The Louisville Civil War Round Table

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1 The Louisville Civil War Round Table Circular Memorandum #417 louisvillecwrt.yolasite.com March, 2010 Announcing Our 454th Meeting Slandered Heroes: Deserters Who Didn t Will be Presented by Lawrence Hewitt DATE: Saturday, March 13 Location: Big Spring Country Club COCKTAILS: 6:00 P.M. DINNER ($25.00): 7:00 P.M. PROGRAM: 8:00 P.M. Meet Our Speaker Lawrence Hewitt Lawrence Hewitt is a native of Louisville, Kentucky. He received his B.A. from the University of Kentucky in After attending graduate school there, where he studied under Charles P. Roland, Hewitt transferred to Louisiana State University in 1975 to study under T. Harry Williams. Following his death, Hewitt completed his dissertation under William J. Cooper, Jr., receiving his Ph.D. in After serving as the Historic Site Manager of the Port Hudson ( ) and the Camp Moore State Commemorative Areas ( ), he joined the faculty of Southeastern Louisiana University in After receiving that institution's highest honor in 1991, the President s Award for Excellence in Research, and attaining the rank of full professor in 1993, he resigned in 1996 to marry a native of Chicago, where he currently resides. Professor Hewitt served in a variety of capacities in the Baton Rouge Civil War Round Table, including that of president. He was the 1991 recipient of the New Orleans Civil War Round Table s Charles L. Dufour Award for Outstanding Achievements in Preserving the Heritage of the American Civil War. A life member of the Southern Historical Association and the Louisiana Historical Association, he served on the board of directors and on the publications committee of the latter organization as well as on the editorial board of The Journal of Confederate History.

2 The Adjutant s Call 2 March, 2010 Since relocating to Chicago, Hewitt served as Managing Editor ( ) and Book Review Editor ( ) for North & South, published numerous articles and book reviews, and addressed various organizations throughout the United States. In 2002, the University of Missouri Press published Louisianians in the Civil War which he co edited with Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr. Bruce S. Allardice and Hewitt edited Kentuckians in Gray: Confederate Generals and Field Officers of the Bluegrass State, published by the University Press of Kentucky in Hewitt s other books include Port Hudson, Confederate Bastion on the Mississippi (1987), The Confederate High Command & Related Topics (1990), and Leadership During the Civil War (1992). Later this spring the University of Tennessee Press will publish Confederate Generals in the Western Theater: Volume 1, Classic Essays on America's Civil War and Confederate Generals in the Western Theater: Volume 2, Essays on America's Civil War, both of which he coedited with Art Bergeron. The third volume was just accepted by the University of Tennessee Press and a fourth is underway along with three volumes of Confederate Generals in the Trans-Mississippi: Essays on America's Civil War. In addition to these books, he is currently working on Lee and His Generals: Essays in Honor of T. Harry Williams, America's Foremost Hispanic: David Glasgow Farragut, and The 14th Louisiana Infantry: the Fightingest Regiment in the Civil War. Slandered Heroes: Deserters Who Didn t "Slandered Heroes: Deserters Who Didn't" deals with Civil War soldiers whose official service records conclude that they were absent without leave at the end of the war when in fact they either died in service or remained on duty. The vast majority of these were the result of bureaucratic procedures used by both sides that required soldiers who disappeared on the battlefield to be labeled as deserters on subsequent muster rolls. These same regulations enabled at least one massacre to be covered up by the North, while amendments to them in the fall of 1863 by the South required thousands of men who were present with their units to be listed as deserters. Union and Confederate soldiers representing the Eastern, Western, and Trans-Mississippi theaters are highlighted as examples of these bureaucratic injustices. RESERVATIONS: Call Doug Krawczyk ( ) to place your reservations. If you are making reservations for more than just yourself, please give the names of the others. If you leave your reservation on his answering machine, please spell out your name so he can correctly identify you. You can also make your reservation by by sending it to bryanw@macconstruction.com. Please call or no later than Wednesday, March 10, by noon. We cannot accept reservations past this date! If you wish to join us just for the program, please call and make a reservation so that we can provide you with a chair. If you are only coming for the program, you can call Doug anytime up to 4:00 p.m. the day of the meeting. Reminder for Table Reservations: We can reserve tables for parties of eight only, and we need you to provide us with the names of all the people in your party when you make the reservation. This will enable us to manage our meeting space in a more efficient manner. Thank you. Books, Books, Books! We will have some of the speaker s books, including Kentuckians in Grey and Port Hudson, for sale at the meeting. These books will be discounted.

3 The Adjutant s Call 3 March, Field Trip: Atlanta Campaign Deposit Fees Are Due! If you have signed up for the Atlanta field trip, you need to send your $125 nonrefundable deposit to Harriette now. Her address is listed below. This is now past due! We cannot guarantee you place on the trip if we do not have your deposit. We need these fees to pay hotel and restaurant reservations which require a down payment. If you have not signed up and would like to go we still have room for a few more. We will be going to Georgia April 14-18, 2010 to study the Atlanta Campaign of 1864 from its commencement south of Chattanooga until the crossing of the Chattahoochee River north of Atlanta. This will include several major battlefields and sites associated with this decisive military campaign. Our guide will be Greg Biggs who is an expert on the Atlanta Campaign. Please sign up at the meeting. Harriette will have the signup sheet. You can also give her your nonrefundable deposit of $ to hold your place on the trip. You can mail your deposit to LCWRT, 1028 Sarah Drive, Louisville, Ky The cost of the trip is $ for those taking the bus and the tour, $ for those driving and taking the tour, and $60.00 for those ladies who are neither taking the tour or the bus. The total fee must be paid to Harriette by the end of March Fall Field Trip: Frankfort Ky. Sunday October 17 We are planning on taking a one-day field trip to Frankfort this coming October 17 th. We will do a walking tour of downtown to see sites associated with the secession crisis and Kentucky neutrality, the 1862 occupation of Frankfort by the Confederates including streets involved in skirmishing during their departure, Morgan's 1864 raid on the town, residences of notable personages from the Civil War era, and the Capital City Museum (which has a couple of interesting Civil War relics. We will also tour the Frankfort Cemetery, where we can see the graves of Simon Bolivar Buckner and many other Civil War soldiers and politicians, the Kentucky Military Monument, Confederate Circle, and of course Daniel Boone's grave. The high point of the day will be a tour of the Leslie Morris Park on Fort Hill, which features an 1810 log house visitor center outfitted as a Civil War era tavern, two Civil War earthwork forts, the site of an 1864 Morgan's Last Raid skirmish, and a spectacular view of downtown Frankfort. Our guide will be Nicky Hughes who is an expert on Frankfort in the Civil War. There is no charge for this trip except paying for your own transportation and lunch. We will be car pooling to Frankfort. Look for more details in upcoming newsletters and a sign-up sheet at the meetings. 50 th Anniversary: 50 Best Civil War Books As part of our upcoming 50 th Anniversary year celebration, the Board of Directors has appointed a committee headed by Chris Kolakowski to select the Round Table s 50 best books on the Civil War. As part of the selection process we want every member who wishes to nominate their favorite Civil War books. What we would like you to do is send in your nominations either by , mail or written document which you can give to one of the committee members at a meeting. You can nominate as many books as you would like. We want you

4 The Adjutant s Call 4 March, 2010 to include the reasons why you like the book with each book you nominate. The committee will use your favorites along with their own to come up with the 50 best books. The final list of the Round Table s 50 Best Books will be published and distributed to the membership during our 50 th anniversary year. The committee members mailing addresses and addresses are listed below: Chris Kolakowski Doug Krawczyk Dick Skidmore John Davis 4901 Creek Pt 7413 Springvale Dr 8800 Swan Hill Rd Terrace #8 Louisville Ky Louisville Ky Louisville Ky bayman515@netscape.net krawczykd@nordyne.com richardskidmore61@gmail.com jddavis@aegonusa.com Winners of the February Door Prizes Congratulations to our door prize winners at the February meeting. Centennial Album by M.H. Pakula won by John Thomas The Civil War by Geoff Ward won by Chris Kolakowski Am. Heritage Civil War by Bruce Catton won by Beverly Braverman 3 Volume Civil War by Bruce Catton won by Ashley Givan Field Trip Hat won by Greg Weigel Glory Enough for All by Eric Wittenberg won by Mrs. Judy Bortner Future Speakers Saturday March 13 Lawrence Hewitt Slandered Heroes: Deserters Who Didn t Saturday April 10 William C. Davis Lincoln s Men Saturday May 8 Barton Meyers General Augustus August Wild and U.S. Army Counter-Guerilla Warfare Saturday September 11 Greg Mertz Spotsylvania Courthouse Saturday October 9 Richard McMurry General Joe Johnston Saturday November 13 Thomas Mays TBA Saturday December 4 Gary Matthews TBA

5 The Adjutant s Call 5 March, 2010 Civil War Preservation Trust Coming to Lexington The nation s leading Civil War battlefield preservation group, the Civil War Preservation Trust, will be in Lexington this June for their annual conference. You can join CWPT members and staff along with some of the nation s best known historians for four days of fellowship and Civil War touring at the 2010 Battle in the Bluegrass The Fight for Kentucky conference in Lexington, Kentucky on June 3 6, Tours will include the: Battle of Mill Springs; Battle of Perryville; Battle of Richmond; Historic Homes and more! Invited speakers and scholars include Edwin C. Bearss, Kent Masterson Brown, our own Chris Kolakowski, Richard McMurray and Richard Sommers. Conference Registration Fee is $585 - a small discount is available for on-line registration. Conference fees include tours, tour guides, coaches, conference welcome packet, name tags, etc. Fee does not include hotel accommodations; you must make your own reservation. A special conference room rate of $129 is available at the Lexington Downtown Hotel and Conference Center - the conference location - until Tuesday, May 11, For the full ad and schedule or to register on-line visit their web site at: Mill Springs Print to be Auctioned at April Meeting As part of our 2010 fund raising efforts, we will be auctioning off a donated print featuring the battle of Mill Springs. The print is entitled Meeting at the Fence and is a depiction of a critical moment in the battle. The artist is Robert Cull. It is a very nice print and the only modern painting done on the Battle of Mill Springs. Proceeds will go to fund the cost of bringing in speakers. You can preview the print at the March meeting. February 2010 Quiz Answers: 1. What governor accused President Lincoln of leading an "unholy crusade" against the South? Claiborne Jackson of Missouri 2. What Confederate congressman took it upon himself to meet with President Lincoln to negotiate a peace settlement? Henry Foote, Jefferson Davis' harshest critic. Lincoln refused to meet with Foote. 3. What city, angry at President Lincoln's call for troops, cut off its telegraph lines to Washington, D.C. and tore up rail tracks? Baltimore, which was strongly pro-southern.

6 The Adjutant s Call 6 March, What did President Lincoln plan to offer Louisiana planters who were willing to pledge loyalty to the Union? The chance to sell cotton to the Union. 5. What phrase, used in a January 1865 letter from President Jefferson Davis to President Abraham Lincoln, made Lincoln shut down peace negotiations? Davis used the phrase "two nations." From Lincoln's point of view, no peace could be had unless the Confederacy admitted that there was only one nation, the United States. March 2010 Quiz: 1. How many states submitted the Confederate Constitution to the people for a vote? 2. What Confederate ram ship, named for a Confederate general, had been a Union ship built in Cincinnati? 3. What Federal agency published a very biased report on the treatment of Union soldiers in Confederate prisons? 4. What Confederate ship set the Congress on fire? 5. What Federal prison official treated his captured Confederate prisoners so well that they commissioned a statue of him after the war? (The Quiz is prepared by Harriette Weatherbee) Attest: John Davis Adjutant By Order of: Tom Lively President