Stirring Up a Hornet's Nest: - UGA Laboratory of Archaeology ...

BBATTLEFIELD IMAGERY
BV. The Battlefield
Early Cartography
No surviving Revolutionary War-era map of the Kettle Creek battlefield has been identified, despite
extensive research by many historians over more than two centuries. That deficiency was noted by
researcher Robert Scott Davis, Jr. and the present research confirms an absence of primary battle maps for
Kettle Creek (Davis 1983:158).
Two maps from the Colonial periof show details relevant to the study area. A map of interior Georgia by
Royal Surveyor William DeBrahm (1771) shows features in the upper coastal plain but DeBrahm’s map
did not extend far enough northward to include Kettle Creek. In 1771, Kettle Creek was Indian land but it
became Crown land after a major land cession was agreed upon in a 1773 treaty with the Creek and
Cherokee Nations. A map showing the “Ceded Lands” was drafted by Royal Surveyor Philip Yonge
(1773). While the project vicinity is included in Yonge’s map and major and minor stream drainages are
shown, no cultural features are indicated in the Kettle Creek vicinity and Kettle Creek is not specifically
identified by name.
A slightly later map of Georgia also shows no cultural features in the Kettle Creek vicinity (Hinton 1779).
A detail of Hinton’s map, which includes the study area, is reproduced in Figure 11. The project vicinity on
Hinton’s map is identified as, “Hunting Grounds of the Cherakees and Muskohgees”, which reflects a lag
time of several years between historical events (land cessions of 1763 and 1773) and British cartography.
97
Figure 11. Detail of Hinton's Map
of Georgia (1779).
The trek of Lieutenant Colonel
Archibald Campbell and his British
troops from Savannah to Augusta
was documented with a detailed map
(Campbell 1780). That map’s
coverage, however, did not extend
far enough to the north to include the
Kettle Creek vicinity. Another map
in the Campbell family estate,
entitled, “A Plan of a Part of the
Province of Georgia in North
America” was located by Davis and
a redraft of that undated map was
published by him (Davis 1986:18,
Figure 8). A close-up view of a
portion of this map, which includes
the study area, is reproduced in
Figure 12.
A review of post-war maps and early 19 th century maps of Georgia yielded no information about the Kettle
Creek battlefield. Maps reviewed included: Barker (1794, 1796), Russell (1795, 1798), Tanner (1796),
Doolittle (1796), Bradley (1797), Phillips (1799), Lewis (1805, 1815), Cary (1806), Scoles (1810), Melish
(1813), Young (1824), Young & Delleker (1822, 1828), Knight (1828), Hinton (1831), and others.
Tanner’s 1796 map shows the approximate route of the road that ran through the center of the battlefield.
By the early decades of the 19 th century, that route was abandoned for another further southeast.