Chickamauga and Chattanooga Battlefields / Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park—Georgia, Tennessee

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Stewart L. Udall, Secretary
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Conrad L. Wirth, Director
HISTORICAL HANDBOOK NUMBER TWENTY-FIVE
This publication is one of a series of handbooks describing the historical and archeological areas in the National Park System administered by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior. It is printed by the Government Printing Office and may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C. Price 25 cents.
by James R. Sullivan
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES No. 25 Washington, D. C., 1956 (Reprint 1961)
The National Park System, of which Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park is a unit, is dedicated to conserving the scenic, scientific, and historic heritage of the United States for the benefit and inspiration of its people.
Moccasin Bend of the Tennessee River from Point Park on Lookout Mountain.
In and around strategically important Chattanooga, Tenn., in the autumn of 1863, there occurred some of the most complex maneuvers and hard fighting of the Civil War. The Confederate victory at Chickamauga (September 19-20) gave new hope to the South after the defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July of that year. At Chattanooga (November 23-25) Union forces under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant blasted this hope and prepared the way for the capture of Atlanta and Sherman’s “March to the Sea.” Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, oldest and largest of the national military parks, commemorates the heroic soldiers of both North and South in the battles for the control of Chattanooga.
The year 1863 proved to be one of victory for the Union forces. Three great campaigns took place which shaped the destiny of the war. The first, a decisive blow at Gettysburg, forced a Confederate army under Gen. Robert E. Lee to abandon its attempt to invade Northern soil. Lee began an orderly retreat to Virginia on July 4.