Fairfax Station Forums

Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 7:30 PM
John C. Carter, author, historian, and educator will be discussing the letters of his great-great-grandfather, Pvt. William C. McClellan, who served in the 9th Alabama Infantry during the Civil War. The 9th Alabama participated in many battles in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and the unit traveled through Northern Virginia many times. Pvt. McClellan was a soldier and a prisoner of war who died shortly after the war. His letters reveal his true feelings about life in the Army of Northern Virginia. He held very strong opinions about the generals and his fellow soldiers. The letters speak freely of events during that time and the war itself. Mr. Carter has assembled the letters into a book and adds historical context. The book will be available for purchase and author signing.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 7:30 PM   
Bill Etue is the speaker and the title is Devereux & Haupt, The Magician Engineers of the US Military Railroad. John H. Devereux started his career as a surveyor in Ohio and then became a railroad superintendent prior to the Civil War. Once the Civil War started, he volunteered his services to the US Government and was assigned to the United States Military Railroad (USMRR) where he served as Superintendent of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad from March 1862 until he left the service in March 1864. He went on to have an outstanding career as a railroad man in the Mid-west. Herman Haupt was a 19th Century railroad genius who had already established his credentials prior to the war. The Secretary of War personally requested him to work for the USMRR. He served without pay from April 1862 to September 1863 and only left when after being promoted to a Brigadier General, the military required him to join the regular army which he refused. He resigned instead. Both Devereux and Haupt established procedures, rewrote policies and developed the USMRR into a branch of the service critical to the war effort. The presentation will discuss many of their successful exploits.