Southern Indiana Civil War Roundtable

News

August 2019 Program

The Southern Indiana Civil War Roundtable’s upcoming program on August 15th will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Evansville Fraternal Order of Police (801 Court St, Evansville, IN 47708). It will feature local historians Bill Bartelt and Joshua Claybourn presenting on their new book, Abe’s Youth: Shaping the Future President.

Since his death, Abraham Lincoln has been celebrated as savior of the Union, proponent for emancipation, president of the United States, and skilled statesman. Although Lincoln’s adult life has been well documented and analyzed, most biographers have regarded his early years as inconsequential to his career and accomplishments.

In 1920 a group of historians known as the Lincoln Inquiry were determined to give Lincoln’s formative years their due. Abe’s Youth takes a look into their writings, which focus on Lincoln’s life between seven to twenty-one years of age. By filling in the gaps on Lincoln’s childhood, the authors shed light on how his experiences growing up influenced the man he became. As the first fully annotated edition of the Lincoln Inquiry papers, Abe’s Youth offers indispensable reading for anyone hoping to learn about Lincoln’s early life.

William E. “Bill” Bartelt is a Lincoln historian and retired educator. His books include There I Grew Up, which tells the history of Abraham Lincoln’s Indiana years and helped inspire The Better Angels, a 2014 biographical drama-historical film about Lincoln’s formative years. For many years Bartelt worked as a ranger and historian at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. He is a board member of the Abraham Lincoln Association, the Indiana Historical Society, and received the Indiana Historical Society’s “Hoosier Historian” award in 2003. Previously Bartelt served as a member of the federal Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission’s Advisory and Education Committees and served as vice chair of the Indiana Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

Joshua A. Claybourn is an attorney and author or editor of several books, including Our American Story: The Search for a Shared National Narrative. A widely published commentator on legal, political, and historical topics, Claybourn has also appeared as a guest on CNN, MSNBC, and NHK. He is a board member of the Abraham Lincoln Association.

May and June Programs

The Southern Indiana Civil War Roundtable has two great upcoming programs in May and June. Both meetings will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Evansville Fraternal Order of Police (801 Court St, Evansville, IN 47708).

16 May 2019: Our May meeting will feature John Summerlot, Director of Veterans Support Services at Indiana University. His presentation is titled “Indiana University and the Civil War.” Cashon is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and Army National Guard and researched and published on a number of topics related to the experiences of veterans and military students in higher education. He focuses in particular on the relationship between the military and higher education. He currently serves in the Indiana Guard Reserve as the executive officer of the Search and Rescue Training Team and an emergency management specialist and has been an instructor at IU Bloomington since 2004, teaching in both the School of Education and the School of Public Health.

20 June 2019: Our June meeting will feature Brad Butkovich, historian/author, presenting on the topic of “The Battle of Allatoona Pass: The First Battle of Hood’s Tennessee Campaign.” Brad is a member of the Northeast Georgia Civil War Round Table and has published various articles on Civil War battles. He is a resident of Lilburn, Georgia, and is the owner and creator of the Civil War Virtual Tours Website www.civilwartours.com.

A Surgeon’s Life Aboard USS Monitor

Mark Laubacher will present Thursday, June 21st on a surgeon’s life aboard the USS Monitor. Mark Laubacher, RN, paramedic, is a Certified Specialist in Poison Information since 1992 at the Central Ohio Poison Center located at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio.

Fort Negley Civil War Seminar

Fort Negley Civil War Seminar – The 153rd Anniversary of the Tennessee Campaign of 1864.

Please join the Fort Negley Civil War Seminar as it examines aspects of the Tennessee Campaign of 1864, when Confederate General John Bell Hood brought the Army of Tennessee into their namesake state to try and capture Nashville and perhaps move into Kentucky from there. Five scholars will offer programs that tie into this campaign from a lesser known aspect. The following historians will take part that day:

  • Dr. Thomas Flagel – Columbia State College – This Landscape Transformed: Union Fortification of the Western Theater of the Civil War
  • Greg Biggs – Clarksville/Nashville Civil War Roundtables/author/historian – Stopping Hood: The U.S. Navy In The Tennessee Campaign
  • Brian Allison – author/historian – topic TBA
  • Dr. Bobby Lovett – author/historian – topic TBA but probably an aspect of the United States Colored Troops at Nashville
  • John Scales – Brig. Gen. U.S. Army (ret.)/historian/author – Hood’s Retreat From Nashville (Gen. Scales will have his brand new book analyzing the military career of Nathan Bedford Forrest for sale at this event!)

The event begins at 9 AM and concludes at 4 PM. The programs will be held at the Fort Negley Visitors Center, 1100 Fort Negley Blvd., Nashville, TN. This is not far off I-65 just south of downtown Nashville. Admission is free and seating is limited.

Little Egypt Goes to War

January 19th’s meeting will feature Joshua Claybourn presenting on the 80th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment and its first commander, Colonel Thomas G. Allen. The regiment was composed of ten companies that drew primarily from eight southern Illinois counties. Over the course of the war the regiment traveled approximately 6,000 miles, and was in over 20 battles. This presentation will provide an interesting overview of how the regiment formed and background on its first commander. Col. Allen’s brief career leading the 80th Illinois provides a unique view of a commander who struggled to comprehend basic military command, frequently complaining and obsessing over political intrigue and perceived conspiracies against him.

2013.06.22

Joshua Claybourn is an attorney and author. He is past chairman of the Southern Indiana Civil War Roundtable and serves in a number of leadership capacities with the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW). In 2014 he organized a local camp of the SUVCW, John W. Foster Camp No. 2, and is also the past National SUVCW Assistant Counselor and Signals Officer.

Joshua has served on the boards of several other historical groups and associations. He was previously on the board of directors for the Newburgh Museum, Vanderburgh County Historical Society, and is past president and trustee of the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library. A graduate of the Indiana University McKinney School of Law and Kelley School of Business, he was named by Indiana Lawyer as one of the state’s “Up and Coming Lawyers.”