Commemorating the 156th Anniversary of the Battles for Chattanooga
Over three days on the weekend of November 23, 24th and 25th the NPS staff at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park presented more than a dozen interpretive programs to commemorate the 156th Anniversary of the Battles for Chattanooga. With ranger-guided tours and hikes around Lookout Mountain, Moccasin Bend National Archaeological District, Orchard Knob and Missionary Ridge, our nation’s history came alive in the woods, ridges and hills of these special places that surround and shape our city.
The story-filled commemorative weekend closed out with a Monday afternoon hike around Tunnel Hill on the northern slopes of Missionary Ridge. Led by park historian, Jim Ogden, we not only learned about the role and experiences of the soldiers who became a part of General Grant’s assaulting army during the forward push up the ridge, we also heard some history of the Glass Farm area in East Chattanooga and how the Pennsylvania Reservation on Glass Street came to be.
This little and little-known plot is now accessible from just below the entrance to Sherman’s Reservation via a wooded trail renovated by the American Battlefield Trust. The Pennsylvania Reservation was not established during the creation of the National Military Park in 1890. The Glass Farm area was also in the process of becoming its own city just outside of Chattanooga and the land was simply not available. At that time veterans determined that the monuments honoring the fighting and fallen soldiers of the 27th and 73rd Pennsylvania would be placed to the south and west at Orchard Knob and to the east on Sherman’s Reservation. The monument and companion plaques were eventually and painstakingly moved to the corner of Glass Street and Chamberlain Avenue at the foot of the Ridge situated closer to the actual points of conflict where their honorees met their fate. And as arduous as this task was then, there is a chance these commemorative features will be moved once more to deeper inside the adjacent woods along the railroad line where they will more truly mark the places of the fallen.
Jim Ogden’s vivid storytelling is always so enlightened and informed. He is not only able to bring new life to so many of the area’s important stories that we are familiar with, but he is an endless source of colorful nuggets that bring new meaning and context to our understanding of the battles and battlefield preservation. One comes away with a deeper appreciation for the importance of authentic interpretation and accurate placement of commemorative features.
The Jewell Memorial Restoration Fund was established in 2009 for this very reason and we are grateful to all who support this mission with gifts of support each year.
“Each monument is a unique design approved by veterans of both sides of the war, steadfast in their desire to commemorate the battles that took the lives of so many of their brothers in arms and in the belief that the Park should be set aside as a memorial for both the Blue and Gray. Over 1,400 features were carefully placed within the Park boundaries, creating a historical representation of the states, regiments, and soldiers that fought in the Campaign for Chattanooga.”
Please follow us on Facebook to watch video of Jim Ogden’s recent talk at the Pennsylvania Reservation.
