On the map below are six dots worth visiting. From top to bottom:
- Sherman Reservation: This was the scene of the heaviest fighting on Missionary Ridge, and is where Cleburne kicked Sherman's butt. They have closed off the main parking area so you have to park at the sign for the Sherman Reservation and then hike about a quarter mile up hill through the woods to emerge at the Confederate hilltop stronghold. From in front of you and to the right the Union made numerous unsuccessful assaults. Walk down hill to the right to the end of the monuments and turn around. You are now in the start position for many of the Federal assaults. Although a lot of accounts describe the action around train tunnel, you really can't tell where the train tunnel cuts through, but you can take a ride through it on a steam train from the nearby Tennessee Valley Railroad and museum. In the times that I've visited this site it has always been deserted. Try visiting early in the morning on the anniversary of the battle and hope for a little mist with the sun casting long shadows through the barren trees - you can almost feel the ghosts..
- Phelps Monument: As you drive past notice the economical use of materials in this monument.
- Ohio Reservation: A nice little park honoring the Ohio boys who made up one third of the attacking forces. Ohio by far spent more money than any other state in commissioning monuments for its men for the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battlefields. No dedicated parking provided.
- Bragg Reservation: Very nice park and scene of the capture of four guns. Illinois went all-out honoring its troops with the monument here.
- 19th Illinois Monument: The only "action bronze" on Missionary Ridge.
- Iowa Reservation: One monument can hardly be called a reservation, but it is. Iowa was fairly economical with its monuments and decided to place one large one at each end of the Missionary Ridge battle line, the one here and one slightly smaller one at the far end of the Sherman Reservation. This one is the larger of the two.
Overshadowed by the great Union victory was the successful and damaging Confederate rear guard action covering the retreat of the army. There are no monuments or markers to this action, but a map is provided below.
Bragg Reservation. The base of the Illinois monument is to the left, with Cobb's battery in the center, and the 125th Ohio marker to the right. A jubilant Union General Harker jumped up on the barrel of a gun in Cobb's battery labeled "Lady Breckinridge" and immediately jumped off because the barrel was still so hot it "would burn your fingers to touch it."
19th Illinois monument. Image contains one "hotspot" showing a discharging Confederate cannon in upper left.
Missionary Ridge has no width and drops off steeply on both sides. Unit markers and artillery are therefore located in the yards of private homes more often than not. This is one of my favorites.
