The Civil War Dream Conference
Two Days, Two Amazing Opportunities
Presenter Resume
Tony Horwitz
http://www.tonyhorwitz.com/
Tony is a native of Washington, D.C., and a graduate of
Brown University and Columbia University’s Graduate
School of Journalism. He worked for many years as a
newspaper reporter, first in Indiana and then during a
decade overseas in Australia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle
East, mainly covering wars and conflicts as a foreign
correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. After returning to
the U.S., he won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and
wrote for The New Yorker before becoming a full-time
author.
His books include the national and New York Times
bestsellers, Confederates in the Attic, Blue Latitudes, Baghdad
Without a Map and A Voyage Long and Strange. His latest
book, Midnight Rising, was named a New York Times Notable
Book of 2011; one of the year’s ten best books by Library
Journal; and won the 2012 William Henry Seward Award for
Excellence in Civil War Biography.
Tony has also been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for
Advanced Study at Harvard University, and a visiting scholar
at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. He
lives with his wife, Geraldine Brooks, and their sons,
Nathaniel and Bizu, on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
The Great Debate:
Slavery, Union, States Rights
Famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, President Abraham Lincoln, and Vice
President of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens face off in an historical
reenactment over the very meaning of freedom.
Frederick Douglass
Abraham Lincoln
Alexander Stephens
Escaped slave, black
abolitionist, author,
intellectual, and dazzling
orator, he challenged
whites by asking “What
to the slave is the Fourth
of July?”
President of the United
States, a moderate
amidst radicals, a man
trying to save a Union.
Although he believed
slavery was a moral
wrong, he also
recognized its
constitutionality.
Vice President of the
Confederacy, slave
owner, initially opposed
to secession, but
ultimately embraced
separation and argued
that slavery was the
cornerstone of the
Confederacy.
Douglass played by
the renowned Michael
E. Crutcher, Sr.
Lincoln played by
Connecticut’s own
Father Abraham,
Howard Wright
Stephens played by
the ever-fiery Luke
Boyd
Michael E. Crutcher, Sr.
Ironically, Michael E. Crutcher,
Sr., was born on September 3—
the same day that Frederick
Douglass escaped slavery and
started a new life.
A retiree from the United States Army, and former assistant professor at
University of Kentucky’s Lexington Community College, Crutcher began his
acting career with Images Modeling and Acting Agency in Lexington, Kentucky.
Since then, he has been in several television commercials and training videos.
He was a stand-in actor in the movie Seabiscuit and can be seen in the movie
Dreamer, with actors Dakota Fanning and Kurt Russell.
Crutcher’s current role was inspired after research revealed his great-great
grandfather, Daniel Gilchrist, was a member of the 13th United States Colored
Troops Heavy Artillery out of Camp Nelson, Kentucky.
He also discovered that Daniel’s father was from Virginia, where Douglass’
lineage was traced to before his family moved to Maryland where Daniel's
mother was from.
Crutcher is a devout scholar of Frederick Douglass and believes his calling is to
share Douglass’ principle of freedom, equality, religion, and self-esteem.
Crutcher has portrayed Douglass throughout the United States.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Howard Wright
Howard Wright is a life member of
the Association of Lincoln
Presenters, an organization
dedicated to the serious
interpretation of Abraham
Lincoln, and is in his ninth year
performing as the 16th president. Mr. Wright has performed “Simply Lincoln”
for the Connecticut State Veterans Home, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center,
the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Connecticut State Capitol, historical societies,
living history events, and for students of all ages.
The purpose of “Simply Lincoln” is to measure Abraham Lincoln’s greatness by
listening to his actual words and unique use of the English language. Each
program’s accuracy and authenticity is dependable; all selected speeches,
letters, and many of the quotes are taken from Roy P. Basler’s definitive eightvolume set, “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln.”
Mr. Wright is 6’3”, yielding only an inch to Mr. Lincoln, and his appearance –
stovepipe hat, real beard, authentic period attire, Kentucky-style accent, and
high tenor voice – creates a memorable impression on any audience.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Luke Boyd
Luke Boyd is a graduate of the
Central Connecticut State
University MA in Public History
program and has served in
multiple capacities in the Public
History Community.
Most recently he has worked with the National Parks Service as a consultant
and media specialist on the Civil War Sesquicentennial Commemoration,
helping to develop and execute programming at the Gettysburg 150th and other
sites throughout the nation.
He has taken on a number of first person personas to help bring life and
passion to the Civil War. For the Connecticut Civil War Commemoration
Commission, Mr. Boyd has played New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley in a
debate with Abraham Lincoln, and Boyd played Secretary of the Navy Gideon
Welles for the Commission’s Mystic Seaport Civil War weekend.
His Master’s project presentation was a finely researched first person
performance on the life of Samuel Colt.
Mr. Boyd currently works as an interpreter and guide at the 9/11 Museum in
New York City.
The Civil War Dream Conference:
Two Outstanding Afternoon Sessions
Lt. Col. Sherman L.
Fleek, Command
Historian for the
United States
Military Academy
at West Point
“West Point and the Civil War:
How the War Impacted the Academy and the Academy Impacted the War”
Learn the well-known, and lesser-known, stories of the men who shaped the nation’s Civil War
history. Hundreds served, many died; friendships were severed, others survived the conflict. This
will be an intriguing look at America’s oldest military academy anf the war that shook its very core.
Lt. Col. Sherman L. Fleek (Retired) is the command historian for the United States Military
Academy at West Point, New York. A distinguished 25 year veteran of the Army, Fleek has
served as an aviator, Special Forces officer, and enlisted armor crewman. He has commanded
several units, served two joint tours, and served in combat arms units from platoon through
division.
Fleek is also a well-regarded historian, having served as Chief Historian of the National Guard
Bureau, as historian for a Civil War preservation foundation, telling the Civil War story in the
Shenandoah Valley, and appointed as the historian to record and write the Army’s official
history of the reconstruction efforts in Iraq. He also served as the first ever historian for Walter
Reed Army Medical Center. He is the author of numerous articles and books.
Lt. Col. Fleek’s awards include the Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal,
Meritorious Service Medal and eight other decorations including the Master Aviator Badge,
being qualified in several rotary and fixed-wing aircraft with over 2,000 flying hours. He also
received the Army Parachutist Badge, Special Forces Tab and Air Assault Badge.
Lynne Z. Bassett
Textile
Consultant
“Outfitting our Gallant Men”:
Civil War Textiles from the Connecticut Home Front
The production and supply of textiles during the Civil War speak to the period’s newly
discovered patriotism, to manufacturing and economic challenges, and especially to the
herculean efforts of women on the homefront. Through their handmade socks, hospital shirts,
flannel drawers, carpet slippers and quilts, women not only supplied their absent menfolk with
necessary clothing and bedding, but with assurance that their sacrifice was honored and their
presence missed. Join Lynne Zacek Bassett as she explores Connecticut’s role in the Civil War
through the textiles that the citizens of the state created and used, from the first call to defend the
Union to the post-war ceremonies that helped veterans—of both the battlefield and the
homefront—to make sense of their experience.
Lynne Zacek Bassett is an award-winning scholar specializing in New England's historic
costume and textiles. From 1995-2000, she served as the curator of textiles and fine arts at Old
Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA. Now an independent historian and consultant, Lynne has
undertaken a number of significant projects, such as the exhibition and catalogue at the Mark
Twain House & Museum in Hartford, CT, “Modesty Died When Clothes Were Born: Costume in
the Life and Literature of Mark Twain,” which won the Costume Society of America’s Richard
Martin Award for Excellence in 2005. Since 2007, Lynne has been the guest curator of textiles
and costumes for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford.
In addition to her exhibition publications, Lynne has written for The Magazine Antiques; The
Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife; White House History; and PieceWork magazine. Her
most recent publication, Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth, was published by the
University Press of New England in 2009. Next year, UPNE will also publish Homefront &
Battlefield: Civil War Textiles, co-authored by Lynne and Madelyn Shaw. Lynne’s lectures for
institutions including Colonial Williamsburg, the American Folk Art Museum, the H. F. DuPont
Winterthur Museum, Historic Deerfield, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Antiquarian and
Landmarks Society of Connecticut, have covered a range of topics in the field of early costume,
needlework, quilts and other bed covers.