Adjutant’s Call - November 2022
Link to Original PDF of November 2022 Newsletter
Circular Memorandum #540 - November 2022
Announcing Our 532nd Meeting “The Battle of Johnsonville” Will be Presented by Jerry T. Wooten
Jerry T. Wooten, Ph.D., is from Nashville, Tennessee, and serves as Park Manager for Tennessee’s Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in downtown Nashville. Johnsonville: Union Supply Operations of the Tennessee River and the Battle of Johnsonville, November 4-5, 1864 is his first book published by Savas-Beatie. Jerry holds a B.S. in American History from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN; an M.A. in American History from Murray State University in Murray, KY: and a Ph.D. in Public History from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN. Formerly, he served as Park Manager at Johnsonville State Historic Park, as Director of State Historic Sites for the Tennessee Historical Commission, and as Park Historian at the Pamplin Historical Park and National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Petersburg, Virginia. Originally from Clarksville, Tennessee, Jerry has researched and written about the Civil War for most of his professional life. He serves on the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association’s Board of Directors and is a frequent speaker at Civil War roundtables, historical organizations, state and national parks, and museums. He is currently conducting research for his second book about the Battle of Dover, Tennessee, on February 3, 1863.
“The Battle of Johnsonville”
We invite you to hear Dr. Jerry T. Wooten at the next meeting of the Louisville CWRT on Saturday, November 5, where he will present his new book about the significance of the Union supply depot at The Adjutant’s Call 2 November, 2022 Johnsonville, Tennessee, and illustrate what happened there on November 4, 1864, at the Battle of Johnsonville. His new book, Johnsonville: Union Supply Operations on the Tennessee River and the Battle of Johnsonville, November 4-5, 1864, takes important steps toward answering significant questions about the Union's logistical supply line in the Western Theater. The 1864 battle along the Tennessee River at Johnsonville has long needed a comprehensive historical treatment. Past accounts in Tennessee history ranked the smashing Confederate victory as just another feather in the caps of renowned Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his cavalry. Even regional and national accounts of the Civil War in the West merely footnoted the battle or ignored it completely. Wooten's new book now explores how federal commanders used both rivers and rails to supply its advancing armies, how they transformed an understanding of how the war in Tennessee was to be fought, and illustrates one of Forrest's most brilliant and audacious campaigns by providing insight on why Johnsonville was such a key target for Confederate command desperate to slow the Federal advance southward.
“BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS!!”
We will have Jerry Wooten’s book for sale at the November meeting. The price will be $30. Johnsonville: Union Supply Operations of the Tennessee River and the Battle of Johnsonville, November 4-5, 1864 is his first book published by Savas-Beatie.
Our Field Trip in 2023, The Atlanta Campaign
We are going to cover the last half of the 1864 Atlanta Campaign in our next field trip. The dates are April 19-23, 2023. Our guide will be Robert Jenkins who has been studying, researching, and giving tours of the Atlanta campaign for several years. Robert will be our speaker in February when he will speak on “The Atlanta Campaign and the Battle of Peach Tree Creek”. We are going to concentrate on the last half of the campaign from Kennesaw and Pickett’s Mill through the battles in Atlanta. The tour will also include New Hope Church, Dallas, Pine Mountain, Gilgal Church, Kolb Farm, Peach Tree Creek, and Ezra Church. We will also visit the Atlanta History Center and view the newly restored Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama. And yes, there is plenty to see on these battlefields. The Atlanta campaign was argurably the most important and decisive event in the Civil War. Filled with high drama, interesting personalities and hard fought battles, its outcome would decide the Presidential election of 1864 and the fate of the Confederacy. Please mark your calendars for April 19-23, 2023 and join us for what will be a great field trip. We will be staying at the Fairfield Inn in Marietta. If you would like to get a head start on reading, there is no better one volume history than Albert Castel’s wonderful, “Decision in the West: the Atlanta Campaign”. For a briefer but no less brillant outline, I recommend Richard McMurry’s “Atlanta Campaign of 1864”.
Atlanta Field Trip Books Available Thanks to Kevin Clark’s generosity, we have several good books on the Atlanta campaign available for sale. These books are in excellent condition and are priced to sell at bargain prices. Get a head start on your field trip reading with these great books. Just let John Davis know that you want one or more of these books and he will bring it to you at the November or December meeting. You can email him at johnd.davis@twc.com.
(1) Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 by Albert Castel $10 Hardback
(2) Atlanta 1864 Richard McMurry signed, $5 paperback
(3) The Atlanta Papers edited by Kerksis, Bearss, and Wallace, $10 Hardback
(4) John Bell Hood by Stephen Hood, signed $10 Hardback
(5) Sherman’s Horsemen by David Evans, $10 Hardback
(6) The March to the Sea and Beyond by Joseph Glatthar, $10 Hardback
October Quiz 2022
1. Who was the primary photographer employed by renowned photographer Matthew Brady?
That was Alexander Gardner.
2. Who first commanded the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment?
That would be Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.
3. How many future presidents of the United States served as officers in the Union Army and were born in Ohio?
There were 5: Grant, Hayes, Garfield, B. Harrison, and McKinley.
4. What was supposedly the most popular spare-time occupation of Civil War soldiers?
Letter-writing occupied much of their free time. 5. What was Union General Joshua L. Chamberlain’s occupation before the Civil War? He was Professor of Theology at Bowdoin College in Maine.
NOVEMBER 2022 QUIZ
1. Which two border slave states had abolished slavery by state constitutional means before the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
2. In what year did Robert E. Lee graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point?
3. Who commanded the Army of the Shenandoah in the late summer and fall of 1864? 4. What famous nurse was at the Battle of Antietam?
5. Why did the Confederacy not have a Supreme Court?