The National tribune., 1898-05-12
OUR SpECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
An Interesting Trip Over the eBattlefelds Around
Chattanooga
Chattanooga.
Points the Summit Made
Familiar by Terribe Episodes Changed Now.

its course, to finally end on the top abou
half a mile north of ''Summertown," ane
| the place where the old hospitals were
| located
Two inclines runup the eastern face, one
| END ng at the Point, the other about
half mile south of it. They are run by
combined cable and trolley power, and
dizzy though they seem to the visitor
on his first trip, are said to be perfectly
sale, having a peculiar clutch" brake,
which holds the firmer the greater the
weight put upon it.
| At the head of the track which leads to
! the Point, a building, three stories high,
| hangs like a huge nest of the cliff swallow
| to the side of the precipice. From its
| upper veranda | looked down more than
| 100 feet to the rocks at its base; at my
| left hundreds OF feet lower, the green and
brown Wauhatchie Valley smiled peace
| fully in the Spring sunshine, and huge
buzZard fiOated on lazy wing over the
deserted camp and battle-ground of gen
Grafton ago.
From the vicinity of the Craven House
came the sound of the gTaver'S chiSel on
the granite OF the monument New York is
erecting TO mark the location of her troops
on that glorious day and hard-fought field
and from the woods near by came the
peaceful hnkle of bells of kline, now I'M
disturbed by any invader.
Smoke from hundred cottages or
dreamily on the mild, still air and could
scarcely realize that l was gazing on
scene which had once been that of deadly
strife.
Starting from the Point. dummy en-
CINE and one car, making hourly trips,
convey the Sight-seer along the western
side of the Ridge, the track running
along the face of the cliff like a spiders
web along a wall, at times eating its way
into the rocky faces, then running over
trestle, where the passenger, looking from
the window on one side, fails to see the top
of the precIpice above him; on the other,
looks down into the tops of trees, hundreds
of feet below, the road ending at a point on
the summit near the site of the Old hos
pitfalls.
All through the forest are located pretty
cottages or fine dwellings, and | was in
formed that more than 500 families now
lived on the summit permanently.
Directly in front of Lookout Inn, with its
magnificent frontage of 3S5 feet, from whose
piazza one can look down on town and
valley and across Missionary Ridge down
to the forests of ChickamauCa, Incline
No. l. makes its plunge over the face of
the cliff, on its way TO the valley below.
To look down it's precipitous line gives
one creepy feeling" along the spine,
which is not leSsened as, seated in the car
the floor of which slopes like the roof of a
gothic cottage, he begins the descent
ooMe InOfllHS since ttle power mouse AT
the head of the incline was burned and
the car, leosed from its fastenings, went
pluneing, veritable chariot Of fire, to the
valley below.
AS on the Chickamauga field, iron
tablets mark the locations of troops at
different hours during the battle. and on
the eastern slope and south of the Craven
House | found two, giving the Positions of
the picket-lines, not more than 40 Yards
apart, the night after the battle. and as
read the name of the commander. Gen.
Walthall, and saw how his command had
been huddled placed is scarcely the word
to convey my meaningl among the Jocks
that night, / thought, in contrast, of the
funereal but most impressive scene in the
Senate Chamber at Washington two weeks
ago, when the whole Government-Presi-
dent, Cabinet, Supreme Court, Senate.
House, and foreign representatives-were
gathered to participate in the obSequies of
him who commanded the forces then in re-
bellion against it on this rocky mountain
side.