- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Part I
Alfred Waud's sketch above, done for Mountain Campaigns in Georgia, captures the fighting in the dense woodlands bordering Chickamauga Creek.
Chickamauga - Chattanooga is the oldest National Military Park in the nation; this concerns itself with the Chickamauga portion lying south of the state line near modern Oglethorpe, Georgia. I visited there in May of this year as part of a trip to battle sites of Cleburne's Division of the Army of Tennessee. I won't attempt anything like a consise account of the battle, but rather will confine myself to highlights of it and the park.
An interesting feature of Chickamauga - Chattanooga is that it features two separate battles, one a Confederate victory, the other a Union victory; likely that diversity played a big part in the creation of this, the very first national park devoted to Civil War engagements. Something I'd never noticed before this visit is that states placing often very large monuments chose to segregate them: all those dedicated to former Confederate states are here at Chickamauga, while the Northern states placed all theirs at Orchard Knob, Lookout Mountain, or Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga. Above near the center of the battlefield is the largest southern state monument, that of Georgia. The statues around the base depict members of the three combat branches: infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Another smaller monument near the park Visitor Center is that of Florida, below.
After several days spent jockeying for position in the north Georgia woodlands, William Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland and Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee finally came to grips at the spot above on the eastern edge of what is now the park near Reed's Bridge when Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry encountered Union infantry and cavalry and called for support on the morning of September 19, 1863. The battle soon escalated as a meeting engagement as brigades and divisions from both armies entered the fray piecemeal. Below, on Jay's Mill Road, now a park thoroughfare devoted to the action of the first day of the battle, I found one of the markers I was searching for:
Gradual building Confederate pressure pushed back Union units in this area, but also drew more of them toward the growing battle here on the northern flanks of both armies. Eventually both Bragg and Rosecrans directed more and more of their forces toward the center and northern section of the expanding battlefield where individual units continued to be committed piecemeal as they arrived. These tablets for S.A.M. Wood's Brigade of Patrick Cleburne's Division are but two of the four that show the progress of this unit from east to west across the wooded landscape; all brigades and divisions of both armies are so represented in metal for those who wish to track on the ground the movement of any particular unit.
The above position marker is far back in Winfrey Field, also seen below and the scene of repeated Confederate assaults against Union troops located in the woods in the background. Around dark of the battle's first day, Cleburne's Division and others finally succeeded in pushing Rosecrans' line back to the north-south running Layfayette Road, the main thoroughfare in the area.
Next time, Part II
Chickamauga - Chattanooga is the oldest National Military Park in the nation; this concerns itself with the Chickamauga portion lying south of the state line near modern Oglethorpe, Georgia. I visited there in May of this year as part of a trip to battle sites of Cleburne's Division of the Army of Tennessee. I won't attempt anything like a consise account of the battle, but rather will confine myself to highlights of it and the park.
An interesting feature of Chickamauga - Chattanooga is that it features two separate battles, one a Confederate victory, the other a Union victory; likely that diversity played a big part in the creation of this, the very first national park devoted to Civil War engagements. Something I'd never noticed before this visit is that states placing often very large monuments chose to segregate them: all those dedicated to former Confederate states are here at Chickamauga, while the Northern states placed all theirs at Orchard Knob, Lookout Mountain, or Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga. Above near the center of the battlefield is the largest southern state monument, that of Georgia. The statues around the base depict members of the three combat branches: infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Another smaller monument near the park Visitor Center is that of Florida, below.
After several days spent jockeying for position in the north Georgia woodlands, William Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland and Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee finally came to grips at the spot above on the eastern edge of what is now the park near Reed's Bridge when Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry encountered Union infantry and cavalry and called for support on the morning of September 19, 1863. The battle soon escalated as a meeting engagement as brigades and divisions from both armies entered the fray piecemeal. Below, on Jay's Mill Road, now a park thoroughfare devoted to the action of the first day of the battle, I found one of the markers I was searching for:
Gradual building Confederate pressure pushed back Union units in this area, but also drew more of them toward the growing battle here on the northern flanks of both armies. Eventually both Bragg and Rosecrans directed more and more of their forces toward the center and northern section of the expanding battlefield where individual units continued to be committed piecemeal as they arrived. These tablets for S.A.M. Wood's Brigade of Patrick Cleburne's Division are but two of the four that show the progress of this unit from east to west across the wooded landscape; all brigades and divisions of both armies are so represented in metal for those who wish to track on the ground the movement of any particular unit.
The above position marker is far back in Winfrey Field, also seen below and the scene of repeated Confederate assaults against Union troops located in the woods in the background. Around dark of the battle's first day, Cleburne's Division and others finally succeeded in pushing Rosecrans' line back to the north-south running Layfayette Road, the main thoroughfare in the area.
Next time, Part II
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