Short Takes

The Indiana University Press is having a sale next Wednesday, Sept. 15, with 60% off all books not already on sale, so it’s definitely worth a look, especially at the Civil War section. One day only and the discount code is SIXTY.

From a letter sent to our local Civil War Round Table:

The Sixth Regiment of Maryland Infantry Descendants Association will be dedicating a granite monument with bronze tablet by renowned Civil War sculptor Gary Casteel to the Sixth Maryland Volunteers on the site of what was perhaps one of their greatest battles . . . the Breakthrough Battle of April 2, 1865 at Petersburg, Virginia.

The exact place where the Marylanders were among the very first Sixth Corps regiments to break the Confederate line is located today within Pamplin Historical Park. The monument will be dedicated there on Saturday, April 2, 2011, following the annual Pamplin Historical Park Pre-Dawn Tour of the Battlefield.

Robert Redford is flacking his new movie The Conspirator about the trial and execution of Mary Surratt, one of the Booth conspirators.

Based on about 15 years of research and an original script by James D. Solomon (who wrote for “The Practice”), it stars Ms. Wright as Mary Surratt, who after her trial by a military commission in 1865 became the first woman executed by the United States government.

Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, met with his fellow plotters at a Washington boarding house owned by Surratt, though she insisted to her death that she did not know of their plans. Mr. Redford’s film looks closely at Surratt’s defense by Frederick Aiken, a Union Army veteran played by Mr. McAvoy, who tried to protect her from what he saw as an unfair military trial.

This is supposed to be the first in a series of American historical movies. The next candidates for production are Paul Revere’s Ride and John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.

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