Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park

I am a travel writer for National Park Planner and I visited both the Chickamauga Battlefield and the Lookout Mountain Battlefield and related sites in Chattanooga in October, 2013. The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park is the oldest military park in the country, established in 1895, nearly 21 years before the National Park Service was created. The park was created for the purpose of preserving both the Chickamauga Battlefield and the Chattanooga Battlefield for historical and professional military study. The two battlefields are approximately seven miles apart.Chickamauga Battlefield is near Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia and all attractions lie within one park boundary.Sites at the Chattanooga Battlefield, on the other hand, are situated at various locations in the greater Chattanooga, Tennessee area. Park units include Point Park at Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Orchard Knob, the National Cemetery, Signal Hill, and the Moccasin Bend National Archeological District, which lies across the Tennessee River from the Lookout Mountain Battlefield. Today the District serves as a preserve of prehistoric to modern human history, but Moccasin Bend did see action during the battle for Chattanooga.At the time of creation, very little had changed on the battlefields, so what you see today is pretty much the way it was in 1863, the year of the fighting. Most of the 1400 monuments and memorials on the two battlefields were placed during the first few years of the park’s existence.As you tour the battlefields, either by car or on foot, you will find monuments, artillery, tablets, and information panels. Many of these lie far from the roadside stops and can only be seen by hiking or bike riding. Monuments are dedicated to various military units that fought in the battle, though there are a few dedicated to individual soldiers, all of these being placed by the soldier’s family. Monuments dedicated to military units were placed by surviving members of the unit and the state governments. Some monuments are simple markers, others ornate goliaths carved from granite or marble, often with metal sculptures and reliefs as part of the design. The monuments are located where the unit did its most memorable fighting. As you read the inscriptions on them, you are facing the direction in which the soldiers, themselves, were facing during the fighting (the monuments are thus facing away from the fighting).Tablets also line the roads and trails throughout the park. The information on the tablets describes which unit was at the site at a particular time and date. Blue tablets describe Union positions and red tablets describe Confederate positions. Most of this information is of little interest to the average visitor, but remember, the park was created to document the battle for historians and military professionals. After you have read a few of them, you’ll find yourself spending more time looking at the monuments and won’t pay much more attention to the tablets…unless, of course, you are a Civil War fanatic.Visits to the two battlefields can be made independently of each other, but if you want to stick to historical order, fighting began a Chickamauga, where the Confederates defeated the Union army, and then turned north to Chattanooga, where the Union army retreated after Chickamauga. Both battlefields have a Visitor Center where you can ask questions and get park driving and hiking maps.Check out National Park Planner for complete information on both units of the park and nearly 350 photos (npplan).

Spent 5.5 hours here with the family and could have easily doubled it. So many monuments and so much beautiful scenery. Well worth the visit.

Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, it took us all day to finish the tour. Bring tenis shoes, drinks and comfortable clothing.. Overall awesome experience!!