On Thursday, September 13, John Sledge presents Clio’s Confederates: The Women who gave me my path. Mr. Sledge’s presentation will focus on his grandmother and aunt on my father’s side, one in Mobile and one in Selma. One was born in 1889, one in 1894, so essentially, they were Victorian Southern women and bona fide steel magnolias as well. They knew people who witnessed the Civil War in Alabama first hand and their magical storytelling ability inspired me to become a historian.
John S. Sledge is senior Architectural Historian for the Mobile Historic Development Commission. He has a BA in History and Spanish from Auburn University and an MA in Historic Preservation from Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of six books, including The Mobile River, and These Rugged Days: Alabama in the Civil War. His forthcoming title is The Gulf of Mexico: A Maritime History, to be published by the University of South Carolina Press in the fall of 2019.
