Civil War Events @ the Library

Upcoming Civil War Events

If It Looks Like a Man: Gender Identity, Female Soldiers, and 'Lady Bushwackers' in the Civil War
Aaron Barnhart, Diane Eickhoff
Sunday, September 16, 2018
Central Library

In a time of great emphasis on the separate roles of men and women, hundreds of females—Union and Confederate—cut their hair, bound their breasts, donned men’s clothing, and reported to army recruiters for duty during the Civil War. Others served as scouts, spies, or rode with their husbands and brothers in contested areas.

Public historians Diane Eickhoff and Aaron Barnhart explore how and why these extraordinary women defied cultural norms to participate in America's largest domestic military conflict.

Past Civil War Events

Gettysburg: The Most Important Event of 1863?
Experts from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth – Ethan S. Rafuse, Terry Beckenbaugh, Gregory S. Hospodor, and Randy Mullis – weigh in on the impact Gettysburg had on the greater Civil War.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Even for those of us unfamiliar with history, the very name “Gettysburg” suggests a monumental clash of armies. But beyond the chaos of the battle itself, what was the impact of Gettysburg on the greater Civil War?

Four historians from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth address the question in Gettysburg: The Most Important Event of 1863?

Granville Automatic
The country/bluegrass duo Granville Automatic performs original songs inspired by Civil War battles.
Sunday, September 22, 2013

The country duo Granville Automatic performs songs from An Army Without Music, a recording project in which each song is inspired by a Civil War battle. And since they are appearing on the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga, Vanessa Denae Olivarez and Elizabeth Elkins will debut their new song about that confrontation.

Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border
Editors Jonathan Earle and Diane Mutti Burke and three fellow historians who contributed to their book -- Kristen Oertel, Jeremy Neely, and Jennifer Weber – discuss the era of Bleeding Kansas, its overall impact on the Civil War, and the lasting divisiveness it spawned.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Long before the Civil War began violence was commonplace along the Missouri-Kansas border. There a recurring cycle of robbery, arson, torture, murder, and revenge was established over the same issues that would fuel the larger conflict.

The Sack of Lawrence and the Guerrilla War
On the 150th anniversary of Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence, Kansas, historian Tony R. Mullis of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth examines the notorious massacre and the years of back-and-forth atrocities that led up to it.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013

On the 150th anniversary of William Clarke Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence, Tony R. Mullis of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, examines the notorious massacre and the years of back-and-forth atrocities by Confederate bushwackers and pro-Union Jayhawkers that led up to it.

Mullis is a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force and the author of Peacekeeping on the Plains: Army Operations in Bleeding Kansas.

Quantrill in the Movies: John Tibbetts
Film expert John Tibbetts observes the 150th anniversary of William Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence by examining how that notorious massacre has been portrayed on film.
Sunday, August 18, 2013

William Quantrill’s August 21, 1863 Confederate raid on Lawrence, Kansas, left nearly 200 men and boys dead and the city in flames. Film expert John Tibbetts explores how that dramatic story has found its way onto celluloid in movies as varied as Dark Command (1940), Quantrill’s Raiders (1958), and Ang Lee’s locally-filmed Ride With the Devil (1999).

The Lost Cause: The Trials of Frank and Jesse James
Lawyer and author James P. Muehlberger digs into the 1869 killing of a bank cashier by the James brothers - long thought to be part of their first robbery - and finds it was actually an assassination attempt meant to avenge the death of Confederate guerrilla “Bloody Bill” Anderson.
Thursday, August 15, 2013

The 1869 killing of a bank cashier in Gallatin, Missouri, has long been considered the first in a long line of robberies by Jesse and Frank James. But in a discussion of his new book, lawyer and author James P. Muehlberger maintains that it wasn’t a robbery attempt at all. Rather, as documents that Muehlberger discovered show, it was a carefully planned execution meant to avenge the death of Confederate guerrilla leader “Bloody Bill” Anderson during the Civil War.

The Battle of Fort Wagner: African American Troops in the Civil War
Historian Terry Beckenbaugh examines the assault by black Union troops on the Confederate stronghold Fort Wagner as well as the role black soldiers played in other battles and skirmishes, particularly in Missouri and the Midwest.
Thursday, July 18, 2013

Military historian Terry Beckenbaugh examines the failed 1863 attack on the Confederacy’s Fort Wagner on Charleston Harbor – an incident that provided further evidence to both the North and South that African-American troops were ready to fight and die for the Union cause.

Beckenbaugh is an assistant professor in the Department of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.

Co-sponsored by the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Foundation.

Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery - Earl M. Maltz
Rutgers University Distinguished Professor of Law Earl M. Maltz examines the controversial 1856 Supreme Court decision that found blacks were not citizens of the United States.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The slave Dred Scott claimed that his residence in a free state transformed him into a free man. When the Court decided otherwise, the ruling sent shock waves through the nation and helped lead to the Civil War.

Earl M. Maltz discusses his book Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery and argues that the case revealed a political climate that had grown so threatening to the South that overturning the Missouri Compromise was considered essential.

Maltz is Distinguished Professor of Law at Rutgers University – Camden.

Terry Beckenbaugh - The Politics of War
Historian Terry Beckenbaugh of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth explains the effect politics had on the Civil War and discusses the issues and ideologies that drove debate.
Thursday, November 8, 2012

Historian Terry Beckenbaugh maintains that the Civil War was inevitable given the failure of the nation’s political leadership to resolve fundamental questions over the nature of the American republic and the meaning of constitutional liberty.

Beckenbaugh examines the leaders of the North and the South, the issues and ideologies that drove debate, and the effect politics had on the war.

Beckenbaugh is an assistant professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Antietam: The Bloodiest Day
A panel of historians from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff college of Fort Leavenworth examine the Civil War battle that provided the single bloodiest day of fighting in U.S. military history and led to the Emancipation Proclamation.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862 is the bloodiest day in American military history. Now, exactly 150 years later, a panel of historians discusses the events of that day.

Leading his Confederate troops into Maryland for their first fight on Union soil, Robert E. Lee was met at Antietam Creek by George McClellan’s federals. The battle claimed 23,000 casualties and resulted in a standoff. But after that the Union believed it could win, giving President Abraham Lincoln the confidence to issue his Emancipation Proclamation.

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