Program Archives

2025 - 2026 Program Year

September 24, 2025

Topic: COMMON MISPERCEPTIONS OF THE CIVIL WAR IN 2025

Speaker: Gary Gallagher (via Zoom)

Americans cling to many misperceptions about the Civil War that get in the way of a solid understanding of the origins, progress, and outcome of the conflict. Gary Gallagher will discuss some of the most widely held by addressing four key questions. First, was United States victory inevitable because of an overwhelming advantage of men and material resources? Second, was Gettysburg the war's great turning point? Third, did the loyal citizenry of the United States make emancipation an equivalent goal to restoring the Union? Finally, was there a "lost moment" for genuine racial equality in the war's aftermath?

October 22, 2025

Topic: FROM IRONCLAD TO ADMIRAL: ADMIRAL JOHN WORDEN

Speaker: John Quarstein

Throughout his 52-year career, Rear Adm. John Lorimer Worden was always the right officer for the job. The epitome of an innovative commander who helped move the U.S. Navy out of the age of sail and into the era of ironclad technology, Worden’s contributions extended beyond the Battle of Hampton Roads and shaped the future of the Navy. He demonstrated exceptional leadership in both combat and peacetime.  After delivering secret dispatches in 1861 that kept Fort Pickens in Florida for the Union, Worden attempted to return to Washington, D.C., and was arrested by Confederate authorities, thus becoming the first prisoner of war during the Civil War. After six months in captivity, he returned to command the USS Monitor—the “little ship that saved the nation”—at the historic Battle of Hampton Roads. There, he faced the Confederate CSS Virginia in the first-ever clash of ironclads, suffering severe wounds while fighting the battle to a standstill. Upon recovery, he returned to command the USS Montauk,. 

After the war, Worden became superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he trained the next generation of naval officers and co-founded the U.S. Naval Institute. Worden also managed sensitive issues surrounding the appointment of the first African American midshipman and the first Japanese midshipman while he helmed the academy. Worden capped his career by ably serving as commander-in-chief of the European Squadron during a time of upheaval on that continent.
 

November 19, 2025

Topic: THE PATHFINDER AND THE PRESIDENT: JOHN C. FREMONT, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, AND THE BATTLE FOR EMANCIPATION

Speaker: John Bicknell

In 1856, John C. Frémont—the famed "Pathfinder" of the American West—became the Republican Party's first presidential nominee on an anti-slavery platform. Five years later, now a Union general under President Lincoln, he sparked a national crisis by unilaterally declaring emancipation in Missouri. Drawing from extensive research, author John Bicknell masterfully chronicles the volatile relationship between these two leaders as they grappled with slavery, military strategy, and the future of the nation. 

January 28, 2026               CANCELLED DUE TO ICE STORM

Topic: DISASTER IN PURSUIT OF LINCOLN’S KILLERS

Speaker: Karen Stone

In the days following President Lincoln’s assassination, a lesser-known tragedy unfolded on the Potomac River. As the nation grappled with the loss of its leader and the hunt for his killer intensified, a collision between two vessels resulted in the deaths of 87 people, including recently freed Union soldiers and civilian volunteers. This is the story of the Black Diamond disaster – a tale of sacrifice, duty, and unforeseen consequences in the pursuit of justice.  This tragedy unfolded on April 24, 1865, when a large sidewheel steamer, known as the “Massachusetts,” collided with the coal barge “Black Diamond” on the Potomac River. The disaster occurred at approximately 1:00 a.m. as the steamer navigated from Alexandria to City Point, Virginia. In total, 87 lives were lost, including four United States Quartermaster Department employees who were later laid to rest in the Alexandria National Cemetery. 

February 25, 2026

Topic: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MEADE AND LEE'S COMMANDING MACHINES AT GETTYSBURG

Speaker: Doug Douds

Staff work is one of the least studied aspects of the Civil War.  Army leadership is a collective activity.  At Gettysburg, Meade and Lee employed commanding machines — senior subordinate commanders and staff officers — to lead their armies.  Dr. Douglas Douds will analyze the differences between the “commanding machines” of Meade’s Army of the Potomac and Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia during the Battle of Gettysburg. He will compare their structure and processes, giving insights into the battle’s outcome.

March 25, 2026

Topic: THE RICHMOND BREAD RIOTS

Speaker: Ashley Whitehead Luskey

By 1863, the combination of the Northern blockade of Southern ports, the diversion of Southern food supplies from the home front to the war front and the escalating inflation of its currency began to negatively affect the Confederacy's civilian population. Additional class divisions and tensions within the overcrowded Confederate capital itself boiled to the surface on April 2, 1863, when a group of women descended upon the Confederate capital in Richmond demanding relief. Rebuffed by the Governor, the mob took their complaints to the streets and sparked a spontaneous protest by a crowd of several hundred. Shouting "Bread, Bread, Bread!" the mob vented its frustrations by smashing store windows and looting their contents.  The bread riot was eventually quelled when Jefferson Davis climbed atop a wagon and threatened to have Confederate troops—which had been called out to support the public guard—open fire on the crowd. He pulled out his watch and gave the rioters five minutes to disperse and return home.  There were no further riots in Richmond during the Civil War, and the government made increased efforts to distribute food to the poor. City leaders went to great lengths to keep the fact of the riot out of the news, fearing the impact the story would have on troop morale. However, news leaked out via Union prisoners of war in Richmond, and the riot was front-page news in The New York Times on April 8. 

April 22, 2026

Topic: JOHN BROWN: IGNITING THE KEG

Speaker: Dennis Frye

For many, John Brown was the fuse that launched the Civil War.  Born in a devout family with extreme anti-slavery views, he married twice and fathered twenty children.  Brown gained notoriety during “Bleeding Kansas” for leading the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre in 1856.  In response to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, Brown led a small band of men who dragged five unarmed men and boys, believed to be slavery proponents, from their homes and brutally murdered them. His most famous act came in 1859 when Brown and his men raided the Federal Arsenal in Harper’s Ferry.  He planned to arm freed slaves who he believed would join his cause.  Unfortunately for Brown, nothing went as planned.  Local militia and the United States Marines, under Robert E. Lee, put down the raid, and most of John Brown’s men were either killed or captured, including two of his sons.  Despite being seriously wounded, Brown was tried quickly and found guilty of murder, inciting slave insurrection, and treason against the state of Virginia.  He was executed on December 2, 1859.  Revered as a martyr in the North and vilified in the South, Brown’s actions intensified tensions, propelling the U.S. toward the Civil War. 

May 27, 2026

Topic: THE APPOMATTOX CAMPAIGN: OBSERVATIONS ON GRANT’S PURSUIT

Speaker: Hampton Newsome

In early April 1865, Robert E. Lee and his army broke away from Richmond and Petersburg in a desperate gambit to reach Confederate troops in North Carolina. In response, Ulysses S. Grant unleashed his forces in a vigorous pursuit. Over the course of a grueling week, Grant and his lieutenants hounded the Confederate columns in a sprawling, dynamic campaign that culminated in Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House and signaled the end of the Civil War. Drawing from his upcoming book on the Appomattox Campaign, Hampton Newsome will explore various aspects of these operations including, among other things, the cooperation and conflict among members of the U.S. high command, the performance of Robert E. Lee and his generals, key maneuvers and engagements, logistical issues on both sides, and the efforts of intrepid Federal scouts among other issues. 

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June 17, 2026

Topic: TEACHER, PREACHER, SOLDIER, SPY: THE CIVIL WARS OF JOHN R.

KELSO

Speaker: Christopher Grasso (via Zoom)

Teacher, Preacher, Soldier, Spy: The Civil Wars of John R. Kelso is an account of an extraordinary nineteenth-century American life. A former Methodist preacher and Missouri schoolteacher, John R. Kelso served as a Union Army foot soldier, cavalry officer, guerrilla fighter, and spy. Kelso became driven by revenge after pro-Southern neighbors stole his property, burned down his house, and drove his family and friends from their homes. He vowed to kill twenty-five Confederates with his own hands and, often disguised as a rebel, proceeded to track and kill unsuspecting victims with "wild delight." The newspapers of the day reported on his feats of derring-do, as the Union hailed him as a hero and Confederate sympathizers called him a monster.  During Reconstruction, Kelso served in the House of Representatives and was one of the first to call for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. Personal tragedy then drove him west, where he became a freethinking lecturer and author, an atheist, a spiritualist, and, before his death in 1891, an anarchist. Kelso was also a strong-willed son, a passionate husband, and a loving and grieving father.  Christopher Grasso's analysis of Kelso's life story offers a unique vantage on dimensions of nineteenth-century American culture that are usually treated separately: religious revivalism and political anarchism; sex, divorce, and Civil War battles; freethinking and the Wild West. A complex figure and passionate, contradictory, and prolific writer.