Don't know much about this history

Visited the Civil War's Chickamauga Battlefield in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia Monday. Didn't know much about the battle, despite having lived near the more famous Gettsyburg and Antietam Battlefields for quite a while. One would think I'd absorb some knowledge by osmosis or something.

The moon rises over Snodgrass Hill.

The two day battle south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was the second bloodiest battle of the war, second only to Gettysburg. While it was considered to be a Confederate victory, the South was still parked away from the highly important transportation hub of Chattanooga when the fight was over. And the North had control of the city's railroads, rivers and highways. One southern soldier said the loss of Chattanooga was the "death knell of the Confederacy". The North could use the town as a hub for supplying its armies during the southern campaigns.

The battlefield is a contrast to Gettysburg in that there are far fewer memorials and stones. In that, it's more like Antietam, with its quieter, more somber tone.

Deer graze near a cannonball marker.

An interesting sidelight of the battle was Colonel John T. Wilders' Lightning Brigade of mounted infantry that saved the day for the North. The Confederates had discovered a hole in the Northern line and began driving through it, which would split the Yankees, possibly distroying the army.

Just in time, Wilder's brigade filled the hole and drove the Rebels back with their seven-shot Spencer repeating rifles, saving the day for the North.

When the war ended, Wilder returned to Chattanooga to live. In 1871, he was elected mayor six years after the war. 

In seems interesting that the man whose brigade killed hundreds of Confederates was welcomed in Chattanooga shortly after the war.  Unless I'm missing something here.