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September 2010 - rcwrt.org
Davis Wrinkle, Pres.                   Gary Cowardin, Editor    
7741 Rockfalls Dr.                     1404 Lorraine Ave.       
Richmond, VA 23225                     Richmond, VA 23227-3735  
dpwrink@verizon.net                    cowardin@juno.com        

September 2010 Program Gary Gallagher "Jubal Early" 8:00 p.m., Tuesday, September 14, 2010, at the First Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA., 4602 Cary Street Road, 23226 A parking lot is available behind the church with an entrance off the parking lot to the left and down a few stairs. (map in August's newsleter) As one of our favorite RCWRT speakers, Gary Gallagher has spoken to us on at least ten other topics over the last 25 years. He is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War, at the University of Virginia (since 1999). Among his many publications are The American War: Union, Emancipation, and Nation in the Civil War North; Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Art Shape What We Know about the Civil War; and Jubal A. Early, the Lost Cause, and Civil War History: A Persistent Legacy. For more info about Gary see: www.virginia.edu/history/user/23 Be sure to come early to get a good seat.
SAVE THIS DATE: 11/11/2010 The RCWRT's 2010 annual dinner is scheduled for the evening of Thursday, November 11, 2010 and will be held again this year at the University of Richmond's Jepson Alumni Center. Our speaker for the event will be renowned historian John Quarstein on Fort Monroe . Please mark your calendar and watch for more details in a future newsletter. NOTE: Please put on your NEW NAME BADGE on when you arrive for the meeting. (They will be near or on the raffle table.) 2010 Meeting Attendance: August = 100 !
JACK ACKERLY'S RESPONSE TO DR. CHARLES BRYAN'S 8/15/10 ARTICLE IN THE RTD Dr. Charles Bryan omitted important facts in his Sunday guest column regarding the cause of the Civil War. Does he mention President Lincoln? What influence did Lincoln have in the start of the war? After the surrender of Fort Sumter, the secessionist states consisted of a total of seven, not the eleven the Confederate South eventually became. Virginia, the most populous, was not among the seven. Virginia voted against secession 88 to 45. Like Virginia, not one of the eventual eleven states was North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas. Following the surrender of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln called for 75,000 militia to put down the rebellion. Virginians as well as Tennesseans, North Carolinians, and Arkansans had the dilemma of either being forced to supply men to invade the lands of their southern neighbors or defending their homes and farms against 75,000 invaders. Faced with Lincoln's orders, Virginia next voted 88 to 55 to secede, carrying Tennessee, which supplied the 3rd most soldiers, North Carolina, which supplied the 4th most soldiers, and Arkansas with Virginia. Almost 50% of the South's soldiers seceded after Lincoln's call for the militia. Had President Lincoln chosen a less coercive course of action, mediation, blockades, etc., might the result have been different? Would it have been much of a war without almost 50% of the Southern troops resulting from Lincoln's call for troops following Sumter? From the North's standpoint, you do not need to read many letters home from Federal soldiers to realize their motivation to fight was preservation of the Union and not freedom of the slaves. Some of the slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, almost 2 years after the war started, and the rest by the passage of the 13th Amendment in December, 1865 well after the war was over yet the war continued. Dr. Bryan should have mentioned President Lincoln's precipitation of the war and the Federal soldiers' acknowledged motivation to fight. RTD article dated 8/15/10: Bryan: Yes, Slavery Caused the Civil War This editorial does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Richmond Civil War Round Table officers or its membership.
Book Report Libby Prison Breakout By Joseph Wheelan This latest book on Libby Prison does a good job of setting the stage of the Civil War in the Confederate Capital and the South in 1863/1864. While the original agreement between North and South on exchanging prisoners worked well enough, that all changed when the U.S. Colored Troops entered the war. After much saber rattling on both sides, by late 1863 prisoner exchanges had come to a halt. John Enders had the future Libby Prison built between 1845 and 1852, but didn't live to see the completion of the building. Purchased in 1861 by Richmond businessman Luther Libby the building was turned into Libby and Son, Ship Chandlers and Grocers, but in March 1862 General John Winder informed Libby that the Confederate government was expropriating his warehouse and was given 48 hours to remove his goods. Libby Prison was as miserable as any Southern prison and many Northern prisons, but the two foremost things on the minds of scores of the Union officers that ended up in Libby were survival and escape. Enter Colonel Thomas Ellwood Rose of the 77th Pennsylvania, captured on the bloody fields of Chickamauga on September 19th. A Pittsburgh School principal, Rose had escaped from the train on the way to Richmond and been recaptured one day later in Weldon, N.C. Shortly after his arrival in Richmond Rose and Major A. G. Hamilton of the 12th Kentucky joined forces to escape. Mr. Wheelan goes into detail of not one or two, but four attempts to dig their way out of Libby which resulted on the night of February 9, 1864, with the escape of 109 prison weary soldiers. Of that number 59 made their way to the Union lines. Unfortunately Col. Rose was not one of them. He got within a couple of hundred yards, but was then recaptured and returned to Libby. In April of 1864 he was exchanged and rejoined the 77th to fight at Franklin and Nashville. He died in 1907 and is buried in Arlington Cemetery with his headstone reading: ENGINEERED AND EXECUTED THE LIBBY PRISON TUNNEL. The book wraps up with the fallout that the escape caused and history after the war of Libby and some of the major persons in the book. This book is informative and an enjoyable easy read. ISBN 9781586487164 Book Report by, Danny Witt
Civil War Preservation Trust For the latest CWPT news visit:
www.civilwar.org
For Upcoming Events
Visit The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar www.tredegar.org and their Events Calendar
Visit The Museum of the Confederacy Online www.moc.org
Pamplin Historical Park and The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier www.pamplinpark.org and their Special Events Calendar
RCWRT Monthly Speakers for 2010
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