Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path

United States   Migration    Trails and Roads    South Carolina    Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path

The Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path connected the South Carolina colonial British military Fort Charlotte near the Savannah River with several Indian trails, especially the Old Cherokee Path and the nearby Indian town of Tugaloo just across the Savannah River in what is now Georgia. Fort Charlotte was built 1765-1767 to help protect European settlers from Indian raids. Fort Charlotte was near the place where the Middle Creek Trading Path crossed the Savannah River from Georgia into South Carolina. Several other trails also radiated out from this fort. The Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path was probably opened to European settlers shortly after 1765. It began in McCormick County, South Carolina and ended in Oconee County, South Carolina. The length of the trail was about 70 miles (113 km).

Historical Background
Scots-Irish (that is Ulster-Irish), French Huguenots, and German farmers began settling the area near what would become Fort Charlotte in the 1750s. Some of these early colonists near Long Cane Creek were killed by Cherokee Indians in 1760. As a result, the British military constructed Fort Charlotte between 1765 and 1767 to help protect local colonists from hostile Indians. The fort was then turned over to South Carolina. The Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path probably followed older Indian trails. Fort Charlotte was built at or became the nexus of several trails along the Savannah River in South Carolina and Georgia.

The north end of the Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path was in Oconee County, South Carolina at the convergence of several Indian trails and settler roads mostly leading to the lower Cherokee Indian village of Tugaloo across the Savannah River in Stephens County, Georgia. Tugaloo was built at or became the nexus of several trails along the Savannah River in Georgia and South Carolina. The Old Cherokee Path seems to have begun in Tugaloo, crossed the river into South Carolina, and worked its way north up to Watauga County, North Carolina, Johnson County, Tennessee, and Washington County, Virginia. There it connected to the Great Indian Warpath or Great Valley Road as it was called in that area.

As roads developed in America settlers were attracted to nearby communities because the roads provided access to markets. They could sell their products at distant markets, and buy products made far away. If an ancestor settled near a road, you may be able to trace back to a place of origin on a connecting highway.

Route
The first European colonists settled in counties along this trail (south to north) as follows:


 * McCormick County, South Carolina 1750s by Scots-Irish
 * Abbeville County, South Carolina 1750 by French Huguenots
 * Anderson County, South Carolina 1777 by Scots-Irish, Revolutionary War Veterans
 * Oconee County, South Carolina 1784 by Germans, Revolutionary War Veterans

Connecting trails. The Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path links to other trails at each end. The migration pathways connecting in Fort Charlotte, McCormick, South Carolina included:


 * the Atlantic Ocean 1670
 * King's Highway about 1704
 * Fort Moore-Charleston Trail about 1716
 * Camden-Charleston Path 1732
 * Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path late 1730s
 * Old South Carolina State Road 1747
 * Charleston-Ft. Charlotte Trail about 1765
 * Secondary Coast Road

The migration routes connecting in Tugaloo, Stephens, Georgia included:


 * Savannah River pre-historic
 * Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path late 1730s
 * Augusta-Savannah Trail 1739
 * Savannah-St. Augustine Trail 1740s

Modern parallels. The modern roads that roughly match the old Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path start in Charleston. Drive west on US-17 South to I-95. Merge onto I-95 South/Jasper Highway to just past Hardeeville. Take Exit 5 onto US-17 South to Savannah.

Settlers and Records
The first colonists in each county along what became the Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path arrived before the trail existed, usually by way of the Atlantic Ocean. Nevertheless, some of the new arrivals and settlers after the late 1730s may have used the Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path and even the King's Highway.

No complete list of settlers who used the Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path is known to exist. Nevertheless, local and county histories along that trail may reveal pioneer settlers who arrived after the late 1730s and who were candidates to have traveled the Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path from the Charleston, or the Savannah areas.

For partial lists of early settlers who may  have used the Fort Charlotte and Cherokee Old Path, see histories like:

in Charleston County, SC:


 * Thomas Petigru Lesesne, History of Charleston County, South Carolina: Narrative and Biographical (Charleston, South Carolina : A.H. Cawston, c1931) WorldCat entry.

in Colleton County, SC:


 * "Colleton County, South Carolina Early History" in Colleton County SCGenWeb at http://www.oldplaces.org/colleton/colhistory.html (accessed 27 March 2011).
 * Evelyn McDaniel Frazier Bryan, Colleton County, S.C.: a History of the First 160 Years, 1670-1830 (Jacksonville, Florida : Florentine Press, 1993) WorldCat entry.

in Beaufort County, SC:


 * Lawrence S. Rowland, Alexander Moore, and George C. Rogers, Jr., The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina (Columbia, South Carolina : University of S.C., c1996) WorldCat entry.

in Jasper County, SC:



in Chatham County, GA:


 * Mary Granger, ed., Savannah River Plantations (Spartanburg, South Carolina : Reprint Co., 1972) WorldCat entry.
 * Elizabeth Carpenter Piechocinski, Once upon an Island : the Barrier and Marsh Islands of Chatham County, Georgia (Savannah, Georgia : Oglethorep Press, c2003) WorldCat entry.