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"The Great Locomotive Chase:  The Andrews Raid of 1862"

Presenter -- Jim Anderson

Monday, Apr. 14, 2025

Capers Hall  Auditorium, The Citadel
Sponsored by The Citadel's Department of History


The Andrews Raiders set a train car on fire to ignite
a covered railway bridge and thwart a Confederate
pursuit.  Courtesy of Deeds of Valor, How America's
Heroes won the Medal of Honor
(1901) by Graves.

Jim Anderson

The program addressed one of the earliest Civil War  "special operations" intelligence effiorts during the Union campaign to capture Chattanooga, Tenn.  The goal of Andrew's Raiders was to sabotage the single-track rail line between Atlanta, Ga., and Chattanooga, Tenn., to degrade Confederate resupply and reinforcement efforts.  Although utlimately unsuccessful, the raid provided a number of lessons for conducting  later operations.  It also resulted in the first awarding of the newly-created Medal of Honor to the Union soldiers involved.  In  June 2024, decendents received the medals on behalf of the last two eligible raiders, who had been inexplicably overlooked.

Presenter:  Jim Anderson is a historian and lecturer, who focuses on the Civil War and the American  Frontier.  Since 2009, he has given lectures and led tours on these topics at George Mason University's Osher Life-Long Learning Institute, and spoken to numerous Civil War Roundtables.

With three years in the U.S. Air Force and 30 years in the CIA, Anderson has an extensive background in leadership, management and national security.  He had a second career conducting leadership training seminars, focusing on Civil War "classroom-in-the-field" battlefield tours for a wide variety of government and corporate management teams.  Anderson received his B.A. in History from Rhodes College and M.A. in History from the University of Memphis.  He is a member of the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area Association, the District of Columbia Civil War Roundtable, the Bull Run Civil War Roundtable, and the Friends of the Balls's Bluff Battlefield.   


Capers Hall, Apr. 14, 2025

3rd Annual Fort Sumter
Civil War Round Table Banquet

For an evening of history, comaraderie and delicious food, please join us from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Monday, May 12 at Mark Clark Hall, The Citadel, for the 3rd Annual Fort Sumter Civil War Round Table Banquet.

Sign-up here.


PREVIOUS PROGRAM

"Gettysburg's Southern Front:  Opportunity and Failure at Richmond"

Presenter -- Hampton Newsome

Monday, March 10, 2025

Capers Hall, The Citadel
Sponsored by The Citadel's Department of History


Richmond, Va., from Harper's Weekly
 
Hampton Newsome
 
Capers Hall, March 10, 2025
 
Photos by Cain Griffin  

Hampton Newsome presented the program at the Fort Sumter Civil War Round Table on March 10 by talking about the subject of his newest book, Gettysburg's Southern Front:  Opportunity and Failure at Richmond (2022).  Little was known about this failed Union operation until Newsome wrote his book.

Gen. Henry Halleck ordered Maj. Gen. John Dix to take 20,000 troops from garrisons at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Suffolk and Norfolk, cut the rail and communication lines north of Richmond and perhaps capture the Confederate Capital. In response, Confederate troops were moved from North Carolina and central Virginia to defend Richmond and the railroad bridges.

Newsome explained how the operation failed due to unclear orders on how to take the city and cut the railroads, and how the Federals dilluted their numerical superiority because they were cautious.

Presenter:  Hampton  Newsome, a University of Virginia graduate who lives in Arlington, Va., was an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission for 24 years. He is the author of The Fight for the Old North State:  The Civil War in North Carolina, January - May 1864  (2019), which won the Emerging Civil War Book Award in 2020, and Richmond Must Fall:  The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, October 1864 (2011). 


Click here to view photos of
past presentations.

Support Friends of the National Parks
  
 

As some of you may know, several of the Fort Sumter Civil War Round Table members also are associated with what, until recently, was called Fort Sumter-Fort Moultrie Historical Trust. Not long ago, the Trust "rebranded,", i.e., changed its name to better represent what it does. The Trust is now Friends of Charleston National Parks. Its mission is to help the National Park Service protect and preserve Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site (Snee Farm Plantation), and the U.S. Coast Guard Historic District on Sullivan's Island (the lighthouse and the old life-saving station that are next to each other). With that in mind, Round Table board members are passing along this information knowing that those who are interested in one aspect of history often are interested in others. We encourage anyone who wishes to do so to support Friends of Charleston National Parks.
   

For more information, visit:   https://friendofscnp.org


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