EPPING — The public is invited to the next Civil War Roundtable of New Hampshire at 7:15 p.m. Friday, May 16, at the Harvey-Mitchell Library, 151 Main St. Doors open 6:45 p.m.
Author/Historian Edwin Rutan will discuss his book, “High-Bounty Men in the Army of the Potomac: Reclaiming Their Honor.”
“For over 100 years, historians have disparaged the men who joined the Union army later in the war, when higher bounties and the conditional draft were in effect, as unpatriotic mercenaries who made poor soldiers and contributed little to the Union victory,” says Rutan.
“Historians have relied heavily on anecdotal evidence from the volunteers of 1861 and 1862 whom they regard as true patriots. However, the early-war volunteers carried not just the traditional enmity of veterans toward new recruits who have not yet suffered the hardships of war, but also the jealousy caused by the higher bounties the new recruits received. The result is a long-standing mischaracterization of the service of three-quarters of a million Union soldiers which needs to be corrected.”
Rutan served as the city attorney for Salt Lake City from 2002 to 2013. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the Utah Chapter of The American Society for Public Administration in 2013.
He previously worked in AT&T’s law department, including assignments in Brussels as regional counsel and Dallas as a regional Law and Government Affairs Vice President. He began his legal career at a major New York law firm after graduating cum laude from Harvard Law School.
For more on this meeting or the Civil War Roundtable of New Hampshire, including the speaker schedule through the rest of the year, visit www.cwrt-nh.org or call Bill at 978-994-4717.