Wilson to speak on Bulloch family at Young-Sanders

Captain Walt Wilson returns to the Young-Sanders Center for the Study of the War Between the States in Louisiana to present highlights from his second book about the Bullochs of Georgia on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Walt will discuss one of the Civil War era’s most prominent Southern families that had important ties to Louisiana. The Confederate secret agent James D. Bulloch, with his best man Theodore Roosevelt Sr., traveled to Plaquemine to marry the Louisiana Southern Belle, Harriott Cross.
Others among the clan include first ladies, a Confederate spy, and President Theodore Roosevelt’s mother, thought to be an inspiration for Gone With the Wind’s Scarlett O’Hara. Most of these women were educated world travelers, skilled at navigating social circles far outside the insular society of the rural South. Their lives were filled with intrigue, espionage, romance, scandal, adversity and perseverance.
During the Civil War, they eluded Union spies on land, and blockaders at sea, and afterwards they influenced the national debate on equal rights for women. Drawing on primary sources, Wilson will provide new insight into the private lives of these remarkable women.
Wilson is a retired Navy captain and intelligence officer who served 10 years on aircraft carriers, in the Pentagon, and overseas in Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom. He is also the former head of U.S. Naval Intelligence operations in Europe, and has authored numerous articles and reviews. In his civilian career, he was vice president of a defense consulting firm and assistant director for the Texas Department of Information Resources in Austin. He now resides in San Antonio, TX where he is an admiral in the Texas Navy and past president of the San Antonio Navy League.
Wilson holds Masters degrees from Marymount University and Pepperdine University and is a graduate of the Air War College and the University of Texas at Austin. He is married to his high school sweetheart, the former Sharon McKusker of Bridge City, TX.
The lecture will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Young-Sanders Center for the Study of the War Between the States in Louisiana, located at 703 Teche Drive in Franklin. The lecture is open to the public with no admission fee. Refreshments will be served. For further information call us at (337) 413-1861.