Mark Costin on “Battle of Buena Vista – Training Ground for the Civil War”

This talk describes the 1847 Battle of Buena Vista where the American forces of Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexican army of Santa Anna. The battle saw significant contributions by many future Civil War stalwarts. Particular attention will be paid to the important contributions by Jefferson Davis and Braxton Bragg in securing the victory. The talk will conclude with an open discussion of the comparison between the two wars.

Mark Costin is an Engineer living in Sunnyvale, CA, working on functional safety for automated and autonomous vehicles. A longtime history buff, this is Mark’s first presentation to the PCWRT on the subject of the Mexican-American War. He holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, a M.Eng. from McMaster University and a B.Eng. from McGill University.

Kathryn Olivarius on “The Role of Disease and Infection in the U.S. Civil War”

During the United States Civil War, diseases like dysentery and sepsis—not bullets—killed and estimated two-thirds of the 750,000 war dead. And at least 200,000 Union soldiers—mostly unmarried men in their teens and twenties—contracted venereal disease. Some died from it. But many others survived the war and brought it home, making this war for freedom a super-spreader event for syphilis and shame.

Kathryn Olivarius is Associate Professor of U.S. History at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the antebellum South, the Caribbean, slavery and disease. Her BA degree in History from Yale University and her Masters and Ph.D. in U.S. History are from the University of Oxford.

Mark Costin on “The Overlooked Conflict, the Trans-Mississippi Operations, Part II: The Battle of Pea Ridge”

The Battle of Pea Ridge, March 6-8, 1862, was the decisive battle for Union control of the state of Missouri. This talk introduces the conditions in the Missouri/Arkansas area in late 1861 and early 1862 and then gives a detail description of the battle and the leading figures on both sides. The battle is often overlooked but offers many unusual features: Indians, Texas Rangers, a Union general named Jefferson Davis and phenomenally bad luck by the Confederates.

Mark Costin is an engineer living in Sunnyvale, CA working on functional safety for automated and autonomous vehicles. A long time history buff, this is Mark’s second presentation the SBCWRT on the subject of the war in the Trans-Mississippi. He holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, an M.Eng from McMaster University and B.Eng from McGill University.

December 17, 2024 — Magnus Akerblom on “A Soldier’s Christmas”

Just after Christmas in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Union and Confederate armies set up camp within shouting distance of one another. To raise their spirits they began a combative volley of patriotic tunes: “Yankee Doodle” drowned out by “Dixie.” A bittersweet moment a day before the battle of Stones River.

Magnus Akerblom was born in Sweden and immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1957. They lived in Lake County for three years and then moved to San Mateo. After graduating from Burlingame High School, Magnus served three years in the U.S. Army. He attended the College of San Mateo where after taking a class in U.S. history, Magnus developed a life long interest in the Civil War.

One of Magnus’s favorite pastimes is off road wheeling in his Jeep. He belongs to the Esprit De Four club, and conducts a class on how to drive off road.

Magnus has been a member of the Peninsula Civil War Round Table for three years.

Wayne Padgett on “A Confederate Soldier’s Letters Home to South Carolina: Original family letters”

Wayne Padgett is a native San Franciscan graduating from Lincoln H.S.

After naval service as a quartermaster on a destroyer escort, he graduated from Sacramento State College with a degree in law enforcement. After which, he was a special agent with NCIS, then U.S. Treasury Internal Security Division, and finally U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General retiring in 1990. Concurrent with this, he entered the U.S. Coast Guard reserve retiring as a Lieut. Commander.

His interest in the Civil War has been lifelong, having two great grandfathers and a great-great grandfather who served in the war, all in one South Carolina regiment—specifically the 2nd S.C. Artillery.

Wayne joined the San Francisco CWRT when a friend said that they needed a few more bodies in order to secure a private meeting room at the Irish Cultural Center in S.F. He attended, joined, and eventually served as president for several terms. Upon the demise of the S.F. CWRT, he joined the Peninsula CWRT.

Join us at Harry’s Hofbrau in Redwood City on Tuesday, October 15. Harry’s opens at 11 am for cafeteria style lunch; our meeting will start promptly at 12 noon. See the MEETING INFO menu item for directions. This month’s topic is

Magnus Akerblom on “King Cotton”

In honor of our past President of the PCWRT, this month’s presentation is one Abby Eller made before moving to Oregon this fall. It gives great insight into how cotton production would impact the war. Until the beginning of the war the US was the world’s largest producer of cotton, and the staple of the Southern economy. This impact on the Southern economy and its trading partners was greatly affected by the US Civil War.

Magnus Akerblom was born in Sweden and immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1957. They lived in Lake County for three years and then moved to San Mateo. After graduating from Burlingame High School, Magnus served three years in the U.S. Army. He attended the College of San Mateo where after taking a class in U.S. history, Magnus developed a life long interest in the Civil War.

One of Magnus’s favorite pastimes is off road wheeling in his Jeep. He belongs to the Esprit De Four club, and conducts a class on how to drive off road.

Magnus has been a member of the Peninsula Civil War Round Table for three years.

James Campbell on “Monumental Questions: Race, Memory, and the Struggle Over Confederate Monuments”

As people across the United States confront the nation’s legacy of slavery and racial inequality, monuments and memorials honoring the Confederacy have become political flashpoints, with some people demanding their removal as toxic symbols of white supremacy and others warning of an attempt to erase history and heritage. In this roundtable presentation, Stanford historian James Campbell will discuss the ongoing struggle over the nation’s memorial landscape, reconstructing the historical context in which Confederate monuments were created as well as the process by which they have become proxies for debates about race and citizenship today.

James T. Campbell is the Edgar E. Robinson Professor of History at Stanford University, where he teaches courses in American and African American history. He is the author of Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa (1995) and Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005 (2006), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. Co-edited books include Race, Nation, and Empire in American History (2007); Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (2019); and Mississippi Witness: the Photographs of Florence Mars (2019). He is currently completing a book on historical memory and the Mississippi Freedom Movement. A committed public historian, Campbell has served as a consultant for numerous documentary films, curricular projects, and museum exhibitions, including the “Power of Place” exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.