Insightful look at an important and misunderstood piece of Tennessee History. The author attempts successfully to trace the correct route (not the advertised route) of the North Carolina Military Trace. Although eclipsed within a two decades of its creation by the Walton Road, as the first road connecting Eastern and Middle Tennessee, it's role in shaping early travel and settlement patterns in the state is immeasurable. Today's historic road markers do a poor job of tracing the actual path of the road, those signs have been placed where convenient, rather than where the road actually travelled.. Even the name is a misnomer, as it was not really called that by contemporaries. For students of the Upper Cumberland, this is a must read . ( )