Hello,

June 19th, 2017 – Our 99th meeting!! We continue our seventh year.

The next meeting of the Nashville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Monday, June 19th, 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. Members please bring a friend or two – new recruits are always welcomed.

Our Speaker and Topic - “The Carter Family in the Battle of Franklin”

The 1864 Tennessee Campaign was filled with horrific events during its two months of execution. From Allatoona Pass in Georgia, its first battle, ending with a crushing Confederate defeat at Nashville, thousands of men were killed and wounded and an army was virtually destroyed.

At Franklin, it is very well known that some 9000 Confederate fell in a few hours after five charges against the Union lines including over 50 regimental commanders, numerous brigade and division commanders and among those six generals. The fighting swirled around the Carter House, sitting on the Columbia Pike on Carter’s Hill. Young Todd Carter, a Confederate officer, was killed within sight of his birth home. Hundreds of bullets struck the Carter buildings which remain evident today.

But what about the Carter family? What happened to them during this horrible battle literally in their front and back yards? Hunkered down in their basement, the sounds of death and shells and gunfire screaming around them, they waited for it all to subside.

Telling the oft forgotten tale of the Carter family in this battle is this month’s speaker Jonathan Walsh. Jonathan is a Tennessee native who resides in Dover, TN with his Mom, Dad, and brother Alex. Jonathan has long been a Civil War buff who enjoys Civil War reenacting and relic hunting. He often assists his parents run their business, Fort Donelson Relics, at civil war relic shows across the country. At the ripe age of 11 he has traveled throughout the south and northeast having visited battlefields such as Harper's Ferry, Gettysburg, Antietam, Fort Sumter, Chickamauga, Vicksburg, Wilson's Creek and everywhere in between. Jonathan just graduated Dover Elementary School with a 4.0 average. He enjoys giving talks and assisting his dad on civil war tours when he's not playing baseball.

Please fill up the Fort Negley Visitors Center this month for this young historian and his wonderful program.