John G. Burnett

John G. Burnett (December 11, 1810 - January 21, 1893) is the purported author of the 1890 Private John G. Burnett Letter, documenting the Trail of Tears forced displacement of minorities in the US.

Personal history

John Greenberry Burnett was born, raised, and died in Sullivan County, Tennessee and spent his life working as a farmer.[1] He was mustered into Captain Abraham McClellan's Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade of the Tennessee Mounted Volunteer Militia, Commanded by Major John R. Delaney, and served from the 8th of July, 1836 through the 7th of July 1837.[2] McClellan's Company served in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama in preparation for the upcoming Cherokee Removal of any Cherokees who remained beyond the terms of the 1835 Treaty of New Echota.[3] Burnett did serve honorably and his whole Company was discharged... a year before the Trail of Tears started.[4]

Burnett’s first wife, Letitia (Godsey) died in 1861, and he married his second wife, Rebecca (Morris/Morse/Moss?) in 1864. Rebecca died in 1915. John had two daughters and seven sons with Letitia. E.H. Burnett was John G's grandson. Burnett died on January 21, 1893, and is buried in the Weaver Cemetery, Sullivan County, TN[5]

Private John G. Burnett Letter

Classified for years as a “primary source” artifact relating the Trail of Tears, this previously unverified document has been proven to be a forgery containing fictitious stories. The early 1950's claims of authenticity were carelessly accepted and went unchallenged by most historians. Historical researchers, Serial Thompson in his, The Cherokee Cross Egypt (1951), William Higginbotham in his, Trail of Tears, Death Toll Myths Dispelled (1988), Lathel Duffield in his, Cherokee Emigration: Reconstructing Reality (2002), and Larry Vogt in his, Myth, Legend, Hoax, and History: The John G. Burnett Letter and Trail of Tears (2020) have since presented, documented, and established that the letter and its contents are fabrications.[6][7]

Burnett did not create the artifact, write the Letter, or live the Trail stories attributed to him. Evidence points to his grandson being the fabricator. Burnett did not accompany the Cherokee Indians to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears, as cited in some publications.[8][9]

Chief John Ross, his brother, Lewis, and Cherokee conductors were, completely and exclusively, in charge of the entire Cherokee, overland, Trail of Tears emigration.[10] There were, in fact, no soldiers escorting any of Chief John Ross’ overland emigration detachments on the Trail of Tears. [11]

References

  1. ^ Census records of Sullivan County, Tennessee
  2. ^ Burnett’s militia service details: Historic Sullivan, A History Sullivan County Tennessee with Brief Biographies of the Makers of History ,by Oliver Taylor pp206-207;
  3. ^ Ross’ Landing Payment vouchers, located and transcribed by: Stephen Neal Dennis, Source: From original documents in Record Group 217 at the National Archives and Records Administration;
  4. ^ Captain McClellan service, https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/M000328 , United States Congress, “MCCLELLAN, Abraham,”
  5. ^ See large cache of Burnett government records in Archives of Museum of the Cherokee People, Cherokee, NC, especially Archive Docs 1987.083.001, 1987.083.001-15, 2009.003.3832-06, 2009.003.3832-07, 2009.003.3832-28, 2009.003.3832-30, 2009.003.3832-38
  6. ^ Thompson, Scerial, The Cherokee Cross Egypt, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Volume XLIV, No.4, Winter 1951. Higginbotham, William R, Trail of Tears, Death Toll Myths Dispelled, The Oklahoman, Sun, February 28, 1988; Duffield, Lathel, Cherokee Emigration: Reconstructing Reality, The Chronicles of Oklahoma Volume LXXX, Number Three, Fall 2002, pp 314-347; Vogt, Larry A, Seeking the Origins of the Trail of Tears, ISBN 9798695479355, 2020, pp29-42; Myth, Legend, Hoax, and History: The John G. Burnett Letter and Trail of Tears; Dautzenlein.com, April 2025.
  7. ^ 1987.083.001 – Letter; Archive ; “Original” artifact held by Museum of the Cherokee People, Cherokee, North Carolina
  8. ^ Some history book, error examples, chronologically: Thomas Underwood, Cherokee Legends and the Trail of Tears, 1956, p20-27, ISBN 0935741003, and The Story of the Cherokee People, 1961, pp35-43, ISBN 0935741011; Woodward, Grace Steele, The Cherokees, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1963, pp 214-215; Thuman Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, 1970, p327, endnote #30, ISBN 0806121882; John Ehle, Trail of Tears the Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation, 1988, pp 393-394, ISBN 0385239548; Russell Thornton, The Cherokees a Population History, 1990, pp 65-66, ISBN 0803294107; Cherokee Removal: Before and After, Ed. William L. Anderson, 1991, pp 79-80, ISBN 082031482X
  9. ^ Article proclaiming Letter as Primary Source; The Cherokee Removal Through the Eyes of a Private Soldier, The Journal of Cherokee Studies- Special Issue - The Trail of Tears: Primary Documents of the Cherokee Removal, Vol.III, No.3 Summer, 1978, Edited by Duane H. King and E. Raymond Evans
  10. ^ “Letter from wife of Henry Benton Henegar to Ed Porter Thompson regarding Indian removal,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/51e45c1f26bf503df6d0dc512b4ea64e. Tennessee State Library and Archives via Digital Library of Tennessee. and History of Tennessee, Volume 2, The Godspeed Publishing Co, 1887, pp197-972, Knoxville Public Library, TN,
  11. ^ Letters of negotiation between Chief Ross and General Winfield Scott. Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the years 1826-1839 [1826-1839] pp459-466 https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/EYQML7XLRVXUT8C or (Note: There are several other versions/bindings of Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1837-1838, 1838-1839, 1838. In the yearly report copies, the relevant pages fall in the range of pp ~20-30.)
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