Camp Blount Volunteer Days Gets Underway-- Part 2: How Tennessee Got the Nickname Volunteer State

"Fayetteville was involved in two of the muster sites that supplied troops to two of the major battles in the War of 1812," said Dr. Farris Beasley, a member of the association, who said that Tennessee at that time was considered a frontier state.  "There was no Alabama, no Mississippi, or no Louisiana."

In September 1813, a call for troops went out from President James Madison to Tennessee  Governor Willie Blount.

"The governor called on General Andrew Jackson, in charge of the Tennessee militia, to raise militia and volunteers,"  Beasley said, adding that they met at Camp Blount.  "The governor gave the order to meet on the south bank of the Elk River at the big oak trees."  Those oaks would have been  in front of where the Walmart in Fayetteville sits today.

They called for 2,500 volunteers,"  Beasley said.  "4,500 showed up.  And for the first time, a Nashville newspaper used the term Tennessee, the volunteer state."

Beasley said that Andrew Jackson kept a diary and often the words "my Tennessee volunteers" are found within those pages.

So That's How We Got "Tennessee Volunteers."  --Brock-Perry

Camp Blount, Tennessee-- Part 2: Mustering to Fight the Creeks

From the July 16, 2013, Elk Valley (Tn.) Times.

During the War of 1812, the Tennessee state government issued a call for volunteers.  Some 3,500 Tennesseeans responded, earning them the state nickname "Volunteers."    The reason for this muster  was that the Creek Indians had attacked Fort Mims and massacred 250 men, women and children.

The soldiers were ordered here by Tennessee Governor Willie Blount.  They trained under the leadership of Andrew Jackson, then major general of Tennessee militia.  Most of the men who reported were from middle Tennessee.

They left Camp Blount oin October 1813.  Less than a year later, the troops again mustered at Camp Blount and this time marched to New Orleans.

--Brock-Perry