“Born to Battle: Grant and Forrest” at September’s Round Table

On Sunday, September 9th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present its 50th Roundtable event. Author Jack Hurst will speak on his recent work, “Born to Battle: Grant and Forrest – Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga.”

Hurst will look at the Civil War’s Western theater through two great leaders, Ulysses S. Grant and Nathan Bedford Forrest, who opposed each other at the epic battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. Both generals rose through their ranks, and from humble origins to become known for their cunning and military brilliance. Hurst tells their stories through the Western campaign and how the two men changed the course of the war.

Hurst graduated from Vanderbilt University and spent 40 years writing for newspapers including the Nashville Tennessean, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune. His other works include Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, Nathan Bedford Forrest: a Biography and Men of Fire.  Author and Round Table member Robert Hicks calls Hurst, “both a careful and meticulous historian and a first rate storyteller.”

Campaign to Chickamauga at August’s Round Table

On Sunday, August 12th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will host Chickamauga National Park Ranger Jim Ogden, who will present his interactive “Campaign to Chickamauga.”

The Battle of Chickamauga is considered by many to be a lost opportunity for the Confederacy when Confederate forces defeated the Federals in an epic battle just south of Chattanooga. To many students of the Civil War, it is one of the more complex battles to follow and understand.  Ranger Ogden will give a unique and exciting opportunity to view this battle through the use of a giant floor map where participants will “walk” the battlefield without leaving the meeting facility.

Raised in Maryland, Ogden worked during his college summers for the Maryland Park Service at places such as Point Lookout State Park in historical interpretation and research while attending Frostburg State College. While earning his degree in history, he also interned at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

In 1982 Ogden joined the National Park Service where he has been stationed at Chickamauga, Russell Cave National Monument and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Parks. He speaks regularly to various groups including Civil War Round Tables all across the country.

Ogden has taught numerous courses on the Civil War including a recent class at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga and has written many articles while appearing in several History Channel and PBS specials.  He has led some four hundred U.S. Army Staff rides at Chickamauga.

Forrest’s Fighting Preacher at July’s Round Table

On Sunday, July 8th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present author and historian Dr. Michael Bradley, who will speak on David Campbell Kelley, a prominent Methodist who served as a Colonel under Bedford Forrest during some of their most dramatic campaigns and the subject of his latest book, Forrest’s Fighting Preacher.

Kelley began adulthood in the clergy, serving for two years as a missionary in China and returning home just a year before the Civil War. He raised a company of cavalry from his family’s large congregation that became part of Forrest’s original regiment. Kelley quickly became Forrest’s second in command, assisting in some of his most daring engagements, offering support in key decisions and serving as his unofficial chaplain. Following the war, Kelley returned to preaching, helped establish Vanderbilt University and launched a campaign for governor of Tennessee.

Dr. Bradley is a native of Fayetteville, Tennessee and attended Samford University for his B.A.  He earned his M.A. at New Orleans Seminary and his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt.  He taught history at Motlow College for thirty six years before retiring in May of 2006.  He has also pastored for many years at two Presbyterian churches in Middle Tennessee.

Bradley has written numerous articles and books on the Civil War in Tennessee, including Tullahoma: The 1863 Campaign; With Book and Fire: Behind Union Lines in Middle Tennessee and Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Escort & Staff in War and Peace. He has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant and a National Science Foundation Grant.  He was also a Fellow of Johns Hopkins University.

Co. Aytch Redux: More Sam Watkins at June’s Round Table

On Sunday, June 10th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present author Ruth Hill McAllister, who will speak on her great-grandfather and his inimitable Co. Aytch, considered by many historians as one of the best first-person accounts of a common soldier’s war experiences. Ken Burns, known for his famous PBS historical series, said, “The only thing better than Sam Watkins…is more Sam Watkins.”

Born near Columbia, Tennessee, Sam enlisted in 1861 and fought the entire war from Shiloh to Nashville with Company H, the “Maury Greys,” of the 1st Tennessee Infantry. He was one of only seven men out of the company of 120, to survive to the surrender of the Army of Tennessee in 1865.

Ruth Hill McAllister, Watkins’s great granddaughter, found a copy of the original version of his famous account with Sam’s handwritten notes and corrections, and in 2007 produced a new edition incorporating some of these changes.

McAllister tells the story of Sam Watkins in a way that only dedicated descendant can. She includes little known details about life in Columbia, Middle Tennessee, and the Army of Tennessee during the Civil War.  She was recently a featured speaker on the Tennessee Sesquicentennial Commission’s PBS documentary, “The Story of Shiloh: Fiery Trial.”

Champ Ferguson: Tennessee’s Perfect Guerilla at April’s Round Table

On Sunday, April 15th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present author and historian Dr. Brian McKnight, who will speak on Champ Ferguson and other guerillas active in Tennessee during the Civil War.

Depending on one’s historical perspective, Confederate guerilla Champ Ferguson was either a ruthless murderer or a legitimate solider doing his duty for the Confederacy.  There seems to be little in between in these stories of partisan behind-the-lines actions that are still being debated by scholars today.

Dr. McKnight is an associate professor of history at the University of Virginia and has written extensively about the borderlands. His first book, Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia, won the prestigious James I. Robertson Literary Prize for Confederate History.

His 2011 release, Confederate Outlaw: Champ Ferguson and the Civil War in Appalachia, has been described as “an impeccably researched biography” about the complex life of this legendary figure.  Ferguson spent much of the war in the Cumberland Plateau area.

McKnight completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia-Wise, his master’s degree at East Tennessee State and his Ph.D. from Mississippi State University.  He currently teaches American Military History and courses about the Civil War.  He was one of the featured speakers at the Tennessee Sesquicentennial series event held in Cookeville last fall.

Franklin Civil War Round Table to Meet at Historic St. John’s Church

On Sunday, March 11th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will is presenting a tour and lecture of St John’s Church, just outside Columbia, Tennessee. Maury County historian, Bob Duncan, will speak on the church’s history, its involvement with the Polk family including Bishop General Leonidas Polk, and as a final resting place for Confederate General Patrick Cleburne.

Author Shelby Foote wrote of the church, “…a tiny, high-roofed St John’s Church, Ivy-clad and gothic, where Bishop-General Polk had preached and his Episcopal kinsmen had their graves amid flowers and shrubbery fresh and green in bleak November-had so impressed Pat Cleburne, for one, that he checked his horse in passing and remarked that it was ‘almost worth dying for to be buried in such a beautiful spot….”

Bob Duncan is well known in Middle Tennessee as a frequent speaker and writer on local and Tennessee history.  He is the author of eight books and is the featured Sunday columnist of the Columbia Daily Herald.  He holds several preservation awards including the Tennessee Historical Commission’s Preservation Award in 2002.  He is the Maury County historian and the director of the Maury County Archives.

Franklin Civil War Round Table to Meet at Historic Courthouse

On Sunday, February 12th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will provides members and the general public a unique opportunity to learn more about Williamson County’s Historic Courthouse in the facility’s refurbished main court room.   Heritage Foundation historian Rick Warwick will discuss some of the events witnessed by this Greek Revival structure built in 1858 and fresh from a $6.2 million update completed in 2010.

The Williamson County Courthouse is one of only a few remaining county seat structures in Tennessee from the Civil War era. It was occupied by the Union Provost in 1863 and served as a hospital during and after the November 1864 Battle of Franklin.  Shortly after the war, riots occurred just outside its front doors. Rick Warwick will be sharing these and other stories at the February event.

Warwick, the long time editor of the Williamson County Historical Society Journal and a former county educator, has written some 18 books on various county topics including several involving the Civil War years. These include Williamson Country: Civil War Veterans, Williamson Country: The Civil War as Seen through the Female Experience and Historical Markers of Williamson County.

Confederate Cavalry in the Battle of Nashville at November’s Round Table

On Sunday, January 8th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present author and historian Ross Massey, who will speak on ConfederateGeneral James Chalmers and his cavalry at the December 1864 Battle of Nashville.

Major General James R. Chalmers and his seasoned division of cavalry fought along Charlotte Pike on the first day of the battle. On the second day his troops played an important role in the final actions along Hillsboro and Granny White Pikes and in the Otter Creek area.

Massey grew up in Nashville, walking the Nashville battlefield as a child. As an adult he has initiated the preservation of several key locations such as the earthworks at Bells’ Bend and Granbury’s Lunette, both now part of the Metro Nashville Parks system. In the early 1990’s he was a founding member of the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society which has been instrumental in preserving and interpreting many Nashville sites such as Fort Negley and Shy’s Hill. Massey has also appeared on A&E and The History Channel.

Massey’s Nashville Battlefield Guide is considered a key source for historians and tourists alike when visiting the city’s key battleground areas. He is currently working on a soon to be released book about Chalmer’s key role in the battle.

The Tennessee Brigade at November’s Round Table

On Sunday, November 13th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present author, teacher and historian Randy Bishop, who will speak on the Tennessee Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia.

Leaving their families in Middle Tennessee, the soldiers of the Tennessee Brigade participated in the major Civil War battles of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. With regiments raised before Tennessee’s secession, the brigade saw action at Seven Pines, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Spotsylvania. It suffered the first Confederate casualty at Gettysburg and was the guiding unit during the third day’s assault on the Federal positions. The brigade survived Petersburg’s trenches only to surrender a fraction of its once-mighty ranks at Appomattox.

In addition to his 2005 book, “The Tennessee Brigade,” Bishop has also written “Tennessee’s Civil War Battlefields:  A Guide to Their History and Preservation.” He will speak to preservation efforts in both Tennessee and northern Mississippi.

An accomplished educator, Bishop is a teacher at Middleton High School, where he has six times been recognized as “Teacher of the Year.” He serves as an adjunct professor of history at Jackson State Community College. Bishop earned his B.S. from Union University and his M. Ed. from the University of Memphis.

Battle of Perryville at September’s Round Table

On Sunday, September 11 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 Christopher Kolakowski, who will be speaking on the Battle of Perryville.

The 1862 Battle of Perryville was the largest battle in the state of Kentucky and fought between Union General Carlos Buell’s Army of Ohio and the Confederate Army of Mississippi under General Braxton Bragg.  Perryville proved to be a violent precursor to the bloody battles between what would become the Union Army of the Cumberland and the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Young commanders named Cleburne, Cheatham, Polk, Buckner, and Sheridan fought to a tactical Confederate victory only to be followed by a Confederate retreat back towards Nashville.

A graduate of Emory and Henry College with a graduate degree in Public History from the State University of New York, Kolakowski has had numerous assignments interpreting and preserving American military history including time with the National Park Service, Civil War Preservation Trust and United States Army Reserve.  From 2005-2008 he was the Executive Director of the Perryville Enhancement Project during which time the Perryville Battlefield Park added 152 acres of critical battleground while increasing Perryville’s national profile.  In 2009 he published The Civil War at Perryville: Battling for the Bluegrass.  Kolakowski is currently the Director of the General George Patton Museum of Leadership in Fort Knox, Kentucky. In 2012 the U.S. Army will publish his work on the 1862 Virginia Campaigns as part of its sesquicentennial series on the Civil War.

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.