Burrus (Buzz) Carnahan speaks to the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia on February 12, 2013, at the Fort McNair Officers' Club in Washington D.C. on the topic: "The Historical Roots of the Emancipation Proclamation.”

For additional information about his presentation, download CWRTDC's February 2013 newsletter available at http://cwrtdc-newsletters.blogspot.com/   For information about the Round Table or to apply for membership, visit http://www.cwrtdc.org

Summary of Presentation:
Dr. Carnahan delves into the historical roots of the Emancipation Proclamation. In his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln declared he had "no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it already existed," and stated that as President he would "have no lawful right to do so." Yet less than two years later, on January 1, 1863, he issued the final Emancipation Proclamation, recognizing the immediate freedom of slaves held in Confederate territory.

What led him to change his mind? Carnahan will explain how, ironically enough, the policies of Confederate President Jefferson Davis helped Lincoln develop a legal theory to justify the Proclamation. When his critics challenged the constitutional soundness of the act, Lincoln pointed to the international laws and usages of war as the legal basis for his Proclamation, asserting that the Constitution invested the president "with the law of war in time of war."

As the Civil War intensified, the Lincoln administration slowly and reluctantly accorded full belligerent rights to the Confederacy under the law of war. This included designating a prisoner of war status for captives, honoring flags of truce, and negotiating formal agreements for the exchange of prisoners -- practices that laid the intellectual foundations for emancipation. Once the United States allowed Confederates all the privileges of belligerents under international law, it followed that they should also suffer the disadvantages, including trial by military courts, seizure of property, and eventually the emancipation of slaves. While there were historical precedents for offering freedom to an enemy’s slaves in wartime, our speaker will also demonstrate that Lincoln’s action was more radical than anything that had previously been done.

Even after the Lincoln administration decided to apply the law of war, it was unclear whether state and federal courts would agree. Carnahan’s conclusion is that if the courts had decided that the proclamation was not justified, the result would have been the personal legal liability of thousands of Union officers to aggrieved slave owners. This argument offers further support to the view that Lincoln's delay in issuing the Emancipation Proclamation was an exercise of political prudence, not a personal reluctance to free the slaves. Carnahan further asserts that Lincoln was no reluctant emancipator; he wrote a truly radical document that treated Confederate slaves as an oppressed people rather than merely as enemy property. In this respect, Lincoln's proclamation anticipated the psychological warfare tactics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Introduction and Biography:
Burrus M. Carnahan is a Foreign Affairs Officer in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation at the U.S. Department of State and a Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Previously, he was a private sector consultant on international arms control issues and is an authority on international law and arms control. Carnahan served for 20 years as a lawyer in the U.S. Air Force specializing in the law of war. From 1969 to 1989 he served as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Air Force, specializing in international legal issues. From 1974 to 1978 he was an Associate Professor of Law at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He also participated in several international negotiations on arms control. Carnahan’s JD degree is from Northwestern University (1969) and he holds an LL.M from the University of Michigan (1974).

Carnahan is the author of Act of Justice: Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War and Lincoln on Trial: Southern Civilians and the Law of War. Both books examine the role of law in the American Civil War. He has also penned numerous articles on Abraham Lincoln, international law, and the law of war. He was the principal researcher on United States legal practice for the International Committee of the Red Cross study on Customary International Humanitarian Law (Cambridge U. Press, 2005), and was U.S. correspondent for the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law.

Additionally, he has spoken on Lincoln and his era at the Abraham Lincoln Institute Symposium at the National Archives, the Gettysburg College Civil War Institute, the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky, and many other venues. In 2012, he was appointed to the Scholarly Advisory Group for President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home for a two year term.

Dr. Carnahan Speaks to the CWRTDC on the Historical Roots of the Emancipation Proclamation-2/12/2013

Robert Lee Hodge speaks to the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia on May 13 2014, at the Fort McNair Officers' Club in Washington D.C. on the topic: "Confederates in the Attic."

A PDF copy of the PowerPoint to Mr. Hodge's presentation is available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/13SzkZoGlG9zLxZOWSccd_BEazPF3Yp7-/view (NOTE: For copyright purposes, the slides contained in this document vary in part from those displayed during the presentation and discussed in the audio recording).


Biography:
Robert Lee Hodge - born on Stonewall Jackson’s birthday - has had a keen interest in The War Between the States since age 4. 

For over 25 years Robert has worked in historical based films – from dramas like ABC's North and South and TNT’s Gettysburg and Andersonville, to many programs on The History Channel, Arts and Entertainment Channel, and the National Geographic Channel, to his own Civil War documentaries that have won 5 Tally awards and an Emmy in 2007. 

Mr. Hodge has been featured on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, NBC's Late, Late Show, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, the PBS program Going Places, C-SPAN II, and on the National Public Radio program Soundscapes. 

He has also written for The Nashville Tennessean, America’s Civil War magazine, The Washington Post, and North and South magazine. He played a major role in the New York Times' 1998 best-selling book Confederates in the Attic (and appears on the cover) hosting Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Tony Hurwitz, on an eclectic and memorable Civil War tour-de-force of historic sites.  

Mr. Hodge was a historical researcher, primarily at The National Archives and Library of Congress, working with nationally-recognized experts. He also was principle researcher on Time-Life Books 18-volume series Voices of the Civil War and The Illustrated History of the Civil War. 

 He became interested in preserving historic green space when he interned with the National Park Service's Civil War Sites Advisory Commission. Rob has organized battlefield preservation fundraisers that have garnered over $140,000 for the purchase of endangered battlefield land. He serves on the board of directors of the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, an organization that has protected nearly one thousand acres near Fredericksburg, Virginia.  

___________________________

For additional information about his presentation, download CWRTDC's May 2014 newsletter available at http://cwrtdc-newsletters.blogspot.com/   

For information about the Round Table or to apply for membership, visit http://www.cwrtdc.org

Robert Lee Hodge Speaks to the CWRTDC on the "Confederates in the Attic" - 5/13/2014

Stanley Schneider speaks to the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia about "General Alexander S. Webb" on June 13, 2017, at the Fort McNair Officers' Club in Washington D.C.

Questions and answers follow the presentation. The images used during his presentation are available at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jBvqLBXRXOwuhvYMvp8GmSINo3h-T_3V
More information about the speaker is available at cwrtdc-audio.blogspot.com/p/schneider-audio.html

ABOUT THE TOPIC:
Scion of an illustrious family, Webb was a hero (arguably the hero) of the battle of Gettysburg, chronicler of the Civil War in its aftermath and an honored participant in post war veterans’ societies. Webb lived a gilded life in late 19th century New York and became President of the City College of New York, a post he held for 33 years.  

Alexander Webb, the youngest of six children, graduated from West Point in 1855. At the war’s outbreak, he was appointed assistant to the artillery commander of the Army of the Potomac and served in a series of staff positions during the first two years of the war.  He was credited with sighting the Union guns at the Battle of Malvern Hill and can be seen bare headed in the famous photo of Lincoln visiting McClellan in the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam.  

At Chancellorsville in May 1863, Webb performed courageous service as Chief of Staff to General Meade’s Fifth Corps, guiding a brigade to a critical position to defend against a Confederate assault. As a reward, he was promoted to Brigadier General, the orders coming through just three days before the Battle of Gettysburg.   He was appointed to command the Philadelphia Brigade, a mostly Irish outfit recruited from the dockyards, and an incongruous position for the patrician New Yorker.  Together Webb and the Philadelphia Brigade achieved immortality at Gettysburg.  Posted at the “angle," in the wall on Cemetery Ridge and adjacent to the “copse of trees” which was the target of Pickett’s Charge on the last day of the battle, they stood firm and repelled the Confederate assault on their front, killing Confederate General Armistead after his unit momentarily achieved a break-through.  

Webb regularly took part in reunions and dedications and authored books and articles about Gettysburg, the Peninsula campaign, and the Wilderness.  

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Stanley R. (Stan) Schneider is a past President of the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia. He is a graduate of the City College of New York (CCNY) and its ROTC program.  Commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, he eventually became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserves and is an Honor Graduate of the Army’s Command and General Staff College.  

Mr. Schneider's civilian career began with stints at the National Academy of Science and Naval Intelligence, followed by 36 years of service with NOAA and NASA working in positions related to management of weather and earth observing satellites. He retired from NASA in 2010 and is currently a consultant to aerospace companies.

Mr. Schneider has had a lifelong interest in the Civil War.  As a freshman at CCNY, he was inducted into Webb Patrol, an ROTC fraternity named after the College’s 2nd President and Civil War hero.  As a senior, he was elected Commanding Officer of Webb Patrol.   His senior thesis at Command and General Staff College was on “Lee’s Lieutenants” and its relevance to the (then) modern Army.  

For many years, Mr. Schneider was a member of the Army’s 310th TAACOM with headquarters at Fort Belvoir’s John Singleton Mosby U.S. Army Reserve Center.   Mr. Schneider is currently Vice President of the 310th Alumni Association known as the “Mosby Rangers."

Stan Schneider Speaks to the CWRTDC About "Gen. Alexander Webb" - 6/13/2017

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