Park set to be ‘military laboratory’ at Chickamauga
(Editor’s note: Third in a series)
The nation’s eyes were on Chattanooga as “olive branches” were exchanged between former enemies during repeated gatherings of Union and Confederate veterans. Perhaps it should have come as no surprise that Chattanooga might play prominently in the reconciliation movement as Tennessee had been the last state to withdraw from the Union and the first state to rejoin. Additionally, Chattanooga had been the Gateway to the South, identified as a strategic point in Gen. Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan even before the first shots were fired at Bull Run.
As several gatherings of veterans occurred in Chattanooga and the barriers of former hostilities began to fall, conversation about marking the Chickamauga Battlefield began to gain popularity. Henry V. Boynton, a Union regimental commander and now a journalist, and A.P. Stewart, a former Confederate commander, began to collaborate on how both Union and Confederate lines could be marked and how the federal government might become involved. Reunion events and excursions to the battlefield were planned.
Local citizens awakened on Jan. 11, 1890, to a headline that read “The National Park: Chickamauga Battlefield to become a National Military Park.” A bill had been introduced into the U. S. Congress asking for the authorization to create the park and appropriate $200,000. The bill had “the support of the leading members of the Societies of the Army of the Cumberland, the Army of Tennessee and the Army of the Potomac and all the leading ex-Confederate officers engaged in the battles indicted.” Three commissioners under the direction of the Secretary of War would have the authority to mark all the lines of the “battle sites” for preservation. Additionally, the bill would allow the Chickamauga Memorial Association and the authorities of any of the states “which had troops in the battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga” the right to identify and mark the lines of the troops, subject to the approval of the Secretary of War.
The documents accompanying the legislation identified key areas for preservation, including Missionary Ridge from the north end of Sherman Heights to Rossville Road, from Rossville to McFarland’s Gap and the road from Lee and Gordon’s mills to Crawfish Springs. The land to be included within the actual Chickamauga park would be obtained by “the United States by condemnation and purchase, after the ceding of jurisdiction by the State of Georgia … covering about 70,000 acres.”
In a concession to the property owners, the announcement noted that “present owners of property on the field within the proposed limits of the park are to be allowed to remain if they so desire on their lands, after the purchase by the Government upon terms.” Within the terms were several critical elements to the creation of the park: 1) that the buildings which were standing at the time of the battle would be preserved, 2) that the outlines of the fields and forests would be maintained as they had existed at the time of the battle, and 3) that the property owners would assist in caring for and preserving the markers which would be placed.
In anticipation of the bill’s passage, veterans and legislators began making plans for a summer celebration and a return to the battle sites.
The Chattanooga Daily Times, on March 23, 1890, reported on events planned for the July 4th celebration in Chattanooga. Following a parade featuring the veterans, organized by units and wearing their uniforms or their “identifying ribbons” on the 4th, excursions to Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Orchard Knob and other sites would occur. The following day would be “devoted to an excursion to the Chickamauga battlefield by the old soldiers in attendance and their friends, to conclude with a fraternal meeting and two short speeches on Snodgrass Hill at 3 o’clock.” It was announced that before the reunion the host committee had “marked the Confederate lines and location of each command for the purpose of aiding the old veterans” in finding their former positions during combat. It was anticipated that some of the commands would bring “tablets” to erect in honor of their fallen comrades.
While Chattanooga and Chickamauga had dominated newspaper coverage in the fall of 1863, now the news of the nation’s first military park planned for those sites made national headlines. The park, as described in the bill and supporting documents, called for a “military laboratory” with fields, woods and battlefields left as nearly as possible to the way they had looked in 1863.
Now, to make the plan a reality.