Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-12-21

ces of the Early settlers OF the
state, etc.
The following article was contributed
| to the Knoxville Wing, and is undoubt-
edly from the pen Of DR.. ]. g. NJ Ram
sew, the historian of Tennessee, who has
been an exile in North Carolina since the
close of the war:
A century has nearly elapsed since the
| first permanent Anglo-Amerlcan settle
ment was made in what is now the State
| of Tennessee. Of the country included
within our present limits, little was known
for more than two hundred and thirty
years after the discovery OF America.
Until that time, with perhaps single ex-
ception, the foot of no European adYen-
| turer had touched her soil. The vast in
terror of North America was terra IN
cOgnitd, and the ''great Vest was it
self only
"a solitude of vast extent, untouched
By hand of art; where nature sowc herself
And reaped her crops"
And our beautiful flora still ''Wasted its
fragrance on the desert air.
Perhaps no civilized explorer, but De
Soto and his proud Castilians, had reached
our Southern boundary. His eye first
| surveyed the wilderness, his heart first eX-
banded with the contemplation of the
mighty rivers and the magnificent scenery,
and his senses were first RECALLED by the
| influences of the delightful climate of
Tennessee. His object had been conquest
and colonization, but his invasion was
abortive. He found grave in our Medi-
| terranean seattle Mississippi river.
Further explorations were made. In
1852, Marquette and LaSalle perfected the
discovery of the great river, and in their
voyage down the Mississippi framed a
| cabin and built a fort called Prize
| d'hOmn1e, on the first Chickasaw Bluff,
now Memphis. This was probably the
| first work executed by the hand of civil
| cation within the boundaries of our State.
| A cabin and fort Fit emblem and
| presage of the future in Tennessee. The
axe and the rifle, occupancy and defense,
| settlement and conquest!
4 L
founding atrading post at this point is now
most manifest. Near the same ground
| has since arisen a city, whose commerce
| already exceeds that of any other in Ten
l nessee, and whose facilities for trade,
foreign and domestic, by land or water,
| pOrtend a commercial destiny scarcely in
| ferior to that of the ancient Memphis.
But a century and half glided tediously
| before the present Memphis started into
life. After the completion of the public
| improvements contemplated and projected
for her benefit, Memphis cannot be sur
| passed in importance by any point upon
| the father of waters above New Orleans.
But Tennessee was yet a desert and a
| waste The dawn of civilization upon her
western boundary was followed by a
long, long eclipse, and it was not till after
the extension of the Virginia and Carolina
| settlements westward came in nearer
| contact with our eastern boundary, that
civilized man approached it. A trader,
indeed, from New Orleans, had made,
temporarily, a trading post on the Cum
berland and there traded while with the
Shawnee Indians A store was built upon
a mound, near the present site of Nash
| vile. This was in 1714. NJ Charleville
thus planted upon the banks of the Cum
berland the germ of civilization and COM
/ merce, unconscious that it contained the
seminal principle of future wealth, conse-
| quence and empire.
| To secure the friendship of the ad.
I Joining aboriginal tribes, the British IN
| 1854, adopted the policy of building forts
upon Indian territory, and far in advance
of the compact settlement formed upon
| their western frontier. In pursuance OF
this policy, the Earl of LOudOn-then tho
commander in-chief of the Kings troop;
in America, and the Governor of the
province of Virginia-scnt Gen. Andrew
Lewis to build fort on the TENNESSEE
river. 1t stood on the southern bank at
the highest point of its naviga
ton, and nearly opposite to the spot
on which Telico block house was after
wards placed. 1t was about thirty mile!
from the present Knoxville. The fort, il
hoIorOf the Earl, was called Fort LOudon
1t was erected in l756-was garrisOned by
tn. Kings independent company of in.
faatry. The CherOkees invited artizan!
into the fort bydOnatiOns of land. Louder
is remarkable as being the first fort o.
Otaer structure erected in Tennessee by
| Anglo-Americans
The next year Col Bird erected anOthc
fOrt-it stood on the north bank of Hol
stOn, nearly opposite to the upper end o
Long Island, now the property of Col
| Netherland The Virginians have thu
| the honor of having erected the sCCOnC
| AnglO-American fort within the bOunda
ries of Tennessee.
| In the meantime Fort LOudOn was be
| siegcd by CheroEecS under command o
| French officers. This distant garrison
| consisting of two hundred men, was sOOl
reduced to the dreadful alternative of per
isbing by hunger, or submitting to tn
mercy OF the enraged Indians For
whole month they had had no other sub
sis nce than the flesh of lean horses ant
dogs, and a small supply of Indian beans
procured stealthily by some friendl.
Cherokee women. A council was Callc
and il was determined to surrender tn
fort on the best terms they could obtain
In accordance with the stipulatiOns, tn
! garrison surrendered the fort and marche
out with their arms, and that day wen
fifteen miles in the direction of Fol
Prince George, in South Carolina. BetOT
daybreak next morning they were met an
surrounded by a large body of savag
warriors and inhumanely butchered.
is said between two and three hundrc
| men, besides women and children, per
ished in this massacre.
Associations connected with Loulo
| as the first English fort erected within th
State of Tennessee, the mOurnful fate G
lis garrison, and the tragic issue of tn
earliest Anglo-AmeriCan settlement, plan
| ed upon our soil, have invested the histor
| of old Fort LOudon with a romantic an
melancholy interest, and especially to Tel
neSscans, whose pioneer fathers soon aftC
, | explored and settled the country, an
l never afforded to their annalist the OppO
; | tunitv of recording the surrender of
l fort, or the capture and massacre of
garrison. But on the contrary, the trut
of history will show, that in all their DO
der conflicts; in their wild adventures il
, | to the wilderness; in their frequent inv;
Y sions of neighbOring tribes; in their glc
3 rious participation in the struggle for il
r dependence and freedom, the sons of Tel
, nessee have everywhere achieved success
1 triumph, victory, conquest and glory.
But still, Tennessee remained as befol
= mentioned, a desert and wilderness
The Addantado of Cuba, and his proU
: cavaliers, had indeed looked upon i
: southwestern angle, but, resisted with III
d yielding spirit by the aboriginal inhah
s tants, the chivalry of Spain were drive
across its western boundary, and glad
y escape savage resentment for their dariI
+ invasion, had buried themselves in Il
q solitudes beyond it. At later period
Sale and his voyageurs had coasted alOI
the shores of the Mediterranean of Il
q West, and claimed for the monarch {
fame, the magnificent valley watered
its tributaries. Later still, England al
her colonies had penetrated far into Il
e | ,,o.tc-p 1r;Idc and prpptpd q fort ar