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Upcoming Meetings and Presentations
Jerrie Berentz, Education Committee Chairperson, announce the organization's 2025 event calendar.
Meetings are open to the public and there are no required membership dues or admission fees to attend. Small donations are accepted to offset a portion of the cost of the meetings.
Event: March Meeting of The Civil War Roundtable of the Mid-Ohio Valley
When: March 20, 2025 @ 7:00 p.m.
Where: St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 320 2nd Street Marietta, OH
Presentation: The Battle of Perryville & the Kentucky Campaign, presented by Darryl Smith
Darryl Smith is the owner and operator of Walking With History LLC and is also a Civil War and American military history enthusiast. He served as the Activities Chair for the Cincinnati Civil War Round Table and also was the Communication Coordinator for the Military Heritage Chapter of the League of World War One Aviation Historians. He served as membership chair for the Cynthiana Battlefields Foundations. Darryl has always believed that the most effective way to understand our history is to walk the ground where history took place.
Event: May Meeting of The Civil War Roundtable of the Mid-Ohio Valley
When: May 15, 2025 @ 7:00 p.m.
Where: St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 320 2nd Street Marietta, OH
Presentation: Ulysses S. Grant Reenactor, Dr. Curt Fields
Dr. Fields is the National Park Service representative for General U. S. Grant. He has portrayed the commanding general of the Union Army in films, posters and re-enactments. Dr. Fields has advanced degrees in Education and has spent time working as a teacher and administrator in junior and senior high schools. He teaches as adjunct sociology professor at the University of Memphis and is now an Educational consultant and a living Historian. Dr. Fields is the same height and body style as the the General Grant and represents a true-to-life image of the man as he would have looked, as well as researches extensively in order to share an accurate portrayal. His presentations are in first person, quoting from General Grant's memoirs; articles and letters the General wrote, statements he made in interviews and first-person accounts of people who knew the General or were with him and witnessed him during events.
Event: July Meeting of The Civil War Roundtable of the Mid-Ohio Valley
When: July 17, 2025 @ 7:00 p.m.
Where: Blennerhassett Museum, 137 Juliana St, Parkersburg WV
Presentation: Cincinnati in the Civil War, presented by David L. Mowery
Studying the American Civil War has been David L. Mowery's passion for nearly 35 years. David enjoys traveling across the United States in search of forgotten historic sites. He has visited all of the major Civil War battlefield parks, and he has researched and site-documented hundreds of minor Civil War engagements and skirmishes. The "Official Records of the War of Rebellion" are his favorite resource. He is a long-time member of the Civil War Trust, the largest non-profit group in the nation that focuses on battlefield preservation. His second passion --- computer software engineering --- has been his career for over 20 years.
Event: September Meeting of The Civil War Roundtable of the Mid-Ohio Valley
When: September 18, 2025 @ 7:00 p.m.
Where: To Be Determined
Presentation: Louisa May Alcott & the Red Cross, presented by Joan Leotta
Joan Leotta is an award-winning writer and story performer, and author of eleven books (historical fiction series, four children's books, a collection of short stories, and two books of poetry). Her writings and performances are often food or history-inspired.
In addition to folklore presentations, her costumed character performances of Colonial and Civil-War era women (Belle Boyd's Aunt, a Civil War Nurse, and of the original owner of Ellanor C Lawrence Park, Fairfax County, VA) have taken her to audiences up and down the East Coast.
A lifelong fan of Louisa May Alcott, Joan Leotta decided to take up the challenge of presenting her to modern audiences when she realized how few people knew about Alcott's work as a Civil War nurse and how that experience helped shape her writing and changed the trajectory of her work as a writer.
Calendar of Events
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March
20
Thursday, March 10, 2025 -- 7pm -- The Battle of Perryville and the Kentucky Campaign, presented by Darryl Smith. St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 320 Second Street, Marietta.
May
15
Thursday, May 15, 2025 -- 7pm -- Ulysses S Grant Reenactor, Dr. Curt Fields. St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 320 Second Street, Marietta.
July
17
Thursday, July 17, 2025 -- 7pm -- Cincinnati in the Civil War, presented by David L. Mowery. Blennerhassett Museum, 137 Juliana Street, Parkersburg.
September
18
Thursday, September 18, 2025 -- 7pm -- Louisa May Alcott & the Red Cross, presented by Joan Leotta. Location to be determined.
Past Programs and Presenters
2025
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The Autobiography of Daniel Parker: Dr. David Torbett
2024
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Our Flag Was Still There: Tom McMillan
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First Stop on the Journey to Freedom: Jessica Cyders
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Frederick Douglas' Travel in Ohio, 1843 --1856: Robert Wallace
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Benjamin Fearing Historical Marker Dedication
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Juneteenth Freedom Day
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History in the Park (Click here for photos)
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First Stop on the New Journey to Freedom: Scott Britton
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Rufus Dawes Historical Marker Dedication (Click here for photos)
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Field Trip to Virginia Battlefields
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Ohioans and West Virginians at the Second Battle of Winchester, June 1863: Scott Mingus
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Lincoln's Favorite Musical Selections: Steve Ball
2023
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General Moses: Stories from the Life of Harriet Tubman: Ilene Evans, M.A.
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Texas Terror: Revolution and Secession in the Lone Star State: Brian Schoen
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Lincoln's Navy: The Men, Ships and Organization, 1861-1865: Donald L. Canney
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Civil War Quilts, Meta Van Nostran, M.A., author, retired
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Charlotte Scott Historical Marker Dedication (Marcia E. Cole "A Marker for Charlotte Scott" YouTube Video)
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Unthinkable Outcomes from the Battle of Port Royal: The Impact of the Civil War on the South Carolina Low Country and Introduction to the Gullah Geechee, Victoria Smalls
2022
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The Trouble With Monuments: Wes Clarke
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Armistead and Hancock: Behind the Gettysburg Legend of Two Friends at the Turning Point of the Civil War, Tom McMillan
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George Armstrong Custer at Gettysburg, Dave Finney
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Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia, Eric Wittenberg
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The Lincoln Assassination Trial, Kevin Ritter
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Meade at Gettysburg: A Study in Command, Kent Masterson Brown
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The Seventh West Virginia Infantry: An Embattled Union Regiment from the Civil War’s Most Divided State, David Mellott
2021
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But Not For My Children: The Holland Brothers' Unlikely Journey from Slavery, Scott Britton
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Ohio Women in the Civil War Home Front, Kelly Mezurek, author, lecturer, and Professor of American History at Walsh University
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The Fragile Fabric of Union: Cotton, Federal Politics, and the Global Origins of the Civil War. Brian Schoen, Assistant Professor of History at Ohio University
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Behind Enemy Lines: Harriet Tubman in the Civil War - The Port Royal Experiment Ilene Evans, Davis WV, dancer, historian, teacher, storyteller, and creator of General Moses: Stories from the Life of Harriet Tubman, will tell us about one of her favorite subjects.
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The Underground Railroad in Southeast Ohio, Peter N. Cultice, an attorney and historian from Zanesville, Ohio
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"Music and Narrative of the Civil War", Steve Ball, Columbus OH, musician and storyteller.
2020
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A Mouldering in the Grave: John Brown's Raid and the Abolitionists' Cause on the Eve of the Civil War, Brian Schoen, Assistant Professor of History, Ohio University
2019
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Gettysburg Hero: The Life of Marietta's Rufus R. Dawes, Scott A. Britton
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Ohio at The Battle of Shiloh, Dan Hinton
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Women's Clothing in the Civil War, Jessica Cyders
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Lee Versus Everyone Else and Then Grant, Jeffrey W. Danner, M.A.
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Black Men in Blue: The Civil War, Ohio, and U.S. Colored Troops, Kelly Selby, Ph.D.
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Touched By Conflict: Southeast Ohio in the Civil War, Larry Strayer, J.D.
2018
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Women of Gettysburg: Their Experiences from Written Legacies, Jane Ellen Young, M.S.
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Morgan's Great Raid: Taking the War to the North, David Mowery
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The Last Fourteen Days of Father Abraham, Robert Burgler, M.A.
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The Bermuda Hundred Campaign, George L. Fickett
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Ohio and West Virginia Troops at Petersburg, Edward Alexander
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Soldier Fraternization Throughout the American Civil War, Lauren K. Thompson, Ph.D.
2017
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The Anaconda Plan and the Civil War on the Water, Gary Johnson, P.E.
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Opdycke's Tigers at Chickamauga, Larry Strayer, J.D.
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John C. Breckenridge, U.S. Vice-President, Confederate General and Secretary of War, Larry Emerson
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Decapitating the Union: The Confederate Plot to Assassinate Lincoln, John C. Fazio, J.D.
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The Controversial History of the Confederate Flag, Jeffrey W. Danner, M.A.
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Washington County Generals in the Civil War, Scott A. Britton
2016
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Emancipation Proclamation, Peter N. Cultice, J.D.
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Give Them Rocks: Stonewall Jackson's Stand at Second Manassas, Dan Welch, M.A.
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A Personal Conversation with Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Doug Riley
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Civil War Leader from Parkersburg's Julia-Ann Square Historic District, Katherine L. Brown, Ph. D.
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Soldier of Courage, Solider of Compassion: The Story of Capt. Bennet K. Munger, Brian S. Kesterson, M.A.
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Pathway to Freedom: Foundation for the Abolitionist Movement, Bill Reynolds
2015
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Intrepid Mariners: U.S.S.Kearsarge v. C.S.S. Alabama, John C. Fazio, J.D.
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Courage, Honor, Love in the Civil War: Rufus R. Dawes and Mary Gates Dawes, Steven R. Magnusen, P.E.
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Ku Klux Klan: From Nathan Bedford Forest to Ohio's Klan in the 1920s, William Trollinger, Ph.D.
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Mother Bickerdyke, Carolyn Caskey