Community Corner
Cobb Civil War Roundtable Group Sets First Meeting
Roundtables have been around since the 1940s, but there has never been one in Cobb County.
The first meeting of the Cobb County Civil War Roundtable will be Thursday at the Marietta Museum of History, beginning what organizers hope will be an ongoing discussion about the war and the people who fought it.
There are about 200 Civil War roundtables around the country, but there has never been one in Cobb. Atlanta’s roundtable, which has members who live in Cobb, was formed in 1949.
“With all the Civil War history in Cobb, it seems like a good time to start a roundtable here,” said David Brannan, the head of the organizing committee.
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April marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the war, and many local groups are planning special events. “We can use that momentum,” Brannan said.
Thursday's roundtable meeting begins with a reception at 7 p.m. in the museum on Depot Street, next to the Marietta Welcome Center just off the square. The featured speaker will be Brian S. Wills, director of the Center for the Study of the Civil War Era at Kennesaw State University and the author of a biography of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.
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The Cobb organizing committee of more than a dozen people includes representatives of the history museum, the , the Kennesaw Mountain Historical Association and the Paulding County Historical Society.
Anna Monroe, education coordinator of the history museum, is serving as secretary of the committee. She said Brannan came and asked if they thought a roundtable would be a good idea. He traveled around to various Civil War historical sites in Cobb and Paulding to gauge interest.
“Several members of the Atlanta Roundtable who live in Cobb are helping with the organizing,” Brannan said. He hopes to get 80 people to the June 2 meeting. “I’d love to have 75 to 100 members by the end of the year.”
The first roundtable in the country was started in 1940 in Chicago. There are now roundtables in 43 states (three in Georgia), and many of the active groups are still in the North, according to the Web site civilwararchive.com.
Brannan said the one of the reasons the Cobb/Paulding area has never had a roundtable is because there are so many other groups with links to the war.
“Kennesaw Mountain, Pickett’s Mill, the history museum, KSU–they all bring in people and do their own presentations,” he said. “We hope to make them all more visible.”
Roundtable discussions take no sides, Brannan said, meaning the North and the South get equal billing, and topics from secession to slavery to tactics used by specific generals will be studied.
“We have so many people who live in the area who have written books about the war,” Brannan said. “It’s one of the most important periods in the history of our country. The more I learn about it, the more intriguing it gets.”
The Atlanta Roundtable, which has about 250 members, meets monthly for cocktails and dinner at Ansley Golf Club in the city. Its speaker in September (the group takes the summer off) is Emory Thomas, professor of history emeritus at the University of Georgia.
“Ours will be a lot less formal,” Brannan said.
Monroe, at the history museum, sees the new group as not just a place for lectures and discussions but one that will offer field trips and family events. Brannan agrees.
“One of our goals is to teach young people today what their ancestors did in the war,” he said. “My kids don’t know. Don’t let that history die with this generation.”
More information: The June 2 meeting of the Cobb County Civil Roundtable reception and lecture is free and open to the public. RSVP to cobbcivilwarrt@gmail.com, or call David Brannan at 770-315-7764.