* *SPECIAL DATE--THE SECOND TUESDAY OF THE MONTH & NOT THE THIRD * *

As noted last month, Sam's professional responsibilities as an attorney makes it very difficult for him to speak to us on our normal third Tuesday of the month meeting night.
Therefore, for our February meeting, we are meeting one week early, on the SECOND TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2010.

NEW ENTRIES:
February 3-28, 2010--"Blacks in Blue and Gray," a pictorial exhibit recognizing the contributions of former slaves and free Blacks toward their freedom in the Civil War, Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center, 8:30 AM to 5 PM
February 11, 2010--"Margaret Mitchell {the author of Gone With The Wind}: A Woman Who Danced on the Edge of Her Culture," presented by Dr. Jennifer Dickey, Professor of Public History, Kennesaw State University, at 7:30 PM in Room 105 of the James E. Brown Center on the campus of Dalton State College as a part of the Dicksie Bradley Bandy Memorial Lecture Series; for more information, email hhowell@daltonstate.edu
February 13, 2010--"The History of Newspapers in Chattanooga," presented by Lee Anderson of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Chattanooga Area Historical Association Luncheon, 11:30 AM, Roosevelt Room, Chattanooga Choo Choo, $22, call 423-266-5592 or email rsmithmurray@gmail.com for reservations.
February 25, 2010--"Secessionists, Cooperationists, and Unionists: North Georgians Debate the Creation of a Southern Republic, 1860-1861," presented by Dr. Keith S. Bohannon, Professor of History, University of West Georgia, at 7:30 PM in the Goodroe Auditorium on the campus of Dalton State College as part of the Bandy Heritage Center's 1st Annual Civil War Lecture Series; for more information, email hhowell@daltonstate.edu
February 27, 2010--Walking Tour of the Union Artillery Fortification Complex on Moccasin Bend, led by Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park Historian Jim Ogden. 10 AM to Noon; dress for the weather and wear comfortable, supportive walking shoes and come out and explore the Union cannon positions Confederate artillerist Edward Porter Alexander called a "vicious little battery." Get on to Moccasin Bend Road and head south toward the Moccasin Bend State Mental Health Institute and look for the Park Ranger and the "Special Program" sign on the right just before entering the MHI grounds.
March 18-20, 2010--7th Annual Symposium on New Interpretations of the American Civil War, this year, "Alternative Southern Realities: African Americans and the American Civil War," speakers include John Vlach (author of Back of the Big House: The Architecture of Plantation Slavery), Dr. Erskine Clarke (author of Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic, a narrative history of the extended Charles C. Jones family of Liberty County, Georgia, and their slaves chronicled in the 1970s by the families' letters in Children of Pride), Allison Dorsey (Swarthmore College), Margaret Humphreys (Duke University, author of Intensely Human: The Health of Black Soldiers in the American Civil War), Thavolia Glymph (Duke University, author of Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household), Michael Harris, Samuel Livingston, David Reynolds, Patricia Davis, and Garrett Silliman (battlefield archaeologist with Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc.); co-sponsored by Kennesaw State University's Center for the Study of the Civil War Era and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park; for additional information and registration information see www.kennesaw.edu/civilwarera/ or call 678-797-2551 or email hglassav@kennesaw.edu
March 20, 2010--Tour of downtown Atlanta Civil War Sites, conducted by the Georgia Battlefields Association for the Atlanta Preservation Center's annual Phoenix Flies program; for more information see www.phoenixflies.org or www.preserveatlanta.com

PREVIOUS ENTRIES:
February 6 & 7, 2010—Great Chickamauga Southern Civil War Show & Sale, Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center, Exit 333, Dalton, Georgia; for more information, www.mikekentshows.net, mlkshows@yahoo.com, 770-267-0989.
February 13, 2010--Stringer's Ridge Hike--The Trust for Public Land and Outdoor Chattanooga will sponsor and lead a free, guided hike of the wooded 92 acre parcel TPL is working to save on Stringer's Ridge. The view of Chattanooga from those hilltops is impressive and it was from hill tops like those that James Negley in June, 1862, and John Wilder in August, 1863, shelled Confederate-held Chattanooga. All hikers are welcome. The hike will last about two hours and will go at a 2 to 3 mile an hour pace. Meet at Outdoor Chattanooga at 200 River Street (by Coolidge Park) at 1 PM. The group will then car caravan to the trail head. Call 423-643-6888 for more information. This will be a fine opportunity to get an early look at what could become one of Chattanooga's best parks.
March 11-14, 2010--Georgia Battlefield Association 2010 Bearss Tour, this year Hood's October, 1864, North Georgia Campaign; retired National Park Service Chief Historian Ed Bearss will take the group important points of the campaign including Palmetto, Lost Mountain, Allatoona Pass, Resaca, Tilton, Dalton, and Ship's Gap. $395 per person; based out of Fairfield Inn, Cartersville. Georgia Battlefield Association, 7 Camden Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30309, www.georgiabattlefields.org, info@georgiabattlefields.org, for more information
March 12-13, 2010--Chickamauga "Seminar in the Woods," this year following, on Friday, Confederate Commander Braxton Bragg in the days leading up to and including the battle--Lee & Gordon Mills, LaFayette, Leet's Tanyard, Thedford's Ford, etc.; and on Saturday Cleburne's Sunday assault and the fight on the Union left; for more information, dpowell334@aol.com
March 20, 2010--"The Legacy of Stones River Symposium 2010: Why They Fought"--8 AM to 4 PM Central Time, held in the Historic Rutherford County Courthouse on the Public Square in Murfreesboro; the speaker are:
     Sam Davis Elliott--"The Battle of Stones River's Effect on the Leadership of the Army of Tennessee"
     Dr. Keith Bohannon, University of West Georgia--"Virginian in Blue: George H. Thomas and the Civil War in Tennessee"
     Dr. Kenneth Noe, Auburn University--"Reluctant Rebels: The Confederates Who Joined the Army After 1861," author of a book by the same title to be published this spring
$10.00 registration fee. For more information, call 615-893-9501 or visit www.nps.gov/stri or www.tncivilwar.org. Registration brochure can be downloaded from those sites. There will also be copies available at the January and February Round Table meetings.
September 25, 2010--2010 Forrest Seminar, hosted by N. B. Forrest Camp No. 3, Sons of Confederate Veterans, focusing on Forrest in the Chickamauga Campaign, talks and tour, to be held at the Colonade Civic Center on Old Mill Road off Battlefield Parkway (Ga. Hwy. 2) between Ringgold and Fort Oglethorpe; more details later.
November 11-13, 2010—18th 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

...from Messages of the Governors of Tennessee, 1857-1869 by Dr. Robert H. White, 1959

pp. 147-148

      "Bragg marched to cut Rosecrans's army off from Chattanooga. Approaching from the southeast, the Army of Tennessee crossed Chickamauga Creek in an effort to interdict the Chattanooga - Lafayette road. The armies met 'in two days of hard fighting' that resulted in Rosecrans's tactical defeat, but the Federals' retreat into Chattanooga meant that the strategic goal of Bragg's attack was not achieved. A 'keen-eyed' Harris was seen riding along the battle line by a young Georgia soldier, showing as much interest as any of the generals. Another observer saw that the governor was 'there encouraging by act, deed and word, the men of his state.' In addition to his service on Bragg's staff, Harris continued his practice of making quasi-official battle reports to Tennessee newspapers, on September 20 telegraphing to the Memphis Daily Appeal, then based in Atlanta, that the Army of Tennessee had been successful in driving the enemy from his positions in the first day's fighting, but 'the engagement [was] not yet decisive.' Harris reported heavy casualties on both sides, including prominent officers who were killed and wounded. Harris concluded: 'Troops never fought better than ours. They are in high spirits, and ready to meet the enemy again to-morrow.'
      Harris thought that the Federals were 'whipped, badly whipped' on September 20, 'and if he had been vigorously pursued from the field he would have been crushed.' But uncertainty at army headquarters the night of September 20 as to whether the Federals remained on the field prevailed, although at least Leonidas Polk and his subordinate, St. John Richardson Liddell, told Bragg that the Army of the Cumberland had retreated. As Harris wrote some months later, 'when the firing ceased instead of following up a victory which had cost us so much & by which we had fairly won all the territory to the Mississippi river, we quietly bivouacked on the field.' Harris later told Secretary of War Seddon that 'Bragg did not know that a victory had been won, and when told that Rosecrans would escape during the night, would not hear of it, but insisted that a severe battle would have to be fought the next day.' That next day, September 21, Harris once more telegraphed the Appeal, reporting a 'complete' victory, and that the army was 'in fine spirits, ready and eager for a vigorous pursuit.'"

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