The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-19
CHICKAMAGUA PARK.
The Annaul Report of the Commits
 sion

Chattanooga, Tenn, Jan. 1S.-The an- nual report of the Chickamauga-Chatt nooga Military Park Commission to the Secretary of War is just made public. The report says in part:
 Ut appears from the report that we have now 71.336 miles of improved roads in the park. There has been expended for road construction and betterments s11. .07757 which includes the laying of nearly four miles of standard paved gut tering, the building of ninety-two head walls with hammered stone coping, the hauling and spreading of 6,0o4 cubic yards of gravel, the construction of forty-two stone cuiverts and the laying CT ltloo square feet of stone pavement.
 The only road construction besides that heretofore ordered and specified above, which the commission is desired with your appreciation to build during the coming year, is the road from Rossville to Netherlands Gap, distance of 2.5 miles, being the road over which the Union army withdrew from the Chicka- mauga field to Rossville at the close of the fighting on the evening of the second day.
 The central driveway of the park which passes through or overlooks six or the seven battlefields embraced In the park project, is by the finishing of the Lafay- cite road extension. now complete. It IS thirty miles long and reachss from Gen eral Sherman's battle field at the north end of Missionary Ridge, along the eight miles of General Braggs line of battle on that ridge, through the centre of the chickamauga field, and the thirteen miles beyond it over the theatre of Gen eral Bragg's movements between his withdrawal from Chattanooga and his subsequent movements previous to the battle of Chickamauga.
 The health of the ten square miles comprising the Chickamauga Park has been excellent. as has that of the adja- cent region for several miles in all direc- tions around the park. There has been no death within its boundaries and only one case of typhoid and two of malarial fever, all in one family and all traced to the pollution of well caused by drain age from barn and house seeping into 1t. These cases were al mile from the park. The water supply in all sections Of the park continues abundant and excellent.
 The attention of the Secretary Is very reluctantly called to the mutilation of the official rosters of this commission in the report of the Indiana Commissioners for the Chickamauga National Military Park. In the published report of that commission there is included what pur- ports to be a transcript of the official roster of the Union and Confederate ar mics as published by the National Com mission. An examination shows various serious changes in the reproduction of this official document, arising in part through omission of certain clauses in the text in part from direct changes. and in part by interpolations. each of these pehpetuating erroneous history and doing 1t under guise of the authority of this commission. This column also con- tains quite d number of erroneous tram scripts of authorized inscriptions on h. diana monuments and markers as they appear on the field. This misuse of of- ficial documents and inscriptions is the more to be regretted since 1t must dis credit volume. which shows much ex. celIent and valuable work.