The Chickamauga Battlefield Park, more commonly known as "the battlefield" to locals, has long been associated with the macabre. The park is one of the oldest and the largest of the battlefield parks and arguably one of the most haunted. This area was known by the Cherokee people as Chickamauga or "river of death" although it was the Civil War for which this area is now most famed.
For soldiers fighting the Civil War in Chickamauga, the dangers were far greater than the bullets, bayonets and cannons of the enemy. The terrain was rough and heavily wooded, the underbrush was thick. Many soldiers would simply vanish because they were separated from their units and got lost in the thick forest. Messages and messengers vanished without a trace, never reaching their intended recipients and keeping the many units disconnected and unable to communicate. The lack of communication caused the fighting to spiral out of control. So much so that most of the fighting was done as hand-to-hand combat. All told, more than 35,000 lives were lost.
Many of these soldiers lay where the fell for two months or more before being buried. The casualties were so great that bodies were buried everywhere throughout the park. Bodies were often interred in mass graves without grave markers or stones. It has been rumored that even still, park maintenance will discover bodies while performing maintenance or renovations in areas where none were thought to be.
A camp was established on the old battlefield to ready troops for the Spanish-American War. Though the camp was in operation only a short time, it reported more deaths than were reported by Americans during all of the fighting in Cuba. At this death camp, men were stricken with deadly diseases and sicknesses of unknown origin. Most died slow, painful deaths.
Still today, Chickamauga is the scene of death; both by murder and by suicide. It can be confirmed that there is at least one death each year to occur in the battlefield. The Chickamauga Battlefield Park is a must visit for any person seeking a good scare. Don’t forget to ask about “Old Green Eyes” and the strange events of Wilder Tower. Be sure to bring an EVP recorder, as many claim to still hear the moans of the dead and dying.
Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:53 pm
