Our 127th meeting.
Clarksville, TN – The next meeting of the Clarksville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Wednesday, November 19th, 2014 at the Bone & Joint Center, 980 Professional Park Drive, right across the street from Gateway Medical Center.
This is just off Dunlop Lane and Holiday Drive and only a few minutes east of Governor’s Square mall. The meeting begins at 7:00 pm and is always open to the public.
Topic: “Fort Donelson: One Soldier’s Story”
John Kennerly Farris, along with his two brothers, Bud and Sam, enlisted for Confederate service in Company I of the 41st Tennessee Volunteer Army in November of 1861 at Winchester, Tennessee. John was studying medicine at the time and had established a small practice in Decherd.
After training at Camp Trousdale, in less than two months, the brothers would have their first real experience of “war” at Fort Donelson where they were captured. While a prisoner at Camp Morton, Indiana, he began keeping a diary in the form of letters to his wife, Mary, with detailed lists of men who served, who were wounded, who took the Union Oath of Allegiance, and when they were exchanged and reorganized in Mississippi.
As a practicing physician, he was always eager to learn new treatments for soldiers’ ailments, and kept recipes for various afflictions, including camp cough, mumps, gunshot wounds, itch, and gonorrhea. His journey would take him through various battles in Mississippi, Port Hudson, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville, and shares his thoughts through the four long, hard years he endured — of joy and sorrow, of hope and despair, honor bound at times to a Cause he no longer believed in.
Transcribed, edited, and annotated by his great-granddaughter, Shirley Farris Jones, “Letters to Mary: the Civil War Diary of Dr. John Kennerly Farris,” was first published in 1994. It was revised for a second printing by the Coffee County Historical Society, and came off the press in May 2014. Copies of the book will be for sale at this month’s meeting.
Shirley Farris Jones, Civil War historian and community activist, retired from Middle Tennessee State University, where she had been a staff member for more than thirty years. She has served as President of the Rutherford County Historical Society, the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities, Friends of Stones River National Battlefield, and the Martha Ready Morgan Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
A direct descendant of two Confederate great-grandfathers, Ms. Jones states that “Civil War history is more than just a hobby; it has been a passion since childhood.” She has had numerous Civil War related articles published over the past three decades and is the author of four books, including “Letters to Mary: the Civil War Diary of Dr. John Kennerly Farris”, “Harvey Calvin Neese: from Coffee County to Cripple Creek”, “The Un-Civil War in Middle Tennessee”, “Murfreesboro in the Civil War”, co-authored with Dr. Michael Bradley, and recently completed the revision for a second printing of “Letters to Mary ”, which came off the press in May.
Ms. Jones has done extensive research on Martha Ready Morgan, including work for artist John Paul Strain in 1993 for his limited edition print, “Morgan’s Wedding.” In 2004, she was awarded the Jefferson Davis Historical Award for Writing and Research for “Martha Ready Morgan: From wife to widow in 630 days”, presented by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Ms. Jones is a lifelong resident of Murfreesboro, attended Middle Tennessee State University, and is a graduate of Knox Business College and Leadership Rutherford. She is married to Jerry Jones and they are the parents of one son, Jeff. She has been actively involved in historic preservation efforts throughout the community for many years.
We hope you will join us for this informative program with local interest.
