Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1895 — TO AMERICAN HEROES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TO AMERICAN HEROES

DEDICATION OF MONUMENTS ON CHICKAMAUGA’S FIELD. Moat Brilliant and Stirring Demonstration of Patriotism Since the Cl Til War-Sonth Wild with Enthusiasm—Park Has No Counterpart. After Thirty-two Tears Patriotism and pleasure held sway in the South. From the Grand Army encampment at Louisville to the Chickatn&uga and Chattanooga National Military Park was a solid streak of red, white •ad Uuei Everywhere along the route the hundreds of thousands of people joined the scores of thousands of visitors in |One grand burst of patriotic enthusiasm. {Chattanooga, the pretty little Southern .Tennessee city, caught the spirit, and for the ffve days devoted to the dedicatory .exercises on the famous field of Chickarnauga she was gay with flowers and [bunting. [thing loose and went in for a period of, festivities and freedom, with the dual 'desire to celebrate the dedication and to honor the stars and stripes. In short, It was a holiday for all the people and they went into it with an enthusiasm that insured great enjoyment. But the exercises were not without a aerious side. The dedication of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Military Park upon the thirty-second anniversary of the battle of Chickamauga, and the accompanying State and society celebrations. !

constitute the most brilliant and stirring pageant and patriotic demonstration the country has seen since the civil war. It took place by an act of Congress, and under the direction of Government officials. It was national in character, and included both Union and Confederate characters and organizations. Its object is the fostering of friendly and reunion sentiments. The patriotism of the nation was assembled on two adjacent battlefields, one of which saw a victory for the Confederates, and the other a victory for the Union arms. As the dedication was a national event and as the ceremonies and proceedings were under the immediate direction of Secretary of War Lament nearly every prominent official of the United States Government and of the different States were present. Among them were the Cabinet, the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Vice President and twenty United States Senators, the Speaker of the House and thirty Representatives, Lieut. Gen. Schofield and Maj. Gen. Miles, accompanied by a large body of regular troops and Admiral Gherardi and Admiral Walker, of the United States Navy. There was a large attendance of patriotic military organizations, some of which purposely arranged lo to hold their regular annual celebration at the same 1 time and place as the dedication exercises. First among these was the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, which celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. The Army of the Cumberland entertained as its special guests at Chattanooga the Society of the Army of the Tennessee,

which held its twenty-seventh annual reunion Sept. 10 and 17, at,Cincinnati. The Confederate Society of the Army of the Tennessee was also present in force. ▲ large delegation went from the annual encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic at Louisville. It is estimated that 75 per cent, of the veterans found their way to Chattanooga. There was also a large attendance of the Sons of Veterans. Gen. W. 8. Rosecrans was 111 la California, and sent word that he could Hot come. Gen. James Longitreet, of the Confederate army, attended upon condition that he be not asked to participate la the exercises. He was accompanied

by Gen. A. P. Stewart, one of his brigade commanders in the battle. —; " The dedication exercises proper occupied the first two days, and opened and dosed with a salats of 100 guns. The official program was as follows: First day—Grand parade of veterans. North and South. Dedication of the Chickamauga section of the park. Exercises at Snodgrass Hill, opened by Secretary Lamont. Orators, Gen. John M. Palmer of Illinois (Union) and Gen. John B. Gordon of Georgia (Confederate). Eight p. m., at Chattanooga, exercises conducted by the Society of the Army of the Tennessee (Union) and the Army of Tennessee (Confederate), Gen. Granville M. Dodge presiding. Orators, Gen. O. O. Howard, U. S. A., and Gen. Joseph Wheeler of Alabama. Seeond day—Dedication of the Chattanooga section of the park, exercises beginning at noon at Chattanooga. Orators, Gen. Charles H. Grosvenor of Ohio (Union) and Gen. William H. Bate of Tennessee (Confederate). Eight p. m., at Chattanooga, exerdses conducted by veterans of the Army of the Potomac (Union) and the Army of Northern Virginia (Confederate), Gen. Edward C. Walthall of Mississippi presiding. Orators, Gen. Or--Innrtn Smith and Gov. William C. Oates of Alabama. The dedication ceremonies at the park were under the direction of Secretary of War Lamont Bishop Hunt of Tennessee delivered the invocation and Bishop Keane of Richmond gave the benediction. Speeches were made by Gen. Warner on behalf of the committee, and by Gen. Dodge for the Army of the Tennessee. The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park is the grandest reservation of its kind in the world, and in many respects the most comprehensive

and extended military object lesson. The United States Government has spent on it £750,000 since its establishment was authorized in 1800, and various State Governments about $500,000 more, making a total of $1,250,000. The plan was to restore the old lines of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga campaigns (Sept. 19-20 and Nov, 24-25,18(33,) as they were when the battles were fought, to mark all the points of attack or defense by either side, to set up monuments to commemorate the troops which fought, and so far as practicable restore the fields to their original condition; and this design has been carried out to the letter.

The Chickamauga and Chattanooga campaigns were in a measure representative of the whole country. Chickamauga is held by military experts to have been the best demonstration of the pluck, endurance. prowess and strategy of the American soldier ever given and, measured by percentage of losses and the duration of the fighting, the deadliest conflict of modern times, while its sequel and coinpanionpiebe, Chattanooga, is considered to have been the most spectacular engagement.

Of the ten square miles constituting the area of the park something over 5,000 acres are forest and about 1,000 acres open farms. A central driveway, passing through and overlooking all the heavy fighting ground, has been built twenty miles long. Forty-two miles of the roads of the battles have been reopened and improved in a substantial and enduring manner, and new roads have been closed up. Many of the minor roads have also been cut out and graded, so that there are now about sixty miles of driveways in the park, ail of them along the roads of the war. The removal of underbrush and the clearing out of the new growth of timber have opened the forest so that carriages can drive through it in all directions, and the appearance now is like, that of an immense area of forest pasture in tho Blue Grass region. The Chickamauga portion of the park is connected with the Cbattnnnoga end of jt by national driveways. Within the park the Government haa set up 400 historical tablets and will set np 1,600 more hereafter, each three or four feet, consisting of cast-iron plates, glazed black, fastened to irou posts set in concrete. On these tablets in embossed white letters are set forth briefly and impartially the historic details of the six battles—Ghickamaugn, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Orchard Knob, Wanhatchie and Brown's Ferry. They also mark the positions of army headquarters, corps, divisions and brigades, both Union and Confederate, and the parts taken by each organization are concisely stated, without censure ahd without praise. Besides these tablets, the Government has erected nine handsome granite monuments, all different, one for each of the organizations of regular troops engaged in the battles. It has also built, on the spots where they fell, eight pyramidal monuments of novel design, each ten feet high, constructed of eight-inch shells. In honor of soar general

Union officers and four Confederate offl,<[crs killed in action. ■ In addition, the Government has built five tall observation towers of iron and steel seventy feet high, two on Missionary Ridge and three on Chickamauga field, from which the landscape below ia seen clearly and easily recognizable from its markings. And, finally, the Government has marked the most important fighting positions occupied by each of the thirty-

five Union batteries and thirty-nine Confederate batteries 1 engaged in the battler by 400 mounted cannon of the types and appearance then used, giving to the fields an impressive element of realism. Two guns mark each battery location, and, inasmuch as some of the batteries occupied several different positions and did notable fighting at different points in the fields at separate stages of the battles, many positions have had to be duplicated, thus utilizing in all 400 cannon to locate the spots occupied by the seventy-four batteries.

The only private monument yet contracted for is to be erected to commemmorate the valor of George W. Landrum, a lieutenant of the Second Ohio Regiment, 'who was shot on the afternoon of Sept. 20,15G3, by some men of the Third Tennessee Regiment, while carrying a verbal message from General Thomas t« General Rosecrans. His dying words were: “I am glad to have shed my blood in so noble a cause.” ■ But while the national government has marked these positions it has been left t® the States having troops in the battles to "greet Monuments to State regiments and organizations and to the military societies to commemorate the particular services of their membership. Twenty-eight States had organizations in these battles, a more general representation than appeared upon any other battlefield of the war. Five States had troops on both sides —Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, West Virginia and Maryland. At Chickamauga Ko-e rans had 129 regiments of infantry and enough cavalry and artillery to make up a total of 182 organizations. Bragg had 138 regiments of infantry, 33 of cavalry, and 41 batteries. Still, despite the general representation, four Northern States furnished the bulk of the Union troops. These were Ohio with 55 organizations, Indiana with 37, Illinois with 33, and Kentucky with 17. On the Confederate side Tennessee had 56 organizations at Chickamauga, Alabama had 36, Georgia 24, Mississippi 21, and Arkansas 16. In the Chattanooga movement Grant had 220 regiments of infantry and, with his cavalry and artillery, 261 organizations. Bragg had 163 regiments of infantry, 33 regiments of cavalry and 46 batteries, altogether 242 organizations. The distribution by States was a little wider, but the bulk of -thi troops were furnished by Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, Ohio having 69 organizations there, Illinois 55, Indiana 34, Missouri 17, New York 16, Pennsylvania lowa 11, and Wisconsin 10. On the Confederate side Tennessee furnished 54 on gnnizations, Georgia 50, Alabama 44, Mississippi 13, and Carolina 15. Ths States have as a rule provided one memorial for each organization, making < spectacle which has no counterpart o| any other battlefield in the world.

MAP OF CHICKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA NATIONAL PARK.

ONE OF THIS EIGHT SHELL MONUMENTS MARKING THE SPOT WHERE BRIGADE COMMANDERS WERE KILLED: CHICKAMAUGA.

OBSERVATORY TOWER, CHICKAMAUGA.