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Civil War Round Table of Kansas City

The mission of the Civil War Round Table of Kansas City is to promote historical, educational, literary, and preservation activities related to the Civil War.

561st Regular Meeting

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Please Note: Meeting/Dinner Starts 30 Minutes Earlier in 2024

Milburn Golf and Country Club 7501 West 69th Street, Overland Park, KS 66204 Social hour begins at 5:00 p.m. and dinner is at 6:00 p.m.

This meeting will include a plated dinner at a cost of $34.00 per person. Reservations are required in order to attend the dinner meeting.

Reservation Deadline: Tuesday, March 12th. To make a reservation, please contact Marlene Natoli (contact info in newsletter).

March 2024

This month’s program will feature Professor Kendall D. Gott, who is an Army veteran of Desert Storm and the Senior Historian at the U.S.Army Combat Studies Institute. He will be giving a presentation titled: “Living in Bleeding Kansas Between the Factions.”

This is a brief discussion of the trials and tribulations of the common people, as they learned to cope with the violence swirling about them.

Dinner Menu

Milburn Golf and Country Club will serve the following meal at our dinner meeting: Italian sausage lasagna and asparagus with garlic bread. Dessert will be Tiramisu.  All dinners are served with house salad with Milburn house dressing, sliced bread, iced tea, water, and coffee.


February 2024 Meeting

In honor of Black History Month, Mr. George Pettigrew will be giving a program titled: “From Slave to Soldier."

Mr. Pettigrew will tell us the story of how his great-grandfather, Isaac Johnson, went from being enslaved, to being a soldier, to being an Original Buffalo Soldier and what that meant.

Mr. Pettigrew will also tell us how the Buffalo Soldiers came to be and how they got that iconic name. He will present the over 150-year historic tale of an Original Buffalo Soldier, according to oral family history and military records, as told by his great-grandson.

Click here for a summary of Mr. Pettigrew's program.


Civl War Wednesdays at the Harris-Kearney House

The Monnett Battle of Westport Fund is sponsoring a 2024 series of programs at the Harris-Kearney House, 4000 Baltimore, Kansas City, Missouri. There is a $6 per per attendee donation. The programs are scheduled once a month from April through November. Click here to download a pdf of the program schedule.


CWRT-KC Partners with Freedom’s Frontier

TAt the dinner meeting on February 21st Gary Nevius announced that the Civil War Round Table of Kansas City will partner with Freedom’s Frontier to sponsor a Civil War symposium at the Truman Library, located in Independence MO, on Saturday, August 17, 2024. The symposium will focus on Civil War activities that took place in western Missouri and eastern Kansas. More information regarding the symposium will be provided later.


Change in Dinner Meeting Start Time in 2024

The following change will take effect starting in January 2024: Social hour will be from 5:00-6:00 p.m. and dinner will begin at 6:00 p.m. This will allow Milburn’s staff and our members to get home at an earlier time.


Round Table Now Accepting Digital Payments

The Civil War Round Table of Kansas City now accepts digital payments via the Square digital payment processing service. This process is simple to use and secure. Square charges the Round Table a fee for this service. If you decide to use this service, we add this fee to the total charge. For more information, please refer to our Round Table Digital Payments page.


Book Auction

With apologies to our speakers, one of the highlights of each dinner meeting is the book auction led by Arnold Schofield.

This month the following items will be auctioned:

  • A Battle from the Start: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest by Brian Steel Wills. Published in 1992. First Edition. In mint condition with dust jacket. 
  • The Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee. Edited by Clifford Dowdy and L. H. Manaring. Published in 1961. First Edition. With dust jacket. 
  • The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, Complete Annotated Edition. Edited by John F. Marszale. Published in 2017. First Edition. Inexcellent condition with dust jacket and mylar cover.
  • Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaogn in the West by William L. Shea and Earl Hess. Published in 1992. First Edition. In mint condition with dust jacket and mylar cover. 

In Memoriam (Archives)

Remembering Colonel Jack Brooks on D Day

The following writeup is from Round Table member Don Bates regarding Colonel Jack Brooks, who served as president of our Round Table in 1987 and again in 1990.

On June 6, 1944 Captain Jack Brooks took an Infantry company onto Normandy Beach. He was in the first wave to storm Omaha Beach. The assault had the most casualties on D-Day. "We lost 48 men”, Brooks said, referring to his company of 140 soldiers. "Our regiment of 3,200 troops lost 35 officers and 950 men on the first day." His Division was the Big Red One out of Ft. Riley, Kansas. He was promoted to Colonel and served a tour of duty in Korea and two tours in the Vietnam War, before retiring in 1966.

Colonel Brooks received a multitude of decorations. Most notably, in 2011, he was awarded the Knight of the French Foreign Legion of Honor for his service to the people of France by the French government in a ceremony at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth. This was for heroics on DDay, landing in the first wave on Omaha Beach with the Big Red One on June 6, 1944.

It was my absolute pleasure to pick Jack up and bring him to our Round Table meetings after he stopped driving. We always had meaningful conversations. Jack passed away January 13, 2020, at almost 100 years of age.

Member News

We would like to welcome new member Nathan Cockrell, who lives in Lees Summit. Nathan attended the January dinner meeting as a guest of Lane Bartram. Nathan’s paternal great-great-grandfather Francis M. Cockrell entered the Missouri State Guard in 1861, culminating with leading the 1st Missouri C.S.A. as a Brigadier General until his capture at Fort Blakley in 1865.


Long-time member of our Round Table, Jacque Stroud sent Dick Titterington the following update on February 12th:

Hi Dick – Thanks for the dues reminder. Most certainly we want to support the CWRT-KC even though it is difficult now to drive in the night and we may not be able to attend many meetings. Enclosed is our check for $60.00 for 2024. Now at ages 92 and 93, we havehealth issues that limit our outside activities, but we miss greatly CWRT members and programs. Herschel had a cornea transplant two weeks ago in Overland Park (Dr. Tim Cavanaugh), so we have many post-op appointments in your area. Our contact information remains the same as in the past. How ‘bout those Chieeefs!”Thank you, Jacque. We certainly miss seeing you and Herschel at our dinner meetings. 


Happy Birthday to Sergeant Major Arnold Schofield who turns 82 on March 3rd. We hope you have many more!


New Members

These photographs were taken at recent Round Table dinner meetings . Please introduce yourselves and welcome our new members.

Battlefield Dispatches

"Battlefield Dispatches" made its first appearance in the Border Bugle with the December 2005 issue. The column was later given the label, "The Sergeant Major’s Roar." Over time, the Round Table's Website Administrator will be slowly all the "Battlefield Dispatches" which have appeared in the Border Bugle. The website administrator will enhance Sgt. Maj. Arnold Schofield's column with images where applicable. Just click on the menu item, Sgt. Major's Roar, to see the progress.

Civil War Round Table of Kansas City
4125 NW Willow DR
Kansas City, MO 64116

Email: info@cwrtkc.org          New Membership Application          Membership Renewal Form

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