Seventy-Third Pennsylvania Reservation: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, National Park Service

Styles, Sean; Goetcheus, Cari; Hasty, David

The 73rd Pennsylvania Reservation is a component landscape of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, located near Chattanooga, Tennessee. The 0.16-acre tract is one of a series of detached reservations along Missionary Ridge designed and developed by the Park Commission to commemorate events of the Civil War's Battle of Chattanooga. The reservation marks the site of the 73rd Pennsylvania’s attack on the Confederate line during the Battle of Missionary Ridge, occurring on November 25, 1963. The 73rd Pennsylvanian Reservation is significant within the national military park due to its association with the Civil War, as well as for the efforts of the Park Commission to commemorate those events through the design and development of the country’s first national military park. Prior to the Park Commission’s ownership (1905), the 73rd Regiment Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Association held the land. The reservation retains its integrity of location in connection to the battle, although the battlefield’s integrity of setting has been compromised over the years. The land was transferred to the National Park Service (NPS) for management in 1933, signifying another era of park development. During NPS administration, the overall layout and materials of the site have been largely preserved with two minor alterations; the erection of a bronze plaque, and changes to the retaining walls. Today the site is characterized by three stone monuments and a NPS plaque asymmetrically arranged on a flat, grassy sward. The site is located at the intersection of Tunnel Hill Road and Glass Street at the base of Missionary Ridge, below the Sherman Reservation. Because Tunnel Hill Road descends from Missionary Ridge, the northern edge of the reservation is recessed behind a stone retaining wall; concrete bollards and wire fencing parallel the road above the wall, with a large red oak between it and the retaining wall. The southern edge of the reservation is bounded by modern residential development and a low stone wall topped with a fence, a privet hedge, and two small trees. A growth of privet encroaches upon the eastern edge of the property. There is no vehicular access onto the reservation, and no defined pedestrian circulation route. There are no trees or shrubs on the reservation itself.

Seventy-Third Pennsylvania Reservation: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, National Park Service

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