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Judith Hughes, Regent

The monument to Corporal White, a Revolutionary War Soldier, who served with the

Pickens Brigade of South Carolina. Corporal White was killed in the Battle of Sugartown

THE BATTLE OF SUGARTOWN

(Last Battle with Indians)

(NOTE: the following narrative was written by Franklin resident Marie Jennings as a high school assignment in the late 1940s. We appreciate Marie's permission for its use on our website.)

With the signing of the treaties between the Cherokee Indians living in this section and the white man, settlers came here to live, but many of the Indians were still living and hiding out in the mountains. To protect the settlers from the Indian attacks, United States soldiers had to be used. In 1782, there was a tribe of Indians camping at what was later called the Town House Field, and still later the property of Dave Rogers, a well known citizen, and what is now Western Carolina University. The soldiers came through Cullowhee Gap in pursuit of the Indians making the next stand on the John Ledford place, near what is now Sugarfork River. The soldiers being on the opposite side and unable to cross, could not charge. Among the regulars, as these soldiers were called, was Corporal White who was killed in the battle that ensued, and whose grave is marked by a tombstone on the bank of the river. His solitary grave has always been an object of great curiosity and interest, although little is known of his life and death except for the fact that he was killed in the Battle of Sugartown, as Sugarfork was then called, on September 10, 1782. After the soldiers found a crossing, they came down upon the Indians, who fled with the soldiers pursuing them, to the Valley River near Murphy, where the Red Men, in frustration, were captured or surrendered. Later they were taken to the reservation. -- Marie Jennings, Author