The Tennessee in the Civil War Message Board

Nashville CWRT - January meeting

Hello,

January 16th, 2017 – Our 94th meeting!! We continue our seventh year.

The next meeting of the Nashville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Monday, January 16th, 2017, in the visitor’s center of Ft. Negley Park, a unit of Metro Parks, Nashville, TN. This is located off I-65 just south of downtown between 4th Avenue South and 8th Avenue South on Edgehill Avenue/Chestnut Avenue. Take Exit 81, Wedgewood Avenue, off I-65 and follow the signs to the Science Museum.

The meeting begins at 7:00 PM and is always open to the public.

Our Speaker and Topic - “Washington County, Virginia in the Civil War"

If you take a drive up I-81 in East Tennessee, once you cross into Virginia at Bristol you are in Washington County. The county seat is Abingdon. Tied to Tennessee both geographically and via the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, the history of this region is very much the same on both sides of the state line. Ten companies would recruit from Washington County and serve in the Army of Northern Virginia among other commands. The county also turned out six Confederate generals, including former Secretary of War John Floyd, who commanded the Confederate garrison at Fort Donelson. Others include William E. “Grumble” Jones and Joseph E. Johnston.

The county also became a vital region for resources and supplies for the Confederate military and included, besides crops and animals, the salt from the mines at Saltville, Virginia. This made the county a target for Union cavalry raids and some smaller battles of the war with Union officers George Stoneman, Alvan Gillem and Stephen Burbridge all taking part. Additionally, Abingdon would become the headquarters for a Confederate departmental command.

Speaking to us this month on Washington County in the Civil War is Michael Shaffer, from Kennesaw, Georgia. He holds BA and MA degrees in Military History and serves on the board of the Chattahoochee River Line Historic Area as well as being a member of the Society of Civil War Historians, Historians of the Civil War Western Theater and is the consultant for the Friends of Camp McDonald, which was a major Georgia troops training camp in Kennesaw. Michael writes a regular column for Civil War News and is also an instructor at Kennesaw State University in the Civil War field and lectures across the country.

He is also the author of the book, “Washington County in the Civil War,” and will have copies of his book for sale at the meeting.

Please join us as Michael Shaffer takes us to neighboring Virginia and tells us of the events in Washington County from 1861 to 1865.