Chattanooga National Cemetery, Chattanooga TN
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GA Cacher
N 35° 02.242 W 085° 17.187
16S E 656301 N 3878529
More than 12,000 Union soldiers are interred at the beautiful National Cemetery in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The park-like setting includes 121 acres of land, making it the largest cemetery in the state. Now over 44,527 interments and still open.
Waymark Code: WM23C0
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 08/28/2007
Views: 73
On Dec. 25, 1863, Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, “The Rock of Chickamauga," issued General Orders No. 296 creating a national cemetery in commemoration of the Battles of Chattanooga, Nov. 23-27, 1863. Gen. Thomas selected the cemetery site during the assault of his troops that carried Missionary Ridge and brought the campaign to an end. The land was originally appropriated, but later purchased, from local residents Joseph Ruohs, Robert M. Hooke and J. R. Slayton.
The site Thomas selected was approximately 75 acres of a round hill rising with a uniform slope to a height of 100 feet; it faced Missionary Ridge on one side and Lookout Mountain on the other. Gen. Grant established his headquarters on the summit of the hill during the early phase of the four-day battle for Lookout Mountain.
Chaplain Thomas B. Van Horne was placed in charge of the cemetery’s development. In a report of May 14, 1866, the chaplain indicated that one-third of the cemetery site could not be used for burials due to large rock outcroppings. As a result, he suggested a design dictated by the rocky terrain. Much was accomplished during Van Horne’s tenure at the cemetery. Flowering shrubs, evergreens and other trees were planted to replace a portion of the dense forest of oak trees that had been cut down as a part of the battleground. Each interment section consisted of a central site for a monument surrounded by plots for officers with the graves of enlisted personnel arranged in concentric circles around them. In 1867, it was designated Chattanooga National Cemetery.
By 1870, more than 12,800 interments were complete: 8,685 known and 4,189 unknown. The dead included men who fell at the battles of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. There were also a number of reinterments from the surrounding area, including Athens, Charleston and locations along the line of Gen. Sherman’s march to Atlanta. A large number of men—1,798 remains—who died at the Battle of Chickamauga were relegated to unknowns during the reinterment process.
In addition to Civil War veterans, there are 78 German prisoners of war buried here. Pursuant to provisions included in the peace treaty between the United States and Germany at the end of World War I, the German government sought the location and status of the gravesites of Germans who died while detained in the United States. An investigation conducted by the War Department found that the largest number of German POWs was interred at Chattanooga National Cemetery. For a short time, thought was given to removing all other German interments to Chattanooga. In the end, however, the German government decided that only 23 remains from Hot Springs National Cemetery should be reinterred here. The German government assumed the cost of disinterment and transportation to Chattanooga, and erected a monument to commemorate the POWs.v Chattanooga National Cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
Monuments and Memorials
Chattanooga National Cemetery is home to one of five monumental masonry archways that originally served as the formal entrance to national cemeteries found in the South. Three are managed by NCA: Marietta, Ga., built 1883; Chattanooga, Tenn., built ca.1880; and Nashville, Tenn., built ca.1870. These Roman-inspired structures are approximately 35 feet high with Doric columns, a pair of ornamental iron gates, and inscriptions above. The two other memorial arches are found at Arlington National Cemetery, built 1879, and Vicksburg National Cemetery, ca. 1880, properties managed by the Department of Defense and National Park Service, respectively.
The Andrews Raiders Monument, erected by the state of Ohio in 1890, is among the most unique memorials in the cemetery. The granite base and die is topped with a bronze replica of “The General,” the Civil War-era wood-burning locomotive famous for its great chase of 1862.
The Fourth Army Corps erected a granite obelisk in 1868 to honor their fallen comrades.
The German government erected the German World War I prisoner of war monument in 1935 to honor German soldiers who died in an American POW camp and are interred at the cemetery.
NOTABLE PERSONS
Medal of Honor Recipients
The Medal of Honor may only be awarded to a person who was on active military service at the time of the incident. The first awardees of the medal were men involved in "The Great Locomotive Chase".
Chattanooga National Cemetery has the graves of four of those recipients:
Sergeant Marion A. Ross (Civil War), 2nd Ohio Infantry. Georgia, June 18, 1862 (Section H, Grave 11179).
Sergeant John M. Scott (Civil War), Company F, 21st Ohio Infantry. Georgia, June 18, 1862 (Section H, Grave 11182).
Sergeant Samuel Slavens (Civil War), Company E, 33rd Ohio Infantry. Georgia, June 18, 1862 (Section H, Grave 11176).
Private Samuel Robertson (Civil War), Company G, 33rd Ohio Infantry. Georgia, June 18, 1862 (Section H, Grave 11177).
First Lieutenant William F. Zion (Boxer Rebellion), U.S. Marine Corps. Peking, China July 21 - August 17, 1900 (Section U, Grave 40 South Side).
Master Sergeant Ray E. Duke (Korean War), U.S. Army, Company C, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. Near Mugok, Korea, April 26, 1951 (Section Z, Grave 373).
Corporal Desmond T. Doss, Sr., (World War II), U.S. Army, Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division. Near Urasoe-Mura, Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, April 29 – May 21, 1945 (Section P, Grave 6399-A).
Others Revolutionary War veteran S. Miller, (Section B, Grave 830).
Prisoners of War
Chattanooga is the only national cemetery that has both World War I and World War II foreign POWs reinterred. There are 186 POWs from both wars.
Seventy-eight are World War I German POWs, twenty-two part of group burials (Post C Graves 66, 67 and 68); and 108 POWs are from World War II consisting of 105 Germans, one French, one Italian and one Pole.
Group Burials
Group No. 75 - 4 decedents returned from Hawaii Date of Interment: November 7, 1947 Charles R. Griffin (Section Y, Grave No. 248, 249 & 250) Robert L. McGrew (Section Y, Grave No. 248, 249 & 250) Anton J. Janek (Section Y, Grave No. 248, 249 & 250) James E. Parker (Section Y, Grave No. 248, 249 & 250)
Group No. 95 - 2 decedents returned from Japan Date of Interment: January 28, 1949 James W. DeForest (Section Y, Grave No. 512) Gaines H. Jenkins, Jr. (Section Y, Grave No. 512)
Group No. 110 - 7 decedents returned from Guadalcanal Date of Interment: August 22, 1949 Charles Barkman (Section Y, Grave No. 594, 595) Herman D. Avery (Section Y, Grave No. 594, 595) Leslie E. Davis (Section Y, Grave No. 594, 595) George W. Fulkerson (Section Y, Grave No. 594, 595) Ted J. Slonina (Section Y, Grave No. 594, 595) John J. McGuire (Section Y, Grave No. 594, 595) Lloyd P. Tyler (Section Y, Grave No. 594, 595)
Group No. 641 - 2 decedents returned from Leyte Date of Interment: February 10, 1950 Harry W. Evans (Section Y, Grave No. 641) Dandridge Robertson II (Section Y, Grave No. 641)
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