VOLUME XX DECEMBER 16, 2003 NO. 12
D E C E M B E R R O U N D T A B L E M E E T I N G
VISITORS & GUESTS WELCOME
DATE: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2003 TIME: 7:00 PM
TOPIC: "MOUNTAINEERS IN GRAY ON MISSIONARY RIDGE:
EAST TENNESSEE'S 19th TENNESSEE FIGHTS
ON ITS HOME SOIL"
SPEAKER: DR. JOHN D. FOWLER, KENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY
KENNESAW, GEORGIA
PLACE: MILLIS-EVANS ROOM
CALDWELL HALL, ACADEMIC QUADRANGLE
THE MCCALLIE SCHOOL, HISTORIC MISSIONARY RIDGE
(Directions to Caldwell Hall-Enter the McCallie School campus off of
Dodds Avenue opposite the end of Bailey Avenue. Take the main drive into the
campus and follow the signs for the Academic Quadrangle. There is a parking
area there beside the Chapel and you will have passed Caldwell Hall on the
right as you approach the parking area. Find a place and park. Caldwell Hall
will be behind you as you park. Come in either the first or second floor
doors and follow the signs up to the second floor and the Millis-Evans Room.)
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DECEMBER MEETING
East Tennessee wasn't the solidly Unionist region of the Volunteer State
it is often portrayed to be. Some of Tennessee's earliest Confederate
regiments came from East Tennessee. One, the 19th Tennessee Infantry,
included companies from the eastern state counties of Washington, Sullivan,
Rhea, Knox, Polk, McMinn, Hawkins, and Hamilton, and the regiment still had
sixty-four men in the ranks when the Army of Tennessee was surrendered in
North Carolina in 1865 (that's more men than even some Middle Tennessee
regiments). It saw action at Mill Springs, Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga,
Chattanooga, Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville. At Chattanooga, the men of the
two Hamilton County companies were figuratively fighting on their home turf
and, in at least one case, literally were doing that. Positioned on November
25, 1863 along Missionary Ridge south of Bragg's headquarters, they engaged
Federals within site of the home of their Major Beriah F. Moore's family's
home (the spring of the Moore family home forms the swimming lagoon outside
McCallie's Sports and Activities Center.)
In his talk this evening, Professor John D. Fowler will relate the
outline of the 19th Tennessee's history and some of the specific observations
that come from his analysis of the socio-economic background of the regiment.
However, he will primarily focus on the role of the 19th and Strahl's Brigade
in the Battle of Missionary Ridge, a portion of the ridge fight that still
this day is less well understood than other segments.
Dr. John D. Fowler is an Assistant Professor of History at Kennesaw
State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. A native of the Bluegrass State, he
holds an undergraduate and masters degree from Eastern Kentucky University in
Richmond, Kentucky, and a doctorate in history from the University of
Tennessee in Knoxville. His dissertation, "Mountaineers in Gray: The
Nineteenth Tennessee Infantry Regiment, CSA," is being revised for publication
by the University of Tennessee Press. He is now working on a new history of
Tennessee during the war, tentatively entitled, Awash in the Storm: Tennessee
During the Civil War Era. He is a member of the Southern Historical
Association and the Georgia Historical Society.
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SPEAKER'S FUND SUPPORT OF THE MONTH
There are three awards again this month in support of the Speaker's
Fund. The first is a copy of Dr. W. J. Worsham's The Old Nineteenth
Tennessee Regiment, C. S. A., the long-standing nearly sole source on the unit
that is the subject of our talk this evening. The second item is a copy of
James Lee McDonough's Stones River-Bloody Winter in Tennessee, McDonough's
1980 study of the winter Middle Tennessee battle that unfolds 141 years ago
this month. The third award is three of the six 1998 issues of the Civil War
Society's Civil War magazine with articles on the Hunley, Union Generals Crook
and Sheridan, and another December 1862 battle, Fredericksburg. The third of
the awards was donated to the Speaker's Fund by a Round member and to
that member goes our thanks. McDonough's book was acquired for the Speaker's
Fund for a dollar or so at a Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library
book sale. Proceeds from the Speaker's Fund go to help pay the travel
expenses of our out-of-town speakers. Your generous support of the Speaker's
Fund helps us bring in good folks from greater distances.
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CIVIL WAR HISTORY ON C-SPAN'S BOOK TV
Author James Perry will discuss his recent book, Touched With Fire: Five
Presidents and the Civil War Battles That Made Them, on C-SPAN 2's Book TV the
weekend of December 20-21. The program will air twice, first at the
reasonable hour of 8 PM on Saturday, December 20, and then for the second time
at 11 PM on Sunday, December 21. Might be an interesting program. Can you
name the "Civil War" Presidents? How many of them fought in the Campaign for
Chattanooga? Which ones were they? Any of the others have a close
Chattanooga tie?
The Book TV schedule for that weekend wasn't fully complete at the time
of this writing so if you are interested in seeing the program, you might want
to confirm the time on the website as the date approaches-www.booktv.org.
Answers-Grant, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, Harrison; two; Grant and
Garfield; Harrison, commanded the 70th Indiana, brought that regiment to
Chattanooga in the Spring of 1864 in preparation for the Atlanta Campaign and
later commanded a brigade in that campaign, twenty-six years later he signed
the legislation establishing Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military
Park.
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DUES AND OFFICERS
Round Table Dues Year 2003-2004 began October 1. Most folks have been
good about paying their dues. If you have not done so, please do! I'll start
purging the rolls of those who have not paid by the first of the year. You
can check your dues status by looking at the address label on this issue of
the Canister. If you are paid up and I've got it recorded properly you'll see
on the first line 9/2004 and then one or more letters depending upon your dues
category. If you see a 9/2003 you still need to pay. Please do, we wouldn't
want to loose you.
At the November meeting, the members present elected the nominated slate
of officers for 2004. The officers for 2004 are the same as those serving for
2003:
President--Jim Ogden Treasurer--David McGruff
Vice President--Ansley Moses Secretary--Neil Greenwood
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TRANSPORTATION PLAN AT CHICKAMAUGA BATTLEFIELD
Another series of meetings for the Transportation Plan being developed
for the area of the Chickamauga Battlefield was held on Monday, December 8,
2004. Unfortunately, the consultant hired by the Georgia Department of
Transportation for the study didn't announce even the date of the meeting
until November 17 and details regarding the time and place didn't come for
another week. Hence, getting the word out to Round Table members wasn't really
possible (for something this important, I don't know why the National Park
Service doesn't insist that the meeting dates be decided upon and announced
far enough in advance that the "news media of the Civil War community" can
disseminate the information to a group of people who would really have the
interest of preserving the Chickamauga Battlefield at heart; there's no reason
why these meeting dates can't be decided upon three and four months in advance
to ensure that notice of them gets in to Civil War News, Civil War Courier,
the Canister, and the newsletters of other Civil War Round Tables in the region;
and they are wondering why with just an announcement two and three weeks in
advance of the meting and only in the local Chattanooga media they aren't
hearing from many people in the Civil War, historic, and preservation
community!). I will try to have a report of the meetings for the Round Table
on December 16 but I would encourage you to visit the Study's website:
http://www.dot.state.ga.us/dot/plan-prog/planning/studies/index.shtml
and consider the information posted there and consider offering them your
opinion through the website as well.
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FUTURE ROUND TABLE MEETINGS
January 20, 2004 -
February 17, 2004-Mel Young, "Dr. Block: Union Surgeon to Chattanooga
Businessman"
July 20, 2004-"The Battle of LaFayette," Field Trip and Off-site Meeting,
Walker County Historical Society's Marsh-Warthen House, LaFayette, Georgia;
we'll arrange a car-pool convoy for this special trip to learn about one of
the smaller local battles from 140 years ago; more details later.
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UP-COMING LOCAL CIVIL WAR EVENTS OF NOTE
January 16, 2004 - Georgia Historical Society Roundtable Discussion
"Why Are We Still Fighting the Civil War," Dr. David Goldfield, UNC-Charlotte,
Dr. James I. "Bud" Robertson, Virginia Tech, John Shelton Reed, UNC-Chapel
Hill, Georgia Public Broadcasting Headquarters, Atlanta, Georgia 8 PM;
we'll see about getting a group up for anyone interested in going.
February 7-8, 2004 - 9th Annual Great Chickamauga Southern
National Civil War Show and Sale, Northwest Georgia Trade &
Convention Center, I-75 Exit 333/Walnut Avenue, Dalton, Georgia, 9-5 Sat.,
9-3 Sun.; more details later.
March 6, 2004 - Chattanooga Regional History Museum's 23rd Annual
David H. Gray History Fair, Clarion Hotel, 400 block of Chestnut Street,
opposite the Regional History Museum; more details next month.
March 6, 2004 - The 1864 Atlanta Campaign: An Historical Symposium,
sponsored by the Friends of Civil War Paulding County, Georgia, Inc.,
Chattahoochee Technical College Auditorium, Dallas, Georgia, speakers include
Dr. Keith Bohannon, Dr. J. D. Fowler, Jim Miles, and John Cissell; for more
information, 770-443-1459.
November 11-13, 2004--12th Annual Symposium on the 19th Century Press,
the Civil War, and Free Expression, sponsored by the University of Tennessee
at Chattanooga's Department of Communications, more details later.
[END OF DECEMBER 2003 ISSUE]
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