In the 1860s, the Civil War brought destruction to the Chattanooga-area landscape. But today, the war and the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park that memorializes it bring the region about $50 million a year.
"People coming to Chattanooga and North Georgia to look for their Civil War-heritage experience spend $50 million a year here by eating in restaurants, staying in motels and shopping," said Kay Parish, executive director of the Friends of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
A million people come here every year looking for Civil War history, she said. "So Civil War history -- and history in general -- is something that it would behoove us to highlight and focus on."
As the 150th anniversary of the Civil War approaches, state and local officials are working to fill the niche.
Earlier this year, a new Tennessee Civil War Trails program got a jump-start in Chattanooga with the installation of a dozen interpretive signs for driving tours.
"These 12 were important stories that had a watershed moment of the campaign or a human-interest story," said. Dr. Daryl Black, director of the Chattanooga History Center, who with military park ranger and historian Jim Ogden chose the sites to mark.
The whole community and state was a battlefield, according to Ms. Parish and state officials. More than 1,462 Civil War battles were fought in Tennessee, and at least one was fought in each of the Volunteer State's 95 counties, according to the Tennessee Tourism Commission website highlighting Civil War travel.
Civil War travel interest isn't just focused in the Chattanooga area, according to state officials.
Susan Whitaker, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, said eventually there will be more than 1,000 new "trailblazer" markers in five states. Each will designate previously unmarked sites of major Civil War campaigns.
Bob Doak, president and CEO of the Chattanooga Convention & Visitors Bureau, praised the new Chattanooga markers and said local officials hope to add more as dollars become available.
"This is going to give our visitors and our locals just one more thing to do in Chattanooga," he said.
Lookout Mountain Battlefield
Point Park was built in 1905 to commemorate the Battle Above the Clouds on Nov. 24, 1863, though most of the fighting took place on the mountainside, not in the park.
Gen. Carter Stevenson, commander of the three Rebel brigades that defended the area, had positioned cannons atop Lookout Mountain to aid in it's defense. Once the cannons became ineffective, they were withdrawn. At the end of that day, Stevenson was encamped in the area of the park surrounded on three sides by a force 10 times larger than his. Upon orders from Gen. Braxton Bragg, Commander of the Army of Tennessee, to "fall back fighting," Stevenson withdrew his men to Chickamauga Creek and Missionary Ridge.
Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker took the mountain with 629 causalities and only 81 deaths.
Today, the 3,000-acre Lookout Mountain Battlefield, another unit of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, contains the Point Park visitors center, which displays James Walker's 13- by 30-foot painting "Battle of Lookout Mountain." The park also has trails, historical markers and monuments, including the New York Peace Memorial which depicts a Union and a Confederate soldier shaking hands. The Ochs Museum, another feature of the park, offers Civil War memorabilia from the surrounding area.
Chickamauga Battlefield
The bloodiest two-day battle of the Civil War was fought at Chickamauga on Sept. 19-20, 1863.
More than 120,000 men fought there, and 35,000 were killed, wounded or missing in what became the last major Confederate victory of the war. The Confederates lost about 18,000 soldiers; the Union lost about 16,000.
Georgia historians have said the Battle of Chicka-mauga, more than any other in the Civil War, was a soldiers' battle. It was a strategic nightmare for generals on both sides who fought in adverse conditions, but it was a tactical nightmare for the men who had little to eat and even less to drink.
The violence of the struggle scarred the earth for more than 20 years.
Today, the peaceful, 5,500-acre Chickamauga Battlefield -- part of the nation's first and largest military park -- contains thousands of monuments, historical tablets, wayside exhibits and trails. It also offers a 7-mile auto tour, visitor center, bookstore and the Claud E. and Zenada O. Fuller Collection of American Military Shoulder Arms.
The park also commemorates the Battle of Chattanooga, fought Nov. 23-25, 1863, which shifted control of Chattanooga to the Union.
Tunnel Hill
Built between 1848 and 1850, the 1,477-foot tunnel through Chetoogeta Mountain in North Georgia was part of the first railroad across the Appalachian Mountains. It opened trade between the eastern coast region and the upper Midwest. With its operation, Atlanta became a major hub and chief supply route during the Civil War.
On Sept. 11, 1863, just days before the Battle of Chickamauga, the first skirmish in Tunnel Hill took place. After the fight of Chickamauga, many sick and wounded were brought to Tunnel Hill, including Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood. While there, his leg was amputated and buried in the woods nearby.
Later in November, Confederate troops at Tunnel Hill would stifle Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's effort to rout them. Ironically, that stalemate prompted Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to position soldiers at the base of Missionary Ridge to take pressure off Sherman's forces. Not only did the Missionary Ridge Union line take the pressure off, the soldiers climbed the ridge and took it.
The tunnel faced possible destruction from 70 years of neglect until, in 1992, steps were taken to preserve it. After a lengthy period of restoration and rehabilitation, the tunnel was opened to the public in 2000, just in time for its 150th anniversary.
Bragg Reservation
The Bragg Reservation on Missionary Ridge, a unit of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, is where the Rebel Army of Tennessee commander Gen. Bragg had his headquarters during the siege of Chattanooga from October to November, 1863.
After the Battle of Chickamauga in September, the defeated Union Army retreated to Chattanooga, and the victorious Confederate Army besieged it there daily by occupying high ground west, south and east of the city, practically cutting off Union supplies.
By late November, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had a plan. Gen. Hooker's troops would threaten the Confederates left on Lookout Mountain and the Confederate center along Missionary Ridge, while Sherman was to break the Confederates on Tunnel Hill. But Sherman's Nov. 25 attacks were unsuccessful: The terrain around Tunnel Hill was difficult, and Confederate defense was skillful.
To ease pressure on Sherman, Grant ordered Union soldiers to take a line of Confederate rifle pits at the base of Missionary Ridge. Confusion about their orders and the seeming impossibility of remaining at the base of the ridge under Confederate fire led George H. Thomas' troops to continue their charge. To the surprise of many, they took the ridge.
In all, 56,000 Federals engaged 46,000 Confederates on Missionary Ridge. Casualties were 5,824 Union men to 6,667 Confederates.
Gen. Bragg was relieved of his command, and Sherman's Atlanta campaign began the following spring.