Unknown (militia force described as including mounted troops, rangers, and infantry)
Unknown
Casualties and losses
5 killed; 16 wounded (Sevier report)
145 killed and buried (Sevier report); additional wounded (reported)
The Battle of Flint Creek was a frontier battle fought on January 10, 1789, near Flint Creek at the base of Flint Mountain in what is now Unicoi County, Tennessee. The engagement occurred during the conflicts often grouped under the Chickamauga Wars, a period of violent warfare on the southern Appalachian frontier involving Cherokee resistance factions and frontier settlements. The battle is primarily documented through an after-action report by militia leader John Sevier that was later printed in an 1789 issue of The Augusta Chronicle and Gazette of the State and by later historical discussion and analysis.[1]
In the decades after the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals (1775) and the rapid growth of Euro-American settlement in the Holston, Watauga, and Nolichucky valleys, resistance to settlement coalesced among Cherokee leaders who opposed further land cessions. A militant faction commonly referred to as the Chickamaugas formed around Dragging Canoe and allied communities, and it included not only Cherokees but also Creek warriors and other allies over time. In Tennessee history writing, the Chickamaugas are often described as a diverse coalition that attempted to limit or reverse white settlement for roughly two decades through raids and campaigns.[4]
By the late 1780s, political and military conditions on the frontier were complicated by the short-lived State of Franklin (an attempted extra-legal state formed by frontier leaders). John Sevier was widely known as a frontier military leader and the only governor of Franklin and was a central figure in organizing militia responses to attacks on settlements.[5]
A U.S. Army professional article on the battle describes a context of increasing violence in 1788 and notes that Cherokee political unity in that period was influenced by killings and retaliations along the frontier. The same account identifies Cherokee war leader John Watts as associated with the Chickamauga leadership cadre and describes Flint Creek as a winter base used to keep pressure on settlements during the cold season.[6]
Battle
Approach and plan
In a report dated January 12, 1789, Sevier wrote that he received intelligence that a “considerable body” of enemy forces was collecting near Flint Creek within roughly 25 miles of his headquarters and that he marched immediately through heavy snow and extreme cold to strike the encampment.[1]
Sevier reported that, once his force was within about a mile of the camp, the militia located it by the smoke of campfires “extended along the foot of the Apalachian Mountain.” He then convened a council of officers and ordered a detachment under General McCarter, described as including “Bloody Rangers and the Tomahawkmen”, to occupy the mountain pass that he believed would serve as the enemy's main route of retreat, while the remainder of his force formed along the front of the camp.[1]
The U.S. Army analysis describes Sevier's scheme as a raid designed to isolate the camp by occupying high ground and then assaulting from the mouth of the draw; the article also notes Sevier brought a small “grasshopper” cannon to initiate the attack.[6]
Fighting
According to Sevier's account, the signal to begin the assault was the discharge of the grasshopper cannon. Sevier wrote that the artillery “roused the Indians from their huts,” and that the encamped force attempted to escape but was checked by riflemen posted behind trees. Sevier stated that enemy fighters briefly rallied and killed the men serving the artillery, and that because militia ammunition had been damaged by snow and the enemy ammunition was in better condition, he shifted from gunfire to close combat “to the sword and tomahawk.”[1]
Sevier reported that Colonel Laird led roughly 100 horsemen in a sword charge, followed by additional men using tomahawks, and that when McCarter's detachment descended from the mountain the fighting became general. Sevier stated the engagement ended in less than half an hour with the militia holding the field.[1]
The U.S. Army article likewise emphasizes surprise, isolation of escape routes, and the transition from artillery to close assault after the gun crew was killed, describing the engagement as a rapid clearance of the camp that concluded within about thirty minutes.[6]
Casualties
Sevier's letter reports that his force buried 145 of the enemy dead and inferred that additional wounded retreated into the woods, based on blood trails “for miles.” He reported militia losses as five dead and sixteen wounded, including General McCarter, who Sevier said was tomahawked while taking a scalp and then killed his attacker.[1]
The U.S. Army analysis repeats these figures and notes that, in the author's research, no Chickamauga account of the battle had survived for comparison.[6]
Aftermath
Sevier wrote that he marched back to his previous cantonment at Buffalo Creek and expected to remain there until receiving supplies, adding that his troops “suffer most for the want of whiskey.”[1]
In later interpretation, the battle has been characterized as a major and lopsided militia victory that disrupted Chickamauga operational momentum gained in the 1788 campaign season.[6]
Battlefield and commemoration
The battle site is interpreted today within Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork State Park (formerly Rocky Fork State Park) in Unicoi County. Tennessee tourism writing about the park states that the park received a Federal Recreational Trails grant administered through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to develop access and interpretive markers for the Flint Creek Battle Site located within the park, and describes the battle as a January 1789 engagement in which Sevier's militiamen defeated a faction of the Chickamauga Cherokee at the base of Flint Mountain.[7]
Archaeology and site documentation
The Tennessee Division of Archaeology has recorded the Flint Creek Battle Site as state archaeological site 40UC10.[8]
In 2015, a Tennessee Historic Preservation Fund grant listing included $12,000 for remote sensing at the Flint Creek Battle Site at Rocky Fork State Park; a 2016 grant listing reported an additional $9,000 for continued survey work at the battle site.[9][10]
Primary sources
The best-known contemporaneous description of the battle is Sevier's January 12, 1789 letter, printed in the Augusta Chronicle (May 2, 1789) and preserved in the Georgia Historic Newspapers digital archive.[1]
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