27/28 September 2008 - Heros and Zeros

Meetings › 27/28 September 2008 - Heros and Zeros

Speaker 1: David Kirkpatrick - Albert Sidney Johnston.

At the start of the Civil War, Albert Sidney Johnston had the reputation of being one of the best soldiers in the US Army, and he was given a high command in the Confederate army. But his performance as a commander was much criticised during the war, and has been much debated in later years. David reviews Johnston’s career before the war, and considers the reasons why he was universally admired. Then describes his period as Commander of the Department of the West between his appointment in September 1861 and his death in action at Shiloh in April 1862, and considers the soundness of the key decisions which he made in that role.

David Kirkpatrick trained as an aeronautical engineer and later as an economist. He worked for the Ministry of Defence (1962-1995) on aeronautical research at the RAE Farnborough, and on military operational analysis and project cost forecasting in London. As Professor of Defence Analysis at University College London he led a department providing post-graduate education and research in defence equipment acquisition. He has lectured and written many published papers on various aspects of aeronautics, defence acquisition, defence economics and military history and is one of the principal authors of a book on ‘Conquering Complexity – Lessons for Defence Systems Acquisition’. He has a lifelong interest in the American Civil War, reinforced by a year at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and a three-year posting in Washington D.C. He has been a member of the Round Table since 1995, and since then has contributed some lectures to meetings and articles printed in Crossfire.

Speaker 2: Greg Bayne - P.G.T Beauregard:  Napoleon in Grey

From the first shot fired at Sumter to the last meeting with President Davis at Danville, Pierre G T Beauregard played an instrumental part in the Civil War. In this lecture Greg Bayne will plot the many peaks and troughs of his career. 

Greg Bayne has been a member of the ACWRTUK since 2000 and is the editor of our magazine – Crossfire. His civil war interests are wide and varied but include the Iron Brigade and the 54th Virginia Regiment where one of his Virginia relatives served throughout the war. Greg is a Maths teacher at a secondary school in Deal, Kent. He is married with one daughter. He has relatives living in Clifton Forge Virginia.

Speaker 3: Charles Rees - The Bixby Letter.

Among the best known of the writings attributed to Abraham Lincoln is the epistle allegedly sent to a Mrs. Bixby at the height of the Civil War. The letter consoles the Boston lady on the reported loss of five sons, all of whom had supposedly died battling for the Union cause.

Charles Rees has been a Doctor for 40 years and is a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. He has also been involved in GP education for 30 years. His contributions to the ACWRT(UK) include 'Not Antietam!' a discussion of the military events leading up to the battle and the political consequences afterwards. He has also attended the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg for the last 14 years.

Speaker 4: Jeremy Mindell - George McClellan

McClellan is a controversial General and one that has been poorly regarded by most commentators. Is this fair or was he a victim of Republican political manoeuvring? How does he compare with other commanders on the Virginia Theatre?

Jeremy Mindell works in the City as a senior Tax and Reward Manager. He has had a long interest in the War Between the States. This started at University and he has maintained it ever since. He drags his wife, Belinda and three young sons to battle sites whenever possible.

Speaker 5: Miles Thompson - R E Lee:  Could He Have Done Better?

For any of us who had not already fallen in love with R E Lee, last years seminar at Oxford must surely have done the trick, and I am the last person to even think of questioning his reputation as a good man, patriot, inspirational leader, bold risk taker, shrewd judge of his opponents characters, clever manipulator of Jefferson Davis and so on and so forth. What just slightly chips away at my total reverence for the incomparable Chief of the Army of Northern Virginia are the episodes, and we only know of the published ones, where the command and management arrangements in and around his headquarters seem to have contributed to muddle, confusion, and perhaps even defeat in battle. Could he have done better – could he have paid a little more attention to how things were arranged – let’s see?

Miles Thompson tends to approach the Civil War from the viewpoint of a former professional soldier and therefore might be expected to nit pick at some aspects of it which others of us maybe ignore. Also do not forget that one of his heroes is Jubal Early, therefore he can be a bit grumpy, even sarcastic.

Speaker 6 - John Drewienkiewicz - Franz Sigel.

Sigel is mostly remembered these days as an unsuccessful Union General who was appointed for political considerations. However, he was already famous among German immigrants as a professionally trained German officer who had participated in the 1848 insurrection in Baden. His real value to the Union was in the rallying power of his name, and without him it is highly possible that Missouri would have been lost to the Union. His tragedy was that he was unable to reconcile the precise theory of soldiering, as taught at officer cadet school, to the messy reality of dealing with enthusiastic but undisciplined volunteers.

John DZ is a retired Royal Engineers Major General who spent the most of his career in the Cold War and finished with a major stint in the Balkans, culminating in the Kosovo War of 1999. Since retiring in 2001 he has continued to be active in Peace Support Operations in the Balkans, the Sudan and Armenia. His interest in the American Civil War was sparked on a visit to Gettysburg in 1985 and he has since visited almost all of the Eastern Theatre Battlefields and several in the Western Theatre. He is also a keen ACW wargamer and has run a number of Gettysburg megagames. He is a regular speaker to the ACWRT and has been President for 2007 and 2008.

The Venue The Civil Service Club is situated in Great Scotland Yard, near Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross railway station, Charing Cross Underground Station (Northern and Bakerloo lines), Embankment Underground Station (Circle and District, Northern and Bakerloo lines).
The Club is within easy walking distance from Government Offices on Whitehall and a short journey by bus or underground from the Government Offices along Victoria Street, Lambeth Bridge and near to Victoria Station.

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