Early Tennessee historian John Haywood stated within his "The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee" published in 1823 that the "Watauga signifies the River of Islands, or the Island River. The Holston River was known to the Cherokees by the name of Watauga.". Pre-Civil War maps of Tennessee show that the river designated as the Holston River extended west of Knoxville, meeting with the Clinch River near Kingston and well past the present-day beginning of the Tennessee River (east of Knoxville) at the confluence of both the Holston River and the French Broad River.