The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-11-28
WHERE HEROES FELL.
THE BLOODY AND TERRIBLE BATTLE
.... OF CHICkAMAUGA.
Report OF the Commission which Located
the Positions where South iCarolinians
Fought and Died--InterestinS to Veterans
--Recomm and atiOns.

the Positions where South tOaf"i"iie
Fought and Died--InterestinS to Veterans
ACCOMMODATIONS.
COLUMBIA, S. c., Nov. A.-The re-
port to the Legislature of the commits,
sion appointed by Governor Tillman to
visit the BATTLEFIELD of G. Chickamauga and
tc locate the position of the South Car
DINA troops in that bloody and re-
markable struggle is deeply interest
ing document.
The report is evidently written by
General Farley. After describing the
trip made by the commission to the
battlefield in May last, the reports
says: :.
Communications we would beg leave tc
express our surprise and qualification
on seeing the magnitude and grandeur
of the work which the government
has undertaken, and is pushing towards
completion under the general direction
. of the members of the National Com
mission. The park will comprise some
ten square miles, which has been ac,
quired by the national government
and besides the surrounding country,
including Missionary Ridge and Look,
out Mountain Overlooking the city OF
Chattanooga and surroundings), all
unite to make one of the grandest
scenes and panoramas, full of historic
points and interest, to be found in all
America. It is, covered with battle
fields and old earthworks, besides the
unmarked graves of our Southern sol,
diers, and the beautiful National Gene
terry near by.Alreaday the government
has built and is steadily extending
magnificent public highways, COM
mepcing at Chattanooga and running
to Ross Gap, and also extending
along the crest of Missionary Ridge,
which furnishes one of the finest drives
of some twenty:miles tobe found in the
world, overlooking as it does, all of
the beautiful and historic country
which surrounds it This road is ex-
tended right on through the battlefield
of Chickamauga, and will be made,
with its branches, to reach and trav-
erse every point of interest on the field.
It is the purpose of the government
not only to make a graf National
Park, but to make the field of battle a
great study or "object lesson" for the
historian and student of the future,
besides commemorating the courage,
heroism and patriotism our people in
one of the deadliest and most hotly
. contested fields ever fought and lost or
won, as the tables of mortality will
show.
Some monuments have already been
raised to some of the Northern troops,
and Ohio and other States are making
preparations for erecting monuments
of a most costly and remarkable des-
cription. Doubtless the whole field
viii be eventually covered by monu-
ments of this character Ohio has ap-
propriated ninety-five thousand $685.
0OO) dollars for monuments and five
thousand ($5, ,000) dollars for expenses
of her commission. Designs have been
selected for her fifty-six monuments
and location for fifty-three tablets to
mark the position of her troops.
Under the authority given by Con-
gress, the National Commission is
preparing and erecting tablets for
army headquarters and of corps, divi-
sions andbrigades on both sides. These
tablets will set forth the composition
and commanders of each of these orga-
nizations, the brigade tablets carrying
these designations as far as the COM
mapders of regiments and batteries.
The part taken by each organization
throughout the battle will be econcisely
set forth on these tablets.
The National Commission will per-
manently mark and keep record
through its engineers of locations
agreed upon with State Commissioners
until such time as the States make ap-
preparations for the erection of monu
ments to their (our) regiments and bat
teries, and in some instances where the
large organizations can erect their
(our) monuments. The sites designs
and inscriptions for all monuments
must, under the law, receive the ap-
proval of the Secretary of War before
they can be erected.
Under recent authority from Con-
gress the material for foundations for
State monuments, with the exception
of cement, will be furnished from the
park, where it abounds, without ex-
pense to the States.
We are highly gratifed to see the
eight cannon ball monuments erected
by the national government to mark
the spot where the Brigadiers -four on
each side) had fallen on the battlefield,
and to note the spirit of encourage
ment and fairness evinced by the Ma
tional Commission.
The battlefield of Chickamauga was
found much as we left it some thirty
years ago, and we are glad to say we
found no difficulty in locating accurate
ly the positions occupied and held by
Kershaw's Brigade, Manigult's Brig
ade and Culpepper's Battery, and also
the course taken by the Twenty-fourth
Regiment (Gist's Brigade), but We
would recommend that some steps be
taken to more accurately locate this
Regiment, which was separated from
AL other South Carolina commands,
and evidently was in the hottest
part Of the fight, and bore an impor-
tant part in the contest around
Kelly's Field on the right. We were
able TO locate and mark important
points which various commands
reached in their repeated and desper-
ate charges on various points on
Snodgrass Range, where the battle
raged most fercely, and to mark the
place where Col. E. Bland and Major
J. s Hard and Capt. J. E. Rearden,
of the Seventh Regiment, and Lieu