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​2022 SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERS

John Scales

"A Bluff Beats a Streight"

In the Spring of 1863, Union commanders in the Western Theater decided to take a lesson from the havoc Confederate raiders had played with their supply lines. They prepared two mounted expeditions, one to sweep down the state of Mississippi to cut supply lines to Vicksburg and the other to cross Alabama and break the railroad supplying General Bragg in Tennessee. The first, Grierson’s raid, was very successful, not so much in destroying supply lines but in bewildering their Confederate opponents. The second, more ambitious endeavor, foundered on a rock named Bedford Forrest, himself the most skilled of raiders. How did that raid come to pass and ultimately fail? 


Brig. Gen. (Ret.) John Scales attended the University of Alabama, graduating  with a degree in physics and a commission as an infantry lieutenant in the U. S. Army. He graduated from infantry officer basic, airborne and Ranger schools before being assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division. Later he led a rifle platoon in combat in Vietnam and joined the 101st Airborne (A/1-506 Infantry) upon return to the US. Leaving active duty in 1975, he joined the 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) of the Alabama National Guard while getting a master’s degree at Alabama and becoming Special Forces qualified. Over the years, while first teaching and later working as a scientist in Huntsville, he commanded a Special Forces Operational Detachment A, a company, a battalion, and the 20th Group itself.  He also received a Ph.D. in systems engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Selected for promotion to general and assignment to US Army Special Forces Command, he was first the deputy commander and later the acting commanding general. After 9/11 he was assigned to the Joint Special Operations Command and led a Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan. General Scales retired from the military in late 2002 and continued his career as an engineer in Huntsville, being granted six patents and publishing three military history books and one novel.
Non-fiction Books:
Sherman Invades Georgia, Naval Institute Press, 2006. 
A Reluctant Hero’s Footsteps, Westbow Press, 2013. World War II.
The Battles and Campaigns of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Savas Beatie, 2017. 
In Service of the Nation, a fictional foray into present-day US Army Special Forces dealing with a deadly and ambiguous situation overseas in the face of organized crime, murder, and a loose nuclear weapon.

Scott Bell

"Will That Be One Hump or Two?"

Scott will talk about U.S. Army Camel Corps, a novel  experiment by the U.S. Army. Major Henry C. Wayne had long tried to solve the problem of lack of water on the route from the Mississippi River to California through the desert Southwest. From it's inception until its' demise and the Bloody 43rd Mississippi Infantry of the Confederate States of America the only regiment to have used a camel militarily east of the Mississippi. From the acquisition of the African dromedary Old Douglas to carry baggage and musical instruments through his death at Vicksburg and the fate of his fellow soldiers, Bell provides an entertaining historical narrative of this little-known chapter in American history. 

Scott, is a Life Member in The SCV and its' Texas Division.
Due to his scholarly research and published literature. he has been awarded membership into the Bonnie Blue Society of the SCV. He is also been awarded the Jefferson Davis Gold Metal from the UDC, for his research, writings and presentations to schoolchildren, as well as his efforts for the restoration of Confederate Monuments. Bell's g-g- grandfather, Cpl. John K. Bell, of the 43rd Mississippi, provided much of the inspiration to research and write about the regiment .

Jim Woodrick

​“Forward, at a gallop!”: Van Dorn’s Raid on Holly Springs  

In the winter of 1862, as U.S. Grant’s forces moved down the Mississippi Central Railroad in north Mississippi, Holly Springs, Mississippi, became a major supply base for the Union army. From Grenada, Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton made plans to disrupt Grant’s supply line by sending a cavalry division north on a raid aimed at the supply depot at Holly Springs. Led by Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, three brigades of Confederate cavalry charged into Holly Springs on December 20, 1862, surprising the Federal garrison and capturing some 1,500 men, along with vast quantities of food, clothing, ammunition, and other supplies. 

A native Mississippian and a graduate of Millsaps College, Jim retired from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, where he served as the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer and Civil War Sites Historian, among other duties. A Licensed Battlefield Guide at Vicksburg National Military Park and a NPS Volunteer at Vicksburg, he is the author of The Civil War Siege of Jackson, Mississippi (2016), published by The History Press. He is also a member of the Jackson Civil War Round Table, the Western Theater Historians Association and a frequent speaker. 

 Richard Holloway

"Grierson's Raid"

While many of the most famous cavalry raids were launched by Confederate leaders such as Jeb Stuart or Nathan Bedford Forrest, this was a Union raid. It was commanded by Benjamin Grierson, who despite pre-war dislike of horses quickly proved himself to be a brilliant cavalry commander. His raid was part of U.S. Grant’s successful campaign against the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River.

Holloway wrote biographies of Generals Richard Taylor, Hamilton Bee and William R. Boggs for the book, "Confederate Generals in the Trans-Mississippi,  Vol 3" and a chapter on the Louisiana troops during the Siege of Jackson,  MS for the book, "Vicksburg Besieged."  

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