Chattenooga Tennessee River from Lookout Mountain
The Chattanooga battleground shares one trait with its more southerly neighbor, and that is large size. From there major differences begin.
First of all, there is the best way of getting there and moving around. Chickamauga has the standard layout of a visitor's center with ample parking, from where the visitor drives a planned course to the most critical points of interest.
Chattanooga is on the edge of an urban location, but one that does not feel much like city. Yet it does call for a much more different, and I daresay interesting, approach.
The first stop should be the lower station of the Lookout Mountain Incline, where one's vehicle can stay for the duration of the visit. Spending my life in Pittsburgh, a city with two major inclined railways traveling the slopes of Mt. Washington, I was ready to be underwhelmed. But the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway proved to be a big surprise.
It is long, much longer than the ones in Pittsburgh. Further, it is billed as the steepest incline in the world, with a maximum gradient of over 72% toward the top. Furthermore, whereas the Duquesne and Monongahela inclines have their rails set on steel trestles, for a steady grade that can pass over city streets, the one on
Lookout Mountain is constructed directly on the slope, for a much more varied ride. It is an engineering marvel in its own right, and while most travelers but railway buffs will fail to see it as a special vacation destination, it is one of the most pleasant, and the most unusual, ways I have ever taken to an historical site.
At the top, walk right, that is north, from the upper station, through the town of Lookout Mountain. A separate entity from Chattanooga below, it is a calm, quiet place where the temperature might be ten degrees cooler than in the valley.
For someone without a deep knowledge of the battle, The Battles of Chattanooga Museum and Electric Battlefield can be a good stop. At first glance, it looks like a tourist trap. Indeed, "museum" is synonymous with gift shop. However, the electric map is really an ambitious, well-crafted miniatures display, one that presents the Battle of Chattanooga in a surprisingly clear and historically intelligent manner.
The battlefield proper is nearly next door, actually about three blocks away. Point Park is the gateway, and the site of the visitor's center.
Despite the large amount of land under National Park Service care, Point Park constitutes virtually the entire visitable area for most people. The rest of it is traversed by hiking and bridal trails, but is largely underdeveloped as parkland. Point Park wins by virtue of accessibility.
There is little attempt to recreate the terrain and layout of the land there. Indeed, more than a conventional NPS-run military site, it resembles a Canadian battlefield park, which tend to be multi-use, recreational facilities instead of purely historical ones. Point Park might not have an outdoor concert venue or a place to toss a frisbee, but it is more of an urban park than a preserved battlefield.
This lack of preservation is not unique to Chattanooga. For example, at Fredericksburg the slopes of Marye's Heights are completely transformed. What the city in Virginia has not taken has been cleared and terraced for the national cemetery.
There are reminders that Point Park does occupy an old battlefield. Historically, it is at the top of the slope that Union troops were supposed to attack in a diversion, but ending up seizing in a prime case of elán and grasped opportunity, thereby deciding the battle as a whole. Although not nearly in the density of Chickamauga, there are monuments. Characteristically for the state, New York has the tallest. In this case however, bronze figures of opposing soldiers, shaking hands, atop the white pillar. This makes it unique as a monument to peace and reconciliation after the strife. Point Park has some of the most breathtaking views of any historical site, in any country, that I have ever visited.
Missionnary Ridge as seen from Lookout Mountain.
There, Lookout Mountain certainly lives up to its name, as one can see across the Tennessee River valley to Missionary Ridge and the other heights that tower over Chattanooga.
They are more than simply vistas of great natural beauty. Looking at the steep, wooded slopes, one gains a new respect for the men who were able to fight on those hills and take their objectives.
More Bragg's Victory, Bragg's Defeat
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© Copyright 2001 by David W. Tschanz.
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