Founded in 1803 at the site of Rosss Landing on the Tennessee River, Chattanooga was once a small settlement centered around a trading post run by John Ross, who was the leader of the Cherokee nation at the time. In 1836, the State of Georgia chartered the Western and Atlantic Railroad to connect the village of Marthasville (now Atlanta) with the river port at Chattanooga. Within the next twenty years, additional railroad companies would link Chattanooga with all of the major cities in the country. These connections would prove to be vital to the Confederate effort during the Civil War and...