Andrew Jackson – 1867 - 1845
Born in the Carolinas in 1767, Jackson read law and became a lawyer in Tennessee. He was the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and served briefly in the Senate. As a general in the War 0f 1812, Jackson defeated the British at New Orleans. He served as the 7th President of the US – 1829-1837. See also – Hermitage information.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/aj7.html
http://www.americanpresidents.org/presidents/president.asp?PresidentNumb...
Noted as the “blackest page in the history of the War of the Lost Cause,” the Battle of Franklin was the bloodiest battle of modern time or any war. Called the “Gettysburg of the West,” Franklin was a night battle held on one of the smallest battlefields (covering only 2 by 2.5 miles) of the war. 7,000 Confederate soldiers and 2,500 Union soldiers died. In the spring of 1866, the McGavock Family of Franklin donated 2 acres of land near their home to establish a Confederate Cemetery where 1,481 soldiers were laid to rest. The Army of the Tennessee died at the Battle of Franklin. The Carter House, purchased by the State of Tennessee in 1951 is dedicated to all Americans who fought in this battle.
http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/bycampgn.htm
http://www.johnbellhood.org/franklin.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Franklin_II
http://www.battleoffranklin.com/
http://www.civilwaralbum.com/misc/franklin.htm
There are no national battlefield markings of this spot, as present day Nashville finds this a residential and commercial development south and west of the downtown area. Instead, several historic sites relating to the battle and period of Union occupation can be visited such as Belle Meade Plantation, Belmont Mansion, and Travellers Rest. The Battle of Nashville Monument was relocated in 1999 and is one of the few monuments dedicated to fighting men of both sides of the war. The Tennessee State Museum has a collection of artifacts covering all military actions of the state. The Nashville Military Cemetery is the resting place of more than 15,000 Union soldiers, including those killed at the Battle of Nashville. This battle followed the Battle of Franklin, Gen. John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee was routed at the Battle of Nashville and he retreated to Tupelo and resigned his command. This is noted as one of the most stunning victories achieved by the Union Army in the Civil War. Hood’s army entered Tennessee with over 30,000 men and left with less than 10,000.
http://www.blueshoenashville.com/civilwar.html
http://www.bonps.org/tour/tour.htm
http://www.civilwarhome.com/nashvilledescription.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nashville
In the 1750’s there was a Cherokee village near Nashville. Cherokee comes from the Creek word “Chelokee” meaning “people of a different speech.” They refer to themselves as the Aniyunwiya (Anniyaya) “principal people” or the Keetoowah (“people of Kituhwa”). The Cherokee had allowed the Shawnee to locate in the Cumberland Basin of Tennessee to serve as a buffer against the Chickasaw. But in 1692, a Shawnee raid to capture slaves for trade with the British destroyed a major Cherokee village while its warriors were absent on a winter hunt. This destroyed the trust and friendship between the tribes. The Cherokee allied themselves with the Chickasaw in 1715 and drove the Shawnee from the area. Around 1755, a Shawnee warrior captured a young Cherokee woman, whom he later married. This couple became the parents of Tecumseh, a great Shawnee chief. The Cherokee had abandoned their villages on the Cumberland by 1760, but Tecumseh paid several visits to his mother’s family and participated in raids on the Cumberland settlements. His older brother Chesekau was killed during one of these raids. Tecumseh was killed in the Battle of the Thames in 1813. The Cherokee traditionally lived in small villages along rivers in small houses made of mud and logs. Every member of the tribe was also a member of a clan within the tribe (Wolf, Bear, Deer, Bird, Wild Potato, Blue, and Longhair). The Cherokee ate wild game and vegetables.
http://www.nativenashville.com/History/shawnee.htm
http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/students/4_history_1
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tennessee/index.htm
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/cherokee/cherohist.htm
http://www.tncia.org/tn-fed-tribes.html
http://www.tolatsga.org/Cherokee1.html
In the early 1700’s, Chickasaws also claimed Middle Tennessee. Between 1710 ad 1720 the Chickasaw, with the help of the Cherokee, forced the Shawnee out of the area. The Shawnee fought alongside the Chicamaugans in Tennessee. The Chickasaw lands met and overlapped the Cherokee lands, including some parts of the Elk River and Duck River – through western Middle Tennessee – where much of this land was also claimed by the Cherokee – and finally running to the Ohio River. Clothing was primarily buckskin, the Chickasaw removed all body hair and made extensive use of tattooing. The men, typically 6 foot tall, were hunters and warriors, and the women were noticeably a foot shorter and responsible for the supervision of slaves and tending the fields for corn, beans and squash. Fish was also an important food source. Their communities were built along streams or rivers and approximately 7 communities made up a clan. They were distinguished by their flattened foreheads (flattened as infants to enhance their appearance as adults). They traded with the Shawnee in the middle 1700’s for their first horses, and developed a superior riding breed (the Chickasaw Horse) with a long stride and superior endurance. Most Middle Tennessee lands were ceded to the US in 1805. By September of 1816 all Chickasaw land in Middle Tennessee had been ceded to the United States. Lawrence County and Wayne County were established in 1817. Giles County by 1819.
http://www.nativenashville.com/History/shawnee.htm
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tennessee/index.htm
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/chickasaw/chickasawhist.htm
http://www.tncia.org/tn-fed-tribes.html
http://www.tngenweb.org/tnfirst/chicksaw/
http://www.tngenweb.org/tnfirst/chicksaw/1816-18.htm
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/ntreaty/nt008.htm
http://www.tolatsga.org/chick.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickasaw
The Cherokee first began settling in the Little Tennessee River Valley where they occupied sites previously belonging belonging to the Creek Nation (some believe that the word “Tennessee” is a Cherokee modification of a Creek word). The early historic Creeks were probably descendents of the mound builders of the Mississippian culture along the Tennessee River. The Creeks (or Muskogees) had also been part of the government plan to “civilize” the southeastern tribes. The concepts designed to dismantle clan rule and establish an agricultural society with the replacement of the national council by Indian agents. Threatened by this and the influx of white settlers, the Creeks (ignited by famed Shawnee chief Tecumseh) led to a civil war between the settlers and the warring faction of the Creeks. The traditionalist faction of the Creek, known as the Red Sticks for the red clubs they carried, occasionally carried their war to the white settlers living on the frontiers, including forays into Tennessee. Following the slaughter of 250 men, women and children at Fort Mims in Alabama, the Tennessee legislature called for 3500 troops to fight back the threatening Red Sticks. Led by Andrew Jackson, the excursion marched from Fayetteville to Huntsville Alabama in early October 1813. This became known as the Creek War of 1813-1814, and marked the beginning of the end of the Creek Nation.
http://tennessee.gov/tsla/history/military/tn1812.htm
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnwcogs/famhist/everett01.html
http://www.tennesseenativetribes.com/Common/
http://www.tngenweb.org/campbell/hist-bogan/tennessee.html
http://www.tncia.org/tn-fed-tribes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creek_(people)
A series of battles fought in 1864 in Alabama, Tennessee, and northwestern Georgia during the Civil War. Battles include: Battle of Allatoona, Battle of Columbia, Battle of Decatur, Battle of Franklin II, Battle of Johnsonville, Battle of Murfreesboro III, Battle of Nashville, and the Battle of Spring Hill. Most of the battles of Franklin-Nashville occurred on privately owned land.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin-Nashville_Campaign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Battles_of_the_Franklin-Nashville_...
http://civilwarlandscapes.org/cwla/states/tn/frnc/frncf.htm
French Lick
French Lick, or the Big Salt Springs, on the Cumberland River, was located between the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. The area was a hunting ground for many tribes, including the Shawnees. In the late 1600’s and early 1700’s, French traders from Canada established a trading post set into a high bluff along the Cumberland River near a salt lick and a sulphur spring. Located north of present day downtown Nashville, the trader, Charles Charleville, built a hut and traded with the Indians and the long hunters. These long hunters would make extended hunting trips over the Appalachian Mountains, bringing back stacks of buckskins, which they sold for $1. One of the most famous of the long hunters was Daniel Boone, who may have passed through French Lick in the 1760’s. The trader later settled in the area and built a store and tavern at the location of Second Avenue N. today. Fort Nashborough was founded at the Great French Lick on the Cumberland in the winter of 1779-1780.
http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=F071
http://books.google.com/books?id=krmpG23_NNsC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=great+...
http://www.blueshoenashville.com/nashville.html
11th President of the US – died June 15, 1849, in Nashville, TN. His mansion in downtown Nashville was torn down in 1901. A cast iron fountain from the property has been preserved and is displayed in the Polk Home’s courtyard.
http://www.middle-tennessee.com/Polk-Home
http://www.jameskpolk.com/new/default.asp
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jp11.html
http://www.jameskpolk.com/new/
Built by slave labor in 1859, the Maxwell House Hotel stood on the northeast corner of Fourth Avenue in downtown Nashville and served as the hub of Nashville’s social and political life for years. During the Civil War, the hotel served as both barracks and prison hospital for the occupying Union army. After the war – it became Nashville’s largest hotel with 240 rooms. Seven presidents stayed at the Maxwell House, including Theodore Roosevelt, who commented that the coffee was “good to the last drop” – which launched the advertising slogan to promote the nation’s first blended coffee. The owner of the hotel sold the “recipe” for the blended coffee to General Foods. The hotel burned on Christmas night 1961.
http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=M029
http://nashville.about.com/library/blank/oldpics/blphoto18.htm
From the expulsion of the Shawnees to the entrance of white settlers, Middle Tennessee was a hunter’s paradise with herds of buffalo, deer, and elk. The forest held bears, wolves, panthers, bobcats, foxes and other wild animals. The area also contained salt – which had formed over time into the salt licks that determined where forts were built. The big sulphur spring found within the corporate limits of Nashville probably led to the location of the city. The French were the earliest settlers. Some of the old logs from the walls of Charleville school were found on the French Lick Mound 65 years later. What was considered West Tennessee in 1812 is the region of the state now referred to as Middle Tennessee.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnsumner/early4.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_in_the_Civil_War
http://www.geocities.com/metroarchives/Nashville.html
Information about the history of the Nashville and surrounding counties in time-line format.
http://www.blueshoenashville.com/nashville.html
http://www.civicdesigncenter.org/policy-Timeline.html
http://www.library.nashville.org/research/res_nash_history_timeline.asp
http://www.nashvillewebreview.com/automat/nashville/
http://diglib.lib.utk.edu/tennhist/timeline.html
The first known settlers of modern Nashville were Native Americans of the Mississippian culture from 1000 to 1400 CE. They grew crops, made earthen mounds, and painted pottery. Then they disappeared. Man-made mounds can be found all over Tennessee. By the 1600’s there were four Native American tribes living in Tennessee: The Cherokee (East Tennessee), The Creek (southern part of Middle Tennessee), The Chickasaw (West Tennessee), and The Shawnee (Middle Tennessee). Middle Tennessee was used as hunting land. Native American tools and weapons were made of stone or wood. They did not believe in owning land, they wore clothing of animal skins, and their main weapon was the bow and arrow. They did not have a written language. Many of the mounds were documented during the Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in the Tennessee River Valley prior to the flooding of the lands with the development of dams by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the 1930’s. The Frank H. McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville hosts a permanent exhibit of the Archaeology and Native Peoples of Tennessee, the Geology and Fossil History of Tennessee, and the WPA Archaeology Photo Archive.
Contact: Frank H. McClung Museum
1327 Circle park Drive
Knoxville, TN 27996-3200
865/974-3827
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_in_the_Civil_War
http://www.academicinfo.net/nativeammeta.html
http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/students/4_history_1
http://www.shgresources.com/tn/history/
http://tennessee.gov/tsla/history/military/tn1812.htm
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tennessee/index.htm
http://www.tncia.org/tn-fed-tribes.html
http://www.tngenweb.org/tnfirst/
http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/permex/archaeol/archaeol.htm
http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/
Houston quit the military in 1819 to study law in Nashville. He opened his practice in Lebanon and that same year was named adjutant general of the Tennessee Militia. He later became attorney general for Davidson County. In 1827 he became governor of Tennessee.
http://www.tshaonline.org/
http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=H081
The Great French Lick trading post built near the intersections of Jefferson Street and 5th Avenue was built to trade with the Shawnee, who lived in the area in the early 1700’s. Several Shawnee villages were located along the Cumberland River (Chaouanon – French for Shawnee). They lived in Tennessee with the permission of the Cherokee. Following a tribal argument, the Chickasaw chased the Shawnee out of Middle Tennessee. The men did the hunting and fishing, the women cared for the corn fields. During the summer they gathered into large villages of bark-covered houses and in the fall they separated into small hunting camps of extended families. Besides Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, famous Shawnee include: Cornstalk, Blackfish, Black Hoof, and Bluejacket. Thousands of Shawnee from Illinois came into the Cumberland Basin during 1690 and changed their status with the Cherokee from buffer with the Chickasaw to rival tribe. They also began to trade with the French at French Lick. The Cherokee allied with the Chickasaw and defeated the Shawnee in 1715, removing them from the Nashville area. A band tried to re-settle in the mid-1700’s, but they left after a couple of years.
http://www.nativenashville.com/History/shawnee.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawnee
http://www.bigorrin.org/shawnee_kids.htm
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tennessee/index.htm
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/shawnee/shawneehist.htm
http://www.tncia.org/tn-fed-tribes.html
http://www.tolatsga.org/shaw.html
Following the US government removal policy carried out in the 1830’s by Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, the US government forcibly removed more than 16,000 Cherokee Indians from their homelands in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, relocating them to areas now called Oklahoma. In 1838, President Van Buren ordered troops to round up the Cherokee and remove them to the 11 internment camps built for the purpose. 10 of these camps were in Tennessee, with more than 4,800 in the seven camps around Charleston TN. Remembered as the “Trail Where They Cried” a total of almost 90,000 Native Americans were relocated. The Cherokee were among the last to go – and were divided into detachments of between 700 to 1,600 each. Mortality was high on the land routes where road conditions, illness, and the winter weather made death a daily occurrence. From the first day of the journey to the last – the Trail of Tears was a trail of death with as many as 25 dying a day. The northern route started at Tennessee, crossed central Tennessee, southwestern Kentucky and southern Illinois, crossing the Mississippi River north of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and across southern Missouri and the northwest corner of Arkansas. Most of the land route detachments entered present-day Oklahoma near Westville.
http://www.nps.gov/trte
http://ngeorgia.com/history/trailoftearsmap2.html
http://www.nationaltota.org/the-story/
http://www.npca.org/magazine/2006/summer/news1.html
http://www.powersource.com/cocinc/history/trail.htm
http://ourgeorgiahistory.com/indians/cherokee/trail_of_tears.html
http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/118trail/118trail.htm