Adjutant’s Call - Summer 2022
Link to Original PDF of Summer 2022 Newsletter
Circular Memorandum #537 - Summer 2022
Our 62nd Year is Almost Here!!!
Greetings! As we toil through the hot and humid days of July, we can look forward to another exciting year with the Louisville Civil War Round Table that is fast approaching! Our first meeting will be Saturday, September 10, when historian and author Will Greene will speak on “The Good, the Bad, and the (Very) Ugly: An Assessment of Leadership in the Petersburg Campaign”. Will is working on volume 2 of what will be the definitive history of the Petersburg Campaign when all 3 volumes are completed. As we are approaching the start of our 62 th year, we can look forward again to a slate of great speakers lined up for our meetings.
I will point out that repeatedly I hear from our speakers who travel and speak to round tables across the country, that we have one of the best round tables in existence! That is something all our membership should be proud of. And why do they pay us these compliments? It starts with a membership that is enthusiastic and knowledgeable about our country’s history and that wants to hear and learn as much as they can. But that is just one of the reasons. We have been fortunate to have had since our founding in 1961, great leadership starting with our founder, Frank Rankin and continuing to the present. I am talking about those who serve on the Board of Directors who give selflessly of their time and energy because they love the Louisville Civil War Round Table and what we are doing. They consider it an honor to be part of this organization and I can assure you that they are committed to providing you with a great experience and are continually working to make improvements. ‘
These are our Board of Directors for the coming year: Doug Krawczyk, President, Julie Bartlett, President elect, Paul Fridell, Treasurer, Art Boerner, Marc Oca, Bryan Winslow, Terry Pyles, Jim Forrester, Harriette Weatherbee, Lowell Griffin, and John Davis.
We continue to live in a world that is changing at an ever-increasing rate. We are now in year three of covid, Russia has invaded Ukraine, and we only need to watch the news to know that our nation continues to be torn apart by divisive rhetoric and more violence. As you know, there are those who wish to revise and even rewrite our history with such ridiculous things like Project 1619 and given this, there is an increasing need to know and understand our Nation’s great history. I can assure you that incoming President, Doug Krawczyk and your Board of Directors are committed to bring you the very best in speakers and events and serving you is their chief concern.
With all the events that have taken place in the last few years, it is more important than ever that those of us who value our history must continue to do so. As stated in our by-laws, “The purpose of the Louisville Civil War Round Table, Inc. is to study all aspects of the American Civil War and to promote the interchange of knowledge about it.” By studying, reading, and learning from great historians and speakers about this crucial time in our history, we insure that the sacrifices of those “who gave the last full measure” should not be forgotten or devalued and their memory forgotten. That is why I hope you will renew your membership and stay the course with us. Please consider becoming a Patron member as that will help us to continue to bring in great speakers!
After Action Report on Our Field Trip to Gettysburg
The April field trip that the lucky 40 of us took to Gettysburg will not be forgotten for a lot of reasons. It was a great experience but one that had a few unexpected surprises along the way. Our guide was absolutely great. Jim Hessler’s knowledge of the battle and his entertaining presentation and humorous anecdotes made the battle come alive. He not only explained the battle expertly but could bring to life the thought process of the generals as they tried to make the best decisions possible under the stress of battle. We all came away with a better understanding of why Lee chose to attack on the 2nd and 3rd day and why Longstreet was against it. The struggle between Meade and Sickles on how best to defend Cemetery Ridge becomes a lot more real when you see what Dan Sickles saw when he decided to move his Corps to the high ground of the Peach Orchard. We were also blessed with great weather, clear skies and cool temps made for ideal walking about on the battlefields. But what about surprises? Well, there were a couple. First, we left early Wednesday morning without Carl Kuhl who the day before had called me telling me how excited he was to be going on the trip and couldn’t wait to get on the bus. To my surprise he was no where to be seen and we could not reach him to find out what was going on. Was he on his way? Was he sick? All attempts to reach him failed so we left without him. Ironically, he would get to Gettysburg long before the rest of us on the bus would. Our bus ride went smoothly and as we traveled down the Pennsylvania turnpike suddenly the bus stalled and our driver, Scott Whitehouse, pulled the bus off the road. It was 3:30 and we were 100 miles from Gettysburg and the bus was dead. Free Enterprise, our bus company, had to get another bus company to take us to the nearest hotel for the night and they sent another bus overnight to get us in the morning. We did not arrive in Gettysburg until noon and there waiting for us in the hotel lobby was Carl Kuhl! The previous morning, he had overslept because he did not have his alarm turned on and his phone was dead, and we could not reach him. He had taken a plane to Chicago and then to Baltimore where his son picked him up and brought him to Gettysburg 18 hours before we arrived! Though we began our tour of Gettysburg some six hours late, we did not get shortchanged as Jim Hessler did a great job of condensing the first day’s action and we added two hours to the end of the day. The other unfortunate surprise was four or five of our group came down with a stomach virus but only one of them missed any of the battlefield tours. Even with these unfortunate happenings, the field trip was a great success, and everyone had a great time. I am already looking forward to next year’s trip.
Above are Pictures of the Kentucky Monument in the National Cemetery at Gettysburg
The Kentucky monument is there in large part because of our Round Table. Our founder, Frank Rankin, knowing that the 100th anniversary of the Gettysburg address was coming up in November of 1963, persuaded the governor of Kentucky to allow him to raise funds for a Kentucky monument at Gettysburg to commemorate Lincoln’s famous speech. The monument was dedicated on November 19, 1963. Frank Rankin and Lowell Griffin were present. The monument reads, “KENTUCKY HONORS HER SON, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, WHO DELIVERED HIS IMMORTAL ADDRESS AT THE SITE NOW MARKED BY THE SOLDERS’ MONUMENT”. Our monument is the only state monument in the National Cemetery.