Peaceful Sunset

by Geraldine DeBoer

Title

Peaceful Sunset

Artist

Geraldine DeBoer

Medium

Photograph - Print

Description

Chattanooga National Cemetery
About North Georgia----On November_23, 1863, Ulysses S. Grant ordered George Henry Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland to take Orchard Knob in preparation for the battle of Missionary Ridge. As Thomas' men advanced, the Confederate skirmishers on Orchard Knob fell back after a heavy engagement.
Two days later Grant, Thomas and General Gordon Grainger were standing on the knob watching the battle of Missionary Ridge. From this vantage point they watched as the Army of the Cumberland routed Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee in what some scholars believe was the South's last chance for victory in the Civil War.
Thomas needed a place to bury his dead and established a small cemetery near the position at Orchard Knob. He personally supervised the burial of the Union soldiers who died at Chattanooga. When asked by a chaplain if he wanted them buried by state as they had done at Gettysburg Thomas replied, "No, No, mix them all up. I'm sick of state's rights."
After the end of the Civil War the United States government decided to consolidate the graves of soldiers who died in battle during the Atlanta Campaign and purchased the land Thomas had used and additional acreage from three men. On these original 75 acres they buried Union soldiers from battles in Tennessee and Georgia, disinterring the remains from the battlefield and re-interring them in Chattanooga. No Confederate soldiers are buried in the park because of prevailing sentiment at the time. The cemetery holds the remains of veterans from the Revolutionary War to the Gulf War and 186 graves of German prisoners-of-war from both World Wars. It is the only national cemetery to contain the graves of foreign POW's. These men, many of whom were members of General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Corps, died while prisoners-of-war at a internment facility in Fort Oglethorpe
On a small hill at the center of cemetery are four cannon facing the sky. A large arch down the hill is the original entrance to the park. Behind the arch is a memorial to the men who served in each branch of service.
The cemetery has the graves of 6 Medal of Honor winners, men who were captured and hung by the Confederates for their role in The Great Locomotive Chase. The "Ohio Monument" is a tribute to these first awardees of the MOH, and contains a replica of The General, the locomotive they stole and rode from Big Shanty (now Kennesaw), to Ringgold, Georgia. Given to the cemetery by the state of Ohio at a cost of $5,000, the monument was unveiled at ceremonies on Decoration Day, 1891. -------------Cemetery Records On-line
Check the burial records for Chattanooga National Cemetery

Hours:The cemetery grounds remain open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for visitors.
Telephone:(423)855-6590 ------------------------------------------------------------------------Info from Google.

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November 15th, 2016

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