Chickamauga Cemeteries (click to enlarge)

For those interested in historic cemeteries, there are three within the Chickamauga Battlefield Unit of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, plus one grave site. The cemeteries are the Hunt Cemetery, Snodgrass Hill Cemetery, and the Dyer Cemetery. The Dyer Cemetery is unmarked and not maintained, so unless you have time to hunt around in the woods, it is doubtful you will find it. The Snodgrass Hill Cemetery no longer has grave markers on it, so there is no sign of it. The Dyer Cemetery, Snodgrass Hill Cemetery, and Ingraham grave can be accessed by car, while getting to the Hunt Cemetery requires hiking, or if you have a bike, a bike/hike combination.

HUNT CEMETERY

PRIVATE INGRAHAM GRAVE SITE

DYER CEMETERY

The Dyer Cemetery, while on the park map, is not maintained, is unmarked, and lacks any tombstones. It is “there,” but you probably won’t find anything without conducting a detailed search of the woods in the area. I know, as I looked everywhere before giving up and driving back to the Chickamauga Visitor Center to ask about it. I was told that all that remains are field stones marking a few graves, hidden now by brush and forest. The location is near the corner of Dyer Road and Chickamauga-Vittetoe Road. The Red Trail passes through the area as well.

SNODGRASS HILL CEMETERY

A relative of Elijah and Sarah Kelley, whose cabin still stands at LaFayette Road, contacted me about a forgotten cemetery located on Snodgrass Hill. When the U. S. government purchased the land, five observation towers were erected, two on Missionary Ridge and three on the Chickamauga battlefield. One was planned for Snodgrass Hill, the site of the cemetery. I don’t believe the tower was built directly on the graves, but the U. S. Army, then in control of the park, realized the tower would draw crowds that would be traipsing through the cemetery. Because of this, relatives were contacted and given the choice to remove the graves if desired—some families declined, including the relatives of the Kelleys. The National Park Service, wishing to keep the battlefield as close as possible to its original look, removed the towers many years ago.

The cemetery is located about 100 yards west-southwest of the parking lot for Tour Stop #8 on the Chickamauga Battlefield Tour. This is known by historians as Hill #2, and it is the tallest hill in the area, which is why it was chosen as the site for the observation tower. Per historian Jim Ogden:

If you drive up to Snodgrass Hill, on up the road past the cabin, up to the top of the hill where the tour road ends in the loop, and park, and then walk to your right (when you park in one of the spaces) or west, Hill 2 is the mostly grassy, mostly open hill from which you can then look back down on the cemetery.

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