The Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meetings

About The Chicago Civil War Round Table Monthly Meetings

The Civil War Round Table of Chicago present programming of interest to devotées of American Civil War history, support preservation of Civil War battle sites, and sponsor a very popular annual battlefield tour. Founded in 1940, The Civil War Round Table of Chicago was the very first of over 200 such Round Tables that now meet around the world. The Civil War Round Table of Chicago is dedicated to the study of all aspects of the American Civil War, bringing together those who wish to expand and share their knowledge, as we promote the interchange of ideas.

Publisher

Marc Kunis

Category

history

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

27 Jun 2020

Latest episode

11 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

448 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   11 Oct 2026

   October Meeting of the Chicago Civil War Round Table: Joshua Lindamood on “Black Thursday: The Battle of Sailor's Creek”

   April 6, 1865 (known as "Black Thursday") was one of the most devastating days of the American Civil War. As Robert E. Lee's Confederate army retreated, Grant's Union forces struck along a stretched and vulnerable line, triggering the Battle of Sailor's Creek. Fighting broke out at multiple locations, including near the Hillsman House and along Sailor's Creek, where Confederate units were overwhelmed, cut off, and forced into intense close-quarters combat. The losses were staggering, with thousands killed, wounded, or captured. This program highlights the key decisions of the day and their significance, showing how the fighting at Sailor's Creek led directly to Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House just three days later. Joshua Lindamood is a historian serving at both Sailor's Creek Battlefield Historical State Park and Staunton River Battlefield State Park. Throughout his career, he has also held positions with the American Civil War Museum and Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, where he has helped interpret and preserve the history of the Civil War for visitors from around the world. 2 Joshua is a founding member and co-director of the Appomattox-Petersburg Preservation Society (A.P.P.S.), a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the historic battlefields and landmarks of Southside Virginia while promoting public education about the region's vital role during the American Civil War. Through his work in public history, preservation, and education, Joshua is committed to ensuring that the stories of those who experienced the conflict continue to inform and inspire future generations.

2. 

   17 Sept 2026

   Sept 2026 Meeting of the Chicago Civil War Round Table: James Marten on “The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War”

   James Marten on “The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War” for more info: www.chicagocwrt.org As one of the original regiments in the Iron Brigade, the Sixth Wisconsin fought in virtually all of the major campaigns of the Army of the Potomac from Second Bull Run through Appomattox, from the Cornfield at Antietam and the Unfinished Railroad Cut at Gettysburg through the confusing bloodbath of the Wilderness and the frustrating siege at Petersburg. After the war veterans struggled with the aftermaths of wounds and disease, commemorated their contributions, and remembered their fallen comrades. Prof. Marten's talk will sample the war-time and post-war experiences of volunteers like Rufus Dawes, Captain of Company K and future commander of the Sixth, as well as draftees like Gottlieb Torke, one of hundreds of mostly German-immigrants who finished the war. James Marten is professor of history emeritus at Marquette University, where he taught for thirty-six years. He is author, editor, or co-editor, of two dozen books, including The Children's Civil War, Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America, and his latest, The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War: The Biography of a Regiment. He was president of the Society of Civil War Historians from 2013 to 2015.

3. 

   26 Jun 2026

   June 2026 Meeting of the Chicago Civil War Round Table: Alex Rossino on “Before September: The Origin of the 1862 Maryland Campaign”

   Alex Rossino on "Before September: The Origin of the 1862 Maryland Campaign" For more info: www.chicagocwrt.org. History records the September 1862 Confederate operation in Maryland as a military campaign designed and initiated solely by General Robert E. Lee, but what if Lee's crossing of the Potomac River had been planned much further in advance? In addition, what if the motives for the invasion commonly ascribed to Lee are only partially correct? In this talk, Dr. Alex Rossino provides extensive evidence documenting the true origin of Lee's Maryland operation in the summer of 1861 and the role in its evolution played by other key individuals, such as Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Joe Johnston, and General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, played in its evolution. The result is a re-evaluation of the origin of the 1862 Maryland Campaign that reveals Lee's actual reasons for crossing the Potomac and clarifies the invasion's place in the development of Confederate grand strategy during the first year and a half of the American Civil War. A resident of historic Charles Town, West Virginia, Dr. Alex Rossino is an independent historian and author. He earned Master's and Doctoral degrees in History at Syracuse University before working for nine years as a historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Dr. Rossino turned his attention to the American Civil War in 2011 and, after several years of research, produced Six Days in September: A Novel of Lee's Army in Maryland, September 1862. The book proved to be popular among historians and enthusiasts alike, leading to a sequel titled The Guns of September: A Novel of McClellan's Army in Maryland, September 1862, published in September 2024. Dr. Rossino also returned to writing history, producing Their Maryland: The Army of Northern Virginia from the Potomac Crossing to Sharpsburg in September 1862 and co-authoring with Gene Thorp The Tale Untwisted: General George B. McClellan, The Maryland Campaign, and the Discovery of Lee's Lost Orders, which came out in January 2023. His most recent history, Calamity at Frederick: Robert E. Lee, Special Orders No. 191, and Confederate Misfortune on the Road to Antietam (October 2023), completed his in-depth study of the Lost Orders saga from the Confederate perspective, along with an ebook on the document's handwriting to identify the author, titled, Who Wrote the Lost Copy of Robert E. Lee's Special Orders No. 191: A Handwriting Analysis Companion to Calamity at Frederick in October 2025.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.6 / 5

19 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

8 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 60 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

86

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

85

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