On Monday, March 19th our class had the pleasure of being given a full day tour of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Battlefield National Military Park. Our excellent tour guide for the day was a National Park Historian and Civil War expert Mr. Jim Ogden.
He first met us at our hotel to give us an overview of the history of the city of Chattanooga and pass out some historical maps of the city.
We then hiked part of the way up Lookout Mountain in hopes of visiting the lookout park at the top, but dangerous weather prevented us from safely doing so.
Next we visited the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center where we watched a short film about a soldier that fought in the battle.
Mr. Jim led us through some more overview of the battle at the visitor center. He made sure to express his admiration of Union General William Starke Rosencrans. There was an antique gun exhibit, large glass-encased map of the area, an LED enhanced and voice-narrated map, and several other posters and visual representations of Civil War items.
We then continued the tour, stopping at West Chickamauga Creek to observe how difficult of a task it would be to cross an army with supplies over it. The small creek posed as a major obstacle because of its steep banks, murky waters, and potential depth.
Mr. Jim then showed us the major monuments that had been erected all around major sites of the Chickamauga battlefield. He especially focused on the Wisconsin monuments in order to show us how involved Wisconsin was in the Civil War.
Our magnificent tour guide Mr. Jim went into such detail at each site that it was mind boggling to think about how much he must know in total about the Civil War. He had us stop at a small cedar glade for quite a while just to explain the science behind the ecology of that particular terrain and how it played an important role at one of the battle sites.
We then continued our tour of the park and Mr. Jim continued to communicate to us his infinite knowledge of every small detail of the park, the battles, and the people involved.
We ended our day on top of a hill on the west side of town that held some civil war monuments. We took shelter in one of them while Mr. Jim finished his day-tour with us.