Meeting of February 14, 2019

Bennett Carlton on “Have We Taken the Mountain? – The Civil War Battles of General Charles G. Harker”

Bennett Carlton is the author of Have We Taken the Mountain?: The Civil War Battles of General Charles G. Harker. The book chronicles the military exploits of a local New Jersey soldier, a West Point graduate, who rose in rank to brigadier general in the Army of the Cumberland before being mortally wounded at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. Prior to Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, Harker fought in all the major battles in the western theater: Shiloh, Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge. Harker was regarded as one of the rising young stars of the army, prompting General William T. Sherman to write, “Regret beyond measure,” the loss of General Harker.

The author is senior library assistant at the Logan Township Public Library. He was formerly an editor and proofreader for a major pharmaceutical company, and is a former tour guide for Centipede Tours of Philadelphia. He is a long-time Civil War reenactor and is currently writing a second book, a history of the American Revolution in Swedesboro and Woolwich Twp., New Jersey, where he resides.