A beautiful spring day. Lots of blooms on the trees. We toured the battlefield of what was the last significant Confederate victory. And what a rout it was. The Union forces were surprised by Bragg who was thought to be retreating in disarray toward Atlanta when in fact he was ready to fight and just on the other side of a thick wood from the Union lines. He hit the left and then the center and then the right. He broke through at the center and rolled up Rosecrans toward the north. With Rosecrans disparately trying to retreat north toward Chattanooga, Longstreet, recently detached from Lee in Virginia, destroyed his right and center. A last ditch stand by Thomas at Snodgrass Hill saved the utter destruction of the Union army and permitted a hasty retreat. This shot of Longstreet's cannon is located where they were at the end of the fighting. The monument was erected by the people of Kentucky and commemorates their sons who fought and died in the two day battle. One side shows Kentucy's Union units and the other side their Confederate ones.
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