Fort Jefferson was a town on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

, about one mile south of

Wickliffe, Kentucky Wickliffe is a home rule-class city and the county seat of Ballard County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 670 at the 2020 census. Wickliffe is part of the Paducah, KY-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The city of Wic ...

in southwestern Ballard County. In 1779,

George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American military officer and surveyor from Virginia who became the highest-ranking Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot military officer on the American frontier, nort ...

built a stronghold of the same name at the intersection of the

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

and

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

s in order to consolidate his forces and to control access to the Ohio. The original fort was burned down by

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...

forces in 1781. The settlement was reestablished in 1858. The town itself no longer exists. The site is now home of the Phoenix Paper mill.

Planning of Fort Jefferson

The initial proposal for a fortification on the mouth of the Ohio was made by Virginia governor

Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. May 18, 1736une 6, 1799) was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Virginia Conventions, Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty or give m ...

in 1777, in a letter to the Spanish governor of

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

Bernardo de Galvez Bernardo is a given name, possibly derived from the Germanic Bernhard. It may refer to: People * Bernardo the Japanese (died 1557), early Japanese Christian convert and disciple of Saint Francis Xavier * Bernardo Accolti (1465–1536), Italian ...

. He proposed a fortification to protect trade and supplies between

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

and Spanish Louisiana from British interference. Henry would also propose this idea to George Rogers Clark, who saw it as a fortification for frontier protection and conquest of British Indian allies. Clark would later press Henry's successor,

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

, on the importance of a fort along both rivers, to control commerce and stop British supplies. In January 1780, Jefferson formally approved the fort with the formal stipulation that the land must be purchased from the Chickasaws, whom he erroneously identified as

Cherokees The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

. Jefferson would also write to

Joseph Martin Joseph Martin may refer to: Military *Joseph Martin (general) (1740–1808), American Revolutionary War general from Virginia *Joseph Plumb Martin (1760–1850), American soldier and memoir writer * Joseph M. Martin (born 1962), U.S. Army officer ...

that "the ground at the mouth of the Ohio on the south side belonging to the Cherokee, we would not meddle in without their leave". George Rogers Clark would go on to ignore this provision, as he would not buy the land from the Chickasaws or gain their consent to build the fortifications. Many historians point to Clark's disregard of the Chickasaw as the point at which the fortification and settlement project was doomed to failure.

Aftermath

In 1782, four Chickasaw chiefs sent a letter to American military post commanders in the West to initiate peace negotiations, stating, "What damage occurred because you established a fort in our hunting grounds without our permission, and at that location, you suffered most from us." The Chickasaw would eventually sign a peace treaty with the Spanish (representing the American alliance) that respected Chickasaw territorial integrity, but kept them at war with the

Kickapoo The Kickapoo people (; Kickapoo: Kiikaapoa or Kiikaapoi; ) are an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe and Indigenous people in Mexico, originating in the region south of the Great Lakes. There are three federally recognized Kickapoo trib ...

References

Jefferson {{Kentucky-stub