Lifelong learning class at RCC focuses on Overland Campaign

Jon Stallard

The Rappahannock Community College Educational Foundation’s Rappahannock Institute for Lifelong Learning will feature local scholar Jon Stallard with another installment of Civil War history in an upcoming three-session course. “Grant Comes East: The 1864 Overland Campaign” will be offered on February 24, and March 2 and 9 (Fridays), 1-3 p.m., at RCC’s Warsaw Campus (Room 117).

In the spring of 1864 Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant brought his strategy of “Total War” to the Eastern Theatre, as the 100,000-man Army of the Potomac (under the nominal command of George Meade) met Lee’s 60,000 men in the dense forests of Virginia. The resulting Overland Campaign consisted of a series of running battles in May and June, culminating in the bloodbath of Cold Harbor. The course is principally an examination of tactics, but Stallard will also provide biographical information on the major figures, and will set this penultimate campaign of the war in the East in its strategic and political context.

A native of Richmond, Virginia, Jon Stallard holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science, history, and education from Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition to his standing as author, lecturer, and genealogist, he is a co-owner and morning show co-host at WRAR Radio in Tappahannock.

Advance registration, with a tuition payment of $35, is required to take this course. For more information on “Grant Comes East: The 1864 Overland Campaign” and other upcoming courses, or to register, please call Sharon Drotleff at the RCC Educational Foundation office (804-333-6707, or toll-free at 877-722-3679), or e-mail her at sdrotleff@rappahannock.edu.