Tennessee Battlefield Tour : Summary

So I wanted to do a short summary of my trip in case you all were interested, but mainly for me.

Here is a map of the route and main locations I visited, the majority in Tennessee, but also Mississippi, briefly in Alabama and Georgia. For those interested in such a trip. The distances are not too great but America can be deceiving and it takes longer than you think to drive about. The roads are great and only busy in the major cities. Most of the Parks are free and accommodation is plentiful and cheap (or expensive if you want) Petrol is dirt cheap compared to the UK ! I walked as much of the battlefields as I could but you can do much of it by car. The weather was great October was a good time to visit I had been told that summer is a little too hot as much of the area is forest there is little in the way of wind/breeze to cool things down. Buy some really good insect repellant 🐝

I of course approach things from an open minded historical perspective but did feel slightly uncomfortable not so much at battlefields but in a number of towns where Confederate memorials did feel a little insensitive, many of course were put up about 100 years ago and I understand the conflict this has/is causing. 

I can see me returning in the future Nashville has a wonderful vibe and with or without the Civil War there is plenty to do. The battlefields are on the whole beautifully preserved, almost all have visitor centres and facilities but for some reason none sell food or drinks so don’t expect a cafe on site ? You might get a tin of coke or bottle of water but that’s it.

The companion book for the trip is Company Aytch by Sam Watkins, if you don’t know the book it is one of the most famous first hand accounts by a private who fought in the 1st Tennessee Regiment.

From Tennessee he joined up early and fought in almost all the battles on my trip, it is very much a first hand perspective but it makes fascinating reading when standing in the actual location he is writing about.

Well if you made it this far thanks for following. It will be back to usual soon with more wargaming and we will certainly be seeing some of the Tennessee battles featuring in the future 😀

Tennessee Battlefield Tour Day 9 : Kennesaw Mountain

For the third day at Chattanooga and with improving weather I chose to drive further south into Georgia (I think I forgot to mention in the last post that Chickamauga is in Georgia rather than Tennessee but the essence of the tour was of course Tennessee) to visit Kennesaw Mountain. It is a relatively easy drive of about and hour and a half pretty much main road all the way.

The battle is of course much later in the war in 1864 with Johnston and Hood attempting to hold back Sherman’s advance on Atlanta which is only another 20 or so miles south.

Having been to several locations where I hardly saw anybody this park was jammed, I think probably due to it proximity to Atlanta a mix of hikers and dog walkers and I am guessing that only about half there for the history. The park is in essence a large mountain/green space which has been pretty much surrounded by the urban development of Marietta

It was a treat to walk, the weather was great like a cool summer day in the Lake District with almost the whole area wooded

I chose to walk over the top of both Kennesaw and Little Kennesaw, this was a good walk of several hours the line of the walk heads along the crest and although the picture above doesn’t show it too well the Confederate defences are clear most of the way as a marked ditch

At the summit of Kennesaw they have recreated the 4 gun battery which was there

And you get great views of Altanta away to the south

Following the ridge line with Little Kennesaw in the distance

Not surprisingly the stretch between the two is the most heavily trenched with a really clear continuous line of trench’s just below the crest. This very helpful man pointed it out to me, it is quite a quiet location up on the ridge line away from the very summit of Kennesaw and you definately get a sense of the Rebels digging in

Another battery was placed on Little Kennesaw 

And the crest then drops down to Pigeon Hill, really and extension of the main mountains, still very steep on both sides. This was where Sherman sent one of his two main assaults

Very difficult terrain to attack across and it ultimately proved impossible to take the defences 

A period photo placed in the location it was taken from at Pigeon Hill

My walk then took me back to the car, so I then headed for Cheatham Hill the other most famous part of the battlefield, significant rebel defences including the battery above

This area is the site of the second main failed attack know as the ‘Dead Angle’

Union Forces attacked up this hill in the open and were cat down

The main rebel defence line is set back slightly

So as the history goes the remnants of the assault took cover in the dead ground around this sign, and started to dig a tunnel in an attempt to blow up the defences.

So a very pleasant day out in beautiful weather.....

Tennessee Battlefield Tour Day 8 : Tennessee River and Missionary Ridge

I had deliberately fixed this holiday for October so the temperature would be cooler, it had in fact been quite hot in the first week, but the autumn/fall change can be unpredictable. Anyway Day 8 was the only really wet day I had, again the benefit of a bit of flexibility meant I could adapt my plans rather than heading up Lookout Mountain which was entirely covered in cloud in the morning I headed into Chattanooga, better to be in a city when it’s raining.

The river front has had masses of re development, riverside walks, fountains etc pleasant even in the light rain but in several locations there are reminders of the Civil War history that took place all across the Area

I decided to take a boat trip as it felt right to experience just a little of the Tennessee river, the steamer we were on was slightly smaller than the one int he shot

It was quiet up on the top deck, a bit chilly but they had hot dogs, beer and great views

Trip I was on took about 3 hours, heading south under the watchful eye of Mountain

You do get a sense of the difficult nature of the terrain around the river, lots of steep bluffs and hills, quite a lot of very expensive houses built along the river edge

...but some great wildlife we saw several Bald Eagles

By the time we finished it was raining properly so I decided to explore Missionary ridge, there are a number of small parks/memorial locations along the road, lots of markers identify the locations of Regiments...these often appear to be in people’s gardens as the ridge is now expensive high end houses. The above location is at the north end where General Cleburne held back Sherman’s assaults

Another stop off.....

Perhaps the most interesting location called Bragg Reservation where the confederates famously broke and fled

What strikes you very much is how thin the ridge is

I took this shot on a different day, Missionary Ridge is the dark line behind the city running left to right, it really is a sharp thin line in most places the flat top is probably only 50 to 100 yards across with no way of creating any depth in a defensive position. So whilst it is steep on both sides it would have felt like a very thin line of defence when the attacks were made.

Tennessee Battlefield Tour day’s 6 and 7 : Chickamauga

Day 6 was a bit of a transition day as I took my time to travel from west to east, from Savannah to Chattanooga across southern Tennessee on route I stopped off at the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg (well I felt I had too) and then got out on my Bike again but it seems everywhere in Tennessee was touched by the Civil War. Even my ride turned out to be part of the Area covered by the Tallahoma Campaign.

Jack himself the tour of the distillery is a pleasant way to spend and hour, one very interesting fact is the Moore County where the distillery is based is a dry County !

You can buy a whole barrel and have it bottle about £10,000 and I am not sure what I would do with 270 bottles of Jack Daniels ?

Town hall in Lynchburg a lovely period town

My bike resting 😀

As you move west to east you gradually get into the hills and the Cumberland plateau the hills are significant feature of this area and give great views as I drove down towards Chattanooga I was treated to a sunset

So I had at least three days around Chattanooga so could take my time, starting with Chickamauga another ‘big one’ an excellent visitor centre with lovely models of artillery

An enormous collection of period guns (really enormous) these were all donated by a guy who collected literally thousands

Some scary battlefield damage preserved

And then out onto the battlefield, the formal tour is mainly day two and it’s perhaps not quite so well set out as Shiloh ? These cannons are the northern 

Limit of the union line facing north in the McDonald Field to try and hold back the right flank of the rebels on day two

These mark the rebel advance by Breckinridge now facing south down the Layfayette Road into the left flank of the Union Forces

The Kelly Field looking west towards the Lafayette road scene of extensive fighting on day two

The battlefield is littered with battery emplacements like this one as the rebel artillery moved extensively across the battlefield with the advance

This is the area around the Poe Farm looking east the Texas Brigades came through those trees

Across the Lafayette road and through the Brotherton Farm, this shot looks west, the Union Forces where positioned in those trees in the distance

The very much rebuilt Alexander Bridge, this is slightly off the beaten track but it is the only time I saw the Chickamauga itself

The site of the Viniard House looking left across to the Glenn field from the south, the Lafayette road is in the distance to the right so it across this ground that the confederates were for much of day two

A little further west the Wilder Brigade location, this is from the top of the knoll they held, Rebels coming across the field being held back by the cavalry ‘s repeater rifles

There is a large monument marking the location and fromthe top a view looking straight down east toward the Glenn field

Now the Dyer Field looking up toward Snodgrass hill from the SE

Time to get out of the car a yomp up the hill is is steep !

At the top Snodgrass Hill looking away to Horseshoe ridge in the distance

Snodgrass field and the house

I then spent some time hiking some less well visited parts of the field, mainly day one battle, this as far as the Ranger I had spoken to is the exact location that Sam Watkins was in just north of the Brotherton Road, there are huge numbers of markers and monuments right across this part of the field but it is mainly wooded, as shown above so every shot looks the same 🙂

Rebel batteries advance across the Winfrey field

Finally for Chickamauga here is Jay’s Mill where the battle started on Day one Nathan Bedford Forrest again charging after Union skirmishers into those trees

Another one for you Jonathan, having toured the battlefield I got back to my hotel at the bottom of Lookout Mountain, jumped on my bike and cycled to the top. I won’t say it was easy but a definate sense of achievement.....and an exhilarating decent! I revisited later in the week to take photos and visit the park proper.