Chaplain Cook's Pulpit

Ben Maryniak, is an active researcher, author and presenter of Civil War and related material. He makes frequent appearances during the year in the guise of Chaplain Philos G. Cook of Buffalo's 94th NY Vol. Infantry where he recreates worship services as they may have occurred in the camps and battlefields of the Civil War. Ben is also the President of the Buffalo Civil War Round Table and is a frequent contributor to the Gettysburg Discussion Group.

Appearances

Period Service, Genesee Country Museum, Mumford, NY, July 22

For information see: Annual GCM Civil War Encampment & Reenactment

Faith in the Fight

Faith in the Fight, Civil War Chaplains is due out in April, 2003 from Stackpole publishing. Ben's contribution is a list of 2398 individuals representing all the commissioned chaplains serving in the regiments of the US Army Volunteer Force, hospital chaplains of US Volunteers, chaplains of the US Army, and chaplains of the US Navy during the Civil War. It also includes their religious affiliation at the time of the war (a number of them switched sides before and after the Rebellion), their regiment or other assignment, and their birth/death dates. There is a Confederate roster, compiled largely by John Wesley Brinsfield, who is the acting historian for the US Army Office of Chaplains and is now teaching at the Chaplain School in Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. Other contributors to the book include James Robertson (Standing Like a Stone Wall: The Life of General Thomas J. Jackson) and William C. Davis ( An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate Government).

Buffalo Civil War Round Table

Meeting Highlights

• 6/28/2007, 7:30 PM ­ BCWRT Meeting ­ Michael W Kauffman will speak about the Lincoln Assassination. His book, American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies was published by Random House in 2004. He is a political historian and graduate of the University of Virginia who has appeared on A&E, the History Channel, C-SPAN, and the Learning Channel. Mr Kauffman was called to testify as an expert witness in the 1995 Booth exhumation hearings.
• 9/27/2007, 7:30 PM ­ BCWRT Meeting ­ Rochester historian & newspaperman Bob Marcotte will speak about that cityıs links to the Civil War.
• 10/25/2007, 7:30 PM ­ BCWRT Meeting ­ Recognized as one of the best cartographers of historical battlefields in the world, Earl McElfresh will be our speaker. His watercolor maps of Civil War & Revolutionary War battlefields have been featured on the History Channel as well as in Civil War Times magazine and the journal of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He has also written "Maps & Mapmakers of the Civil War" (1999) and an Antarctic map primer (2002).
• 5/22/2008, 7:30 PM ­ BCWRT Meeting ­ Brian Steel Wills will be speaking about Confederate "Wizard of the Saddle" Nathan Bedford Forrest. He is Department Chair and Professor of History and Philosophy at the University of Virginia's College at Wise and the author of "The Confederacy's Greatest Cavalryman: Nathan Bedford Forest" (formerly published as "A Battle from the Start") and "The War Hits Home: The Civil War in Southeastern Virginia."
• 9/25/2008, 7:30 PM ­ BCWRT meeting - Edward Longacre, an author of many CW books.

BCWRT meetings are held in the Gateway Building auditorium, Lackawanna. Intersection of Route 179 and Route 5.

Selected Web Articles by Ben Maryniak

• Remember Ireland and Fontenoy
• The Soldiers & Sailors Monument in Lafayette Square Buffalo, New York
• Soldiers Circle, Bidwell Parkway and Chapin Parkway
• First at Vicksburg, Buried in Buffalo
• One Funeral Makes Another
• The Grand Army of the Republic Posts in New York State

Email Chaplain Cook: benedict@buffnet.net