"From Gunfighter to Confederate Colonel: The Charley Harrison Story"
Charley Harrison was, according to Bat Masterson, one of the best gunfighters he ever saw. Charley rode into Denver in 1860 on a stolen horse with a Mormon posse on his heels, and was ridden out of town on a rail 18 months later. He was reportedly killed in gunfights several times, but ultimately ended up as a Colonel of Confederate cavalry. He met his doom on the Kansas prairie leading a mysterious expedition back to Colorado.
Our speaker this month is Steve Chaffin, a member of the Inland Empire Civil War Round Table. He been interested in the Civil War since the age of 10, when his mother gave him the kids' book "We Were There at the Battle of Gettysburg." At last count, Steve has at least 21 ancestors who fought in the war, on both sides, including one uncle who was 13 when he enlisted, and one who was captured at Gettysburg and spent 18 months in a Civil War prison camp. He's accumulated about 800 books on the Civil War, and has visited every major CW battlefield and a lot of the minor ones (just ask his wife). Most recently he visited the Bentonville Battlefield and the Confederate prison camp at Salisbury, NC. Steve lived in Denver for 21 years, and studied the CW in that part of the country, where this story takes place.
Steve has a B.A. in History and a J.D. and M.P.A. from USC. Married for 36 years, he and his wife have three sons and four grandchildren. Steve works as an Administrative Law Judge for the Dept. of Health and Human Services, Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals in Irvine, California.
Please join us as we learn how a gunfighter in the Old West became a Confederate cavalry officer.
Janet Whaley
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