Fascinating Presentation via Zoom on James Tanner

Our first meeting since the Spring was held via Zoom on Monday November 16th with a presentation by Jim Mundy on the Union soldier James Tanner.

Tanner lost both legs at Second Bull Run and went on to recuperate, learn shorthand, and be called upon to record testimony on the nights of April 14-15, 1865 dealing with the assassination of President Lincoln.

Tanner became an advocate for pensions for Veterans, and later became the unwitting focus of charges of corruption in the Harrison administration.

Mundy’s presentation was fascinating and a wonderful way to begin our Zoom meetings until we can meet in person again.

Below are some of the photos shown by our presenter as well as some screen shots of the participants.

Our next Zoom meeting is December 1st.

NOVEMBER 16 MEETING VIA ZOOM - “The Tanner Manuscript – In the Right Place at the Right Time” presented by James Mundy

NOTE - CHANGE OF DATE AND FORMAT FOR OUR NOVEMBER MEETING.
“The Tanner Manuscript – In the Right Place at the Right Time” presented by James Mundy
THIS WILL BE PRESENTED VIA ZOOM - ACCESS DETAILS HERE
Click here if you are new to Zoom

At the ripe old age of 18, Corporal James Tanner lost both legs below the knees at Second Bull Run. Almost three years later, in the early morning hours of April 15, Tanner would create one of the most compelling documents recording the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Jim Mundy, Director of Education and Programming at the Union League of Philadelphia, will talk about Tanner, his manuscript, and the circumstances of his life that led up to that night, and his life afterwards as a veteran and citizen. James G. Mundy, Jr. is Director of Education & Programming for the Archives of the Union League of Philadelphia.

A native Philadelphian, Jim graduated La Salle University with a BA in History that included a concentration of courses in archival management. He started working at the Union League May 15, 1978 as the Associate Archivist. Between 1979 and 1989, Jim held the positions of Librarian and Archivist/Curator. In 1989 Jim moved into club management, holding several positions including House Manager and Membership Director, before moving back into the history and archival fields. In October 1996 he became the Director of Library & Historical Collections. In 2012, now as part of the Abraham Lincoln Foundation staff, Jim became the Director of Education & Programming. Jim is also the Curator of Art.

In his current position, Jim is responsible for the research and installation of the exhibits in the Heritage Center; the training and scheduling of docents and tours; scheduling the League’s cultural programming; and the management and care of the League’s fine art collection. Jim also serves as the League’s historian.

From the Brigade Commander ~ November 2020

Good news!

Rather than continue to wait for the kind of occupancy guidelines that would allow us to return to our “normal” monthly meeting format, we are moving forward with a “virtual” lecture format, beginning in November.

I know that, for some, the idea of a virtual approach may feel a bit worrisome. But keep reading; I think you’ll like what you see.

We’re going to use a tool called Zoom. Here’s the process:

• You can view the program on your computer or cell phone OR listen in by phone. You choose.

• If you choose the Zoom internet option, you will need to download the FREE Zoom application, which is quick and easy to do.

I can tell you now that we WON’T be meeting on Tuesday, November 3rd. But we expect to confirm a date in the next few days, and we will notify you as soon as all of the details are settled. You will also receive instructions that you can follow to access the broadcast. If you receive your newsletter by the USPS, you will receive this information via the USPS.

We are also making good progress in the areas of membership renewals and print raffle revenue:

• Thirty-two percent of members of record (as of this time last year) have renewed for Campaign 43.

• Raffle ticket sales to date total $285.

I want to thank those of you who have made these promising early revenue gains possible. I also want to remind all of you that every month we can’t meet in person, we are losing walk-in fees and book raffle revenues. And, although we are avoiding speaker mileage and hotel room costs, we have needed to spend treasury dollars to purchase a Zoom membership. When we add up Campaign 43 budget numbers and include the cost for the Zoom membership, our anticipated revenue losses will be larger than our expense avoidances. And that means fewer dollars going to preservation efforts. Of course, all this assumes we will need to continue in this mode for the entire campaign. Only time will tell.

These are hard times for small businesses like the CWRT of Eastern Pa., Inc., and your continued support via print raffle ticket purchases and/or donations will make ultimately a difference in how well our nation’s history is preserved. For your convenience, we’ve included a donation form inside this newsletter edition. You can also send in a donation along with a copy of the membership renewal form you’ll also find inside.

Barry Arnold

Photos from Our Conservation Day at Nisky Hill Cemetery on October 17

Our first conservation activity for 2020, was held on October 17, 2020 at Nisky Hill Cemetery in Bethlehem. It had been a long time coming due to COVID 19, so the CWRT was ready to go!

We were to paint cannons and cannon balls; as well as clean up..

When the work was done our own Ed Root was to provide us with a talk on some of the Civil War veterans who are buried there.

We had a great day and a great turnout.

Below are some photos from the day.

October 17 - Nisky Hill Cemetery Preservation Painting

Our first conservation activity is scheduled for October 17, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. We will clean up and paint cannons and cannon balls..

Please bring gloves and a brush. Naturally, you will need a mask, as well, and be assured that we will maintain a safe distance.

As soon as the clean-up is done our own Ed Root will provide us with a talk on some of the Civil War veterans who are buried here. It promises to be a great morning.

At this time, we do not have a rain date scheduled. However, I am requesting that you RSVP me, so that I can have an idea who is coming. Please note,  I will try to contact you if the weather threatens our efforts.

The Cemetery is in Bethlehem near the Public Library.

Follow this link for directions.

From the Brigade Commander - October 2020

From the Brigade Commander

On behalf of the Board of the Civil War Round Table of Eastern Pa., Inc., I’d like to apologize for any disappointment you may be feeling about our need to cancel our September—and now, October—Round Table meetings. Although the Commonwealth has loosened some Covid-19 restrictions, ultimate guidelines regarding conference room occupancy and public meals are set by the hotel’s management. As a short-term solution, we are amid contacting speakers to learn their willingness and ability to present their lecture topics via Zoom, a very easy-to-use internet tool.

We have finalized the selection process for preservation gifts for our 42nd Campaign Year. Last month, I shared news of a $500 gift to the GAR Civil War museum in Philadelphia. Another $1,500 will be sent to the American Battlefield Trust (ABT) to help save a three-acre tract that comprises a portion of West Woods of the Antietam Battlefield—the site of some of the heaviest fighting in the entire Civil War, according to the ABT. Our donation will be matched 1:1, which means we will receive credit for $3,000 of preservation assistance, bringing our total 42nd Campaign Year contribution to $3,500!

While I’m on the subject of Civil War preservation, I’d like to ask that each of you follow in the footsteps of CWRT member, Ed Root. A few months ago, Ed reached out to Representative Susan Wilde to express his concern over proposed legislation regarding the removal of Confederate monuments from our national parks. Our colleague, Wayne Schaeffer, has picked up the baton, as it were, and has shared (see inside) a way for all of us to make a lasting difference. I encourage you all to pitch in and demonstrate to our government leaders that the CWRT of Eastern Pa. is serious about the preservation of Civil War history. Thanks.

Barry

September's "From the Brigade Commander" by Barry Arnold

First, welcome back to our 43 campaign season. I had hoped to see you in person on September 01, 2020 and to experience with you the wonderful narrative that Gene Schmiel planned on sharing with us on his book, Lincoln, Antietam and a Northern Last Cause. Unfortunately, we were forced to cancel that meeting.

I would like to take a moment to address a topic that is near and dear to many of our hearts….

Removal of confederate statuary, a thoughtful process that has been underway in many municipalities for some time, has gained far greater attention in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. At this point, cancel culture has stepped in, and dozens of statues have been forcibly removed by self-appointed groups of people as part of a quest to rid the country of all things racist. In the process, statuary in our national parks, including national battlefields, are now also under threat. In fact, a bill, already passed in the U. S. House of Representatives, calls for all statues that honor the country’s discriminatory past to be relocated from prominent locations.

I believe, along with the rest of the Board, that it is the job of the National Parks Service to interpret battlefields, including statuary, and that all monuments on National Parks grounds ought to be left alone and continued to be interpreted for the public by the Parks Service. I encourage those of you who have strong feelings about this impending action to reach out to your federal and state representatives. The system of participatory democracy remains alive and well, but only if we choose to participate.

In other news, the Civil War Round Table continues to face the difficulties that come from having to cancel several lectures early this year. We have likewise chosen to cancel our September, 2020, lecture. The Board is currently exploring alternative ways to deliver quality programming to our members, such as Zoom, a free and easy-to-use internet tool, as we wait out the pandemic and abide by state-imposed mandates. Expect to hear more on this subject in the weeks ahead.

On behalf of the Board, please accept my thanks for your continued commitment to Civil War preservation and education. We hope to be able to see you, in person, sometime soon.

Barry

CWRT's Ed Root and Grandson Featured on WFMZ

Like Grandfather, Like Grandson
written by CWRT member Frank Whelan. Aug 8, 2020 Updated Aug 11, 2020
WFMZ

On a recent July morning, with sunshine dappling the fluttering green trees and a summer breeze taking the edge off the already rising humidity, a small group of people walked down Bethlehem’s High Street toward the historic Nisky Hill cemetery. Slipping through the slightly open gate they slowly headed toward a distant space of graves whose distinctly waving small American flags marked it off as special. There, around a 19th century artillery piece are the 60 grave stones of Union Civil War soldiers, members of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union veterans organization that flourished in the 19th century only to pass out of existence when its final members answered the last bugle call in the 20th.

Although far from the only Civil War veterans resting at Nisky Hill, they are particularly interesting in that they form a composite unit. Four are African Americans, part of the U.S. Colored Troops that served in the segregated units at reduced pay in the Union Army. “Colored” had a rather broad definition in other parts of the country. In California, some sources state it included Asian and Hispanic Americans. In this cemetery these Black men rest beside their white comrades. Others, with names like Stoltzenbach, O’Brian and Weiner, represent the hundreds of thousands who, as was said at another Pennsylvania cemetery, “gave their lives that this nation might live.” And not incidentally they helped sweep the curse of chattel slavery from the land, even if regretfully it did not remove the racism at its root. In the 1970s an elderly Black man who began his life as an enslaved person noted to a popular magazine of the day that “everybody says Lincoln freed the slaves, Lincoln don’t free no slaves, Union Army freed the slaves. I know. I was there.”

The group that gathered that day are several generations of the same family. One was Ed Root. A Philadelphia native who lived in Center Valley before he and wife Nancy “downsized” to a place in Allentown, Root had a career in business that began at Eagle Shirt Makers of Quakertown and ended with retirement from the Phillips Van Heusen shirt company. Even before he retired, Root followed his passion: the history of the Civil War. He has served several terms as president of the local Civil War Roundtable of Eastern Pennsylvania and currently remains on its board. Today it meets at 6 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month, excluding July and August, for lecture meetings at the Fogelsville Holiday Inn. More information can be found on their website.

The Roundtable movement began in Chicago in 1941 by Lincoln scholar Ralph Newman. There are hundreds of such organizations throughout the United States and some in other countries. Locally the CWRT chapter began during the 1960s among historians at the Lehigh County Historical Society. 

With Ed and his wife that morning are Ed’s daughter, Emily Schenkel, recently elected to the Bethlehem School Board, and her children Nicholas and Lorraine. It was a number of years ago when Nicholas, then age 8, expressed an interest to his grandfather in the Civil War research he was doing. He is currently a student at Northwest Middle School and will be attending Liberty High School. They began in 2016 with a simple task, cleaning up the artillery piece in the cemetery. It was something that gave Nicholas a hands-on experience. Root and other CWRT board members have often led school groups do similar projects at Gettysburg.

It was in the process on cleaning the gun that Root and Nicholas became curious about the men buried there. In several cases time and apparently acid rain had wiped the tombstones of whatever information might have been on them. Root, who has done research at the National Archives in Washington and the Pennsylvania State Archives, knows his way around microfilm machines and found a willing recruit in young Nicholas. “He really got involved in it,” says his grandfather. “It’s always good to have another pair of eyes, especially young eyes. He was able to find some of the things I missed.”

The death dates on the tombstones, where they existed, were the start. From there it was on to the newspaper obituaries. Some information was easy to come by, some was not. “They were not always in the same town or even in the same state,” says Ed. “And many towns had more than one newspaper.” As late as 1900 Allentown had 7 newspapers, some in Pennsylvania German and some in recently standard German. The Pennsylvania State Archives turned out to be the most invaluable source. Their Civil War Veterans card file gave detailed information in some cases.

William H. Stotzenbach, who enrolled with the 46th Pennsylvania Regiment, was enrolled in the army on August 8, 1861 as a sergeant and was discharged as a captain on July 20, 1865. He got a leave home for 10 days in 1862. The research gives his previous occupation as a cordwainer, related to shoemaking, and says he had a gunshot wound in the right hand at an action at Peach Tree Creek, Georgia. The hand was later amputated. He had grey eyes and red hair. But Ed and Nicholas found the information provided was not always so detailed. Some cards merely state enlistment and enrollment dates and age. One of the things that seemed interesting to Root was that often men would sign up for one term of enlistment in a Pa regiment only when that term was done to join another in another state. He notes that some signed up for a regiment as far away as Connecticut or Maine.

The records in general show that most of the men were in their early 20s when they signed up. Some served throughout the war, others apparently only as long as their enlistments, which ran for 3 or 6 months. “Many people,” Root notes, “tend to think that after the Civil War ended soldiers marched off in a victory parade and lived happily ever after. This was far from the case.” In many instances the soldiers came home wounded with only a crutch to support them or walked around with shrapnel in their bodies, when they were able to walk at all. This affected not just them but their wives and children.

Root has found that several of the men died after the war in industrial accidents, particularly those who worked on the railroad.

“There was no OSHA or anything like it,” he notes. Some found success in business, one apparently opening a popular restaurant, but another was involved in a murder trial.

But grandfather and grandson are far from at an end in their research. Earlier this year while doing research at the GAR Museum library in Philadelphia, Root discovered eleven boxes of letters these Civil War soldiers wrote, an invaluable resource. But like with many other things, the museum closed its doors due to COVID-19. Both are committed to resuming the search when it becomes possible.

https://www.wfmz.com/features/historys-headlines/historys-headlines-like-grandfather-like-grandson/article_069c50ae-d83f-11ea-af1a-b35e5f3fef50.html

From the Brigade Commander - Summer 2020

From the Brigade Commander: Barry Arnold                                                                                      

           To my friends of the Civil War Round Table: we had a rough time during these past three plus months and into this coming summer. We at the Round Table had to take desperate action to cancel all meetings and activities due to the pandemic events. We will make a come-back this September. The board is lining up greater speakers and field trips. The hotel is accommodating worry-free dining and virus-free areas. Our Round Table members do not have to worry about getting the virus at our meetings. We are taken the safest measure possible to prevent any such happenings. I hope this will reassure you and take the fear out of coming to the Round Table. We want to have you return and enjoy a sociable evening and learn of our Civil War era. So I hope to see you in September, and please bring a friend.

          Since the pandemic may have cancelled your summer vacation as it has done for me, I would like to talk about our nearest battlefield and community of Gettysburg. Gettysburg has suffered during the shutdown. Gettysburg is experiencing large unemployment and weak tourism. Their mainstay is the tourist attracted to visiting the battlefield and its monuments. They are predicting by end of June, the shops, museums, and restaurants will be open again for business. Since, this summer is a bust for most of our vacations, let’s take a little trip and visit the Battlefield and Gettysburg community and give them a boost to help them make a comeback. I know I’ll be there a couple of times this summer. I want to thank you for coming to the Round Table in the past, and I am looking forward to seeing you in September.

Remembering Civil War Veterans on Independence Day Weekend

Jim Duffy took this picture on July 3rd at the ceremony honoring the 108 Civil War Soldiers buried at the Easton Cemetery.

In particular those from the 153rd PVI were remembered.

This was led by CWRT member Neil Coddington and several re-actors.