1862 cannon fired during artillery program at Ohio Civil War Show

A cannon barrel manufactured 164 years ago again belched fire and smoke Sunday. The cannon, manufactured in 1862, was part of the popular artillery display during the 48th annual Ohio Civil War Show at the Richland County Fairgrounds in Mansfield. Fans packed the demonstration area as cannons (and a mortar) from the Civil and Revolutionary wars exploded with loud roars, setting off car alarms in a parking lot. The show included full-size cannons, limbers and caissons. -- Article

This weekend's Civil War show in Dalton, Ga., features tons of relics and four lectures, including one on Confederate flags at Fort Donelson and Fort Henry

Guns and other collectibles at the 2018 show in Dalton (Civil War Picket photo)

Civil War historian and author Gregg Biggs will speak Saturday at the annual Chickamauga Civil War Show in Dalton, Ga., about Confederate flags flown during the Henry-Donelson Campaign in Tennessee.

The 31^st edition of the annual firearms, artifacts and relics show at the Dalton Convention Center, 2211 Tony Ingle Parkway, takes place Saturday and Sunday. Mike Kent, who has been producing Civil War shows for 35 years, said vendors will set up items on about 450 tables.

Biggs is one of four speakers scheduled Saturday

Many Confederate flags were captured as Union forces under Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant took Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862 and gained vital land and river areas in the Western Theater. About 13,000 Confederates were taken prisoner.

Biggs, a noted flag expert, told the Picket his afternoon program will cover three major flag patterns in use: The first national flag of the Confederacy, Virginia state flags used by Brig. Gen. John Floyd’s brigade, and the first use of the Hardee pattern flag by Brig. Gen. Simon Bucker’s division. (Hardee example at left is 3rd Tennessee in a private collection. It was captured by the 14th Missouri.)

Buckner designed the flag while in Bowling Green, Ky., in January 1862. Hardee pattern flags had a blue field and a circular or rectangular white center. They are most identified with units in the Army of Tennessee.

The units holding the forts were from Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia. Biggs’ talk will cover existing flags and captured flags that cannot be located today.

"None of the captured CS flags from Henry or Donelson were ever sent to the War Department, which makes tracking them difficult," Biggs told the Picket. "Some were sent home by Union officers and most of those remain missing today."

A few days after Fort Donelson fell, Clarksville and Nashville were captured; the latter the first capital of a Confederate state to go into Union hands.

The lectures Saturday are in Room 1-A on the lower level of the trade center. Seminars are for paying attendees only, said Kent.

Other speakers on the schedule

11 a.m.: Michael J. Manning, author of “They Fought Like Veterans:The Military History of the Civil War in the Indian Territory.” A summary of the book says the strife of the Civil War severely fractured the Five Civilized Tribes, splitting allegiances between the Union and the Confederacy. 

Noon: Historian and author Scott Sallee on the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. He will present the theory that the killing had nothing to do with the Confederacy but, instead, the radical faction of the Republican Party and the highest levels of the U.S. government.

1 p.m.: Greg Biggs (see above)

2 p.m.: Fort Donelson expert and battlefield tour guide John Walsh will discuss photography during the Civil War. Walsh operates Fort Donelson Relics.

Relic shows are a major place for sellers, museum curators, authors, collectors and others to network.

Show hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sunday.  Admission is $12 for adults; children 12 and under are free.

30th edition of the Civil War show in Dalton, Ga., offers boatloads of relics, three lectures and a familiar place for collectors and vendors to network

The Bullet and Shell table at the 2018 weekend event in Dalton, Ga  (Picket photos)

Patrons at this weekend’s 30^th edition of the Chickamauga Civil War Show in Dalton, Ga., can take in lectures on battlefield preservation, religion during the conflict and Reconstruction.

The annual firearms, artifacts and relics show at the Dalton Convention Center, 2211 Tony Ingle Parkway, takes place Saturday and Sunday. During dealer move-in Friday, people can pay $50 for an “early buyer” badge that gives them the first crack at many items. They can use the pass through the weekend.

Show organizer Mike Kent, who has been producing Civil War shows for 34 years, including 20 at Dalton, said nearly 200 vendors will set up items on 450 tables.

“Standout displays of Confederate buckles by Dr. Bill Blackman, Kenny Copelin and Scott Riddle are always one of the top attractions at the show and Father Bob Miller, who is one of our guest speakers, will also have a display on religion during the war,” Kent (left) told the Picket.

Kent said all Civil War shows have evolved over the years. What started out as mainly a show for dug relics from the Civil War has developed into an all era, militaria-type show with relics, artifacts, weapons and memorabilia from the Revolutionary War up through World War ll.

“As Civil War material becomes more difficult and expensive to acquire, collectors are tending toward items from more recent eras such as WW ll, but the Dalton show is still 80% to 90% Civil War related.” Kent also runs the larger Franklin Civil War Show in Tennessee, held in December.

Beyond sales, relic shows are a major place for sellers, museum curators, authors, collectors and others to network.

While there is a fee to enter the Dalton hall, three lectures Saturday in Room 1-A on the first floor of the trade center are free and those interested do not need to enter the show to listen. The schedule:

11 a.m.: Anthony Hodges, head of the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association, and Joe Trahan, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association, will discuss battlefield preservation.

Noon: Father Bob Miller, a Catholic priest and historian, speaks on “Religion is what makes soldiers brave: Seven reasons why faith was important during the Civil War.”

1 p.m.: Historian and author Scott Sallee lectures on Reconstruction following the Civil War, and its three phrases.

Civil War photo collector and expert David Wynn Vaughan of Atlanta plans to attend Friday’s VIP session. “I (always) hope to find a nice Confederate image.”

Ronald S. Coddington,  author, historian and publisher of Military Images magazine, has previously set up shop at the Dalton show -- interacting with patrons by scanning tintypes, ambrotype images and cartes de visite for possible print and online galleries for this magazine, getting story ideas and weighing in on a card’s value.

While he is unable to attend this year, Coddington said he enjoys meeting the public.

“The passion and knowledge these caretakers have for artifacts is inspiration. And the opportunity to be physically present to touch the artifacts is not something you can get in the digital world -- at least not yet.”

A prospective buyer checks out firearms in 2010 (Civil War Picket)

Kent says photo collector and dealer Paul Reeder, known for his Confederate images, will be at the show. Military Images has published some of his collection.

Show hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sunday.  Admission is $12 for adults; children 12 and under are free. Friday’s VIP session ($50) is 10 a.m.-7 p.m.

Chickamauga, Shiloh and Vicksburg: Seminar will look at park histories and their roles today

Missouri monument at Vicksburg (NPS photo)

Ever-evolving views on monuments, battlefield preservation and Civil War memory will be covered in this year’s seminar held in conjunction with the Chickamauga Civil War Show.

"Written in Blood and Carved in Stone: Remembering the Civil War at Chickamauga, Shiloh and Vicksburg" is the title of the Feb. 4 Western Theater colloquium put on by the Bandy Heritage Center for Northwest Georgia. It’s set for 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Dalton Convention Center, 2211 Dug Gap Battle Road.

There’s a lot to tackle at the program, with three scholars looking at “how the nation's earliest military parks came into existence, how each contributed to the memory of the war, and how their commemoration of the historic landscape changed over time.”

First up (9:15 a.m.) will be Jim Ogden, chief historian at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. He will speak about that site in northwest Georgia and Chattanooga, Tenn.

Smith

Author Timothy B. Smith, who teaches history at the University of Tennessee at Martin, will focus on Shiloh (10 a.m.). Part of his talk will be about 150 years of battlefield preservation since the Civil War, he told the Picket.

His upcoming book, “Altogether Fitting and Proper: Civil War Battlefield Preservation in History, Memory, and Policy, 1861–2015” (University of Tennessee Press), according to one review, “combines a detailed accounting of federal, state, and private activity with an instructive critique of the role post-Civil War racism played in affecting and influencing various preservation efforts. Tim Smith reminds us, in very concrete ways, of the malleable nature of Civil War memory.”

Smith also writes about the conflict between preservationists and commercial developers, the evolution of public policy on the management of parks and the ways the conflict has been remembered over the years.

At 11 a.m., historian and curator Michael Panhorst will speak on '"Vicksburg National Military Park: The Art Park of the South."

“I plan to address how and why Vicksburg National Military Park was created, what it contributes to the memory of the war and how the park and its meaning have changed over time,” Panhorst said.

Panhorst

The author has written about the evolution of battlefield monuments. In an article for Essential Civil War Curriculum, Panhorst showed their emphasis went from remembering the fallen and survivors to, in many cases, reconciliation. He discusses how Southern states eventually began funding monuments. He notes the first battlefield monument to African-Americans was erected at Vicksburg in 2004.

Panhorst also has interest in the design, architecture and artistry of Civil War monuments. His 2015 work, “The Memorial Art and Architecture of Vicksburg National Military Park” (Kent State University Press) says most dedicated at the park by 1920 were built in the classical revival Beaux-Arts style.

The lectures will be followed by a discussion panel from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The talks in the lecture hall on the upper level of the trade center are free. To learn more about the colloquium or other Bandy Heritage Center programs, contact project director Brian Hilliard at bhilliar@daltonstate.edu or at (706) 272-4452.

Civil War show in Dalton, Ga.: Chance to buy period items, learn about failed Rebel strategy

(2010 Chickamauga Civil War Show -- Picket photo)

Failings of Confederate leadership in the Western Theater will be the subject of an upcoming seminar held in conjunction with the Chickamauga Civil War Show in Dalton, Ga.

Bandy Heritage Center for Northwest Georgia’s Feb. 6 colloquium will draw patrons who flock to the annual firearms, artifacts and relics show at the Dalton Convention Center, 2211 Dug Gap Battle Road.

“We have held our colloquium in conjunction with the Civil War show every year since 2010,” said Brian Hilliard, Bandy project director. “It is a natural tie-in with the community interest in the show.”

The talks in the lecture hall on the upper level of the trade center are free and feature three prominent Civil War historians and authors. The schedule for “Losing the Heartland: The Failure of Confederate Theater Command in the West” is:

Tim Smith

9:15 a.m.: “Albert Sidney Johnston: Hero or Villain?”

Tim Smith will examine the general’s strategic and tactical decisions and their repercussions. Smith, including in “Shiloh: Conquer or Perish,” has written extensively about the fallen leader’s conduct at that 1862 battle. In an America’s Civil War magazine article, Smith took on the myth that the South would have won the battle if Johnston had lived.

10 a.m.: “Joseph E. Johnston and the Mess in the West”

Richard McMurry will explore the complex relationships between Johnston and his superiors and subordinates and how that affected strategy. The general had a defense-and-retreat strategy in northwest Georgia that eventually led to his loss of command. Johnston later argued he was heavily outnumbered and won support from early postwar writers, but McMurry has raised questions about his effectiveness. “It turns out that Joseph E. Johnston is not regarded now by a lot of people as the greatest thing since grits,” the historian said in 2014, adding the general’s retreat toward Atlanta was a political and logistical disaster for the South. (Coincidentally, Johnston led troops against Maj. Gen William T. Sherman around Dalton during the Atlanta Campaign).

Steve Davis

11 a.m.: “Bonnie Blue Flop: P.G.T. Beauregard and Confederate Strategy in the Autumn of 1864”

Steve Davis, who has written extensively about the Atlanta Campaign, will discuss Beauregard’s role in Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ failed efforts to create a unified command structure in the West. The Louisiana-born general did not get along well with Jefferson Davis and other leaders.

11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Discussion panel

In the same building, the Chickamauga Civil War Show is scheduled for 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 6, and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 7. Admission is $10 for adults; children under 12 get in free.

Show organizer Mike Kent told the Picket he expects to have 475 tables with dealers from more than 20 states and England. Rafael Eledge, who appears on PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow,” and his business Shiloh Relics will be among the vendors. Eledge will give free appraisals, Kent says.

“We expect a great crowd as always, with several local Civil War Roundtables making their annual pilgrimages to the show,” said Kent.