Gen. Lee Day By Day

Cape Fear Civil War Round Table Meeting

Story Contributed

Amid many histories of General Robert E. Lee comes a book from Charles Knight that focuses on Lee himself, on where he was, who he was with, and what he was doing day by day, and it offers an entirely different appreciation of the famous general. Wilmington’s Cape Fear Civil War Round Table invites the public to attend a presentation by Charles R. Knight, curator of military history at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. Knight will discusses his book about Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his Civil War experience on Thursday, March 9. The Round Table meets at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Wilmington near Independence Mall. Doors open at 6:30 pm and the meeting begins at 7 pm.

Charlie Knight grew up in Richmond, VA, and developed a love of history, and the Civil War in particular, at a very early age. In addition to being curator of military history at the state’s History Museum, he is also currently president of the Raleigh Civil War Round Table. He volunteered at Richmond’s Museum of the Confederacy (now part of the American Civil War Museum) during high school, and is a 1999 graduate of Bridgewater College with a BA in US history. He has spent more than 20 years working in museums and historic sites in Virginia, Arizona, and North Carolina, including New Market Battlefield State Historical Park, the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Memorial, the Arizona

Capitol Museum, and the North Carolina Museum of History. He has been at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh as Curator of Military History since January 2017.

Douglas S. Freeman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning four-volume study on Robert E. Lee remains the most thorough history of the man, but that magisterial biography was published in the 1930s, nearly 100 years ago. After spending so many years with his subject, Freeman claimed he knew where Lee was every day of his life, from West Point until his death. In fact, there are many gaps in Freeman’s biography, and hundreds of sources have been discovered in the decades since that have changed many of the accepted “facts” about the general. In “From Arlington to Appomattox: Robert E. Lee’s Civil War, Day by Day, 1861-1865,” author Charles Knight does for Lee and students of the war what E.

B. Long’s “Civil War Day by Day” did for our ability to understand the conflict as a whole. This is not another Lee biography, but it is every bit as valuable as one, and perhaps more so.

Lost in all of the military histories o the war, and even in most of the

Lee biographies, is what the general was doing when he was out of history’s “public” eye. We know Lee rode out to meet the survivors of Pickett’s Charge and accept blame for the defeat, that he tried to lead the Texas Brigade in a counterattack to save the day at the Wilderness, and took a tearful ride from Wilmer McLean’s house at Appomattox. But what of the other days? Where was Lee and what was he doing when the spotlight of history failed to illuminate him?

Readers will come away with a fresh sense of his struggles, both personal and professional, and discover many things about Lee for the first time using his own correspondence and papers from his family, his staff, his lieutenants, and the men of his army.

General Lee intended to write a history of the Army of Northern Virginia but died before he could complete his work. Based on hundreds of first-person accounts, “From Arlington to Appomattox” recreates, as far as such a thing is now possible, a Lee-centric study of what the man experienced on a daily basis. It is a tremendous contribution to the literature of the Civil War.

Knight has written articles for various publications including Blue & Gray, Classic Trains, and the Civil War Preservation Trust’s Hallowed Ground magazine. He has contributed to Virginia Tech’s Essential Civil War Curriculum website and the Emerging Civil War blog, served as historical advisor on the 2014 film “Field of Lost Shoes,” and has spoken at numerous conferences, reenactments, and historical organizations around the country. His first book, “Valley Thunder: The Battle of New Market,” was published in 2010 by Savas Beatie, and his second book, “From Arlington to Appomattox: Robert E. Lee’s Civil War Day by Day” was published by Savas Beatie in 2021. He is currently working on a biography of general and railroad magnate William Mahone as well as a history of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Honor Guard.

The meeting will be held in Elebash Hall, at the rear of the church, which is located at 1219 Forest Hills Drive. The church parking lot, close to the entrance to the meeting room, is easily accessed via Park Avenue off of Independence Boulevard. Doors open at 6:30 pm, leaving time to browse our used books table, talk to members of the round table — Mr. Knight will offer his books for sale. For information about membership in the Round Table, visit http://cfcwrt.org and click on “Join.” See you there!

SAFE HAVEN City of Southport

10th Anniversary Event

MARCH 11, 2023

Take a Self-Guided or PocketSites tour

Take a Guided Tour

Brooke Barnhill, the location manager for Safe Haven, will be leading this tour. To join, meet at the Fort Johnston Visitors Center for the tour, to begin at 11a and 2p.

Visit the Fort Johnston Visitors Center

The visitors center will be open for extended hours this day, 10a-6p to display never-before-seen Safe Haven memorabilia that is usually locked in storage.

Watch Safe Haven on the Fort Johnston

Lawn

Bring a blanket, chairs, and your appetite for the screening on the lawn. The movie will begin at 6:30p. We will have Chocolate and S'more food truck available for snacking while you watch.

Sponsored by the Department of Community Relations and the Parks and Recreation Department Visit cityofsouthport.com/events or Scan to learn more: