Walton War
| Walton War | ||||||||||
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| Part of War of 1812 | ||||||||||
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| Belligerents | ||||||||||
 Georgia
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 North Carolina
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 South Carolina
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| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||||
John Milledge (1804-1806) Jared Irwin (1806-1809) David Brydie Mitchell (1809-1813) Peter Early (1813-1815) David Brydie Mitchell (1815-1817) William Rabun (1817-1818) 
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James Turner (1804-1805) Nathaniel Alexander (1805-1807) Benjamin Williams (1807-1808) David Stone (1808-1810) Benjamin Smith (1810-1811) William Hawkins (1811-1814) William Miller (1814-1817) John Branch (1817-1818) |
Paul Hamilton (1804-1806) Charles Pinckney (1806-1808) John Drayton (1808-1810) Henry Middleton (1810-1812) Joseph Alston (1812-1814) David Rogerson Williams (1814-1816) Andrew Pickens (1816-1818)
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| Strength | ||||||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
| None | 1 killed | None | ||||||||
The Walton War was an 1804 boundary dispute between the U.S. states of North Carolina and Georgia over the twelve-mile-wide strip of land called the Orphan Strip. The Orphan Strip was given to Georgia in 1802, and gave Georgia and North Carolina a shared border. Problems arose when Georgia established Walton County in the small piece of land, because the state boundaries had never been clarified and it was unclear as to whether the Orphan Strip was part of North Carolina or Georgia. The Walton War remained a dispute primarily between the settlers and the Walton County government until John Havner, a North Carolinian constable, was killed and North Carolina's Buncombe County called in the militia. By calling in the militia, North Carolina effectively asserted authority over the territory, causing the Walton County government to fail. In 1807, after two years of dispute, a joint commission confirmed that the Orphan Strip belonged to North Carolina, at which point North Carolina extended full amnesty to previous supporters of Walton County. The Walton War officially ended in 1811 when Georgia's own survey reiterated the 1807 commission's findings and North Carolina took full responsibility for governing the Orphan Strip.
The Orphan Strip is the name given to a small, twelve-mile-wide strip of land bordering North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia in what is currently Transylvania County, North Carolina. This piece of land was given the name because none of its bordering states accepted to govern it, and for a period of time it was considered no-man's land. South Carolina initially governed the land, but it was ceded to the federal government after the American Revolution, in 1787. In turn, the federal government gave the land to the Cherokee, who then gave it back to the federal government in 1798. At this time, the land was not under the direct control of any state and settlers began to settle there with land grants from both South Carolina and North Carolina.
Following the Revolutionary War, the new federal government encouraged states to cede land between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains to them. After the Yazoo land scandal in Georgia, Georgia finally ceded its land that now makes up Alabama and Mississippi to the federal government in return for the orphan strip in 1802. This cession was finalized in 1802 with the Act of Cession, in which Georgia was given small pieces of land including the Orphan Strip. The problem with this act was the lack of clarity as to whether the region was to be governed by North Carolina or Georgia, and the lack of state boundaries. This problem led to war when both North Carolina and Georgia claimed ownership of the orphan strip, and took action to dominate in the area.
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