Fortunately, no. Luckily, there was a bathroom at Traveller’s Rest. 🙂

Eric

1) It is actually spelled “Shepard”.

2) Al had to urinate in his suit before lift off for his suborbital flight. (They didn’t think the mission would last long enough for a full bladder to become an issue–but there were so many various holds in the countdown that fine May morning it did.) Hope you didn’t encounter THAT problem.

ESR

I also believe that holding East Tennessee feeds directly into the Western Theater CSA cavalry obsession – the region allowed them to keep launching raids into KY in the mistaken belief that they could accomplish real military objectives there. But again, that feeds into my wonder at how the Confederacy could willingly tie up 25% of their total manpower between the mountains and the west in poorly disciplined, badly trained cavalry organizations that contributed little extra combat power in too many cases. Frankly, the South could have fielded an extra infantry corps (10,000 men) at Corinth, Perryville, Murfreesboro, the Vicksburg fights, or Chickamauga if they had organized more rationally.

Dave Powell

Drew

RE: “Blue Springs” No, haven’t read it. I haven’t managed to find a copy while browsing, and I never remember to order it.:)

The truth is that from about late 62 until at least mid 64, Cav ops were a major focus in the west, unlike the east. In the east, there are a few major cav actions while the armies are static, but the not so much the constant pace.

In the west, there is always a raid going somewhere, and low-level skirmishing for control in places like Kentucky, West Tennessee, etc. I can think of a half-dozen raids by one side or the other that are very obscure, but worth covering. Morgan and Grierson are just the flashy ones.

Shelbyville is a single – very interesting, to be sure – facet of the Tullahoma campaign, which is dominated by mounted ops. Holly Springs also had a tremendous effect, and is worth examining.

Dave Powell

Did I hear a rumor awhile back that Evans might do a full length study of the Atlanta campaign as a whole? Maybe I just dreamt that up. If he gave the whole campaign the same detailed coverage as the cavalry raids south of the Chattahoochee, all I can say is…bring it on!

A.P.

I’m staying in Brentwood. 🙂

Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys.

To clarify…the Power Point is just photos of some of the officers I’m going to talk about. There are 24 slides. Folks like Morgan, Forrest, Stanley, Stoneman, Kilpatrick, McCook, Grierson, etc. I thought it might be good for folks to see photos of the people I will be talking about. Maybe it will keep them from falling asleep. 🙂

The talk covers only operations east of the Mississippi River. I have only an hour to cover the entire war. Trying to add the Trans-Mississippi would have been too much. As it is, I have to give a one over the world sort of analysis to things. If I try to do more, it will just be too damned much.

Sherman’s Horsemen is one the finest Civil War books ever written. What’s really remarkable about is that at 800 or so pages, it only covers half of the campaign. I can only hope that Mr. Evans finishes the job at some point. Truthfully, he should be doing the talk, not me.

My friend Greg Biggs–who is also on the program with me–has been bugging me for years to do a study of the Battle of Shelbyville, which was part of the Tullahoma Campaign. I just might tackle it one of these years. It was a visit to Monroe’s Crossroads that got me interested in it, and it may be that’s what Shelbyville requires, too.

Eric