May 18th Meeting
Richard “Rick” Justice, a teacher in the Sikeston, Missouri public schools and a volunteer at Columbus Belmont State Park, will be the featured speaker at the May 18 meeting of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society. The meeting will be held at the Hickman County Historical and Genealogical Society on the Court Square in Clinton, Kentucky beginning at 10:30 am. Justice’s talk is the third in the JPHS’s 2019 program.
Nathan Bedford Forrest needs no introduction to students of Jackson Purchase history or the history of the Civil War. While aspects of Forrest’s life and career are controversial, few can deny he was an effective cavalry commander and caused a great deal of disruption in the larger Jackson Purchase and beyond during the Civil War. Ed Bearss, long time Chief Historian of the National Park Service said many times. “Bedford Forrest could wreck a Railroad.” Justice’s recent book, Tennessee Blitz: Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Lightning Raids in Western Tennessee sets aside many of the controversies and examines why Forrest was so successful as a cavalry officer and especially as a behind the lines raider. Much has been written about Forrest, Justice offers a new perspective. “I am glad Rick Justice agreed to speak at one of our meetings. My own research on US Grant and Union troops in the Purchase have given me a deeper appreciation of how disruptive Forrest’s raids were. I look forward to this presentation and the discussion,” said JPHS President Dr. Bill Mulligan. Books will be available for purchase at the meeting.
Richard Justice is a high school history teacher in Sikeston, Missouri, a Civil War reenactor for more than thirty years, and a volunteer at Columbus Belmont State Park. He has a BS on Entomology and master’s degrees in history and military history.
In 1958, a group of historians met in Murray, Kentucky led by faculty from Murray State University and University of Tennessee-Martin and formed the Jackson Purchase Historical Society to promote interest, study, and preservation of the regional history of the territory encompassed in the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, known as the Jackson Purchase. The society holds six meetings each year with a speaker on Jackson Purchase history, publishes an award-winning journal on local history, and has recently launched an online Encyclopedia of the Jackson Purchase. Members include a wide range of people who simply have a love of history and a love of the Jackson Purchase area. Anyone interested in Jackson Purchase history is welcome to join the JPHS. Information about membership and future programs is available on this website.