Updated on August 20th -
THE SEPTEMBER 2020 MEETING HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO
VIRUS RESTRICTIONS

Gene Schmiel          
“Lincoln, Antietam, and a Northern Lost Cause”

"Gene Schmiel is a student of the Civil War whose book, Citizen-General: Jacob Dolson Cox and the Civil War Era, was published in 2014 by Ohio University Press.  The book, a History Book Club selection, was deemed "best biography of the year" by Civil War Books and Authors.

  Subsequently, Gene has written five more books on the war: Lincoln, Antietam and a Northern Lost Cause; Ohio Heroes of the Battle of Franklin; Civil War Musings and Reflections; Civil War Trailblazers and Troublemakers; and Civil War Rogues, Rascals, and Rapscallions.  The last two books are the first in a series called "Civil War Personalities, 50 At a Time."  His next two volumes in the series are "Civil War Political Generals in Blue and Grey" and "Civil War Women: Underestimated and Indispensable."

Gene hails from Cleveland, Ohio, and he holds a Ph. D. degree from The Ohio State University.  He was an assistant professor of History at St. Francis University (PA)  before becoming  a Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State.   He and his wife Kathryn live in Gainesville, Virginia, just next to the Manassas battlefields."

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         Talk Summary

Gene will focus his talk on his book "Lincoln, Antietam, and a Northern Lost Cause."    Here are some thoughts about that:

  "What if, even after the Union had won the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery had remained legal in the United States? In this thought-provoking speculative history, written in a "you are there" style using the words of the participants themselves, award-winning Civil War historian Gene Schmiel shows exactly how that ironic and tragic series of events could have happened. He describes how one changed decision at the Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862, could have created a "Civil War butterfly effect" and irrevocably changed American history.

Most people don't know that Lincoln saw the Emancipation Proclamation as giving the Confederate states one more chance to re-join the Union, whether or not they abolished slavery. This book will explain how, as a result, slavery might not have ended despite a Union victory.

  To some in the North, the failure to abolish slavery would have become "the Northern lost cause" noted in the title. Abolitionists and black leaders would be bitter that despite the bloodshed, victory had not brought the cherished goal of destroying slavery."