Chickamauga (also known as Chickamauga Station) is a listed CSA post office in Hamilton County, Ten located near Chattanooga and not far from the Georgia border. As an established CSA post office, the postmaster would have handled mail presented to him by the local inhabitants as well as by any Confederate Army units in the area. During the Chattanooga Campaign (Chattanooga fell to the Union 9/9/1863 and was subsequently placed under siege by the Confederate Army with the Battle of Chickamauga fought 19-20 Sept 1863) the little Chickamauga post office became overwhelmed with army mail. The Chickamauga postmaster first serviced his mail with manuscript markings. But some time during this period, the postmaster made or had made a simple typeset handstamp device with “Chicamauga” (“k” is missing in the handstamp) in a semi-circular configuration with a separate three line datestamp which was used to cancel the stamp. These markings have long been considered as Army of Tennessee field postal markings and are listed as such in the 1986 Dietz Catalog. But that is not necessarily true.  While it is true that army covers would receive these marks, Chickamauga as a listed CSA post office was not exclusively set up as an army post office. So the marks could have been used on local civilian mail as well. The editors working on the army field cancel section of the new soon to be published Confederate Catalog have recognized this and will be listing the markings not as strict army field cancels but as Tennessee postal markings that were used on both army and civilian mail. That does not lessen the fact that the manuscript Chickamauga covers are very scarce items. And the Chicamauga semicircular handstamp is even scarcer with only perhaps a dozen or so covers known bearing this mark with dates in OCT and NOV 1863. The Chickamauga post office ceased operations in late November 1863 when the Confederate Army abandoned the Lookout Mountain lines and retreated south. This is distinct from the actual Army of Tennessee field post office set up by the Chattanooga postmaster after the fall of the city using the Chattanooga postmark (known as the “rover” with latest known use in late January 1864) and the Army of Tenn straight line handstamp used November 1863 into March 1864.
TN286 CSA #11 (AD) (4-Margin) tied by the three line date stamp “OCT 25 1863” with the matching Chicamauga semicircular typeset handstamp to the left. Very nice strikes of these scarce postal markings. This cover is currently the earliest recorded usage date of the Chicamauga handstamp, but earlier usages may exist yet to be recorded. Addressed to Mrs. Thos. F. Hooper, Okolona Chickasaw Co., Miss. There is no Thomas F. Hooper listed as a soldier from Mississippi. There is only one Thomas F. Hooper listed in the Confederate Army. Lieut Thomas Foster Hooper (b1832) Co I 29th Ga Inf may be the one who sent this cover as the regiment was in the Chickamauga area at the time and took part in the battle. Cover is very clean with a small reduction at the right just into the last line of the address. But still an excellent example of the dozen or so covers recorded with this marking. Ex-Grant, Ex-Everett, Ex-Alex Hall, Ex-Walske. SOLD

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