T The Newsletter of the Salt Creek Civil War Roundtable Vol. XLXIII No. 3 November 2010 435th Regular Meeting Although we are a small group, I like to think that the our CWRT helps make a difference in the civil war battlefield preservation movement. Since our last auction, the Salt Creek Civil War Round Table has made two $1000 donations to the Civil War Preservation Trust. The donations went to purchase key endangered acres at the Glendale Battlefield and at Brandy Station. The sites chosen were because their crucial acres were endangered by encroaching development. There were also matching funds increasing the value of our donations. At Brandy Station each $1 was turned into $116 which helped preserve 782 historic acres. Another donation has helped preserve the 17 acre Johnson's Island Civil War Prison Depot site. The bank note was paid off this month. The Salt Creek Civil War Round Table will be listed on a bronze plaque as a major contributor. The Annual Auction is our primary source of funds for battlefield preservation donations. Please consider coming for an entertaining evening. Spread the word and bring a friend. Help our organization continue to save endangered hallowed ground. December is election time. We need to contemplate choosing new leadership for the coming year. The Outpost DATE: Friday, November 19, 2010 PLACE: Glen Ellyn History Center, 800 N. Main Street, Glen Ellyn, IL TIME: Viewing begins at 7:00pm, Bidding begins at 7:30pm AUCTIONEERS: Jerry Feinstein & Dan McCarthy TOPIC: ANNUAL AUCTION FOR BATTLEFIELD PRESERVATION OCTOBER MEETING BY ARTHUR FOLEY John S. Kociolko’s October 15th presentation entitled, ”Whatever Became of the Union,” delivered a thoughtful examination of not only what the term “Union” means to modern day citizens of our nation but what it meant to past generations. What this term means to people today generally has no connection to our forefathers understanding due to the word’ connotation to the labor movement. This divergence began during the immediate post Civil War era and persists to this day. Mr. Kociolko then examined the three usages that still survive and can be found in the words of our Constitution. The Preamble cites, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,” Article II dictating that the President…” shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union,” Finally Article IV cites that “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union” . Other than these instances there is no other mention of the term in any of our central political documents. Following these instances of legal usage, formal written usage by past Presidents was then examined. Union was used twice by George Washington during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, Jefferson mentions it once in connection to the Louisiana Purchase, and James K. Polk uses the term twice with regards to the admission of the Texas Republic. Lincoln, naturally, using the term in his July 4, 1861 address to Congress on the start of hostilities forty three times. William McKinley used the term three times in his declaration of war speech against Spain in 1898. Thereafter the word in this sense disappears from Presidential usage. It was with the approach of the nullification and secessionist crises that the terms’ invocation grew. Daniel Webster stated, "Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable. “In the context of debating nullifcationists.” Andrew Jackson confronting John C. Calhoun and his desired policy of nullification at a banquet on Jefferson Day, April 13, 1830, statedth in his famous toast —"THE FEDERAL UNION: IT MUST BE PRESERVED!" Thereafter the term described one’s political position in the face of sectional crisis. However Mr. Kociolko felt that there is a deeper meaning to the word, a meaning that acts as a palliative to the horror incurred by the conflict. The term Union, he posed, was used to obscure the truth of all the death and destruction. This enabled the surviving and successive generations to consider the war in its Homeric qualities, to sentimentalize the age of “Moonlight and Magnolias” and to have an academic distance from war’s brutality. The student of the war and of the history of the United States in the twentieth century should consider “Union” in light of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address , “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” The use of the word Union represents the very survival of our country. PRESERVATION REPORT BY LEN OVERCASH, SR. Save 49 Acres at The Wilderness, Saunders Field A MESSAGE FROM JIM LIGHTHIZER, CWPT PRESIDENT (Washington, D.C.) – At a news conference this morning, the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting Civil War battlefields, was among the recipients of the 2010 Secretary of the Interior’s Partners in Conservation Awards. Of the 24 individuals and organizations recognized, CWPT was one of three honored for its commitment to collaborative conservation efforts in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS). Prominent Historian to Testify on Historic Significance of Wilderness Battlefield Walmart Location Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian James McPherson to Testify as Expert Witness during Upcoming Wilderness Walmart Trial (Orange County, Va.) – Counsel for the plaintiffs seeking to prevent construction of a Walmart Supercenter on a portion of the nationally significant Wilderness Battlefield today announced that they will call on Pulitzer Prize winning author and historian James McPherson as a volunteer expert witness. As part of the pre-trial process, a summary of the testimony that Dr. McPherson will deliver at the trial has been submitted to the defendants. The trial is set to begin in Orange County Circuit Court on January 25, 2011, and is scheduled to last approximately one week. McPherson’s testimony addresses the great historic significance of the under-appreciated Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5–6, 1864, and the specific events that took place on and around the proposed Walmart site. As his testimony explains, the battle of the Wilderness was one of the most decisive moments of the American Civil War, with some 185,000 soldiers entering combat and 30,000 of them becoming casualties. (The source for the above articles is: The Civil War Preservation Trust) Save The Franklin Battlefield officers have continued their discussions with the owners of a 5 acre parcel of the Franklin Battlefield, and a second 11 acre parcel of mostly open battlefield. Both are for sale and are near the Collins Farm property that STFB purchased in 2001 on Lewisburg Pike and the CSX railroad. We believe this is a truly unique opportunity to purchase undeveloped parcels of this size so near the Federal line. Both of these parcels are near the Federal trench line and are ground that Loring’s division traversed during the November 30, 1864 battle. Loring’s men advanced under heavy canister and musket fire from the main Federal line plus shell-fire from Fort Granger as they climbed over the RR tracks and assaulted this eastern end of the trench line. This is where Adam’s brigade had to shift to the west before charging into the enemy’s trenches. We also are in discussions with the national preservation organizations that could possibly become partners in the purchase of these two important battlefield parcels. We have begun work to evaluate the possibilities of structuring a deal to buy both parcels. The 5 acre parcel is open ground with some trees but no structures. We also believe the site contains significant terrain features that will add to the interpretation and understanding of this portion of the battlefield. Neither parcel has buildings or structures to be preserved, and both are very important battlefield land. As with Collins Farm, our long term goal would be to place this hallowed ground under conservation easement ensuring its perpetual preservation. The source for the above articles is: Save the Franklin Battlefield, Inc. website ALL THE UNION Don Sender is selling tickets for a drawing for 48 lectures on the Civil War by Professor Gary W. Gallagher from the University of Virginia. The CD's are part of the Great Courses in Modern History Series. The tickets are $5 each. Only 40 tickets will be sold. Volunteers are still needed for Memorabilia/Show & Tell Night on December 17th. Contact Jan if you have something to share. UPCOMING CIVIL WAR EVENTS NOVEMBER 16, 2010 LINCOLN-DAVIS CWRT Speaker Dave Corbett & the Battlefield Balladeers Country House Restaurant 5400 W. 127th Street Alsip, IL Lincolndavisroundtable@yahoo.com NOVEMBER 18, 2010 SOUTH SUBURBAN CWRT Speaker Helen Milam Topic: Darling of the South: Pauline Cushman” National City Bank of Frankfort LaGrange Rd (Rt. 45) & Lincoln Hwy (Rt. 30) pw279@sbcglobal.net reservations DECEMBER 1, 2010 KANKAKEE VALLEY CWRT Speaker: Shalia Simmons Topic: Stonewall Jackson in the Valley” www.kvcwrt.cwahi.net/ DECEMBER 3, 2010 NORTHERN ILLINOIS CWRT Speaker: Garry Addleman Topic: “The Myth of Little Round Top” Arlington Heights Memorial Library 500 N. Dunton Ave. Arlington Heights, IL 60004 www.nicwrt.freehostia.com DECEMBER 10, 2010 CHICAGO CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE Speaker: Samuel C. Hyde Topic: “A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country” Holiday Inn Mart Plaza Chicago 350 North Orleans Street Dinner 6:30 p.m. (630) 460-1865 to make reservations chicagocwrtdinner@earthlink.net FUTURE MEETINGS 2010 (3RD FRIDAY OF THE MONTH) Dec 17: Memorabilia/Show & Tell Night 2011 Jan 21, 2011: Speaker: Roger Bohn/Zebulan Vance: South Carolina’s CW Governor and Blockade Runner THE SALT CREEK CWRT www.saltcreekcwrt.org President: Jan Rasmussen Vice-President: Rob Girardi Treasurer: Jean Cairns Secretary: Rick Zarr Historian: Cindy Intravartolo Meeting Liason: Mary Lord Newsletter Editor: Jennie Warner jenniewarner@gmail.com Newsletter Staff: Rick Benson, Rick Zarr, Len Overcash Sr. Webmaster: Stephen Munier