Sheppard Parsons, President            Rob Monroe, Editor       
107 Rose Hill Road                     2416 Edenbrook Dr.       
Richmond, VA 23229                     Richmond, VA 23228-3040  
shep.parsons@suntrust.com              RMonroe500@comcast.net   
April 2006 PROGRAM
Peter S. Carmichael
"Last Generation:                          
Young Virginians in Peace, War, and Reunion"

8:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 11, 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.

Peter Carmichael is an Associate Professor and  Director  of
Graduate Studies in the History Department at the University
of  North  Carolina  at  Greensboro.   The  Indiana   native
attended   Indiana  University-Purdue  University  prior  to
obtaining his Masters and  Ph.D.   from  Pennsylvania  State
University.    Dr.    Carmichael,   author  of  Lee's  Young
Artillerist: William R.  J.  Pegram, has  contributed  to  a
number  of  books  including Audacity Personified: Essays on
the Generalship of Robert E.  Lee, which he also edited.  He
has  published  several  magazine  articles and presented to
numerous Civil War symposiums and professional societies.   

Dr.  Carmichael will be  discussing  his  recent  book  Last
Generation:  Young  Virginians  in  Peace, War, and Reunion.
This study  examines  the  lives  of  more  than  120  young
Virginians  who  came of age in the turbulent decade leading
up to  the  Civil  War.   Many  later  served  as  secondary
officers  in the Army of Northern Virginia.  Dr.  Carmichael
challenges  the  popular  notion  of   Southern   youth   as
hot-tempered  and  intellectually  lazy.   Instead, he finds
ideological young  men  deeply  engaged  in  the  political,
economic   and   cultural   forces  of  their  time.   These
"progressives" rejected  the  Cavalier  tradition  and  were
often  at  great odds with their fathers' generation.  Young
Virginians vigorously  lobbied  for  disunion  and  strongly
defended  the Confederacy.  Surprisingly, after the war they
preached reunion and reconciliation.  Dr.  Carmichael  sheds
new light on the formation of Southern identity as loyalties
and identities are transformed by the cataclysm of war.     


Exhibition Showcases Wartime and Postwar Soldier Artists

In an age before movies and television, soldiers and artists
alike portrayed the turmoil of the Civil War not only by the
letters and diaries they kept but also by the pictures  that
they drew of the world around them.  Museum patrons will get
a rare glimpse into the  minds  and  hearts  of  Confederate
soldiers  at  the Museum of the Confederacy's newest special
exhibition, Art of the Confederacy.                         

On display through  December,  this  small  yet  significant
showcase  of  works by a handful of professional artists, as
well  as  the  far  more  common  amateur  soldier  artists,
features  paintings,  prints, photography and sketches.  The
exhibit includes pieces created between the  years  of  1861
and  1865  and  postwar  works  by  Northern  publishers and
artists lamenting the "Lost  Cause"  and  commemorating  the
chivalry  of  Confederate  soldiers.  Of special interest is
the newly  restored  Mosby  Triptych,  three  oil  paintings
created  to  showcase  the bravery of Mosby's Rangers during
the war.  Frequently reproduced  for  generations  following
the war, these paintings are on public display for the first
time since their recent restoration.                        

This new exhibit captures a rich variety of both private and
public sentiment regarding the Civil War in the South.  Most
art that was produced between 1861  and  1865  was  "soldier
art,"  sketches  and the occasional watercolor that depicted
the war from a soldier's point of  view  to  his  family  or
sweetheart back home.  These men portrayed their daily lives
and sought to preserve memories amidst the chaos of war.  The
exhibit  also features works by professional artists such as
Conrad Wise Chapman, whose deftly executed oil paintings  of
Charleston  Harbor  offer  an  accurate  glimpse  of wartime
scenes.  After the  war,  Northern  artists  and  publishers
produced works that glorified and memorialized the valor and
bravery of Confederate soldiers.                            

Postwar art reflected an idealized, romantic notion  of  the
Old  South  that  helped  Southerners  deal  with  the harsh
realities of defeat and a way of life  uprooted.   Works  by
Allen   Christian   Redwood  and  William  Ludwell  Sheppard
illustrate  this  deeply  rooted  sentiment  through   their
nostalgic  and  idealized  portrayals of the common soldier.
This unique exhibit offers a rare and intimate glimpse  into
the  lives of Confederate soldiers and a vision of the South
as people wanted to remember it.                            


Tour to Focus on Epic Battle of Ironclads

On Saturday, April 22, the Museum of  the  Confederacy  will
offer  an exclusive daylong tour where participants will get
a rare opportunity  to  study  sites  around  the  legendary
battle  between  the  CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor.  The
tour will be led by Jeff Johnston, a  premier  historian  of
the  Monitor  and  a project specialist from NOAA's Maritime
Archaeology Program.  Included are visits to  Fort  Norfolk,
Trinity  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  Portsmouth  Navy Yard
Museum with the trip culminating in a tour  of  the  Monitor
Center at the Mariners Museum.                              

Cost  of  the  event  is  $30  for  museum  members, $40 for
non-members.  You'll need to act  fast  as  registration  is
required  by  Wednesday,  April  12.   To reserve your seat,
contact  Sam  Craghead  at  (804)  649-1861,  ext.   44   or
scraghead@moc.org


Petersburg Breakthrough,
Battlefield Designated National Historic Landmark

In  March,  Secretary  of  the  Interior  Gale  A.    Norton
announced  the  designation  of  12  sites  in  11 states as
National Historic Landmarks.  On this list is the Petersburg
Breakthrough  Battlefield, a majority of which is located on
land where Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum  of
the Civil War Soldier now resides.                          

The  National  Historic  Landmark designation is the highest
such  recognition  accorded  by  our  nation   to   historic
properties.  These special places are the actual sites where
significant historical events occurred, or  where  prominent
Americans  worked  or  lived,  and  represent the ideas that
shaped our nation.  Fewer than 2,500 places carry the  title
of National Historic Landmark.                              

The  Petersburg  Breakthrough  Battlefield hosted the battle
that brought an end to the Petersburg Campaign  of  1864-65.
This  resulted in the defeat of Gen.  Lee's Army of Northern
Virginia and resulted in the evacuation of  both  Petersburg
and Richmond.  One week after the battle, Lee surrendered at
Appomattox  Court  House.   Today,   visitors   to   Pamplin
Historical  Park can tour a majority of this battlefield and
learn about the surviving battlefield  landscape,  including
Union   staging   area,  attack  corridors  and  Confederate
earthworks.                                                 

One of "Virginia's Best Places to Visit"  according  to  the
Travel  Channel, Pamplin Historical Park is a 422-acre Civil
War campus offering a combination of high-tech  museums  and
hands-on  experiences  with  four world-class museums, three
antebellum homes, costumed living history, the  Breakthrough
Battlefield of April 2, 1865 and Civil War Adventure Camp.  


Symposium to Focus on Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign

In the spring of 1862, in a  feat  of  marching,  deception,
counter-marching,  and  sheer  boldness, Stonewall Jackson's
army of less than 18,000 Confederates frustrated Federal war
efforts.   His  brash  maneuvers  in  the  Shenandoah Valley
confounded Union leadership in Washington and tied  up  more
than 60,000 Federal troops, preventing them from reinforcing
Gen.   George  McClellan's  Peninsula  Campaign.   Jackson's
effort  wrested  the  initiative  away from the northerners'
effort to capture the Confederate capital and end the war.  

On Saturday, May 6, nationally  recognized  historians  will
convene  at  the  historic  and  newly  renovated  Stonewall
Jackson  Hotel  &  Conference  Center  in  Staunton  for   a
discussion   of  Jackson's  famous  Valley  Campaign  --  an
operation that is  still  studied  by  the  military  today.
Speakers   include   Jeffry   Wert,   William  Miller,  Gary
Ecelbarger, John Heatwole and Jonathan Noyalas.             

This daylong symposium is offered in  conjunction  with  the
release  of  If  this  Valley  is lost, Virginia is lost!  -
Jackson 's Valley Campaign, a compilation of essays  by  Bud
Robertson,   Robert   Krick,  Gary  Ecelbarger,  and  others
focusing on the Valley Campaign.   The  event  is  free  but
reservations  are  required  by May 3.  To register call the
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation at 1-888-689-4545.


Podcast Tour Now Available to Malvern Hill Visitors

Working with Civil  War  Traveler,  the  staff  of  Richmond
National  Battlefield  Park  has  developed the park's first
podcast tour to  help  visitors  explore  the  Malvern  Hill
battlefield.    Podcasts   are  file  systems  that  can  be
downloaded onto an iPod or mp3 player,  then  taken  to  the
battlefield for a 90-minute, 1.5 mile walking tour.         

The podcast may be found at www.CivilWarTraveler.com.  There
you will find detailed instructions and a battlefield map in
various  formats.   The  Richmond  National Battlefield Park
advises that you download the map before going on  the  tour
as  there  are  no markers on the battlefield denoting where
the ten stops of the walk are located.                      

Your  guide  is  Mike  Andrus,  an  interpretive  ranger  at
Richmond  National  Battlefield  Park  and  a scholar on the
subject of the Battle of Malvern Hill.  Few visitors get  to
experience an outing on the battlefield with Andrus, so this
effort  will  make  the  immense  amount  of  knowledge  and
information he has accumulated about the battle available to
everyone.                                                   

While his commentary will make the  battlefield  come  alive
during  a visit, it is also possible to simply listen to the
podcast at home on your computer.  Again, it is  recommended
that  you  download the map so you can see the various house
sites, artillery emplacements and battle lines  that  Andrus
describes  in the tour.  His tour has not been scripted, you
are  listening  to   real   time   interpretation   on   the
battlefield.                                                

After  you  download and listen to the program, the Richmond
National Battlefield Park asks that you please take a moment
to  contact  them  with your comments and suggestions.  They
plan to expand their podcast offerings to other  battlefield
sites  within the park and would appreciate your feedback to
lead them in the right direction.                           


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RCWRT Monthly Speakers for 2006

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