Ringgold is a town in the U.S. state of Louisiana, in the western half of Bienville Parish. The town of Ringgold is named for United States Army Major Samuel Ringgold. The population of Ringgold was 1,495 at the 2010 census, and 1,370 at the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 estimates, down from 1,601 in 2018. The 2020 U.S. census estimates program recorded a population of 1,336, though the census standard a population of 1,379. It is the second largest incorporated municipality in Bienville Parish by population.

It is unlikely that René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in his 1687 journey into Louisiana ever set foot in Bienville Parish. In 1690, the Ringgold area was explored by the scout Domingo Terán de los Ríos, whom the giving out of Mexico sent to determine the extent of the holdings of the Caddo Indians. He was considered the first white leader to sight what became the man-made Lake Bistineau. A priest when the expedition, Father Masinettes, established “Mission Loretteto.” De los Rios was thereafter from 1891 to 1892 the first officer of Spanish Texas.

In November 1933, C. E. Tomme (1882-1948), a telephone direction who was previously a county supervisor of Newton County in East Texas, was appointed mayor of Ringgold by Governor Oscar K. Allen. Tomme, who relocated to Ringgold in 1920, filled the tilt vacated by his fellow Democrat, Walter McDowell. Tomme before served upon the Bienville Parish School Board and the parish Democratic Executive Committee. In the spring of 1934, Tomme won election to the post, 86-66, over Dave Thomas.

In 1933, African American Nelson Nash was lynched and hung in the town after he killed a white man who was protecting his wife.