Next Civil War Round Table gathering is scheduled for May 8

CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE

William Dyess, a retired attorney, has lived in Granbury since 2007, and has had an interest in the American Civil War since childhood. He is a member of the steering committee of the North Central Texas Civil War Round Table.

The North Central Texas Civil War Roundtable is scheduled to meet again at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 8, at Spring Creek Bar-B-Que, 317 Hwy 377 East, in Granbury. Our program will be presented by Dr. Curt Fields, an authority on the life and times of Ulysses S. Grant. He portrayed General Grant at the 150^th anniversary of Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, in 2015, and was featured as the general in a three-part documentary series on the Discovery Channel. Dr.

Fields appears in uniform as General Grant and will speak as Grant on his experiences at one or more battles of the Civil War. He presented our program in May 2022, and his return has been greatly anticipated.

At our last meeting, April 10, Dr. Brian Jordan, an associate professor of history at Sam Houston State University, presented a most informative program on the story of an ethnic German regiment in the Union army, speaking on the regiment’s trials and tribulations both during and after the war.

MAY IN THE CIVIL WAR

Following the surrender of Ft. Sumter, April 14, 1861, and President Lincoln’s subsequent call upon the states for additional troops to put down the rebellion, the states of Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia seceded from the Union. Virginia’s secession, on May 23, meant that only the Potomac River separated the seceding states from the United States Capitol of Washington, D.C. In recognition of the danger to the capitol, on May 24, Union troops crossed the river using both bridges and boats, and occupied the city of Alexandria, Virginia.

The Confederate troops in the city retreated in good order, and few shots were fired. The Union suffered one man killed, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, commander of the New York First Fire Zouaves. Ironically, Ellsworth, who was the first Union officer to die in the Civil War, was not killed by a Confederate soldier, but by one James Jackson, a civilian hotel keeper, who shot Ellsworth as he attempted to haul down a Confederate flag flying from the hotel. One of Ellsworth’s troops then immediately shot and killed Jackson. Ellsworth became a martyr for the Union, as did Jackson for the Confederacy.

DID YOU KNOW?

When the Civil War began, of the 25 largest cities in the nation, only three — New Orleans, Louisiana; Charleston, South Carolina; and Richmond, Virginia — were in the seceding states.

The North Central Texas Civil War Round Table meets on the second Monday of each month, at 6:30 p.m., at Spring Creek Bar-B-Que, 317 Hwy 377 E in Granbury, and guests are always welcome. For more information, please refer to our website:  www.ncentexcwrt.com, or call either David Wells, at 817-579-5769, or Bill Dyess, at 817-326-8216.

 Civil War Round Tables exist in cities and communities worldwide. All are independent and share a common objective in promoting and expanding interest in the study of the American Civil War.