Chattanooga Tennessee

When I think of Chattanooga, I can’t get that 1941 song by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon out of my head – Pardon me boys, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo? So, we couldn’t help but pay a visit to Track 29, but I didn’t get a shine.

Luckily, the former Chattanooga train terminal was saved from demolition in the 1970’s, and is now operated as a hotel. The terminal building itself contains the lobby, restaurant, bar and gift shop. A fun twist is that in addition to the wings built with hotel rooms, dozens of historic passenger cars have been remodeled to be individual hotel rooms, complete with room service. It seems like it would be a fun experience.

While most of the actual rails have been removed and replaced with beautiful gardens and fountains, they have retained enough of the steel to display an impressive number of vintage train engines and cars. We had a blast just walking through and feeling like we were actually in a train station during the heyday of passenger rail travel. For me, I was again seeing off Grandma La in the St. Paul Depot as she headed for California.

We discovered a little known gem in the northeast corner of Alabama, Russell Cave National Monument. Established May 11, 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, Russell Cave is the longest mapped cave in Alabama. But its importance is the treasure trove of artifacts from human occupation it contains. With an active source of fresh water, the cave opening provided shelter, warmth, water, ample food both plant and game, as well as defendable protection. The visitor center has on display some of the artifacts excavated over the years, including the Russell Cave arrowhead only found here. Scientists, though carbon dating, have determined that the earliest occupation of the cave was over 10,000 years ago!

The ranger at Russell Cave National Monument was outstanding. Since we were the only folk there, he gave us a personal tour, giving us the narrative of the importance of the site, being the oldest human remains in the eastern US. He asked us if we had been to the Civil War battlefields, and we said we were heading there tomorrow. James let us know that his wife, Hope, ran the front desk at the Chickamauga Battlefield, and I asked him if it were OK if I played a little prank. I said that if he would not mention it to Hope, I would show up there tomorrow and when I went to the desk, I would shout “Hope, is that you!” Well, it worked perfectly. I fessed up after saying things like “It’s been so long.” and “How is James doing – that is your husband’s name, James, right?” I am sure that James got a good dose of warm tongue and cold shoulder for dinner that evening!

The two destinations on our list were the sites of what arguably were the decisive battles during the Civil War. Situated directly on the Tennessee River and being the rail hub leading into the heartland of the South, Chattanooga was the obvious next move for Grant’s Union forces in their mission to choke off the supply lines into the Confederacy.

We visited the Chickamauga Battlefield, pulled our bikes off the Saturn, and proceeded to explore. September 19-20, 1863, again saw the fiercest fighting of the war. While General Braxton Bragg and the Confederate forces had a slight advantage, 65,000 men compared to the 60,000 lead by Major General William Rosecrans, that advantage would not ultimately result in the South being victorious.

Total casualties on the Chickamauga Battlefield were nearly 35,000, nearly 4,000 of those died on the field. Historians overwhelmingly identify this as perhaps the turning point In the war, with the slow slide of the Confederate forces clearly set in motion.

While the Union forces held the city of Chattanooga, the Confederates still held the high ground across the Tennessee River from the city, known as Lookout Mountain. Today, Lookout Mountain has perhaps the most expensive real estate in Eastern Tennessee, with expansive views of both the city and the country around it for hundreds of miles.

But on November 24, 1863 it was the site of a heated battle. Major General Joseph Hooker led the Union forces of about 10,000 men against the 9,000 some odd Confederate men occupying the mountain. While the battle was hard fought and it would seem that the Rebels had the high ground which should have been an advantage, the battle was decisive. Union casualties were less than 500 – Confederate casualties were nearly 1,300 with another 1,100 being captured.

You can see 4 states from the top of Lookout Mountain – Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. Our views were spectacular, especially from the balcony of Cravens House. Robert Cravens, an iron master, built this home on Lookout Mountain 1856. During the battle for Lookout Mountain, Robert Cravens house was being used as the headquarters for Major General Carter L. Stevenson and his Confederate forces. During the siege, Union forces stormed Cravens house, occupying it, and actually standing on the balcony where we were standing today.

Of course, you can’t have any popular destination like this without creating some tourist traps. Rock City is a 700 acre theme park on the South bluffs overlooking Chattanooga. Missionaries Daniel S. Butrick and William Chamberlain in August of 1863 described a “citadel of rocks” atop the mountain. Both Union and Confederate forces had their pictures taken on these rocks, giving rise to the term soldier/tourist. The other tourist trap is Ruby Falls. While we didn’t actually pay the fee to visit either of these sites, we did tour the visitor centers.

Before we left Chattanooga, we had to pay our respects. The slogan of “Nooga Strong” is emblazoned everywhere we go. First we stopped at the strip mall location where the armed forces recruiting office was that Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire and shot out all the windows. The make shift memorial that has developed at the sight is anything but that – it is well organized, poignant, and about the size of a couple of football fields. The local Chattanooga folk are clearly disturbed by the incident, and grateful for those that serve for their freedom.

We then drove the 7 some odd miles to the Naval Reserve Station that Abdulazeez sped to after shooting up the windows at the recruiting office. There he opened fire immediately killing 4 marines and wounding one Naval sailor who later died from his wounds. After these killings, he reentered the building where he fired upon responding police officers, and was fatally shot by them. The memorial at the Naval Reserve Center was not as massive as the one at the recruiting office, but that was more about logistics and available space than it was about the significance of the site. The memorial here was just as riveting.

We departed Chattanooga in a very somber mood.
 

Talk to you soon!