Today we’re continuing our Overmountain Victory Trail adventures from our last stop in Abingdon to a visit to Sycamore Shoals and Fort Watauga State Park in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Known for its fertile lands and a strategic location on the rocky shoals of the Watauga River, Sycamore Shoals is truly a crossroads of history.
For centuries, Native Americans, from the Woodland to Mississippian periods, frequented this land, which later became a hub for Cherokee communities and their trading networks. In the 1760s and early 1770s, early explorers like the Duggers and Greers, and later James Robertson and Daniel Boone, began to explore this backcountry in what is now Tennessee.
In 1771, James Robertson led sixteen families to the area, which he called “Old Watauga Fields.” The site was an ideal location for a settlement, as it was already cleared of trees, creating flat, fertile fields perfect for crops, and its position on the Watauga River provided a natural defense.
Fun fact: Robertson later helped found Ft. Nashborough in 1779-80, which would become Nashville.
In 1772, colonists established the Watauga Association here, creating the first constitutional government west of the Appalachian Mountains and the first ‘microstate’ in what would eventually become Tennessee. While the land was technically part of North Carolina (and partially Virginia to the north), the Carolina government paid little attention to this remote western backcountry, as its westernmost establishments were in places like Hillsborough, Morganton, Salisbury, and Charlotte. The question of whose land the Watauga settlement belonged to would be a point of conflict for years, as the Cherokee claimed it was their territory, and the state of North Carolina did not have the resources to protect the settlers from potential backcountry attacks.
Tensions eased somewhat after Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774, which helped formalize settlement boundaries south of the Ohio River. While a separate peace deal from the Watauga Settlement, this led the way in 1775, Judge Richard Henderson of Hillsborough, NC, and the famed pioneer Daniel Boone negotiated the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals. In this treaty, Henderson’s Transylvania Company purchased a large part of modern-day Kentucky and Tennessee from the Cherokee.
However, many Cherokee were not pleased with this arrangement, particularly the militant faction led by Dragging Canoe, who refused to abide by the treaty. So when the American Revolution kicked off, even though the backcountry was far removed from the main action in places like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, the British began providing weapons to the Cherokee. The Cherokee were promised they could keep their land if they fought against the Americans.
Settlers along the Watauga and Nolichucky Rivers were staunch Patriots, and several, including James Robertson, had actually fled to the Watauga Region in 1771 after participating in the War of Regulation against Royal Governor Tryon. This pre-Revolutionary conflict in North Carolina saw many backcountry settlers rise up against the royal governor in protest of unfair taxes, lack of representation, and corrupt officials. After years of skirmishes and petitions, the War of Regulation came to a head at the Battle of Alamance in 1771, where Tryon’s militia handily defeated the Regulators. Many participants were hanged, while others fled west into the Appalachian interior, hoping to eventually return.
Because of their strong Patriot sentiments, the British were happy to help their Cherokee allies force the Watauga settlers out of the region, especially after the settlers formed a Committee of Safety to monitor British activity. In January 1776, Dragging Canoe and the British forged an alliance, and by April, British agents had supplied the Cherokee with a large cache of weapons for attacks against American colonists. Now well-armed, the Cherokee sent a message to the settlers, giving them twenty days to leave Cherokee lands or face attack.
In preparation, the settlers began buying weapons and ammunition via the Fincastle County, Virginia, Committee of Safety, gathering food and medicine, and strengthening various fortifications. One of these was Fort Watauga, also known as Fort Caswell. In early July 1776, a Cherokee woman named Nancy Ward tipped off the Cherokee attack plans to an American trader, Isaac Thomas, who delivered the news to John Sevier at the Nolichucky settlement. The news alarmed the settlers, and most fled to Fort Watauga, forcing Sevier to abandon the unfinished Fort Lee and flee as well.
The Cherokee invasion began in mid-July. When the invaders reached the Nolichucky, a contingent led by “The Raven” split off toward Carter’s Valley (near modern Kingsport) to burn cabins and chase away settlers. Two other contingents, led by Dragging Canoe and Old Abraham of Chilhowee, proceeded up the Nolichucky to burn the abandoned Fort Lee. The force then split, with Dragging Canoe marching north to attack the Holston settlements and Old Abraham heading east to attack Fort Watauga. At the Battle of Island Flats, Dragging Canoe’s force was met by the fort’s garrison, led by Captain John Thompson. The skirmish resulted in 13 Cherokee dead and dozens wounded, including Dragging Canoe, and the Cherokee force was forced to retreat.
With the Cherokee approaching, some 150 to 200 settlers crowded into Fort Watauga. The fort’s garrison consisted of roughly 75 men under the command of John Carter, with James Robertson and John Sevier as his subordinates. Old Abraham of Chilhowee’s contingent arrived in the early morning hours of July 21. Their sudden appearance surprised several women milking cows outside the fort, forcing them to scramble for the gate. One of them, Catherine “Bonnie Kate” Sherrill, the future wife of John Sevier, was unable to get inside before the gate was locked and had to be pulled over the palisades by Sevier. The initial assault lasted about three hours, with both sides exchanging gunfire. During the attack, several Cherokees managed to get close enough to try and set the fort on fire, but were forced back when Ann Robertson Johnson (sister of James Robertson) threw scalding hot water at them.
Unable to take the fort, the Cherokee began a lengthy siege. A teenager named Tom Moore was captured outside the fort and taken to Tuskegee, where he was burned at the stake. Another captive, Lydia Russell Bean, was about to meet the same fate when Nancy Ward intervened and used her authority as a Beloved Woman to spare her. After approximately two weeks, the Cherokee lifted the siege and retreated. The arrival of the Virginia militia under William Christian later that year largely ended the immediate threat to the fort.
The State Park Museum has an excellent exhibit breaking down the timeline of events tied to the dramatic Siege of Fort Watauga, including realistic figures that look as though they are throwing water on their Cherokee attackers. For the 1976 Bicentennial Celebrations, the state of Tennessee rebuilt Fort Watauga as a living history site at Sycamore Shoals. During my visit, I was able to speak with an onsite “resident” of the Fort Watauga settlement, who shared his experiences during the siege. He explained that the fort was not a standard military design but rather a palisade constructed around the existing cabins and land of a local settler, providing a place for the women and children to take refuge while the men stood guard outside.
The American Revolution and The Rise of the Overmountain Men:
Fast forward to late Summer 1780, The Revolutionary War has hit a stalemate in the north, so General Clinton and General Lord Cornwallis decide to initiate a southern campaign in the Carolinas. While Charleston and cities along the coast are ardently patriotic, there is a belief the backcountry has a neutral and also heavily loyalist silent majority that would rise up against the patriots if they had the backing of the British and training to run loyalist militias.
The strategy initially worked with Charleston falling in early May 1780 after a horrendous siege that nearly starved out the city. It was one of the worst losses of men in the war. While Clinton returned to the British capital in New York, Cornwallis and his men like Lt. Banastre Tarleton (Green Dragoons) and Major Patrick Ferguson stayed behind to lead up the loyalist uprising in the Carolinas. The idea was they’d train the local militia to hold strategic outposts. Once fully trained, Cornwallis and the British Regulars could move north into Virginia and back to Pennsylvania – essentially strangling the American supply routes and choking their arteries.
Unfortunately they miscalculated the number of loyalist sympathizers in the Carolinas. Those who had been neutral to the war, because Patriotic sympathizers after the horrendous ‘no quarter’ of Banastre Tarleton in the Waxhaws on May 29th 1780, which left over 100 Virginia Continentals killed even after petitioning for surrender.
The Battle of the Waxhaws reverberated through the backcountry – the British violence and threats left even neutral citizens on edge. At this point it wasn’t patriot or loyalist for them, rather they felt their homeland was threatened and the British were providing themselves to be the threat.
After the Battle of Cane Creek in early September 1780, Major Patrick Ferguson, a Loyalist commander, outmaneuvered Patriot leader Charles McDowell and issued a stark warning to the Patriot militias west of the Appalachian Mountains. He released a prisoner, Samuel Phillips, with an ultimatum: if the militias didn’t surrender, Ferguson would invade their territory, hang their leaders, and “lay waste” to their settlements. The Overmountain Men, seasoned by frontier warfare, met Ferguson’s threat with defiance, viewing it as a declaration of war.
Instead of laying down their arms, a defiant call to arms went out from the interior of the Carolinas up to southwestern Virginia and what is now Eastern Tennessee. A unified force would move across the mountains to meet Ferguson head-on and fight him to the death.
As we learned in our last post, the first of the Patriot militias to formally muster for this effort was under Colonel William Campbell in Abingdon, Virginia, on September 24, 1780. His 400 men then rode forty miles southwest to Sycamore Shoals. This location on the Watauga River was known for its shallow, easily fordable water, making it a prime rendezvous spot for the men of the frontier. Here, Campbell’s Virginians met up with the forces of Colonels Isaac Shelby and John Sevier on September 26th, bringing the total number of men who would begin the march to roughly 1,000. Of this total, 200 men remained behind to guard Fort Watauga from the Cherokee.
The combined force encamped on the flats along the river and on the morning of September 26th heard a sermon from Reverend Samuel Doak, who invoked the “sword of the Lord and of Gideon” to rouse the gathered Patriots. They set off that morning in pursuit of Ferguson and their freedom. From Sycamore Shoals, they marched up Gap Creek, through Yellow Mountain Gap, and over the Blue Ridge Mountains, stopping at various mustering and rendezvous sites, including Quaker Meadows in Morganton (stay tuned as we’ll be visiting this site in a future post).
Get to know Reverend Samuel Doak – “The Pioneer Parson.” Born to Irish immigrants in Augusta County, Virginia, Doak was educated at the College of New Jersey (Princeton). He was called to the frontier to help plant Presbyterian churches and schools, and he went on to found Doak’s Log College in what is now Washington College in Tennessee. This was the first institution of higher learning west of the Allegheny and south of the Ohio River and, fun fact, the only college named after Washington that General Washington himself authorized. Doak was living and planting churches in the Watauga region on the eve of the Battle of Kings Mountain. His fiery speech and prayers on the morning of September 26, 1780, helped inspire the Overmountain Men with a spirit of hope and determination. After Doak’s speech, the men began their journey in pursuit of Ferguson, marching up Gap Creek, through Yellow Mountain Gap, and over the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The Overmountain Men decided it was best to bring the fight to Ferguson on ground advantageous to their abilities as a frontier militia. On October 7, 1780, they fought Ferguson’s Loyalist force just south of Charlotte at a rocky outcropping called King’s Mountain (named after local settler, not King George III – although it feels a bit providential nonetheless). Today, the mountain is covered in a thick forest, but at the time of the battle, it was mostly bare, making it both a good lookout point and a brutal battlefield. Much to the shock of Ferguson and his men, the ferocious and undaunted Overmountain Men overran them. In just over an hour, Ferguson was dead. His forces suffered a devastating defeat, with 290 killed, 163 wounded, and 668 captured, while the Patriots suffered only 90 casualties (28 of which were deaths). Learn more on King’s Mountain Official NPS Site
Kings Mountain instantly turned the tide of the British Southern Strategy. Not only did they lose a large number of men, including a well-respected and able officer like Ferguson, but the victory also incited renewed patriotism and effectively silenced any Loyalist uprising they had hoped might occur. Cornwallis had to delay his planned North Carolina campaign until the spring. Kings Mountain kicked off a series of Patriot victories or pyrrhic British victories, such as the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781. After Guilford Courthouse, Cornwallis fled to Wilmington before heading to Virginia, where he would meet his demise in October 1781 at Yorktown.
Of the efforts of the Overmountain Men at King’s Mountain:
Thomas Jefferson said it “was the turning tide of our success.”
While British Commander of the Army of North America, General Henry Clinton said of King’s Mountain:
“King’s Mountain was immediately productive of the worst consequences…And unhappily proved the link in a chain of evils that followed each other in regular succession until then at the last ended in the total loss of America…”
Mary Patton – the lady who powered the patriot militia to victory at King’s Mountain.
Mary McKeehan Patton was a gunpowder manufacturer whose work helped secure the Patriot victory at the Battle of King’s Mountain. Born in England in 1751, she moved with her family to Pennsylvania in the late 1760s. It’s believed she learned the trade of gunpowder making by apprenticing under her father, David McKeehan.
After marrying John Patton in 1772, they eventually moved west to present-day eastern Tennessee. With the help of a family friend, Andrew Taylor, they built a mill known as Powder Branch near Sycamore Shoals.
Patton’s most significant contribution came during the Revolutionary War. She supplied more than 500 pounds of gunpowder to the 850 Overmountain Men, led by Isaac Shelby and William Campbell. Her gunpowder proved vital to their victory over British troops at the Battle of King’s Mountain. Patton continued her work after the war, making and delivering gunpowder to local customers.
Mary Patton died on December 15, 1836, and was buried in the Patton-Simmons Cemetery. Her family continued the gunpowder business until the mill was sold after the Civil War.
Fun fact: Much of the gunpowder produced by Mary Patton’s mill was made using bat guano. The mill was located near several caves, and the guano’s high nitrate content made it a readily available source of saltpeter, a key ingredient for the gunpowder.
Planning Your Visit
Once you arrive at the State Park, I recommend starting with the short introductory video. It provides an excellent overview of the history of the Watauga Association, Fort Watauga, and the 1776 Cherokee attack, as well as the pivotal role Sycamore Shoals played in the mustering of the Overmountain Men.
Official State Park Website – Helpful Resource in Planning Your Visit to Sycamore Shoals/Fort Watauga State Park
The museum offers a variety of interactive exhibits to engage all age groups in the story of frontier life. You can learn about Fort Watauga and the muster of the Overmountain Men on September 25-26, 1780. The on-site staff are also ready to answer any questions you may have.
After the museum, I would then tour the reconstructed Fort Watauga before walking the .75-mile Patriot Trail through the muster grounds and alongside the Sycamore Shoals crossing of the Watauga River. Along the trail, you’ll be able to view signs detailing the events of 1780.
In July, Sycamore Shoals hosts a historical live drama called “Liberty!“ While I didn’t get to see it this time, I hope to return next year. This, along with “Horn in the West” in Boone, NC, are two of the outdoor dramas you can attend along the Overmountain Trail to experience the drama of the Revolutionary War.
In addition to the main State Park Complex at Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga, the park also is charged with The Carter Mansion, a beautiful home, which is roughly a ten minute drive from Sycamore Shoals. Use this link to book tours of the Mansion.
Built circa 1775-1780, this is the oldest single frame house in Tennessee and a treasure to be explored. On select days you can take a guided tour of the home, which was built by John Carter and his son Landon. The Carter Family owned a popular ‘trading post,’ where locals could purchase goods. The finely detailed interior and over mantle paintings place the mansion among the most significant historic homes in Tennessee. In fact it predates the state itself. When Tennessee became a state in 1796, Carter County was named for Landon Carter. The county seat of Elizabethton, where Sycamore Shoals and The Carter Mansion is located, was named Elizabethton for Landon’s wife Elizabeth Maclin Carter.
Ready to Muster at Sycamore Shoals – I recommend these two websites to help plan your Revolutionary Adventure:
We’ll be touring Downtown Elizabethton and several of the city’s historic sites like Sabine Hill Plantation in our next post before moving onto our next Liberty Trails stop along the Overmountain Victory Path to King’s Mountain.
In the interim here are some resources to help you plan your visit to Elizabethton. There are several chain hotels and bed and breakfasts – I’ll dive into this in our next post.
Downtown Elizabethton Facebook Page
Main Street Elizabethton Website
Elizabethton Chamber of Commerce (they have a list of annual events that are fun for the whole family!)
Downtown Elizabethton is a fun place to spend an afternoon with its eclectic mix of local shops and eateries – as well as the bucolic Elizabethton Covered Bridge Park on the Riverfront.
What to learn more about Sycamore Shoals and The Overmountain Men?
I recommend these resources:
Overmountain Victory Trail Association
Overmountain Victory Trail – NPS Guide: This 330-mile motorized route (along with option 80 miles of trails) helps you travel to sites associated with the Revolutionary Journey of the Overmountain Men
North Carolina’s America 250 Committee just published a fabulous book for kids about the journey of the Overmountain Men: Blue’s March
Also Walter Edgar’s Partisans and Redcoats is a Must-READ for history lovers looking to learn more about the Southern Campaign (including King’s Mountain) in the American Revolution.
Join us on our journey! Subscribe to American Nomad Adventures for our continued exploration of the Liberty Trails and the Overmountain Victory Route. You’ll also get to see other historical, scenic, and fun sightseeing trips along the way.
Hi, I’m Adele Lassiter, the travel enthusiast behind American Nomad Traveler. This is where I share my love for history, cool museums, art, and travel tips. When I’m not writing, I’m a singer-songwriter with a passion for Americana music. You can find my new album here: adelelassiter.bandcamp.com
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