Meeting of June 29, 2020

Richard R. Schaus on “Lee Is Trapped, and Must Be Taken: Eleven Fateful Days After Gettysburg, July 4–14, 1863”

Lee is Trapped, by Thomas J. Ryan and Richard R. Schaus, was the winner of the 2017 Edwin C. Bearss Scholarly Research Award, and the 2019 Hugh G. Earnhart Civil War Scholarship Award from the Mahoning Valley Civil War Round Table. The book focuses on the immediate aftermath of the battle of Gettysburg and addresses how Maj. Gen. George G. Meade organized and motivated his Army of the Potomac in response to President Abraham Lincoln’s mandate to bring about the “literal or substantial destruction” of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s retreating Army of Northern Virginia. As far as the president was concerned, if Meade aggressively pursued and confronted Lee before he could escape across the flooded Potomac River, “the rebellion would be over.”

Richard R. Schaus, Sergeant Major, US Army (Ret.), served on active duty for more than 30 years in a variety of army and joint military intelligence assignments both at home and abroad. Rick is a lifelong student of the Civil War and American military history, and the Gettysburg Campaign in particular.