Fort Watauga , more precisely Fort Caswell , is a bastion of the American Revolutionary War that once stood in Shoals Sycamore River Watauga in what is now Elizabethton, Tennessee. The fort was originally built in 1775-1776 by the regional border government, the Watauga Association, to help defend Watauga settlers from the attacks of Native Americans (mainly Cherokee), partly instigated by the British. Fort Watauga was originally named Fort Caswell after North Carolina Governor Richard Caswell.
In the 1970s, as part of the nation's two centuries celebrations, the state of Tennessee allowed the reconstruction of Fort Watauga. Archaeologists perform excavations in the Sycamore Shoals area and find several moats believed to be part of the fortress wall. The fort was then rebuilt based on information gleaned about the design of the castle from the excavations, the description of the castle at the source of history, and the general design of a typical Appalachian frontier fortress. The reconstructed fort is now part of the Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park.
Video Fort Watauga
Histori
Pemukiman Watauga
In the late 1760s, European-American settlers began to arrive in the valleys of the Holston, Watauga, and Nolichucky Rivers in Southwest Virginia and what is now called Northeast Tennessee. Along Watauga, the settlers were attracted to a place known as Watauga Old Fields, a meeting place of ancient Native Americans that preceded Cherokee. The Old Fields consist of flat lands that open along the Shoals Sycamore Watauga, a relatively low stretch of river where pioneers and travelers can cross easily. These early settlers were inevitably involved in conflict with the Cherokee tribe and other Native American tribes in the area who claimed the land as a hunting ground.
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 and several subsequent agreements placed the boundaries of British-controlled land in the South Fork of the Holston River, and in the early 1770s settlers outside this boundary (including the Watauga settlers) were ordered to leave. Settlers Watauga rented their land from Cherokee in 1772 and bought land in 1775, but this agreement still violates the 1763 Proclamation. Furthermore, the faction of Cherokee led by the young leader Dragging Canoe strongly opposed tribal land sales, and threatened the bloodshed against the settlers. In 1774 and 1775, both British Chief Inspector John Stuart and North Carolina Governor Josiah Martin issued repeated calls for settlers south of Holston to leave Cherokee land.
Invasion of Cherokee July 1776
The outbreak of the American Revolutionary War of 1775 further disrupted the tense situation on the Appalachian border. Settlers Watauga and Nolichucky generally supported the separation from England, and formed the Security Committee, and established the "District of Washington." In January 1776, Dragging Canoe and England established an alliance, and in April of that year the British supplied the Cherokee with a large number of weapons in the hope that they would wreak havoc on the colonial border. Now fully armed, the Cherokee sends a message to the Watauga settlers, giving them 20 days to leave Cherokee land or face the attack.
The Watauga settlers, meanwhile, had anticipated the Cherokee invasion. Arms and ammunition were purchased through Fincastle County, the Safety, Food and Drugs Committee in Virginia was collected, and various fortresses were built or reinforced, among them Fort Caswell (now called Watauga Fortress). In early July, Cherokee Beloved Woman Nancy Ward notified the plan of the Cherokee invasion of the merchant Isaac Thomas, and Thomas went on to deliver the news to John Sevier, who was in the Nolichucky settlement (near modern Limestone) overseeing the Fort Lee development. The news shocked the settlers, and most of them fled to Fort Caswell, forcing Sevier to flee as well and leaving Fort Lee.
The Cherokee invasion began in mid-July 1776. When the invaders reached Nolichucky, a contingent led by a leader known as "The Raven" split into Carter's Valley (near modern Kingsport), where he drove the settlers and burned them. cabins and farms. Two contingents led by Dragging Canoe and Old Abraham of Chilhowee (or Abram ) went on Nolichucky where they burned the abandoned Fort Lee. This force then split up, with Dragging Canoe marching north to attack the Holston settlement and Old Abraham marching east to attack Fort Watauga. When Dragging Canoe approached Eaton's Station (around Long Island of the Holston), the garrison of the castle, led by Captain John Thompson, feared the Cherokee would pass through the fort and destroy their farm, and thus marched out to engage them on the Island Flats.. 13 Cherokee were killed and dozens (including Dragging Canoe) wounded, and Cherokee troops retreated.
Fort Caswell Siege
With the approach of Cherokee, about 150 to 200 settlers thronged Fort Caswell. The fort garrison consists of about 75 people under the command of John Carter (committee of Safety commissioners), with James Robertson and John Sevier as subordinates. Abraham's longtime contribution from Chilhowee from Cherokee soldiers arrived at Fort Caswell in the early hours of the morning of July 21st. The sudden appearance of the invaders surprised some women milking the cows, forcing them to return to the fort. One of them, Catherine "Bonnie Kate" Sherrill, the future wife of John Sevier, could not go back inside before the gate was locked and had to be pulled past the palisade by Sevier. The initial Cherokee attack lasted about three hours, with both sides exchanging shots. During the attack, some Cherokees managed to get close to the fortress to try to burn it, but were forced to retreat after Ann Robertson Johnson (sister of James Robertson) threw hot water at them.
Unable to take the castle, Cherokee stop the attack and settle in for a long siege. In the following days, a teenager named Tom Moore was arrested outside the castle and taken to Tuskegee, where he was burned at the stake. Another prisoner, Lydia Russell Bean, wife of early settler William Bean, will suffer the same fate when Nancy Ward intervenes and uses her authority as Beloved Woman to avoid it. After about two weeks, the Cherokee lifted the siege and retreated. The arrival of Virginia militia under William Christian later that year largely ended the threat to the castle.
Fortress in subsequent years
In September 1780, Overmountain Men - the frontline militia who helped defeat British loyalist troops at Battle of Kings Mountain - gathered at Sycamore Shoals around Fort Watauga. After this event, the castle was largely obliterated from the historical record, but still occasionally appeared in the land deed at the end of 1819.
In 1909, Princess of the American Revolution placed a monument near the site of the castle. In the mid-1970s, the state of Tennessee reconstructed the fortress to anticipate the celebration of the nation's twelve-year anniversary. The country digs archaeological excavations and historical research to determine the design and location of the castle. The Watauga History Association, formed in the late 1950s, was instrumental in the creation of the Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park.
Maps Fort Watauga
Location and design
The 19th-century historian JGM Ramsey gives the most frequently cited description of the location of Fort Watauga in his Annals of Tennessee published in 1852. Ramsey, who visited Elizabethton and observed what he believed to be the remains the fortress, locates the fortress about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) northeast of the mouth of Gap Creek, along what is now the intersection of G Street and Western Monument (the site is marked by DAR 1909 monuments).
A contemporary and appropriate companion of Ramsey, Wisconsin historian Lyman C. Draper, puts Fort Watauga in a different location, about 1 mile (1.6 km) downstream from the Doe River estuary (about 2 miles northeast of Ramsey location), at a point outside the Joe O'Brien field, just south of the Watauga River
The location of Ramsey for Fort Watauga also placed a fortress two miles further west of John Carter's historic home, John Sevier, and James Robertson (all who were militia leaders and defenders during the July 1776 siege of Cherokee from Watauga Fort) than what the Draper location was. Early explorers of Tennessee and pioneer James Robertson first built the house along the 1770-1771 along the north side of the Watauga River at the mouth of the Doe River. Draper also noted that the historic site of Fort Watauga is also located about four miles away from John Sevier plantation located near the mouth of Stoney Creek, south of the Watauga River in the Lynn Valley.
Little details are known about the original design of Fort Watauga. Ramsey describes the castle on a small hill, and Draper writes that the fort was surrounded by open swamps within easy fireplace from the northern edge of the Watauga River. The 1974 state excavations found a trench-like formation 300 feet (91 m) west of D.A.R. a marker stating archaeologist Carl Kuttruff is believed to be the remains of Fort Watauga based on Ramsey's description.
The 1974 excavation reveals that the castle has an irregular shape, and may consist of a group of cabins connected by a fortress. The rebuilt castle is based largely on the formation found in this excavation, and its design is based on a contemporary Appalachian frontal bastion, which usually consists of a log structure (some with a second story overhanging) and a bastion of sharp poles that surround 1 -location (0.40 ha) page. The rebuilt fortress is currently about 1,500 meters (1,400 m) northeast of the Ramsey location and about a mile west of the Draper site.
References
External links
- Sycamore Shoals State Park
- Photos from the 2003 birthday show
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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