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A Military Park is Born
In 1865, as surrendered Confederate soldiers journeyed home from faraway places like Appomattox Court House in Virginia and Bennett Place in North Carolina, feelings of sadness, anger, and contempt for the victors, were still very much alive in the hearts of the vanquished.
In order for those participants so affected by the desolation brought on by Civil War, a war which ravaged the country by prematurely extinguishing over 620,000 American lives, veterans from both sides created safe havens of remembrance. For example, ex-Confederates organized the United Confederate Veterans Association (UCV), while their Union counterparts created organizations like the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and the Society of the Army of the Cumberland. These organizations became the vehicles for reconciliation of over twenty-four years of continued separation and anxiety between the nation's two sections.
However, a change was on the horizon, and in 1889, the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, made up of Union veterans who fought in the battles of Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and others, extended an olive branch across the Mason-Dixon Line to their Southern brothers. Upon deciding to hold their reunion in Chattanooga, Tennessee, members of the society invited Southerners to join them in attending a large barbeque feast held at Crawfish Spring (present-day Chickamauga, Georgia).
From this gesture, advocates sprung fort supporting the creation of a National Park that would honor the sacrifices of soldiers, North and South, yet often overlooking the real cause of the war. In less than year's time, veterans, who were now congressmen and senators in Washington DC, passed legislation creating a Park that would help heal the still festering wounds of war. As a result of this joint effort, spearheaded by veterans, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park was established, becoming the first of its kind in United States history. Although the veterans have long since creased to walk these hallowed grounds, their memories remain alive through their writings, the monuments they erected, and through the people who continue to tell their stories of bravery and sacrifice. |