Chickamauga and Chattanooga

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park commemorates the Union and Confederate armies which converged on Chattanooga, TN, in the fall of 1863, in a battle for control of the strategic city known as the "Gateway to the Deep South". The Confederates were victorious at nearby Chickamauga in September, but renewed fighting in Chattanooga that November provided Union troops with a victory and control of the city. After the fighting, a Confederate soldier ominously wrote, "This . . . is the death-knell of the Confederacy." Indeed, Chattanooga proved to be a turning point in the Civil War, as it opened up the Deep South to Union invasion and helped pave the way for Lincoln's eventual victory.