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Sunday

July 2 5 / 1 9 8 2

Toma/garcJen inside V
Minneapolis Tribune Jane Morse/ 8E 1E

^it^^a^
vil War memorials mmgls with moOtrn lawns on Crest fload— also known as Missionary Ridge—in Chattanooga, Tann. Thla one marks a
mfederate poailion.
\
Start Photos Oy Catherine Watson

Chattanooga remembers its history Above, a monument tangles with mora


recent power llnea on Missionary Ridge. It
commemorates the 8th Kansas Volunteer
Infantry. Below, a memorial on Chickamsugi

preserving CiviiWar battlefields Battlefield, south ot the city. The inscription


reads "Battery 6. 1st Ohio LL Artillery.
Croft's Brigade, Palmer's Division, 21st
Army d o r p s . "

Catherine Wataon infamous or famous —dependa on where you're unit or commander identified with them.
vet Editor from—March to the Sea,"
From south to north along the ndge. they are:
attanooga, Tenn. In 1390, Congreae pasaed a law founding the Bragg Reservation, named for Confederate Gen.
;en the resjdems of Chattanooga's Crest Road military park—the nation's first and stitt its Braxton Bragg, commander of the Confederate
f they nave history at their doorstep, they largest—ai>d veterans of both sides came back Army of Tenneaaee during the Battle of
n't ktddmg. to identify the turf where they'd fought, mark it Chattanooga; Ohio Reservation, commemorating isr&K-
with signs and sculptures, and try to preserve ft " Union troopa from that staia; Turchin
,gt Road follows the too of a long ridge on the as a memorial to the»r fallen comrades. They Reservation, lor Russian-born John B. Turchm, a
H s»de of Chattanooga and offers splendid were almost too late. By then. Crest Road was Union officer; OeCong Reservation, canter of the
w i over the city and the Tennessee River becoming the Summrt Av. of Chattanooga. Grand Confederate siege (jne. ,
ping through it. But although the ridge was houses were under construction aiong it and the
en coveted 119 years ago this fail, it was not empty tots between them had become some of And finally Sherman Reservation, named—a bit
•:.ctiy prime real estate. the moat desirable m (own. ironically—lor Union Gen. William Tecumseh
Sherman, whose troopa were repeatedly pushed
en Crest Road was Known as Missionary The park commission got around that by buying back here.
•jga. site of some of the most important fighting the roadway along the ndge and putting
the Civil War. When Confederate forces tost memorials m its right-of-way; when the road was "H might have been named for Sherman's
3 ndge to the Unton tn tate November 1863. returned to state |unsdtction later, it carried the antagonist." a park guidebook notes. "Gen. Pat
ay alsotostChattanooga usetf—a terrible blow proviso that the monuments and plaques had to Cleburne, whose stubborn defense here was the
the Southern cause. stay where they were. only bright spot in an otherwise dismal day for the
Confederates."
That toss," said Edward Tinney. chief of Today, the battlefield par* that first-time visitors
•,eroretanon at Crwckamauga-Chattanooga expect to find is actually a series of parklets, The park has 668 monuments. 255 cannon and
atonal Military Park, "opened up the deep strungawng the ridge read like small green 762 cast-won plaques scattered over aoout
Minneapolis Tribune IMmn«apou» Tribun*
2E Sun., July 25, 1062

Chattanooga Chattanooga
From/ 2E
From/ IE
here by daylight—and almost
fighting stopped, weren't always itable after dark.
easy.
• Above all. don't lake a travel
"The battle was fought harder after er up on either Missionary Rid
the war than during the war!" he Lookout Mountain. With few «
wild, only tial/kidding. lions, there are almost no piac
park legally, let alone turn an
Turchln, (or example, vehemently on Missionary Ridge, and mat
opposed placing one of Minnesota's Lookout Mountain are even tnci
four monuments (the first ones put
up in the park, Tlnney said) in the • There's enough to see in the
DeLong Reservation. tanooga area to keep you bus
several days. Other sites include
The reason? The monument com-
memorates Sgt. Axel H- Heed, a com- The Chattanooga Choo-Choo I
pany commander In the 2nd Minne- plex, 1400 Market Place—whos
sota, who is considered one of the tel. restaurant and shops centf
first men to reach the top of the the restored 1909 bnck railway
ridge. tion that was one of the stops lo
actual Chattanooga Choo-C
Bui Turchln was certain his men Guestrooms in the adjoining (
actually crested the ridge first. "He Choo Hilton Hotel include rest
fought that to his dying day!" Tioney sleeper cars on the station track.'
said. (Reed, by the way. lost an arm
ID the fighting but refused a dis- The Houston Museum, 201
charge, staying on active duty until St.—ra houseful of pressed gJas>
the end of the war he was later 4*. JI • -. nated io the city by the woman
awarded the Medal of Honor.) collected It. Every comer gii
with the beautiful stuff and ever
In between the reservations, dotting •at£s«afc^^ ag^^g**^ ceilings are festooned wu r .
the front yards of Crest Road resi- Staff Photo by Catherine Watson Though a must for pressed-giass
dents, are silver-painted cast-iron lectors, the museum is a bit fnis
plaques marking the position of dif- T h e B r o t h e r t o n C a b i n , site of the C o n f e d e r a t e b r e a k t h r o u g h that turned the Battle of C h l c k a m a u g e Into mg for novices because few of
ferent units. Their borders and texts a S o u t h e r n victory. items are labeled.
are in red for Confederate positions,
blue for Union. whose displays focus on the battle. The Incline Railway, vhich cli
(The land for the museum was do- straight up Lookout Mountain (
Having one of these memorial mark- nated In 1934 by Adolpb S. Ochs, There is no real bint of that horror St. Elmo St. The grade reaches
ers—or even better, one of the can- then-publisher of the New York now—nor of dally reality, either. degrees and may be tne woi
non—to mow around in your front Times and Chattanooga Times, Tin- steepest.
yard Is something of a status symboL oey said.) Chickamauga today is a place apart,
a tranquil park filled with birdsong. The Teonesee Valley Railroad
Down below, some of the people liv- buzxing insects, the sound of wind in
ing in Its shadow seem a little vague the trees and over the meadows, and
about what happened on Crest Road. Mare accessible—and somewhat every now and then, a family of
Ask directions—"How do I get up to easier to comprehend—is the other picnickers or a busload of school
where the battle was?"—and you part of the National Military Park, children relaxing among the monu-
may draw a blank, "Battle? What Cbickamauga battlefield, south of ments.
battle?" one woman said. Char»«noog2, across the Tennessee July 25
Georgia line.
At a gas station at the foot of the
ridge, the owner turned to a passing This actually is the best place to start A few words of advice are In order If
youngster and asked Mm If he knew. a tour, partly because Cbickamauga you're planning to take in the Chick-
"Is that where ail those monuments came first chronologically, and part- seiged the city from positions includ- amauga-Chattanooga battle sites on a
are?" the boy wondered. Yes, said ly because it looks like a battle- ing Missionary Ridge and Lookout trip to the southeast this summer
the visitor. "I've been up there on field—5,500 acres of rolling, wooded Mountain.
my bike." he said, pleased, and then land ail in one undeveloped piece. • Bone up on local history before
advised- on which'cross streets would The siege was so effective that U.S. you get to town. You'll be too busy
run all the way to the lop. You can see where the enemy and Grant, then Union commander In the driving and looking to do It properly
the good guys stood—no matter West, came to supervise the siege- after you get here—unless you can
whom you consider them to be—and lifting operation which culminated in persuade your spouse or one of your
you can follow ihr action more easi- the campaign lor Chattanooga, Nov. kids lo read aloud from guidebooks
It's the chopped-up nature of the ly, thanks to displays in the visitors 23-25. ending with Union troops driv- while you negotiate traffic on
battlefield that makes It difficult for Center and a well-laid-out self-guid- ing the Confederates off Missionary strange streets.
visitors—and apparently (or some ing tour. Ridge and forcing them back to bal-
natives—to find. Important sites are lon, Ga. • Plan your visit so you hit Lookout
scattered all across town. (The center also contains the Fuller Mountain well before sunset, al-
Collection of Military 'Shoulder CuuaiUaj from Imih gjuel loinled though the vl*-w thru 1% lovely. Ihr
Besides Missionary Ridge, there's Arms, more than 350 pieces that 12,491 in the Chattanooga fighting. mountain's back roads twist and tan-
also Orchard Knob, a foothill in the mage from early flintlocks through Cbickamauga was far bloodier, with gle so much that It's easy to get lost
valley below. (The National Ceme- World War I equipment.) a combined casualty figure of about
tery, established shortly after the 34.000 out of the 124.000 men in- Chattanooga/ 3E
battle, is two blocks away.) Although the intricacies of fighting •voived—losses of roughly 27 percent
here are difficult for the beginning In 17 hours. Tlnney said.
Chattanooga was, of course, much Civil War buff to follow, the se-
smaller in 1863, and the Confeder- quence was roughly this: To sense some of the horror of It,
ate-held Orchard Knob lay then in you might as easily turn to fiction as SlaH Pholo by Catherine Watson
the countryside between the two ar- In early September 1863. Union to fact
mies. Union troops took It on Nov. forces captured Chattanooga, then a
Part of the monument to the 15
23. maior Southern rail center. Southern Ambrose Blerce wrote one of his
forces planned a counterattack, U.S. Infantry at C h i c k a m a u g a .
most chilling short stories about
On the other side of town from Mis-
sionary Ridge is Lookout Mountain,
where the so-called "Battle Above
the Clouds" took place. Much of It
which culminated Sept. 19-20, just
south of the city, In the Great Battle
of the West, as Cbickamauga was
called.
Chickamauga. describing It from the
point of view of a deaf, mule child
who cant hear the gunfire or the
shrieks.
wini seura. Tennessee Hwy. 153 at Jers
Pike Exit—which has displays

in I
was actually In the clouds, because working steam and diesel locorr
die mountain was fogbound at ihr The Confederates won at Cbicka- The horror happens In the render's
mauga—a major victory that re- lives, rail cars and other equipme
lime. mind, not the boy's, as he admires and occasionally offers special d;
newed the South's hopes—but they the new pink color the creek has
failed to follow through, and Union long excursions.
There are markers here, too— turned and tries to play with the red-
cramped clusters In the rocky hol- forces were able to retreat to Chatta- splashed men who come staggering
lows and little pockmarks on the nooga. The Confederates then be- past him; the little boy thinks they're • For city maps and more inform
mountainside. Their placement is re- lion on these and other places
vealing: How wretched the fighting
must have been here—Americans
yifcr inierest in the area, write the Chad
nooga Convention and Visitors B
trapped by (og and fatigue, trying to reau. Civic Forum/1001 Market S

A IRELAND
light other Americans whom they Chattanooga, Tenn. 37402; or c;
could not see. 615-756-2121. If youYe going in pe
son. the center has a large, free, 0'
10 DAY CLASSIC TOUR SEPT. 11-20 street parking lot
The Cravens ,House, a private home
used as a Confederate headquarters First Class Holeh * Braaklast Daily • M l . Sightseeing Bus
during the battle on the mountain,
das survived and been restored; It's • Opllo, lo ila r up Is JO
now open to the public. Above It on
the mountalntop is Point Park,
where Confederate artillery wos de-
ployed during the battle; there's a
days • Air Only Availjhle
•1,095 dbl.
occup

Visitors Center near the entrance SPORT CLUB 222-2783


and, nearby, the Ochs Museum, 8 3 9 R o n d o l p h A v e . SI Paul. Mn 55 102

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