Sarah “Sally” Ridley Buchanan – Nashville Historical Newsletter

Buchanan’s Station and Cemetery

by Mike Slate.

Buchanan’s Station was a fortified settlement established about 1784 during the pioneer era of Nashville, Tennessee. Located on a bluff overlooking Mill Creek in today’s Donelson, the homestead was founded by Major John Buchanan who lived there with his family and other settlers until his death in 1832.¹ The station is best known as the site of the famous Battle of Buchanan’s Station, which occurred on September 30, 1792.²

In addition to being situated along one of Nashville’s earliest roads, originally called the Lower Trace³ and later described as the road to Buchanan’s Mill,⁴ the fort was also near the old Nickajack Trail⁵ as well as what has been called the First Holston Road.⁶ Eventually the road by Buchanan’s Station became the southern artery to Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage estate and, by about 1869, the approximate route of the old Tennessee & Pacific Railroad.⁷

*Young reenactor at a 2012 Buchanan’s Station Cemetery event. The orange flags near her mark recently identified graves.* *(NHN photo)*

The fort is known to have been positioned precisely at the northwest corner of today’s Elm Hill Pike and Massman Drive, and a state historical plaque marks the spot.⁸ A large commercial building now covers the site. Not seen from Elm Hill Pike but clearly visible from Massman Drive is the extant Buchanan’s Station Cemetery, the only vestige of the original settlement and one of the oldest pioneer graveyards in Middle Tennessee. Buried here are Major John Buchanan (1759-1832) and his wife Sarah “Sally” Ridley Buchanan (1774-1831), along with about 65 other family members, affiliated settlers, and possibly slaves. Many graves are marked only by anonymous fieldstones.⁹ Notably, historical circumstances indicate that at least five frontiersmen who were killed by Indians are probably buried in the cemetery: Samuel Buchanan,¹⁰ Cornelius Riddle,¹¹ John Buchanan Sr.,¹² William Mulherrin,¹³ and John Blackburn.¹⁴

Largely because it was the venue of the remarkable 1792 Indian attack, Buchanan’s Station has been frequently mentioned or discussed by both amateur and professional historians for well over two centuries.¹⁵ Buchanan’s Station was, and continues to be, an archetypal intersection of pioneer culture, involving migration dynamics, settlement formation, land acquisition, conflict with Native Americans, and integration into the developing American West.

¹ According to author Laurence Trabue, Richard Buchanan (a son of Major John Buchanan) sold the Buchanan’s Station location to Ralph Smith in 1841. Thus, the station remained with the Buchanan family until that year. I use the 1832 date in order to delineate the years that John Buchanan himself lived there. See Laurence O. Trabue, “Early Nashville Homes, 1780-1830,” in Graham, Eleanor, and Mary Glenn Hearne, Nashville Families & Homes: Paragraphs from Nashville History Lecture Series, 1979-81 (Nashville: The Nashville Public Library, 1983), 111.

² See the “Battle of Buchanan’s Station” article.

³ Buchanan’s Station was situated on North Carolina land grant #83. The survey warrant for that grant located the land “on Mill Creek Where the Lower Trace Leading to Stones River Crosses Sd Creek.” Apparently, today’s Elm Hill Pike, or a portion thereof, was originally known as “the Lower Trace,” indicating an old buffalo trail. The warrant is transcribed in Drake, Masters, & Puryear, Data Supplement 1 for Founding of the Cumberland Settlements: The First Atlas, 1779-1804 (Gallatin TN: Warioto Press, 2009), 136-137.

⁴ See the “Major John Buchanan” article, note 7.

⁵ The Nickajack Trail, which was a segment of the old Cisca and St. Augustine Indian Trail, ran from Chickamauga Indian country near today’s Chattanooga northwest to Nashville. The Indians who attacked Buchanan’s Station in 1792 probably approached the station via this trail, or portions thereof. Today’s Murfreesboro Road may follow the original route of the Nickajack. As the trail entered Nashville it came very close to Buchanan’s Station. Regarding the Nickajack and other trails, see William E. Meyer, Indian Trails of the Southeast (Davenport IA: Gustav’s Library, 2009, reprint from the “Forty-second Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology” 1924-25), especially page 848 and the included maps.

⁶ The term “First Holston Road” is used in Masters & Puryear, Thoroughfare for Freedom: The Second Atlas of the Cumberland Settlements, 1779-1804 (Gallatin TN: Warioto Press, 2011), especially pages 96-97. Created in the spring of 1788, this was the first trail blazed from Nashville across the Cumberland Plateau to Knoxville. It preceded the Cumberland Road (also called Avery’s Trace) that was soon afterwards built on the north side of the Cumberland River. The First Holston Road proceeded from Nashville “via Buchanan’s Station” according to pioneer William Martin’s account in Paul Clements, Chronicles of the Cumberland Settlements (Nashville: self- published, 2012), 288.

⁷ The southern or lower road to the Hermitage appears on Matthew Rhea’s 1832 map of Tennessee, and the route of the Tennessee & Pacific Railroad appears on Wilbur Foster’s 1871 map of Davidson County, Tennessee.

19^th century house on the site of Buchanan’s Station, Elm Hill Pike at Massman Drive. The log building (right) is a remnant of the original 1780 fort. These structures were later demolished and replaced by an industrial park. (1936 photo courtesy of TN State Library & Archives)

⁸ Several sources nicely align to present almost incontrovertible proof of the precise location of the Buchanan’s Station main structure. One of the most important is Roberta Brandau, ed., History of Homes and Gardens of Tennessee (Nashville: Parthenon Press, 1964 edition of the 1936 original), 142-144. In the entry therein titled “Buchanan Station,” Ralph Smith’s “Mansion House” is pictured and captioned as “on the site of the original Buchanan structure.” Smith’s mansion became the Knapp Farm Clubhouse (owned by George Peabody College), the exact location of which is known to many contemporary Nashvillians since it was not torn down until shortly after 1980. Brandau aligns with Trabue, 111.

⁹ See archeologist Dan Allen’s report: Dan S. Allen, “Archaeological Survey of the Buchanan’s Station Cemetery” (Murfreesboro: Dan S. Allen & Associates, 2013), 31.

¹⁰ Samuel was the second of Major John Buchanan’s brothers to be killed by Indians (the first was Alexander during the “Battle of the Bluff”). Harriette Simpson Arnow reports that Samuel was killed on May 8, 1786, while out ploughing in the field near the creek, apparently at Buchanan’s Station. See Harriette Simpson Arnow, Flowering of the Cumberland (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996, new edition of the 1963 original), 241-242. Samuel may have been the first person to be buried in the Buchanan’s Station Cemetery.

¹¹ Cornelius Riddle was killed in November 1786 near Buchanan’s Station while hunting turkeys. See Clements, 249. Harriette Simpson Arnow speaks of Riddle (she calls him “Ruddle”) as living at Buchanan’s Station with his wife (the former Jane Mulherrin), and Arnow goes so far as to describe the couple’s cabin at the station. See Harriette Simpson Arnow, Seedtime on the Cumberland (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995, new edition of the 1960 original), 366.

¹² John Buchanan Sr. was hacked to death with a tomahawk, in the presence of his wife (Jane Trindle Buchanan), inside Buchanan’s Station in 1787. See Arnow, Flowering of the Cumberland, 6. The foremost account of this tragedy is in G.W. Featherstonaugh, Excursion through the Slave States, Vol. I (London: John Murray, 1844), 205. John Sr. and his wife Jane are believed to be buried in the rocked-in plot in the Buchanan’s Station Cemetery.

*The two large stones at center front mark the graves of Major John and Sally Buchanan. John Buchanan Sr. and his wife Jane are believed to be buried in the rocked-in plot on the right*. (*Photo by Tim Slate*)

¹³ William Mulherrin was killed at Buchanan’s Station during the same 1787 incident in which John Buchanan Sr. was killed. See pioneer Robert Weakley’s account in Clements, 244.

¹⁴ John Haywood reports that John Blackburn was killed in 1789 at Buchanan’s Station. The Indians left a spear sticking in his body. See John Haywood, The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee (Knoxville: Tenase Company, 1969, reprint of the 1891 edition which was itself a reprint of the original 1823 edition), 257.

¹⁵ See the “Battle of Buchanan’s Station” article.

FUNDAMENTAL SOURCES

Allen, Dan S. “Archaeological Survey of the Buchanan’s Station Cemetery.” Murfreesboro, Dan S. Allen and Associates, 2013.

Arnow, Harriette Simpson. Flowering of the Cumberland. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1996 edition of the 1963 original.

Arnow, Harriette Simpson. Seedtime on the Cumberland. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1995 edition of the 1960 original.

Clements, Paul. Chronicles of the Cumberland Settlements. Nashville, self-published, 2012.

Drake, Masters, & Puryear. Founding of the Cumberland Settlements: The First Atlas, 1779-1804. Gallatin TN, Warioto Press, 2009.

Haywood, John. The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee. Knoxville, Tenase Company, 1969 edition of the 1823 original.

Masters & Puryear. Thoroughfare for Freedom: The Second Atlas of the Cumberland Settlements, 1779-1804. Gallatin TN, Warioto Press, 2011.

Preserving Nashville’s Pioneer Legacy, Part III: Saving Buchanan’s Station Cemetery

from the files of the Nashville Historical Newsletter.

Buchanan’s Station was a fortified settlement established about 1784 during the pioneer era of Nashville, Tennessee. Located on a bluff overlooking Mill Creek in today’s Donelson suburb, the homestead was founded by Major John Buchanan who, along with his family and other settlers, lived there until the Major’s death in 1832. The station is best known as the site of the Battle of Buchanan’s Station, a famous Indian attack which occurred on September 30, 1792.

*Buchanan’s Station Cemetery (photo by Tim Slate*)

The fort is known to have been positioned precisely at the northwest corner of today’s Elm Hill Pike and Massman Drive, and a state historical plaque marks the spot. A large commercial building now covers the site of the original fort. Not seen from Elm Hill Pike but clearly visible from Massman Drive is the extant Buchanan’s Station Cemetery, the only remaining vestige of the original settlement and one of the oldest pioneer graveyards in Middle Tennessee. Buried here are Major John Buchanan (1759-1832) and his storied wife Sarah “Sally” Ridley Buchanan (ca.1774-1831), along with about 65 other family members, affiliated settlers, and possibly slaves. Many graves are marked only by unengraved fieldstones. Notably, historical circumstances indicate that at least five frontiersmen who were at various times killed by Indians may be buried in the cemetery: Samuel Buchanan, Cornelius Riddle, John Buchanan Sr., William Mulherrin, and John Blackburn.

*Entrance gate to Buchanan’s Station Cemetery (photo by Tim Slate)*

On March 17, 2012, the Friends of Buchanan’s Station Cemetery met for the first time. Fostered primarily by the Buchanan Log House Chapter APTA, its president, Lu Whitworth, and historian Mike Slate, the grassroots group set its goals, which included effecting the transfer of the cemetery property from private ownership to Metro Nashville, fencing the unprotected graveyard, and acquiring signage for the education and inspiration of all visitors. From the beginning the Friends group worked closely with Tim Walker, executive director of the Metro Historical Commission.

On September 30, 2012, the Friends, assisted by Cumberland University and the French Lick Chapter of the DAR, held a major event at the cemetery commemorating the 220th anniversary of the Battle of Buchanan’s Station.

*Lu Whitworth and Mike Slate, in period apparel, oversaw the event commemorating the 220^th anniversary of the Battle of Buchanan’s Station, 9-30-2012.* (*NHN photo*)

In 2015 businessman Scott Pope, working with group member Dick Davis, generously assigned the property to Metro Nashville. Later the same year the Friends, led by donations treasurer Joe Cathey, installed a quality fence around the historic graveyard and placed a comfortable bench inside. A grant from the Tennessee Wars Commission, facilitated by Tim Walker and David Currey, enabled some attractive interpretive signage to be added to the cemetery. (2017)

Preserving Nashville’s Pioneer Legacy, Part II: The Role of John and Sally Buchanan in Nashville History

from the files of the Nashville Historical Newsletter.

This account was written by Mike Slate in 2011 as part of his campaign to save Buchanan’s Station Cemetery from being lost in a flurry of industrial development.

*Early map of the Cumberland River (Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2013591467)*

John Buchanan (1759-1832) and his group of settlers arrived at the French Lick (future Nashville, Tennessee) in the winter of 1779-80. In his book Tennessee during the Revolutionary War, historian Samuel Cole Williams states that “Some South Carolinians on the move to the West overtook the Robertson party; and, being smaller in number and less encumbered, reached French Lick first, crossed the Cumberland on ice, and began the building of cabins. The South Carolinians included John Buchanan and his brother, Alexander; Daniel and Sampson Williams, brothers; James and John Mulherrin, and Thomas Thompson.” If this account is accurate, John Buchanan was one of the very first pioneers to call Nashville home. Today John (often called “Major John”) lies buried at the Buchanan’s Station Cemetery.

John Buchanan was the son of John Buchanan Sr., one of Nashville’s first heroes. In the April 2, 1781, “Battle of the Bluffs” near Fort Nashborough, John Sr. famously saved Edward Swanson from being killed by a Native American attacker, but Buchanan lost his son Alexander during this battle. Several years later John Sr. was himself murdered at Buchanan’s Station by Indians; an account of this event is preserved by George W. Featherstonhaugh in his Excursion through the Slave States. Samuel Buchanan, another brother of Major John, was also killed by Indians at the station. For an evocative account of Samuel’s death see the article, “The Buchanans of Buchanan’s Station” in the Chicago Magazine, Vol. 1 No. 3, 1857. Buchanan Sr., his wife Jane, and their son Samuel are likely buried in the Buchanan’s Station Cemetery in unmarked graves. Though he lost his father and two brothers to Indian warfare, Major John, unlike many others who attempted to settle in Nashville but moved on, persevered here for the remainder of his life.

*John Buchanan’s Book of Arithmetic (courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives)*

John Buchanan wrote Nashville’s first book. Apparently in a systematic effort to learn the mathematics of land surveying, Major John created John Buchanan’s Book of Arithmetic, and dated it June 20, 1781. He did indeed pursue land surveying, and his name is listed on many early Nashville surveys. In the course of his public career, Buchanan himself amassed many hundreds of acres, becoming quite prosperous. Today, Buchanan’s book is a Nashville and Tennessee artifact that is carefully preserved in the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Ironically, Tennessee has treasured the book but not the grave of the man who produced it.

After living approximately four years at Fort Nashborough, Buchanan and his family moved a few miles east and established Buchanan’s Station on Mill Creek, near today’s Elm Hill Pike and Massman Drive. In addition to a stockaded fort with blockhouses, Major John built a grist mill, and some authorities believe his mill is the one that gave Mill Creek its name. In about 1786 John married Margaret Kennedy, who died after giving birth to their first and only child, John Buchanan II (technically John III), born on May 15, 1787. Little is known about Margaret, who may be buried in an unmarked grave at the Buchanan’s Station Cemetery. Descendants of John Buchanan II include Tennessee Governor John Price Buchanan, Nobel Prize winner James M. Buchanan, and Nashville attorney Alexander Buchanan.

John Buchanan was the commander of the fort on the fateful night of September 30, 1792, when several hundred Indians attacked it as part of a grand plan to destroy the Cumberland settlements. In this “Battle of Buchanan’s Station,” roughly 20 riflemen in the station repulsed the horde, killing several Indian leaders, without the loss of a single settler. Historian J.G.M. Ramsey called the victory “a feat of bravery which has scarcely been surpassed in all the annals of border warfare.” James Phelan offered a similar assessment: “This is one of the most remarkable incidents in the early border warfare of the Southwest. So wonderful, indeed, that even some of the pioneers believed in the direct interposition of Providence.” Not surprisingly, the story of the Battle has been recounted in many volumes of history, including Theodore Roosevelt’s The Winning of the West.

*Frontier wedding (photo courtesy of Living History farms)*

Perhaps the wisest decision John Buchanan ever made was to marry Sarah “Sally” Ridley (1773-1831). Sally was one of the first white females born in what would eventually become the state of Tennessee. Along with her father, Revolutionary War veteran Captain George Ridley, she arrived in the Cumberland settlements about 1790. Her family established Ridley’s Station in the area of today’s Nolensville Road and Glenrose Avenue. Sally, a large woman with a large personality, was destined to become a legend in much of the eastern half of the United States.

Throughout the Battle of Buchanan’s Station, Sally, nine months pregnant with the couple’s first child, was the heroic voice of victory. She encouraged the riflemen at every turn, molded bullets when the supply ran low (reportedly by melting her dinnerware), blocked another woman in the station from surrendering herself and her children to almost certain death, and helped fool the Indians by a “showing of hats.” Sally’s uncommon spunk was extolled by biographer Elizabeth Ellet in her 1856 volume, The Women of the American Revolution, which referred to her as “the greatest heroine of the West.” Periodicals from as far away as Boston immortalized Sarah, some fancifully, and she was listed in at least two national encyclopedias of biography (Appleton’s and Herringshaw’s).

John and Sarah Buchanan had thirteen children: George, Alexander, Elizabeth, Samuel, William, Jane T., James B., Moses R., Sarah V., Charles B., Richard G., Henry R., and Nancy M. The Buchanan children and grandchildren intermarried with members of other settlements around Buchanan’s Station, their families becoming important not only to Davidson County history but also to that of neighboring Rutherford and Williamson counties. Eventually the Buchanan descendants spread to all parts of the United States, and accounts of their accomplishments and contributions to the nation could fill volumes.

*A reenactor portraying Cherokee Chief John Watts shares historical information with visitors to the Buchanan’s Station Cemetery, 2012.*

Buchanan’s Station also has significant associations with local Native American history. It was a confederacy of Creeks, Cherokees, and Shawnees that attacked the Station in 1792. During the battle, Chiachattalla (also known as Kiachatalee, Tsiagatali, Kittegiska, and Tom Tunbridge’s son), an especially dauntless warrior, was shot near the fort. As he lay dying, he reportedly continued his efforts to set the structure ablaze by fanning the flames with his last breaths. Also killed in the battle were “the Shawnee Warrior” (Cheeseekau, a brother of the great Tecumseh) and White Owl’s Son, brother of Dragging Canoe. The great Chickamauga chief John Watts was shot through both thighs but was removed from the battleground in a litter and later recovered. For a partial list of Indian casualties at the Battle of Buchanan’s Station see American State Papers: Indian Affairs 4-331.

Today John and Sarah Buchanan are almost forgotten. Very few citizens know that their graves, with the original headstones, survive in Buchanan’s Station Cemetery, the last vestige of the pioneer settlement. The educational and inspirational lessons of their lives have been largely squandered, and the story of the Battle of Buchanan’s Station has been all but lost. Believing that the Buchanans are an integral part of early Nashville history – see the first chapter in Harriette Simpson Arnow’s Flowering of the Cumberland – a number of concerned Nashville-area citizens have formed the Friends of the Buchanan’s Station Cemetery, with the goals of remedying years of neglect of this historic site and of restoring one of Nashville’s founding families to its proper place in our historical consciousness. (2011)

*John and Sally Buchanan’s gravestones in Buchanan’s Station Cemetery*

Preserving Nashville’s Pioneer Legacy, Part I: Paving over Our Past

from the files of the Nashville Historical Newsletter.

Mike Slate wrote this press release in early 2012, hoping to stimulate public interest in rescuing one of early Nashville’s most important historical sites, which was about to be swallowed up by industrial development.

On a rocky bluff above a bubbling Mill Creek, under a canopy of trees that include American elm, black cherry, and sassafras, a group of pioneers – some of the architects of Nashville’s “can do” spirit – lie buried and forgotten. Two of them are especially significant.

Twenty-year-old John Buchanan (later called “Major John”) and his family arrived at the future Nashville during the unusually cold winter of 1779-1780—perhaps even ahead of James Robertson’s founding party—with nothing but a few necessities on pack horses. Unlike many other early settlers, Major John persevered here for the remainder of his life.

After losing his brother Alexander at Ft. Nashborough’s 1781 “Battle of the Bluffs” and writing Nashville’s first book, John Buchanan’s Book of Arithmetic, the young land surveyor and his extended family established Buchanan’s Station at Mill Creek, near today’s Elm Hill Pike at Massman Drive in what is now Donelson. Additional sorrows soon followed as John lost his father, John Buchanan Sr., and another brother, Samuel, in continuing Indian assaults.

The Chickamauga War reached its climax at Buchanan’s Station on September 30, 1792, when only about twenty defenders held off several hundred Native Americans whose goal was to destroy all the Cumberland settlements. Buchanan and his friends stopped them there, saving Nashville without the loss of a single stationer. Nineteenth-century historian J.G.M. Ramsey called this victory “a feat of bravery which has scarcely been surpassed in all the annals of border warfare.”

It was during this nighttime “Battle of Buchanan’s Station” that Major John’s eighteen-year-old wife, Sarah (“Sally”) Ridley Buchanan, in her ninth month of pregnancy with the first of their thirteen children, earned national fame. She encouraged the men, reassured the women and children, molded much-needed ammunition reportedly by melting down her dinnerware, and provided the voice of victory throughout the seemingly hopeless pandemonium. For her uncommon spunk, biographer Elizabeth Ellet referred to her as “the greatest heroine of the West,” and she was heralded in magazines and newspapers from as far away as Boston.

Unfortunately, the Buchanan Station story, as celebrated as it once was, has become lost to contemporary Nashville. Today the dilapidated Buchanan’s Station Cemetery, where Major John and Sarah Buchanan lie buried, is wedged anonymously into a Massman Drive industrial park, where hundreds of workers drive past twice a day, completely unaware of the graveyard’s historical import. (2011)

All photos of Buchanan Station’s Cemetery by Mike Slate, 2011.

Major John Buchanan (1759-1832)

by Mike Slate.

John Buchanan was a Scots-Irish American who emigrated to the French Lick in late 1779 and helped found the town of Nashville, at that time considered part of back-country North Carolina. Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on January 12, 1759, young Buchanan and his party arrived at the Lick shortly before the James Robertson and John Rains groups, and began building cabins. Along with the Buchanans were sundry other first comers, including Daniel and Sampson Williams, James and John Mulherrin, and Thomas Thompson.

Not long after the establishment of nearby Fort Nashborough on a site called “the Bluffs” overlooking the Cumberland River, John’s brother Alexander was killed in the well-known “Battle of the Bluffs” on April 2, 1781. During this same Indian attack John’s father, John Buchanan Sr., heroically saved pioneer Edward Swanson from almost certain death. The following summer, John compiled early Nashville’s first book: John Buchanan’s Book of Arithmetic, dated June 20, 1781. A kind of personal workbook likely prepared under the tutelage of teacher James Mulherrin, the fragile volume survives today at the Tennessee State Library and Archives. John used the book to learn the mathematics of land surveying, a profession he later pursued with lucrative success.

*A page from John Buchanan’s Book of Arithmetic, currently stored in the Tennessee State Library and Archives.*

In 1784, after the town of Nashville was officially recognized and laid out in grids, the Buchanans, apparently not wishing to live as town folk, moved a few miles southeast to Mill Creek and built their own outpost called Buchanan’s Station. Located at today’s Elm Hill Pike and Massman Drive in the Donelson area, the station and its 640-acre tract served as John’s home until his death in 1832. He also built a grist mill, well-known as Buchanan’s Mill, and one of Nashville’s earliest roads was cut from old Fort Nashborough out to the mill.

In 1786 John married Margaret Kennedy, with whom he had one child, John Buchanan III. Their descendants included Tennessee governor John Price Buchanan (1847-1939) and modern Nobel Prize winner James McGill Buchanan Jr. (1919-2013). Four years after Margaret’s untimely death in 1787, John married Sarah “Sally” Ridley, daughter of pioneer Captain George Ridley. The legendary Sally would bear thirteen more Buchanan children.

Initially a lieutenant and then a captain in the local militia, by 1787 John had gained the title of major. Although he is often called “Major John” today, the circumstances that led to this rank are not known, and one speculation is that it was honorary in nature. John’s militia service reached its zenith on September 30, 1792, when Buchanan’s Station was attacked by a large confederacy of Indians from several tribes, a storied event that resulted in a dramatic victory for the Cumberland settlers.

Over the years John Buchanan served on numerous juries, surveyed countless parcels of land for other settlers, and accumulated thousands of acres for himself and his family. Having arrived on the lower Cumberland with only a few possessions on pack horses, he died a prosperous man on November 7, 1832, having realized the American pioneer’s dream.

Buchanan’s Station: The Battle That Saved the Cumberland Settlements

by Mike Slate.

Probably recounted more often than any other Indian attack in Tennessee history¹, the heroic Battle of Buchanan’s Station occurred on the moonlit night of September 30, 1792. A confederacy of about 300 Creeks, Chickamauga Cherokees, and Shawnee² surrounded Major John Buchanan’s Mill Creek stockade, intending to destroy it before advancing on Nashville and the other Cumberland settlements. A mere fifteen sharpshooters³ within the station turned back the onslaught by killing or wounding several notable Indian leaders without losing a single defender. Historian J.G.M. Ramsey called the victory “a feat of bravery which has scarcely been surpassed in all the annals of border warfare.”⁴

Informants Richard Finnelson and Joseph Deraque had warned the Cumberland settlers of the impending attack.⁵ In Knoxville territorial governor William Blount was similarly alerted by friendly Indians. Blount ordered Nashville’s James Robertson to raise militia and prepare, but he sent orders to stand down after no attack materialized. Robertson, more skeptical, remained vigilant and sent out scouts to hunt for marauders. Two of the scouts, Jonathan Gee and Seward Clayton, never returned and were later discovered to have been killed.⁶

Following a war conference that fueled their longstanding outrage over colonial encroachment, the Indians, armed by the Spanish government, began their campaign in Chickamauga country near today’s Chattanooga. As they approached Nashville, they quarreled about whether to attack Buchanan’s Station first. This decision set the stage for the ensuing drama.⁷

On guard at Buchanan’s Station, John McCrory heard the Indians approaching and fired the first shot of the battle, instantly killing Shawnee Warrior.⁸ The Indians fired volley after volley at the blockhouse as the little garrison inside struggled against overwhelming odds. Sarah “Sally” Ridley Buchanan, Major Buchanan’s hugely pregnant wife, became the voice of victory. Aided by other women, she reportedly molded and carried additional ammunition to the riflemen, supplied them with distilled spirits, insisted that they make every shot count, and cheered them on. For her courageous acts that night, she would become known as “the greatest heroine of the West.”⁹

Reenactors in a 2012 event at Buchanan’s Station cemetery portray Maj. John Buchanan, Sally Buchanan, and a wilderness preacher.

The Indians also demonstrated great courage. Cherokee warrior Kiachatallee (also Chiachattalla) attempted to set the fort ablaze. Although mortally injured, he continued to kindle flames with his dying breath.¹⁰ Among other braves who died that Sunday night was White Owl’s Son, possibly the brother of Dragging Canoe.¹¹ John Watts, recently chosen chief of the Lower Cherokees (Chickamaugas), was severely wounded but later recovered.

The battle finally ended, perhaps because of the ineptitude of an inebriated Irishman in the station. Not realizing he had overloaded the Buchanans’ old blunderbuss, Jimmy O’Connor produced a stupendous boom.¹² The Indians, terrified of cannon fire, withdrew.

The Battle of Buchanan’s Station has captured the attention of historians since 1792. British scholar Dr. John Sugden recently determined that the Shawnee Warrior killed by John McCrory was Cheeseekau, Tecumseh’s brother and mentor. Moreover, Sugden writes, Tecumseh himself was present at the battle and watched his brother die.¹³ Such valuable ongoing research will continue to deepen our understanding of this critical frontier event. (2014)

Portrait of Major John Buchanan (TN State Museum)

¹ Although such matters are difficult to quantify, I know of no single conflict between colonial settlers and Native Americans in Tennessee history, not even Nashville’s “Battle of the Bluff,” that has appeared in print as often as the Battle of Buchanan’s Station (BoBS). Accounts of the BoBS are many, varied, and sometimes conflicting. Tracing and analyzing these accounts chronologically, from 1792 until the present, is a fascinating historiographical journey. The “baseline” account is a 388-word report from James Robertson to territorial governor William Blount, which arrived to Blount on October 9, 1792. That correspondence can be found in American State Papers: Indian Affairs 1: 294-295. Skipping over many other accounts to the present, three excellent modern treatments of the battle are John Buchanan [a coincidental name], Jackson’s Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters (Hoboken NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2001, reprint by Castle Books), 131-136; John Sugden, Tecumseh: A Life (New York: Henry Holt and Company, paperback reprint, 1997), 70-75; and John Anthony Caruso, The Appalachian Frontier: America’s First Surge Westward (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2003, new edition of the 1959 original), 353-357.

² The number of Indians said to have surrounded Buchanan’s Station varies from 280 to 900 or more. Robertson’s original account (in the American State Papers) says, “supposed to consist of three or four hundred.” However, a report from Blount on November 5, 1792, says, “appeared to have been, Creeks, from 400 to 500; Cherokees, 200; Shawanese, from 30-40” (See American State Papers: Indian Affairs 1: 331). The Tennessee state historical marker on the battle site says “about 300,” and most modern treatments also report “about 300.” I have chosen to use the conservative “about 300” figure.

³ The exact number of defenders, like that of the attackers, is uncertain. Robertson’s original account clearly says “fifteen gun-men,” and that is the number used by some later accounts and most modern ones. Yet it appears possible if not likely that Robertson’s report was not precisely accurate. Over the ensuing years the number increased to about twenty. A few accounts attempt to name the defenders, and a researcher can combine those accounts and arrive at well over twenty. Those accounts which attempt to name the defenders include the following: John Buchanan Todd, letter to Lyman Draper, 9 November 1854, Draper Manuscripts 6XX64; Major Thomas Washington, “The Attack on Buchanan’s Station,” Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1 November (1878): 378-381; Josephus Conn Guild, Old Times in Tennessee (Knoxville: Tenase Company, 1971, reprint of the 1878 original), 300-313; Thomas Buchanan, “Buchanan Memoir,” at https://sites.google.com/site/davidsoncounty/home/people-of-interest/buchanan-history, accessed 01-25-14; and Edward Albright, Early History of Middle Tennessee (Nashville: Brandon Printing Company, 1909), 171-177. It appears that some of the pioneers named were indeed involved in the larger context of the battle but not in the actual conflict itself. I have chosen to use Robertson’s conservative “fifteen gun-men” figure.

⁴ J.G.M. Ramsey, The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century (Johnson City TN: The Overmountain Press, 1999 reprint of the 1853 original), 566-567.

⁵ For more on Finnelson and Deraque see American State Papers: Indian Affairs 1: 288-292.

⁶ Robertson’s original account (in the American State Papers) reports of Gee and Clayton that “it is supposed they are killed.” Later accounts substantiate this and describe the circumstances of their deaths. Little is known about Jonathan Gee. Ironically, Seward Clayton was captured by Indians when he was a boy, in an incident that involved Major John Buchanan. For that story see Lizzie P. Elliott, Early History of Nashville (Nashville: The Board of Education, 1911), 155-158. The Indians later released Clayton, who then met his death by their hands in 1792.

⁷ The events and circumstances leading up to the Battle of Buchanan’s Station are substantially covered by the three modern accounts listed in note #1 above. The BoBS was the climax of a much larger story that is instructive as to the political climate of the time as well as to the complicated relationships between Native Americans and Euro-American settlers.

⁸ “John Mc. Rory” is the only active defender that Robertson mentions by name in his original account. The specific fact that McCrory killed Shawnee Warrior is not stated by Robertson, but is taken from later accounts. Additionally, some later accounts mention Thomas McCrory rather than John. An example of such accounts is the “literary” (complete with dialogue, etc.) story by Octavia Zollicoffer Bond, Old Tells Retold (Nashville: Smith & Lamar, 1906), 154-167.

⁹ Elizabeth F. Ellet, The Women of the American Revolution, Vol. III (New York: Charles Scribner, 1856), 310-327. Ellet wrote an entire chapter featuring Sarah Buchanan. Concerning the designation, “the greatest heroine of the West,” Ellet’s exact words were: “The fame of this gallant defence [during the BoBS] went abroad, and the young wife of Major Buchanan was celebrated as the greatest heroine of the West.” Also see Wilson and Fiske, eds., Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 1 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1888), 436-437, in which Sarah is again called “the greatest heroine of the west.”

¹⁰ The events of the death of Kiachatalle (also known as “Tom Tunbridge’s step-son”) must have been quite dramatic. Robertson’s report says that he “ascended the roof with a torch, where he was shot, and, falling to the ground, renewed his attempts to fire the bottom logs, and was killed.” Kiachatalle’s body was identified the next morning by Joseph Brown, who knew him well from his captivity by the Indians a few years before the BoBS.

¹¹ White Owl’s Son seems to be sometimes known as “Little Owl,” who was indeed Dragging Canoe’s brother. A Creek chief (perhaps Talotiskee) was also killed at the battle, and Unacate was injured or killed. See American State Papers: Indian Affairs 1: 331. One or two other accounts report that as many as thirty Indians were killed that night. More research needs to be done about the Indians who participated in the BoBS.

¹² The priceless story of Jimmy O’Connor’s fortunate misuse of the blunderbuss has been told over and over again. Some accounts, however, say that it was the boom of the little swivel cannon at Fort Nashborough that so frightened the Indians. I am partial to John Buchanan Todd’s clever statement (in Draper, 6XX64) that, “Jemmy O’Connor blundering with his blunderbuss in all probability saved the station.”

¹³ It would be difficult to overestimate the importance and influence of Sugden’s determination that Cheeseekau (sometimes called “Chiksika”) died at Buchanan’s Station in the presence of his brother, the iconic Tecumseh. Fortunately, Sugden provides his well-reasoned analysis of the sources related to this matter in Sugden, 421-422 n. 1. Many scholars and Internet sources have accepted Sugden’s discovery as fact, which has placed Buchanan’s Station on the radar of many additional historians.

FUNDAMENTAL SOURCES

American State Papers: Indian Affairs 1: 294-295.

Arnow, Harriette Simpson. Flowering of the Cumberland. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1996 edition of the 1963 original.

Buchanan, John. Jackson’s Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters. Hoboken NJ, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, reprint by Castle Books.

Caruso, John Anthony. The Appalachian Frontier: America’s First Surge Westward. Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 2003, new edition of the 1959 original.

Clements, Paul. Chronicles of the Cumberland Settlements. Nashville, self-published, 2012.

Ramsey, J.G.M. The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century. Johnson City TN, The Overmountain Press, 1999 reprint of the 1853 original.

Sugden, John. Tecumseh: A Life. New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1997, paperback reprint.

ADDENDUM

James Robertson’s original account of the Battle of Buchanan’s Station as found in American State Papers: Indian Affairs 1: 294-295:

“On the 30th September, about midnight, John Buchanan’s Station, four miles south of Nashville, (at which sundry families had collected, and fifteen gun-men) was attacked by a party of Creeks and Lower Cherokees, supposed to consist of three or four hundred. Their approach was suspected by the running of cattle, that had taken fright at them, and, upon examination, they were found rapidly advancing within ten yards of the gate; from this place and distance they received the first fire from the man who discovered them, (John Mc. Rory.) They immediately returned the fire, and continued a very heavy and constant firing upon the station, (blockhouses, surrounded with a stockade) for an hour, and were repulsed with considerable loss, without injuring man, woman, or child, in the station.

“During the whole time of attack, the Indians were not more distant than ten yards from the blockhouse, and often in large numbers round the lower walls, attempting to put fire to it. One ascended the roof with a torch, where he was shot, and, falling to the ground, renewed his attempts to fire the bottom logs, and was killed. The Indians fired 30 balls through a port-hole of the overjutting, which lodged in the roof in the circumference of a hat, and those sticking in the walls, on the outside, were very numerous.

“Upon viewing the ground next morning, it appeared that the fellow who was shot from the roof, was a Cherokee half-breed of the Running Water, known by the whites by the name of Tom Tunbridge’s step-son, the son of a French woman, by an Indian, and there was much blood, and signs that many dead had been dragged off, and litters having been made to carry their wounded to their horses, which they had left a mile from the station. Near the blockhouse were found several swords, hatchets, pipes, kettles, and budgets of different Indian articles; one of the swords was a fine Spanish blade, and richly mounted in the Spanish fashion. In the morning previous to the attack, Jonathan Gee, and — Clayton were sent out as spies, and on the ground, among other articles left by the Indians, were found a handkerchief and a moccason [sic], known one to belong to Gee, and the other to Clayton, hence it is supposed they are killed.”

Author Index to Newsletter Entries

OUR STORY: Who We Are

BAKER, CARTER G.

. . . . . 1930: Caldwell & Co. Fails

. . . . . A Lovely Sunday for the Cemetery

. . . . . Nashville Memories: The Man Who Shot Buses

. . . . . Nashville Memories: The Rich Man’s Wife

. . . . . Nashville Memories: Take Me Out to the Ball Park

. . . . . Nashville Memories: The Worried Wife

. . . . . Two Brothers-in-Law at City Cemetery

BAKER, TERRY

. . . . . Out of the Ashes of Defeat: The Story of Confederate POW Edward L. Buford (1842-1928)

. . . . . A Place in History: Nashville’s Historic Elliston Place

. . . . . “Strength and Beauty”: Buford College of Nashville, 1901-1920

. . . . . Their Dust Dispersed on Many Fields: The Confederate Circle at Mount Olivet

. . . . . “With the Sun behind Him”: Captain Edward Buford Jr., Nashville’s World War I “Ace”

BOCKMAN, GUY ALAN

. . . . . Four Recent Answers from Two Old Documents

. . . . . Ghostly Tracks of the Tennessee and Pacific Railroad

. . . . . Six Triple Threat Town Sites

BOYCE, DORIS

. . . . . The Battle of Nashville: Shy, Smith, and Hood

. . . . . From Knickers to Body Stockings

. . . . . Luke Lea: A Biographical Sketch

. . . . . Luke Lea in the Great Depression

. . . . . Luke Lea in the Great War

. . . . . Remembering Omohundro

. . . . . A Woman Challenged: The Life of Granny White

. . . . . Woodlawn Memorial Park

CENTER, LINDA

. . . . . Chancery Court, the Adelphi, and Adolphus Heiman

. . . . . John Crowe Ransom: Young Prophet to Poet

CHASTINE, KEVIN

. . . . . S. H. Kress in Nashville: An Art Deco Parthenon?

CIVIL RIGHTS TIMELINE 1624-2012

. . . . . Part One: 1624-1947

. . . . . Part Two: 1947-1956

. . . . . Part Three: 1957-1960

. . . . . Part Four: 1961-1965

. . . . . Part Five: 1966-2012

CONNELLY, JOHN LAWRENCE

. . . . . The Rebirth of Germantown

CORNWELL, ILENE JONES

. . . . . Angels in the Midst of Richland’s Rampage

. . . . . Big Harpeth River

. . . . . From Farm to Factory

. . . . . The Robertson Monument: From Exposition Capstone to Centennial Park Monolith

COURSEY, JOHN

. . . . . Nashville Movie Theaters

COX, DEBIE OESER

. . . . . Courthouses of Davidson County, Tennessee

. . . . . Jonathan Jennings’ Will

. . . . . Nashville’s City Hotel

. . . . . No Lighted “Segars”: Rules for Nashville’s First Bridge

EDWARDS, AMELIA WHITSITT

. . . . . Clover Bottom Beach

. . . . . Governor A. H. Roberts and His Donelson Farm

. . . . . Pioneer History of Stone’s River near the Clover Bottoms

ELLIS, LARRY MICHAEL

. . . . . 1814 Nashville Fire

. . . . . Robert “Black Bob” Renfro: From Slave to Entrepreneur

FIETH, KENNETH

. . . . . The Army Air Forces Classification Center

. . . . . Nikita Krushchev and Hillsboro High School

. . . . . The USS Tennessee at Pearl Harbor

. . . . . “Washed and Dryed after Being Executed”: Historical Humor from the Metro Archives

FLEMING, PEGGY DICKINSON

. . . . . Jacob McGavock Dickinson Sr.

. . . . . Memories of Cornelia Fort

FORD, GALE WILKES

. . . . . The Hodge House in Percy Warner Park

FORKUM, ALLEN

. . . . . The Powder Magazine Explosion (1847)

. . . . . The Suspension Bridge (1850)

FORKUM, ALLEN, and E. THOMAS WOOD

. . . . . The Zollicoffer-Marling Duel (1852)

GILMER, AMBER BARFIELD

. . . . . Arranging the Light: The Story of Calvert Photography

GLEAVES, EDWIN S.

. . . . . Cohn High School 50th Reunion, Class of 1954: Remembrances of Things Past

. . . . . Outstanding 20th Century Tennesseans

GUILLAUM, TED

. . . . . A Mortal Shooting in the Tennessee State Capitol

GULLEY, FRANK

. . . . . Vanderbilt University and Southern Methodism

HELT, NANCY

. . . . . A History of the Buchanan Log House

HILLENMEYER, MARIANNE

. . . . . The Gilding of Nashville’s Athena Parthenos

HOOBLER, JAMES A.

. . . . . Sally Thomas (1787-1850)

HUGGINS, GLORIA NEWSOM

. . . . . Alice Thompson Collinsworth: Intrepid Pioneer

JOHNSON, JEANNE M.

. . . . . Biography of Charles Henry Ryman

KAPLAN, CAROL

. . . . . Andrew Jackson Pageot

. . . . . Consumption: The Taker of Young Lives

. . . . . James Thomas Callender

. . . . . Remembering Nashville’s Daughters

. . . . . ‘Til Death Do Us Part: Love and Devotion at City Cemetery

. . . . . To Live in Hearts We Leave Behind Is Not to Die

. . . . . The True History of the “Ivy Rock”

. . . . . Whatever the Cost to Ourselves: Nashville Women’s Civil War

. . . . . Women to the Rescue

LANCASTER, JOHN S.

. . . . . Adolphus Heiman’s Cemetery Stonework

LASKA, LEWIS L.

. . . . . A History of African-American Lawyers in Nashville

. . . . . An Incident in Post-Civil-War Nashville: Champ Ferguson and the Hefferman Killers

. . . . . Public Executions in Nashville

LAUDER, KATHY

. . . . . The 1933 Nashville Tornado

. . . . . Banquet at the Duncan

. . . . . Buchanan’s Station – 1869 article

. . . . . Chapter 130: Tennessee’s First Jim Crow Law

. . . . . Daniel Smith, Frontier Surveyor (1748-1818)

. . . . . Daniel Williams

. . . . . The Duelists: Jackson and Dickinson

. . . . . Elbridge Gerry Eastman, 1813-1859

. . . . . Frank Goodman, 1854-1910

. . . . . From Curiosity to Hope: The Work of Local Historians

. . . . . Funeral Customs of the 1800s

. . . . . George Woods, 1842-1912

. . . . . Jacob McGavock Dickinson: Jurist and Statesman

. . . . . A History of the Buchanan Log House

. . . . . John Berrien Lindsley, 1822-1897

. . . . . Life and Death in the 19th Century

. . . . . Lost Nashville: The Second Presbyterian Church

. . . . . Louise G. Lindsley, 1858-1944

. . . . . Marcus B. Toney, 1840-1929

. . . . . Meet Nashville’s Leaders

. . . . . Nashville Coaches Who Made a Difference

. . . . . Nashville-Tuskegee Connections, Part I: Medicine, Music, & Architecture

. . . . . Nashville-Tuskegee Connections, Part II: The Tuskegee Airmen

. . . . . Nashvillians Who Stood behind the Sit-ins: Part I. The Trainers & the Partners

. . . . . Nashvillians Who Stood behind the Sit-ins: Part II. The Attorneys

. . . . . Nashvillians Who Stood behind the Sit-ins: Part III. The Quiet Allies

. . . . . A “New” Image of General James Robertson?

. . . . . Philip Lindsley, 1786-1855

. . . . . Sarah “Sallie” McGavock Lindsley, 1830-1903

. . . . . Sampson W. Keeble, 1833-1887

. . . . . Samuel A. McElwee, 1859-1914

. . . . . Thomas A. Sykes, 1838-ca. 1905

. . . . . TSLA–Tennessee’s Treasurehouse

. . . . . Walker, Taylor, and Carr: The Men behind Nashville’s African American Parks and Cemeteries

. . . . . With All Deliberate Speed

LAUDER, KATHY B., and JOHN MARSHALL

. . . . . Monroe W. Gooden: Ahead of His Time

. . . . . Slave to Statesman: The Story of John W. Boyd

LISTS

. . . . . Nashville Movie Theaters

. . . . . Outstanding 20th Century Tennesseans

. . . . . Twenty Oldest Nashville Businesses (1997)

LOPER, SUE

. . . . . Civil Rights and the Nashville Room

MACDONALD, GORDON

. . . . . Letter from Mary

MARSHALL, JOHN W., and KATHY B. LAUDER

. . . . . Monroe W. Gooden: Ahead of His Time

. . . . . Slave to Statesman: The Story of John W. Boyd

McCLANAHAN, LARRY D.

. . . . . Sulphur Dell, the “Goat Man,” the Roxy, and Other Nashville Memories

McCONNELL, GEORGIANA T.

. . . . . A Chronology of Nashville Airports

MEADOR, BONNIE ROSS

. . . . . The Quest for Joshua Burnett Ross

MEESE, JILL FARRINGER

. . . . . Dr. Felix Randolph Robertson (1781-1865)

“MUSINGS” BY MIKE SLATE

. . . . . Aesop and the Wedding of Human and Natural History

. . . . . Airdrie: Let There Be Paradise

. . . . . At the Stone-Stoner Confluence

. . . . . An Eerie Street, an Ancient Creek, an Old Log House

. . . . . How Nashville Dishonored a President and Altered American History

. . . . . Perilous Times in Nashville

. . . . . The Trail of Tears through Nashville

NASHVILLE HISTORICAL NEWSLETTER

. . . . . Preserving Nashville’s Pioneer Legacy, Part I: Paving over Our Past

. . . . . Preserving Nashville’s Pioneer Legacy, Part II: The Role of John and Sally Buchanan in Nashville History

. . . . . Preserving Nashville’s Pioneer Legacy, Part III: Saving Buchanan’s Station Cemetery

NEIL, RICHARD R.

. . . . . The Historic Mud Tavern Community

NOLAN, PAT

. . . . . Tennessee Politics 2002: An Historic Year of Change

NORTON, C. MICHAEL

. . . . . The Stieglitz Collection at Fisk University

. . . . . Theodore Roosevelt’s 1907 Nashville Visit

PHILLIPS, PAUL

. . . . . A Summary History of the Belmont Church

PRICE, DAVE

. . . . . The Centennial Circus Lot

. . . . . The Nashville Theaters of 1900

. . . . . The Old Nashville Market House, 1828-1937

. . . . . The Southern Post Card Magazine

. . . . . Thuss, Koellein, and Giers

PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS, transcribed

. . . . . 1797 Vermin Law

. . . . . 1814 Nashville Fire

. . . . . Banquet at the Duncan

. . . . . Battle of Buchanan’s Station

. . . . . Buchanan’s Station – 1869 article

. . . . . Jonathan Jennings’ Will

. . . . . Letter from Mary

. . . . . No Lighted Segars: Rules for Nashville’s First Bridge

. . . . . The Peabody Student Protest of 1883

. . . . . A Souvenir from the 1920s

. . . . . The USS Tennessee at Pearl Harbor

. . . . . William Driver’s Flag

RICHARDSON, DALE

. . . . . The Move to Nashville

RICHARDSON, DEWEY

. . . . . The Move to Nashville

ROSEMAN, JEAN

. . . . . Lee Loventhal: Citizen Exemplar

. . . . . Reverend Charles Spencer Smith (1852-1922)

SEAT, HOUSTON

. . . . . My Hermitage Experience

SKIPPER, JACK ANDREW

. . . . . General James Robertson, Frontier Surgeon

SLATE, BILLY J.

. . . . . Nashville on the High Seas

SLATE, MIKE

. . . . . A. N. Eshman and Radnor College

. . . . . Buchanan’s Station: The Battle That Saved the Cumberland Settlements

. . . . . Buchanan’s Station and Cemetery

. . . . . The Confederate Twenty-Dollar Irony

. . . . . Daniel Boone in Nashville

. . . . . Francis Baily and the Flavor of the Tennessee Frontier

. . . . . Is Daniel Boone Our Father?

. . . . . John Montgomery’s Nashville Nap

. . . . . Major John Buchanan (1759-1832)

. . . . . Nashville Founding Factors

. . . . . Plowing for the Future: Peabody’s Knapp Farm Adventure

. . . . . The Relevance of 1850s Nashville

. . . . . Sarah “Sally” Ridley Buchanan (ca. 1773-1831)

. . . . . A Souvenir from the 1920s

. . . . . Ten Important Dates in Nashville History

. . . . . University of Nashville in the DAB

. . . . . Warren Brothers Sash & Door: A Venerable Nashville Business

. . . . . Where Is the Buchanan Station Sword?

SOUTHARD, STEWART

. . . . . 1797 Vermin Law

ST. JOHN, BEVERLY

. . . . . “He Came into This World Drawing”: Ernest A. Pickup, 1887-1970

STUBBS, REBECCA HARRIS

. . . . . J. Percy Priest: A Fifty-Year Retrospect

SUMMERVILLE, JAMES

. . . . . Battle of Nashville Monument: Notes from the 1997-1999 Restoration

. . . . . School Desegregation in Nashville

TURNER, JOANN

. . . . . The Move to Nashville

WATSON, STEVE

. . . . . Thomas S. Watson Sr.: Miller, Ironmaster, & Business Partner of Andrew Jackson

WHITE, ASHLEY LAYHEW

. . . . . Slavery at the Hermitage

WHITWORTH, LU

. . . . . A History of the Buchanan Log House

WILLIAMS, MARY B.

. . . . . Hermitage Hotel Memories since 1929

WILLIAMS, ROBERT LYLE

. . . . . John Dillahunty and Baptist Origins in Nashville

WILSON, JOSEF

. . . . . A History of the Buchanan Log House

WILSON, SUSAN DOUGLAS

. . . . . The Mill Creek Valley Turnpike

. . . . . Touring Elm Hill Pike

WOOD, E. THOMAS, and ALLEN FORKUM

. . . . . The Zollicoffer-Marling Duel (1852)

WOOD, LEONARD N.

. . . . . Duncan College Preparatory School for Boys

Where is the Buchanan Station Sword?

by Mike Slate.

The earlier of Nashville’s two most famous Indian onslaughts occurred on April 2, 1781. It was probably Charlotte Robertson – stalwart wife of Nashville co-founder James Robertson – who sicced the Fort Nashborough dogs on the attacking Indians, a storied deed that helped foil a clever Indian subterfuge. Another hero of that fateful day was John Buchanan Sr., who darted from the fort and rescued Edward Swanson, who had been clubbed by one of the marauders. These heroics notwithstanding, several pioneers died at the “Battle of the Bluff,” including Alexander Buchanan, thought to be John’s son.

The second of our legendary Indian battles took place on September 30, 1792, at Buchanan’s Station, which had been established about 1784 by Major John Buchanan, another son of the elder John. In his 1853 Annals of Tennessee, J.G.M. Ramsey described the Battle of Buchanan’s Station as “a feat of bravery which has scarcely been surpassed in all the annals of border warfare.” In that nighttime attack as many as 900 Creeks, Cherokees, Chickamaugans, and others were repulsed by about 20 settlers inside the station. Again the hero of the day was a woman: Sarah (called “Sally” or “Sallie”) Buchanan, wife of Major John. The heavily pregnant Sally cheered on the defenders, molded bullets, and perhaps even served up distilled beverages while the men fired away through blockhouse portholes.

Photo of Buchanan’s Station cemetery by Esther Victory.

Although the battle could have become Tennessee’s Alamo, the besieged pioneers did not suffer a single casualty. However, among the noteworthy Indians killed that night was Kiachatalee (or Chiachattalla), a dauntless warrior who attempted to set the fort ablaze. The Indians intent was to assault Fort Nashborough after destroying Buchanan’s Station, but the plucky stationers confounded the natives’ ambitions.

At first light an inspection of the premises produced numerous articles left by the retreating attackers. Several swords were found, including “a fine Spanish blade . . . richly mounted in the Spanish fashion.” Some historians have conjectured that the sword may have been traded to the Indians in exchange for scalps of slain settlers (certainly the Spanish stirred up such trouble for the westward-advancing Americans). Such a sword would have been quite a prize for the victorious stationers, plunder that would not have been treated carelessly. We can easily imagine that they presented it to Sally Buchanan as a tribute to her uncommon spunk.

So what has happened to this splendid Spanish sword? Does a Buchanan family member treasure it today? Does it survive in some museum, under the auspices of curators who have no knowledge of its history? Maybe it awaits us in a dark, cobwebbed attic; or perhaps all that separates us from this luxurious booty is a nondescript floorboard in some old house. Unfortunately, we may never set our eyes on this symbol of pioneer resilience, but all is not lost. In fact, we have something far more precious than a mere sword: we have the Buchanan Station Cemetery, where Major John and Sarah Buchanan are buried, along with other pioneers.

If the Buchanan Station sword were in a display case at the Tennessee State Museum, tens of thousands of admirers would have by now filed past it. But only a handful of Nashvillians have made the pilgrimage to the little cemetery to pay respects to our earliest settlers, upon whose sturdy shoulders rests our local civilization. If you are moved to visit the cemetery, you will find it along Mill Creek near the corner of Elm Hill Pike and Massman Drive. If you turn on Massman into the industrial park, you will find the cemetery on your left just after the first set of buildings. Parking for a few cars is available on the left side of the cemetery, which is now marked by a black fence and informative signage. We think you will agree that the Buchanan Station Cemetery is one of the most fascinating features of Nashville history.