Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1895-02-25
MILITARY PARKS.
TIE PEACEFUL FATE OF -FOUR
FAMOUS FIELDS.
The Government Intent on Preserving
the Scenes of Gettysburg, Shiloh,
Antictam, and Chickamauga
and Chattanooga.
MONG the first bills passed by

at Shiloh and another arpropriating
$40, 900 for the dedification, next Sep.
tember, of the park already founded
on the battlefelds of Chickamauga
and Chattanooga, says u Washington
correspondent.
The promptness with which these
measures were acted upon is signifi-
can't. -Four of the most famous fields
of the Civil War are now to be pre-
served for the wonder and study of
future generations, and that, too, with
hearty cooperation and by the mu-
tunl desire of victors and vanquished on
the field. 1t is doubtful whether there
is anything quite like this to be found
in history.
The first field to be set apart was
naturally Gettysburg, the place of the
most tremendous battle ever fought
on this continent, one fraught with
momentous consequences. A state
ment in Secretary Lamont's report of
last year showed that. besides the
large sums expended on the field by
the Memorial Association and other
bodies and by individuals, no less than
SS63, OF. so had up to that time been
contributed by States whose soldiers
took part in the battle. Tracts of
land have been bought, roads laid
out and monuments and tablets erected.
In this present report Mr.. Lamont
says that the movement undertaken
by troops on both sides, as we'll as
the lines which they feld, havo been
in the main accurately established,
and, after final verifcation, tablets
will be placed at points on the flanks
of each regiment in its various posi-
tions, while surplus cannon will IN
like manner identify the positions
held by the batteries. When it is re-
membered that 25G Union regiments,
with sixty-seven batteries and 1S9
Confederate regiments, with seventy
batteries took part at Gettysburg, it
Will be seen how great is the labor in
volved. The suggestion, however, of
fers itself that care should be taken
not to oyerdo the details, and SO con-
fuse by needless minute u study SO
impressive and instructive in its broad
er and more general aspects. 1t can
also be understood from the figures
just given why SO large an expense
has been laid out upon this field, and
why SO many monuments, some of
them costly and beautiful, mark this
wonderful spot.
The Chickamauga and Chattanooga
Park Is to the West what the Gettys-
burg is to the East. Chickamauga
was the bloodiest of the Western
battles, and if Chattanooga is added
it towers up with great strategic i'm
portance. When the bill for estab-
fishing this park was before Congress
the House Military Committee made an
elaborate comparison, based on the
losses of the combatants in Napoleon's
great battles, such as Marengo,
Austerlitz and Waterloo, and again on
the losses at Sadowa in 1866, and at
Gravelotte, Sedan and other battles of
the Franco German war of 1870, so rs
to show the deadliness of the struggle
at Chickamauga. The committee de-
clared that the "average losses on
each side for the troops which fought
through the two days were fully
thirty three per cent, while for many
portions of each line the losses
reached fifty per cent, and for some
even seventy-tive per cent" 1t con.
cluded that such field had can i'm
portance to the Nation as an object
lesson of what is possible in American
fighting"
Mr.. Lamont tells us in his present
report that of the 5521 acres compris-
ing the Chickamauga and Chattanooga
Park, 2lOO have been cleared of under
brush to facilitate the work of the
States locating the positions of their
troops, and 600 remain to be cleared.
So yet possibly the underbrush rather
than the clearing may best represent
the condition of the field in 1868.
Roads aggregating forty-one miles
have been completed. A committee
from the Society of the Army of the
Tennessee and twenty soldiers there,
are expected soon to cooperate with
the Park Commission in establishing
the lines of battle, and Alabama,
Connecticut, Kansas, Maryland and
West Virginia, which also hhd soldiers
there, are expecting soon to cooper
ate. Some of the lands on Missionary
Ridge and Lookout Mountain, desired
for the park, have been held at such
exorbitant prices that the commits.
sion recommends the abandonment of
efforts to purchase them; but the
further purchase of about 1000 acres
at Chickamauga is contemplated. The
monuments of Massachusetts and
Minnesota, and the fifty five of Ohio
have been completed, as have also the
nine monuments to the regulars,
while pyramids of shell mark where
general officers fell. Various tablets
for army headquarters and to mark
corps, division and brigade move
ments are up. and seventy or more
guns will denote the position OF bat
teries by the end of the year. Thus
far the sum Of $651, 710.63 has been
appropriated for this park alone.
Antietam is the third great battle
field preserved by the action of Con-
gress for determining and marking the