i8 
PARK AND CEyAETERY. 
The work has been carried on as impartially as 
possible, the commission making use of such col- 
lected facts from both sides as came into their hands. 
Besides the monuments, there arc five steel ob- 
servation towers, 70 ft. high and 20 ft. square, 
three of which are on the battle field and two on the 
crest of Missionary Ridge. All are erected on his- 
toric spots, and from the top of each a magnificent 
view may be obtained. 
In the park proper, the government had spent 
over $750,000 and the different states about 
$400,000 up to September 1895. 
An enormous amount of work has been done in 
the park since its establishment. About 3,300 acres 
of land were cleared of underbrush and also of as 
much timber as was necessary to establish correctly 
the lines of battle, positions of batteries, and points 
where officers fell. New roads were closed and old 
ones re-opened, and the land restored as nearly as 
possible to aspect of the time. 
Nearly fifty miles of first-class macadamized 
roads have been built, twenty-five of which run 
through the park in every direction for the conve- 
nience of the visitor. The axis upon which the two 
days’ engagement turned was the La Fayette road. 
The Confederates were trying to take it in order to 
reach Chattanooga, and the Unionists were trying 
to hold it, and thus prevent the former from enter- 
ing the city. This is the road that is called the 
Crest road, after leaving the boundary of the park, 
taking its name from the fact that it runs for about 
eight miles along the crest of Missionary Ridge. 
A year ago, one of the Chattanooga florists was 
appointed by the government to root some honey- 
suckle vines to be planted on the banks overhang- 
ing this road, in order to add a rustic appearance 
to an already picturesque and beautiful driveway. 
The plants were obtained in wagon loads from the 
old Citizen’s Cemetery in Chattanooga, which is 
simply over-run with these vines. The florist cut 
them in pieces and rooted them, being paid five 
dollars per thousand for them. They were planted 
out and are doing well, and this spring the park en- 
gineer will train them carefully. In addition to do- 
ing their duty as beautifiers of the landscape, thev 
will serve the useful purpose of preventing the 
banks from washing. 
A new appropriation of $125,000 has recently 
been made in order to take in Hooker’s “Battle 
above the Clouds,” which no Confederate acknow- 
ledges to have been fought, and even Gen. Grant 
calls a myth. Lookout Mountain was abandoned 
by the Confederates, and that mythological battle 
has been fought in some vivid imaginations since 
the surrender. 
A monument to th^ 19th Illinois Infantry has 
been erected on the Crest road. Missionary Ridge, 
where that regiment stood during the famous charge. 
Rights of way for the extension of the govern- 
ment boulevard to Ringgold, Ga., have been se- 
cured, and the work is now in progress. 
Those having the matter in charge hope to have 
the proprosed electric railway from Chattanooga to 
the park’ in operation by spring, which will be a 
great convenience to visitors. 
On Monday, Nov. 23, 1896, the New Jersey 
park commissioners, with a distinguished party, 
visited Chattanooga, for the purpose of dedicating 
a very beautiful monument erected on Oi chard 
Knob. New Jersey had two regiments on this bat- 
tlefield, and has erected handsome monuments to 
each. This last one cost $14,000. 
Hon, J. B. Smartt, of Chattanooga, has taken a 
great interest in the park and has rendered some 
valuable services, as assistant to the park commis- 
sion, in locating the lines of the Confederates and 
determining the details of their movements. 
Governor Daniel H. Hastings and a party of 
prominent Bennsylvanians also visited Chattanooga 
in November for the purpose of inspecting the 
monuments to Bennsylvania troops at Chickamauga, 
and to make the preliminary arrangements for the 
formal dedication of them, which will probably oc- 
cur some time next May. 
Gen. J. S. Fullerton, president of the Chicka- 
mauga-Chattanooga National Bark commission, 
with the other members of the commission, was in 
Chattanooga in November. In an interview with 
one of the daily papers, published November 
23rd, he said that he would be there for some time 
and expected to push things right along, that they 
proposed to go right on with the work of establish- 
ing the lines of battle at the park, and that the 
work of clearing away underbrush and shrubbery is 
going on all the time. Some new roads will prob- 
ably be opened up at once in different portions of 
the park. 
The New Georgian monument, which is said to 
be the finest in the whole park will cost in the 
neighborhood of $25,000. It will be a granite* 
shaft, sixty feet in height, surmounted by figures 
in bronze. 
Truly, times change and we change with them. 
The first visit that the writer, who is the daughter 
of a Rebel colonel, ever paid to Chickamauga Bark 
was with a gay party of picnicers in the summer of 
1891. My especial escort on that occasion was a 
young man whose father wore the blue. It was a 
beautiful midsummer day and the place was looking 
its best. At noon, we sat under some trees on the 
crest of Snodgrass Hill and ate our lunch with much 
relish. The son of the Yankee polished a chicken 
