At the time of the Civil War, Rossville, Georgia, consisted of no more than a half dozen buildings, the most conspicuous of them a two-story log dwelling built in 1797 by John McDonald, maternal grandfather of John Ross. John Ross and his brothers and sisters came to live there with their grandparents after their mother died. In 1835 Thomas Gordon McFarland bought the John Ross House from Rev. Scales, who had won it in a land lottery, and he and his brothers lived there until Thomas Gordon married Elizabeth Anderson; they then lived in the house and had six children, including Josiah Anderson, mayor of Rossville from 1905 to 1909, John McNair, mayor from 1909 to 1910, and Thomas Foster, mayor from 1911 to 1912. A few hundred yards west stood Rossville Gap, whose easy passage through the barrier of Missionary Ridge gave it great significance during the Chickamauga and Chattanooga campaigns in the fall of 1863. Union soldiers first occupied the environs of Rossville in early September 1863, and within a week of the Confederate evacuation of Chattanooga on September 7, Union General Gordon Granger established his headquarters in the log house. Granger and his Reserve Corps of the Army of the Cumberland remained near Rossville through the morning of September 20, then marched south to the Battle of Chickamauga. After the battle, Rossville became a rallying place for most of the shattered Union army, and by nightfall on September 20 the scene around the Thomas G. McFarland House was one of confusion and disorder, with thousands of retreating soldiers milling around or throwing themselves on the ground to rest. Army surgeons occupied the house, while hundreds of wounded patients covered the ground around the building and the adjacent spring. After the Federal defeat at Chickamauga, General George Thomas, the last Federal general on the field, halted at Rossville and established a line of defense against the pursuing Confederates. He made the Thomas G. McFarland House his headquarters on September 21, and on the morning of September 21, 1863, Federal forces, including many men from other units who stood with him, were in line and ready for battle. During much of that morning and afternoon, elements of the Federal army skirmished with Confederate cavalrymen from General Nathan Bedford Forrest's command, while Forrest spent most of the day atop a ridge south at Rossville Gap observing Federal movements in Chattanooga Valley and Chattanooga. Following the Federal defeat at Chickamauga, most of the Federal army escaped to Chattanooga through McFarland Gap and Rossville Gap.

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Photo: Cosmos Mariner