More than 1,000 runners make their way along the paved roads and trails of Georgia’s most historic Civil War battlefield sites each year at the 43rd annual running of Fort Oglethorpe’s Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon, Half Marathon & Junior Marathon, up from a few hundred runners finish the race’s half marathon in earlier years. Both the half marathon and the full marathon share the same starting line and time, at 7:30 AM at the 6th Cavalry Museum near the visitor center entrance on the northern end of Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. From there, those running the 13.1-mile race follow an out-and-back loop course that winds in a roughly clockwise direction through the park, giving runners ample views of the approximately 1,400 memorials, cannons and monuments that commemorate the Battle of Chickamauga, the bloodiest two-day battle of the Civil War, which claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Confederate and Union soldiers in September 1863.
Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon, Half Marathon, 5K & Junior Marathon
Date
Nov 8, 2025
Starting Time
7:30 AM
Course
Trail
Fees
$95+
Location
Fort Oglethorpe
Participants
500-1000
Terrain
Challenging
Environment
Park Run
Temperature
High: 63°
/ Low: 41°
Overview
Course Description
Needless to say, the park today is a much more peaceful place whose 5,500 acres are filled with forests, streams, wide-open grassy meadows, and horse and hiking trails through the woods. The loop course takes runners past a number of the park’s natural scenic features as well as its historic military memorials, and finishes back where the race started at the 6th Cavalry Museum. Along the way, the race route includes numerous rolling hills, which race organizers describe as “challenging but not extraordinarily difficult.”
