Bryan Station

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Siege of Bryan Station


caption=Illustration of the women of Bryan Station getting water while Native Americans, who are about to besiege the settlement, watch. A famous story of the American Revolution in Kentucky, it may be folklore.
partof=the American Revolutionary War
date=August 15 – August 17 1782
place=Lexington, Kentucky
result=American Indian siege unsuccessful
combatant2=American Indians and allies
combatant1=Kentucky settlers
commander2=
commander1=
strength2=
strength1=
casualties2=
casualties1=|

Bryan Station (also Bryan's Station, and often misspelled Bryant's Station) was an early fortified settlement in Lexington, Kentucky. It was located on present day Bryan Station Road, about three miles (5 km) north of New Circle Road, on the southern bank of Elkhorn Creek near Briar Hill Road.

The settlement was established circa 1775-76 by brothers Morgan, James, William and Joseph Bryan from North Carolina. The occupants of this parallelogram of some forty log cabins withstood several American Indian attacks, the most important of which occurred in August 1782 when they were besieged by about 300 Indians and Canadians under Captain William Caldwell and Simon Girty. The siege was lifted after Indian scouts reported that a force of Kentucky militia was on the way. The militiamen pursued Caldwell's force but were defeated three days later at the Battle of Blue Licks, about sixty miles (100 km) northeast.

The Lexington chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a [http://www.bryanstationalumni.org/monument.php monument] in August 1896 to commemorate the importance of a nearby spring in helping stave off the attack by Indians and Canadians.

Bryan Station High School, located a couple of miles south of the fort's site, was named in honor, and the athletic teams compete under the name "Defenders".

References

* Dictionary of American History by James Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940