BGuthrie Photos: TN -- Chattanooga Natl Military Park -- Visitor Center

TN -- Chattanooga Natl Military Park -- Visitor Center:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.144.93.73 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] CHATVC_110913_004.JPG	[2] CHATVC_110913_006.JPG
[3] CHATVC_110913_009.JPG	[4] CHATVC_110913_016.JPG
[5] CHATVC_110913_018.JPG	[6] CHATVC_110913_021.JPG
[7] CHATVC_110913_030.JPG	[8] CHATVC_110913_031.JPG
[9] CHATVC_110913_035.JPG	[10] CHATVC_110913_039.JPG
[11] CHATVC_110913_044.JPG	[12] CHATVC_110913_046.JPG
[13] CHATVC_110913_052.JPG	[14] CHATVC_110913_053.JPG
[15] CHATVC_110913_058.JPG	[16] CHATVC_110913_072.JPG
[17] CHATVC_110913_079.JPG	[18] CHATVC_110913_081.JPG
[19] CHATVC_110913_085.JPG	[20] CHATVC_110913_089.JPG
[21] CHATVC_110913_093.JPG	[22] CHATVC_110913_097.JPG
[23] CHATVC_110913_100.JPG	[24] CHATVC_110913_103.JPG
[25] CHATVC_110913_105.JPG	[26] CHATVC_110913_110.JPG
[27] CHATVC_110913_115.JPG	[28] CHATVC_110913_118.JPG
[29] CHATVC_110913_125.JPG	[30] CHATVC_110913_127.JPG
[31] CHATVC_110913_130.JPG	[32] CHATVC_110913_135.JPG
[33] CHATVC_110913_139.JPG	[34] CHATVC_110913_155.JPG
[35] CHATVC_110913_159.JPG	[36] CHATVC_110913_160.JPG
[37] CHATVC_110913_172.JPG	[38] CHATVC_110913_174.JPG
[39] CHATVC_110913_177.JPG	[40] CHATVC_110913_179.JPG
[41] CHATVC_110913_181.JPG	[42] CHATVC_110913_184.JPG
[43] CHATVC_110913_187.JPG	[44] CHATVC_110913_190.JPG
[45] CHATVC_110913_193.JPG	[46] CHATVC_110913_196.JPG
[47] CHATVC_110913_197.JPG	[48] CHATVC_110913_200.JPG
[49] CHATVC_110913_201.JPG	[50] CHATVC_110913_206.JPG
[51] CHATVC_110913_213.JPG	[52] CHATVC_110913_215.JPG
[53] CHATVC_110913_217.JPG	[54] CHATVC_110913_227.JPG
[55] CHATVC_110913_230.JPG	[56] CHATVC_110913_235.JPG
[57] CHATVC_110913_238.JPG	[58] CHATVC_110913_241.JPG
[59] CHATVC_110913_245.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. CHATVC_110913_006.JPG: Why Did They Fight Here? Why did thousands fight for control of Chattanooga, a prosperous but small town of 2,500? Why were President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis so anxious about the outcome? The answer was a matter of geography and transportation. Situated in a mountain gap, Chattanooga was a railroad transportation hub, a gateway between the North and the Deep South. Rail lines radiated from Chattanooga in every direction -- to Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, and Richmond, and to places beyond those key cities. Much of the Confederacy's military and civilian supplies moved over these railroads. Federal control of Chattanooga would further splinter the Confederacy. But the federal government didn't merely want to make life more difficult for the Confederacy. It wanted utterly to destroy the Confederacy's capacity to fight. To do so, it had to conquer the Confederate industrial heartland in Georgia and Alabama. To get there, the Union armies had to pass through Chattanooga -- and to hold Chattanooga as a supply base. That was the true strategic importance of the Chattanooga campaign in the fall of 1863.
2. CHATVC_110913_016.JPG: Fighting for Freedom: Approximately 186,000 African American soldiers -- including free blacks from the North and escaped slaves from the South -- fought in Union armies during the Civil War. Despite the hardships of segregation, discrimination, and lower pay within Union ranks and the risk of cruel treatment at the hands of Confederates, they fought bravely and won the respect of Union officers. After Union troops secured Chattanooga, units of the United States Colored Troops were raised there, including the 42nd and 44th regiments. These units participated in several battles during 1864 and 1865.
3. CHATVC_110913_018.JPG: Who Fought Here? For the Union side, the primary fighting force at Chattanooga was the blue-clad Army of the Cumberland. For the Confederates, it was the gray-clad Army of Tennessee. The men in the Union Army of the Cumberland -- almost 60,000 strong in early September -- came mostly from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. During the campaign, they were reinforced by 20,000 men from the Army of the Potomac and 17,000 from the Army of the Tennessee. At the outset of Chattanooga campaign, the Army of the Cumberland was commanded by Gen. William Rosecrans. He was replaced by Gen. George H. Thomas in October, when Gen. Ulysses S. Grant took charge of all Union troops in the region. The Confederate Army of Tennessee consisted of 45,000 men at the outset of the struggle for Chattanooga. Many came from Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Early in the campaign, troop strength was raised to over 60,000 by reinforcements from other Western front and the Army of Northern Virginia. The Army of Tennessee was led by Gen. Braxton Bragg. He remained in control to the bitter end of this campaign.
4. CHATVC_110913_030.JPG: Carnage at Chickamauga Creek: September 1863: A broad front, multi-column Union advance forced the Confederate Army of Tennessee to abandon Chattanooga in early September. Federal forces occupied the city and continued to push on into Northwest Georgia. Emboldened by the arrival of significant reinforcements, the Confederates turned to attack before Union forces fully consolidated their gains. On September 18, 1863, the two armies came to clash in the forests and occasional fields in the valley of West Chickamauga Creek. Union forces largely parried Confederate thrusts that day and the next, but on the 20th, the fatigued and mentally exhausted Union General Rosecrans made a serious error. Coming to believe that there was a gap in his lines, Rosecrans began shifting troops to fill this supposed gap and in the process created a real opening just where a massive Confederate column was attacking. Rosecrans and many of his troops were swept from the field but a valiant stand by General George H. Thomas (earning him the nickname "the Rock of Chickamauga") allowed the Union army to retreat to it's [sic] recently won prize, Chattanooga. The Confederates were too battered and bloodied to immediately follow up their victory at Chickamauga. With 34,000 casualties, it was one of the costliest battles of the Civil War.
5. CHATVC_110913_031.JPG: Confederate Gen. James Longstreet: James Longstreet rose in Confederate ranks with Gen. Robert E. Lee's strong support to command the vital First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. He continued to work closely with Lee as a senior Lieutenant General even after their strong disagreement over Lee's strategy at Gettysburg. In the decades after the war, his public criticism of the revered Robert E. Lee made Longstreet a controversial figure in the South. Union Gen. William S. Rosecrans: At West Point, Rosecrans roomed with James Longstreet, who later played a key role in his defeat at Chickamauga. Rosecrans was a brilliant strategist and was popular among his men, who called him "Old Rosy," but his superiors faulted him for reluctant to commit his troops to battle. Despite being relieved of his command during the Campaign for Chattanooga, he was considered for the Vice-Presidency in Lincoln's 1864 reelection campaign. If he had been nominated, Rosecrans would have become President upon Lincoln's assassination.
6. CHATVC_110913_035.JPG: Under Siege at Chattanooga: September-October 1863: By September 22, the Union army was safely in Chattanooga, fortifying the city. But Bragg wasn't worried. He planned to starve the occupying army into surrender. He stationed Confederate forces along Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and the Tennessee River valley roads. From these positions, they could block most Union supply lines into Chattanooga from the Federal's forward supply base at Bridgeport, Alabama, 25 miles to the west. Union forces struggled to sue an alternate supply route -- a 60-mile wagon trail over crude muddy roads and narrow, rocky paths. A Union officer called it "the muddiest and roughest and steepest of ascent and descent ever crossed by army wagons and mules." The journey took so long, half the transported food was eaten by the mules along the way. Making matters worse, Confederate cavalry conducted a deadly raid against the plodding wagon caravans. By mid-October, Union rations were reduced by as much as three-fourths. One soldier wrote of having only one pint of corn to last three days. Over 10,000 Union horses and mules died of starvation or overwork. With cold weather approaching, the men also lacked sufficient clothing and fuel. An Unhappy Visit by Jefferson Davis: Confederate President Jefferson Davis took a hands-on role with his military. After a dozen officers petitioned him for General Bragg's removal, Davis traveled to the battlefront in early October to hear them question Bragg's competence and fitness. But seeing no alternative, he left Bragg in command and approved the removal or reassignment of some of his dissenters. One of the anti-Bragg contingent, General Longstreet, would soon by sent, along with 15,000 men, on an ill-fated mission to recapture Knoxville, leaving Confederate forces weaker at Chattanooga.
7. CHATVC_110913_039.JPG: Confederate Conditions: Conditions for the Confederate rank and file along the heights outside Chattanooga were no better than those for Union soldiers in the city below. They were trying to starve the Union army into submission, yet they themselves went hungry. Blankets, clothing, and tents were scarce. The weather was cold and rainy. The abysmal conditions in the Confederate camp reflected a breakdown in their army's distribution system -- a symptom of the lack of cooperation among Confederate officers chafing under General Bragg's unhappy command.
8. CHATVC_110913_044.JPG: Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg: An historian has described Gen. Braxton Bragg as an "energetic but quarrelsome officer who had trouble securing the loyalty of his subordinates." Bragg's failure to pursue the Union army aggressively after his Chickamauga victory increased dissension in his ranks. But Confederate President Jefferson Davis did not relieve him of command of the Army of Tennessee until after his defeat at Chattanooga.
9. CHATVC_110913_046.JPG: Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant: In his memoirs, Ulysses S. Grant wrote: "One of my superstitions had always been when I started to go anywhere or to do anything, not to turn back, or stop until the thing intended was accomplished." This was precisely what President Lincoln was looking for in his generals, and not finding often enough. Grant was a man of action, dogged and determined, willing to take risks and intent on hammering the Confederate army without wavering.
10. CHATVC_110913_052.JPG: Help is on the Way: October 1863: Reflecting on the siege, General Bragg later recalled: "[W]e held [the enemy] at our mercy, and his destruction was only a matter of time." But time was not on Bragg's side. In Washington, President Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and Army Chief of Staff Henry Halleck worked around the clock to save the Army of the Cumberland. Reinforcements from Grant's Army of the Tennessee, led by General William T. Sherman, were also on the move from Mississippi toward Chattanooga. Lincoln assigned Gen. Joseph Hooker to lead two corps from the Army of the Potomac in Virginia to Chattanooga. In a feat of extraordinary logistics, the fully-equipped corps made the 1,233-mile trip by rail from Culpeper, VA to Bridgeport, Ala., in just 11 days. Washington also made a bold leadership change. It put energetic Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in charge of all Union forces in the region (with Sherman stepping into his shoes as commander of the Army of the Tennessee). With Washington's blessing, Grant's first act was to replace the demoralized head of the Army of the Cumberland, General Rosecrans, with General Thomas.
11. CHATVC_110913_053.JPG: Opening the Cracker Line: October 1863: The Union needed a reliable supply route into Chattanooga -- a "Cracker Line" (named after the hardtack crackers that were a staple of their diet). General William "Baldy" Smith, chief engineer for the Army of the Cumberland, studied the area's topography and developed a workable plan. But it depended on seizing the crossing of the Tennessee River at Brown's Ferry, which was under Confederate control. General Smith proposed a "break-out, break-in" strategy. Troops from Chattanooga would build a pontoon bridge at Brown's Ferry and occupy the road to Kelly's Ferry, another river crossing to the west. Hooker's men, stationed at Bridgeport awaiting action, would march east and help secure that road. Soon after arriving at Chattanooga, Grant approved Smith's plan. In the pre-dawn hours on October 27, Union soldiers in pontoon boats slipped past Confederate sentries. Moving noiselessly, the flotilla landed on the south bank of the river at Brown's Ferry meeting little resistance. Assisted by troops on the north bank, the men constructed a bridge with the pontoons. Hooker's troops marched in from the west the next day, besting the few Confederate troops they confronted, and the "Cracker Line" was open.
12. CHATVC_110913_058.JPG: The Battle Above the Clouds: November 24, 1863: Having broken the siege, Grant prepared to go on the offensive. On November 24, he ordered General Hooker to attack Lookout Mountain. Eager to redeem his tarnished reputation, Hooker mounted an all-out assault. Some of Hooker's men cried, "What does the general expect us to fly?" But the plan was not to attack the mountaintop but to fight along the slopes. Moving over boulders and fallen trees, Union soldiers swept the Confederate defenders from the northwestern slope and around to the south of the Craven's House on the northeastern side. Confederate mountaintop cannon aimed at the roads and river below could not defend against this mountainside onslaught. Grant and other Union offcers listened anxiously from the city below, their view to the mountain obscured by fog and clouds. At dawn on the 25th, members of the 8th Kentucky Infantry (Union) scrambled to the mountain's northern tip. As the sun rose, they unfurled the stars and stripes, visible to the armies below. The fighting at Lookout Mountain later became known -- and romanticized -- as "The Battle Above the Clouds." James Walker's painting "The Battle of Lookout Mountain" depicts this dramatic action.
13. CHATVC_110913_072.JPG: Battle Above the Clouds: Before you stands James Walker's "The Battle of Lookout Mountain." Commissioned by Gen. Joseph Hooker, Walker was asked to create an accurate, detailed picture of the fighting on Lookout Mountain. Returning to Chattanooga in 1864, Walker sketched and photographed the field, and interviewed Union generals to assure accuracy in terrain and troop placement. This huge canvas, 13 feet tall and 30 feet wide and weighing around 700 pounds, shows the climax of the Battle of Lookout Mountain, November 24, 1863.
14. CHATVC_110913_105.JPG: Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker: "Fighting Joe" Hooker commanded the Union forces engaged in the Battle of Lookout Mountain on November 24, 1863. Shown here at the head of his staff, Hooker receives a report from his action Chief of Artillery, Maj. John Reynolds, the mounted officer facing him.
15. CHATVC_110913_115.JPG: Confederate Positions: Confederate forces on the mountain's lower slopes are Mississippians under the command of Brig. Gen. Edward Walthall. Greatly outnumbered and assaulted in front and flank, Walthall's men withdrew tot the mountain's east side at midday and retreated to Missionary Ridge that night.
16. CHATVC_110913_130.JPG: Union troops conducting demonstration: Union forces in the foreground conduct a feint or demonstration designed to focus Confederate defenders' attention on this point while other Union troops sweep into their flank and rear on the western slopes of the mountain.
17. CHATVC_110913_139.JPG: Geary's Assault: Union forces commanded by Brig. Gen. John Geary advance along the western slopes of Lookout Mountain to dislodge the Confederates from their defensive positions. Geary's assault troops stretched in a line from the base of the bluff near the top of the mountain to Lookout Creek at its base.
18. CHATVC_110913_159.JPG: Location: You are atop Lookout Mountain near its northern point. General Hooker and the Union forces in the foreground are in Lookout Valley at the northwestern base of the mountain.
19. CHATVC_110913_172.JPG: Lookout Mountain: November 24, 1863: In their letters to loved ones back home and their private journals, thousands of soldiers from both sides wrote their own first-hand accounts of Civil War battles. These vivid and detailed writings enrich our understanding of the war by showing what it was like on the front lines and by conveying the raw emotions the men felt as they fought. It was a cold chilly day and a misty rain falling and we could not see very far up the mountain. Neither could the Rebs see us. After crossing the rail road and moving some distance down along Lookout Creek at the foot of the mountain we came to a halt near a mill. General Hooker & Geary with their staffs passed by in our rear. Shortly orders came for all the officers of our Regiment to report to the mill. They soon came back, our Captain looking very serious, and told us we were ordered to take the mountain and that our Regiment was to be the first to cross the creek. Our Chaplain came along and "God Blessed us" and said "If any of you have any messages or valuables to send to your friends I will take them and see they are safely delivered." I said to Jack MacLauchlan, "Jack, I've got about 3 or 4 dollars. If I go, look out for them and if you get a chance take a drink and say 'here's to a good fellow.' " We kept on and drove the Rebs around to the face of the mountain overlooking Chattanooga. Just then the sun broke out and the mist lifted and our fellows over in the valley in front of Chattanooga saw us and gave such a shout and cheers as I never heard before. -- Pvt. David Monat, 29th Pennsylvania Regiment (Union), Geary's Division, XII Corps, describing the Battle of Lookout Mountain.
20. CHATVC_110913_174.JPG: Missionary Ridge: November 25, 1863: The battle on Lookout Mountain was not itself the turning point in the Chattanooga campaign. Confederate forces were still positioned on Missionary Ridge to the east of the city. On November 25, Grant planned a multi-pronged offensive against this position -- an offensive that would succeed although not as Grant originally supposed. Grant's initial plan that day was to attack Confederate troops on the ridge at their weakest points -- their flanks -- while merely threatening Bragg's seemingly unassailable center. He intended the crucial blow to be struck at the Confederate right flank at the north end of Missionary Ridge by General William T. Sherman's troops. The Confederate left flank at the Rossville Gap was to be attacked by General Joseph Hooker's troops after they crossed the valley east of Lookout Mountain. To General George Thomas's soldiers, the veterans of Chickamauga, Grant assigned a secondary role. They were to harass and divert the attention of the Confederates in the center from the threats to the flanks. Thomas' men had taken their first steps in this regard when they had captured the Confederate outposts at Orchard Knob, one mile from the foot of Missionary Ridge, on November 21. Having secured that forward position, Grant moved his command post there the next day.
21. CHATVC_110913_177.JPG: Union Gen. Joseph Hooker: At the time Gen. Joseph Hooker was sent to assist Union forces at Chattanooga, he was eager to redeem a reputation that had been tarnished by his disastrous defeat at Chancellorsville as well as allegations of personal misconduct. He performed well at Chattanooga, leading two corps from the Army of the Potomac and then led a corps in Sherman's Atlanta campaign. He quarreled frequently with other officers, however, and was relieved of his duties in July, 1864, after Sherman declined to promote him.
22. CHATVC_110913_179.JPG: Union Gen. William T. Sherman: A fierce fighter who was a protege of Gen. Ulysses Grant, Sherman played prominent roles at Shiloh and Vicksburg as a command in Grant's Army of the Tennessee and assumed control of that Army after Grant's promotion. After fighting in Chattanooga, he led the Union drive on Atlanta, followed by his destructive March to the Sea.
23. CHATVC_110913_181.JPG: Tunnel Hill: November 25, 1863: Grant had great faith in General Sherman and his Army of the Tennessee troops. Sherman's men had been cleverly hidden in the hills north of Chattanooga, out of sight from the Confederates and well-positioned for a surprise attack against the Confederate right flank near the north end of Missionary Ridge. (If anything, Bragg feared that Sherman's men were headed northeast toward Knoxville.) Sherman crossed the Tennessee River on November 24, but the hill he took turned out to be separated from the rest of Missionary Ridge by a deep ravine. (From their vantage points, Union generals surveying the area could not see the ravine.) Having launched his attack against the wrong target, he had lost the element of surprise. Sherman resumed his efforts the next morning and struck the Confederate right flank on the true northern end of Missionary Ridge, a place known as Tunnel Hill because a railroad tunnel ran through it. There, Sherman's men faced a well-positioned Confederate division led by one of the best, hardest-fighting Southern commanders, General Patrick Cleburne. Cleburne's Confederates held the hill, and Sherman's attacks failed to achieve their objective.
24. CHATVC_110913_184.JPG: Fog of War: During the battle of Lookout Mountain, misty clouds obscured the view. At Missionary Ridge a different kind of fog hindered the armies: uncertainty, confusion, and misinformation -- the so-called "fog of war." Bragg was deceived into thinking that Union troops marching north from Chattanooga were headed toward Knoxville, not toward Missionary Ridge. Sherman misunderstood the terrain, not realizing that his target, a hill at the north end of the Ridge, was separated from the Confederate lines by a deep ravine.
25. CHATVC_110913_187.JPG: Miracle at Missionary Ridge: November 25, 1863: By the afternoon of November 25, the main Union assaults had made little progress. Sherman's thrusts at the north end of Missionary Ridge were stymied at Tunnel Hill. Hooker's advance toward the Confederate left at Rossville Gap was delayed by difficulties crossing Chattanooga Creek. Frustrated by the lack of success by these primary thrusts on Bragg's flanks, Grant ordered Thomas to launch a limited assault against the Confederate rifle pits at the base of Missionary Ridge, the front line of the Confederate center. He hoped to occupy the attention of the troops in the Confederate center so that they couldn't reinforce the Confederate right against Sherman, the point where Grant still expected the decisive fight. Thomas' men, 23,000 strong, swept over the frontline defenders with ease. That was all Grant wanted and expected. But Thomas' troops didn't stop at the base. Instead, without orders, they continued their charge directly uphill, driving back the second and third lines of the Confederate stronghold at Missionary Ridge. The surprised Confederates panicked, broke, and fled. Against all odds, the Army of the Cumberland -- defeated at Chickamauga and besieged at Chattanooga -- had won the battle.
26. CHATVC_110913_193.JPG: Nowhere To Go But Up: Missionary Ridge was steep and rugged. Confederate forces were concentrated and fortified there. Grant and Bragg both considered the Confederate center impregnable, yet Federal troops pierced it. Many factors accounted for this miracle at Missionary Ridge. * Some Confederate regiments at the base of the ridge had orders to fall back after firing two volleys. Their planned retreat panicked other Confederate troops unaware of those orders. * Due to poor planning, Confederate lines on the crest were mostly constructed on the very top of the ridge, not the lower military crest, the highest spot with an unimpeded view of the entire slope. * Having skirmished their way to the base of the ridge, Union troops had nowhere else to go but up. Remaining at the base made them easy targets for the Confederates above them. * Confederate troops, demoralized by backbiting among their officers, were unprepared to react to the unexpected assault. General Thomas' Union troops, on the other hand, were energized by the desire to avenge their humiliating defeat at Chickamauga. One soldier described their mood as "completely and frantically drunk with excitement."
27. CHATVC_110913_196.JPG: Rear-Guard Heroism at Ringgold: Flushed with victory, Union forces pursued Bragg's battered and retreating Army of Tennessee. On November 27, General Hooker's units caught up with the Confederate rear near Ringgold, Ga. There, General Cleburne's men bravely repulsed the Union attack long enough for the rest of the Army of Tennessee to safely continue its retreat to Dalton, Georgia, along the railroad line to Atlanta. The victorious Union armies returned to Chattanooga, now safely theirs. The struggle for Chattanooga was over.
28. CHATVC_110913_197.JPG: Union Gen. George H. Thomas: A native of Virginia and an 1840 graduate of West Point, Thomas earned the nickname "Rock of Chickamauga" for the Union stand on Snodgrass Hill on September 20, 1863. When Rosecrans was relieved in October, 1863, Thomas became commander of the Army of the Cumberland, and at Chattanooga, it was troops of his army who broke the Confederate line on Missionary Ridge on November 25 to ensure a Union victory. Thomas died in San Francisco in 1870 while in command of the Division of the Pacific.
29. CHATVC_110913_200.JPG: Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne: An Irish emigrant who settled in Arkansas, Cleburne was widely considered one of the most popular and effective Confederate commanders. He held back Sherman's forces at the north end of Missionary Ridge and then covered the Confederate retreat into Georgia, earning the nickname the "Stonewall of the West." In 1864, he shocked his fellow officers by proposing that slaves be offered freedom in exchange for service in the Confederate army. He died in battle at Franklin, Tenn., on November 30, 1864.
30. CHATVC_110913_201.JPG: "[I]f we can't hold such a line as this against those blasted Federals, where is the line or position between here and the coast of Georgia that we can hold?" -- Lt. Robert M. Collins, 15th Texas Cavalry (Confederate)
31. CHATVC_110913_206.JPG: In the Aftermath of Chattanooga: The loss of Chattanooga demoralized the Confederates. As historian James McPherson wrote: "The glimmer of southern optimism that had flared after Chickamauga died in November." Losing the "Gateway to the Deep South" greatly increased the threat to the Confederate heartland in central Georgia and Alabama. The Union Army captured Chattanooga not merely to demoralize and disrupt the Confederates but to supply its own aggressive plan to invade the heart of the industrial South. Chattanooga became the base for General Sherman's drive on Atlanta. After Chattanooga fell, Bragg was relieved of his Confederate command, but his successors, Joseph Johnston and John Bell Hood fared no better. Sherman pushed the Confederates to the outskirts of Atlanta and then took the city outright, relying on supply and communication lines that ran through Chattanooga. From Atlanta, he embarked on his destructive March to the Sea. Sherman's triumphant 1864 Atlanta campaign solidified Union support for the war in a presidential election year, dashing Confederate hopes that war-weary Union voters might clamor for a negotiated peace. Although the Civil War continued until April 1865, the writing was on the wall.
32. CHATVC_110913_213.JPG: War's Remembrance: The National Military Parks: Twenty-five years after the Civil War's end, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park was created by an 1890 act of Congress supported by veterans from both sides who recognized that preserving portions of the battlefields, commemorating the deeds of their comrades, and honoring the men who had fallen there would benefit the reunited nation. In addition to its historic and educational value, the National Military Park was created as part of the healing process for a nation that had been torn asunder by war. In creating the National Military Park, the veterans hoped to conserve some of the battlefield terrain in its historic condition. Visitors could see and study the varied topography where the combatants had fought and maneuvers. The veterans hoped that the preserved portions of the battlefields would be forever kept in their 1863 condition, with historic markers and monuments added to enhance understanding. Dedicated in 1895, Chickamauga and Chattanooga was the first national military park, followed by Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. Originally administered by the War Department, the national military parks were transferred to the National Park Service in 1933.
33. CHATVC_110913_215.JPG: Common Cause: The planners of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park wanted to honor soldiers from both sides. They sought the cooperation of Confederate as well as Union veterans. "The project," wrote a veteran, "is based on the belief that the time has fully come when the participants in the great battles of our civil war can, while retaining and freely expressing their own views of all questions connected with the war, still study its notable battles purely as military movements."
34. CHATVC_110913_217.JPG: Van Derveer and Boynton: Two former Union officers, both veterans of the Chattanooga Campaign, led the effort to establish Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Col. Ferdinand van Derveer had led a brigade in the Army of the Cumberland. Henry Van Ness Boynton, a lieutenant colonel in the Thirty-fifth Ohio Infantry, had won a Medal of Honor for gallant performance at Missionary Ridge. The two men conceived the idea of turning the actual battle sites into a military park while veterans of the campaign were still living, allowing the men who fought here to ensure the accuracy of the markers.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].