Howard Coffin Speaks on Vt. & Human Freedom Jan. 25

Vermont author and historian Howard J. Coffin will speak about "Vermont and Human Freedom" Thursday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Tunbridge Public Library. A book signing and refreshments will follow the free library Winter Evenings program.

Coffin, a seventh generation Vermonter, has written three books about the Civil War, including "Full Duty: Vermonters in the Civil War," "Nine Months to Gettysburg" and "The Battered Stars." Five of his ancestors served in Vermont regiments.

Long active in historic preservation, Coffin is vice president of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation and was a U.S. Senate appointee to the Civil War Sites Commission and board member of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites.

He and U. S. Sen. James Jeffords led efforts to save 500 acres of the Wilderness Battlefield in Virginia where the First Vermont Brigade fought on May 5-6, 1864. Coffin gave the keynote address at last September’s dedication of a monument to the Vermonters.

Coffin recently published "Guns Over the Champlain Valley," a history of, and guide to, the military sites of the Lake Champlain corridor. He is writing a book about Civil War sites in Vermont, as well as a novel set in the 1960s and a book on Calvin Coolidge as a writer. He has also written a history of the Catholic Church in Vermont and a book on the University of Vermont. He lectures extensively on military history and leads battlefield tours.

For information about Winter Evenings call 889-9404.

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