published on
Perry Jamieson speaks to the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia about “General Winfield Scott Hancock” on May 9, 2017, at the Fort McNair Officers' Club in Wash, D.C.
The images used during his presentation are available at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tXmSSPae2jWd0-QMzV0GcyL7eYXHpXHS
More information about the speaker is available at cwrtdc-audio.blogspot.com/p/jamieson-audio.html
About the Topic: General Winfield Scott Hancock gained his greatest fame for his crucial contributions to the Federal victory at Gettysburg in July of 1863. Union veterans remembered Hancock as a general who led from the front and whose forceful presence could change the course of a battle. In addition to his service in the Civil War, though, the General's military service included experiences during the Mexican-American War, Reconstruction, and the Indian wars. He also pursued a national political career, which ended in an unsuccessful try for the presidency in 1880.
Dr. Jamieson’s talk introduces the General as an American soldier who put his mark on many of the important military and political events of his lifetime. It will highlight topics covered n his 2003 book, Winfield Scott Hancock: Gettysburg Hero.
Dr. ”Jamieson handles well the details of Hancock's wartime rise to fame as ‘Hancock the Superb,’ as he does the rest of the general's Civil War service," wrote John E. Deppen on the Civil War News Web site.
About the Author: Dr. Perry D. Jamieson, was born in Detroit, Michigan, and spent his boyhood in one of its suburbs, Farmington. He grew up reading Bruce Catton (one of our Round Table’s founder’s), T. Harry Williams, and other historians of the Civil War centennial era. Dr. Jamieson’s parents encouraged his interest in history and they gave him his first look at the Antietam battlefield, on a summer vacation trip. That memorable visit made the battle seem more real to him. The terrain of Sharpsburg’s farms and the words on the War Department tablets reinforced the historical accounts that he had read. The experience confirmed in his young mind that there really had been a Battle of Antietam: it wasn’t a story made up by Bruce Catton and other writers.
Dr. Jamieson received his Ph.D in history from Wayne State University, taught at the University of Texas, and served as the historian at the Air Force History Support Office, in Washington, DC. He has also lectured at the U.S. Defense Department's Joint Military Intelligence College, and he was appointed fellow to the Grady McWhiney Research Foundation.
Dr. Jamieson's other books include Crossing the Deadly Ground: United States Army Tactics, 1865-1899, University of Alabama Press (Tuscaloosa, AL), 1994; Death in September: The Antietam Campaign, Ryan Place Publishers (Forth Worth, TX), 1995; and of course, Winfield Scott Hancock: Gettysburg Hero, McWhiney Foundation Press (Abilene, TX), 2003.
After ending his Air Force career, Dr. Jamieson and Stephanie moved to Sharpsburg, where he now spends time hiking his favorite place, the Antietam battlefield. He has always been impressed with the sharp contrast between the area‘s past and present. On September 17, 1862 the Antietam valley was the terrifying scene of horrific events. Today it’s a reassuring landscape of peaceful fields. “I’ve seen a lot of battlefields,” Dr. Jamieson says, “ones in the United States and elsewhere--Marston Moor, Culloden, Waterloo, and many others. None of them takes hold of me the way that Antietam does.” He is concerned that, as historian Grady McWhiney once put it, “Americans are in danger of losing their history.” He has warned, “If we don’t preserve the Antietam battlefield, a crucial part of our national past will disappear forever. We can’t let that happen. . ..”
- Genre
- U.S. Civil War History