Happy New Year to all! Sorry for not posting sooner, January just got away from me. It has been a busy month, and I'm a few posts behind. So let's start with Christmas...
The family (Mary Ann and I, Jeff, Chris and my mother-in-law Bea) travelled to stay with Mary Ann's sister in Atlanta for Christmas. Maggie and Jay have been in Atlanta for many years, and their kids Philip, Mark and Danielle were home from school for the holidays.
Rather than bore everyone with family Christmas photos, I would like to share a trip that Jay and I took on one of the clear days (it rained most of the week). Jay has become interested in Civil War history, and asked if I'd be interested in taking a road trip to a few Civil War sites in the area. I was game.
We were headed for two sites - Chickamauga and Chattanooga. Along the way, we were driving by the Georgia National Cemetery at sunrise. We drove in for a quick photo of the sunrise.
We were headed for Chattanooga Tennessee, about two hours north of Atlanta. Chattanooga and nearby Chickamauga, were sites of heavy Civil War fighting, with casualties second only to the Battle of Gettysburg. In total 120,000 troops fought in these battles, and the number of casualties was 65,000.
Chickamauga was little more than farmland and bush in the 1860's. Luckily the sites were preserved in much the same was as they were 150 years ago.
Chattanooga was just north of Chickamauga, and was a key strategic location in the Civil War. The Chattanooga River as well as a rail link from Atlanta north provided supplies to the Confederate war effort. After heavy fighting, the Union troops captured Lookout Mountain, and provided a lear view of the Chattanooga river.
Capturing this site was a turning point and allowed the Union troops work their way toward Atalanta.
It was interesting to see the scale of these sites, and to imagine how a Civil War must have torn the country apart.
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Wishing everyone Happy Holidays. Thanks for reading...
Mark
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