In commemoration of Memorial Day, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park invites the public to attend a tour at the Chickamauga Battlefield on Monday, May 28, at 2 p.m. The program begins at the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center.
A park ranger will lead a car caravan tour of the cannonball pyramid memorials that mark the spots where eight brigade commanders were killed or mortally wounded during the Battle of Chickamauga. During a time when honor and a strong sense of masculinity were strong motivators on the battlefield these traits compelled many commanders to lead from the front and suffer heavy losses as a result.
The commanders that fell at Chickamauga came from a variety of backgrounds. Everything from a hometown grocer to a romantic poet fell in desperate attempts to compel their men, in some cases successful, in others not so much. The deaths of these men would add to the bloody toll that made Chickamauga one of the most horrific battles of the war that inspired one newspaper to call the battlefield a “Regular Golgotha”, a place of skulls. Come hear the stories of these men and the legacy they left upon the Chickamauga Battlefield.
For more information about programs at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, contact the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at 706.866-9241, the Lookout Mountain
Battlefield Visitor Center at 821-7786, or visit the park’s website at www.nps.gov/chch.