Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville Civil War Roundtable announces its July 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, August 16th, 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 – “William S. Rosecrans and His Campaign For Chattanooga”
We meet this month, and year, on a historically auspicious day. One hundred and sixty years ago, Army of the Cumberland commander Major General William Starke Rosecrans was kicking off the next phase of his Campaign for Chattanooga, the phase, which, as it would turn out, would finally bring the Ohioan, and the Union cause, the Gateway to the Deep South city, Chattanooga, to then be able to thrust a saber into the very innards of the Confederacy, the Empire State of the South, Georgia.
Much was in the offing; much hung in the balance. Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park Historian Jim Ogden will discuss Rosecrans’ mid-August plan of campaign in his talk for us this evening, a subject of much discussion on those same mid-August days in 1863, and a subject, which, as it unfolded would take his army into, and beyond, the mountains looming over Chattanooga.
It is an aspect of “Chickamauga” and “Chattanooga” that gets less attention than the bloody, bitter, fighting in the Valley of the River of Death a month later or the spectacular Union victories on the slopes of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge two months after that. But, it is, arguably, an aspect which, in the end, is equally as important for Union success as Thomas’ stand on Snodgrass Hill or the Army of the Cumberland’s famous charge up Missionary Ridge.
Our speaker this month is Jim Ogden, historian at the Chickamauga/Chattanooga Military Park. A veteran of the National Park Service since 1982, he has been posted to Chickamauga/Chattanooga since 1988. He has taught a number of Civil War classes, conducted hundreds of military staff rides at the park, and lectured across the country at Civil War Roundtables and other related events. He is an engaging and entertaining speaker so do not miss this month’s program!
