A crew from the popular PBS series History Detectives will be riding to the top of Lookout Mountain to find answers behind a watercolor painting of the Battle of Lookout Mountain.
The new season, which will feature this episode, will premiere this summer. The launch will be on WTCI-TV.
The painting originated in the prison at Rock Island, Ill. Who is the artist behind this painting? And what was he doing at the Rock Island prison?
Here are more details about what the crew is investigating:
A Portland, Ore., man inherited a watercolor he believes was painted by a soldier in Rock Island during the Civil War. The artist is John F. Gisch. Along the bottom of the painting we read “Battle of Lookout Mountain,” and “Rock Island Prison, Ill.” The contributor says the painting has been passed down in his family from generation to generation. He wants to know more about the artist, John Gisch, and about the painting itself.
History Detectives host Wes Cowan travels to Chattanooga to learn more about the pivotal battle over a strategic vantage point, Lookout Mountain. Then Wes visits the Rock Island Arsenal Museum to find out more about the lives of soldiers imprisoned there.
On Tuesday, Wes Cowan will go to the top of Lookout Mountain to learn more about the role this battle played in the Civil War and to match the vistas there to the scenes depicted in the painting central to the crew's investigation.