Qualla: Sullivan County, Tennessee

Sullivan County, Tennessee: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian Stansberry, CC BY 3.0. In 1779, when Sullivan County was carved out of Washington County, Tennessee did not yet exist as anything but a region of western North Carolina. The county was named for John Sullivan, a Patriot general in the Revolutionary War then leading a scorched-earth campaign through Iroquois country in New York. Sullivan would never visit the county that bears his name. But the place stuck with its label, joined the extra-legal State of Franklin from 1784 to 1788, watched Tennessee become a state in 1796, and is now Tennessee's second-oldest county, anchoring the Tri-Cities region near the Virginia line.

Image: Brian Stansberry | CC BY 3.0

Sullivan County, Tennessee: Long Island and Fort Robinson

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NatalieMaynor from Jackson, Mississippi, USA, CC BY 2.0. Long Island of the Holston in modern Kingsport was, for the Cherokee, a place of treaties and ceremony. The British recognized its importance, building Fort Robinson there in 1761 after the fall of Fort Loudoun to the south. The fort drew European settlers north up the valleys. W...

Image: NatalieMaynor from Jackson, Mississippi, USA | CC BY 2.0

Sullivan County, Tennessee: The Little Confederacy

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cody R. Morelock, CC BY-SA 3.0. East Tennessee was, broadly, Union country during the Civil War. Sullivan County was the exception. In the June 1861 secession referendum, the county voted 1,586 to 627 in favor of leaving the Union, an overwhelming margin that earned it the nickname Little Confederacy. After App...

Image: Cody R. Morelock | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sullivan County, Tennessee: Morrell Cave and Civil War Saltpeter

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Criz067, CC BY-SA 3.0. Morrell Cave, also known as Worleys Cave, runs 4.4 miles underground east of Bluff City, making it the second-longest cave in East Tennessee and the 177th-longest in the country. During the Civil War the Confederacy mined the cave for saltpeter, the potassium nitrate that is the ...

Image: Criz067 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sullivan County, Tennessee: Besse Cooper and Blountville

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian Stansberry, CC BY 3.0. Besse Cooper was born in Sullivan County in 1896. For 18 months between June 2011 and her death in December 2012, at age 116, she was the world's oldest living person. She had lived through every American president from McKinley to Obama, two world wars, and the entire arc of the...

Image: Brian Stansberry | CC BY 3.0