October 13, 2022 at 6:30 pm
The swiftly moving Chesapeake Bay waters hold centuries of stories and secrets, perhaps none more thrilling than the dramatic raids and raiders of the Civil War. From bases of action in Mathews County, VA, Confederate raiders John Y. Beall and Thaddeus Fitzhugh successfully struck the land and sea of Virginia’s Union occupied Eastern Shore for vessels, men, munitions, and provisions. Beall’s four raids and Fitzhugh’s double strikes also destroyed critical Federal operations and the famed underwater telegraph cable to Fortress Monroe. Learn how this “bold work” modified Federal strategy and encouraged Lee to dare for more.
Kellee Green Blake is the retired Director of the National Archives-Mid Atlantic Region and a Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude graduate of Mary Washington College with a graduate degree in American History from Villanova University. She has worked from coast to coast with the National Archives, processing and administering records from the Founding Fathers to the Robert F. Kennedy Assassination. Kellee has been a regular speaker at national historical and genealogical conferences and is the author of two historical plays and multiple articles on the Federal Census, divided loyalties in wartime, and the law practice of Abraham Lincoln. She serves on several preservation and humanities boards and is writing a long overdue book about the Civil War occupation of Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
