Adjutant’s Call - January 2023
Link to Original PDF of January 2023 Newsletter
Circular Memorandum #542 - January 2023
The 27th Annual Frank Rankin Lecture “Supplying Meade’s and Lee’s Armies During the Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg: A Study in Contrast” Presented by Kent Masterson Brown
We welcome back Kent Masterson Brown who will deliver the 27 h Annual Frank Rankin Lecture. Kent was born in Lexington, Kentucky on February 5, 1949. He is a 1971 graduate – and in 2014 named a distinguished graduate - of Centre College and received his juris doctor degree in 1974 from Washington and Lee University School of Law. Kent has practiced law for forty-four years with offices in Lexington and Washington, DC. Kent has published six books, all on the Civil War, including Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander, Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics and the Pennsylvania Campaign, and One of Morgan’s Men: The Memoirs of Lieutenant John M. Porter of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry; they have been selections of the History Book Club and Military Book Club. All of them have received rave reviews and numerous national awards. His most recent book is about George Gordon Meade and the Gettysburg Campaign, which we will have for sale at the meeting.
Kent has also written, hosted, and produced eight award-winning documentary films for public and cable television, including: Bourbon and Kentucky: A History Distilled, Henry Clay and the Struggle for the Union, Unsung Hero: The Horse in the Civil War, Daniel Boone and the Opening of the American West, and “I Remember The Old Home Very Well:” The Lincolns in Kentucky. All Kent’s films have been widely broadcast throughout the United States, Canada, and overseas. Two of his films, Daniel Boone and The Lincolns in Kentucky, won the regional television ratings when they were premiered on Kentucky Educational Television. All have won Telly Awards; Unsung Hero was nominated for an Emmy Award.
A nationally known speaker and Civil War battlefield guide, Kent was the first chairman of the Gettysburg National Military Park Advisory Commission and the first chairman of the Perryville (Kentucky) Battlefield Commission, a seat he held for eleven years overseeing the expansion of the Perryville Battlefield. He served on the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and is now a member of the Kentucky Film Commission. He has also been a director of the Gettysburg Foundation. Kent is now the President and Content Developer for the Witnessing History Education Foundation, Inc. Kent lives in Lexington with his wife, Genevieve, and their three children, Annie Louise, Philip, and Thomas.
Supplying Meade’s and Lee’s Armies During the Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg: A Study in Contrast
Kent Masterson Brown will tell the story about how each of those armies were supplied with subsistence (feeding the men) and quartermaster (feeding the horses and mules) stores during the campaign into Pennsylvania, the fighting at Gettysburg, the retreat of Lee’s army, and the pursuit by Meade’s army, after the battle ended. The results he will discuss are surprising. Lee’s army was actually in better shape with those stores than Meade’s army. That gives one an understanding of how “ready for combat” Lee’s men appeared to be once they reached the Potomac River, and how Meade’s army was clearly in no shape to launch an attack against its enemy there.
Frank G. Rankin, Our Founder
The Louisville Civil War Round Table owes its existence and success to one great individual and leader, Frank G. Rankin, the person we honor at each January meeting with the annual Frank Rankin Lecture. All those who knew Frank and worked with him agree that Frank was a great leader and the driving force that inspired others until he passed away on January 20, 1994. He was born on August 13, 1906 in Louisville and grew up hearing firsthand Civil War Veterans tell their stories of the war. He knew Basil Duke and met and shook hands with John Mosby and walked the battlefields of Virginia with Douglas Southall Freeman. He was a collector of Civil War books and memorabilia before it became popular and amassed a rare and voluminous library of books and artifacts. After graduation from duPont Manual Training High School in 1922, He entered the grain business with S. Zorn & Company becoming sales manager in 1938. In 1942, he joined Gold Proof Grain Elevator Co., the second largest grain marketing cooperative in the United States. Here he rose to the position of general manager. In this position he helped supply grain to many of Kentucky’s major distilleries. Frank was a person who “knew everyone” from famous historians and scholars to governors, politicians, and business leaders of Kentucky whom he would call on to attend and to speak at the Round Table. Frank dedicated a significant part of his life to preserving and promoting Kentucky’s regional heritage. In 1975 Governor Julian Carroll appointed him to the Kentucky Historic Preservation Review Board. Later he was chosen to head the Louisville Historic Landmarks and Kentucky Heritage commissions. In 1967, Frank was chairman of the Governor’s Commission to commemorate Kentucky’s 175th statehood anniversary. In 1958, Frank was elected president of the Kentucky Derby Festival Committee. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Lincoln Memorial University, the Bank of Louisville, and a member of the Harry Kendall Masonic Lodge.
DECEMBER 2022 QUIZ
1. In what year did Ulysses S. Grant graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point?
Grant graduated 21st out of 39 cadets in the class of 1843.
2. Where is Robert E. Lee believed to have said, “It is well that war is so terrible; we should grow too fond of it”?
He is believed to have said this at Fredericksburg, Virginia in December 1862.
3. What was Stonewall Jackson’s first wife’s name?
Her name was Eleanor Junkin.
4. What was the motto of the 22nd Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops?
It was “Sic Semper Tyrannis” (“Thus always to Tyrants”), which was also the motto of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
5. What was General U.S. Grant’s first Civil War command? It was the 21st Illinois Volunteers.
JANUARY 2023 QUIZ
1. Who wrote TAPS and when and where was it written?
2. Who was the Confederate second-in-command at the Battle of Gettysburg?
3. For how long had Union General George Meade been commander of the Army of the Potomac before the Battle of Gettysburg?
4. How many Southern states had seceded by the time Fort Sumter, South Carolina fell?
5. What battle was named after two different kinds of trees?