Sam Craghead, President         Art & Carol Bergeron, Editors
4361F Lakefield Mews            3901 Paces Ferry Road      
Richmond, VA 23231              Chester, VA 23831-1239   

February 2001 PROGRAM

Robert E. L. Krick

"J. Ambler Johnston and the
Round Table's 50th Anniversary"

8:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 13, 2001, at the
Boulevard United Methodist Church, 321 N. Boulevard,
Richmond, VA (corner of Boulevard and Stuart Ave.)
Enter basement door from Boulevard side.

This month's meeting will celebrate the 50th anniversary  of
our  roundtable.   To  commemorate  that singular event, our
program will delve into the early history of the group, with
a special focus on our anniversary project: the revision and
re-issue of Mr.  J.  Ambler Johnston's book Echoes of 1861 -
1961.   Krick  will  talk briefly about the beginning of the
roundtable, and some of its achievements over the years.    

The second part of the program will deal with Mr.   Johnston
and  his  book.  In addition to his tenure with the Richmond
Civil War Round Table, Ambler Johnston was a trusted  friend
of   Dr.    Douglas  Southall  Freeman  and  a  very  active
participant in the preservation of local Civil War  history.
Late  in  his life, Mr.  Johnston reminisced about the early
history of  the  area  battlefields  and  the  personalities
associated  with  Civil  War  Richmond  in  the  early  20th
century.  The book includes  a  short  account  by  longtime
Roundtable  member  Bill  Mallory about the formation of our
group in 1951.  Our  reprint  of  this  volume  includes  an
index,  a  listing  of  the past presidents, and an expanded
section chronicling all of our previous speakers  and  their
subjects.  Mr.  Johnston's original driving tour of the area
battlefields has been updated by  Sam  Craghead  to  reflect
modern  alterations  to  the  route,  and that will be in an
appendix as well.  Copies of his entertaining  memoirs  will
be on hand for sale.                                        

Robert  E.  L.  Krick presently is an historian on the staff
at  Richmond  National  Battlefield  Park  and   is   widely
published  on Confederate subjects.  His recent research has
focused on Confederate staff officers.   Krick  has  been  a
member  of  the  Richmond  CWRT  for ten years and is a past
president.                                                  

Review of the January Program

Dr.  Charles F.   Bryan,  Jr.,  Executive  Director  of  the
Virginia  Historical Society, gave an excellent presentation
that focused on his recent publication, Eye of the Storm:  A
Civil War Odyssey.  Edited by Bryan and Nelson D.  Langford,
the book is the five thousand page, illustrated memoir of  a
long-forgotten  Union  private  and  mapmaker,  Robert  Knox
Sneden.                                                     

Sneden enlisted  in  the  40th  New  York  Infantry  (Mozart
Regiment)  at  age  29  after the fall of Fort Sumter.  As a
soldier and a  mapmaker,  he  was  present  at  many  famous
battles  of  the  war.   Sneden  was captured by Confederate
partisan John S.  Mosby in 1863 and spent much of  the  rest
of  the  war as a prisoner in Richmond and the Andersonville
prison  camp.   Sneden  was  exchanged  in  December   1864.
Throughout  the conflict, Sneden kept a journal and sketched
many  sites  of  his  wartime  experiences.   Together,  his
narrative  and  art  constitute  one  of  the most important
recently discovered Civil War documents.                    

Bryan  began   by   detailing   the   Historical   Society's
acquisition   of   Sneden's   manuscripts,   sketches,   and
watercolors.  In 1994, an art dealer telephoned the  Society
and  inquired  if it was interested in purchasing some Civil
War "scrapbooks." The collection had been  held  in  a  bank
vault  in  Connecticut for about sixty years.  At first, the
curators expressed interest but had some reservations  about
what  the  scrapbooks might contain.  The dealer brought the
material to Richmond for inspection.   The  tattered  albums
held  approximately five hundred richly colored drawings and
maps, and the  staff  of  the  Society  realized  the  great
historical  significance  of  the  material.   Many  of  the
drawings were of Virginia scenes, and showed buildings  that
have been lost over the years.  A generous donation from Mr.
Floyd Gottwald, Jr., of Richmond made it  possible  for  the
Historical Society to buy the artwork.                      

This  was  the  largest  unknown  collection  of  Civil  War
watercolors  ever  to  become  available  to  an  historical
institution.   The  staff  of  the  Historical Society began
researching Robert Sneden to fill in the  story  behind  his
sketches  and  maps.   This  led  to  the  location  of  his
brother's great-grandson, who lived  in  upstate  New  York.
Informants  said that he owned Sneden's wartime diary.  When
the gentleman was contacted,  he  stated  that  he  owned  a
diary/memoir  that  consisted  of five large volumes.  These
documents were then stored in a rental facility in  Arizona.
The  owner  went  there to get them and then brought them to
Richmond.  Only four of  the  five  volumes  still  existed.
Sneden  appears  to  have  written  a  memoir based upon his
diaries beginning in  the  1870s.   Surprisingly,  this  new
collection   included   hundreds   of  additional  drawings,
bringing the total up to nearly eight  hundred.   Bryan  and
his staff again approached Mr.  Gottwald for a donation, and
a deal was made that brought the memoir and new sketches  to
the Historical Society in late 1997.                        

After describing the Sneden collection,  Bryan  presented  a
slide  show  that highlighted some of the maps and sketches.
He explained that Sneden probably did pen and  ink  drawings
in  the  field  of  many  of the scenes and turned them into
watercolors later.  A few appeared as engravings  in  Volume
Two  of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.  Sneden's view
of Mount Vernon, done in December 1861, is the only  one  of
its  kind  known.  He made two watercolors of the Cole House
on the Ruffin plantation across from Harrison's Landing, one
of  them  showing  the  home  after it had been set afire by
Union troops.  Several other  sketches  also  are  the  only
known illustrations of the sites depicted.                  


Announcements


Spring Field Trip

Since the last meeting,  the  bus  for  the  field  trip  to
Manassas  on  April  21  has  sold  half the seats, and Brag
Bowling is receiving reservations nearly every day.  If this
pace continues, we will be sold out by the next meeting. All
members who have hesitated making  their  reservations  with
Brag should send in their checks soon.  Only in this way can
you guarantee a seat on the bus.                            

The tour guide will be John Hennessy.  Cost will be $15  per
person.   Everyone  should  bring  his own lunch.  The group
will leave from the parking lot near the Lowes  and  Walmart
Stores at the corner of Brook Road and Parham at  6:30 a. m.
and will be back at around 6 p. m.                          

Hennessy  plans  to  escort  the  group  along   the   Union
"invasion" route to the battlefield and will spend much time
at Blackburn's Ford, Henry House Hill, and  other  important
Confederate  victory  sites.   The  Union side of the battle
will not be neglected.  If time permits, Hennessy  may  also
include a few Second Manassas sites.                        

Round  Table members will have first option at reservations,
which will be on a "first come first  serve"  basis.   There
are  only  45  seats  on  the  bus,  so  please act quickly.
Reservations can be sent by mail to:                        

Brag Bowling          
3019 Kensington Avenue
Richmond, VA 23221    

All checks should be made payable to the  Roundtable.   Brag
will  also  accept checks at the meetings prior to the tour.
Any questions can be directed to Brag at (804) 359-0382.    


From the Editors

We welcome submissions to the monthly  newsletter,  although
we  cannot  always  include  them due to space restrictions.
Please send potential items to us  no  later  than  eighteen
(18) days prior to the meeting date.                        


Richmond Civil War Round Table  in  Cyberspace.   The  Round
Table's  Web  site  includes the monthly newsletter, CW book
reports, photographs, other CW web site links, and a list of
forthcoming speakers.  The URL or Web address is:           

www.rcwrt.org
or just
rcwrt.org


Richmond Civil War Round Table Newsletter
Art & Carol Bergeron, Editors
3901 Paces Ferry Road
Chester, VA 23831-1239