MAPPING AND GEOGRAPHICAL WORLD

Chattanooga, Tennessee, a Creek Indian word for Lookout Mountain, was named in 1837, for the town that the Western and Atlantic Railroad reached from the East Coast. The railroad made Chattanooga a strategic city during the Civil War. In 1962, Union forces stole the locomotive 'The General' and America's Great Locomotive Chase ensued. During the Fall of 1863, Union and Confederate armies clashed and engaged in some hard fighting near the city and at Chickamauga in Northern Georgia. Over several months, Chattanooga served as a retreat and refuge for both armies at different times, with the Union army later in seige and held there by the Confederates until reinforcements arrived and finally drove the Confederate army South. The collective battles are known and remembered as the battle of Chickamauga and Chattanooga. This battle is generaly considered the beginning of the end to the Civil War. 124,000 fought and 34,000 lost their lives. General Sherman then used Chattanooga as base for his Atlanta Campaign and march to the sea. After the war, Chattanooga quickly rebuilt with the iron and steel industry, increased railroad traffic, warehousing and distribution of cotton and other farm products. The boll veevil destroyed the cotton industry in the 1920's, but other industries prevailed after the depression years of the 1930's. Bandleader, Glenn Miller, immortalized the words 'Chattanooga Choo Choo', and Bessie Smith, a native of the city, became one of the greatest blues singers.