The Chickamauga Battlefield was included as the first National Military Park

Another interesting fact about the Battle of Chickamauga is that the Chickamauga Battlefield was included as the first National Military Park. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Civil War veterans such as the Society of the Army of the Cumberland and the Chickamauga Memorial Association rallied support for the establishment of a national park to protect the Chickamauga battlefield as well as nearby sites such as Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. The bill was submitted in Congress by Congressman Charles H. Grosvenor who commanded the 18th Ohio at Chickamauga in 1890, and it was signed into law by President and fellow Civil War veteran Benjamin Harrison in August of that year.

As a result of the efforts of Chickamauga veterans who had served in the Union army, a portion of the grounds that witnessed heavy fighting in both that battle and the following confrontation at Chattanooga were used to establish the United States' first National Military Park (NMP). The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, dedicated on the 32nd anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga in 1895, was the first military park established by the Federal government, followed by Shiloh, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Antietam. The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Monument now spans over 9,000 acres and attracts almost one million people each year.