Camp George H. Thomas

In 1895, the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park became the country's first National Military Park, and in 1896 Congress allowed it to be used as an Army training ground. As war with Spain appeared inevitable, the Chickamauga Battlefield Park was chosen in early 1898 for troop training because it had good railroad links to most parts of the country and a warm climate that would help Northern troops acclimate to Cuban conditions. On April 14, 1898, the first regular Army unit, the all Black 25th Infantry Regiment, arrived at Chickamauga Park. On April 21, Maj. Gen. John R. Brooke arrived and took command, and on April 25 he established his headquarters at Lytle Hill, the same day war was declared on Spain. The site had been named Camp George H. Thomas on April 23 in honor of the Civil War general who had fought there. More regular Army units arrived until their strength reached 7,300 men, but by May 14 all regular Army units had left and volunteer state units began arriving, swelling to at least 45,000 by the end of the month. Training at Camp Thomas was intensive and grueling, with reveille at 4:40 a.m. and a dress parade every evening. Conditions were harsh: tents were scarce, seven to nine men crowded into tents measuring seven feet by nine feet, there were no floors, cots, or beds, each man had a single blanket, there were no regular cooks or mess halls, and soldiers had to find and cook their own meals over open fires and then wash their own dishes, often without enough water. Because sanitation was poor, disease became rampant. On August 8, largely because of these unhealthy conditions, Secretary of War Russell A. Alger ordered the camp to begin closing. Sick soldiers in the two camp hospitals were sent home on furlough to recover, while other troops were transferred, discharged, or sent home, and by the middle of September most had departed. More than 72,000 troops had been in the camp. The park was left in ruins, with many trees destroyed for firewood, poles, or by cavalry horses and other livestock eating the bark. More than 3,000 latrines were disinfected and filled, buildings were dismantled, refuse was burned, roads were resurfaced, dead timber was removed, and park laborers replaced historical markers broken during the occupation. More than $25,000 was spent refurbishing the battlefield after the Spanish-American War, and the military presence continued with the opening of Fort Oglethorpe in December, 1904.

Chickamauga, Georgia · United States