Guide to the Battle of Chickamauga

Not far from Chattanooga in northern Georgia, the Confederacy won one of its most decisive battles. This guide uses first-hand accounts to illustrate how this skirmish, only two days long, turned into one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War with 34,000—plus Union and Confederate soldiers killed, wounded, or captured.

Eyewitness accounts by battle participants make these guides an invaluable resource for travelers and nontravelers who want a greater understanding of five of the most devastating yet influential years in our nation's history. Explicit directions to points of interest and maps—illustrating the action and showing the detail of troop position, roads, rivers, elevations, and tree lines as they were 130 years ago—help bring the battles to life. In the field, these guides can be used to recreate each battle's setting and proportions, giving the reader a sense of the tension and fear each soldier must have felt as he faced his enemy.

Matt Spruill III is a retired United States Army colonel and a former Gettysburg licensed battlefield guide. He is also the author of Storming the Heights and Guide to the Battle of Chickamauga. His son, Matt Spruill IV, is at present a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army.