March 16th, 2011 – Our 84th Meeting and our Seventh Anniversary!
The next meeting of the Clarksville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 in our new home 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 7:00 pm and is always open to the public. Members please bring a friend or two – new recruits are always welcomed.
OUR SPEAKER AND TOPIC:
"Ellis Harper: Guerrilla Or Partisan?”
On November 22, 1861 a young man enlisted in the 30th Tennessee Infantry at Tyree Springs while the regiment was on the move to Fort Donelson. After the surrender of the fort’s garrison, Ellis Harper was one of the many privates loaded onto boats and sent to Camp Butler, near Springfield, Illinois. Unlike so many of his brothers in arms, he did not die, take the dreaded oath or be sent to Mississippi to be exchanged. Instead, he escaped and made his way back home where he joined a detachment of Quirk's Scouts, Commanded by Captain Columbus A. Peddicord. From that day until May 9, 1865, he and his men slowed the supplies of two Federal Armies in two states for three years and served their community as police, judge and jury.
This story of Captain Ellis Harper includes the lives, pictures and stories of his men, both during and after the war. Also part of the story is the notorious Union general Eleazar E. Paine, a friend of Lincoln and murderer of young boys, who ruled in Gallatin and Sumner County, Tennessee. Several Federal fought against Harper and his men and their service is also part of the story which answers the question; was Harper a Guerrilla or a Partisan?
This month’s program is presented by Dave Simpson from Lebanon, Tennessee. Mr. Simpson, an amateur historian, is a salesman for Kimbro Oil Company in Nashville. He is also First Lieutenant Commander of the General Robert H. Hatton Camp #723, Sons of Confederate Veterans, in Lebanon, and a member of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars Mr. Simpson also belongs to the Morgan's Men Association and chairs the committee that maintains the Battle of Hartsville Park and Driving Tour. He is married with two children and two grand-children. Lastly, Ellis Harper is Mr. Simpson’s great-grandfather.
Please join us for another informative meeting of the Clarksville Civil War Roundtable.