pered pottery displaying checked or complicated stamped exterior surfaces. Some of the most crucial contributions regarding Overhill Cherokee archae- ology were provided by the University of Tennes- see’s 1977 survey of the Tellico Reservoir (Kimball 1985). During the investigation, several significant Overhill Cherokee sites were identified, including Chota (40MR2), and Tanasee (40MR62) (Braly and Koerner 2016). Most ceramics recovered from Chota and Tanasee were shell-tempered Overhill Plain sherds. Types recovered in lesser quantities included shell-tempered Overhill Check Stamped, Overhill Simple Stamped, Overhill Complicated Stamped and quartz-tempered Qualla Plain, Qualla Rectilinear Complicated Stamped, and Qualla Corn Cob Impressed, among others (Bates 1982:289-331). In 1830, congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which relocated the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Chickasaw to the Oklahoma territory, and the influx of white settlers spurred the forced cession of Cherokee and Creek lands in the Treaty of New Echota of 1835 (Chapman 1985:121). The route used to remove the Cherokee and other Native American groups from their homelands is known as the Trail of Tears. The Norther Route of the Trail of Tears passes through what is now Cheatham Coun- ty, 17.28 km northeast from the current project area (Figure 3.1) (Nance 2001:32). 3.6 Local History (1856 to 1950) Cheatham County is located in northcentral Tennes- see, bordered by Robertson County to the northeast, Davidson County to the east, Williamson County to the south, Dickson County to the west, and Mont- gomery County to the northwest. The county was established on February 28, 1856 with Ashland City as its seat and named for Edward Saunders Cheath- am, Speaker of the state Senate (Hallums 2017). Cheatham County encompasses approximately 307 square miles. The county is bisected from northwest to southeast by the Cumberland River, while the south- ern portion of the county is bisected from southeast to northwest by the Harpeth River. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Cheatham County was 39,105 (United States Census Bureau 2020). There were no major battles or skirmishes fought in Cheatham County during the Civil War;
however, the war still brought great upheaval and loss to the region and county residents. More men from Tennessee fought in the Civil War than from any other Confederate state (McDonough 1998). Middle Tennessee also provided valuable agricul- tural products to the Confederate armies, while the areas northwest of Nashville contained gun- powder mills (McDonough 1998:158). One such mill, Sycamore Mills located four miles north of Ashland City, came under Union control in 1862 and was out of commission until the end of the war (Hallums 2017). The 1864 Nashville Campaign in neighbor- ing Davidson County surely affected the residents of Cheatham County. After the end of the Atlanta Campaign, General Hood returned with his troops to Tennessee to regain the City of Nashville (Knight 2014). Several battles were fought between Septem- ber and December 1864 along the route from Geor- gia through Alabama to Tennessee (Figure 3.2). The Battle of Nashville occurred between December 15 and 16 (Figure 3.3). An exhausted and much smaller Confederate army attempted to destroy the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad to disrupt the Union supply lines, but they were met by Union General Thomas (Knight 2014). Thomas’s main attack was on the left flank of the Confederate army, and the line was bro- ken shortly after noon. After regrouping his forces, Hood was able to prepare for a second day of battle (Knight 2014). Thomas again attacked the left flank, and a Union victory was declared before night fall. “The Battle of Nashville was one of the most stun- ning victories achieved by the Union Army in the war. The formidable Army of Tennessee, the second largest Confederate force, was effectively destroyed as a fighting force” (Jacobson and Rupp 2007:428). Mule breeding became popular in the state at the end of the Civil War. Work animals were needed for the development of tenant farming throughout the South, and the mule’s importance continued during Manifest Destiny as “40 acres and a mule” were needed to claim land west of the Mississippi River (International Museum of the Horse [IMH] 2020). In the early twentieth century, dark fired tobacco made its way into the western Tennessee agricultural system (Miles 2017). After harvesting, the tobacco is cured inside a barn, where is it is hung while the
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