Chuck's Travels

Chickamauga Battlefield, Georgia - July 21, 2006

As I continue to view the battlefields of the Civil War, I am amazed by the numbers of men that were killed, wounded, or reported missing. I saw Gettysburg which was the bloodiest battle in the war - over 51,000 casualities in 3 days. I saw Antietam which was the bloodiest battle in one day - over 25,000 and now I saw Chickamauga which was the 2nd worst battle in the war. It had over 33,000 casualities in two days.

As I continue to tour the battlefields, I have been getting the answers to who, what, how, and when about each battle. One of the issues I'm trying to answer is why each battle was fought in that specific location. In the six or so battlefields I have seen including Andersonville, more than 120,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing. That is twice the numbers of Vietnam.

An interesting point is how each battle was fought on varied terrains. Gettysburg was rocky, Antietam was open corn fields and river beds, Manassas was wheat fields and forests, and now Chickamauga is large open fields with thousands of troops on both sides massing in the fields. The battle at Chickamauga was fought because the union troops had taken Chattanooga for its railroad connections. The confederates needed the railways for supplies and were trying to go back into Chattanooga to take it back. Chickamauga ended up being a blocking effort by the union. The confederates were the overall winners of the battle, but were unable to move back into Chattanooga. Therefore over 33,000 casualities ocurred for no main military objective.

Most of the pictures are of specific fields that are important in this particular battle. Here are a few to attempt to show how open the fighting would have been. Thousand of troops facing off about 500 yards apart in straight lines mowing each other down. Wow!!!