who led the crew that cut through the cumberland gap
Cumberland Gap In 1775 Daniel Boone, hired by the Transylvania Company, arrived in the region leading a company of men to widen the path through the gap to make settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee easier. On his arrival Boone discovered that Martin had beaten him to Powell Valley, where Martin and his men were clearing land for their own settlement â€“ the westernmost settlement in English colonial America at the time.[12] By the 1790s the trail that Boone and his men built had been widened to accommodate wagon traffic and sometimes became known as the Wilderness Road.
Tennessee in the American Civil War Tennessee was one of the most divided states in the country at the outset of the war. Before the bombardment of Fort Sumter, Tennessee was actually staunchly pro-Union, though there were still a few secessionist hot beds in the western portion of the state. The situation changed when Fort Sumter was bombarded and Lincoln made the call for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion. Tennesseans saw this as a threat to their "southern brethren," and the only real pockets of pro-Unionism came from the eastern portion of the state. In fact, Tennessee would furnish more troops for the Union than any other Confederate state, combined. However, over three times that number volunteered for the Confederacy. Interestingly, notable general Nathan Bedford Forrest voted against secession, but later fought for his state when it seceded.