Sunday, September 09, 2018

Shooting gallery: Spying a 'hidden' Lookout Mountain

A marker denotes the trail to Illinois and Pennsylvania monuments, deep in the woods near 
the historic Cravens house. (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)
Ivy and wildflowers drape the 13th Illinois monument.
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On trails at Lookout Mountain, reminders of the sacrifices of Union soldiers dot the landscape, some nearly hidden from view. As thunder rumbles in the distance and a late-summer storm approaches, a visitor inspects markers and monuments deep in the woods. At the top of a rugged, seldom-used trail deep in the woods, cast-iron battlefield tablets and regimental monuments await, engulfed by undergrowth. We imagine the day the monuments were dedicated long ago -- the pomp and circumstance, the speeches in memory of long-ago heroes. Now, barely remembered.

On a steep slope, the regimental monument for the 104th Illinois.
Nearly overwhelmed by undergrowth, a cast-iron tablet for a Union brigade.
At the end of a trail in the woods, cast-iron markers for the 5th and 28th Ohio and monuments for the 
147th Pennsylvania (tall) and 59th and 96th Illinois.
Under nature's canopy, a sculpted granite star atop the 28th Pennsylvania monument.
A stone kepi on the 28th Pennsylvania monument.
Mother Nature shows little respect for this 29th Ohio tablet.
A huge plaque for the 111th Pennsylvania, a work of art embedded in the cliff near the top of the mountain.
Two weather-worn plaques for the 29th Pennsylvania near the summit of Lookout Mountain.

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