Inland Empire

Civil War Round Table

A 501(c)3 registered non-profit organization.

EIN: 36-5074542. Donations are tax-deductible

Winner of the First International CWRT Congress PHOENIX AWARD

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Our May 19th Zoom program welcomes back Gordon Gidlund presenting: "Shakespeare in the Civil War." Discover references to Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets that appeared in newspaper cartoons, soldiers’ letters home, and politicians’ speeches—especially those of Abraham Lincoln himself, who was a big fan of the Bard.

Gordon Gidlund

Originally from Wisconsin, Gordon is a retired attorney who practiced for 35 years in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel and taught for 17 years as an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. He first became fascinated by the Civil War as a lad during the centennial of 1961-1965. He has given talks on a range of subjects related to the “Late Unpleasantness,” including Johnston’s surrender, McClellan’s rehabilitation, pre-war politics, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, sectarian causes, soldiers’ motivations, monetary policies, peace negotiations, the Lieber Code, prisoner exchanges, the Trent Affair, and Shakespeare’s influence. He lives in San Diego with his wife Linda. Gordon has served the Inland Empire Civil War Round Table as Program Director and is currently on the Board of Directors.

The Zoom room will open at 6:15 Pacific Time and the presentation will start sharply at 6:30. Use the Zoom link below.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85840185161?pwd=RlkPCtoVpUhYoT7BZLw1WwTDd6gzFR.1

On Wednesday, May 21st, our in-person-only program welcomes back Dr. Dave Schrader, presenting. "Love Him or Hate Him? General Benjamin "Beast: Butler." Most CWRT fans know that Benjamin Butler was the most controversial political general. But he lived a rich and complex life – before, during, and after the Civil War - and this talk aims to provide some nuance to the interpretation of his contributions to the Union, while not ignoring some of his questionable tactics. Love him or hate him, you’ll walk away with a richer understanding of his life, his big goals, his many successes and failures, his supporters, and his many, many detractors.

Dr. Dave Schrader has been giving CWRT talks to southern California audiences since 2013. He is particularly fascinated by “the rest of the story” – for example, the activities of support organizations such as the Signal Corps, the Commissary Corps and the Quartermaster Corps, who often played major but behind-the-scene roles helping generals and presidents achieve their goals. Or people like Lincoln’s Secretaries or his Ambassadors that played a pivotal role in supporting the President and his policies. Or the Fire-Eaters who drummed up support for secession in the south while the Abolitionists were busy motivating people in the North. Most of his talks are interactive so be prepared for audience participation! Retired tech director at 3 database companies, Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue.

The program will be in the Assembly Room of the A.K. Smiley Public Library, 125 W. Vine St, in Redlands. The presentation will begin sharply at 6:30, but come early and socialize with other Civil War history enthusiasts.

On Monday, April 21st, Dr. Ashley Whitehead Luskey presented, "Varina Davis: First Lady of the Confederacy."

If you missed the program, here is the link to the recorded presentation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OgkxjHCkNoKq4zZyMmBLdUYKwqSPDkQ1/view?usp=sharing

Dr. Ashley Whitehead Luskey

Varina Davis: Confederate Enigma

Passive and deferential, stalwartly pro-South, a role model of traditional southern womanhood in dress, comportment, and companionship: These are the defining characteristics of the First Lady of the Confederacy…or so we might think, and so her peers may have expected. But in truth, Varina Davis, the first and only First Lady of the fledgling southern nation, proved far more complicated to her peers and to modern audiences seeking to understand her precise role and standing amongst the ruling elite of the Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia. Conforming in some aspects to societal expectations befitting her gender and class, while notably defying others, Varina was and remains an enigma. This talk will explore some of the key ways in which she navigated the social and political responsibilities and expectations placed upon her, all while refusing to forsake her own notions of what it meant to be the wife of the Confederate president—notions that were often at odds with those held by others within her social circle. Weaving social politics with national politics, regional culture with national culture, Varina created a unique role for herself as the female figurehead of a society and a nation at war for its survival---a role that proved as complex and controversial in the post-war years as it did between 1861-1865.

Historian Ashley Whitehead Luskey is Assistant Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. She is an accomplished scholar with more than 23 years of experience in public history, Luskey came to Gettysburg College from Morgantown, West Virginia, where she served as owner of Past Presented Historical Consulting and an instructor in the Department of History at West Virginia University.

A graduate of the College of William & Mary, Luskey earned her M.A. in History, with a concentration in Public History, in 2010, and her Ph.D. in History in 2014 from West Virginia University. She has worked extensively as a ranger-historian for the National Park Service at Richmond National Battlefield Park

If you missed the live Jon Grinsapn's presentation, you can view the recording by clicking the link below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aIgCKK_nAwiB_U-Sz0ttwGcggbrZ2rAV/view?usp=sharing

Our March 17th Zoom program featured Jon Grinspan Ph.D, author of "Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force That Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War." The Wide Awakes were a group of hundreds of thousands of young White and Black men and a number of women that organized boisterous, uniformed, torch-bearing brigades. They were mostly working class Americans in their twenties -becoming one of our history's largest, most spectacular, and most influential political movements. To some, they demonstrated the power of a rising majority to push back against slavery. To others, it looked like a paramilitary force training to invade the South. Within a year, the nation would be at war with itself, and many on both sides would point to the Wide Awakes as the mechanism that got them there.

Jon Grinspan is a curator of political history at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. He is the author of, The Age of Acrimony and The Virgin Vote, frequently contributes to the New York Times, and has been featured in the New Yorker and the Washington Post and on CBS Sunday Morning. He lives in Washington D.C.