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.