Staff Rides

Park Historian Jim Ogden addressing a group of soldiers on a staff ride at Chickamauga Battlefield

NPS Photo

Congress created Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park in August of 1890. In the original legislation used to create the park, Congress specified that the park would preserve the battlefields of Chickamauga and Chattanooga, in large part, to serve as places for "professional military study." In its early years, the national military park was administered by the War Department. In 1906, what is now called the Army's Command and General Staff College led the first staff ride here at Chickamauga. Around the same time as these early staff rides were taking place, the War Department created military training depots on the battlefield during the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II.

Today, this tradition of professional military study continues at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Units from all branches of our nation's military, and ROTC groups, continue to conduct staff rides in the park. These staff rides are specialized visits designed to enourage our modern servicemen and women to consider the lessons of these Civil War battles as they might apply to their current military occupations. For more information about the basic framework of a staff ride, you can read "The Staff Ride" by Dr. William Glenn Robertson, and published by the US Army's Center for Military History.

Staff Rides at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park are coordinated through the park historian. For more information about staff rides in the park, or to schedule a staff ride for your unit, please contact the park historian either by email or by calling [phone]