More about Watauga Association...
effectively beyond the reach of the
colonial authorities. In 1772 these settlements, along with
settlements along the Holston and Nolichucky Rivers united and
formed the Watauga Association government.
The Watauga Association was not intended to
be a sovereign and independent of any existing state, although
such a claim is sometimes made. The government adopted the
existing laws of Virginia and set up a five-man court to handle
local affairs such as lawsuits, marriages, wills, deeds,
negotiations with Indians and colonial governments, and the
establishment of a local militia for defense.
In 1771, North Carolina sent a surveying
party into the region and reached a settlement with the
Cherokee. The land agreement with the Cherokee placed the
Watauga Settlement within Cherokee territory, and North
Carolina's government ordered the Wataugans to vacate the
valley. Unwilling to leave, the settlers appointed a team of
negotiators who met with the Cherokee, resulting in the 1772
lease the Watauga Valley.
At first the Watauga Association was
thought to be within the bounds of Virginia, but a later survey
determined it was in North Carolina, although neither colony
had established any jurisdiction over the region. Shortly after
the survey, the Watauga Association drafted the "Watauga
Petition", pledging to assist North Carolina in the
American Revolution and asking North Carolina to
"annex" them and establish a regular government. The
Watauga Association formally accepted North Carolina's
jurisdiction in October of 1775. In 1775 they organized as
Washington District, and in 1777, were incorporated as
Washington County in North Carolina. The Watauga Association,
no longer needed, was disolved in 1778.
In 1784 the Wataugans were part of another
new, short-lived government, the State of Franklin, which
collapsed by 1790, reverting to North Carolina. Shortly
thereafter Washington County became part of the new state of
Tennessee.
James Roberston remained in the Watauga
area until 1779, when he led a settlement party to the banks of
the Cumberland River in the Nashville Basin and founded Fort
Nashborough, which later became Tennessee's capital, Nashville.
Valentine Sevier, Sr., the father of Gen. John Sevier,
Tennessee's first governor, came at about the same time as
Robertson.
One of the first forts built in this region
was Fort Watauga, said to be erected upon land owned by John S.
Thomas, about half a mile northeast of the mouth of Gap Creek
in today's Carter County. The Watauga Association also erected
a crude building housing both a courthouse and jail nearby the
Watauga Fort. The location of Fort Watauga is subject to
dispute and there may have been several fortifications and
blockhouses built for defense during the Revolutionary War and
the related Chickamauga Wars
There are many stories about Fort Watauga
and the Cherokee attacks on the Watauga settlements. While
sometimes told as factual histories, the stories are closer to
folklore and legend. The stories often contradict each other
and contain self-contradicting or impossible details. The
various stories, primary sources, and secondary histories are
examined in detail by Brian P. Compton.
One such story has it that on the early
morning of July 21, 1776, several women who had gone outside
Watauga Fort to milk the cows were fired upon and soon all
occupants of the fort were attacked at daybreak by a large body
of hostile Cherokees. Fort Watauga was defended at the time by
Robertson and then-Lieutenant Sevier with about forty men and
some 150 additional settlers, including the entire garrison
from Gillespie Station on the Nolichucky River below
Jonesborough. The warring Cherokees were twice repulsed from
Fort Watauga, but remained before the fort for six more days,
at the end of which time the approach of reinforcements from
other settlements along the nearby Holston River put them to
retreat.
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