Isham G. Harris: Tennessee’s War Governor at August’s Round Table

On Sunday, August 14 at 3 P.M., in the Community Room of the Franklin Police Department on Columbia Pike in Franklin, the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present author and Chairman of the Tennessee Historical Commission, Sam Davis Elliott, who will speak on “Isham G. Harris: Tennessee’s War Governor.”

Born in Middle Tennessee, Harris grew up to serve in the Tennessee State Senate, as a U.S. congressman, and as governor during the secession crisis. He tirelessly dedicated himself to the Confederate war effort, raising troops and money and establishing a logistical structure and armament industry. When the Federal army occupied Middle and West Tennessee in 1862, he attached himself to the Confederate Army of Tennessee, served as a volunteer throughout the war and was considered a possible successor to Jefferson Davis should the new republic survive.

Elliott will present a picture of this overlooked leader, establishing him as the most prominent Tennessean in the Confederacy and a dominating player in nineteenth-century Tennessee politics, offering Isham used his political influence and constitutional power to trample on the state constitution to align Tennessee with the Confederacy.

An attorney in the Chattanooga area, Elliott is the immediate past president of the Tennessee Bar Association, a board member of the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association, a past president of the Friends of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, and a member of the Society of Civil War Historians and the Historians of the Western Theater.

Elliott’s most recent book is Isham G. Harris of Tennessee: Confederate Governor and United States Senator, published in 2010 by Louisiana State University Press as part of its prestigious Southern Biography Series. The book was the co-winner of the 2010 Tennessee History Book Award. He is also the author of Soldier of Tennessee: General Alexander P. Stewart and the Civil War in the West and editor of Doctor Quintard, Chaplain C.S.A. and Second Bishop of Tennessee: The Memoir and Civil War Diary of Charles Todd Quintard.

Lee and the Retreat from Gettysburg at July’s Round Table

On Sunday, July 10 at 3 P.M., at the Williamson County Library in Franklin, the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present Lexington, Kentucky author, Kent Masterson Brown, who will speak on “Lee and the Retreat from Gettysburg.”

Much has been written about the Battle of Gettysburg but very little about those dramatic days that followed as General Robert E Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia escaped back to the relative safety of Virginia. Brown’s most recent book, Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics and the Pennsylvania Campaign, was released in April of 2005 by the University of North Carolina Press. It is a selection of the History Book Club and Military Book Club and has been awarded the 2005 Bachelder-Coddington Award, the 2005 United States Army Historical Foundation Award for Distinguished Writing in History and the 2005 Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr. Literary Prize.

Brown was the creator and first editor of the magazine, The Civil War.  He has written numerous other books on the Civil War including, The Civil War in Kentucky: Battle for the Bluegrass State.  He has served in many capacities including the first chairman of the Gettysburg National Military Park Advisory Commission and first Chairman of the Perryville Battlefield Commission.  He has also produced, written and narrated several historical documentaries such as The Long Road Back to Kentucky and Retreat from Gettysburg.

An attorney, Brown is a 1974 graduate of the Washington & Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia. He has been given numerous awards for his work in historic preservation as well as Civil War history.