Volusia, On The St. John's

1836 Notices of Florida and the Campaigns:

Enroute To Illinois

The Life and Adventures of Capt. Robert W. Andrews, of Sumter, South ..., By Robert W. Andrews:

"...I met Mr Middleton Brooks, who kept the tavern in Statesburg, who offered me three hundred and fifty dollars and expenses to go to Vandalia, in the State of Illinois, for his father. I had then a 'trotting horse,' which I sold and bought one more fitted for the trip. I left my men in charge of my carpentering business, and, on June 5th, 1825, started for Illinois, passing through Camblin and

Salisbury On A North Carolina Map At LOC

Lancaster, South Carolina and Charlottetown and Salsbury, North Carolina, through Brunswick County, across the Blue Ridge mountains, by the Swannana Gap, into Tennesee; passed through that State and Kentucky, to the Ohio river, which I reached at Hudson's Ferry."

An Author's Memories Of Old Cahaba

From Memories of old Cahaba:

At the foot of the picturesque Cahaba Hills, on the banks of the majestic Alabama, just above the mouth of the beautiful little Cahaba, where their waters glide into each other's embrace on their way to the sea. is located the old, historic town of Cahaba — a place replete with romantic interest, and in its mighty ruins a forceful reminder that man, proud man, cannot build against the destructive inroads of time, circumstance, and political influence.

Early Tennessee Exploration By Dr. Walker

Source

THE UPPER CUMBERLAND OF PIONEER TIMES, By Alvin B. Wirt:

"In 1750 Dr. Thomas Walker heading an exploration party in the employ of the Loyal Land Company, came into the upper part of this valley over the old Indian trail and gave the English name 'Cumberland' to the Ouasioto Mountains, as well as to the gap in those mountains through which the path passed into Kentucky, and to the Shawnee River in the valley beyond."

"The Cumberland River, which flows through this section, was first known as the “Ouasioto,” but early French explorers gave it the name “Shavanon,” or Shawnee, because they found a few Indians of the Shawnee tribe living in the lower part of the valley."

The River

Chesapeake by James A. Michener:

"The Susquehannocks...felt intuitively that they should be on the warpath, proving their manhood."  "...an old warrior predicted...when the day comes that we are afraid to fight, we lose the river."

Pentaquad, the first main character encountered, was an outcast of the Susquehannocks.  He paddled down the river towards the legendary Chesapeake Bay, where he found wading birds and plentiful flora and fauna.

Somewhat Safer After Point Pleasant

Monument At Point Pleasant, West Virginia

From the FLOWERING of the CUMBERLAND by Harriette Simpson Arnow:

"The land that was to be Kentucky and Tennessee grew somewhat safer after the Point Pleasant Campaign of 1774 that marked the end of Dunmore’s War and the defeat of the Shawnee. Harrodsburg, Kentucky, was founded in that year. Also came the surveyors, locating boundaries for the land warrants Virginia had used to pay her soldiers in the French and Indian War. Some of these, including several hundred acres for George Rogers Clark, were located on the Middle Cumberland in the neighborhood of French Lick, for at this time most thought all the Cumberland was due west of Virginia instead of North Carolina."

Cabin Near Shelbyville, Kentucky

The Well-Known Flotilla

1794 Map Of Kentucky And Adjoining Territories (LOC)
Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers Are Shown

FLOWERING of the CUMBERLAND by Harriette Simpson Arnow:

April 24, 1780, the well known flotilla, headed by John Donelson in his boat the Adventure, reached French Lick after a hazardous trip from Reedy Creek of the Holston on down the Tennessee and up the Ohio and the Cumberland.

Fort Levis

Source

Fort Levis (Fort William Augustus)

1768 Map With Fort Levy Now F. William Augustus (LOC)

Boatmen Beware Of Cave-in-Rock

THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE The Story of the Natchez Trace...:

"The Cumberland poured into the Ohio 50 miles below Cave-in-Rock on the Illinois shore, where the worst of the outlaws on the river and the Trace were soon to set up their station for the murder and lot of flatboatmen."

Captain William Trent

From The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell:

"As a stop-gap, Dinwiddie persuaded a frontiersman, Captain William Trent, to recruit a hundred men from among his fellow Indian traders. ..they were packed off post-haste to start constructing a fort on the neck of land between the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers."

Source

"In August, 1753, he (Trent) was directed by Governor Dinwiddie, to examine the site selected by the commissioners, in 1752, for a fort on the Ohio. This was at the forks of the Ohio, where Pittsburg now stands. In a letter from John Frazier to an Indian trader named Young, dated "Forks, August 27, 1753," we find the following reference to Trent: "There is hardly any Indians now here at all, for yesterday there set off along with Captain Trent...".

Early in January, 1754, Governor Dinwiddie commissioned Trent to raise one hundred men for immediate service on the frontier. By the last of the month this force was raised, and immediately

marched to the mouth of Redstone creek, where a temporary store house was erected for the Ohio company, in which to place articles and supplies, to be carried from thence to the mouth of the Monongahela. While at Redstone, the Captain received instructions from Governor Dinwiddie to build a fort at the forks of the Monongahela and Ohio... .

Fort Pitt and Redstone On Map (Source) (Also seen here)

On the 17th the fort was given up, but not until highly honorable terms were obtained from the enemy. At this time, a Virginia regiment under Col. Fry, with George Washington as lieutenant colonel, was at Wills creek, Maryland, on its way to the forks. 

...the French enlarged and completed the fort, and named it Fort Du Quesne, in honor of the governor of Canada. 

Caught By Hays' Texan Rangers

View From The Rio Grande River Looking At Mexico

Notes of the Mexican War, 1846-47-48...:

 

"He (a guerilla) was caught by Col. Jack Hays' Texan Rangers, coming up from Vera Cruz (where he was captured)...let go on parole of honor, and again captured leading a guerilla band...".

We Met At Mrs. Acklen's

From Confederate Echoes: A Voice from the South in the Days of Secession and....., by Albert Theodore Goodloe:

Mrs. Acklen's Home (Belmont) In Nashville

The first night was spent at Mrs. Acklen's, the widow of Joseph H. Acklen*, not far out of Nashville. Uncle Calvin Goodloe had come to Nashville, on his way to Washington, on secret service for Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate army in Georgia, and we had arranged to spend the night together at Mrs. Acklen's, where, indeed, Uncle Calvin was stopping for a time. He and Mrs. Acklen were old friends and I had known her several years. He gave me the gratifying information that the Yankees were not then occupying Florence, and that I could likely cross the Tennessee River there if I could soon reach there in safety. *(My 1st cousin 5x removed)

Mrs. Acklen

Native Americans Of North Carolina In 1787

Scenery In North Carolina

Source

Rechristened Fort Rosalie

Source (Fort Rosalie And Vicinity)

"1763 rule of the Mississippi Valley passed from Louis XV to George III  By proclamation George III's government made the Natchez District...the only British area open to settlement west of the Appalachians."'

"...patriot James Willing circa 1777 ...was made a captain in the Navy...to make prize of all British Property on the Mississippi. However...when a party of  Americans did arrive, the Natchez settlers (many if not most of the Tory persuasion) gave it a violent reception.  Once more the British flag flew over Fort Panmure, as the British had rechristened Fort Rosalie.  It was not to stay there long.  Fort Panmure capitulated (to Spain) on October 5, 1779. 

The Attack Of Robert Benham And The Aftermath

Source

Robert Benham was under the command of Major David Rogers and was shot in both hips during an attack on the Ohio River.  He hid from the attacking Native Americans and later encountered a Kentuckian whose arms were broken.  Between the two of them they were able to take care of basic needs.  They were rescued and taken to Louisville.

The Most Dangerous Spot Of All

"...the most dangerous spot of all—the Cumberland settlements. [Source]

1795 Map Of Tennessee (LOC)

As long as Monsieur Veiz conducted the trade, the Indians did not molest the Cumberland settlers, but in 1784 or 1785 the business fell into other hands, who encouraged the Indians to make war on the whites, and furnished them with means of doing so. [Source]

Extended From The River Tweed

Partial Map Of Scotland (1806) With Tweed River In Lower Right Corner (LOC)

Source

"Caledonia, in its most extensive acceptation, extended from the rivers Tweed and Eden on the south...".

Pike Was Chosen To Trace The Mississippi

The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Volume 1 (of 3) by Pike

I was chosen to trace the Mississippi to its source, with the objects in view contemplated by my instructions; to which I conceived my duty as a soldier should induce me to add an investigation into the views of the British traders in that quarter as to trade, and an inquiry into the limits of the  territories of the United States and Great Britain.

In the execution of this voyage I had no gentleman to aid me, and I literally performed the duties (as far as my limited abilities permitted) of astronomer, surveyor, commanding officer, clerk, spy, guide, and hunter; frequently preceding the party for miles in order to reconnoiter, and returning in the evening, hungry and fatigued, to sit down in the open air, by firelight, to copy the notes and plot the
courses of the day.

General Rufus Putnam's Work In The South

Florida Panhandle

From the Journal of Gen. Rufus Putnam, a brief history of his work after the French-Indian War:

Belestre's Incursions

By a letter from him [Belestre] dated April 29, 1756, it appears that, with a number of French and Indians, he went down the Ohio river, and thence east and south to the Carolinas, and

"marched about 30 leagues through settlements that had been abandoned, at the end of which time he fell in with a village of 30 or 40 houses which were taken and burnt; close by was a small wooden fort that was summoned to surrender; on its refusing to comply it was carried by assault and the garrison put to the sword. The killed and prisoners amounted to about 300; all the oxen and cows having been collected together were killed; 120 horses, which they found, served to carry the large quantity of plunder the Indians got, and in returning they set fire to all the settlements they had left."

Belestre was slightly wounded in one arm and in the shoulder. Returning to Fort Duquesne, he engaged with a party of Cherokees and a few Frenchmen on incursions in the neighborhood of that place and was captured by the English troops on June 17, 1757, and on June 20 was taken for examination before a committee composed of Edmund Atkin, superintendent of Indian affairs, Col. George Washington and George Croghan, deputy to Sir William Johnson.

Source - Scouts Overlooking Fort Duquesne (Site Of Pittsburgh)

We have no account of the manner in which Belestre escaped from the Americans, but the next we hear of him he was in the northern part of New York, commanding a body of 300 men, of whom 200 were Indians. They left Montreal in October 1757 and proceeded among the Iroquois Indians to stir them up to attack the English. Some forts and a village in the Palatine were attacked and destroyed, and the people either carried off or massacred. The official report states that during this time a party of Canadians and Indians ravaged and burned 60 houses of the Palatines, their barns, and other outhuildings, as well as the water mill. Forty English perished, either killed or drowned, and 150 men women and children were taken prisoners. Apparently in 1758 Belestre was promoted to a lieutenancy, for he is referred to as a lieutenant in Montcalm's report of Feb 19, and a few months later in the "Bulletin of the most important operations during the winter of 1757-58," he is called a captain of colonial troops. [Historical Collections, Volume 34]

See another post about Belestre at Braddock's Defeat