THE CIVILFounded WAR December 3, ROUND 1940 TABLE Volume LXVII, Number 3 Chicago, Illinois November, 2006 Bob O’Neill - on - “Learning to Lead: P.S.G. Cooke, John Buford, Wesley 655th REGULAR Merritt, Alfred Pleasonton MEETING and George Custer” BOB O’NEILL Bob O’Neill ON By Bruce Allardice also take a brief look at both Alfred LEARNING TO LEAD: P.S.G. The Union cavalry in the Eastern Pleasonton and George Custer and COOKE, JOHN BUFORD, WESLEY Theater suffered from a number of their early careers as staff officers MERRITT, ALFRED PLEASONTON handicaps early in the war. Among prior to receiving their stars. Buford AND GEORGE CUSTER those handicaps was the failure by and Merritt appear to have benefited # # # # # the Union army high command to from Cooke's mentoring, while conceptualize a proper role for cav- Custer, who spent his early career as Friday, Nov. 10 alry in the war. Another, related, an aide to several high ranking gen- # # # # # handicap was the slow development erals, may have paid the price, post- of a cadre of competent officers to war, for not having had the same Holiday Inn Mart Plaza lead that cavalry. experience. 350 North Orleans Street In the prewar U.S. army, its lead- Bob O’Neill grew up in Detroit Cocktails at 5:30 p.m. ing cavalry theorist was Col. Philip and moved to Virginia in 1977 when Dinner at 6:30 p.m. St. George Cooke, who wrote the he took a job with the Fairfax County standard treatise on cavalry tactics. Police Department. He spent 25 $30 - Members/Non-members Promoted to general at the start of the years both in uniform and as a detec- Entrée: war, Cooke led Union cavalry during tive before retiring in 2002. Through Chicken Trevino the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, but Marshall Krolick he met John Divine Catch of the Day soon after found himself shelved, and under John’s tutelage wrote an outmaneuvered by article on Vegetarian Plate Confederate cavalry Thoroughfare Gap or Fruit Plate commanded by his Call by and the book on the PLEASE N O TE own son-in-law, Jeb Monday, cavalry battles of Stuart. Aldie, Middleburg Make your reservation by MONDAY, Nov. 6, Nov. 6 by calling 630-460-1865. We now also have our On November and Upperville. Bob online dinner reservation system at has written, or http://www.thecwrt.org/commiss.htm. 10th Bob O’Neill will Reservations made after Wednesday, Nov. 8, take a look at the recorded, several will be surcharged $5. Union cavalry commanders in audio/driving tours for the Mosby People who attend without having made a reser- Virginia and the influence General Heritage Area, covering the fighting vation will pay a $5 walk-in charge. If you make a reservation and then find you cannot attend, please Cooke had on their development. The in both 1862 and 63 and the opera- call to cancel or you will be billed for a dinner. talk will look at the relationship that tions of John Mosby. Bob is currently We are offering the option of choosing not to have Cooke had with his younger officers, working on project detailing the dinner and coming only for the address at 7:30 p.m., for a charge of $5 per person. notably John Buford and Wesley guerrilla war in Northern Virginia to Parking at the Holiday Inn is $8 with a validated Merritt, while they served together in the end of June 1863 - from a Union parking sticker. Utah before the war. The talk will perspective. 2 The Civil War Round Table Battlefield Preservation THE CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE By David Zucker It is with deep sadness that this acreage is part of the core battlefield, Round Table learned of the death of where on October 19, 1864, the Margie Bearss, wife of Ed Bearss, a troops of Generals Sheridan and gifted historian and friend of our Early fought in the battle that cost CWRT in her own right. To honor the Confederates the Shenandoah Founded December 3, 1940 her memory, at the November and Valley for good. “A mining operation 9670 N. Dee #205 December CWRT meetings, money on a battlefield is the worst possible Des Plaines, Illinois 60016 Phone: 630-460-1865 will be collected for the Margie thing,” according to Jim Campi, a www.thecwrt.org Bearss Fund. The money will go to spokesman for the Civil War the Civil War Preservation Trust. Preservation Trust. The battlefield The only requirement for membership in The The next meting of the and the Belle Grove Mansion have Round Table is a genuine interest in the Civil CWRT’s Battlefield Preservation suffered for years from the visual War and its era. For information, address Membership Committee, 9670 N. Dee #205 Fund Committee will be on impact of Chemstone’s existing Des Plaines, Illinois 60016, or contact December 2, 2006, at Flapjack’s quarry, whose towering pile of waste [email protected]. Restaurant, 8501 Dempster St. in and industrial machinery dominate Niles. All CWRT members in good the view behind the mansion. The standing may attend. Breakfast will Frederick County Planning $620,000 in federal funding to pur- be available on an individual settle- Commission has recommended chase the property in two phases, ment with the restaurant. against approval of the rezoning. acquiring one parcel last December Harpers Ferry: On the Among the concerns the commis- and the other last July. The 137 weekend of August 19th/20th, a sion cited were dust, increased truck acres were part of a larger tract group of developers began laying traffic, noise and vibration, blasting, owned by the Powers family of water and sewer lines without night lighting, effects on ground and Winchester, who will continue to obtaining the necessary federal per- surface waters, and impact on adja- own the remainder of the property mits, digging a big trench on School cent property values. One aspect of and continue to farm on it. House Ridge. The developers showed the rezoning proposal that many find Gettysburg: Until now, few up at 6 a.m. on Saturday the 19th, particularly alarming is that the things have been more difficult to accompanied by lawyers and an off- Frederick County Sanitation arrange than a visit to the Cupola at duty police officer. The weekend was Authority, a separate special use dis- the top of the Lutheran Seminary picked as the park service was busy trict, has a 70-year lease with Building. Starting November 18th, with a huge and crowded event at Chemstone and Oglebay-Norton to for the first time in the 170-year his- the park. The workers raced through use its quarry pits as a water source. tory of the building, twice a year pub- the night to get their work done. At Frederick County has been hit with a lic tours will be offered. It was from our CWRT’s October meeting, citi- growth surge and it doesn’t have suf- this vantage point on July 1, 1863, zen petitions were passed out for peo- ficient water to meet the expected that Union General John Buford ple to sign. These petitions will be future development. An authority spotted the Confederate advance on sent to Secretary of the Interior Dick spokesman indicated they hope to Gettysburg. “One of my greatest Kempthorne, to protest these “wild draw water from Cedar Creek itself. hopes has been to get the Cupola west” tactics. More information is available at open,” said Wayne Motts, Executive Cedar Creek: A proposal for Shenandoahvalleyentwork.org or by Director of the Adams County a large quarrying operation on a tract writing Preserve Frederick, PO Box Historical Society. “Every day some- adjoining the new Cedar Creek/Belle 562, Middletown, VA 22645. body comes and knocks on the door Grove National Historical Park has Cedar Creek: The and wants to see the Cupola.” The made local preservationists furious. Shenandoah Valley Battlefields building in question, now known as Chemstone, a Middletown, VA sub- foundation has announced the pur- Schmucker Hall, has been leased to sidiary of Cleveland-based Oglebay- chase of a 137 acre portion of Fair the Historical Society since 1959. Norton Minerals, has applied to Meadows Farm, which lies inside the The tour won’t be cheap. The cost Frederick County to get 639 acres boundary of the aforementioned will be $125 a person for non-mem- adjacent to the park rezoned to per- Cedar Creek and Belle Grove bers of the society or seminary and mit mining. Chemstone is eying the National Historical Park. The prop- $100 a person for members or groups limestone under the tract, which is erty was the site of the opening of 10 or more. Profits will go to the owned by Oglebay-Norton. phases of the Cedar Creek Battle, in seminary’s own non-profit group, the Chemstone once operated a nearby which Confederate troops launched Seminary Ridge Historic quarry, but had left the 639 acre tract a devastating surprise attack on the Foundation, For more, see Civil War for farming use. Nearly all of the Union army. The foundation used News, September, 2006. The Civil War Round Table 3 OCTOBER MEETING By Larry Gibbs On October 13th, the Nevins- On October 21, 2000, the essentials of the Letterman Plan have Freeman Award, the highest honor National Museum of Civil War med- been used by the US Army in recent bestowed by this Round Table, was icine opened with 30,000 in atten- wars. presented to Dr. Gordon Dammann. dance. Among the exhibits are a In the fall of 1863, He gave an enthusiastic speech titled camp life diorama, a portable drug Letterman became disenchanted “A Museum, a Battlefield, and kit, a hospital flag, a tribute to Civil with the army, after a conflict with Hero” before 101 members and War nurses and doctors, a recruiting Union General George Meade.