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In the region

Group to hold Civil War presentation on Aug. 5

STATE COLLEGE — The Central PA Civil War Round Table will meet on Tuesday, Aug. 5, in the Activities Room of the South Hills School of Business & Technology, 480 Waupelani Drive, State College, beginning at 7 p.m.

Dr. Gene Schmiel will speak on “Searching for Irvin McDowell: The Civil War’s Forgotten General.”

Union General Irvin McDowell was a major actor in the Civil War for a short, but critical time. At the First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, this Ohio-born General commanded the largest army in American history to that time. He was a dutiful, dependable, and diligent military officer. But in hindsight he may have been called upon to perform duties which were beyond his capacity and which served to enhance his peculiarities, including impulsiveness. His defeat at First Bull Run and his lack of battlefield success thereafter, especially at Second Bull Run, led to his obscurity and to his being forgotten in the history of the Civil War. This program will focus on McDowell’s life, why he did not succeed on the battlefield and why he was “forgotten” for so long.

Schmiel is a retired U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Officer who also was an Assistant Professor of History at St. Francis University. Schmiel holds a Ph.D. degree in History from The Ohio State University. He has written more than 25 books about the Civil War. Schmiel lives in Gainesville, Virginia, on the border of the Bull Run/Manassas Battlefields.

For more information, contact Central PA CWRT President Lynn Herman, at (814) 880-2272.

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