The Tennessee in the Civil War Message Board

Clarksville TN Civil War Roundtable - June meeting

Hello,

The Clarksville Civil War Roundtable announces its June 2019 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, June 19th at the Bone & Joint Center, 980 Professional Park Drive, right across the street from Tennova 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 7:00 pm and is always open to the public. Members please bring a friend or two – new recruits are always welcomed.

Our speaker this month is Brad Butkovich of Atlanta, GA. His topic is - “The Battle of Allatoona Pass”

Atlanta, Georgia, the industrial, food distribution and shipping center of the Confederacy, fell to the Union forces of William T. Sherman on September 2, 1864. John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee fell back first to Lovejoy Station and then moved west to Palmetto, GA so as to be on the railroad from Alabama, part of his new base of supplies. After reorganizing the army , losing some commanders (notable William J. Hardee) and feting Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Hood soon planned to move north hoping to draw Sherman out from Atlanta and defeat him badly enough to force him to withdraw from Georgia. It was a forlorn hope at best, but in a campaign of maneuver, moving over many of the same battlegrounds that had been fought over on the way to Atlanta, Hood ruptured the railroad to Chattanooga that supplied Sherman in several places and set his sights on the Union garrison at Allatoona Pass, where warehouses bulged with food, something Hood would badly need as the campaign progressed. He sent a single division to attack the Federals who were heavily entrenched on two hills above the pass and some of their units were armed with repeating rifles and were supported by artillery. The attack was a defeat for Hood and it would help to exacerbate his food problems for the rest of the campaign. Was it the last battle of the Atlanta Campaign or the first of Hood's Tennessee campaign? Come see this month at the Nashville Civil War Roundtable!

Brad Butkovich has a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Georgia Southern University. He has published several books on the American Civil War including studies on the Battle of Pickett’s Mill and Allatoona Pass. He has always had a keen interest in Civil War history, photography and cartography, all of which have come together in his current projects. He is currently working on a 3 volume release of Ezra Carman's Antietam manuscript with a heavy emphasis on maps and visual content. His books will be for sale at the meeting!

See you Wednesday, June 19th, June 18th for our monthly meeting.