June 17, 1838
The Cherokee Nation began the 1,200-mile forced march later known as the Trail of Tears. Their removal from ancestral land in the southeast U.S. had been ordered by President Andrew Jackson as the result of a treaty signed by a small minority of the tribe, and approved in the Senate by a one-vote margin. Ordered to move on the Cherokee, General John Wool resigned his command in protest; General Winfield Scott and 7,000 troops moved in to enforce the treaty.
