County of sign: Catoosa County
Location of sign: Lafayette Hwy, Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park Visitors Center, Fort Oglethorpe
Marker erected by: National Park Service
Sign Text:
Historic Plaques and Markers
Battlefield plaques
Document troops; positions and
movements
On August 19, 1890, the U.S. Congress established the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park for the purpose of preserving and suitable marking for historical and professional military study the fields of some of the most remarkable maneuvers and most brilliant fighting in the war of the rebellion..."
The park commissioners, all veterans of Chickamauga or Chattanooga, placed hundreds of cast-iron plaques and other markers on the battlefield in the early 1890s. Each plaque identifies the location of a particular army, corps division, brigade, or artillery battery at a specific time. The plaques also describe military actions.
Hundreds of veterans contributed information for the plaques, and retraced their steps to determine the exact locations of their units. Today the plaques remain valuable tools for those who seek to understand in detail how these complex battles were fought.
Today you will find several types of historic plaques and markers on the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battlefields.
Blue Plaques
mark the positions of Union units
Red Plaques
mark the positions of Confederate units.
Cannon
mark the position of artillery batteries
Fingerboards
indicate directions, locations, or landmarks
Large cannonball pyramids
stacked 15-high mark the spots where brigade commanders were killed.
Small cannonball pyramids
stacked 7-high mark headquarters sites.
Authorized Strengths of
Infantry Units
To understand the information on the plaques and monuments, it helps to know how troops were organized. This chart shows theoretically how many men were in each unit, however, most units here were into battle at half-strength or less.
nits were identified by numbers, states, or the names of commanders. For example. "35th Ohio Regiment" or "Longstreet's Corps."
[please see photo in gallery]
Selected Terms
Used on Plaques
Battery
A grouping of cannon, usually four or six.
Casualties
Soldiers wounded, killed, or missing in action. Those captured are sometimes included.
Enfilade
To fire at an enemy line from an angle rather than from the front. This type of fire was especially deadly.
Flank
The right or left en d of a line of troops
Oblique
A direction diagonal to the line of battle.
Skirmish
A fight between small numbers of troops. A minor or preliminary engagement.
Vedettes
Sentries or pickets posted to report on enemy movements.