Historic Sites in Catoosa County

The history of Catoosa County

Catoosa County was formed in 1853 from parts of Walker and Whitfield counties along Georgia's border with Tennessee. It takes its name from Catoosa Springs, whose waters Cherokees used for medicinal purposes and whose name is traced to a Cherokee chief. Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee people lived in the region before Georgia authorized a survey and land lottery for white settlement, and the forced removal of the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears began in 1838. Ringgold, the county seat, was incorporated in 1847 and named for Major Samuel Ringgold, the first high-ranking American officer killed in the Mexican War. The Western and Atlantic Railroad reached Ringgold in 1850, placing the county on a key Civil War corridor. Members of the Andrews Raiders were captured in the area in 1862, the Battle of Ringgold Gap was fought in 1863, and in 1864 more than 100,000 soldiers gathered here as General William T. Sherman prepared his Atlanta campaign. Confederate hospitals and a Union encampment both used Catoosa Springs, and the Whitman-Anderson House, built in 1858, served as a Union headquarters. Fort Oglethorpe began as an Army post in 1902 beside Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, established in 1890 as the country's first national military park. Ringgold's current Colonial Revival courthouse dates to 1939.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.org