The Grand Rapids Civil War Round Table is now on its summer break. We will start our meetings again on Wednesday, September 17th, 2025. We want to thank all of our members for their support this past year and hope you all have a safe and blessed summer.
Membership fees for the 2025-2026 season are $30.00.
Checks can be made out to GRCWRT.
Get your membership/renewal form on our website
membership page or at one of our meetings.
Dues are based on the meeting year, September - June.
We are always looking for new speakers. If you would like to give a presentation to the GRCWRT, or can recommend someone, please contact our program director.
Excepting river transport, trains, and one's own feet, much of the transportation of the armies depended upon animals: horses, mules, and, occasionally, oxen. The number of animals required to support both armies dwarfs anything by today's standards. In 1864, the Army of the Potomac was followed by more than four thousand six-mule team wagons as it entered the Wilderness Campaign.
My Dear Mary:
I send up an old shirt which you thought might be useful to some of our poor wounded soldiers. I have another if you desire it. I also send the pillow case you gave me last year. You will see its forlorn condition. I want another one badly, of any material you have. You can guess at the size by the one returned. Please mend last pair of drawers here with sent and if no sick or wounded soldier requires them, ask daughter to put them in trunk. I hope you are all well. Love to everybody.
Very truly,
R. E. Lee
~ Excerpt from a letter by Confederate General Robert E. Lee to his wife, Mary
Shortly after the burning of Atlanta
The Confederacy approved the addition of black troops to its rosters on March 13, 1865. Faced with severe manpower shortages, General Robert E. Lee asked the government to "decide whether slavery shall be extinguished by our enemies and the slaves be used against us, or use them ourselves." Lee felt that slaves should be freed as a condition for fighting, but the bill did not stipulate those terms.
Doctors on both sides of the war had to meet the challenge of wounds caused by the lead minie ball, which resulted in casualties in 94 percent of its strikes. The death rate was so high due to the way a minie ball mushroomed as it tore through flesh and bone, dragging bits of uniform and dirt with it that ultimately caused infection that led to gangrene, amputation of limbs, or death. By comparison, shell and canister ammunition caused death only about 6 percent of the time, while sabers and bayonets accounted for less than four out of every one thousand wounds.
Wednesday
September 17, 2025
To Be Announced
To Be Announced
We Meet At:
Orchard View Church of God
2777 Leffingwell Ave. NE
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Located at the southwest corner of
3 Mile Road NE and Leffingwell Avenue NE
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Program begins at 7:00 pm
Civil War Notes
Our Next Meeting
Special Announcements:
Monument to the Third Michigan Infantry
The Peach Orchard
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
