Subjects: General Assembly of North Carolina legislative Act, 1782 re "relief of the officers and soldiers in the Continental line." Survey, General Nathaniel Greene 25,000 grant. Survey, North Carolina Military Reservation, now Middle Tennessee. Goodspeed's History of Tennessee (General History) Excerpt from pages 138, 141: Tennessee Records Repository, TNGenNet, Inc. Transcription by Fred Smoot, 19 December 2006 Public Domain Document ====================================================================== HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. ------ ILLUSTRATED ------ Nashville: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887 ------ (p.138) One of the causes which led to the rapid settlement of Tennessee, was the passage, by the General Assembly of North Carolina, of an "act for the relief of the officers and soldiers in the Continental line, and for other purposes," which was as follows:* WHEREAS, The officers and soldiers of the Continental line of this State have suffered much by the depreciation of paper currency, as well as by the deficiency of clothing and other supplies that have been due them according to sundry acts and resolves of the General Assembly, and whereas, the honorable, the Continental Congress, have resolved that the deficiency shall be made good to the 18th day of August, 1780, According to a scale of depreciation established. And * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * WHEREAS, It is proper that some effectual and permanent reward should be rendered for the signal bravery and persevering zeal of the Continental officers and soldiers in the service of the State. Therefore Be it enacted, etc., That each Continental soldier of the line of this State who is now in service, and continues to the end of the war, or such of them as from wounds or bodily (p.139) infirmity have been or shall be rendered unfit for service, which shall be ascertained by a certificate from the commanding officer, shall have six hundred and forty acres of land; every officer who is now in service, and shall continue in service until the end of the war, as well as those officers who from wounds or bodily infirmity have left or may be obliged to leave the service, shall have a greater quantity according to his pay as followeth: Each non-commissioned officer, one thousand acres; each subaltern, two-thousand five hundred and sixty acres; each captain, three thousand eight hundred and forty acres; each major, four thousand eight hundred acres; each lieutenant-colonel, five thousand seven hundred and sixty acres; each lieutenant-colonel commandant, seven thousand two hundred acres; each colonel, seven thousand two hundred acres; each brigadier-general, twelve thousand acres; each chaplain, six thousand two hundred acres; each surgeon, four thousand eight hundred acres; each surgeon's mate, two thousand five hundred and sixty acres; and where any officer or soldier has fallen or shall fall in the defense of his country, his heirs or assigns shall have the same quantity of land that the officer or soldier would have been entitled to had they served during the war. --------- (*Laws of 1782. Chapter III.) --------- According to the next section of this act any family that had settled on the tract of land set apart to be divided up among the officers and soldiers should be entitled to 640 acres, provided that no such grant should include any salt lick or salt spring which were reserved with 640 acres in connection with each lick or spring for public purposes. By the eighth section Absalom Tatom, Isaac Shelby and Anthony Bledsoe were appointed commissioners to lay off the land and they were to be accompanied by a guard of not more than 100 men. By the tenth section Gen. Nathaniel Greene was allowed 25,000 acres of land, which by an act passed in 1784 was described as follows: "Beginning on the south bank of Duck River, on a sycamore, cherry tree and ash, at the mouth of a small branch, running thence along a line of marked trees south seven miles and forty-eight poles, to a Spanish oak, a hickory and a sugar sapling; thence east six miles and ninety poles, to a Spanish oak and hackberry tree; thence north three miles and 300 poles, to a sugar-tree sapling, and two white oak saplings into a clift of Duck River, where it comes from, the northeast; thence down Duck River according to its meanderings to the beginning." The Revolutionary war came to an end in November, 1782. Capt. Robertson anticipated this event and from it inferred an abatement of Indian hostilities. It was soon followed by the arrival from North Carolina of quite a number of persons, who gave additional strength and encouragement to the settlements. Early in 1783 the commissioners named above in the eighth section of the act for the relief of the officers and soldiers in the Continental line arrived from North Carolina accompanied by a guard to lay off the lands promised as bounties to the officers and soldiers of said Continental line. These commissioners also came to examine into the claims of those persons who considered themselves entitled to pre-emption rights granted to settlers on the Cumberland previous to 1780, and also to lay off the lands given to Gen. Greene. The (p.140) settlers, animated with now hope by the presence of all these additions to their numbers and strength, entirely abandoned the designs they had long entertained of leaving the country. The commissioners and guards, with some of the inhabitants in company, went to the place since called Latitude Hill, on Elk River, to ascertain the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, and there made observations. They then went north to Duck River to the second creek below Columbia and laid off Greene's 25,000 acres, and then fifty-five, miles from the southern boundary of the State, and parallel thereto ran a line which received the name of the "Continental line," because it was the boundary of the territory allotted to the officers and soldiers of North Carolina in the Continental Army. But upon the representation, and at the request of the officers made to the General Assembly at the session of 1783, they directed it to be laid off from the northern boundary fifty-five miles to the south: Beginning on the Virginia line where the Cumberland River intersects the same; thence south fifty-five miles; thence west to the Tennessee River; thence down the Tennessee River to Virginia line; thence with the said Virginia line east to the beginning.** This line was run by Gen. Rutherford, in 1784, and named the "Commissioner's line." The Continental line passed the Harpeth River about five miles above the town of Franklin. The Commissioner's line included the land in the Great Bend of Tennessee-all lands on the east side of the Tennessee to the present Kentucky line. The method of running it was as follows: Commencing at the Kentucky line the commissioners ran south fifty-five miles to Mount Pisgah, then forming themselves into two parties, one party ran westward to the Tennessee and the other eastward to the Caney Fork. --------- **Haywood --------- Never were more generous bounties given to more deserving patriots. The war-worn veteran might here secure a competency, or perhaps eve wealth or affluence to himself and children after the storm of battle had subsided, in the enjoyment of which he might pass the evening of serenely contemplating the great benefits derived and to be derived from the sacrifices himself and his compatriots had made in the establishment of the independence of the American nation. A vast emigration from North Carolina was the direct result of her generous action, insomuch that it was at one time estimated that nine-tenths of the population of Tennessee were from the mother State. And in addition to the bounties offered to the officers and soldiers of the Continental line, other bounties, were offered to the guards of the commissioners who were appointed to lay off the reservation for the said officers and soldiers. These bounties (p.141) were named "Guard Rights," and induced numerous individuals to become members of the guard, and numerous grants were located and settled upon by such individuals. After running the line as authorized by the General Assembly of North Carolina, the commissioners sat at the Bluff to examine into pre-emption claims and issued certificates to such as were entitled thereto. The commission then dissolved and Isaac Shelby removed to Kentucky, thus ceasing to be a citizen of Tennessee. Of Kentucky he became the first governor, and died suddenly July 18, 1826, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. The commissioners having come and gone affairs again assumed their usual aspect at the Bluff. The people were employed in their ordinary labors, doing what could be done to improve their condition... ======================================================================