Brush Fire Season in Reems Creek Has Started

The Reems Creek FD has fought two large wildland fires this week to kickoff the start of brush fire season in the valley.  Low humidity and warm temperatures coupled with the accumulation of dry tree and leave litter on the forest floor, mixed in with some wind, makes for a dangerous combination.  Friday's fire started a little before 6pm when a homeowner's leaf burning got out of hand and spread rapidly up the mountain above the golf course.  The picture below was taken by someone at the golf course early on in the fire.

A spotter plane from the NC Forest Service arrived shortly after the first call and estimated the fire at 4 acres, but it eventually spread to 15 acres.  Fire fighting efforts were hampered by the very steep terrain, which is not so obvious in the picture above.  Most of the fire was beyond the reach of hose lines and was contained by hand-raked fire lines and back fires.  The fire wasn't contained until around 10pm and backfire efforts and mop-up went on till after midnight.  The two pictures below were taken after darkness had set in and the fire was being calmed by dropping temperatures and higher humidity.

Norris was fortunately stationed near the bottom of the fire to protect one of the endangered homes on the mountain and was spared climbing up the steeper slopes at the top of the fire.  The WLOS camera crew showed up near the end of the fire and shot some video as the back fire swept by the house where Norris had been stationed with a pumper.  By that time, the raking crews that had cut the west side of the fireline had made their way from the top of the mountain down to the house and had joined Norris in making sure the back fire didn't get too close to the house, so you will see a number of firefighters milling about in the video footage near the house.  Norris is somewhere in those shots if you click on the WLOS link below.

WLOS News Story

Forest Service crews will return Saturday to handle additional mop up

Seminar in the Woods, Day 2

On Saturday morning we met early at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park Visitors Center where the very large map of the field was used to explain an overview of the action we were to be examining on the field.  The focus was on very specific, limited parts of the action that, although this was still Union General George Thomas' XIV Corps, did not specifically include the 82nd Indiana's participation in the battle.  For this day's touring, we were in a car caravan.

James Ogden and David Powell explain the action we would be following, starting just off the Brotherton Road near the Winfrey field

This portion of the battle was just to the southeast of the action the 82nd saw. We spent the morning studying the area just below the center of the map shown in the photo below, while the 82nd's action was along the Reed Bridge Road.  Reed Bridge Road shows as a dark line from the upper right to the lower center. At the beginning of the action, the 82nd was coming with other parts of Connell's Brigade (shown in the upper right corner) to join Van Derveer's Brigade on the road.

Map showing the position of the Union (blue) and Confederate units just prior to the fighting near Jay's Mill on September 19th, 1863. This photo will expand to a readable size if you click on it.

We spent some of our time learning about the tactical deployment of the brigades and regiments in the woods. Our guides had our group of about 50 participants line up in two parallel lines, close enough to feel the "reassuring touch" of our neighbors' elbows (I was in the line and did not get a photo). Then they took the first three groups of four "soldiers" on our far right to deploy as skirmishers.

Skirmishers begin to deploy ahead of the main body of the regiment

We were not drilled in these maneuvers, but our guides explained how the skirmishers, maintaining their groups of four, would spread out ...

... and finally how they would further deploy creating four widely spaced lines to our front.

David Powell on the left was not one of the skirmishers, who had a hard time hearing and understanding direction, demonstrating why the army drilled extensively and signaled with buglers like my great-great uncle Billy Whitcomb.

Although the battle took place in the fall, it would be a bad idea to take groups into the woods at that time of year: in early March, the poison ivy is dormant and poses no threat to the tourists. We moved back and forth in the woods, taking the position of the Confederate line, then the Union in an attempt to understand how this part of the battle was fought. We think we walked about three miles, some on paths and roads, and some tromping through the dried leaves.

After a break for lunch, our attention shifted to the action on Horseshoe Ridge. Again, the discussion was not centered on the 82nd's participation which was on Hill 1 (one of the three at "Snodgrass Hill") but on action further to the right of their position.

Our guides wait for us to get out of our cars and join them on Snodgrass Field. The Snodgrass farmhouse roof is visible just right of the center.

From this vantage point we looked at the panoramic painting by James Walker that appears on the cover of the Park brochure. The painter came to the field with participants in the battle not too long after it happened, so much of what is represented is accurate.

Looking at the Park Brochure's depiction of the action at Snodgrass hill, which shows the vantage point from the northwest corner of the field. That portion of the 82nd that stayed with Colonel Hunter was beyond the Snodgrass farm, just to the left.

We moved to the Snodgrass farmhouse to talk about what General Thomas and his staff did to reinforce the line formed by disparate portions of units that were holding the Horseshoe Ridge hills.

The day was warm and beautiful as we followed our guide to a minor depression where the Snodgrass barn used to be. The barn is the most prominent structure in the James Walker painting.

Norris and I were pretty tired and sore from so much standing, so we left the group when they headed west from the farmhouse, and drove on up to the parking lot near the Indiana Monument.

I have shown photos of other pertinent panels at this location (you can see them at this link in the second part of the post), but not these two. Col. Hunter of the 82nd was the senior officer from Connell's brigade on the field during this confusing part of the action, so he is shown commanding.

The soldiers of the 82nd's letters, published in From the Hayfields to the Battlefields, were always interesting and moving, but are far more so after the understanding we now have of the action. The Company B commander, Allen W. Brown, wrote a letter to his wife detailing his part of the battle that is published in the book.  His company were not all on the hill, some of them having left the field much earlier in the afternoon, but he specifically mentioned seeing my great-grandfather come up with the group of about 50 led by Colonel Hunter as they retreated to Rossville that evening. 

Seminar in the Woods, Day 1

Last Thursday and Friday, Norris and I went to Chickamauga to take part in the annual Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park Study Group tour of the battlefield and surrounding area to  explore events of the fall of 1863.  This group is led by author David Powell and the park's chief historian, James Ogden. These enthusiastic guides lead bus and walking tours each year in the spring, covering different aspects of the battle every year.  The focus of the study this year was particularly interesting to me, a great-granddaughter of a soldier in Indiana's 82nd Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

On the first day of our tour, we rode the bus over an hour west of Chattanooga, with commentary along the way on the strategic importance of Chattanooga and the logistics of moving the Army of the Cumberland (Union) over these large distances. We were heading to the Tennessee River at Stevenson, Alabama.

Bridge at Stevenson Alabama (Alabama State Road 117)

The highway crosses the Tennessee at the large bridge pictured.  The town of Stevenson had a more extensive complex of railroad tracks than other potential crossings, which made this the most important location for the for the Army of the Cumberland's approach to Chattanooga over the river.

The boat launch seen below was the approximate location of the pontoon bridge at Stevenson, where we listened to a lengthy discussion of where the confederates were and what they believed their opponent was up to.  Bragg and his Confederate Army of Tennessee were trying to watch 240 miles of river where the Army of the Cumberland might potentially cross. The river today is a little wider than it was at the time, but the Union troops and the few Confederate cavalry men on the other side were able to converse across the water.

Location of the Army of the Cumberland's main baggage crossing of the Tennessee River at Stevenson, Alabama. David Powell on the left, James Ogden in NPS uniform.

We moved back along the Tennessee in the direction of Chattanooga to Bridgeport, Alabama.

Parallel bridges of the CRX railroad and the town of Bridgeport's pedestrian crossing of the Tennessee.

The pedestrian bridge (pictured on the right in the above photo) is built on the pilings of the Civil War era bridge, which had been destroyed by the retreating Confederate Army. This bridge had earlier been important in another major event that occurred in this area -

Trail of Tears plaque at Bridgeport, Alabama readable with a click on the photo for a larger view

There are contemporary photographs of the remains of the original bridge.

 

Library of Congress Civil War collection

We learned that Army of the Cumberland Commander William Starke Rosecrans, an engineer, had managed to acquire a higher ratio of wagons to men (69-70 wagons per 1000 soldiers) than any other army in the conflict, but he only had enough material to build 1.8 pontoon bridges across the Tennessee. We know from the 82nd Indiana's Regimental History that the men spent some time building a bridge here at Bridgeport. They would have been working on the foreground structure, which made up for the missing two-tenths of a bridge. The 82nd was here until the 31st of August.

Our tour guides had a lot of maps and photos to illustrate the story.

Our study was interrupted by the passing of a modern and loud freight train on the parallel bridge.

The wagons belonging to Brannon's Division (to which the 82nd belonged) probably crossed here at Bridgeport, but the soldiers of the 82nd went over at our next stop.

 

View from the bridge at Bridgeport, toward Stevenson, to the South

View to the North from the bridge at Bridgeport

From Bridgeport we moved to the crossing at Battle Creek, back over the Tennessee State Line at modern day South Pittsburg.  The blue arch pictured below had been visible from many points along our route. We crossed the river here to view the Division's crossing from the landing point.

Bridge over the Tennessee at Battle Creek, Tennessee Highway 156

The men crossed the river by polling in rafts that had been built of logs from nearby structures. Only a few wagons were taken over here. 

Tennessee Highway 156 bridge, seen from the boat launch off River's Landing

With the makeshift rafts, 400 men could cross the river in an hour. They were met with practically no resistance by the few Confederates on the other side.

Battle Creek joins the Tennessee just behind and to the left of Jim Ogden where old bridge pilings are visible

Our guides brought a copy of a large map that was created for display at the Visitors' Center and unrolled it at this location so we could see how General Rosecrans used the terrain to disguise the movements of these tens of thousands of men and their equipment over the Cumberland to the Tennessee River on separate routes.  (The 82nd was in George Thomas' XIV Corps.)

This photo is original size - it is readable if you click on my photo

The site of the last of the four crossings pictured on the map is Shellmound which is now underwater, so we moved on to cross Sand Mountain. (At the time of the Civil War, there was only Raccoon mountain, but a pass created for the Interstate now separates Sand and Raccoon Mountains.) We stopped for lunch at Trenton, which is where the Army rested for a few days, and came into the valley.  Shortly afterwards, the bus was paused to afford us a look at the gap that Thomas' Corps would cross to get into Lookout Valley.

Johnson's Crook seen from Newsome Gap Road, Rising Fawn, Georgia

The task of getting up and over both Sand Mountain and Lookout Mountain was arduous. Normally teams of 6 mules were used to pull the wagons, but 12 were required to pull the heavy loads up these slopes, so each team had to make two trips. A two-mile trip took 8 hours.

The descent on the other side was even more difficult as the wagons' only braking system was provided by man power.

View from Lookout Mountain to the east

We did not follow the XIV Corps' route with our bulky tour bus, but followed Georgia State Highway 136, and were able to see Lookout Mountain's unique sandstone cap up close. In the valley at the foot of Lookout Mountain we stopped along the road to talk about the action in McLemore's Cove that preceded the Battle of Chickamauga. After the crossing of the Tennessee river, the three Corps of the Army were separated, with Crittenden to the far north just south of Chattanooga, and McCook to the south. Thomas' corps in the center was called on to support McCook.

Luckily for Rosecrans, the Confederates did not make a coordinated attack and the major battle would not take place while his forces were so widely spread.  One interesting question that came up here was how long did it take for messages to go from one commander to another along the line. There was a relay system, with mounted soldiers posted at 2-mile intervals. Each message had a walk, trot or gallop precedence. A message and the reply could make it between McCook and Thomas within 8 hours.

We moved on to a now-abandoned (but maintained) church and the cemetery where the Widow Glenn (whose house temporarily served as a Union Headquarters during the Battle of Chickamauga) is buried for our last stop where we learned about the final days before the battle broke out on September 19th, 1863.

Cemetery at Pond Spring, Georgia, intersection of Kensington Road and Cove Road

The Union soldiers in the valley could see the dust clouds formed by the movement of Confederate troops on the other side of Pigeon Mountain.

We looked at the hills from this picturesque valley as we finished up the day of considering the logistics of moving so many men and all their equipment and supplies across the terrain.

We made one final drive-by in the town of Chickamauga, then known only as Crawfish Springs. Much of the movement of the Army was determined by water sources. Each man and beast was allotted a ration of water - but there had been a drought in the previous two years and many creeks and springs were dry and could not possibly support the needs of the Army. We also learned that the Union forces benefited from an extensive network of guides, scouts and spies, natives to the area who could be counted on for accurate information on the routes, water sources, and locations of Union-friendly farmers.

You may have noticed that all the participants who wandered into my photos were men. That was because I was the only woman on the bus. I do not know why this would be so. After reading the soldiers' letters and the regimental history, I found this day's tour to be invaluable because I did not understand why my Great Grandfather was building a bridge at one location, crossing the Tennessee River at another, or precisely where those places were. I'd seen the Library of Congress photo but the caption did not make sense to me.  And there's nothing like actually trying to follow the route the troops took over the mountains to get an idea of what they endured as their part in the struggle to Preserve the Union.

Power of Pax

Winter storm Pax struck our region on Wednesday morning with light snow showers that kept up all day. It was only an hour or two late to follow the predictions, and picked up strength late in the afternoon.  We shoveled the upper area of our driveway twice Wednesday evening while the snow was light and fluffy.  That worked well for us because that night, the snow turned to an icy mix and the additional accumulation was wet and heavy.  The icy stuff continued to fall yesterday morning and into the afternoon, with big gusts of wind as the storm finally petered out, so we didn't get a measure of the total snowfall depth. This morning, our table is holding about 7 inches of snow.

This was a rare time when the combination of snow and ice caused a partial television signal failure. We only noticed it after dark, so clearing off the dish waited until daylight.

Our weather station is still functioning for wind direction, but it won't tell you anything about the speed or gusts.

Now we are waiting for a normal snowfall that's predicted to start later today.

Cats love TV

Cats love TV not because they watch it but because the laps stop moving around.

This is what happened when Norris was busy programming radios -

But football playoff season is the best!!

Winter Walk on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Although the temperature today was in the 50s, the Blue Ridge Parkway remained closed to vehicle traffic due to snow earlier in the week.  So Norris and Cheryl decided to take advantage of the road closure to do their walking on the Parkway today.  Even though it was still relatively warm on the Parkway, the wind was brisk, so we were pretty well bundled up.  Here Cheryl poses beside one of the road side ice floes.

We swapped to show Norris wearing his new hat.

At the Tanbark Overlook (our turnaround point on our 2.7 mile walk), another walker offered to take a picture of the both of us.

A view across the Riceville valley from the Parkway.

The mountain tops were in the clouds on the distant Craggy Mountains, but if you look close on the far slope you can see the continuation of the Parkway toward the Craggies.  You might need to click to enlarge the picture.

Christmas visit - 2013

We spent Friday and Saturday with Norris' family, just south of Chattanooga.  Cheryl got a couple of photos of Norris with his sister and mother late Friday afternoon.

The subjects were not entirely cooperating with the photographer - who caught Marla mugging.

 

But this next was a very good photo of Mother so we just cut her goofy son out.

We forgot to take the camera to the family gathering later that evening, but yesterday, we all met up again for a pizza lunch where a few more photos were made before the food arrived.

Tevin with his Uncle Norris

Here's a better photo of Norris with his Mother.

Halley, Marvin and a serious looking Cailey.

 Kheley and the Ninja Turtle, oops that would be Kason.