Fort Watauga

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Fort Watauga was a American Revolutionary War fort in what is now Carter County, Tennessee. It was built near Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga River, then part of the Watauga Association, in 1775 to defend pioneers from Native American raids instigated by the British. It was originally named Fort Caswell after the North Carolina revolutionary governor.

The white settlements in the area had not been authorized by the British, and were in Native American lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Cherokee were angered by the settlement and the Transylvania Purchase (also known as the Treaty of Watauga) of Native American land by whites, and they attacked the fort in 1776 under either Old Abram from Chilhowee^[1] or Dragging Canoe. The attack was repulsed, but the Cherokees besieged the fort for two weeks before abandoning the siege. The fort was commanded by Lt. Col. John Carter, Capt. James Robertson, who founded Nashville in 1779 and, Lt. John Sevier, who later became Tennessee's first governor, and others.

In 1780, the Overmountain Men gathered at Fort Watauga to march across the Appalachians to attack British major Patrick Ferguson after Ferguson threatened to "Lay waste" to the colonists' land in the Carolinas "with fire and sword" if they did not give up their weapons. About 1100 enraged frontiersmen crossed the mountains and formed most of the colonial forces in the Battle of Kings Mountain, which the colonists won.

Today the Sycamore Shoals area, including a reconstruction of the fort about 1500 yards from the original location, is a Tennessee state park and is on the National Register of Historic Places. There is today a historic reenactment at the fort, recreating life in colonial days and the muster itself. It is located near Elizabethton, Tennessee.