Battle of Hightower The Battle of Hightower ( also called Battle of Etowah ) in 1793 was part of the Chickamauga wars , in which the Cherokee sought to defend their territory from illegal immigration by white settlers . This particular battle took place at the Cherokee village of Etowah Town ( " Itawayi " ) , overlooking Downtown Rome , GA in the modern Floyd County , Georgia , resulting in the defeat of the Cherokee by a force led by John Sevier , future Governor of Tennessee . Prelude . In the 1785 Treaty of Hopewell , the Cherokee agreed to come under the sovereignty of the new United States and the treaty specified boundaries of a huge area of Tennessee , Eastern North Carolina and South Carolina , and Northern Georgia to be reserved as Cherokee hunting grounds . Article 5 stated that any non - Indians settling in this area would lose the protection of the United States and that the Cherokee could punish them any way they pleased . New settlers continued to move into the Cherokee area , however , and attacks by the Cherokee to drive them out and counter - attacks by the settlers became widespread and vicious . Technically , the United States violated the 1785 Treaty of Hopewell by failing to enforce Article 7 , which required the United States to enforce justice on U . S . citizens who murdered Cherokee , and the Cherokee violated the treaty by failing to adhere to Article 9 by trading directly with Spain . Arguments could be made that both sides violated Article 8 regarding retaliation . Trigging Event . With the approval of President George Washington , an attempt was made to negotiate a new treaty in the Southwest Territory ( now the State of Tennessee ) , but the meeting place was raided by a party headed by John Sevier . Sevier ordered Captain John Beard to attack , and many Cherokee were killed . Washington ordered the arrest and trial of Beard , but Sevier helped him escape and avoid trial . In retaliation , arguably justified under the " manifest violation " clause of Article 8 , John Watts led a war party of over 1 , 000 Chickamauga Cherokee and Muscogee Creek in a series of attacks against unauthorized settlements on Cherokee land in preparation to attack Knoxville , Tennessee . Near Knoxville Road on the French Broad River , the Cherokee attacked the Cavett ' s Station settlement with several killed on both sides . The surviving settlers surrendered when Watts offered clemency , but a faction of Cherokee under Doublehead opposed the clemency and starting killing the prisoners , including children . James Vann was on Watts ' side trying to protect the prisoners from Doublehead ' s men . Word of the massacre spread quickly and John Sevier raised a force to combat the Cherokee . The Cherokee force split up with some heading toward Kentucky and some toward North Carolina , but most headed toward Georgia . Sevier ' s men caught the Cherokee at the village of what he called Hightower ( Etowah , or " Itawayi " ) , which is near the present - day site of Rome , Georgia . The Cherokee created a defensive position on Myrtle Hill and used a guard to try to prevent Sevier from fording the rivers . Sevier left a written account of the battle , in which he described an attempt to cross the Etowah River about a mile south of Myrtle Hill , drawing the Cherokee defenders out of their prepared positions , then galloping back to Myrtle Hill to cross there . The Cherokee rushed back to contest the crossing of the Etowah , but failed . When Kingfisher was killed , the remaining warriors fled , and Sevier burned the village . Aftermath . Now unopposed , Sevier ' s force moved west down the Coosa River destroying Cherokee and Creek villages before returning to the Knoxville area . The " Battle of Hightower " was Sevier ' s last of many battles against Native Americans and came to be known as his Etowah campaign . It was the last pitched battle between the Lower Cherokee under John Watts and American forces until the Nickajack Expedition in September 1794 . Myrtle Hill is now a cemetery , and there is a stone on the hill memorializing this battle .