Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville Civil War Roundtable announces its March 2024 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, March 20th, 2024, 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 – “The Battle of Ringgold Gap”
The Confederate defense of Chattanooga in late November 1863 ended with the disaster of Missionary Ridge. Falling back into north Georgia, CS army commander Braxton Bragg detailed the crack division of Gen. Patrick Cleburne to hold at Ringgold Gap so that the rest of the army could safely make it to Dalton, GA.
Cleburne outnumbered almost four to one, held the gap and surrounding hills against Union assaults and saved the Confederate Army of Tennessee from further defeat. This added even more lustre to Cleburne and his division.
Our speaker this month is Tommy Smith. Originally from the Chickamauga, Georgia area, he is a graduate of the University of Georgia (ABJ) and the University of Southern Mississippi (MSPR; PhD). He is currently serving as an interpretive U.S. Park Ranger (NPS) at the Meriwether Lewis site on the Natchez Trace. Tommy has also served as an interpretive U.S. Park Ranger (NPS) at Arlington House NHS, Wilson’s Creek NB, and at Chickamauga and Chattanooga NMP.
He is a former and current member of Missionary Ridge Camp 63 of the Sons Of Union Veterans in Chattanooga and a past captain and commander of the U.S. 18th Infantry of the Sons of Veterans Reserve in Chattanooga. He is active as a re-enactor with the Cherokee Artillery/Lilly’s Battery in Rome, GA, and a current member of the Sam Watkins Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Columbia, Tenn.
