R.Danny Witt, President               John M.Coski, editor
5500 Ashton Park Way                      1201 E.Clay St.
Glen Allen, VA 23059                   Richmond, VA 23219

June 2000 PROGRAM
David Johnson

"The Lives of Douglas Southall Freeman"

8:00 p.m., Tuesdav, June 13, 2000
Boulevard United Methodist Church, 321 N. Boulevard
(corner of Boulevard and Stuart Ave.)
Enter basement door from Boulevard side.

How was it that one man could excel simultaneously in  three
separate  careers?   Arising  each day at 2:30 a.m.  helped,
but that is only part of the story of  this  Pulitzer  Prize
winning author of R.  E.  Lee, Lee's Lieutenants, and George
Washington, preeminent  authority  on  Confederate  military
history,  and  long-time editor of the Richmond News-Leader.
Years before Paul Harvey  or  Rush  Limbaugh,  Freeman  were
broadcasting  news  and commentary to a rapt audience.  Then
came  the  responsibilities  of  journalism   professor   at
Columbia,   rector   of  the  University  of  Richmond,  lay
minister, much sought after speaker, husband and father.  No
one  can fully explain how he did all that he did, historian
Dumas Malone wrote.  This lecture, and subsequent biography,
will offer that explanation.                                

David  Johnson  serves as counsel to the attorney general of
Virginia.  A graduate of the College of William and Mary and
the  T.C.   Williams School of Law, he served as co-director
of transition for  Senator  Mark  Earley,  then  joined  the
attorney  general's  office.   His duties as counsel include
the development  and  implementation  of  policy  and  chief
speech  writer.   He is also handling the attorney general's
investigation into the sale of the Robert  E.   Lee  Boyhood
Home in Alexandria.                                         

In  1993  he  began writing articles on southern history and
politics.  His works have been published in many  magazines,
including   Columbiad,   Southern   Partisan,  and  American
History.  In 1993, he began researching the life and work of
Douglas  Southall  Freeman.   He  has  written three lengthy
articles about Dr.  Freeman and  is  now  in  the  midst  of
writing  a  full  biography, which he expects to complete in
June 2001.                                                  



 Thomas Cartwright


"The Battles of Spring Hill and Franklin, Tennessee"

Review of May Program

Thomas Cartwright, historian and manager of the Carter House
in Franklin, Tennessee, offered one of the most animated and
impassioned programs that the Richmond Round Table has heard
in years.  His presentation not only gave the details of the
battles of Spring Hill and Franklin on November 29-30, 1864,
but also dramatized the human tragedy of battle and censured
what  Mr.   Cartwright   believes   was   the   unforgivable
leadership  of  General John Bell Hood.  Round Table members
accustomed to assessing  the  leadership  of  Hood  (usually
favorably)  from  his  performances  on  battlefields in the
Eastern Theater  received  a  strongly-delivered  historical
corrective.                                                 

John  Bell Hood was a genuine hero, Cartwright insisted, but
"he  should  have  died  a  hero"  at   Gettysburg   or   at
Chickamauga, where he suffered debilitating wounds.  Instead,
he was promoted to command of a corps and to the command  of
the  Army  of  Tennessee.  July 17, 1864 - the day that Hood
succeeded  Joseph  Johnston  as  army   commander   -   was,
Cartwright  explained,  "the  beginning  of the end" for the
army.  The Army of  Tennessee  was,  Cartwright  argued,  "a
great  army that deserved better than Braxton Bragg and John
Bell Hood - that's my opinion."                             

At Spring Hill, the Army of Tennessee had an opportunity  to
destroy  Gen.   John  Schofield's divided and out-maneuvered
army.  Gen.  Frank Cheatham's plan to deliver  the  coup  de
grƒce  against  Schofield  had  to  be  aborted because Hood
interfered and ordered one of the divisions to act  contrary
to  Cheatham's  orders.  He compounded that error by halting
the Confederate pursuit until morning, allowing Schofield to
escape the trap.                                            

On November 30, the Army of Tennessee was "a dangerous army"
- dangerous to itself as well as to the enemy ("You know you
can't   think   straight   when   you're   mad,"  Cartwright
explained).  While Hood's subordinates and his men were  mad
at  him,  Hood  was angry with his army.  Believing that the
army had "grown  soft"  under  Johnston's  command,  he  was
determined  to punish Cheatham and his corps for the failure
at  Spring  Hill.   This,  Cartwright  asserted,   was   the
explanation  for  Hood's  battle  plan  at  Franklin,  which
compelled Cheatham to  attack  the  enemy  position  without
cover.   With  great  detail and passion, Cartwright related
many admittedly "nauseating  stories"  of  the  hand-to-hand
combat that occurred around the Carter House.               

The  attacks failed, but the failure was not, despite Hood's
charges, the fault of the  soldiers.   Defeat  at  Franklin,
Cartwright concluded, "was not [the soldiers'] fault; it was
General  John  Bell  Hood's  fault  -  completely."  In  his
official  report  and  in  his  "vicious  book," Advance and
Retreat, Hood claimed that he left the Army of Tennessee  in
better  shape  than he had assumed it.  He also continued to
blame the failure of the Tennessee Campaign  on  the  army's
inability  to  fight  effectively  behind  breastworks.  The
keynote of Mr.  Cartwright's presentation was that while  he
could  forgive  Hood  for his mistakes, he could not forgive
his insistence on blaming others, specifically his men,  for
those mistakes.                                             

Douglas Southall Freeman

on the writing of Confederate History

A quarter century before he published R.  E.  Lee,  a  young
Douglas  Southall  Freeman  catalogued  and  pored  over the
manuscripts at the Confederate Museum.  One  result  of  his
work  was  the  still-useful  Catalog  of Confederate Papers
(1908).  In a series of letters to Museum officials, Freeman
emphasized  the  importance  of  the manuscripts and offered
insights into his ideology and perspective  as  he  embarked
upon  his  career  as  a  chronicler of the Army of Northern
Virginia:                                                   

It is a self-evident fact, and one which I need not  impress
upon  the  society,  that  if  the  real  history of the War
between the States is ever to be written,  such  matter  now
hidden  away  in  private  hands  and  in the collections of
societies must be brought before students in  a  form  which
will  permit historical accuracy and critical citation.  The
day is past, I  trust,  when  history  will  be  maliciously
falsified  to  suit  the  whims  of Northern writers and the
taste of Northern readers.  But  withal,  there  is  such  a
great lack of material from the Southern standpoint that the
student,  unless  living  in  the  South,   is   forced   by
circumstances  to  make  statements  of  a general character
without having all the evidence before him.  .  .  .        

	They say it was a lost cause: Perhaps it was; but it
still  lives  in  the  hearts  of  the Southern people.  Its
career of arms ended these forty years ago; we only live for
its justification..  .  .  I only beg to state that anything
which I can do for this cause, will be gladly done;  for  it
is a cause dear to all in whose veins flows southern blood. 

Richard C. Bowles (1946-2000)

Richard Bowles, a former president of the Richmond Civil War
Round  Table,  died  on April 24th.  After living for almost
forty years with a life-threatening liver  disease,  Richard
succumbed  to  liver cancer and kidney failure.  He earned a
B.A.  in history and a Masters of Social Work from  Virginia
Commonwealth   University.    A  career  social  worker  and
advocate for the homeless, Richard continued to  pursue  his
interest  in  history  and  the  Civil  War.   He  wrote  an
introduction for and  edited  a  reprint  of  William  Meade
Dame's classic From the Rapidan to Richmond for Owens Books,
published in 1987.                                          

Hugh Douglas Pitts (1926-2000)

Doug Pitts,  a  long-time  Round  Table  member  and  former
president  (1966)  died on May 20th after a long illness.  A
graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School, the University  of
Richmond,  and  the College of William and Mary, Pitts was a
high school teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent
in  Henrico  County, and adjunct faculty member at William &
Mary and at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Like many men
of  his  generation,  he  grew  up  playing  on  Confederate
earthworks and visiting the Confederate veterans at the  Lee
Camp   Soldiers  Home.   A  leader  in  the  Henrico  County
Historical Society as well as in the Round Table, Mr.  Pitts
in  1998 authored for the Society a book on the Dabbs House:
High Meadow: Where Robert E.  Lee Drew His Sword.  Mr.  Pitts
was buried in Oakwood Cemetery.                              

With their deep interest and knowledge, both men exemplified
the rich "amateur" talent that is the heart and soul of this
and every Round Table.                                      

Announcements

Book Signings.  The Museum of the Confederacy is
hosting three book signings: 

* Saturday, June 3, 3-5 p.m.: Joseph L.   Harsh,  author  of
Taken  at the Flood: Robert E.  Lee and Confederate Strategy
in the Maryland Campaign of 1862  (winner  of  the  Museum's
1999  Jefferson  Davis  Award)  and Confederate Tide Rising:
Robert  E.   Lee  and  the  Making  of  Southern   Strategy,
1861-1862                                                   

* Thursday, June 7, 3-5 p.m.:Jeff Shaara, author of Gone for
Soldiers: A Novel of the Mexican War, The Last Full Measure,
and Gods and Generals                                       

*  Saturday,  June  10, 3-5 p.m.: Howard Bahr, author of two
acclaimed Civil War novels, The Year of Jubilo and of  Black
Flower                                                      

Tredegar  Iron Works re-opening to the public.  On Saturday,
June 20, the Tredegar Iron Works site will  re-open  as  the
new  visitors  center  for the Richmond National Battlefield
Park.                                                       

Last Call for Ukrop's  Golden  Gift  Certificates.   If  you
still  have  Ukrop's  Golden Gift certificates for purchases
made between January 31 and April 1, 2000,  there  is  still
time   to   make  them  work  for  the  benefit  battlefield
preservation.  Send them ASAP  to  David  West  at  88  West
Square Dr.  / Richmond, VA 23233.                           

Richmond Civil War Round Table Newsletter
John M. Coski, editor
1201 E. Clay St.
Richmond, Virginia  23219