Ned Jilton II TN Photo

06/15/2026

https://timesnews.net/news/376636/demonstrator-showcases-rope-making-at-sycamore-shoals/ In this week's column, I check out another frontier skill being demonstrated at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park.

In my visits to area historic sites, I have had the opportunity to learn many skills and crafts. I can add rope making to the list.

06/08/2026

The Tri-Cities Civil War Round Table is hosting a presentation by Sean Michael Chick titled " ‘Not a Useless Appendage’ - Don Carlos Buell in the Civil War”. Mr. Chick’s presentation will be at 7 p.m. on June 8 June, in room 219 of the Toy F. Reid Eastman Employee Center, 400 S. Wilcox Dr., Kingsport, TN. This presentation is free and open to the public and all interested are cordially invited to attend.
Don Carlos Buell earned the nickname "The McClellan of the West" for his cautious approach and desire for a limited war that would not disrupt civilian life in the South or interfere with slavery. Although he staunchly opposed secession, he was never able to reconcile himself with the Lincoln administration. Buell's wife had owned slaves prior to the war although she freed them shortly after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. Buell's career/accomplishments during the Civil War were heavily criticized by many including President Lincoln.
Chick graduated from University of New Orleans with a BA in History and Communications and from Southeastern Louisiana University with a Master of Arts in History. He works in New Orleans, leading historic tours of his hometown. His main American Civil War research interests include Shiloh, the Army of Tennessee, New Orleans during the Civil War, P.G.T. Beauregard, the Petersburg Campaign, and Civil War tactics in relation to linear tactics from 1685-1866. He is currently working on multi-volume books on Shiloh and Petersburg.

05/25/2026

https://timesnews.net/news/374184/meet-mary-patton-gunpowder-maker-for-the-overmountain-men/ My column this week covers one of the local figures in the American Revolution, Mary Patton-gunpowder maker.

When the militia began gathering at Fort Watauga to face the British threat, Mary Patton made 500 pounds of gunpowder for the Overmountain men in two weeks' time.

05/16/2026

https://timesnews.net/news/372820/sycamore-shoals-hosts-soap-making-workshop/ This week's column, I took a trip over to Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park to check out their newest workshop, soap making. Met a lot of nice people there and learned a thing or two.

While making soap in the 18th century was simple, it was also very labor-intensive and time consuming. So, the new Sycamore Shoals workshop came up with an alternative.

05/11/2026

https://timesnews.net/news/371805/sycamore-shoals-hosts-old-time-music-jam/ In this week's column in the Kingsport Times News and the Johnson City Press, I check out the Old Time Music Jam at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park in Elizabethton.

On the fourth Sunday of each month, musicians gather at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Site for the "Old Time Music Jam."

05/10/2026

The Tri-Cities Civil War Round Table will be hosting a presentation by Bennett Parten, PhD, titled “Sherman's March: A Journey Toward Freedom.” Parten’s presentation will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 11, in room 219 of the Toy F. Reid Employee Center, 400 S. Wilcox Dr. in Kingsport. This presentation is free and open to the public.
In the fall of 1864, Gen. William T. Sherman led his army through Atlanta, GA, blazing a path of destruction as they headed east across the state to Savannah. While the army marched through town after Confederate town, plantation owners fled… But even before they did so, slaves self-emancipated by physically joining the Union lines. The newly freed slaves endured hardships, walking as much as twenty miles a day—often without food or shelter from the winter weather— with some Union commanders discouraging and even preventing them from staying with the army. By the time the army seized Savannah in December, as many as 20,000 enslaved people had attached themselves to Sherman’s army in the expectation that the company would help free them. With steadfast determination and an unwavering belief in the American dream, many survived – and thrived – in the years following the war.
Parten’s “Sherman's March: A Journey Toward Freedom” a new and groundbreaking account that reframes Sherman’s March as the largest liberation event in American history. Parten's compelling narrative is the first to focus on the myriad stories of the enslaved individuals who self-emancipated. It's a journey told through the lens of resilience, hope, and the beginning sparks of Reconstruction.
Parten is Assistant Professor of History at Georgia Southern University whose area of expertise is the Civil War period. He is a native of Royston, Georgia, and completed his PhD in history at Yale University. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Zocalo Public Square, and The Civil War Monitor, among others. He currently lives in Savannah, Georgia, where he often encounters reminders of Sherman’s March.

05/04/2026

https://timesnews.net/news/371069/group-hosts-expert-on-civil-war-photography/ This week's column in the Kingsport Times News and the Johnson City Press covers Civil War Photography and the presentation by Bob Zeller, co-founder and president of The Center for Civil War Photography, to the Tri-Cities Civil War Round Table.

Did you know that many of the photographs taken during the Civil War were 3D? Furthermore, did you know that Civil War photographs are still being found?

04/12/2026

https://timesnews.net/news/367866/america-sets-its-sights-on-the-moon/ Another in my series on the early space program running in conjunction with NASA’s efforts towards crewed flight to the moon. This week the beginnings of Apollo and the various ideas of how to go to the moon in the 1960s.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but it was his successor, President John F. Kennedy, that gave NASA its focus.

04/10/2026

The Tri Cities Civil War Round Table is hosting a presentation by Bob Zeller titled “The Grand Review – Discoveries and Explorations in Civil War Photography.” Zeller’s presentation featuring images of period photographs in both 2-D and 3-D formats will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 13, in room 239 of the Renaissance Center, 1200 E. Center St., in Kingsport. As always, this presentation is free and open to the public and all interested are cordially invited to attend.
Zeller, co-founder and president of The Center for Civil War Photography, is one of the country’s leading authorities on the imagery of the Civil War. He is the author of several ground-breaking books in the field, including “The Blue and Gray in Black and White: A History of Civil War Photography,” the first narrative history about the war’s photographers, what they did and why they did it. Zeller pioneered the modern presentation of stereoscopic Civil War photography with “The Civil War in Depth,” the first 3-D photo history of the war, and “The Civil War in Depth Volume II.”
Zeller has been presenting 3-D slide show lectures of original Civil War photographs since 1997. Images from his Civil War photography collection were featured at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery exhibitions on Mathew Brady in 1997-98 and Alexander Gardner in 2016, as well as his own one-man exhibition at the Southeast Museum of Photography in 1995.

04/06/2026

https://timesnews.net/news/366661/more-on-americas-race-to-space/ Continuing my series on the rocket designers of the early space race that runs in conjunction with the Artemis flight around the moon. The early day of the Mercury program.

In the earliest days of the space race, the United States was getting its butt kicked. That's just the plain truth.