Chattooga Academy served as Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg's headquarters from September 10-17, 1863, and Bragg reportedly prepared for the Battle of Chickamauga under a large oak tree in front of the building, later known as Bragg's Oak, which was destroyed during a storm in the 1920's. During the Battle of LaFayette on June 24, 1864, Confederate Capt. William V. Harrell, under Gen. Gideon Pillow's command, attacked Union troops who were using the building to store supplies. The Georgia General Assembly authorized construction of an academy in Walker County in 1835, and the school, completed in 1836 on land donated by Spencer Stewart Marsh, took its name from the area's original settlement of Chattooga or Chattoogaville and was later called LaFayette Academy. Believed to be Georgia's oldest remaining brick schoolhouse, it was built for about $800 to replace a log cabin school, with one large room on each floor, a chimney at each end, and bricks manufactured in Rock Spring. Before Lafayette Presbyterian Church was built south of the school, residents organizing the church met in the school and other buildings until 1848; that church later served as a hospital after the Battle of Lafayette. The curriculum included spelling, grammar, reading, geography, philosophy, and ancient language, and a Presbyterian minister was the first teacher. Boys and girls attended until city leaders decided in 1849 to build a nearby Female Academy, after which the original building became the Male Academy. The wood Female Academy building, painted white and fitted with several windows, was dismantled by Union troops in June 1864 so its lumber could be used for a fortification. The brick building and a large two-story frame building built northwest of the school in 1897 continued as a school for area children under the name Lafayette Academy until 1921, when a new school was built. In the 1920s the building was renovated and became a meeting place for Lafayette women's clubs for many years, with windows and doors replaced and the interior extensively remodeled, though the exterior still appears much as it did before the alterations. By 1925 it had been named for John B. Gordon, who had attended the academy as a child before becoming a Confederate general, U.S. senator, and Georgia governor, and on Nov. 15, 1936, the William Marsh Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated it as John B. Gordon Hall. While at the school, Gordon and his brother roomed with the Marsh family in the neighboring house, and the Marsh and Gordon families were friends. The LaFayette Area Chamber of Commerce moved into the building in 1971, the City of LaFayette used it as an office and community meeting facility in the 1990s, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Chattooga Academy.

Photo: Mark Hilton

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Dale K. Benington

Photo: Mark Hilton