Conscience, Conflict and Controversy: One Family's Battle Experience During the Civil War

Oregonian Editor Peter Sleeth reveals his own Civil War Family Controversy at the May 9, 2005 Meeting of the PSU Civil War Round Table.

(PRWEB) April 17, 2005 -- When Peter Sleeth was sent to cover the war in Iraq for the Oregonian in February 2003; he was following a family tradition of chronicling the brave deeds of American soldiers and crossing the desolate landscape of battlefields far from home. Almost 143 years ago, his great grandfather Clayton Marshall would post letters to his wife...for the most part describing the horrors of the Civil War that he witnessed as a private in Company H, 39th Iowa Infantry.

The candid letters of Sleeth's great-grandfather and the personal controversy behind his enlistment in the Union Army will be the focus of the May 9, 2005 presentation to the Friends of History/ Civil War Round Table at Portland State University. Private Marshall may have been a common foot soldier in the War of the Rebellion ...but the path that brought Clayton, his brothers Swain and Alonzo and uncles Collin and Miles to the defense of their country was highly unusual. For the Marshall men were the descendants of eight generations of observant Quakers.

Our speaker is an award-winning journalist who has worked at several newspapers including The Denver Post and The Portland Oregonian where hs is currently employed as an editor. Sleeth has been published in North South Magazine, and has made a study of the Civil War and his family genealogy. This was apparent in the allusion Sleeth made to Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels." during one of his phoned-in reports from Kuwait televised on KATU- Channel 2 during his "embedded reporter" period.

The Civil War Round Table will meet at 7:30 PM in Cramer Hall, Room 494 on the PSU campus and is under the aegis of the nonprofit Friends of History. As always, the event is free and open to the public. Parking is free in the PSU parking structures after 7 PM. For more information please contact John Henley at (503) 284-0350 or check out our website at www.history.edu/foh/FOHround.html.

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