Meade Talk, Wreath Dedication and Champagne Toast

Remember the fallen, honor those who serve and teach the next generation the value of freedom.

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Southern New Jersey serves as a center for fugitives, freedmen, and abolitionists during the Civil War era. The 22nd Regiment of the United States Colored Troops includes hundreds of Black New Jerseyans who fight for emancipation and the Union. Abolitionists like Harriet Tubman, Abigail Goodwin, and Benjamin Sheppard operate through Underground Railroad landmarks across Cape May, Cumberland, and Salem counties. Stories of resistance include confrontations in Cape May hotels, secret signals to ferry fugitives across the Delaware River, and churchgoers rescuing escapees from slave catchers. Historian Ellen D. Alford, a South Jersey native and award-winning journalist, researches and presents these abolitionist struggles and the legacy of Harriet Tubman in the region.

Most Civil War scholars believe the story of Robert E. Lee’s 1862 Maryland Campaign is already complete, but Dr. Alexander Rossino challenges this assumption. He argues that past histories often rely on flawed interpretations, overlooked sources, or Lost Cause ideology, which continue to distort modern understanding. Rossino presents a new perspective on what Lee intended to accomplish during the campaign north of the Potomac. He supports his arguments with deep expertise, drawn from years of study and authorship of multiple works on the Maryland Campaign. As an independent historian with advanced degrees from Syracuse University and experience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Rossino positions himself as a leading voice in reshaping how this campaign is understood.

Dr. Elizabeth Varon presents a lecture on Confederate General James Longstreet, highlighting his controversial shift after the Civil War. Longstreet fights fiercely for the Confederacy, serving at Gettysburg, advising against Lee’s failed assault, and securing victory at Chickamauga before being seriously wounded. After the war, he rejects the Lost Cause myth, embraces Reconstruction, and advocates for racial reconciliation, which makes him an outcast in the South. Unlike other Confederate leaders, he receives no monuments, but today he is seen as a historically relevant voice during America’s racial reckoning. Varon, a distinguished Civil War historian at the University of Virginia, is an award-winning author and public speaker with expertise in 19th-century Southern history.