“The Mexican War: Connections to the Civil War and Tennessee” at July Round Table

On Sunday, July 9th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present historian and author Dr. Timothy D. Johnson, who will speak on “The Mexican War: Connections to the Civil War and Tennessee.”

 

The U.S. Army mustered in 1846 to fight the Mexican War consisted of a small number of professional soldiers, state militias commanded by self-taught generals (many left over from the War of 1812), and a group of young officers – untested graduates from the recently established Military Academy at West Point. Over 200 future Civil War generals learned their first lessons on war during this conflict. The Mexican War experience of Lieutenants Grant, McClellan, Hooker, Meade, Jackson, Beauregard, Longstreet, Hardee, and Hill, along with Captain Lee and Lt. Colonel Johnston would affect their Civil War generalship.  The tactics they saw work so well in 1846-1848, they would employ on countless Civil War battlefields – for better or worse.

 

Dr. Johnson is professor of history at Lipscomb University, where he received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in 2001. He grew up in Chattanooga where visits to Lookout Mountain and Chickamauga Battlefield along with drives along Missionary Ridge fostered an interest in the Civil War.

 

Johnson has written five books on the Mexican and Civil Wars, and numerous other articles, papers and books on 18th to mid-19th century American politics, diplomacy, army professionalization, and Constitutional history. He has been featured on C-SPAN’s BookTV and The History Channel.

 

Joining Johnson will be Dr. Derek Frisby, Associate Professor at Middle Tennessee State University, who will give an update on the forensic research being done at MTSU on the bodies of Mexican War soldiers unearthed in Monterrey, Mexico.

 

The event is free to the public. The Franklin Civil War Round Table is an educational program of Franklin’s Charge, and meets each month at Carnton Plantation’s Fleming Center, 1345 Eastern Flank Circle. For more information, email fcwrt@yahoo.com, or visit http://www.franklinscharge.org/the-round-table.