Five of the Stamp Guys got together for one of our traditional Civil War battlefield trips: the Chickamauga Study Group. Various permutations of our group have been going on this trip for the past five years. It involves an intensive two day study on specific aspects of the battle and campaign of Chickamauga (September 18-20, 1863), with the first day involving a bus trip to sites outside the Chickamauga Battlefield Park and the second day involving a walking tour in the Park. The tours are led by Chief Historian Jim Ogden and author Dave Powell.
This year's trip was special because Stamp Guy Dave was able to make his first trip with the group since we started writing the blog. Tim, Pete, Mike and I (Jamie) finished out the quintet; only Brian had to miss out (he had an exam in one of his college classes on the following Monday, March 14). We met at Brian's house in Grove City, Ohio on Thursday afternoon, left a couple of cars in his driveway to remind him on what he was missing, and then piled into my 2008 Lincoln MKX for the trip. Dave has wicked motion sickness, so he prefers to drive, which works fine with the rest of us (especially because Dave gets us from Point A to Point B faster than the average bear-aided by his latest radar detection device).
We drove south from Columbus and into Kentucky on Route 71, and then the rain started, and we faced a small hurdle. I had left the MKX at Thrifty Airport Parking on a business trip earlier in the week and had Thrifty wash the exterior and clean the interior of the car for our trip. Unfortuantely, the wash job must have removed a cap that went over the driver's side windshield wiper, and the wiper began to slowly work its way out of the bracket. We stopped once to get gas and push it back down, but as the rain intensified and the wipers worked harder, the problem returned quickly. We exited the freeway and went to a Meijers (the same store where I had purchased the Rain-X blade in Columbus), and purchased a replacement. Then, five college-educated males struggled to figure out the cryptic directions for about 10 minutes before Tim and Dave finally got things sorted out and the new wiper attached. Oh Brian, we miss you already (he once changed a tire on a rental car in the gravel parking lot of an abandoned church near the WarBonnet Creek Battlefield in Nebraska in about the same time it tooks the five of us to replace a windshield wiper). Wipergate (as Dave christened it) had cost us some time, but at least we finally conquered the Beast!!
We then drove into the mountains of southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee, with the rain turning to sleet and then the sleet turning into snow. The temperature gauge kept dropping from 41 to 39 and then finally to 33, where it hovered precariously above freezing until we began to descend as we approached Knoxville. Dave battled some intense truck traffic around Knoxville, and then we made a smooth run down to Chattanooga as darkness descended, debating Ohio Senate Bill 5 and its effect on firefighters like Tim. We exited the freeway just after we crossed into Georgia, stopped for some gas and beer at a Kangaroo gas station, and then checked into the familiar Best Western hotel on Rossville Road in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, just north of the Chickamauga Battlefield Park. After emptying the car and digesting a pop or two, we headed out to the Bi-Lo grocery to buy sandwich materials for the morrow (the bus tour would not be stopping at a place where lunch was available to be purchased). At both the Bi-Lo and then a later stop at Walgreens to get Dave some motion sickness medicine for the bus ride, Pete showed his Rain Man colors. We checked out and paid at the cashier, walked into the parking lot and discovered that Pete somehow was not with us. Peter was absorbed in studying various local beers both times, and then had to break his autistic trance and catch up with us before we left.We wanted to go to one of our old Fort Oglethorpe favorites for dinner, but Tony's Italian Restaurant had turned into a title bureau, so we opted for El Matador next door. The establishment had Dos Equis on tap, and we ordered a couple of pitchers. The walls were covered with murals (some quaint village scenes and one sexy flamenco dancer who sparked comments about the unlikelihood of anyone having a bare mid-driff that thin from our still-in-character Rain Man). Four of us ordered standard Mexican fare: chimichangas, pollo loco etc. Dave (from a desire to have some vegtables) ordered stir fry. Four of us ate with mucho gusto, and Dave picked at his Mexi-nese concoction with utter disgust.
We then headed back across Rossville Road to our hotel, where we awakened our friend Ken Ramsey from Columbus (we really only wanted to find out if he had made it to town, but the linquistically-challenged young Indian boy at the desk interpreted our inquiry as a reason to call and wake Ken up), and then retired to Pete & Mike's room for an evening cocktail. And then, Tim dropped the Bomb that started the weekend's festivities.
Pete had brought a couple of dvd's to watch, including a documentary on America's role in the Great War. Tim, feeling his Wheaties from the beer and the whiskey (Russell's Reserve 6 year old rye bourbon) & soda that Dave had shoved into his paw, commented that he wanted to see the documentary because he was interested to know what, if anything, America had actually done in WWI. If this statement wasn't provocative enough, the inebriated paramedic (undoubtedly feeling a little beat up from Dave and my earlier comments to him about Senate Bill 5), cranked out the explosive declaration that "America didn't even fight in WWI or WWII." Game on.
The bus headed south out of the Park and followed the historic route of the Lafayette Road to Lafayette, Georgia, while Jim Ogden narrated the background to the McLemore's Cove operation that preceded the Battle of Chickamauga in his strong voice with a stacatto-inflected delivery. Jim used to be very straight & narrow in his tour descriptions, but he has loosened up over the years and has added quite a bit of humor (mostly of the wry, ironic sort). As Dave pointed out, Jim has begun to channel his inner Ed Bearss. If you have a chance to take a tour with Mr. Ogden, don't miss it.
From Lafayette (Braxton Bragg's headquarters), we followed the route of Confederate troops as they approached McLemore's Cove from the east. Jim showed us Werthen's Gap (where Thomas Hindman's Division crossed Pigeon Mountain into the Cove) from a parking lot at the beginning of the road leading into the Gap, and explained that there is a Georgia State Prison on the road and that the prison guards will not let a car stop there to view the Gap. We then headed to the south end of Pigeon Mountain. The "mountains" in this part of the world are actually long ridges. Lookout Mountain runs in a NE-SW direction for 86 miles from the Tennessee River overlooking Chattanooga. Pigeon Mountain parallels Lookout Mountain to the east, and forms a pocket when it merges into Lookout Mountain (kind of like the thumb and forefinger of your left hand); the pocket is McLemore's Cove. To add confusion, yet another low range runs down the middle of the Cove, bisecting it into an eastern Cove and western Cove. This range is actually the continuation of another famous Chattanooga landmark: Missionary Ridge. As we reached the southern end of Pigeon Mountain, Jim directed the bus west, where we were confronted by the daunting size of the Mountain that confronted DH Hill's troops as they tried to cross at Blue Bell Gap (where Pat Cleburne's division crossed in a single-file line thru the high, obstructed defile); and then we headed north to a more friendly gap with a road where the rest of Hill's troops (and our bus) crossed.
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We eventually trundled back into the bus and headed back to the Davis homestead at Davis Crossroads in the eastern Cove and the sight of Negley's advance when he moved out from the foot of Steven's Gap. Jim described the "battle action" at this site. It is important to note that virtually n
o fighting actually ever occurred in McLemore's Cove. It is really one of those great "what ifs" that arose under the Lost Cause school of history. The CSA forces undoubtedly had a chance to attack a couple of Union divisions who were stranded and on their own. Of course, this has been re-interpreted through Southern History to be one of those events that just could have turned the tide of the Civil War back in favor of the South. After Jim's talk, we cranked out the lunches and had the pleasure of touring the unique and interesting Davis Homestead, which has been turned into a public park at the bequest of its recently-deceased owner. The owner was a voracious collector of many different things, including Coca-Cola memorabilia (including an advertisement featuring Stonewall Jackson and the "pause that refreshes" recounting Jackson's marching orders that allowed 10 minutes of rest each hour), rare & original pressings of books, outhouses, and vintage cars. He also restored the Davis house in a grand style. The stop was very surprising and memorable.
We eventually trundled back into the bus and headed back to the Davis homestead at Davis Crossroads in the eastern Cove and the sight of Negley's advance when he moved out from the foot of Steven's Gap. Jim described the "battle action" at this site. It is important to note that virtually n  |
| Stamp Guy Mike, drooling over an original edition of a Civil War Atlas |
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| Who knew Stonewall Jackson was a shill for Co-cola? |
Unfortunately, the afternoon tour was pretty much a dud. Nothing really happened in McLemore's Cove because Hindman and D.H Hill lapsed into fits of lethargy & fear, and Braxton Bragg refused to intercede to get them moving. We pottered around to a couple of more sites, but there really wasn't much to talk about. Finally, I got bored and started bringing out my provactive nature, and I challenged Jim and Dave Powell about this whole belief that some great chance was missed in McLemore's Cove. Sure, two Union divisions were isolated and could have been beaten up, but they would have put up a good fight and would have wrecked at least an equal number of CSA formations, and they would not have been wiped out or captured in toto because that simply never actually happened in the Civil War. At first, Dave disagreed with me, but as I pressed my point, Jim and then Dave both picked up on the thread of my thought and gave a more balanced picture of what might have REALLY happened if the CSA forces actually attacked. Frankly, I think they would have probably been fought to standstill. 
We returned to Fort Oglethorpe and our hotel and tried to watch Pete's WWI dvd, but the monotone narration from David Carradine (an odd choice for a narrator, don't you think?) soon had Dave and then me snoring. The rest of the boys packed up shop and hit the hay for the night soon thereafter.
On Saturday morning, the same quartet headed back to the I-Hop for breakfast while Pete oiled up his truss. We returned and picked up Pete, and headed back to the Park. This time, we had a briefing in the VC with Jim Ogden and Dave Powell that laid the basis for the morning's tour: the Viniard Field fight on September 19. Pete and I discovered that the Park had a whole basket full of stamps, and we eagerly brought in our Passports in the afternoon and got the cancellations (see below). I particularly like the 25 year Anniversary of the Stamp Program cancellation. We have been to all of these locations at one time or another on our many trips to the park, so we felt it was legitimate to get the stamps.
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| Jim Ogden (left) and Dave Powell, deployed and firing |
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| A cornucopia of cancellations |
This portion of the tour highlights one of the peculiar problems actually caused by the National Park Service running the Military and Battlefield Parks. The instinct of NPS administrators is to protect the natural flora and fauna of their Parks, which certainly works great in the nature Parks like Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Great Smokies. However, Civil War Battlefield Parks can become meaningless pieces of gibberish if fields that were open on the Day of Battle are allowed to become wilderness. The NPS has started to make reforms in this area, and the clearing of the fields west and south of Little Round Top and Cemetary Ridge at Gettysburg are dramatic examples of the effect of tree-clearing practices. The Deep Cut Field at Second Manassas has been cleared, and now perhaps the brilliant and enormous attack crafted there by Fitz-John Porter can regain some of the luster it held during and shortly after the war. Until the recent clearing, no visitor to the Manassas Battlefield Park could possibly get a sense of the size and breadth of the attack (three brigades wide, seven lines deep-Emory Upton's May 11 attack at Spotsylvania increased by a factor of six) . Even Chickamauga has done a good job in the Kelly Field area to rip out the invasive Chinese Privit and clear the trees so we can begin to see some portions of the battlefield the way the soldiers saw the field in 1863. However, the Park MUST clear this southern portion of the Viniard Field. I have taken seven tours of Chickamauga over the last 25 years, and until this moment I had no idea that this wooded tract was actually an open field in 1863. It completely changes the interpretation of the attack & defense of Viniard Field; Buckner's paranoia at advancing becomes more cognizable when you understand he had an open field dominated by a Union battery on a hilltop off his southern flank. The failure of Trigg to advance into east Viniard Field, but instead to detour north into the woods to support Robertson and Benning in their fight with Hans Heg, begins to make some sense.
Jim and Dave then brought us back to East Viniard Field where they described the overlapping and interminable attacks & counterattacks, including the ill-fated advance of Sidney Barnes' Union brigade that was smashed by Trigg's CSA forces when a Union staff officer redirected troops away from Barnes flank (without telling Barnes). We then moved back over to West Viniard Field and crossed the ditch on a footbridge (which was a good thing because the water was deep from the recent rains) and heard about the CSA attacks that drove the federal forces back into this Field, where Wilder's defensive power stopped the CSA forces cold. Jim than entertained us with a long and detailed story about the "Make Way for Sheridan" story that is a familiar part of the tale of this portion of the fight, and updated us on some great post-War stories of how the guys from Wilder's Brigade would rib their fellow Hossier and Illini brethern who had served in Bradley's Brigade of Sheridan's Division in the famous advance (and infamous retreat). I am being a little vague because I don't want to steal Jim's thunder; it's a great story that he tells with verve and gusto, and you neeed to hear it from him.
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| Stamp Guy Mike (left), "working the crowd" |
Unfortunately, that brought us to lunch and a return to the VC. We lamented the fact that we had dawdled away time on the previous afternoon, and now we didn't have enough time to finish the Viniard Field fight (we never even made it to Wilder's defensive line or Eli Lilly's battery position). Alas, if Civil War tour guides had the time management skills of corporate lawyers, what a beautiful world it would be!
We grabbed lunch at a Subway in Fort O and then returned to the VC for the afternoon's tour: Major John Mendenhall's patchwork artillery line that briefly confronted the CSA infantry after the Breakthrough. I was interested in this topic, because you always see those batteries and monuments up on the Dyer Field hill but you usually don't visit them on a standard tour. I wanted to know how Mendenhall worked his magic to gather these batteries from many different commands in so short a period of time. And I wanted to see how the CSA infantry ever managed to roll up the line of 24 cannons staring down at them from a commanding ridge.
I learned the answers to all my questions, but frankly I could have gotten the information in one hour rather than four hours. We started the afternoon by traveling to a parking area behind Dyer Field, and then walking over to a hill that overlooked the Park maintenance complex. Jim explained that this was the site Absalom Baird's Union Division held in the morning of September 20 before deploying forward to the main line of resisitence along the Lafayette Road, which started the domino-like cascade of moves that eventually ended in Thomas Wood moving his division out of the line and leaving a huge gap for James Longstreet to exploit with his well-timed & directed attack. But nothing actually happened on this hilltop where we were standing. We then walked back toward where we had left our cars and ascended the hill where the marker for Rosecrans' headquarters sits, and then proceeded to receive a VERY basic explanation of the breakthrough. Perhaps Jim and Dave felt that they needed to dumb-down the presentation because there were a number of Community College students along on the tour (but this had never seemed to phase Jim and Dave before). Or, more likely, they felt the need to expound at length on such topics because Mendenhall's Line would not fill the full four hours.
After a very long time, we left the Rosecrans HQ site and walked across the Dyer Field to an area between Mendenhall's gun line and the Breakthrough point. Once again, Jim got deeply involved in some very basic stuff as he transformed most of the group into reenanctors and made them do evolutions from marching columns into battle lines (all to explain how Charles Harker's Brigade marched north on the Glenn-Kelly Road and out of the way of the fight on this part of the field!). Finally, we walked up the hillside and stood among Mendenhall's line and got a first class description of how the line was formed, the effect if had on the battle, and how Suggs' Alabamians approached the south end of the gun line under the cover of dust and smoke to get close enough to knock off the horses of the battery on the end of the line, and then rolled up the whole line. As with everything Jim and Dave do together, it was a powerful description of tactics, poignant human interst stories (including a great story about Thaddeus Stevens' 21 year old nephew who died on this ridge) and analysis of command decsions.
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As we headed back to the car after the tour, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunny day and try to take in some Chattanooga sights. Tim had never been to Orchard Knob or the National Cemetary before, so we headed into town to see what we could before the sun set. We managed to make it to Orchard Knob, which is simply one of the most stunning Civil War sites I have ever seen. The hilltop sits in the middle of a modest inner city residential neighborhood, but it is quite literally covered with a multitude of incredible monuments and artillery pieces. When you climb to its summit, you survey all of the plain of Chattanooga, from Lookout Mountain to Missionary Ridge, and get a good feel for the series of attacks on the Ridge that emanated from this point. The sun was beginning to set, but we still managed to get some great pictures, review most of the monuments and enjoy the view of Missionary Ridge. Many Civil War buffs are afraid to visit Orchard Knob because they have heard that it's in a bad and dangerous neighborhood. Don't be afraid. The neighborhood is not Beverly Hills, but it's not Mogadishu either. This is a gorgeous "can't miss" site when you go to Chattanooga.
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| Sunset over Lookout Mountain from Orchard Knob |
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The national cemetary was closed by the time we drove past, so we'll have to show Tim the monument to the soldiers who died in the Great Train Robbery next time we're in town. It's a classic. We headed back to the hotel, and then out for dinner at Logan's Roadhouse in Fort O. We discussed what to do on future trips (a consensus was reached to skip the Study Group in 2012 and go to Shiloh), and then headed back to the room for a nice night's sleep.
On Sunday, we awoke early and headed out. Well, not quite so early becuase Dave, Tim and I slept through the alarm we forgot to set and didn't wake up until Pete banged on the door at 7. We grabbed a quick continental breakfast and then got on the road, with the intention to visit Knoxville's Civil War sites on the way home. We made good time and got to Knoxville around Noon, and followed the signs to the National Cemetary. The Cemetary had good signage on the freeway, and you can actually see the headstones from the freeway; however, after you exit, the signage disappears and we basically had to feel our way around a warehouse district until we found the site. The Cemetary has a great monument to the Union volunteers from Tennessee (over 31,000 men), and many burials from the 1860's to the present, including headstones for entire air crews lost during the Second World War (which none of us had ever seen before). We found a whole section of burials of soldiers fromt he 79th New York Highlanders, most of whom died in Longstreet's failed attack at Fort Sanders in late November 1864.  |
| 79th NY Monument |
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| What the heck? Stamp Guy confusion at Fort Sanders. |
Dave suggested that we try to find the City Visitor's Center, and maybe get a better sense of the size, shape and actual location of Fort Sanders from the sources there. So we headed back into the business district, and then tried to follow the signs to the Visitor's Bureau, but the signage was pathetically bad and we eventually just found it by wandering around. Dave parked illegally and we headed in, where we were greeted by a young woman with quiet Southern Charm. She didn't know much about Fort Sanders as a fort, but she actually lived on the hilltop. She accessed some computer sources and helped us to determine where the fort actually stood during the War. Then, I made the mistake of asking her if she could direct us to Fort Dickerson, which is a preserved Civil War earthen fort mentioned in our driving tour. She actually rolled her eyes as she dove back into her computer, but I then explained that we had a map and only needed help to navigate a detour around a bridge that was closed for construction. I guess Southern Charm has its limits when it's confronted with Stamp Guy inquiries.
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Dave drove us south out of the business district and across the river, and then we saw several large, conical hills. Dave remembered the site, and picked a road winding up the side of one of the hlls, and we found (upon reaching the top) a large parking area surrounded by signage about Fort Dickerson. The Fort was the scene of some light skirmishing when Joe Wheeler's Cavalry tried to slip into Knoxville from the south as Longstreet advanced, and we found out why as we explored the site. The fort is absolutely impregnable on its hilltop site; the slope of the hill has to be close to forty degrees. And it's a tall hill. The fort was designed by that intrepid engineer, Orlando Poe.
We then headed out of town, stopped for a quick lunch, and made tracks back to Brian's house in Grove City as the Ohio State Buckeyes beat Penn State in the Big Ten Basketball Tournament final. It was great having a trip with five of the Stamp Guys together again; maybe we can get the elusive six-man troop assembled again soon.
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| The Stamp Guys enjoy a cold one at the bar of Logan's Roadhouse in Fort O |
