Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville Civil War Roundtable announces its June 2023 program and speaker. The meeting is always open to interested members of the public.
The next meeting of the Clarksville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Wednesday, June 21st, 2023 at Fort Defiance Park, our new home, 120 Duncan Street, off New Providence Boulevard. Turn onto Walker Street off New Providence Boulevard and then onto Duncan Street. There are site markers on New Providence Boulevard above and below the park.
The meeting begins at 7:00pm and is always open to the public. The Clarksville Civil War Roundtable began in March 2004 and features well-known authors and historians as speakers.
Our Speaker and Topic: – [KB1] “I Never Saw Anything Like Them Before:” Fortress Rosecrans and the Civil War in the Western Theater”
Following the Battle of Stones River, Gen. William S. Rosecrans set his Army of the Cumberland to work building a massive fortification that bore his name. Fortress Rosecrans and the supply depot it protected played a critical role in the successful campaigns of 1863 that saw Chattanooga fall to U.S. forces. The fortress and its garrison were also at the heart of the harsh military occupation of middle Tennessee and were woven into events that saw the “new birth of freedom” promised by President Abraham Lincoln emerge even as the Civil War raged on.
Join Stones River National Battlefield Park Ranger Jim Lewis as he explores the reasons for building a fortress in the heart of Tennessee and examines the powerful impact Fortress Rosecrans had on the outcome of the Civil War. Jim has been with us several times before and is a fine and entertaining speaker!
Jim Lewis has been a Park Ranger with the National Park Service since 1991. Since 1997, he has been fixture at Stones River National Battlefield, serving as a park ranger, curator and de-facto historian there. He became the Chief of Interpretation & Cultural Resource Management in 2016. Jim has researched and presented dozens of interpretive programs at Stones River National Battlefield and across the country on a variety of Civil War topics. He has also produced numerous interpretive publications and exhibits for the National Park Service.
