Chattanooga Civil War Round Table
What Is Happening To Those Tablets
in Chickamauga and Chattanooga
National Military Park?
Photos and text by Harvey Scarborough, Chattanooga CWRT Webmaster
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  Home       News      Photos    Posted May 22, 2010
For the last few months, I've noticed that several cast iron tablets are missing in various areas of Chickamauga Battlefield and in the battlefields around Chattanooga. "Vandals!" I thought to myself, wondering when and if the tablets would ever be replaced.

However, before I could let park authorities know my discoveries, I began seeing freshly painted Union tablets. And the color scheme was - well, different!

It appears that the Union tablets are getting a face lift! They are being removed, several at a time, by a company hired to clean and repaint all the Union tablets. So, before year end, they should all look new and different!
Shown below are the old (left) and new (right) paint schemes. Quite a contrast don't you think?!
In comparison, the tablet, below left, is Confederate gray/red. The color scheme for Confederate tablets will remain as is. Now, the big advantage visitors will have is identifying whether tablets in the distance are Union or Confederate! Since the back side of the Confederate tablets will remain gray, and soon the Union ones will all be blue, you will be able to more readily identify them without having to walk around to the front to see the color.
Care to guess which one is Union and which one is Confederate? Look above for a hint.
 What about this one? Well, it's the back of a Union tablet which has not been repainted.
And what about those "finger boards."

We see this one in blue. Since it refers to a Union unit, it is painted with a blue background.

 

 

 

 

And below, we have two finger boards along Reed's Bridge Road near the Visitor Center. They are painted with a black background to reflect position and/or time situations.
If it was up to me, I believe that I would have painted the left one with red letters on a gray background!

But, who am I to argue....?
So, now you know. According to the Park's website, the original color scheme for all tablets was white letters on a black background. Other than by reading the text, a visitor was able to tell if the tablet was Union or Confederate by looking for the little "U" or "C" in the corner. It's so nice not to have to do this now, especially since many of the tablets do not have the "U" or "C" today!