Welcome to the 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 - Spring 2013
By Greg Bayne
Well we have at last made a start to the New Year. Bad weather meant that David Gleeson was cancelled and I got my wires crossed very badly with Amanda Foreman. Hopefully both will be able to entertain us in the near future. But thanks to Basil Larkins who entertained us with Longstreet’s post war career and Jeremy Mindell who brought Freemasonary to the battlefield and dispelled a rumour or two. I felt very guilty and stepped up myself to talk about Robert Milroy who I decided was a man who could have made more of things if he wasn’t a Democrat, didn’t go to West Point, worked under a few rubbish generals, argued with his bosses, was a bit of a barsteward when he was in charge at Winchester and oh yes, lost his division in June 1863. Still that was pretty normal for any up and coming officers in the Eastern Theatre.
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Forthcoming events
26th - 28th July 2013 - '1863 - Advance & Retreat’
At The Holiday Inn, Oxford
Speakers
Brigadier General Parker Hills
US Army (retired)
The Vicksburg Campaign & The Battle of Chickamauga
Lt. Col. Joseph Whitehorne
US Army (retired)
The Gettysburg Campaign (2 lectures)
Major General John Drewienkiewicz
British Army (retired)
What If’s? - Gettysburg & Vicksburg
Jeremy Mindell
European Reactions
Click here for more details and a booking form.
Meeting Dates for 2013
2013 Meeting Dates| Date | Speaker |
|---|
| 2nd March | Basil Larkin, Derek Young, Greg Bayne - Members' Mini Lectures - Focusing on 1863 |
| 19th - 22nd April | Field Trip to Mons - "Bloody Fields" |
| 25th May | John Coski of the Museum of the Confederacy |
| 26th July - 28th July | Oxford Annual Conference - 1863 - Advance & Retreat |
| September Day Conference | Emancipation Proclamation - One Year On (venue/date to be confirmed) |
| 23rd November | Members' Mini-Lectures (or possibly David Gleeson) & AGM |
25/5/2013 -
Man of the Year - 1863
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Many members will know of
John Coski through their visits to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond. The merest hint of an ACWRTUK member in the building will bring John scurrying down from his dusty tomes to give you a warm Virginia welcome and more often than not, a personal conducted tour to parts of the Museum that other people do not normally see.
(Picture Credit - Justin Foreman - The Point News)
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Preservation news
Cleaning Tremlett's Grave
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By Charles Priestley
(This article appeared under the same title in 'Crossfire', the magazine of the ACWRT (UK) no. 73 - December 2003. Reproduced here with additional picture)
Charles, a regular ACWRT(UK) contributor, along with Michael Hammerson, biographer of the pro-confederate British priest F.W Tremlett, undertake some very practical preservation and find that the reverend had once crossed paths with Raphael Semmes, captain of the Confederate raider 'Alabama'.
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Book reviews
James D Bulloch: Secret Agent and Mastermind of the Confederate Navy
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By Walter E Wilson & Gary L McKay
Review By Len Ellison
The authors have spent many hours meticulously researching this book and have completed a wonderful job. The book is a must have for anyone interested in the American Civil War. It not only describes Bulloch's connection with the Confederate Navy but his important connection with the 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt, (who called him Uncle Jimmy).
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Battles and campaigns
Ambrose Bierce and Henry Morton Stanley at the Battle of Shiloh, 1862
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click image to zoom
By John Laskey
(From his article '‘The Devil’s Own Day’ - A Simple Story' which appeared in Crossfire No 69, August 2002).
"This is a simple story of a battle; such a tale as may be told by a soldier who is no writer to a reader who is no soldier" (Ambrose Bierce - 'What I Saw At Shiloh')
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"Doctor Livingstone, I presume?"
The words that most readers will associate with a 20-year-old Confederate volunteer of this simple story of a battle. How about:
"Peyton Farquhar was dead: his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of Owl Creek Bridge"?
It’s the ‘punchline’ from one of the most famous ‘twist in the tale’ short stories ever published; its author Ambrose Bierce (pictured) was a 20-year-old volunteer in the Union Army of the Ohio.
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Profile
"What was happening outside America 1861-1865?”
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Speaker Jeremy Mindell
In his wide-ranging presentation at the National Army museum in December 2007
Jeremy Mindell argued that wars rarely happen in a vacuum and that the American Civil War was no exception. To understand why the South lost, he argued, one had to look at events in Europe as well as Southern war strategy.
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