Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville Civil War Roundtable announces its June 2024 program and speaker. The meeting is always open to interested members of the public.
The next meeting of the Clarksville (TN) Civil War Roundtable will be on Wednesday, June 12th, 2024 at Fort Defiance Park, our new home, 120 Duncan Street, off New Providence Boulevard. Turn onto Walker Street off New Providence Boulevard and then onto Duncan Street. There are site markers on New Providence Boulevard above and below the park.
The meeting begins at 7:00pm and is always open to the public. The Clarksville Civil War Roundtable began in March 2004 and features well known authors and historians as speakers. We continue our 20th year!
Please Note: This is a Special Second Tuesday of the Month Meeting Date. We will be back to the usual third Tuesday in July.
Our Speaker and Topic – ”Partisan Warfare in 1862 Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee”
In the summer of 1862, partisan ranger warfare entered western Kentucky as Adam Rankin Johnson attempted to raise a regiment behind Union lines. A partisan ranger regiment operated differently than a typical cavalry regiment, mostly since their activities were behind enemy lines.
He gained recruits with flashy attacks and raids that not only reached the local newspapers, but even the international press, especially when he captured Newburgh, Indiana in July 1861. To remain a viable and active force, Johnson had to constantly resupply his men by capturing Union equipment and weapons.
This activity forced the Union to redirect several infantry and cavalry regiments, Brown Water Navy vessels, and valuable resources that could have been used with the main armies advancing in the South. Eventually the Union learned how to quell Johnson’s success and re-establish control behind their own lines, but not before many lives and millions of dollars of valuable military goods were lost.
Clarksville is a central part of this program as Johnson’s men captured it in August 1862.
Derrick Lindow is an 8th-grade United States history teacher in Owensboro, Kentucky. He graduated from Kentucky Wesleyan College (2010) with a BA in history and holds a Master’s in Education from the University of the Cumberlands. He obtained a Master of Arts in History from Western Kentucky University in 2023.
He is the 2015 Dr. Tom and Betty Lawrence National History Teacher Award recipient from the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and the 2019 James Madison Fellow for the state of Kentucky. Derrick is the creator and co-administrator of the Western Theater in the Civil War website, which brings together authors and historians to write about that crucial area of the war. The Kentucky native is married to his lovely wife Allie and is the father of two boys, Ezra and Owen.
Derrick will have copies of his new book for sale at the meeting.
