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America's Oldest National Military Park Is Also Home To An Unusual Civil War Monument

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This overlook on Lookout Mountain offers a view of Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Tennessee River, and the park's Moccasin Bend Unit/NPS

Our National Park System contains thousands of monuments commemorating people or events connected to the Civil War, but one of those memorials has an unusual reconciliation theme. It's located in the country's oldest national military park, which is also said by some to be the site of one of "the most noted battles of the modern world." Can you name this unit of the National Park System?

The National Park Service manages over two dozen areas established to preserve the sites of significant battles, although they are assigned a variety of titles, including National Battlefields, National Military Parks and National Historical Parks.

America's First National Military Park

Some of their names, such as Gettysburg and Valley Forge, are well-established in our national consciousness, but others are not as well known; the oldest of the group also has one of the longest titles:Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. 

That area, near the Georgia-Tennessee border, was established on August 19, 1890, and thus it predates national battlefield or military park designations for similar sites at Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh and Vicksburg. All of those areas were also established well before the National Park Service itself became a government agency in 1916.

The battles commemorated at Chickamauga and Chattanooga NMP may not be as well-known by the general public today as Gettysburg, but that doesn't diminish their historical significance. The park website offers this summary of the events that took place here: "In north Georgia and south Tennessee, Union and Confederate armies clashed during the fall of 1863 in some of the hardest fighting of the Civil War. The prize was Chattanooga, a key rail center and the gateway to the heart of the Confederacy."

An excellent discussion about efforts to establish this, and other battle-related sites, as part of a national system of parks is found in a 1973 NPS publication by Ronald F. Lee, "The Origin and Evolution of the National Military Park Idea." It includes some excellent insights into the significance of a park in the Chickamauga and Chattanooga area.

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This photograph of an early visitor to the park is believed to date from the 1890s. NPS photo. comment.

"Among the Most Noted Battles of the Modern World"

The book cites a report of the House Military Affairs Committee, which was the first official body to recommend the establishment of the park. The Committee noted that " Chickamauga ranked among the most noted battles of the modern world from the days of Napoleon Bonaparte to the close of the war for the Union.... there was probably no other field in the world which presented more formidable natural obstacles to large-scale military operations than the slopes of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge."

That same House Committee report also confirms the importance of timing when it comes to decisions to preserve such sites for the future:

"Since the purpose would be to maintain the park in its historic condition, it also noted that there had been scarcely any changes in the roads, fields, forests and houses at Chickamauga since the battle, except in the growth of underbrush and timber, which could easily be removed.

Taken together these fields offered unparalleled opportunities for historical and professional military study of the operations of two great armies over all types of terrain met with in actual campaigns, such as mountains, gentle and steep ridges, open fields, forests, and streams that presented military obstacles.

From carefully placed observation towers on Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, and Chickamauga, it would be possible for observers and students to comprehend the grand strategy of the campaign over a front that extended 150 miles and to follow many tactical details of the actual battles. A battlefield park of this quality and magnitude could be found in no other nation in the world."

According to Lee's book, the idea of a national park to commemorate the battlefields of Chickamauga and Chattanooga originated with General H.V. Boynton, who had participated in the battle. He revisited the area with his old commander, General Ferdinand Van Derveer, in the summer of 1888, and they agreed on the need to preserve key areas connected to the fighting.

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This old postcard of the New York Peace Monument dates from the 1930s to 1950s. Image courtesy Boston Public Library.

A Different Approach To Remembering the Civil War

Their concept for the park was important, because they wanted to tell the story of both the Union and Confederate forces which fought here. That was a different approach than had been taken during the first few decades after the end of the war, but those plans came to fruition in September 1895, when the park was dedicated in an impressive national observance.

That event included Vice President Adlai Stevenson and official representatives from twenty-four States, including fourteen governors. A large tent with a seating capacity of ten thousand was filled on several separate occasions by reunions of different veterans' organizations.

On the main day of dedication, it was conservatively estimated that forty thousand veterans were in attendance. Dr. Paul Buck observed, "The sentiment everywhere expressed was pride in the fact that after thirty-two years the survivors of the two armies could meet again on the field of conflict 'under one flag, all lovers of one country.'"

That idea to promote reconciliation was especially significant at a time when large numbers of veterans of both North and South were still alive, and the concept is embodied in a large monument which is located within Point Park, atop Lookout Mountain.

North and South Join Hands Atop the Monument

The New York Peace Monument was erected by veterans from New York in 1907, and the top of the structure features two bronze soldiers, one Union and one Confederate, who are shaking hands underneath the United States flag. The monument was constructed of Tennessee marble and Massachusetts granite which were mixed together to signify the rebirth of the country.

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The top of the New York Peace Monument features statues of soldiers from both North and South. NPS photo.

Any structure which is constantly exposed to natural elements needs some upkeep, and the last thorough cleaning of the monument was in 1988. The needed work by a professional conservator is now underway, and will include washing all the stone surfaces, re-pointing joints, cleaning and waxing bronze plaques, and inspecting the monument for other repair needs.

Among the challenges for the project is the size of the monument, and a lift is being used on the 85-foot-tall structure and the bronze statue at the top. The park is using money from entrance fees to fund the $150,000 project, which will get the monument back in top condition in time for the park's 125th Anniversary later this year, as well as for the National Park Service Centennial in 2016.

If you'd like more information about the historical background for the park and its early days in the NPS, another great resource is a 1956 addition to the National Park Service Historical Handbook Series: "Chickamauga and Chattanooga Battlefields: Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Georgia-Tennessee," by James R. Sullivan. You'll find a copy at this link on the National Park Service Electronic Library, an excellent non-government site created by retired NPS historian Dr. Harry A. Butowsky.

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