Author and historian David L. Mowery will present “Cincinnati in the Civil War: Then and Now” at the next regular meeting of the Civil War Round Table at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 17, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 320 Second St., Marietta. The public is welcome and there is no cost to attend. (Photo provided)

Author and historian David Mowery will present “Cincinnati in the Civil War: Then and Now” at the next regular meeting of the Civil War Round Table of the Mid-Ohio Valley at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 17, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 320 Second St., in Marietta.

The City of Cincinnati, Ohio, played a unique and an arguably crucial role in preserving the Union in the Civil War. The “Queen City of the West”, as it was often called, was the Midwest region’s largest metropolis. The 1860 census listed Cincinnati with more than 160,000 residents and identified it as the seventh largest city in the U.S. and largest west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Its population was composed of citizens of multiple notable ethnicities, including many residents of German (27%) and Irish (12%) descent.

Many of these men responded eagerly to President Lincoln’s call on April 15, 1861, three days after the attack on Fort Sumter, for 75,000 volunteers to quell the rebellion.

In total, more than 310,000 Ohio men enlisted in the Union army.

“Cincinnati in the Civil War: The Union’s Queen City,” authored by David L. Mowery and published by The History Press in 2021, addresses the mobilization of manpower and manufacturing capacity in and around Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as people who played key leadership roles that were vital to sustaining Union victory in the Civil War. (Photo provided)

In 1861, only New York City and Philadelphia produced more manufactured goods. Factories, foundries and stock yards in and around Cincinnati were converted to produce weapons, medical and food supplies, and armed steamboats and riverboats to patrol and control the inland waterways.

For that reason, the city would assume a massive role in providing the manpower and equipment needed to support the Union’s war efforts both on land and water.

In the Round Table presentation, Mowery will discuss the mobilization of manpower, the development of training facilities near Cincinnati, and Covington and Newport in Kentucky, the massive industrial response, and reactions to Confederate threats to the city from both sides of the Ohio River. He will identify many of the Queen City’s key structures, such as military facilities, hospitals, churches, businesses and notable citizens’ homes as they appeared during the Civil War.

Simultaneously, he will demonstrate how these structures look today. Mowery will outline the impact of Cincinnati’s contributions to the outcome of the war through a visual comparison of the past and present.

Mowery is a native and lifelong resident of Cincinnati, and a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. American military history captured his interest at an early age and he has researched and visited more than 700 battlefields in 50 states and nine nations. In 2001, Mowery served on the all-volunteer Ohio Civil War Trail Commission as its Hamilton County representative, and led the commission’s work to design and validate the entire length of the John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail. He has authored several books including “Morgan’s Great Raid: The Remarkable Expedition from Kentucky to Ohio” (2011), “Morgan’s Raid Across Ohio: The Civil War Guidebook of the John Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail” (2014) and “Cincinnati in the Civil War: The Union’s Queen City” (2021). Mowery is a longstanding member of the Cincinnati Civil War Round Table and serves as a member of the board of directors of the Buffington Island Battlefield Preservation Foundation. He also served as the featured presenter at the Camp Putnam historical marker dedication ceremony on April 23, 2016.

This event is made possible by a matching grant secured from the Ohio Arts Council. (Photo provided)

The public is welcomed and there is no cost to attend. Small donations will be collected to defray a portion of the cost of this event. This presentation is made possible by a matching grant from the Ohio Arts Council.

The round table and Ohio Arts Council are committed to engaging diverse audiences and providing accessibility for those with disabilities. The meeting venue is handicapped accessible. Accommodation for other disabilities will be considered upon request.

Contact cwrtmor@gmail.com or call 740-525-7470 for more information.