Fort Jefferson Site
Ballard County, Ballard County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Fort Jefferson Site. Built in 1780 by George Rogers Clark as part of impressive plan of settlement, conceived by Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia, later pursued by and named for Gov. Thomas Jefferson. The fort was to protect US claim to its western border and to be a key trading post. It was abandoned, 1781. Resettled after Jackson Purchase. Important Union post in Civil War. Over. (Reverse) Indian Massacre - In 1781, the Chickasaws, led by a Scotchman, Colbert, aroused by use of their land without consent, besieged the fort for five days. Many settlers killed. Those left became desperate for provisions, already low because of the difficulty in reaching the fort. Gen. Clark arrived with reinforcements and supplies. The Indians withdrew. Fort was abandoned thereafter. Over.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
In 1780, frontier commander George Rogers Clark built Fort Jefferson here as part of an ambitious plan conceived by Virginia's Governor Patrick Henry and carried on by his successor, Thomas Jefferson, to secure the young nation's western claims. The next year the Chickasaw, angered by settlement on their land, besieged the fort for five days until Clark arrived with reinforcements; the post was abandoned soon after. The strategic spot was resettled following the Jackson Purchase and later served as an important Union position in the Civil War.
Why it matters
The fort embodies the collision of Revolutionary-era westward ambition with Native nations defending their homelands, at the contested western edge of the new United States.
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Related people
- · George Rogers Clark
- · Patrick Henry
- · Thomas Jefferson
Related events
- · Siege of Fort Jefferson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Paducah, Kentucky
McCracken County, KY
Where the Tennessee River meets the Ohio, William Clark—of Lewis and Clark fame—laid out the town of Paducah in 1827, giving it a name tied to the Chickasaw and their remembered chief Paduke. The rivers and, later, the railroads made it a busy trade center and the seat of McCracken County. It sent Alben Barkley to the vice presidency, produced humorist Irvin S. Cobb, and was seized early in the Civil War by Union generals Lew Wallace and William T. Sherman.
Jackson Purchase
McCracken County, KY
In 1818, the young United States acquired an 8,500-square-mile wedge of land between the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers from the Chickasaw Nation for $300,000, in a treaty brokered by General Andrew Jackson and Kentucky Governor Isaac Shelby. Known ever after as the Jackson Purchase, the tract opened westernmost Kentucky and Tennessee to American settlement. Its clean river boundaries still define the region's eight Kentucky and twenty Tennessee counties.
Paducah's Indian Name
Paducah, KY
Paducah is the only major Kentucky city bearing an Indigenous name, honoring the legendary Chief Paduke. His people, a group associated with the Chickasaw, lived and hunted in this area until their land was ceded in the 1818 Jackson Purchase. When General William Clark—of Lewis and Clark fame—platted the town in 1827, he set aside its earlier name, Pekin, in favor of Paducah.
Lewis & Clark in McCracken County
Paducah, KY
In November 1803, as Lewis and Clark led the nucleus of the Corps of Discovery down the Ohio River toward their rendezvous with the West, they passed through what is now McCracken County. Camping near present-day Paducah and stopping at Fort Massac just across the river in Illinois, they recruited men for the journey, including the skilled interpreter George Drouillard. Years later, in 1827, William Clark returned to establish the town of Paducah itself.