Fort Watauga

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Fort Watauga was an American Revolutionary War fort in what is now Carter County, Tennessee. It was built near Sycamore Shoals in present day Elizabethton, Tennessee on the Watauga River. As a protective garrison for the Watauga Association, Fort Watauga was originally built in 1775 to help defend Watauga settlers from Native American raids , in part, instigated by the British. Fort Watauga was originally named Fort Caswell after the North Carolina Governor Richard Caswell.

The settlements in the area had not been authorized by the British, and were in Native American lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. A significant faction of the Cherokee known by settlers as the Chickamauga were angered by the both encroachments and the successful closing of the Transylvania Purchase of the Cherokee lands, and a Chickamauga force led by Old Abram of Chilhowee attacked the fort in 1776.^[1] The attack was repulsed, but the Cherokees besieged the fort for two weeks (July 20 to August 2, 1776) before abandoning the siege.^[2] A simultaneous attack led by Dragging Canoe against Heaton's Station also failed.^[3] The militia was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Carter, Fort Watauga by Capt. Charles Robertson, Lieutenant Colonel John Sevier (who later became the first Governor of Tennessee), Lieutenant Colonel Issac Shelby (who later became the first Governor of Kentucky), and others.

In 1780, British Major Patrick Ferguson threatened to "lay waste" to the colonists' land in the Carolinas "with fire and sword" if they did not give up their weapons. Colonists in the area were outraged and Fort Watauga served as the September 26, 1780 ^[4]staging area for the Overmountain Men who were preparing to trek over the Blue Ridge Mountains at Roan Mountain (Roan Highlands) in order to both engage, and later defeat, the British Army forces during separate engagements at the Battle of Musgrave's Mill in South Carolina and later at the Battle of Kings Mountain in North Carolina.

Prior to the American Revolutionary War very little gunpowder had been made in the United States; and, as a British Colony, most had been imported from Britain.^[5] In October 1777 the Parliament of Great Britain banned the importation of gunpowder into America.^[5] Five hundred pounds of black powder was manufactured for the Overmountain Men by Mary Patton and her husband at their Gap Creek powder mill, and the Overmountain Men stored the Patton black powder on that first rainy night in a dry cave known as Shelving Rock that is located nearby the Roan Mountain State Park at present day Roan Mountain, Tennessee.^[6] During January 1781, the Overmountain Men also fought the British at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina. The Patton Mill site is located approximately one mile away from the reconstructed fort at Sycamore Shoals.

Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals State Park located in Elizabethton, Tennessee is on the National Register of Historic Places and there are scheduled, year-round historic reenactments at the fort, recreating life in settlement days and the militia muster for the Battle of Kings Mountain. Today the reconstructed Fort Watauga is part of the Sycamore Shoals State Park and located is about 500 yards upstream from what is believed to be the original fort location (the original site being marked by a river rock obelisk monument found on West "G" Street).

[edit] External links

• Tennessee Encyclopedia
• Tennessee State Parks history
• Fort Tours
• Photos of Sycamore Shoals and Fort Watauga
• Revised History of Fort Watauga
• Elizabethton, TN events including the muster
• Sycamore Shoals State Park
• Photographs from 2003 re-enactment
• Kings Mountain National Military Park

[edit] References

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