In 1838 and 1839, John Bell's Cherokee detachment on the Trail of Tears took a more direct route to Indian Territory through southern Tennessee by way of Memphis, differing from the parties supervised by Chief John Ross. Composed of approximately 650 to 700 Cherokee who had favored the Treaty of New Echota and opposed Ross, the group traveled with a military escort under Lieutenant Edward Deas. Payment vouchers allow the route to be followed with reasonable accuracy. With 56 wagons and 318 horses, the detachment left the Cherokee Agency on October 11, 1838, followed the Hiawassee River toward present-day Cleveland, Tennessee, went to Chattanooga, crossed to the north side of the Tennessee River at Ross's Landing, crossed the river twice more, reached Battle Creek northwest of Jasper, climbed the Cumberland Plateau at Monteagle Mountain, then continued through the county seat communities of Winchester, Fayetteville, Pulaski, Lawrenceburg, and Waynesboro before crossing again at Savannah. From there the party moved west to Memphis, crossed the Mississippi River, entered Arkansas in late November, traveled northwest to Little Rock, then followed roads north and northwest to the Vineyard Post Office on the border of Indian Territory. To avoid encounters with anti-treaty Cherokee detachments in Indian Territory, the Bell detachment was disbanded in Arkansas on January 7, 1839. In Giles County, between October 31 and November 5, 1838, the route from Winchester to Savannah followed original roads linking county seats along the southern tier of counties near the Alabama border. Many of those early nineteenth-century roads later became part of U.S. 64 when it was built and paved in the nineteen twenties, while other sections now parallel or intersect that highway. West of Fayetteville, the route generally follows Boonshill Road, then turns northwest near Boonshill along a path similar to Red Oak Road and Center Point Road. Continuing west toward Pulaski, it followed the general alignment of Center Point Road through Beech Hill and Friendship, then tracked Buchanan Creek briefly before turning west past Big Henry Hill, Leatherwood Creek, and Abernathy Hill. The detachment passed through Pulaski around November 3 or 4, crossed Richland Creek near what is now Mill Street, continued on Vales Mill Road as it becomes Agnew Road, crossed Agnew Creek, then turned north toward U.S. 64 along the approximate path of Puryear Road south of Bodenham and continued northwest on Choate Creek Road into Lawrence County.