My first trip to an ACW battlefield was all I hoped it would be. If I could've changed anything, it would've been the amount of time there was to spend in the Park.
We got there about noon, and drove around the road marked "Tour" for about 25mins, to kind of Recon the Park, then went to the Visitors Center.
The Visitors Center is at the north end of the Park located in the old McDonald Field. We wanted to get some info and get ourselves oriented to the Battlefield. The Park Rangers there were very friendly and helpful. One thing I asked about was the wooded areas. Were they in the same places they were during the battle? They said some of the areas near Reed's Bridge and Alexander's Bridge weren't as wooded during that time. We didn't care about that because we knew from our initial drive, the roads to both bridges were closed anyway. Another question we had was, were the wooded areas as dense then, as they are today? They said no, because during the time of the battle, all of the farmers in the area kept their crops fenced in to keep the cattle out, so the cattle kept the wooded areas from becomming overgrown, and dense with foliage. It wasn't like the Wilderness Battlefield, in that respect.
I must make a few disclaimers;
I'm a novice photographer who was using a Kodak P.O.S., and very little idea of what I was doing and more or less just winging it. So in one pic, you'll see the driver's side mirror as I took a few pic's from the car.
The weather that day was mostly overcast, with occasional drizzle. Hence the pic's from the car.
We didn't have a lot of time to spend in the Park. So the pic's I took basicly focused on the main points of the Second Day of the battle. A lot of the monuments marking locations of the First day of battle were in the woods. They were accessible by foot-paths, and because of the density of the woods, you really couldn't see from one monument to the next. And there just wasn't enough time to check each momument to say who stood where, like I wanted to.
The first thing I said to my cousin was, it would take us a week to really check out this Battlefield, and do the photo narration I wanted to do.
I haven't developed <strong>Phantom Captain's </strong>battlefield photo abilities yet!
But we headed out like a couple of kids who had been turned loose in a toy store anyway!
I have to say at this point, that if it weren't for the Chickamauga Map/OOB's/and Custom Senarios in the CMP3 Pack, I would've known very little about this battle. While I don't have regiments/brigades/ or divisions from this battle memorized like some of the other OOB's, I still knew where I was at, and that the Battlefield Park was easy to navigate, due to playing on the CMP map. Very similar!
Lafayette rd. runs north-south and pretty much down the center of the Park.
<strong>To keep this from being one long post, it'll be posted on two or three threads.</strong>
<strong>Note: all captions of a given pic, will be at the top of the pic.</strong>
To start, a couple of pic's of the various guns at the visitors center.
A 12lb. Napolian
A 3" Ordinance Gun
A 12lb. James (note the rifling)
A 10lb. Parrot
That's me leaning on a 12lb Napolian. Now I'm only 5'5" tall, so the gun may appear larger than it actually is.
These pic's are from the Kelly House, and Kelly field, which are on the east side of Lafayette rd, and west of a road that runs parralell to Lafayette rd, the Park has that road marked as Battleline rd. Battleline road runs south, then gradually west, across Lafayette rd, then for a short distance, west of Lafayette rd. At which point it's marked as Poe rd, until it merges into Lafayette rd again.
Looking east from Lafayette rd, the Kelly House
From the Kelly House looking north
Looking west, back towards Lafayette rd.
Looking north from the King Monument, then the next two pic's, are looking west, back to the Kelly House
These pic's are from Poe rd. and Poe Cabin site. The Poe Cabin isn't there, but where it stood is marked.
The battleline in the Poe rd area, faces east, in a concave shape. The pic's will be from north to south.
Looking south, where the concave of the line begins.
Looking north, from the previous pic.
Looking east, in the direction of the Confederate attack.
Looking north, from the south end of the concave. All Georgia regimental monuments, are of this triangle shape.
You could spot them from a great distance.
This spot is also at the south end of the concave, but east of Poe rd. (sorry about the side mirror!)
The Georgia State Monument. It's located at the south-east end of the Poe area, where the woods end and the field begins.
A few more, from the south end of the Poe area.
That's the end of Part 1
Part 2 should finish it, and will cover Brotherton Cabin, Dyer Field, and Snodgrass House.
And a lot more pic's, so stay tuned!