Please join us for a Chambersburg Civil War Seminars & Tours Lecture Series! Our next lecture will be: Destined to Fail: The Johnson-Gilmor Raid by Eric Wittenberg. Cost is $6 per person. Zoom Login details will be sent with your email registration confirmation.

Snyopsis

While the Battle of Monocacy raged on July 9, 1864, Brig. Gen. Bradley T. Johnson and Maj. Harry Gilmor launched an ambitious cavalry raid intended to free Confederate prisoners of war from the Point Lookout prison camp. Saddled with an ambitious schedule that proved impossible to meet, this failed raid demonstrated the growing desperation among the Confederate high command after the heavy losses sustained during the recent Overland Campaign. As a sideshow to the main invasion, this raid nevertheless is an interesting and provocative study in strategic war fighting.

Biography

Eric Wittenberg is our program coordinator, an award-winning American Civil War historian and one of the country’s foremost experts on the Civil War cavalry. He is the author or co-author of 21 published books including the best-selling Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s Controversial Ride to Gettysburg. Eric has written more than 30 articles published in national magazines and is an avid Civil War battlefield preservationist. He is a practicing attorney and resides in Ohio with his wife, Susan.