Where: Ohio Health Medical Campus, 300 Polaris Parkway, Westerville Ohio 43081

Time:   7pm

Speaker: Harold George

Topic:   Custer’s Last Stand

Where: Ohio Health Medical Campus, 300 Polaris Parkway, Westerville Ohio 43081

Time: 7pm

Speaker: Annual group discussion night.

Topic:  Compare and Contrast the Civil War’s importance relative to other American wars. We will attempt to rank the importance of all the American wars and determine whether the Civil War was the most important of all the American Wars.

January Newsletter

Enjoy the holidays and please plan to join us in January

December Newsletter

Where:  Ohio Health Medical Campus, 300 Polaris Parkway, Westerville Ohio 43081

Time:    7pm

Speaker: Gail Stephens

Topic:    The  Shadow of Shiloh; Major General Lew Wallace in the Civil War

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 In the spring of 1862, Major General Lew Wallace was a Union military hero.  At the age of 35, he was the youngest major general in the Union Army, rising to that rank from colonel in 11 short months.  Devoted to the Union, he was also a romantic about war, pursuing honor, fame and glory in combat.  Then in early April 1862, though only a short distance away, Wallace mysteriously failed to appear on the bloody battlefield of Shiloh with his division until the end of the first day of that battle.  The common perception is that this was a death blow to his career, until Lincoln decided to give him another chance, assigning him to command in Maryland where in the summer of 1864, with his army vastly outnumbered, Wallace fought the battle of Monocacy, “the battle that saved Washington,” restoring his fighting reputation.  The truth, however, is never that simple.  Wallace was a genuine hero, but he made mistakes and he was a scapegoat for the mistakes of others.  The story of Lew Wallace and the Civil War is fascinating and complex, highlighting some important truths about battles fought within the Union Army as well as those with the Confederates.

A guide at Monocacy and author of Shadow of Shiloh: Major General Lew Wallace in the Civil War Gail Stephens has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Politics from George Washington University in Washington D.C., and has done graduate work at Johns Hopkins and Harvard Universities.  She worked for the Department of Defense for 26 years, retiring in 1994 as a member of the Department’s Senior Executive Service.  Upon retirement, she began to study the American Civil War.  She volunteers at Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick, Maryland, lectures on the Civil War, teaches courses at area colleges and gives battlefield tours.  In 2002, she won the National Park Service’s E.W. Peterkin award for her contributions to public understanding of Civil War history.  Her book about Major General Lew Wallace’s Civil War service, The Shadow of Shiloh; Major General Lew Wallace in the Civil War. was published in October 2010 by the Indiana Historical Society Press.

November Newsletter

Where: Ohio Health Medical Campus, 300 Polaris Parkway, Westerville Ohio 43081

Time: 7pm

Speaker: John Hoptak

Topic: The Battle of South Mountain, September 14th 1862

      The Battle of South Mountain has long remained in the shadows cast by the larger and far bloodier battle fought three days later along the banks of the Antietam Creek in western Maryland. Yet South Mountain was in itself a significant battle, for it was here that Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the North was met and initially repulsed. It was also the first major battle fought north of the Potomac River, and the Union victory there did much to restore confidence in the ranks, which aided them three days later at Antietam. Hoptak, who recently published a history of South Mountain as part of the History Press’ Civil War Sesquicentennial Series, will speak of the importance of the battle of South Mountain by placing it within the larger context of the Maryland Campaign. He will describe the actions at Fox’s, Turner’s, Frostown, and Crampton’s Gap and the reasons why South Mountain was a significant battle.

John David Hoptak is a lifelong student of the American Civil War and currently works as an Interpretative Park Ranger at Antietam National Battlefield. He also teaches courses in American History and Civil War History as an Adjunct Professor at American Military University. Hoptak is the author of several books, including First in Defense of the Union: The Civil War History of the First Defenders (2004), Our Boys Did Nobly: Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, Soldiers at the Battles of South Mountain and Antietam (2009), The Battle of South Mountain (2011), and Antietam: September 17, 1862 (2011). Hoptak is active in the preservation and promotion of local history and recently completed a nationwide effort to restore the 48th Pennsylvania Monument at Antietam Battlefield. Hoptak also blogs on the Civil War at www.48thpennsylvania.blogspot.com

October Newsletter

Greg Biggs

Forty four members and guests were assembled as Greg examined the five Confederate attempts to capture Nashville. As usual Greg’s vast knowledge of the western theater and his quick wit kept all in attendance amused and  entertained. Thank you Greg for another outstanding evening at the Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable. 

September Newsletter

Where: Ohio Health Medical Campus, 3oo Polaris Parkway, Westerville Ohio 43081

Time: 7pm

Speaker: Greg Biggs

Topic:   Nashville: The Siren’s Song of the Western Confederacy

In December, 1864, the Confederate Army of Tennessee laid siege to the massive Union fortifications and garrison of Nashville.  In a two day fight, that army was all but destroyed.  Their arrival at the city’s door was the culmination of Confederate strategy that began when the city was captured by Union forces in February, 1862.  Nashville, thereafter, became the “Siren’s song” for Confederate strategy in the west luring Confederate offensives no less than five times.  This program details the city’s importance and each of the five attempts to retake it.

Greg Biggs is a Civil War author, editor, researcher and tour guide specializing in the war fought in the western theater – in particular Sherman’s Atlanta campaign, the battle for Fort Donelson and CSA General Nathan Bedford Forrest.  He has held executive positions with several Civil War Roundtables and preservation and historical societies including the Western Ohio Civil War Roundtable, the Ohio Civil War Association, the Clarksville, TN Civil War Roundtable and the Montgomery County Civil War Preservation Society and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Center For the Study of the Civil War in the West at Western Kentucky University.

September Newsletter

Where:    Ohio Health Medical Campus, 300 Polaris Parkway, Westerville Ohio 43081

Time:       7pm

Speaker: James A. Hessler

Topic:      Dan Sickles at Gettysburg

James A. Hessler works in the financial services industry and is a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg National Military Park. A native of Buffalo NY, he resides in Gettysburg with his wife and children.

James Hessler at Gettysburg Daily

August Newsletter

Where: Ohio Health Medical Campus, 300 Polaris Parkway, Westerville Ohio 43081

Time: 7pm

Speaker: Howard Strouse

Topic: “Amazing Grace: Champions of Abolition”

A native of Ohio, born during World War II, Howard has been fascinated with history from boyhood. Throughout his travels in 22 countries and 48 states, he has always been interested in how things evolved and how our country grew and protected itself. His particular favorite is the U.S. in the 19th century, especially the Civil War period. Mr. Strouse’s undergraduate work was completed at Columbia College and the University of Missouri, where he majored in criminal justice, with a minor in history. He obtained his first Master’s degree in Criminal Justice and Law, and his second in History and Government – both conferred with honors – at Webster University.

Presenter Howard Strouse

Serving in the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, he went on to a career as a Federal Special Agent with the Department of Defense. His final assignment, in a career that spanned thirty-five years, was as Chief of Industrial Personnel Security Clearance Adjudication for all firms (contractors) that required Federal security clearances to do business with the Department of Defense. Howard has given presentations at universities, Civil War round tables, libraries, social and fraternal organizations, history seminars and other history events. He is a Civil War re-enactor, portraying General Alpheus Williams (and sometimes, when his weight is trimmed, General George Gordon Meade). A Member of the General Staff of the Blue and the Grey, he is also a member and past General-in-Chief of the Columbus, Ohio, Civil War Round Table, and is currently an active member in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is also a participating member of the Lincoln Forum, and serves as historian/tour leader for the Civil War Education Association and the American History Forum.

July Newsletter

Where:  Ohio Health Medical Campus, 300 Polaris Parkway, Westerville Ohio 43081

Time:  7pm

Speaker: James G. Ryan

Topic:  G.K. Warren at Second Manassas

The actions of Major General Gouverneur K. Warren at Gettysburg are well-known to many members of our Civil War Roundtable. Warren, serving as the Chief Engineer on the staff of the Army of the Potomac, noted the importance of Little Round Top to the Army’s defensive position on July 2, and scrambled to get first Strong Vincent’s Brigade (and Charles Hazlett’s attached Battery D, 5th U.S Artillery) and then Stephen Weed’s Brigade of the Fifth Corps to divert to defense of the eminence, thus stabilizing the famed “fish hook” position of the federal forces. Warren’s actions are commemorated by an iconic statue at the summit of Little Round Top.

What is less known is Warren’s pre-Gettysburg career as an infantry commander in the Fifth Corps, and the bloody debacle his brigade of Zouaves faced on August 30, 1862 at Second Manassas. On that fateful day, Warren noticed that the Charles Hazlett’s Battery D, 5th U.S. Artillery was unprotected and moved his men to protect the battery. Unknown to Warren, Major General John Pope and his second-in-command Major General Irvin McDowell, were stripping the entire left flank of the Union army of its infantry, leaving Warren’s 1,120-man Brigade precariously hanging in front of the 25,000 man force that Lieutenant General James Longstreet was preparing to launch in a massive flank attack.

Jamie Ryan will discuss the actions of Warren and his regiments at Second Manassas, and relationship between the actions that day and those on July 2, 1863 in and around Little Round Top.

Jamie Ryan, 51, is a charter member of the Central Ohio Civil War Roundtable and has presented numerous topics to our Roundtable and other Roundtables around the State of Ohio.  Jamie has conducted extensive study of the Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and has visited every Fifth Corps battlefield. Jamie is a partner in Bailey Cavalieri, LLC, a Columbus, Ohio-based law firm, where he practices corporate law with a concentration on commercial lending, corporate transactions and unclaimed property law.

June Newsletter