Press release:
Genesee Community College's four-part lecture series commemorating the sesquicentennial of the Civil War continues from 7 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6, in room T102 at the Batavia campus.
Kevin Levin, a noted Civil War expert and author, will carefully recount the Battle of Crater, which is the topic of his latest book.
The Battle of the Crater was a botched attempt by the Union Army to punch a hole in the Confederate line outside of Petersburg, Va. After tunneling under the Confederate position, Union soldiers packed the tunnel with TNT and then ignited the fuse. While the explosion was spectacular, the Union attack was poorly orchestrated and resulted in more than 5,000 casualties – many of them African-American soldiers who led the charge.
Levin is an instructor and the chair of the History Department at St. Anne's Belfield School in Charlottesville, Va. His book entitled "Remembering The Battle of the Crater: War as Murder" will be available in June.
GCC's Civil War Lecture Series is free and open to the public. To register for any of the Civil War lectures, contact GCC's BEST Center at 345-6868 or email bestcenter@genesee.edu.
Other upcoming lectures include:
Tuesday, April 3
"From Bondage to Freedom" by Kevin Cottrell, founder of Motherland Connextions, will discuss the Underground Railroad as it pertains to Western New York and Southern Ontario. Motherland Connextions is one of the first multicultural humanitarian efforts helping to spotlight the many effects diversity had in sustaining freedom, and instilling courage and hope in our communities nationwide.
Tuesday, May 1
"The Longstreet Family in War and Peace" by Terrianne Schulte, Ph.D., of D'Youville College. This talk explores the impact of the war and its aftermath with the well-known and controversial southern family, the Longstreets. Schulte will focus on Confederate General James Longstreet, his second wife, Helen Dortch Longstreet, and his uncle, Judge Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, the author of "Georgia Scenes."
Also featured this spring is a Civil War Essay Contest open to all students between grades nine and 12 with the topic, "War Takes a Nasty Turn: The Changing Nature of the War of 1862."
The first-place essay winner will receive a color Nook electronic reader. The essay should be a minimum of three pages formatted in 12-point Times New Roman font and double-spaced. All citations must be in written in Chicago Style (www.chicagomanualofstyle.org). All essays must be received electronically by Friday April 13 to ddmaxfield@genesee.edu. Winners will be announced before the final Civil War lecture at 7 p.m. on May 1.
"It is a real honor to be hosting a lecture by Kevin Levin, who is a well-known authority on the Civil War," Derek Maxfield, GCC's resident Civil War historian and history instructor said. "We are also very excited to share the developing details about GCC's Civil War Encampment that is scheduled in late April at our Lima Campus Center."
Genesee Community College has also developed two blogs -- the GCC GLOW Region History Co-Op Blog – which seeks to help promote partnerships with GLOW region historical organizations -- and the Civil War Blog, which is a part of the Civil War initiative. The war blog promotes upcoming events at the college and will feature posts about history instructor Maxfield's work.
The blogs can be found at www.glowhistory.wordpress.com and www.civilwaratgcc.wordpress.com.
