April 4, 2008  

Book fair, roundtable, reenactment end Common Academic Experience events at Pellissippi State

Pellissippi State Technical Community College’s Common Academic Experience is set to end with a bang.

The yearlong schedule of events and activities—all of them dovetailing with the Civil War novel “Sharpshooter” by Knoxville native David Madden—comes to a close with a book fair, a roundtable and a historic reenactment on college grounds.

The book fair and roundtable discussion by Civil War experts are planned for April 9.  Then, April 11-12, reenactors will “invade” the Pellissippi Campus on Hardin Valley Road, taking visitors back in time to the spring of 1863.

Sponsored by the college’s English Department and Pellissippi State’s Foundations of Excellence initiative, the events are free and open to the public.

Pellissippi State students in select classes have been studying “Sharpshooter” throughout the 2007-08 academic year. The story is about a 13-year-old East Tennessee boy whose life is drastically impacted by the Civil War. 

Madden, an English professor at Louisiana State University, will participate in the roundtable. Edward Francisco, Pellissippi State’s writer-in-residence, will moderate.

Area Civil War experts Earl Hess and Joan Markel, along with local filmmaker Steve Dean, will join Madden for the discussion, set for 2 p.m. in Goins Auditorium.

Hess, an associate professor and director of the history program at Lincoln Memorial University, has published 10 books and dozens of articles about the Civil War.  Emmy winner Dean owns FamFive Productions, an independent film and video production company, and was the creator of WBIR-Channel 10’s popular “Heartland Series.”

“The battle for Knoxville in 1863 was a major campaign, with high visibility among Union and Confederate authorities,” Hess said. “Whoever controlled Knoxville could lay claim to controlling East Tennessee, the Tennessee River valley and the important railroad that linked Knoxville and Chattanooga with Virginia.”

Dean has produced a new film on the topic, ”Its Memory Alone Remains: The Battle of Fort Sanders, Nov. 29, 1863.” The battle, he acknowledges, lasted only 20 minutes, but it ended with more than 800 casualties (800 Confederates, 15 Federals). The show has aired twice on local PBS stations.

“Probably the most significant accomplishment of the production was the full-scale reconstruction of the Fort Sanders earthworks where the battle took place,” Dean said. By the early 1900s, the earthworks had been completely erased from the landscape.

“We were able to follow the precise plans that were left behind to rebuild the northwest bastion,” he said. “Once it was built and we put our Civil War reenactors in the ditch that surrounds the walls, the futility of the attack and the brutality of the place was evident. It was basically a death pit.” 

Copies of the film on DVD will be available at the roundtable for $20 each.

Back in time

On April 11 and 12, Civil War reenactors from the 63rd Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Confederate) and the 8th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Federal) will portray the American Civil War era as part of a living history observation.

Authentically uniformed and equipped soldiers will set up camp, perform drill exercises and conduct firing demonstrations.

On Friday, April 11, 4-5 p.m., the reenactors will begin an overnight encampment. Then at 7 a.m. on Saturday, “Reveille” will be sounded, followed by roll call at 8, when camps open to the public. 

Saturday’s schedule also includes a noon “mess,” when soldiers cook over campfires, and a discussion and demonstration of Civil War combat at 2 p.m.

Infantry drills are scheduled for 10 a.m., 11 a.m., and 3 p.m. According to Charles Walker, an adjunct instructor and former sergeant with the Confederate 63rd, soldiers will build their camps on opposite sides of the campus pond.

“The men will interact with visitors but will be totally in character. That means they won’t talk about anything that happened after April 1863.      

“Even though the battles they fought were fierce,” he said, “soldiers didn’t engage in combat every day, so they spent much of their time practicing drill maneuvers.”

For additional information about the book fair, roundtable, or living history reenactment, contact Lois Reynolds, dean of the English Department, at (865) 694-694-6708 or lreynolds@pstcc.edu.

Search Pellissippi State News Releases.

Pellissippi State Technical Community College
2000 - 2007©