On the Road...Day 4

Today we’re going to Chattanooga and Chickamauga. It is still a bright sunny day, we took off to go to the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. We went to the Civil War battlefield Museum where they have in-depth information about the Civil War in Chattanooga and Chickamauga. I also learned that the Confederate and the Union fought for control of Chattanooga to the gateway of the south. Remember the Confederates wanted to be separate states from the Union (North). But the Union wanted the Confederates to be together as a union state, not separated.

Then we went to see a movie about the Civil War in the theater of the museum. The movie talks about the Confederate and Union fighting each other for the control of Chattanooga, the gate way to the Deep South in 1863. The battle lasted for 3 days of struggling and fighting, the Confederates had to retreat in Stone River when six months earlier; the both of armies have fought each other.

The weapon they were using was powder-bullets cannons and long shotguns. The sight of the battle in the movie make me want to hurl when I watch a Union solider getting killed by the Confederate soldiers with the cannonballs and their shotguns on a horse or far out in the woods. I started feel the shiver in my spine and to my whole body, head to toe. I get nervous by looking at something violent, hard-core and cold-blooded battle when it not necessary when we can make a deal out of something like convincing the states to be united. I think it was crazy and it was also mad. I saw in the part where it took a man screaming in pain when the doctor had to cut the man’s wounded arm and legs including hands because it was hit by an bullet,wounded where it can be easily infected and that infection can make the solider who is wounded dead.

I had the feeling of the “battle” in my stomach just by looking at the movie that connected by killing other soldiers, other human beings of another state of the SOUTH and the NORTH. I just want to be sick to my stomach because I’m seeing gore of the worst of struggling battle in the history of a lifetime. Then we went to the battlefield of Chattanooga and it really made think back about the war and I was like oh my goodness, what for? They were fighting for the gateway to the Deep South. It was like come on why are they fighting over something like that? I think it was really nuts to fight over something like a gateway to some states called the Deep South. That feeling was still continues to be the same when I was watching the movie, it was like OH my God! This feeling you can’t get away when you see something bad event like the battle that keep your brain filled with questions, then you see the answer right there in front of you.

THEN we went to another place, it was the “Lookout Mountain Battlefield” The place was looking captivating and it was like “I’m wishing that you were here” feeling.

It was HUGE I mean huge you feeling you will lose out in the forest. IT was kind of hard to imagine but the feeling was still there with me… We went to the museum of the national park, where we showed the national park pass to one of the rangers. I went to look at the history at the museum. I was gazing and began to fall into the reading inside the history of the Civil War. Also, I was gazing at this wall of painting and it was 13x33 painting of the “Battlefield Above the Clouds” by James Walker. I had to leave because Nancy was telling me that we had to go now but I was so into it, to the history of what really happening of the war event.

Then we had to go the Lookout Mountain, as I was walking there I saw a cliff on the other side of the mountain where I’m was heading so I was having those confusions feeling like is that the battlefield or just statement of the battlefield? I was thinking that if I could imagine what would the battlefield took place then I can understand what’s going on. I would see the highway now but back then they didn’t have that they had open space and the battle started… The mountain of where I’m standing is high. Lookout Mountain is made of limestone rock. About 240 million years ago, a shallow sea covered the eastern Tennessee area, and it was in this sea that the limestone of Lookout Mountain was formed. Limestone is a sedimentary rock formed by successive layers or shale, sand, and pebbly sand. The layers of sediment hardened over time to form limestone rock.

Millions of years ago the North American and African plates collided in a collision that lasted for several thousand years. The collision was felt even as far inland as the Chattanooga area. These tectonic forces produced a series of earthquakes that pushed and bent the hardened rock to form mountains. Now I’m seeing a city and highway, it is like why they would put a highway on a national park? That is blocking the vision of seeing where the war event happening. But I have picture in my mind that I have to think that the event took place in the battlefield.

We took a little hike to see a national park around the other side of the park. IT was gorgeous and hard to explain….I feel like my mouth has dropped at the same time when I gazed at the national park. I said to myself “Wow, I wish I could bring someone like a family member or a friend so just to see how they would react to upon a mountain, to see what would the battlefield of Chattanooga would look like and I am wishing someone I love was with me to see the battlefield of Chattanooga”

I could hold on to this and keep this in my memories forever till my death when I become way old. But yet I have keep this and tell my family, friends, and of course I have tell my children’s children what I have seen. I can’t let go of what I just saw… It has stunned me like a bee.

Then it was time to leave…. Waaaaaaaaaaah! I don’t want leave.
It was so beautiful I couldn’t insist of leaving but I had to. BUT I know that I can always come back. I just have to keep it my memory banks for now.

We headed back to the road and got stuck in traffic! I was like OH NO! Not this traffic again! Oh no no no ,I really don’t need all this traffic taking away from all my supper time, typing my journal along with investigation and sleep.

Luckily, we went out to dinner to a restaurant, Cracker’s Barrel. We ate our dinner there and we were full as the big butts of the Pigs! Then we went all back to our “home” to our cottage from the restaurant. There was still traffic along the way there so I took a long nap there. When we got there I recharge my laptop and went to bed.

It was a long day, but tomorrow morning I had to typing in my journal and investigation. I had to go to bed to get some rest for the next day. … So I’m off to bed….

To be continue….hopefully another brighter sunrise will come up.. Still to go…

On the Road
Sophia
June 19, 2008