September's "From the Brigade Commander" by Barry Arnold

First, welcome back to our 43 campaign season. I had hoped to see you in person on September 01, 2020 and to experience with you the wonderful narrative that Gene Schmiel planned on sharing with us on his book, Lincoln, Antietam and a Northern Last Cause. Unfortunately, we were forced to cancel that meeting.

I would like to take a moment to address a topic that is near and dear to many of our hearts….

Removal of confederate statuary, a thoughtful process that has been underway in many municipalities for some time, has gained far greater attention in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. At this point, cancel culture has stepped in, and dozens of statues have been forcibly removed by self-appointed groups of people as part of a quest to rid the country of all things racist. In the process, statuary in our national parks, including national battlefields, are now also under threat. In fact, a bill, already passed in the U. S. House of Representatives, calls for all statues that honor the country’s discriminatory past to be relocated from prominent locations.

I believe, along with the rest of the Board, that it is the job of the National Parks Service to interpret battlefields, including statuary, and that all monuments on National Parks grounds ought to be left alone and continued to be interpreted for the public by the Parks Service. I encourage those of you who have strong feelings about this impending action to reach out to your federal and state representatives. The system of participatory democracy remains alive and well, but only if we choose to participate.

In other news, the Civil War Round Table continues to face the difficulties that come from having to cancel several lectures early this year. We have likewise chosen to cancel our September, 2020, lecture. The Board is currently exploring alternative ways to deliver quality programming to our members, such as Zoom, a free and easy-to-use internet tool, as we wait out the pandemic and abide by state-imposed mandates. Expect to hear more on this subject in the weeks ahead.

On behalf of the Board, please accept my thanks for your continued commitment to Civil War preservation and education. We hope to be able to see you, in person, sometime soon.

Barry

CWRT's Ed Root and Grandson Featured on WFMZ

Like Grandfather, Like Grandson
written by CWRT member Frank Whelan. Aug 8, 2020 Updated Aug 11, 2020
WFMZ

On a recent July morning, with sunshine dappling the fluttering green trees and a summer breeze taking the edge off the already rising humidity, a small group of people walked down Bethlehem’s High Street toward the historic Nisky Hill cemetery. Slipping through the slightly open gate they slowly headed toward a distant space of graves whose distinctly waving small American flags marked it off as special. There, around a 19th century artillery piece are the 60 grave stones of Union Civil War soldiers, members of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union veterans organization that flourished in the 19th century only to pass out of existence when its final members answered the last bugle call in the 20th.

Although far from the only Civil War veterans resting at Nisky Hill, they are particularly interesting in that they form a composite unit. Four are African Americans, part of the U.S. Colored Troops that served in the segregated units at reduced pay in the Union Army. “Colored” had a rather broad definition in other parts of the country. In California, some sources state it included Asian and Hispanic Americans. In this cemetery these Black men rest beside their white comrades. Others, with names like Stoltzenbach, O’Brian and Weiner, represent the hundreds of thousands who, as was said at another Pennsylvania cemetery, “gave their lives that this nation might live.” And not incidentally they helped sweep the curse of chattel slavery from the land, even if regretfully it did not remove the racism at its root. In the 1970s an elderly Black man who began his life as an enslaved person noted to a popular magazine of the day that “everybody says Lincoln freed the slaves, Lincoln don’t free no slaves, Union Army freed the slaves. I know. I was there.”

The group that gathered that day are several generations of the same family. One was Ed Root. A Philadelphia native who lived in Center Valley before he and wife Nancy “downsized” to a place in Allentown, Root had a career in business that began at Eagle Shirt Makers of Quakertown and ended with retirement from the Phillips Van Heusen shirt company. Even before he retired, Root followed his passion: the history of the Civil War. He has served several terms as president of the local Civil War Roundtable of Eastern Pennsylvania and currently remains on its board. Today it meets at 6 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month, excluding July and August, for lecture meetings at the Fogelsville Holiday Inn. More information can be found on their website.

The Roundtable movement began in Chicago in 1941 by Lincoln scholar Ralph Newman. There are hundreds of such organizations throughout the United States and some in other countries. Locally the CWRT chapter began during the 1960s among historians at the Lehigh County Historical Society. 

With Ed and his wife that morning are Ed’s daughter, Emily Schenkel, recently elected to the Bethlehem School Board, and her children Nicholas and Lorraine. It was a number of years ago when Nicholas, then age 8, expressed an interest to his grandfather in the Civil War research he was doing. He is currently a student at Northwest Middle School and will be attending Liberty High School. They began in 2016 with a simple task, cleaning up the artillery piece in the cemetery. It was something that gave Nicholas a hands-on experience. Root and other CWRT board members have often led school groups do similar projects at Gettysburg.

It was in the process on cleaning the gun that Root and Nicholas became curious about the men buried there. In several cases time and apparently acid rain had wiped the tombstones of whatever information might have been on them. Root, who has done research at the National Archives in Washington and the Pennsylvania State Archives, knows his way around microfilm machines and found a willing recruit in young Nicholas. “He really got involved in it,” says his grandfather. “It’s always good to have another pair of eyes, especially young eyes. He was able to find some of the things I missed.”

The death dates on the tombstones, where they existed, were the start. From there it was on to the newspaper obituaries. Some information was easy to come by, some was not. “They were not always in the same town or even in the same state,” says Ed. “And many towns had more than one newspaper.” As late as 1900 Allentown had 7 newspapers, some in Pennsylvania German and some in recently standard German. The Pennsylvania State Archives turned out to be the most invaluable source. Their Civil War Veterans card file gave detailed information in some cases.

William H. Stotzenbach, who enrolled with the 46th Pennsylvania Regiment, was enrolled in the army on August 8, 1861 as a sergeant and was discharged as a captain on July 20, 1865. He got a leave home for 10 days in 1862. The research gives his previous occupation as a cordwainer, related to shoemaking, and says he had a gunshot wound in the right hand at an action at Peach Tree Creek, Georgia. The hand was later amputated. He had grey eyes and red hair. But Ed and Nicholas found the information provided was not always so detailed. Some cards merely state enlistment and enrollment dates and age. One of the things that seemed interesting to Root was that often men would sign up for one term of enlistment in a Pa regiment only when that term was done to join another in another state. He notes that some signed up for a regiment as far away as Connecticut or Maine.

The records in general show that most of the men were in their early 20s when they signed up. Some served throughout the war, others apparently only as long as their enlistments, which ran for 3 or 6 months. “Many people,” Root notes, “tend to think that after the Civil War ended soldiers marched off in a victory parade and lived happily ever after. This was far from the case.” In many instances the soldiers came home wounded with only a crutch to support them or walked around with shrapnel in their bodies, when they were able to walk at all. This affected not just them but their wives and children.

Root has found that several of the men died after the war in industrial accidents, particularly those who worked on the railroad.

“There was no OSHA or anything like it,” he notes. Some found success in business, one apparently opening a popular restaurant, but another was involved in a murder trial.

But grandfather and grandson are far from at an end in their research. Earlier this year while doing research at the GAR Museum library in Philadelphia, Root discovered eleven boxes of letters these Civil War soldiers wrote, an invaluable resource. But like with many other things, the museum closed its doors due to COVID-19. Both are committed to resuming the search when it becomes possible.

https://www.wfmz.com/features/historys-headlines/historys-headlines-like-grandfather-like-grandson/article_069c50ae-d83f-11ea-af1a-b35e5f3fef50.html

From the Brigade Commander - Summer 2020

From the Brigade Commander: Barry Arnold                                                                                      

           To my friends of the Civil War Round Table: we had a rough time during these past three plus months and into this coming summer. We at the Round Table had to take desperate action to cancel all meetings and activities due to the pandemic events. We will make a come-back this September. The board is lining up greater speakers and field trips. The hotel is accommodating worry-free dining and virus-free areas. Our Round Table members do not have to worry about getting the virus at our meetings. We are taken the safest measure possible to prevent any such happenings. I hope this will reassure you and take the fear out of coming to the Round Table. We want to have you return and enjoy a sociable evening and learn of our Civil War era. So I hope to see you in September, and please bring a friend.

          Since the pandemic may have cancelled your summer vacation as it has done for me, I would like to talk about our nearest battlefield and community of Gettysburg. Gettysburg has suffered during the shutdown. Gettysburg is experiencing large unemployment and weak tourism. Their mainstay is the tourist attracted to visiting the battlefield and its monuments. They are predicting by end of June, the shops, museums, and restaurants will be open again for business. Since, this summer is a bust for most of our vacations, let’s take a little trip and visit the Battlefield and Gettysburg community and give them a boost to help them make a comeback. I know I’ll be there a couple of times this summer. I want to thank you for coming to the Round Table in the past, and I am looking forward to seeing you in September.

Remembering Civil War Veterans on Independence Day Weekend

Jim Duffy took this picture on July 3rd at the ceremony honoring the 108 Civil War Soldiers buried at the Easton Cemetery.

In particular those from the 153rd PVI were remembered.

This was led by CWRT member Neil Coddington and several re-actors.

Join Dennis Frye and host Catherine Mägi for a Facebook livestream of Dennis' book, Antietam Shadows: Mystery, Myth & Machination.

Dennis at our 2018 tour of Antietam

Join Dennis Frye and host Catherine Mägi for a Facebook livestream of Dennis' book, Antietam Shadows: Mystery, Myth & Machination.

The program will be featured on Thursday, June 11, beginning @ 7:00 p.m.
Use this link… CLICK HERE

Dennis is a long time friend of our Round Table and will be our presenter next June. He is known as an unconventional historian who challenges convention. His works spark provocation, and Dennis relishes controversy in history. Antietam Shadows turns upside down and inside out what you know (or what you think you know) about a transformative 17 days in America's journey. Dennis explores fascinating characters and events often misunderstood, mischaracterized or misrepresented by historians. Dennis establishes his theme with his first sentence: "What is history but a fable agreed upon." (borrowed from Napoleon). Dennis' thought-provoking book is certain to generate lively debate and discussion.

Dennis is a native of the Antietam/Harpers Ferry area. He served as Chief Historian (now retired) for 20 years at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Dennis is a renowned scholar who has authored 11 books and 107 articles and been featured on numerous appearances on national television, including Emmy Award programs on John Brown, Antietam and Maryland in the Civil War. Dennis also is a battlefield guide in demand, leading programs for the Smithsonian, National Geographic and major universities. Dennis also is a national preservationist, serving as co-founder and past president of today's American Battlefield Trust and the Save Historic Antietam Foundation. He is co-founder and current president of Maryland's Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area.

This program is part of a series hosted and produced by Catherine Mägi. It represents an effort to help both authors and independent bookshops continue to connect with readers in a time of mass cancellations and closures. By cohosting, you will help our potential audience reach grow. Teaming up will increase potential exposure for your business and/or organization, as well as independent and nonprofit bookshops. Most importantly, it will help us all stay engaged with our communities.

Schedule for September 2020 to June 2021 Campaign Announced

The Schedule for the 2020-2021 Campaign has been announced and is now published.

Pictured below are the dates, presenters and topics.

See the “Upcoming Events” tab for descriptions of each program.

June's From the Brigade Commander: Barry Arnold

From the Brigade Commander: Barry Arnold

     Friends of the Civil War Round Table, we are all in this pandemic hole with this

Corona Virus. We now are following rules of social separation, washing hands, and staying at home. The Board came to the conclusion that we had to cancel the rest of the Campaign year. I am sorry to report our meetings for April, May, and June had to be cancelled. Our cancellation of the June meeting was the result of Holiday Inn not being ready for gatherings. We do not know when the state is ready to get back to normal.

Now the Governor is saying we must wait until about the 2nd week in May to slowly bring the economy back to normal.  Only time will tell… When we are able to regain our normal gathering, I hope to see you all there. While we are experiencing this social separation and when you need exercise, do what I love doing, that is walk among the dead. It is a fantastic journey and you will be amazed that the number of local civil war ancestors that are buried in our local cemeteries. If you find someone that is especially interesting, please let me know.

     In my series of notable civil war burials, we come to another local cemetery in Easton. The Easton Heights Cemetery is located on North 10th Street just off Northampton Street. There you will find an old historic cemetery that housed many Civil War soldiers.

Most notable are those of the 153rd Penna volunteers. Many of their officers and enlisted men are entombed there. One of the notables is Brigadier General Charles A. Heckman. Born in Easton, Heckman served in the Mexican war as a sergeant and enlisted in the Union Army as a major at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was commissioned into the 9th New Jersey Infantry. In 1861 he was promoted to Lt. Col. Promoted twice more, he was commissioned Brig. Gen. in 1862. He led the 18th and 25th corps in the Carolinas. He was captured at Drewry’s Bluff and sent to Libby Prison. He was exchanged in 1864 and then commanded the 18 Corps in the Army of the James. During fighting at Fort Harrison led to distinguished leadership. He was replaced and transferred to command the 3rd Division in the newly created 25th Corps. He resigned from the army in 1865 and returned to work for the New Jersey Rail Road as a conductor and dispatcher. Heckman died on January 14,1896 at the age of 73.

      Another civil war veteran was Colonel Charles A. Wikoff.  He was also born in Easton.  At the brink of the Civil War he enlisted as a private in the 1st Penna. Inf. The next month he was commissioned a 1st Lieutenant in the 15th U.S. Infantry. Shot in the eye at the Battle of Shiloh, he wore an eye patch for the rest of his life. He also participated in the Battle of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. He was promoted to Captain. Wikoff transferred to the 24th US. Infantry, and then later to the 11th U.S. infantry serving in Texas. In November 1891, he was promoted to Lt. Col. Of the 19th U.S. Infantry serving at Fort Wayne. Then in January 1897, he was promoted to Colonel of the 22nd U.S. Infantry at Fort Cook, Neb. In 1898 led the 22nd infantry to Cuba. He was shot during a charge across an open field in the battle of San Juan Hill. Within 15 minutes he succumbed to his wounds and died on July 1, 1898 near Santiago Cuba.                                                              

            Barry

May's "From the Brigade Commander" by Barry Arnold

Our April meeting was cancelled because of our trying times as we attempt to cope with the Corona virus outbreak. With the safety of our members at stake and the state regulation of our state prohibiting large groups from meeting, we could not have our meeting. Now, it looks as if I must once again say, that we will not meet in May because of the very same issues. I hope everyone will listen to the instruction of medical leaders and wash their hands, use sanitizers, and maintain a safe distance around people.

I want to see all of you at our round table meetings for the foreseeable future. Sadly, we will also cancel our May and June meetings at the Holiday Inn. I will let you know, in the near future, if we can re-schedule one final meeting of the campaign season for late June or early July. Also, I want to inform (remind) you that our annual field trip and brush cutting scheduled for April 18, 2020 Gettysburg was also cancelled. Further, after speaking with Dennis Frye and recognizing that the state of West Virginia has issued a stay-at-home order coupled with the knowledge that Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park is closed at the current time with no official tours, no restroom facilities available, no access to the parking lot, it just did made sense to cancel our plans for our May 30, 2020 field trip. So, to recap, no more field trips for the year and no May 05 or June 02 dinner meetings. We are crossing our fingers that we could possibly set up a later meeting in the summer, but we will have to see how things work out. For sure, we will be keeping you informed as to the feasibility of meeting at a later date this summer. We certainly hope you can join us. Until then, please stay safe.

Last month I informed you of a cemetery in Norristown. The Montgomery Cemetery where General Hancock and others notable civil war veterans are buried. Now, I want to inform (remind) you of a cemetery here in Bethlehem. That cemetery is Nisky Hill Cemetery located near the city hall. The notable Civil War veteran is General William Doster. He was born in Bethlehem on January 8, 1837. One of seven, he attended the Moravian school until age 14. Afterwards, he went on to Yale College graduating in 1857. In 1859 he graduated from Harvard Law School. When the war broke out he raised a company for Harlan’s Light Cavalry of which he was made captain. They were transformed into the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Doster was appointed Provost Marshal in Washington, D.C. He was appointed Brigadier General and return to the 4th Cavalry where he took command.

At Gettysburg, he served under General Pleasanton and was positioned on the federal left flank. Then on the 5th of July was ordered to chase the fleeing rebels. He fought Lee’s rear guard. He contracted malaria and was too ill to return to duty. Instead, he returned home to Easton and never returned to the war. As a lawyer he was assigned to defend Lewis Payne and George Atzerodt, two of the Lincoln conspirators. After the war, he returned to Northampton county and practiced law in Easton. Residing in Bethlehem, he was president of the Lehigh National Bank and the New Bridge Street Company. Doster died July 2, 1919 and was buried in Bethlehem at Nisky Hill Cemetery. Some of you may recall our work day at Nisky Hill on October 29, 2016 when we spent a Saturday performing clean up and light restoration at that cemetery.

Barry

Attend A CWRT Congress Lecture via Zoom

LECTURE SERIES

The CWRT Congress proudly presents a series of Civil War lectures by speakers who were nominated by CWRTs as their 5-Star speakers. These lectures are both entertaining and inspiring.

You must register to attend
To register for a virtual seat, click on a date link below. We will see you in the lecture hall!!

Download INSTRUCTIONS: HOW TO USE ZOOM

CLICK THE LINK ON A DATE TO REGISTER FOR THAT EVENT

REACHED SEATING CAPACITY MICHAEL K. SHAFFER - IN MEMORY OF SELF & COMRADES

April 21 @ 1900 EDT JOHN C. FAZIO - THE CONFEDERATE SECRET SERVICE & THE LINCOLN ASSASSINATION

APRIL 23 @ 1900 EDT ALEX ROSSINO - SIX DAYS IN SEPTEMBER

APRIL 27 @ 1900 EDT ERIC WITTENBERG - SHERMAN'S CAROLINAS CAMPAIGN

APRIL 29 @ 1900 EDT ED LOWE - LONGSTREET'S EAST TENNESSEE CAMPAIGN

May 5 @ 1900 EDT JAMES KNIGHTS - CANADIANS IN THE CIVIL WAR

May 7 @ 1900 EDT SCOTT MINGUS - FLAMES BEYOND GETTYSBURG

May 11 @ 1900 EDT MICHAEL K. SHAFFER - IN MEMORY OF SELF & COMRADES

May 13 @ 1900 EDT BRUCE MOWDAY - THREE VIEWS OF GETTYSBURG

May 19 @ 1900 EDT JOHN SCALES - DID FORREST MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

May 21 @ 1600 EDT DAVID DIXON - SELF-LIBERATION OR SURVIVAL

May 25 @ 1600 EDT JAN CROON - THE WAR OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

MAY 27 @ 1900 EDT CHERYL RENEE GOOCH - HINSONVILLE'S HEROES

May 28 @ 1900 EDT DAVID DIXON - SELF-LIBERATION OR SURVIVAL

June 2 @ 1900 EDT JOHN SCALES - DID FORREST MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

June 4 @ 1900 EDT JOHN C. FAZIO - FRANCIS & ARABELLA; JOHN & FANNY: LOVE & WAR

UPDATED Cancellations: Meetings Through June; Gettysburg NMP Work Day

ATTENTION:

THE MEETINGS THROUGH JUNE, as well as
THE APRIL 18th GETTYSBURG NMP WORK DAY
HAVE BEEN CANCELLED
DUE TO THE COVID-19 VIRUS.

WE WILL RESCHEDULE OUR SPEAKER FOR THE 2020-2021 CAMPAIGN.
MOST LIKELY, THE WORK DAY WILL NOT BE RESCHEDULED THIS YEAR.