Throughout 2013, Chattanooga is commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Campaign for Chattanooga battles with a variety of special events, including the largest reenactment in the western theater for the anniversary with over 10,000+ re-enactors, an outdoor patriotic concert and the four-day Signature Event “Occupation and Liberation.”
Because of Chattanooga’s strategic location, river, and rail systems, some of the hardest fought and most complex battles happened during the fall of 1863 on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Chattanooga was considered the gateway to the Deep South and an important location for both the Union and the Confederate armies. Union forces under U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant blasted away that hope in November 1863 when Chattanooga fell at the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, known collectively as the Battles for Chattanooga.
The victories forced the Confederates back into Georgia, ending the siege of the vital railroad junction of Chattanooga and paving the way for Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Atlanta campaign and march to Savannah, Ga., in 1864
These victories ended the siege of the vital railroad junction of Chattanooga and set the stage for General William Tecumseh Sherman’s 1864 Atlanta Campaign, his famous March to the Sea, and the eventual resolution of the long war. The Campaign for Chattanooga changed the course of our nation’s history.
Today, Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park stands as one of the oldest and largest military parks in the nation. Established through the efforts of Civil War veterans who came together from both armies in 1889, the battleground not only preserves but also honors heroism, reconciliation, and national reunification.
Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park is headquartered at Chickamauga Battlefield in Chickamauga, Ga. where the fields and woods of over 4,000 acres of northwest Georgia witnessed the last major Confederate victory of the Civil War on September 19 and 20, 1863. The Chickamauga Battlefield Visitors Center includes exhibits, the Fuller Gun Collection, a new movie titled The Campaign for Chattanooga: The Death Knell of the Confederacy, a fiber optic map, hiking and biking routes, and information on how to experience the area’s Civil War history.
The Visitors Center at Point Park on Lookout Mountain features a 30’x13’ painting by James Walker, an eyewitness to the Battle Above the Clouds, several short audio-visual presentations about the painting and the Battles for Chattanooga, and a bookstore.
150th Anniversary Events at Chickamauga Battlefield (FREE)
September 14-15
8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Pops in the Military Park (FREE)
September 21
7 p.m.-9 p.m.
150th Anniversary Reenactment of the Battle at Chickamauga
September 21 & 22
9 a.m.-6 p.m.
150th Civil War Sesquicentennial Signature Event
October 9-12
9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Battles for Chattanooga Living History & Tours
Nov. 22, 23, 24
9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Source: Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park