The Brotherton House was at the center of a hotly-contested piece of ground during the Battle of Chickamauga, near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Union forces were in line of battle beyond a Brotherton farm pasture just behind this small cabin, sheltering in a line of trees. A Union observer wrongly reported that the regiment assigned this area was not in position, causing the Federal Commander, Major General William Rosecrans, to shift another regiment from a spot north of here to fill the non-existant gap. Confederate forces quickly took advantage of the very real gap created by this shift and broke through the Union lines just south of the Brotherton house. The cannon seen here represent Confederate guns of Longstreet's Corps, brought forward as the Federal line began to break.
