Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable, 4/10/2024

I forgot to take the selfie at the beginning of the meeting. I grabbed this one as everyone headed out afterwards.

You can glimpse the USMC pre-anchor/globe/eagle through the period correct canopy jungle.

Me in action courtesy of Roundtablian Tim Maurice

About 25-30 folks showed up for my presentation to the Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable last night. It was a good time, and the first time talking about the U. S. Marines at First Bull Run. I think it went pretty well but hit my first captioning mistake on the second slide! Good questions afterward, and I fit the whole thing including Q&A in an hour. That’s a first. The nature of the questions is pushing me into developing a program covering all of the action, though that really limits the opportunity for the discussion of people, and that’s more my bag. Let me know in the comments if you’d like me to come and talk to your group on this or any of the others I’ve covered, or if you have a custom program you’d like me to prepare.

With Roundtablian Mike Peters and his grandson Aedyn.

Central Ohio Civil War Round Table, 4/12/2023

A couple weeks ago I presented a talk to about 15 folks at the Central Ohio Civil War Round Table in Gahanna, OH (near Columbus). Interesting venue…two (s) screens for my video. It was a little rough because they wanted me to stay in frame for the YouTube, and I like to move around. But all in all I think a good show, even if I had a small foul-up referring to the 38th New York as the Harper’s Ferry Cowards (they were not) and to its Colonel John Hobart Ward as dying at Gettysburg (he did not). Sorry about that…it sounded wrong as soon as I said it. Getting old has been a blast. Being old, on the other hand…

Thanks to Round Table program guru Mike Peters for having me, and for a great trip to the Motts Military Museum, which should be on everyone’s list when they visit Columbus.

Mike Peters, his grandson Aedyn, and me. Oh, and a real, live, genuine Higgins boat.

A button taken from the coat of Elmer Ellsworth of the 11th New York Infantry

The place is chock full of cool stuff. This is my favorite – the lens and lens cap Matthew Brady used to take the iconic photo of Robert E. Lee in Richmond after Appomattox. The lens shows the marks from where Lee’s eyes burned a hole in it. That’s humor right there, folks. Thanks, I’m here all week.

Also the door from the cell block in which John Hunt Morgan was held in the Ohio State Penitentiary

And an audience with the great man Warren Motts himself in his sanctum sanctorum, which was filled to overflowing with really, really cool stuff. Warren’s son Wayne did not fall far from the tree.

New Rumley, OH – Birthplace of George Armstrong Custer

On my way home from Columbus, OH (where I spoke to the Central Ohio Civil War Round Table) last week, I took a little detour to New Rumley, Ohio. It turns out this little spot is only about an hour from my house. New Rumley is famous as the birth place of Bull Runner George Armstrong Custer, who was attached to Co. G of the 2nd U. S. Cavalry there. The following images are I think self explanatory.

The humor here, while undeniable, was unintentional.

Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable 9/26/2018

A pretty crappy selfie, probably affected by the glare from the top of my head.

Sorry it’s taken me so long to put up this recap. Two weeks ago I was invited by the good folks at the Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable to go out to Columbus and talk with them a little about my views on “the future of Civil War history,” from a perspective other than the norm. That is, from a guy on the street, for lack of a better term. I gave a similar talk back in 2013 in North Carolina, and updated that one somewhat, Really, it was more a discussion than a presentation. Lots of participation, lots of questions, and predictably we got a little off course, but it was all a good time. I learned a few things, too (this RT has some pretty sharp folks in it). We had between 25-30 in attendance, and I didn’t lose too many to the bar. This was my third presentation to this group, the last in 2014. They’re a good bunch and treated me first-rate.

Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable – 9/12/2018

Just a little announcement: I’ve been called in as a relief speaker to the Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable on 9/12/2018. I was scheduled to speak there in September of 2019, but they were in a jam so I’m filling in. I’ll be dusting off and updating my Future of Civil War History talk that I gave to my friends in North Carolina back in 2013. Here’s a description:

In “The Future of Civil War History,” we will discuss the current Civil War history environment and where it may be headed. We’ll discuss observed trends in academic, public, and “amateur” history delivery systems, the impact of document availability, and what our roles are, may, should, and can be. While there are elements of presentation, this is most importantly a discussion. Come ready to contribute.

I’ve spoken to this fine group twice before – I seem to be on a four-year rotation. Unfortunately, I was really looking forward to working on the subject of my presentation originally scheduled for 2019, but I’ll just have to wait for another opportunity for that.

Time and place available at their website right here.

W. T. Sherman’s Boyhood Home

While I’m posting these letters of W. T. Sherman (there are a few more to come), it’s about time a share of few of the photos I took earlier this year on my visit his boyhood home in Lancaster, OH. The trip was made the day after my presentation to the Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable on March 12, courtesy of friend Mike Peters.

The Sherman House Museum is located at 137 East Main St. This is the main drag of the town, and it’s not until you actually stand there on the street that you realize how proximate are the sites familiar to students of Sherman and the Ewing family to one another. Sherman’s father Charles was a lawyer, as was Thomas Ewing, with whom Cump went to live after his father passed away. The homes of Sherman and Ewing, and the courthouse where they did business, are all located within a block of each other. The two houses are separated by two lots, on one of which Cump’s sister and her lawyer husband built their home.

The Sherman House was not scheduled to be open that day, but Mike called ahead and the Fairfield Heritage Association, which maintains the museum, graciously opened up for us anyway. I believe it was FHA Executive Director Andrea Brookover who guided us through the home. No interior photos were allowed, but below are a few shots of the exterior and of the Ewing house. Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

The house was expanded over the years, and not all is as it was when Uncle Billy lived there. There are some items that are original to the home at the time of the general’s occupancy, and some of his furnishings from later homes. The second floor includes a pretty cool – and large – collection of Sherman memorabilia and ephemera. We were also treated to a look at the basement, which always gives me a better idea of a structure, although I’m not sure the original dwelling had a basement, and it certainly did not have this particular basement.

The Sherman House Museum is definitely worth the trip if you’re in the Columbus area.

Sherman House Front

Sherman House Rear

Sherman House Yard

Sherman House Plaque

Ewing House

McDowell’s Real Plan

Sorry this has taken so long.

The good folks at the Central Ohio Civil War Round Table – they’re in the Columbus area – invited me out to speak to them on the topic of my choice this past March 12. They invited me, jeez, must have been at least 18 months ago. They get really good speakers out there so the schedule is set many months in advance. This is the second time I’ve spoken to the group. I really like being invited back to a group, as I rightly or wrongly interpret that to mean they like what I do. Regardless, I’m to the point now where I won’t speak to any group unless they say “Hey, you want to speak to our group?”

My wife actually accompanied me on this trip; she’s never seen me speak before, and only once did she even attend a class I taught – because our soon to be son was due any day and she hoped discomfort and boredom would help spur things along. So this was an unusual trip right from the start, and continued on the unusual path when we got a flat tire very near our hotel. I changed the tire and we made it over to the hotel where our host Mike Peters (the historian of the COCWRT and the talent-booker) was waiting to take us to dinner.

After a nice meal we headed over to the venue in Westerville – a cool room in an old building at Otterbein University where veterans held meetings post-war. I renewed a couple of old acquaintances and made some new ones, and finally got to meet Phil Spaugy, with whom I’ve been “friends” on Facebook for awhile, and his posse from Dayton. Check out Phil’s blog here.

Towers Hall, Otterbein University

Meeting Room, COCWRT, Towers Hall, Otterbein University

I was told by Mike that I had about 30 to 45 minutes for my presentation. I went over by about half an hour, but only one of the 20 or so in attendance left before the end (he is a lawyer, and I heard a siren going off only minutes before he left – coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.)

The gist of the presentation in a nutshell – my opinion, which I hope I supported adequately:

McDowell’s plan for the First Bull Run campaign was not a quick, tactical flank attack meant to overwhelm his outnumbered opponent and defeat him in the field. It was a deliberate, strategic turning maneuver, meant to compel a superior opponent to abandon his carefully chosen position, allowing McDowell to cut his line of communications. It did not fail because of slow movement, a complex plan, or the arrival of last minute Confederate reinforcements. It failed because McDowell was unable to establish his own line across Bull Run and move on the rail line at Groveton, and was instead drawn into a series of frontal assaults against a larger force occupying a superior position.

Sacrilege, I know. Of course, I had more to say than these four sentences, and that’s the fun part. You can read a recap of my talk here. I can quibble with a few things, but I’m not sure if the misunderstanding was due to a failure on my part to be clear. For now let’s just say that not all the details jive with what I meant to say. I really like this bit, though:

[Harry Smeltzer] reacts to consensus like a bull to the matador’s cape. Charge! And he lays waste to conventional wisdom. He doesn’t trust accepted “facts” and easy generalizations about battles, strategies, troop movements, and other assumptions that have been passed down as gospel over generations.

Yep, that’s me. I’m a loner. A rebel.

Afterwards we took a chilly walk to a nearby college pub where a few of us quaffed ales and had a generally ribald time. The next day, Mike and I went on a little field trip to nearby Lancaster, OH, while the wife made some sales calls and got the flat fixed. But that’s another story…

Presenting in Ohio Next Month

Just a reminder that I’ll be making a presentation to the Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable on March 12. Here’s a summary:

Irvin McDowell’s Plan and Other Bull Run Misconceptions. This program will explore what the presenter feels are popular misconceptions surrounding the First Bull Run campaign, with primary focus on the Union army commander’s intentions up to the early hours of July 21, 1861. We will discuss how we have come to know the story of Bull Run as we know it, various primary sources and secondary accounts of the campaign, treatments by historians and institutions, the general interest (or lack thereof) of Civil War enthusiasts in the details of the campaign, and other related – or even unrelated – topics. As always, the audience will likely play no small role in the content of the program as it progresses.

I’m looking forward to this. It will be the first time I talk about my thoughts on what McDowell really intended when he set out from Washington for Manassas. It’s not what you think. Just gotta figure out how to set it down on paper and slides. You see, this is a very complicated case. You know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous. And, uh, a lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Oh man, my thinking about this case has become very uptight. Let’s just hope I can get things straight by then.

Check out the details at the COCWRT website.

Off the Record, On the QT, and Very Hush-Hush

I’ve been waiting for a chance to use another James Elroy quote, and here it is! I just heard through the grapevine that a manuscript has been submitted to a university press – a First Bull Run campaign study that the editor indicates is “long, deeply researched, and extremely well written.” Can this be the type of study I called for in the roundtable article in Civil War History a while back?

It’s starting to sound like I’m advocating a big campaign study featuring coordinated coverage of the social, political, and military aspects of the campaign in context and detail, with an emphasis on how they all impacted what was to follow, and I guess I am.  I think it would make for a fascinating read.

Let’s hope this is it. Having some idea how the process works, I’m guessing it will be a couple of years before we see anything (as late as 2016, the 155th anniversary, perhaps.) But I could be way off on that. And no, I don’t know the writer’s identity. Refer again to the title of this post.

In other news, the program I will present to the Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable (and talked about here) continues to evolve and I’ve decided to actually write this one up. I’ll share some bullet-points with you all later, but won’t make the big reveal until that evening, of course. Again, the program will focus on McDowell’s plans: what he expected, what he intended, and how and why we seem to miss the mark today when it comes to evaluating them and him.

Making Progress

I am making progress on a program I will present to the Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable next spring. Yes, you heard that right, next spring. One of the luxuries of not doing a lot of these presentations is I have plenty of time to prepare. I’m taking a different tack with this one. For the most part my narratives have been mostly extemporaneous based on fairly rough outlines and PowerPoint slides. In fact, the last one I gave had no slides at all, just some notes but also a few pretty long passages from books and some articles I wrote previously (that one was interesting and I had really very little idea where the road would lead, though I was pleasantly surprised.) I decided quite a few months ago, when I got the invite from COCWRT, to open a Word document on my desktop and put down thoughts on the presentation as they entered my head, and so far I’m pretty pleased with what’s taking shape. Now the question is: do I want to write this up in the form of a “paper” and build a slide presentation around it? This is a different approach in a couple of ways. First, when I’ve done PowerPoint presentations in the past, they’ve typically driven the narrative. In this case, the slides will serve more as support. Second, I’ve never before had a “script” for my programs. I’ve never really read a “paper”, though I think my program on Patrick O’Rorke for the Gettysburg Foundation back in 2011 came pretty close, but the bulk of that program consisted of his letter home on the Battle of Bull Run. “Paper Reading” is something I find not so appealing as a consumer, and as a presenter I really prefer give and take during the program as opposed to a structured talk with questions afterwards. For this program, which contrasts a well established, familiar story line of First Bull Run with what really happened (or, at least, what I think really happened and why I think it), I think I’ll write the “paper” and look at my options afterwards. One thing for sure is I won’t be using the future tense when speaking of past events – I promise. Irvin McDowell intended to do some things, he did other things, but he will not BE doing anything ever again.