On Sunday, October 13th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will host Nashville attorney, historian, and preservationist, Todd Van Beck who will present “Rails, Trails, and War: The Life of Major General Grenville M. Dodge.”

Van Beck will tell the story of the life and times of a today obscure figure in the great American Civil War. General Grenville was the man who hung young Sam Davis, the young Confederate martyr whose statue today graces the lawn of the Tennessee State Capitol, and was the man who was the Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad whose work manifestly contributed to the accomplishment of the Transcontinental Railroad. Even in the light of obscurity however the legacy of Major General Grenville M. Dodge is a story worth keeping alive.

Van Beck is the Director of Continuing Education studies at John A. Gupton College in Nashville. He has published and lectured for many years on Civil War embalming, funeral customs and embalming surgeons. He has published over 600 professional articles, training manuals and books on a wide variety of topics ranging from funeral customs and practices, burial and cremation history and trends, to operation business practices, to bereavement counseling, sociology of death and dying, and the psychology of grief.

The event is free to the public. The Franklin Civil War Round Table is an educational program of Franklin’s Charge, and meets each month at Carnton Plantation's Fleming Center, 1345 Eastern Flank Circle. For more information, email fcwrt@yahoo.com, or visit www.franklinscharge.org/the-round-table