REPORT · OF THE CHICKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA NATIONAL MILITARY PARK COMMISSION. WAR DEPARTMENT, CHICKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA NATIONAL PARK COMMISSION, SIR: This Commission has the honor to submit its annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1902: The assignment under your order of the park engineer, Mr. E. E. Betts, to special work in furtherance of the establishment of the Vicksburg National Military Park has continued to occupy his attention throughout the year. The Commission, while reporting that this has of necessity retarded its own work, feels great satisfaction that his services proved of much value and effected large financial saving. By correspondence with his well-trained force of expert workmen and occasional visits to our field he was able to keep the work of maintenance well advanced. In submitting its estimates of $40,000 for the coming year the Commission has been able to effect a reduction of $10,000, and hereafter expects that there will be no further necessity for appropriations for the work of establishing the park beyond those required for its maintenance. It is believed that this will not exceed, and will probably fall somewhat below, $30,000. In presenting these figures the Commission, while fully appreciating the excellent work of the other military parks, calls attention to the fact that in acreage and improved mileage this park exceeds in each of these items the aggregate of all the other parks. This comparison is deemed necessary to a correct judgment of the totals in cost of maintenance. The report of the engineer herewith submitted," sets forth in detail all work undertaken, the portion completed, and the cost of each branch of work. ROADS. The heaviest work of the year has been the construction, betterment, and maintenance of roads. The road between Glass's Mill and Crawfish Springs (23 miles) has been completed, at a cost of $2,600 per mile; also that along the Union battle lines at the Kelly and Poe fields (14 miles), upon which many regimental monuments, of great interest to visitors, are located, at a total cost of $2,117.32-$1,209.90 per mile. Right of way for the Dry Valley road from Rossville to Vittetoes, extended from 30 to 50 feet in width by donations of land a Not printed. by owners along the line, has been secured and work upon it begun. The betterments include the laying of 4 miles of standard paved guttering, at a cost of 25 cents per linear foot, the building of 43 culvert head-walls and 21 culverts, the laying of 2,822 square feet of rock revetment and the spreading of 7,410 cubic yards of gravel. The total cost of construction and betterments was $20,074.87. During the present year no addition has been made to the number of guns mounted to mark battery positions on the various fields included in the park system. But 20 gun carriages were contracted for for the Chattanooga field and are now ready for delivery. They will soon be in place. We shall then have 16 Confederate battery positions marked on Missionary Ridge and a total of 270 guns mounted. TABLETS. There are now on the park proper, the approaches, and the various outlying reservations 643 historical tablets and 368 distance and locality tablets, many of the latter of an historical character. Six tablets warning visitors against trespass have been erected at the observation towers during the past year. FENCING. The Chickamauga Park is now practically inclosed with Page wovenwire fence, 20-bar, 58 inches high, on cedar posts 16 feet apart. This, to a great extent, has cleared the park of roaming live stock. It has been found necessary, however, to employ four gatekeepers at the entrances and exits of the principal thoroughfares through the park, which must be left open. MODEL IN RELIEF. The model in relief of the battlefield region about Chattanooga, covering an area of 171 square miles, to which reference was made in our last annual report, has been completed in triplicate. One of these has been sent to the United States Military Academy at West Point, another to the Army Military School at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., and the third, intended for the use of the War College in this city, awaits the convenience of the college authorities to receive it. The copy sent to West Point has excited much interest and favorable comment. FIELD WORK. All of the main fields of the park were mown with machines, and such as were grown up with sprouts too large to be cut by machines were worked over with brush scythes and mattocks to prepare them |