Historical Insights

We will follow action in Northeast Mississippi - the largest engagement within 100 miles of the Shoals in the summer of 1864; see how the Union cavalry around Decatur didn't rule the roost unopposed; and visit action at Atlanta, as fateful strategic choices are brewing to bring the Shoals back to the center stage of the action in the climactic days to the war in the west.

We will see how North Alabama played into the Atlanta Campaign, as General Sherman is within sight of capturing the city, despite critical losses. We'll see a massive shakeup in the Confederate command. We'll visit a skirmish at Courtland where we encounter some stunning experiences of enslavement. And we'll set the stage for a famous raid close to home as the Atlanta Campaign reaches its climax as the fateful Summer of 1864 begins to fade to fall.

We will discuss dramatic events in the Atlanta campaign in June 1864 which will set into motion fateful consequences for North Alabama before the year's end

We will discuss lawlessness and depredations committed in and out of uniform in the Tennessee valley, and the delicate military situation revolving around Sherman's fateful thrust into Georgia in the early summer of 1864

We will explore a stunning upset in the balance of power north of the Tennessee River and examine conditions in the region at large, as General Sherman launches the Atalanta Campaign

We will discuss havoc inflicted by the rebel General Forrest, soldiers from Illinois headquartering in very famous and familiar places, and a shocking capture of Ohio cavalry which lives on today in popular memory. *Note, I said "David" when I should have said Daniel Leib Ambrose.

We will discuss fateful and monumental shifts in the Federal high command, as well a skirmishing along the Tennessee River in North Alabama

We will explore the complicated and murky legal status of slavery in Tennessee after the emancipation proclamation, and hardships faced by local people at the hands of lawless gangs in and out of federal uniform

We will encounter some of the dramatic skirmishing that took place in North Alabama along the Tennessee River in January 1864.

We will hear from two eyewitnesses - one Union and one Confederate - of the Battles at Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain late in November 1863, that drove the Rebel army out of the Tennessee Valley