Hello,
July 20th, 2015 – Our 76th meeting!! We continue our seventh year.
The next meeting of the Nashville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Monday, July 20th, 2015, 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 - “Yorktown: Where the Revolution and Civil War Overlapped”
Union General George McClellan and his large Army of the Potomac (121,000 troops), began its advance up the Virginia Peninsula in March 1862 when his troops were shipped by sea to the area around Fortress Monroe. After everything was completed, his army headed towards Richmond with the thinking that the capture of the Confederate capitol would end the war. Holding the lower Peninsula was the small (11,000 troops) of Confederate Gen. John Magruder and his Army of the Peninsula.
Magruder dug a line of entrenchments and forts across the region even using trenches built for the Revolutionary War Battle of Yorktown dubbed the Warwick Line. McClellan drew up and prepared to lay siege in a set piece fight to drive out Magruder. With fighting taking place at Lee’s Mills and Dam Number One in early April, McClellan had underestimated Magruder’s defenses. These events brought a large Confederate reaction as the Army of Northern Virginia, deployed around Richmond and other towns of that area, was sent down the Peninsula to reinforce Magruder. Eventually, the Confederates forced a siege which played more to McClellan’s strengths as an engineer officer who had brought heavy artillery with him just for that purpose. New Confederate commander, Gen. Joseph Johnston, decided that the question was the better part of valor and, after sending his supply wagons back to Richmond, slowly withdrew his army to hold in Richmond’s defenses.
The follow up to the fighting at Yorktown, Jamestown, Williamsburg and the Confederate retreat up the Peninsula came in late May when Johnston struck back at Seven Pines. That battle stopped McClellan but did not defeat him. That event took place starting in late June when Robert E. Lee struck back in the Seven Days battles finally driving McClellan back from Richmond saving the capitol.
This month’s program offers the twists and turns and events of the fighting at Yorktown. Teaching us this month is National park Service ranger Robert Dunkerly. On the staff of the Richmond National Battlefield park in Virginia, he has led tours of Yorktown, Seven Pines sites and other Peninsula sites over the years.
Robert M. Dunkerly is a historian, award-winning author, and speaker who is actively involved in historic preservation and research. He holds a degree in History from St. Vincent College and a Masters in Historic Preservation from Middle Tennessee State University. He has worked at nine historic sites, written twelve books and over twenty articles on both the Civil War and Revolutionary War. His research includes archaeology, colonial life, military history, and historic commemoration. He is currently President of the Richmond Civil War Round Table, and serves on the Preservation Commission for the American Revolution Round Table-Richmond. He has taught courses at Central Virginia Community College, the University of Richmond, and the Virginia Historical Society. Dunkerly is currently a Park Ranger at Richmond National Battlefield Park. He has visited over 400 battlefields and over 900 historic sites worldwide. When not reading or writing, he enjoys hiking, camping, and photography.