The Gaines Trace was a road in the

Mississippi Territory The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 7, 1798, until December 10, 1817, when the western half of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Mississippi. T ...

. It was constructed in 1811 and 1812 from the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, ...

(opposite the Elk River's mouth) to Cotton Gin Port on the upper

Tombigbee River The Tombigbee River is a tributary of the Mobile River, approximately 200 mi (325 km) long, in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Alabama. Together with the Alabama, it merges to form the short Mobile River before the latter empties int ...

and on to

Fort Stoddert Fort Stoddert, also known as Fort Stoddard, was a stockade fort in the U.S. Mississippi Territory, in what is today Alabama. It was located on a bluff of the Mobile River, near modern Mount Vernon, close to the confluence of the Tombigbee and Al ...

on the lower Tombigbee. The portion from the Tennessee River to Cotton Gin Port was surveyed in 1807 and 1808 by

Edmund P. Gaines Edmund Pendleton Gaines (March 20, 1777 – June 6, 1849) was a career United States Army officer who served for nearly fifty years, and attained the rank of major general by brevet. He was one of the Army's senior commanders during its formati ...

, the road's namesake and a career United States Army officer. In 1816, the Gaines Trace and the

were the boundaries between United States and

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...

territory in Mississippi. A portion of the road appeared on an 1831 map of Mississippi that illustrated the "Gaines Road" extending from

Russellville, Alabama Russellville is a city in Franklin County in the U.S. state of Alabama. At the 2020 census, the population of the city was 10,855, up from 9,830 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Franklin County. History After the War of 1812, t ...

to Cotton Gin Port.

Jackson's Military Road Jackson's Military Road was a 19th-century route connecting Nashville, Tennessee, with New Orleans, Louisiana. After the War of 1812, Congress appropriated funds in 1816 to build and improve this road. It was completed in 1820. The road was named ...

, constructed from 1816 to 1820, intersected Gaines Trace in Russellville. Tennessee Street in

Courtland, Alabama Courtland is a town in Lawrence County, Alabama, United States, and is included in the Decatur Metropolitan Area, as well as the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The population was 609 at the 2010 census, down from 769 in 2000. Hi ...

, was a portion of the Trace.

References

* Elliott, Jack D. and Wells, Mary Ann. (2003). ''Cotton Gin Port : a frontier settlement on the Upper Tombigbee''. Jackson, Mississippi: Quail Ridge Press for the Mississippi Historical Society.
"History of Russellville"
2004, RussellvilleGov.com, Archived page of March 22, 2004.

Inline citations

{{Mississippi-road-stub Historic trails and roads in Mississippi Historic trails and roads in Alabama