The American Civil War Round Table of Australia
Congrats to our editorial team for the 600th edition – simply marvellous! and talent that gifted us a wonderful history. Middle of
lunchtime in the Archer library, counting down the days till the end of winter as the U.S. boils / floods; the U.K. boils & suffers through lack of rain; Europe has fires aplenty and Australia waits for the start of the cricket season / end of the football season and finals.
We have five of our esteemed members approaching the podium to give us a potted story of their interests, another month at the Auburn Hotel, meals are good but missing the Swan Hotel’s comraderie.
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Late July, wintery in Melbourne (what else is new) and hot summers in Europe and America just like Gettysburg in 1863); ready to go for next Wednesday’s meeting, I had some troubles with my computer – blame it on Microsoft updates – but back on track again for Chris Hookey’s talk at the Auburn Hotel.
In this MN we include a prescient article on the 150th anniversary of Battle of the Little Bighorn by Heather Cox Richardson. She is always worth reading on Substack and her regular videos on FB where she places America in a historical context where she tries to make sense of the current situation in American politics. A sane voice in insane times!
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As the winter solstice gets closer and closer, we shall rug up with due process and assemble once more at the Auburn Hotel, Barry gets to strut his lack of knowledge on the forthcoming 250th anniversary of the 4th of July and the links to the Civil War; come one and all – I’ll send out a Zoom notice on Monday, we did such an exceptional job last month with Byard’s super presentation, let’s see what the little corporal can do the shatter our ability to entertain and amuse.
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Ten more days of autumn and we are definitely heading into Melbourne’s cooler months. Most of the Round Tables in America head for their summer break at this time (so campaigning season between May and September becomes somewhat quieter) however we shall manage to push ahead – the Auburn Hotel will be our headquarters again, no word when we ill get
back to the Swan though if Bill Dunkley is correct with his view of activities, a tad longer before we move again – in the meantime
President Byard has given us a good deal with the management. Next Wednesday 7:30 p.m. local time (and Zoom) will see a range of the best 50 Civil War photographs as nominated by the American Battlefield trust and annotated by Byard – we’ll get options to have our own say on the matter so have your pen and scratch pad at hand.
Well into autumn now, major fire in Geelong overnight at one of the petrol refining centres so may make a difference to fuel rationing over the next few weeks; I also note that the Cantata Singers who did a Civil War choral afternoon a few years ago have another session on the afternoon of Saturday, May 2nd, in Surrey Hills (Melbourne), let me know if you want more information on “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” for ticket sales etc.
If petrol is no barrier to your transport plans, your editors are looking forward to seeing a good mob converge at the auburn Hotel on the 22nd of the month for good food, fine fellowship and what should be an interesting and individual presentation from our “baz”.
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Thursday afternoon in lovely Melbourne – hot weather in western USA; snow and cold in eastern USA; teardrops in Australia as the football season starts; St Patrick’s Day earlier in the week and I didn’t have a drop of Guinness.
Through all the turmoil in the middle east and perol prices going through the roof, we do have President Byard speaking to us next
Wednesday on the engineers, we are going to meet third month running at the new location in the Auburn Hotel; shouldn’t need to worry about hot weather in March for Melbourne and we’ll see what happens for April; if the Swan Hotel has re-opened and whether we have anything in the petrol bowser.
Ten days to go till the end of summer in the land of down under; floods, fires, cyclones, and yet US & UK have had floods, snow, sleet and a very miserable winter. Fortunately to brighten our days we can look forward to the Round Table AGM next Wednesday (25th) at the auburn Hotel – plus we get Mike Hall to front the crowd. I’ll send out zoom prompts on Monday, in the meantime keep out of the spotlight.
Last week we had Lincoln’s birthday on Thursday, Friday the 13th and Valentine’s Day on the 14th and each had me looking for Civil War links; a good one on Valentine’s day – I’ll share at the meeting, Friday the 13th was supposedly the day the Antietam Lost Orders went missing so someone had a bad day.
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As we get towards the finishing tape of the year, we welcome back Byard to present the lecture on Wednesday evening, 7.30 November 26th at the Swan Hotel; apologies yet again for the technical problems – we hope the problem has been fixed and James has the front innings for January 2026.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, we’ve signified another Remembrance Day at various locations and as the U.S. of A. gets closer to Thanksgiving next week, we’ll try in Melbourne to improve conditions for late Spring – though the weather forecast may have showers next Wednesday night! Bring on Summer!!
Greetings to our members and supporters, another excellent talk as month by Mike Hall and this month we have President Byard in the hot seat; first day of warm weather in Melbourne but it won’t last long and no doubts by Wednesday evening we can sure of more of Melbourne’s changeable conditions – however be at the Swan Hotel, 6 pm for drinks and nosh; 7:30 pm for the meeting upstairs
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As September draws to a close we bid a fond farewell to the football season and welcome in the more gentle and civilised cricket season; long form Tests, short form ODI and the stuff that is simply crash and bash; something for every cricket fan. September is also the month that saw the fall of Lexington, Missouri to Confederate forces under Stirling Price in 1861, the brutal battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg in 1862, the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, the Fall of Atlanta in 1864 and of course by September 1865 the country was coming to grips with the idea of peace and all that came with it!
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Rushing towards the end of winter in Melbourne (and a sigh of relief), just checked the weather forecast for the coming week and showers for Wednesday, August 27th (maybe light) so that will be the hopefully end of the cooler weather here; excellent presentations at our July meeting with Juliette, Mike & Byard; Juliette gets the gong again this coming week so look forward to an entertaining talk as she never fails to deliver.
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Thursday afternoon in Melbourne, dreary but at least half of our winter is behind us; excellent effort by Bill at our June meeting and July 23rd will see another President’s XI (in other words as many of our members who want to give presentations, depending on numbers between six and eight minutes or thereabouts); if you want you put your name in the hat, send a respond to the little corporal before Wednesday night and we’ll program you in.
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