Catoosa County holds the distinction of having more active servicemen die within its boundaries than any other county in America apart from Adams County, Pennsylvania, where the Battle of Gettysburg occurred in July of 1863. Almost 5,000 deaths occurred at the Battle of Chickamauga and the Battle of Ringgold, and there were hundreds of deaths in Fort Oglethorpe from the typhoid epidemic in 1898 and hundreds more from the flu epidemic of 1918. The Battle of Ringgold resulted in hundreds of Union deaths and approximately twenty Confederate deaths, while total casualties during the Battle of Chickamauga were 16,170 for the Union and 18,454 for the Confederates, with many of those wounded later dying of their injuries. The Battle of Ringgold Gap occurred in the mountain gap about one mile away, and many Union soldiers were returned to the Nathan Anderson home for medical treatment. Just north are over 100 military-style unmarked graves believed to be those of Union soldiers who died during or immediately after the battle and civilians killed in it. Approximately 135 Confederate soldiers were initially buried in this cemetery before being moved to a Confederate battlefield cemetery near Kennesaw. The cemetery also contains hundreds of U.S. veterans who served in wars beginning as early as the War of 1812. It began as an Anderson family cemetery, had grown into a community burial site by the Civil War, and through the necessities of war became a military burial site.

Photo: Darren Jefferson Clay