Organized in 1837, the Chickamauga Presbyterian Church, commonly called "The Old Stone Church," was a landmark in the Ringgold area at the time of the war. The coming of the Western and Atlantic Railroad and the construction of an impressive stone depot in 1849 greatly influenced the growing economy of Ringgold and the surrounding area. A second station or platform, Catoosa Station, was built just south of the gap to serve the nearby summer resorts of Catoosa Springs and Cherokee Springs. In September 1863, elements of General Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry patrolled Ringgold. On September 11, 1863, Federal forces from Van Cleve's Division of the 21st Army Corps of the Army of the Cumberland entered Ringgold from the west while Colonel John T. Wilder's mounted infantry brigade came from the north. Forrest pushed them back and had the railroad bridge over the creek at Ringgold Gap destroyed. Because the bridge was burned, trains coming to Ringgold could go no farther than Catoosa Station south of the gap. On September 17, the Federals again came to Ringgold, but by then the Confederates had received massive reinforcements. General Gordon Granger wrote that at 3 o'clock on the morning of the 17th General Steedman started from his camp at Rossville with six regiments of infantry and a battery of artillery to make a reconnaissance toward Ringgold and met no resistance until within two miles of the place. Like Van Cleve before him, Steedman encountered pickets from Forrest's cavalry guarding the road at Ringgold. After a brief exchange of fire, the Confederates withdrew to Ringgold, Steedman's troops followed, crossed the creek, placed artillery on the same hill Van Cleve's gunners had used earlier, and fired shells into Ringgold, causing a lengthy Confederate Army wagon train to retire in confusion through the gap. The cannon fire alerted Confederate infantry regiments camped at the southeastern end of the gap. Unknown to the Federals, large reinforcements for Bragg's army had been arriving by train from Virginia and Mississippi. The cannon fire brought an immediate Confederate attack through the gap against the invaders, and Lieutenant Colonel R. B. Snowden of the 27th Tennessee Infantry Regiment later wrote that the advance of Confederate skirmishers and some fifteen minutes of shelling from their battery caused the enemy to retire to the Chattanooga road. During the next two days, thousands of Confederate soldiers came from Catoosa Station, passed through the gap and Ringgold, and continued on to the great Battle of Chickamauga.

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs

Photo: David Tibbs