Speaking EngagementsEd Rutan is interested in speaking to groups about the 179th New York Volunteers and his first book, If I Have Got To Go and Fight, I Am Willing.His new book, High-Bounty Men in the Army of the Potomac, Reclaiming Their Honor is available as well. Please use this contact information if you would like to hear from him.
Edwin (“Ed”) Rutan, II was a guest lecturer at the 18th Annual Salisbury Confederate Prison Symposium held April 10-12, 2015 in Salisbury, NC. This educational, historical, and memorial event has been sponsored yearly since 1998 by the Robert F. Hoke Chapter No. 78 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and has attracted attendees from throughout the United States in addition to Canada and Scotland. The Salisbury Prison housed prisoners from December 1861 to February 1865 and was North Carolina's only military prison during the War Between the States. All invited lecturers speak on subjects that relate to the history of this prison. Mr. Rutan, historian and retired attorney, made an excellent presentation at the Symposium on April 11 in the Tom Smith Autitorium of Catawba College. As author of a new book on the 179th New York Volunteers, If I Have To Go and Fight, I Am Willing, Mr. Rutan discussed the history of the Regiment in which his ancester was a soldier. He also told of the experiences of its member who were captured and sent to Salisbury during the darkest times for this prison due to excessive overcrowding, disease, and lack of medicine, supplies, and food. Mr. Rutan knows his subject well and is a great speaker. I would wholeheartedly recommend him to any roundtable, historical organization, symposium, or other group interested in a top notch program presented by an individual who has an obvious interest in his research.
— Sue Curtis — |