|
Bledsoe's Station (also called Bledsoe's Fort) was an 18th-century frontier fort located in what is now Castalian Springs, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The fort was built by long hunter and Sumner County pioneer Isaac Bledsoe (c. 1735–1793) in the early 1780s to protect Upper Cumberland settlers and migrants from hostile Native American attacks. While the fort is no longer standing, its location has been verified by archaeological excavations. The site is now part of Bledsoe's Fort Historical Park, a public park established in 1989 by Sumner County residents and Bledsoe's descendants. Bledsoe's Station was one of a series of outposts built in the Upper Cumberland during the first major migration of Euro-American settlers into the Middle Tennessee area following the American Revolution. The fort was a convenient stopover along Avery's Trace— the main road connecting East and Middle Tennessee at the time. The flood of settlers into the region brought inevitable conflict with the region's Native American inhabitants, and dozens of settlers were killed in the late 1780s and early 1790s. Isaac Bledsoe's brother Anthony was killed in an ambush at the fort in 1788 and Isaac himself was killed while tending a field just outside the fort in 1793. The end of the Cherokee–American wars the following year ended much of the violence and reduced the fort's necessity. Bledsoe's Fort Historical Park protects the fort's excavation site (an outline of the fort's walls can be discerned from former excavation trenches) as well as several historic structures, including the Nathaniel Parker Cabin and Hugh Rogan Cottage (both Parker and Rogan were compatriots of Bledsoe) and a pioneer cemetery with an obelisk dedicated to the Bledsoe brothers. The Cheskiki Indian Mounds and the Wynnewood State Historical Site are located immediately east of the park, and the Cragfont State Historical Site is located immediately to the west. ==Geographical setting== Bledsoe's Station was located on a hill slope between Bledsoe Creek to the west and Bledsoe Lick Creek to the east. Both streams empty into the Old Hickory Lake impoundment of the Cumberland River just over a mile to the south. The hill is relatively blunt and consists of open fields alternating with densely forested areas. The top of the hill is used as a flying zone for radio-controlled airplanes. The spring that furnished the minerals for Bledsoe's Lick flows at the base of the hill a few hundred yards east of the fort site. Bledsoe's Fort Historical Park covers most of the hill between the Sumner County RC Flyers airfield and Rock Springs Road. Tennessee State Route 25 (Hartsville Pike) provides the park's southern boundary and main access. The park is roughly halfway between Hartsville to the east and Gallatin to the west, and lies approximately northeast of Nashville. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bledsoe's Station」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|