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   
May 2006 PROGRAM
Charles Lee Cooke, M.D.
 "The Ambulance Corps"

8:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 9, 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.

Dr.  Charles Lee Cooke attended Davidson  College  near  his
boyhood farm in North Carolina and received his B.S.  degree
from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  After
a  tour  of  duty in the Air Force Medical Corps, he began a
distinguished  career  as  a  teacher  and  practitioner  in
Richmond.                                                   

He  has  been  involved  with  the  Civil  War  Institute at
Virginia Tech and is an active volunteer at  the  Chimborazo
Medical Museum of the Richmond National Battlefield Park.  He
has long studied medicine and diseases --  both  causes  and
effects  --  during  the  Civil War.  He is an authoritative
source of medical history and has been cited as  the  source
for medical information in Civil War fiction and non-fiction
books.  For years he has been involved with  the  Civil  War
Institute  at  Virginia  Tech, working with famous historian
Dr.  James I.  "Bud" Robertson.  Dr.  Cooke is known for his
wit  and humor as well as his deep knowledge of his favorite
subject, medicine during  the  Civil  War.   On  very  short
notice, he has kindly agreed to be our May speaker.  He will
be discussing the development of the Ambulance Corps  during
the Civil War.  Dr.  Cooke spoke to the Round Table in March
2004 and gave attendees an informative and colorful look  at
Chimborazo  Hospital.   His insight into the Ambulance Corps
promises to be enlightening and entertaining.               


CWPT Makes Major Purchase at Fredericksburg

The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT)  has  announced  the
beginning of a $12 million national campaign to preserve the
historic  Slaughter  Pen   Farm,   a   key   part   of   the
Fredericksburg   battlefield.    The  205-acre  farm,  known
locally as the  Pierson  Tract,  was  the  scene  of  bloody
struggle  on  December  13,  1862.  Historians estimate that
more than 5,000 casualties were incurred on the property.   

According to Ed Bearss,  Chief  Historian  Emeritus  of  the
National  Park  Service,  Slaughter  Pen  Farm is "without a
doubt the  most  significant  part  of  the  battlefield  at
Fredericksburg  that is not protected.  Its acquisition will
provide an opportunity to permit visitors  to  walk  in  the
footsteps  of  history."  Historian Frank O'Reilly calls the
farm  "the  very  heart  and  soul  of  the   Fredericksburg
Battlefield.  This is the point where the battle was won and
lost."                                                      

The Slaughter Pen Farm is the only place on the  battlefield
where  a  visitor can still follow the Union assault on that
bloody day from beginning to end.  Nearly all the other land
associated  with Union attacks at Fredericksburg - either on
the southern end of the battlefield or in front  of  Marye's
Heights - has been destroyed by development.                

For  years,  the  fate of the Slaughter Pen Farm has hung in
the balance.  The farm is located along  historic  Tidewater
Trail  (U.S.   Route  2),  which  has  witnessed  tremendous
industrial and  commercial  growth  in  recent  years.   The
property  is  zoned  for  industrial use, and is immediately
adjacent  to  a  major  north-south  rail  line,  making  it
extremely  attractive  to developers.  When the property was
put on the market in December, the listing  agent  described
it  as "one of the best industrial sites in the Commonwealth
of Virginia."                                               

Once the Slaughter  Pen  Farm  was  placed  on  the  market,
preservationists  were in a race against time.  Fortunately,
CWPT was able to secure the assistance of Tricord,  Inc.,  a
local  family-owned  development company that had previously
cooperated with preservationists to save the 140-acre  First
Day  of  Chancellorsville Battlefield (formerly known as the
Mullins Farm).   Tricord  brought  to  the  table  financial
resources,  a  comprehensive  knowledge of the area, and the
wherewithal to move quickly to take  the  property  off  the
market.   Tricord  and CWPT have an agreement that turns the
Slaughter Pen Farm over to  CWPT  to  be  preserved  in  its
entirety, no strings attached.                              

"We   view   this   as   a  rebirth  of  the  Fredericksburg
battlefield,"   said   Russ   Smith,    Superintendent    of
Fredericksburg  and  Spotsylvania  National  Military  Park.
"Preservationists had long ago given  up  on  maintaining  a
vista  from Union to Confederate lines, but CWPT and Tricord
have given this historic landscape a second chance."        

"This  is   the   most   ambitious   nonprofit   battlefield
acquisition  in  American  history," remarked CWPT President
James Lighthizer.  "Despite the price tag, we  simply  could
not  sit  idly  by and watch this irreplaceable battleground
become an industrial park."                                 

CWPT  intends  to  work  with  federal,  state   and   local
government  officials  to secure matching grants to help pay
for acquisition of the property.  Government grants will  be
leveraged  with  private sector donations from CWPT members,
corporations and other conservation groups.                 


RCWRT Shirts and Hats are Ready for You to Order

Ed Carpenter and  the  Carpenter  Group  are  now  accepting
orders  for  shirts  and  caps embroidered with the Richmond
Civil War Round Table logo.  These are  not  screen  printed
items.   They  are affordably priced high-quality shirts and
hats handsomely embroidered with the RCWRT color logo.      

These items are available:                                  

Caps (Wave, medium profile) in blue with gold trim or tan with red trim -- $5.95
Short Sleeve T-Shirts in white, ash gray or navy -- $12.50
Long Sleeve T-Shirts in white, ash gray or navy -- $14.98 
Outer Banks Polo Shirts in white, gray or navy -- $22.50  

The above prices are for sizes Small to XLarge.  For XXL add $2 for each shirt; for XXXL add $4.  Size XXXXL is available only for the Short Sleeve T-Shirt and costs $18.50.  
To order please fill out this form:

Name:________________________________________________________________________

Address:_____________________________________________________________________

City, State & Zip:___________________________________________________________

Phone:_______________________________________________________________________


Item:_______________________     Size:____________     Color:_______________________
Item:_______________________     Size:____________     Color:_______________________
Item:_______________________     Size:____________     Color:_______________________
Item:_______________________     Size:____________     Color:_______________________

Items will be delivered to a future RCWRT meeting.  
If you would like your order shipped directly to you, add $6.95 and check here _______.

Total enclosed: $_____________

Mail and make check payable to:  

The Carpenter Group, Inc.
9005 Kellywood Ct.       
Glen Allen, VA  23060    

The phone/fax  number  for  the  Carpenter  Group  is  (804)
747-1758.   The  Round Table wishes to thank Ed for his hard
work  in  making  these  items  available  to  us  again  at
reasonable prices.                                          


Book on Prisons Wins Davis Award

The Museum of the Confederacy has awarded its 2005 Jefferson
Davis  Book  Award  to  While  in  the  Hands  of the Enemy:
Military Prisons of the Civil War by  Charles  W.   Sanders,
Jr.; a professor of history at Kansas State University.  The
book is a volume in the Louisiana State  University  Press's
series  "Conflicting  Worlds: New Dimensions of the American
Civil War."                                                 

Established  in  1970,  the  Jefferson  Davis  Award  honors
outstanding  narrative  works  about  the origins, life, and
legacies of the Confederate  States  of  America.   Rotating
panels   of   three   distinguished   historians   serve  as
independent  award  judges.   The  actual   award   document
consists of a framed certificate bearing a red wax seal made
from the original Great Seal of the  Confederacy,  the  only
modern use of this artifact.                                

While  in  the  Hands of the Enemy challenges the prevailing
view  among  historians  that  the  infamous  conditions  in
Northern  and  Southern  prison camps "resulted from factors
beyond the control of the belligerents and that neither  the
North nor the South was guilty of systematically mistreating
prisoners." Sanders argues that  the  main  reason  for  the
inhuman   treatment   of   prisoners   owed  to  "Union  and
Confederate leaders who knew full well the horrific toll  of
misery  and death their decisions and actions would exact in
the camps."                                                 

Michael B.  Chesson, chairman of the Davis Award  Committee,
praised  the  book's  "sober  and evenhanded condemnation of
both sides" and concluded: "this work is  indispensable  and
will be added to various lists of the top Civil War books." 

The  judges  chose  Sanders's book from among 35 nominations
after they narrowed the field to five finalists.  The  other
finalists   were:   Kent   Masterson   Brown,  Retreat  from
Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the  Pennsylvania  Campaign;
Earl  J.  Hess, Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil
War:  The  Eastern  Campaigns,  1861-1864;   Bruce   Levine,
Confederate  Emancipation:  Southern  Plans  to Free and Arm
Slaves During the Civil  War;  and  Mark  V.   Wetherington,
Plain  Folks'  Fight:  The  Civil  War and Reconstruction in
Piney Woods, Georgia.                                       


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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