On Tuesday, September 6, the Historic Shepherdstown Commission will present a talk by Dr. Tom Clemens, called “The Battle of Shepherdstown Ford, September 19 and 20, 1862.” The talk will take place at the Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education, located on King Street on the Shepherd University campus. The Historic Shepherdstown Commission is pleased to present this third in its 2016 series of local history speakers.

The event is free and open to the public. It will begin at 6:45 p.m. with Historic Shepherdstown’s brief Annual Meeting, including election of board members. The talk is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. Refreshments will be served afterwards.

Dr. Thomas G. Clemens is a founding member and current president of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation Inc., a non-profit historic preservation organization. The Foundation helped fund Historic Shepherdstown’s Civil War Room. He is a board member of the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association. He is also an Antietam Battlefield Guide, and a 30+ year volunteer there.

Dr. Clemens received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in history from Salisbury University, and his Doctorate in History Education from George Mason University where he studied under noted Civil War historian Dr. Joseph L. Harsh. Dr. Clemens‘ doctoral dissertation was on the history of the Battle of Antietam and he has been studying this campaign ever since.  After four years on the faculty at Salisbury Dr.Clemens came to Hagerstown in 1978 and spent most of his 34-year career at Hagerstown Community College teaching American History. He retired in 2012. Among his many publications on Civil War topics, he edited and annotated General Ezra A. Carman’s l,800-page narrative of the Maryland Campaign of September 1862, which has received awards from the Army Heritage Foundation. The narrative’s third and final volume will be published this year. He also published a monograph about General Joseph K. F. Mansfield published in Corps Commanders in Blue in 2014. His latest article, published in June 2016, proved the Pry house at Antietam was never McClellan’s Headquarters.

The final talk in the 2016 Speakers Series is scheduled for November 9. Local craftsman and historian Nick Blanton, one of the builders of Shepherdstown’s model of James Rumsey’s steamboat, will speak on “Setting a Steamboat in Stone: The Creation of the Rumsey Monument.” The talk will commemorate the 100^th Anniversary of the Rumsey Monument.

For further information, contact Historic Shepherdstown Administrator Teresa McLaughlin, 304-876-0910 on Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday or e-mail[email protected].