My Current Speaking Schedule for 2024 and 2025

My current speaking schedule for 2024 and 2025 will mainly revolve around my next book, Grant Lays Siege to Lee:  Petersburg, June 18-July 1, 1864.  The book should be out next spring from Savas Beatie.  

My presentations will largely focus on the Wilson-Kautz Raid of June 22-July 1, 1864, which my book covers.  The raid was part of an ambitious attempt by Grant to starve Lee out of Petersburg and Richmond. 

"Destruction of Genl. Lee's Lines of Communication in Virginia by Genl. Wilson" (Library of Congress)

A Confederate victory at First Reams Station on June 29, 1864, ended the raid.  Hal Jespersen drew 40 splendid maps for Grant Lays Siege to Lee.  Here's the one depicting the debacle at First Reams Station.

Map by Hal Jespersen for Grant Lays Siege to Lee

One exception to my focus on the Wilson-Kautz Raid will be my talk at the Raleigh Civil War Round Table (CWRT).  There I'll address the prominent role of North Carolinians in the Confederate victory at Second Reams Station on August 25, 1864, which I covered in The Siege of Petersburg:  The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864 (Savas Beatie, 2015).

            The Charge of the 39th Illinois Veteran Volunteers at Fussell's Mill on August 16, 1864                   (Dust Jacket Painting by Keith Rocco)

September 12, 2024:  Milwaukee CWRT.  Topic:  The Wilson-Kautz Raid, from Grant Lays Siege to Lee, to be published in 2025.

September 13, 2024:  Chicago CWRT.  Topic:  The Wilson-Kautz Raid, from Grant Lays Siege to Lee. 

September 26, 2024:  South Suburban CWRT.  Topic:  The Wilson-Kautz Raid.

November 26, 2024:  Salt Creek CWRT.  Topic:  The Wilson-Kautz Raid.

March 21, 2025:  Kalamazoo CWRT.  Topic:  The Wilson-Kautz Raid.

May 12, 2025:  Raleigh CWRT.  Topic:  "Charge of the Tarheel Brigades," the Second Battle of Reams Station.  "Charge of the Tarheel Brigades" was the first article I ever had published.  It appeared in the Jan.-Feb. 1991 issue of Civil War Times Illustrated.  I covered Second Reams Station again in more detail in The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864, which contained 22 excellent maps by Hampton Newsome.

Map by Hampton Newsome for The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864

May 13, 2025:  Roanoke CWRT.  The Wilson-Kautz Raid, from Grant Lays Siege to Lee, to be published by Savas Beatie in 2025.

"Kautz's Cavalry coming back to camp in Gen Butlers lines after their raid" (Library of Congress)