Hello,

January 20, 2014 – Our 58th Meeting!!

The next meeting of the Nashville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Monday, January 20, 2014, 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:

“The Battle of Milliken’s Bend: In War and Memory” (Based on her new book)

Linda Barnickel will give perspective on a small but significant battle fought in Louisiana. The fighting at Milliken’s Bend occurred in June 1863, about fifteen miles north of Vicksburg on the west bank of the Mississippi River, where a brigade of John Walker’s Texas Division attacked a Federal outpost. Most of the Union defenders had been slaves less than two months before. The new African American recruits fought well, despite their minimal training, and Milliken s Bend helped prove to a skeptical northern public that black men were indeed fit for combat duty.

The battle contributed to southerners increasing fears of slave insurrection and heightened their anxieties about emancipation. In the North, it helped foster a commitment to allow free blacks and former slaves to take part in the war to end slavery. And for African Americans, both free and enslaved, Milliken’s Bend symbolized their never-ending struggle for freedom.

Linda Barnickel works for the Nashville Public Library’s downtown branch in the Nashville Room as an archivist. She is an avid researcher and historian. This is her first Civil War book – and it recently won an award for “the best research on the Trans-Mississippi Theater” from the Fort Worth Civil War Roundtable.

We hope that you will join us for this fascinating program.