“…Soldiers, you are largely re-enforced; you must now seek the contest. In so doing I know you will be content to suffer privations and encounter hardships.
Heretofore you have never failed to respond to your general when he has asked sacrifice at your hands……….Your generals will lead you; you have but to respond to assure us a glorious triumph over an insolent foe………….”
With those words in a general order issued on September 16, Army of Tennessee commander Braxton Bragg steeled his men for another offensive thrust at an “insolent foe,” William Rosecrans’ Army of the Cumberland, the force that had forced Bragg to give up Chattanooga now a week ago. This offensive thrust, its details still then being developed on the 16th, would again be in the valley of West Chickamauga Creek, but this time the creek would figure more prominently. It had become the obstacle or barrier between the two armies. For Bragg to strike at Rosecrans, he would have to get his army across the creek. As the plan developed, the points for the crossings of the creek became more clear and more specific. It would be necessary to seize and use bridges and fords. But, given the terrain and the position of the two armies, Bragg’s plan would not come entirely as a surprise. Rosecrans had begun to anticipate just such a move. As troops became available, the Federal commander guarded more and more of the crossings of the Chickamauga, including eventually some of the very ones Bragg had identified for use. On the 17th, Rosecrans positioned his Spencer Rifle armed brigade of mounted infantry under Colonel John T. Wilder at the wooden trestle bridge known as Alexander’s. Wilder’s arrival there set the stage for an important clash that played an important part in preventing Bragg’s hoped for “glorious triumph over an insolent foe,” at least the way he had initially envisioned it.

Our anniversary evening walking tour will explore part of the ground of the important fight at Alexander’s Bridge on September 18, 1863, between Bragg’s Reserve Corps under Major-General William H. T. Walker and Wilder’s Brigade. This fight is one of the several on the far too often overlooked first day of the Battle of Chickamauga that helps explain how and why the Confederate victory in the Valley of the River of Death was not as complete as it could have been. Come out and learn more about this fight.

Since we’re meeting at the Chickamauga Battlefield this month, there won’t be a Speaker’s Fund prize. We’ll look forward to seeing the Speaker’s Fund again next month.

We’ll have less time at the start of this month’s meeting for general business and general reports, but if anyone did attend any of the recent area or regional War Between the States events and they were particularly notable, we’ll certainly take a few minutes for some brief reports. Did anyone attend the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association’s “Two Flags” event at Ross’s Landing, or go to see the Tennessee State Museum’s Confederate flag collection with N. B. Forrest Camp No. 3, or go to the re-enactment at Tunnel Hill, or up to the Knoxville CWRT to hear Ed Bearss speak? If you did attend any of these or other Civil War events and you make it to the meeting, make a report if you will.

Since this is the anniversary month of the biggest and bloodiest battle in the Campaign for Chattanooga in 1863, there are a lot of Civil War events going on that you can participate in to help recognize the one hundred and forty-fourth anniversary of those events that helped shape the war of the era that profoundly shaped our nation. Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park has a whole series of activities planned between the 14th and the 23rd (see insert and on the Round Table’s website or at the National Military Park’s website, www.nps.gov/chch); the City of Chickamauga, Georgia, has its War Between the States Days on Saturday the 15th; there are the cavalry talks at Rock Point Books on the 20th (see below); and there are the Marsh House activities in LaFayette on the 22nd (see below also). There should be something for almost everyone with at Civil War interest in the next couple of weeks.

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 20, 2007 - To be announced.
December 18, 2007 - “Telling Moccasin Bend’s Civil War Story; We Want to Hear Your Ideas,” Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park & you

NEW ENTRIES:
September 22, 2007—Heritage Day at the Marsh House in LaFayette, tours of the restored Marsh House, tours of the LaFayette Presbyterian Church, demonstrations, children’s activities, 11 AM to 3 PM; on Business U. S. 27 in LaFayette at Confederate Park, next to the LaFayette Police and Fire Station
October 6, 2007—October 5, 1864, Battle of Allatoona Pass Recognition Day, battlefield tours, demonstrations, Historic Clayton Mooney House open, 11 AM ceremony acknowledging the transfer of the management of the preserved portions of the Allatoona Pass Battlefield from the Army Corps of Engineers to the Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites’ Red Top Mountain State Park; trail and interpretative improvements already underway; for more information, contact Red Top Mountain State Park, 770-975-4226, 50 Lodge Road Southeast, Cartersville, Georgia 30121
October 12-14, 2007—Battle of Blue Springs Re-enactment, Mosheim, Tennessee, northeast of Knoxville, www.battleofbluesprings.com
November 30, 2007—Nathan Bedford Forrest Seminar, Rippavilla Mansion, Spring Hill, Tennessee, sponsored by the Tennessee Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, featuring Greg Biggs on “Nathan Bedford Forrest and Napoleonic Cavalry Tactics,” Dr. Michael Bradley on “Forrest’s Escort,” and Lonnie Maness on “Forrest: An Untutored Genius,” $30, make checks payable to Tennessee Division, SCV with “Forrest Seminar” on memo line, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Division Adjutant, P. O. Box 782, Lebanon, Tennessee 37088, jraym@bellsouth.net, 615-331-3954

PREVIOUS ENTRIES:
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 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
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 8, 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
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
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
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.]
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

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