Military Usage of the Park

In 1890, Congress created Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park "for the purpose of preserving and suitably marking for historical and professional military study the fields of some of the most remarkable maneuvers and most brilliant fighting in the war of the rebellion." Just a few years later, in 1896, Congress passed additional legislation authorizing the War Department to utilize the battlefield as a training location for active military maneuvers.

Between 1896 and 1945, thousands of American soldiers trained on Chickamauga Battlefield. Many of the young men and women who served our nation overseas in the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II, spent time at Chickamauga.