Prior to the 1800s, the Chickamauga-Cherokee had settled in the area around Chickamauga Creek, actively farming and hunting the lands. They remained there until their forced exodus during the Trail of Tears (1838). In the early-to-mid-19th century, the present town of Chickamauga was a large plantation in the rolling hills of north Georgia. When the Cherokee Nation was divided into districts and courts in 1820, Crawfish Springs was made the capital of the new Chickamauga District. After the Cherokee removal and the first court in Walker County was held there in the former Cherokee courthouse. The local post office was Crawfish Springs, GA.
During the War of 1812, five hundred Cherokee warriors from the area fought alongside General Andrew Jackson —at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. This was against the Creek Indians, who were aligned with England. The battle was a victory for the Americans.
The Lee and Gordon families greatly influenced Chickamauga's post-Cherokee history. In 1836 Gwinnett County, Georgia native, James Gordon, established a plantation at Crawfish Springs and built a gristmill two miles east of town —on Chickamauga Creek. Lee and Gordon's Mill, which contained the area's first general store, was situated near a blacksmith shop and stagecoach stop. From 1840 to 1847, Gordon built his Doric-columned brick house (known today as the Gordon-Lee Mansion), which overlooks Crawfish Springs.
The area was settled by many other farm families and life was busy and fruitful in the fertile valleys, until even this remote part of the south was visited by the sounds of cannon and guns during the American Civil War. The Battle of Chickamauga, named for nearby Chickamauga Creek, was fought September 19–20, 1863. It involved more than 150,000 soldiers of the Northern and Southern Armies. Prior to the battle, Union Gen. William Rosecrans located his headquarters at the Gordon Lee Mansion. During the battle, wounded and injured soldiers were
