Conflicting Memories on the “River of Death”: The Chickamauga Battlefield and the Spanish-American War, 1863–1933 by Bradley S. Keefer (review)

BOOK REVIEWS SPRING 2013 87 Conflicting Memories on the “River of Death”: The Chickamauga Battlefield and the Spanish-American War, 1863-1933 Bradley S. Keefer When Americans think of Civil War battles in 1863, they usually think of Gettysburg or Chancellorsville, the crucial eastern battles. If prompted, they might remember that western battles mattered and recall the victory at Vicksburg that led to Union control of the Mississippi River. In contrast , fewer Americans remember the Battle of Chickamauga fought in September 1863, south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in northwest Georgia. This bloody Union defeat lived up to the supposed Cherokee meaning of the word Chickamauga, or “River of Death”; after two days, thirty-five thousand Union and Confederate soldiers had been killed, wounded, or declared missing. Eventually, the federal government preserved the site as a national battlefield park. During the Spanish-American War and the world wars of the twentieth century the battlefield also served as a military installation. Bradley S. Keefer’s Conflicting Memories on the “River of Death” chronicles this unique history : the battle, the creation of the park, and its subsequent use as a military camp, particularly during the Spanish-American War. Keefer first describes the battle itself; the performance of Union General William S. Rosecrans, in particular , became the subject of intense scrutiny both during and after the war. When General James Longstreet, on loan from Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, tore through a gap in Union lines, Rosecrans and a portion of his army retreated back to Chattanooga. Only the action of Union General George Thomas, the “Rock of Chickamauga,” prevented Confederate forces from pursuing and destroying the retreating U.S. forces. Despite the controversies surrounding the Union’s leadership, many of the common soldiers who fought in the engagement joined together to create a sacred space on Chickamauga battlefield that commemorated their service and sacrifice. While this effort seems similar to other battlefield preservation efforts, the park remained unusual because federal officials made it available for military training . When the United States declared war on Spain three years after the park’s dedication, volunteer soldiers trained at the facility. Most of Bradley S. Keefer. Conflicting Memories on the “River of Death”: The Chickamauga Battlefield and the Spanish-American War, 1863-1933. Kent, Oh.; Kent State University Press, 2012. 400 pp. ISBN: 9781606351260 (cloth), $65.00. BOOK REVIEWS 88 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY these men never saw combat, but hundreds died from diseases such as typhoid fever. According to Keefer, the contrasting memories of Civil War and Spanish-American War veterans who occupied the field represented a “story of what happens when one group of soldiers disagrees with another on the meaning and importance of the same piece of sacred ground” (1). Their different experiences on the field led Civil War and Spanish-American War veterans to interpret the space in dissimilar ways. While military historians have studied the Battle of Chickamauga in detail, Keefer examines the postwar battlefield park in light of what scholars know about Civil War memory and broader memory studies. Keefer includes an extensive discussion of previous studies on Civil War memory in his book, particularly as they relate to veterans’ desire to preserve important battlegrounds. He also offers the reader a solidly researched and well written study of the creation and utilization of the Chickamauga battlefield park. While both discussions offer valuable insights, Keefer does not connect the two sections. For example, he highlights studies that argue that northern soldiers constructed a historical memory of courage and manly sacrifice broad enough to include southern soldiers, best illustrated by “Blue and Gray” reunions. Some scholars have argued that Union and Confederate soldiers’ postwar gatherings played a central role in the triumph of sectional reunion at the end of the nineteenth century and contributed to the loss of black civil rights. While Keefer highlights Union and Confederate veterans’ joint efforts to create the battlefield park, he argues that their cooperation proved more practical than ideological . Chickamauga, like most other Civil War battles, occurred in a former Confederate state and Union soldiers needed local support for their preservation efforts. This micro-study thus suggests an alternate, non-ideologically based explanation for these...