Clarksville Civil War Roundtable’s next meeting is March 20th, 2013

The 108th meeting.

Clarksville, TN – The next meeting of the Clarksville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Wednesday, March 20th, 2013 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.

Topic: “Josie Underwood’s Civil War Diary: A Bowling Green Girl Looks at the Civil War”

Diaries can be wonderful sources of information about life during any era. Josie Underwood’s diary provides a uniquely clear and penetrating analysis of the home front and the problems experienced by civilians living under military occupation.

The teenage daughter of a pro-Union, anti-Lincoln slave-owner living on the edge of Bowling Green, KY, Josie wrote of the trials and tribulations suffered by her family and neighbors as well as her thoughts about family members who were pro-South.

She was well-educated and armed with an often witty pen and proved to have a keen eye on events in her part of Kentucky. For example, in mid-September, 1861, when about 25,000 Confederates arrived in the Bowling Green area, Josie mourned that “the Philistines are Upon Us.”

While pro-Union, Josie was not afraid to take aim at the Federals. Five months later the Confederates evacuated Bowling Green and a sizeable Union army arrived to occupy south central Kentucky they too became Philistines who robbed, pillaged and destroyed!

Her story is very similar to those civilians who lived in central Kentucky and Middle Tennessee; it did not matter what color the uniforms were as both sides took great advantage of these people when they were around. Homes were lost, animals stolen or killed, crops destroyed and families ruined.

Josie’s story is revealing, humorous and insightful and offers an insider’s view or our area in the Civil War.

Nancy Baird served on the Western Kentucky University faculty for 35 year as the Kentucky Library’s “Kentucky History Specialist”. She also taught one overload class for the history department nearly every semester of those years.

A graduate of the University of Kentucky, Baird holds Masters and Specialist Degrees in history from Western, and is the author of 10 books and 20 journal articles about Kentucky’s past.

Her most recent publication, Josie Underwood’s Civil War Journal was published in 2009 by the University Press of Kentucky. It won the Basil Duke Award given by the Military Order of the Stars and Bars, for the Best Publication in Confederate History. She will have copies of her book for sale at the meeting.