picture essay: Moccasin Bend

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Moccasin Bend Time Line

Geologic Events Moccasin Bend is a meander in the Tennessee River where it meets the hard geology of the Cumberland mountains, called the Moccasin because of its appearance from the bluffs above on Lookout Mountain.

	The Paleolithic Period Because of its location at a break in the Southern Mountains, it has served as a strategic crossroads time and again through over 10,000 years of history. Located between the valley and the Cumberland ecotones, along the River route and with rich bottom land resources, the Bend attracted nomadic hunter-gathers of the Paleolithic and Archaic periods.

The Archaic Period

	The Woodland Period It also attracted seasonal and later, permanent settlements and ceremonial centers of the Woodland and agricultural-based Mississippian cultures.

The Early Mississippian Period	The Middle Mississippian Period

The Late Mississippian Period

	The Spanish Contact At the time of Spanish contact by the explorers Soto, Luna and Pardo, the Bend was the site of this region's principal population and political center at the site known as Hampton Place, which was decimated by fire and preserved beneath the fire-hardened, clay-thatched roofs of the collapsed structures sometime in the latter half of the 16th century. These people were the ancestors of today's Muscogee/Creek and Yuchi people.

The Cherokee Tenure Around the time of the American Revolution (1775), the 'Chickamauga' Cherokee under Dragging Canoe moved into the region to get away from white Americans. Under duress from the emerging Colonial economy, they shifted from a village-based lifestyle to farmsteading, which allowed for individual ownership of 1 square mile (640 acres) per head of household. One such property on the Bend was owned by a Cherokee named John Brown, who operated the ferry at what is still known as Brown's Ferry.

	The Trail of Tears The Cherokee tenure in the valley was short-lived. They, and the Muscogee-Creek and Yuchi before them, were forcibly removed by the thousands and deported along the "Trail of Tears" to lands in Oklahoma. In the mid 1830s thousands were corralled in stockades at Ross' Landing. The majority went down the Tennessee around the Bend, while others were ferried to Moccasin Bend, which they crossed on foot. At Brown's Ferry they crossed the river again to continue their march down Lookout Valley into Alabama and westward.

The Civil War Many of the young officers who executed the removal returned twenty years later as colonels and generals to lead their armies in familiar territory at the Battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga. Again, Moccasin Bend played a central role. It was the weak point in the Confederate siege. Union guns placed at the toe of the Moccasin harried the defense route over the shoulder of Lookout Mountain, allowing the Federals under Hooker to pour up Lookout Valley, cross onto the Bend at Brown's Ferry and into Chattanooga, opening the way for needed supplies and for reinforcements lead by General Sherman. Those same guns on the Bend also assisted Hooker's men as they swept across the slopes of Lookout Mountain, overwhelming the Confederates who were ceaselessly and devastatingly bombarded by the guns on the Moccasin below. The armies regrouped that night and the following day the Federals routed the Confederates from their final stronghold on Missionary Ridge.