The American Revolution broke out one month after Richard Henderson's purchase agreement with the Cherokee for the lands of the proposed Transylvania settlement was signed in March, 1775.

Dragging Canoe had admonished the settlers that encroachment would result in "dark and bloody ground", and he would make good on his word.

Aside from a short-lived trading post established in 1689 by fur trader Martin Chartier,[1][2][3][4][5][6] no attempt had previously been made to permanently settle the area then known only as French Lick[7] along the banks of the Cumberland River.

The colonists agreed to pay Henderson 26 pounds of silver per hundred acres, which was then considered an expensive price (equal to approximately $6.20/acre).

Robertson charged three of his men to stay behind and plant corn in preparation for the arrival of the much larger group, which had remained behind in the Washington District.

There was no further movement until mid-February, and when the boats were eventually cut loose, they were hampered again by the swell of the river due to incessant heavy rains.

[Note 1] On March 20, 1780, they arrived at the mouth of the Tennessee River and set up camp on a lowland which is now the site of Paducah, Kentucky.

Their boats, having been constructed to float downstream, were scarcely able to ascend the rapid current of the Ohio, which due to heavy spring rains was particularly high and fast.

The others, however, were determined to pursue their course up the Ohio from Paducah to the mouth of the Cumberland River, a distance which turned out to be only fifteen miles (24 km).

In order to make progress upstream, Donelson rigged his boat, the Adventure, with a small sail made out of a sheet.

To prevent ill effects from any sudden gust of wind, a man was stationed at each lower corner of this sail with instructions to loosen it when the breeze became too strong.

[citation needed] Upon reaching their destination, Donelson reunited with Robertson, and the group cleared the land, building a settlement which they named in honor of General Francis Nash, who had won acclaim fighting in the American Revolution.

In 1780, Robertson drew up a constitution called the "Cumberland Compact," and the area began a new phase of autonomy from the government of North Carolina.

[citation needed] Buffalo, black bear, wild turkeys, white tail deer, beaver, raccoon, fox, elk, wolf, cougar, mink, and otter were abundant in the untamed forests.

Native American lands reserved by treaties and previous claims were not legally available, but in the haste, confusion and greed, there were many squatters and boundary disputes.

The largest and most numerous tribes in the region were the Muscogee (Creek) to the south, and the Cherokee to the east and over the Cumberland Plateau, who were originally peaceful to the eastern British colonials.

War Chief Dragging Canoe's Chickamauga Cherokee, and their Muscogee allies, continued attacks on the frontier settlements for the next fourteen years.