"Wherever there has been great suffering, people are always seeing strange things." - Ed Tinney to the Catoosa County News.
Although, I've never seen "it" personally, I know Snodgrass Hill to be a creepy place. Why just last spring, while traipsing through it with mother and father, I looked down to read a memorial when I saw something and screamed a bloody shrill. I ran off for a few yards, then turned around, there neath the tomb laid the dead snake. Turned out, it wasn't a dead snake after all, just the shedded skin of a big old Timber Rattler. 5" or 6" in diameter and diamonds up and down the thing. I wanted to collect it and take it to the University, but the law forbids removing anything from this hallowed, special place. This place named by the Cherokee Indians is called the River of Death- Chickamauga. It is here the Union Army and Confederacy met one weekend in September resulting in nearly 35,000 casualties. Not all of them able to "Rest in Peace."
The Battle of Chickamauga took place September 19-20, 1863. The two armies had over 124,000 participants in this clash of musketry. It would be the costliest defeat for the Union Army in all of the Civil War, even if the Confederacy fared worse. Death tolls resulted in Union Army: 16,170 and CSA: 18,454. Many died on the spot, but thousands of others gradually perished on the battlefield. From the Echoes of Battle: the Struggle for Chattanooga pg 160:
Cpl. Merrit Simonds of Company K, 42nd Illinois, from Dekalb, Ill. sent this letter home:
Dear Father:
I write to you in different circumstances than ever before, I have been severely wounded in the right leg just above the knee in the fierce battle of Chickamauga, which was fought on the 19th and 20th of last month. I was wounded on Sunday the 20th about noon and remained on the field until the next Saturday night when I was taken off about four miles to a hospital. I suffered considerable for want of care. The rebs helped me some for the first four days, then they let some of our doctors and some of our men come to see us. They dressed our wounds a little, gave us something to eat, etc. Still, we did not get off the field until nearly the end of the seventh day. (snip)
Due to the confusion and retreat of Union forces, many bodies laid at Chickamauga and perished. Cpl. Simonds made it out of Chickamauga and lived for over a month in a hospital in the besieged and starving town of Chattanooga. His last letter home to his father gave his final request to be buried next to his mother back home in Illinois. Cpl. Simonds remains are at Chattanooga National Cemetery. His final request never honored.
Casualty lists filled the front pages of our nation's newspapers. The Union retreated 12 miles north of Chickamauga into Chattanooga. Chattanooga is a city surrounded by mountains to the north, west and east with Missionary Ridge to the south and the Tennessee River between the city and outlying areas. The surrounding areas were controlled by the Confederacy, and the Union had Chattanooga. Everyone expected relief from Sherman and others to come within a matter of days, but instead Chattanooga would be cut off from supplies and would linger for the next two months. People and horses would starve and all the trees were cut down in the beautiful city. President Lincoln replaced General William Rosencranz with General Ulysses S. Grant to be in charge of the Army of the Cumberland. In the next two months, many skirmishes and battles took place:the Battle Above the Clouds (Lookout Mountain), Battle of Orchard Knob, Battle of Wauhatchie, Battle of Missionary Ridge, etc.. today, we call all of this the Battle for Chattanooga. All these battles were victories for the Union and cleared the way for General Tecumseh Sherman to plan and conquer Atlanta on to the sea.
But Chickamauga remains a place unto itself. From Ambrose Bierce to Mark Thrash, all tell about the frightening time at Chickamauga. Mark Thrash was born a slave (December 25, 1820- December 18, 1943) and was sent by his master in Georgia up to Chattanooga to find their sons. The master and his slave both had their eldest sons fighting for the CSA. Of course, the eldest son of Mark Thrash had no say in the matter. Thrash is thought to be the oldest person in our country, he was born when James Monroe was President and died during the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He died just a week shy of his 123rd Birthday. He had married five times (four of his wives preceded him in death) and had 29 children ages ranged from 55 to 93, at the time of his death.
Thrash arrived at Chickamauga, three days after the fierce battle and would live out the remaining 80 years of his life at the park. He would see it become a National Military Park. He would work for the National Park Service until age 101 (1893-1922) and be the oldest person on federal payroll and pension. During his life time, he would go from being a slave to a freeman. He knew and worked for both sides of the Civil War. The jacket he wore in the photo below belonged to a Union General Boynton, who had received it from General U.S. Grant. Gen. Boynton and Mr. Mark Thrash were good friends and worked together in turning the battlefield into the first National Battlefield Park.
From the book
From Seen the Glory: Mark Thrash buried the dead at Chickamauga:
Mark looked upon a scene that he vividly describes for decades thereafter. They were horrified at what they saw.
The bloated bodies of thousands of dead soldiers, horses and cattle were strewn across the battlefield, and the obnoxious stench and odors of the dead hung in the air.
Counting both armies engaged 124,000 men had fought a two day battle, 3500 men lay dead in the fields and woods, 25,000 wounded men were on and about the battle site, and scattered from Chickamauga, La Fayette and Ringold all the way to Chattanooga. There were 6,000 missing most of which were prisoners.
A portion of the Confederate dead had been buried by their fellow soldiers, but not so for the Union dead.
Wild animals, especially wild pigs had already begun to attack the swollen bodies. It seems that few horses and mules were buried throughout the war; and they were not buried at Chickamauga.
When Mark and his twin brother arrived onto the scene, they were immediately put into service of burying the dead. They were still slaves, and this was now Confederate held. Mark told:
"You could walk a mile on dead bodies and never put your foot on the ground."
and
"really I didn't think the breeze would ever clear up so folks could live. We got busy burying the dead and in about 15 days conditions became more bearable."
Such was Chickamauga. A place, long before the Civil War, which had earned the name of "River of Death' by the Cherokees for its contaminated water and source for small pox. Soon after the epic battle, stories began to surface of ghosts. There have been countless stories of hearing horses galloping, voices and gunshots late at night. A recurring one, that seems to stick from the Civil War was of "Old Green Eyes. Legend has it, a tall, over 6' Confederate Soldier had his head blown off by a cannon ball and now drifts around the park looking for his body. People have seen "ole green eyes" in the form of soldier or even a panther with green eyes. Even the skeptic Ed Tinney, historian and chief park ranger from 1969 to 1986 encountered a strange phenomena:
The historian said that one day in 1976, about 4 a.m., he went to check on some battle re-enactors who were camping out in the park. He said that while walking near Glen Kelly Road, he encountered a man over 6 feet tall, wearing a long black duster, with shaggy, stringy, black, waist-length hair, walking toward him. From the man's body language, Tinney feared he was about to be attacked, so he crossed to the other side of the road, he said. When the man became parallel with Tinney he turned and smiled a devilish grin, and his dark eyes glistened. Tinney said he turned to face the man and began to back-pedal, as his companion did as well. At that moment, a car came down a straightaway in the road, and when its headlights hit the apparition it vanished, he said.
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Source Catoosa News
"Wherever there has been great suffering, people are always seeing strange things." - Ed Tinney .
Happy Halloween.