Jack Mather on “FDR and Voices in the Night”

Jack Mather

Jack described Franklin Roosevelt’s interactions with Huey Long, Father Coughlin, the Bonus Army, groups Left and Right, Joseph Kennedy, and Douglas McArthur.

Walter Day on “A Visit to Hitler’s ‘Wolf’s Lair'”

On July 20, 1944, disaffected German Army officers launched one of the most daring undertakings of WWII: An attempt to kill Adolf Hitler at the Wolfsschanze, or “Wolf’s Lair.” This was a difficult task since the Wolfsschanze was designed to protect Hitler.

By July 1944 the plotters were getting desperate. The Allies had landed in France and the end was predictable.

A young wounded officer from the North African Campaign, Oberst Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, flew to the Wolfsschanze to brief Hitler and plant a bomb, provided by the British, to kill Hitler. This is his story!

Dana Lombardy on “Sex… and Spies, Oh, My!”

Wherever thousands of men have gathered to fight wars throughout history, romance—and prostitution—have followed. “They didn’t want to die virgins” was a major concern of many soldiers and affected morale in nearly every army that fought in the Great War. In addition, exotic dancers and courtesans such as Mata Hari had relationships with high-ranking military officers and politicians—and in her case it led to being tried and executed as a spy. What else will be revealed?

Dana Lombardy

Dana Lombardy is Publisher of World War One Illustrated magazine for the World War One Historical Association. He was an Associate Online Editor for Armchair General magazine and now does research, writing and design through his Lombardy Studios. Dana is recognized for his nearly twenty television appearances, including multiple episodes of The History Channel’s “Tales of the Gun” series. He has contributed as an editor, cartographer, graphic artist, and designer on many books, games and magazines, was Publisher of Napoleon Journal from 1996-2000.

Walter Day on “The Battle of Perryville, The Invasion of Kentucky”

Why was Kentucky important in the Civil War?

• Control of strategic rivers (the Ohio in particular)
• Source of manpower for armies
• Food

Perryville was a relatively large battle for its time in the Civil War. Federals numbered about 55,000 men (22,000 engaged) under US General Don Carlos Buell. Confederates fielded some 17,000 men under CSA General Braxton Bragg.

We are fortunate to have an excellent video of this re-enacted battle*, with a Bonus Feature of Ed Bearss (pronounced “bars”), former Chief Historian of the National Park Service, describing this battle in great detail. If you’ve never seen Ed, come and enjoy this! He’s 94 now and only recently stopped leading battlefield tours. He’s a one of a kind historian whose passion has been to learn and tell anyone who’s interested incredible details of every battle fought in the US, as well as World War battles in which the US fought. Until very recently, he led many tours every year around those fields, and tour groups often had to jog to keep up with him.

*The video, “Battle of Perryville, the Invasion of Kentucky”, is provided by Wide Awake Films, LLC.

Walter Day is the Peninsula Civil War Roundtable Program Chairman. He has been a student of Civil War history since he was a teenager. He has visited most of the battlefields where his great grandfather’s unit, the Wilcox Brigade, 8th Alabama Infantry, CSA, fought. He is a retired Electrical Engineer and U.S. Naval officer. He has followed Ed Bearss around on tours of at least 8 Civil War battlefields, as well as the WWII Normandy battlefield.

Jack Mather on “Two British Generals and the Struggle for Control of North America”

Jack Mather

One died and was successful, one failed and lived: James Wolfe, John Burgoyne, and the birth of the United States of America.

Howard Jones on “John Paul Jones, An American Hero”

Howard’s presentation was about the heroics of John Paul Jones who took the fight for American independence to the British Isles during the Revolutionary War. The epic battle between the American ship, Bonhomme Richard, and the British ship, Serapis, is legendary in naval history. His ultimate victory became the basis for the creation of a United States Naval Academy and a world-power American Navy.

Howard is a Marine Corps Veteran and a graduate of the University of Oregon. He is the immediate Past Commander General of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars. He is a former President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. In addition, he served for 12 years as the Public Member of San Mateo County’s Local Agency Formation Committee, (or, LAFCo). Howard frequently gives presentations about American history to elementary grade school children and heritage groups such as the DAR, SAR and the UDC.

Ruthanne Lum McCunn on “Hidden History: Asians and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Civil War”

In this vividly illustrated talk, Ruthanne Lum McCunn brings to life the amazing stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the Confederate and Union Navies and Armies, including that of Thomas Sylvanus (Ah Yee Way), the veteran whose life she reclaimed in Chinese Yankee. Discussing the subsequent battle of Chinese veterans for citizenship, she also explores an important and virtually unknown chapter in America’s rocky yet persistent struggle towards a more perfect Union.

Ruthanne Lum McCunn is a writer of Chinese and Scottish descent whose award-winning work has been translated into eleven languages, published in twenty-two countries, and adapted for the stage and film. She is most recently the author of Chinese Yankee, the true story of Thomas Sylvanus.

David Ainsworth on “SS Jeremiah O’Brien—Then and Now”

David’s talk covered the geopolitical basis for the Merchant Navy Liberty Ship building during WWII, its peculiar origins, its astonishing achievements, and the distinguished deployment of the ship itself in the Normandy invasion and elsewhere. Finally, he will cover its return to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of Operation Overlord in 1994 and the way in which the old ship—still operating—contributes to the community today.

David Ainsworth graduated from the University of Kansas and subsequently served as an infantry and embarkation officer in the U. S. Marine Corps. He attended Golden Gate Law school in San Francisco and practiced maritime law for thirty five years, first for Matson Lines and then American President Lines, where he served as Vice President and General Counsel. He has also been of counsel to a Washington DC law firm and presently consults for a San Francisco based shipping company. He has authored two novels, In Extremis and The Chasm, both political suspense stories (visit www.davidainsworthbooks.com for details) and is a member of the volunteer crew of the SS Jeremiah O’Brien (docent and  Chairman of the Speaker’s Bureau.) He resides in the Napa Valley and enjoys making wine each fall for his house label, Admiralty Cellars.

Gene Paleno on “The Porter Conspiracy”

Gene has written a well-researched non-fiction historical novel about a relatively unknown Civil War Major General. Although innocent, Fitz John Porter was accused of losing a crucial battle and tried and convicted for cowardice and disobedience. This true story reveals the political false reasons for his court martial.

The tale depicts the Second Battle of Manassas in grim, eye-witness accounts of the fighting and dying during three days in August 1862. President Abraham Lincoln’s unhappy part in the tragedy is woven together with the events of that period like threads in a bloody tapestry to create the changes that shaped and changed America for all time.

Gene Paleno has farmed in Lake County for nearly fifty years and been writing even longer. During most of the good part of a century of life Gene has had more occupations and professions than you can count on both hands. He writes to entertain. Gene has written fifteen full-length novels and several collections of stories on a wide range of subjects, and a weekly newspaper column of the animals and people he’s met while he’s farmed…to novels about the Civil War, Lake County history, and Adult science fiction and fantasy.

Asked, “Why do you write?” his reply was, “Because I must. Writing is like breathing. It is the reason I wake each day glad to be alive.” “Besides,” he adds, “Seeing my stories in print and knowing people enjoy reading them is like having Apple Pie… and I love Apple Pie.”