DISCLAIMERS
This white text is just a placeholder
For maintenance reasons, the final to this cache is 40 minutes north of the battlefield. The whole experience will likely take you an entire morning or afternoon to complete. If none of the above phases you and you love combining history with geocaching, cache on! The focus of this cache is not as much on the actual find, but rather about your experience exploring one of America's hallowed battlefields.
This white text is just a placeholder
It was almost one hundred and fifty years ago that the armies of the Union and the Confederates engaged in battle in northwest Georgia and southeast Tennessee. The Confederates had hoped to use back the Union troops into a corner at McLemore’s Cove near Trenton and use the geography of the land to conquer their foes. However, as things played out, in late September of 1863 the Confederates were forced abandon their plans regarding McLemore’s Cove and instead battle the Union near a previously unknown Georgia creek called Chickamauga. Two fierce days of fighting ensued, with heavy losses on both sides. In the end, the Confederacy won. However, it was a bloody victory. As one Confederate soldier wrote about the Battle of Chickamauga, “This…is the death-knell of the Confederacy.” He couldn’t have been more right.
This white text is just a placeholder
Two months later more fighting occurred at Chattanooga proper. and after the Union finally secured the city in its’ hands, the Confederacy was doomed for sure. Chattanooga was indeed the key to the Confederacy, and the Union possessing the city enabled the Atlanta Campaign in 1864 as well as Sherman’s March to the Sea to happen, utterly crippling the Confederacy. A year later, General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House.
Today, Chickamauga Battlefield is the largest unit of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, the nation’s endeavor to protect these pivotal battlegrounds. And through this multicache, I hope that you will have fun and learn a little more about the fascinating history of the Battle of Chickamauga. I have on purpose coincided the stages of this multi with the stops on the Park’s Self-Guiding Auto Tour, so both will complement each other. But please understand that this cache is only meant to whet your taste for the history at Chickamauga—it is certainly not a comprehensive experience! Far from that. There is so much history and so many (~1,400) monuments at Chickamauga that nine stages is not nearly enough! So I encourage you, don’t just do this cache while you’re at Chickamauga. Take a walk down that path. Read the interpretive sign that’s not required for this cache, and just have fun exploring this National Military Park. Best of all, there’s free entrance and picnic tables, so bring the family and spend the day!
Oh yeah. And while you’re at it, you might as well score this smiley.
How to complete this cache:
If you’ve done most any of my other “historical tour” geocaches before, you will be very familiar with how to do this one. If not; no problem! It’s an easy and fun way to learn history and go geocaching all at the same time. OK, so basically you will visit the different stages of this multicache and answer the below questions at each of the appropriate stages. Then, using information here on the cache page and the information you gathered at the different stages, you will compute the coords to the final of this cache. Sound good? Let’s go!
I do need to make a disclaimer here and say that while physical geocaches are prohibited in National Parks, virtuals are just fine. And that’s what this cache is. The different stages—AKA “Question-to-Answer” waypoints are in effect exactly identical to the old virtual caches—you go to a location, and answer a question. Absolutely no physical container involved. Additionally, there is no container at the above listed coordinates; rather, it is just a spot on the map near the entrance to the park to list this cache listing. Kind of like bogus coordinates for puzzle caches, except that this one is a multi.
Also, while you don’t have to visit, there is a very nice Visitor’s Center at the entrance of the park, where you can get a map of the park, the driving tour (what you’ll be doing for this cache), plus learn a ton about the battle from some very friendly rangers. Plus much, much more. Anyway! On with how to find this cache. See the bottom of this cache description page (i.e., right below the actual description) for coordinates to all the different stages.
The coordinates to the final are as follows:
N AB 0C.DE0 / W 0FG 0H.00I
I’ve included the zeros, so all you have to do is solve for the nine other coordinate numbers. I should mention that there are nice parking areas at all of the stage locations.
Questions:
At stage one (the Florida monument), how many lines of text are on the plaque under the soldier statue?
At stage two (a monument), fill in the blank: “ _____th Wisconsin Infantry”
At stage three (an interpretive historical marker entitled “Mix-up in Union Command”), how many major generals have their picture featured on this marker?
Caution: Please take note that not all the generals whose pictures are featured on this marker are major generals.
At stage four (another interpretive marker, this time at the Brotherton Cabin), how many of the Brothertons’ cows survived the battle?
At stage five (the Heg Monument—a pyramid of cannon balls), about what time of day—in military time—was this man wounded?
At stage six (another interpretive marker), time for some more fill in the blank: Colonel Wilder’s brigade of men was nicknamed “Colonel Wilder’s _________ Brigade”
I should also mention that nearby there is the very cool Wilder’s Tower, and on most days it is open for visitors to climb up. It’s well worth the exercise, you get to see an absolutely fantastic panoramic view of almost the entire battlefield!
At stage seven (an interpretive marker entitled “Rout of the Union Right”), in the painting on this marker Rosecrans is pictured as pointing with what?
At stage eight (interpretive marker at the Snodgrass cabin), let’s play fill in the blank again! “George Snodgrass had a family of ___”
At stage nine (Snodgrass Hill, the only stage not also a stop on the driving tour), fill in the blank for a final time: “About 3pm, the Confederates captured a section of the ridge about ____ yard in front” of this marker.
How to compute the coords for the final of this cache:
Take your answer from stage one and minus eight to get A.
Take your fill-in-the-blank answer from stage two and divide that number by two to get B.
Take your answer from stage three and add two to get C.
Take your answer from stage four and divide it by two to get D.
Take your answer from stage five and subtract 1,593 to get E.
Take the fill-in-the-blank word that you got at stage six and count how many letters it has. Subtract one from how many letters that word has to get F.
Take the fill-in-the-blank word that you got at stage seven and count how many letters it has. Take the number of letters that that word has, and divide that number by two to get G.
Take your answer from stage eight and divide it by three to get H.
Take your answer from stage nine and divide it by 100 to get I.
The final to this multicache is located not too far away, in Collegedale, Tennessee. It is a nice park-n-grab, regular-sized cammo’ed Rubbermaid container with lots of room for swag.
This white text is just a placeholder
I hope that you’ve had at least a little fun learning about and exploring Chickamauga Battlefield through this multicache. If you have any questions, comments, etc., please don’t hesitate to contact me through my geocaching.com profile.
And, as always….
Be sure to have a “blast with the past!” 
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.