Existing comment:
Historic Plaques and Markers:
Battlefield plaques document positions and movements.
On August 19, 1890, the US Congress established the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park for the purpose of "preserving and suitably marking for historical and professional military study the fields of some of the most remarkable maneuvers and most brilliant fighting in the war of the rebellion..."
The three park commissioners, all veterans of Chickamauga or Chattanooga, placed hundreds of cast-iron plaques and other markers on the battlefields in the early 1890s. Each plaque identifies the location of a particular army, corps, division, brigade or artillery battery at a specific time. The plaques also describe military actions.
Hundreds of veterans contributed information for the plaques, and retraced their steps to determine the exact locations of their units. Today the plaques remain valuable tools for those who seek to understand in detail how these complex battles were fought.
Today you will find several types of historic plaques and markers on the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battlefields:
* Blue plaques mark the positions of Union units.
* Red plaques mark the positions of Confederate units.
* Cannon mark the positions of artillery batteries.
* Fingerboards indicate directions, locations, or landmarks.
* Large cannonball pyramids stacked 15-high mark the spots where brigade commanders were killed.
* Small cannonball pyramids stacked 7-high mark headquarters sites. |