Not Yet Determined, Retail Price $20.95

Ticket Sales

2009-07-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

The ticket sales page for the Rocky Mountain Civil War symposium is now up.

http://rockymtncivilwarrt.com/OrderTickets.htm

There you can order tickets for the symposium on October 3rd and also for the meet and greet the night before.

If you are a round table member you can save money if you pay at the meeting on August 13th. We will give a discount for members who renew their dues early. This offer is also extended to new members. For more information email me at RockyMtnCWRT at aol dot com.

Presenter change

2009-07-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Since my last post on the symposium we have made a change in the panel. Our Antietam speaker, Ted Alexander, has had to drop out and has been replaced by Stephen Recker.

Stephen Recker left a twenty-year career as a professional guitarist to create Virtual Gettysburg, a critically acclaimed interactive Civil War battlefield tour, and its follow-up, Virtual Antietam, which will be released next year. An avid collector of early Antietam photography and relics, items from his collection can be seen in Civil War Times, America's Civil War, and on the new waysides at Antietam National Battlefield. He also gives tours for Antietam Battlefield Guides, a guide service he founded in partnership with Western Maryland Interpretive Association, the non-profit at Antietam. The program is modeled after the Gettysburg system of licensed battlefield guides. A graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Recker was named a “Top 100 Producer” by AV Multimedia Producer Magazine, and recently produced a DVD about Little Bighorn.

"IX Corps Final Attack: The Pickett's Charge of Antietam" - Over the last 16 years Antietam National Battlefield has more than doubled in size due to the acquisition of properties such as the Otto Farm. The NPS continues to improve and interpret the south end of the battlefield which until recently was inaccessible to the public. On the afternoon of Sept 17, 1862 the final Union assault took place over this rolling terrain. The Federal IX Corps literally fought an uphill battle as they ascended 200 feet from the banks of Antietam Creek to the streets of Sharpsburg. They came within a hairsbreadth of cutting off Lee’s avenue of escape to the Potomac fords. The broken ground contributed greatly to the Confederate defense and allowed A.P. Hill’s arriving reinforcements to inflict a crushing flank attack, which stopped the Union advance. In his program, Stephen Recker will take you on a 'virtual' tour of that decisive ground using an early prototype of Virtual Antietam.

Rocky Mountain Civil War symposium

2009-07-07T11:48:00.000-07:00

The next Rocky Mountain Civil War symposium is a mere 88 days away. Things are progressing well for another great event, it will be even bigger and better than our last symposium.

Our theme this year is "Lee Invades the North" and we'll be focusing on the Antietam and Gettysburg campaigns. Our panel consists of Russel Beatie, Ted Alexander, Bradley Gottfried,Lance Herdegen and Timothy B. Smith.

Russel Beatie, who is working on a multi-volume history of the Army of the Potomac, will provide an overview and give some context for the two campaigns. Ted Alexander, chief historian at Antietam, will talk about the battle of Antietam. Bradley Gottfried, who has done some wonderful work on Gettysburg including "Brigades of Gettysburg" and "Maps of Gettysburg" will talk about the battle of Gettysburg. Lance Herdegen, a leading authority on the Iron Brigade, will talk about the Iron Brigade's experiences at Antietam and Gettysburg. Timothy B. Smith, who has done much work on the creation of these battlefields into national parks, will talk about the formation of Antietam and Gettysburg and will include the modern efforts to return, primarily, Gettysburg to its war time appearance.

Like last year we will have time for author signing and will have many of the presenters' books for sale. This year we are adding a panel discussion to end the day's festivities. There will also be a Friday night social event. This extra event will be limited to about 25 people to keep the atmosphere casual and intimate.

Ticket ordering will be available soon on our newly revamped website so check back soon.

Here is a reading list of what each author has written so that you can become a bit more acquainted with each presenter:

Russel H. Beatie
The Army of the Potomac: Birth of Command, November 1860-September 1861
Army of the Potomac, Volume II: McClellan Takes Command, September 1861-February 1862
Army of the Potomac: McClellan's First Campaign, March - May 1862

Timothy B. Smith:
The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation: The Decade of the 1890's and the Establishment of America's First Five Military Parks
This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park
The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield
Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862
Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg
The Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged by D. W. Reed

Lance Herdegen
Those Damned Black Hats! The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign
The Men Stood Like Iron: How the Iron Brigade Won Its Name
Four Years with the Iron Brigade: The Civil War Journal of William Ray, Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers with Sherry Murphy
In the Bloody Railroad Cut at Gettysburg with William J.K. Beaudot

Bradley M. Gottfried
The Artillery of Gettysburg
Brigades of Gettysburg: The Union and Confederate Brigades at the Battle of Gettysburg
The Maps of Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Campaign June 3 – July 13
Roads to Gettysburg: Lee's Invasion of the North, 1863
Kearny's Own: The History of the First New Jersey Brigade in the Civil War
Stopping Pickett: The History of the Philadelphia Brigade
The Battle of Gettysburg: A Guided Tour with Edward J. Stackpole, and Wilbur Sturtevant Nye.

Next meeting

2009-05-05T11:43:00.000-07:00

The newsletters came out early, and there's an error on the calendars we sold in January, but the next meeting is May 14th. See you next week.

Next year's study group

2009-04-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

Due to the upcoming symposium it was decided to do a short battle study this summer and then next spring begin our next longer battle study. And instead of the Civil War we will study a battle that is much closer to home, the Battle of Little Big Horn. Email us here or contact Mike for more information. There will likely be 2 or 3 meetings before the trip. The trip will likely be in August or September.

By Laws

2009-04-20T08:37:00.001-07:00

We created these awhile back but I'm not sure they are posted any where online. So here they are again just to be sure of it.
***********************************************
ROCKY MOUNTAIN CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE
BY LAWS

PURPOSE: The Rocky Mountain Civil War Round Table (hereafter the Round Table) shall exist to provide an informal and non business setting whereby all who are interested may gather to study the American Civil War.

OFFICERS: The officers of the Round Table shall be the President, Secretary, and Treasurer.
The President shall preside over the meetings, present an annual program of lectures to the membership for approval, and bring any items of interest pertaining to the Round Table to the memberships’ attention. As necessary the President may form temporary committees or study groups to investigate items or trips of interest and report back to the general membership.
The Secretary shall conduct all correspondence for the Round Table and publish a monthly news letter.
The Treasurer shall maintain an appropriate account for the deposit and disbursement of all Round Table Funds.
Officers shall be nominated and elected as called for by the membership. Election shall be by a show of hands of the members present at the meeting. A majority vote by the membership present at a meeting shall be required for a nominee to be elected. Officers are elected for a five year term.

MEETINGS: Meetings shall be conducted monthly at the time and place designated by the President and agreed upon by the membership. Normally each monthly meeting will consist of social time, business, lecture, and question and answer periods. Lectures for each month’s meeting will be by volunteers from the membership or from a guest lecturer. If required, the President is authorized to spend reasonable funds to defray the travel cost of a guest lecturer.

NEWSLETTER: The Secretary or whomever the President designates will publish and mail a monthly newsletter to each member of the Round Table. Cost of printing and mailing will be from the Round Table’s funds. The newsletter will consist of, but is not limited to: the current topic of the lecture, program of lectures for the calendar year, any upcoming special events, items of interest submitted by the membership, reports from any committees if at the time any are constituted.

DUES: The Round Table shall require an annual dues payment by each individual or family to join or to maintain membership. Dues are $20.00 annually. This amount may be decreased or increased at the recommendation of the President and with the approval of the majority of the membership

EXCESS FUNDS: At the end of the calendar year any funds not expended in the operation of the Round Table and that amount deemed necessary as an contingency fund will be dispersed to various organizations that conduct Civil War battlefield preservation and commemoration.

MEMBERSHIP REQUIRMENTS: Membership is open to all and other than payment of the annual dues there are no requirements for membership.

CHANGES TO BY LAWS: These By Laws may be amended at any time it becomes necessary. Amendment will be by a two-thirds majority approval of the membership present at any meeting so designated and publicized for such a vote.

Symposium Update

2009-04-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

The symposium committee met recently and came up with some guidelines and decisions.

Wee need the following committees; materials design, publicity, site coordination, book sales, presenter coordination and day of show logistics. This is not too much different than last time except that we’re devoting a bit more attention to the day of show logistics.

Materials design is responsible for creating the event program, registration form and event flyer. Although he wasn’t at the meeting to confirm this, Mike will once again be in charge of this.

Publicity is responsible for marketing the event. This may include magazine advertisements, placing flyers at libraries, getting our info into newsletters for various historical organizations and whatever mass mailings we decide to do. We did not formally fill this post but hope that Jim will do it once again.

Site coordination is in charge of securing the event space and working with the caterer. They will help on the day of event by making sure that CCA staff have the rooms open early, and that they provide us with the tables, chairs, microphones, etc that we need. Dave will once again do this job.

Book sales handles the ordering of the books, setting up the book room and arranging for returns of unsold books. Plus giving the pertinent tax info to the treasurer. They will need to find volunteers to staff the book room during selling hours. Ian, with help from Matt, will be in charge of this again.

Presenter coordination will make sure all the flights are booked, arrange for hotel rooms, and get the presenters picked up from the airport. Additionally they will arrange for the presenters to be delivered to the event. Nick will do this job again.

Day of show logistics means that all the day of event stuff gets done. Prior to the event they will need to find volunteers to staff the registration table plus volunteers for other assorted activities needed that day. They will also need to secure visual aid materials to be used during the presentations and make sure that someone will operate that equipment for the speakers, plus we will need a laser pointer (or two). They will also need to find, or be, the emcee. This position was left open for the time being. There might never be a single person in charge but various people who handle pieces of the task.

We want to promote the event stronger to college this time around. Last year we thought that area was lacking. Last year we also spent a fair amount on sending press release to various newspapers to the states surrounding Colorado. We did not think we got much response from this so will likely trim this back to just newspapers in the Denver metro area. Last year we had an ad in North & South magazine in conjunction with UT Press but doubt that we will have similar advertising this year. We also want to make a stronger push to get our flyers posted at local libraries.

We will be researching the viability of having a post symposium social hour. This would likely happen at the hotel. We need to research room size and cost. This might not happen but its something we would like to research so we know all our options.

Fundraising ideas were discussed and we have a few ideas for general fundraising. There was also some discussion of having a door prize drawing. We would like to do it but are not sure we would recover our costs.

This year our costs will rise because we are bringing in one more speaker that needs to fly in and a hotel room. There was some discussion of checking out lower priced chain hotels in the area to see if we could save some money.

There was a brief discussion of ticket price but it was quickly decided that we would stay with last year’s price of $50. That price allowed us to nearly break even and in our post-symposium questionnaire attendees said it was a fair price. Even though we will likely spend $500 more in airfare and hotels we will think of ways to bring in more people. Last year 2 additional attendees would have given us a very slim profit. If we grow the audience by 10-12 we should be close to even again with maybe a slight profit to use next year.

March Roundtable Meeting

2009-03-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

Your newsletter was already in the mail when we found out that Tom Lux would not be able to do his presentation on close quarter combat. He is sick and will appear on the schedule again sometime later this year.

There will be a meeting on March 12th. We have backups. Still come to the meeting. We hope to see you there.

Symposium Update

2008-11-03T06:18:00.000-08:00

Filling the panel for the next symposium proved a bit tougher than filling our first symposium a year ago. Three weeks ago I related some of the difficulties I had been having. We ran into people who were already booked for next October, who wanted an honorarium (which seems to be very rare), who were ill, we even had people who didn't respond to emails and letters. I was a little shocked by the number of people who didn't respond at all but not by the number who were booked, that's a good sign that roundtables and historical societies are putting on a variety of events.

Our final panel will consist of Russel Beatie, Ted Alexander, Bradley Gottfried,Lance Herdegen and Timothy B. Smith. The theme is Lee Invades the North.

Russel Beatie, who is working on a multi-volume history of the Army of the Potomac, will provide an overview and give some context for the two campaigns. Ted Alexander, chief historian at Antietam, will talk about the battle of Antietam. Bradley Gottfried, who has done some wonderful work on Gettysburg including "Brigades of Gettysburg" and "Maps of Gettysburg" will talk about the battle of Gettysburg. Lance Herdegen, a leading authority on the Iron Brigade, will talk about the Iron Brigade's experiences at Antietam and Gettysburg. Timothy B. Smith, who has done much work on the creation of these battlefields into national parks, will talk about the formation of Antietam and Gettysburg and will include the modern efforts to return, primarily, Gettysburg to its war time appearance.

Like last year we will have time for author signing and will have many of the presenters' books for sale. We will also add a panel discussion to end the day's festivities. Last April we did not do this as we wanted to keep things simple for our first time, but now we feel confident enough to try a bit more.

Here is a reading list of what each author has written so that you can become a bit more acquainted with each presenter:
Russel H. Beatie
The Army of the Potomac: Birth of Command, November 1860-September 1861
Army of the Potomac, Volume II: McClellan Takes Command, September 1861-February 1862
Army of the Potomac: McClellan's First Campaign, March - May 1862

Timothy B. Smith:
The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation: The Decade of the 1890's and the Establishment of America's First Five Military Parks
This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park
The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield
Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862
Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg
The Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged by D. W. Reed

Lance Herdegen
Those Damned Black Hats! The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign
The Men Stood Like Iron: How the Iron Brigade Won Its Name
Four Years with the Iron Brigade: The Civil War Journal of William Ray, Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers with Sherry Murphy
In the Bloody Railroad Cut at Gettysburg with William J.K. Beaudot

Bradley M. Gottfried
The Artillery of Gettysburg
Brigades of Gettysburg: The Union and Confederate Brigades at the Battle of Gettysburg
The Maps of Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Campaign June 3 – July 13
Roads to Gettysburg: Lee's Invasion of the North, 1863
Kearny's Own: The History of the First New Jersey Brigade in the Civil War
Stopping Pickett: The History of the Philadelphia Brigade
The Battle of Gettysburg: A Guided Tour with Edward J. Stackpole, and Wilbur Sturtevant Nye.

Symposium

2008-10-13T10:54:00.000-07:00

If you are a member of the roundtable you have seen that we are doing another symposium. In fact until events prove otherwise this will be an annual event. Last April we had a very good symposium on our first attempt. I've been sending out invitations for a few months now, and having some horrible luck. Last time we got our 5 presenters from 8 invitations, and the 3 rejections were pretty much expected (those were the guys that seem to be booked 2 years in advance). This year the early rejections were again from the previous time's rejections so I wasn't too worried, but then we had a hard time filling the list after that. I was starting to worry, in fact I had come to the opinion that if things were still going as poorly as they were by January 1st that we might have to cancel it completely.

Until this past weekend we had 2 yeses and 8 nos. Friday I sent out a batch of invitations again, giving them until November 1st to respond. I created a secondary list of who to invite on November 2nd and December 2nd if we still didn't have a full slate. If by January 1st we had only added 1 more presenter I was thinking we should pull the plug on this event or try something else entirely.

But Saturday afternoon I checked my email and we had our panel. I'm doing some final touches on the list, just reconfirming with some guys about schedules but it appears that we have our list. When the list in final I will reveal the panel for all, as well as have a reading list. Then we can begin the process of making flyers, registration materials and begin the task of marketing our event.

Our theme for the next symposium will be Lee Invades the North. We will have a presenter for Antietam and Gettysburg. Also one to provide an overview and put the campaigns into some context. We will have one to give a history of an army unit that saw extensive action in both battles. And we'll finish off with one on the history of the parks from the end of the battle to today. The only thing we're changing from last time is that we will have a panel discussion at the end of the day. In retrospect we thought that would have been a nice touch. We weren't 100% sure how to handle it the first time so we didn't do it then, and since it was our first attempt we wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

I know its a long way off but our next symposium will be October 3, 2009. Mark it on your calendars now.

October 9: US Grant After the War, Part 2 by Richard DeTar

2008-10-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

This past February Richard DeTar gave a presentation on Grant's life after the war. The presentation went a tad long and had not reached its end. So this month Richard will complete his original presentation.

After the war Grant used his popularity to become President. It was not something he didn’t initially seek but once in office he seemed to enjoy it, as he served two terms and nearly ran for a third. His presidency was marked with scandal but that was mostly because the men who served under him were not trustworthy, there is no indication that Grant was a “dirty” President. He simply made bad choices in the men he delegated power too. He also became bankrupt again as he trusted the wrong men to take care of his personal fortune.

Grant wrote the memoirs so that his family would not be poor. He wrote them with the aid of Samuel Clemens and neither man probably realized the full financial windfall Grant’s family would receive from them, approximately $450,000 in 1885. Some even consider Grant’s memoirs to be a literary masterpiece.

If time allots Richard has also suggested using the extra time to discuss Civil War novelties. Basically anything you've found odd or wanted some clarification on. We can use this time to probe the minds of our esteemed membership.

Richard recommends the following books:
Adams, James Truslow. The March of Democracy. Chapters 3-5.
Wilson, Edmund. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War. Chapter 4
Grant, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant.

Port Republic Study Group

2008-09-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

Our final study group meeting is this Thursday (tomorrow). We will discuss this final battle of the campaign and also go over travel details. The group will be making its trip Oct 1-5. Most members already have airline reservations and hotel reservations have been made for the group. If you are interested in making the trip (and don't yet have reservations) you had better be at this meeting so you can get all the details of when and where the group will be in The Valley.

The meeting will be at Bob's house for our customary final meeting dinner. The meeting will start at 6 since dinner is included, made by Bob's wonderful wife, Judy. Email for directions.

Cross Keys Study Group

2008-08-22T06:10:00.000-07:00

The study group is nearly done with its 2008 campaign, Stonewall 1862 Valley Campaign. Our next to last meeting will be a group discussion of the battle of Cross Keys. We will meet at Kinko's (email for directions).

Symposium Committee

2008-08-19T13:09:00.001-07:00

Our next meeting will be August 21 at Mike's house. Email for directions. We are in the early planning stages for next year's symposium.

Symposium Committee Meeting

2008-06-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

The first meeting for our next symposium will take place this coming Thursday at Ian's house. Email me for directions. By the end of the meeting we need to have decided the following things:

1) Pick a date for the next symposium

2) Pick a topic

3) Have a list of speakers to invite, hopefully with contact information for several of them

4) Figure out what other organizations we want to invite to the event

5) Have a list of things we need to do to make the next event be even better than our inaugural effort.

June 12th: Battle of New Orleans by Ray Polster

2008-06-05T21:54:00.000-07:00

To implement Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan the Union needed to control the Mississippi River. One of the first steps in this plan would be to seize New Orleans. This would help secure the Mississippi River and also remove one of the premier ports in America from Confederate control. In the middle of January 1862 Flag Officer David G. Farragut undertook this operation with his West Gulf Blockading Squadron. The main obstacle was Forts Jackson and St. Philip, above the Head of Passes, approximately seventy miles below New Orleans. Once these were cleared there was nothing to stop the Union navy until it reached New Orleans.

From April 18 to April 28, Farragut bombarded the two forts, before finally running thirteen ships passed the forts on April 24th. Once this was accomplished New Orleans fell to Farragut without any more blood shed.

The Confederacy would make a few efforts to recapture New Orleans but none of them had much chance of succeeding. New Orleans would spend the rest of the war occupied by the Union, most notable by Benjamin Butler who earned at least two wonderful nicknames during his time in New Orleans, "Beast" and "Spoons."

This month Ray Polster will discuss this early battle in the Union's effort to control the Mississippi river and to also strengthen the blockade.

Ray suggests the following books:
The Night the War was Lost by Charles L. Dufour
Capture of New Orleans by Chester G Hearn

Symposium Costs

2008-06-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

SYMPOSIUM INCOME & EXPENSES

INCOME
Ticket sales 2925
UT CC Sales 623
Cash Sales 1904
book returns 296.19
TOTAL INCOME 5748.19

EXPENSES
DIA Hyatt 984.08
Airfare 1182.49
Programs 59.50
Name Tags 16.19
Envelopes 9.01
Stamps 172.20
Misc Postage 4.40
Catering 1093.67
Book Invoices 2185.79
Book return shipping 5.54
Tax - Aurora 78.87
Tax - Colorado 61.00
TOTAL EXPENSES 5852.74

BALANCE (104.55)

We lost money, but not much. After sending out a survey of the membership they overwhelmingly said that they were fine with the roundtable subsidizing the symposium by $104.55. In fact they said we could run a much larger loss, we had nearly as many people who said we could be $1000 in the red as said $500 in the red. We don't intend to ever be that far off budget estimates but it was a nice vote of confidence to receive.

Symposium Committee Meeting

2008-05-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

We will have a Symposium Committee Meeting on June 19th. At that meeting we will decide on a date for our next symposium, what the topic will be, and who we will invite. Plus we will do a recap of what we learned from our first venture and how to do better the next time. The location of the meeting will be announced in the next newsletter, as well as on this blog and in our yahoo discussion group. If you have ideas please come to the meeting or email them to me at rockymtncwrt@aol.com.

McDowell Study Group meeting

2008-05-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

Our next study group meeting will be May 22nd, not May 15th as stated in the newsletter. We will meet at Gary's house, at 7 pm. Please email, rockymtncwrt@aol.com if you need directions. We will be discussing the battle of McDowell as the Shenandoah Valley campaign starts to kick off.

May 8th: Spotsylvania Court House by Dave Townsend

2008-05-02T17:41:00.000-07:00

Last year when we did our Grant theme we had to cut a few battles out to fit the theme to a calendar year. One of the battles that lost out was Spotsylvania Court House. Dave Townsend will help fill in that gap at our next meeting. This battle was actually a series of engagement lasting from May 8th to the 21st. Lee’s lines were about four miles long with a salient, dubbed the Mule Shoe, his only weakness.

On May 10th and 12th the Union assaulted this salient, the first time with 12 regiments under Emory Upton and the second time with Hancock’s entire 2nd Corps of 15,000 men. After expelling this force Lee completed a fall back line and the Union took the Mule Shoe for good. In all roughly 10,000 men fell in the fighting in this area.

Grant would try again on May 18th to break Lee’s lines but was again repulsed. This convinced him that the line could not be broken at Spotsylvania and he would have to move around Lee’s right flank once again. The next time they’d meet at the North Anna River.

Total Union losses for the two week battle is usually put at around 18,000 men, though one source claims only 13,000. Confederate losses are widely reported in the 10,000 to 13,000 range. While the losses are huge we also most remember that Lee started the battle with roughly 52,000 men and Grant started with nearly 100,000. This was the beginning of the arithmetic that Lee could not win.

Dave suggests the following books:
Grant and Lee: the Virginia Campaigns 1864-65 by William A Frassanito
The Virginia Campaign 1864 and 1865 by Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys
The Battles for Spotsylvania CH and ... Yellow Tavern by Gordon C. Rhea
Bloody Roads South: May-June 1864 by Noah Andre Trudeau

Members begin to gather at 6:00 PM for dinner and discussion about the “War Between the States.” Buy plenty of raffle tickets - Ian is sure to have some great books (as always) for this month’s meeting. Everyone present will receive one free ticket and additional chances are available for 5 for $1.00.

As always everyone is encouraged to bring in additional items to sweeten the pot. The drawing will take place at 6:45 PM just prior to the new business portion of the meeting. The presentation will begin promptly at 7:00 PM.

Symposium Books

2008-04-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

After our successful symposium we did end up with some extra books. Some titles we did a good job of guessing how many we'd need and others we did not do as good a job. We will be selling our excess titles here. Send me an email and I will respond with total shipping costs and I can send you a paypal invoice, or you can send a check.

Echoes of Thunder: A Guide to the Seven Days Battles by Matt Spruill. Signed by the author. I can have this one personalized too if you'd like. Roundtable price $23, retail $24.95
Winter Lightning: A guide to the Battle of Stones River by Matt Spruill. Signed by the author. I can have this one personalized too if you'd like. Roundtable price $23, retail $24.95
Stones River: Bloody Winter in Tennessee by James Lee McDonough. Signed by the author. Roundtable price $21, retail $23.95

War In Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville by James Lee McDonough. Signed by the author. Roundtable price $15, retail $17.95
A Southern Boy in Blue: The Memoir of Marcus Woodcock, 9th Kentucky Infantry (USA) by Kenneth Noe. Signed by the author. Roundtable price $15, retail $18
Doctor Quintard, Chaplain C.S.A. and Second Bishop of Tennessee: The Memoir and Civil War Diary of Charles Todd Quintard by Sam Davis Elliott. Signed by the author. Roundtable price $35, retail $42.95

Soldier of Tennessee: General Alexander P. Stewart and the Civil War in the West by Sam Davis Elliott. Signed by the author. Roundtable price $23, retail $22.95
Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg by Timothy B. Smith. Signed by the author. Roundtable price $18, retail $22.95

We also ordered in a few other titles. None of these are signed.

Civil War Tennessee: Battles and Leaders by Thomas Lawrence Connelly. Roundtable price $6, retail $7

Tennessee's Forgotten Warriors: Frank Cheatham and His Confederate Division by Christopher Losson. Roundtable price $24, retail $29
Memoirs of the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion by Robert J. Trout. Roundtable price $35, retail $45
Chimborazo: The Confederacy's Largest Hospital by Carol C. Green. Roundtable price $18, retail $22.95

Sam Davis Elliott

2008-04-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

Our final speaker was Sam Davis Elliott talking about General Alexander P. Stewart, about whom he has written a fine biography. I'll admit I have not read the biography, but I have a copy and will one day soon read it.

Stewart is one of those commanders who have largely been forgotten. This is a bit strange in that he was one of the few a corps commanders in the Army of Tennessee. There are artillery captains in the Army of Northern Virginia that have had more written about them.

One thing I did know about Stewart is that he largely escaped most of the bickering in the Army of Tennessee. While much of the high command was dividing into pro or anti Bragg factions Stewart somehow managed to walk a thin line between both groups.

Sam mentioned that he got the bug to write about Stewart after passing his statue on the courthouse grounds in Chattanooga. Somehow I did not know about this statue, and I've been to Chattanooga a number of times. Next time I'm there I'll make a point of visiting the courthouse to see the statue.

The last time I was in Chattanooga I happened to meet Sam. I had gone back there for a week of wandering and on my last day there I participated in a ranger led hike of the Wauhatchie. As we gathered in the parking lot we introduced ourselves to each other and we finally met in person after exchanging emails over the various message boards we both belong to. The idea of the symposium was in my mind at that time, I think at that point we were still discussing if we though we could pull it off. As we walked up Tyndale Hill the ranger asked if we wanted to do some bushwhacking to the very top (the trail was not officially open yet). I think Sam was the first to speak and his answer was something along the lines of "how else would we spend our time, lets go up there, be among the first to see it." That sort of bushwhacking mentality is the same as our study groups' have and I knew right then that he was one of us. Once we started inviting people to the symposium he was one of the first ones we asked, he cemented it that day on Tyndale Hill. I knew if he had that sort of enthusiasm about bushwhacking to see entrenchments he could easily project that enthusiasm into a talk. And I was right, I really enjoyed the talk and mentally moved the Stewart book to the top of my to-read-list.

Matt Spruill

2008-04-13T18:35:00.001-07:00

Our fourth speaker was fellow round table member Matt Spruill. Even though he's a member he was no slouch when it came to presentations. I've always enjoyed discussing the war with Matt because he offers a perspective from a modern military officer. Also Matt does a good job of giving a balanced view of things. He will not blast a general's decisions without first exploring the position that general was in; what did he know of the situation, what were the options available to him? Then if a general still made a poor decision he will not hold back with his opinion, but he makes you think critically of what options really did face the general in the heat of the moment. The decision might seem bad at first but when you look at all the sides of the issue often times you come away with a greater appreciation of what the general faced and what he finally decided to do. This is what Matt has added to my thinking of the war.

During the symposium Matt presented the battle of Stones River, subject of his most recent battle field guide (and I've reviewed it here previously). Matt had two statements that I thought were interesting and needed more contemplation.

The first was that "successful commanders need to make judgement decisions and take acceptable risks." This goes along with things I've been taught by Matt before but I've never heard him phrase it quite that way. In some ways it seems so simple, the good generals make decisions after weighing the different options, figure out what risks they are willing to take and choose accordingly.

The Stones River statement Matt offered was that Bragg should have weighted his main attack on the left by adding Breckinridge's force behind Cleburne. Bragg would have been taking a gamble that Rosecrans would not attack his weakened right wing but it would have increased the odds of a successful attack by the left wing. We could all debate whether doing so would have been an acceptable risk. I believe that it would be an acceptable risk because if the attack had succeeded the results might have been extraordinary. Rosecrans might have been completely surrounded and forced to fight for his survival, and Bragg might have dealt the major blow that the Confederacy needed in the West to revive its sinking fortunes. As it happened Bragg did not manage the battle well enough to provide a major victory and ended up with a tactical draw and a strategic defeat.

Kenneth Noe

2008-04-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

Kenneth Noe provided one of the better jokes of the event. In leading off his talk he said that he was from Virginia and there they “know that the war was fought in Virginia, with a few days in Maryland and one bad week in Pennsylvania.” Noe is also a Cleveland Browns fan and said his heart broke when he drove past Mile High Stadium where his Browns lost two AFC Championship games (its now Invesco Field but the new stadium sits next to where the old one was).

But on a serious note Ken talked about the Perryville campaign. I thought he did a very good job of laying it all out. He got a little into the blow-by-blow stuff but not so much that your head is swimming with details. I especially liked how he detailed the various options available to Bragg at the beginning of the campaign and how the boldest option somehow became the best option. One of his gems of insight was when he said that it impossible to understand the Civil War if you separate the military, political and social elements. That they are all connected, in fact these separate forces are what ends up pushing Bragg to select the option he does select (instead of swinging from Tupelo to Chattanooga and then north into Kentucky, he could have struck Buell between Corinth and Chattanooga or he could have assaulted Corinth directly).

Ken also talked a bit about how weather played such a huge role in this campaign, as well as the other campaigns of 1862 in the West. He said that if he was doing the book now he’d try to explain the toll of drinking very little water (and then having substandard water when it was available) had on the soldiers and animals of both armies.

I’ve read his book, and have tramped those fields. As a sign of how well his talk was received by the rest of the audience, as soon as his talk was over his book sold out from our book room. I was glad to hear about that as I knew it meant we made a good choice in selecting him as a speaker.

A theme that kept popping up during the day was memory, and Perryville is no exception to the memory debate. In Perryville’s case its a matter of how a pretty major battle somehow falls out of the public memory. Perryville started to disappear from the newspapers right away as other events quickly filled the paper, things like the battles of Iuka and Corinth, the fall Congressional elections and the debate of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Then after the war it remained a lesser battle. But the locals have worked hard to protect it. They have done their best to prevent it from being changed, and last week they actually did so again by rejecting a request from a developer to build many homes.

Timothy Smith

2008-04-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

The second speaker of the day was Tim Smith. Not to slight any of our other fine speakers but this was the presenter I was most anxious to see. Tim is a former Shiloh ranger who I’ve bumped into a few times before at the park, I’ve enjoyed all of his books and he was talking about my favorite battle to study. He did not disappoint.

Basically Tim talked about the “battle after the battle,” the historiography of Shiloh. This is the sort of thing I love and I was worried that others might find it not as interesting. But the few people I’ve talked to about this so far liked it, it was not the normal for them. They adapted well to a Shiloh talk that was not about the movements of regiments and batteries.

He laid out that there are four main schools of Shiloh historiography. The first is the veterans school and it started as soon as men had a chance to sit down and talk about what happened that day. This school lasted into the 1890s when the number of veterans dwindled.

The second school began with the formation of the park and the appointment of David W. Reed as the first historian. This is when the first mentions of the Hornets’ Nest emerge at all and it will soon grow to legendary status as, perhaps, the most important part of the battle. Reed’s regiment fought in the Hornets’ Nest which would explain why Reed put more emphasis on this than any previous author. This school dominates current thinking and Tim brought up the story that at the Visitor’s Center are two large maps (made by Reed) that visitors can touch and the spots that Reed emphasized have been touched so often that they have been rubbed off the map. Next time I’m there I’ll be sure to check this out. The spots are Shiloh Church, Pittsburg Landing, the Hornets’ Nest and the Sunken Road.

The third school Tim called the Johnston/Sword school. To this school the death of Johnston was the most important event of the battle. Wiley Sword’s book came out in the 1970s and he recently revised edition spends a great deal of time trying to determine conclusively where Johnston was killed. Long story short, Sword believes its much farther north than where its marked at the park. I’m not convinced and I got the impression that very few others agree with Sword.

The final school would be revisionist. This first appeared in the 1960s with Cunningham’s dissertation but it remained largely unread until recently (in an edited version by Tim and Gary Joiner). The first published book in this school would be Larry Daniel’s. This school is still developing but it is reevaluating the other schools and putting more emphasis on events in other locations, like what Sherman and McClernand accomplished on the Union right.

If I had to guess (and I should have just asked the question but didn’t think of it then) I would say that Tim is of the revisionist school. I think he’s willing to accept parts of Reed and Johnston’s school but feels that their emphasis is not the whole story.

My apologies that our roundtable's president's head sticks into the photo. I wanted to move into the aisle to take pictures, but didn't want to disrupt the presentation at all.

James Lee McDonough

2008-04-11T08:01:00.001-07:00

James Lee McDonough started our day off with an overview of the Western Theater. He started it with all sorts of data about the two sides and I was starting to wonder where he was going with it. One thing he said which I had never heard (or don’t remember it) is that Missouri had the second highest white population in 1860 among slave states, only trailing Virginia and if you subtracted West Virginia it was first. Kentucky was third. His point being that if those two slaves states could have been firmly in the Confederacy it would have been a huge boon in manpower alone. He also talked about some of the natural resources these two states would have been able to contribute too.

Something else I had never thought about is that the Confederacy was roughly twice the size of the colonies of 1776. One of the reasons the British lost that war was because fighting on that scale is difficult, not only in space but everything that goes along with it (logistics being the major consideration). Of course since then numerous railroads had been built and the river system in the West favored the Union. But even so there was some belief that the size of the project might be enough to prevent the Union from winning.

He also went into Kentucky’s geographic importance. I’ve heard this before, but to paraphrase a Confederate Kentucky makes invasion of the West more difficult because the Ohio River forms a natural defensive line and would prevent the Union from exploiting the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers (at least until they breached the forts that would likely be built at the confluence of each of those with the Ohio.

He also made two statements I found interesting discussion fodder. One is that Shiloh was a “narrow tactical victory with major strategic importance.” I don’t have a problem with that statement at all, I think it fits, but I can see that others might not agree. The other is, “If the Kentucky line [the reality line thru Bowling Green not the imagined line on the Ohio] was intact at the time of Antietam would that battle have as much importance, would Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation?” His point being that nothing about Antietam makes it vastly important than that the Emancipation Proclamation follows. I’m not so sure about this one. I can understand that the situation would then basically be a small Union foothold throughout all theaters but Antietam would still have significance as an invasion turned back. I don’t know if that would be enough of an event for Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, but since he probably still had it in a desk drawer waiting for his moment me might have seized on this event as the big moment again.

Symposium was a Success!!

2008-04-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

The symposium went very well, better than I expected. Everything ran very smoothly, we didn’t seem to have the hiccups one would expect from it being our first event. We learned a few things on how to run the day better next time, mostly minor things. Like we didn’t think of it until halfway through the first speaker but having a pitcher of water handy would be very useful. Also next time I think we should go with a wireless mic, one speaker wanted to wander more and all of them occasionally leaned back a bit from the mic so it likely was not as loud at the back of the hall as it should have been. We didn’t have a panel discussion and I think that is something we need to incorporate into our next event. We also did very well with book sales and could have probably ordered more. But we had very little to base our order on, we just made a guess and we were a little low, but that’s better than having too much stock.

The presenters themselves were fantastic. We had selected authors we thought would be good but we truthfully had no idea how well it would turn out. Just because a guy writes a good book does not mean he can speak in front of a crowd. But our guys were a good batch, I’ll post a bit more about each one this week as they all brought up some insights and questions I’d like to share and comment on.

They were also highly complimentary of what we had put together. I’m not sure if they were just being nice but I’d like to believe they were being honest. Down the road we’ll send out surveys to speakers and attendees to gauge reactions to our event, I think then we’ll have a complete picture.

The hall was pretty good sized, I took this first thing in the morning. Eventually we'd fill about half the place. The Community College of Aurora videotaped the first half of the day for their community cable access station, hopefully we'll get a copy of that. I'd love to share it on here or youtube but we'll see if that's possible.
Here is our book room. We had books for all of our presenters. I'd like to thank the University of Tennessee Press, Kentucky University Presss and Savas-Beatie for helping us out with this. The University of Tennessee Press did the most for us as they also sent catalogs, bags, a table cloth, and other promotional materials. We've dealt with them from the very beginning on this, back when it was just a kernel of an idea.

One of our roundtable members, Bob Moulder, set up a display showing a fraction of his impressive collection. My favorite aspect of Bob's collection is that there is a personal story behind each item. He just doesn't have a certain model of sword, he knows who carried it in the war and what happened to him, that's impressive. That's a Bob behind the table, but not Bob Moulder, its his friend and day's assistant Bob Huddleston.

Rocky Mountain Civil War Round Table

Symposium 2011

symposium ticket sales

Symposium 2010

Symposium Book Sales **Final Update**

Book Sale **UPDATE**

Book sale

Ticket Sales

Presenter change

Rocky Mountain Civil War symposium

Next meeting

Next year's study group

By Laws

Symposium Update

March Roundtable Meeting

Symposium Update

Symposium

October 9: US Grant After the War, Part 2 by Richard DeTar

Port Republic Study Group

Cross Keys Study Group

Symposium Committee

Symposium Committee Meeting

June 12th: Battle of New Orleans by Ray Polster

Symposium Costs

Symposium Committee Meeting

McDowell Study Group meeting

May 8th: Spotsylvania Court House by Dave Townsend

Symposium Books

Sam Davis Elliott

Matt Spruill

Kenneth Noe

Timothy Smith

James Lee McDonough

Symposium was a Success!!

Symposium Book Sales Final Update

Book Sale UPDATE