Chattanooga National Cemetery
Chattanooga

Chattanooga National Cemetery
1200 Bailey Avenue, Chattanooga

Directions: From Point Park to Chattanooga National Cemetery. Drive south on East Brow Road to the stop sign. Turn left and proceed down the mountain. Bear to the right past Ruby Falls and continue to the stop sign at Cummings Highway. Turn right onto Cummings Highway. Continue on Cummings Highway - now Broad Street. Travel 2.6 miles and turn right onto Main Street. Continue on Main Street to the intersection with Holtzclaw Ave. Turn left. Entrance is off Holtzclaw.

In late 1863, Gen. George H. Thomas established this cemetery of approximately 75 acres, shaped in the design of the Federal army shield. In 1867, the site was officially designated as a national cemetery. Three years later, more than 12,800 soldiers - a third of who were unknown--had been interred; a large contingent of United States Colored Troops (USCT) veterans were buried in their own separate section. The dead not only came from the battles of Chattanooga but included soldiers buried earlier in Athens and Charleston, Tennessee, as well as northern Georgia and Alabama.

The cemetery has three significant monuments. The U.S. 4th Army Corps erected a memorial obelisk to its dead in 1868. Two years later, the federal government erected the impressive classical entrance gate to the cemetery (not presently used). In 1891, the State of Ohio dedicated the Andrews’ Raiders Monument, to honor soldiers who, in April 1862, slipped into north Georgia, stole ìThe Generalî railroad engine, and attempted to wreck Confederate railroad lines and bridges in north Georgia. The mission failed; the Confederate army executed eight of the raiders, including its civilian leader James Andrews. Twenty of the raiders eventually received Congressional Medals of Honor. The memorial has a granite base topped by a metal sculpture of ìThe General;î around the base in a semi-circle are the graves of the eight raiders executed in 1862.