• HOME
• HISTORY
• MULTIMEDIA
• EVENTS
• LINKS
• SITE INFO

New Updates

• Two videos and six stories were added to the Multimedia page on January 6, 2009.
 
• Nine stories and four videos were added to the Multimedia page on December 16.
 
• A video was added to the Multimedia page on October 27.
 
• Five articles were added to the Multimedia page on October 27.
 
• The calendar was updated on May 29. 24 articles and 6 videos were added to the Multimedia page.
 
• A video report was added to the Multimedia page on Apr. 25.

News Updates

Tusculum To Host Lecture On Gunboats In Civil War

Source: The Greeneville Sun
by Staff
Date: 2008-03-11

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. -- The role of gunboats in the Civil War will be the focus of a lecture Tuesday, March 18, at Tusculum College.
 
Myron "Jack" Smith, Jr., will present "Governor Johnson and the Gunboat Navy: Logistics, Morgan, and Johnsonville" at 7 p.m. in the Chalmers Conference Center of the Niswonger Commons.
 
Smith, director of the Library at Tusculum, is the author of 76 volumes of bibliography and history including the recent "LeRoy Fitch -- The Civil War Career of a Union River Gunboat Commander."
 
Smith's presentation is part of the year-long Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration in 2008.
 
Commemoration of the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial will be a focal point this year for the two museums at the college through a special exhibit about its namesake at the President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library and an emphasis on the constitution and Johnson's life in the educational programs at the Doak House Museum.
 
The subject of Smith's latest book chronicles the encounters of LeRoy Fitch and his sailors as they convoyed Union troops and supplies, and battled Confederates, mainly along the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers.
 
Control of the major rivers was crucial to both sides during the Civil War. Much of the shoreline of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers was in the hands of the Union, and Nashville became the hub of a great Yankee supply chain.
 
A nemesis of Fitch was a figure that is also a part of Greeneville's Civil War history - General John Hunt Morgan. Fitch's forces were often guarding against raids by General Morgan's cavalry.
 
Smith's studies for his master's degree led him to begin writing books on Civil War naval history. He prepared a bibliography on Civil War naval history which did so well he soon had contracts for five more books.
 
The Civil War is just one of the topics that have been the focus of works by Smith. He has written and compiled information about subjects as diverse as Watergate, World War II, the airline industry, baseball, cloak-and-dagger fiction, and, of course, the Civil War.
 
Smith's writing has also appeared in other types of publications. His article, "LeRoy Fitch Meets the Devil's Disciple: The Battle of Bell's Mills, Tennessee, December 4-6, 1864" appeared in the December issue of North South magazine. This is the first-ever article published concerning the contests near Nashville between Fitch's gunboats and land cannon under Vanderbilt University founder Rev. David C. Kelley (Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's aide and chaplain).