On Wednesday, July 11, 12:15 – 12:45 PM, “The Battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days Battles” will be the topic of the Civil War Conversation to be held at Baine's Books and Coffee, 205 Main Street, Appomattox. The “Conversations” are presented by the Museum of the Confederacy and the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. July's speaker is S. Waite Rawls III, president of the Museum of the Confederacy.

In May 1862, Gen. George McClellan's Union Army was on the outskirts of Richmond with 150,000 men under his command. Richmond was about to fall, almost certainly ending the Civil War only 14 months after it had started. It was, in fact, to be a short and relatively painless war.

But the Battle of Seven Pines intervened, followed by the Seven Days; and the war lasted for three more long and bloody years before Lee and Grant met at Appomattox. These battles were the true turning point of the Civil War, and Waite Rawls will discuss how the change in leadership from Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to Gen. Robert E. Lee changed the world of the 1860s. The military environment changed radically, as did the prospects for civilians, both North and South. And, with those changes, the Emancipation Proclamation became necessary.

Seating is limited. The “Conversations” are free. No RSVP is required.