John Shearer: Seeing ‘Graffiti’ On Marker At Chickamauga Park Program On Camp Thomas

Do you know where the second deadliest location related to the Spanish-American War in 1898 was behind only the fighting in Cuba?

It was at Camp Thomas on the grounds of Chickamauga Battlefield, which is part of the local national park. The casualty rate, as was explained, was due to deaths related to illness and unsanitary conditions.

In connection with the 125^th anniversary of that war and the local ties to it, park ranger Chris Young gave a brief overview to park visitors by the Brotherton Cabin Saturday on that and other facts. He also took attendees 200-300 yards south across the field during his several tours on the hot day to show them some almost hidden etchings in an Indiana Civil War monument apparently from an Illinois soldier who was there during the Spanish-American War.

As ranger Young explained at the start of the Saturday afternoon tour I attended and in some additional information that I found online, Camp Thomas had opened just three years after the grounds had been dedicated as a national park in remembrance of the Civil War battle there. The camp was named for Gen. George Thomas, who had fought heroically for the Union at Chickamauga.

With war against Spain seeming inevitable as both countries were world leaders, Camp Thomas was identified as a potential training ground due to its connection to railroad lines around the country and the hotter weather that could emulate what the situation would be like in Cuba.

And as Mr. Young pointed out, the grounds were overseen at that time by the War Department, not the National Park Service. So, preservation of past battles was not the only thought on the minds of leaders regarding the old battlefield, despite the protests of such people as veteran Henry Boynton, who helped get the park opened as chairman of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park committee.

“The U.S. War Department ran it, and that is not what Boynton and the veterans imagined,” said Mr. Young of the park’s future uses, including during World Wars I and II. “Their vision was preservation in the scope of what we believe preservation to be. But that is not what the Army believed. They said they were going to train on the land because it was free.”

The Spanish-American War had started after the USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor in February 1898. It was at a time when the United States, which was ascending in world importance, had supported Cuban independence from Spain, a declining power in world affairs at that time. Over 250 people died in the sinking.

Mr. Young pointed out that the rallying cry actually had two sentences, not the first that was more often mentioned. The full cry, as he said, was “Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain.”

The war came to a successful end for the U.S. in late 1898, with Spain ceding control of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to America.

Gen. Joe Wheeler, who had been a Confederate officer in the Civil War battles around Chattanooga, was a top commander in the Spanish-American War in his early 60s and passed through Camp Thomas, Mr. Young said.

About 72,000 total people trained at Camp Thomas from April until about September 1898. The latter date was when it was closed due to deplorable health conditions from soldiers having to cram large numbers into tents, having to prepare their own meals, and having inadequate facilities or resources for cleaning and practicing good hygiene. As a result, some 750 soldiers had died at Camp Thomas, and others had lifelong complications from such diseases as typhoid fever.

“Most soldiers who died were laid to rest in the National Cemetery,” Mr. Young added.

About eight or so Camp Thomas re-enactors were around Brotherton Cabin Saturday just off U.S. 27 next to some vintage-style tents, although fortunately heat was their only invisible enemy that day. The recent pandemic of COVID-19 has no doubt made everyone more aware and understanding of the ravages of the various diseases of yesteryear, such as what spread through Camp Thomas.

As ranger Young led a group of about 10 people up to the Indiana marker to see the lone-but-interesting visual aid for the tour, he was asked if any current or future famous people were at Camp Thomas. He said Fred Grant, the son of former Civil War Gen. and President Ulysses S. Grant, trained at Camp Thomas as an officer. Mr. Young added that there is a familiar picture of him there with Mark Thrash, a black man who lived and worked at the park and was a popular draw to early park visitors with all his recollections.

After I got back home, I looked online, and I found some information that said both noted poet Carl Sandburg and pharmacy founder Charles Walgreen Sr. had served with Illinois units during the Spanish-American War. I could not find for sure if they came through Camp Thomas, though.

It has been documented that World War I Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing had been encamped at Camp Thomas in May and June of 1898, and he recalled his memories of being stationed there in a visit to Chattanooga in 1920 after he had become quite famous.

Also, a well-known Chattanooga business history story has claimed that Coca-Cola bottler Benjamin Thomas came up with the idea of wanting to bottle Coca-Cola – where it could be sold far and wide – after seeing a bottled drink for sale while serving in Cuba during the war.

Regarding the marker, it is known that the 1^st Illinois Volunteer Cavalry served at Camp Thomas not only because of formal historical records, but also because of one informal one. As ranger Young pointed out on the 44^th Indiana Regiment marker related to the Civil War, barely visible on one side is the professional-looking etching related to the 1^st Illinois Volunteer Cavalry.

Mr. Young said no one currently knows whether this was done by an artistically inclined soldier in 1898 or later, after he came back to visit the area where he had camped. It is a great mystery, the ranger implied.

As the tour was concluding, the ranger asked the group of sightseers some rhetorical questions, such as whether that etching on a monument built to remember the Civil War was considered damage or an important documentation of another aspect of American history.

“Is that desecration of the monument?” he asked. “What do we term vandalism and what do we not term vandalism?”

He said the issue has also come up in recent years, as Confederate monuments in places like Richmond, Va., were damaged in recent years over another important story in American history – the Black Lives Matter protests prompted by the 2020 killing of George Floyd by police.

And he said trenches were dug in the Chickamauga Park during World War I training, and some concrete reminders remain of the park buildings that housed and served the WAC women from World War II, including a black unit scheduled to be the subject of a Tyler Perry film.

“Are their stories any less important?” he asked generally and without opinion in a way simply to get the tour participants thinking.

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jcshearer2@comcast.net