Battle of Island Flats

The Battle of Island Flats, fought on July 20, 1776, near present-day Kingsport, Tennessee, was one of the earliest major clashes between frontier settlers and British-allied Cherokee forces during the Revolutionary War. A Cherokee war party, led in part by Dragging Canoe, the young Chickamauga Cherokee war leader, attacked Watauga settlements along the Holston River and militia under William Cocke. Despite careful planning, the settlers received advance warning and repelled the assault from fortified positions behind the walls of the fort at Eaton's Station. Although the attack failed, Dragging Canoe emerged as a determined leader of Cherokee resistance to American expansion. The defeat at Island Flats helped convince him that peaceful coexistence was unlikely, leading him to establish the Chickamauga towns farther south and continue a long frontier war against American settlers for nearly two decades. The Battle of Island Flats Marker can be seen at the Memorial Boulevard location.