March 9, 2023 at 6:30 pm
STOPPING HOOD: THE U.S. NAVY IN THE TENNESSEE CAMPAIGN.
Confederate General John Bell Hood’s Tennessee Campaign of October-December, 1864 is remembered today because of its land battles. Allatoona Pass, Decatur, AL., Columbia, Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville, in Tennessee, are the aspects most often studied by modern historians of the campaign. The U.S. Navy’s role in the campaign is glossed over or left out entirely. And yet the warships and transports of the Mississippi River Squadron played vital roles at Guntersville and Decatur, AL., as well as at Nashville. Their presence on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers forced the Confederates to place their pontoon bridge at Tuscumbia, AL. where they did and prevented Hood from crossing north of Nashville via the Cumberland River. Veteran naval commanders and gunboats, including ironclads, were the backbone of the fleet that helped assist the Union defense of Middle Tennessee as well as transporting the Right Wing of the XVI Corps to Nashville itself from Missouri. These ships were also very much part of the pursuit of Hood’s defeated army. This program will examine these naval aspects and bring them more into the discussion of this campaign.
Greg has studied military history from the Spartans to modern wars for over 50 years with concentrations on the Napoleonic Era, the Civil War and World War II.
An expert on the military flags of the 18th and 19th centuries, Greg has consulted with museums, collectors and auction houses on Civil War flags and has written several articles on the topic in SCV publications, North-South Trader and Civil War News, Battle of Franklin Trust Magazine and others.
Greg is also a text editor and author for the scholarly Flags of the Confederacy web site (www.confederate-flags.org). He has done research for several Civil War authors and has written articles for Civil War Regiments journal, Blue & Gray Magazine, Civil War News, Citizens Companion, Hallowed Ground and some online publications.
Greg has led tours for Civil War groups of the Fort Donelson, Atlanta, Chickamauga-Chattanooga and Tullahoma campaigns as well as tours of the Cairo/Mound City, IL area covering the start of the river campaigns.
In addition, he has done numerous staff rides for US Army units stationed at Fort Campbell, KY. Greg lives in Clarksville, TN with his wife Karel and their four cavalry cats. He is president of the Clarksville CWRT and an officer in the Bowling Green and Nashville CWRTs.
