Video
Brian C. Pohanka Intern Charlie Miller - 2023
Transcript
My name is Charlie Miller. I'm a rising junior at Gettysburg College, and I am a Pohanka Intern for the summer of 2023 here at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
I major in history and have a minor in Civil War Era Studies and public history.
I chose Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park because I wanted to experience and learn about a different theater, a different , a lot of different names, a lot of different places, and a lot of different and unique sort of terrain and theaters than maybe my experience at Gettysburg. I wanted to expand on my knowledge on the Western Theater of the war, which was a little bit minimal when I first got here, and I wanted to be able to interpret at a unique place and at a unique park with so many different locations,
as well as some unique sites like in battlegrounds, like the woods here at Chickamauga, as well as Lookout Mountain, and the challenges that that presents. I wanted to allow visitors, and learn and experience myself, and then allow visitors to also learn and experience how that terrain and how this unique park contributed to the fighting and the action here.
So, when I first got to Gettysburg College, my knowledge of the Civil War was very much concentrated on the Eastern Theater and it has continued to be definitely a big focus, especially obviously going to Gettysburg learning about the battle up there and the campaign up there, but when I got to Gettysburg College, taking Civil War classes, I also started to, the seed started to get to, was planted in my head, about the Western Theater and there's other aspects of the war, other fronts, that are also very, very decisive and very, very important to the eventual defeat of the Confederacy. And so, the seed was kind of planted, as I said there, and then once I actually got out here and decided to immerse myself and learn more about it, I definitely got that idea reinforced. I really saw firsthand and read first hand about just the specifics of how decisive and how important it was for the Union to invade into Middle Tennessee and then Georgia and really strike right at the heart of the Confederacy with their economy, their agriculture and other things, to the point that I started thinking about Lee's raid into Pennsylvania, and thought about okay, of course,
Lee is looking to give war-torn Virginia a break. He's looking to perhaps, maybe, live off the land. In Pennsylvania he's also looking to kind of diminish Northern support and really strike right into a major Northern state, but however, when I came out here to the West, I sort of looked at the way the Union, and well, that was more of an invasion than a raid, into the Confederate States to not only do a lot of those things that Lee wanted to do in Pennsylvania but also to really strike a more decisive blow against one of the
more unique and sparse centers of industry and agriculture like Georgia and Middle Tennessee, and really, I saw the impact that that had with Sherman's Atlanta Campaign that sort of led from Chattanooga, and then eventually the March to the Sea, and really the decisiveness and how that really brought the war that much closer to its end. And so, definitely coming out here to learn not only about Chickamauga and Chattanooga but also the campaigns that led up to it, like the Tullahoma campaign, and just a lot of the other action that happened before and after these battles, really has reinforced my understanding that the action out here was extremely, extremely decisive and important for the eventual result of the war and the, well specifically here at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, the battles here were absolutely vital to the eventual success that Sherman has in Georgia and the eventual success that the Union has out here in the West and, as a whole, in the war as well.
Yes, absolutely. So, one of the most popular spots here, and most famous and important spots out here on the battlefield, is of course, where we're standing here on Snodgrass Hill. Snodgrass Hill and Horseshoe Ridge are very, very key, especially on September 20, 1863, of course. As the Union Army, their line has been broken, after the gap opened by Rosecrans. They're in complete chaos and in a very dire situation, basically in a full sprint back to Chattanooga, and what really struck me was the decision and the quick thinking, and in the heat of this chaos, in the heat of battle, which is already extremely stressful, and it requires precision and perfection. I always talk about that on my programs. Despite all of this, it's just one brigade, Harker's Ohioans, that were, the monument that we're at here today. Harker's Ohioans, they're the ones that really get to these positions first, and they're some of the men that really lead the charge in making the decisions to stand here, form defensive positions, and allow the other men to follow their lead, and then eventually, George Thomas comes here to take over the troops and sort of lead in that famous stand that earns him the nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga," and I always thought the story of Harker's Ohioans was so interesting because you
have these low-ranking soldiers, like privates or colonels, especially regimental commanders, that are ordering men of not even their own regiment to stand here and stand firm and form defensive positions. I'm amazed about how courageous that was and they were, somebody had to do that first, they were the first ones to make that decision and, in the chaos of this battle and in the fleeting retreat of the Union soldiers, the other Union soldiers very well have just kind of abandoned them and
perhaps kept going back towards Chattanooga. They didn't have to, perhaps, follow their lead and form defensive positions up here, but they, instead, did follow that lead, and just the boldness of the Ohioans to actually make the decision to stand here alone and then, eventually leading to, of course, the famous stand that leads Thomas to get the nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga." I often argue that the men that, in the heat of the chaos, decided to stand here and form positions to push back the Confederate assault, I believe that obviously, Thomas gets the name the "Rock of Chickamauga," I often refer to Harker's Ohioans and the other low-ranking colonels and other low-ranking officers that make the decision to have their men stand here, I refer to them as the "Rocks of Chickamauga." So, I always have thought that story, and I really try and emphasize the sort of idea of the "every man" and the individual soldier who often believed he could make a difference on the battlefield with courage and bravery and that was really what won the day, and their individual efforts and their individual decisions up here, in a way, really kind of allowed them to live out that reality of well, it often wasn't a reality, that oftentimes the most courageous and brave men would be the ones that would meet their end, but, instead, on the battlefield here Harker's Ohioans, they're courageous and brave decision, actually really made a huge difference in the eventual results after the Battle of Chickamauga as well. So, this story has always really interested me, especially with the "every man" aspect of it.
Description
This summer, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park hosted two Pohanka Interns from Gettysburg College. One of those Interns was Charlie Miller, a rising junior, majoring in history.
Duration
7 minutes, 59 seconds
Credit
NPS
Date Created
09/18/2023
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