Chapter 3: A New Nation Fights a Two Front War (45.03)

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Home » Monographs » Brevards and the Cherokee, 1837 (45) » Chapter 3: A New Nation Fights a Two Front War (45.03)

By: Dr. Bill Ambrose

Two Front War

British influence and support with supplies and guns for the Cherokees to be used against the western settlers was evidence that the Revolutionary War was carried out on two fronts. One front was the Atlantic Ocean and the loyalist British colonial governments and citizens that opposed the patriots.

The second front was a western front influenced by the British from north of the Ohio River and westerly to the Mississippi River supported by the English presence in forts along the Canadian border.

Allegorical painting depicting the British Empire taking in American loyalists in 1783 – Source: https://picryl.com/media/allegorical-painting-depicting-the-british-empire-taking-in-american-loyalists-f1056e

Spanish Administration of the Louisiana Lands

Spanish administration of the “Illinois” country, referring to the land on the west bank of the Mississippi River in the region centered around St. Louis in their “Louisiana,” after 1763 initially rejected Americans and non-Catholics. The Spanish authorities correctly perceived an ongoing British threat of re-taking control of the broad central portion of the America – a wide strip centered by the Mississippi River from Canada to the Gulf and extending east to the Appalachians and west to the Rocky Mountains.

The British had placed the governance of the northwestern region of its newly controlled Indian Reserve in French-speaking Quebec after they won the French and Indian War. British forts were built in support of their continuing commerce with the Native American tribes across the Great Lakes region. The lucrative fur trade continued, even improved, for England from this region after English control was established.

West of the Proclamation Line

Like the rest of the “Indian Reserve” west of the Proclamation Line, the King was demonstrating his guaranty, secondary to the Indians help during the French and Indian War, to his Native American subjects of his protection for them from Americans taking their land. However, this British foothold facilitated aggressive Indian action against American settlers across the region, including Kentucky, for nearly 40 years.

From their distant northern location, well north of the Ohio River, the British could efficiently maintain a presence, monitor American immigration, and wait for opportunities to expand their foothold toward Spanish Louisiana and a new mid-continent English colony.

Battle of Fort San Carlos

The Revolutionary War Battle of St. Louis, also known as the Battle of Fort San Carlos, is an extreme example of Great Britain’s efforts to defeat the colonialists in the West. This battle also demonstrates the enmity that the Spanish governments around the world felt for the British.

Records indicate that St. Louis was on the minds of wealthy and important colonists in Virginia as well, as they saw St. Louis as being a future center of commerce and trade in far-western Virginia. The British, in addition to wanting to defeat the patriots, had hopes of establishing a new colony through the middle of the continent centered on the Mississippi River; gaining a foothold in Spanish Louisiana at the intersection of its two largest rivers would advance that cause.

The Cahokia Civilization is Noted

St. Louis and Cahokia (Kahokea) are seen here on the 1780 Clark Map. St. Louis was established in 1763 by two Frenchmen from New Orleans under a land grant by the King of France, the same years the King of England drew the Proclamation of 1763 line along the crest of the Appalachians to limit colonial settlement.

On May 26, 1780, British and Indian forces attacked the Spanish-held city and the American-held outpost at Cahokia. The English force was made up of roughly 1000 Indians from Sioux, Chippewa, Winnebagoes, Menominees, and Sauk and Fox tribes commanded by British officers. The Indians were promised arms, ammunition, and the spoils of war.

Through the wise and determined efforts of the relatively new Spanish governor of Upper Louisiana, Don Fernando de Leyba, a defensive system had been constructed over the previous two years, including a 40-foot-tall tower with mounted canons and defensive lines of trenches – Fort San Carlos. Entrenched French, Spanish, slave, and likely friendly Indian riflemen and the booming cannon fire from the top of the tower proved effective in frustrating the attack. The village did suffer over 20 villagers killed and 100 or more injured. The city was saved.

British Hopes Are Dashed in Saint Louis

Today, a marker commemorating the battle can be found in the City of St. Louis at the corner of Walnut and Broadway (INSERT LAT AND LON) near the entrance to the ballpark. The defeat ended British hopes of ever controlling the Mississippi River. One month after the attack George Rogers Clark with Spanish and American forces destroyed the Sauk village, Saukenuk, at the mouth of Rock River on the Mississippi in retaliation for the attack. This image is from the 1780 Clark map showing the location with tents drawn at the village of “Saukanog.”

Just as de Soto visited the region that was to become Missouri, and Gerardot had founded a trading post at the “Cape,” the Spanish protected a predominantly French city soon to be a great American city and gateway to the West of the United States at St. Louis. On that day in 1780, it was the nexus of international and domestic conflict.

Treaty of Augusta

On May 30, 1783, the Treaty of Augusta, shown as Area 10 on the Royce Map, was signed between the Cherokee and the State of Georgia. Under the Articles of Confederation, Georgia assumed the right negotiate its own treaties. Georgia wanted the land to settle Revolutionary War veterans on. Ceding land between the Savannah and Chattahoochee Rivers, the treaty also confirmed the northern boundary between Georgia and the Cherokee land.

Area 10

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS) Missing Areas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, & 10.

The Dumplin Creek Treaty

Area 10A represents Cherokee land transferred to the unauthorized State of Franklin through the Dumplin Creek Treaty on May 31, 1785.

Area 10A

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS) Missing Areas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, & 10A.

Royce lists the date as November 28, 1785, because the next treaty, Treaty of Hopewell, includes Area 10A and was then legally authorized by the new government of the United States. The Dumplin Creek Treaty transfer from the Cherokee to “Franklin” includes “…all the lands lying and being on the South side of Holston and French Broad Rivers, as far south as the ridge that divides the Waters of Little River from the Waters of Tennessee (River).”

Initially, this is a very confusing definition because the waters of this small area flow to the Tennessee River, but the area is south (and east) of the French Broad and is limited in its southern extension by “the ridge that divide(s) the waters of Little River (arising south of that ridge) from the waters of the Tennessee River (of which it is a part.)

Note that the area “crowds” as tightly as possible to the French Broad River to maximize its size for the whites. This treaty was a problem for the Cherokee, who immediately sought help from the new United States government. Settlers ignored the new treaty limits, as usual.

Treaty of Hopewell

Enter a new sheriff; the Revolutionary War was finished and the Cherokee had to treat with the government of the United States. The treaty that marks this milestone is the Treaty of Hopewell, signed on Nov. 28, 1785. It is shown as areas 10A and 10B on the Royce Map here. Thirty-six Cherokee chiefs and 1000 Cherokee people were present and informed by commissioners of the U. S. that Great Britain was no longer sovereign.

Area 10B

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS) Missing Areas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10A & 10B.

The Commissioners representing the United States announced that the meeting’s purpose was to hear grievances from the Cherokee about the previous treaties. The chiefs wanted to discuss the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals. As was previously discussed above, the sale of most of Kentucky and a large area of Tennessee in 1775 to Richard Henderson, and then not allowed but lost to the Cherokee by rapid American settlement, was never negotiated by treaty or payment.

Extending the Treaty Line

At that point the commissioners produced a deed for those large areas signed by the two Cherokee chiefs at Sycamore Shoals, Attakullaculla, and Oconostota. Upon seeing the signed deeds, the chiefs in attendance agreed and further offered to extend the line “from the mouth of Duck River to the dividing ridge between the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, should be continued up that ridge and from thence to the Cumberland in such a manner as to leave all the white settlers in the Cumberland country outside of the Indian limits.”

Above is the 1884 Royce, C. C. Map of the former territorial limits of the Cherokee “Nation of” Indians; Map showing the territory originally assigned Cherokee “Nation of” Indians. Link: https://www.loc.gov/item/99446145/. If you give the map some time after you open the link you will be surprised at the the high level of detail that unfolds.

Next: Chapter 4: Treaties with a New Nation (45.04)

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