“1776” by REBrammer
“The Greatest Story Never told” begins in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence! Logistics required roads to move massive amounts of troops and supplies. The management of details of an operation demanded strategy, procurement, distribution, maintenance, and replacement of both men and materials.
The “Ranger” tradition began after 1650 due to the outbreak of conflicts between the colonist and Native American tribes. The original concept ranger was a full-time soldier employed by the colonial governments to “Range” between fixed frontier fortifications as a reconnaissance to provide an early warning of impending hostilities. In offensive operations they became scouts and guides for task forces drawn from local militias. Joseph R. Walker’s grandfather, Captain Samuel Walker was a ranger, surveyor, road builder and militia Captain along with brother’s Alexander, John, Joseph and several in-laws.
After the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle finished the earlier war, the hatred between the French and the English, in the Americas never quite waned. It must be understood, that in 1755 France held most of America. The French land claims covered what we call Canada as well as “New France”, the stretch of land that drained into the entire Mississippi River Valley all the way to Louisiana.
The French, who never lovers of the English due to hundreds of years of fighting, sent the Indians who allied themselves with the French in raiding parties in retaliation for raids conducted by the Indians on the English side, who claimed that their raids were in retaliation for those made by the French. England, in early 1755 sent two of their regiments to the colonies “to protect the colonies from the Indian invasions” while the King of France, sent several regiments “To defend their frontiers”.
The French and Indian War had profound effects for both the British Empire and the American colonists. It is often seen as the source of much of the resentment between the English government and the colonists that eventually led to the American Revolution of 1775.
Four sons of French and Indian War veteran Captain Samuel Walker (1714) joined the army: James (1752), John (1755), Joseph (1758), Samuel (1761).
Fifteenth Virginia
Walker, James Ensign of Gist’s Continental Regiment, 20th March, 1777;
cashiered 30th May,
1778.
Fifteenth Virginia
Walker, John Ensign 9th Virginia, 4th July, 1776; resigned May, 1777.
Fifteenth Virginia
Walker, Joseph (Not related) Ensign 26th Continental Infantry, 1st
January to 31st December, 1776; 1st Lieutenant of Webb’s Continental Regiment,
1st January, 1777; Captain, 22d August, 1777; transferred to 3d Connecticut,
1st January, 1781, and served to June, 1783; was Major and Aide-de-Camp to
General Parsons, 15th December, 1780, to 22d July, 1782. (Died: 12th August,
1810.)
Fifteenth Virginia
Walker, Samuel 2d Lieutenant of Gist’s Continental Regiment, 12th March,
1777; resigned 25th August, 1778; served subsequently as Captain Virginia
Militia. (Died: 6th July, 1830.)
On the 8th of June 1776 Virginia State authorized the organization of Troops of Light Horse. As time passed their designation was change to Virginia Light Horse, 1st Continental Light Dragoons, Captain Henry Lee’s Troop, Lee’s Corps of Partisan Light Dragoons, and by 1 January 1781 they were known as the 2nd Partisan Corps, that consist of 3 mounted and 3 dismounted troops.
The Continental Army’s idea of light troops sprang from the relatively new European concept and not the Native American Ranger tradition. During the Seven Years’ War most European armies developed “Partisan Corps” also called “frei korps” (free corps). Originally fielded by the French they filled a unique niche by providing deep security around an army in the field or carried out raids behind enemy lines. The Continental Army authorized several of these formations in 1777 and 1778, primarily as a vehicle to employ European volunteers who could not be inserted into existing regiments without provoking major arguments over rank, or because of language barriers.
Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee of Virginia became the father of General Robert E. Lee and raised the only “All-American-born” unit under this concept. Each partisan unit in the Continental Army, however, had a unique organizational structure. The primary function of Harry Lee’s Partisans was to be the eyes and ears for Nathanael Greene’s Army of Observation. Within Lee’s command he had a highly specialized unit of body guards under the command of Captain Samuel Walker the brother of Joseph Walker and Uncle of Joseph R. Walker.
Do to the unique position that Captain Samuel Walker held, fate allowed his path to cross that of 2 young boys, along with about twenty other American captives being held prisoner in Camden, South Carolina. At the pleas of Elizabeth Jackson, her two sons, Robert and Ande, along with five Waxhaw neighbors, were included in a prisoner exchange between Captain Walker of the American militia and the British Lord Rawdon. Wasted by disease and malnutrition Andrew walked barefooted a distance of 45 miles. Two days later his brother Robert died.
From that day on, in 1781 the teenager never forgot the name Walker, and the future president of the United States Andrew Jackson, also never forgot his distaste for the British due to how ‘harshly & inhumanly’ he and the other prisoners were treated.
In time, General George Washington came to recognize the value of this regular mounted establishment and the 2nd Continental Light Dragoons was born under the command of Colonel Elisha Sheldon and came to be known as Sheldon’s Horse.
Consisting of four troops from Connecticut, one troop each largely from Massachusetts and New Jersey plus two companies of Light Infantry, the unit never served as a whole. First action occurred when Captain Epaphras Bull and Lt. Thomas Young Seymour led a portion of the Second at the battles at Trenton and Princeton, NJ.
From formation through its reversion to State troop status, Sheldon’s patrolled and skirmished its way through Connecticut, Westchester and Rockland Counties as well as northern New Jersey.
Numerous whaleboat raids against British and Loyalist installations on Long Island were conducted by Sheldon’s troopers. It was acts of bravery on one such raid that earned Sgt. Elijah Churchill the Badge of Military Merit (the Purple Heart), precursor to the Congressional Medal of Honor and one of only three awarded for Revolutionary War service.
The regiment performed as the first “PONY EXPRESS” relaying messages along a string of express stations between Washington’s headquarters and the northern colonies. This horse and rider relay system was use for the next 100 years. Sheldon’s served as advance scouts for the American army and earned the sobriquet “Washington’s Eyes”. Under Major Benjamin Talmadge, Sheldon’s also became Washington’s ears as Talmadge operated his “Culper” spy ring on Long Island and in New York City.
In August of 1780 Washington ordered Benedict Arnold to West Point. At the same time Washington ordered Colonel Sheldon to pick 150 of his best men, to junction with two Connecticut regiments just outside West Point. Washington was setting up Arnold with false information to see if it would find its way to the British high command. On September 14, 1780 Washington sent a secret message to Arnold (telling him to send a 50 man guard) as G.W. and some big brass was coming to New York.
Later that week, Arnold passed this information to the British spy master Major John Andre, but three of Sheldon men stop him and found the papers. On October 2, at the orders of Washington, General Samuel H. Parsons was ordered to hang the ol’boy. Arnold got away and fled to England.
Included in the Connecticut regiment was Captain Joseph Walker (Not related). In December of 1780 Captain Walker was promoted to Major Joseph Walker and served as aid to General Parsons until July 1782. General Parsons himself started sending secret messages to British commander Sir Henry Clinton that would have been noticed by Major Walker. Seems the Americans were playing a trick on Clinton. It is unclear what exact role Major Walker played, but there is no doubt he was part of the Tradecraft (As it was called) and a word that would lend itself to the Masons!
To MAJOR GENERAL SAMUEL HOLDEN PARSONS
Head Quarters, New Windsor, February 22, 1781.
Sir: Captain Walker has communicated to me some discoveries made of a plot among the Tories of Stratford and Fairfield Counties of which I have directed him to give you the particulars. It seems a clue has been found to it which if rightly improved will enable us to detect the affair in all its extent and punish the principals and their accomplices. I need not observe to you, of how dangerous a tendency combinations of this nature are, nor of how much importance it is to put an effectual stop to them.
Your knowledge of the country and characters of the people will enable you best to conduct the investigation, and as you live in one of the counties, where it seems to originate, you may do it with the less risk of suspicion.
I am therefore to request you will undertake the affair in the manner you think most likely to succeed and will set about it immediately. You may want a party of men, when you have matured the discovery, to seize the persons concerned. These you may take from the Connecticut line as a Guard to the part of the country, where they will be necessary; in the present state of our force they cannot exceed a subalterns command.
The two points most essential will be to detect any characters of importance who may be concerned in it; and if possible to get into our hands the register of the associators names.
The person who will serve you as a spy must be assured of some generous compensation such as will be an object to his family, and secure his fidelity. This I leave to you to manage. I am etc.
General George Washington
Note: The draft is in the writing of Alexander Hamilton. (See Washington’s
letter to Capt. Joseph Walker, Apr. 1, 1781)
To CAPTAIN JOSEPH WALKER
Head Quarters, New Windsor, April 1, 1781.
Sir: I have received Your Letter of the 30th of March, and feel myself sensibly distressed at the account you give of the illness of General Parsons. I wrote to him the 23d. Ult on the business in which you are now employed and must refer you to that Letter, as the rule of conduct I would wish to have adopted. That is, to consult the Executive of the State, on the Mode they think proper should be pursued in the further investigation of this Matter.
As to the Persons already apprehended, such as are not proper subjects for trial by a General Court Martial, ought to be delivered over to the Civil Authority. In order to determine this, you can state to His Excellency the Govr. the Names, Crimes, and Circumstances of the several Prisoners; And request his decision in what light they are to be considered and in what manner they are to be treated. I am etc.
General George Washington
Note: The draft is in the writing of David Humphreys.
Elements of the unit comprised Washington’s personal bodyguard and men of the Second Light Dragoons guarded John Andre during his incarceration, trial and subsequent execution in Nyack, New York.
In 1781, Sheldon’s Horse became the first American unit to conduct a combined combat operation with our French Allies in Tarrytown, New York. Rochambeau’s staff considered Sheldon’s Horse, 2nd Continental Light Dragoons as “. . . incontestably the best on the continent. . . .”
Sheldon’s Horse was never officially disbanded, making this regiment unique among all Continental cavalry units. The majority of its numbers were furloughed after the cessation of hostilities; the regiment released from federal service and returned to the authority of the state.
Serving under Benedict Arnold was the young Captain James Wilkinson (1757-1825) who had been studying medicine in Philadelphia. By 1778 he was a Colonel serving as secretary to Horatio Gates on the board of War. Through the loose tongue of Wilkinson, Gates’ favorite aide, Washington heard of the disparaging words in Brigadier-General Conway’s letter, a (French officer of Irish lineage) known as the “Conway Cabal”- a conspiracy to ruin the reputation of Washington, and to make Gates the commander-in-chief of the armies. Wilkinson was a true political “Chameleon” who could trim his sails to every changing wind. A born intriguer, he soon developed a talent to hire reputed assassins and in time became the “Top General” in the American Army.
From the start the predominantly defensive nature of the war, George Washington was convinced that he would need more and better trained engineers, but he was continually frustrated in his efforts to find them. Qualified engineers were scarce because formal schooling in siege craft, the erection of field fortifications, and technology was practically non-existent in America at the time. In response to Washington’s plea for more engineers, Congress turned once again to France, which were an enemy of Britain and the center of technical education in Europe.
The French also had a long tradition of military engineering. Beginning in 1776 Frenchmen began to arrive in America to serve as engineers. Before the end of 1777 Congress had promoted one of them, Louis Duportail, to brigadier general and Chief Engineer, a position he held for the duration of the war. Frenchmen, joined by other foreigners, dominated the ranks of the engineers throughout the war.
Duportail wanted to establish a permanent, separate and distinct engineering branch of the Army. His proposal included a provision for companies of engineer troops to be known as Sappers and Miners (digging trenches, laying mines and under mining) and to be officered by Americans. From their ranks would come the future engineer officers to replace the French engineer when they returned home.
Despite the shortage of engineers and the delay in forming companies of engineer troops, the Army’s engineers made numerous contributions to the war. Working in conjunction with Partisans, Engineer officers reconnoitered enemy positions and probable battlefields, wrote useful reports based on their observations, over saw the construction of fortifications and drew detailed maps for commanders.
Congress relieved some of the mapping burden when it appointed Robert Erskine as “Geographer of the Army” in 1777. Erskine and his successor, Simeon DeWitt, employed several assistants as did Thomas Hutchins, whom Congress appointed as Geographer for the Southern Army in 1780. Following this precedent, Congress added “Topographical Engineers” to the Corps of Engineers in 1813 and created a “Topographical Bureau” in the Engineer Department in 1818.
Those with foresight saw the necessary of a centralized system of fortifications. Engineers would be needed to build and maintain them. Two arguments in favor of retaining the engineers drew directly upon Revolutionary War experience. Without a permanent, trained Corps of Engineers, it was maintained, the new nation would be forced to call on foreigners again in time of war. Moreover, as the Revolutionary War had demonstrated, it was extremely difficult to put together an effective technical organization in a short time. But Congress did not approve a peacetime Army and with that decision went any hope of retaining the Corps of Engineers. By the end of 1783 the Corps and its companies of Sappers and Miners had mustered out of service.
Society of Cincinnati
It is very important to remember that these Partisan/Ranger Companies never disbanded and went back to the authority of the States. Washington was so concerned about peacetime security that on 13 May 1783 he created the “Society of the Cincinnati” named after the Roman General & farmer Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus because of his selfless devotion to the republic. Officers who had served three years in the Continental Army were allowed in the Society and the major concept was they always keep in contact and always be ready to “Fight for Freedom”.
That same year Washington proposes the creation of a military academy that facing disapproval would not come into existence until 1802. Therefore it became the responsibility of State groups like the American Philosophical Society and Liberty Hall Academy to fulfill future training needs of our new found freedom. Many of the newly discharged specialists stayed on to support America as private contractors for the U.S. government, including several of the Walker men.
At least four brothers fought in the Revolutionary War which included Joseph Walker, Samuel Walker, John Walker, and James Walker, plus another six cousins and four brother-in-laws that included James Moore and William Willis.
In the early days of the new republic there was considerable suspicion among the working class that those of the class of the Cincinnati were plotting to create a new upper class to control America. In this struggle to determine if the nation would be ruled by a strong central government or to limit the powers of the national government, the Tammany Society was formed in 1786.
Due to the obscurity of information no one knows what Joseph Walker Sr. was doing for the next 20 years, only ones imagination can wonder. We would like to believe he too was as a high ranking member of George Washington’s secret service like Major Joseph Walker!
In time Joseph Sr. finally married the 18 year old Susan Willis of Goochland County, Virginia in 1789, when he was 31y. He was considered old for his times making you wonder if Susan wasn’t a second wife. Susan was the daughter of Robert Willis a wealthy tobacco plantation owner who died in 1780. Later in 1794 when mother Ellender Willis died she left daughter Susan Walker, land & “one Negro wench named Phillis”. This would explain why Joseph was not present at his father Samuel’s death in 1793.
State of Franklin
In April of 1783, the State of North Carolina created Greene County naming it in honor of General Nathan Greene with the intent of giving it to militia members from North Carolina and Virginia as rewards for service. North Carolina had given Greene a grant of 25,000 acres of land located in Maury County and renamed it Greene County. Keep in mind that from 1784 to 1788 we are talking about the “Lost” State of Franklin of which Greene County was a part. One soldier by the name of Joseph Walker was recorded on its very first Tax list.
In 1784 North Carolina was presented with many claims for compensation for military services and supplies. To relieve herself of this burden she first attempted to cede some twenty-nine million acres of land between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River to the Federal government. But it was felt that this would cause somewhat of a vacuum that would leave the people living in the territory without the protection and support of neither the U.S. government nor the State of North Carolina.
In view of this, General John Sevier enrolled a brigade of soldiers and several Judges and formed the State of Franklin. James Houston was appointed Sheriff and it was the Reverend Samuel Houston (husband of Margaret Walker) who unsuccessfully attempted to write the state constitution. Four of the original counties were; Washington, Sullivan, Davidson and Greene. In 1786 James White was appointed U.S. government Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern Department.
General Sevier came for the same area of Virginia that the Walkers came from and enlisted families to migrate to the Watauga Settlement and especially the French Broad Settlement. Things went on as they did until 1788 when Sevier and James White got involved in another one of General James Wilkinson’s exploits with Don Diego de Gardoqui in Washington and Spanish Governor Estevan Miro of Louisiana.
In an effort to encourage settlers to move west into the new territory of Tennessee, in 1787 the mother state of North Carolina ordered a road to be cut to take settlers into the Cumberland Settlements—from the south end of Clinch mountain (in East Tennessee ) to French Lick ( Nashville ). A “long hunter”, Peter Avery, was selected to direct the blazing of this new trail through the wilderness. The trail was laid out following (eastern) buffalo trails which the Cherokee Indians used to travel to their hunting grounds or used as a war path. Avery Trace was several miles north of Fort Southwest Point with John Walker’s place being between the two.
The Great Road that connected Pennsylvania and the Carolinas to the south had a westward branch in Virginia that ended at Whites Fort at Knoxville and later Fort Southwest point at Kingston. The Road to the Cumberland began at Kingston and traveled to Nashville. It connected with Avery Trace in the Cumberland Mountains. A third road in the area was the Walton Road and it too connected with the Avery Trace.
A total of five forts provided shelter and protection for travelers along the Trace. Both Joseph Walker and Samuel Walker had backgrounds in “Trailblazing” and leadership; therefore it would be highly expected to find them working in some capacity along these wilderness roads.
In 1787, the Assembly of North Carolina provided that 300 soldiers would be available for protection at the Cumberland Settlements. These solders assisted Avery in laying out the Trace, each soldier being paid with a land grant of 800 acres for one year’s work. A 10 foot wide trail was cleared, and in that year, 25 families traveled along the new road. By 1788, the “Trace” was still merely a rough trail either marked by trees scored (or “blazed”) or hacked to guide the pioneers and travelers. For several years, only pack horses could follow the rugged trail, and journals of many travelers along the Trace detail hard ship encountered as they journeyed for several days to make the 300-mile trip. At this time, the Trace was called the “North Carolina Road” or “Avery’s Trace,” and sometimes “The Wilderness Road.”
• A one-hack road was a road that was occasionally blazed with hatchet
marks that a man or pack animal could pass. A two hack road was a road that was
occasionally blazed with hatchet marks that a man could ride a horse one. It
was a bit wider and better than a trail or one-hack road.
• A three hack road was a road that was an improvement over the previous
roads and a man could ride a horse with a turn of corn on it. (A turn of corn
being two bags of corn thrown over the horse behind or in front of the
saddle)
• A turn pike was a road that the government authorized to be built by a
company or an individual. The person or company that built the road or improved
it was allowed to charge a toll for the use of the road. Technically the Avery
Trace probably fell into this category.
A portion of the Trace passed through Cherokee land, and the Cherokees demanded a toll for use of the road. Disputes inevitably arose over the toll, and in spite of a treaty designed to settle these disputes, war was declared. As a result, 102 travelers along the road were killed. Finally, North Carolina legislature ordered that militia details of 50 men each would be kept in readiness to escort travelers when large enough groups had gathered at the Clinch River to head west. At the beginning of the Trace, at the Clinch River, a blockhouse was built in 1792. The trace went between Clinch Mountain and Bean’s Lick.
Avery Trace crossed Little Emery, passed along the general route of old Oliver Springs-Harriman highway, thence through the Big emery Gap in Walden Ridge, west along the present highway by Oakdale High School to Crab Orchard, thus by-passing the formidable heights of Walden Ridge above Rockwood. This route was used by many Middle TN settlers. These settlers were generally escorted by guards, or patrols, supplied by Adair's Station located north of Knoxville at present Lynnhurst Cemetery. The road passed Powell Station, Menefee Station (on Clinton Highway), by present Karns School, to Clinch River near Edgemoor, thence to Poplar Creek and to Little Emery.
Territorial Governor William Blount placed much of the territorial militia on active duty under the command of General John Sevier, who based his operations at the blockhouse and began to provide the armed escorts for travelers along the Trace.
Peter Avery was born May 26, 1739 and was baptized in the Dutch reform church at Poughkeepsie, NY. He died in Roane County in 1816. He enlisted in Capt. Isaac Terbush’s company in Duchess County, NY on June 21, 1761. Peter was described as being 22 years of age, fair complexion, gray eyes, fair hair, and a cordwainer (leather worker) by trade. He married (6-20-1788) Mary Yaple (1758). McElwee lists Peter Avery (like Walker) as a non-pensioner Rev. War soldier. No record of his Revolutionary War service has been found. No doubt he saw service against the Indians, and probably in specialized services, such as scouting.
Settlements of Tennessee proceeded rapidly. Home-seekers poured in from the Carolinas, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and even New England. They came with Revolutionary War land-grants, either earned in service or purchased from veterans or speculators. (Often these grants were forgeries.) Many of the people came simply as squatters. The old Wilderness Road and Avery’s Trace were congested with “movers” during the summer months - great top-heavy Conestoga wagons drawn by oxen, broad-tired farm wagons piled high with household goods, and crude sledges with runners of hickory or oak; be-frilled gentlemen astride blooded horses rawboned farmers on hairy plow-nags, peddlers and merchants with their trains of donkeys, immigrants too poor to afford horse or ox plodding through the dust clouds with their meager belongings and children on their backs - all moving west toward the promise of land in Tennessee. Other thousands came by keelboats, poled up the Cumberland and Tennessee from the Ohio.
James White Fort: Knoxville’s beginning
In 1786, General James White brought his wife and children across the mountains from North Carolina to claim land given to him for his service in the American Revolution and his connection with John Sevier. Through land grants from the State of North Carolina, James White owned all land on which the city of Knoxville would later be built. White built his cabin where the Holston and French Broad Rivers join to form the Tennessee River. He later erected three other cabins to house visitors and built a stockade as a defense against possible Indian attacks and protection of his livestock.
In 1790, William Blount of North Carolina was appointed governor of the Territory Southwest of the River Ohio and selected White’s fort as the site of the capitol.
On Oct. 1, 1791, the new town was christened Knoxville, in honor of Major General Henry Knox who as Secretary of War, was William Blount’s superior in the realm of Indian affairs. In 1796, the Southwest Territory became the state of Tennessee, the 16th state in the Union. Knoxville became the Capitol of Tennessee and John Sevier appointed Governor.
What actually happen was that in 1790, North Carolina finally managed to cede the area successfully to the U.S. government making it the Southwest Territory. What this also boils down to, is that what ever records were being kept, were apt to being lost or misplaced making this somewhat of a twilight zone for gathering information.
On June 11, 1792 Knox County was erected out of Greene and Hawkins Counties. Colonel Charles McClung was Knoxville’s first surveyor. He came to White’s Fort, the present site of Knoxville, in 1788 from Pennsylvania at the age of 27. He married Margaret White daughter of General James White in 1790. To establish Knoxville, McClung with kinsman Joseph Walker surveyed the sixteen squares of four lots each. McClung’s distinctions are many and he served as Knox County Clerk from 1792-1834.
On November 30, 1793, a blockhouse was completed by General John Sevier, at Southwest Point, a station near Avery Trace established in 1791, near Kingston, which was of great service to travelers and settlers against Native Americans. Captain John McClellan (son of Barbara Walker) was placed in command of the garrison. The county seat was established and called Kingston on lands of Robert King, near Southwest Point, in Knox County.
The Fort would serve as an Army garrison from 1792 to 1807. Joseph R. Walker’s father also helped survey and defend the construction of the blockhouse-fort complex that would be required for protection, housing and location for Rev Carrick’s Church. The simple fact of the existence of this Fort, provided enough security to attract an influx of more new settlers, that by 1799, it led to the creation of the Township of Kingston, it’s courthouse and jail under the supervision of Sheriff John Brown .The County was divided in 6 civil and military companies with one under the command of Captain John Walker, brother of Joseph and Samuel..
What we do learn from the 1796 Tennessee tax lists is that Abraham McClellan and his brother, Captain John McClellan were living next door to each other in Sullivan County.
Joseph R. Walker was born the son of Joseph Walker and Susan Willis, in the area around Kingston in 1798, today’s Roane County but back then it was Knox County, located a little west of present Knoxville. Joseph lived a life among Rangers, Surveyors, War Heroes, and special service agents at a time when children could ride on a horse almost before they could walk. There is no doubt that young Joe and his brother Joel accompanied their father and Uncles on adventures to the fort or hunting down Indians.
Chief Tecumseh {tuh-kuhm-suh}, who died on October 5, 1813, was a Shawnee warrior chief who with his brother, the Prophet, attempted to stop the advance of white settlement in the Old Northwest. The half-white Tecumseh was the son of Mary Iaac (Ice), (the captive daughter of Frederick Iaac and Mary Galloway) and “Pucksinwah”. Mary (1740-1789) was given the Indian name “Methoataske” and fell victim to the common Indian practice of adoption, thus we may never discover what half-sister really means!
It is thought that Joseph Walker (Sr) was buried some where on a hill near his farm after being killed by Indians around 1813. Brothers Samuel and John Walker along with William Willis are buried at the Post Oak Graveyard. Among those buried in the graveyard at First Presbyterian Church at Knoxville are James White, the founder of Knoxville; Rev. Samuel Carrick, the first minister (1792) & first president of Blount College (University of Tennessee); Elizabeth Walker, the sister of Joseph Walker, Hugh Lawson White, a candidate for U.S. President in 1836; territorial governor William Blount; and Colonel John Williams, a member of Congress. The graveyard is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
After the death of Rev. Samuel Carrick in 1809 his school closed and his widow Annis (McClellan) and their two children, William and Barbara went to live with the Walkers. Nine years later in 1818 when Captain Joseph R. Walker relocated his family to Fort Osage in Missouri, the Carricks went with them. Annis was the older sister of Abraham McClellan, whose mother was Barbara Walker (sister of Joseph Walker Sr.).
Here is a good place to point out what a cozy family we have here.
Captain Samuel Walker (1714-1793) married Jane Patterson and they had the following children:
1. Barbara Walker (1741-1814) who married William McClellan the parents:
Of Anna “Annis” McClellan, who was the second wife of Rev Samuel Carrick.
Of Colonel John McClellan (1768-1842) who married Mary Wallace daughter of William Wallace, sister of Colonel Matthew Wallace who married Mary Houston the sister of General Sam Houston.
Of Jane McClellan (1770) who married James Toomey.
Of Samuel McClellan (1773) who married Rachel McCampbell
Of Abraham McClellan (1776-1851) who married 1st Julia Ann Toomey and second Jane P. Walker (sister of Joseph R. Walker).
Of Elizabeth McClellan (1776) who married James Weir.
Of William L. McClellan (1779-1829) who married Elizabeth Conway Sevier daughter of Governor John Sevier.
Of James McClellan (1781) who married Jane Patterson Taylor (daughter of Jane Walker).
2. Jane Walker (1746-1822) who married William Taylor.
3. Katherine Walker (1743-1815) who married David Scott.
4. Samuel Walker (1748-1830) who married Susan McDonald
5. Elizabeth Walker (1750-1825)
6. James Walker (1752-1791) who married Jane Thompson.
7. John Walker (1755-1829) who married Margaret Paul.
8. Joseph Walker Sr. (1758-1813) who married Susan Willis the parents:
Of Samuel S. Walker (1800-1852) who married Barbara Toomey.
Of Joel P. Walker (1797-1879) who married Mary A. Young and second Eveline Middleton.
Of Joseph R. Walker (1798-1876) who married Suisun Indian.
Of “Big” John Walker (1802-1844)
Of Susan Walker (1804-1860) who married Lucian Ailstock.
Of Lucy Walker (1790-1845) who married Ambrose Toomey.
Of Jane P. Walker (1791-1824) who married Abraham McClellan.
9. Joel Walker (1764-1834) who married Margaret Armstrong
Go West Young Agent
Thomas Jefferson, who in 1776 wrote the Declaration of Independence, also wrote several other letters and reports. He asks his personal secretary Meriwether Lewis, to lead a very special adventure of his.
On January 18, 1803, President Jefferson sent a “secret” letter to Congress asking for $2,500 to fund an expedition to the Pacific Ocean. He hoped to establish trade with the Native American people of the West and find a water route to the Pacific. Jefferson also was fascinated by the prospect of what could be learned about the geography of the West, the lives and languages of the Native Americans, the plants and animals, the soil, the rocks, the weather, and how they differed from those in the East.
An intelligent[s] officer, with ten or twelve chosen men, fit for the enterprise, and willing to undertake it, taken from our posts, where they may be spared without inconvenience, might explore the whole line, even to the Western Ocean, have conferences with the natives on the subject of commercial intercourse, get admission among them for our traders, as others are admitted, agree on convenient deposits for an interchange of articles, and return with the information acquired, in the course of two summers. Their arms and accoutrements, some instruments of observation, and light and cheap presents for the Indians, would be all the apparatus they could carry, and with an expectation of a soldier’s portion of land on their return, would constitute the whole expense. Their pay would be going on, whether here or there.
[Signed] Thomas Jefferson
ALTHOUGH Jefferson himself maintained an official calm concerning prospects, some of his correspondents felt no such restraint. A famous French naturalist, Count Bernard de Lacepede, on May 13, 1803, wrote the President an ecstatic letter whose contents Jefferson promptly passed on to Meriwether Lewis:
If your nation could establish an easy communication by river, canal, and short portage, between New York, for example, and the town that would be built at the mouth of the Columbia (Astoria), what a route that would be for the trade from Europe, from Asia, and from America!...What greater means to civilization than these new communication routes!
In response to the opening of his mail by European postmasters during his service as Minister to France (1784-1789), Jefferson began to rely heavily on codes to send important messages. His belief in the practice was strong enough to prompt him to invent his own encoding device, the Wheel Cipher. While it is uncertain if Jefferson abandoned the use of the Wheel Cipher after 1802, he continued to use codes throughout the remainder of his public career, including two that are associated with his communications with Lewis.
One of Meriwether Lewis’s first jobs as the President’s personal secretary was to help Jefferson decrease the size of officer corps of the United States Army, a task with political ramifications that Jefferson hoped to avoid thru the use of a coded rating system.
At Jefferson’s request, the War Department supplied the President’s Office with a roster of all commissioned officers, dated July 24, 1801. The roster lists nearly 300 officers, ranging in rank from Brigadier General to Lieutenant, and was originally broken into four columns — Names, Rank, Date of Commission, and State. The title for the fifth column, Remarks, is in a different hand (compare the “R”s in Rank and Remarks), and historians believe that Lewis added this column to hold his coded notations. He returned the list to Jefferson along with a key to decipher his codes. Among the eleven symbols in the code are six that relate the political opinions of each officer, such as the “+++++o%” symbol that Lewis used to indicate that four members of the Army’s General Staff were “opposed most violently to the Administration and still active in its vilification.”
Thomas Jefferson decided to press ahead with his long-standing desire to find a commercially feasible land route across the continent. Before he had the least notion that France might sell all of Louisiana (and while Spanish officials were still administering the province) be began preparations for a major expedition to be headed the young Captain Meriwether Lewis of the United States Army. Lewis himself added Lieutenant William Clark as a co-commander equal in everything but rank and even rank would have been equal save the contrary action by the War Department.
In 1803 four soldiers from Fort Southwest Point were chosen to accompany Lewis and Clark on their expedition. (My best guess is: John Potts, John Colter, Robert Frazer and John Shields.) Eight soldiers were originally chosen for this expedition but the other four did not meet the necessary qualifications needed for it. One of Lewis’s three sergeants was the jack-of-all-trades, Nathaniel Pryor who served him well throughout the entire expedition and will reappear quite often in the future.
The year before in 1802 Spain gave a fur monopoly on the Missouri to Manuel Lisa (born in New Orleans on Sept. 8, 1772 the son of a government official from Murcia, Spain) who entered into direct opposition and competition with the powerful Chouteau family. He tried to circumvent their royal license to exclusive trade with the Osage Indians and obtain free trade for all. Failing at this, he wrested the official Osage trading rights from the Chouteau’s.
When Lewis and Clark arrived in late 1803, Lisa quickly seized much of their business, although neither explorer like him… particularly Lewis. They needed to supply an enlarged expedition force, and Lisa had many of the items they sought. Still, he often frustrated Lewis. The captain likewise did the same with Lisa. The trader had apparently not gotten enough of Lewis’ business to satisfy him so he petitioned authorities protesting Lewis’ high-handedness and other shortcomings.
When Louisiana Territory was sold to the United States there was considerable unrest among the leading French Creoles. They resented being handed to Spain and then to the United States without their own wishes being consulted. Thomas Jefferson had lived long enough on the edge of the frontier to appreciate this situation. He immediately set about conciliating the Creole leaders. In the summer of 1804 he appointed four young men from this group to the newly established military academy at West Point. A. P. Chouteau, Charles Gratiot, Louis Lorimer Jr., and Pascal Vincent Bouis were the ones so honored. At the same time Jefferson appointed Pierre Chouteau the United States Special Indian Agent for upper Louisiana.
A. P. Chouteau was graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1806 with the rank of ensign in the United States Infantry. He served for a little while as aide de-camps on the staff of General James Wilkinson. In 1807 he commanded a trading expedition up the Missouri river accompanied by a military unit under Nathaniel Pryor. At this time young Chouteau was twenty-one years old. This Chouteau-Pryor expedition was a direct outgrowth of the one led by Lewis and Clark. Pryor was attempting to escort safely home the Mandan chief, Shahaka, who had visited Washington. During the War of 1812 Pryor would serve as a captain under General Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans.
With the finalization of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States became embroiled in a boundary dispute with Spain. Suspicious of United States expansionism, Spain outfitted a large army of 600 soldiers at Santa Fe. Under the leadership of rich dapper, Lt. Facundo Melgares, the soldiers patrolled the eastern plains with orders to keep the Americans off Spanish soil. Few Americans were encountered, and Lt. Melgares spent much of his time negotiating treaties with neighboring Indians, particularly the Pawnees. Reaching the Pawnee village near the Nebraska line, he discovered that he had been too prompt; his quarry had not yet appeared. His undisciplined men were too restive for him to hold them longer. Giving the Pawnees some Spanish flags and medals and urging them to stop any interloping Americans, he marched his grumbling soldiers south to the Arkansas River and west along it toward home.
Meanwhile, the United States was anxious to see what kind of deal it had made with France. On the 9th of August 1805, the commanding General of the Army, General James Wilkinson quickly organized a detachment to explore and spy the region that is now Kansas. The small military force consisting of 23 soldiers under the command of Lt. Zebulon Pike, were ordered to reconnoiter the new domain. In September Pike encountered the same Pawnees of Melgares and requested their loyalty to the United States. When the Pawnee told him to go home, he coolly defied them and followed Melgares’ course south to the shallow Arkansas.
Zebulon Pike continued his trek westward eventually entering present-day Colorado and building a temporary stockade in the San Luis Valley along the Rio Conejos. Here at his encampment, Spanish soldiers intercepted Pike. They informed Pike that he was trespassing on Spanish territory. A dumbfounded Pike had either erred in his calculations or had received instructions to intentionally provoke the Spanish. Pike, of course, claimed that he had simply erred. Under Spanish escort, Pike went to Santa Fe and ultimately on to Chihuahua where he was interrogated and set free. Pike’s account of his expedition, printed in 1810, gave outsiders and Americans the first glimpse of life in northern Mexico. Pike probably wanted to be captured. For a century and a half an aura of mystery has clung to his expedition and perhaps always will. What was he after? Jefferson had made no plans for an examination of Louisiana’s disputed border with New Mexico, although he did approve of Pike’s expedition after learning of it.
In May of 1805, 10 months after killing Alexander Hamilton in a dual, ex-vice president Aaron Burr arrived in Nashville, where he is greeted with public balls and dinners and stays four days as the guest of General Andrew Jackson. Later he meets with General Wilkinson, the new Governor of the Louisiana Territory, at Fort Massac. Wilkinson outfits Burr with “an elegant barge” and gives him letters of introduction to Wilkinson’s old friend in New Orleans the wealthy merchant Daniel Clark. Again he is feasted with banquets and balls. Burr stays three weeks then returns east and dines in Washington with President Jefferson. Then Burr returns to Philadelphia, where he writes his first letter to Harman Blennerhassett and one in cipher to General Wilkinson in New Orleans announcing he had “commenced the enterprise” and that “detachments from different points and under different pretences will rendezvous on the Ohio River” on November 1 of 1806. Burr writes that the troops will be at Natchez in early December to meet Wilkinson. “The gods invite to glory and fortune,” Burr also discloses his plans that shock the patriotism of his host, Colonel George Morgan the father of General John Morgan, who communicates his concerns to President Jefferson. In 1787 it was Colonel Morgan who received a land grant from Spanish minister Don Diego Gardoqui that became the town of New Madrid in Missouri. Governor Estevan Miro of Louisiana disapproved of the grant as he had his own deal going with Wilkinson.
By September 1806 now on Blennerhassett Island, Burr makes plans for the large-scale expedition against Mexico and contracts for fifteen boats, capable of carrying 500 men, as well as for provisions. In Nashville, he contracts for the building of six more boats, and deposits money with Andrew Jackson to pay for them. He also purchases 400,000 acres of land on the Washita River. But suddenly, Wilkinson decides to actively oppose Burr’s plans and sends a messenger to inform the President Jefferson of his opposition to Burr. Burr is arrested by Major Perkins near the Tombigbee River in Alabama. He is taken to Fort Stoddart, where he is imprisoned for two weeks. So what went wrong? Pike’s expedition was launched by General Wilkinson without the official authorization of President Jefferson or the War Department, although it was approved retroactively. Tensions with Spain were high on the frontier in 1806, and many Americans expected a war. Wilkinson, who was still Governor of Upper Louisiana during this period, was ordered to engage in intelligence operations against Spain, using army officers disguised as traders if necessary.
Wilkinson was also a double agent (secret agent #13) and engaged in supplying information to the Spanish (Wilkinson tipped the Spanish off to the fact that Pike was going to be traveling in their territory). But what Wilkinson was really up to, has remained a mystery. It appears that, in collaboration with Aaron Burr, he was planning a coup in the West Americans. One theory is that by 1806, Wilkinson no longer believed that Burr’s conspiracy could succeed. It has never been determined whether this was a traitorous movement designed to separate the western territories from the Union, or a plot to conquer Spanish territory, specifically Texas, without officially involving the United States Government. At any rate, Pike’s expedition to the Spanish borderlands would serve the needs, both official and unofficial, of James Wilkinson. Pike was trying to be captured to obtain a “free ticket” into Spanish territory, Wilkinson and Burr had little idea of the territory to the west of the river, and had just one chart of southeastern Texas prepared by Philip Nolan a few years earlier. Burr also had a copy of a map purloined from the great explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Humboldt had prepared the map three years earlier while in Mexico City. In drawing it he had relied on information derived from Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco, the cartographer who had gone into Utah with Escalante and who later had drawn maps of New Mexico for Anza. Humboldt had paused in Washington on his way back to Germany and had let officials copy his yet unpublished map. But more information was needed. Where were Spanish forts located, how arduous was travel in the country, and how many enemy troops were quartered there? Burr had passed his copy of this map to Wilkinson who in turn had given a copy to Pike. Burr wandered abroad a few years, living upon scanty remittances from personal friends; but in 1812 returned stealthily to New York City, confirmed in sensual and impecunious habits. In 1813, Daniel Clark died mysteriously!
The expeditions of Lewis and Clark, and Zebulon Pike set the groundwork for the colonization of the Western United States. This helped pave the way for expansion in the West because once someone has set a precedent; it is easier for others to follow. Lewis and Clark made peaceful relations with the Indians and stopped a possible war between the Americans and them. They filled in the blanks of the United States geographical knowledge. Zebulon Pike explored parts of the Southwestern United States and Mexico. He filled in those blanks of geographical knowledge. These new facts meant that other people might not be as afraid to make trips to the West. Lewis, Clark and Pike helped ease the fears and pique the interest of other explorers and settlers. These men risked their lives in order to bring back the information they did. What they will be remembered forever, but what many of their men did is still kept hidden.
In order to combat the British fur-trading monopoly in Canada, John Jacob Astor, after meeting with Thomas Jefferson, in 1808 organized the American Fur Company. He established trading posts along the Missouri and Columbia rivers and founded the village of Astoria in Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia River to serve as a terminal station. That same year, newly commissioned Colonel Auguste Chouteau, (one of the founders of the city of St. Louis) formed a partnership with Astor and later became the first president of the Bank of Missouri.
In March of 1809 the Missouri Fur Company was organized at St. Louis by William Clark, Reuben Lewis, and Manuel Lisa, the Chouteau brothers, Benjamin Wilkinson (General Wilkinson’s brother), and Andrew Henry.
Articles of Association and Co partnership made and
entered into by and between Benjamin Wilkinson, Pierre Chouteau senior, Manuel
Lisa, Augustin Chouteau junior, Reuben Lewis, William
Clark and Sylvestre Labbadie
all of the town of St. Louis and Territory of Louisiana, and Pierre Menard and William
Morrison of the town of Kaskaskia in the Territory of
Indiana, and also Andrew Henry of Louisiana, and also Dennis Fitzhugh of
Louisville Kentucky for the purposes of trading and hunting up the river
Missouri and to the head waters thereof or at such other place or places as a
majority of the subscribing co-partners may elect, viz:
In testimony of which we & each of us have hereunto subscribed our names at
the Town of St. Louis this seventh day of March eighteen hundred & nine.
{signed} Meriwether Lewis...Requier
In the fall of 1809, Lewis decided he had to go back to Washington to work out his problems with the War Department and to attend to the long-neglected publication of his journals. Taking the journals and the unpaid vouchers with him, he left St. Louis by keelboat on September 4, 1809. His plan was to travel down the Mississippi to New Orleans, and then take a sea-going vessel up the east coast to Washington D. C.
On a layover at Fort Pickering, near Memphis, Captain Gilbert Russell, Commanding officer of the Fort refused to let Lewis leave, claiming it “due to his health”. Captain Russell detained Lewis until the arrival of U.S. agent Major James Neelly of the Chickasaw nation. The party leaving Fort Pickering included Major Neelly, Captain Lewis, Lewis’ servant John Pernier, an unnamed black man, along with several Indian Chiefs. On 9 October 1809, Major Neelly and the Indians went in search of two missing horses, and told Lewis and the two servants proceeded to Robert Grinder’s Stand for lodging.
That night at about 3am two pistols fired off and Lewis later was found barely alive; Mrs. Priscilla Grinder sent two of her children to the barn to fetch the servants. Lewis had been shot twice, once in the head and once in the chest. On going in the room they found him lying on the bed; he then uncovered his side and shewed them where the bullet had entered; a piece of his forehead was blown off, and had exposed the brains, without having bled much and at his breast he showed where the ball entered and passing downward thro’ his body came out low down near his back bone. Having permitted him to remain for two hours in this most deplorable situation, he expired just as the sun rose above the trees.
Sometime later when Major Neeley finally arrived Lewis was dead and one of his horses missing. In his official report to Thomas Jefferson, Major Neelly wrote: “Sir, It is with extreme pain that I have to inform you of the death of His Excellency Meriwether Lewis, Governor of upper Louisiana who died on the morning of the 11th Instant October, 1809 and I am sorry to say by Suicide”.
General Wilkinson
According to David Chandler, Lewis discovered certain secrets about General James Wilkinson, his predecessor as Governor of Upper Louisiana. These secrets if revealed, would destroy not only the reputation of General Wilkinson (the highest ranking person in the U.S. Army), but also that of Thomas Jefferson, who was no longer president. Chandler believed the real reason for Lewis’ trip to Washington was to “blow the whistle”, in order to collect his money. The only way to kill the scandal was to kill Lewis before he could talk. Those who supposedly were helping Lewis in his final days like Major Neelly, and Captain Russell, would make excellent conspirators.
Seven months after the death of Lewis, John Pernier the former servant, he himself died suddenly in Washington. Folklore has it that his throat was cut from ear to ear, but the man with whom he was boarding wrote Thomas Jefferson to inform him that Pernier deliberately ended his life with an overdose of laudanum. Jefferson recorded the event in a letter to a friend:
“You will probably know the fate of poor Pierner, Lewis’ servant, who lately followed his master’s example.”
“GOD MADE ME A HERO AND A PATRIOT, AND MAN CAN’T Make ME LESS.”
Sam Houston was born into a military family in Virginia, on the second day of May in 1793. In 1774 his father had served in the Revolutionary War as a captain in Morgan’s Rifle Brigade. Grandfather John Houston arrived safely in the New World around 1729 about the same time as the Walkers. Both families after tarring in Pennsylvania were swept up with the tide of Scotch-Irish immigration streaming southward to the upper Valley of Virginia. Among the Walkers and Houstons, were the Stuarts, McCorkles, Paxtons, Davidsons, Montgomerys, McCormicks and McClungs. They had become the first citizens of the new Presbyterian commonwealth beyond the Blue Ridge, at which the Episcopalian aristocracy of the Tidewater was beginning to cease to tilt its nose.
Brothers and sisters alike went to church every Sunday to the stone built Timber Ridge Church. Not more than a hundred yards from the homestead, it was a monument to the pious initiative of their great grand fathers and the women who had brought sand for the mortar in their saddle-bags from South River. They went to school in a building made of logs that stood a short distance from the church. Captain Sam Houston, along with Captain Alexander Stuart, donated the forty acres of land at Timber Ridge near Mount Pleasant, for the location of the Augusta Academy. In 1776, the trustees, fired by patriotism, change the name of the school to Liberty Hall Academy. Among the Trustees: Rev. Samuel Carrick, Joseph Walker (from 1782 to 1815), John Houston, Rev. Samuel Houston, Samuel Doak, Andrew Moore and Captain Alexander Stuart.
Expresses from the West indicated that Kentucky and Tennessee accepted the early comings of hostilities as one of the few certainties of life on the frontier. The Virginia militia was stirred. Never had Major Houston (promoted in 1803) been busier in his inspections when a call to the field of honor…somewhat on the outcome of the designs of Aaron Burr, although no one knew, or has since found out, what those designs were. Colonel Burr had a way of keeping his projects flexible. They seemed to comprehend anything from colonization scheme in the Spanish province of Tejas (Texas), to the seizure of New Orleans, the alienation of the Mississippi Valley, the conquest of Mexico and the coronation of Aaron I as emperor of the Southwest against a twinkling background of orders of nobility and star and garters.
Sam Houston was thirteen years old when the Burr bubble burst and the Major, his father was free again to resume his personal life but there was a major problem…Timber Ridge was bankrupt. In September of 1806 Major Houston sold what was left of the Timber Ridge plantation for a thousand pounds. Several months later he died suddenly (under unusual conditions) at Dennis Callighan’s Tavern near present-day Callaghan, Virginia in Alleghany County, 40 miles west of Timber Ridge while on militia inspections.
Did Major Samuel Houston also cross hairs with General Wilkinson?
In the spring of 1807 Elizabeth Paxton Houston took her family along with the Moores, Cowans and Walkers and moved out on the road from Lexington that threaded the green Allegheny passes and descended into the wilderness of Tennessee where the rainbow dipped in the southwestern sky. It took three weeks to migrate to Blount County, Tennessee near Fort Craig, which was located on Pistol Creek, the first settlement in the area which is now the City of Maryville. The fort was built in 1785 to protect settlers from Indian attack. It was here where brother-in-law James Houston, the McClungs and other Walkers lived. Family ties with the Walkers went back to Scotland and it is very possible they traveled to America together. Here young Houston spent much of his later childhood and attended Rev. Carrick’s “Blount College” until his death in 1809.
An upset Sam went to live in the company of Chief Oo-loo-te-ka (John Jolly…He- Puts the-Drum-Away), and the Cherokee Indians who lived on Hiwassee Island that parts the Tennessee River and the yellow waters of the Hiwassee about 50 miles SW of Maryville. John Jolly was a brother of Old Settler Chief Tahlonteeskee, and both were uncles of Cherokee Chief John Rogers and also the 1/2 brother of Tiana Rogers. In time Houston learned to hunt, fish, and speak their language understand their customs and even took the Eagle as his “medicine animal”. Sometime around 1811 Sam Co-lon-neh “the Raven” Houston came back to town where local trading post owner, John or James Rogers in Kingston hired him because he could read and write English plus speak the local Cherokee language with some sort of fluency. This minor fact was of great value to the store owner because Cherokee country began about three miles south of Kingston and this could come in handy for trading with them.
In May of 1812 Sam set up his “Indian University” in a clearing on John McCulloch’s farm five miles east of Maryville to teach Indian ways. Was this his way of recruiting students who could ride a horse, shoot a gun and live off the land? It would come of no surprise to anyone, to discover that some of the Walker boys attended a few of Sam’s classes.
During the European colonization of North America, many white individuals found themselves drawn to the lifestyles of First Nations people. The simpler, more natural way of life permeating many aspects of native existence appealed to certain people, most often men, who were weary of the pretensions and materialism of European society. These so-called “White Indians” often lived in native communities for years. They learned native languages fluently, attended native councils, and often fought alongside their native companions. Naturally, many of them also married into the tribe and bore children of mixed blood.
Many of these “White Indians” were also part Indian. White traders, frontiersmen, and settlers who migrated westward often found them selves “guest” of the Indians at times. If a Chief lent or gave you a female to assist you while in their camp, it was an offense to the chief for the gift to be refused. The assistance was from any thing from cooking, washing clothes, caring for the person gear, etc to sexual privileges. The children of such arrangements were an accepted part of Indian Life before European religion came into their lives. If the chief gave the female to the man to go with the man as a helpmate she often became what is referred to as a “woods wife”. If the man was already married this posed problems for all concerned. The “woods wife” might not be accepted by the legal wife or she might become a slave in the household or she might become a cast off. Sometimes this caused more problems. As the progress of migration increased may of the part Indians had problems adjusting to living with either side of their heritage. Chief Benge and Chief Will are two such men. Each with problems who became vicious against both sides of their culture.
Take John D. Chisholm as an example who became advisor to various Cherokee chiefs, and worked to promote the move of the Cherokees to the new lands west of the Mississippi River. Born in Scotland Chisholm was appointed a justice of the peace by territorial governor William Blount in 1790. Chisholm was one of the earliest settlers of Knoxville, built the first tavern and the first court house. Captain John Chisholm, with William Blount and others, schemed to wrest Florida from the Spanish and Indian land from the Cherokees.
During the War of 1812, White Indians like John Ross and James Rogers played an important role as a buffer group between the British and First Nations people. They had unique insights and understandings regarding both cultures, and were sometimes able to sway the intentions of either group. Another example was Major John Walker, of Calhoun County, became famous as an officer of the Cherokee forces that fought under Andrew Jackson at the Horseshoe Bend in the Creek war and the man who laid out the town of Calhoun from a tract of land on the Hiwassee River given to him by the national government. It was at his home the county was organized. But White Indians also found themselves in the precarious position of trying to simultaneously please both white and native leaders. The war forced some to make serious personal decisions - decisions which would forever alienate them from one culture or the other.
War of Faulty Communication
Early in 1811 the British agent of Indian affairs in Canada, believing a war between his Government and the United States to be inevitable, began, with unusual vigor, to stir up discontent with the United States government among the Northwestern Indians that they might be made allies of Great Britain. Governor Harrison’s instructions from Washington advised a conciliatory policy as long as such would be consistent with the duty of the Government owed its citizens. The secretary of war intimated to Governor Harrison that the surest way of securing good conduct from Tecumseh and The Prophet would be to make them captives. Tecumseh was not only a gifted North American Indian but he was also a brigadier-general in the British Army. But The Prophet proclaimed that the Great Spirit…who loved his red children…would be greatly angered if they were harmed!
And indeed the “Earth” did come alive. For Reel Foot Lake in Tennessee was formed by a series of earthquakes in the winter of 1811-1812. These earthquakes included the largest ever recorded in the lower 48 states, with a force that rang church bells in Boston. In an amazing show of force, the Mississippi River flowed backwards and filled in the area that is now Reelfoot Lake. All because of the volcano Tambora located in Indonesia who had been silent for 5000 years before the explosion occurred. Then, in 1812, Tambora awoke from its slumber, when small eruptions of steam and ash began to emanate from the mountain, accompanied by significant earth tremors. This activity continued until 5 April 1815, when the first great eruption occurred, generating a volcanic column 15½ miles high. This blast was heard over 620 miles away. The worst, however, was yet to come.
The eruption
Five days later, on 10 April, a number of colossal explosions occurred, creating columns of volcanic material that stretched up to 25 miles into the sky. What goes up normally comes down, so when these columns collapsed, they formed pyroplastic flows - earth-hugging clouds of hot ash, rocks and pumice that rampaged across the island killing everyone and everything in their path. Almost the entire populations of the Tambora province, over 10,000 people, were killed instantly by these flows. In addition, when these flows reached the sea, tsunamis up to 100 feet high were formed, that careered into neighboring islands across the locality, killing yet more people in the immediate vicinity of the volcano.
The death toll
The lighter ashes and dusts stayed somewhat longer in the skies, turning day into night for days across an area 125 miles from the blast. When this ash fell back to earth, it blanketed the ground so perfectly that all vegetation was killed off, subsequently killing as many as 80,000 people from famine and disease across many islands in the region. All in all, over 90,000 people died as a direct result of the eruption - the largest death toll from a volcano in recorded history. Great famine was everywhere. Devastating floods hit China. In North America, 1816 is remembered as ‘the year without a summer’, when snow fell during June and frost was still widespread during the month of July.
The War of 1812 with Britain was difficult for the new Nation. There were many losses, and the White House in Washington, D.C. was burned by the British. However, the early victory of the U.S. Navy, the leadership of able generals such as Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison, and key American victories at Fort McHenry and at New Orleans finally stirred public support for the war. At its close, Americans turned their energies to exploring and settling the American continent in a fury of westward expansion.
It was not too long after the declaration of the War of 1812, that a war fever caught the whole population with an intense desire to get into the action. The result of this feeling was so positive that Tennessee became known as the Volunteer State. Volunteering came in different groups like Colonel Coffee’s Volunteer Cavalry in December of 1812, then Colonel Brown’s 2nd Volunteer Infantry in September of 1813, then Colonel Brown’s Mounted Gunmen in January of 1814. In those days the manner in which to enlist was, that a Sergeant along with a drummer and a fifer, would parade around with silver dollars resting on the drum head. To take a dollar from the drum was your bounty to enlist and also, your first pay check. Upon taking the dollar, you were marched off and dressed in a uniform.
Standing alongside Willoughby Williams, and following in his father’s footsteps Sam Houston wasted no time in March of 1813, to snatch up the dollar, and after being uniformed, was marched off to the encampment of the 7th Infantry at Knoxville. In thirty days Sam was appointed a drill Sergeant. It is very possible that because of Sam’s father; President Madison, 4 months thereafter commissioned him an Ensign and attached him to the U.S .Army Regulars, in particular the U.S. 39th Infantry. The ever loyal Cherokees, including John and James Rogers went ahead as scouts when the 39th Infantry marched into the wilderness of the Creek country.
At the time most volunteers were under the impression that their enlistments were between three months to one year and after the Battle of Hillabees, on November 18, 1813, they wanted out. These men stated a Mutiny to General Andrew Jackson, who declared to them, that idle time did not count towards their enlistment. This ploy did not work as well as the General had expected, so thereafter another call went out for fresh recruits. There was also another small issue here, that during this battle, General James White of Knoxville was not aware that General Jackson was negotiating peace talks with the Creek tribes and attacked the Indians killing 64 and seizing 256 prisoners. To the Indians this was proof of treachery; they would keeping the war going and fight to the death.
Part of Jackson’s problems in battle resulted from his ordering soldiers to quit the field of battle leaving the wounded behind to be slaughtered by the Indians. This had not been the practice in previous battles and the men refused to do so by Col. Thomas Hart Benton. As a result he sent Col. Benton to Washington and placed Col. Pillows in his place.
As a young man, Benton studied to follow his fathers profession of law but other ambitious young Southerners of his day, Benton was attracted to the opportunities and excitement of the raw frontier state of Tennessee. In 1799, he moved his family to a 40,000 acre tract near Nashville, bequeathed him by his father, and set to work building a plantation, roads, mills, school and meeting houses, and other buildings necessary to the town he founded there. Meanwhile, he finished his studies, was admitted to the Tennessee bar, and was soon active in state politics and military affairs. He attracted the attention of Andrew Jackson, even then one of the most powerful men in Tennessee. At the outset of the War of 1812, General Jackson appointed Benton his aide-de-camp, with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Benton, still bitter from his demotion, was enraged at the news of an insult offered his brother Jesse by Andrew Jackson himself. The two quarreled bitterly; Jackson publicly threatened to horsewhip Benton. A fight ensued after Thomas Benton reprimanded Jackson in a letter for standing in as a second to his friend, William Carroll, in a duel against Jesse Benton.
Note: (William Carroll became major general of Tennessee militia on 13 November, 1814, and won distinction in the defense of New Orleans, especially in the battle of 8 January, 1815. He was governor of Tennessee from 1821 till 1827, and again from 1829 till 1835.)
On the morning of September 4, 1813, the Benton brothers arrived in Nashville and took their saddle-bags to the City Hotel, to avoid, Colonel Benton said, a possibility of unpleasantness, as Jackson and his friends were accustomed to make their headquarters at the Nashville Inn, diagonally across the Court-House Square. Each of the Bentons wore two pistols. At about the same time Jackson, John Coffee, and Stockley Hays arrived at the Inn, all armed and Jackson carrying a riding whip. The news was over town in a moment. Jackson and Coffee went to the post-office, a few doors beyond the City Hotel. They went the short way, crossing the Square and passing some distance in front of the other tavern where the Bentons were standing on the walk. Jackson started toward him brandishing his whip. "Now, defend yourself you damned rascal!" In the hotel guns were fired with one of Jesse Benton’s rounds hitting Jackson in the shoulder.
One of Tom Benton's stray shots went through the room occupied by the Fremonts. The shot just missed Charles, whose wife Ann fainted. Charles Fremont went into the midst of the fight, screaming at the two participants who had almost killed his baby. Oddly enough, the man who may have almost killed baby John Charles Fremont was his future father-in-law, Thomas Hart Benton.
While Jackson was carried off for medical attention, Benton seized the General's sword and ceremoniously broke it over his knee. Shortly thereafter, the Benton brothers beat a hasty, but prudent, retreat to Missouri.
The move to Missouri was a turning point in Benton's career. In Tennessee, he chafed at his role of second to "Tennessee's first citizen"; in Missouri, he would be the first citizen. By 1815, he was settled in St. Louis, active in law and politics, and editor of The Missouri Enquirer.
As to the accidental attack on the Creeks, it was known that General White and General Jackson did not agree on many things and this may not have been an accident. Just as the attack by Benton was not an accident.
By January 1814, a second call went out to the Roane community spear headed by Colonel John Brown, the counties first Sheriff. Designated the East Tennessee Volunteer Mounted Gunmen, they had a little over 200 volunteers including both Joseph R. Walker and Joel P. Walker and two son’s of their Uncle John, Samuel and Audley. Under Captain James McKamy (whose sister was married to Samuel) they were used primarily as guards for supply wagons. On February 6, 1814 Ensign Sam Houston lead a platoon of the 360 strong 39th Infantry as it marched into the camp of Andrew Jackson at Fort Strothers. Their first job was to deal with the mutiny, which gave Houston his first close look at the man whose star he would follow so long and so far.
Joe Walker and Joel Walker they were put under the command of General John Coffee at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on 27 March, 1814. Both brothers participated in much of the fighting and Joel was said to have been wounded along with Sam Houston.
War of 1812
“Push on boys. Don’t mind me.”
Often referred to as the “night battle,” this was the initial engagement between the British and American land forces at New Orleans. On the afternoon of 23 December, Jackson learned that a British force had made its way through the bayous to a plantation several miles south of the city. Jackson mobilized his forces and launched a daring attack at 8:00 p.m., leading the right wing (the 7th and 44th U.S. Infantry) while General John Coffee led his brigade of Tennessee mounted men on the left. The darkness of the night turned the fight into mass confusion, as friendly troops fired on each other and combat became hand-to-hand. By 11:00 p.m. the British gave ground but Jackson’s forces did not pursue, as neither side could ascertain the other’s strength. American losses were 24 killed and 115 wounded while the British suffered 46 killed and 145 wounded.
28 December 1814
The skirmish of the 23rd December had the effect of stemming the initial tide of the assaulting British forces and gave Jackson time to entrench his army. He established a line of defense along the Rodriguez Canal between the Macarte and Chalmette plantations. The line extended from the east bank of the Mississippi River more than a half-mile to a cypress swamp. On 28 December the British, under the overall command of Major General Sir Edward Pakenham, conducted a “reconnaissance in force” to test the strengths and weaknesses of what became known as Line Jackson. A combined force of artillery and infantry probed the American defenses and found that the left wing of Line Jackson was the most vulnerable. This portion of the line was manned by Major General William Carroll’s (future governor of) Tennessee militia and volunteers, as well as Coffee’s brigade. The inability of the English to mobilize heavier guns to the front put a halt to the attack. There were seven killed and eight wounded on the American side.
1 January 1815
As a result of the 28 December attack, Jackson fortified the left wing of his line and extended it into the woods of the cypress swamp, thus increasing its length to about a mile. Coffee’s men, along with a detachment of Choctaw Indians, held the extreme left of the line. On the first day of January 1815, Pakenham once again gave orders to assault Line Jackson. The British planned to use their heavy artillery to make a breach in the line and put the American cannons out of commission. However, American batteries, some manned by crews of Jean Lafitte’s pirates, proved to be more effective than the artillery of the British. In addition, English gunners ran short of ammunition (a problem that plagued them throughout the campaign at New Orleans). British infantry units attacked the extreme left of Jackson’s line, but were repulsed by Coffee’s brigade. The Americans lost eleven killed and twenty-three wounded.
8 January 1815
The morning of 8 January was cold and foggy. Before the sun could burn off the mist that lingered on the fields of Chalmette, a British signal rocket burst in the air and massed columns of English soldiers advanced toward the American lines. The American forces, about 4,000 on the line, opened up with their artillery and followed with a devastating volley of musket and rifle fire. The advance columns of the British army, aimed at the right flank of Line Jackson near the river and the left flank commanded by Major General William Carroll, were shattered and quickly routed. In less than two hours the battle was over. On the field lay about 1,500 dead and wounded British soldiers (another 500 were taken prisoner). American losses amounted to thirteen killed and thirty-nine wounded. General Pakenham, who just happened to be the brother-in-law to the Duke of Wellington, was also shot and killed on January 8, 1815. To preserve his body, he was packed into a keg of Rum before being shipped back to England.
Battle of New Orleans
How did this catastrophe for the British occur? British operations faltered from the beginning. Plans to cross the Mississippi and capture the American artillery on the west bank of the river were delayed and the attack on the main line had failed by the time the west-bank mission was accomplished. The assault on the line Jackson was uncoordinated and rife with mistakes, perhaps the biggest being the British under-estimation of the abilities of the American militia to withstand a bayonet charge. The initial success of the British on the extreme right of Line Jackson was not supported and reinforcements were diverted to an abortive attack on the center of Jackson’s fortifications. Tennesseans, many of whom had seen action in the Creek War, repulsed the British regulars with a deliberate coolness and confidence hitherto not encountered by attacking British forces. Deadly American artillery fire, combined with the rifle and musketry, proved too much for the exposed English troops marching across the plains of Chalmette.
After a long night of battling with the Americans, a British Major rose up a white flag early that morning and steeped towards the American lines.
Among the Tennesseans who got mixed up with the fighting was a young fellow everyone called Paleface. Paleface ran forth and demanded the officer’s sword, but the officer hesitated, thinking it was derogatory to his dignity to surrender to this young private. Observing this action, the Commanding Colonel demanded, “Give it to him”, and quickly with a very polite bow, he handed his weapon over to Paleface.
As firing had ceased, many men were every now and then jumping up and either running off or giving themselves up. One stout fellow in a red coat took off running, patting his butt at the Americans. Perhaps fifty or so guns were fired at him, but he was too far off and all missed.
Paleface not being one to stand for this quickly loaded his gun and drew his sight on him, running it up his back and a little over his head to allow for the sinking of the ball. As his gun cracked out, the fellow staggered, pitched down and moved no more, being the ball entered between the shoulders and passing out through the breast, the man was quite dead.
No one will ever know, who this boy from Tennessee was, but he was the material, of which Joseph R. Walker was made.
To live in the Blue Ridge Mountains you had to put food on the table, and a good long rifle, with a good eye were necessities. One of the more effective and respected rifles in the area, was the Walker Rifle. Many years later we will see the development of the Colt Walker pistol.
In April of 1813, Commander David Porter of the American Navy seized seven British whalers. Porter commissioned the “Essex Junior”, a United States cruiser, which carried twenty guns, of which half were long six-ponders and half eighteen-pounder carronades, and was manned by a crew of sixty under the command of a first lieutenant. The first service of the Essex Junior was to escort to Valparaiso, Chile: the American owned ship named the Barclay and 4 of the British prizes.
The occasion was one of great importance and interest to David Farragut of Knox County; for, though but a boy of only twelve (12) years old, he was selected to command the party of seamen detailed to manage the Barclay during this long passage. The captain of the Barclay went with his ship, but in great discontent that the command of the seamen was given not to himself, but to such a lad from the ship-of-war. Being a violent-tempered old man, he attempted by bluster to overawe the boy into surrendering his authority. “When the day arrived for our separation from the squadron,” writes Farragut in his journal, “the captain was furious, and very plainly intimated to me that I would ‘find myself off New Zealand in the morning,’ to which I most decidedly demurred”.
We were lying still, while the other ships were fast disappearing from view, the commodore going north and the Essex Junior, with her convoy, steering to the south for Valparaiso. I considered that my day of trial had arrived (for I was a little afraid of the old fellow, as every one else was). But the time had come for me at least to play the man; so I mustered up courage and informed the captain that I desired the main-top-sail filled away, in order that we might close up with the Essex Junior. He replied that he would shoot any man who dared to touch a rope without his orders; He “would go his own course, and had no idea of trusting himself with a d—d nutshell”; and then he went below for his pistols.
I called my right-hand man of the crew and told him my situation. I also informed him that I wanted the main-top-sail filled. He answered with a clear ‘Ay, ay, sir’ in a manner which was not to be misunderstood, and my confidence was perfectly restored. From that moment I became master of the vessel, and immediately gave all necessary orders for making sail, notifying the captain not to come on deck with his pistols unless he wished to go overboard, for I would really have had very little trouble in having such an order obeyed.
I made my report to Captain Downes (of the Essex Junior), on rejoining him; and the captain also told his story, in which he endeavored to persuade Downes that he only tried to frighten me. I replied by requesting Captain Downes to ask him how he succeeded; and to show him that I did not fear him, I offered to go back and proceed with him to Valparaiso. He was informed that I was in command, he being simply my adviser in navigating the vessel in case of separation. So, this being settled and understood, I returned to the Barclay, and everything went on amicably up to our arrival in Valparaiso.”
“I mean to be whipped or to whip my enemy, and not be scared to death”
In the “Creek Path conspiracy” a group of Chickamauga chiefs, including Sequoyah, tried to sell Cherokee land to Andrew Jackson playing key roles in the future of the Cherokee Nation. John Ross, Sequoyah, and Major John Walker, were among the members who would become historically important in the development of the Cherokee Nation as we know it today. Chisholm continued to act as advisor to the Cherokee and was selected by the Cherokee council to go to Washington, D.C., for the purpose of making legal claims. He served as representative for 1817 treaty (sell out) in which Charles Hicks and Major John Walker received $3,425 in bribe money and John Chisholm obtained $1000 to stop his mouth.
In the Treaty with the Cherokee of 1819 it was the pleasure of the U.S. Government to give Major Walker a land grant to include his dwelling house and ferry and for Major Walker an additional reservation is made of six hundred and forty acres square, to include his grist and saw mill; the land which is principally valuable for its timber.
After the Hiwasse Purchase (conspiracy) in 1819, the TN legislature extended the southern boundary of Roane County to a line including present-day Loudon County. Numerous changes dealt with the adjustment of the county boundary to include, or exclude, various farm lands. Included among those who gained land were John, William and James Brown and John Walker Jr.
The Inception of the “Long” haul.
After the War of 1812, Americans feared British competition in the fur trade and negative influence over the powerful tribes of the interior. British traders of the Hudson’s Bay Company had for many years been a dominant force in the Louisiana Territory and continued to be so despite the American acquisition of the area in 1802. Britain had successfully used its influence with the Indians for many years to harass, inhibit, and actively war upon the upstart Americans.
Dakota Indians originally live in southern Minnesota and as their enemies the Ojibway (Anishinabe) obtained guns from the French, they were driven west and became known as the Sioux. On arrival to the central plains of Nebraska it was only a matter of time before they crossed hairs with the indigenous Pawnee who also lived along the Arkansas River. The Dakota had no permanent villages and pretty much followed the buffalo herds as they roamed about.
Most Indians were friendly to the white men, especially to the French, yet there was almost constant war between the various tribes. In 1805 General James Wilkinson, as the military governor of the Territory of Missouri, ordered the construction of Fort Belle Fontaine a government Indian Factory serving as a trading post to various regional tribes. In 1808 the Indian factory was relocated up the Missouri to Fort Osage. Indian agent, Pierre Chouteau and his son A.P. Chouteau were well involved in the fur trade and the Indians between these two forts.
The War of 1812 pretty much put a hold on trade until 1815 with peace negotiation between area tribes and Governor William Clark and Auguste Chouteau. Peace times were boom times and western expansion was in the air. Ownership of these vast areas still hung in the balance as English holdings strengthened by great chains of forts extended across the continent and down the Columbia River.
August Choteau and Jules de Mun attempted to establish fur trade with New Mexico in 1815 to 1817 they crossed the Sangre de Cristo Pass, whose trail was used by the fur trappers and mountain men as the route from the northern Front Range to Taos to sell their furs. The Indians had used this opening for centuries and it was an alternate route for the Ute War Trail. During the year 1819, acting Governor Facundo Melgares, on order from Spain, fortified the pass.
By September of 1818 a strong force of nearly 350 riflemen under the command of Lt Colonel Talbot Chambers, ascended the Missouri to the mouth of the Yellowstone to establish yet another post. In November, President Monroe, in his message to congress, said: “With a view to the security of our inland frontiers it has been thought expedient to establish strong posts at the mouth of the Yellow Stone River, and at the Mandan village on the Missouri.
On December 2nd, Thomas S. Jesup reports to Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun that a contract with (Col) James Johnson was reached to provide for two steamboats to navigate the Missouri charged with munitions of War and detachments and their baggage. Sometime between late 1818 and early 1819 Joseph Walker and David Meriwether arrive in Missouri.
The Missouri enterprise, commonly referred to as the Yellowstone Expedition was formed under the leadership of Colonel Henry M. Atkinson. The Expedition’s orders mandate the construction of a series of forts and establish a military presence in the lands acquired through the Louisiana Purchase.
Council Bluff the Indian
Facing the grim fact that he must negotiate with the United States or possibly lose Florida without any compensation, Spanish foreign minister Onis signed a treaty with Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. Similar to the Louisiana Purchase statutes, the United States agreed to pay its citizens’ claims against Spain up to $5 Million. The treaty drew a definite border between Spanish land and the Louisiana Territory.
In the provisions, the United States ceded to Spain its claims to Texas west of the Sabine River. Spain retained possession not only of Texas, but also California and the vast region of New Mexico. At the time, these two territories included all of present-day California and New Mexico along with modern Nevada, Utah, Arizona and sections of Wyoming and Colorado.
A second expedition, the Long expedition, named for its commander, James Long, was an early attempt by Anglo-Americans to wrest Texas from Spain. The expedition, the last of a series of early filibustering campaigns that included the Gutiérrez-Magee expedition and the expedition led by Francisco Xavier Mina, was mounted by citizens in the Natchez, Mississippi, area who were opposed to the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase as set up in the AdamsOnís Treaty. Dissatisfaction over the “concession” of Texas to Spain precipitated the last major filibustering expedition to attempt to establish a Republic within Spanish Texas. With financial backing from the uncle of his wife, General James Wilkinson, Colonel Dr. James Long of Natchez, a former U.S. Army surgeon in Carroll’s Brigade in the War of 1812 under Gen. Andrew Jackson, raised arms and followers with the objective to establish a Republic of Texas by connecting with insurgents in Mexico which could be used as a base of solidifying independence in the whole of Mexico.
James Monroe. State of the Union Message, December 7, 1819. Denies Spanish government charge that the U.S. government “had tolerated or protected an expedition from the United States against the Province of Texas.
The U.S. government would now build three forts, two would guard against the British. Fort Snelling, at present-day St. Paul, Minnesota, was to guard the northern Mississippi River. The second was to be near ‘Council Bluffs’ and was designed to protect the Missouri River. The western-most fort was to be placed at the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, along the present-day North Dakota-Montana border.
The Expedition
At the time, Col. Atkinson was commander of the Sixth infantry stationed at Plattsburgh, New York on the Canadian border. In 1819, Col. Atkinson received orders to rendezvous his troops to the south and encamp with the crack Rifle Regiment by the Missouri River near St. Louis. The Sixth infantry hastily traveled the 2,700-miles by land and water down to St. Louis. At that time, in 1819, Captain Stephen Watts Kearny was assigned duty with Atkinson’s Yellowstone expedition. In addition to establishing a military presence, the expedition would be chartered to perform science and engineering functions.
In conjunction with this event, Major Stephen Harriman Long was ordered to carefully select and lead a crew of notable specialists in zoology, geology, cartography, journalism, art and botany. They were to travel along with the Yellowstone Expedition. This was the first scientific expedition of ‘Army Engineers’ to be funded by the U.S. government chartered with mapping, studying, documenting and exploring the vast area of uncharted land to be traveled between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
Major Long then planned and had constructed, an experimental steamboat, which was christened the Western Engineer. This steamboat would be used to transport the task force of scientists, The Western Engineer was the first steamboat to successfully venture up the Missouri River to the Omaha-Council Bluffs area, taking naturalists, and artists as far west as possible during exploration of the frontier. The steamboat was uniquely designed much different than others of its day, to navigate the expected narrow, shallow, snag-littered channels of the Missouri River and its tributary rivers.
It contained a particularly strong engine to provide increased power against swift currents. Another novel feature was a paddlewheel built into the stern to reduce the danger of damage from snags.
The boat had a 75-by-13-foot hull with the weight of the machinery carefully distributed to permit increased maneuverability in shallow channels. To protect the vessel from Indian attack, Long installed a bulletproof pilothouse, mounted cannon on the bow, placed howitzers along the side, and armed the crew with rifles and sabers.
In all, the Western Engineer, known as “Long’s Dragon” because it was decorated as a serpent in order to detract or scare any hostile frontier natives, was anything but a typical steamboat of its day. The hull drew only 19 inches of water compared to the five or six feet of most steamboats of that era. But its basic design (shallow draft, rear paddlewheel, narrow beam, amidships engine) became the prototype for western river steam vessels.
The government built steamboat left Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1819, for the long journey down the Ohio, then up the Mississippi to St. Louis. Three days earlier on the 2nd, five private steamships left Shippingsport Kentucky: “Expedition”, “Exchange”, “Jefferson”, “Johnson” and “Independence” which arrived in St. Louis on May 12th. The Independence made the first ascent as far as Franklin by May 28th then returning to St. Louis on June 5th. The “Expedition” made it to Fort Belle Fontaine on May 18th and by the time it left on June 21st both the Jefferson and Johnson were in tow.
Major Stephen H. Long’s “Western Engineer” would be the first steamboat to reach what would become Nebraska, and it was able to do so only because it could float in only 19 inches of water.
Colonel Atkinson led a force of 1,126 rifle men upriver and Major Stephen H. Long led the scientific party of ‘Army Engineers’. Atkinson’s party suffered through a variety of problems, which included an inefficient and corrupt steamboat captain. Two steamboats never reached the river; a third was unable to survive the snags, sandbars and currents of the river and was eventually abandoned. The last two could not advance through the treacherous obstacles and were stopped just below the mouth of the Kansas River.
After several days and many miles, the vessels were Colonel Atkinson’s troops had to resort back to using keelboats, similar to those used by Lewis and Clark a few years earlier, powered mainly by men rowing, poling or towing upriver with ropes.
The Arrival
Meanwhile, the scientific and exploration party under the command of Major Stephen Long in the sternwheeler Western Explorer, succeeded in reaching a location some five miles below the Major Stephen Harriman Long, led the scientific party of ‘Army Engineers’ traveling with the 1819 Yellowstone Expedition. “Council Bluff” (near present-day Fort Atkinson) where Lewis and Clark met with Otoe native tribe representatives some 5 years earlier. This was the first successful ascent of the Missouri under steam power.
Atkinson was lucky to reach ‘Council Bluff’ encampment before the beginning of winter. His troops arrived at on September 19, 1819 at the site that was recommended by William Clark.
In his journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: “The situation of our last camp, Council Bluff appears to be a very proper place for a trading establishment and fortification.” The actual site chosen for the encampment lay along the ‘river bottom a mile or so north of the actual bluff’.
The Expedition had succeeded in reaching the site designated for the first of the Missouri River forts, but congressional economy measures and difficulties in supplying such far-flung outposts prevented the completion of the expedition and the force was halted there.
Winter of 1819
Approaching winter impelled the 1,120 men of the expedition to bend all their energies to construction of the first post. The parties spent the 1819 winter in two camps, Atkinson’s troops in “Cantonment Missouri” near ‘Council Bluffs’ (near Fort Atkinson) and Major Long’s men established the “Engineer Cantonment” five miles down the river near the western riverbank. Once the winter encampment was established, Major Long departed in order to return to Washington where new orders were awaiting.
Cantonment Missouri had a short and unhappy existence. Severe winter conditions contributed to a shortage of supplies which had tragic consequences, for during that winter, Col. Atkinson witnessed some 160 of his men die of scurvy and fevers. Many more were hospitalized from the debilitating effects of the simple lack of vitamin C in their diet.
The following spring of 1820, record high waters on the Missouri flooded Cantonment Missouri and forced the troops to move atop the ‘Council Bluff’ location to establish what was to become Fort Atkinson. In 1819 a 20 year-old naturalist and an artist with Long’s scientific expedition by the name of Titian Ramsey Peale made a painting of the Engineer’s winter encampment with detailed bluffs, or Titian Ramsey Peale’s 1819 painting of Long’s ‘Engineer Cantonment’ showing the detail of the bluffs just to the north of Omaha rolling hills in the background. There are several small dwellings situated at the base of a shallow valley or hollow descending between a ridge two prominent uneven peaks.
More to come…
Next page