General Hunter’s Retreat through West Virginia the Subject of Civil War Round Table Presentation

The Tuscarawas Valley Civil War Round Table will meet on Thursday, March 12 at 6:30 PM in the Community Room of the Dover Public Library, located at 525 N. Walnut Street in Dover. The featured presenter will be Jon-Erik Gilot, who will present: “The Hardest Campaign Ever Inaugurated: General David Hunter’s Retreat from Lynchburg.”

This talk examines Union Gen. David Hunter’s raid up the Shenandoah Valley in the context of a busy summer of 1864 and considers the circumstances of his subsequent retreat through West Virginia, effectively taking an entire Union army out of the Civil War for a period of nearly a month. In comparing how Hunter, his superiors, and his men viewed these events, we will explore the fallout and impact of this retreat on both the broader war, and on David Hunter’s own legacy.

An accomplished author, historian and archivist, Jon-Erik Gilot has worked in the field of public history for the past twenty years. He earned a degree in History from Bethany College and Master of Library & Information Science from Kent State University. A contributing historian at Emerging Civil War, his research has been published in books, journals, and magazines. His first book for the Emerging Civil War Series, John Brown’s Raid, was recently published by Savas Beatie. Today, he serves as curator at the Captain Thomas Espy Grand Army of the Republic Post in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, and works as a business archivist and records manager in Wheeling, West Virginia.