Today in Chickamauga History - April 12

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1791, April 12:  Examination on the Claims of Various Officers - he Commissioner of Army Accounts writes on his examination of the claims of Captains Watts and Fisk, along with Lieutenants Clayton and Green. - https://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/41341

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1794, April 12: Eighteen families crossed the Mississippi and arrived in Cape Girardeau on April 12, 1794 (Houck 1909 II:837). In 1796, ten families led by Connetoo (John Hill), Will Webber (Red Headed Will), and Unacata (White Man Killer) were given permission by the Spanish to settle “about 40 miles west of Memphis” on the St. Francis River after being denied permission by the Quapaws to settle on the Arkansas River (Carter 1934-1969, 14:56-57; Myers 1997:143). A tract of land on the St. Francis River was granted to the Cherokees by the Spanish government. A road running north from Arkansas Post to intersect with the old Southwest Trail to St. Louis ran through this town. Some Cherokees and Delaware also moved to a location on the White River (Royce 1975:76) that was north of the Memphis District.‍

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1861, April 12:  Beginning of the Civil War.  Even as Abraham LINCOLN took office in March 1861, Confederate forces threatened the federal-held Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. On April 12, after Lincoln ordered a fleet to resupply Sumter, Confederate artillery fired the first shots of the Civil War. Sumter’s commander, Major Robert ANDERSON, surrendered after less than two days of bombardment, leaving the fort in the hands of Confederate forces under Pierre G.T. BEAUREGARD. Four more southern states—Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee—joined the Confederacy after Fort Sumter. Border slave states like Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland did not secede, but there was much Confederate sympathy among their citizens.

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