Tennessee Battlefield Tour day’s 6 and 7 : Chickamauga

Day 6 was a bit of a transition day as I took my time to travel from west to east, from Savannah to Chattanooga across southern Tennessee on route I stopped off at the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg (well I felt I had too) and then got out on my Bike again but it seems everywhere in Tennessee was touched by the Civil War. Even my ride turned out to be part of the Area covered by the Tallahoma Campaign.

Jack himself the tour of the distillery is a pleasant way to spend and hour, one very interesting fact is the Moore County where the distillery is based is a dry County !

You can buy a whole barrel and have it bottle about £10,000 and I am not sure what I would do with 270 bottles of Jack Daniels ?

Town hall in Lynchburg a lovely period town

My bike resting 😀

As you move west to east you gradually get into the hills and the Cumberland plateau the hills are significant feature of this area and give great views as I drove down towards Chattanooga I was treated to a sunset

So I had at least three days around Chattanooga so could take my time, starting with Chickamauga another ‘big one’ an excellent visitor centre with lovely models of artillery

An enormous collection of period guns (really enormous) these were all donated by a guy who collected literally thousands

Some scary battlefield damage preserved

And then out onto the battlefield, the formal tour is mainly day two and it’s perhaps not quite so well set out as Shiloh ? These cannons are the northern 

Limit of the union line facing north in the McDonald Field to try and hold back the right flank of the rebels on day two

These mark the rebel advance by Breckinridge now facing south down the Layfayette Road into the left flank of the Union Forces

The Kelly Field looking west towards the Lafayette road scene of extensive fighting on day two

The battlefield is littered with battery emplacements like this one as the rebel artillery moved extensively across the battlefield with the advance

This is the area around the Poe Farm looking east the Texas Brigades came through those trees

Across the Lafayette road and through the Brotherton Farm, this shot looks west, the Union Forces where positioned in those trees in the distance

The very much rebuilt Alexander Bridge, this is slightly off the beaten track but it is the only time I saw the Chickamauga itself

The site of the Viniard House looking left across to the Glenn field from the south, the Lafayette road is in the distance to the right so it across this ground that the confederates were for much of day two

A little further west the Wilder Brigade location, this is from the top of the knoll they held, Rebels coming across the field being held back by the cavalry ‘s repeater rifles

There is a large monument marking the location and fromthe top a view looking straight down east toward the Glenn field

Now the Dyer Field looking up toward Snodgrass hill from the SE

Time to get out of the car a yomp up the hill is is steep !

At the top Snodgrass Hill looking away to Horseshoe ridge in the distance

Snodgrass field and the house

I then spent some time hiking some less well visited parts of the field, mainly day one battle, this as far as the Ranger I had spoken to is the exact location that Sam Watkins was in just north of the Brotherton Road, there are huge numbers of markers and monuments right across this part of the field but it is mainly wooded, as shown above so every shot looks the same 🙂

Rebel batteries advance across the Winfrey field

Finally for Chickamauga here is Jay’s Mill where the battle started on Day one Nathan Bedford Forrest again charging after Union skirmishers into those trees

Another one for you Jonathan, having toured the battlefield I got back to my hotel at the bottom of Lookout Mountain, jumped on my bike and cycled to the top. I won’t say it was easy but a definate sense of achievement.....and an exhilarating decent! I revisited later in the week to take photos and visit the park proper.