Lieutenant Colonel William Russell established Fort Patrick Henry in September 1776 under orders from Colonel William Christian, building on or near the site of an earlier fortification, Fort Robinson, constructed in 1760–61 by Colonel William Byrd. The stockade, roughly one hundred yards square with corner bastions and protected on its fourth side by the high bank of the Holston River, functioned chiefly as a militia garrison and staging ground during the Revolutionary War, defending Holston River settlements against Cherokee raids carried out in alliance with the British. In the fall of 1776, some 2,400 troops drawn from Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia mustered at the fort under General Griffith Rutherford before launching a campaign against Cherokee towns that led to subsequent peace negotiations. The fort remained garrisoned for the remainder of the Revolutionary War. Beyond its military role, it served as a departure and supply point for settlers pushing further west, including those bound for White's Fort (present-day Knoxville) and French Lick (present-day Nashville), making it one link in a chain of frontier forts supporting westward migration into Middle and East Tennessee. The original fort site is now located within Eastman Chemical Company's industrial property near the Fort Patrick Henry Dam, and is commemorated by a Tennessee Historical Commission marker rather than any surviving structure.