If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Ulysses S. Grant certainly followed that old adage as he tried first one route and then another as he doggedly sought to wrest Vicksburg from Southern control. Overland from West Tennessee and Northern Mississippi; via water up the Yazoo to Chickasaw Bayou; dig a canal; Steel’s Bayou; and, via Yazoo Pass. None of these routes turned out to be successful; in the end, as we know, he crossed the mighty Mississippi downstream of Vicksburg and swung in behind the city to besiege it. But, with the earlier efforts, when they were conceived, they all seemed to have a chance and they certainly would help keep the Confederates on guard over a vast area, and to Abraham Lincoln and the Northern people, it made it seem like he was really actively pursuing the conduct of the war. For our speech tonight, we’ll learn about Grant’s effort to try to get at Vicksburg via the Yazoo Pass. It was the water route that seemingly offered the greatest promise for success—from the Mississippi opposite Helena, through Moon Lake, Yazoo Pass, the Coldwater River to the Yalobusha to the Yazoo and then to the Snyder’s and Haynes’ Bluff area. Maybe he could get at Vicksburg from the east. Maybe………if the gunboats and transports could navigate this torturous route. The story of this Grant offensive against Vicksburg is the subject of our talk tonight. In “Via the Yazoo Pass?: Grant Strikes, Again, for Vicksburg,” Historian, author, and University of Tennessee at Martin Professor Timothy B. Smith will explain how the combined Army and Navy operation struggled mightily for success before being defeated by geography and the Confederates. Grant would have to come another way.

Tim Smith has previously spoken to our Round Table. He is a former Vicksburg National Military Park and Shiloh National Military Park employee and holds a PH.D. in history from Mississippi State University. He is the author of The Great Battlefield of Shiloh: Histor, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park and Champion Hill: Decisive Battle For Vicksburg. Presently, Tim is a professor of History at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Tim, his wife, and daughter, live in Adamsville, Tennessee.

There are four items this month for the Speaker’s Fund. The first is a copy of our speaker’s book, Champion Hill: Decisive Battle For Vicksburg. The second item, since it is the 145th anniversary month of that battle, is a copy of Dr. Kenneth W. Noe's wonderful Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle published in 2001 by the University of Kentucky Press. The third item is a copy of Avery O. Craven's Civil War in the Making, 1815-1860. The fourth item is a copy of the Winter, 1999, issue of the Civil War publication Columbiad. 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.

One hundred and forty-four years ago, in late summer and early fall, this region saw great activity and it certainly feels, in some ways, that it did again this late summer and early fall. There have been a lot of WBTS-related activities going on……..more than probably anyone could take in…….although I think the Hay’s tried…….

Some folks attended some of the many programs Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park offered to recognize the 144th anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga I know. Anyone see the Western Independent Grays’s Army of Northern Virginia—Army of Tennessee Comparison Living History and have any observations? Anyone make it to the Marsh House event in LaFayette? A few folks listened to the fine Confederate cavalry talks by Myers Brown and Keith Bohannon. Did any go down to the Battle of Allatoona Pass program on Oct. 6 or hear Richard McMurry on the 8th?

In addition, Ed Bearss was back in the area doing six days of tours for a forty-nine person group put together by History America Tours, and fifteen folks of the Cleveland, Ohio, Civil War Round Table spent two days touring the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battlefields, and the Northeast Ohio Civil War Round Table spent two days at Chickamauga. Lot’s going on.

Retired National Park Service Chief Historian and nationally known battlefield tour guide Ed Bearss will speak here in Chattanooga on Monday, November 5, 2007, at 7 PM in the auditorium of the Tennessee Aquarium at Ross’s Landing in downtown Chattanooga. Ed’s speech is the concluding lecture in this year’s Vital Lecture series offered by the Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park. While I don’t have a specific title for his talk at press time, I’m sure it will examine some aspect of the importance of the Civil events in the Chattanooga in the fall of 1863 that help explain just how significant those events are to our nation’s history and hence why what happened on or before Moccasin Bend as a part of those events is so valuable to preserve and commemorate. It should be a treat. The Aquarium auditorium is a nice venue for a talk so come out and get an extra Civil War night in in November.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Communications’ 15th Annual Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression will be held November 8 to 10, 2007. The Thursday evening session is at the Sheraton Read House and those on Friday and Saturday in the Raccoon Mountain Room of the UTC University Center. Enclosed you will find an early and not yet final version of the schedule of the talks. As always, several look interesting. Members of the Round Table are cordially invited to attend. [NOTE: a link to this schedule is available at: 2007 Symposium Schedule.]

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:
November 16, 2007 to January 13, 2008—the special exhibit from the Tennessee State Museum, “Hoofbeats in the Heartland: Civil War Cavalry in Tennessee,” will be at the Sam Davis Home in Smyrna, Tennessee.

PREVIOUS ENTRIES:
October 12-14, 2007—Battle of Blue Springs Re-enactment, Mosheim, Tennessee, northeast of Knoxville, www.battleofbluesprings.com
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
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
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

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