This book tells the full and fascinating story of how the country's first federally preserved national military park came into being and how it paved the way for all that came afterwards, including preservation efforts today. As the author explains, most battlefield preservation and commemoration efforts before 1890 were done on a private and state level with veterans' groups and states marking unit positions on battlefields. The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park has served from bringing veterans of the Civil War together and has played host to numerous military units during the Spanish-American War as well as World War I and II. The most important aspect was the creation of historical memory of the men who fought during those wars and the memorials that followed.