Welcome to the new website of the American Civil War Round Table (UK)
We’re a growing group of mostly British-based members, who get together and share information about all aspects of one of the greatest conflicts of the 19th century. You will also find here articles taken from our thrice yearly magazine ‘Crossfire’, that is free to members. If after browsing our site you would like to join us we’d be very happy to enrol you, whatever colour you prefer!
Our Round Table comprises people from all walks of life who are interested in any or all aspects of the war, but who also care enough to contribute to the growing number of initiatives to preserve this heritage for future generations. We meet frequently, mostly in London, to hear a wide variety of presentations on the war. Our speakers have included such published historians as Ed Bearss, Amanda Foreman and Gary Gallagher.
Why, you may wonder, with so much history of our own? Surprisingly, we are the first in the line of Civil War Round Tables set up in the 1950s - almost exlusively in the United States. We have maintained a natural affinity with events of the Civil War. With many of its participants hailing from these islands it is unsurprising that British viewpoints settled over this all-American affair. And both North and South - the Blue and the Grey - looked hopefully to Britain and its empire for signs of support: and warily for signs of hostility. The war sparked heated debate in a Britain that had set its moral face against slavery while supporting a new industrial age that included a cotton industry dependent upon Southern slaves.
Latest news
President's Report - December 2011
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By Greg Bayne
Well it seems that you have to put up with me for another year. At the November meeting, members present voted in myself and the current committee for 2012. I am humbled at the support that was shown and the kind words spoken during the meeting and afterwards.
I joined the ACWRTUK over ten years ago. I believe my first lecture was on the Trent Crisis. At the time I never dreamed that ten years later I would be your President let alone writing this on the 150th anniversary of the Trent capture. Although the day was mostly a blur, I still remember the core of people that I had the pleasure to meet. A lot of people have come and gone during that time. Some have gone and come back. But our common bond keeps us going.
Overall we are in good shape. Membership is up, we are having some great lectures and Crossfire continues along its merry path.
Not that we are complacent. Oh no far from it. We are determined to build and remain true to our core values. 2012 will see a year where we have another great conference planned – in April – plus a series of strong lectures.
2012 sees the special anniversary of the launching of the CSS Alabama. Len Ellison kicks off with a lecture on January 21st. I am keen that the event does not go by without some commemoration.
However as I have said many times, the ACWRTUK does not “own” any civil War British sites or individuals, but it is our duty to make sure that the story is told truthfully without bias.
Best wishes to you all for 2012.
Forthcoming events
13/4/2012 -
The ACWRT UK conference for 2012 - 'Learning to Fight'
13 – 15 April 2012 - Holiday Inn, Oxford
Professor Tom Clemens; Hagerstown Community College, Maryland
'Lee's intentions in the Maryland Campaign'
'How George McClellan won the Battle of Antietam'
Dr. Tim Smith; University of Tennessee, Martin, TN
'Tennessee 1862 Battleground in the West'
'The Battle of Shiloh'
Colonel James Falkner
'The Seven Days Battles, Richmond, 1862'
Speaker to be advised
'European Reactions'
For a reservation form please phone 01747 828719, email or write to:
Old Country Military & History Tours Inc
PO Box 98
Shaftesbury
Dorset SP7 9LJ
Preservation news
ACWRT (UK) Pledges for Lorings Advance Purchase
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President Greg Bayne of the American Civil War Roundtable of the United Kingdom is pleased to announce that their group has raised $500 that they plan to donate to Save The Franklin Battlefield for their proposed Lorings Advance purchase.
This generous offer to help is not as out-of-the-blue as you might at first think. There are several American CWRTs in Europe, and the UK group has made several visits, as a group and as individuals, to American Civil War sites over the years. In fact, the UK group, under the tutelage of then-President Peter Lockwood, made an extended American tour in 2003 that included Franklin. By chance, some of the STFB officers were at Carter House and when Peter’s group learned of our need to raise funds for the Collins Farm debt, they decided on the spot to donate $250 to the effort. The group plans to visit again in April 2012.
See full article
Book reviews
The Alabama & the Kearsarge: the Sailor's Civil War
By William Marvel (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996)
Review by: Michael J. Herr, American Military University (from 'Crossfire' No. 65)
William Marvel - an editorial adviser to publishers of Civil War history books and magazines who served in Vietnam - further demonstrates his versatility as a proficient Civil War historian.
Marvel's many previous books include the award-winning Andersonville: The Last Depot (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), a history of the notorious Confederate prison camp, and Burnside (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), a biography of Union Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside. Now, the native of Norfolk, Virginia and son of a naval officer tells the stories of the two ships which on June 19, 1864, outside the French port of Cherbourg, faced off in the Civil War's most famous battle between wooden warships.
See full article
Battles and campaigns
Fort Sumter: 1829-1947
Speaker: Rick Hatcher
Report By: John Laskey
Round Table members welcomed Rick, who has worked at six locations of the US National Park Service, most recently at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The Round Table also welcomed as its guests a student group from Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin.
Rick outlined the origin of Fort Sumter. The War of 1812 with Great Britain had led to a Presidential decree for the strengthening on all US seaboard fortifications. Along with three lesser fortifications at Charleston Harbor, Moultrie, Johnson and Pinckney, the new fort was to be named after Thomas Sumter, the last surviving Patriot general of the Revolutionary War. Rick added that, though General Sumter had been nicknamed the ‘Gamecock of Carolina’ by his British opponents, he came - like Rick - from Virginia!
See full article
Crossfire magazine
Crossfire 97 (December 2012)
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This Issue Contains:-
France and Southern Confederacy (1861-1865)
Powers Hill - Why Little Round Top was not that decisive
Commemoration of the 20th Maine and the Gettysburg campaign – some mysteries resolved
Kennesaw Mountain
Cricketer and American Civil War Soldier
An Interview with Keith Poulter - Publisher of North & South Magazine
'The Nancy Harts' - Confederate fighting unit that hardly heard the sound of battle
Letter from Civil War Alabama - Streight-Forrest Raid & The Battle of Crooked Creek
CSS Alabama Crewman Henry Middleton Kernot
Firing Line - General Butler’s views
See full article
Profile
After the Trent, or Third Time Lucky?
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Britain's preparations for war with the United States in 1861-2
By Dr Andrew Wellard
(This article originally appeared in 'Crossfire', the magazine of the American Civil War Round Table (UK) No. 62 - April 2000)
Britain has fought two wars with the United States, losing the first and drawing the second on the battlefield (although not at the conference table). There were also a number of 'incidents' in the nineteenth century, which approached an outbreak of hostilities, most famous of them the occasion when Captain Wilkes of the USN seized the persons of the Confederate Commissioners Mason and Slidell from the Trent in November 1861.
See full article
UK Heritage
Tales of Heroism, Tales of Terror: the British in the American Civil War
Speaker: Amanda Foreman
Report By: John Laskey
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Top selling historian and broadcaster Amanda Foreman made a welcome appearance at the Civil Service Club in November, to talk to the Round Table about her recently published book on Britain’s crucial role in the American Civil War ‘World on Fire’ (to be published in the USA, June 2011 – UK paperback published May 2011).
So who would not support the North in its cause to free the slaves? Amanda wove the tale of two British men of very different class and background, who both became active and devoted soldiers of the Confederacy.
See full article
