Jackson's Military Road

Jackson's Military Road. . After returning from the “Battle of New Orleans”, in the War of 18 12, General Andrew Jackson saw the need for a shorter, better military road, more suitable to defend the Gulf of Mexico. The September 1816 Treaty with the Chickasaw and Cherokee Nations gave the U.S. Government control over the land necessary to build the road., The terminal points on the Military Road would be Columbia, Tennessee on the north and Madisonville, Louisiana on the south. In 1820 the road was completed. From Columbia to Madisonville, the distance was 516 miles, 220 miles less than the Natchez Trace route., In 1818, five county commissioners, David Crockett, Maximillian Buchanan, Josephus Irvine, Enoch Tucker, and Henry Phenix were given the responsibility of “fixing upon a place” for the county seat of Lawrence County. One of the deciding factors for the city of Lawrenceburg being at its location is because Jackson's Military Road ran near the site. On April 2, 1821, it was changed to run through Lawrenceburg., in 1864, General John Bell Hood marched one third of his Confederate Army up the Military Road to the Battle of Nashville., In the early 1900's the road from Chicago to New Orleans by way of Jackson's Military Road was designated as the major north/south highway.