Three bronze plaques and a piece of a cannon have been stolen from the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park’s Sherman Reservation on Missionary Ridge, causing over $18,000 in damages.
Walking up North Crest Road to the reservation, James Ogden, park historian, pointed out drag marks where the thieves had pulled the tablets down the hill.
Two men were caught on camera driving a Ford pickup truck up to the gate that closed the road and then leaving with a full bed, as caught on residential security cameras in the area, said Justin Young, a law enforcement ranger at the park. The two men in the truck, who appeared to be in their mid-20s, are suspected of the theft, which happened around noon Sunday.
“They’re taking the bronze tablets because bronze is, depending upon the exact makeup, it’s 90% copper,” Ogden said. “And the copper scrap market is really high, has been now for 15, 20 years.”
Plaques stolen from Sherman Reservation on Missionary Ridge
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Ogden also discovered a cannon that was missing a cascabel, a knob on the back end of cannon barrels.
“Just because it hasn’t begun to oxidize, you know, this is very fresh also,” Ogden said, referencing the sawed off part. “Don’t breathe hard, but there’s a little bit of the bronze files right there. It’s very recent, because rain would have washed that off.”
The sawed-off cascabel was bronze and about the size of a large man’s fist. There is no evidence the part was taken by the same men suspected of stealing the plaques, but given the rain Friday and Saturday, Ogden suspected the part was stolen between Saturday and Tuesday, when he discovered it.
The stolen plaques were memorials to the 53rd, 57th and 70th Ohio infantry regiments, Union forces that were on Missionary Ridge when Union Gen. William T. Sherman attacked Confederate defenses at Tunnel Hill during the Civil War, according to the National Parks Service website.
This is not the first time bronze plaques have been stolen from the park, Ogden said. In 1995, many of the plaques were removed from their stone mounts to be sold as copper scrap.
The three plaques stolen Sunday were also stolen in 1995. Ogden said the plaques were put in place around the turn of the 20th century.
“About 1900 to 1995, they stood up here largely unmolested,” Ogden said. “Then in 1995, a number of them were stolen, and then it took many years to get them recast.”
After the 1995 incident, the park took care to reinforce the bolting system that anchored the plaques to the stone mounts, adding stainless steel collars that covered the stone and tamper resistant bolts.
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While out searching to make sure only three plaques were stolen, Ogden discovered what he thought might be dried blood caked on one of the mounts where a plaque had been removed. He phoned Young, and as Ogden escorted a Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter and photographer out of the park, Young approached with a kit to test the substance.
Young said park law enforcement has a possible identity for one of the suspects.
Ogden said the $18,000 figure is the cost for the park to replace the stolen plaques. He said the resale value for the copper contained in the plaques could be very different.
Contact Kailee Shores at kshores@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.