Chickamauga Chickamauga National Military Park

James N.

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Part I
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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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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Next time, Part II
 
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Part II
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There was a slight bulge in the Union line, now a park road called Battleline Road, above, that intersects at odd angles the Lafayette Road and is lined with monuments to individual Union units in the Fourteenth Corps, whose later corps badge was an acorn, seen here on many of the monuments on this stretch of the battlefield. Below is the nearby position of a supporting Union battery from Ohio.

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It was in these dense woods bordering the Lafayette Road that the crisis of the battle occurred on the early afternoon of the second day, Sept. 20, 1863. One of Rosecrans' staff officers noticed what he thought was a gap in the shifting Union battleline and reported it to headquarters. Without checking on the veracity of the report, Rosecrans ordered the next division, commanded by Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Wood, to close up and stop the imaginary gap. Wood, an excellent commander of his division, decided to obey the order though he knew it was wrong because he had only recently been the reciepient of one of his commander's unpleasant outbursts, thereby creating a gap where before none had truly existed.

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As Wood moved his division out of the line, Confederate General James Longstreet was preparing to launch an attack-in-depth at that very spot near the Brotherton farm; the reconstructed Brotherton Cabin is above. Longstreet and most of two divisions from his corps of Robert E. Lee's Virginia army had arrived and these fresh troops spearheaded the attack, which fell on the now-empty space vacated by Wood. Led by the division of Gen. Bushrod Johnson and supported by Maj. Gen. John B. Hood's division and half the division of Lafayette McLaws, the Confederates poured through the breach, sweeping aside the Union units that tried vainly to stem the tide.

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Two more southern states with state monuments in this area are Texas, above, and Alabama. Texas was represented by several units here at Chickamauga, notably the regiments in the Texas Brigade of Hood's Division and Deshler's ( later Granbury's after Deshler was killed ) Brigade of Cleburne's Division; Douglas' 1st Texas Battery, also attached to Cleburne's Division; and Terry's Texas Rangers and other cavalry units. Below, the Alabama State Monument; I was especially following the movements on the field of Wood's Alabama Brigade of Cleburne's Division, containing only a few of the many Alabama regiments engaged here.

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Union units like the excellent brigade of mounted infantry armed with Spencer repeating rifles commanded by Col. John Wilder slowed but did not stop the Confederate advance; the imposing Wilder Tower below commemorates their action and provides a fine viewpoint from which to see the battlefield. Fully half the Federal army including its commander Rosecrans and two of its four corps commanders, Crittenden and McCook retreated or fled back towards Rossville and the gap leading back to the safety of Chattanooga. Only the reenforced corps of Maj. Gen. George Thomas and the Reserve Corps of Gordon Granger continued the resistance as Bragg's rejuvenated army assaulted all along the line. For his stout defense which was said to have "saved the army", Thomas ever afterward was known as The Rock of Chickamauga, but late that afternoon he too began to withdraw from the stricken field leaving Bragg with what had been a very costly victory indeed. Casulties were estimated at 18,000 Confederates to 16,000 Federals, including many captured, out of a total of 124,000 men engaged.

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Coming in November, Chattanooga!
 
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nice pic of the Wilder tower,i hope you went to the top to get more pics.
Though impressive, the view's really pretty boring, since the area of the battle ( other than Snodgrass Hill ) is almost flat, or so it appears from up there. Except for adjoining fields and the Lafayette Road almost all one can see are the tops of trees, which even the tower is taller than! I was at least glad to see it open, because I think on my last visit it may not have been.
 
I was at Chickamauga last month. I was wondering what the acorns represented. Now I know. Thanks.

A logical question is why an ACORN was adopted in the first place to be the Corps Badge - Supposedly it's in reference to a hardscrabble period the corps went through where, like with some Confederate units, roasted acorns were a part of the menu! Though corps badges hadn't yet been adopted at Chickamauga, the veterans creating the park and its monuments wanted to commemorate their entire service so added them to the monuments here. The same holds true at Vicksburg where you can see anachronistic corps insignia on Union monuments there as well.
 
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For completionists like myself, here's another of the position markers for the brigade of Sterling Alexander Martin Wood of Pat Cleburne's division I'd overlooked. This one, marking their advance on the morning of the second day, is in the ditch bordering the Lafayette Road on the west side; due to the high volume of traffic, extreme caution should be exercised when viewing markers such as these. According to information I got at the park Visitor Center there were originally five of these placed on an axis of the brigade's advance from east-to-west, then northwest, but one disappeared early in the history of the park and was never replaced. Another I failed to find is said to be in the vicinity of the Alabama State Monument pictured above.
 
Since yesterday and today mark the Sesquicentennial of the battle, I'm moving this thread back to the top.
 
Did any of you who recently went watch the new park video? It cam out just a few months ago and replaced the fifty or so year old one. My avatar pic was taken of me during the filming. Kennesaw Mountain has a new video that just came out last week also. Both are made by the same company and are very well done. Not sugar coated, but violent and realistic, at least I think. I'm interested in hearing others opinions.
 
Did any of you who recently went watch the new park video? It cam out just a few months ago and replaced the fifty or so year old one. My avatar pic was taken of me during the filming. Kennesaw Mountain has a new video that just came out last week also. Both are made by the same company and are very well done. Not sugar coated, but violent and realistic, at least I think. I'm interested in hearing others opinions.

I saw the Chickamauga park video back in April when I was there. I thought it was really good and hopefully can get a copy of it one day soon. I'm looking forward to seeing the Kennesaw video when I go up there soon also. I really enjoyed the Civil War Trust's animated map video on Chickamauga as well. They always do a good job with those.
 
I saw the Chickamauga park video back in April when I was there. I thought it was really good and hopefully can get a copy of it one day soon. I'm looking forward to seeing the Kennesaw video when I go up there soon also. I really enjoyed the Civil War Trust's animated map video on Chickamauga as well. They always do a good job with those.

I haven't seen the Kennesaw one yet but everyone says its even better than the Mauga one. It came out just in time to get 'shut down'.
 
I haven't seen the Kennesaw one yet but everyone says its even better than the Mauga one. It came out just in time to get 'shut down'.

Can you buy these official park movies online? I'm assuming the NP online store would probably have it usually, but the site is down right now of course.
 
Did any of you who recently went watch the new park video? It cam out just a few months ago and replaced the fifty or so year old one. My avatar pic was taken of me during the filming. Kennesaw Mountain has a new video that just came out last week also. Both are made by the same company and are very well done. Not sugar coated, but violent and realistic, at least I think. I'm interested in hearing others opinions.


I believe that Shiloh has updated their park video in the last couple of years also. I know some of the guys that were in it and it is suppose to be very good also.
 
Since today is the 151st anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga, I'll resurrect this thread for the occasion!
 
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