Failure at the Top: Why the Confederates Quit at Nashville

On Sunday, October 13th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present Jim Kay who will speak on “Failure at the Top: Why the Confederates Quit at Nashville.”

After a devastating loss of men and materials at the Battle of Franklin, General John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee was virtually destroyed at the Battle of Nashville some two weeks later. Historian, preservationist and Nashville attorney Jim Kay will discuss how the placement of troops and lack of command execution led to Confederate defeat by Federal troops under General George Thomas in December of 1864.

Mr. Kay, past president of the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society, is well known for his work in helping to preserve the crown of Shy’s Hill and other important Battle of Nashville sites. He has also been instrumental in the placement of many new historical markers in the Tyne Boulevard and Granny White Pike battleground areas.

Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign

On Sunday, September 8th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present Dr. Earl J. Hess who will speak on the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, a first-time topic for the group.

During his campaign to take Atlanta, William T. Sherman encountered his largest obstacle in Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of the Tennessee in a heavily fortified position at Kennesaw Mountain. For two weeks in the early summer of 1864 the armies opposed each other with flanking maneuvers, artillery duels, sniping and fierce fighting and frontal assaults.

Dr. Hess is recognized as a leading expert on the western theater of the Civil War. He completed his B.A. and M.A. degrees in History at Southeast Missouri State University. His Ph.D. in American Studies, with a concentration in History, was awarded by Purdue University in 1986.  Hess has taught at the University of Georgia, Texas Tech and the University of Arkansas. Since 1989 he has been at Lincoln Memorial University, where he holds the Stewart W. McClelland Chair.

Hess has published twenty books and numerous articles on the Civil War. His most recent work, Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnson, and the Atlanta Campaign was published by the University of North Carolina Press and preceded by his University of Tennessee Press release entitled, The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee.

The Battle of Rains’ Cut

On Sunday, August 11th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present Brian Allison who will speak on “The Battle of Rains’ Cut.”

On the first day of the 1864 Battle of Nashville, General George Thomas ordered a diversionary action on the far Federal left, near present day Polk Avenue in Nashville. This developed into a horrific and brutal engagement known as the Battle of Rains’ Cut. United States Colored Troops were surrounded and attacked, but proved their worth and fought valiantly and bravely.

Brian Allison is a Nashville native and a graduate of Austin Peay State University. He was formerly on staff at Historic Carnton Plantation in Franklin. He has most recently been curator of Travellers Rest in Nashville.

Franklin Civil War Round Table co-sponsors Ed Bearss event

On Thursday, August 22 at Franklin’s Lotz House Museum, the Franklin Civil War Round Table co-sponsored “Dinner on the Battlefield and a Twilight Tour of the Franklin Battlefield” with American icon Ed Bearss. A capacity crowd enjoyed a wonderful Southern supper and an opportunity to tour the battlefield encompassing The Lotz House, Cotton Gin, and Carter House. Mr. Bearss’ comments about the Battle of Franklin and his observations about local preservation efforts were presented with his unique grace and style.

Mr. Bearss is Chief Historian Emeritus at the National Park Service, a World War II veteran and is considered by many to be the “father” of the modern day battlefield preservation movement. The Smithsonian recognized him in 2005 as one of thirty-five people who have enriched our lives over the last quarter century. He is truly a “living legend” and aleading voice telling the story of the American past.

The Franklin Civil War Round Table was proud to co-sponsor this event.  We thank JT Thompson, Susan Andrews Thompson and The Lotz House staff for allowing us to be a part of this great night!

The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of a Confederate General

On Sunday, July 14th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present Stephen “Sam” Hood who will speak on “The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of a Confederate General.”

Hood, a descendent and vigorous defender of Army of Tennessee General John Bell Hood, a few months ago discovered a cache of formerly unknown Hood papers stored in the closest of a direct descendant. These papers, including correspondence with a “who’s who” of the Confederate high command, post war letters, medical logs and other priceless documents, shed a new light on the embattled Army of Tennessee commander.

Hood’s new book, The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of a Confederate General, deals with some of the findings in these documents as well as disputing some commonly held facts about the 1864 Tennessee campaign.  The Round Table event will be one of Hood’s first presentations since the release of his book and promises to be a controversial and riveting discussion.

Stephen Hood lives in West Virginia and is a graduate of Marshall University, a retired building contractor and a Marine Corps veteran.  He has served on various historical boards including Confederate Memorial Hall in New Orleans and the Blue & Gray Educational Society.  Hood’s leadership was critical for Memorial Hall in the months following Hurricane Katrina.

“Conflicted Friendships: John Bull, Uncle Sam and King Cotton – Union and Confederate Naval Strategies” at June’s Round Table

On Sunday, June 9th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present Kent Wright who will speak on “Conflicted Friendships: John Bull, Uncle Sam and King Cotton – Union and Confederate Naval Strategies.”

The first shots and the final shots of the American Civil War were fired from cannon aboard naval vessels. Between these two, the use of naval power both North and South was integral to the outcome of battles, campaigns, and the very war itself.

Wright will explore Union and Confederate naval policies as they expanded worldwide and the resulting impact on Southern sovereignty.  His topics will include the tremendous impact of Jefferson Davis’ largest naval force and the single greatest advantage almost handed to President Lincoln, strategies to win the favor of the British monarchy, the relationship between the Union army and navy, and the almost mythical role of blockage running.

Wright is a Civil War navel historian from Huntsville, Alabama who has presented numerous programs highlighting the importance of major Southern rivers including the Cumberland, Tennessee, Mississippi and Red Rivers. This is his second appearance at the Round Table.

Round Table to Tour Parkers Crossroads Battlefield

Franklin Civil War Round Table members are invited to participate in an on-site tour of the Parkers Crossroads battlefield, Saturday, April 13th. This is a special event sponsored by the FCWRT.   Our friends with the Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table (Huntsville) will also be participating.

There will be a caravan leaving from the new Franklin Drury Hotel (McEwen Drive) parking lot at 10:00 that morning.  It is about a two hour drive to the park or almost exactly 100 miles. This should leave you plenty of time to grab lunch somewhere along the way.  The directions are simple.  Drive towards Memphis on Interstate 40 and get off exit 108.  Turn left (south) and you will see the Visitor’s Center in about a fourth of a mile.  We will gather at the Visitor’s Center and the tour begins at 1:00 PM.  There are a couple of fast food businesses at exit 108 and prior.

The December 31, 1862 battle resulted in a Confederate victory and was one of General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s biggest successes in West Tennessee.  There are several very interesting sites of the battle that are well preserved.

The tour will be led by Tennessee State Representative Steve McDaniel who was instrumental in leading the efforts to save the almost 350 acres of battlefield now interpreted.  The tour is expected to go from 2-3 hours.

The Lotz House: Beauty and Tragedy

On Sunday, April 14th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present JT Thompson, Executive Director of the Lotz House, who will speak on “The Lotz House: Beauty and Tragedy.”

The Lotz House, built in 1858 by German immigrant Johann Lotz, is a stunning example of craftsmanship seldom seen today.  And while a tremendous architectural asset to the community, this structure had a front row seat at the Battle of Franklin with a much larger story to tell. Thompson will present little known facts about the family and what happened to the house before, during, and after the war.  He will share how the severely damaged structure was restored only to face more challenges from other threats as the decades passed.

JT Thompson has a background in broadcast journalism including a stint in the Far East.  A sixth generation Texan, he had three ancestors die at the Alamo.  He is a graduate of Harding University and serves on the board of the Battle of Franklin Trust, the Tennessee Preservation Trust and is a former board member of the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society.   Thompson also serves on the Franklin Battlefield Task Force and is a strong supporter of the Franklin Civil War Round Table.

What the Yankees Did to Us at March’s Round Table

On Sunday, March 10th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present Dr. Steve Davis who will speak on “What the Yankees Did to Us: Sherman’s Bombardment and Wrecking of Atlanta.”

In late July 1864 General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union army surrounded the city of Atlanta. After a prolonged shelling by artillery, a two and a half-month occupation and destruction from within, Atlanta was finally put to the torch before Sherman left on his now mythic March. The burning of Atlanta has become legendary over the past 150 years, but separated from historical fact. Dr. Davis returns to both original sources and new ones to tell the story as it really happened.

Davis earned his PhD in American Studies and a MA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  For over twenty years, he has served as book review editor for Blue and Gray Magazine. In 2001 he published his first book, Atlanta Will Fall: Sherman, Joe Johnston and the Yankee Heavy Battalions.

Robert Smalls and the C.S.S. Planter at February’s Meeting

On Sunday, February 10th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present FCWRT member and Battle of Franklin blogger Kraig McNutt to speak on “Robert Smalls and the C.S.S. Planter.”

Robert Smalls’ remarkable escape from slavery came when, as a ship’s pilot he escaped with other slaves out of Charleston Harbor in 1862. While the C.S.S. Planter’s officers elected to sleep on shore, Smalls orchestrated an escape piloting the ship past Confederate fortifications including Fort Sumter.  They eventually encountered a Union vessel where they surrendered the ship and escaped to freedom.

McNutt has been a blogger on the Civil War for over 15 years and on Franklin since 2006. In 1997, he founded the Center for the Study of the American Civil War which houses and archives his extensive personal collection of Civil War books and hundreds of other documents from that era.  He holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of Kentucky.

Battle of Chickamauga at January’s Round Table

On Sunday, January 13th at 3 P.M., Chickamauga National Park Ranger Jim Ogden returns to the Franklin Civil War Round Table to present his interactive “Battle of Chickamauga.” His presentation last year of “Campaign to Chickamauga” was very well-attended and received.

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.

The War of 1812 and the Civil War at December’s Round Table

On December 9, 2012, at 3:00 p.m., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present Myers Brown, curator of extension services at the Tennessee State Museum, who will speak on “The War of 1812 and the Civil War.”

Tennessee played a major role in the War of 1812, which propelled Tennesseans including Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, Sequoyah and David Crockett to national prominence. This set the stage for Tennessee’s part as the nation moved towards Civil War over the next 50 years. As a member of the Tennessee War of 1812 Bicentennial Committee, Brown will also discuss current plans to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812 in the Volunteer State.

Brown holds a B.A. in History from Oglethorpe University and an M.A. in Public History from Middle Tennessee State University. He has served as the curator of military history at the Atlanta History Center and as the curator of the General Joe Wheeler Home in Courtland, Al. He joined the staff of the Tennessee State Museum as curator of extension services in 2005.

Brown has published articles or book reviews in Military Collector and Historian, Blue and Gray, History News, The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Atlanta History, Civil War: A Journal of the Middle Period, and The Historian. His has written two books in the Images of America series, Tennessee’s Union Cavalrymen, and Tennessee Confederates.

Award-winning Author Peter Cozzens at November’s Round Table

On Sunday, November 11, 2012, at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present award-winning author Peter Cozzens, who will speak on the Cahaba Prison.

The Cahaba Prison was established in Cahaba, Alabama June 1863 in a brick cotton warehouse above the banks of the Alabama River. It was intended to house only approximately 500 Union prisoners of war, but after Union General Grant suspended the practice of prisoner exchange in 1864 the prison’s numbers had swelled to over 3,000 by March 1865.

Mr. Cozzens is the author of sixteen critically acclaimed books on the American Civil War and the Indian Wars of the American West. All of Cozzens’ books have been selections of the Book of the Month Club, History Book Club, and/or the Military Book Club. His This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga and The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga were chosen by Civil War Magazine as two of the 100 greatest works ever written on the conflict.

Peter Cozzens, a native of Wheaton, Illinois, is a Foreign Service Officer with the U. S. Department of State. After graduating from Knox College with a degree in International Relations, he served for four years with U.S. Army military intelligence, rising to the rank of Captain, and then entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1984. Cozzens has held postings in Mexico, Panama (as Deputy Consul General at the U.S. Embassy) and Peru and has also served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

In 1997 Cozzens was awarded the Superior Honor Award, the State Department’s second highest recognition. In 2002 he received the American Foreign Service Association’s highest award, given annually to one Foreign Service Officer for exemplary moral courage, integrity, and creative dissent.

Cozzens is a member of the Advisory Council of the Lincoln Prize, the nation’s foremost literary award in history after the Pulitzer. He has written numerous articles for Civil War Times, and has appeared on C-SPAN’s Book TV the PBS series History Detectives.

Cozzens’ No Better Place To Die: The Battle of Stones River is the first modern study of the Murfreesboro battle that included operations in Brentwood, Franklin, Nolensville, and Triune. His most recent book is Shenandoah 1862, Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign, and he is working on a history of the Indian Wars of the American West to be published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2015.

J.D.B. De Bow: An Old New South at October’s Round Table

On Sunday, October 14th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present Dr. John F. Kvach of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) who will discuss the importance of J.D.B. De Bow, the antebellum South’s most influential editor.

De Bow was one of the region’s most fascinating and influential individuals as publisher of De Bow’s Review. This magazine was considered by many as an advocate for the expansion of Southern commerce and in 1861 De Bow urged the South to leave the Union. Dr. Kvach will examine the isolation of the South during the War and J.D.B.  De Bow’s perspectives and own experiences during this period.

Dr. Kvach received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Tennessee in 2008.   He teaches Southern History, Civil War and Reconstruction, and Public History and also serves as the Director of the Center for Public History at UAH. Kvach currently has a book manuscript under review tentatively entitled:  An Old New South: J.D. B. De Bow’s Invention and Promotion of a Modern South.

“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.