Join us at Harry’s Hofbrau in Redwood City on Tuesday, March 18. 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

Mark Costin on “The Overlooked Conflict, the Trans-Mississippi Operations, Part III: The Battle of Wilson’s Creek”

The Battle of Wilson’s Creek fought on August 10, 1861 is considered to be the second major battle of the Civil War. Here a much smaller Union army split their forces and staged a surprise attack on the Confederates. Although the south maintained control of the battlefield and won the battle, long term the results were more indecisive and more bloodshed was to come.

The battle features familiar names from my previous talks: Ben McCulloch, Sterling Price, and Franz Sigel, as well as a new major player, Union General Nathaniel Lyons. As well as covering the battle, the activities as Missouri splits into fractions after the 1860 election will be described.

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 third presentation to the PCWRT on the subject of the war in the Trans-Mississippi Missouri theatre. 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.