Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park will be hosting a temporary museum exhibition exploring the hardships captured soldiers endured following the Battle of Chickamauga beginning Saturday. This exhibit will be on display for one year inside the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center.
Officials said, "The large numbers of captives taken during the Civil War prompted both Union and Confederate forces to establish long-term prison camps and sites throughout the country. The soldiers taken prisoner at Chickamauga were some of the longest held prisoners of the Civil War.
The men were forced to live in cramped unsanitary conditions, sell prison-made goods for food, and consequently, suffered from debilitating illnesses. Conditions were so unfit that some Chickamauga captives even planned and orchestrated an elaborate prison escape. To learn more, please visit the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center and join us as we explore the experience of imprisonment and captivity during the Civil War."
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 423-821-7786, or visit the park website at www.nps.gov/chch.