Our speaker for January is Robert L. Girardi. Robert is a retired Chicago homicide detective—he must have a lot of stories about that!—but he is going to speak to our Roundtable about “The Importance of Civil Engineers During the Civil War.” We meet at Royale Orleans, 2801 Telegraph Road on January 26, 2022. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

To make sure we have enough food for everyone, please register for the meeting HERE. Members can also register by responding to the forthcoming emailed invitation.

Join us for a Friendly & Fun Evening of Civil War History!

Doors open at 5:30
Meal served at 6:30
Presentation at 7:30

We meet at:

ROYALE ORLEANS BANQUET CENTER
2801 Telegraph Road
Mehlville (St Louis), MO 63125

Dinner and Presentation
Members . . . . . . . . . . . . .$20.00 (each)
Students (under 21). . . . . $7.00 (each)
Guests & Others . . . . . . . $25.00 (each)
Members who do not make an advance dinner reservation will be charged $25.00
========================================
Presentation ONLY
Members/Students . . . . . $ 5.00 (each)
Guests & Others . . . . . . . $10.00 (each)

NOTE: We accept all major credit/debit cards, cash, and checks at our meetings.

Please note – there is a $14.00 per person charge for anyone who registers for dinner and does not show up.  No refunds unless we are notified by 5 p.m. on Sunday prior to the meeting.

SPEAKER BIO

Robert I. Girardi has had a life-long fascination with the Civil War. He has studied the war from all sides and has tramped over many of the battlefields and related historic sites. He has collected artifacts and memorabilia and has read through thousands of documents and letters written by the war’s participants. Robert is an author and historian and is a popular speaker and consultant on the American Civil War to audiences of all ages. He has addressed historical societies, libraries, and Civil War groups all over the United States. He is a well-known authority on the subject in the Chicago area, where he has been interviewed on radio, television and in The Chicago Tribune.

Robert earned his M.A. in Public History at Loyola University of Chicago in 1991. He is a past president of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago and he belongs to three other Civil War round tables in the Chicago area. He is a fellow of the Company of Military Historians and is an associate member of the Sons of Union Veterans. He is on the Board of Directors of the Camp Douglas Restoration Society and the Illinois State Historical Society. He is also on the editorial review board of the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, for which he edited 2011-2014 Sesquicentennial of the Civil War Issues. He has consulted for the Chicago Historical Society on its Civil War exhibits and lectured at its teachers and docents seminars. He is the 2010 recipient of the Chicago Civil War Round Table’s Nevins-Freeman Award for scholarship and service. In 2013 he was awarded a research grant by the Friends of Andersonville, for his work on the experience and memory of Illinois soldiers at Andersonville prison. In 2014 he was awarded the Milwaukee Civil War Round Table’s Iron Brigade Association for Civil War scholarship.

Robert I. Girardi has authored or edited ten books:

• The Soldiers’ General: Major General Gouverneur K. Warren and the Civil War, Savas-Beatie, (2014)
• The Civil War Generals: Comrades, Peers, Rivals, in Their Own Words, Zenith Press (2013)
• Gettysburg in Art and Artifacts (2010)
• The Civil War Art of Keith Rocco (2009)
• Campaigning with Uncle Billy: The Civil War Memoirs of Sgt. Lyman S. Widney, 34th Illinois Volunteer Infantry (2008)
• The Soldier’s View: The Civil War Art of Keith Rocco (2004)
• The New Annals of the Civil War (2004)
• The Memoirs of Brigadier General William Passmore Carlin, U.S.A. (1999)
• The Military Memoirs of General John Pope (1998)
• Captain H.W. Chester: Recollections of the War of the Rebellion (1996)

Robert has also written a number of book reviews for the Washington Independent Review of Books.

Robert I. Girardi retired from the Chicago Police Department lives where he was a homicide detective.