[3] During the French and Indian War the subject was a lieutenant in Major James Burd's company at Fort Augusta in 1756.

[4] In 1768, Daniel J. Clark Sr., Irishman, merchant and former captain of a Pennsylvania regiment in the British Army, obtained grants for thousands of acres of land in what was then West Florida.

[7] Ellicott wrote that it would be: impracticable to convey our instruments, baggage and stores directly from Clarksville, to the most eligible place, owing to the extreme unevenness of the country on the one hand, and the banks of the Mississippi not being sufficiently inundated on the other, to give us passage by water through swamps and small lakes.

[1]Ellicot also provided a detailed description of the land east of the Mississippi River at Clarksville: The first twenty miles of country over which the line passed, is perhaps as fertile as any in the United States; and at the same time the most impenetrable, and could only be explored by using the cane knife and hatchet.

The whole face of the country being covered with strong canes, which stood almost as close together as hemp stalks, and generally from twenty to thirty five feet high, and matted together by various species of vines, that connected them with the boughs of the lofty timber, which was very abundant.

The hills are numerous, short, and steep: from those untoward circumstances, we were scarcely ever able to open one-fourth of a mile per day, and frequently much less.

That same year, William Dunbar, a friend of Clark's, wrote a letter to Winthrop Sargent, the territorial governor, telling him that "Clarksville destined by nature, to become a considerable place at a future day, possesses advantages which give it a decided preference".

Dunbar wrote that the settlement was "the first safe and commodious landing place north of the line of demarcation at 31 degrees", and that Clarksville was a "handsome plain ornamented by seven elegant Indian mounts" which will "become the site of a great commercial town".