TN Valley Civil War Round Table Meeting, January 10, Presenting:
Phone: 256-539-5287
Website: http://sites.google.com/site/tvcwrt/

The Civil War was a war of ideas and ideals as much as economics and politics. Scratch any figure of prominence of the time and you will find varying measures of desperation, yearning, and zeal. Robert Smalls is no small example of this. Born April 5, 1839, in Beaufort, South Carolina, into a Gullah slave family, his life was a constant striving for freedom, achievement, and recognition. He was made the first black Captain of a US vessel in December 1863 (taking command of the now-USS Planter, the very same armed Confederate military transport that he had commandeered in May 1862 in his successful escape from the South). He broke the “black barrier” in Congress and was the most influential South Carolinian politician for 50 years, serving 5 terms in Congress during Reconstruction. And for nearly20 years he served as US Collector of Customs in Beaufort, where he owned and lived in the house in which he had been a slave.

Kraig McNutt will present to us the amazing true life story of escaped slave Robert Smalls. Mr. McNutt is the Director of The Center for the Study of the American Civil War (CSACW), which houses his extensive personal Civil War collection. The CSACW was founded in 1995. He has been a serious student of the American Civil War since the early 1980s and has been publishing Civil War-related content on the Web since 1995. He publishes two major Civil War blogs (the Civil War Gazette and the Battle of Franklin).

Presented by the Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table, this program will be held Thursday, January 10, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Elks Lodge, 725 Franklin St., Huntsville. And don't forget: A scrumptious chicken buffet is available at 5:30 p.m. for $8.95, if you so choose. All are welcome. For more information, phone 256-539-5287.