Our Winter Meeting will kickoff our Civil War Sesquicentennial observation activities.  We begin with an excellent speaker, Dr. Bill Mulligan, Professor of History at Murray State University (MSU) and 2009 Fulbright Scholar in History at University College Cork, Ireland.  His topic will be “The Civil War in Western Kentucky and West Tennessee, 1860-1863″. Attendees will be allowed to ask questions of Dr. Mulligan at the conclusion of his presentation. Dr. Mulligan has been teaching at MSU since 1993 and has performed extensive research on the Civil War in western Kentucky.  He has written several works about the Civil War period. …

The Governor of Tennessee when South Carolina seceded from the Union was Isham Green Harris.  Elected in 1857, Harris urged secession after the November 1860 election named Abraham Lincoln president.  Voters in Tennessee initially rejected the idea of secession, especially in the eastern part of the state.  When the Tennessee general assembly finally passed an ordinance of independence and alliance with the Confederacy, Harris prevented the separation of East Tennessee and its alliance with the Union.  Tennessee was the last state to secede, joining the Confederate States of America on June 8, 1861. Harris remained governor until he was forced…