The regular August meeting will be held on Saturday, September 6, 2025, as an afternoon picnic. Details are in the attached PDF at the bottom of the page. The meeting topic will be:

Tonya McQuade on “Visits to ECW Symposium in Fredericksburg and the Gettysburg Battlefield”

Tonya McQuade will be speaking about her recent attendance at the 11th annual Emerging Civil War Symposium in Fredericksburg, VA, at Stevenson Ridge, Spotsylvania Courthouse, August 1–3. This year’s theme was “The Cities of War,” with keynote speaker Ted Savas presenting Handshakes, Gambling, Gunpowder, and Augusta: How George W. Rains and Jefferson Davis Changed the Course of the American Civil War. Other speakers addressed a variety of topics, including “Confederate Privateering in San Francisco,” “The Richmond Bread Riot of 1863,” “Grant in St. Louis: The Desperate Years,” and “Suffering, Death, and Destitution: Charleston, South Carolina Burned and Shelled.” Tonya will share highlights from the conference and the battlefield tour of Fredericksburg, as well as stories and photos from her first-time visits—with her husband—to both Gettysburg and Fort McHenry after the conference.

Tonya Graham McQuade is the author of A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri, 1862–65, and is a contributing writer to the Emerging Civil War website. She has a love for both history and historical fiction, as well as a passion for writing, music, travel, and genealogical research.

In the summer of 2023, Tonya visited Ireland and Scotland with her husband, Mike. Her first night in Dublin, she heard a live performance of the ballad “Paddy’s Lament,” and the song planted itself in her brain. She continued to think about the song’s haunting lyrics as she visited Dublin’s EPIC Immigration Museum, viewed the nearby Famine Memorial, and climbed aboard the replica Jeanie Johnston famine ship. Once she returned to San Jose, she began researching the song’s history, listening to its various versions, and studying the Irish experience in the Civil War—particularly as part of the Irish Brigade. She eventually wrote two related articles for the Emerging Civil War website. This presentation expands on those articles.

A long-time English teacher at Los Gatos High School, Tonya lives in San Jose, California. She is an active member of Emerging Civil War, South Bay Civil War Round Table, South Bay Writers/California Writers Club, National League of American Pen Women, and Poetry Center San Jose. You can learn more about Tonya on her website at tonyagrahammcquade.com, where you’ll also find photos related to the book and her research trips to Missouri. You can also find links to her Chasing History and Emerging Civil War blog posts, her poetry and photography, and her social media sites.

Jim Rhetta on “Would England Have Recognized the South?”

A common belief among Civil War historians is that England was frequently inclined toward diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy. This belief is supported by the view that a shortage of cotton nearly drove England to recognize the South to secure cotton supplies for economic stability and employment in the cotton industry. However, the key missing requirement for diplomatic recognition was a decisive Confederate battlefield victory to convince England that the Confederacy was a militarily viable nation.

Closer evaluations of this issue are often lacking in U.S. publications, with familiar beliefs repeated across generations of readers. This presentation will examine British decision-makers, influencers, foreign policy, and political processes to uncover the truth about England’s intentions regarding recognition of the Confederacy.

Jim Rhetta retired from Lockheed Corporation and also retired as a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, serving in the Intelligence Community. In both careers, he monitored, analyzed, and reported on global conflicts and crises for the Department of Defense. His roles required him to write and present daily intelligence briefings, threat assessments, and weekly activity reports. He authored classified books on foreign air defense threats and orders of battle. He continues to monitor current events and historical subjects for their impact on society today.

Join us at 6:30 PM, November 25, at Jack’s Restaurant & Bar, located at the Northwest corner of the Westgate Shopping Mall in San Jose, near Campbell (1502 Saratoga Ave, San Jose, CA 95129) and via ZOOM. This month’s topic is

David Hsueh on “Requiem for Innocence: Destruction of Nature and Animals in the Civil War”

Five days after the bloodiest single day in American history at Antietam, Union XII Corps acting commander Brig. Gen. Alpheus Williams rode across the devastated battlefield. The ground was still littered with corpses, and the stench of decay hung in the air. That evening, in a letter home to his daughter, Williams struggled to describe the scenes he had witnessed. One image, however, refused to leave him:

“The number of dead horses was high. They lay, like the men, in all attitudes. One beautiful milk-white animal had died in so graceful a position that I wished for its photograph. Its legs were doubled under, and its arched neck gracefully turned to one side, as if looking back to the ball hole in its side. Until you got to it, it was hard to believe the horse was dead.”

Unbeknownst to Williams, three days earlier, on September 19, the photographer Alexander Gardner had encountered the very same animal. He captured it in a haunting image later published in his Photographic Sketch Book of the War, titled “Confederate Colonel and Horse, Both Killed at the Battle of Antietam.” Williams’ words and Gardner’s lens together preserved the same tragic scene: an animal of striking beauty transformed into a casualty of war. Once overlooked, the photograph has, in recent decades, gained recognition as a powerful emblem of Antietam and of the Civil War itself, embodying not only the vast human slaughter but also the silent suffering of the animals drawn into the conflict.

This talk explores the wider devastation of the natural world during the Civil War: the destruction of landscapes, the slaughter of horses on the battlefield, and the displacement of other wildlife. It portrays the conflict not only as a human tragedy but also as an ecological catastrophe—a wound inflicted upon both creation and the divine. Its aim is to illuminate a different dimension of wartime destruction: the suffering borne by those who could not speak for themselves.

David Hsueh is a fourth-year political science student at the University of California, Berkeley. An avid history enthusiast since kindergarten, his first introduction to the American Civil War came through reading about President Lincoln. His true passion for the war began after his first viewing of the movie Gettysburg and his subsequent visits to the Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields seven years ago, at age 11. His main interests in the Civil War center on leadership decisions at the brigade-to-army level and on human-interest stories—both of generals and of the common soldier. A cinephile and film lover, he drew inspiration for the themes and topic of this talk from Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev and Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar.

Tom McMahon on “Bleeding Kansas”

Setting the stage with a short recall of the violent guerilla warfare that sets pre Civil War Kansas bleeding and on Fire,1855-9 over the issue of slavery we examine the stark contrast of the type of conflict carried out in Virginia by Lee ,a West Point model of proper military engagement as contrasted to the bushwhack raids and battles west of the Mississippi which were out of control of Jefferson Davis in his struggle with his generals. One of my main interests will be to high light the contingent of Union troops who were stationed in Alabama throughout the entire war ,cavalry that became the personal guard of General Sherman in his March to the Sea and the destruction of a 200 year economic plantation way of life for the people of the South. It looks like only a short mention of the March to the Sea can be taken up , so this might be for another time.,

Tom McMahon, San Francisco born in 1928, Roman Catholic priest for 26 years, pastor of Old 1897 historic church in New Almaden, married to Elaine (deceased 2021, two sons, five grandchildren), member of local San Jose South Bay Civil War Roundtable for 16 years, retired mental health therapist, amateur historian, founder of History Club at Almaden Senior Center, writer-researcher, and one who enjoys life and people.

Bob Burch on “California in the Civil War: Other California Units”

This is the fifth of a twelve-part series on California and the American Civil War. This presentation will explore the history of those units that served in the Eastern Theater during the American Civil War that enlisted a good portion of their recruits from California or had that state’s name in their unit designation. Nearly ten percent of Californians who volunteered during the war did so into units from other states. They did so for a variety of reasons including the desire to represent their state during the war to preserve the Union. Consequently these “other California units” represented their state continuously from the Battle of First Bull Run until General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox four years later.

Eventually Californians served in five other states’ volunteer regiments. On the West Coast these units were the 1st Washington Territory Infantry and 1st Oregon Cavalry Regiments. On the East Coast these were the 32nd New York Infantry Regiment (aka “California Regiment”), Baker’s Brigade (aka “California Brigade”) of four regiments, and the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment’s “California Hundred” and “California Battalion”.

Along the way we will meet several forgotten Californians who served their country well. Colonel Roderick Matheson from Healdsburg who fought at First Bull Run and later died from wounds received at the Battle of Crampton’s Gap. Colonel Francis Pinto of San Francisco who commanded regiments during the Peninsula, 2nd Manassas, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville Campaigns. Major Archibald McKendry who commanded the California Battalion and eventually the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment when only a captain. Captain James Sewell Reed of the California Hundred who died while leading his unit against Mosby’s partisans and Captain Hugh Armstrong who replaced him and led that company from Battle of Fort Stevens until Appomattox. And Captain Henry Crocker of San Francisco who participated in nine battle and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor at the Battle of Cedar Creek.

Except for the “CAL 100” Cavalry, these units have disappeared from history despite the presence of the California Regiment’s monument on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg and mention in many original source documents from newspapers to the Official Records. This presentation will attempt to remember and honor their contribution to the Union cause.

Bob Burch is a native Californian, born and raised in Santa Clara County. He is also a lifetime student of the Civil War. He had the opportunity to visit many Civil War sites from Florida to Pennsylvania to New Mexico during his 30 year military career. Like many California CWRT members, he desires to understand his home state’s role in the war. He started collecting material for this presentation ten years ago and initiated a serious study 15 months ago. This series documents his research in great detail. Time allows only a few key points from each slide to be presented. Numerous period photographs and magazine drawings are included for visual effect with the intent of comprehending California’s role in the Civil War.

Meeting Minutes June 2017