The scheduled program for November entitled “Hellmira: The Union’s Most Infamous Civil War Prison Camp in Elmira, N.Y.” had to be cancelled because the presenter, Derek Mansfield, is recovering from surgery.  The plan is to reschedule his presentation for a later date.  In the meantime, your Steering Committee has come up with a substitute as we’ve put together a book review panel for the November meeting.

The four members of the panel are Brian Schoen, Robert Maher, Gilbert Figueroa, and Carl Denbow.  

Brian will be reviewing Gregory Downs’ book After Appomattox: Military Occupation and Ends of the War. Bob will be reviewing a compilation of essays edited by Perry A. Russo that’s called Terrible Swift Sword: The Legacy of John Brown. Gil will take a look at long-time CWRT friend Frank Scaturro’s book, Grant Reconsidered.  Carl will offer an analysis of Edison H. Thomas’ tome John Hunt Morgan and His Raiders. 

Brian will be the lead panelist and will begin the program with a discussion of Downs’ thought-provoking book, which he describes thusly:

“Traditional accounts assume that the American Civil War ended at Appomattox Courthouse when R. E. Lee surrendered to U. S. Grant. As Gregory Downs shows, traditional accounts are wrong.  Organized fighting continued for several more months and transformed into continued lower-level violence.  A legal state of war continued for several years as Congress and Johnson’s administration argued about what was to happen next.  This put the U.S. army in an important and precarious position as being an occupational force tasked with enforcing law and order and protecting the rights granted to African Americans. This book grapples with the difficult period in which Americans debated the contours of democracy and the military’s role in enforcing it.”

The reviews of these four books covering a wide range of Civil War Era topics should make for some lively discussion.