December 2012 Speaker Bio

 

Brandywine Valley Civil War Round Table Come to our next meeting December 5, 2012

 

Speaker:	Don Ernsberger
Topic:	"Meade's Breakthrough with the PA Reserves at Fredericksburg"
Time:	7:00 PM
Place:	West Chester Borough Hall, Gay Street

This month speaker will be Don Ernsberger. Don has spoken to our Round Table several times before, one being the “Great Charge at Gettysburg.”  For our December meeting Don will be speaking on Meade’s Breakthrough with the PA Reserves at Fredericksburg, in what many consider a lost opportunity for Union forces at Fredericksburg.    

 A High School and College instructor for 30 years in history and philosophy, Don Ernsberger, worked on Capitol Hill for seven years as a Deputy Chief of Staff. While in Washington DC he had access to the National Archives and the Library of Congress resources to research for his books. Some of Don’s books are, “At the Wall; The 69th Pennsylvania at Gettysburg”, “Paddy Owen’s Regulars” and “Also For Glory: The Pettigrew – Trimble charge at Gettysburg July 3, 1863.” Don has been a lifelong Civil War buff. He conducts battlefield tours and lecture on many civil war topics. He and his family are re-enactors with the 69th Pennsylvania “Irish Volunteers”, where Don is the group’s historian.

 

December 2012 Rear Ranks Entry

From the Rear Ranks:  

 

Greetings Members!

 

I hope you are all well and from what I have heard our musical presentation by Mike was well received last month.  This month we are lucky to have Don Ernsberger, one of our repeat speakers discussing one of the Union’s many lost opportunities at the Battle of Fredericksburg.  As many of you know Fredericksburg was one of the costliest and perhaps without the perceived victory at Murfreesboro would have much greater political consequences for the North.  Regardless, the debacle at Fredericksburg led to Congress calling for the resignation of several high ranking members of President Lincoln’s cabinet.   In addition Fredericksburg would lead to another re-shuffle in the command of the Army of the Potomac.  Below I have included a couple of great articles by Don Pfanz which are excerpts from a series of articles he wrote for Fredericksburg.com exploring some little known facts about the battle as well as debunking some myths.  I hope to see you all on December 5^th!     

 

Respectively,

Chip Crowe
President,
Brandywine Valley Civil War Round Table