With a background of Cameron Hill to the left and the steamboat landing to the right, "Two Flags" participants hold the Confederate States and United States National Flags during today's ceremony. Shown (left to right) are Harvey Scarborough, Jim Ogden, Sam Elliott, and Smith Murray. Two steamboats were sunk by Union artillery fire here during the bombardment of Chattanooga by Col. John Wilder's Indiana Light Artillery on Friday, August 21, 1863.

The hills behind the flags may have been the ones from which Wilder's artillery used to fire upon the City. The unexpected shelling caused panic within the city much like the one depicted in the famous scene in the movie "Gone With The Wind" when Sherman fired upon that city in 1864. Mary Ann Peckham, TCWPA Executive Director, holds the C.S. Flag while Director Sam Elliott holds the U.S. Flag. Looking on are Jim Ogden and Smith Murray.

Media contacts:
Sam Elliott, Board Member, Tennessee Civil War Preservation Assoication, Inc.
423.756.5171, email: selliott@gplce.com
Mary Ann Peckham, Executive Director, Tennessee Civil War Preservation
Association, Inc. 404.550.5092, email: tcwpacontact@aol.com

“Two Flags Over Tennessee” Coming to Chattanooga’s Ross’ Landing On Anniversary of Battle, August 18, 2007 at 11:00 a.m.

The “Two Flags Over Tennessee – Reclaiming our Civil War Heritage” program returns to Chattanooga on August 18, 2007, announced Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association (TCWPA) Executive Director Mary Ann Peckham. The flags, which were first flown last year in February at Forts Henry and Donelson will come back to where “Two Flags” began their journey last year and will help commemorate the 144th anniversary of the Dover battle. The flags will be displayed at Ross’ Landing on August 18, 2007.

On two occasions during the Civil War, Chattanooga was shelled by Federal forces. On June 7, 1862, Brig. Gen. James Negley with a small division to lead an expedition to capture Chattanooga. This force arrived on the north bank of the Tennessee River before Chattanooga and found the Confederates entrenched on the opposite side of the river along the banks and atop Cameron Hill. Negley brought up two artillery batteries to open fire on the Rebel troops and the town and sent infantry to the river bank to act as sharpshooters. The Union bombardment of Chattanooga continued throughout the 7th and until noon on the 8th. The town was too strongly held to be captured by the Federals.

On August 21, 1863, Col. John T. Wilder, ironically a future mayor of Chattanooga, reached the Tennessee River opposite Chattanooga and ordered the 18th Indiana Light Artillery to begin shelling the town. The shells caught many soldiers and civilians in town in church observing a day of prayer and fasting. The bombardment sank two steamers docked at the landing and created a great deal of consternation amongst the Confederates. Continued periodically over the next two weeks, the shelling helped keep Confederate General Braxton Bragg's attention to the northeast while the bulk of the Federal army crossed the Tennessee River well west and south of Chattanooga. When Bragg learned on September 8 that the Union army was in force southwest of the city, he abandoned Chattanooga.

The Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association sponsors the “Two Flags Over Tennessee” program. TCWPA, partnering with local preservation groups, is flying two Civil War-era flags: an 1861 version of the U.S. “Stars and Stripes” featuring 34 stars, and the 11-star, 1861 Confederate “First National” flag, known as the “Stars and Bars,” over all of Tennessee’s most significant Civil War battlefields. Where possible, the U.S. flag flies over Union battle positions and the First National flag over Confederate battle positions. The two-year journey will end in December, 2007, after flying over as many as 50 major battlefield sites in Tennessee. As the flags criss-cross Tennessee, the events are being documented in two large scrapbooks collecting and preserving photographs, letters, and news articles from activities and events at each location.

During the first year of the two-year program, the flags have flown at Fort Donelson, Fallen Timbers, on the Memphis Queen Riverboat commemorating the first battle of Memphis on the Mississippi River, Parkers Crossroad, Hartsville, Hoover’s Gap, Davis Bridge, Spring Hill, Franklin, and at Stones River. During this first year, incidents of the battle of Chattanooga were commemorated at Wauhatchie in October, 2006 and on Lookout Mountain in November, 2006. This year the flags traveled to east Tennessee in January for “Two Flags” events at Dandridge and Fair Garden near Sevierville, to Fort Pillow, Collierville, Milton, Murfreesboro and Shiloh.

"Two Flags Over Tennessee: Reclaiming our Civil War Heritage" recognizes Tennessee's most important battlefields and emphasizes the importance of finding ways to preserve this hallowed ground, where thousands of American soldiers, wearing both blue and gray, gave their lives for the causes in which they fervently believed.

Additional information about the event is available by (contact info here including email: tcwpacontact@aol.com or by writing to TCWPA, P.O. Box 148535, Nashville, TN 37214-8535.) TCWPA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, protecting, and interpreting Tennessee's Civil War battlefields for the benefit of present and future generations.