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HomeEventsClarksville Civil War Roundtable's next meeting is July 20th, 2016

Clarksville Civil War Roundtable’s next meeting is July 20th, 2016

The 147th Meeting.

Clarksville Civil War RoundtableClarksville, TN – The next meeting of the Clarksville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Wednesday, July 20th, 2016 at the Bone & Joint Center, 980 Professional Park Drive, right across the street from Tennova 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 7:00pm and is always open to the public. Members please bring a friend or two – new recruits are always welcomed.

Topic: “Bonnie Blue Flop: General P. G. T. Beauregard and Confederate Strategy in Fall 1864.”

General P. G. T. Beauregard
General P. G. T. Beauregard

President Jefferson Davis tried two times during the war to create a “super department” command structure in the western theater.

The first time was in the Fall of 1862, when he assigned General Joseph E. Johnston to supervise the operations of Pemberton’s army at Vicksburg, Bragg’s Army of Tennessee and Kirby Smith’s force at Knoxville, TN.

The second time was two years later, after General John B. Hood lost Atlanta to Sherman. He created a “Military Division of the West,” appointing General P. G. T. Beauregard over Hood and his Army of Tennessee as well as over Lt.. General Richard Taylor’s department in Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana.

Both attempts failed to bring about the coordination Davis hoped for. In this program Dr. Steve Davis of Atlanta will explore how Beauregard tried to make the Military Division work, and John B. Hood did not. Using the Official Records and other documents, Davis will show how Hood often disregarded and even disobeyed Beauregard’s orders.

This certainly flies in the face of the recent Hood rehabilitation movement. Facts are hard to ignore however and this program will lay out the case step by step as Hood moved his army from Georgia into Tennessee from October through December 1864.

This is a very thought provoking and highly entertaining program as Steve Davis is one of the finest speakers on the circuit today. He will also have copies of his books for sale at the meeting. Do not miss this program!

Stephen Davis of Atlanta has been a Civil War buff since the 4th grade. He attended Emory University, and studied under the renowned Civil War historian Bell Wiley. After a Master’s degree in American history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he taught high school for a few years, then earned his Ph.D. at Emory, where he concentrated on the theme of the Civil War in Southern literature.

Steve is the author of a book on the Atlanta Campaign, Atlanta Will Fall: Sherman, John Johnston and the Heavy Yankee Battalions (2001). He served as Book Review Editor for Blue & Gray Magazine from 1984 to 2005, and is the author of more than a hundred articles in such scholarly and popular publications as Civil War Times Illustrated and the Georgia Historical Quarterly.

His book, What the Yankees Did to Us: Sherman’s Bombardment and Wrecking of Atlanta, was published by Mercer University Press in 2012. Last year Dr. Davis served as a speaker and consultant for the television documentary, “When Georgia Howled: Sherman on the March,” a joint production of the Atlanta History Center and Georgia Public Broadcasting. He writes a regular column, “Critic’s Corner,” on Civil War bibliography, for Civil War News, the monthly newspaper. Steve is also a popular speaker to Civil War Round Tables and historical societies.

In May 2016 Savas Beatie published Steve’s new book:

A Long and Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton through Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee May 5th-July 18th, 1864

The companion volume will be released later in the summer of 2016:

All the Fighting They Want: The Atlanta Campaign: From Peach Tree Creek to the Surrender July 18th-September 2nd, 1864

Next year Savas/Beatie will release Steve’s next book, tentatively titled Spurs Without Greatness: A Study of John B. Hood’s Generalship in 1864.

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