Clarksville Civil War Roundtable’s next meeting is August 15th, 2012

The 101th Meeting

Clarksville, TN – The next meeting of the Clarksville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Wednesday, June 20th at the Bone & Joint Center, 980 Professional Park Drive, right across the street from Gateway Hospital. 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.

The meetings topic is “Grant and Forrest: Extraordinary Americans”

Historian and author Jack Hurst, in his book on the Fort Donelson Campaign, tagged Ulysses S. Grant and Nathan Bedford Forrest as the two main characters to emerge from that campaign. It is a powerful, and correct, argument. To be sure, other officers in that campaign from both sides rose to lofty ranks and levels of importance during the war.

For the Federals this list includes James B. McPherson, Grant’s engineer officer, who rose to division, corps and command of the Army of the Tennessee in the Atlanta Campaign where he would die during the Battle of Atlanta. John McClernand did not do badly for a political general, rising to corps command and an independent command that captured Fort Hindman/Arkansas Post in January 1863.

Lew Wallace fought as a division commander and led the Union army that was defeated at Monocacy in Maryland in 1864 but that defeat saved Washington City from Jubal Early’s Confederates. After the war Wallace wrote one of the biggest books of the 19th Century, Ben Hur. Morgan L. Smith rose to division command and fought well in the Atlanta Campaign and John McArthur lead a division in the Vicksburg Campaign.

From the Confederate side, Captain Hiram Granbury would rise to Brigadier General leading a brigade of Texans that had surrendered to McClernand at Arkansas Post as part of Patrick Cleburne’s amazing division. Granbury died in the Battle of Franklin at the head of his troops.

Simon B. Buckner, after being exchanged from his capture at Donelson, was back leading a division and then a corps by mid-1863. He went on to command a department. Engineer Major Jeremy Gilmer rose to be the Chief Engineer of the Confederate Army.

[320right]But none of these men reached the heights or fame that Grant and Forrest achieved during the Civil War.

Jack Hurst, author of a biography on Nathan Bedford Forrest, turned his sights on these two men with his first book on them entitled, Men Of Fire: Grant, Forrest and the Campaign That Decided the Civil War. While adding much to our knowledge on this campaign, it was these two men that helped put it on the map.

Forrest’s excellent handling of his cavalry and brilliant escape and Grant winning the key victory that led to the capture of most of the state of Tennessee as well as its capital started these men on their rise. Hurst has followed that up with his new book, Born To Battle: Grant and Forrest – Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga, again focusing on these two men and their growth as commanders.

Our speaker this month is Jack Hurst and his topic will focus on these two men during the war. He is a former journalist, a noted historian and is active on the Civil War speaking circuit. He is a member of the CWRT in Cookeville, Tennessee and is a Tennessee native.

Jack will have copies of his books for sale at the meeting but our friends at Books A Million have copies in stock so you can also pick them up there.

We hope you will join us for this wonderful program.

Please join us for another informative meeting of the Clarksville Civil War Roundtable.