Harford County Executive David Craig will lecture on Confederate Army Brigadier General James W. Archer on Oct. 14.
The Southern Maryland Civil War Roundtable (SMCWR) will host a presentation by Harford County Executive David Craig on Brigadier General James J. Archer. The presentation will be at 7 p.m., Oct. 14 at CSM’s Center for Business and Industry (BI) Building, Chaney Enterprises Conference Room, BI-113, 8730 Mitchell Road, La Plata.
Born in Havre de Grace, Archer graduated from Princeton University in 1835 and subsequently studied law at the University of Maryland. Despite a successful law practice, Archer joined the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War and rose to the rank of major. He remained with the U.S. Army until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he threw his allegiance to the Confederacy. He rose to command the Tennessee Brigade in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. After distinguished service on many battlefields, Archer was captured on the first day of the battle of Gettysburg and was the first general officer in Lee’s army to fall into a federal prisoner-of-war camp. Exchanged a year later, Archer returned to the army, but he was plagued by ill health and died shortly thereafter.
A native of Havre de Grace, Craig is well-versed in the history of Archer and the Civil War, as he holds degrees in history from Towson University and Morgan State University. He spent more than 30 years in the Harford County Public School System, first as a teacher and then as an administrator, before being elected Harford County’s Executive. In addition, he has a distinguished record of public service, including serving Havre de Grace as its mayor 1985-89 and a member of its City Council 1979-85, as well as in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1991-94 and numerous committees and boards, such as the Maryland Civil War Heritage Commission.
The SMCWR hosts monthly meetings the second Tuesday of every month from September through May. For information on the SMCWR, visit http://www.somdcwrt.org/ or contact SMCWR President Dr. Brad Gottfried at bgottfried@csmd.edu or 301-934-7625.
