Dalessandro 
Keynote Speaker at Dedication of
General Rosecrans' Equestrian Statue
on Sunbury Square
September 28, 2013

Col. Robert Dalessandro

Rosecrans Statue Committee under the leadership of Bill Comisford, selected Colonel Robert J. Dalessandro to give the address at the Dedication Ceremony for Alan Cottrill’s Statue of General William S. Rosecrans Saturday, September 28 on Sunbury Village Square. Dalessandro recognized Rosecrans was not afraid of change and took the initiative to re organize the Army of the Cumberland.

Dalessandro was born in 1958 in New York, NY, His father was a military man but he taught his son the love of all history, not just military history.

In 1980, he graduated from Virginia Military Institute with a degree in History. His graduate work was done in the College of William and Mary, U.S. Army War College and George Washington University. In April of 2002, Lt. Col Dalessandro wrote a strategy research paper titled Major General William S. Rosecrans and the Transformation of the Staff of the Army of the Cumberland; A Case Study. Rosecrans was strong in strategic planning and used it well during his military career. This is reprinted with permission in Polly Horn’s Biography of General Rosecrans on the website http://BigWalnutHistory.org. As a result Dalessandro was asked to speak at the dedication of General Rosecran’s Statue.

Dalessandro served in many leadership roles while in the U.S. Army. His staff assignments including time as a platoon leader, command at company, depot and battalion level and staff assignments at echelons of command ranging from battalion through Department of the Army level.

After 31 years serving in the Department of Defense, Dalessandro retiring as a Colonel in the U.S. Army, On February 2011 he became the current Director of the United States Army Center of Military History at Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C. He frequently leads battlefield tours to sites in the United States, France and Italy. Recently he was appointed to the

He has had a lifelong passion for military history and the material culture of the American soldier. He has turned this love into fascinating books on the lifeways and material culture of the American Soldier in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. He is co-author of the Organization and Insignia of the American Expeditionary Forces, 1917-1923, he serves as editor of the Army Officer’s Guide, co-author of Willing Patriots: Men of Color in the First World War, and Contributions of African American Soldiers and the American Lions: the 332nd Infantry Regiment in Italy in World War I.

His book, Organization and Insignia of the American Expeditionary Forces, 1917-1923 received the Army Historical Foundation award for excellence in writing

Recently Dalessandro was appointed a Commissioner on the World War One Centennial Commission which will lead the nation’s upcoming celebration.

Dedication events begin with the Farmers’ Market on the Square at 9 a.m. Myers Inn will open at 10 a.m. to meet and greet people coming in from out of town for the event. Author Frank Varney will be on hand to autograph his book General Grant and the Rewriting of History in the Myers Inn from noon until the beginning of the parade.

A Parade of Men and Women in Uniform will form on Burrer Drive and following a cannon fire will proceed down Cherry Street around the village square and out Granville Street. The Dedication Ceremony will begin after the parade.

Following the Ceremony the Myers Inn will again be open for hospitality and instructions. A Civil War Ball will be held in General Rosecrans Elementary School at 7 p.m. At 9 p.m. a firing of the cannons will close the events.  The public is invited to join in all these activities.

Dedication is planned by the General Rosecrans Statue Committee under the chairmanship of Bill Comisford,  the treasurer is the Hon. Henry Shaw, jr. members of the committee are Rick Helwig, Janet MacKenzie, Sue Comisford and Polly Horn.

For more information check the website at BigWalnutHistory.org.

         
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(09/13/2013)