Chattanooga Civil War Sites

Sunday April 12 We drove into Chattanooga to Lookout Mountain. After the Union was routed at Chickamauga, GA they fell back to Chattanooga and the Rebels set up shop on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge in an effort to starve out the Union troops there. After several skirmishes, the Union assaulted Lookout Mountain in what became known as the "Battle Above the Clouds" and drove the Rebs off the hill. They assaulted the mountain under cover of fog and then used ladders and ropes to make to climb up the steepest part of the mountain.

Library of Congress

Then they turned to Missionary Ridge and drove them Secessionist back into Georgia.
Years later, members of both Armies came together to remember their time at the various battlefields around Chattanooga. They built Point Park (completed in 1905) in honor of the sacrifices that they made during the fight between the North and the South.

 There were many monuments in the area to commemorate the many units that fought in the conflict. On Lookout Mountain there were many other places associated with the battle. Some of them accessible to me and some were not requiring a good deal of hiking. There is also Rock City, Ruby Falls and a tram way to the bottom of the mountain. We by passed these because once again they were not accessible, they were crowded and they were expensive. We did go into the Battles for Chattanooga Museum. They had a large topographical map with miniature troops and they narrated the Battles showing troop movements with small lights, the North in Blue and the South in Red. When they clashed, little white lights twinkled and flashed indicating gun fire. It was quite informative and well done.
From Lookout Mountain, we drove into Georgia to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Battlefield Park. The grounds of the Chickamauga fight were well preserved and they had a nice visitors center.

 They had an impressive display of firearms. The earliest was 1855 and the latest was a Winchester pump shotgun from 1918.

 Then we drove back to Cleveland and went to Shane's Rib Shack and met my cousin, Sara Graver there. She is attending Lee University in Cleveland and majoring in communications. It was a good visit and good food then we went back to the camper.

Monday April 13 we didn't do much of anything. Becky's uncle Sam was off work and we hung out at the house for the day. Becky and Suzie went off to the Morris Vineyard and then to the Ocoee (O-coy) Vineyard. We had a cookout with brats, chicken and burgers for dinner. Their daughter Marissa and son Josh along with his wife Amber showed up for late dinner. We watched Swamp People on History Channel. Choot 'em!

Tracks for the day

A selection of the wines. We stopped at the Mountain View Winery on the way to Cleveland.

To Cleveland! Tennessee people

Not much to tell you here. We made tracks on the freeway because I missed a turn in town and didn't feel like going back. We ended up in Sam and Susie Morris' driveway for a few days. They are Becky's aunt and uncle.

The Dragon and other curvy roads

When I lived in Maryville, I had a nice little Suzuki GS400 that I tooled around on. This is the one vehicle I have no pictures of. But I have many fond memories of riding the Parkway, the Dragon and many of the other curvy roads in the area. I also did some hiking in the Smokies but looking back on it, it seems like I didn't do enough. Living there, work got in the way and so did life as it always does. So now we're back and I took Becky and Patrick over the Parkway and over Deal's Gap. Driving the Tahoe wasn't like riding the bike and there were bikes and cars out in force on the famous road.   

Deal's Gap, or the Dragon is officially State Route 129. But the Dragon covers eleven miles of 129 and contains 318 curves.

http://minisonthedragon.com/images/drgaon_map.jpg

 

 

 

 

Becky, Iris and I in front of the Dragon at Deal's Gap Resort.

These are all parts, pieces, clothes, helmets of riders and bikes that wrecked on the Dragon.

Overlook on the Foothills Parkway

At a pull off on 129

Don't want to go off here! All of the Dragon is straight up one side and straight down the other.

Pics of Fontana Dam built in 1942 to provide electricity to Alcoa Aluminum plant for the production of aluminum for airplanes. The dam took only three years to build and is part of the TVA system. It is also part of the Appalachian Trail.

 4/10 Friday Becky woke up to the fridge making funny noises and I slept right through while she trouble shot the problem. She counldn't figure out what was wrong and gave up and went to bed. Then the CO2 detector started to beep and she had to figure out how to unhook that. All the windows were open and the propane wasn't on so noone was in danger. In the morning, we discovered that the battery had given up the ghost. 

Patrick and I drove down to Maryville and bought a new battery. I found the site of the old Alcoa Good Times building, its now a Cracker Barrel, and then I drove by my old apartment building. It was still there. 

The new battery fixed the problems with the fridge and we were extremely happy not to have to worry about repairing the fridge. 

I snapped this on the way into the park. The cell phone camera was fuzzy in the rain.

We drove out to a paved path to a waterfall but paved didn't equal accessible and we stopped after .2 of a mile and called it quits. It was very steep and the trail was 1.3 miles long. I wasn't sure if we could have made it back if we had gotten there. We drove back to Cades Cove and went around the eleven mile loop. 

Patrick wanted to take this dam picture of the diverter dam that fed the waterwheel.

Two bear cubs wrestle for us. The cars were stopped and pulled over all along the road to get a glimpse of the bears. This sighting brought the total to five bears for the day.

Mama Bear took a nap

This little set of falls is between Townsend and 441. 

This sign gave us a chuckle in Cades Cove.