On Sunday, September 8th at 3 P.M., the Franklin Civil War Round Table will present Dr. Earl J. Hess who will speak on the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, a first-time topic for the group.
During his campaign to take Atlanta, William T. Sherman encountered his largest obstacle in Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of the Tennessee in a heavily fortified position at Kennesaw Mountain. For two weeks in the early summer of 1864 the armies opposed each other with flanking maneuvers, artillery duels, sniping and fierce fighting and frontal assaults.
Dr. Hess is recognized as a leading expert on the western theater of the Civil War. He completed his B.A. and M.A. degrees in History at Southeast Missouri State University. His Ph.D. in American Studies, with a concentration in History, was awarded by Purdue University in 1986. Hess has taught at the University of Georgia, Texas Tech and the University of Arkansas. Since 1989 he has been at Lincoln Memorial University, where he holds the Stewart W. McClelland Chair.
Hess has published twenty books and numerous articles on the Civil War. His most recent work, Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnson, and the Atlanta Campaign was published by the University of North Carolina Press and preceded by his University of Tennessee Press release entitled, The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee.