The forts in the Holston and Clinch Valleys were constructed in a manner to prevent an invasion from the North. Late in 1775 militia forts were built in Lee County to provide protection to the emigrant trains moving down the Wilderness Road into Kentucky. In 1776, the Great Cherokee War broke out, with the Cherokee making a frontal assault against the Holston settlements from the south, and with a second drive coming from the west up Powell Valley. The settlements were largely abandoned in Lee County and western Scott County, and in the main Valley of the Holston from Kingsport to Abington.

The focus of this book is the forts themselves, with their individual histories followed by meticulously presented proofs of their locations. Most of the site location data is new, and has never before been presented. The larger military campaigns are outlined, but are not discussed in detail. The author hopes the reader is encouraged to read the numerous standard works on these subjects. It is the proofs of location of the forts that are the core of this effort. They provide new levels of understandings of the campaigns, and of the emigration down the Wilderness Road to Kentucky.