Deep South - Fall 2011 - Day 4

Joe met us over breakfast and he assured us that we had made the right decision regarding his match the previous evening. It had been a long journey to and from the game and during the game both before and at halftime there had been almost an hour of testimony as it is a religiously based team that he plays for. He was tired and it would have been a poor preparation for us travelling on to Chattanooga this day. Joe warned us that the weather was expected to deteriorate during the day and that we were likely to travel through rain. It was great catching up with him but all too soon he had to leave us to go into work.
We decided that we would heed Joe’s weather advice and get on the road to Chattanooga as soon as possible, this decision sacrificed our chance to experience the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway in order to clear the bad weather.
As it happened it rained quire hard for most of the 220 mile trip, Julia handled the conditions well and despite being a bit noisy the Ford we had selected never let us down. Strangely we ran out of the rain just as we were reaching the edge of Chattanooga, we then reset the SatNav for the first of our on route visits, the Chickamauga Battle Information Centre. It was a slightly bizarre experience when we were told that we had “reached our destination” in a car park of a law firm right next to the highway. We never solved this part of the puzzle but as we drove around the side streets we came upon the signs which would soon become very familiar to us, white rectangular signs printed in red show Confederate troop placements at vital times in the battle, while similar signs with white writing on blue show the Union troop placements. The first sign we stopped to read was red and gave us the position of troops led by Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest – look him up! He was a military genius who was hugely successful commanding his cavalry against the Northern forces in the Civil War but his infamy comes from his founding of the Klu Klux Klan – film buffs will remember that Forrest Gump was named after him as he explained “And anyway, that's how I got my name, Forrest Gump. Mama said the Forrest part was to remind me that sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense.” More of that great philosopher later.
So after some dozen signs and three statues we were thinking that there should have been a little more but we got back onto the highway and almost at once spotted a sign sending us off to the right for the 6th Calvary Museum. We took this option hoping it might be linked to the Battle of Chickamauga in some way.
We pulled into a car park next to an attack helicopter on a stand, similar to the Airfix kits I used to make but instead of 1-72 scale this was 1 – 1! We were the only visitors and the curator/volunteer was the most attentive of hosts.
To quote from their website:
The 6th U.S. Cavalry was organized in Pittsburgh, PA in 1861, fighting in the Civil War with notable success at Williamsburg in 1862 and during the Battle of Gettysburg at Fairfield. The 6th received 16 battle streamers for their efforts with three 6th cavalrymen receiving the Medal of Honor.
Following the Civil War, the 6th fought the Indian Wars adding ten battle streamers to their Regimental Standard with 46 Medals of Honor given for individual bravery. 6th Cavalryman Lt. Charles Gatewood convinced Geronimo to surrender and return to the reservation, ending a year of murder and terror on the plains.
The Spanish-American War of 1898, saw the 6th Cavalry side-by-side with Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders as they won the war in Cuba. The 6th continued on with service in the Boxer Rebellion, Philippines, Mexican Punitive Exhibition, and Yellowstone National Park.
World War I saw little action for the 6th as the Armistice was signed as the regiment was preparing for front line combat. Upon returning to the U.S., the 6th was permanently stationed at The Post at Fort Oglethorpe (1919 – 1942). During this period the Regiment became a “spit and polish” outfit. Competitive polo, military horse tournaments, team sports competition, parades and troop reviews were a way of life at the Post as were the many social activities that brought Chattanooga residents south to North Georgia. The training year annually closed with marches or maneuvers to Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina.
In 1933, the 6th furnished officers and men to organize and instruct the newly formed Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which saw the civilians paid more than the soldiers.
In 1938, the 6th formed the guard for FDR’s visit to Gainesville, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
While stationed at Fort Oglethorpe the 6th experimented with the merger of horse and mechanization, field tested the Bantam Car (later to be known as the Jeep) and motorcycle. The use of horses was over and when called for duty in WWII, the 6th Cavalry (Mechanized) landed in Northern Ireland without any horses.
The 6th entered World War II assigned to Patton’s Third Army doing reconnaissance and landed at Utah Beach at D-Day+33. The 6th earned the Presidential Unit Citation for its part in the Battle of the Bulge 1944-1945. At war’s end in Europe, the 6th Cavalry Group had participated in 281 days of continuous and victorious combat. Five battle streamers were awarded for their service in World War II.
Following World War II, the Post at Fort Oglethorpe was determined to be too small for military use, with the buildings and property sold through sealed bid by the War Assets Department to private citizens. The City of Fort Oglethorpe was officially incorporated in 1949, the first new town in Georgia in 25 years.
The Regiment remained in Europe where it patrolled 172 miles of rugged mountain country along the German-Czech border. Also assisting in the reconstruction of Germany and helping at orphanages and schools.
The Bavarian Government was so thankful for the Regiment’s help that it presented a beautiful silver plaque embossed with the Shield of Bavaria. This gift is on display at the museum and is the only known official recognition given an American unit by a German State.
We noticed from the displays that the 6th had set off on D-Day from Weymouth which is a link to my sister and their family who traditionally holiday there; hopefully we will get a chance to see what traces of the US forces remain there some time in the future.
I was allowed to sit in a Willy’s Jeep and politely refused to climb into a M47 Patton Tank, with my unreliable knee I might have struggled to re-emerge!
Our guide clarified where the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park / Chickamauga Battlefield actually was, just to bring home the shadow the Civil War still casts today he told us his Great, Great Grandfather and his son, or father, had lived only 30 miles from the museum and eventually fought for the Confederacy at Chickamauga, the older one was captured by the Union forces and was later traded as a prisoner of war for a mule. I knew that at times prisoners were released having given their word not to continue fighting and there were POW exchanges but I assumed up to then it was men for men!
We made our way to the Battlefield Visitor Centre and were very impressed. In all our travels this was the clearest display of the Civil War timeline. We spend quite a long time inside the visitor centre, after all every sign must be read and understood! Thus we only had limited time to drive round the huge battlefield itself.
The visitor centres are run by the US National Parks Department and the Rangers who man these centres are incredibly knowledgeable but not always equally tactful. I saw a man of about my vintage telling the Ranger behind the information desk that he had traced a relative of his to a certain unit which took part in this particular battle, the Ranger visibly deflated his visitor, when he announced that the unit in question had run away at the first shot! Did it need saying?
Our first impression, reinforced many times on the tour, was the huge number of artillery pieces which have been gathered up on these sites to illustrate their history – I’m convinced the South could re-arm at a primitive level just by re-drilling these guns!
Since we visited several battle sites I feel I should minimize the accounts of them because there are many better sources than me to consult if the reader is interested. On that basis the bare bones of Chickamauga are:
Dates - September 18 - 20, 1863
Union Commander - William S. Rosecrans
Confederate Commanders - Braxton Bragg & James Longstreet
Forces Engaged - 60,000 Union v 65,000 Confederate
Estimated Casualties - 16,170 Union v 18,454 Confederate
Result - Confederate Victory
As we observed many times the area of the battles were large and very often the winning side should/might have pushed home their advantage but failed to do so for various reasons not least the simple human necessities of eating and sleeping, Buford on this occasion wanted to pursue the Northern forces, “keepin’ on the skeer” as he called it but he was overruled by his Commander Bragg.
We clicked the SatNav back to the, don’t laugh, Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel and we were soon in the hugely impressive lobby, clearly it was an old railway concourse which the hotel had kept to a very high standard of décor.
The rest of our hotel experience did not quite live up to the lobby. We were in Building Two a very standard square built block with no working elevator and a major dirty water leak in the corridor outside our room. I guess railways tend to run through the less affluent areas of a town and certainly our surroundings did not encourage us to seek the evening meal out of the hotel. We elected to eat in the Garden Restaurant having discovered that the Buffet Car option was not available during the week.
Mentioning the Buffet Car pushes me towards explaining how the hotel is set out, the reception area is the railway station and the best rooms are in old style parked trains which are on either side of three platforms which again are probably the authentic ones from the working station in the past. With hind-sight we should perhaps have specified one of these rooms and paid the difference for a more memorable experience.
Our dinner in the restaurant was good if a little more expensive than elsewhere, we opted for the buffet and we were well satisfied when we retired to the bar for a night-cap.