Hello everyone,
February 18th, 2015 – Our 131st meeting. We continue our eleventh year!
The next meeting of the Clarksville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Wednesday, February 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 Battle of Franklin: Five Hours Beyond Hell’s Treshold”
We in Middle Tennessee are now past our second part of the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War. Two years ago we commemorated Fort Donelson, the fall of Clarksville and Nashville, various smaller battles and raids ending with the Battle of Stones River. We were recently back in the national limelight with John Bell Hood’s Tennessee Campaign of October-December 1864. Within this are battles in Georgia (Allatoona Pass); Alabama (Decatur) and, of course, Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville.
The program this month will focus on the Battle of Franklin, whose five hours of combat are probably the most intense of the entire Civil War. Charge after charge against entrenched Federals, some armed with repeating weapons and backed with artillery, assaulted by the Confederates with little artillery support and single shot muskets. Six generals fell; over 50 regimental commanders, numerous field grade officers and some 7000 plus men before the fighting was over when darkness ended it. The Confederate Army of Tennessee was gutted and Union Gen. John Schofield was able to move his army, its mission of delay accomplished, to the safety of the massive fortifications of Nashville.
Franklin has been the subject of numerous campaign and battle books but this month we will get to hear historian Robert Cross’ interpretation of the battle. Rob has studied this fight for many years as part of his career as a military historian in Middle Tennessee. His impassioned delivery and knowledge of the battle will be on display when he delivers his program to the Nashville Civil War Roundtable this month.
Rob Cross is a military historian, with his area of expertise concentrated on the American Civil War, and the Vietnam War. Since his formal training at the University of Memphis, he has worked in multiple battlefields and Civil War sites including The Carter House, Carnton Plantation, Belle Meade, and Rippavilla Plantation. He has presented programs across Middle Tennessee tom conferences and historical groups and is an experienced tour guide. He is the current Military Historian for Franklin on Foot, and lives in Columbia, Tennessee, where he continues ongoing education in his tradecraft.