“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 abou