Beautifully situated on the Tennessee River between the Cumberland Plateau and the Great Smoky Mountains, Chattanooga has a history as fascinating and diverse as it is long. Chattanooga began as a river landing, and when residents of the small frontier settlement of Ross's Landing met in 1838 to decide upon a new name for their community, they could not have foreseen the changes that would affect the community they named Chattanooga. Within a few years of the 1849 arrival of the first train of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, Chattanooga became an important communications crossroads: the battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge were fought in 1863 to determine control of this strategically crucial location. If these conflicts played a part in deciding the fate of the nation, they also decided the future of Chattanooga. Although the war ravaged the countryside and destroyed city buildings, it also brought new life: Union soldiers and entrepreneurs alike recognized the economic potential of the area and not only rebuilt Chattanooga and Hamilton County, but transformed the region into a progressive industrial center of the South.