Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park

Next up on our 2014 trip through Tennessee was Chattanooga, including Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park.  The park is made up of several sites: Chickamauga Battlefield, Lookout Mountain Battlefield, Missionary Ridge, Signal Point, Orchard Knob and Moccasin Bend National Archeological District.  We visited both battlefields, drove Missionary Ridge and stopped by Orchard Knob. Before we headed to the battlefield, we went to Chattanooga National Cemetery.  We also stayed in the coolest hotel -- it was an old train station and our room was in a converted train car!!

Ohio's Tribute to Andrews Raiders at Chattanooga National Cemetery.

 We also visited the downtown area and walked around some.  These are some signs we found:

These signs were at our hotel:

 On to the battlefields!  Our first stop was Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga.  Point Park is actually one of my favorite places that I've visited and I'm planning to go back next year.  I want to go hiking on the mountain!

The entrance gate into Point Park is so amazing.

There's a reason they called it the "Battle Above the Clouds"

Next, was Chickamauga, which is the largest area of the park:

Brotherton House

Wilder's Brigade Monument.  There's a LOT of steps up that thing!  It overlooks the area where Wilder's "Lightning Brigade" fought.

My great great great grandfather was in the 17th Indiana, but according to his military records he was sick and not at the battle.  If I remember correctly, he had diphtheria.

Driving Missionary Ridge:  This was a twisty road along the top of a mountain but I thought it was fun (as a passenger lol).  It's a residential area so it's definitely park only in designated areas and stay off of private property while you're up here.

And visiting Orchard Knob:  After the Union took the Knob from the Confederates, it became Grant's forward observation post as the Union assaulted Missionary Ridge.  This is also in a neighborhood, a not very nice one if I remember correctly.

 Our last stop was the Tennessee Valley Railroad and Museum:

Shiloh National Military Park and Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center

The Civil War history started as soon as we entered the state!

In 2014, my  mother and I took a vacation to Tennessee for a week.  We started in Memphis: Beale Street, toured the Gibson factory, saw the ducks at the Peabody Hotel, and went to see the river from Confederate Park. 

Beale Street

Ducks at the Peabody!

Cannon in Confederate Park (and let me introduce you to Sigmund the Penguin)

From there, we drove across the state to Shiloh.  My mother really wanted to go, but it's not easily accessible so she'd never been (and my mom has been to all 50 states). I also wanted to go because my great great great grandfather's regiment was at the battle so chances are, so was he.  On the way over to Shiloh, we stopped at every Tennessee Civil War Trails site I could find. 

Our first day in the area, we just went over to explore the outside of the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center, and I went over there the next morning on my own before we went to Shiloh NMP.

Civil War history plus railroads is my favorite!

Next up, Shiloh!  I'll be honest, I kind of wish that I had taken more actual battlefield photos and wasn't in such a "Take a picture of every sign" mode.  But hey, you live and you learn.  I definitely wouldn't have thought that several years later I'd be starting a blog about my travels and be attempting to visit all the national parks in our nation so...Here's what I've got.  I've posted the pictures in the order they were taken as we drove the auto tour (for the most part), so I know that they aren't in proper battle order but this was what was easiest for me. 

Unknown soldiers at the Shiloh National Cemetery.  The cemetery contains 3,584 Union soldiers, over 2,300 are unknown.

My great great great grandfather was in the Army of the Ohio, 17th Indiana.

17th Indiana monument

The Hornet's Nest is at the center of Shiloh's battlefield and saw heavy combat on both days of the battle.

Shiloh NMP has five Confederate mass graves. All the soldiers are unknown. There may be as many as a dozen mass graves on the battlefield, but only five are marked. More about the national cemetery and the Confederate graves can be found here. And here. And this is an interesting blog post with some more photos.

It was rainy when we were at Shiloh.  I  may or may not have gone running around the battlefield in the rain...Particularly down the Sunken Road...Which wasn't actually sunken, it was just a farm road.

The Union soldiers who died and were buried in mass graves were moved to the National Cemetery in 1866, while the Confederates were left in the mass, unknown graves.  While I understand on some level, they were not United States personnel, it makes me sad because they were fighting for what they believed just as much as the Union soldiers were and over 150 years later, they are still in these mass graves. 

Bloody Pond which may have not actually been bloodstained.  It's a battle myth that they haven't proven.

The Northern name for the battle was Pittsburg Landing