This coming Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 11:30 am at the Lowell National Park Visitor Center, 246 Market Street, I’ll be presenting a lecture on Lowell and the start of the American Civil War. The program is free and open to the public. It will cover events leading up to the firing on Fort Sumter, the ordeal of the men from Lowell in the Sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the Baltimore Riot of April 19, 1861, and the important role played by that regiment in deterring a Confederate move to capture Washington DC in the opening weeks of the war.