Davis Wrinkle, Pres.                   Gary Cowardin, Editor    
7741 Rockfalls Dr.                     1404 Lorraine Ave.       
Richmond, VA 23225                     Richmond, VA 23227-3735  
dpwrink@verizon.net                    cowardin@juno.com        
September 2010 Program
Gary Gallagher
"Jubal Early"

8:00 p.m., Tuesday, September 14, 2010, at the
First Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA., 4602 Cary Street Road, 23226
A parking lot is available behind the church with an entrance off the
parking lot to the left and down a few stairs. (map in August's newsleter)



As one of our favorite RCWRT speakers, Gary Gallagher has spoken  to  us
on  at least ten other topics over the last 25 years.  He is the John L.
Nau III Professor in the History of  the  American  Civil  War,  at  the
University of Virginia (since 1999).                                    

Among  his  many publications are The American War: Union, Emancipation,
and Nation in the Civil War North; Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten:  How
Hollywood  and  Art Shape What We Know about the Civil War; and Jubal A.
Early, the Lost Cause, and Civil War History: A Persistent Legacy.      

For more info about Gary see: www.virginia.edu/history/user/23

Be sure to come early to get a good seat.

SAVE THIS DATE: 11/11/2010
The RCWRT's 2010 annual dinner is scheduled for the evening of Thursday,
November 11, 2010 and will be held  again this year at the University of
Richmond's Jepson Alumni Center.  Our speaker  for  the  event  will  be
renowned  historian  John  Quarstein  on Fort Monroe .  Please mark your
calendar and watch for more details in a future newsletter.             

NOTE: Please put on your NEW NAME BADGE on when you arrive for the meeting.
(They will be near or on the raffle table.)

2010 Meeting Attendance: August = 100 !

JACK ACKERLY'S RESPONSE TO
DR. CHARLES BRYAN'S 8/15/10 ARTICLE IN THE RTD

Dr.  Charles Bryan omitted important facts in his  Sunday  guest  column
regarding  the  cause  of  the  Civil  War.   Does  he mention President
Lincoln?  What influence did Lincoln have in the start of the war?      

After the surrender of Fort Sumter, the secessionist states consisted of
a  total  of  seven,  not  the  eleven  the Confederate South eventually
became.  Virginia, the most populous, was not among the seven.  Virginia
voted  against  secession  88  to  45.   Like  Virginia,  not one of the
eventual eleven states was North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas.      

Following the surrender of Fort Sumter,  President  Lincoln  called  for
75,000  militia  to  put  down  the  rebellion.   Virginians  as well as
Tennesseans, North Carolinians, and Arkansans had the dilemma of  either
being  forced  to  supply  men  to  invade  the  lands of their southern
neighbors or defending their homes and farms  against  75,000  invaders.
Faced  with  Lincoln's  orders,  Virginia next voted 88 to 55 to secede,
carrying  Tennessee,  which  supplied  the  3rd  most  soldiers,   North
Carolina,  which  supplied  the  4th  most  soldiers,  and Arkansas with
Virginia.  Almost 50% of the South's soldiers  seceded  after  Lincoln's
call for the militia.                                                   

Had   President  Lincoln  chosen  a  less  coercive  course  of  action,
mediation, blockades, etc., might the result have been different?  Would
it  have  been  much  of a war without almost 50% of the Southern troops
resulting from Lincoln's call for troops following Sumter?              

From the North's standpoint, you do not need to read many  letters  home
from   Federal  soldiers  to  realize  their  motivation  to  fight  was
preservation of the Union and not freedom of the slaves.   Some  of  the
slaves  were  freed  by  the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, almost 2
years after the war started, and the rest by the  passage  of  the  13th
Amendment  in  December,  1865  well  after the war was over yet the war
continued.                                                              

Dr.  Bryan should have mentioned President  Lincoln's  precipitation  of
the war and the Federal soldiers' acknowledged motivation to fight.     

RTD article dated 8/15/10: Bryan: Yes, Slavery Caused the Civil War

This editorial does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the  Richmond
Civil War Round Table officers or its membership.                       

Book Report


Libby Prison Breakout
By Joseph Wheelan

This latest book on Libby Prison does a good job of setting the stage of
the  Civil  War  in  the Confederate Capital and the South in 1863/1864.
While the original agreement  between  North  and  South  on  exchanging
prisoners  worked  well  enough, that all changed when the U.S.  Colored
Troops entered the war.  After much saber rattling  on  both  sides,  by
late 1863 prisoner exchanges had come to a halt.                        

John Enders had the future Libby Prison built between 1845 and 1852, but
didn't live to see the completion of the building.  Purchased in 1861 by
Richmond businessman Luther Libby the building was turned into Libby and
Son, Ship Chandlers and Grocers, but in March 1862 General  John  Winder
informed  Libby  that  the  Confederate government was expropriating his
warehouse and was given 48 hours to remove his goods.                   

Libby Prison was as miserable as any Southern prison and  many  Northern
prisons, but the two foremost things on the minds of scores of the Union
officers that ended up in Libby were survival and escape.  Enter Colonel
Thomas  Ellwood  Rose  of  the 77th Pennsylvania, captured on the bloody
fields of Chickamauga on September 19th.  A Pittsburgh School principal,
Rose  had  escaped  from  the  train  on  the  way  to Richmond and been
recaptured one day later in Weldon, N.C.  Shortly after his  arrival  in
Richmond  Rose  and  Major  A.  G.  Hamilton of the 12th Kentucky joined
forces to escape.  Mr.  Wheelan goes into detail of not one or two,  but
four  attempts to dig their way out of Libby which resulted on the night
of February 9, 1864, with the escape of 109 prison weary  soldiers.   Of
that  number  59  made their way to the Union lines.  Unfortunately Col.
Rose was not one of them.  He got within a couple of hundred yards,  but
was  then  recaptured  and  returned  to Libby.  In April of 1864 he was
exchanged and rejoined the 77th to fight at Franklin and Nashville.   He
died  in  1907  and  is  buried in Arlington Cemetery with his headstone
reading: ENGINEERED AND EXECUTED THE LIBBY PRISON TUNNEL.               

The book wraps up with the fallout that the escape  caused  and  history
after  the war of Libby and some of the major persons in the book.  This
book is informative and an enjoyable easy read.                         

ISBN 9781586487164                                                      

Book Report by,
Danny Witt

Civil War Preservation Trust
For the latest CWPT news visit: www.civilwar.org

For Upcoming Events


Visit The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar
www.tredegar.org
and their
Events Calendar

Visit The Museum of the Confederacy Online
www.moc.org

Pamplin Historical Park and
The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier
www.pamplinpark.org
and their
Special Events Calendar

RCWRT Monthly Speakers for 2010


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