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

Tennessee's Governor Willie Blount-- Part 6

At the end of his third term, Blount returned to Montgomery County.  In 1827, he ran for governor, but was defeated by Sam Houston.  Blount served as a member of the state's Constitutional Convention in 1834.

He died September 10, 1835, in Nashville and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Clarksville.

--Brock-Perry

Tennessee's Governor Willie Blount-- Part 5: War of 1812 Governor

Blount was first elected governor in 1809 and then re-elected in 1811 and 1813.  Throughout his tenure as governor, Blount sought to open new areas of Tennessee to white settlement.  During the Creek War, he provided his friend Andrew Jackson with funds and volunteer soldiers, which enabled Jackson and his troops to effectively destroy the military power of the Creek Indians.

During the War of 1812, Blount led the initiative to raise over $37,000 in funds and 2,000 volunteer soldiers, which earned Tennessee the nickname "Volunteer State."

--Brock-Perry

Tennessee's Governor Willie Blount-- Part 4

From the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.

WILLIE BLOUNT (ca 1767-1835)

Governor, was born in Bertie County, North Carolina, to Jacob Blount.  He was half-brother to Tennessee's territorial Governor, William Blount.  Willie (pronounced Wiley) Blount studied law at Princeton and Columbia before returning home to read law with a North Carolina judge.

When William Blount began his term as governor of the Southwest Territory in 1790, Willie accompanied him to Tennessee, serving as one of his brother's three private secretaries.

In 1794, he secured a license to practice law and in 1796, the new state legislature elected him as a judge on the Superior Court of Law and Equity, a position he declined.

He settled in Montgomery County about 1802 with his wife and two daughters, and represented the county in the state legislature from 1807 to 1809.

--Brock-Perry

Tennessee Governor Willie Blount-- Part 2: Supporter of the War of 1812

Born in North Carolina of wealthy parents, he attended the current Princeton and Columbia universities before becoming a North Carolina lawyer.  His older half-brother, William Blount became the governor of the Southwest Territory and Willie accompanied him there which is how he came to live in Tennessee.

He became governor in 1809.

With the troubles with the Indians, brought about a fair amount by British interference and his citizens' desire to push into Indian lands, it is no surprise that Governor Blount was a big supporter of the war.

His efforts to raise funds and soldiers in the War of 1812 helped earn Tennessee its nickname "Volunteer State."

--Brock-Perry

Tennessee Governor Willie Blount-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

Born April 18, 1768, at Blount Hall in Bertie County, North Carolina.  Died September 18, 1835.

Governor of Tennessee from 1809 to 1815.

He spent much of his early tenure as governor dealing with hostilities between Indians and white settlers.  He constantly sought to acquire land from the Cherokees and Chickasaws while fighting the hostile Choctows and Creeks.

At one point, early in his governorship he suggested to Washington, D.C., that the Cherokees be removed to west of the Mississippi, something later carried out by President Andrew Jackson.

--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

Tennessee in the War of 1812-- Part 3: Where It Got the Nickname "The Volunteer State"

Tennessee was greatly alarmed by events at Fort Mims.  The next month, Governor Willie Blount issued a call for 3,500 volunteers.  The enthusiastic and overwhelming response of Tennesseeans initiated  a tradition that gave the state the nickname of the "Volunteer State."

Andrew Jackson, as major general of the Tennessee militia, along with his military colleague, John Coffee, led a force into the heart of the Creek Nation with the intent of totally destroying the Creeks as a fighting force.

Beginning in November 1813, a series of encounters with the Red Sticks culminated in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814.  This battle left over 800 Creeks dead and ended the threat.

--Brock-Perry