Richard Forrester, President           Rob Monroe, Editor       
8008 Spottswood Road                   2416 Edenbrook Dr.       
Richmond, VA 23229                     Richmond, VA 23228-3040  
dforrester@verizon.net                 RMonroe500@comcast.net   
March 2006 PROGRAM

Stephen Cushman
"Bloody Promenade: Reflections on a Civil War Battle"

8:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 14, 2006, at the
Boulevard United Methodist Church, 321 N. Boulevard,
Richmond, VA (corner of Boulevard and Stuart Ave.) Enter
the basement door on the right side under the front steps.

Stephen Cushman  is  the  Robert  C.   Taylor  Professor  of
English  at  the University of Virginia.  He is the director
for American Studies Major and the International Center  for
American  Studies  Degrees.   Dr.  Cushman's expertise is in
19th and 20th century American literature and  poetry.   The
courses  he  teaches  include the works of Emerson, Thoreau,
Whitman, Dickinson, as well as modern poetry.               

Professor Cushman graduated from Cornell University in  1978
and  received  his  PhD  from  Yale in 1982.  In addition to
writing  several  studies  of  American  poetry,   Professor
Cushman  has  authored two books of poems - Blue Pajamas and
more recently Cussing  Lessons.   Professor  Cushman's  life
long  interest  in  the  American  Civil  War  led to Bloody
Promenade: Reflections on a Civil War Battle.   This  highly
acclaimed book reflects on the complexities and contemporary
reverberations of the bloody Battle of the Wilderness.      

Professor Cushman will discuss his work  in  a  presentation
that   has   been   characterized  as  "a  highly  personal,
introspective  and  intellectually  absorbing   experience."
Copies  of  Bloody  Promenade:  Reflections  on  a Civil War
Battle will be available to purchase at the  meeting.   This
hardback  book  has  a list price of $32.50 but will be sold
for the special price of only $20.                          

"Whenever I Smoke a Cigar," a poem by  Stephen  Cushman,  is
printed on the back page of this newsletter.                


Lectures Provide Opportunity to
Brush Up on Civil War Art

On Thursday, March 16 at noon, Harold  Holzer,  senior  vice
president for external affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art and one of the country's leading Lincoln scholars,  will
speak  on  Art  in the Civil War South.  Co-sponsored by the
Virginia Historical Society (VHS)  and  the  Museum  of  the
Confederacy  (MOC), this program explores the variety of art
created in response to the war.  The lecture,  held  at  the
VHS,  marks  the  opening  of the MOC exhibition, Art of the
Confederacy, featuring works by soldier artists and  postwar
paintings  and  prints.   The  event  is free to VHS and MOC
members, $5 for non-members,  $4  for  seniors  and  $3  for
students.                                                   

Mr.  Holzer will be one of a number of renowned speakers and
artists attending a  seminar  in  Lynchburg  on  Friday  and
Saturday,  March  24  and  25.   "Blood  on  the Canvas: The
History of Civil War Art" will also  feature  artists  Keith
Rocco  and  Bradley Schmehl, sculptor Gary Casteel and Civil
War photography expert/photographer Rob Gibson.             

All of the artists/speakers will display examples  of  their
work.   Other Civil War related displays and vendors will be
available to the public.  A presentation  of  the  video  An
Occurrence  at  Owl Creek Bridge will be a special highlight
of the seminar.                                             

The event will be held in  DeMoss  Hall  on  the  campus  of
Liberty University.  Reservations for the seminar are $55 by
March 22.  After March 23 the price for both  days  is  $65.
Admission for Friday only is $25; Saturday only is $30.  For
more information,  visit  www.liberty.edu/civilwar  or  call
(434) 592-4031.                                             


Round Table Members Invited to Tour Civil War Center

Members of the Richmond Civil War Round Table are invited to
an  inside  tour  of what's coming this fall at the American
Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar.  Attendees will see a
presentation  on  the  new  exhibit  being  designed for the
Tredegar Gun Foundry.  Called In the Cause  of  Liberty,  it
will weave together Confederate, Union, and African American
stories and will  show  how  their  interaction  shaped  the
course  of  American  history.   RCWRT  members will also go
inside  the  foundry  and  see  the  construction  currently
underway.   The  tour begins in the courtyard at Tredegar at
9:30am on Saturday, March 25.                               


Pre-dawn Lantern Tour Will Mark
141st Anniversary of Breakthrough

On Sunday morning, April 2, Pamplin Historical  Park  &  the
National  Museum  of  the  Civil  War  Soldier  will  host a
pre-dawn lantern tour of  the  breakthrough  battlefield  of
April  2,  1865.  This unique tour will begin at the site of
the assault that decided the fate  of  Petersburg,  Richmond
and  the  Confederacy 141 years ago to the minute.  The tour
costs $7 and includes a buffet  breakfast  afterward.   Park
members  will  be  admitted  free.  A full day of activities
will follow.  To make reservations for  the  pre-dawn  tour,
visit www.pamplinpark.org or call (804) 861-2408.           


Three Virginia Sites on CWPT's Most Endangered List

Three Virginia locations are among America's most endangered
Civil  War sites according to an annual report issued by the
Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT)  on  February  28.   The
Wilderness,  Shenandoah  Valley  and  Glendale (or Frayser's
Farm) battlefields are listed with seven other sites on  the
CWPT's list of endangered battlegrounds.                    

The  first clash between Robert E.  Lee and U.S.  Grant left
more than 25,000 dead and wounded in the Wilderness west  of
Fredericksburg.  Today, Orange County is transforming itself
from a largely rural  area  to  a  suburban  community  with
immense   population  growth.   Proposed  home  construction
threatens areas of the  battlefield  not  protected  by  the
National Park Service.                                      

From the very beginning of the war until its tragic end, the
Shenandoah Valley of  Virginia  was  one  vast  battlefield.
Stonewall  Jackson  won  immortal fame in the valley for his
series of victories in the spring of  1862.   Later  in  the
war,  Federal  General  Phil  Sheridan  would  clinch  Union
victory in a series of battles culminating at  Cedar  Creek.
Today, that battlefield and ten others are threatened by the
proposed widening of Interstate 81 running the entire length
of  the  valley.   The  CWPT and a coalition of conservation
groups have proposed a rail solution as  an  alternative  to
widening the road.                                          

The  savage  fighting  at  Glendale  led to 6,500 casualties
during the famous 1862 Seven Days battles  around  Richmond.
Currently  only  262 acres of the 7,888-acre battlefield are
preserved.  Construction has begun on three housing projects
in  the  area  immediately  surrounding  the battlefield and
three more are in the planning stages.                      

Other sites named on the CWPT's Most Endangered list include
battlefields  at  Gettysburg, Raymond, MS and Glorieta Pass,
NM; the Chattahoochee River Line in  Georgia  and  forts  in
Washington, Alabama and south of New Orleans.               


Last Word on Round Table Dues

A quick reminder: the  Ides  of  March  (March  15)  is  the
deadline to pay Round Table dues for 2006.  Dues are $30 for
residents, $40 for couples.  For those living  at  least  75
miles  outside  of  Richmond,  non-resident dues are $15 for
individuals, $20 for couples.  For seniors 65 and older with
at   least  ten  years  of  membership,  dues  are  $15  for
individuals  and  $20  for  couples.   Dues  are   $30   for
international members and $15 for students age 13 to 17.    

You  may pay your dues at the Round Table's March meeting or
by mailing your check to:                                   

Sandy Parker, RCWRT Secretary
P.O. Box 37052               
Richmond, VA  23234          

Your support keeps the Richmond Civil War Round Table thriving.
Thank you!


Whenever I Smoke a Cigar
A poem by Stephen Cushman

Whenever I smoke a cigar I think of
Grant in the Wilderness writing orders
out in faultless prose without revision,
then chewing on a burnt out stub and
weeping as numbers flooded in and names
piled up on lists the Northern papers
printed along with the outcry Butcher,
Butcher, but by the time he hooded
himself in a shawl on the porch to
finish a book that provided the wife he
couldn't stand to part from with nearly
half a million, before the sore throat
he'd nursed for four months, the thirty
pounds gone, and the vomited blood
finished him, everybody up there loved
Grant, and yet whenever I smoke a cigar
I wonder what it takes to be happy in
marriage and march through the woods
making widows.                       


To facilitate the printing and timely  distribution  of  the
April  newsletter, information for it should be submitted to
the editor no later than Friday, March 31.                  

You can receive your newsletter sooner and help the Richmond
Civil  War  Round  Table save money by signing up to receive
your newsletter via email.  To add your name  to  the  list,
simply email the editor at RMonroe500@comcast.net   Thanks! 


RCWRT Monthly Speakers for 2006

Richmond Civil War Round Table Newsletter
Rob Monroe, Editor     
2416 Edenbrook Dr.     
Richmond, VA 23228-3040