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June 2009 CANISTER Newsletter Website Version of Our Monthly Newsletter |
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June 2009 CANISTER Newsletter Website Version of Our Monthly Newsletter |
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CANISTER From The Chattanooga Civil War Round Table www.chattanoogacwrt.org |
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| VOLUME XXV1 | JUNE 16, 2009 | NO. 6 |
VISITORS AND GUESTS WELCOME |
| DATE: | TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2009 | TIME: 7 PM |
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TOPIC: |
“'...at least twenty guns playing on us...': C. I. Walker, Manigault's Palmetto Boys, and Hood's Battle of Zion Church, June 22, 1864” |
| SPEAKER: | LEE WHITE, AUTHOR & HISTORIAN |
| PLACE: |
MILLIS-EVANS ROOM, CALDWELL HALL, ACADEMIC QUADRANGLE, THE McCALLIE SCHOOL, HISTORIC MISSIONARY RIDGE |
| (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.) |
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JUNE MEETING |
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"The greater part of our men, after clearing the brow of the hill behind which they had been formed, were exposed to a fire of both artillery and infantry for a full half-mile; but they swept boldly forward, regardless of the withering fire directed against them by the enemy from behind their well-constructed works..." So Brigadier-General Authur Middleton Manigault described the opening of the Confederate attack along the Powder Springs Road west of Marietta on June 22, 1864. Despite the seemingly auspicious start, Manigault would soon relate the outcome--the enemy was on the other side of a "boggy, miry" creek that broke the impetus of the attack and which allowed the fire of twenty well placed Union guns to pound the nearly stuck Confederates. "...The affair was a miserable failure........The most ordinary recognizance should have revealed the fact as to which side of the creek the enemy's lines were on..........The ground had been ridden over by many officers the day before, at latest, and ought to have been thoroughly understood by General Hood, the greater part of his staff, and particularly the engineers.......[it] cost us 1,500 or 2,000 men, to no purpose...."
Lee will have "hot off the presses" copies of Great Things Are Expected of Us: The Letters of Colonel C. Irvine Walker, 10th South Carolina Infantry, C. S. A. available for purchase at the meeting ($35.95 retail). |
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SPEAKER'S FUND SUPPORT OF THE MONTH There are four items this month for the Speaker’s Fund. The first this month is a copy of our speaker's book, Great Things Are Expected of Us: The Letters of Colonel C. Irvine Walker, 10th South Carolina Infantry, C. S. A.. The second item is a copy of Charles and Barbara Whalen's The Fighting McCooks: America's Famous Fighting Family; Seventeen McCooks Fought for the North in the Civil War which was donated to the Round Table by the authors. The third item is a copy of the North & South magazine with 140th anniversary commemorative articles on the Overland Campaign in Virginia. Those articles include a campaign overview one by Gordon C. Rhea, the author of a series of books on the campaign, another on the Battle of Yellow Tavern, and one on General Lee's Generalship. The fourth item is the June, 1995, , issue of Blue & Gray Magazine with an article on the second day of the Battle of the Wilderness. In addition to the great article, as in all the Blue & Grays, there's a tour of associated sites, some off the beaten path. Three of the 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. |
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A THANKS TO ANSLEY Work prevented me from being at May's meeting so I greatly appreciate our fine Vice President Ansley Moses standing in in my place. |
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SCOUTS REPORTS! There were several Civil War related programs here locally and in the region in the month between our May and June meetings. A couple of folks I know made it out to the (monsoon-shortened) Torch Light Tour of the Chattanooga National Cemetery on Monday, Memorial Day evening, May 25. Did anyone go for a hike at Lula Lake on the 30th or 6th? If you were able to attend any of these events or another one of note since our last meeting and you’re at our June meeting, give us a report. Good intelligence is one of the keys to military success! |
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VICKSBURG BATTLEFIELD LANDSCAPE A year or so ago, the CANISTER carried some information the development of a Cultural Landscape Report at Vicksburg National Military Park. At that time, the National Military Park was seeking in put on landscape restoration and maintenance--everything from no action/continuance of present practices (which has allowed almost all historic vistas to disappear), to limited historic scene restoration in limited areas, to more extensive restoration over more of the battlefield. Now, the National Park Service is back with a more concrete plan to comment on. The "Preferred Alternative" is essentially restoration at a limited number of sites. A newsletter announcing the comment period has been distributed. If you commented last year, you should have received a copy. The newsletter announces that an alternative calling for full restoration of the National Military Park's historic landscape is no longer being considered. There is an alternative that calls for and expanded program of limited restoration, but even this alternative will leave most of the battlefield with vistas not at all like those that would have been experienced in 1863 or even what the veterans envisioned when they created the National Military Park. The plan proposed here is far different from the concept that is being implemented at Gettysburg and which is doing so much to help with understanding that historic ground. You can find the newsletter and related material, and the ability to comment, at: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/VICK/ For those of us who seek to understand this critical period in our nation's development by visiting the ground, I would hope that you would strongly encourage the National Park Service to reconsider these limited options, particularly in light of the purpose of the National Military Park, that of preserving and interpreting the climatic scene of that deciding campaign.
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PARKER'S CROSSROADS BATTLEFIELD PRESERVATION Some of you all may have received the mailing from Civil War Preservation Trust about their fundraising efforts to save another piece of the Parker's Crossroads Battlefield in West Tennessee. Parker's Crossroads is the scene of the December 31, 1862 battle in which Nathan Forrest said, when informed of Federals closing in on his rear as well as his front, that he'd charge them both ways. CWPT is supporting the local group in protecting more of the battlefield. You can learn more by visiting CWPT's website at www.civilwar.org. They have already helped the local group preserve 214 acres at the site. Contributions to the effort are matched dollar for dollar. You could mail a contribution to CWPT's Hagerstown, Maryland, office at 11 Public Square, Suite 200, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740. A map of the battle and the preservation efforts appears elsewhere in the newsletter. It is in color so you might want to look at it online at our website or CWPT's. [To view CWPT's color battlefield map pdf, click here: The CWPT's Parker's Crossroads, TN Appeal Map] [To learn more about the Civil War Preservation Trust, please click here: Civil War Preservation Trust.] |
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STRINGER'S RIDGE PRESERVATION EFFORT Almost certainly, you've seen in the paper or on the news or heard on the radio that The Trust For Public Land (TPL; www.tpl.org, 202 Tremont Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37405; 423-265-5229) has put together a deal to purchase and preserve the 92-acre tract of land on Stringer's Ridge that late last year and early this year was being considered for a high-rise condo development. These hill tops are the backdrop to downtown Chattanooga when viewed from downtown northward and are some of the ones occupied by Union soldiers in June of 1862 and August of 1863 in their first direct attacks on the "Gateway to the Deep South." The view from some of them is quite enlightening and instructive. TPL has and is putting together a coalition of community and conservation agencies, activities, groups, and individuals to make the purchase possible. Part of their effort is a grass roots appeal. They would love donations small or large to help show the public support for the project. There will be more information on this effort available at the meeting. |
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OUR MEETING PLACE AT MCCALLIE As most of you all know by simply attending our meetings, the campus of The McCallie School on Historic Missionary Ridge is frequently a very busy place; many evenings, there are a lot of activities going on at the same time and this has only increased in the last couple of years. In the interest of being considerate “house guests,” we’re going to reduce our impact just a little bit. The Millis-Evans Room where we usually meet is now often used first thing in the morning, so we’re going to help by doing the “re-set-up” of the room after our meeting. We want folks to still have a few minutes to ask questions of our speakers informally and to converse amongst themselves, but we would like to have a couple of folks volunteer after a few minutes to help in putting the folding chairs away in the closet and putting the tables and other chairs back out in the room as they “normally” are. So, if you’re able, and can spare a few minutes after the meeting, we’d greatly appreciate the help. As a number of us have learned over the years when we’ve done it occasionally, it’s not a great amount of work and goes pretty quickly. |
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FUTURE ROUND TABLE MEETINGS July 21, 2009 -- IN THE FIELD -- December 15, 2009 - Jim Lewis, Park Ranger, Stones River National Battlefield, "Forrest, Milroy, & the Battle of the Cedars (December, 1864)" |
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UP-COMING LOCAL CIVIL WAR EVENTS OF NOTE NEW ENTRIES:
June 20, 2009 - Fundraiser Open House at the Nathan Bedford Forrest Boyhood Home
in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. Lectures, Living History, period games, Cliff Kelley speaking on Sam Davis,
Dr. Michael Bradley, Ruth Hill McAllister signing copies of her revised Company Aytch: 1st Tennessee by
Sam Watkins, her ancestor. Information and directions available at
http://elmspringscsa.com/id21.html or
call Gene Andrews at 615-833-8977.
PREVIOUS ENTRIES:
June 18-20, 2009—Franklin’s Charge’s “Franklin to Nashville: The Last Days of the Army of Tennessee”
Symposium, Franklin, Tennessee, info@frankinscharge.com, 615-595-0636, www.franklinscharge.com. |
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www.chattanoogacwrt.org |
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President -- Jim Ogden Vice President -- Ansley Moses |
Treasurer -- Harvey Scarborough Secretary -- Neil Greenwood |
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If you or a friend would like to join the Chattanooga Civil War Round Table, send
your check for dues, made out to Chattanooga Civil War Round Table, to Chattanooga
Civil War round Table, c/o Jim Ogden, 4 Gala Drive, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia 30742.
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Regular Membership $20.00 Senior Citizen (62+) $15.00 |
Family Membership $30.00 Student $15.00 |
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The Round Table dues year is October 1 to September 30. Membership fee for new
members joining after October is pro-rated, being reduced by $1.50 per month for
regular membership, by $2.50 per month for family membership, and $1.00 per month
for Senior Citizens and Students. Members up-dating their dues or rejoining are
expected to pay the full rate. [Note from the webmaster: a chart with the appropriate dues can be found at: Membership Dues. An application can be found at: application] |
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