The regular August meeting will be held on Saturday, September 6, 2025, as an afternoon picnic. Details are in the attached PDF. The meeting topic will be:
Tonya McQuade on “Visits to ECW Symposium in Fredericksburg and the Gettysburg Battlefield”
Monthly Archives: July 2025
Quiz for September 6, 2025
Civil War Quiz: What Do You Know About the Dred Scott Decision?
Q#1 – What was the official name for the Dred Scott Decision?
Q#2 – What error did the U.S. Supreme Court clerk make when creating the trial document that was registered with the Court?
Q#3 – Who was Dred Scott?
Q#4 – Who was Dred Scott’s owner at the time of Scott’s first court filing for freedom in 1847?
Q#5 – What action did Scott attempt that failed, which resulted in him seeking his freedom through the legal system?
Q#6 – What was the reason that Scott lost his first trial, Dred Scott v. Irene Emerson, in Missouri in 1847, where he sued for his freedom and that of his family?
Q#7 – With new lawyers, Scott’s case was heard in St. Louis Circuit Court in January 1850, challenging the ruling that testimony in the previous try was hearsay. What was the verdict in this trial?
Q#8 – In February 1850, Emerson’s defense filed a bill of exceptions, which was certified, setting into motion another appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. What was the result of that trial?
Q#9 – Who was Dred Scott’s owner at the time of the Supreme Court case?
Q#10 – What was President-elect James Buchanan’s interest in the Supreme Court case?
Q#11 – How many Supreme Court justices voted with the majority in the Dred Scott case?
Q#12 – What did the Supreme Court see as the ‘core issue’ in the Dred Scott case?
Q#13 – What was the primary rationale for the Court’s ruling?
Q#14 – What did the U.S. Supreme Court conclude from extensive review of laws from the original American states that involved the status of Black Americans at the time of the Constitution’s drafting in 1787?
Q#15 – What were the three key conclusions documented by the U.S. Supreme Court’s justices in their dissenting opinion?
Meeting of July 29, 2025
Tom McMahon on “An Aging Historian Objectively Views The Civil War”
A life spanning nine decades, the last five of which have involved taking an objective view the Civil War, many of life’s basic values and principles have been influenced by the study of the lives of the millions of Americans who fought or were affected by the conflict of 1861-65. Those lessons and values are applied to 21st Century living in this presentation.
Tom McMahon was born in San Francisco in 1928. He served as a Roman Catholic priest for 26 years and was pastor of the historic 1897 church in New Almaden. He later married Elaine (deceased 2021) and together they had two sons and five grandchildren.
A retired mental health therapist, Tom has been a member of the San Jose South Bay Civil War Roundtable for 16 years. He is also an amateur historian, founder of the History Club at the Almaden Senior Center, and an active writer and researcher. Above all, he is someone who enjoys life and connecting with people.