Dear Members and Friends of the Civil War Round Table of Gettysburg,

I’m writing on the morning of December 4, feeling really great about last night’s Holiday Banquet Online.  While circumstances made the banquet itself impracticable, given the number of people tuning in from across the country, Wayne Motts surely had a larger audience than if we’d been at the Abigail Adams Ballroom. Don’t get me wrong: There is no substitute for gathering in person—not to mention the Dobbin House scallops. But the only alternative was canceling entirely and I’m certainly glad we didn’t. Wayne’s program on the United States Regulars in general, and one troubled soul among them in particular, was the culmination of a remarkable year of Round table programming.

The year kicked off with Ron Kirkwood sharing from his wonderful book, Too Much for Human Endurance: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg. In February, Ashley Whitehead Luskey of the Gettysburg College Civil War Institute brought a program on the Richmond Bread Riots. The onset of coronavirus caused us to cancel Brad and Linda Gottfried’s March lecture on the Point Lookout Civil War Prisoner of War Camp; happily, that’s been rescheduled for 2021. By April, go-to-tech-guy Pete Miele had us ready to try online, and Mary Turk-Meena’s presentation on The Joint Committee On The Conduct Of The War was a big success. May presenter James Broomall of Shepherd University titled his program, “Manliness and Community in Confederate Camps.” Summer was to have been spent on the battlefield, but Richard Goedkoop revamped his program on the Culp’s Hill monuments for online presentation; likewise, Charlie Fennell took us on a virtual walk of the Culp’s Hill fighting. Those two programs were sandwiched around a presentation by Jared Frederick of Penn State Altoona on the War Department’s use of the battlefield in the Second World War. In September, Robert Wynstra zoomed in from Illinois. His 2018 volume At The Forefront Of Lee’s Invasion had received our Distinguished Book Award. October speaker Doug Douds brought newly researched material on the invaluable service of George Meade’s staff officers at Gettysburg. In November, Gene Barr told the love story of A Civil War Captain and His Lady.

Program Director Roger Heller has another great roster of speakers lined up for 2021, starting, appropriately enough, with Pete Miele. If we had a Most Valuable Player Award, the 2020 trophy would surely go to Pete, as creator and producer of the Round Table online. Pete is the Director of the Seminary Ridge Museum and a top-notch historian in his own right. As recently as a couple of months ago, I had hoped, by the first of the year, we might be back to meeting in person. While that’s clearly not going to happen, there’s this upside, I guess: we won’t have to contend with winter weather cancellations.

A few other things:

• This new group e-communication program seems to be well-received and we now have more than a hundred subscribers.  
• Treasurer Dave Diner reports an encouraging number of you have already reupped for 2021.  
• The Alan Frazer memorial service at Evergreen Cemetery can be seen in its entirely via links on the web site and Facebook page.
• This is cool: Lynn Heller already has us booked for the Dobbin House on December 2, 2021!

 
Bruce Davis
President
brdgettysburg@gmail.com