Everyone is welcome at our monthly meetings

Feb. 8, 2019
Robert I. Girardi:
Gouverner K. Warren's Last Battle

Gouverneur K. Warren is remembered as the Savior of Little Round Top. He was highly regarded for his education and competence, but also accused of being too cautious by the generals who removed him from command. His record belies this however. But Warren has suffered in the history book because of the long reach of his enemies. Here, the facts are reevaluated with some unpleasant revelations.

Robert I. Girardi has had a lifelong fascination with the Civil War. He has studied all aspects of the war, and has tramped over many of the battlefields and related sites. He has collected artifacts and memorabilia and has read through thousands of documents, letters, and diaries written by participants, thereby developing an understanding of the important issues of the war and a sense of what the soldiers experienced.

Robert Girardi earned his M.A. in Public History at Loyola University of Chicago in 1991. He is a past president of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago and a past vice president and newsletter editor of the Salt Creek Civil War Round Table. He belongs to two other Civil War round tables in the Chicago area. He is a fellow of the Company of Military Historians and is an associate member of the Sons of Union Veterans. He is on the editorial review board of the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society and was the guest editor of the 2011-2014 Civil War Sesquicentennial issues. He was the winner of the 2010 Chicago Civil War Round Table's prestigious Nevins-Freeman Award. In 2012 he was named to the board of directors of the Illinois State Historical Society, and sat on the board of directors of the Camp Douglas Restoration Society 2013-2018. In 2014 he was awarded the Milwaukee Civil War Round Table's Iron Brigade Association Award for Civil War scholarship. He was an extra in the movie, Andersonville.

For our 2018-19 program year, we proudly welcome these outstanding speakers:

Sept. 14th: Tim Smith on U. S. Grant and the Vicksburg Campaign
Oct. 12th: Ted Karamanski on The Civil War as an Indian War
Nov. 9th: Paul Kahan on The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant: Preserving the Civil War's Legacy
Dec. 14th: David Hirsch and Dan Van Haften on Abraham Lincoln and the Structure of Reason
Jan. 11th: Bjorn Skaptason on Henry Morton Stanley at Shiloh
Feb. 8th: Rob Girardi on Gouverneur K. Warren's Last Battle
Mar. 8th: John David Smith and Mark Larson on Dear Delia
Apr. 12th: Brad Gottfried on Maps of the Fredericksburg Campaign
May 10th: John Horn on The Petersburg Regiment: the 12th Virginia
June 14th: Greg Biggs, The Nevins-Freeman Address: Logistics of the Atlanta Campaign

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