The main reason for picking Chattanooga as a destination – less than 80 miles from Cartersville GA – was to take a second look at the Chickamauga battlefield. On my first visit I split my day between Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain. My impression of Chickamauga was… HUGE. It is a very large battlefield. I felt I needed to take another look.
So I spent over 3 hours there yesterday and while I reinforced my impression that the battlefield is huge I also formed an opinion of the battle itself: it was a bloody, chaotic mess. There were almost 35,000 casualties (dead, wounded or missing). While the battle was nominally a Confederate victory, the advantage was short-lived. The Union retained control of Chattanooga and, shortly, would control the entire area and use it as a base for the devastating march on Atlanta.
I can’t help but compare Chickamauga to Gettysburg. Both were multi-day battles with an ebb-and-flow over the course of the event. But while the Gettysburg battlefield has many well-defined geographical points (Seminary Ridge, Little Round Top, the Devil’s Den, the Wheat Field, the Peach Orchard and the broad upslope that hosted Pickett’s Charge), the Chickamauga battlefield is a lot of trees and a half dozen open fields, none of which are geographically distinct. I can imagine how hard it would have been for soldiers to orient themselves during the chaos of the battle.
Also, whereas Gettysburg’s seminal moment was a courageous (if foolhardy) charge by the Confederates that was repulsed, the seminal moment at Chickamauga was a breach of the Union line caused by miscommunication. An unforced error. Not exactly the stuff of heroism.
Still, the place reeks of history. And death. Standing in those serene fields or walking the quiet paths, it is very hard to imagine the hell of that battle.
There are a few historically significant structures on the battlefield – almost certainly replicas, but accurate replicas. The Brotherton house, at the location of the Confederate breakout, is one. There is also a structure on Snodgrass Hill, where the last fighting took place.
I have included a photo of the Brotherton field, with my truck in the distance, just to show the scale. This is just a small piece of the battlefield. Huge.
