instead, that troops left Sherman's front soon after the movement of Gen. Thomas' line began, and reached Cheatham's position in time to take part in the effort to resist Baird's advance on the Ridge. After leaving the ground of Walthall's fight, the drive passes beyond the left of the Union troops in the center. Cheatham's and Walker's Divisions had no enemy in their front until Cheatham's moved to resist Baird. Stevenson's Division, which came next on their right, but with a considerable interval intervening, reached to the left of Sherman's lines, and joined Cleburne's Division at the Tunnel. Tablets along this section of the Crest Road designate all these positions. For a full account of Sherman's crossing and advance against Tunnel Hill, and Hardee's defense of the latter, which was chiefly executed by Gen. Cleburne, see pages 120, 126, and following. The most convenient way of returning to the city is to leave the Ridge at the Tunnel, and drive down through Sherman Heights, over the ground of Gen. Sherman's formations for attack, and thence to the city by the Harrison Turnpike. CHAPTER XVI. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARK PROJECT-THE CHICKAMAUGA MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION. The first steps in the development of the National Military Park embraced only the battle field of Chickamauga. This part of the project had its origin in a visit to the field, in June, 1888, of Gen. Ferd. Van Derveer, a noted officer of the Army of the Cumberland; and the author of this work, then Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. In a series of letters to that newspaper describing the condition of the field, and reviewing the campaign and the battle, the Park scheme was thus suggested: "The survivors of the Army of the Cumberland should awake to great pride in this notable field of Chickamauga. Why should it not, as well as eastern fields, be marked by monuments, and its lines be accurately preserved for history? There was no more magnificent fighting during the war than both armies did there. Both sides might well unite in preserving the field where both, in a military sense, won such renown." It will thus be seen that from the first the plan differed essentially from that of Gettysburg, where, up to that time, only the Union lines, that is, only one side of the battle, had been marked. The suggestion was received with much favorable comment at the North. At the next annual meeting of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, held at Chicago a few weeks later, on motion of Gen. Henry M. Cist, then corresponding secretary of the society, a resolution was adopted providing that a committee of five be appointed by the chair for the purpose of taking the necessary steps to inaugurate a movement for the purchase of the ground on which the battle of Chickamauga was fought, that monuments be placed thereon to mark the location of the troops that fought there, and that it be preserved similar to the plan of the battle field of Gettysburg. Gen. Rosecrans, president of the society, appointed as members of this committee Gen. Henry M. Cist, Gen. Charles F. Manderson, Gen. Russell A. Alger, Gen. Absalom Baird, Gen. Henry V. Boynton. This committee met in Washington City, February 13, 1889. Gen. Manderson presided. It was agreed to invite such Confederate veterans of the battle of Chickamauga as were in Washington to unite in forming a Chickamauga Memorial Association. This joint conference was held February 14th, in the room of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs. Those present were Gens. Rosecrans, Baird, Reynolds, Cist, Manderson, and Boynton, and Col. Kellogg, of the Union officers; and Gens. Bate, of Tennessee; Colquitt, of Georgia; Walthall, of Mississippi; Morgan and Wheeler, of Alabama; Wright, of Tennessee; and Cols. Bankhead, of Alabama; and Morgan, of Mississippi. The plan of preserving and marking the field of Chickamauga, under the auspices of a joint memorial corporation representing all the states that had troops there, patterned in general after the organization of the Gettysburg Association, was cordially approved. Gens. Cist and Colquitt were appointed a committee, with power to add four to their number, to prepare an act of incorporation and correspond with leading officers from each state whose troops fought at Chickamauga, with a view of securing a proper list of incorporators, The sub-committee was completed by adding Gens. Baird, Boynton, Walthall, Wheeler, Wright, and Col. S. C. Kellogg. It was agreed that each side should name fifty of the leading veterans of that field and some civilians, North and South, who had prominently identified themselves with the project, as incorporators of a Joint Chickamauga Memorial Association for preserving and marking the battle field. At a subsequent meeting, a list of incorporators and the outlines of a charter were agreed upon, and Senator Colquitt was appointed to take the necessary steps to secure the incorporation. He placed the matter in the hands of Julius Brown, Esq., of Atlanta, who, declining compensation, gave the subject prompt attention, and prepared a petition for a charter, which he secured from the Superior Court of Walker county, Georgia, on the 4th of December, 1889. The objects of the Association were declared in the charter to be "to mark and preserve the battle field of Chickamauga, on which were fought the actions of September eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth, Anno Domini, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, together with the natural and artificial features, as they were at the time of said battle, by such memorial stones, tablets, or monuments as a generous people may aid to erect, to commemorate the valor displayed by American soldiers on that field." On the 19th of September, 1889, a joint meeting of Union and Confederate veterans was called, to be held in the tent at Chattanooga erected for the annual reunion of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, to consider the subject of the Chickamauga Park. The meeting was under the auspices of the following local committee: on Chickamauga Memorial Association-Adolph S. Ochs, chairman, Maj. A. G. Sharp, Gen. S. B. Moe, Capt. J. F. Shipp, Maj. W. J. Colburn, Maj. H. S. Chamberlain, Maj. C. W. Norwood, J. B. Nicklin; on Chickamauga Barbecue-Gordon Lee, chairman, W. P. McClatchey, secretary. The large tent was crowded to its capacity by strong representations of both armies and leading citizens interested with them. Addresses, setting forth the features of the Park project and indorsing it with great enthusiasm, were made by Gen. Rosecrans and other Union veterans, and by ex |