Patriot Paths showcases Tennessee's Revolutionary history

The Tennessee State Library & Archives (TSLA) has unveiled an upgraded website allowing Tennesseans to trace Revolutionary War veterans who migrated to the state following the war.  

The website, Patriot Paths: Mapping Tennessee’s American Revolution Pension Applications, is an interactive digital resource developed by TSLA. Using geographic information drawn from Revolutionary War pension applications submitted between 1818 and 1836, the site maps the migration patterns of more than 2,200 veterans who later settled in Tennessee.  

These records often contain detailed personal accounts from veterans describing their military service, places of residence, and the routes they traveled as they moved westward following the war. 

By combining these historical records with modern geographic information systems (GIS) technology, Patriot Paths visually reconstructs the movement of these veterans from the communities they left behind in the original colonies and other early American settlements to the places where they eventually established new lives on Tennessee’s frontier. 

Locations featured in the project were extracted from pension application files housed at the National Archives and supplemented with information from other historical sources. The resulting interactive maps allow users to explore how Revolutionary War veterans moved across the early United States and contributed to the settlement and development of Tennessee. 

The site builds upon the original Patriot Paths website that was made available in 2019. The updated version incorporates a modern platform with improved navigation, enhanced research tools, including a brand-new story map illustrating one patriot’s journey, and full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), making the site more accessible and user- friendly for researchers, educators, and the public. 

The project was developed through a collaboration between the Tennessee State Library & Archives, the State of Tennessee’s Geographic Information Systems Services, and a grant made possible through the Tennessee Commission for the United States Semiquincentennial. The updated site includes several new user-friendly features designed to help researchers better visualize migration patterns and explore the historical context surrounding these veterans’ lives. 

To explore the updated Patriot Paths resource and learn more about the veterans who helped shape Tennessee’s early history, visit Patriot Paths.