Sam Craghead, President         Art & Carol Bergeron, Editors
4361F Lakefield Mews            3901 Paces Ferry Road      
Richmond, VA 23231              Chester, VA 23831-1239   

July 2001 PROGRAM

Alex Wise

"The Tredegar National Civil War Museum"

8:00 p.m., Tuesday, July 10, 2001, at the
Boulevard United Methodist Church, 321 N. Boulevard,
Richmond, VA (corner of Boulevard and Stuart Ave.)

H. Alexander  Wise,  Jr.,   is  the  President   and   Chief
Operating  Officer of the Tredegar National Civil War Center
Foundation.   He  has  worked  in  both  federal  and  state
government,  and  in  the  private sector as an educator and
lawyer.  He has graduate degrees in  American  Studies  from
George  Washington  University,  Law from Washington and Lee
University, and Government from Georgetown  University.   As
former  Director  of  the  Virginia  Department  of Historic
Resources,  a  former  president  of  the  Museum   of   the
Confederacy,  and  a  director of the Civil War Preservation
Trust, Mr.  Wise has a strong Civil War background.  He is a
direct  descendant  of  Virginia  governor  and  Confederate
general Henry A.  Wise.                                     

The presentation will  focus  Tredegar  National  Civil  War
Center,  located at the historic Tredegar Gun Foundry on the
James River.  It will be the first place in America to  tell
the  whole  story  of the Civil War from the perspectives of
the   three   major   stakeholders-the   Confederates,   the
Unionists,  and  the  African Americans.  It is a project of
national scope and significance, which  will  have  a  major
venue  in  Richmond,  a  smaller  one in Philadelphia, and a
traveling  component.   Early  projections  are  that   this
ambitious  project  will  bring  visitors  from  across  the
country.  One of  the  nation's  preeminent  collections  of
African-American  military  artifacts,  the  John H.  Motley
collection, has already been promised to  the  museum.   The
Virginia General Assembly has supplied $250,000 for planning
for the center.   Complete  development  of  the  center  is
estimated to take ten years.                                


Review of the June Program



Robert  Jones  was  raised  in  the  shadow  of  Lincoln  in
Springfield,  Illinois,  and  has  worked  35  years  as  an
engineer at the Washington Naval  Yard,  so  a  passion  for
Civil War navy history seems only natural.  A self-described
"poster boy for  persistence,"  Jones  scribbled  his  first
notes  on the career of Lt.  Charles W.  Read, CSN, in 1970.
Thirty years later, he published a full-length biography  of
the officer whose career seems too colorful to be true.     

"Savez"  Read  picked  up  his nickname from the U.S.  Naval
Academy, where he graduated dead last in the class of  1860.
("Savez,"  he  joked, was the only French word he remembered
from his studies.) A mere lad of 21 when he resigned his  U.
S.   navy  commission and offered his services to his native
Mississippi, Read showed the poise and resourcefulness  that
Jones  characterized  as  "true leadership." His Confederate
career included active service at New Madrid,  New  Orleans,
on  board the bloodied ironclad ram Arkansas, and in command
of the torpedo boats of the James River Squadron.           

Jones narrated  in  detail  the  defining  phase  of  Read's
Confederate  career:  as a lieutenant aboard the CSS Florida
and in  command  of  a  succession  of  captured  commercial
vessels  transformed  into  commerce  raiders.   For several
weeks in 1863, Read brought the  war  home  to  the  North's
Atlantic coast, terrorizing the U.  S.  merchant and fishing
fleet, eluding pursuit by the U.  S.  navy, and embarrassing
the U.  S.  government.  Read's ships, the Clarence, Tacony,
and Archer, captured and destroyed  20  ships  in  19  days,
while the Florida herself captured 21 ships in four months. 

On June 26, 1863, Read brought the Archer into the harbor of
Portland, Maine, dropped anchor, and contemplated  his  next
move.   Her identity unsuspected, the Archer was, in Jones's
evocative phrase, "a wolf in  fisherman's  clothing."  Under
cover  of  darkness,  Read  and  his crew seized the revenue
cutter, Caleb Cushing, and secreted her out of  the  harbor.
Pursued  by  an  outraged  "citizen  army"  on  one ship and
another revenue cutter, Read's luck ran out.   He  destroyed
the  Cushing and surrendered to U.S.  forces.  After several
months imprisoned at Fort Warren, Boston, Read was exchanged
at Richmond.                                                

His  war  ended  characteristically  in  a blaze of glory on
April 24, 1865.  In command of the  CSS  Webb,  Read  nearly
succeeded  in  slipping  out  of  the  Mississippi  past the
Federal blockade.  After a second stint in Fort  Warren,  he
took the oath of allegiance and returned to Mississippi.  His
postwar  career  saw  Read  take  his  swashbuckling  to  an
international scale.  Read's adventure-filled life ended shy
of his 50th birthday in 1890.  Read  was,  Jones  concluded,
"just  a fun guy" - the sort you would want to sit down with
and "swap sea stories." But there was more to Read's  career
than  just  rollicking  sea  stories.  Jones compared Read's
commerce raiding accomplishments to those  of  Revolutionary
War  hero  John  Paul Jones.  While Read and his compatriots
hardly put a dent in the U.  S.  merchant fleet, Confederate
commerce raiding drove up insurance rates and drove American
merchant vessels away from  the  U.S.   flag.   The  U.   S.
merchant fleet did not recover until World War I.           

(Thanks to John M. Coski for providing this report.
Carol and Art.)


Announcements


Round Table Raffle

The book for this month's raffle is
Valor In Gray: The Recipients of the Confederate Medal of Honor
by Gregg S. Clemmer and is signed by the author.


Volunteer Needed

The Round Table needs  a  volunteer  to  take  care  of  the
nametags.   This "arduous" task involves adding new ones for
new members and having all tags at each meeting  so  members
may wear them.  If you are interested in helping out in this
capacity, please contact Sam Craghead.                      


New Museum Exhibit Opens

The Museum of the Confederacy recently  opened  an  expanded
permanent  exhibit  on Confederate hospitals.  Titled "Every
Kind of Wound and Disease," the exhibit features  additional
artifacts  and other enhancements to examine the Confederate
Medical Department and the people who  worked  in  it.   The
focus  is  on  three  primary elements-the surgeons, general
hospitals, and field hospitals.  This exhibit  had  been  on
loan  to  the  Chimborazo  Visitor  Center  of  the Richmond
National Battlefield Park but is now back  in  the  museum's
first floor gallery.                                        

Visitors will see such items as a surgeon's frock coat, case
notes,  individually   labeled   medical   instruments,   an
artificial arm worn by a Confederate soldier, and amputation
kits.  Also featured are documents and photographs detailing
stories  of the soldiers who endured every kind of wound and
disease as they experienced the Confederate medical system. 


Special Prices on Civil War Play

Opening on July 6 and running through August 4, The American
Century Theater in Arlington will present "The Andersonville
Trial" by Saul Levitt.   This  play  is  being  done  as  an
historical  reenactment  of  the trial of Captain Henry Wirz
for war crimes connected with the conditions at the prisoner
of  war  camp in Andersonville, Georgia.  Richmond Civil War
Round Table members can get a  $5  per  ticket  discount  to
attend  the  show, for any performance other than a Saturday
evening.  The regular ticket price is $22 for adults and $17
for  seniors  and  students.   All  our  members  need do is
mention this offer when they call to make a reservation  for
the   show  at  703-553-8782,  and  they  will  receive  the
discounted price.  Furthermore, if your members  would  like
to  book as a group of 15 persons or more, we will offer you
even greater discounts: 15-29 people - $15 per person; 30-49
people - $12 per person; or over 50 people - $10 per person.
This group discount would apply to ANY performance,  even  a
Saturday evening.                                           

Interested groups of 15 or more can make a reservation  with
at 703-569-3951  or  703-553-8782, option #8 or by email at:
kbfuller@.starpower.net


Civil War Baseball Program

Pamplin Historical Park will host a "Civil  War  Base  Ball"
event  on  July  21-22.   This  program  will  feature  "The
Muffins," a vintage baseball  team  from  Ohio.   They  will
conduct games as played by the rules and customs familiar to
the players of the Civil War era.  Though many of the  rules
of  mid-1800s  baseball  are  similar  to  those in practice
today, the spirit of the contest was much  different.   Good
will, fellowship, and gentlemanly conduct were insisted upon
in the code of the day.                                     

"Base ball" (it was two words in the 1860s) had been  played
in  New  York  between  organized  clubs  as  early as 1846.
Through the 1850s the  clubs  formed  in  other  east  coast
cities, and by 1861 the game had gained a foothold. Baseball
became a popular form of recreation for Civil  War  soldiers
in  camp.   In  a game played by Union troops on Hilton Head
Island  on  Christmas  Day,  1862,   an   estimated   40,000
spectators  watched  the 165th New York Infantry play a team
selected  from  other  regiments  of   the   garrison.    In
conjunction  with this special program, Patricia Millen will
be at Pamplin Historical Park to promote her new book,  From
Pastime to Passion: Baseball and the Civil War.  She will do
a book signing between 12:00 and 2:00 on Saturday, July  21,
and  again after the second Muffins game that day until 4:00
p.  m.  Copies of the book will be available for sale.      

For  more  information,  call  Pamplin  Historical  Park  at
1-877-PAMPLIN    or    visit   the    park's   Website   at:

www.pamplinpark.org


Richmond Civil War Round Table Newsletter
Art & Carol Bergeron, Editors
3901 Paces Ferry Road
Chester, VA 23831-1239