Lamb’s Ferry Road

Lamb’s Ferry Road. . , (Side 1) , From about 1775 until his death on August 9, 1807, Chickamauga Cherokee Chief Doublehead controlled the Muscle Shoals of the Tennessee River. Two major Indian trails, Sipsie Trail and an east-west trail, intersected in the vicinity of present-day Rogersville. In the early 1780s, members of the McCutcheon family widened a portion of the Sipsie Trail for use as a wagon road. It led from present-day Spring Hill, TN, via Pulaski and Minor Hill, TN, to the Tennessee River, south of present-day Rogersville. In 1809, U.S. Army Col. Return J. Meigs enumerated 30 Cherokee Indians and 6 white settlers living in the Indian village at this location. John Lamb, a Scots-Irish Cherokee, relocated from Indian Creek in Giles County, TN, and around 1809 established a ferry south of here where the Sipsie Trail crossed the Tennessee River. After Lamb started operating the ferry, the trail north of the river became known as Lamb’s Ferry Road. For over 100 years, Lamb’s Ferry was one of the major crossings on the Tennessee River, becoming a thriving enterprise used by travelers, and was an important river port. Trade goods were brought in by flatboats and keelboats and loaded onto wagons for distribution. Beginning in 1818, many white settlers used the ferry when converging on the area after purchasing large tracks of fertile land at the Federal Land Sales. (Continued on other side). (Side 2) (Continued from other side). Lamb’s Ferry Road and Lamb’s Ferry were strategic military locations during the Civil War. Union and Confederate forces used them for movement of troops and supplies through the area and across the Tennessee River. The area was occupied by both armies at various times during the war. On May 4, 1862, Confederate Gen. John Adams and his cavalry troops were at Lamb’s Ferry. In mid-1862, Union Gen. James S. Negley marched his unit from Pulaski, TN, to Lamb’s Ferry. After engaging in a number of small skirmishes, he moved west and became the first Union general to occupy Florence. After September 1863, Confederate Col. George H. Nixon, Commander, 20th Tennessee Cav. Regt., set up headquarters at Lamb’s Ferry to bring his unit up to combat readiness and to guard the river crossing. During the winter and spring of 1863-64, the Regt. fought several successful skirmishes in the area. Before and after the Civil War, large cotton farms operated near the river and Lamb’s Ferry. A cotton gin and warehouses were built at the ferry and cotton was shipped from there. When Wheeler Dam was built in the 1930s, the ferry operation ceased. The road south of Rogersville is now County Road 91, but is often referred to as Lamb’s Ferry Road.