Kalamazoo Civil War Round Table
Dedicated to preserving the History and Stories of The American Civil War
The next KCWRT Meeting....in June at 7:30pm
This month’s speaker is
Happy Memorial Day
1856 - Abolitionist John Brown and his sons attacked three cabins along Pottawatomie Creek. They killed five men. The attack was Brown's revenge for an attack on Lawrence, Kansas, on May 21.
1861 - John Merryman, a vocal secessionist, was arrested in Cockeysville, Maryland. He appealed for his release under a writ of habeas corpus. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington and Philadelphia on April 27. The move was made to give the military the necessary power to silence dissenters and rebels.
1862 - Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson won the first battle of Winchester, Virginia.
1863 - Clement Vallandigham was banished to the confederacy. Vallandigham had been found guilty by a military tribunal of violating General Ambrose Burnside's Order No. 38. The order stated that public criticism of the war would not be tolerated.
U.S. Civil War Quote:
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right...let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wound...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."
- U.S. President Lincoln at his second inauguration ceremony on March 4, 1865.
KCWRT Activities
Albert Castel Book Award
Historical Preservation Efforts
Albert Castel Book Award
To stimulate new scholarship on the Civil War, every other year KCWRT presents the Albert Castel Book Award to the author of the best recent book on the Civil War in the Western Theater.
WMU History Day 2023
Historical Preservation Efforts
Albert Castel Book Award
To help promote local interest in the Civil War, KCWRT awards an annual prize for the best Civil War-related entry in the Kalamazoo District Michigan History Day Competition.
Historical Preservation Efforts
Historical Preservation Efforts
Historical Preservation Efforts
KCWRT has conducted fund raisers to support numerous preservation efforts over the years. Generally, this is in the form of a donation to a preservation fund organized to save a specific Civil War site from development.