Speakers for Confederate Prison Symposium

Several noteworthy speakers have been lined up for the 13th annual Confederate Prison Symposium, which will be held in Salisbury April 23-25.

The Robert F. Hoke Chapter No. 78 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy is the symposium host.

Descendants, historians and other interested individuals attend the symposium to expand the history of North Carolina's only Civil War prison and to exchange information.

Dr. Gary Freeze, professor of American History at Catawba College, will present the first of six lectures on Saturday, April 24, in the Tom Smith Auditorium at the college.

Freeze will provide an introductory history of the prison and will talk about a guard from Catawba County.

Dr. Charles Cooke, a medical physician from Virginia, a Civil War medical historian and guard descendant, will discuss the problem of starvation in Northern and Southern prisons.

Author Chris Hartley of North Carolina will talk about Gen. George Stoneman's invasion of Salisbury in April 1865. Stoneman's Raid is the subject of Hartley's new book, which should be released this year.

Bill Marley, a guard descendant from Virginia, will present a history of the 68th Regiment N.C. Troops, which for a time served as guards in Salisbury.

Mark Pearce of Canada will talk about his ancestor, a Salisbury prison survivor, who served in the 2nd New York Mounted Rifles. Lonnie Speer of North Carolina, author of a book on Civil War prisons, will tell about the daily activities of those incarcerated at Salisbury.

The speaker at April 23's Friendship Banquet will be author and prisoner-of-war descendant Robert Eberly Jr. of South Carolina.

The year 2010 marks the 100th Anniversary of the dedication of the Pennsylvania Monument at the Salisbury National Cemetery, and Eberly will focus on that occasion and on the soldiers in whose memory the monument was erected.

Sunday, April 25, activities will feature memorial services open to the public for Confederate soldiers, including guards, at the Old Lutheran Cemetery at 10 a.m; and for Union soldiers at the National Cemetery, 11 a.m.

The anniversary of the Pennsylvania Monument also will be observed at the National Cemetery.

Cost of the symposium is $65 per person through March 31; $75 afterwards.

Checks should be made payable to the Robert F. Hoke Chapter No. 78 and mailed to P.O. Box 5093, Salisbury, NC 28147-0088.

For more information, contact Sue Curtis at 704-637-6411, or southpaws@salisbury.net.