LHS Free Lecture Series, “The First Front: The Baltimore & Ohio Railway During the Civil War,” by Daniel Carroll Toomey (2017)

January 29, 2017 – “The First Front:  The Baltimore & Ohio Railway During the Civil War,” by Daniel Carroll Toomey.
On Sunday, January 29, the Lovettsville Historical Society will kick off its 2017 Lecture Series with a presentation by Daniel Carroll Toomey, the curator and designer of the acclaimed exhibit “The War Came by Train,” at the B&O Museum in Baltimore.

When the Civil War began, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad quickly became the most important railroad in the nation. Located entirely within the state of Maryland and the present-day state of West Virginia, it represented the only direct rail link between Washington DC, and the loyal states. During the first three months of the war, the fate of the Nation’s Capital and these two states were primarily determined by the movement of Union soldiers on trains provided by the B&O Railroad. Throughout the war, its destruction was a constant objective of the Confederacy. Mr. Toomey will explore this “First Front” concept as presented in his book The War Came by Train: The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad During the Civil War.

Daniel Toomey is the author or co-author of a dozen books, also including The Civil War in Maryland and Baltimore During the Civil War. He has lectured for many historical organizations and colleges, including the Smithsonian Institution and Johns Hopkins University. His course “The Civil War in Maryland” has been taught throughout that state.

Mr. Toomey has won numerous awards for his historical research and exhibits, including the Gettysburg National Battlefield Award in 1985, and was the 2001 recipient of the Peterkin Award given by the National Park Service at Fort McHenry. He is currently the Guest Curator at the B&O Railroad Museum, and he designed The War Came by Train exhibit – the largest Civil War railroad exhibit ever presented. He has contributed to a number of radio and television programs and several video productions, including a C-SPAN feature on the B&O exhibit, broadcast on Jan. 8, 2013. https://www.c-span.org/video/?312190-1/bo-railroad-civil-war

The program will be held at St. James United Church of Christ, 10 East  Broad Way, Lovettsville, Va., at 2:00 p.m.   Admission is free, but donations are welcome to defray expenses of the program.

 

 

Also booked for 2017:

March 12, 2017 — “C. F. Wenner and C&O Canal Navigation at the Opening of the Civil War,” by Tim Snyder, author of Uncertain and Precarious: C&O Canal Navigation at the Beginning of the Civil War.

April 16, 2017 – “Myths about Lee’s Surrender.”  What really happened at Appomattox–separating myth from fact. By Patrick Schroeder, Historian of Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.

May 21, 2017 – “Mapping the Short Hill,” by Loudoun County historian and map-maker Eugene Scheel.

Each lecture in the series will be held at St. James United Church of Christ, 10 East Broad Way, Lovettsville, VA., at 2:00 p.m. on the dates listed above.  Admission is free, but donations are welcome to defray expenses of the program.  For more information, visit www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org or email info@lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org.