The Bowling Green Civil War Round Table will have its first meeting at 6:30 p.m. March 17 at Cherry Hall, room 125.

Sponsored by WKU’s Department of History and the Institute for Civil War Studies at WKU, the group will resemble thousands of other Civil War Round Tables around the nation and will meet on the third Thursday of every month except June, July and August. The creation of the Bowling Green Civil War Round Table is one component of WKU’s commemoration of the Civil War sesquicentennial, 2011-2015.

The first meeting will begin with the election of officers and a program chairman for the coming year.

For its inaugural meeting, a program titled Nashville – Siren’s Song of the Confederacy will  be presented by Greg Biggs, president of the Clarksville (Tenn.) Civil War Round Table and an accomplished Civil War historian and tour guide. Biggs will describe how the Confederates tried five times, either directly or indirectly, to retake Nashville after Union forces captured the city in February 1862.

Annual membership dues for the Bowling Green Civil War Round Table are $20 for individuals, $30 for families, and $10 for students. Membership is open to all residents of Bowling Green and everyone else within driving distance of the WKU campus. The organization will be the first Civil War Round Table established in Bowling Green, a city that played a significant and strategic role during the war.

Contact: Glenn W. LaFantasie, (270) 745-4950 or glenn.lafantasie@wku.edu.