On 14 June, Dr. Stephen Davis speaks on the “Atlanta Campaign; Peach Tree Creek to the Surrender”. Dr. Stephen Davis is no stranger to the TVCWRT and always provides stimulation presentations. A longtime Atlantean, he has been a “Civil Warrior” since the fourth grade. He attended Emory University and studied under the renowned Civil War historian Bell Wiley. After earning a master’s degree in American history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he taught high school, then earned his Ph.D. at Emory, where he concentrated on the theme of the War Between the States in Southern literature. He is the author of more than a hundred articles on the War Between the States. He is the author of a book on the Atlanta Campaign, Atlanta Will Fall: Sherman, John Johnston and the Heavy Yankee Battalions (2001). He served as Book Review Editor for Blue & Gray Magazine from 1984 to 2005 and is the author of more than a hundred articles in such scholarly and popular publications as Civil War Times Illustrated and the Georgia Historical Quarterly. He is also the author of What the Yankees Did to Us: Sherman’s Bombardment and Wrecking of Atlanta published by Mercer University Press in 2012. In a review in Civil War News, Ted Savas calls this book “by far the most well-researched, thorough, and detailed account ever written about the ‘wrecking’ of Atlanta.” Dr. Davis served as a speaker and consultant for the television documentary, “When Georgia Howled: Sherman on the March,” a joint production of the Atlanta History Center and Georgia Public Broadcasting.
Dr. Davis writes a regular column, “Critic’s Corner,” on Civil War bibliography, for Civil War News, the monthly newspaper, for which he also serves as Book Review Editor. He is a frequent and popular speaker to Civil War Round Tables and historical societies. He has spoken on What the Yankees Did to Usto the Civil War Round Tables of Buffalo, New York and Providence, Rhode Island. He has given talks at the annual meeting of the American Civil War Round Table in London (UK). In May 2016, Savas Beatie published a new paperback written by Dr. Davis: A Long and Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton through Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee May 5-July 18, 1864. His companion volume was released early in 2017: All the Fighting They Want: The Atlanta Campaign from Peach Tree Creek to the Surrender July 18-September 2, 1864. Savas Beatie will release Dr. Davis’ next book, tentatively titled: Spurs Without Greatness: A Study of John B. Hood’s Generalship in 1864 is pending publication.