Afoot and Afield: Atlanta. MARCUS WOOLF
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2. N34º 50.089' W85º 28.865'
3. N34º 50.018' W85º 29.021'
4. N34º 50.135' W85º 28.899'
5. N34º 50.633' W85º 28.746'
6. N34º 51.207' W85º 28.767'
7. N34º 51.305' W85º 28.872'
8. N34º 51.592' W85º 29.068'
9 Chickamauga Battlefield Memorial Trail
Distance 8.5 miles, loop
Hiking Time 4 hours
Difficulty Easy
Elevation +/– 70'
Trail Use Horseback riding and good for kids
Best Times Spring, fall, and winter
Agency National Park Service, Chickamauga Battlefield
Recommended Maps Chickamauga Battlefield Trail Guide and Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park (both available in the visitor center)
HIGHLIGHTS In the 5,200-acre Chickamauga Battlefield, trails pass though forests and fields that resemble their condition during the 1863 Civil War battle, allowing you to imagine the scene that unfolded here. The paths are mostly flat, making it easy to comfortably explore the park with children, and the woods are packed with many memorials and interpretive signs that offer incredible detail—even the specific hours that certain troops occupied spots of land. A unique aspect of the battle is that it claimed the lives of an unusual number of high-ranking officers. The hike detailed below is the Memorial Trail, designed for Boy Scouts, which visits the places where eight brigade commanders fell during battle. Though this hike is 8.5 miles, you can cut it short at several points and walk on roads back to the visitor center.
DIRECTIONS From Atlanta, take I-75 north to Exit 350. Travel west on Battlefield Parkway/GA 2 to Fort Oglethorpe. Turn left at the intersection of Battlefield Parkway and Lafayette Road. Travel 1 mile on Lafayette Road to the park entrance and visitor center, which is on the right. The memorial trail begins at the edge of the lower parking area.
FACILITIES/TRAILHEAD Restrooms and a gift shop are available at the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center, which is open daily (except Christmas Day) from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
At the east side of the visitor center’s lower parking area, take the path that runs between two trees (Waypoint 1). Just before the wood footbridge, turn left onto the Red Trail and walk beneath the Lafayette Road overpass. Skirt the left side of the field, and look to your left. This dense forest choked with trees and underbrush resembles what the soldiers had to wade through during the battle. At 0.2 mile, the trail leaves the field and enters the forest.
Walk past a line of stone Georgia Regiment markers and turn left on the Red Trail. As you turn, ahead on the left is a monument that looks like a stack of cannonballs; it marks the place where Col. Peyton Colquitt was mortally wounded while commanding the 46th Georgia Infantry Regiment. He was the brother of Alfred Holt Colquitt, who was governor of Georgia from 1876 to 1882.
Continue on the Red Trail east and look left for the cannonball monument for Brig. Gen. Benjamin Helm, Abraham Lincoln’s brother-in-law. Helm was a native of Kentucky, which was neutral in the war, and Lincoln offered Helm a position in the Union army. However, Helm turned it down and chose instead to create the 1st Kentucky Cavalry for the Confederates.
At 1.5 miles, turn right onto the Green Trail and follow the grassy path until it exits the forest at Winfrey Field. Cannons and hay bales sit in this vast, green opening, which reflects what many have in mind when they imagine a battlefield. Turn right (southwest) and walk along the edge of the field to the monument for Union Col. Philemon Baldwin, a brigade commander for the 6th Indiana. He died on this spot at 7 p.m. on September 19, 1863. From here, walk south to Brotherton Road.
Helm monument
At 2 miles, turn right onto Brotherton Road and walk down this tranquil lane to Alexander Road. Turn left (southeast) onto Alexander Road and continue to a spot where cannons sit on each side of the road (Waypoint 2). Turn right and go into the forest to take the Green Trail. At a clearing in tall pines sits the monument for Confederate Brig. Gen. Preston Smith, who died the same hour as Baldwin. Also, note the striking metal mural on the side of the monument for the Pennsylvania 77th Regiment. One of the more interesting aspects of the battlefield is the great number of elaborate and detailed memorials. Facing Preston’s monument, turn right (west) and take the Green Trail, and at 2.5 miles cross Brotherton Road.
Enter the Yellow Trail and go north on a wide, grassy path for a good stretch, passing the monument for Brig. Gen. James Deshler, who fell at noon on September 20, 1863. Two years earlier, Deshler had been shot in both thighs during the battle of Allegheny Mountain in West Virginia, but he recovered. It took an artillery shell to kill him at Chickamauga, and he was hit while inspecting his brigade before an attack.
From Deshler’s monument, continue north, cross Battle Line Road and look northwest for the cannonball monument resting at the near edge of Kelly Field (Waypoint 3). Here, Union Col. Edward A. King, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Union’s 4th Division, was wounded, and he died two days later. From King’s monument, go back to Battle Line Road, turn right (south), and enter the White Trail. You will reach a four-way trail junction, and go straight to take the Blue Trail.
At 5 miles, turn right onto Viniard Road, traveling northwest, and cross LaFayette Road. Some of the fiercest fighting took place in this area on September 19—Union Col. John T. Wilder said that men “fell in heaps.” From here, turn right and walk north on Lafayette Road. Immediately to the left downhill is the monument for Union Col. Hans C. Heg, who was born in Norway and immigrated to America with his family in 1840. He died here after he was shot in the abdomen (Waypoint 4). From Heg’s monument, walk back toward the road and turn left onto the Yellow Trail.
At 5.5 miles turn left at a T intersection onto the Red Trail and take this across Glenn-Kelly Road. You will pass the monument for Union Brig. Gen. William H. Lytle, a lawyer and poet who died while leading an attack on horseback. Ahead you’ll walk between two large fields and pass the monument marking the headquarters for Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans, leader of the Union army of the Cumberland (Waypoint 5). Cross Dyer Road, ascend the low hill, and at 6.9 miles you’ll reach a four-way intersection. Turn right onto a dirt road and go northeast.
At 7.5 miles, turn left onto a gravel road and go northwest. Look left for an open field and cabin, which housed the Snodgrass family who lived on this land during the war. From here you’ll take an easy walk along small roads heading back to the visitor center.
At 7.9 miles, turn left onto an old paved road and go north. At 8.3 miles, turn right and go northeast. Cross the field to the cannons marking Slocum’s Louisiana Battery. From the cannons, turn left and return to the visitor center.
WAYPOINTS
1. N34º 56.361' W85º 15.599'
2. N34º 55.318' W85º 14.763'
3. N34º 55.654' W85º 15.445'
4. N34º 54.231' W85º 15.731'
5. N34º 54.952' W85º 16.313'
10 Chickamauga Battlefield Hunt Cemetery Loop
Distance 2.7 miles, loop
Hiking Time 1 hour
Difficulty Easy
Elevation +/–260'
Trail