Battery Hooper and James Ramage Museum: Events & Awards

JAMES A.RAMAGE CIVIL WAR MUSUEM BLUE & GRAY DINNER

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FT.WRIGHT, KY, APRIL 23, 2015: The James A. Ramage Civil War Museum will hold its 5th Annual Blue &Gray Dinner on April 23, 2015, at Twin Oaks Golf and Plantation Club in Latonia, Ky. Cocktail hour(cash bar) will be between 6:00PM-7:00PM. Dinner will start at 7:00PM. This year we will be honoring Dr. James A. Ramage. The Blue and Gray Dinner’s guest speaker is Senator Chris McDaniel. Entertainment by the Forget-Me-Not Historical Dance. During the event, we will hold a silent auction. All proceeds will benefit the James A. Ramage Civil War Museum. Cash and check only. Tickets are $50 per person/ $90 per couple, payable in advance. Please RSVP to Linda Hornsby at 859 261-3045 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by April 20,2015. Please make all checks payable to James A. Ramage Civil War Museum and mail check to:

James A. Ramage Civil Museum
Attn Blue & Gray Dinner
409 Kyles Lane
Ft Wright, KY 41011

Dr. James A. Ramage, Regents Professor of History, has worked at Northern Kentucky University for almost forty-three and one-half years. He began on January 2, 1972, and will retire at the end of this semester on May 16, 2015. For the first four and one-half years, he served as Assistant to the President, and on July 1, 1976 became a full-time faculty member

In 1988, he won the Outstanding Professor of the Year Award for NKU, and in 1994 was awarded the Board of Regents’ highest honor, the Regents Professorship. On February 2, 1996, the NKU Alumni Association presented him the Strongest Influence Award. On May 4, 1999, he won the university’s Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award for serving as faculty advisor of NKU’s chapter of Phi Alpha Theta history honor society. He was faculty advisor for twenty years and the chapter won numerous national awards. On April 18, 2003, he received the Flame Award from NKU’s Presidential Ambassadors, and on September 21, 2003, the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education presented him the annual Kentucky Acorn Award for teaching excellence. On August 20, 2005, in recognition of his work in preserving Civil War Battery Hooper in the City of Fort Wright, the Mayor and City Council named the new museum on the site the James A. Ramage Civil War Museum. In November 2012, the Kentucky Historical Society presented him its highest award, the Frank R. Levstik Award for Professional Service. He served as National Councilor of Phi Alpha Theta (2002-2003), National Vice-President (2006-2007), National President from January 2008 to January 2010, and Chair of the National Advisory Committee, January 2010 to January 2012.

Ramage is the author of John Wesley Hunt: Pioneer Merchant, Manufacturer and Financier published by the University Press of Kentucky in 1974. Rebel Raider: The Life of General John Hunt Morgan (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986) won the Douglas Southall Freeman Award for the most outstanding book in Southern history for 1986. The book was co-winner of the 1987 Kentucky Governor’s Award for the most outstanding book in Kentucky history published in the last four years. Gray Ghost: The Life of Col. John Singleton Mosby, (1999) was a History Book Club selection. He and his daughter, Dr. Andrea S. Watkins, are co-authors of the book Kentucky Rising: Democracy, Slavery, and Culture from the Early Republic to the Civil War (2011) co-published by the Kentucky Historical Society and the University Press of Kentucky. Kentucky Rising was listed in the History Book Club and Military Book Club.

“My colleagues in the History and Geography Department say that I am not retiring, but going on extended sabbatical leave. That pretty well sums it up. I am looking forward to writing full-time on my biography of Ulysses S. Grant,” Ramage said. “I am deeply honored by the Civil War Museum, and I am grateful to everyone in the community and at NKU, including my students, for their encouragement and support.”

PUBLIC ARCHAEOLOGY DAY AND CIVIL WAR TRUST PARK DAY
MAY 2, 2015
The James A. Ramage Civil War Museum at Battery Hooper Park in Fort Wright, Kentucky, is pleased to announce that Public Archaeology Day will be May 2, 2015. This will be held in conjunction with Civil War Trust Park Day. Park Day was March 28, but we postponed it until May 2. Come out to help clean up the Museum grounds and park for spring! We will be edging flower beds, planting, and cleaning around the Museum. Free for all, We will start this activity at 9am. Bring gardening gloves. If you bring tools, please mark them with your name.
Archaeology: Adults and children over 10 years old are invited to join in this hands-on lesson in archaeology and history at an actual Civil War site. Battery Hooper was constructed in 1861 and was among the local fortifications that defended against a threatened Confederate invasion of Cincinnati in September 1862. Admission is free, but reservations are required for those wishing to dig. Please call 859-384-0354, or email or send us a message to our Facebook page (under James A. Ramage Civil War Museum) to reserve your preferred shift. Please tell us which time you prefer. Please leave contact information such as a phone number and/or email address because we must be able to call or email you back with confirmation of your reservation. Available shifts for both days are 9:00-11:00, 11:30-1:30 or 2:00-4:00 pm. Participants should be sure to dress appropriately for this outdoor event, which includes digging and working on the ground. Work gloves are recommended. All necessary archaeological tools and equipment will be provided and bottled water will be available. The James A. Ramage Civil War Museum is located at 1402 Highland Avenue with parking next door at the Community of Faith Presbyterian Church.
Media contact: Jeannine Kreinbrink, 859 384-0354

Battery Hooper was one of 28 Union forts and cannon batteries that
encircled northern Kentucky to protect Cincinnati, Ohio and the Ohio
River passage. After a successful defense against a Confederate advance
in September 1862, the fortifications were staffed until the end of the
war. After the 1862 emergency was over, General Lew Wallace’s victory
proclamation declared: “In coming time strangers, viewing the works
on the hills of Newport and Covington Kentucky, will ask ’Who built
these entrenchments?’ You can answer, ‘We built them.’ If they ask
‘Who guarded them?’you can reply, ‘We helped in thousands.’
If they inquire the result, your answer will be, ‘the enemy came and
looked at them, and stole away in the night.”

Today Battery Hooper is one of only six Civil War fortification sites
that remain in northern Kentucky. The City of Fort Wright, Northern
Kentucky University, and a large group of citizens banded together to
save this endangered site. Working together these groups created a 17
acre park that includes the Battery Hooper archaeology dig site, a Civil
War museum, and a beautiful public park. The City of Fort Wright
purchased the property for the city park and museum from the NKU
Foundation after the property owner willed the land to Northern Kentucky
University

The James A. Ramage Civil War Museum (JARCWM) opened on June 30 2005
with great success. The museum serves the northern Kentucky and
greater Cincinnati region. Visitors from across the US have visited in
the ten years since the Museum opening. Since the opening in 2005
the museum has had thousands of visitors, including school groups and
organized tours, and has hosted special events such as book signings,
archaeological excavations for the public, and living history events
with Civil War Reenactors. The success of the museum and the public
archaeology program may be measured by our appearance in Smithsonian
magazine in September 2005.

MISSION STATEMENT

The Mission of The James A. Ramage Civil War Museum is to inform
visitors about the defense of Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati during
the Civil War and how the community came together to defend the area
during this critical period in our nation's history. The Museum
preserves and interprets Northern Kentucky's unique role in the Civil
War through archaeology, education and research. The Museum also
informs visitors about the history of the City of Fort Wright and its
neighboring communities.

Jeannine Kreinbrink

James A. Ramage Civil War Museum

Board President

Calendar of Events

♦ Blue and Gray Dinner April 23
♦ Civil War Trust Park Day and Public Archaeology May 2
♦ Summer Lecture Series June 14 and 28, July 12
♦ Battery Hooper Civil War Days August 15-16
♦ Veterans Day November 8
♦ Civil War Christmas December 13