Public Programs

The Second Friday Lecture Series is a monthly Civil War lecture program organized by the Civil War Museum of Kenosha, Wisconsin. All programs are held for an in-person audience at the museum. The lectures are recorded and posted to the museum’s YouTube channel.

The Second Friday Lectures begin at 12:00pm and there is no cost to attend. The Civil War Museum graciously thanks the Milwaukee Civil War Round Table and Iron Brigade Association for sponsoring this series of lectures.

Irish Americans During the American Civil War

Friday, February 13  |  12pm – 1pm  |  Presented by: Mr. Dennis Doyle

Starting during the Irish Famine of the 1840’s, millions of Irish citizens immigrated to the United States to escape British Unionist political rule and economic poverty.

Despite their lack of wealth and education, low social status, and discrimination, Irish-Americans distinguished themselves in their new home and during the American Civil War.  

As many as 145,000 volunteered to serve in the Federal Army and over 40,000 would serve the Confederacy during the Civil War. These soldiers served on many battlefields and suffered heavy casualties. Seventy Irish-American Union soldiers received the Medal of Honor. Some of the outstanding Irish-American generals were notably Phil Sheridan for the North and Cleburne for the South.

Doyle’s program will focus on the motivation of Irish-Americans to serve during the Civil War and whether their hopes for a better position and social status was realized in post Civil War America.  He will also explore how some Irish immigrants hoped to participate in a post-war uprising to liberate Ireland from British rule, which was not realized until 1922 when a Democratic Ireland was created.

A native of Chicago, Professor Doyle grew up in Joliet, where he resides. He has a master’s degree in history from American University in Washington, D.C.; a master’s degree in sociology from DePaul University in Chicago; and a bachelor’s degree in history from Colorado State University in Fort Collins.  Doyle recently retired from teaching history and sociology at Joliet Junior College in Joliet, Illinois  He is the current president of the 300-member Civil War Round Table of Chicago.

From Camp Douglas to Vicksburg: The Civil War Letters of William J. Kennedy, 55th Illinois Infantry, 1861-1863

Friday, March 13  |  12pm – 1pm  |  Presented by: Rachel Mellon

During her program, Rachael Mellen will discuss the new book that she and Dave Powell edited which is titled From Camp Douglas to Vicksburg: The Civil War Letters of William J. Kennedy, 55th Illinois Infantry, 1861-1863. In August 1861 William Kennedy was a harness-maker living in LaSalle, Illinois. Married with four young children, he volunteered to recruit a company in response to Lincoln’s call for more troops. During the next two years, he saw action at Shiloh, Corinth, Chickasaw Bayou, and finally the Siege of Vicksburg. Observant, patriotic and sometimes cynical, Kennedy’s letters give us an intriguing picture of how people of the North really experienced the war.

Mellen and Powell used their expertise to sift through genealogical records, histories of the war, and other regimental accounts to flesh out the people, places, and events that can now be shared with everyone. These documents have brought William Kennedy and his family back to life for their 21st-century relatives and a wider audience.

Rachael is a teacher, writer, genealogist, and historian. Educated at the University of London (UK), she earned a Master’s in Humanities from California State University Dominguez Hills. She lives in Peru, Illinois, and is thrilled to share the story of William Kennedy with you.

How the Great Lakes Caused the Civil War

Friday, April 10  |  12pm – 1pm  |  Presented by: Ted Karamanski

The Civil War was won, and the American Republic was saved because of the remarkable contributions of men, supplies, and leaders provided by the states of the Great Lakes region. These are the states that created the Republican Party. Something more than slavery was behind their deep resentment of the Confederacy. Join us for a program detailing how navigation issues exasperated sectional relations in the years before the war and how Union victory transformed our region.

Theodore Karamanski (Loyola University Chicago, Ph.D., 1979; B.A., 1975) is a Professor Emeritus of History at Loyola University Chicago where he has taught courses in American Indian history, the Civil War, and public history. Karamanski has been a leading national voice in the promotion of American and public history for more than three decades.  He was the founder and later director of Loyola’s Public History Program as well as a prolific author in the fields of American Indian, Great Lakes, Civil War, and nineteenth-century American history.

The Organ of the Soldiers: An Introduction to Civil War Camp Newspapers

Friday, May 8  |  12pm-1pm  |  Presented by: Dan Freas

“Camp newspapers are a feature of the war that is worth attention,” reported a St. Louis newspaper in 1862. “The camp paper is the organ of the soldiers, through which they communicate their condition, wants, enjoyments, and local news to the public, and to their distant friends.” Historians have documented more than 200 camp newspapers printed during the Civil War. The majority of these publications were published by printers in Union regiments using confiscated shops, equipment and materials in occupied southern communities. A few were created using portable printing offices. Mr. Freas’s presentation will introduce you to the printers, technology, and content from some of these camp newspapers which, given the lack of military or government censorship, provide honest and intriguing accounts of the soldier experience. An emphasis will be placed on camp newspapers associated with the Upper Middle West.  

Dan Freas recently retired from a 42-year career in program development and administration of historic sites and museums, most recently serving for 12 years as the director of Old World Wisconsin. A native of Western Pennsylvania, Dan’s interest in the Civil War began at a young age during a family trip to Gettysburg. His father worked for his hometown newspaper and one of Dan’s first jobs as a living history interpreter was working in a historic print shop. With a little bit of ink running through his veins, he is now combining interests in printing and the Civil War through research and writing about camp newspapers and field printing during the conflict.

Gettysburg in Color: Volume 3: Sacred Ground, 1863-1938

Friday, June 12  |  12pm – 1pm  |  Presented by: Patrick Brennan

The third and final entry of this groundbreaking trilogy examines the battlefield’s transformation from post-battle Hell to American shrine. Patrick Brennan used an artificial intelligence-based computerized color identifier, which results in a monumental full-color study of the important three-day battle like it has never been seen before. This sweeping installment closes his three volume series, which every student of history in general, and the Civil War in particular, will want to own for a lifetime.