Passage of a Woman began as a journal of the everyday occurrences that made up the seasons of my ordinary life. Now nearly 60 years old, I’m suddenly facing a whole new, unexpected season of divorce and singleness in mid-life. It’s been heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and life-changing, but I’m determined it will empower and not destroy me. So, here's to a new season with all its blessings and promises, challenges and changes, and by the grace of God, a little less pain and a lot more joy!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Fort Southwest Point - A My Town Monday Post

Not unlike many key cities in the South, Kingston, Tennessee, has a famous fort. Called Fort Southwest Point, it is the only Federal era fort in Tennessee being rebuilt on its originalfoundation. Now completed are a barracks, a blockhouse, and 250 feet of palisades walls.

Fort Southwest Point began as a militia post known as the Southwest Point Blockhouse. The Blockhouse, which included a stockade, was built by militiamen in 1792 and commanded by Brig. General John Sevier. Constructed high on a bluff at the mouth of the Clinch River where it enters the Tennessee, it was located at the boundary of the Southwest Territory (Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio) and the Cherokee Nation, on the only east-west road between Knoxville and Nashville (known as the “North Carolina Road” or “Avery’s Trace,” constructed in 1788).

Sevier’s militia used the Blockhouse as a base from which to curtail hostilities between the Cherokee and Creek Nations and the