Symposium on the American Civil War

BEAU CANTRELL is an attorney with several years of experience, but his avocation is all kinds of history, especially the history of the Civil War. Cantrell is renowned by several Civil War heritage groups, including the Civil War Roundtable, for both his breadth and his depth of knowledge on Civil War personalities, battles, and political maneuverings. He is known as a walking encyclopedia among Civil War buffs in Oklahoma. He has served in multiple leadership positions in the Oklahoma City Civil War Round Table.

DAN DE KALB spent his childhood in a small Illinois town on the original circuit that the young lawyer Abraham Lincoln traveled prior to becoming president. His interest in Civil War History grew more upon learning that several of his ancestors served in Company K of the 30th Illinois Infantry. As a member of the Oklahoma City Civil War Roundtable, he has presented programs in recent years on the 30th Illinois as well as two of their earliest engagements: The Battle of Belmont, MO and The Battle of Fort Donelson, TN. His program, “The Unconditional Surrender of Fort Donelson” examines that key battle and how it opened up the rail hubs and resource rich sections of western Tennessee to Union advances under Ulysses Grant.

DeKalb received his BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and holds a professional engineering license in 18 states. He is a resident of Norman, Oklahoma.

JOHN DWYER is Adjunct Professor of History at both Southern Nazarene University and Randall University. For nearly twenty years, he has lectured on the Civil War at events across America. He has three published Civil War-related books, including the non-fiction historical narrative, The War Between the States: America's Uncivil War and the historical novels, Stonewall and Robert E. Lee. His most recent book, The Oklahomans: The Story of Oklahoma and Its People, won the Will Rogers Award for Western Non-Fiction in 2017. It was endorsed by both the Oklahoma Historical Society and the Oklahoma Centennial Commission, and its foreword was written by former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating.

JEFF MASSEY is a long-time Oklahoma attorney, weathered political pundit, and military historian. He is a graduate of the University of Arkansas with honors, and received his Juris Doctorate from the OU College of Law.

Massey is Deputy Curator at the Oklahoma History Center for the Confederate-Union Memorial Hall, and Past President of the Oklahoma City Civil War Roundtable. He is Past International Commander General of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars and General Counsel for the National Sons of Confederate Veterans. He is also past President of the General Stand Watie Military History Society, the General Patrick R. Cleburne Society, and the Indian Territory Society, MOSB. He is a member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution; Order of the Southern Cross; and was ScoutMaster for Troop 11 in Edmond.

BEN ODOM is serving his fourth term as the President of the Oklahoma City Civil War Roundtable. Known for his lecture skills, he has presented on Civil War topics not only at the regular Roundtable events, but in special meetings at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma as well. Odom himself is descended from Union soldiers from Kentucky and East Tennessee on his father’s side, and from Tennessee and Missouri Confederates on his mother’s side of the family. He is an attorney practicing in Norman, OK.

Bio and photo coming soon!