Walton War | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||
Belligerents | ||||||||||
Georgia | North Carolina | South Carolina | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | ||||||||||
John Milledge (1804–1806) Jared Irwin (1806–1809) David Brydie Mitchell (1809–1813) Peter Early (1813–1815) David Brydie Mitchell (1815–1817) William Rabun (1817–1818) | James Turner (1804–1805) Nathaniel Alexander (1805–1807) Benjamin Williams (1807–1808) David Stone (1808–1810) Benjamin Smith (1810–1811) William Hawkins (1811–1814) William Miller (1814–1817) John Branch (1817–1818) | Paul Hamilton (1804–1806) Charles Pinckney (1806–1808) John Drayton (1808–1810) Henry Middleton (1810–1812) Joseph Alston (1812–1814) David Rogerson Williams (1814–1816) Andrew Pickens (1816–1818) | ||||||||
Strength | ||||||||||
Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
None | 1 killed | None |
The Walton War was an 1804 boundary dispute between the U.S. states of North Carolina and Georgia over the twelve-mile-wide strip of land called the Orphan Strip. [1] The Orphan Strip was given to Georgia in 1802. Georgia and North Carolina thus had a shared border. Problems arose when Georgia established Walton County in the small piece of land, because the state boundaries had never been clarified, and it was unclear as to whether the Orphan Strip was part of North Carolina or Georgia. [2]
The Walton War remained a dispute primarily between the settlers and the Walton County government until John Havner, a North Carolinian constable, was killed and North Carolina's Buncombe County called in the militia. [3] By calling in the militia, North Carolina effectively asserted authority over the territory, causing the Walton County government to fail. In 1807, after two years of dispute, a joint commission confirmed that the Orphan Strip belonged to North Carolina, at which point North Carolina extended full amnesty to previous supporters of Walton County. [2] The Walton War officially ended in 1811 when Georgia's own survey reiterated the 1807 commission's findings, and North Carolina took full responsibility for governing the Orphan Strip. [3]
The Orphan Strip is the name given to a small, twelve-mile-wide strip of land bordering North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia [4] in what is currently Transylvania County, North Carolina. This piece of land was given the name because none of its bordering states accepted to govern it, and for a period of time it was considered no-man's land. South Carolina initially governed the land, but it was ceded to the federal government after the American Revolution, in 1787. In turn, the federal government gave the land to the Cherokee of the area, who gave it back to the federal government in 1798. [3] At this time, the land was not under the direct control of any state, and settlers with land grants from South Carolina or North Carolina began to settle there. [2]
Following the Revolutionary War, the new federal government encouraged states to cede their claims of land (dating to colonial charters) between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains to the United States. [2] After the Yazoo land scandal in Georgia, Georgia finally ceded its claimed land, which now makes up Alabama and Mississippi, to the federal government in return for the orphan strip in 1802. This cession was finalized in 1802 with the Act of Cession, in which Georgia was given small pieces of land including the Orphan Strip. The act did not clarify whether the region was to be governed by North Carolina or Georgia, and it did not define state boundaries. [3] When both North Carolina and Georgia claimed ownership of the orphan strip, a confrontation occurred and they called out armed militia to dominate in the area.
After the Orphan Strip was ceded to Georgia in 1802, settlers living there became confused and wanted protection. [5] In 1803, Georgia created Walton County for the settlers living in the region. This new county was named after George Walton, a senator [3] and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Historians still debate whether Georgia created Walton County to provide order for the settlers or to compete with North Carolina, but its creation evoked serious confusion and conflict in the small Orphan Strip. Settlers with land grants from South Carolina accepted the new Georgian government and rejected North Carolina's Buncombe County government. By contrast, settlers with land grants from North Carolina rejected the Walton County government. [2] This difference in allegiances was a minor problem at first, but when the Walton County government tried to collect taxes, the problem developed into a much larger issue.
The war reached its zenith in late 1804, when the Walton County government tried to collect taxes in the Orphan Strip. Settlers who claimed to be part of North Carolina's Buncombe County refused to pay these taxes, which resulted in multiple confrontations of Buncombe supporters. [2] Some argue that these confrontations were, in fact, the major battles of the war at McGaha Branch and Selica Hill [5] while others argue that the Walton War consisted of no real battles. Either way, these confrontations were usually violent, and even led to the war's only definite casualty. On December 14, 1804, [2] John Havner was killed after being hit in the head with a musket. [3] Havner's death led to the decision of the Buncombe County government to bring in the militia for protection, and on December 19 Major James Brittain led a detachment of 72 militiamen into the Orphan Strip. Upon their arrival, the militia arrested ten officials from Walton County and took them to Morganton, North Carolina to be tried for the murder of John Havner. [2] All ten prisoners managed to escape and flee before the trial had begun, but it was later concluded that Samuel McAdams was responsible for Havner's death. [6] The appearance of the North Carolinian militia and the arresting of the ten Walton County officials effectively led to the collapse of the Walton County government because the county was too isolated from Georgia's main cities for a strong defense of the Georgian claim to be made. [3]
For two more years the governors of North Carolina and Georgia could not reach an agreement on the boundary line, so in 1807 they agreed to a joint commission to resolve the quarrel. [5] The two leaders of the survey, Joseph Caldwell, president of the University of North Carolina, and Joseph Meigs, president of the University of Georgia, concluded that the entire Orphan Strip rested inside North Carolina's territory. [2] Although Georgia ignored the commission's findings and continued to govern until 1811, [7] North Carolina gave amnesty to everyone who had supported Walton County during the war. [8] Georgia finally admitted defeat in 1818 with the creation of a new Walton County elsewhere within its territory, and that county still exists. [5]
Because Georgia was not willing to accept the 1807 commission's conclusion, Georgia hired prominent surveyor Andrew Ellicott to survey the boundary once again. [3] Ellicott reinforced what the commission had found and marked the location of the border at Ellicott's Rock on the east bank of the Chattooga River. [4]
North Carolina took official governorship of the Orphan Strip in 1811, and in 1838 it was made into part of Henderson County. In 1861, pieces of Jackson County and Henderson County were split off to create present-day Transylvania County, where the Orphan Strip is located today. [3]
In 1971, in what some press reports called a symbolic, humorous dispute, the two states briefly revisited the issue. A Georgia legislative panel declared that the state did in fact have authority over part of the old Orphan Strip. [2] North Carolina legislators responded by authorizing the governor to mobilize the National Guard to defend the area, but no troops were mobilized. [3] The matter was soon allowed to drop again, with no change to any boundaries.[ citation needed ] In 1992 the state of North Carolina erected a historical highway marker along U.S. Route 276 southeast of Brevard to commemorate the dispute. [9]
The Toledo War (1835–36), also known as the Michigan–Ohio War or the Ohio–Michigan War, was a boundary dispute between the U.S. state of Ohio and the adjoining territory of Michigan over what is now known as the Toledo Strip. Control of the mouth of the Maumee River and the inland shipping opportunities it represented, and the good farmland to the west were seen by both parties as valuable economic assets.
Buncombe County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is classified within Western North Carolina. The 2020 census reported the population was 269,452. Its county seat is Asheville. Buncombe County is part of the Asheville, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution. Established in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation through the Northwest Ordinance, it was the nation's first post-colonial organized incorporated territory.
West Florida was a region on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. As its name suggests, it was formed out of the western part of former Spanish Florida, along with lands taken from French Louisiana; Pensacola became West Florida's capital. The colony included about two thirds of what is now the Florida Panhandle, as well as parts of the modern U.S. states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
George Walton, a Founding Father of the United States, signed the United States Declaration of Independence while representing Georgia in the Continental Congress. Walton also served briefly as the second chief executive of Georgia in 1779 and was again named governor in 1789–1790. In 1795, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate, to complete the unexpired term of a senator who had resigned.
The Transylvania Colony, also referred to as the Transylvania Purchase, was a short-lived, extra-legal colony founded in early 1775 by North Carolina land speculator Richard Henderson, who formed and controlled the Transylvania Company. Henderson and his investors had reached an agreement to purchase a vast tract of Cherokee lands west of the southern and central Appalachian Mountains through the acceptance of the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals with most leading Cherokee chieftains then controlling these lands. In exchange for the land the tribes received goods worth, according to the estimates of some scholars, about 10,000 British pounds. To further complicate matters, this frontier land was also claimed by the Virginia Colony and a southern portion by Province of North Carolina.
The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit was the territorial capital.
The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States as the State of Tennessee. The Southwest Territory was created by the Southwest Ordinance from lands of the Washington District that had been ceded to the U.S. federal government by North Carolina. The territory's lone governor was William Blount.
The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that was created under an organic act signed into law by President John Adams on April 7, 1798, and was dissolved on December 10, 1817, when the western half of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Mississippi. The eastern half was redesignated as the Alabama Territory until it was admitted to the Union as the State of Alabama on December 14, 1819. The Chattahoochee River played a significant role in the definition of the territory's borders. The population rose in the early 1800s from settlement, with cotton being an important cash crop.
The territory of the United States and its overseas possessions has evolved over time, from the colonial era to the present day. It includes formally organized territories, proposed and failed states, unrecognized breakaway states, international and interstate purchases, cessions, and land grants, and historical military departments and administrative districts. The last section lists informal regions from American vernacular geography known by popular nicknames and linked by geographical, cultural, or economic similarities, some of which are still in use today.
The state cessions are those areas of the United States that the separate states ceded to the federal government in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The cession of these lands, which for the most part lay between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, was key to establishing a harmonious union among the former British colonies.
The Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest in northern Georgia comprises two United States National Forests, the Oconee National Forest in eastern Georgia and the Chattahoochee National Forest located in the North Georgia Mountains. The Chattahoochee National Forest is composed of an eastern and western forest. The western forest contains Johns Mountain, Little Sand Mountain, and Taylor Ridge (Georgia). The combined total area of the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest is 867,265 acres (3,510 km2), of which the Chattahoochee National Forest comprises 751,069 acres (3,039 km2) and the Oconee National Forest comprises 116,196 acres (470 km2). The county with the largest portion of the eastern forest is Rabun County, Georgia, which has 148,684 acres (601.7 km2) within its boundaries.
The Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga River, usually shortened to Sycamore Shoals, is a rocky stretch of river rapids along the Watauga River in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Archeological excavations have found Native Americans lived near the shoals since prehistoric times, and Cherokees gathered there. As Europeans began settling the Trans-Appalachian frontier, the shoals proved strategic militarily, as well as shaped the economies of Tennessee and Kentucky. Today, the shoals are protected as a National Historic Landmark and are maintained as part of Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park.
The Fort Hollingsworth–White House is a well-preserved example of an early frontier fort built near Alto, Georgia in the late 18th century. The fort was built around 1793 by Jacob Hollingsworth on newly opened lands resulting from treaties with the Cherokee Nation, and was meant to protect the settlers in the area. The fort was adapted as a farm residence, principally by the White family, and has passed through generations of owners. It is now operated as a non-profit open-air museum.
Ellicott’s Rock is a survey marker placed in 1811 by Andrew Ellicott as part of his survey to resolve the boundary dispute between the U.S. states of Georgia and North Carolina. The boundary dispute involved a brief armed conflict between the two called the Walton War, followed by an 1807 survey that Georgia refused to accept. Ellicott, hired by Georgia, undertook a new survey that confirmed the earlier line. He engraved a large rock in the Chattooga River with "N-G", standing for North Carolina - Georgia. The location had been prescribed in part in 1787 by the Treaty of Beaufort, though the river was not named explicitly, but rather as a then-undiscovered tributary of the Savannah River between Georgia and South Carolina. The nominal latitude of 35°N was later specified by the U.S. Congress.
The Cherokee have participated in over forty treaties in the past three hundred years.
State of Alabama v. State of Georgia, 64 U.S. 505 (1860), is a unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States which held that the true border between the states of Alabama and Georgia was the average water mark on the western bank of the Chattahoochee River. In coming to its conclusion, the Court defined what constituted the bed and bank of a river. The case has had international repercussions as well. The Supreme Court's definition was adopted by courts in the United Kingdom in the case Hindson v. Ashby (1896) 65 LJ Ch. 515, 2 Ch. 27.
The Chickamauga Cherokee were a Native American group that separated from the greater body of the Cherokee during the American Revolutionary War and up to the early 1800s.
The Treaty of Dewitts Corner ended the initial Overhill Cherokee targeted attacks on colonial settlements that took place at the beginning of the American Revolution. A peace document signed by the Cherokee and South Carolina, the treaty instead laid the foundation for the decades long Cherokee–American wars fought between the European-Americans and the Chickamauga Cherokee people.