The Battle of SMioh. 131
than Gettysburg or Chickamauga Parks, partly on account of its inaccessibility by reason of remoteness from railroads. The only public means of reaching it is by boats on the Tennessee river. The nearest railroad points are Selma, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, about eighteen miles westward, and Corinth, at the junc- tion of the Mobile and Ohio and Southern (formerly Memphis and Charleston) Railroads, some twenty miles south. A gravel road, of which twenty-five miles is of very excellent character, has been constructed within the park, extended to either Corinth or Selma would greatly facilitate travel, and doubtless add many visitors to the park. The Commissioners have recommended this, naming Corinth as the point, and a bill is now pending in Congress for its construction. A survey has been made by the Illinois Central Railroad from Jackson, Tenn., by way of the park to Tuscumbia. If this is built it will help the present facilities; but even with this railroad, there should be a wagon road.
The park was established by an act of Congress, approved De- cember 27, 1894, a d lies wholly in Hardin county, on the west bank of the Tennessee river. The Secretary of War appointed as Commissioners, Colonel Cornelius Cadle, of Cincinnati, for the Army of the Tennessee, Chairman; General Don Carlos Buell, of Paradise, Ky., for the Army of Ohio; Colonel Robert F. Looney, of Memphis, Tenn., for the Army of the Mississippi; Major D. W. Reed, of Chicago, Secretary and Historian, and Captain James W. Irwin, of Savannah, Tenn., Agent for the Purchase of Land.
The Commission organized April 2, 1895, at Pittsburg Landing, and at once entered on its duties. Mr. James W. Riddell was ap- pointed clerk of the Commission. Mr. Atwell Thompson, of Chat- tanooga, Tenn., civil engineer, was employed to take charge of the work. He at once began surveys, and ran parallel lines across the field from north to south every two hundred feet, upon which stakes were placed two hundred feet apart. From these surveys levels were taken, and a contoured topographical chart made of all land within the limits of the park. From official maps and reports, in- formation received from residents, personal recollections of surviv- ors of the battle, etc., roads, fields and camps were restored, battle lines and positions of troops located and shown on the map, and marked by historical tablets on the ground.
General Don Carlos Buell died in November, 1898, and Major J. H. Ashcraft, 26th Kentucky Volunteers, was appointed to his place. Colonel Robert F. Looney died November 19, 1899, and Colonel
