Meet at THE BOURBON STREET GRILL !
The Civil War Round Table continues to meet the first Wednesday
each month from September through May (except January) at 2605 Philadelphia Pike, Claymont, Delaware. Dinner starts at 6:30
P.M. ($13.00) followed by the program ($3.00) at 7:30 P.M.
DINNER & BAR SERVICES
NO PRIOR
RESERVATIONS
REQUIRED
Place: The Bourbon Street Grill
2605 Philadelphia
Pike
Claymont, DE 19703
TEL: 302-798-2521
Time: Dinner at 6:30 P.M. Program at 7:30 P.M.
Business meeting follows program
Price: Dinner $13.00; meeting $3.00 (not included
in dinner price)
Wednesday November 5, 2008
Speaker: Melissa Delacour
Topic: Biography:
Maj. Gen. Lunsford Lomax
Entrees: TBA
Wednesday December 3, 2008
Speaker Richard Lewis
Topic.
Military History: “The Genius of Stonewall Jackson”
Entrees:TBA
Wednesday January 9, 2009
Speaker: TBA
Topic: TBA
Entrees:
TBA
Wednesday February 4, 2009
Speaker: Bruce Stocking
Topic:
Re-enacting: Gen. Winfield S. Hancock of Norristown
Entrees: TBA
Monday, February 23, 2009
A Special Presentation with Widener
University School of Law and the Delaware Lincoln Bicentennial Commission at Widener University School of Law, Wilmington,
DE.
Topic: Lincoln and the Law
Time: 4:00 P.M.-7:00 P.M. Leading Speaker James Swanson, author of Manhunt.
Reception
for CWRT members and Mr. Swanson will follow the program
Admission: Lawyers $70, general public $20.
Wednesday March 4, 2009
Speaker: J. David Petruzzi
Topic:
Military History: Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s Ride to Gettysburg
Entrees: TBA
Wednesday April 1, 2009
Speaker: Ed Bonekemper
Topic:Military
History: Grant & Lee: victorious American & Vanquished Virginian
Entrees: TBA
Wednesday May 6, 2009
Speaker Bob O’Connor
Topic:
History: The Perfect Steel Trap: Harper’s Ferry 1859
Entrees: TBA
November Civil War History Notes
On 9 November 1863,
President Abraham Lincoln attended the theatre to see John Wilkes Booth star in the Marble Heart.
Grape & Canister ,November, 2008
Page Two
SPEAKER PROFILES
MELISSA DELCOUR, NOVEMBER SPEAKER
Melissa Delcour is a former Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Park Service
battlefield historian and a current high school teacher in Virginia. She has authored several articles, including "Lightning
Strike in the Valley: the Battle of Front Royal" which was published by Military History Magazine. She enjoys researching,
writing, and preparing battlefield tours from her small home in Culpeper, Virginia, where she lives with her two miniature
schnauzers. Her current project is a book entitled In the Time of Heroes: The Civil War Letters of David and James Jenkins,
146th New York Infantry
Ms. Delcour will favor our Round Table with a brief biography of
Maj. Gen. Lunsford Lomax, CSA, cavalry commander for a time in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Lomax had the great
misfortune to serve as Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early’s cavalry commander. As Ms. Delcour will no doubt point out, Early’s
opinion of all cavalry can be summed up by Early’s own snarling description of all cavalrymen as “buttermilk rangers.”
RICHARD LEWIS, DECEMBER SPEAKER
Richard Lewis, public relations manager for Virginia Tourism Corporation, is a
native of Gulfport, Mississippi, and a graduate of Louisiana State University, where he studied Civil War history under Pulitzer
Prize-winner Dr. T. Harry Williams. He serves as liaison to the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the Civil War Commission and
is on the advisory boards of the Civil War Trails and Journey Through Hallowed Ground initiatives. As Public Relations Manager
of the Virginia Tourism Corporation he is dedicated to exploring new and dynamic ways of promoting and presenting Civil War
history to potential visitors. A lifelong student of the Civil War, he is particularly drawn to trying to figure out that
strange professor from the Virginia Military Institute, Thomas Jonathan Jackson.
Mr. Lewis will be speaking on his favorite subject, Stonewall Jackson
and his military acumen. Perhaps he can explain why this obscure college professor became the most daring and resourceful
member of Lee’s Lieutenants. Bring your questions to the meeting about the Seven Days.
REPORT FROM THE FRONT
JIM CAMPI of the CIVIL WAR PRESERVATION
TRUST
CIVIL WAR NEWS NOMINATIONS FOR ENDANGERED
BATTLEFIELDS REPORT
(Washington, D.C.) - The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), the nation's
largest nonprofit battlefield preservation organization, is accepting nominations for its annual report on endangered Civil
War battlefields. The report, entitled History Under Siege, identifies the most threatened Civil War sites in the United States
and what can be done to rescue them.
"Too often the threats to our priceless historical treasures go unnoticed,"
noted CWPT President James Lighthizer. "This report is a rallying cry to the nation, a powerful reminder that our hallowed
battlefields are in imminent danger."
History Under Siege is part of CWPT's ongoing effort to protect America's remaining
Civil War battlefields. Every day 30 acres of hallowed ground associated with Civil War battlefields fall victim to development,
succumbing to the backhoe and the bulldozer. Once lost, these historic treasures can never be replaced.
The 2009
endangered battlefields report will be released next Spring in Washington, D.C. Any Civil War battlefield is eligible to for
nomination and consideration. The ten chosen sites will be selected based on geographic location, military significance and
the immediacy of current threats.
"From Pennsylvania to New Mexico, the battlefields where the Civil War was fought
are under siege," Lighthizer remarked. "Nominations from concerned citizens, history buffs and preservation activists help
us stay aware of the most current threats to a wide variety of battlefields."
Grape & Canister, November 2008
Page Three
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Dear CWRT Members,
The election looms, the
economy struggles and winter and the holidays fast approach. With that in mind, let met me emphasize what a pleasant diversion
our trip to Antietam turned out to be. The weather was perfect, the scenery spectacular, and once again, a good time was had
by all. I wish we could have had more members with us, but that doesn't diminish the experience we enjoyed. Thanks to Vince
Gasbarro for his fine work in organizing the event. As we have come to expect from Vince, another stellar performance.
Next
on the club's agenda is the Lincoln Bicentennial. Professor Tom Reed will report on the progress at our November meeting.
We look forward to his presentation. Tom Carver and George Ferguson are board members, who along with Tom Reed, are representing
the club.
Greg Vavroch has done yeoman work in organizing our finances. He has purchased computer software which will
substantially improve our membership and mailing lists, enabling the club to maximize our bottom line. Debi Butzbach is in
charge of increasing our membership. We are lucky to have both.
Thanks to all who attended our first two meetings.
The Crerand recently became the Bourbon Street Grille. Jeff Mckay still owns and manages, despite what the banner on the front
says. Jeff has made vast improvements to our meeting room, including doors which eliminated the bar noise. Please patronize
his establishment on your own time. He and his staff do a fine job.
Hope to see everyone at the November meeting. Invite
a friend.
Frank Giamboy
President
DELAWARE CONFEDERATE VIGNETTES:
COL.TRUSTEN POLK
Trusten Polk, born 29 May 1811 in Bridgeville, a relative of Delaware
Governors Charles Polk and Peter Causey, graduated from Yale College in 1831. After reading for the law in Sussex, he
was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1835. Polk emigrated to the new state of Missouri shortly before the Mexican
War, settling in St. Louis. He became a prominent local attorney and Democratic party official, serving as one of the
delegates to the Missouri Constitutional Convention. In 1856, Polk was the Democratic candidate for Governor defeating Thomas
Hart Benton, former senator and confidant of President Andrew Jackson. In 1857, the legislature appointed Gov. Polk
U.S. Senator from Missouri and he handed over the reins of state power to his lieutenant governor, Claiborne Jackson.
Senator Polk backed John Bell during the 1860 presidential campaign, and did not come out for secession until Gov. Jackson
called for a secession convention in the spring of 1861. The situation in Missouri was exceptionally fluid: the state
government had raised an army which was drilling at Camp Jackson outside St. Louis. Governor Jackson said the state’s
army existed to keep Missouri neutral in the sectional fight, but insiders knew Jackson wanted to join the Confederacy.
Captain Nathan Lyon used four pro-Union German militia regiments to dispersed the Missouri militia at Camp Jackson. Lyon,
a regular officer acted as Union commander in the absence of Gen. William S. Harney, the department commander.
Senator Polk left the Senate ( he was later expelled as a Rebel in 1862) and came home to Missouri to take over command of
a Missouri State Guards Regiment in December 1861. When Maj. Gen. Sterling Price’s Missouri State Troops joined
the Confederate States after the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Polk followed his regiment into Confederate service. Commissioned
a Colonel in 1862, Polk was a regimental commander in the Trans-Mississippi until appointed Presiding Judge of the Trans Mississippi
Department by Lt. Gen. Edmund P. Kirby Smith. In 1863, Col. Polk was taken prisoner and sent to Johnson’s Island
in Lake Erie, where he became very ill. The Commissioner of Military Prisons arranged an exchange and Polk was returned
to the Confederacy. His military service after release in 1864 was confined to making forays into Missouri with other former
Missouri politicians seeking public support for the Missouri government in exile in Texas. Some despatches erroneously
referred to Col. Polk as General Polk, nurturing the
Grape & Canister, November 2008
Page Four
legend that he was a Confederate brigadier, which he was not. Col. Polk
was paroled at war’s end and practiced law in St. Louis until his death on 16 April 1876.
[Picture Not Transferable]
Who is this Union Major General?
A Local Establishment
was Named for Him
Grape & Canister
A Publication of the Civil War Round
Table of Wilmington, Delaware, Inc.
Founded 1955
President:
Frank Giamboy
Vice President Education:
Robert Potter
Vice President Preservation:
John LaRosch
Vice Presidentr Finance:
Greg Vavroch
Secretary-Treasurer:
Deborah Butzbach
Board Members:
Lisa Cristofich,
Robert Potter
Vincent Gasbarro, Jr.
James Pratzner
John LaRosch
Frank Giamboy
Thomas Massey, III
George Ferguson
Greg Vavroch
Tom Carver
Deborah Butzbach
Program Chair: Lisa Cristofich
Field Trip Chair:
Vincent Gasbarro, Jr.
Editor: Tom Reed
©2008 Civil War Round Table of Wilmington, Delaware,
Inc. 71 W. Fifth St. New Castle, DE 19720
Student Membership:
$5.00
Individual Membership:
$15.00
Family Membership:
$25.00
Life Membership:
$250.00
