Adjutant’s Call - May 2025
Link to Original PDF of May 2025 Newsletter
Circular Memorandum #566 -May 2025
“Your General Will Lead You” -- Thomas J. Jackson at the Battle of Cedar Mountain” Presented by Greg Mertz
We welcome back Greg Mertz to the Round Table. Greg has spoken to us on multiple occasions and has led field trips for us on Virginia battlefields. Greg Mertz was born and raised near St. Louis, Missouri, where he developed a keen interest in the Civil War from annual visits his Boy Scout troop made to the Shiloh Battlefield in Tennessee. He authored a book on the battle that was so instrumental in his fascination with the Civil War era -- Attack at Daylight and Whip Them: The Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862.
Greg earned a BS degree from the University of Missouri in Recreation and Park Administration, and received an MS from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania in Public Administration. He worked for four years at Gettysburg National Military Park and the Eisenhower National Historic Site, and then transferred to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park where he worked for 36 years -- 27 years as the Supervisory Historian, managing the park’s visitor services.
In retirement, Greg gives tours for the company Battlefield Tours of Virginia, and for many other Civil War organizations. He is the Vice President and Volunteer Coordinator of the Brandy Station Foundation – the Brandy Station and Cedar Mountain battlefields are to be the first two units of the new Culpeper Battlefields State Park. He also serves on the boards of the Rappahannock Valley Civil War Round Table and the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield.
“Your General Will Lead You” -- Thomas J. Jackson at the Battle of Cedar Mountain”
The success of Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during the spring of 1862 was due in part to the Federal forces he confronted belonging to three separate departments that did not cooperate with one another. That would change in the summer of 1862, as those former departments became corps in a new Federal army under General John Pope.
Pope’s appointment to army command occurred while Jackson had taken his troops from the Valley to Richmond, Virginia to fight with Robert E. Lee during the Seven Days’ battles. Though the Confederates shoved the Federal army back from the gates of the capital city over the Seven Days’, Lee evidently had some concerns about Jackson’s leadership aptitude.
A few weeks after that fight, Lee sent Jackson to deal directly with Pope’s army, and when reinforcing Jackson, Lee also sent him some advice. Lee was quite blunt about his reason for giving Jackson counsel: “I wish to save you trouble from increasing your command.” Lee would eventually assign Jackson to command half of his army, but in the summer of 1862, Lee was not convinced that Jackson was capable of such an assignment. Jackson’s performance in his next battle could be critical.
That battle would be on August 9, 1862, when Jackson decided to strike Union General Nathaniel P. Banks’ isolated corps before the remainder of Pope’s army consolidated. The Confederates enjoyed a sizeable advantage in numbers over Banks, but while Jackson was preparing to attack the Federal forces, it was Banks who attacked first, wreaking havoc on the poorly positioned Confederate left. With Jackson rallying his troops and the timely arrival of Confederate reinforcements, a counterattack brought gray-clad superior numbers to bear and turned a near-defeat into a Confederate victory.
Our program will focus on Jackson during the summer of 1862, including Lee’s advice to him, the degree to which Jackson heeded Lee’s recommendations, and then following his footsteps up to and during the battle of Cedar Mountain.
The Bourbon & BBQ Returns!
Mark your calendars for Sunday, October 19 when the 14th Annual Bourbon & BBQ returns! This year’s theme will be “Tennessee and a Twist of Kentucky: The Election of 1844” with Dr. Mark Cheathem presenting. Master Distiller Chris Morris will conduct the tasting of different expressions of Jack Daniel’s whiskeys. Of course, there will be plenty of BBQ and tasty sides. The cost will be $90 for Round Table Members and $100 for non-members.
The Emerging Civil War
Chris Mackowski, who has spoken at our Round Table several times, is the managing editor of the Emerging Civil War Series which serves as a public history-oriented platform for sharing original scholarship related to the American Civil War.
The primary audience is the general public, so scholarship is defined broadly: historical research, memory studies, travelogues, personal narratives, essays, book reviews, and photography. Journalistic-style coverage of current Civil War-related events and the Civil War in pop culture are also included. Furthermore, ECW encourages respectful discussion about that material. ECW does not publish fiction or poetry.
Our Mission
ECW seeks to encourage a diversity of perspectives in the scholarship it presents. We do that, in part, by identifying and spotlighting the next generation of Civil War historians and the fresh ideas they bring to the historical conversation.
As a collective, the individuals who comprise ECW are encouraged to share their own unique interests and approaches. The combined collection of material—and the respectful discussions that surround it—forward ECW’s overall effort to promote a general awareness of the Civil War as America’s defining event. This is a link to their website www.emergingcivilwar.com. You can subscribe and receive daily emails that will contain a variety of articles by historians that will be of interest to you.
MARCH 2025 QUIZ
1. Who was the Rev. Dr. Henry W. Bellows?
He was the founder and only president of the United States Sanitary Commission.
2. Who was General U. S. Grant’s personal military secretary?
Lieutenant Colonel Ely Samuel Parker was a Seneca Indian chief from New York State. He was also an attorney and engineer and became the first Native American to be Commissioner of Indian Affairs while Grant was president.
3. Who commanded the United States Sharpshooters?
They were commanded by Colonel Hiram Berdan.
4. What war aid did the King of Siam offer President Lincoln?
He offered to send war elephants, which Lincoln politely declined.
5. What was the Swamp Angel?
It was a mammoth Union gun located on Morris Island, South Carolina.
MAY 2025 QUIZ
1. Who led the largest Union cavalry raid of the Civil War?
2. Who was the highest-ranking Confederate general captured at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865?
3. Who were the three men who met with President Abraham Lincoln in March 1865 aboard the River Queen?
4. Who was the last Union general to die of wounds during the Civil War?
5. After New York City, what was the next largest urban area in the United States by population on the eve of the Civil War?