Camp Blount, Fayetteville, TN - House Reports, 71st Congress
House Reports, 71st Congress, 2d Session, (December 2, 1929-July 3, 1930), Vol 8, Commemoration Of Camp Blount And Preservation Of Old Stone Bridge, Lincoln County, Tennessee
There are few spots possessing as varied an historic interest as Camp Blount, Lincoln County, Tenn.
The site of Camp Blount was originally an Indian camp. Camp Blount was the place of mobilization of the armies of Gen. Andrew Jackson, which conquered the Creek Nation , the Spaniards and British at Pensacola. It was the place of mobilization of the troops with which General Jackson won his great victory at New Orleans, and was also the place of mobilization of our troops who fought the first and second Seminole Indian wars . It was likewise the place of demobilization of most of those armies. Later, Camp Blount was utilized by various military organizations during the Civil War, and was occupied by the army of Gen. W. T. Sherman in October 1863.
Camp Blount is located just south of Fayetteville, Tennessee, across the historic Old Stone Bridge over the Elk River, a half mile from the public square of Fayetteville. It faces directly on the Jackson Highway, a great national highway named for General Jackson, which extends from Michigan through Ohio, Kentucky, Nashville, Fayetteville, and Camp Blount, via Muscle Shoals to New Orleans.
As stated, the site of Camp Blount was once an Indian camp, probably of the Shawnees, those red Ishmaelites , who were finally driven from middle Tennessee by the Cherokees and Chickasaws about the beginning of the eighteenth century. Camp Blount was so named October 4 , 1813, for Gov. Willie (pronounced Wylie ) Blount, Governor of Tennessee from 1809 to 1815.
To quote Col. H.L. Landers, of the historical section, War Department:
In the early part of the nineteenth century the region south of the Tennessee River, in what is now the State of Alabama, was generally referred to as the "Creek country." This powerful Indian nation had been persuaded by the noted Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, and the prophet, to join a confederation of Indians for the purpose of exterminating the white invaders of their lands. When the second war with Great Britain was imminent , Tecumseh turned the strength of this confederation over to the British .
Incited, armed, and aided by the British, the Creek Indians were overrunning the southern country, marauding, pillaging, and butchering the whites and friendly Indians. They massacred the garrison and inmates of Fort Mims on August 30, 1813.
To further quote col. Landers;
This terrible slaughter of women and children roused the whole southeast to action without waiting for the Federal Government . The citizens of Tennessee were particularly anxious about the safety of their southern and western frontiers, and Governor Blount called the militia of the State into active service . Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson was given command of the troops. * General Jackson had been seriously wounded in a duel early in September, but from his sick bed directed the concentration of his troops at Camp Blount, Fayetteville, Tenn., where he finally joined them on October 7, 1813.
When General Jackson arrived at Camp Blount his arm was in a sling and he was still ill. Maj. John Reid, General Jackson's aide, read a spirited address of General Jackson to the volunteers who had assembled at Camp Blount.
General Jackson had ordered General Coffee and his cavalrymen to move rapidly into the Mississippi territory , now Alabama, and as quickly as possible to report the movement of the Creek Indians . On the 11th of October a courier from Coffee dashed into Camp Blount and announced that the Indians in two large bodies were moving in the direction of the Tennessee and Georgia frontiers . This message reached General Jackson at 12 o'clock and at 3 o'clock the entire army was moving, and at 8 o'clock that night it reached Huntsville , a distance of 32 miles . Perhaps none but an army of frontiersmen could have performed this feat , traveling over roads which would now be considered impassable . General Jackson and his troops conducted a vigorous campaign against the Creek Indians, completely routing them in five battles, and effecting a binding treaty of peace . During this campaign Camp Blount was several times used as a place of rendezvous. This was one of the bloodiest and most important warsever waged against the Indians on this continent . It had an electrifying effect throughout the Nation and did much to improve American morale and to lessen British aggression
The campaign conducted by General Jackson against the Creeks in 1813 and 1814 is not excelled in brilliancy of execution and leadership by any other campaign in our history.
When the Creek war was ended the army marched to Camp Blount, where they were discharged from further service, after General Jackson addressed them. In his address he paid a high tribute to his troops , and in summarizing the results of their achievements he said :
. You have annihilated the power of a nation that for 20 years has been a disturber of your peace.
General Jackson departed from Camp Blount and went to Nashville , where there was great rejoicing and where a rousing ovation was given him.
After he had conquered the Creek Indians , General Jackson was appointed Major General of the United States militia with headquarters at Mobile . Having learned that the Spaniards were harboring Creek Indians and also allowing the British to occupy the town and forts at Pensacola , Jackson came to the conclusion that the British had designs on Pensacola or New Orleans . General Coffee raised about 2,500 cavalrymen and occupied Camp Blount the early part of October 1814. General Coffee with his forces moved from Camp Blount on October 5 , 1814 , and marched to Fort Montgomery, near Mobile , where he joined General Jackson's other forces , most of which had previously moved from Camp Blount. General Jackson took command and marched to Pensacola , where he conquered the Spaniards and drove the British out of town , but before they left by the sea they blew up two of the Spanish forts.
After this, Jackson and his army marched to New Orleans , where they fought and won the famous victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
The troop of the first Seminole Indian War mobilized at Crooked Springs, on the Elk River, about 1 1/2 miles from Camp Blount. General Jackson was then Governor of Florida.
During the administration of President Andrew Jackson, the Secretary of War called for a brigade of volunteers from Tennessee to fight the Seminole Indians in Florida , who were making war upon the inhabitants of that State and of Georgia . These volunteers rendezvoused at Fayetteville, in June 1836 , and there completed their organization . In due time the force moved south from Camp Blount, closely following Jackson's previous route to the Creek Nation, thence to Tallahassee, and through the wilderness to the Suwanee Old Towns, thence to Fort Drane, and conquered the Seminoles.
During the war between the States , Camp Blount was repeatedly used by various military organizations. In October 1863 , soon after the battle of Chickamauga , Camp Blount was occupied by the army of Gen. W. T. Sherman , who was on his way to reinforce the Federal Army at Chattanooga. General Sherman and his army crossed Elk River on pontoons , instead of crossing over the historic stone bridge connecting the town of Fayetteville and Camp Blount.
It is said that he was afraid to cross on the bridge, fearing that it might have been mined by the Confederates or their friends , although as a matter of fact it had not been mined.
General Sherman in his march to the sea had destroyed all bridges, but at Camp Blount he permitted the splendid stone bridge over Elk River to stand, and it is there now in all of its majestic beauty.
This beautiful old stone bridge, being too narrow and perhaps not strong enough from present day traffic, a modern new bridge has been constructed across the Elk River a short distance below the old stone bridge. The county of Lincoln owns the old stone bridge and approaches, and it is understood are willing to donate same to the United States to be preserved in connection with the commemoration of Camp Blount .
Austin P. Foster, former assistant librarian and archivist of Tennessee, wrote in part as follows:
That all the important historic spots in the State be should commemorated by monuments or markers needs no argument. Those of major importance should come first. Among the latter is Camp Blount.
Camp Blount was used for militia and military purposes, and its site is highly historic, for the spot has been of great strategic importance. Dating back to prehistoric times, of unnumbered ages renote, utilized by the Indians, by the pioneers, by the early militia, and by armies down to recent years, how can the claims of the site of Camp Blount to memorial recognition be ignored?
On October 4, 1913 , the King's Mountain Messenger Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, at Fayetteville , Tenn., placed a modest monument and marker on Camp Blount, facing the Jackson Highway , to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the establishment and naming of Camp Blount by General Jackson's troops. Camp Blount is rich in historical associations, which identify it in an outstanding way with the life of the Nation. For these reasons, it is the unanimous conclusion of the House Committee on the Library that H. R. 7924 is meritorious and should pass , as amended.
