Eastern National, a partner to the National Park Service, invites the public to meet author Dr. Aaron Astor this Saturday, during the commemoration of the Battles for Chattanooga. Dr. Astor will be available at the Point Park Visitor Center to sign his book, “The Civil War Along Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau” from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. with a special presentation at 1 p.m.
A summary of the book is as follows: Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau played host to some of the most dramatic military maneuvering of the Civil War. Straddling the entire state of Tennessee, the formidable tableland proved to be a maze of topographical pitfalls and a morass of divided loyalties. As Federal forces sought to capitalize on the capture of Nashville, they moved into a region split by the most vicious guerilla warfare outside Missouri, including the colorful and intensely violent rivalry between Confederate Champ Ferguson and Unionist “Tinker” Dave Beaty. The bitter conflict affected thousands of ordinary men and women struggling to survive in the face of a remorseless war of attrition and its legacy continues to be felt today.
Dr.
Aaron Astor is associate professor of history at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. Astor received his Bachelor’s degree in 1995 from Hamilton College and later received his Masters in 2001and a PhD in history in 2006 from Northwestern University. Astor, a Board member of the East Tennessee Civil War Alliance, also serves on the Southern Historical Association committee and the Society of Civil War Historians committee. Currently, Dr. Astor resides in Maryville.