ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHICKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA NATIONAL MILITARY PARK COMMISSION TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 1901. REPORT OF THE CHICKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA NATIONAL MILITARY PARK COMMISSION. WAR DEPARTMENT, CHICKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA Washington, September 26, 1901. SIR: This commission has the honor to submit its annual report. In accordance with the orders of the honorable Secretary of War, dated June 17, 1901, promulgated from headquarters of the Army in General Orders, No. 89, of June 25, 1901, this report will only cover the period from September 30, 1900, to June 30, 1901. Of this period the months of December, January, and February did not admit of extensive outdoor occupation. The work of the commission was also somewhat retarded by the absence of Mr. E. E. Betts, the engineer of the park, during part of April and the months of May and June, in consequence of orders from the Secretary of War directing him to proceed to Vicksburg, for the more important work of examining the topographical features of the national park at that point, and submitting estimates as to cost and time of executing a topographical survey of the same, with the proper maps, similar to the topographical work he had executed for this commission at Chickamauga and Chattanooga. Upon submitting his report he was further directed to organize a force and proceed to execute such survey under his estimates. This absence also of necessity retarded the opening work of preparing the new edition of the battlefield atlas ordered by Congress, and the preliminary engineering work for beginning the construction of the model in relief to be mentioned more at length in another part of this report. Notwithstanding these retarding causes, the Commission has much satisfaction in referring to the report of its engineer as evidence that, under the circumstances, through the direction of his well-organized force by correspondence from Vicksburg, he was enabled to execute an unexpected amount of work during the spring season toward completing the establishment of the park. It is believed that with the appropriation now in hand for the current fiscal year the Commission will be able to report that very little field work remains to be done. beyond that required for the maintenance of the park. There has been no increase in the office force either in this city, at Chattanooga, or at the headquarters upon the park. On the contrary, the pay roll has been reduced by the annual rate of $4,200. There has been no purchase of furniture, and the entire cost of stationery and miscellaneous office supplies for these three offices has been $108.35. The estimates for the coming fiscal year will be reduced from $58,600 to $50,000. As during the last year, the heaviest field work of this year has been the construction, betterment, and maintenance of roads. The Lafayette road extension has been completed to the corporation limits of Lafayette, making the entire extension 13.4 miles. It is built on a right of way of 50 feet, owned in fee simple by the United States. The metaled surface is 18 feet wide and the road, with culverts, head walls, and drainage complete, with stone guttering where it has been found to be needed, has cost slightly over $2,200 per mile. It is believed that this piece of road construction in all of its factors will compare favorably with any govermental road construction. A driveway with chert surfacing of sufficient width and strength for all requirements for visiting the reservation and lines of battle at the north end of Missionary Ridge has been completed. It is half a mile in length. Its cost was $246.38, being a little less than $1 per running foot. It appears from the accompanying report of the park engineer that we have now 71.36 miles of improved roads, for cost of which per mile see Exhibit D. There has been expended for road construction and betterments $11,077.57, which includes the laying of nearly 4 miles of standard paved guttering, the building of 92 head walls with hammered stone coping, the hauling and spreading of 6,004 cubic yards of gravel, the construction of 42 stone culverts, and the laying of 7,100 square feet of stone revetment. The only road construction besides that heretofore ordered and specified above which the commission desires, with your approval to build, during the coming year is the road from Rossville to McFarland's Gap, a distance of 2.5 miles, being, the road over which the Union army withdrew from the Chickamauga field to Rossville at the close of the fighting the evening of the second day. The following expenditures have been made for maintenance: Buildings Roads Monuments, tablets, and towers Telephone line (9 miles). Water supply Total.... $275. 16 3, 481.05 405.79 8.79 61.20 4, 231.99 There are now erected on the Chickamauga field 109 field guns, mounted on iron gun carriages to imitate the patterns in use during the civil war, marking 44 Union battery positions, and 94 field guns, similarly mounted, marking 39 Confederate battery positions. At Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and Orchard Knob there are 20 gun carriages marking 10 Union batteries, and 25 gun carriages marking 10 Confederate batteries, with two mountain howitzers mounted at park headquarters, making a total of 250 guns mounted. There are now erected on the park proper, the approaches, and the various outlying reservations attached to the park scheme 643 historical tablets and 368 distance and locality tablets, many of the latter of an historical character. Studies necessary to complete the tablet work of the park are in progress. This comprises the battery tablets for the Missionary Ridge line, and the general historical tablets for the Ringgold road, the Lafayette road extension between Lee and Gordons Mill and Lafayette, and the Glass Mill road. These tablets upon the three roads named will set forth the history of the preliminary movements of the Confederate army after its withdrawal from Chattanooga, and during the movements to take position for opening the battle of Chickamauga. They will also embrace such historical tablets of the opposing Union lines as have not already been erected. The number of guns mounted during the year was 2; number of tablets erected, 5 historical and 8 distance and locality. The following memorial foundations were constructed: 1 State monument, 10 State markers, 5 shell monuments. The actual balance on hand September 30, 1900, was $63,317.48, which should be reduced by $12,617.56, being the amount of the liabilities chargeable to work performed in September, 1900, but not paid until after October 1, 1900, leaving an actual working balance on the 1st of October, 1900, of $53,920.39, and of this sum the amount of $2,958.40 belonged to the special appropriation for the improvement of the Lafayette road extension, leaving $50,961.99 for the ordinary work of establishing the park during the remaining nine months of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901. The actual balance on hand on the 30th of June, 1901, was $15,035.20, but this sum should be reduced by $4,648.96, being liabilities for June, 1901, paid since the 1st of July, making the actual working balance to be carried over into the next fiscal year $10,386.24. Chargeable to this surplus is the cost of models in relief, foundation for the New York general memorial on Lookout Mountain, iron stairway for the Wilder observation tower, 1 mile of road around the Kelly field line, the road from Crawfish Springs to Glass Mill, about 2 miles in length, together with various minor items of work under construction, but not yet paid for, the settlement of which will practically exhaust this balance. The central driveway of the park, which passes through or overlooks six of the seven battlefields embraced in the park project, is, by the finishing of the Lafayette road extension, now complete. It is 30 miles long and reaches from General Sherman's battlefield at the north end of Missionary Ridge, along the 8 miles of General Bragg's line of battle on that ridge, through the center of the Chickamauga field, and the 13 miles beyond it over the theater of General Bragg's movements between his withdrawal from Chattanooga and his subsequent movements previous to the battle of Chickamauga. Another driveway has been completed, constructed like the central one, on a 50-foot right of way. It leaves the former at the Chickamauga field and extends 9 miles to the Ringgold field, the final battle of the Union campaign for Chattanooga. Gen. A. P. Stewart continues in Chattanooga as the resident commissioner and has general supervision of the work in progress. His connection with the park, because of his high standing throughout the South, and especially with Southern veterans, has been of great consequence in arousing universal interest in that section. The work of the park is executed by Mr. E. E. Betts, the engineer of the park, and it has been accomplished with promptness, efficiency, and close economy. Mr. J. P. Smartt, the assistant in Confederate work, also resides in Chattanooga, and gives constant attention to collecting information upon unsettled points from the veterans who visit the WAR 1901-VOL 1, PT I- --23 |