In a special Sunday afternoon lecture on March 31, Dr. Tim Johnson will discuss the Mexican War (1846-1848), its causes, legacy, and the role of Tennesseans. With the outbreak of the war, Tennesseans responded in such numbers that state officials were forced to resort to a lottery to select the 6,000 to serve. The response solidified Tennessee's reputation as the "Volunteer State," a nickname initially won during the War of 1812. Dr. Johnson has devoted decades to researching and writing about the leaders, soldiers, and battles of the Mexican War. In 2017, he was part of a team working to confirm the identity of bodies returned to the U.S. from Mexico and is currently trying to determine if any of them were Tennesseans.

Dr. Tim Johnson is professor of history and chair of the history department at Libscomb University. He holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Alabama and his research interests are in the Mexican War and Civil War. The Virginia Historical Society named him an Andrew J. Mellon Research Fellow twice (1994, 2002). Yale University named him the Archibald Hanna, Jr. Research Fellow in American History for 2005, where he is currently in residence at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library on the Yale campus. The author of numerous books, Dr. Johnson received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award from Lipscomb in 2001, and he has been featured on C-SPAN’s BookTV and The History Channel.

The program is sponsored by the Harriet Z. and Bud Albers Memorial Fund and is and free and open to the public. The lecture will begin at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 31, at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville. A book signing will follow the program. For more information on the lecture, exhibitions, or museum hours, call 865-215-8824 or visit the website at www.EastTNHistory.org.