Civil War Forum of Metropolitan New York, Catherine Windels, Scarsdale, NY (2026)

12/09/2024

As of five days ago, there is an impostor page set up for this organization. I have just reported it. Update: what I assume to be the same person has hacked the Forum website and changed the password, then blocked me from access to edit the site. Fortunately, the domain company was able to allow me access again, and I have reset the password. This is very disturbing.

09/02/2024

Please join us for our next meeting on Tuesday, September 17th, where Ronald C. White will speak about his 2023 book, On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. The meeting will take place at Villa Mosconi, 69 MacDougal Street, New York, NY. Drinks at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 6:00 p.m. Cost: $60 per person. RSVP: Ann Plogsterth at [email protected] or 212-877-6814.

Ronald C. White’s new biography, On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, was published in October 2023. Ron is also the narrator for the audiobook, and the paperback edition will be published on November 12.

Originally a Bowdoin College professor, Gen. Chamberlain’s big moment was the famous bayonet charge at Gettysburg. After the war he served as governor of Maine and president of Bowdoin. He became a prominent figure in the literary battles of the so-called “Second Civil War,” the period beginning in the 1870s when Civil War veterans wrote in defense of their actions in the war.

Ron is the author of two New York Times bestselling presidential biographies: A. Lincoln: A Biography in 2009, and American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant in 2016. USA Today said, “If you read one book about Lincoln, make it A. Lincoln.” His American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant won our Seward Award—our award!—for “Excellence in Civil War Biography.” Other books include Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural in 2002, The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words in 2005, and Lincoln in Private: What His Most Personal Reflections Tell Us About Our Greatest President in 2021.

White is a graduate of UCLA and Princeton Theological Seminary and received a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He is a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum in Washington, D.C., and has taught at UCLA, Whitworth University, Colorado College, and Princeton Theological Seminary.

04/07/2024

Please join us for our next meeting, where Edward Achorn will speak on “The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention That Changed History." We will meet on Monday, April 15, 2024 for 5:30 p.m. drinks, followed by 6:00 p.m. dinner at Draught 55, 245 East 55th Street, New York, NY. Cost is $60 per person.

RSVP Ann Plogsterth at [email protected] or 212-877-6814.

A journalist for 41 years, Ed Achorn is the former Vice President and Editorial Pages Editor of The Providence Journal. He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Commentary and won the Yankee Quill Award for distinguished lifetime service to journalism. He lives in an 1820s farmhouse in Rehoboth, Mass. Ed is the award-winning author of four critically acclaimed books about American history. His latest book, The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention That Changed History, which won the Lincoln Forum Book Prize for this year’s best book about Abraham Lincoln, will be the subject of his April 15 presentation to our Forum. This is the story of the political maneuvers and psychological tricks during one week in 1860 that propelled Abraham Lincoln from defeat and obscurity to prominence and power on the eve of the nation’s greatest crisis. This was also a time when all three parties, the Whigs, the Republicans and the Democrats, were in various states of division or even fracture. The Democrats actually had a long series of conventions, stretching out from late April into June and from Charleston to Baltimore. Upon the eventual nomination of Stephen Douglas after 59 ballots, the Southern Democrats walked out and held their own convention, nominating John Breckinridge, and this presentation of two candidates pretty much ensured the party's ultimate defeat by Lincoln. Ed’s presentation will focus entirely on the final week of this fascinating part of Lincoln's political life.

03/02/2024

Please join us on Tuesday, March 19 to hear Louis L. Piccone speak on “The Seven U.S. Presidents Who Served in the Union Army in the Civil War." The meeting will begin with 5:30 p.m. drinks (cash bar), followed by 6:00 p.m. dinner, at Villa Mosconi, 69 MacDougal Street, New York, NY. Cost is $60 per person. RSVP Ann Plogsterth at [email protected] or 212-877-6814.

Louis L. Picone - Presidential Historian & Author is the best-selling & award-winning author of "Grant's Tomb: The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant and the Making of an American Pantheon", "The President Is Dead! The Extraordinary Stories of the Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond" and "Where the Presidents Were Born: The History & Preservation of the Presidential Birthplaces." Louis is a member of the Ulysses S. Grant Monument Association, White House Historical Association, the American Historical Association, and is also a trustee on the board of the Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association in Caldwell, NJ. He holds a Masters in History and also teaches at William Paterson University.

Louis has spoken widely on the topic of the presidents and the places we commemorate them including General Grant National Memorial, James A. Garfield National Historic Site, and the international conference "U.S. Presidents and Russian Rulers" at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He has been featured on C-SPAN, TIME Magazine, BBC News, NPR, Washington Post, New York Times, and the Travel Channel.

02/08/2024

Please join us for our next meeting, at which Stan Weinstein will speak on the subject of “The Confederate Cabinet."

We will meet on Monday, February 26, 2024, for 5:30 p.m. drinks (cash bar), followed by 6:00 p.m. dinner at Draught 55, 245 East 55th Street, New York, NY. $60 per person. RSVP Ann Plogsterth at [email protected] or 212-877-6814.

Stan Weinstein attended Brooklyn College where he earned both a BS and an MS in Communications. He has maintained a lifelong interest in History and is presently a member of two CW groups on Long Island. Stan has delivered presentations to several other CW groups in the tri-state area. He was in the advertising business for almost 40 years, working at such well known agencies as Grey Advertising, Marschalk Company, McCann-Erickson and large, multi-national marketers such as Unilever. In 2011, Stan utilized his knowledge by teaching Marketing and Advertising on the graduate level at the Business School at Hofstra University as an adjunct professor.
Just as Lincoln went through a difficult analysis in selecting his cabinet members, as described so well in "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Davis had an even more difficult task in selecting the men who could best support him in the formation of, and support the fight for the independence of, the new Confederacy. The results showed that he did not do quite as effective a job as Lincoln did. Including Vice President Alexander Stephens, the cabinet consisted of seven positions. Stephens remained in his position throughout the four years of the Cabinet's existence, and so did two other members of the Cabinet, Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory, and Postmaster General John Reagan. But an astounding total of fourteen other men filled the other four positions at various times throughout those four years, despite the fact that two of them also held their positions for all four years. One of them, Judah Benjamin, held three different positions at various times, Secretary of State, Secretary of War and Attorney General. While some of the others were simply incompetent and of no use to Davis, most of them grew intolerant of Davis's micromanaging and his tendency to have frequent meetings that lasted for four or five hours yet accomplished or decided very little. This is a side of the Civil War that has received too little attention to allow a better understanding of how the war progressed, or, for the Confederacy, how and why the entire effort collapsed so dramatically.

10/30/2023

Please join us for our Monday, November 20 meeting, which will feature Civil War historian Patrick Schroeder on “George A. Custer at Appomattox." We will meet on Monday, November 20, 2023 for 5:30 p.m. drinks, followed by 6:00 p.m. dinner, at Draught 55, 245 East 55th Street, New York, NY. Cost is $60 per person for dinner (cash bar). RSVP Ann Plogsterth at [email protected] or 212-877-6814.

Civil War Author/Historian Patrick A. Schroeder was born in 1968, at Fort Belvoir, VA. Patrick attended Stuarts Draft High School in Augusta County, VA. In the spring of 1990, he graduated Cum Laude with a B.S. in Historical Park Administration from Shepherd College, Shepherdstown, WV. He has an M.A. in Civil War History from Virginia Tech. From the summer of 1986-1993, Patrick worked as a seasonal living history interpreter at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. In 1993, he wrote “Thirty Myths About Lee’s Surrender,” which is currently in its twelfth printing. From 1994 – 1999, the author worked at Red Hill, the Patrick Henry National Memorial. From 1999 – 2002, Patrick was an independent researcher. Patrick is now the full-time Historian of Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. At our meeting, Patrick will present an hour-long power point program that details the actions of the legendary boy general at Appomattox. The facts of Custer's role at Appomattox, from his command and success at the Battle of Appomattox Station, to the April 9, 1865, fight with Confederate Martin Gary's Brigade, to the receiving of a truce flag, the Custer-Longstreet incident, the truth about his presence at the surrender meeting, and the story of Grant's table that was purchased as a gift for his wife Libbie, are some of the areas that will be covered.

10/10/2023

Please join us for our next dinner meeting on Tuesday, October 17, at Villa Mosconi, 69 McDougal Street, New York, NY. Our speaker will be Professor Hamish Lutris, who will speak on the Civil War Draft Riots in New York City in July 1863. Hamish Lutris is an Associate Professor of History, Political Science and Geography at Capital Community College in Hartford CT. He is well-known for his mastery of history and for the many exceptionally engaging classes he has taught over the years, including Native American history, the Civil War, Scientific History, Social and Cultural history, the World Wars, the American West, the History of Flight, the 1960s, and countless others. Besides being a well-known speaker and instructor throughout the Northeast region, he also has experience in Central Europe, and has worked in some of America's premier natural and historic sites, including as a Ranger at Gettysburg National Park.
The rioting in New York began immediately after the first drawing of names in a city-wide lottery, which began on July 11, 1863. Workers in the North were generally supportive of the war effort, but because of generally low wages, often less than $500 per year, they were particularly angered by the federal provision that allowed the more affluent draftees to buy their way out of the draft and out of having to serve in the US Army, all for the sum of $300! When the drawing of names began these workers surged onto the streets in unruly crowds, assaulting residents, defying police, attacking draft headquarters and burning buildings. Property damage was eventually put at $1.5 million, or approximately $35 million today. Northern workers also feared that the emancipation of slaves would cause a great influx of low cost labor from the South, and employers did in fact use black workers as strikebreakers during this tumultuous period. The four-day riot was eventually ended by the New York City Police, aided by 7th NY Regiment troops who had been hastily called in from Gettysburg to help.

5:30 p.m. drinks, followed by 6:00 p.m. dinner

at

Villa Mosconi, 69 McDougal Street, New York, NY

$60 per person

RSVP Ann Plogsterth at [email protected] or 212-877-6814

08/29/2023

Please join us for our next meeting on Monday, September 18, to hear Professor Stephanie McCurry of Columbia University speak on "The Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South."
Stephanie McCurry is the R Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History in Honor of Dwight D Eisenhower at Columbia University. She teaches and writes about the nineteenth century United States, the Civil War and Emancipation, and women's and gender history. She is the author of three prize winning books: Women’s War: Fighting and Surviving the American Civil War (2019), Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South (2010), and Masters of Small Worlds: Yeoman Households, Gender Relations and the Political Culture of the Antebellum South Carolina Low Country (1995). Professor McCurry’s presentation on Sept 18th will focus on the Confederate Reckoning book, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It is an in-depth study of how the repression by the Southern government and military hierarchy of two groups of Southern people who made up the majority of the Southern population -- namely white women and black slaves -- led to the demise of the Confederacy. These two disenfranchised groups demanded to be counted and considered in the great struggle over slavery, emancipation, democracy, and nationhood. By ignoring them, the Southern leadership had sowed the seeds of their own defeat.

We will meet at Draught 55, 245 East 55th Street, in New York City at 5:30 for drinks, followed by dinner at 6:00 p.m. sharp. Cost is $60 per person. RSVP tp Ann Plogsterth at [email protected] or 212-877-6814.

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07/08/2023

Please join us for our next meeting on Tuesday, July 25, to hear Louis L. Picone - Presidential Historian & Author on “The Dying and Death of U.S. Grant." We begin as always with 5:30 p.m. drinks, followed by 6:00 p.m. dinner. Venue is
Villa Mosconi, 69 MacDougal Street, New York, NY, and cost is $60 per person. RSVP Ann Plogsterth at [email protected] or 212-877-6814. Louis L. Picone is the best-selling & award-winning author of "Grant's Tomb: The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant and the Making of an American Pantheon", "The President Is Dead! The Extraordinary Stories of the Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond" and "Where the Presidents Were Born: The History & Preservation of the Presidential Birthplaces."

Louis is a member of the Ulysses S. Grant Monument Association, White House Historical Association, the American Historical Association, and is also a trustee on the board of the Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association in Caldwell, NJ. He holds a Masters in History and also teaches at William Paterson University.

Louis has spoken widely on the topic of the presidents and the places we commemorate them including General Grant National Memorial, James A. Garfield National Historic Site, and the international conference "U.S. Presidents and Russian Rulers" at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He has been featured on C-SPAN, TIME Magazine, BBC News, NPR, Washington Post, New York Times, and the Travel Channel.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook at

05/30/2023

Our next meeting will take place on Tuesday, June 20th, and will feature Frank Scaturro on “President Grant and the Historians." We will meeting at 5:30 p.m. for drinks, followed by 6:00 p.m. dinner at Villa Mosconi, 69 MacDougal Street, New York, NY. The cost is
$60 per person. RSVP to Ann Plogsterth at [email protected] or 212-877-6814.

Frank Scaturro has played a significant role in the reconsideration and the rehabilitation of the reputation of President Ulysses S. Grant. Frank helped revive the Grant Monument Association in 1994 and served as its president until 2005 and again since 2009. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University and his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Scaturro has several publication credits, including President Grant Reconsidered (Madison Books, 1999) and The Supreme Court’s Retreat from Reconstruction (Greenwood Press, 2000).

In 1991, while dorming at Columbia, Frank volunteered with the National Park Service and began guiding tours of nearby Grant’s Tomb. As he became more familiar with the 150-foot granite structure, he noticed that what was formerly one of the nation’s most popular attractions was showing serious signs of neglect. The roof leaked, the walls were discolored, and the site was slowly becoming masked with graffiti and treated like a bathroom. Drug users and their associated paraphernalia became more and more prevalent on the Tomb’s front staircase and plaza. Thus began a personal crusade, soon to be joined by others, to inform the Park Service, and later political leaders and the general public, of the Tomb’s deterioration. By 1997, his many reports and memos were answered with a $1.8 million face-lift.

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Civil War Forum of Metropolitan New York

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