The Geology of the Chicamauga Campaign, American Civil War

Regional and local geology exerted a very strong influence on the outcome of the Chickamauga Campaign of September 1863. The Union Army of the Cumberland met the Confederate Army of Tennessee at the Battle of Chickamauga in north Georgia. Topography of the Cumberland Plateau and Valley and Ridge Provinces of the Appalachian Mountains determined the movement of troops. General George Thomas was almost trapped in the confined anticline of McLemore’s Cove. The opposing forces met near Chickamauga Creek in an area underlain by Ordovician carbonates. The Battle of Chickamauga can be related to differences in topography that are directly connected to differences in lithologies within these rocks. Thus, the maneuvers of armies prior to the Battle of Chickamauga and the battle itself were largely determined by both regional and local geology.