The Promise of America
by Jennifer Crutchfield, National Park Partners
Chattanooga has been at the intersection of North American history for over 12,000 years but many of us don’t realize what pivotal roles our city, its National Park Service sites and National Register landmarks have played in the promise of America. Chattanooga connects to the Declaration of Independence, the last battle of the Revolutionary War, the earliest days of the Underground Railroad and the birth of the National Military Park that would set the precedent for establishing and managing historic sites throughout the nation.
Elias Boudinot, a leader of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions instrumental in establishing the Brainerd Mission, became a trusted part of General George Washington’s team during the Revolutionary War and a delegate to the Continental Congress. Photo courtesy Wikipedia
The Brainerd Mission
The Brainerd Mission was established on South Chickamauga Creek in 1816, on land owned by John McDonald, a Scots trader and grandfather of future Principal Chief John Ross. The area between it and the trading post on the Tennessee River was wilderness and Missionary Ridge’s name is a nod to the missionaries seen walking to John Ross’s trading post for supplies. Samuel Williams built the area’s first plank house with timber cut at the Brainerd Mission that was floated down Chickamauga Creek to the landing.
On ancestral Cherokee land, the region was still considered ‘foreign’ and beyond the territories established by the fledgling nation. During the several decades the Mission operated, it was visited by President James Monroe and celebrated for its work. Students from the Brainerd Mission went on to study at the Cornwall Mission School and became leaders of the Cherokee Nation.
Elias Boudinot, a leader of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions instrumental in establishing the Brainerd Mission, spent his childhood as a neighbor of Benjamin Franklin, became a trusted part of General George Washington’s team during the Revolutionary War and a delegate to the Continental Congress. During the interim between George Washington’s election as first President of the United States and his inauguration, Elias Boudinot was one of several men who served as President of the United States in Congress Assembled. During his tenure as the infant nation’s leader, Boudinot signed the November 20, 1782 peace treaty with England, officially ending the War and beginning a new era for a hopeful nation.
Craven’s House: The Last Battle of the Revolutionary War
Chief Dragging Canoe was a legendary, larger-than-life leader of the Chickamauga offshoot of the Cherokee tribe who led warrior parties against westward migration and defied his Cherokee elders by forming allegiances with the British during the Revolutionary War.
Although British General Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781, battles continued to be fought in many frontier territories as word slowly spread. On September 20, 1782 skirmishes between Colonel John Sevier’s troops and the Chickamaugas led to an engagement considered to be the last “Overmountain” battle of the Revolutionary War. Fought high in the palisades on Lookout Mountain, Colonel Sevier, who would later become the first Governor of the newly-formed state of Tennessee, and the “Nolichucky Riflemen” continued the war they had waged against Cherokee villages until Chief Oconostota negotiated a peace between the Cherokee and the newly-formed country.
Jacob Cummings and The Underground Railroad
Moccasin Bend is the only National Park Service Archeological District and represents over 12,000 years of Indigenous pre-history. Positioned in a waterway that was a major hub of travel, Moccasin Bend’s archeological remains reflect advances by people during the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, and Woodland eras as well as one of the first sites of contact with early Spanish explorers. This natural pathway became a place of despair as the Cherokee began their journey on the Trail of Tears and then became a pipeline of the slave trade.
Jacob Cummings found hope in the sky when an abolitionist storekeeper taught him how to navigate North using the stars and the moss on the trees. From his escape on July 29, 1839 to his arrival in Canada is a tale of wit, resilience, hope and help as he met others who became what we celebrate today as the Underground Railroad.
Reunion ribbon from the Blue-Gray Barbeque at Crawfish Springs, Georgia (Chickamauga) on Sept. 20, 1889, prior to the establishment of America's first Civil War national battlefield at this place two years later. The barbeque was attended by former Confederate and Federal veterans who fought at Chickamauga September 18-20, 1863. Photo credit: Tennessee Virtual Archive
Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park
Fought between brothers, American against American, the Civil War wounded men, scarred the land and threatened the fabric of the nation’s spirit. In 1889 ten thousand men came together, not as Union or Confederate but as reunited Americans, in a celebration that would spark the creation of the first national military park.
When the Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park was established in 1890, at least seven veterans from the battle voted for its passage as members of Congress. Created five years before Gettysburg and twenty-six years before the National Park Service was founded, Chattanooga’s park set the precedent for what would become a national model for honoring and protecting national historic sites across the country.