Tag: american revolution
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Sullivan 250 | 1780: When the War Passed Through Sullivan County
Sixth in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America June 2026 | 6 of 12 By 1780, the Revolutionary War had reached the frontier in force. For the Overmountain settlements, the struggle shifted from simply holding on to taking action. The implications went far…
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Long (Island) Before Kingsport
I found a reference — new to me, at least — during a recent visit to the East Tennessee History Museum in Knoxville. The exhibit (on display through February 14, 2027) is “Lines Were Drawn: The Treaty of Holston and Its Legacy,” and one map stopped me in my tracks. It showed Long Island of…
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Sullivan 250 | The Holston River: From Long Island to the Future Capital
Fifth in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America May 2026 | 5 of 12 Rivers functioned much like an early version of our modern interstate system, especially when they were navigable. Long Island (later King’s Port) in Sullivan County was considered the head…
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Sullivan 250 | Before Countyhood: How Order Came to the Holston Valley
Fourth in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America April 2026 | 4 of 12 Even as violence flared in the Holston Valley during the Revolutionary era, settlers made a choice that would shape the region’s long-term character: they insisted on order. Long before…
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Sullivan 250 | July 1776 at Island Flats: When Independence Reached the Holston
Third in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America March 2026 | 3 of 12 In July 1776, independence was declared in Philadelphia. Along the Holston River near Island Flats, it arrived as a crisis. The Battle of Island Flats, also called the Battle…
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The Founding Father Hidden in Kingsport’s Land Records
I find tidbits of Kingsport history in the most unexpected places. This week, it came from a Retired Police Officers magazine out of Long Island, New York, where Kingsport has quietly placed a small ad for years. Inside was an article on the burning of Norfolk in 1776, and there, in the middle of that…
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How Our Region Shaped the Course of the American Revolution
Mark your calendars for 6pm, April 9, at the Kingsport Center for Higher Education (invitation attached) as the Friends of Kingsport Archives and Sullivan 250 committee present “The Overmountain Men” in honor of America’s 250th birthday celebration. Imagine living in our region before it was officially the United States of America. In 1761, the Virginia…
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Sullivan 250 | From Fort Robinson to Fort Patrick Henry: Building a Defense Network in the Holston Valley
Second in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America February 2026 | 2 of 12 As British colonial interests pushed beyond the Appalachians, travel followed established Indigenous routes such as the Warriors’ Path through Virginia’s Great Valley to Long Island of the Holston—an…
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Sullivan 250 | Long Island of the Holston: Where the Frontier Converged (1 of 12)
First in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America Before Sullivan County existed, before Tennessee had a name, there was Long Island of the Holston. Lying along a broad bend of the Holston River near present-day Kingsport, the island and its surrounding flats…
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Tennessee in 10 Minutes
I was recently talking with colleagues about the early development of modern Tennessee and why the first counties were incorporated in two pockets: East Tennessee along the upper Tennessee Valley and Middle Tennessee along the Cumberland River basin, initially leapfrogging Southeast Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau. I couldn’t find a succinct description, so I decided…
Kingsport Spirit 