Captain & Major, James Thigpen II cut the Thigpen Trail, Oldest Military Road in Georgia

Anglican James Thigpen II is my 8th great grandfather; b. Albemarle 9 Oct 1664; d. Perquimans Pct. 30 May 1731. He first owned & operated a ferry crossing the Perquimans River, which he sold ca. 1714.
He was a planter, lawyer, ship owner & tobacco trader; Captian of Militia ca. 1695 to January 1701/2, when he was commissioned Major by Deputy Governor Robert Daniel.
He & his Indian friends cut the road for Col. James Moore to transport troops and supplies. In 1811 the U.S. Government named it Federal Road.

"Thigpen Trail, oldest Military Road in Georgia was cut by James Thigpen to transport military supplies of Col. James Moore, former Carolina Governor. It followed a beaten trail of the Indians from the mountains to the sea; in use before the white man... from South Carolina above Broad River, along the Chattahoochee water divide to Gulf of Mexico, it avoided swamps & big rivers. The English called it Carolina & Spanish claimed it as Florida. The colonel led the English in an attack down Thigpen Trail...
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The Mitchell Map of 1755, Bureau of American Ethnology, shows the old trail...
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The Barnard Trail Chapter DAR has erected a boulder-type marker in Sylvester GA to mark the trail.
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Near Viena, GA is the town of Thigpen assumed to be on the old trail.
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About 14 miles West of Jacksonville, Florida is the town of Balwin, until 1860, it was called "Thigpen" Military Service: Captain of local militia, ca.1695-1702
[cut the Federal Road through Georgia]

James Thigpen married Ellenor Abt. 1683. She was born around 1668. He married Elizabeth Manwaring January 2, 1685 in North Carolina. He married Margaret Jordan September 2, 1716.

The British wanted the Spanish out of SW Georgia territory. Col. James Moore led troops to St. Augustine, Fla., to fight them. Moore was defeated & returned to South Carolina.

James Thigpen II was asked to build a road through Spanish territory to make English trade routes & settlements. In 1702, he used the Creek trade route used by Moore to lead the 2cd attack against the Spanish, alongside 1,000 Creek Indians.
English & Spanish troops met up at Ayaville. It wiped out the Apalachee Indian Nation, but drove the Spanish back to Florida, defeated.

Jame Oglethorpe made a colony of Savannah in 1733. The land was owned by Moore [8 treaties]. Oglethorpe came without being attacked. The Southwest Georgia territory wasn't released to the English until Treaty of 1763... Spanish gave up lands north of St. Mary’s River & east of the Chattahoochee.

Thigpen Trail was used in the Revolutionary War & War Between the States. The Daughters of the American Revolution placed a marker by the road near Hartsfield, 1932.

“This Indian trail played an important part in the development of not only Georgia but us as a nation,” Bricker said.
There's also a  marker in Thomasville & one in North Georgia.

Thigpen Trail Marker, placed by Barnard Trail Chapter, D.A.R., in Colquitt County is 3 miles west of Sylvester on U.S. 82 in Worth County.