(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 to the Millis-Evans Room.)

A couple of years ago, our Round Table had the pleasure of hearing historian and author Morris Penny speak on Streight's Raid in April and May, 1863. You might recall that Morris made mention of a connection between Streight's Raid and Grant's initiation of his Vicksburg Campaign. He didn't talk too much about that connection that evening because he wanted to get to Forrest chasing down and capturing Streight's Mule Mounted Infantry. Now, though, Morris is back and he's going to focus on the several deception operations couducted by Grant and some of his subordinates to mask the real thrust down and across the Mississippi and then to Vicksburg's rear. The raid by Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson's cavalry force - the raid called by Sherman "The most brilliant expedition of the Civil War" - the raid that took Grierson across Mississippi from Tennessee to Baton Rouge - is the most widely recognized of those deception efforts, but there were more and Morris will talk about them as well as Grierson's more well known exploit. Come out and hear about the ventures that had Confederate John Pemberton on the defensive trying to cover everything at once and wondering which blue force was the real one to worry about.

There are four items again this month for the Speaker's Fund. The first is a copy of Triumph & Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign, by Terrence J. Winschel. Terry is the now longtime historian at Vicksburg National Military Park and the man who, second to Ed Bearss, knows the most about the Vicksburg Campaign. Triumph & Defeat includes a chapter on tonight's subject. The second item is a copy of Samuel Carter III's The Siege of Atlanta, 1864. It covers mostly the actions right around Atlanta itself. The third item is Dr. Nat and Bucky Hughes' Quiet Places: The Burial Sites of Civil War Generals in Tennessee. It's spring time and the weather is nice, typically, and the spring flowers are out so if you get this one, it can help you spend a couple of interesting days out of doors visiting some of these general's graves. The fourth item is all six issues of Civil War Times Illustrated for 1995 with articles on such subjects as the Confederate invasion of New Mexico, the Confederate secret code, Jeb Stuart vs. John Pope, Sherman's feuding generals in the Atlanta Campaign, and the travel's of Burnside's Ninth Corps, from East to West and back. The last three of the four items this month were donated to the Round Table to support the Speaker's Fund. To those donors go our thanks. Proceeds from the Speaker's Fund go toward bringing speakers in from outside the area. Your support of the Speaker's Fund is appreciated.

There are a couple of WBTS programs of note on the tube in the coming week or so for once. They include:

HISTORY CHANNEL

April 22, 5 PM 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America - "Antietam" - this is a new show too and aired first April 9. Did anyone get to see it that evening? I saw only a few minutes and it looked like it was well done. Probably worth catching.

April 25, 7 AM - Civil War Journal: "Pickett's Charge"

April 29, 8 AM - Unknown Civil War: "Shiloh, Part One: Tennessee River Campaign" - this is supposed to be a premier too; the blurb on the website is real general so I can't give any other details.

[Webmaster's note: additional information about this tour can be found at: CWRT of the District of Columbia Tour]

May 16, 2006 - Rebecca Karcher, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, "New Jersey in the Atlanta Campaign"
September 19, 2006 - Since it will be the 143rd anniversary of the fighting on September 19 at Chickamauga, we'll have an evening walking tour meeting on the Chickamauga Battlefield; bring a flashlight.
October 17, 2006 - Russell K. Brown, author of To The Manner Born: The Life of William H. T. Walker, Augusta's "Pet Company:" The Washington Light Artillery of August, Georgia, and "Our Connection With Savannah:" History of the FIrst Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters, 1862-1865, presenting a subject from the latter book, "Sharpshooters in the Valley of the River of Death: A Georgia Sharpshooter Battalion at Chickamauga."
November 21, 2006 - Sam Davis Elliott, "The Southern End of the Battle of Missionary Ridge"

November 9-11, 2006--14th 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.

[Note from the webmaster: a chart with the appropriate dues can be found at: Membership Dues. An application can be found at: application]