Hello everyone,
September 15th, 2014 – Our 67th Meeting!! We continue our sixth year!
The next meeting of the Nashville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Monday, September 15th, 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. Members please bring a friend or two – new recruits are always welcomed.
OUR SPEAKER AND TOPIC - “Twenty Five House to Tragedy: The Battle of Spring Hill, November 29, 1864”
Students of John Bell Hood’s Tennessee Campaign of 1864 know about the crushing Battle of Franklin and the sound thrashing received by the Confederates in two days of battle at Nashville in mid-December 1864. What is also covered in the books on this campaign, but not often correctly, is what happened at Spring Hill, TN south of Franklin the day before that battle.
Using maneuver, Hood’s Confederates had force marched north of John Schofield’s Federals and reached Spring Hill before the latter’s tried troops did, effectively in a position to cut them off from reaching Franklin. But a series of events kicked in that would see Hood’s movement fall apart and Schofield’s men march away during the night. From lack of ammunition, to a jumbled command structure to officers failing to obey orders, the affair at Spring Hill, had it gone the other way, would have badly damaged the Union efforts to hold Nashville.
Our speaker this month is former US Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Jamie Gillum, who has dedicated more time and effort into Spring Hill than anyone in American today. He is simply the premier historian on this battle. The program will offer new sources of information, speak of the men involved and analyze what happened on that very confusing day in 1864. Jamie’s recent book, Twenty Five Hours to Tragedy, is a huge improvement over his earlier and smaller work that used primary sources to tell the tale in a time line. Jamie will have copies of this book for sale at our meeting as well as his other books.
Do not miss this meeting of the Nashville CWRT as we welcome Jamie Gillum to speak on Spring Hill.