KCWRT ranks high in membership
among nation’s Civil War organizations

Lexington’s Kentucky Civil War Round Table, the Commonwealth’s largest such organization, is gaining on Brunswick (N.C.).

The Lexington organization, founded in 1953, currently has 354 members compared to Brunswick’s 500.

Although no umbrella organization exists, Matthew Borowick, the unofficial authority on the round tables, points out that the North Carolina group attracts more than 200 members to each meeting. He said it’s doubtful that any other round table will rival Brunswick’s total membership.

Kentucky has only four Civil War round tables (CWRT), but its membership is impressive. The Louisville group, formed in 1961, has 242 members and the Madison County CWRT ranks third with 73 members. Frankfort follows with 50 members.

Frankfort and Madison County are the most recent Kentucky organizations. Frankfort’s CWRT was formed in 2006 and the MADCO group began in 1977.

The roundtables are a loosely organized group of independent organizations that share a common interest in the study, promotion and recognition of the American Civil War. The oldest such group in the United States is The Civil War Roundtable of Chicago, initiated in 1940, and the second oldest is the Milwaukee Civil War Roundtable (1947). Chicago has 300 members as has Milwaukee.

Overall, it’s estimated there are approximately 300 round tables in the U.S. and abroad. Pennsylvania has the most organizations – 27 – and Virginia has 20.

Borowick, a member of the R.E. Lee Round Table (Avenel, N.J.), is executive director of its Civil War Library and Research Center. He also is a round table columnist for The Civil War News and is the author of “The Civil War Round Table Handbook,” published in 2010.

His Round Table Review column discusses the things round tables do, from common issues such as managing volunteers, battlefield preservation, special activities and collaboration with others, to recruiting, using the Internet, fundraising and running Civil War trips, among many others.

His handbook is a resource for Civil War round table leaders and nonprofit leaders who want to learn the “secrets to success” from practitioners at thriving Civil War round tables throughout the world.