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   
December 2005 PROGRAM

Mr. James H. Blankenship, Jr.

"The United States Military Railroad at City Point"

8:00 p.m., Tuesday, December 13, 2005, 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.

James Blankenship,  a  native  of  Dinwiddie  County,  is  a
historian  at  Petersburg  National Battlefield.  It is here
where he began his 25-year career  with  the  National  Park
Service  as  a  seasonal  ranger  manning  the  horses  of a
12-pounder Napoleon artillery crew.  Mr.  Blankenship served
a two-year internship at the Museum of the Confederacy while
obtaining his history degree from VCU in 1978.  In 1984, Mr.
Blankenship  returned  to  Petersburg  National  Battlefield
where he is now preparing for his  position  as  the  museum
curator.   He  is  an expert on the Siege of Petersburg, the
history of City  Point,  and  black-powder  artillery.   Mr.
Blankenship  resides  in the historic City Point district of
Hopewell, Va.  He is the author of "As Smooth As  A  Greased
Wheel", a detailed study of the US Military Railroad at City
Point (scheduled release 2006).                             

On June 18, 1864 General Grant ordered  the  creation  of  a
forward  supply  base  capable of supporting the 125,000 men
and 65,000  horses  &  mules  of  the  Union  armies  around
Petersburg.   The resulting port facilities and supply depot
at City Point were unparalleled in prior  military  history.
The  U.S.   Military  Railroad  Construction Corps built the
majority of the 280 support buildings and lay over 21  miles
of  railroad  track to the battlefront.  They maintained the
25 locomotives and 275 rolling stock, while logging over 2.3
million miles.  General Grant praised the operations at City
Point stating, "There has been no army in the United  States
where   the  duties  of  Quartermaster  have  been  so  well
performed."  Grant  fully  understood  the   importance   of
logistical  support  in  winning  a military campaign and at
Petersburg victory rode the rails.                          

Summary of November Meeting




The Richmond Civil War Round Table held  its  annual  dinner
last  month,  high  above  Richmond on the 24th floor of the
SunTrust building downtown.  In addition  to  a  spectacular
view  of  the  city  and a superb meal, Jeff Johnston of the
National  Oceanic  and  Atmospheric  Administration   (NOAA)
treated  Round  Table members to an engrossing presentation.
Johnston has worked  with  NOAA's  Monitor  National  Marine
Sanctuary  and  gave  RCWRT  members  an  inside look at the
recovery and restoration of the legendary Union ironclad.   

The Monitor was the brainchild of Swedish-American  inventor
John   Ericsson.    Johnston   described   Ericsson   as   a
self-confident genius, a man who always claimed to be  right
and  generally  was.  In 1861 Ericsson designed a ship whose
hull and cannon worked together.  Union officials gave him a
contract   that   allowed   only  90  days  for  the  ship's
construction.  It took Ericsson 108  days  to  complete  but
only because he had to wait for materials.                  

The  Monitor's firepower came from two 11-inch Dahlgren guns
and the ironclad boasted the first rotating turret in  naval
history.   It  was  an imposing sight, five feet tall with a
20-foot diameter, but for the twenty men working inside  the
turret, space was quite cramped.  It was the Monitor's March
9, 1862 clash with the Confederate  ironclad  Merrimac  that
made  both ships famous.  Overnight, all other navies across
the world became obsolete.                                  

The ironclad was to meet its demise  in  the  wee  hours  of
December  31,  1862  off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC.  It
was not Confederate gunfire but a gale and 20-foot seas that
eventually  sank  her.  Remarkably, only 16 men perished out
of the 62 on board.  Normally a much larger crew would  have
been  manning  the  ship but many were home on leave for the
holidays.  The 46 survivors were rescued through the  heroic
efforts of the U.S.S.  Rhode Island.  The Medal of Honor was
awarded to the Rhode Island's crew for  their  bravery  that
cold December night.                                        

In 1973 the ironclad was found upside down, supported by its
famed turret, on the floor of  the  Atlantic.   It  had  hit
bottom stern first.  Among the artifacts, the remains of two
unidentified  soldiers  were  discovered.   In   1987   NOAA
selected  the  Mariner's  Museum  in  Newport  News  as  the
principal repository.                                       

Undoubtedly  the  biggest  challenge  the  crew  faced   was
recovering the ship's famed turret.  First the twin Dahlgren
guns had to be removed from  their  carriages.   Eventually,
through  the work of 147 Navy divers, the turret was rescued
intact.  The recovered turret is  a  great  place  to  work,
joked  Johnston,  if  you  can  get  used  to  the  smell of
115-year-old sushi.                                         

Among the smaller items rescued are 27 pieces of silverware,
four of them engraved with officers' names.  Other recovered
items  include  a   sledgehammer   head,   hair   combs,   a
pocketknife,  lantern  mounts,  a  hydrometer  (intact  with
paper), a wedding band and  a  bottle  of  hair  restoration
ointment.   This  last  item  may  have been used to smuggle
alcohol on board, Johnston added.                           

It was financially impossible to recover the Monitor intact,
Johnston explained.  Recovery work is expensive and there is
never enough money.  There are many, many more items at  the
wreck  site, Johnston noted, but no plans to recover them at
this time due to the lack of available funding.             

General Assembly Recommends State Support
of Museum of the Confederacy

At the end of the fourth and final meeting of  the  Virginia
General  Assembly  joint  subcommittee  on The Museum of the
Confederacy, legislators voted to adopt in  large  part  the
findings  and  recommendations  proposed  by  Del.   William
Janis.   Janis  handed  a  draft  document  to  his   fellow
legislators with these findings of fact:                    

      "...The  ongoing  construction and encroachment of MCV
      Hospital  have  created   significant   obstacles   to
      tourists,  visitors  and  patrons who wish to find the
      Museum.  These traffic and parking problems,  as  well
      as   the   noisy   and   chaotic  setting,  have  only
      exacerbated the trend of declining numbers of visitors
      of  the  Museum,  creating a real financial crisis for
      the annual operating budget."                         

      "...These  problems  are  in  some  measure   of   the
      Commonwealth's  making.While MCV and VCU have provided
      some financial relief to  the  Museum  to  offset  the
      impact  of  construction,  it has been insufficient to
      reverse the  trend  in  visitors,  and  the  resulting
      financial strain."                                    

      "If this financial strain on the Museum continues, the
      Trustees may find themselves forced to  take  measures
      that  are  equally  drastic  and  unpalatable, such as
      selling some artifacts."                              

      "We can and should, as the stewards of the  taxpayers'
      purse,  be  very  skeptical  about requests for public
      financing of non-state agencies.  But we  should  also
      acknowledge  those  circumstances when it is only fair
      and equitable to alleviate the damage  done  by  state
      action.   The  Subcommittee believes this is precisely
      such a case, and that fairness requires, at a minimum,
      a  modest, and temporary, state subsidy.because it has
      been the Commonwealth, through its agents the  Medical
      College  of  Virginia  and  VCU,  that  has  at  least
      exacerbated the  current  crisis,  if  not  caused  it
      outright."                                            

      "All  members  share  an  absolute  commitment to take
      whatever steps  within  our  power  to  safeguard  and
      preserve this historic treasure, even if it remains in
      its current location."                                

The subcommittee recommended  that  the  Chairman  of  House
Appropriations  and  the  Chairman  of  the  Senate  Finance
Committee identify sufficient funds for the museum to offset
the  impact  of  VCU's  construction.  No recommendation was
made regarding the possible relocation of the White House of
the Confederacy.                                            

"We   were   pleased   with   the   state's   findings   and
recommendations," said Museum of the  Confederacy  Executive
Director  Waite  Rawls in a statement posted on the museum's
website.  "The state's recommendations leave us with a sense
of hope; and the prospect of state support for the museum is
good news.  But we still have a long way to go and a lot  of
work to do."                                                

Odds and Ends

You may have noticed a change in our speaker for this month.
David  Blight  was  originally  scheduled  to  speak  at the
RCWRT's December meeting.  Unfortunately  Mr.   Blight  fell
and  injured  his neck and had to postpone his presentation.
We hope to reschedule Mr.  Blight in the near future.       

James Blankenship was scheduled  to  speak  at  our  January
meeting  but  has  graciously  consented  to come this month
instead.  The Round Table wishes to thank  Mr.   Blankenship
for  being flexible with his schedule.  Kudos also to Bernie
Fisher and Shep Parsons for their quick work in lining up  a
speaker on just a few days' notice.                         

At our December meeting we will be drawing a winner  in  our
raffle  of a complete 28-volume set of Time Life's Civil War
books series.  Longtime member Joe Monroe generously donated
these  books  to  the Round Table.  Before Tuesday's meeting
you will have one last opportunity to purchase  tickets  for
the  drawing.  This same handsome set of books sold for well
over $200 on Ebay this past weekend.                        

Looking for a unique gift for yourself or a Civil  War  buff
on  your  Christmas  list?   Pamplin  Park  and the National
Museum of the Civil War Soldier  is  offering  a  Civil  War
Adventure Camp.  Participants travel back in time and become
a private in the Army, select Confederate or Union uniforms,
sleep  in  recreated huts or barracks, enjoy authentic Civil
War-era hot meals, and fire a replica  rifle.   Participants
will  hear  period  ghost  stories  around the fire, protect
their platoons on guard duty, and take part in 19th  century
medical and signal corps programs.                          

The  Civil War Adventure Camp experience is geared to adults
and children eight  and  above.   Advance  reservations  are
required to participate in this one-of-a-kind adventure. For
more    information,     see     the     park's     website,
www.pamplinpark.org or call 1-877-PAMPLIN.                  

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