CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLES

CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLES were first formed throughout the country during the 1950s; in Cleveland, John W. Cullen and Kenneth S. Grant founded the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable in 1956. Members research, study, and analyze events and personalities associated with the American CIVIL WAR. In 1965 William Mahoney of OLMSTED FALLS, a member of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable, founded the Western Reserve Civil War Roundtable to serve Cleveland's southwestern suburbs. Each organization is governed by an elected body of officers and an executive committee. Both groups hold monthly meetings from September through May. Members as well as locally or nationally known scholars deliver presentations on historical, war-related topics. In the 1980s membership in the Cleveland group was 100 and in the Western Reserve group, 40. Members of the previously all-male Western Reserve Civil War Roundtable voted to accept women in 1982. Joint meetings were held in September from 1973-78 at the renovated Grand Army of the Republic Hall in Peninsula, OH. In 1983 a joint meeting was held at the Armory of the CLEVELAND GRAYS. Both organizations have contributed to a number of Civil War preservation groups. The Cleveland group sponsors an annual trip to a Civil War battlefield, a book sale and quiz, and compiles a monthly newsletter, The Charger.