 Dr. Mark DePue, presidential library historian, will give a
PowerPoint presentation on the Shiloh campaign. His presentation
will feature quotes from Civil War veterans, maps, photographs and
illustrations, with a question-and-answer session following. The
program was presented to a capacity crowd earlier this month at the
presidential museum.The Battle of Shiloh, Tenn., involving more
than 10,000 Illinois troops in April 1862, shattered any illusions
that Americans, both Union and Confederate, held about the war.
Casualties from this one battle exceeded those of the Revolutionary
War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War combined.
In the other portion of the Wednesday afternoon session, Don
Springer, a descendant of members of the Donner Party, will discuss
the expedition's departure on April 18, 1846, from Springfield, an
event now marked by a plaque on the Old State Capitol Plaza.
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Several families left Springfield on a journey that day to begin new
lives in the American West. The Donner Party ran into difficulty and
became stranded in northern Nevada in late 1846. Rescuers reached
the survivors in February 1847, at which time gruesome details of
their survival reached the public and have fascinated people ever
since.
Continuing education programs help the presidential library and
museum's volunteers present history to the hundreds of thousands of
visitors to the complex each year. For more information, visit
www.presidentlincoln.org.
[Text from
Abraham
Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
file received from the
Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency] |
