William C. Oates is best remembered as the Confederate officer defeated at Gettysburg's Little Round Top, losing a golden opportunity to turn the Union's flank and win the battle--and perhaps the war. Glenn W. LaFantasie’s talk, “William C. Oates in War and Peace,” reveals the many sides of Oates, including his Civil War experiences beyond Gettysburg and his career as a Southern political leader in the postwar period. Oates was no moonlight-and-magnolias Southerner. Raised in the hard-scrabble Wiregrass Country of Alabama, he ran away from home as a teenager, roamed through Louisiana and Texas--where he took up card sharking--and finally returned to Alabama, to pull himself up by his bootstraps and become a respected attorney. During the war, he rose to the rank of colonel, served under Stonewall Jackson and Lee, was wounded six times and lost an arm. Returning home, he became wealthy investing in land and cotton, married a woman half his age, and launched a successful political career, becoming a seven-term congressman and ultimately governor. For Oates and many others of his generation, the war never really ended—he remained devoted to the Lost Cause, and spent the rest of his life waging the political battles of Reconstruction. Yet in one of the final acts of his political career, Oates championed the cause of suffrage for black Americans, delivering an impassioned speech at his state's constitutional convention. Professor LaFantasie’s talk will reveal the compelling and sometimes astonishing dimensions of this remarkable individual.

Glenn W. LaFantasie, who received his Ph.D. in History from Brown University, is the Richard Frockt Family Professor of Civil War History and the Director of the Center for the Study of the Civil War in theWest at Western Kentucky University. He is the author of Gettysburg Requiem: The Life and Lost Causes of Confederate Colonel William C. Oates (Oxford University Press, 2006), and Twilight at Little Round Top (Wiley, 2005), which spent more than 40 weeks on the History Book Club bestseller list. A collection of his previously published essays, Perfect Heroes: Gettysburg and Its Many Meanings, will be published by Indiana University Press in Spring 2008. Over the past thirty years, he has held various positions in the field of public history, including Editor of Publications at the Rhode Island Historical Society, Deputy Historian of the U.S. Department of State in Washington, and Director of the Aldie Mill Historic Site in Virginia. He has previously taught at the University of Rhode Island, Gettysburg College, and the University of Maine at Farmington.

There are four items this month for the Speaker’s Fund. The first is a copy of our speaker’s book, Gettysburg Requiem: The Life and Lost Causes of Confederate Colonel William C. Oates. The second item is a copy of Dr. Steve Woodworth’s very important Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West. The third item is a copy of the Time-Life Civil War series volume, Brother Against Brother: The War Begins. The fourth item is a copy of the Avery Craven’s Civil War in the Making, 1815-1860. 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.

Tennessee Sons of Confederate Veterans Camps, including our local N. B. Forrest Camp No. 3, have been supporting the preservation and conservation of the Confederate flags in the Volunteer State’s collection at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville for years. As a part of this continuing effort, members of the N. B. Forrest Camp are going up to Nashville on Saturday, August 25, 2007, for a behind the scenes visit to see the latest progress. As many of you all will know, many of the flags have been display at one time or another in the exhibits in the State Museum but some have not been on display for years or were last on display before they had been properly conserved to ensure their long term preservation. Flag conservation work is technical, tedious, and costly but it is necessary work. This visit on the 25th will be a chance to get an update on the overall project. The members of the N. B. Forrest Camp have offered to let Round Table members go along if interested. Those interested in going are going to car pool and caravan up from the Ranger Station of the Tennessee River Park on Amnicola Highway. They are going to meet at the Ranger Station a little before 10 AM for a 10 AM departure. If you are interested in going or have additional questions, contact Round Table member and N. B. Forrest Camp Adjutant Terry Siler at tenncoastie@aol.com or 423-842-5963, or Round Table member and Forest Camp member Bob Epperson, bob@bobepperson.com, 706-935-3018. A five dollar (or more if you’d like) contribution to the restoration fund is being asked and you’ll have to buy lunch and probably dinner and help split the gas with those with whom you ride.

On a related but sad Confederate flag note, THE Civil War flag expert, North & South, Howard Michael Madaus passed away last month. If you’ve ever done much reading or research about Civil War flags, you’ve seen the name and you’ve certainly seen the products of his research. Howie is the man who is responsible for bringing scholarly focus to the subject of Civil War flags and was responsible for getting many of the present Civil War flag conservation programs underway. Some Round Table members will even remember our good fortune of having Howie speak to us once in the early ‘90s. A big void has been left in the Civil War field. If you go up on the 25th to see the Tennessee Confederate flag collection, you’ll be benefiting almost immeasurably from Howie’s more than thirty-five years of work on the subject. If you respected Howie’s work and can make the trip, it would be a fitting way to pay homage to a man who left us all so much.

September 18, 2007 - "Wilder and Walker Fight for Alexander’s Bridge,” an evening walking tour on the Chickamauga Battlefield on the evening of the 144th anniversary of those events; NOTE SPECIAL PLACE AND TIME--We will gather at the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center for this program before going out on the battlefield itself; we will start EARLIER than our time; we will start at 6:30 PM; bring a flashlight, wear comfortable and supportive walking shoes, and come dressed for the weather; more details later.
October 16, 2007 - Timothy B. Smith, Author, Historian, & Professor of History, University of Tennessee—Martin, “Via the Yazoo Pass?: Grant Strikes, Again, for Vicksburg”
November and December 2007 - To be announced.

NEW ENTRIES:
August 18, 2007—Historian and author Richard McMurry speaks to the Chattanooga Area Historical Association, 6:30 PM, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library, 1001 Broad Street, Chattanooga, “New Perspectives/Interpretations of the Civil War; free and open to the public
through December 30, 2007—“Portraits In Gray: A Civil War Photography Exhibition,” the Confederate, mostly Georgia, photographic collection of David Vaughn of Atlanta, including eight of the twelve known images of uniformed Georgia Military Institute cadets, also some other GMI artifacts, at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, 2829 Cherokee Street, Kennesaw, Georgia 30144, 770-427-2117, www.southernmuseum.com, free with paid admission to the museum
September 17-18, 2008—Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Symposium, Tusculum College, Tusculum, Tennessee, featured historians include Dr. Paul Bergeron, University of Tennessee (ret.), long time editor of The Papers of Andrew Johnson, and Dr. Eric Foner, Columbia University; more details later at www.tusculum.edu

PREVIOUS ENTRIES:
August 18, 2007—Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association’s “Two Flags” recognition of Wilder’s August 21, 1863 bombardment of Chattanooga; details soon, probably at Ross’s Landing; for more information email tcwpacontact@aol.com or see www.tcwpa.org
September 8-9, 2007--Battle of Tunnel Hill Reenactment, Tunnel Hill, Georgia; for more information, see www.tunnelhillheritagecenter.com or call 706-876-1571
September 11, 2007--National Park Service Chief Historian emeritus Ed Bearss speaks to the Knoxville CWRT, subject TBA; Bearden Banquet Hall, 5809 Kingston Pike, next to Buddy’s BBQ, Knoxville; dinner at 7, talk at 8; call 865-828-8752 or 865-671-9001 for dinner reservations by the Friday before the meeting.
September 14 to 23, 2007—144th Anniversary Commemoration of the Battle of Chickamauga, Chickamauga Battlefield unit of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., ranger led tours and talks, Living History presentations, etc.; more details later
September 15, 2007--War Between the States day, City of Chickamauga, Georgia
September 20, 2007—“Confederate Cavalry in the Western Theater,” presented by Tennessee State Museum Curator Myers Brown and State University of West Georgia Professor Dr. Keith Bohannon, Rock Point Books, southwest corner of Broad and 4th Street in Downtown; more details later
October 9, 2007--Dr. Mark Bradley, U. S. Army Center for Military History, speaks to the Knoxville CWRT on “Sherman’s Carolina Campaign and the Battle of Bentonville;” Bearden Banquet Hall, 5809 Kingston Pike, next to Buddy’s BBQ, Knoxville; dinner at 7, talk at 8; call 865-828-8752 or 865-671-9001 for dinner reservations by the Friday before the meeting.
November 5, 2007—Retired National Park Service Chief Historian Edwin C. Bearss presents final lecture in the Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park’s Second Annual Vital Speakers Series; topic and details to be announced later.
November 8-10, 2007--15th 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.
November 13, 2007--Historian and author Dr. Richard McMurry speaks to the Knoxville CWRT on “General in a Jar;” Bearden Banquet Hall, 5809 Kingston Pike, next to Buddy’s BBQ, Knoxville; dinner at 7, talk at 8; call 865-828-8752 or 865-671-9001 for dinner reservations by the Friday before the meeting.
November 18, 2007—Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association’s “Two Flags” recognition of the Battle of Missionary Ridge, 3 PM, Bragg Reservation, Missionary Ridge; includes walking tour of portion of the Missionary Ridge Battlefield; for more information email tcwpacontact@aol.com or see www.tcwpa.org
December 1-2, 2007—Nashville Civil War Show, Tennessee State Fairgrounds, Nashville; for details see www.mikekentshows.net
February 2-3, 2008—Chickamauga Civil War Show, Northwest Georgia Trade Center, Dalton; for more information see www.mikekentshows.net
March 14-16, 2008—Chickamauga Study Group 2008 “Seminar in the Woods;” two days of half day walking tours of individual phases of the Battle of Chickamauga with a possible optional half day tour on the final morning; specific phases to be studied in the 2008 Seminar are under consideration presently and will be announced soon; for more information in a couple of months, contact David Powell, Dpowell334@aol.com. [See Study Group 2007 for this year's event.]

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