Wednesday November 4, 2009
Speaker: Alan Walden, First
Person Re-Enactor
Topic: Biography: Maj. Gen. Isaac Trimble
Entrees: TBA
Wednesday December 2, 2009
Speaker: Mark Leepson
Topic.
Military History: "The Battle of the Monocacy Desperate Engagement: How a Little Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington,
D.C. and Changed American History"
Entrees:TBA
Wednesday January 6, 2010
Speaker: Stuart Dempsey, Licensed
Gettysburg Guide.
Topic: An Evening With Stuart Dempsey on the Battle of Gettysburg
Entrees: TBA
Wednesday February 3, 2010
Speaker: Dr. Craig Warren, Behren
College, Penn State Erie
Topic: Civil War Fiction: Scars to Prove It: The Civil War Soldier and American Fiction
Entrees:
TBA
Wednesday March 3, 2010
Speaker: William Vosseler, First
Person Re-Enactor
Topic: Biography: Major General George H. Thomas
Entrees: TBA
Wednesday April 7, 2010
Speaker: Dr. Sidney Copel
Topic:
History: The Last Days of Civil War Notables
Entrees: TBA
Wednesday May 5, 2010
Speaker: John Reardon
Topic: Cavalry:
Who Ever Saw a Dead Cavalryman?
Entrees: TBA
NOTICE
TO ALL MEMBERS WHO HAVE
NOT PAID ANNUAL DUES
For those of you who have not yet paid your 2009-2010 annual
dues, the due date was September 10. Your continued support for the activities of the Civil War Round Table of Wilmington,
Delaware is vitally important at this time. Our regular activities include the annual field trip, the High School History
Day award and the DelMarVa Boy Scout Trail of Freedom awards in addition to our speakers. Please help.
Grape & Canister Novermber 2009
Page Two
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Dear CWRT Members,
The club's trip to the Battlefield
at Fredricksburg was outstanding. Aside from the unpredictable weather, all those who attended came away better for the experience.
Our guide, Melissa Delcour, was entertaining and informative. What a treat to relive the steps the soldiers took and the bravery
they showed. It was a day we will all remember. Special thanks to Vince Gasbarro for his efforts and to all the members who
made the journey.
As the day concluded the one question on everyone's mind was, "Why didn't
more people attend?" It is a question we need to explore. Is it the location? The cost? The subject matter? I realize that
whatever day the trip falls on, it won't be convenient for everyone. What is disturbing is we have done a poor job promoting
attendance outside the club. As a group let's pledge to improve on that. I welcome your input at the meeting.
It
is a happy conflict that the Phillies will be competing in the World Series the same time the November meeting takes place.
Although they
will probably sweep the Yankees and render it moot, please allow for attendance at the November meeting.
The game starts late so at worst you'll miss the first 3 innings. We can all retire to the bar area afterward to see the game.
Should the Phillies still be playing. It will be an interesting barometer of club(CWRT or Phillies) loyalty.
Thanks for the fine attendance so far and as we approach the Holiday season
my best for you and your family.
Frank Giamboy, President.
SPEAKER PROFILES
ALAN WALDEN, NOVEMBER SPEAKER
Alan Walden, well-known journalist and broadcaster,
and amember of the B & O Railroad Museum Board of Directors, will portray General Isaac Ridgeway Trimble. When the War
Between The States erupted in 1861, Isaac Ridgeway Trimble, who was born in Virginia butliving in Maryland, joined the Army
of North Virginia. He did this because of his allegiance to the South not because he wanted to defend the institution
of slavery. Trimble was a railroad man, tried and true, but actually destroyed some of what he had built in an attempt
to impede the passage of military supplies from the north.His story is the quintessential tale of Maryland in the Civil War,
and he will talk about it, from John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, to the capture of Harper's Ferry by Confederate Forces
in 1862, to the Battles of Antietam and Monocacy.
MARK LEEPSON DECEMBER SPEAKER
Marc Leepson, journalist, historian and author, will focus on his
recent book, Desperate Engagement, which is the story of the Civil War Battle of Monocacy and Confederate General Jubal Early’s
subsequent march on Washington (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martins Press, 2007). Marc Leepson has been a free-lance writer since
1986. He has written for many newspapers and magazines, including Preservation, Smithsonian, Military History, Civil War Times,
Vietnam magazine, the Washington Post, New York Times, New York Times Book Review, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Detroit
News, Christian Science Monitor, Newsday, and USA Today. He has been interviewed many times on radio and television, including
on The Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, To The Point, Morning Edition and The
Diane Rehm Show.
Leepson served in the U.S. Army from 1967-69, including a yearin the VietnamWar, after graduating
from George Washington University in 1967. He received his Masters Degree in history from George Washington University in
1971. He has taught U.S. History as an adjunct professor at Lord Fairfax Community College in Warrenton, Virginia. He lives
with his wife their two children in Loudoun County, Virginia.
GTTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK
SUPERINTENDANT STEPS DOWN
On October 21, Gettysburg National Military Park Superintendent
John Latschar announced he would be stepping down due to an internal investigation into his activities as Park Superintendent
that revealed misuse of government computers. job within the National Park Service. A memo leaked from the Department of the
Interior states that Latschar viewed sexually explicit material.
Grape & Canister , November 2009
Page Three
FT. PILLOW[PART THREE]
By Thomas J. Reed
I. INTRODUCTION.
This
story takes up from the second installment in the September, 2009 issue of this paper. In April, 1864, Maj. Gen. Nathan
Bedford Forrest CSA led a raid into west Tennessee. He had heard of outrages committed on the white community by Union
soldiers stationed at Ft. Pillow on the Mississippi River. Forrest determined to attack Ft. Pillow, and dispose of its
garrison consisting of elements of the 13th Tennessee Union Cavalry Regiment and the 6th U.S. Colored Troops Heavy Artillery.
In March 1864 Forrest commenced a raid on West Tennessee that took his command to Ft. Pillow on April 1864,
III. FORREST'S ASSAULT ON FT. PILLOW
A. April 12, 1864
The
assault force consisted of Bell's Brigade & McCulloch's Brigade, organized into a provisional division commanded by Brig.
Gen. James R. Chalmers. Supported by one battery of artillery, this expedition totaled roughly 2,000 officers and men.
General Forrest led Bell’s Brigade out of camp at Sharon’s Ferry, Tennessee, on Forked Deer Creek west of Jackson
on the afternoon of 11 April. The expedition covered the 27 miles to Brownsville where Forrest joined Gen. Chalmers
and McCulloch’s Brigade at Brownsville. The raiding force covered the 38 miles to Fort Pillow following a road
now Tennessee highway 87 by first light on 12 April. Forrest sent Neely’s Brigade of Chalmers’
Division southwest to make a convincing demonstration against Union fortifications outside Memphis.
R.A. McCulloch’s
Regiment of McCulloch’s Brigade deployed upon arriving at the fort and captured the Union pickets without giving away
the size of the raiding force. Forrest’s escort was at the rear of the Confederate column. He left the initial
deployment to Gen. Chalmers and his regimental commanders. McCulloch’s Brigade formed the Confederate left, running
northeast-southwest parallel to the outer trench line of the Fort. Wilson’s Regiment of Bell’s Brigade covered
the remaining ground north to Coal Creek ravineBarteau’s and Russell’s Regiments of Bell’s Brigade arrived
on the field last, and took up positions along Coal Creek ravine. Chalmers also posted detachments of sharpshooters
on hilltops that overlooked Fort Pillow at a range of around 500 yards to suppress artillery and small arms fire from the
fort while his two brigades advanced on the post.
Chalmers accomplished his initial deployment by 8: 00 A.M.
He ordered his two brigades to advance from the outer trench line to the inner trench line that lay within 200 to 300 yards
of the fort proper. The Confederate advance was challenged by rifle and cannon fire from the fort’s garrison and
by inaccurate though noisy shelling by the U.S.S. New Era, anchored in the Mississippi southwest of the fort. The Confederate
attackers gained the shelter of the second trench line that protected them from Union fire. The sharpshooters kept return
fire from the men inside Fort Pillow suppressed. One sharpshooter killed the post commander, Major L. F. Booth
of the 6th U.S. Heavy Artillery (Colored) around 9:00 A.M. The responsibility of command then fell on Maj. Bradford
of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry (Union).
Forrest and his escort arrived at the scene of the fight about 11:00 A.M.
Forrest made a brief reconnaissance, saw his two brigades occupying the former Union intermediate defensive line and that
the Union garrison had retreated into the fort proper.
Fort Pillow was very vulnerable to assaults from two east-west
ravines that flanked the fort on the north and south. The southern ravine was occupied by a string of wooden buildings
used by the garrison for quarters. This ravine ran all the way to the Mississippi. Artillery inside Ft. Pillow
could not be depressed sufficiently to shell troops in the ravine. The northern ravine was the valley of Coal Creek
that emptied into the Mississippi just up-river from the fort. Apparently, Forrest either had received good intelligence
about the fort and the surrounding terrain or detected the fort’s weakness during his preliminary reconnaissance.
[Continued in the February Issue]
Grape & Canister, November 2009
Page Four
PHOTO ID’S
In September Hon Henry A. DuPont, Medal of Honor Winner and Delaware
Senator graced this page. H.A.’s son Francis DuPont, started the Winterthur collection of antiques.
Who is this Union General?
He was the last living Union General, dying in April, 1933. He
may be best known as the golfing partner of John D. Rockefeller.
Grape & Canister
A Publication of the Civil War Round
Table of Wilmington, Delaware, Inc.
Founded 1955
President: Frank Giamboy
Vice President Education:
Robert Potter
Vice President Preservation: John LaRosch
Vice President
Finance& Treas: Greg Vavroch
Secretary: Deborah
Butzbach
Board Members:
Lisa Cristofich,
Robert Potter
Vincent Gasbarro, Jr.
James Pratzner
John LaRosch
Frank Giamboy
Thomas Massey, III
George Ferguson
Greg Vavroch
Tom Carver
Deborah Butzbach
Program Chair: Lisa Cristofich
Field Trip Chair: Vincent Gasbarro, Jr.
Editor: Tom Reed
©2009
Civil War Round Table of Wilmington, Delaware, Inc. 71 W. Fifth St. New Castle, DE 19720
Student Membership:
$5.00
Individual Membership:
$20.00
Family Membership:
$25.00
Life Membership:
$250.00
