Indianapolis Civil War Round Table: Our First Fifty Years 1955 - 2005

When two friends, Alan Nolan and Harry Grube, met in the home of their friend Rudolf Haerle, on the evening of February 8, 1955, they were not thinking about starting a club that would someday publish a 50 year history. They just wanted to meet like-minded people with whom they could discuss the American Civil War. Thus began the Indianapolis Civil War Round Table, which held its first meeting at the Indiana War Memorial on the 12th of April 1955. The book contains the list of officers; a review of each of the campaign years from 1955 to 2004; a list of programs throughout the years; and other facts about the Round Table's members and programs.

The Indianapolis Civil War Round Table began in the minds of three friends; Rudolf Haerle, Harry Grube, and Alan Nolan, who made the club a reality in April 1955 when the very first meeting was held in the Indiana World War Memorial in Indianapolis. Since then, the group of individuals interested in the great American conflict of 1861-1865 has grown to 150 members in 2005. Meeting monthly except for July and August, the Round Table attendees hear speakers from its own membership as well as outside the club. They are involved in battlefield preservation, take annual field trips to Civil War sites, and encourage the study of history, which gives all of us a beacon for the future.