White's Fort, also known as James White's Fort, was an 18th century settlement that became Knoxville, Tennessee, in the United States. The name also refers to the fort, itself. The settlement of White's Fort began in 1786 by James White, a militia officer during the American Revolutionary War. When William Blount, the territorial governor of the Southwest Territory, moved the territorial capital to White's Fort in 1791, he renamed it Knoxville in honor of Henry Knox, the American Revolutionary War general and Washington's Secretary of War.