Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1903-12-26
HArrLEFlgLDs ARE NOW PARKS
Scenes of Civil War Strife Made
Places of Beauty.

Places of Beauty.
Our five great battlefield parks, the
scenes of as many historic episodes of
the civil war, are now on the point
of completion. So far as the govern
ment's work is concerned they are
practically finished, though the states
are still engaged in erecting monu-
ments to mark the places where their
own regiments fought and bled. Hun
dreds of such substantial memorials
have been put up at Antietam alone.
many of them of striking beauty, and
more than 100000 has been expend-
ed for the same purpose at Chicka-
manga, where Georgia, Tennessee.
Missouri and Maryland have each
uplifted cenotaphs in honor of both
sides in the struggle.
The work of the government in ere
ating these parks has consisted in
buying the lands, as far as practical
BILE, building roads and observation
towers, preparing historical tablets
(of which about 1000 have Deen
placed at Chickamauga alone to mark
positions of troops) and erecting mon
uments to the regulars engaged Il
has been the chief aim to restore the
battlefields and give to them as near
y
had when the battles were fought At
Chickamauga more than 300 cannon
have been placed in the positions oc-
cupied by the Union and Confederate
batteries the original guns secured
and mounted on carriages exactly like
those which belonged to them forty
years ago.
The idea of national battlefield
parks originated in the brain of Gen.
H. v. Boynton. whose proposition to
establish such a memorial at Chicka-
manga was adopted by congress in
1890. Chickamauga was the first of
these parks, that of Gettysburg hav-
ing been up to that date private
enterprise under the management or
an association representing various
states which had had troops engaged
in the fight. But Gettysburg was TAX
en- by the government into its own
hands, and afterward the fields OF
Shiloh and Vicksburg were similarly
marked out and set aside as historic
and sacred ground.
The Gettysburg park is more prop
erly called by that name than any of
the others. On the field the visitor
cannot drive anywhere he likes, as at
Chickamauga, most of the area being
covered by farms, with strongly
fenced roads. So valuable is the land
that it cannot be bought at moder-
ate price, and the states have con-
tented themselves with purchasing
avenues 100 feet or so in width along
the lines of the battle, at the sides
of which monuments are erected and
tablets set up Many of the monu-
ments are very beautiful and costly.
But the Southerners have not taken
much part or interest in the Gettys-
burg park. The government owns
about 200 acres there.
In the Vicksburg park Uncle Sam
owns 300 acres. 1t is the newest OF
the battlefield parks, and the only one
in which any considerable amount of
work remains to be done by the gov
eminent. The states have just begun
to put up monuments there, and Illi-
nois, which had the greatest number
OF regiments engaged in that siege.
recently appropriated $350,0O0 for the
purpose. The field is on the bluff 100
feet above the river, touching the lat
ter both above and below the city,
and it's most striking feature topo-
graphically is the ridge on which the
Confederate works and batteries were
situated. Deep ravines and spurs of
I1OS0S running Out ITOm tuS hiliS
make the ground exceedingly rugged.
Some of the caves which the rebels"
dug for their own concealment still
remain and will be carefully pre-
served.
The Antietam battlefield, which is
now finished, so far as government
work is concerned, is all owned by in
dividuals. only the roads being open. |
Its area is gently rolling country, rich |
farming land. with a few deep ra-
vines, and is easily taken in by
a glance of the eye. Through it run
the ancient Hagerstown turnpike and |
Sharpsburg road, along which have |
been put up tablets that indicate the |
movements of troops. The govern |
ment owns the roads. All the states |
that were represented by troops in the |
great fight are erecting monuments. |
and only the other day Ohio dedicated |
ten new ones
: The battlefield of Shiloh is more |
heavily wooded than any of the other |
parks Situated about 100 feet above |
the Tennessee river, which runs along |
it's border, it is a rolling country, |
with farm. clearings here and there |
The government owns thirty miles of |
fine roads that run through it in vari- /
Gus directions. as well as 1900 acres
present engaged in putting up monu-
ments on this feld-particularly Indi-
ana, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania |
1t should have been mentioned that /
Uncle Sam furnishes the foundations /