Settled in 1833, "Old" Carrollton stood on the much-traveled Carrollton-Forsyth-Springfield road during the Civil War and served as a training center for Southern troops, making it important in the movement of troops and supplies. Guerrilla warfare ravaged the area, and skirmishes occurred in January 1863 and in March and August 1864. Every building except two stables was destroyed. Herron's army camped here in January 1863 after the Battle of Prairie Grove on Dec. 7, 1862. As county seat from 1834 to 1875, it was an important trading and political center. Seventeen children who survived the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah in 1857 were returned here.