Adjutant’s Call - Summer 2025
Link to Original PDF of Summer 2025 Newsletter
Circular Memorandum #567 -Summer 2025
Our 65th Year is Almost Here!
Greetings! As we toil through the hot and humid days of July and August, we can look forward to another exciting year that is fast approaching with the Louisville Civil War Round Table! We have a lot to look forward to in the coming year. At the May meeting we will celebrate our 65th year and our six hundredth meeting and we are planning some special ways to celebrate. Once again, we have a great lineup of outstanding speakers that includes some of the very best Civil War historians in the country. We have a great Bourbon & BBQ scheduled for October 19 that promises to be a great event we are calling “Tennessee and a Twist of Kentucky”. We will have great food, fellowship and some Tennessee whiskey tastings and you will help raise funds for our Round Table. We also can look forward to a field trip to tour the battlefields of Sherman’s 1865 Carolina campaign with Civil War historian Wade Sokolosky. Our treasurer Pat Wilbourn and webmaster Brian Taylor are continuing to work on the ability to make reservations and payments online for all events and to give us a greater presence on social media. Coming soon we will have a brand-new website!
Our Patron members are the main reason we can continue to operate, and our thanks are due to all of them for being willing to give above the basic membership fee because they appreciate what we are doing and want us to continue being one of the best Round Tables in the country. If you are not a Patron, please consider becoming one. We had 63 Patron memberships last year and it would be great if we could push that number to 100!
These are Your Board of Directors for the coming year: President, Julie Bartlett, John Davis, Treasurer, Patrick Wilbourn, Doug Butler, Webmaster, Brian Taylor, Art Boerner, Doug Krawczyk, Cindy Winslow, Terry Pyles, Harriette Weatherbee, Marc Oca, Lowell Griffin, and Chris Morris.
Julie Bartlett is Our New President
Julie Bartlett returns as our president for the 2025 – 2026 season. She took over as president on July 1. Julie previously was president of the Round Table in 2023 – 24 and did an outstanding job initiating several changes that have greatly improved our organization. We look forward to Julie leading us in our 65th year!
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.
Field Trip to the Carolinas: Sherman’s 1865 Campaign: April 22-26,2026 with Wade Sokolosky
We are going to the Carolinas to learn about the Civil War’s last major campaign that took place in March and April of 1865 culminating in the surrender of the Confederacy’s last major army. The campaign pitted William Sherman against Joseph Johnston. Our guide will be Civil War historian and author Wade Sokolosky. Wade was recently named the new Executive Director of the Blue and Gray Educational Society. He is a retired colonel and a 25- year veteran of the U.S. Army. He is a respected historian and the author of four books with more on the way. Wade has been leading battlefield tours for many years and is recognized as an authority on the Civil War battles in the Carolinas. Wade will be coming to the Round Table to speak to us this December. This is a field trip we have never taken and we will see several well preserved battlefields including Averasboro, Monroe’s Crossroads, Wise’s Forks and Bentonville. We will also see the ironclad CSS Neuse and many other historical sites along the way. We will be staying in Smithfield, North Carolina. We will walk this hollowed ground and cover in detail what unfolded. You can sign up now by emailing John Davis at johnd.davis@twc.com or you can sign up at the meetings beginning in September.
Chris Morris To Be Inducted into the Bourbon Hall of Fame
Round Table member Chris Morris will be joining the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame in September. Chris has been in the bourbon industry for 50 years and is a former Woodford Reserve Master Distiller. He will be inducted along with four other industry-shaping people who have played major roles in the bourbon industry. According to an article in the CourierJournal, “Chris Morris’s craftsmanship and integrity are recognized around the world through the Brown-Foreman whiskey portfolio. Morris, who is Master Distiller emeritus for Woodford Reserve, is the mastermind behind such as Woodford Reserve Double Oak and the company’s celebrated Master’s Collection. Chris also is one of the industry’s most respected historians, a three-time Chairman of the Kentucky Distiller’s Association Board of Directors, and a cherished mentor to his successor at Woodford Reserve, Elizabth McCall.” Chris is a member of our Board of Directors and has been a key member of the Bourbon & BBQ committee for the past several years. Congratulations to Chris for receiving this honor.
MAY 2025 QUIZ
1. Who led the largest Union cavalry raid of the Civil War?
In March and April of 1865, Major General James H. Wilson led 13,000 troopers through Alabama and Georgia.
2. Who was the highest-ranking Confederate general captured at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865?
That was Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell.
3. Who were the three men who met with President Abraham Lincoln in March 1865 aboard the River Queen?
They were Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter and Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman.
4. Who was the last Union general to die of wounds during the Civil War?
Brigadier General Thomas Smythe was mortally wounded on April 7, 1865 near Farmville, Virginia and died the morning of April 9.
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?
In 1860, Philadelphia was the second largest urban area by population.
SUMMER 2025 QUIZ
1. Who was Pope of the Catholic Church during the Civil War?
2. By 1865, what was the official age range for the Confederate draft?
3. How was the news of General Lee’s surrender sent by General Grant to the War Department?
4. What was the cause of General Ulysses S. Grant’s death?
5. The design for the original National Park Service uniform was based on which uniform? The Quiz is prepared by Harriette Weatherbee