TOPIC:

AN EVENING ABOVE THE LOOKOUT
          MOUNTAIN BATTLEFIELD

Since we’re in the field this month, we’ll not have the Speaker’s Fund. It will return with our August meeting.

Alexander’s Bridge over Chickamauga Creek at kind of the southeast corner of the Chickamauga Battlefield, the site of John T. Wilder and his Lightning Brigade’s delay of “Shot Pouch” Walker’s Reserve Corps on September 18, 1863, is now 101 years old. The 1907 steel structure is at the end of its life. As a result, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and the Federal Highway Administration is beginning the process to rehabilitate or replace a bridge which in itself is historic and which is a key feature at an even more historic and significant location. Protecting that historic site is one of the KEY guidelines of the project so simply replacing it with a modern concrete and steel structure isn’t the direct answer. Rehabilitating the present structure or replacing it with a newly made one of the same type or a newly made one that might even fit into the historic landscape better than the present one are some of the options being considered. But, the National Park Service and the Federal Highway Administration wants to hear from you. And, the historic Chickamauga Battlefield NEEDS to have folks who appreciate the nationally significant events that unfolded at that site participate so as to remind the Federal officials involved just how important that history and that site is and how how they do their jobs matters—the men who hallowed that ground had a portion of it set aside as Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park “for the purpose of preserving and suitably marking for historical and professional military study the scene of some of the most remarkable maneuvers and brilliant fighting.”

As part of soliciting your views, there will be a public open house on Tuesday, July 22, between 6 and 8 PM at the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center in Fort Oglethorpe. Additional information can be found at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/chch and you can provide comment through that same site. Comments will be accepted through August 22. I’ll be there providing some historical information.

Have you joined the digital photography world? If so, there’s now a Civil War DIGITAL photography contest for you. It is sponsored by Civil War Preservation Trust, the History Channel, and the Center for Civil War Photography. For more information, rules, and entry data, see http://www.civilwar.org/photocontest.

Our contact at the University of Tennessee Press was traveling in the weeks following Dr. Smith’s talk last month so the remaining copies of Dr. Smith’s most recent book, The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation: The Decade of the 1890s and the Establishment of America’s First Five Military Parks, that the press sent us to have available at the meeting are still here. Hence, if anyone would still like to acquire a copy at the reduced price, $30.00 instead of $38.95, I’ll have them at this month’s meeting and you can pick one up. I’ll have to send the remaining copies back after that.

In June, 2007, the Tennessee General Assembly approved a special Tennessee license plate to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the War Between the States. Proceeds from the sale of the plate will go to support Civil War preservation activities in Tennessee through the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association. Actually implementing the plate’s use requires 1,000 pre-orders by June, 2008. For more information, see the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association website, www.tcwpa.org or email tcwpacontact@aol.com.

There were several WBTS related programs in the last month here locally and in the region. Did anyone make it to the “Fighting For the Middle Tennessee Heartland” Symposium in Franklin on June 19 or 20; or to dedication of the marker to Capt. Eli Lilly’s 18th Indiana Battery at Hoovers Gap on the 28th; or down to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park for their 144th anniversary commemoration on the 28th and 29th; or to the special clothing exhibit there July 3-5? Or up to see the newly renovated Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center and its new Siege and Battles for Chattanooga exhibits and the grandly re-lit Walker painting? If you were able to attend any of these events or another one of note since our last meeting and you’re at our July meeting, give us a report. Good intelligence is one of the keys to military success!

August 19, 2008 - To be announced

NEW ENTRIES:
July 26, 2008—“Civil War: Hoofbeats in the Heartland,” a symposium on Civil War cavalry in Tennessee, in conjunction with the exhibit on the subject, the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, Clarksville, Tennessee, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM CT, speakers include Myers Brown of the Tennessee State Museum on Joe Wheeler, Representative Steve McDaniel on Parker’s Crossroads, Gregg Biggs on Union cavalry at Shelbyville, and David Fraley of the Carter House on Forrest vs. Wilson in the 1864 Middle Tennessee Campaign; $35.00 if registered by July 10; for more information see www.ftdefianceclarksville.com or www.customshousemuseum.org or call 931-648-5780 or email krista@customshousemuseum.org
August 14, 2008—Noah Andre Trudeau speaks on his new book, Southern Storm: Sherman’s March To The Sea, for the Georgia Historical Society at the Congregation Mickve Israel Synagogue, Monterey Square, 20 East Gordon Street, Savannah, Georgia, 7 PM; for more information, see www.georgiahistory.com, or call 912-651-2125

PREVIOUS ENTRIES:

August 8-10, 2008—Nashville Southern Civilian Conference, Belmont Mansion, Nashville; bi-annual conference on Civil War era civilians; workshops and speakers and a tour of Nashville Civil War sites; for more information, contact Lynda Massey at 615-352-6384 or MasseyLA@aol.com
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 19, 20, & 21, 2008—Reenactment of the Battle of Chickamauga, to be held in McLemore’s Cove, Kensington, Walker County, Georgia; for information and for tickets, see www.BattleofChickamauga.net or call 1-800-624-0281, ext. 327
October 4-5, 2008—Commemoration of the 144th Anniversary of the Battle of Allatoona Pass, Allatoona Battlefield, part of Red Top Mountain State Park, 50 Lodge Road SE, Cartersville, GA 30121; I-75 Exit 285; battlefield tours and Living History Demonstrations; 10-5 each day; for more information, call 770-975-4226
October 10-12, 2008—“In a Strange Country: Longstreet in Tennessee,” a seminar of the Longstreet Society, Holiday Inn Select Downtown, Knoxville, featuring Lieut. Col. Harold Knudsen, Dr. Alexander Mendoza, and Dr. William G. Piston; places to be visited include the McClung Museum, Confederate Hall, Fort Sanders site, Confederate Cemetery, National Cemetery, Campbell Station. For more information, call 770-539-9005 or visit www.longstreet.org.
October 17 & 18, 2008—Dedication of Patrick Cleburne Monument, Ringgold, Georgia; more details later.
November 8-9, 2008—Civil War Naval History Symposium, Port Columbus Civil War Naval Museum, 1002 Victory Drive, Columbus, Georgia 31901, 706-327-9798, www.portcolumbus.org
November 13-15, 2008—16th 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; for more information, see
http://www.utc.edu/Academic/SymposiumOnThe19thCenturyPress/ or
http://www.utc.edu/commdept/conference, or call 423-425-4219

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