Welcome back, Jim Ogden, lifetime KCWRT member

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Jim Ogden, Knoxville Civil War Rountable

Jim Ogden, Chief Historian at Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park, is an historian, teacher and tour guide par excellence. A frequent speaker at Round Tables and historical organizations across the U.S., Jim is a longtime friend of the KCWRT and our most visited speaker. In December 2015, the KCWRT honored Jim with a KCWRT Lifetime Membership Award for his dedication to Civil War Preservation as well as his contributions to the organization.

He will be our speaker for the December KCWRT meeting.

A native of St. Mary’s County, Maryland, Jim graduated from Frostburg State College with a degree in history after spending his summers working at Point Lookout State Park and doing an internship at Harpers Ferry NHP. Jim joined the National Park Service in 1982 and served at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Russell Cave, and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania before returning to Chickamauga Chattanooga NMP in 1988 as historian, the position he now holds.

Jim has taught numerous history courses and written several articles on the Civil War. He also has appeared in several TV productions including “Civil War Journal,” “Civil War Combat,” and “History Detectives.” Jim, his wife Lora, and their son Jamie (born on the133rd anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg) live in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.

KCWRT 2017 schedule of speakers

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Knoxville Civil War Rountable, speakers

THE KNOXVILLE CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE

2017 SPEAKERS SERIES

Jan 10– –Jim Lewis, Historian Stone’s River NMP, “Hell’s Half Acre”

Feb 14– –Earl Hess, LMU Professor, Author, Historian, “Civil War Tactics”

Mar 14– Curt Fields, Historian, “Appomattox: The Days Before the Surrender”

Apr 11– Eric Wittenberg, Attorney, Historian & Author, “Brandy Station”

May 9– –Bud Robertson, Historian & Author, “The Four-Legged Soldiers”

Jun 13– –Scott Mingus, Scientist, Historian & Author, “Extra Billy Smith”

Jul 18– –George Rable, Historian & Author, “Fredericksburg”

Aug 8– –Greg Biggs, Historian, “The Question was one of supplies: The logistics of Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign”

Sept 12– –Dave Mowery, Historian & Author, “Morgan’s Great Raid: Taking the War to the North”

Oct 10– –Eric Jacobson, historian and author, “For Cause and Country: Spring Hill and Franklin”

Nov 14– –Ed Bearss, Chief Historian Emeritus/Author, TBD

Dec 12– –Jim Ogden, Historian Chickamauga/Chattanooga NMP, TBD

Fort Dickerson Living History Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, October 28-29, 2016

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Fort Dickerson, Knoxville Civil War Rountable, Living History Weekend

Fort Dickerson, the Civil War earthwork atop a hill on Knoxville’s southern riverfront, will once again be populated with soldiers in blue and gray as the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable and the City of Knoxville present a Living History weekend on October 29th and 30th, 2016. Local re-enacting units, historians and authors alike will commemorate the Siege of Knoxville that took place in November of 1863.

The free event is sponsored by the City of Knoxville’s Parks and Recreation Department and hosted by the Civil War Roundtable. Fort Dickerson Park is located just off Chapman Highway in South Knoxville at 3000 Fort Dickerson Road.

The Living History Weekend will run from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Saturday, October 29, and from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., Sunday, October 30th. Activities will include living history campsites, infantry drilling with rifle firing demonstrations, a Civil War medical and surgical exhibit, ladies fashions, battle reenactments, cannon firings, and a salute to all veterans. Visitors are invited to park for free at Disc Exchange across from Shoney’s, where they can ride a free shuttle to Fort Dickerson.

KCWRT Scout’s Report, October 2016

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Knoxville Civil War Rountable

Check out the October 2016 Scout’s Report: october-2016e

The Rock fails to roll: George H. Thomas at Kennesaw Mountain

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Atlanta campaign, Benjamin Franklin Cheatham, Brian Steel Wills, George Henry Thomas, Joseph Johnston, Kennesaw Mountain, Knoxville Civil War Rountable, Old Slow Trot, Patrick Cleburne, Rock of Chickamauga

George Henry Thomas

The American Civil War opened avenues for many individuals to emerge as leaders in the conflict.

In 1861, George Thomas brought with him a West Point education and extensive earlier service in the field, including active involvement in the Mexican- American War. Before Thomas could become one of the most renowned general officers to serve the Union, however, he had to overcome doubts concerning his Virginia birth, his fidelity to the Union cause, and his willingness to wage campaigns zealously against his fellow Southerners.

His meticulous manner, reflected in the pre-war nickname, “Old Slow Trot,” also raised questions in the minds of superiors and some colleagues about the degree to which Thomas might be able to contribute to ultimate Union victory. George Henry Thomas overcame his doubters to become one of the Union’s top generals, known best to history as “the Rock of Chickamauga.”

Even so, when ordered to punch through the defenses of Joseph Johnston at Kennesaw Mountain during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, Thomas found the work formidable in the face of some of the Confederacy’s finest fighters —Patrick Cleburne and Benjamin Franklin Cheatham.

Come join us as author and historian Brian Steel Wills takes us for an in- depth look at the triumphant life and career of General Thomas while zeroing in on one of his more challenging days.

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED FOR DINNER CALL 865-671-9001

Scout’s Report, September 2016

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Knoxville Civil War Rountable, Scout's Report

You can download the September 2016 Scout’s Report here:

SEPT2016E

Marszalek: Sherman was ‘no villain’

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John Marszalek, Knoxville Civil War Rountable, Shiloh, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman

The members of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable will have to wait until Tuesday (July 12, 2016) to find out what historian John Marszalek has to say about William Tecumseh Sherman being “the South’s best friend.”

Before then, however, we can read a bit of what Marszalek has written about Sherman.

Here are some excerpts from Marszalek’s biography John F.. Sherman : A Soldier’s Passion for Order.

This from the Prologue:

William Tecumseh Sherman, photo by Matthew Brady

The destructive methods Sherman employed in the march to the sea were controversial, but he was no villain; he was one of the great military leaders of the Civil War. He knew how to outmaneuver a major Confederate army and how to destroy the Confederate will. He was an appealing individual, whom soldiers, family, and friends idolized. As a major public figure, he was in demand for both the office of the presidency and small social gatherings and public speeches. He impressed his contemporaries, influenced his age, and left a name for posterity.

Marszalek, John F.. Sherman : A Soldier’s Passion for Order. Carbondale, US: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 7 July 2016.
Copyright © 2007. Southern Illinois University Press. All rights reserved.

Petition drive underway to honor Ed Bearss

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Civil War Trust, Ed Bearss, Knoxville Civil War Rountable, National Park Service, petition drive

A petition drive is underway to honor Civil War historian Ed Bearss.

Bearss, historian emeritus for the National Park Service and a good friend of many in the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable, just turned 93 and is still active in the field of Civil War history and preservation.

Ed Bearss

Those who wish to join the petition drive may do so at this site.

Bearss is the Civil War Trust’s Special Assistant for Military Sites and former Chief Historian at the National Park Service. He is the winner of numerous history and preservation awards, including the T. Harry Williams Award, the Bruce Catton Award, the Alvin Calman Award, the Bell I. Wiley Award, the Harry S. Truman Award for Meritorious Service in the Field of Civil War History, and the Civil War Preservation Trust Edwin C. Bearss Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

Brian McKnight tells KCWRT about the life of Champ Ferguson

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Brian McKnight, Champ Ferguson, Civil War, Civil War in East Tennessee, Civil War partisams, Clinton County KY, Knoxville Civil War Rountable, partisan fighting

Historian Brian McKnight, professor at the University of Virginia-Wise, told the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable on Tuesday that partisan fighter and Confederate outlaw Champ Ferguson was a man who saw the world as “black or white.”

“You were either for him or against him,” McKnight said.

And if he thought you were against him, McKnight added, he would probably try to kill you.

Here’s a video (less than three minutes) of some of McKnight’s remarks:

 

Brian McKnight speaks to the KCWRT about Champ Ferguson from Jim Stovall on Vimeo.

 

McKnight made these additional points about Ferguson: