The Civil War Round Table
Of Chicago

Dr. Stephen R. Wise
on
"Gate of Hell: The 1863 Campaign for Battery Wagner and Charleston"

April Meeting At A Glance:

• 680th Regular Meeting
• April 17, 2009
• "Gate of Hell: The 1863 Campaign for Battery Wagner and Charleston"
• by Dr. Stephen R. Wise
• Holiday Inn Mart Plaza
• Cocktails (Cash Bar) 5:30pm Dinner 6:30pm "Speaker Presentation 7:30 pm"
• Dinner $40.00; or Presentation only, $5.00
  Chicken Aegean, Catch of the Day
  Fruit Plate, Hot Vegetable Plate

For dinner reservations call 630- 460-1865 or email chicagocwrtdinner@earthlink.net with your name(s) and choice of entree.

Non-members are welcome to attend.

The summer of 1863 witnessed three massive campaigns that sharply affected the Civil War's outcome. An ocean of ink has been spilled on two of those campaigns—Gettysburg and Vicksburg. But the Union army/navy campaign to take the “cradle of the Rebellion,” Charleston, was perhaps the most interesting of the three.
The campaign introduced a new era in the science of engineering and gunnery. It involved extensive use of ironclad vessels as a combined northern army/navy task force tried to sweep the Confederates off Morris Island and capture Battery Wagner. The campaign was a major testing ground for African American troops including the well-known 54th Massachusetts. It also involved such personalities as Generals P.G.T. Beauregard, Quincy A. Gillmore, Rear Admiral John Dahlgren and Nurse Clara Barton.                                             
For our meeting, Dr. Stephen R. Wise will give a presentation vividly recreating the 1863 Campaign for Charleston. The skillful, bold operations made the 1863 Campaign for Charleston exceptional in the annals of military history. One British observer considered the battle of Morris Island to be the war's most important campaign. Though popularized in the movie "Glory," the long, drawn out battle was much more than a solitary regiment and a single charge.        
 
Dr. Stephen R. Wise, a historian who lives in Beaufort, South Carolina, is the director of the museum and the Cultural Resource Manager for the Marine Corps Recruit Depot located at Parris Island, South Carolina. A native of Toledo, Ohio, Dr. Wise received his bachelor degree from Wittenberg University and a master’s degree from Bowling Green State University. He was drawn to the University of South Carolina to study under the direction of the late Thomas L. Connelly, the noted Civil war historian, under whom Wise earned his doctoral degree.
         Dr. Wise has written and edited a number of works including Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During the Civil War, a highly acclaimed, comprehensive account of the Confederate effort to deliver supplies through the northern blockade. Another publication, Gate of Hell: The Campaign for Charleston Harbor 1863, covers the 1863 campaign that found northern troops battling on Morris Island for the control of Charleston harbor. The South Carolina Historical Society gave Gate of Hell an award as the best book written in 1994 on South Carolina history.