03/12/2026
I had a wonderful evening sharing the history of one of my favorite places, special thanks to the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable for their generous hospitality!
Meeting Summary: March 2026 – "From Battlefield to WAC Training Center: Chickamauga beyond the Civil War"
The March 2026 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable featured an exceptional presentation by Molly Sampson. Molly's presentation described the history of the Chickamauga battlefield after the Civil War. This thoroughly engrossing discussion focused on how the battlefield became a military training complex that was used in three different wars: the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II.
Initially the administration of the battlefield was under the aegis of the Department of War. As Molly pointed out, this played a significant role in the battlefield's history, because it led to the land being used as a military training center, in particular for cavalry. This, as Molly stated, was not the kind of battlefield preservation that we think of today, but it was extremely valuable for the U.S. Army. Fort George H. Thomas, which was constructed on the battlefield, became a very important training facility for troops who served in the Spanish-American War. After that war, Fort Oglethorpe was built on the battlefield, and this fort was used as a cavalry post. At Fort Oglethorpe, intense training resulted in the U.S. Army developing one of the best horse cavalries in the world.
With the entry of the U.S. into World War I, the Chickamauga battlefield was used to train troops for that war. This training included practice in the digging of trenches, which, as Molly again emphasized, did not align with battlefield preservation in the sense that we think of. In addition, a prisoner of war camp was built on the Chickamauga battlefield. This prisoner of war camp housed many German prisoners, and Molly related the interesting story of the most famous one: Karl Muck. Muck was the German-born conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra who was accused of being sympathetic toward his native Germany after the orchestra did not play the "Star-Spangled Banner" prior to a concert. However, this, as Molly described, may have been a pretext to imprison Muck. Molly also noted that during the period between the World Wars, the Chickamauga battlefield served as a primary location for the cavalry to train for the transition from horse cavalry to mechanized cavalry.
The highlight of Molly's presentation was her discussion of Fort Oglethorpe as a training facility for members of the Women's Army Corps (WAC) during World War II. This extensively researched and beautifully presented discussion conveyed the crucial contributions of the WACs to the war effort. In all, about 50,000 women were trained as WACs at Fort Oglethorpe. As the war came to an end, Fort Oglethorpe transitioned to a processing center for returning servicemen, and then in 1946 it was decommissioned. By this time, the Chickamauga battlefield had been transferred from the Department of War to the National Park Service, which allowed the battlefield to transform from a military training site to the kind of battlefield park with which we are familiar today.
Molly's exceptional presentation gave the attendees at the meeting a thorough understanding of the post-Civil War history of the Chickamauga battlefield via Molly's detailed description of the progression of that battlefield from killing field to military training facility to its current state as a well-preserved memorial to the Civil War battle that took place there. The Roundtable is extremely grateful to Molly for her outstanding and engrossing presentation.
A more detailed summary of Molly's presentation (including the real reason for Karl Muck's imprisonment) can be found on the home page of the Roundtable's website (www.clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com).
