16 U.S.C. § 424 : US Code - Section 424: Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park

Search 16 U.S.C. § 424 : US Code - Section 424: Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park

For the purpose of preserving and suitably marking for historical
and professional military study, the fields of some of the most
remarkable maneuvers and most brilliant fighting in the War of the
Rebellion, those portions of highways in the States of Georgia and
Tennessee in the vicinity of the battlefields of Chickamauga and
Chattanooga, respectively, jurisdiction over which has heretofore
been ceded to the United States by those States respectively and as
to which the United States has heretofore acquired a perfect title,
shall be approaches to and parts of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga
National Military Park, and each and all of such roads shall remain
open as free and public highways, and all rights of way which
existed on August 19, 1890, through the grounds of the said Park
and its approaches shall be continued. The lands and roads embraced
in the area at and near the battlefield of Chickamauga and around
Chattanooga, jurisdiction over which has heretofore been ceded to
the United States by the State of Georgia and as to which a perfect
title has heretofore been secured, together with the roads
hereinbefore described, shall be a national military park, to be
known as Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park. The said
Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park and the approaches
thereto shall be under the control of the Secretary of the
Interior. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to enter into
agreements upon such nominal terms as he may prescribe, with such
persons, who were owners of the land on August 19, 1890, as may
desire to remain upon it, to occupy and cultivate their then
holdings, upon condition that they will preserve the then buildings
and roads, and the then outlines of field and forest, and that they
will only cut trees or underbrush under such regulations as the
Secretary may prescribe, and that they will assist in caring for
and protecting all tablets, monuments, or such other artificial
works as may from time to time be erected by proper authority. It
shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to superintend
the opening of such roads as may be necessary to the purposes of
the park, and the repair of the roads of the same, and to ascertain
and definitely mark the lines of battle of all troops engaged in
the battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga, so far as the same
shall fall within the lines of the park. It shall be the duty of
the Secretary of the Interior to cause to be ascertained and
substantially marked the locations of the regular troops within the
boundaries of the park, and to erect monuments upon those positions
as Congress may provide the necessary appropriations; and the
Secretary of the Interior in the same way may ascertain and mark
all lines of battle within the boundaries of the park and erect
plain and substantial historical tablets at such points in the
vicinity of the park and its approaches as he may deem fitting and
necessary to clearly designate positions and movements, which,
although without the limits of the park, were directly connected
with the battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga. It shall be lawful
for the authorities of any State having troops engaged either at
Chattanooga or Chickamauga, and for the officers and directors of
the Chickamauga Memorial Association, a corporation chartered under
the laws of Georgia, to enter upon the lands and approaches of the
Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park for the purpose of
ascertaining and marking the lines of battle of troops engaged
therein: Provided, That before any such lines are permanently
designated the position of the lines and the proposed methods of
marking them by monuments, tablets, or otherwise shall be submitted
to the Secretary of the Interior, and shall first receive the
written approval of the Secretary. The Secretary of the Interior,
subject to the approval of the President of the United States,
shall have the power to make, and shall make, all needed
regulations for the care of the park and for the establishment and
marking of the lines of battle and other historical features of the
park: Provided further, That State memorials shall be placed on
brigade lines of battle under the direction of the National Park
Service.
No monuments or memorials shall be erected upon any lands of the
park, or remain upon any lands which may be purchased for the park,
except upon ground actually occupied in the course of the battle by
troops of the State which the proposed monuments are intended to
commemorate, except upon those sections of the park set apart for
memorials to troops which were engaged in the campaigns, but
operated outside of the legal limits of the park. Notwithstanding
the restrictive provisions of this paragraph, the Secretary of the
Interior is authorized in his discretion to permit without cost to
the United States the erection of monuments or memorials to
commemorate encampments of Spanish War organizations which were
encamped in said park during the period of the Spanish-American
War.