Chickamauga Battlefield

The Battle of Chickamauga, fought September 18-20, 1863, was the second-bloodiest battle of the Civil War after Gettysburg, with nearly 35,000 combined casualties as Confederate forces under Braxton Bragg defeated the Union Army of the Cumberland under William Rosecrans. "Chickamauga" is itself believed to derive from a Muscogee or Cherokee phrase often translated as "river of death." On September 20, Union forces under General George H. Thomas made their famous last stand on Snodgrass Hill, now considered the most haunted part of the battlefield. The battlefield's best-known legend is "Old Green Eyes": a creature or spirit with glowing eyes, first reported roaming the field within years of the battle and still seen today, described by different witnesses as anything from a disfigured soldier who lost his head in the fighting to a fanged, long-haired beast. Visitors also report an unexplained fog that rolls in only within the park's boundaries, a woman in white singing a lullaby to an infant she carries (most often seen at dusk and during battle reenactments), a soldier's apparition who will stare down anyone who notices him until they're out of sight, and a bride in her wedding gown said to visit her fiance's grave each September and October, the anniversary months of his death in the battle.