Dr. Samuel W. (Sandy) Mitcham, Jr.
Up the River and Through the Woods: The Red River Campaign of 1864
The talk will cover the strategy behind the Red River campaign and why it evolved the way it did. The human element, including the lives of the major commanders and how they impacted events.
Born Mer Rouge, Louisiana. Attended Northeast Louisiana Univ, North Carolina State Univ and the University of Tennessee (Ph.D.)
Professor of Geography and Military History, Henderson State University, Georgia Southern University, University of Louisiana at Monroe. Named freshman honor society’s professor of the year at ULM and was four times named “My Favorite Professor” by the Baptist Student Association, despite not being a Baptist. Named Freshmen Honor Society’s Professor of the Year.
Former Visiting Professor, United States Military Academy, West PointPossible Speaking Topics: the Desert Fox; the Women of Vicksburg; Nathan Bedford Forrest; Robert E. Lee; the Fort Pillow Massacre; Why Was Hitler Elected? Former President and CEO, TelSon Communications, a private $7,000,000 corporation which provided local exchange service in 7 states. Author of more than 40 books and dozens of articles on the Civil War and the German Armed Forces in World War II. Also a contributor to the Journal of Soviet Military Affairs. Author of 40 books, including Rommel’s Desert War; Hitler’s Legions; Why Hitler? The Genesis of the Third Reich; Vicksburg: The Bloody Siege that Turned the Tide of the Civil War; The Men of the Luftwaffe; Desert Fox: The Storied Career of Erwin Rommel; Bust Hell Wide Open: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest, and many others, including Main Selections of the Military Book Club and the British Military Book Club.
Appeared on the History Channel, CBS, National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Network.
Guest speaker at the U.S. Army's General Staff College, the Command College of the Marine Corps, the Air University (Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama) and several public and private universities.
Former U.S. Army helicopter pilot and company commander. Graduate, U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College and qualified through the rank of Major General, U.S. Army.
Former advisor to General Norman Schwarzkopf on the CBS Special "D-Day."
Holder of the Jefferson Davis Gold Medal for Excellence in the Writing and Research of Southern History.
Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan
"The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans." In my talk, I will consider the physical, psychological, and emotional experiences of Union and Confederate veterans and their attempts to stitch life back together after the Civil War.
Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan is Assistant Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies in History at Sam Houston State University, where he has taught since 2015. Dr. Jordan earned an MA, M.Phil., and Ph.D. in History at Yale University, where his doctoral dissertation received the George Washington Egleston Prize (for Best U.S. History Dissertation at Yale) and the John Addison Porter Prize (a university-wide prize). The book review editor for The Civil War Monitor and co-editor of the "Veterans" book series with the University of Massachusetts Press, he is the author of more than 100 articles, reviews, and book chapters. His book Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War, was one of three finalists (runners-up) for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize History. Most recently, he is the co-editor of The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans, and the author of Enduring Civil War: Life, Death, and Survival in a Union Regiment, forthcoming with Liveright/W.W. Norton.
"The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans." In my talk, I will consider the physical, psychological, and emotional experiences of Union and Confederate veterans and their attempts to stitch life back together after the Civil War.
Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan is Assistant Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies in History at Sam Houston State University, where he has taught since 2015. Dr. Jordan earned an MA, M.Phil., and Ph.D. in History at Yale University, where his doctoral dissertation received the George Washington Egleston Prize (for Best U.S. History Dissertation at Yale) and the John Addison Porter Prize (a university-wide prize). The book review editor for The Civil War Monitor and co-editor of the "Veterans" book series with the University of Massachusetts Press, he is the author of more than 100 articles, reviews, and book chapters. His book Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War, was one of three finalists (runners-up) for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize History. Most recently, he is the co-editor of The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans, and the author of Enduring Civil War: Life, Death, and Survival in a Union Regiment, forthcoming with Liveright/W.W. Norton.
Sean Michael Chick
“I feel like a wolf and will fight Pope like one” Van Dorn’s Second Chance at the Siege of Corinth
After Pea Ridge, Earl Van Dorn was eager to redeem himself. The siege of Corinth presented Van Dorn with that chance.
Sean Michael Chick graduated from University of New Orleans with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Communications and from Southeastern Louisiana University with a Master of Arts in History. He served as a teaching assistant in the history department at University of Kentucky and currently works in New Orleans, leading historic tours of his hometown and helping residents and visitors appreciate the city’s past. Chick has also been involved in historic board game development and design for many years.
Welcomed as a speaker at CWRTs and at the 20th Annual Bluegrass Symposium (2007), he has presented his research on secession and the life of General Beauregard. Chick has published a book about the Battle of Petersburg. He has written articles for nationally recognized history magazines, and is currently working on books for the Emerging Civil War Series.
Chick’s research interests include Beauregard, New Orleans during the Civil War, the Army of Tennessee, and Civil War tactics in relation to linear tactics from 1685-1866. His studies in historic tactics and generalship emphasizes new perspectives to Civil War studies. He is always looking for new topics of study in untapped resources and avenues of inquiry into the past.
“I feel like a wolf and will fight Pope like one” Van Dorn’s Second Chance at the Siege of Corinth
After Pea Ridge, Earl Van Dorn was eager to redeem himself. The siege of Corinth presented Van Dorn with that chance.
Sean Michael Chick graduated from University of New Orleans with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Communications and from Southeastern Louisiana University with a Master of Arts in History. He served as a teaching assistant in the history department at University of Kentucky and currently works in New Orleans, leading historic tours of his hometown and helping residents and visitors appreciate the city’s past. Chick has also been involved in historic board game development and design for many years.
Welcomed as a speaker at CWRTs and at the 20th Annual Bluegrass Symposium (2007), he has presented his research on secession and the life of General Beauregard. Chick has published a book about the Battle of Petersburg. He has written articles for nationally recognized history magazines, and is currently working on books for the Emerging Civil War Series.
Chick’s research interests include Beauregard, New Orleans during the Civil War, the Army of Tennessee, and Civil War tactics in relation to linear tactics from 1685-1866. His studies in historic tactics and generalship emphasizes new perspectives to Civil War studies. He is always looking for new topics of study in untapped resources and avenues of inquiry into the past.
Dr. Samantha Cavell
"Touch Wood and Scratch a Stay: Britain and the Confederate Commerce Raiders"
This will be an overview of Britain's use of legal loopholes to actively support the efforts of James Bulloch in the refitting and construction of Confederate commerce raiders from 1861-64.
Britain’s role in the construction and refitting of a fleet of Confederate commerce raiders depended on loopholes in international law and a shaky interpretation of “neutrality” in the Crown’s agreement with the government of the United States. Under the direction of the South’s most visionary agent, James Bulloch, a fleet of hybrid sail/steam warships entered the conflict with a mission to hunt down and destroy U.S. merchant shipping across the globe. The combined efforts of the CSS Alabama, Florida, Shenandoah, and other smaller vessels, saw the U.S. whaling fleet decimated and more than two hundred commercial vessels captured or sunk. The impact sent shock waves through the Northern economy and wrecked Federal morale. But construction of the next generation of Southern warships, the so-called, “Laird Rams” at Liverpool, would test not only the boundaries of contemporary ship design but also the tenuous bonds of Anglo-American peace. As the rams neared completion, Confederate luck with British shipyards and British diplomacy ran out. This is the story of the South’s naval war, a fight that spanned oceans and continued well beyond Appomattox.
Sam is the Assistant Professor in Military History at Southeastern Louisiana University. She received her PhD in naval and maritime history from the University of Exeter, UK and has been a regular guest lecturer at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Oxford University, and the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Her publications include Midshipmen and Quarterdeck Boys in the British Navy, chapter contributions to The Battle of New Orleans Reconsidered, Yankees in Nelson’s Navy, USNA Naval History Review, and Nelson in WWII Propaganda. Sam is a member of the Historian General’s Committee of the Naval Order of the United States and is currently working on a book about Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane RN and his campaigns from Washington to New Orleans during the War of 1812.
"Touch Wood and Scratch a Stay: Britain and the Confederate Commerce Raiders"
This will be an overview of Britain's use of legal loopholes to actively support the efforts of James Bulloch in the refitting and construction of Confederate commerce raiders from 1861-64.
Britain’s role in the construction and refitting of a fleet of Confederate commerce raiders depended on loopholes in international law and a shaky interpretation of “neutrality” in the Crown’s agreement with the government of the United States. Under the direction of the South’s most visionary agent, James Bulloch, a fleet of hybrid sail/steam warships entered the conflict with a mission to hunt down and destroy U.S. merchant shipping across the globe. The combined efforts of the CSS Alabama, Florida, Shenandoah, and other smaller vessels, saw the U.S. whaling fleet decimated and more than two hundred commercial vessels captured or sunk. The impact sent shock waves through the Northern economy and wrecked Federal morale. But construction of the next generation of Southern warships, the so-called, “Laird Rams” at Liverpool, would test not only the boundaries of contemporary ship design but also the tenuous bonds of Anglo-American peace. As the rams neared completion, Confederate luck with British shipyards and British diplomacy ran out. This is the story of the South’s naval war, a fight that spanned oceans and continued well beyond Appomattox.
Sam is the Assistant Professor in Military History at Southeastern Louisiana University. She received her PhD in naval and maritime history from the University of Exeter, UK and has been a regular guest lecturer at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Oxford University, and the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Her publications include Midshipmen and Quarterdeck Boys in the British Navy, chapter contributions to The Battle of New Orleans Reconsidered, Yankees in Nelson’s Navy, USNA Naval History Review, and Nelson in WWII Propaganda. Sam is a member of the Historian General’s Committee of the Naval Order of the United States and is currently working on a book about Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane RN and his campaigns from Washington to New Orleans during the War of 1812.