The Dr. Anderson House camp site stood at the northwest corner of Old Lafayette Road and Straight Gut Road, about one mile north of Rock Spring, Georgia, in a community that had grown around Rock Spring Church during the mid-nineteenth century. The 1860 federal census for Walker County recorded Dr. Peter S. Anderson, a Virginia-born physician, living there with his wife and four children, owning $2,500.00 in real estate and $4,110.00 in personal estate, making him one of the community's leading citizens. During the Chickamauga Campaign, different Confederate commands camped on the Anderson property. One of the first large bodies of troops there was General Thomas Hindman's division of Polk's Corps, sent by General Braxton Bragg to attack General Negley's federal division at Davis' Crossroads; after moving south along the Lafayette Road from Lee and Gordon's Mills, Hindman's men reached Dr. Anderson's white frame house, and between 1 and 2 o'clock on the morning of September 10 Hindman moved from there through Worthen's Gap of Pigeon Mountain toward Davis' Cross-Roads. Around 8 a.m. that day, General Simon Buckner's corps arrived with orders to follow in support, but the poorly coordinated Confederate attack at Davis' Crossroads failed. Bragg then turned to moving against Crittenden's Corps gathering around Lee and Gordon's Mills, and on September 12 elements of Polk's Corps were ordered back up the Lafayette Road toward the federal concentration, with Cheatham's division covering roads from Dr. Anderson's on the left to Pea Vine Church road. Confederate forces remained strong in the area over the next few days while Bragg made his headquarters a short distance east at Leet's Tanyard, seeking to block the federal army from retreating to Chattanooga and drive it back against the rugged eastern side of Lookout Mountain. As preparations for battle continued, the area around the Anderson house remained an important Confederate camp site. By dawn on September 18, General Daniel H. Hill's corps moved through the area, and Hill briefly made his headquarters at the Anderson house before several of his units engaged enemy forces near Lee and Gordon's Mills later that afternoon. On September 19, Hill's Corps left the area and joined the main battle.