Old Federal Road in the Neighborhood of Cohutta Springs

The two pieces of Union correspondence, below, mention Old Federal Road, Cohutta Springs, Spring Place, and other towns. Apparently it relates to the fork of the old Federal Road that went into Murray County, Georgia. The other fork continued west from Ramhurst toward Dalton. I'm not sure if this would be Cohutta Springs "west" or "east." I think it would be "west."

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 38, Part 5 (Correspondence, Etc.), 646

Dalton, August 23, 1864.
Major-General Steedman:
I sent out one company yesterday morning eastward to Holly Creek, beyond Spring Place, and another through Ship's Gap to Summerville via Broomtown Valley; the last will not return till to-night. The first company returned last evening, and report a body of 500 rebel cavalry lying on the Westfield turnpike at the foot of the Cohutta Mountain, about twenty miles from here on the road to Ellijay. They are apparently holding that gap for the protection of couriers or other communications between Wheeler and Atlanta. They came there on Sunday from the diretion [sic] of Columbus, having been sent to learn the old Federal road in the neighborhood of Cohutta Springs on Saturday evening, and to proceed in the direction of Ellijay. This body has two companies guarding the ford of Hold's Creek. I do not think they intend to harass the railroad but merely to hold that gap.
Wm. J. Palmer,
Colonel, Commanding Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.

_____________________________________________

Headquarters District of the Etowah,
Chattanooga, August 23, 1864.
Col. L. D. Watkins,
      Calhoun, Ga.:

   Send all your mounted force effective for a march by way of Spring Place and Cohutta Springs toward Savannah, on the Hiwassee River. Colonel Palmer sends a detachment from Dalton by way of Spring Place to Columbus; try to communicate with him. He reports 500 rebel cavalry at the foot of Cohutta Mountain on Westfield road, evidently keeping open communication between Wheeler and Atlanta. Try to break up the line and move on same route to the Hiwassee and co-operate with Colonel Palmer.
J. B. Steedman,
Major-General.


The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
Compiled by Calvin Duvall Cowles
Contributors: United States. War Records Office, United States. Record and Pension Office, United States. Congress. House
Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1891

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED ON MY CIVIL WAR BLOG.

Cohutta Springs in the 1830s

Before the 1830s, Cohutta Springs (if it was so named) was still located within the Cherokee Nation. On early maps, the place name was located on the Old Federal Road, which forked at Chief Vann's plantation in Spring Place. The early maps are so generalized that the location of the place name can't easily be compared to modern maps. One branch of the Old Federal Road ran northwest toward Rossville, and the other, northeast, crossing the state line at Tennga, going past Chief David McNair's home in Tennessee. (See notes, below).*

The mineral springs in the eastern section would have been used as a watering place for people traveling along the Old Federal Road. The word "Cohutta" is said to be Cherokee for "poles of the shed" (such as the Cohutta Mountains, referring to poles which hold up the sky). However, it is not known whether the mineral springs bore this place name in these earliest times. There may have already been a grist mill near the springs even in the 1830s, but this is speculation. Not much is known about the very early history of Cohutta Springs.

In the late 1820s and early 1830s, the Cherokee Nation was pressured by the State of Georgia to give up all Cherokee lands within the boundaries of the state. Cherokees were told to move and were given a grace period. The date of forcible removal was set for May 1838. The U.S. Post Office established a branch at Cohutta Springs in 1836, before the removal. The location of the post office was near western Cohutta Springs (five miles west of the mineral springs).

Early deeds in Murray County usually specify county land as "originally Cherokee now Murray County." Cherokee County was a large, undivided county in North Georgia, so named by the State during the era that the Cherokee lands were claimed and confiscated. One of the lots lying in Cohutta Springs is Murray County Land Lot 320 in the 27th District, 2nd Section, once owned by James Edmondson. Further abstracts and look-ups in the land lottery books show that it was first granted (sold) to Thomas Clark on March 27, 1834, who sold it to James Morris in 1835. Edmondson acquired it after the land lottery.

The Trail of Tears, or Cherokee Removal in this area occurred in 1838. The minor chiefs who opposed John Ross and signed the Treaty of New Echota had tried to negotiate to allow Cherokees to remain in Georgia as Georgians, each keeping a homesteader's lot ~ but this clause was stricken by the president. Whether specific chiefs would have been the beneficiaries of this clause needs researching. Various participants in the treaty were later executed by the Cherokee government

For more on these topics, search Georgia History sites for the Act of December 21, 1830, Act of December 24, 1831, 1832 Georgia Land Lottery, and the 1838 Cherokee removal, or Trail of Tears. Also, here's a very good document (with references) that I found while doing a quick look-up on McNair's name: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v011/v011p0927.html

*NOTES: Specific details about the Old Federal Road were gleaned from the Georgia DOT's document on the subject: 
 http://www.dot.state.ga.us/travelingingeorgia/federalroads/documents/phase%20I%20final%20report%20word%20III.pdf
I had to do a quick look-up to clarify that the Old Federal Road did run past McNair's.