This month's speaker will be Professor Lesley Gordon of the University of Alabama, who also just completed a year as a visiting professor at West Point! She has a PhD from the University of Georgia, and her main research interests include Civil War history, Southern history, Military and Naval history, History of Race, and Gender and Women's history. Dread Danger: Cowardice and Combat in the American Civil War.
Location: Draught 55
From Jim Santagata:
I get the sense that this is a complex topic! I've read several book reviews, and I found them difficult to summarize into an interesting paragraph or two as I usually do. So I'm going to do something here that I do not usually do. I'm going to simply copy the description from the University of Cambridge Press webpage, which does a wonderful job of introducing the book, its importance and its uniqueness, and it provides some quite unexpected and fascinating insight into a topic that many of us thought we knew very well... the Zouaves!
“When confronted with the abject fear of going into battle, Civil War soldiers were expected to overcome the dread of the oncoming danger with feats of courage and victory on the battlefield. The Fire Zouaves and the 2nd Texas Infantry went to war with high expectations that they would perform bravely; they had famed commanders and enthusiastic community support. How could they possibly fail? Yet falter they did, facing humiliating charges of cowardice thereafter that cast a lingering shadow on the two regiments, despite their best efforts at redemption. By the end of the war, however, these charges were largely forgotten, replaced with the jingoistic rhetoric of martial heroism, a legacy that led many, including historians, to insist that all Civil War soldiers were heroes. Dread Danger creates a fuller understanding of the soldier experience and the overall costs and sufferings of war. It sheds light on an understudied topic in American Civil War history, and it explores the lasting and often traumatic impacts that accusations of cowardice had on soldiers. “
The meeting will take place on Monday, July 21, at Draught 55, 245 E 55th St, NY NY. The meeting will begin at 6:00PM sharp with socializing at the bar available from 5:30PM. Please help us to help the restaurant staff to prepare the right amount of food and the best seating arrangement by stating your intention to attend as early as you can. The person to contact is once again Richard Asaro. So if you plan to attend, please contact Richard as soon as possible at RichardAsaro1947@verizon.net, or by phone at 718-894-2946.
Looking forward to seeing all of you there!