Gilbert on Chickamauga Battlefield: Military and Strategic Uses After the Civil War

Chickamauga Battlefield: Military and Strategic Uses After the Civil War

Although many seem to associate Chickamauga only with the Civil War, it's importance and geographical position made it a key player in many other military type engagements. 

Thanks to its strategic location at the connection of several rail lines, the battlefield at Chickamauga remained an important location for the U.S. army for more than decades. In 1898, as the  conflict between Spain and the United States intensified, the ground were used as a training site for soldiers, with more than 60,000 men passing through the site, which was temporarily renamed “Camp George H. Thomas.” A summer heat wave combined with quickly assembled facilities might have prepared the men for combat on the dry, desert, terrain in Mexico and Texas. But it resulted in unhealthy conditions in the camp, and when a deadly typhoid epidemic suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It  killed approximately 400 men—more than the total combat deaths the United States would suffer in the following Spanish-American War. 

Many would argue the typhoid to be a tragedy or a strange coincidence. But one must really take a step back, and think about the possibility that the supernatural may be involved. Perhaps the dead souls that haunt the hallowed ground were upset about being disturbed from their rest. Or maybe they were just simply trying to worn those young men who were about to set out and fight the Spanish,  to return home to their loved ones, and not buy in to a used war like they had been in. 

Author: Adam Gilbert, March 3, 2015

Further Reading:
Bradley S. Keefer, Conflicting Memories on the River of Death: The Chickamauga Battlefield and the Spanish-American War, 1863-1933,  Kent State University, 2013

Steven, E. Woodworth, Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns. Bison Books, 1999