Both Confederate and Union soldiers who fought in and around Chattanooga were struck by the region's scenic beauty. During the Union army's occupation of Chattanooga from November 1863 to summer 1865, countless men hiked up Lookout Mountain to gaze over the surrounding countryside, have their pictures taken for people back home, and walk through the mountain's rock formations. They likely shared the view expressed in 1818 by Congregationalist minister Elias Cornelius, who praised the summit of Lookout Mountain for overlooking the whole country, with an interminable forest, the windings of a bold river, verdant prairies, and many ridges and mountains, creating a landscape of great extent, variety, and beauty. Many soldiers posed atop the palisades at the northern end of the mountain's summit, which in 1868 Northern journalist William F.G. Shanks described as dark, cold, gray rocks rising fifty or sixty feet and overhanging like an arch, appearing from the valley like a crown encircling a human brow. Umbrella Rock on the palisades was an especially popular place for photographs, and even generals such as Ulysses S. Grant posed on top of the mountain.