Hello,
March 18th, 2015 – Our 132nd meeting. We continue our eleventh year!
The next meeting of the Clarksville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Wednesday, March 18th, 2015 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 - “The 1st Michigan Engineers & Mechanics in Middle Tennessee”
As volunteer engineers for the Union army, the Michigan Engineers and Mechanics regiment was made up of skilled artisans, craftsmen, railroad men, and engineers whose behind-the-scenes work was crucial to the Union victory. Charged with maintaining and repairing the Union supply line in the western theater, the engineers constructed and repaired a staggering number of bridges, blockhouses, fortifications, railroads, and telegraph lines to keep the Union army functioning in the aftermath of battle.
The regiment also saw substantial direct combat action. Confederate guerillas and bushwhackers bent on disrupting vital communication and supply lines routinely disregarded the usual rules of war to target the engineers. Their war was often fought behind the lines, engaged in small isolated units along railroads, telegraph lines, and river crossings.
Despite the challenges, the Michigan Engineers were recognized for many key accomplishments, including their work in keeping the railroad open south from Union supply depots in Louisville, the relief of Union forces trapped in Chattanooga, and destruction of rebel railroads during Sherman’s march through Georgia and the Carolinas. The regiment’s senior officers also held important posts within the Union military organization in the West and were instrumental in developing a coherent policy for the use of captured rebel railroads and infrastructure.
The largest portion of the work of this regiment was along the route Louisville – Nashville – Bridgeport – Chattanooga, with a particular emphasis in Middle Tennessee. Many of their most ambitious projects were along the Louisville and Nashville, Nashville and Chattanooga, and Nashville and Northwestern railroads. Their work along the Tennessee, Cumberland, Elk, Duck and other rivers was central to the ability of the Union forces to drive south into the heart of the Confederacy, culminating in their participation in Sherman’s march. They also showed at Perryville, Lavergne and near Murfreesboro that they could also serve as infantry, standing in the line of battle against regular Confederate forces. Almost 400 of the men in this regiment died during the war and most of them remain buried in Southern soil, the largest portion in national cemeteries at Cave Hill, Nashville, Murfreesboro, and Chattanooga. After the war, many of the Michigan Engineers officers remained in Tennessee, most of them involved in the reconstruction and operation of southern railroads.
Mark Hoffman currently serves as the Chief Administrative Officer for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Previous to the DNR, Hoffman was deputy director of the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries and also on the staff of the Michigan Bureau of State Lottery and the Michigan House of Representatives.
A life-long student of the American Civil War, he is the author of Among the Enemy: A Michigan Soldier's Civil War Journal (2013) and My Brave Mechanics: The First Michigan Engineers and Their Civil War (2007)– both published by Wayne State University Press. Hoffman is a graduate of Michigan State University, with a degree in History. He and his wife Ann, another Spartan, live in Mason. They have two adult children -- son Patrick and daughter Alice – both Spartans.