Historic Happenings Blog

Thursday, March 26 – Morris County 7:14 p.m.   North Jersey Civil War Round Table meeting. NORTH JERSEY CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE Presents A Program and A Quarter of a Program ABE LINCOLN and the FRELINGHUYSEN ARBORETUM                       The program: Historian and Author RICHARD SCHWARTZ presents LINCOLN LOSES!!  (or does he?)    One of the most dynamic speakers who has presented before the NJCWRT is Richard Schwartz. He now returns to in what promises (Ed. Note: No promises, will be!) to be another great lecture. Richard Schwartz has taught history and government at Whippany Park High School for 40 years, where he also serves as Social Studies department coordinator. He is Lincoln scholar, having received scholarships with the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and the Civil War Institute. H...

Thursday, February 27 - Morris County 7:14 p.m.    NORTH JERSEY CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE  presents Historian and Author JOHN HAYWARD   The 5 th  New Jersey Regiment at The Battle of Gettysburg The 5th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry was one of four regiments formed by Governor  Charles Olden  upon the requisition of President  Abraham Lincoln  on July 24, 1861. Fighting in battle on the eastern front, from the siege of Yorktown, the Seven Days Battles, Chancellorsville, the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Gettysburg  the regiment was then commanded by Col. William J. Sewell, who was wounded on July 2nd. Sewell was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Chancellorsville in May two months before Gettysburg and went on to become a State and U.S. Senator. Capt. Henry H. Woolsey took command for the rest of the battle, even though he was slightly wounded on July 2nd. The 5th brought 221 men to the field and lost 1...

Thursday, January 23 - Morris County 7:14 p.m.  North Jersey Civil War Round Table meeting at the Haggerty Education Center at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, 353 E. Hanover Avenue, Morris Twp. (opp. the Morris County Library). Admission $5 Students – free NORTH JERSEY CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE Presents DR. PATRICIA DREYFUSS THE MEDICAL ASPECTS OF THE CIVIL WAR Noted Mountain Lakes gynecologist-obstetrician Dr. Patricia Dreyfus will lecture on the  doctors who served and the medical aspects of the American Civil War, a war that caused 400,000 wounded and 6,000,000 cases of illness and untold misery. The first thoughts of the Civil War are those of the horror of the war and the ignorance and inefficiencies, the stacks of arms and legs of the amputated, but there was a dedicated corps of physician and nurses who strived under appalling circumstances to preserve life,

Thursday, December 12 – Morris County 7:00 p.m. at the Pequannock Library, 477 Newark Pompton Turnpike, Pompton Plains. Registration 973-835-7460     Civil War Women of Compassion, Courage and Grit Presented by Rich Rosenthal    A story of survival during wartime - not from cannons and bullets - but of life itself. The women who are left at home without adequate means of support and must provide the basic necessities of food and shelter and still impart their values.   Cornelia Hancock, who defies Dorothea Dix, and goes to Gettysburg to assist the wounded soldiers. Sara Pryor, living through the privation and destruction of the south, still has the courage to defy Gen. Sheridan and demand rations for the starving women and children families in her community   Rich Rosenthal has lectured on numerous historical subjects and is president of the North Jersey Civil War Round Table, and one of the founding members, with the pre-eminent New Jersey h...

Thursday, November 21 – Morris County 7:00 p.m. at the North Jersey Civil War Round Table meeting held at the Haggerty Education Center at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, 353 E. Hanover Avenue, Morris Twp. (opp. the Morris County Library). Admission $5 Students – Free  THE NORTH JERSEY CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE FIFTEENTH ANNUAL CIVIL WAR LEGAL ISSUES PRESENTATION PROGRAM:  “THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT AS A RESPONSE TO THE CIVIL WAR” I NTRODUCTION and THE HISTORY, PASSAGE, AND RATIFICATION OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT JOHN C. MALONEY, JR., ESQ. Zuber Lawler & Del Duca, LLP – New York, NY THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES OF THE CIVIL WAR  PERIOD THOMAS V. HILDNER ESQ. Mandelbaum Salsburg, P.C. – Roseland, NJ THE LEGACY OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT STUART GOLD, ESQ. Mandelbaum Salsburg, P.C. – Roseland, NJ FYI: The North Jersey Civil War Round Table is the only CWRT to present an Annual Civil War Legal Presentation

Thursday, October 24 – Morris County 7:14 p.m.   North Jersey Civil War Round Table meeting.  THE CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPHY OF ALEXANDER GARDNER and the HORRORS OF WAR Presented by JAMES DELGIUDICE Everyone knows of (or should know of) Civil War photographer, Matthew Brady, but it was Alexander Gardner that went to the battlefields of Antietam, Fredericks- burg, Gettysburg and the siege of Petersburg and for the first time brought the horrors of war to the general public through his graphic pictures.  Jim DelGiudice has used his eyes and voice to document the New Jersey scene for more than half his 56 years. His architectural photography for books published by Rutgers University Press twice won him the state’s Historic Preservation Award, and his plays have been produced by such venues as the Bickford Theatre and Kean University. In the millennium year, Jim was cited by both the state and county legislatures for his lifetime contribution to the arts. He is...

Thursday, September 26 – Morris County 7:14 p.m.   North Jersey Civil War Round Table meeting.      Bestselling author Barbara Dreyfuss will present Cape May’s role in the Underground Railroad and the abolitionist movement and where the most famous leader of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman earned needed money to continue her historic rescue trips to the Eastern Shore across Delaware Bay     Before the Civil War, Cape May a popular summer resort at the southern tip of New Jersey, was in fact the meeting place of north and south, where southern planters enjoyed its cool breezes alongside abolitionists from Philadelphia and New York. In the part of town where the large seaside hotels were, fights often broke out between planters, abolitionists and the free blacks working there. But a few blocks away black leaders of Philadelphia’s Underground Railroad came in the summers to relax and retool for th...

Thursday, June 27 – Morris County 7:14 p.m.   North Jersey Civil War Round Table meeting.     Cabrini University Prof. James R. Hedtke returns to the NJCWRT with a discussion of his book,  American Civil War: Facts and Fictions of the Civil War . Four misconceptions about the war will be raised 1. States' rights not slavery was the primary cause of southern secession. 2. Edmund Ruffin fired the first shot on Fort Sumter. 3. There were no female combat soldiers in the Civil War. 4. The Confederates had and used Black regiments in combat.  The talk I will discuss the origin of the misconception and why it is not factually correct based on testimony and primary documents of the day. Some of the statements may be controversial, a spirited audience participation is welcomed and expected.     Haggerty Education Center at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, 353 E. Hanover Avenue, Morris Twp. (opp. the Morris County Library). Admission $5 Stu...

Thursday, June 20 -- Morris County 7:14 p.m.   North Jersey Civil War Round Table    The North Jersey Civil War Round Table will present its 2019 Book Award to Columbia University Prof. Andrew Delbanco for  The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War. Prof. Delbanco will receive his award, be part of the presentation of his book to * the libraries and schools, and give his talk      For decades after its founding, America was really two nations--one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this composite nation ultimately broke apart, but the fact that enslaved black people repeatedly risked their lives to flee their masters in the South in search of freedom in the North proved that the "united" states was actually a lie.  Fugitive slaves exposed the contradiction between the myth that slavery was a benign institution and the reality that a nation based on...

Thursday, May 23 – Morris County North Jersey Civil War Round Table 7:14 PM at the Haggerty Education Center at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, 353 E. Hanover Avenue, Morris Twp. (opp. the Morris County Library). Admission - $5.  Members & Students – free. NPS Rangers – free      Columbia University Prof. Andrew Delbanco will receive the 2019 North Jersey Civil War Round Table Book Award for  The War Before the War: The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War .     Winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize. A New York Times Critics’ Best Book of 2018 This is the devastating story of how fugitive slaves drove the nation to Civil War.  For decades after its founding, America was really two nations–one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this composite nation ultimately broke apart, but the fact that enslaved black people repeatedly risked their...

Wednesday, April 24 – Morris County North Jersey Civil War Round Table at 7:14 p.m. at the Haggerty Education Center at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, 353 E. Hanover Avenue, Morris Twp. (opp. the Morris County Library). Admission - $5.  Members & Students – free. NPS Rangers – free   TWO DISPARATE TALKS NJCWRT Members James Lewis and Rich Rosenthal will each present a talk:           James Lewis  (photo right) is the Head of the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center at Morristown and Morris Township Library. He will speak about  finding information on your Civil War ancestors – or any figures relating to your personal or research using electronic and text resources at the Center.  FYI: The library has an extensive Civil War collection from former NJCWRT Board member and founder, the late Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. and also from the NJCWRT. The library is located at 1 Miller Rd., Morristown, NJ 07960,  ht...

Thursday, March 28 – Morris County 7:14 p.m.   North Jersey Civil War Round Table meeting in the Haggerty Education Center at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, 353 E. Hanover Avenue, Morris Twp. (opp. the Morris County Library). Admission $5 Members & Students – free Prof. Jonathan Lurie, Rutgers University. (Ret.) returns to the NJCWRT; this year's lecture: Why was Jefferson Davis never convicted, let alone never tried for treason or war crimes after 1865? Jonathan Lurie is a professor emeritus of history at Rutgers University. He is the author of Arming Military Justice: The Origins of the U.S. Court of Military Appeals; Pursuing Military Justice: The History of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces; co-authored with Ronald Labbe, The Slaughterhouse Cases: Regulation, Reconstruction and the 14 th  Amendment. Prof. Lurie was awarded the Fulbright fellowship to Uppsala University School of Law in Sweden, fall 2005 and was invited to lectur...

Thursday, March 21 – Morris County Civil War Women of Compassion, Courage, and Grit A Lecture by Rich Rosenthal 7:00 PM at the Parsippany Main Library,449 Halsey Road, Parsippany, NJ     A story of wartime survival—not from cannons and bullets—but from life itself.    Rich Rosenthal, president of the North Jersey Civil War Round Table, has lectured on numerous historical subjects. He was a founding member of the North Jersey American Revolution Round Table, along with pre-eminent New Jersey historian, the late John T. Cunningham.    Mr. Rosenthal will tell us about New Jersey’s own Cornelia Hancock, who defiantly goes to Gettysburg after being rejected as a nurse for being too pretty; Mary Ann Bickerdyke, who set up hospitals and kitchens and even followed General Sherman through the mountains of Georgia on the way to Atlanta; and Sara Pryor, who lived through privation and destruction of the south, but still had the courage to defy the ...

Sunday, March 10 – Morris County Civil War Women of Compassion, Courage, and Grit A Lecture by Rich Rosenthal 2 p.m. at the Morristown and Morris Township Library, 1 Miller Road, Morristown, NJ    Join us in the library’s lower level meeting room, for  a story of wartime survival—not from cannons and bullets—but from life itself.    Rich Rosenthal, president of the North Jersey Civil War Round Table, has lectured on numerous historical subjects. He was a founding member of the North Jersey American Revolution Round Table, along with pre-eminent New Jersey historian, the late John T. Cunningham.    Mr. Rosenthal will tell us about New Jersey’s own Cornelia Hancock, who defiantly goes to Gettysburg after being rejected as a nurse for being too pretty; Mary Ann Bickerdyke, who set up hospitals and kitchens and even followed General Sherman through the mountains of Georgia on the way to Atlanta; and Sara Pryor, who lived through privati...

Thursday, February 28 – Morris County North Jersey Civil War Round Table - 7:14 p.m. at the Haggerty Education Center at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, 353 E. Hanover Avenue, Morris Twp. (opp. the Morris County Library). Admission - $5.  Members & Students – free. NPS Rangers – free    The 7 th  New Jersey Regiment presented by Prof. John Hayward.      The 7 th  New Jersey fought in the major battles in the east among them the Peninsula Campaign, Second Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and the pursuit of Gen. Robert E. Lee to Appomattox Court House.  The presentation will focus on the officers and men of 7th NJ Regiment and on one of its commanders  Morristown’s (and Bill Chemerka’s) Col. Joseph W. Revere.     John Hayward is a graduate from the University of New Hampshire with a Master’s in History. He is currently a professor of History at Southern New Hampsh...