The American Civil War Round Table of Australia
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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Three more days and it will be winter solstice in Melbourne, being true to itself, it’s miserable and cold and next week for Wednesday night’s meeting at the Swan Hotel will probably see a touch of rain so bring your galoshes and woollies, thankfully the proprietors keep us warm and the atmosphere (and food) is worth the visit – Bill Dunkley will be giving us his impressions of the 1864 Shenandoah campaign and we’ll organise coming lectures as well.
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Thursday early evening in lovely Melbourne – no doubt winter is on the horizon; cool starts but sunny days; as we recognise Memorial Day coming up this Sunday, first time in almost forty years that we won’t be attending formal ceremonies. However, on the good side we have President Byard at our Melbourne meeting next Wednesday night (the 28th) and we know that we will be in for a good one at the Swan Hotel.
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Thursday afternoon in Melbourne, unseasonably warm weather for such a late Easter, the airport is full of travelers, schools are on holidays, the cinemas were the busiest I’ve seen in a number of years and we have had a week of commemorations from Shiloh to Appomattox to Fort Sumter to Ford’s Theatre let alone the smaller items. All in all April has been a good month. We salute Mike Hall’s excellent talk last month and await Chris Hookey on the 23rd at the Swan Hotel with anticipation.
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Bless the cotton socks of our editorial team for another Minie News; Mike Hall will be at the podium for the meeting on Wednesday evening, March 26th, 7:30 p.m. a the Swan Hotel (Vic daylight saving time for a tad longer); goodness know what the weather will be – bring your galoshes and gumboots in case. Today lovely Melbourne has 90 degrees and then a storm in the afternoon – if you don’t like the weather, wait a while!
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Included in this MN is a small section given to a marvellous cartoonist Bill Mauldin who made his name with cartoons from the front in WWII. They dealt with the infantry, the foot sloggers and were strong comments on the way the war was fought and proved to be a true vision and a tonic for the home front understanding of what the regular soldier was facing in Africa and Europe. Mauldin’s work did not please some of the top brass but his Willie and Joe characters Mauldin received a Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for a cartoon showing battle-weary troops…
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Included in this MN is some information on a fantastic read dealing with the WW1 German commerce raider the SMS Wolf. In many ways the voyage of the SMS Wolf has a synchronicity with the voyage of the CSS Shenandoah 51 years earlier. Thrilling stuff. We encourage current members to maintain their status by renewing their subscriptions to the ACWRTA for the 2025 calendar year. And just a plug for those people still on snail mail; you may wish to move over to the digital edition of the MN with full colour to blind your eyes and to spark your imagination!
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Nudging towards the end of the year; finally getting some summer weather in Melbourne for the next couple of days (Friday and Saturday in particular); by next Wednesday’s meeting at the Swan Hotel, will be back to normal.
A good Remembrance Day at the Melbourne Shrine on November 11th with a few thousand attendees (including Matho and the little corporal); we’ve just passed Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address anniversary and our American cousins will be celebrating Thanksgiving next week.
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For the first two weeks of October your two editors will be in California and more specifically in the small town of Lone Pine at the foot of the Eastern Sierras soaking up the Alabama Hills where many a western movie was filmed. The Lone Pine Film Festival is in its 34th year.
Major parts of “How the West was Won”, “Gunga Din, “Bad Day at Black Rock” and countless Hopalong Cassidy films were filmed on location in the fabulous and unique Alabama Hills.
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This month we are using our annual President’s XI to allow members to take the podium and deliver a 5-6 minute talk on any subject tangentially concerned with the CW. In past years this has proved an excellent way to allow the more reticent of members to dip their toes into the presentation arena without having to hold the floor for 30-60 minutes.
In this MN we include look back at the first volume of Shelby Foote’s take on the CW which was published over sixty years ago. Much more information has come to light over the years but his view of the CW still stands up today.
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Nine more days of winter; Olympic are finish; football season coming to the pointy end; full moon and the cold days of deep dark August look like they have finished so fingers crossed for a decent night at the Swan Hotel on August 28th.
We are gong to have a discussion on how the Lincoln cabinet managed to get through the war plus a couple of other off-topics; an excellent talk last month by Keith with a strong zoom contingent from around the country; plus we thank our local members for braving the elements; another wonderful Minie News courtesy of the hard-working editors; appreciations for our committee!
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Middle-winter in wonderful Melbourne, coolish, wettish and at least we hope that next Wednesday night at the Swan Hotel won’t have the extra-big crowds we have had the past three months due to outside events. We welcome Keith Wilson speaking and he will also have some copies of his new book available.
Again we thank our editors for the outstanding Mine News; to the facebook organizers; the hard-working committee and our members for their support. John Mathieson has returned safely back from a quick visit to the mother country and see family in the UK; so the book raffle committee of John & Bill are back in control.