The Civil War Round Table
Of Chicago

Peter Cozzens
on
"1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign Reconsidered"

September Meeting At A Glance:

• 673rd Regular Meeting
• September 12, 2008
• "1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign Reconsidered"
• by Peter Cozzens
• Holiday Inn Mart Plaza
• Cocktails (Cash Bar) 5:30pm Dinner 6:30pm
• Dinner for Members/Non-members with reservations $35
  Sliced Strip Loin, Catch of the Day
  Fruit Plate, Hot Vegetable Plate

For dinner reservations call 630 460-1865 or email chicagocwrtdinner@earthlink.net with your name(s) and choice of entree.

Non-members are welcome to attend.

British Field Marshal Lord Roberts once remarked, “In my opinion Stonewall Jackson was one of the greatest natural military geniuses the world ever saw. I will go even further than that—as a campaigner in the field he never had a superior.” General Douglas MacArthur lauded Jackson as “one of the most remarkable soldiers we have ever known.” In large part Stonewall’s reputation rests on the 1862 Valley Campaign, which, in historian and biographer Bud Robertson’s words, made him “arguably the most famous field commander in the world.”

On Sept. 12, Pete Cozzens will explore the campaign that made Stonewall immortal. He will focus on a number of popular conceptions, or in some cases, misconceptions, regarding the Valley campaign, including the notions: that the Union generals who opposed Jackson were hopelessly inept; that Jackson’s “foot cavalry” routinely out-marched their Federal counterparts; that Jackson fought the individual battles of the campaign ably – even brilliantly; that President Lincoln panicked in response to Jackson’s victory at Winchester and his subsequent march on Harper’s Ferry; and that Jackson’s officers and men held him in high regard during the campaign. He will close with an estimation of the strategic significance of the campaign.
 
A summa cum laude graduate of Knox College, Peter Cozzens is an award winning Foreign Service Officer with the U. S. Department of State and one of the nation's leading military historians. He is the author of sixteen critically acclaimed books on the American Civil War and the Indian Wars of the American West.
 
All of his books have been selections of the Book of the Month Club, History Book Club, and/or the Military Book Club. Cozzens’ This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga and  The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga  were both Main Selections of the History Book Club and were chosen by Civil War Magazine as two of the 100 greatest works ever written on the conflict. A precocious Chicago-area native, Pete gave his first CWRT talk (to Salt Creek) at age 17. Tonight’s talk is based on his new book, “Shenandoah 1862.”