Sharp's Fort

Blockhouses or forts in the western region of North America were not new means of protection against assailing forces, The Normans built similar structures after conquering England in 1066, Following these examples, the early American settlers in the United States and Canada built comparable structures for protection,

Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee describes the early forts established among the wilderness settlements, "A fort, in rude military times, consisted of pieces of timber, sharpened at the end and firmly lodged in the ground; rows of pickets enclosed the desired space, which embraced the cabins of inhabitants, One blockhouse or more, of superior care and strength, commanded the side of the fort, with or without a ditch, completed the fortification or stations, as they were commonly called, Generally the interior cabins formed the sides of the fort, The place selected for a station was generally the cabin most central to the whole settlement to be protected by it, However, it was often otherwise, on an elevated position not surrounded by woods, cliffs, or other fastness, from which assailants could deliver fire under cover, contiguity to a spring, a river, or some stream of water, and supply of fuel--all of these had their influence in deciding the place selected for a fort" He went on to say, "At first, each of these stations was a single cabin in the midst of a clearing, When Indian disturbances broke out the inhabitants clustered together in the strongest one near them, and it then became a station.

In 1935, the site of Sharp's Fort was located on a rise above an apple orchard on a 116 acre farm owned by Lon Sharp. The property was purchased by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as part of the reservoir for the Norris Dam project, Mattie Sharp Stooksbury, daughter

rock at the site today. Wood for fuel was abundant and a large spring on the Lon Sharp farm was sufficient to provide fresh water for the fort, Individual homestead cabins of logs dotted the area surrounding the fort to facilitate farmers in clearing land and raising crops, However, when hostilities threatened, families moved into the fort, Sharps Fort afforded temporary shelter for a number of families that may have exceeded 40 persons during a siege, Lloyd Branson' 5 painting "Knoxville Blockhouse, 1793" on display at the Mcclung Historical Collection, East Tennessee Historical Center in Knoxville, reflects the character of many early forts in the region, Branson's painting depicts a large two-story log building in one corner of a spacious pallisade,

Perhaps the most knowledgeable account of the Big valley area of Union County where Sharp's Fort was established, was recorded by William H, Thomas, historian and superintendent of Union County schools in the 1920s, in notes and letters written in the 1950s and 1960s, Much of the following is due to his research,

"The date of the founding of Sharp's Station is lost to us," Thomas wrote, "but we know that the founders were Henry Sharp Sr, his many sons, a brother, John Joseph Sharp, their kinsmen and neighbors from the Haw River Valley in Orange County, North Carolina, and from other German settlements near Christianburg, Montgomery County, Virginia," Thomas records "the older citizens held the tradition that Sharp's Station was established (1783-1786) before James White erected White's Fort that later grew into the settlement of Knoxville, Tennessee,  The site of Sharp's Fort is on the north slope of Big Ridge State Park in Union County, Tennessee, Originally the site was embraced by Botetourt County, Virginia, and later by Washington District, North Carolina, However, as the counties of Tennessee were established, the site was contained within the boundaries of Hawkins County established in 1786; Knox County (1792), Anderson County (1801), Campbell County (1806) and in 1850 was incorporated into Union County.

Although Professor Thomas left notes regarding Sharp's Fort, he did not study the migration of the Sharps and their kinsmen from Orange County, North Carolina to the new frontier of the West, He also failed to study the boundary lines separating the colonies of North Carolina and the Old Dominion, After many long and tedious years of research Genevieve F. Peters was able to trace the migration of the Sharp family to the Great Valley, but she too, failed to consider boundary lines separating the two early colonies,

Genevieve E, Peters compilation Know Your Relatives The Sharps, Graves, Efland, Albright, Loy, Miller, Snoderly, Tillman, and other related families, is a product of extensive research that began in the 1950s and continued long after her work was published in 1959 (revised and republished in 1972), Her letters to William H, Thomas reflect a painstaking and comprehensive study of many early East Tennessee settlers.

Although Peters mentioned Sharp's Fort (Station) in her compilation, she did not elaborate except to define Henry Sharp Sr and his sons Henry Jr (Pioneer Sharp) Coonrad (Conrod), Jacob, David, and George Sharp as having settled early in the Great Valley and established a fort on the Clinch River, Peters' research in Hillsboro, Orange County, North Carolina produced records proving Henry Sharp Sr a resident of that state at one time, But, his name did not appear on the 1782 tax lists of Orange County, This would indicate he left the area, Further study of the Orange County records produced a land sale from Henry Sharp and his wife, Barbery, to Michael Holt for 216 acres of land on June 9, 1785, When Henry Sharp Sr signed the deed, he was a resident of "Botetourt a Providence of Virginia," Peters' research then took her to the Botetourt County Tithables for the year 1783 where she found the names of Henry Sharp and other neighbors and kinsmen from Orange County, North Carolina. The Virginia tax records of Botetourt County recorded Henry Sharp as a tax payer in that county in 1782-1787.

WGT NOTE: Following The Treaty of Paris terminating the French and Indian War in 1763, Botetourt and Augusta counties divided the state of Virginia--Botetourt County embraced the entire southern territory of the state including the Kentucky region. The early county of Botetourt should not be confused with that county today.

As early as 1769, permanent settlers lived in the Tennessee region, New settlers came into the area from Virginia and North Carolina in droves, The Treaty of Lochaber established a new line with the Cherokees on October 17, 1770, The boundary line began 'Ion the south branch of Holston River, six miles east of Long Island--thence to the mouth of the Great Kenhawa. This boundary--the western limit of the frontier settlements of Virginia and North Carolina--was a feeble barried against the immigrants who came in greatly increasing numbers to the West, The Holston River was considered the line dividing North Carolina and Virginia,,,when the line was afterwards run, many of those were found to be within the limits of North Carolina" (Ramsey),

In 1779, the Legislature of North Carolina appointed commissioners to run a boundary between Virginia and North Carolina, This was the more necessary, as lands near the line had nob been entered in the proper offices, and many of the settlers did not know to what jurisdiction civil or military, they belonged (Ramsey), This was also true for Virginians who made their homes near the boundary line, Another factor that contributed to the confusion in Virginia was the changes made as new counties were established, For example: as early as 1720, Spotsyvania County, Virginia was formed from Essex, King and Queen and King William counties, Orange County, taken from Spotsyvania in 1734 gave up territory to form Augusta County in 1738.

The Tennessee region belonged to the British colony of North Carolina, but vast, rugged mountains separated settlers in Tennessee from the mother colony, which offered little protection. In 1772, a group of settlers established law and order in the wilderness by forming their own government, the Wataugh Association, Wataugh was merely an enlargement of the Virginia settlement near it and at the time believed to be part of the territory of that providence--the line dividing Virginia and North Carolina had not yet been run west of Steep Rock" (Ramsey) In 1788, North Carolina gained control of the area and in 1789, gave the Tennessee region to the United States. The federal government made the area into the "Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio (Southwest Territory)," Settlers living near the line separating the Southwest Territory and Virginia were to learn a number of years later of a new line run by commissioners from both states in 1802.

Indians who were hostile toward the white immigrants moving down the Hoiston, Clinch and Powell valleys in the Western district encouraged the early settlements to build stations or forts for protection from Indian attacks principally Cherokees of the Chickamauga faction and their allies, the Upper Creeks, Indian rights to the region of Sharp's Station were not extinquished until the Holston Treaty of 1791, Although the Territorial Governor (William Blount) made a treaty with the Cherokees to give up their land south of the Clinch River, many of the Indians remained hostile toward the settlers and hoped to drive them out,

Although there were many instances of Indian abhorrence in East Tennessee, only those that occurred at Sharp's Fort and at other forts in Union County are mentioned in this study, Indians struck at Amos Well's Station established in 1791 in Hind's Valley in May of 1792. To announce the attack, a man named Cole reached Campbell's Station in the afternoon with news that at ten o'clock that morning six Indians tomahawked and scalped two Wells brothers, ten and eight, as they picked strawberries near their father's home, In the same area the following morning Judge David Campbell, with six other men returning from the Cumberland Settlement, was fired upon, and William Clack was killed, Martin Ridenour, a member of the party, had four bullet holes in his jacket but was otherwise unharmed" (Ramsey).

Hanging Maw (Cherokee chief) was suspected of instigating the raids, Capt, John Beard with two other officers, Capt, Thomas Cox from Sharp's Fort, and Capt. John Chrishoim, and forty men scoured Cumberland Mountain in search of Hanging Maw's camp, When the camp was discovered, an attack on the camp began and twelve to fifteen Indians were killed on June 12, 1793, This number included several principal chiefs, who had gathered there by order of President Washington, One reference lists the names of those killed or wounded in the attack: Captain Charley, Fool Charley, Scantee, William Rosebury, a white man, who had an Indian wife and a small family, Betty, the daughter of Kittegesgee, Among the wounded were Doublehead, Hanging Maw, and his wife and daughter, James Orr and Daniel Carmichael were fired upon as they ran from Hanging Maw's house Maj. Robert King, a government agent who had formed a connection with Hanging Maw's daughter, escaped through a window. Two hundred Indians were in arms in thirty minutes, and Captain Beard and his men fled. Captain Beard was brought before a court martial for this action, but the court refused to punish him. In retaliation for Captain Beard's actions, harrassment of the forts continued.

WGT NOTE: In Indiana in 1824, four white men were formally charged with first-degree murder for killing nine Indians--two braves, three squaws and four children. These men were indicted, tried by jury, found guilty and sentenced to hang. A fifth man, the ringleader, fled the scene and was not apprehended. Three of the men were hung while the fourth, a youth, was saved by a last minute reprieve. It is believed this was the first time in the history of the nation that white men were tried, convicted and executed for the slaughter of Indians Before then and for many years after the killing of Indians remained a persistant accomplishment to the Westward thrust of the nation.

On November 12, 1792, a small party of Indians mostly from Chickamauga towns, surrounded Byram's Station at Byram's Fork while attempting the perpetration of a horrible crime, forced open a window and pointed their guns through it. Ebenezar Byram (Revolutionary War soldier) and Fielden Lowe killed the chiefs, Forked Horn Buck and the Blackfish, of Chota, while other Indians fled without firing a shot. Another account of this attack has been noted.

On March 20, 1793, nine Chrerokees who were friends of the Buck and the Blackfish passed the Tennessee at Coyatee. They declared that they were going for satisfaction for the Buck and the Blackfish and they would take hair and horses from the frontiers toward Clinch and would proceed to join the Northern Indians for war. Two horses were stolen from Seth Lowe's Station and on the last day of March, William Massey and Adam Green, returning from a hunting trip along the Powell River, were killed in the frontiers of Hawkins County near the Clinch River.

On May 25, 1793, Thomas Gillam and his son, James, were killed and scalped by a band of twelve Indians near the Cain Camp in Raccoon Valley. Governor Blount's report stated: Nthat on the same day signs of several other parties of Indians were discovered in the neighborhood, making in the whole upward of thirty, and more than twenty horses were stolen and traced to Clinch" (Ramsey),

"On June 1, 1793, Indians made an attack at Holmack's Station on Bull Run, Captain Beard, who was in the vicinity, organized a siege. In the excitement, several families moved to Knoxville for protection" (Ramsey).

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