At dawn, two hundred six years ago on this date, a renegade
band of 1000 Creek and Cherokee warriors led by the notorious
Doublehead approached Cavett Station in their march on the fort
in Knoxville.
Cavett Station was eight miles West of the Knoxville fort.
As the renegade band neared Cavett Station they heard the
routine, morning firing of cannons at the Knoxville fort,
and thinking they had been detected by the soldiers in
Knoxille, they attacked Cavett Station and "brutally
massacred" Alexander Cavett and all there, except for
a young boy, whom they took captive. Doublehead personally
killed the young boy a few days later.
Helen Gant Donald
(Descendant of Richard Cavitt, b. 1747, Alexander Cavett's
younger brother)
The soldiers in Knoxville heard the firing of guns, and
they rushed to aid those at Cavett Station. The Indians
fled. The Cavett Stations Massacre was credited with
saving Knoxville from a similar fate.