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'&OX-~~

THE

REAR-GUARD OF T H E
REVOLUTION.

BY

EDMUND KIRKE,
AUTHOR OF " AMONG THE PINES," u DOWN IN TENNESSEE," ETC.

NEW YOKE:
D. A P P L E T O N AND C O M P A N Y ,
1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET,

1886.

COPYRIGHT,

1886,

B Y D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

All rights reserved.

ERRATA.
Page 98, line 11, for ''groves 1 ' read "graves."
Page 132, line 9, for u a hundred and sixty " read "more than
two hundred.1'
Page 145, last two lines, for "regular commission as lieutenantcolonel. Prior to this time he had " read u unanimous vote of
the new and old settlers. Prior to 1780 he always."
Page 169, line 21, for " 1797" read " 1779."

PKEFAOE.
T H E materials for the following history were principally gathered from old settlers during a recent residence
of some length in East Tennessee and Western North
Carolina. Several of these were descendants of characters who appear in the narrative, and one of them was
the son of a trusted friend of Sevier, and the secretary
of his abortive commonwealth of Franklin. This gentleman was Dr. J. G M. Ramsey, of Knoxville, the venL
erable author of the " Annals of Tennessee." He had
known Sevier and Eobertson intimately in his youth—
they not having died till he was nearly of the age of
manhood—and during nearly fifty years he had been
president of the Tennessee Historical Society, and a diligent student of Western history.
Though when I knew him Dr. Ramsey was bed-ridden and approaching his ninetieth year, his mind was as
clear and his memory as distinct as in his prime, and
he delighted in nothing so much as recounting those
olden days when civilization was first planted beyond the
Alleghanies. He was a lovable old man, fond of social
converse; and, knowing this, I often visited him, and at

iv

PREFACE.

times listened for hours, while, with glowing face and
gleaming eye, he poured forth a stream of quaint eloquence that was absolutely musical. Both he and his
subject fascinated me ; and, seeing this, he at length proposed that I should write out a full and connected history of the early settlers beyond the mountains—a work
he had intended to do, but had been prevented from
doing by occupations during the war and his subsequent
infirmities. Without actually deciding to do this, I set
about a systematic investigation of the subject, seeking
acquaintance with many of the old settlers, visiting the
scenes where important events had occurred, and reading what little had been written about that early period.
Then I investigated collateral events, and attempted to
place these pioneers in their appropriate positions on the
broad canvas of American history. In this I had not
proceeded far when I discovered a fact which surprised
me with its novelty.
That fact was this : That three of these unknown
backwoodsmen, clad in buckskin hunting - shirts, and
leading inconsiderable forces to battle in the depths of a
far-away forest, not only planted civilization beyond the
Alleghanies, but exerted a most important influence in
shaping the destinies of this country. To the reader, this
statement may appear wildly extravagant; and so the
idea seemed to me until I had thoroughly studied the subject, and taken a view of all the circumstances. Then I
saw clearly two things : first, that two of these men had
thrice saved the country by thwarting the British plan to

PREFACE.

v

enyelop and crush the Southern Colonies, and by turning
the tide of the Eevolution at King's Mountain; and,
second, that, after the Eevolution, the three acting together had frustrated the design of Spain to dismember
and weaken the Union by causing the erection of a separate republic in the country between the Alleghanies
and the Mississippi, which erection would have kept the
vast region beyond that river a Spanish province, and
closed it forever to the entrance of Anglo-Saxon civilization.
These three men were John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, and
James Eobertson, all of them characters worthy of the
most heroic ages, and so exactly adapted to the work
which had to be done that the conclusion is irresistible
that they were, like Washington and Lincoln, "providential men." They marched to the sound of neither
drum nor bugle, and no naming bulletins proclaimed
their exploits in the ears of a listening continent; their
slender forces trod silently the "Western solitudes, and
their greatest battles were insignificant skirmishes never
reported beyond the mountains; but their deeds were
pregnant with consequences that will be felt along the
coming centuries. It is for this reason that their history
should be written.
In this volume I have attempted to depict the work
of these men from the first settlement of Watauga to the
close of the Eevolutionary War; and, in writing it, I
have availed myself of Dr. Eamsey's " Annals/' and
gleaned some facts in reference to the King's Mountain

VI

PREFACE.

expedition from the work of Lyman 0. Draper, LL. D. ;
but a large part of my material I haye deriyed from what
may be termed "original sources"—old settlers, whose
statements I haye carefully verified and compared with
one another. In a second volume I shall hope to bring
events down to the deaths of Sevier and Eobertson.
I will merely add, in the words of the writer of the'
book of Maccabees, " L e t this be enough in the way of
a preface, for it is a foolish thing to make a long prologue and to be short in the story itself. I have taken
in hand no easy task, yea, rather a business full of watching and labor. . . . If I have done well, and as it be-^
seemeth the history, it is what I desire; but, if not so
perfectly, it must be pardoned me."
EDMUND K I E K E .

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGK
ENGLAND'S ALLIES

.

.

.

.

9

Description of the country west of the Alleghanies—Character
of the first settlers, and of John Sevier—Oconostota, head king
of the Cherokees, visits England,yand owns allegiance to George
II—Account of the Cherokees; their religion, government, character, manner of living, and history—They side with the English
in the war with France for the possession of North America—
Treaty, by which they cede lands to the English, and allow them
to build Forts Loudon and Prince George—A party of them participate in the capture of Fort Du Quesne, and fourteen are slain
by the settlers on their return through Western Virginia—This
leads to a war with the English—Forts Loudon and Prince George
invested by the Indians—The former surrendered by Captain
John Stuart, on terms that the garrison should retain their
arms, and have unmolested passage to Virginia—The garrison
treacherously massacred, none being spared but Stuart, Isaac
Thomas, and one other person—The friendship of Atta-CullaCulla saves Stuart from subsequent massacre—The Indian
vice-king aids him to escape, and guides him in safety to Virginia—A British force chastises the Cherokees and destroys
their towns—They submit, and are granted peace on the intercession of Atta-Culla*Culla-~Captain Stuart appointed British
Superintendent of Indian Affairs at the South,
CHAPTER I I .
T H E F I E S T SETTLEES

Daniel Boone's explorations—A company formed to purchase
Kentucky, and a large part of Tennessee, and Boone and Scag-

38

viii

CONTENTS.
PAGE

gins employed to explore the country—They are accompanied
by James Eobertson, who decides to settle at Watauga—Description of the country—William Bean, the first settler west
of the Alleghanies—Eobertson plants a crop of corn, and sets
out to return to North Carolina—Loses his way in the forest,
and narrowly escapes death from starvation—Is rescued by two
hunters, who guide him on the way to the settlements—Sixteen
families emigrate to Watauga in the following spring—Their
outfit and journey described—Arrival at Watauga, where they
find immigrants from Virginia—Temporary homes provided—
Game abundant—Inducements offered to settlers by "Virginia
—Description of the settlement, and manner of life of the settlers—They enjoy peace and prosperity, though surrounded by
savages, and shut out from civilization by a high mountain-barrier.
CHAPTER III.
O N THE OUTPOSTS

Character and influence of Eobertson—Arrival at Watauga
of Evan and Isaac Shelby, and John Sevier—Their personal appearance—Ancestry and early life of Sevier—His character and
remarkable ascendency over the men of the border—He settles
at Watauga—A civil government formed, the first beyond the
Alleghanies—The settlers not within the limits of Virginia, and
warned off their lands by the British Indian agent—A friendly
council called with the Cherokees, which is attended by the
principal chiefs, who grant the settlers an eight years' lease of
the lands on the Watauga—A friendly festivity follows, during
which a young brave is shot by a concealed white stranger—
The Indians are incensed and depart hastily, with threats of
vengeance—Eobertson volunteers to visit and attempt to pacify
the Cherokees—His hazardous journey; meets Isaac Thomas,
who accompanies him to Echota, the Indian capital—Eobertson
attends a council of the Indians, allays their animosity, and
meets their prophetess, Nancy Ward—While Eobertson is away,
Sevier builds a fort at Watauga, and prepares to defend the
place against the Cherokees.

61

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I V .
PAGE
BEFORE THE STORM

.

.

.

.

Four years of peace and prosperity—Immigration flows in
from Virginia; its character—Boone attempts the settlement of
Kentucky, but has to turn back—Lord Dunmore's war—Battle
of Point Pleasant, in which Sevier, Shelby, and Kobertson are
engaged—Robertson and Valentine Sevier save the Virginians
from a surprise, and Isaac Shelby decides the victory—In a visit
to the Cherokees Boone proposes to buy, for the Transylvania
Company, the whole of Kentucky, and all of Tennessee north of
the Cumberland—A treaty made at Watauga, by which the purchase is effected, and the Watauga settlers acquire their lands
in fee-simple—The treaty opposed by Oconostota in a prophetic
speech—He warns Boone that he will have some difficulty in
getting the country settled—News of the battles of Lexington
and Concord arrives, and the settlers asked to be enrolled to defend the seaboard—Watauga is " annexed " to North Carolina—
Stuart concerts with General Gage the subjugation of the Southern colonies, by a simultaneous assault in front and rear, and
enlists in the plan the Cherokees and other Southern Indians—
The plan fully disclosed by a British historian.

CHAPTER

V.

T H E FIRST STRUGGLE

Isaac Thomas warns the settlers that the British are inciting
the Cherokees to hostilities—John Stuart appears among them,
and they prepare to war upon the whites—The settlements are
put in a state of defense, and the forces divided between
Forts Patrick Henry and Watauga—The settlers warned that
the Indians are advancing under Dragging Canoe and Oconostota—The garrison of Fort Patrick Henry marches to meet
them—The battle of Long Island Flats, which is saved by Isaac
Shelby—"A great day's work in the woods"—The wife of
William Bean taken prisoner—Oconostota surrounds Fort Lee
—Narrow escape of Catherine Sherrill—The Cherokees attack
the fort, but are beaten off with considerable loss—Evan Shel«
1

106

CONTENTS.

X

by and Parson Cummings come to the rescue—Rage of Dragging Canoe—Young Moore burned at a stake—A like fate determined on for Mrs. Bean, but she is released, and restored to
her home by the Indian prophetess—Simultaneous attack by
the British upon Charleston, which is beaten off by Moultrie—
The two victories very remarkable.
CHAPTER

VI.

RETBIBUTIOJS"

123

" One with God a majority "—The British plan being discovered by the settlers, it excites universal indignation, and arrays
the colonists more strongly against the mother-country—They
rise and fall upon the Indians—Patrick Henry orders a descent
upon Oconostota on the Tellico—The whites, eighteen hundred
strong and guided by Isaac Thomas, invade the Indian country,
burning all before them—Sevier and Robertson go with them—
Sevier, in command of the scouts, gains accurate knowledge of
the hostile country, which is of great value subsequently—
Oconostota subdued and forced to make peace, but Dragging
Canoe refuses to " come in "—Increased immigration follows the
war—The settlers are drilled by the conflict, for the future, and
Sevier trained to be their leader—The Chickamaugas still hostile—An account of these Indians, and descriptions of their
stronghold — Sevier proposes the withdrawal of the guard
loaned by Virginia—He and Robertson, with their force of two
hundred, can attend to the Chickamaugas—North Carolina extends civil jurisdiction over Watauga.
CHAPTER

VII.

PEACE WHICH WAS NOT P E A C E

Dragging Canoe makes a raid upon the settlements—With a
small party he breaks into Robertson's barn and steals his
horses—Is followed and overtaken by Robertson, who recovers
the stolen animals, and returns safely home, though pursued by
greatly superior numbers—A short war follows, during which
Sevier began his long career as an Indian fighter—His military
genius—Tired at last of continual defeat, Dragging Canoe re-

138

CONTENTS.

xi

treats to his mountain fastnesses—Robertson appointed by
North Carolina resident agent among the Cherokees—His important services in preventing general hostilities—Sevier sends
relief to Boone, who is beleaguered in the fort at Boonesborough—Tories infest Watauga, and are hanged or driven out by
riflemen—Deplorable condition of Wilkes and Surry Counties,
and the Backwater settlements—Some account of their people,
and instances of their dealings with Tories—Every man at
Watauga required to take an oath of allegiance to the United
States, and the region cleared of Tories—Progress of society in
Watauga from the hunting and pastoral state to the agricultural condition—The first shingled house erected in 1111—Incorporation of Jonesboro and erection there of a court-house in
1*119-*-Specifications for the erection of the seat of justice.
The advent of eross-road schools, and the country schoolmistress—The first church erected, and the arrival of Parson
Doak, a man of rare qualities—At the close of 1T78 there was
peace beyond the mountains.
CHAPTER Y I I I .
ANOTHER COIL OF THE ANACONDA
158
From 17T6 to 1TT9 the Southern colonies had a respite from
British invasion—Another front and rear attack now decided
upon by Sir Henry Clinton—The gigantic plan: its failure another miracle in American history—The operations of George
Rogers Clark—A raid from Dragging Canoe gives warning of
the British plan to Sevier—An expedition against the Chickamaugas decided upon—To it Isaac Shelby contributes the
sinews of war—Its success, which paralyzes the Southern Indians and prevents the coiling of the anaconda—Departure of
Robertson to found the first settlement on the Cumberland—
His belief that he was destined by Providence to be the advance-guard of Western civilization.
CHAPTER

IX.

THE REAR-GUARD AT THE FRONT
ITT
An enforced peace with the Indians induces increased immigration into Watauga — The British commence a new and

xii

CONTENTS.
stronger attack upon the Southern colonies—They capture
Charleston, and overrun Georgia and South Carolina—A small
force under Colonel McDowell on Broad River, the only body of
enrolled patriots in South Carolina—Clinton returns to New
York, leaving the supreme command to Cornwallis, who delays
his northward march until the summer heats are over—The
mountain people of the Carolinas mostly Tories—Their character—Cornwallis sends Colonel Ferguson to recruit among them
—Character and career of Ferguson—His belief that Washington was once at the mercy of his rifle—With two thousand men
he moves northward, and then McDowell sends urgent appeals
to Sevier and Shelby for aid from over the mountains—Sevier
detained at home by the threatening attitude of the Indians,
but Shelby, with four hundred men, goes to the aid of McDowell—A new activity at once apparent among McDowell's
forces—Shelby and Elijah Clarke surround Thicketty Fort, and
capture the Tory colonel, Patrick Moore, and his entire force—
The victors are pursued by Ferguson, fight a strong advance detachment, but return in safety to McDowell—Shelby and Clarke
soon go upon another expedition against a strong British force
at Musgrove's Mills—They are victorious, but at the close of
the action they hear of the defeat of Gates at Camden, and
make a rapid retreat to the mountains—Are pursued by the
British, but reach the mountains in safety-—Clarke attacks,
and is repulsed from, Augusta — The darkness before the
dawn.

CHAPTER X.
THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS
The marriage of Sevier and Catherine Sherrill—Arrival at
Sevier's of Shelby and his men—Conference between Sevier and
Shelby—The former's resolution, " The mountains shall be free "
—Shelby returns to King's Meadows, and there receives a
threatening message from Ferguson—He hastens to Sevier, and
the two decide upon the King's Mountain expedition—They
muster their forces, and, on the 25th of September, bring them
together at Watauga-^Here a draft is adopted, not to decide
who should go, but who should stay at home—Sevier's two sons

200

CONTENTS.

xiii

" go to the war," and he borrows, and afterward repays, the
money which completes the outfit of the expedition—All told,
the force numbers ten hundred and forty, and, after Parson
Doak commits them to divine protection, they set out on their
march, shouting, "With the sword of the Lord and of our
Gideons!"
C H A P T E R XI.
T H E MAKCH TO THE BATTLE .

219

Incidents of the mareh^Desertion of two of Sevier's men,
who carry tidings of the patriot approach to Ferguson—The
route changed in consequence, and, after sixty miles of unexampled travel, the expedition arrives at the eastern foot of the
Alleghanies—At Quaker Meadows they are joined by Colonel
Cleveland, with three hundred and fifty men—With better roads
they now proceed more rapidly—Being delayed one day by a
violent storm, they mature a plan of operations, and elect Colonel Campbell as officer of the day—Arrived at Gilbert Town,
they find Ferguson had decamped, giving out the false report
that he was going to Ninety-six—They follow on the route he
took, but lose all trace of him at the Broad River—Are saved
from the mistake of marching upon Ninety-six by the opportune arrival of Colonel Lacey, of Sumter's command, who proposes to join them with all his troops—The two commands meet
at Cowpens, and then, the best men and horses being selected
from the whole body, they set out with a force of only nine
hundred and sixty, for a more rapid pursuit of Ferguson—They
come up with him at King's Mountain, and at once surround his
position, and bring on the battle.
CHAPTER XII.
K I N G ' S MOUNTAIN .

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.

.

.

.

.

Description of the mountain—The force of Ferguson numbers about eleven hundred, carefully drilled, and well armed
with musket and bayonet—Shelby discovers a gap leading to
the enemy's position, and, entering it, is met by a shower of
bullets—This begins the battle, which lasts upward of an hour,

248

CONTENTS.

xiv

the patriots alternately driven, and driving the enemy—At last
in a desperate charge of the patriots, the British are forced into
a confused mass at one end of the hill, and a flag is raised' in
token of surrender—This flag, and another raised soon afterward, are cut down by Ferguson—But he soon perceives that
all is lost, and spurs his horse directly upon Sevier's lines, in
the hope to escape down the mountain—He is pierced by no
less than six bullets, and falls lifeless—This decides the battle
—The entire British force killed, wounded, or taken prisoners
—Not a man escaped—A terrible night follows the battle, but
morning comes at last, and the little army prepares for its homeward march, with its seven hundred prisoners—At night they
reach a deserted plantation, twelve miles from the field of battle, where they harvest a field of sweet-potatoes, the first food
they have tasted for forty-eight hours—Their progress after this
slow, and at the end of a week they had gone only forty miles
—Then a court-martial was convened to try the Tory criminals
they had captured—Thirty-six condemned, but only nine executed, owing to the interference of Sevier and Shelby—Crawford released on the intercession of Sevier, and becomes a good
citizen—After a weary march they cross the Catawba, and are
• beyond pursuit from the British—Meanwhile, Cornwallis, having
heard exaggerated reports of the patriot force, and that they
are moving upon him, is retreating much more rapidly toward
Charleston, and he does not halt till he is a hundred miles away
at Winnsboro.

CHAPTER XIII.
A N INDIAN W A B .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Sevier returns by a rapid march to Watauga, where he learns
that the Indians are marching on the settlements—With scarcely
an hour's rest, he rides forward to meet them—He defeats them
at Boyd's Creek, where Dragging Canoe is supposed to have been
slain—Then re-enforced, he marches into, and lays waste, the
Indian country—Returning to Echota, Sevier offers peace to the
Indians—It is accepted by the Ottari Cherokees—For their services Sevier and Shelby are voted a sword and pistols by North
Carolina—Now the Erati Cherokees descend upon the settle-

275

CONTENTS.

xv

ments, and Sevier invades their stronghold among the Smoky
Mountains—With only a small force he defeats them utterly,
and destroys their villages—Oconostota now dethroned, and succeeded by Old Tassell.
CHAPTER

XIV.

T H E F I N A L CONFLICTS

Sevier and Shelby called again to the aid of Greene in intercepting Comwallis, who is suspected of intending to retreat
southward from Yorktown—"With five hundred volunteers they
repair at once to his headquarters, where they hear of the surrender of Cornwallis—But joining Marion they march to the
seaboard to aid in driving John Stuart into Charleston—They
capture a British post, and, hearing of their arrival, Stuart
makes a disorderly retreat to the seaboard, which is the last
that history relates of the able man who conceived the widesweeping but pitiless plan by which the British hoped to subdue
the Southern colonies—Concluding remarks.

302

THE

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

CHAPTER I.
EtfG-LASTD'S ALLIES.

IT is related of Daniel Boone that when he climbed
to the summit of the Alleghanies, and looked down
upon the yast herds of deer and buffalo which were
grazing at his feet, he said to his companion, Callaway, " I am richer than the man in Scripture who
owned the cattle on a thousand hills : I own the wild
beasts in a thousand valleys."
It may be questioned if Boone had any adequate
conception of the stupendous possessions of the "man
in Scripture"; but he was certainly justified in boasting of the wide magnificence of this domain, which,
by "right of discovery," he claimed as his own. One
of its native inhabitants might have told him that
two stout braves, with two paddles, could not skirt
its southern and western boundaries, and reach its
northern limit on the Ohio, in less than "three
moons " ; but no language known to J:he Indian could
describe the boundless wealth, animate and inanimate,

10

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

that lay hidden in its unexplored recesses. By the
leaves on the trees, or the stars of a cloudless night,
he might have indicated the countless wild animals
that roamed over i t ; but how would he have pictured
the leafy magnificence of its forests, or the grassy
luxuriance of the many "openings" that everywhere
dotted its surface-—the burial-places of a long-vanished
race, which has faded from the earth, leaving only
these silent memorials of its existence ?
And yet this magnificent domain Charles II had
given away, in a fit of lavish munificence, to a few of
his favorites, at a time when he neglected to pay his
honest debts, and was content to supply himself with
pocket-money by the betrayal of his country. But
what better could be expected of a man so lamentably
ignorant of geography as to describe this kingly tract as
bounded by two white stakes on the shore of the Atlantic
—one at the twenty-ninth parallel, the other at 36°, 30'
—and extending thence westward to the " South Seas " !
—a description more indefinite than that of the famous
Fourth of July orator, who, about the time of the Mexican War, bounded this country " o n the north by the
Aurora Borealis, on the east by the rising sun, on the
west by the horizon, and on the south by as far as you
have a mind to go." Explorers have traversed every
square mile of this territory for now more than two centuries, and yet that western boundary of Charles II is
still undiscovered.
However, we are now concerned with but a small

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

11

portion of this vast domain, namely, that which lies between the above-mentioned lines of latitude, and extends,
east and west, from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi;
for this was the early home of Western civilization.
Here was born, and cradled, and fostered into lusty life,
the infant Hercules who was to found in those Western
wilds a grander empire than the world has seen since the
age of Pericles.
This volume—with one to follow it—is an imperfect
attempt to do tardy justice to the men who not only
reared this young giant, but in the darkest hour of our
Eevolutionary War threw their swords into the trembling scale, and turned the balance for American freedom. They were the rear-guard of the Eevolution, as
well as the advance-guard of Civilization; and yet they
are scarcely mentioned in general history: for their
work was done in the silence of the wilderness, and if for
a moment they emerged into the view of men to strike a
vital blow for their country, they vanished again, as
quickly as they came, into the solitudes of the far-off
forest.
But they were patriots and heroes, and their names
should not be suffered to perish. All of them were men
of Spartan mould, and one was of a nature so many-sided,
and so great, as to be altogether the most unique character in American history. Boone was merely a pioneer, a
scout in advance of civilization, and by his very nature
he was bound to keep always a length ahead of the battalion of emigration ; but, thanks to Byron and the biog-

12

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

raphers, he is to-day known half the world over. But
John Sevier was more than a pioneer, more even than a
statesman, or a general: he was a civilizer, a great organizer, a nation-builder, and one of those absolutely
unselfish spirits whom God scatters only here and there
through the centuries. And yet his history is still unwritten, and he is to-day almost unknown east of the
Alleghanies. But it is not so beyond the mountains.
There he is spoken of with a love and veneration that
are seldom accorded by one man to another. I know
of no other man who ever held, as he did for forty-five
years, the unbroken confidence and undivided affection
of a whole people. Even now, when for three fourths of
a century he has been in his grave, old men speak his
name with loving reverence, and young children listen
with wondering delight to the thrilling story of his life,
in many a stately home and many a rude cabin west of
the Alleghanies.
The lives of such men are the common property of
the country ; and in a time like this, when the greed of
gold is festering at the very heart of the nation, it is
well such a life should be told, that we may contemplate
a character who had no ambition but duty, and no greed
but the good of his fellows. In writing ifc, I shall have
to relate the lives of his compatriots, and recount the
story of the early settlements beyond the Alleghanies;
for his career was so interwoven with the history of the
community that one can not be told without relating the
other. For more than forty years he was the moving

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

13

spring of every event, the soul of a whole commonwealth ; and this it is which makes his career, as well as
his character, so unique in our history.
The theatre of his operations is a territory larger than
the combined kingdoms of England and Scotland; and
from the great richness of its soil it is capable of sustaining a much denser population than now inhabits the
British Islands* Two noble rivers sweep in concentric
circles through its most fertile portion, and the great
Father of Waters drains its western boundary, affording
ready transportation to the seaboard. It yields abundantly all the products known to the temperate regions,
and has a mild and equable climate—not so hot as to relax, nor so cold as to benumb, the physical energies ; and
hence it possesses all the elements essential to the growth
of a country in wealth, intelligence, and civilization.
And yet throughout this vast region there could not,
until the year 1769, be found a single human habitation,
not a solitary hut of the white settler, nor a smoky
wigwam of a roving Cherokee. It was the huntingground and battle-field of the Indians, claimed by hostile tribes, but occupied by none, and hence was an inviting field for civilized settlement.
King Charles modestly called the vast country he
bestowed upon his favorites "Carolina," in honor of
himself, and he claimed title to it by what is called the
"right of discovery," which implies that some of his subjects had sailed along its western limits, or hunted deer,
or trapped for beaver, somewhere within its borders.

14

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

Boone's jocose claim was intended to be absurd, and yet
it rested upon the same basis as that of the English king,
and had the additional strength of actual occupation,
evidence of which he has handed down to us in his signmanual, affixed to the trunk of a large beech, which still
stands on the bank of Boone's Creek—a branch of the
Watauga—not far from Jonesboro, in Tennessee. The
superscription is as follows :
CillED
in

D. Boon
A. BAR

On
Tree

ThE
yEAR
1760

Boone neyer attempted to inforce his title, except
against the " b a r s " and catamounts and other wild animals which he found roaming at large in the woods without ostensible owners; but King Charles did his—or
rather his successor, King G-eorge, did it in his name;
for King Charles had long since been gathered to his
ancestors, politely asking pardon, when dying, for being
so long about it, instead of apologizing, as he should
haye done, for haying been born at all. 80 it was left
to King George to enforce the discovery title, and this
he did, utterly ignoring the fact that certain Shawnees,
Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and Ohickasaws had paddled up and down the Mississippi, and hunted deer and
trapped for beaver upon this territory for an indefinite

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

15

number of centuries before William the Illegitimate
founded the commonwealth of England.
The Indian has naturally a keen and shrewd intellect,
but he neyer could understand this logic of the white
man, namely, that the mere looking at or handling of a
thing gives one its ownership. The Cherokees—perhaps
the most intelligent of all the North American tribes—
seemed the most obtuse when the colonial governors of
George II attempted to instruct them in this branch of
civilized knowledge. Then it occurred to the sapient
king that, as his servants had failed to properly instruct
the savages, he had himself better attend personally to
their education. Accordingly, he invited half a dozen
of the Cherokee chieftains to visit him at his great house
on the other side of the Atlantic. They went. He
shook hands with them, showed them his ships of war,
his troops and arsenals, and the great crowds of people
who came and went through the streets of London, and,
more than this, invited them to drink Holland gin with
him at his own table in the palace of St. James ; but he
never said one word to them about the "right of discovery," nor gave them a single lesson in civilized logic.
One of these chieftains was Oconostota, then a young
man, but already of great influence among his people.
He was a magnificent specimen of physical manhood,
and, withal, had that keenness of perception, grasp of
intellect, and strength of will which are accounted greatness. These qualities made him afterward the archimagus and most eminent man among the Cherokees.

16

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

Queen Caroline, who was much more of a man than her
husband, had a fine perception of character. She saw
the budding greatness of the splendid young savage,, and
paid him very distinguished attention. She introduced
him to the ladies of her court, drove him about her palace-grounds, and lavished upon him all those blandish^
ments which she knew so well how to use when she desired to cajole a friend or conciliate an enemy.
It is impossible to say whether it was owing to the
affability of the queen, or the Hollands of the king, or
to what he saw of the prowess of the British people, but
it is certain that from this time forth Oconostota quietly
acquiesced in the doctrine of discovery, and for more
than fifty years—with only one brief and bloody interruption—remained the fast friend and loyal subject of
the British crown. This fact entailed upon the white
settlers beyond the Alleghanies twenty-five years of savage warfare, and upon all who would understand their
history the necessity to know something about Oconostota and the Cherokees.
The Cherokee name for "fire" is "cheera," which
element they believe to compose the lower heaven;
hence, their magi are styled cheera-taghe (men of divine fire), and their braves cheera-kee (sons of fire), a
word which, in the time of the Revolution, well expressed the burning valor of their warriors. Among
themselves the nation was called Tsaraghee, but by the
whites the name, applied properly to only the braves,
came gradually to designate the whole people.

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

17

When first known to Europeans, and until their removal by General Scott beyond the Mississippi, they
occupied a country forming now the upper portion of
Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and all that part of
Tennessee which lies south of the Little Tennessee River;
but their tradition is that their original home was in the
very far "West, and this is confirmed by the fact that in
their language are words to represent the whale and
other marine animals, which indicates that at some distant period they lived on or near the shore of an ocean.
They were the mountaineers of aboriginal America,
and, like most mountaineers, had an intense love of
country, and a keen appreciation of the beautiful in
Nature, as is shown by the poetical names they have
bequeathed to their rivers and mountains. They were a
manly race, uniformly tall and athletic, and of superior
courage and intelligence. It was their military prowess
alone that enabled them to retain possession of their
country—one of the most beautiful in the world—against
the repeated attacks of the many war-like tribes by whom
they were surrounded.
Like all savage people, the Cherokees were •intensely
superstitious. They believed in one Great Spirit, who
governs all things, but has deputed the administration
of human affairs to two inferior divinities—one good, the
other evil. The evil spirit had great control over mankind, and would stand, at a last day, as the accuser of all
nations. He was well-nigh ubiquitous, being everywhere when least wanted or expected; but he had his

18

REAK-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

throne among the peaks and precipices of Whiteside
Mountain, one of the loftiest of the Cowee range, and
near its southern terminus. There, in a moss-grown
inclosure, curved by Nature to form the segment of a
circle, and walled in by stupendous rocks which rise
to a perpendicular height of eighteen hundred feet, he
held his court; but, casting aside his state, he occasionally walked abroad upon the earth, and then, as
he strode in the darkness from peak to peak, leaving
upon the bald mountain-tops the print of his awful
footsteps, he spoke to the red man in the storm and the
thunder.
They believed their people were originally mortal, in
spirit as well as in body; but that above the clouds,
where the highest mountains lift their tallest peaks, was
a celestial forest inhabited by immortals. Ages ago the
great chief of this forest had wooed a Cherokee maiden,
and to win her as his bride had consented that thenceforth all brave warriors and their faithful squaws should
be admitted to the celestial hunting-grounds. Thus he
became the guardian spirit of the Cherokees—to watch
over them in life, and to rescue them in death from their
evil genius.
Uncommon events they attributed to supernatural
agency, either to evil spirits, or to the guardian angel
who presided over their destinies. Witches and sorcerers were the agents of the evil spirits; but their power
could be overcome by their good spirit, who would act
through the intercession of the medicine or beloved man

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

19

of the tribe, who was his immediate and recognized
agent. This person was always one of superior intelligence^ and, like the famous prophet of the Shawnees,
officiated as physician, priest, and intercessor with the
invisible powers. On occasions the beloved man exercised a stronger influence oyer the tribe than even the
archimagus, or the most redoubtable chieftains. During and after the Be volution this office was held by a
woman ; and, as will appear in the course of this history,
her single will often thwarted the deliberate and deeply
concerted plans of the great council of the nation, at the
head of which was Oconostota, the ablest and most powerful king ever known among the Cherokees. The
Cherokee, having thus two divinities, prayed, like the
cautious deacon, " Good Lord" and "Good Devil,"
and he sought to propitiate them both by numberless
ceremonies. Many of these were interesting and significant ; but space forbids my giving them an extended description.
The government of the Cherokees was an elective
monarchy—absolute in time of war, not so absolute in
time of peace, when every man did pretty much according to his own will, governed only by the savage law of
lex talionis: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a peltry for a peltry. The king was always their Tconning, or
strong man; and, though elective and subject to deposition without notice, he often held power, as did Oconostota, for half a century. Under him was the half or
vice king, who was second in command, and acted in

20

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTIOJST.

his stead in case of the sudden death of the monarch.
These two rulers, with the chieftains, or princes of the
scattered Tillages, composed the supreme council of the
nation, which sat at Bchota, their capital, and decided
all important questions in peace and war. But oyer the
archimagus, or king, and even the supreme council, was
the great and good spirit who was the guardian of the
Oherokees, and who uttered his will through the beloyed
man or woman of the tribe. The whole was a rude copy
of the Jewish monarchy—an earthly king, and an inspired prophet who spoke the commands of an invisible
Jehovah. A copy and yet an original!
Their civil code was very brief : Give to every man
his own, but exact your own to the uttermost farthing.
Eetaliation with them was a religious duty; and no obligation was so sacred as that of sacrificing a murderer to
the spirit of his victim. Speaking of their passion for
revenge, Adair, who lived among them forty years, says :
" I have known them to go a thousand miles, in pathless
woods, over hills and mountains, through large caneswamps full of grape-vines and briers, over broad lakes,
rapid rivers, and deep creeks; and all the way endangered by poisonous snakes, if not with the rambling and
4urking enemy; while, at the same time, they were exposed to the extremities of heat and cold, the vicissitudes
of the seasons, to hunger and thirst, to fatigue and other
difficulties. Such is their overboiling revengeful temper, that they utterly contemn all these things as imaginary trifles, if they are so happy as to get the scalp of

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

21

the murderer or enemy, to satisfy the supposed craving
ghosts of their deceased relatives."
If I add that they were proud, skillful in war, insensible to danger, and possessed of a thirst for blood, which
when once aroused made them rush into slaughter like
horses into a burning barn, it will be seen that they were
not contemptible antagonists for even that race of heroes
who were the first settlers beyond the Alleghanies.
The Cherokees had no large cities, nor even villages,
but dwelt in scattered townships in the vicinity of some
stream where fish and game could be found in abundance. A number of their towns, bearing the musical
names of Tallasse, Tamottee, Ohilhowee, Citico, Tennassee, and Echota, were, at the opening of the Eevolutionary War, located upon the rich lowlands lying between the Tellico and Little Tennessee Eivers. About
one third of the tribe occupied these settlements, and
they were known as the Ottari, or, among the mountains,
Cherokees. About the same number were located near
the head-waters of the Savannah, in the great highland
belt between the Blue Eidge and the Smoky Mountains,
and they were styled Erati, or, in the valley, Cherokees.
Another body, among whom were many Creeks, and
which was somewhat more numerous and much more
lawless than either of the others, occupied towns along
the Tennessee, in the vicinity of Lookout Mountain.
These, from their residence near the creek of that name,
were known as Chickamaugas.
These three bodies were one people, governed by one

22

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

archimagus, and at this time they numbered in all about
thirty thousand people, between three and four thousand of whom were " g u n men/' or warriors.
Echota, which was located on the northern bank of
the Tellico, about five miles from the site of Port Loudon, and thirty southwest from the present city of
Knoxville, contained their great council-house, and was
the home of the archimagus, and the beloved woman,
or prophetess of the tribe. It was their sacred town, or
"city of refuge " ; for this singular people had this additional likeness to the Jews under the old theocracy.
Once within the limits of Echota, an open foe, or even a
red-handed criminal, could dwell in peace and security.
The only danger was in going and returning. It is related that an Englishman, who in self-defense had slain
a Cherokee, once fled to this sacred city to escape the
vengeance of the kindred of his victim. He was treated
here with so much kindness that after a time he deemed
it prudent to leave his asylum. The Indians warned
him against the danger ; but he ventured forth, and on
the following morning his body was found on the outskirts of the town, pierced through and through with a
score of arrows.
A brief description of this town will afford an idea
of all the Cherokee settlements. It consisted of a
hundred or more cabins and wigwams, scattered with
some regularity, but at wide intervals, along the bank
of the river. The cabins, like those of the white settlers, were square, and built of logs; but the wigwams

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

23

were conical, and framed upon slender poles, gathered
together at the top, and coyered with buffalo robes,
dressed and smoked to render them impervious to the
weather. An opening in the side formed the entrance,
and oyer it was hung a buffalo hide to serye as a door.
The fire was built in the center of the lodge, and directly oyer it was an aperture to let out the smoke.
Here the women performed culinary operations, except
in summer, when such employments were carried on in
the open air. At night the occupants of the lodge
spread their skins and buffalo robes on the ground,
and men, women, and children went to sleep upon
them, spread out like a fan, with their feet to the fire.
By day the robes were rolled together into mats, and
made to serye as seats. An ordinary lodge would comfortably house a dozen persons, but two families neyer
occupied one domicile ; and, as the Cherokees seldom
had a numerous progeny, it was not often that more
than fiye or six individuals were tenants of one wigwam.
In Echota these rude dwellings were mostly on the
two sides of a broad ayenue, shaded here and there
with great oaks and poplars, and trodden hard with the
feet of many men and horses. In the rear of each
lodge was a small patch of cleared land, where the
women and negro slayes — stolen from the white settlers oyer the mountains—cultivated beans, corn, and
potatoes, and occasionally some such fruits as pears,
plums, and apples. All labor was done by the women

24:

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

and slayes, it being beneath the dignity of a Cherokee
braye to follow any occupation except that of killing—
either wild animals in the hunt, or his enemies in war.
The house-lots were without fences, and not an inclosure was to be seen in the whole settlement—cattle and
horses being left to roam at large in the woods and
*' openings," where was the finest of pasturage.
A little apart from the other wigwams in Echota
stood one more pretentious than the rest. Like the
others, it had a frame of poles, coyered with tanned
skins, but it was of larger size, and distinguished from
them by a singular " t o t e m " — an otter in the coils
of a water-snake. It was the home, and this the coat
of arms, of "Nancy Ward," the prophetess of the Cherokees. Near it was the domicile of Oconostota, the renowned archimagus, and not far away was the grand
council-house of the tribe.
This last building occupied a spacious opening, and
was a circular, tower-shaped structure, some twenty
feet high and ninety in circumference. It was rudely
built of stout poles, plastered with clay, and had a roof
of the same material, which sloped down to broad eayes
that gaye effectual protection to the walls from the
rain. Its wide entrance was covered with a couple of
buffalo skins, hung so as to meet together in the
middle; but it was without windows, an aperture in
the roof, protected by a flap, serying to let the smoke
out, and the light in—just enough to make more sensible the gloom that shrouded the interior. Low benches,

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

25

neatly made of cane, were ranged around the circumference of the room; and on these sat the warriors of
the tribe when they gathered to the great councils;
but they were cleared away when the brayes met here
to perform their green-corn dance—a ceremonial resembling the offering of the first-fruits among the Jews.
And now, with such a brief glance at the annals of
the tribe as is necessary to an understanding of the part
they took in our Kevolutionary history, I will take leaye
of the Cherokees until such times as we haye to encounter them again in connection with the early white
settlers. They were yisited by De Soto as early as 1540;
but their interior position kept them long from any
intercourse with the white settlers on the sea-coast of
Carolina. The first white man who is known to haye
resided among them was one Cornelius Dogherty, an
enterprising but lax-principled Irishman, who established himself as a trader in one of the Cherokee towns
in 1690.
He introduced horses among them from the whites;
and soon they became expert horse-thieves. In retaliation, the white settlers encouraged the tribes Hying
nearer the Atlantic to steal the Cherokees themselves,
and incited tribal wars, in which hundreds of the
Cherokee brayes were captured, sold to the colonists,
and by them shipped to Cuba, or consigned to hard
labor in the malarial swamps along the sea-coast. Being of great strength and endurance, they were more
valued as slaves than the more patient and docile ne2

26

REAR-GUARD OE THE REVOLUTION.

gro. In 1693, after many of their principal braves had
been sold into slavery, twenty of the head men of the
tribe visited the governor of Carolina, at Charleston,
and besought his protection against their neighbors, the
Esaws, Congarees, and Tuscaroras. This was granted
on condition that the Cherokees should admit the
"right of discovery" by acknowledging the sovereignty
of Great Britain. The Indians had no alternative, so
the slave-trade was stopped; and then commenced the
long subjection of the Cherokees to Great Britain,
which led them to side with the mother country during the war of the Revolution.
In 1730 began the great conflict between the French
and English for the possession of North America.
Actual blood was not shed till 1752, but during this
year was developed the great project of the French, of
uniting Canada and Louisiana, and thus bringing the
whole territory between the Gulf and the St. Lawrence
under their dominion. Already they had seduced the
Northern tribes; and now their emissaries were busy
among the Southern Indians. The various tribes won
over, the English settlements would be rolled back to
the sea-board, then subdued, or driven into the ocean.
It was a gigantic scheme, and, had it succeeded,
would have changed the face of the world. But it did
not succeed, for Providence had destined the AngloSaxon race to be the subduers and civilizers of North
America.
To counteract this gigantic scheme, Sir Alexander

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

27

Cuming was sent in 1730 on a mission to the Creeks and
Cherokees. The latter tribe then occupied the country
around the head-Waters of the Savannah, and stretching
northward beyond the Appalachian Mountains; but
Cuming met their head men at Kequasse, a town among
the mountains of North Carolina, and near the sources
of the Hiwasee. They were at this time computed to
number forty thousand people and six thousand warriors,
and a vast assemblage came together to meet the British
envoy.
Cuming demanded a renewal of their submission to
King George, and the right to build forts and quarter
soldiers among them. They assented to this, and the
head men, falling on their knees, swore eternal allegiance
to the British crown. * Cuming then nominated Moytoy,
a chieftain of Tellieo, as their head king, and, by unanimous consent, he was inaugurated as archimagus and
commander of the whole nation. A crown was placed
upon his head, and he was invested with all the gewgaws
of royalty. "When this was done, the new-made king
removed his crown, and, handing it to Cuming, with five
eagle tails and some scalps of their enemies, requested
that he should lay them at the feet of the great father on
the other side of the ocean. This Cuming declined to
do, but suggested instead that Moytoy should send a
deputation of his bravest chiefs to meet in person the
king of England. Six of them accordingly went, among
whom was Oconostota, as I have related. They were
admitted to the presence of George II, and promised

28

KEAK^GUAKD OF THE KEYOLUTIOJ^.

him, in the name of their nation, to continue forever
his majesty's loyal friends and subjects.
A few years later (in 1738) the small-pox, which,
along with guns, gunpowder, and bad whisky, the whites
had introduced among the Indians, swept over the
Cherokee country, depopulating whole towns, and reducing the people to about one half their former numbers.
When the plague ceased, the nation could muster
scarcely two thousand warriors. Soon afterward Oconostota was made archimagus, or chief king, and an able
chieftain named Atta-Culla-Culla was elected half-king.
They held these positions when actual hostilities broke
out between the French and English in 1752, and till
after the colonies had achieved their independence of
Great Britain.
True to the allegiance sworn to by his predecessor,
Oconostota, on the breaking out of the French War, sent
messengers to Governor Glen, of South Carolina, apprising him that some Frenchmen and their Indian allies
were.among his people, endeavoring to seduce them from
their friendship to the English, and recommending that
a general council be held with the nation to renew their
former treaties. The governor saw the force of this suggestion, and, accordingly, in 1755 he met the Cherokee
chiefs and warriors in their own country. About five
hundred braves were present. A platform was erected
for the governor under a spreading tree, and Atta-CullaCulla, who, on account of his eloquence, had been appointed speaker for the occasion, took a seat on it beside

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

29

him. The other warriors stood around in silent gravity,
giving close attention to the proceedings.
The governor was the first to speak. Bising from
his seat, he represented in strong terms the power, opulence, and great goodness of George II, and his special
affection for his Cherokee children. He had, he said,
many gifts to make them, but he demanded in return
the donation of a share of their territory and land 'upon
which to build forts to protect his soldiers against their
enemies, and be a refuge to their friends and allies, the
Indians. Then he pictured to them the poverty and
denounced the wicked designs of the French king, expressing the hope that the Oherokees would allow no
Frenchman to enter their towns and poison the minds
of their young men against the great and good King
George.
This is the substance of the governor's harangue.
The simple savages listened to it with grave approval,
and turned with silent expectation to their own speaker,
the really great and good Atta-Oulla-Culla.
Holding a bow in one hand and a shaft of arrows in
the other, he now rose and addressed the governor as
follows : " What I now speak our father, the great king,
should hear. We are brothers to the people of Carolina;
one house covers us all." Taking then a little boy by
the hand, and presenting him to the governor, he said :
"We, our wives, and our children, are all children of
the great King George. I have brought this child that,
when he grows up, he may remember our agreement on

30

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

this day, and tell it to the next generation, that it may
be known forever." Then, opening a bag of earth, and
placing it at the governor's feet, he continued : " We
freely surrender a part of our lands to the great king.
The French want our possessions, but we will defend
them while one of our nation shall remain alive. These
are all the arms"—showing his bow and arrows—"we
can make for our defense. We hope the king will pity
his children, the Oherokees, and send us guns and ammunition. We fear not the French. Give us arms, and
we will go to war against the enemies of the great king."
Then, handing the governor a string of wampum to confirm what he had said, he added: " M y speech is at an
end; it is the voice of the Cherokee nation. I hope the
governor will send it to the king, that it may be kept
forever."
By a treaty that followed the Cherokees ceded a large
territory to the English, of which formal deeds of conveyance were now executed by the head men in the name
of the whole people. Soon afterward two forts were
erected by the English within the Cherokee territory—
one in the vicinity of Keowee, an Indian town near the
head-waters of the Savannah; the other not far from
their capital city, Echota, on the southern bank of the
Little Tennessee. This last, which was called Fort Loudon, was in the very heart of the Cherokee nation, and
a hundred and fifty miles west of the most westerly
white settlement then in existence. It was soon garrisoned by two hundred regular soldiers, and, owing to an

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

31

influx of hunters and traders, became speedily the center
of a thriving yillage.
Hostilities were now in active progress between the
French and English, and large numbers of the loyal
Oherokees joined the British army. Several hundred
were in the northern campaign which resulted in the
capture of Fort Du Quesne. Having lost their horses
on the expedition, and being poorly supplied with rations, they helped themselves, on their return through
"Western Virginia, to such provisions as came in their
way, and appropriated a few horses which they found
running at large in the woods, Forgetting that these
Oherokees had saved their homes from burning, and
their wives and children from intended massacre, the
German settlers of that region fell upon them, and in a
night attack, killed and scalped some fourteen, and took
a larger number prisoners. In the butchery they even
imitated the cruelty of the worst savages; and Adair
adds, " T h e murderers were so audacious as to impose the
scalps on the government for those of French Indians,
and actually obtained the premium allowed at thai; time
by law."
As was natural, this atrocity aroused at once a spirit
of deep resentment and bloody retaliation among the
Oherokees ; and the chieftains were powerless to prevent
an outbreak by the whole nation. Oconostota at first,
much against his will, consented that only as many
whites should be slaughtered as would equal the killed
of his own people; but the work of blood once begun.

32

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

either he could not restrain his braves, or his own savage
nature became aroused, and he went into the fight with
all his energy.
With a strong force he invested Fort Prince George,
and Fort Ldudon, and soon reduced the garrison of the
latter place to the fearful alternative of perishing by hunger, or submitting to the mercy of infuriated savages.
For a whole month the two hundred men within the fort
subsisted on half-starved horses and dogs, and a few
measures of an Indian bean, stealthily supplied them by
some friendly squaws. Captain John Stuart, an officer
of great address and sagacity, and much beloved among
the Cherokees, was then commissioned by the garrison to
proceed to Echota, and make the best terms of surrender
possible with Oconostota. The chief consented that the
officers and men should march out with their arms, and
be allowed unmolested passage to Virginia or Fort
Prince George, and agreed that an Indian escort should
go with them to provide game for the journey. lie
himself accompanied them during the first day's march.
At night the English encamped about fifteen miles
from the fort, near the Indian town of Tellico. There
Oconostota, left them, and soon, one by one, and on various pretexts, the Indian escort slunk away through the
woods to the neighboring Indian village. This excited
Captain Stuart's suspicions, and, fearing treachery, he set
a strict guard over the encampment. The night passed
away without an attack; but just before dawn, when all
were locked in the soundest sleep, a sentry rushed up to

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

33

Stuart with the alarm that the woods were full of Indians, advancing stealthily to surround the two hundred
sleeping soldiers. Stuart called all " t o arms" ; but, before one half of the men were fully awake, a heavy volley
was poured in upon them from the woods in all directions. Panic-stricken, and debilitated by long fasting, the
soldiers made but a feeble resistance, and in a few minutes the butchery was over. Accounts differ as to the
number slain. Hewitt, writing in 1799, gives the total
at three officers and twenty-six privates ; Haywood, writing not much later, states that none escaped except Gaptain Stuart, an Indian-trader named Isaac Thomas, and
one other, a private soldier. This last is the account
generally accepted.
Captain Stuart would undoubtedly have been massacred at once but for his general popularity among the
Indians. As it was, he was securely pinioned, and
marched back to Fort Loudon, there to have his fate
decided. Atta-Culla-Culla was his devoted friend. He
was not present at the surrender, nor at the massacre;
but, as soon as he heard of the captivity of Stuart, he
hastened to the fort, and ransomed him from his captors,
giving for his release " his rifle, his clothes, and all he
could command."
Had Stuart fallen in this Indian massacre, eight years
of bloody warfare might have been saved to the border
settlements. Thus it is that often upon one life hangs
the fate of thousands. There is no question that Ocohostota planned and instigated the massacre. It accords

34c

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

with his character, which was crafty, cruel, and treacherous, and he had

now

become

greatly

imbittered

against the English.
Atta-Culla-Culla took Stuart into his own lodgings at
the fort, and shared with h i m bis rations.

But, though

under the powerful protection of the vice-king, Stuart
was not yet out of danger.

Ten bags of gunpowder had

been found buried in the grounds of the f o r t ; and he
was charged with secreting them from the Indians.

The

result would have been instant massacre b u t for the
timely interference of^Atta-Culla-Culla, and the presence
of mind of the interpreter, who declared t h a t Stuart had
no knowledge of the concealment.
Oconostota, haying now a supply of ammunition, decided upon laying immediate siege to the fort on the
head-waters of the Savannah.

Dispatching runners in all

directions to raise his warriors, he told Stuart that he
must aceom-pmy the expedition, manage the six captured
guns t h a t were to compose his artillery, and write such
letters as he should dictate to tbe English commandant.
On Stuart's refusing to engage in this fratricidal work,
the chief reminded h i m t h a t the Indians had spared his
life, and thus acquired a title to his services.

On his con-

tinued refusal, Oconostota told him that, should he remain obstinate, he would take him upon the expedition
by force, and, if the garrison refused to surrender at the
first summons, he would make a bonfire of his body in
the sight of his friends, and see if they would hold out
while he was roasting in the flames.

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

35

On the instant Stuart decided to make his escape or
perish in the attempt He apprised Atta-Culla-Culla of
his design, when the noble savage took him by the hand,
assured him that he was his friend, and at the risk of
his life would deliver him from his captors. To do this,
he resorted to stratagem. Giving out that he was going
on a few days' hunt, he took with him his wife, his
brother, and his prisoner, and, when once out of sight
of the fort> shaped his course direct for Virginia. The
distance was great, and the utmost expedition was necessary to escape a pursuit that might be made by Oconostpta. Nine days and nights they journeyed, guided only
by the sun by day and the moon by night; but, on the
tenth day, after a most toilsome and dangerous march,
they fell in with a detachment of three hundred men
sent out by the English for the relief of Fort Loudon,
and, on the fourteenth day, they reached the British
headquarters on the frontier of Virginia. Captain Stuart was now among friends. He loaded Atta-Culla-Culla
with presents and provisions, and sent him back with
overtures of peace to the Cherokees. How Atta-CullaCulla was received on his return to his tribe is not recorded, but his influence among them was not permanently weakened, for he continued to exercise for many
years his functions of vice-royalty.
Canada being now reduced, an adequate British force
was sent from the North to chastise the Cherokees for
their bloody treachery. Hearing of their approach,
Atta-Culla-Culla appeared in their camp to deprecate the

36

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

vengeance about to be wreaked upon his people. He
was told that the English had the highest regard for him
personally, but that the misconduct of Oconostota and
the majority of the nation was too gross to go unpunished.
The army marched into the heart of the Cherokee
country; the Indians made a desperate stand, but were
routed with great slaughter. Fourteen of their towns
were burned, their corn, cattle, and provisions destroyed,
and they and their families " were driven to seek shelter
and subsistence among the barren mountains."
In a few days Atta-Gulla-Culla appeared again in the
English camp. " M y people," he said, " a r e in great
distress; I am come to see what can be done for them."
His proposals were now listened to, and, out of regard
for him, a treaty was concluded highly favorable to the
Oherokees, who, taught by their disasters to dread the
power of the English, never again swerved from their
allegiance to King George.
Two years #later it was deemed advisable by the English government to appoint a general agent and superintendent of Indian affairs at the South. Owing partly
to the intervention of Atta-Oulla-Culla, but more to his
known sagacity and influence over the native tribes,
Captain John Stuart, who so barely escaped at the
Tellico massacre, was appointed to this office. It was
a position of great influence, as it gave Stuart practically
control of all the savages on the frontier. He appointed
deputies to reside with each of the tribes, who should

ENGLAND'S ALLIES.

37

constantly report to him the state of affairs; and we
shall soon see that his energy, sagacity, and devotion to
the service of his government made him a most powerful
enemy of the revolted colonies.
And it was he who conceived the plan, which was
adopted by the British cabinet, for the complete suppression, by one united blow, of the revolutionary rebellion. On three different occasions, at intervals of years,
the English attempted to carry this plan into execution :
first under Sir William Howe, and then twice under Sir
Henry Clinton, and on each occasion they were, in the
providence of God, thwarted by the great character who
is the principal actor in this history. It was a bold,
able, gigantic scheme, and yet we may look into a dozen
encyclopedias and not find the merest mention of John
Stuart, captain in the British Highlanders. And it was
a bold, far-reaching, and, considering his means, a wonderful achievement, but I venture to say that very few,
except diligent students of American history, have ever
so much as heard of John Sevier, the heroic Nblichucky
Jack of the Border.

CHAPTEE II.
THE FIEST SETTLERS.
DANIEL BOONE made his first excursion beyond the
Alleghanies in 1760, the record of which, as I haye mentioned, is still to be seen on a beech-tree near the Watauga. He was enchanted with the country. To him
it seemed a new world, more genial in climate, beautiful
in scenery, and magnificent in resources than any of
which he had ever conceived. He told the wonderful
story when he returned to his home on the banks of the
Yadkin; but his tale fell on incredulous ears. The
farmers of that region, accustomed to a thin, sandy
soil, producing only a scanty growth of slender pines,
could not believe in a yellow loam four feet in depth,
and bearing dense forests of oak and poplar, often ten
feet in diameter, and towering aloft a hundred feet before fchey broke into branches. They did not credit the
wonderful story until it had been confirmed by a young
farmer, selected by themselves to accompany Boone on
his third exploration in 1769.
Boone's second visit was in 1764; and again his glowing accounts of the new country fell generally upon deaf
ears, though North Carolina was then groaning under

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

39

the exactions of the colonial governor, Tryon, and discontent was festering everywhere throughout the eastern
counties. But, if Boone failed to arouse a passion for
emigration among the farmers, he excited a spirit of
speculation in the wealthier classes, which led to the
formation of a company for the purpose of buying from
the Indians a large part of Tennessee and the whole of
Kentucky. At the head of this company was Colonel
Kichard Henderson, a judge of the supreme court of
the colony, but who had recently resigned out of sympathy with the'Eegulators, who in North Carolina were
already lighting the fire of revolution. He conceived
the magnificent project of founding a commonwealth
beyond the mountains, on the model of that of William
Penn, to which he would give the name of Transylvania.
His scheme failed, through no fault of his own, but he
became an extensive land proprietor, and achieved a certain sort of celebrity among the whites as the " Treatymaker," and among the Indians as "Slippery Dick."
He decided upon a full exploration of his intended commonwealth, and to this end employed Boone and a
hunter named Henry Scaggins to visit the new territory.
Boone was to penetrate into Kentucky as far north as
the Kentucky Eiver; Scaggins to take a route farther
south, following the windings of the Cumberland; and
both were to report to Henderson before any bargain was
consummated with the Indians.
The two explorers set out together, in company
with John Findley, John Stewart, and two other hunt-

40

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

ers, on the first day of May, 1*769, and with them went
the young farmer already mentioned. He had been
deputed by a number of his neighbors to find "good
springs and rich lands, and enough of both to accommodate them all," where they could form a community
of friends, free from political oppression, and the insolence of the "red-coated minions" of " t h e great hewolf of Carolina," Governor Tryon. The history of
Western civilization can not be written without frequent mention of this young farmer ; but he had at
this time no revelation of his future, nor any higher
aim in life than to make a home for himself, his wife
and child, in some new region where he might acquire
a competence, and rise, perhaps, to a position of some
consideration in a small rural community. Therefore
I need at present say nothing more of him than that
his name was James Robertson, and he was born in
Brunswick County, Virginia, of Scotch-Irish parents,
on the 28th of June, 1742, and that, at the age of
twenty-five, he had married Charlotte R. Reeves, a
woman nine years his junior, but every way worthy to
be his wife. This much premised, I will now go on
with him, and the party of Boone, in his first journey
over the Alleghanies.
His equipment was a horse, a blanket, a hatchet,
and a hunting-knife. Over his shoulder was slung a
long Deckard rifle, a powder-horn, and a bag of bullets, and on the horse behind him were balanced a
sack well filled with parched corn, a package of salt,

THE JFIRST SETTLEES.

41

and a tin cup for drinking purposes. This was his
entire outfit. On the parched corn, and the game to
be procured by his rifle, he was to subsist on his
journey.
The party followed the trail hitherto taken by
Boone, for there was no road, nor even a bridle-path.
After leaving the settlements, their way led through an
unbroken forest; but there was no difficulty in keeping
the trail, for it had been carefully blazed by Boone on
his previous journeys. At night they encamped under
some spreading tree, and, tethering their horses among
the timber, lighted a fire with the extra flint which each
one carried in his bullet-pouch. Their mode of lighting a fire is peculiar to the backwoodsman. A handful
of dry grass or leaves is gathered, then twisted into a
nest, in which is placed a piece of ignited punk. Then
the grass is closed over the punk, and the ball waved
in the air till it breaks into a blaze, when it readily
ignites the bundle of dry sticks with which the fire is
kindled. The limbs of dead trees are then heaped upon
the blaze, and one of the travelers sets about preparing
supper for the whole party. It is probably of deer, for
they are plenty in that region. As soon as the burning
logs have deposited a good bed of ashes, a hole is
scooped in them, and in it is deposited the portion of
venison intended to be eaten. When the meat is sufficiently done, it is taken out, the ashes are knocked
away, and then—no civilized man, whose appetite has
never been sharpened by open-air exposure in the woods;

42

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

can understand the avidity with which the delicious
viand is consumed.
Supper over, each traveler lights his pipe of fragrant " Kinnikinnick," and the evening is most likely
whiled away in pleasant talk, and narrative of "moving accident" by field and forest. Boone was a good
narrator, and though but five years the senior of Kobertson, had already a large experience of thrilling adventure. At last, heaping fresh logs upon the fire, to keep
up the blaze till morning, and scare away the wolves
and panthers that might be attracted by the scent of
the venison, the travelers would spread their blankets
upon the ground, turn their feet to the fire, and sink
into slumber.
Thus they encamped by night, and journeyed by day,
till they reached the foot of the long incline that
stretches to the base of the Stone Mountains — the
northerly portion of the long range which is now the
boundary between Tennessee and North Carolina. It is
a good day's journey to the summit; so it is well nigh
certain that the explorers halted here, encamped for
the night, and resumed their way in the morning. The
path up the incline is not hard to ascend; but when
they came to the base of the ridge they were met by a
huge escarpment of rocks, towering above them hundreds of feet, which seemed to bar all farther progress.
But Boone and Findley had been that way before ; they
knew a path the deer had traveled, and where the deer
had led these active, strong-limbed men could follow.

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

43

Keeping along the base of the precipice> they soon came
to a pass which to any but a backwoodsman would seem
insurmountable. Here they dismounted, and, cutting
some stout saplings to serve as Alpenstocks, began the
toilsome ascent. Over stumps, over stones, over fallen
trees they went, leading their sure-footed beasts by the
bridle, and often climbing some acclivity so steep that
they were unable to stand upright; but at last they
reached the summit, nearly a mile above the level of
the ocean.
And then a view broke upon them such as Eobertson,
accustomed as he was to the comparatively tame scenery
of Wake County, had never beheld. Standing where
they stood—where the swift "Watauga rushes down the
side of the mountain—we may easily picture to ourselves
the scene that met the eyes of the explorers. Spread
out at their feet was a beautiful valley, some thirty miles
in length by twenty in width, covered with a luxuriant
forest, broken here and there by grassy openings. In
one of these openings—the " Watauga Old Fields " of the
pioneers, larger than the rest, and some twenty miles
away—two small rivers united their currents, and flow together to the west through a gap in the encircling mountains. Tracing their course up among the hills, the explorers caught glimpses of numerous smaller streams
which feed the larger ones, and water the whole of the
enchanting region. The valley, which is itself two thousand feet above the sea, is hemmed in by huge mountain-ranges, the Holston on the north and west, and the

44:

KEAR-GUAKD OF THE REVOLUTION.

Iron and Stone Mountains OR the south and east, which
break into peaks—the White-Top, the Bald, and the
Eoaii—the lowest of which towers more than a mile into
the air. These mountains protect the yalley from the
winter winds, and temper the summer breezes to a delicious coolness, making the climate the most delightful
that can be imagined. The bottoms along the rivers are
wide and productive, bearing then a thick crop of tall
grass, on which multitudes of deer, elk, and buffalo were
browsing. The soil of the bottoms is a deep, dark loam,
capable of yielding immense crops of wheat and Indian
corn, while the higher and less fertile land along the base
of the mountains produces fruits of the most delicate
flavor, and in astonishing abundance.
Altogether the scene is picturesque beyond description : a charming valley, threaded by limpid streams, and
dotted with dense forests of oak, pine, poplar, cherry,
and walnut ; the whole encircled by huge sandstone
ridges, their loftier peaks capped by the clouds, and
standing there grim,, silent, and sublime, like giant sentinels guarding the gates of an earthly paradise. Years
afterward, speaking of this scene as it then broke upon
him, Eobertson said, " It seemed to me the ' Promised
Land.*"
As the explorers prepared to descend into the valley
they observed, a few miles away at the north, a slight
smoke curling up from among the trees, near the banks
of what is now known as Boone's Creek, a small tributary of the Watauga. Was it from the encampment

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

45

of some Indian hunter, or the cabin of a white man,
who had settled there since the visit of Boone five
years before ? With the caution of old hunters they
descended the mountain, and approached the spot
whence the smoke issued. It was a log hut newly
built, and around it, in the stacked corn and the cattle
browsing near, were evidences of a white inhabitant.
He was a former comrade of Boone, his companion during his visit in 1760, and he had returned within the
previous summer, and built here a home for his family.
His name was William Bean, and he was the first white
settler west of the Alleghanies.
The explorers were hospitably entertained by Bean
and his wife ; but after a few days spent in piloting Eobertson about the valley, Boone set out on his first long
tramp through Kentucky. On the seventh of June his
small party reached the Eed Eiver, the most northerly
branch of the Kentucky; and there Stewart was killed
by the Indians, the first victim, so far as is known, in
that long contest with the aborigines which gained for
the territory south of the Ohio the name of the " d a r k
and bloody ground." Boone escaped, 'but he did not
again appear among civilized men till 1772, and then he
once more came in contact with Eobertson.
Eobertson remained behind on the Watauga, and
was not long in deciding that he had happened upon the
right spot for a settlement. This decided on, he set
about making preparations for the incoming settlers.
Selecting a spot of fertile soil, he broke it up, and

4:6

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

planted a crop of corn, enough to carry the expected
colonists through their first season; meanwhile making
his home with Bean, the hospitable first settler, and
with a hunter named Honeycut, who had erected a rude
hut near the Watauga.
It was autumn before his corn was gathered, and the
rainy reason had set in when he started to return to
North Carolina. He had carefully husbanded his small
stock of powder and lead, and with what remained, and
enough parched corn and jerked yenison to last, with
the game he might kill, for ten or more days, he set out
on his solitary homeward journey. A heavy rain soon
came on, which drenched him completely, and, worse than
this, wet through and through every ounce of his powder.
Wrapping his blanket closely about him, he tried to dry
the powder with the warmth of his naked flesh; but all
his efforts were unavailing — the precious grains had
totally lost the power of ignition.
Eeduced now to his prepared food, he pushed on with
all speed to reach, before his supply should be exhausted,
the settlements on the other side of the mountain.
Along the westerly- part of the route the explorers
had neglected to blaze the way, and now, day after day,'
the sun was hidden by thick clouds ; but Eobertson had
no difficulty so long as he could take his bearings by
the course of the Watauga. But when he had passed
the sources of that stream he was all at sea, with
neither sun, nor star, nor compass to guide him. He
scanned the heavens with anxious eye ; but they dis-

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

47

Closed no glimpse of the blessed sun : all was mist and
rain by day, and by night the .blackest of darkness.
Tired, drenched, bewildered, he wandered aimlessly on,
lost, completely lost, in an almost interminable forest.
His food, too, was fast running low, and the scant
herbage still left among the trees would no longer sustain his jaded animal. Then he turned the trusty beast
adrift to rind its own way out of starvation.
He had eked out his scanty provisions with the nuts
of the beech and the chestnut, but now this resource
was exhausted; his last handful, too, of corn was consumed, and he was in a region of rocks and precipices—
probably near the western base of Yellow Mountain—
where nothing grew that would sustain life. Then, exhausted nature could hold out no longer. His strength
was gone ; he could hot articulate above a whisper ; and,
sinking down at the foot of a cliff, he resigned himself
to the inevitable.
How long he lay there he never told, and perhaps
never knew; but at last, when his senses were nearly
gone, he heard voices, and th6n approaching footsteps.
They were two hunters—probably the only two human
beings within a radius of a hundred mileSi They came directly to the spot where he was lying, but did not see him
till actually upon him. Dismounting from their horses,
they lifted him in their arms, revived him with some
spirits, and then, sparingly at first, ministered to him of
the food in their knapsacks. Slowly his strength returned ; but they stayed by him, and, when he was able

48

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

to mount, seated him on one of their horses, and
guided him out of the mountain, and for more than
fifty miles on his way to the settlements. Then the
good Samaritans went as they came, into the wide forest,
leaving not even their names to a wondering tradition.
Bobertson's neighbors were fascinated with the description which he gave of the country he had explored.
To them the sterile plains and rocky uplands of Wake
County lost their attractions when compared with the
fertile valley which he pictured, and sixteen heads of
families prepared to go with him, in the followiug
spring, to a new home west of the mountains. When
the March rains were over they set out—about eighty
souls—men, women, and children. They journeyed
slowly, the men mostly on foot, the women on packhorses, with the youuger children in their arms or
strapped upon the horses behind them, and the older
ones trudging along by the side of their fathers or aiding to drive the neat cattle, a score or more of which
were the advance-guard of the cavalcade. The outfit of
the party was simple. The men carried the usual equipments of the hunter; the women some light articles of
clothing; and, loaded on several led horses, were such
bedding and kitchen utensils as would be needed at the
end of the journey.
They followed the route taken by the explorers,
sleeping at night on the ground, beneath the open sky,
or sheltered by an improvised tent, made of two forked
poles thrust into the ground, and supporting a longer

THE FIEST SETTLEKS.

49

pole, oyer which was stretched a heavy blanket. Should
it rain, these tents were quickly pitched, and all the travelers were soon under shelter. At the halting-place for
the night a fire was built, the cows were milked, the
journey-boards unpacked, and the delicious journey-cake
—misnamed "Johnny-cake"—was set before the fire or
baked in the ashes. To this was added the deer or wild
turkey shot by the men during the day ; and they had a
repast "fit to set before a king." The same was done
before setting out in the morning; but at noon only a
short halt was made for rest, and a cold lunch from the
remains of the breakfast.
Thus they journeyed for about ten days, until they
reached the base of the Yellow Mountain. Here they
struck into a deep cove which indents the mountainside, and climbed by a winding route, but by easy stages,
to the summit. Kobertson rode by the side of his wife,
and in front was their child, now a bright little fellow of
two or three years. Later on he will appear again in our
pages, and then disappear forever from human history.
As they wearily climbed the toilsome way, and
paused to rest, as they probably did, at the summit,
would not that young wife and mother look forward
with a vague foreboding into the tangled wilderness that
lay before her ? And could she have seen the hardships
and dangers that were there—the rain of bullets that fell
about her at Watauga, the frail boat that bore her a thousand miles through untold dangers into a still more distant wilderness, and to a home encircled by savage fire,
3

50

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

by whose blackened hearth the babe at her breast would
be laid scalped and dying at her feet—could she have
seen all this, would she not have turned back ? She
might; but still I think she would not, for Spartan
women, as well as Spartan men, were among these first
settlers, and one of these women was Charlotte Robertson.
As they began the descent of the western slope of
Stone Mountain an unexpected scene met the eyes of
Robertson. When he had left it in the previous autumn
the valley was an almost unbroken solitude; now the
smoke was rising from half a score of cabins, about
which were all the evidences of civilization. Men were
plowing the fields or felling the trees, women were engaged in various domestic vocations, and children were
gamboling among the trees, or watching the nimble
squirrels as they chased one another from branch to
branch of the lofty oaks or walnuts. Nearly half a
hundred settlers were there, and the place was already a
busy community,
"We may easily imagine the joy that spread through
the settlement on the arrival of the new-comers. They
were total strangers, but they were of the same blood,
and their advent would make less dreary that lonely
nook beyond the mountains.
There was not. house-room for the large influx of
strangers, but the spring weather was mild and genial,
and they could encamp under the spreading trees until
half-faced cabins were erected for their temporary shel-

THE FIKST SETTLERS.

51

ter. These cabins were built of split saplings, one end
resting on the ground, the other supported by a frame
of forked poles about high enough for a man to enter
standing upright. They were open at the front, but the
sides and rear were covered with thick blankets, so as to
afford shelter and privacy. Of no recognized order of
civilized architecture, they served to keep out wind and
rain, and under them, on blankets, or now and then on
the precious feather-bed spread on the ground, the tired
immigrants might sleep as soundly as the renowned
Saricho Panza, of sleepy memory.
Their food was supplied from the store of corn so
providently provided by Eobertson on his previous visit,
and from the deer, buffalo, or wild turkey brought down
by the unerring riflemen among them. On deer and
wild turkey they had regaled before, but buffalo meat
was a delicacy with which they were not acquainted, and
its rich, juicy, tender steak once tasted, all other meat
lost half its flavor. None of them had ever even seen
the animal, and we may imagine the wonder with which
they first beheld the vast herds that almost darkened
the valley. Lolling in the shade of the trees, or cropping leisurely the thick grass of the tff openings," their
coal-black beards sweeping the ground, and their long
tails lashing their sleek, dun sides, the noble beasts gazed
unconcernedly on the intruders, totally unconscious that
this slender biped, with the slim, smoke-breathing tube
he bore in his hand, was ere long to well-nigh exterminate the lordly race, and drive its scanty remnant far west

52

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

to the Rocky Mountains. They were an easy prey to
the early hunter, and thus the rude larders of the first
settlers were filled to abundance.
Their wives and children provided with temporary
shelter, the immigrants looked about for locations for
more permanent dwellings. . Virginia offered to every
actual settler who should erect a log-cabin and cultivate
a small patch of ground, four hundred acres—so located
as to include his improvements—together with the right
to buy a thousand acres adjoining at a price scarcely
more than enough to cover the cost of surveying. The
immigrants knew they were near the North Carolina
boundary, but they supposed they were north of the line
which starts " at a white stake on the Atlantic Ocean, at
north 36° 30', and runs thence west to the South Seas,"
and thus were within the limits of Virginia, and entitled
to avail themselves of its cheap munificence—cheap because the whole territory had been bought by George III
from the Six Nations for a few trinkets, the total value
of which did not exceed the cost of the wedding outfit
of a modern lady of fashion.
The English had thus, when it would no longer serve
their purpose, tacitly abandoned the discovery title, and
admitted some sort of ownership in the original occupiers of the territory. This purchase was called the
Treaty of Fort Stanwix, and it was made at that place
—now Eome, New York—November 5, 1768 ; but it
gave no title to land south of latitude 36° 30', which
was the southern boundary of Virginia. 411 south of

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

53

that line was as yet conceded to be the rightful possession of the original owners.
This line, "west to the South Seas," had not then
been run farther west than the "Steep Bock," near the
White Top Mountain. When it was subsequently extended, the settlers found themselves within the limits
of North Carolina, and not entitled to the benefit of the
Virginia law. But of this more hereafter. Now they
were unconscious of encroaching on any rights of white
man or red, and they went on with their improvements,
confident they were acquiring an indefeasible title to
their new possessions.
The settlers whom Eobertson found at Watauga were
mostly from Fairfax County, Virginia, and they had
been attracted there by reports of the country heard
from parties of gentlemen who had visited it on hunting
expeditions. Like their associates from North Carolina,
these people belonged mostly to the farming population.
They all were somewhat unpolished in manner, and not
much acquainted with books, but not illiterate, for, in a
document subscribed soon afterward by more than a hundred of them, only two names are signed with a cross.
They brought with them but few worldly goods, but
they had that which in a new community is more truly
wealth—frugal and industrious habits, enterprise, firm
self-reliance, and the cool intrepidity that is fostered by
frequent exposure to danger. No better material could
have been selected to subdue the Western wilderness.
Soon the little settlement, nestling there among the

54:

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

mountains, presented a stirring appearance. The settlers now numbered, all told, about thirty men able to
wield an ax or handle a rifle; and, the locations of the
new-comers being decided on, they all set about the
erection of their dwellings. Trees were felled, cut into
logs, hewn into joist, split into flooring, and riyed into
shingles, and, in an incredibly short time, the various
families were domiciled in their new abodes. If we look
in upon one of these cabins we shall be able to form a
tolerably correct idea of the homes of the early settlers
on the Watauga.
They were generally one and a half story high, about
twenty feet square, and of rough logs, chamfered at the
ends, so as to fit closely together. They had a solid plank
door, hung on wooden hinges, and two or three small
windows, formed by sawing through one or two of the
outer logs. These windows were entirely open, or inclosed
with a stout blind, and glazed with thick paper saturated
with bear's grease to render it transparent; but the
larger number of the cabins, if destitute of glazing, were
furnished with blinds, as they were necessary as a protection against intruders. The roof was covered with large
split saplings, held down by long weight-poles, and the
floors were puncheons—wide pieces of oak or poplar,
two or three inches thick, split and hewn with an ax,
and laid upon sleepers. If the hewing is well done, such
floors are as level and smooth as if fashioned of machinemade material. The chimney was of sticks or stones
laid up in clay, and it went up on the outside, in a pyram-

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

55

idal form, and of a size totally disproportioned to the
dwelling; for these people were fond of a wide, roaring
fire in winter, and in summer the huge flue was the best
of all ventilators. If it is added that the roof of some of
these cabins was extended in front, so as to coyer a wide
veranda, and that the bark and moss were left clinging
to the logs, which by another season would be covered
with honeysuckles and the Virginia creeper, we shall see
that the hamlet would soon present no unpicturesque
appearance.
The interiors need only a brief description. They
were generally of two rooms—one below, the other above
—approached by a ladder in a corner. The lower room
was parlor, kitchen, and often bedroom. The fireplace was deep and wide, surmounted, perhaps, by a
broad mantel of unpainted oak, on which were a few
trinkets and the violin so precious to the backwoodsman.
In one corner was a spinning-jenny, in another an
uncushioned settle, and, opposite the fire-place, a bureau
or chest of drawers of native wood and home manufacture. These, with a small table, a few chairs with rustic
frames and deer-skin coverings, also of home manufacture, and a couple of forked sticks nailed to one of the
logs and supporting the trusty rifle, probably completed
the furniture of the apartment.
This is the description of the smaller houses. Others, adapted to larger families, were what were termed
"double-barreled" cabins, having two rooms on the
ground-floor separated by an open passage-way, and a

56

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

"lean-to " in the rear to serve as a kitchen. Still others,
it may he, were like the later mansion of John Sevier—
half a dozen single cabins, tacked one upon the other,
and covering space enough to serye for the foundation of
a cathedral.
From these details we can easily form for ourselves a
picture of the first civilized settlement beyond the Alleghanies. A score or more of these cabins were scattered,
here and there, in the very heart of the forest, the great
trees crowding so closely around them as often to overhang their very roofs. Near them horses and cattle
were grazing on the thick, native grass that grew
among the trees, or housed in rude sheds at the rear of
the dwellings ; while farther away, along the margin of
the many streams, deer and elk and buffalo were browsing.
Glimpses of footpaths, leading from one widely separated dwelling to another, might be here and there seen ;
but there were no roads, for no wheeled vehicle had yet
invaded this sylvan solitude.
These simple features
furnish the outlines of the picture; the details any one
familiar with forest life can fill in from his own imagination.
And so these people dwelt in peace, content, and
opulence; for this last is merely the condition of having
something more than enough, and this they had in
abundance. They were afflicted with no artificial wants,
drank no tea, coffee, or ardent spirits, and ate no wheatbread nor delicate food, but were content with spring-

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

57

water, " corn-dodger," bear's meat, buffalo-tongue, venison saddle, and yenison ham—broiled, stewed, fried, and
jerked—and, as a great delicacy, green-corn roasted and
coated with sugar from the sap of the maple-tree. The
women cared nothing for the latest fashions, but, like
their husbands, dressed in homespun of their own spinning and weaving, and deemed a house full of rosy sons
and daughters the best of earthly possessions. They were
not " lay figures " to exhibit some milliner's or jeweler's
stock in trade, but actual "helps meet for their husbands." They shared the good man's cares, lightened
his labors, and spread daily joy oyer his rustic household. And the men were a manly race—honest, openhanded, fearless, independent. Open-air .exercise gave
them health, and, there being ample room for all, the advent of a new-comer was welcomed as adding to the general security. There was among them none of that
small envy and jealousy which contributes so largely to
human misery, particularly in older rural communities.
There was no end to their social gatherings. The men
came together for the bear-hunt, the deer-drive, the
shooting-match, and for foot and horse racing; and
men and women met at quilting-bees, corn-shuckings,
maple-sugar stirrings, and the old-fashioned dancing
"shindies," when the fiddle would twang merrily into
the small hours, and the lads and lasses would " dance all
night till broad daylight." Many a rustic heart was lost
and won on such occasions, and at the " stirrings-off " in
the sugar-camps, which were great gatherings in the

58

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

woods, when the sirup had been boiled down to a consistence to allow it to be " stirred-off " into sugar. Then
many a rustic youth, sitting on a log beside a blue-eyed
or raven-haired lass, would, in words sweeter than the
honeyed sirup—
u

Strive hard to persuade her,
That He who bad made her,
Had destined her heart-love for no one but h e ;
And he argued so neatly,
And proved so completely
That none but poor Andrew her husband should be;
That she smiled when he blessed her,
And blushed when he kissed her,
And owned that she loved, and would wed none but he."

It was a simple state of society, but it was a happy
one. There was no law, nor was there need of any, for
there was not a lawyer in the whole community. Every
man did what was right in his own eyes, but crime was a
thing unknown among them. Every man also was the
equal of every other man. There were no artificial distinctions. Good feeling, natural civility, and sterling
qualities of head and heart were the passports to social
consideration. Without them a man would be friendless, and to say that of him, in a society of mutual goodwill and fellowship, was equivalent to calling him a
scoundrel. It was the height of indignity to omit to
ask a neighbor to a raising, a clearing, or a chopping
frolic. " I t is a poor dog that is not worth whistling for/' said a neighbor who was not invited to a

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

59

house-raising going on in the neighborhood. " What injury haye I done that I am slighted so ? "
This was the state of things among the first settlers
on the Watauga, while there was as yet not a church nor
a school-house among them, and before one of that grand
race of men, who carried their homes in their saddle-bags,
and their libraries under their broad-brimmed white
beayers—the Methodist circuit-riders—had climbed the
Alleghanies. The settlers had a few books, among
which were the Bible, Watt's and Eippon's Hymns, Dilworth's Spelling Book, Fox's "Book of Martyrs,"
"Robinson Crusoe," and the "Pilgrim's Progress"; and
these Robertson was fond of reading to the people
around the evening fire, particularly the Bible. From
this book he often quoted in ordinary conversation, his
favorite text being, "Man proposes, but God disposes,"
which saying of Thomas a Kempis, he always insisted, is
to be found somewhere in the book of Job. Writingpaper was so scarce a commodity among them, that important contracts were often written on the fly-leaf of a
family Bible, and with ink made of gunpowder.
Before long the settlers numbered about two hundred
souls, and forty able-bodied men; but they were shut
out from the civilized world by a high mountain barrier,
and surrounded on every other side by at least a hundred
thousand savages, who were by nature and instinct the
enemies? of the white man. Both North Carolina and
Virginia claimed jurisdiction over them; but the claim
never extended beyond some slight discussion in state

60

EEAK-GUAKD OF THE EEVGLUTIOK

papers, and neither colony afforded them any protection.
They were absolutely self-dependent, an unsupported
outpost on the very verge of civilization. How this
handful of men, women, and children came to venture
upon such dangerous ground, or, being there, escaped total
extermination, is one of the miracles of history. They
realized their exposed position, and understood the nature of the North American Indian, but they went cheerfully about their daily pursuits—tilling the soil, planting, and harvesting, and " gathering into barns," or, more
correctly, into ricks, for as yet they had no barns—unmolested by the Indians, and in harmony with one another,
for two full years of genuine peace, comfort, and
security.

CHAPTER III.
OK THE OUTPOSTS.

now prepared the stage, it is time for the
prompter to ring up the curtain and call upon it the
actors who are to take parts in this first scene of the
great drama which is to be enacted in the wilderness.
The theatre is only a barn, and the performers are
merely a band of strollers, but the spectator will soon
see that they are great actors, and the play the first act
in a grand drama that may not be played out for centuries—not, at least, until civilization shall have overspread
the whole vast continent west of the Alleghanies.
By that silent suffrage, according to which every man
is speedily elected to his true place in a new community>
the young farmer, Eobertson, was soon given the leading position in the Watauga settlement. There were
older men than he among the settlers, and those better
bred and better educated, but it soon came to be understood that he possessed the qualities that peculiarly fitted
him for leadership ; and so he was tacitly recognized as
the head man in the little community, and looked up to
and obeyed accordingly.
He was at this time not quite thirty years of age*
HAVIKG

62

REAR-GUAKD OF THE REVOLUTIOK

His personal appearance at a later date is described by an
aged granddaughter, writing more than a century afterward, as follows: " H e was/' she writes, "about five
feet nine inches in height, heavy built, but not too fat.
His head inclined slightly forward, so that his light-blue
eyes were usually shaded by his heavy eyebrows. His
hair was very dark—like a mole in color—and his complexion, though naturally very fair, was darkened and
reddened by exposure. I remember him as being uncommonly quiet and thoughtful, and full of the cares of
business. We all loved and venerated him." *
From other sources I gather that, at this earlier period, his frame was robust, well-knit, and wiry, but not
what would be termed "heavy b u i l t " ; and that he
had prominent features, and a square, full forehead,
which rose in the coronal region into an almost abnormal
development; also, that he was earnest, taciturn, selfcontained, and had that quiet consciousness of power
which is usually seen in born leaders of men. Yet his
manner was without arrogance or self-assumption. On
the contrary, he was extremely courteous and conciliatory, with that rare blending of self-respect and deference to others which repels undue familiarity, but, at
the same time, wins friendship, and puts the rudest at
his ease. Oconostota, who was a shrewd observer of
men, and for twenty-five years Kobertson's inveterate
enemy, said of him, " H e has winning ways, and he
* Mrs. Cheatham, of Nashville, Tennessee, 1880.

ON THE OUTPOSTS.

63

makes no fuss." Adding merely that he was cool, careful of consequences, and watchful of danger, but also
bold, fearless, and ever ready to undertake enterprises
that would stagger men of fewer mental resources, I will
leave his character to further develop itself as he acts his
part in this history.
Eobertson had no official position, for as yet the little
community had no civil organization, and, consequently, he had all the cares and responsibilities with none of
the emoluments and perquisites which modern politicians regard as such important adjuncts to official station.
And, worse than this, his private purse was constantly
drained by his public position, for he was forced to keep
open house to the throng of strangers who constantly
came to the settlement, either to make it their home, or
to view with curious interest the eyrie of this lone eagle
that had thus built his nest on the outer cliffs of the
overhanging Alleghanies. Therefore it was that Bobertson's house, on the upper end of the island in the Watauga, near what is now Elizabeth town, though of logs
like the others, was by far the most commodious dwelling in the settlement. To this house there rode up one
day, in 1772—not quite two years after Eobertson had
led his colony over the mountains—three horsemen, each
of whom was to act a more or less important part in
"Western history. They were all strangers to Eobertson,
but, with true border hospitality, he invited them to dismount and enter his dwelling. While they do so, I will
give as full a description of them as I have been able

64:

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

to gather from some scanty written accounts and numberless oral traditions.
The oldest was a man rather more than fifty years of
age, with a robust but sinewy frame, and an erect military carriage. He had thick gray hair and heayy Welsh
features—in fact, he was a native Welshman, but he
came to this country so early in life that he had fully
acquired the language and habits of the men of the border. His military career of thirty years had given him
a stern, imperious manner, which cropped out on all
occasions, and was strikingly shown, two years later,
when he said to the son who was now with him, as the
young man sat down to wait while his commission as
lieutenant was being written by Colonel William Preston,
the commandant of Eincastle County, "Get up, you
young dog, and make your obeisance to the colonel!"
He had been a prominent actor in the old French and
Indian wars, and was well and widely known throughout
the Southern colonies. In these halcyon days of peace
he had laid aside his military rank, and he was now, with
his four manly boys, extensively engaged in the herding
and grazing of cattle on the Virginia border, some forty
miles to the north of Watauga, at a place called King's
Meadows, now Bristol, Tennessee. He was Captain
Evan Shelby, of the Virginia line, subsequently General
Shelby, of the Eevolutionary army.
His eldest son, now with him, was the counterpart of
the father, though built upon a larger scale both in body
and mind. He had the same herculean frame, the same

ON THE OUTPOSTS.

65

firm, compressed lips, double chin, and heavy features,
but in his fixed, deep-set, resolute eye there was a steady
glow that spoke a much more exalted character. He
was now barely turned of twenty-one, but he had already
established a character for uncommon intelligence, and
stern, unbending integrity, that had made him to be
looked upon as a rising man upon the border. I shall
have to speak of him again, for this was Isaac Shelby,
one of the heroes of King's Mountain, and the first Governor of Kentucky.
But in the third stranger this history has a deeper
interest. He was a young man of only twenty-six, and
had not yet achieved any especial distinction, but he was
of a personal appearance so marked that he would have
been observed and commented on in any gathering of
men on the continent. Often afterward he was singled
out in crowds of five thousand, by total strangers, who
had merely been told that he was present. He was not
so large of frame as the others, but one glance was enough
to show that he was of a different and far higher type of
character. He is said to have weighed not far from one
hundred and fifty pounds, and to have been about five
feet eleven inches in height, and of a most symmetrical,
well-knit figure. His carriage was erect, his step rapid,
his movements quick and energetic, and his bearing,
though without a trace of haughtiness, peculiarly commanding. He had light hair, a fair skin, a ruddy complexion, and large dark-blue eyes, singularly expressive
of vivacity, good feeling, and fearlessness. They were

66

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

clear and mild, and yet stern and piercing—living flames,
which, when stirred by excitement, actually blazed and
danced with the emotion that moved him. They
gleamed from under an arching eyebrow and a peculiarly
white and lofty forehead, which, with a prominent nose,
gave dignity to his face, despite the uncommon ease and
geniality of his manner. He had strong, resolute jaws,
and a mouth and chin of chiseled perfection. But the
thing about him which first attracted attention was a
strange blending of unconscious natural dignity with
overflowing good feeling, combined with a sort of magnetic force that drew every one irresistibly to him. I
question if, with but one or two exceptions, he ever had
a personal enemy. He wore the ordinary hunting-shirt
of the border, but it was scrupulously neat and well-fitting. However, in any costume he would appear, what
he was, a born gentleman; for there was good blood in
him.
It is the custom of biographers to begin with a man's
ancestors, for the purpose, I suppose, of deducting from
his own value whatever may belong to his progenitors.
And. yet, however much their virtues may detract from
our own merit, we are all proud if we have been so fortunate as to have had a reputable ancestry. We all
have this weakness, and all like to trace, if we can, our
genealogical tree down to its roots in the dark ages.
The search may be rewarded by our finding some single
ancestor of whom to be justly proud, but very few of
us discover a whole township, as was the case with the

ON THE OUTPOSTS.

67

young gentleman I am describing. He was never known
to boast of his lineage, and probably few men could better afford to dispense with an ancestry, yet he never
wrote his name without putting on record that he was
descended from the town of Xavier, in the French Pyrenees, and thus was of kin to the eminent Saint Francis
of Xavier. This was the name of his ancestors, and
they bore it till, being Huguenots, they had to flee from
France on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Then
they settled in London, and .the name became Anglicized
into Sevier.
The father of this young gentleman emigrated to
America about 1740, and, marrying a lady of Baltimore,
settled in Rockingham County, Virginia, where this son
was born on the 23d of September, 1745. He was given
as good an education as was common to the period, but
throughout life he understood men better than he did
books. His state papers indicate considerable reading,
but the knowledge of men came to him by intuition. I
have in my possession a letter written by him to James
Madison, in 1804, which bears every mark of being penned
by a man of cultivation. It is very clearly, tersely, and
pointedly expressed, and written in a free, round, flowing hand, and with a firm, rapid, open movement that
entirely accords with his character. He early showed a
predilection for military life, and so distinguished himself in the frequent conflicts with the Indians as to attract the attention of Lord Dunmore, the last royal Governor of Virginia, who made him, before he was twenty-

68

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

five, a captain in the Virginia line—the same rank held
by his friend Evan Shelby, who had seen thirty years'
service, and was twenty-five years his senior. It was in
the same corps that "Washington then held the rank of
colonel.
This young man had now come West to establish a
new home for his wife and two young sons at what was
then known as Keywood Settlement, farther to the north,
and about six miles distant from the Shelbys. This was
his first meeting with Eobertson. I do not know that
the two were then conscious—as were Jeremiah and Paul,
and some other "providential men"—that they had been
" set apart from their mother's womb " to do an important work in the world; but it is certain that they had
no sooner looked into each other's eyes than they recognized the fact that their work—whatever it was—would
be done together. And so it was. From this time forward, they stood shoulder to shoulder, amid toil and
danger and hardship, through evil report and good report, never losing faith or hope or trust, one in the
other, till they went together to a higher life forty-three
years afterward, amid such genuine sorrow as has seldom afflicted a whole commonwealth. Others, like the
Shelbys, were to act important parts; but these two
men were to be the great actors in the grand drama of
civilization which was to be played beyond the Alleghanies ; and the greater of the two was this buoyant, freehearted young stranger from Virginia.
For this was John Sevier, the Nolichucky Jack of

ON THE OUTPOSTS.

69

the border; the Nemesis of old Oconostota; the most
renowned of Indian fighters; the hero of thirty-five
battles, every one of which was a victory; the dashing
leader, whose sword was to flash wherever the fight
was hottest, and whose electric words, sounding in
the desperate charge, were to set his men on fire,
and transform the most timid among them into heroes.
More than this, he was to be the Kear-Guard of the
Eevolution, and was to give a deadly wound to the
anaconda the British would seek to coil about the revolted colonies; and, when peace should at last return,
it was he who would bring order out of chaos, fashion
restless frontiersmen into law-abiding citizens, and, out
of the most heterogeneous materials, erect a great commonwealth in the very heart of the wilderness. His
exploits will read more like romance than history; but
they were the natural outgrowth of the man, who was
altogether patriotic, magnanimous, heroic. Isaac Shelby
was a born soldier, Eobertson a born diplomatist; but
Sevier was soldier, diplomatist, and statesman all combined ; and, moreover, he was the rery incarnation of
the spirit of the backwoods of that period. He gathered
up and embodied in himself all the great qualities of
that grand race of men who were the pioneers of Western civilization. Every frontiersman saw in him those
traits which, in his own best and highest moods, he felt
within himself; and in him he beheld them intensified,
magnified, and in amazing activity; and so Nolichucky
Jack became his ideal and his natural leader, and he

70

KEAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

responded to his lightest word, just as the hand obeys
the dictates of the will; and hence it is no mere figure
of speech to say that Sevier was the soul of the Western commonwealth. Had this man acted on a wider
and more open stage, he would long ago have been reckoned among the world's heroes. But nowadays we do
not judge of an actor by the size of his theatre. Silent
forces are those that disintegrate the mountains; and at
the distance of a century we are able to estimate men
by what they accomplish. So estimating these men and
their work, we see that, since the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Eock, few more important events
had yet occurred in the interest of civilization than the
coming together of Sevier and Kobertson in that logcabin on the Watauga.
What passed between the two men on this occasion
I have no means of knowing, but it is certain that from
this hour Sevier turned his back upon all prospects of
wealth and distinction in the older settlements, and cast
in his lot with that feeble community beyond the
mountains.
During this visit of Sevier and the Shelbys at
Watauga, a trifling incident occurred which had important consequences. Gamblers and horse-thieves were
the pests of the border. One of these gentry, a stout,
savage fellow named Shoate, was then at Watauga; and
pretending that he had won a horse from a peaceable
stranger in a wager, he took forcible possession of the
animal in the public thoroughfare. The occurrence was

(OT THE OUTPOSTS.

n

witnessed by the visitors; and, naturally indignant,
Sevier inquired if there was no law in the community.
"Never mind the rascal," said Evan Shelby; "he'll
soon take poplar "—meaning that he would soon decamp
by a "dug-out" made from that timber. He did ; and
it is a comfort to know that he was hanged some seven
years later for a similar outrage.
The attempted theft of this horse led to the formation of a government for the new settlement. The settlers were called together at the house of Eobertson, and,
being addressed by him and Sevier, proceeded at once
to appoint a committee of thirteen to draft articles for
the regulation of their public affairs. From these thirteen five were chosen to form a court, and act as judges,
and by them—in the language of their Magna Gharta
—" all things were to be settled" ! Truly, a court of
wider jurisdiction than any since organized in this
country. This rude bench was composed of John Sevier, James and Charles Eobertson, Zachariah Isbell, and
John Carter, names, all of them, that afterward attained
prominence in the history of Tennessee. Sevier was the
youngest man among them. Speaking of this court in
a memorial addressed to the Legislature of North Carolina four years later, Sevier writes: " Finding ourselves on the frontiers, and being apprehensive that,
for the want of a proper Legislature, we might become
a shelter for such as endeavored to defraud their creditors ; considering also the necessity of recording deeds,
wills, and doing other public business; we, by consent

72

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

of the people, formed a court for the purposes above
mentioned, taking—by desire of our constituents —
the Virginia laws for our guide, so near as the situation of affairs would admit. This was intended for
ourselves, and was done by the consent of every individual ; but, whenever we have had to deal with people
out of our district, we have ruled them to bail, to
abide by our determinations (which was, in fact, leaving
the matter to reference); otherwise we dismissed their
suit, lest we should in any way intrude on the Legislatures of the colonies."
This simple government, thus established, secured
good order in the new community for several years following. It was organized in May, 1772, three years prior
to the association formed for Kentucky "under the great
elm-tree outside the*fort at Boonesboro " ; and thus was
the first really "free and independent" government in
this country. Its originator, framer, and prime mover
was John Sevier.
Sevier at once built a house on the Watauga—a rambling log structure of half a dozen rooms, all upon the
ground-floor—and soon afterward he removed to it with
his wife and two sons, James and John, who afterward
fought by his side at King's Mountain. Accompanying his family from Virginia came his father, Valentine Sevier, now a man of about fifty-five, and his three
younger sons, Valentine, Jr., Abraham, and Robert,
of whom more will have to be said further on in this
history.

ON THE OUTPOSTS.

73

The coming of the Seviers gave a strong impetus to
the growth of the new settlement. It had hitherto circled around Watauga, but, like a mountain-stream obstructed for a time by some casual obstacle, its gathering
waters now burst their barriers, and overflowed the country in all directions—north to what is still known as Carter's Station, south to the Nolichueky, and as far west
as Chimney-Top Mountain. The more remote settlers
were in an exposed position—almost alone, with beyond
them a wide wilderness—but they were in no fear from
the Cherokees. The few who came to the settlements
were friendly, and, after eating the settler's venison and
smoking his tobacco, they would go away, grasping his
hand, and saying: " W e are the white man's brothers;
the same house holds us, the same sky covers us. We
are brothers."
These were halcyon days : but once on a time Satan
entered into paradise; and one day, in the summer of
1772, one of his legitimate children, a Scotchman named
Alexander Cameron, invaded this Eden on the Watauga.
He was a subordinate of John Stuart, the British superintendent of Southern Indian affairs, and was then the
resident agent among the Cherokees. He appeared at
Watauga with a number of the Cherokee chieftains, and
warned the settlers that they had encroached upon the
Indian lauds, and must move off or be removed by the
British soldiery. However, he whispered to Sevier and
Eobertson—out of hearing of the more manly Cherokees
—that for a reasonable consideration paid to him, the
4

74

KEAR-GUAKD OF THE KEVOLUTION.

represenfcatiye of the British Government, they would be
permitted to remain unmolested.
Unfortunately, Cameron was right. The settlers
were outside of the territory ceded to King' George by
the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix. They had scarcely
more knowledge of geography than Charles II, and were
totally ignorant of the location of that line of 36° 30'
which journeyed westward to the " South Seas." It ran
due west, cutting remorselessly through hills and mountains, utterly regardless of the topography of the country,
while they had followed the course of the streams and
valleys, all of which trend to the southwest, neyer dreaming that they were straying beyond the limits of Virginia.
Nearly all of them, eyen Eobertson, were natives of that
province, and they had the State pride which is to be observed in Virginians even at this day; and, moreover,
they had no very devoted attachment for North Carolina.
This feeling explains much of the subsequent history
of the Watauga settlers. They never felt any real affection for North Carolina, but always regarded her as a
sort of step-mother, which, indeed, she proved to be, giving them no care in their infancy, and in their youth
demanding a mother's rights, but fulfilling none of her
duties. It was not Nature, but a chain and compass,
that made these people North Carolinians. It was,
therefore, with scarcely less chagrin that they now
learned they had unwittingly expatriated themselves
from the Old Dominion than that they were intruders

ON THE OUTPOSTS.

75

on the lands of the Oherokees—which they certainly
were, for Colonel John Donelson, father to Mrs. Andrew
Jackson, had been recently employed by Lord Dunmore
to run the line of 36° 30', and had found it thirty miles
to the northward.
It was an awkward dilemma in which the settlers
found themselves, but Sevier and Eobertson met it manfully. They wasted no time in considering the overtures
of the rascally British agent, but promptly declined'
his proposals. He stormed and threatened, but they
turned their backs upon him, scorning to purchase security by bribery. Speaking in later years of these corrupt overtures, Eobertson said: "This was the best
thing ever done [to us] by the British Government.
Never were threats so harmless and yet so powerful;
they were laughed to scorn. No man feared them out
here, whatever they might have done in old Orange and
in Wake. From a hatred to Tryon, and a contempt for
the Indian agent, the people were easily conducted to
the cherishing of both sentiments for the king, their
royal master, as he was called : he was no longer ours."
Some of. the chieftains who were present expressed a
reluctance to seeing the order of the British agent enforced, and all were willing the settlers should remain if
they made no further encroachments; but Sevier and
Eobertson were not content to occupy their homes by a
title so precarious as the word of a few Cherokee warriors.
By a proclamation dated October 7, 1763, George I I I
had "strictly enjoined and required that no private per-

76

KEAK-GUAKD OF THE KEVOLUTIOK

sons do presume to purchase from the Indians any
lands" ; and that, "if the Indians should be inclined to
dispose of their lands, the same shall be purchased only
for us, in our name, at some general meeting or assembly
of the Indians, to be held for that purpose by the governor or commander-in-chief of our colony respectively."
So the Watauga settlers could not buy their homes if
they would, but the sapient king had not forbidden the
leasing of lands from the Indians. This Sevier and Eobertson decided to do, leaving to the future the acquiring
of their homes in fee simple. Accordingly, they requested the visiting chieftains to call together the head
men of the tribe for a friendly council at the " Watauga
Old Fields."
At a time appointed they came, six hundred halfnaked red-men, from the Tellico, the Tennessee, and even
the mountains of Georgia; and the whole white settlement gathered together to meet them—in all, perhaps,
one hundred men, with all the women and children in
the near-by plantations. They were a picturesque group
as they gathered under a great oak-tree that then stood
on the southern bank of the Watauga, the whites in caps
of tanned bear-skin, hunting-shirts, and cavalry-boots,
and the Indians in buckskin hunting-shirts, leggins, and
moccasins, their heads ornamented with coon's tails, or
turkey or eagle's feathers, and some of them wearing
a red sash around their waist and gilt epaulets upon
their shoulders. For the head men of the tribe were
among them: the gigantic Oconostota, the archimagus,

OK THE OUTPOSTS.

n

his bare breast seamed with scars, and his right leg disabled by an awkward limp, which had given him among
the white people—who had already lost their reverence
for royalty—the name of Old Hop ; the silver-tongued
Atta-Culla-Culla, the vice-king ; Savanuca, the prince of
Echota, called the raven, for his keenness on the warscent, but to become the friend of peace and Robertson;
the Bloody Fellow, who had won his name by appropriate
deeds; the Bread-Slave Catcher, noted for his success
in stealing negroes, who had taught the Indian women
to make bread; Noonday, a wide-awake young fellow;
John Watts, a promising young half-breed, who afterward achieved eminence in slaughtering white people;
and Old Tassell, a wise and reasonably just old man,
subsequently archimagus, but destined to an ignominious
end from the blind vengeance of a white stripling.
These and others of the princes of the tribe gathered
in a circle about Eobertson and Sevier, and listened in
grave silence to the proposals of the settlers. Eobertson
was the speaker; for Sevier, who could talk as well as act,
was young, and as yet merely " t h e power behind the
throne." They demanded a ten years' lease of all the
lands on the "Watauga and its tributaries, and they offered in pay between five and six thousand dollars' worth
of powder, lead, muskets, cotton-goods, and other articles of value to the Indians. The Cherokees were sharp
at a bargain. Oconostota was satisfied with the consideration, but he insisted upon cutting down the term of
occupation to eight years. To this the whites assented;

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KEAR-GUAKD OF THE KEVOLUTIOK

and then the treaty was drawn up and signed by all the
head men of the nation. The price was then paid upon
the spot—which is evidence that there was some available wealth among the settlers—and then the council
broke up, and all, white men and red, engaged in a few
days of friendly festivity. Dances, ball-plays, and footraces were improvised, in which the young men of both
nations joined in good-natured rivalry, and it was
hoped by the settlers that all possibility of hostile collision with their dangerous neighbors was removed to an
indefinitely distant period. But this dream was soon
rudely dispelled by a most unfortunate and inopportune
occurrence.
For the last day of the gathering it had been arranged that a great foot-race should take place between
the younger braves and the young men of the settlement, on the open ground along the southern bank of
the river. The race was in full progress, and among the
younger men all was mirth, hilarity, and good-natured
emulation ; and even the older chieftains, catching the
spirit of the occasion, had relaxed from their habitual
gravity, and were cheering on the contestants, when suddenly, a musket-shot echoed over the grounds, and one
of the young braves, the near kinsman of a chieftain, fell
in his tracks lifeless. The report came from the woods
near the race-ground, and pursuit failed to discover the
assassin, but there could be no question that he was a
white man.
It was as if the shot had been fired into a magazine of

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79

gunpowder. The Cherokees were there without arms, or
there might have followed a bloody tragedy. As it was
they silently gathered their goods together, and, with
threatening gestures and faces presaging a bloody vengeance, rapidly stole away into the forest.
It was subsequently discovered that the murderer was
a young man named Crab tree, from the Wolf Hills (now
Abingdon), Virginia, about fifty miles to the northeast.
A brother of his had, not long before, been killed by the
Shawnees, while engaged in exploring with Boone in
Kentucky, and he had taken this inopportune time for
his revenge.
The Indians had left hastily, giving the whites no
time for explanation or parley. Eevenge—blood for
blood—was the cardinal doctrine of their theology, and
if something were not at once done to avert it, war,
bloody and exterminating, would soon be upon the settlers. And what could be done to avert it ? To flee the
country would be to merely invite pursuit, and a hundred miles of wilderness lay between them and any safe
asylum. To remain was just as hazardous, for how
could this handful of one hundred men sustain a conflict
with three thousand infuriated savages ?
Hastily the settlers gathered together in council, and
then it was that Eobertson volunteered, like Curtius, to
ride into the breach—at the peril of his life to visit, and
endeavor to pacify, the enraged Cherokees. It was a
hundred and fifty miles through an unbroken forest, with
death lurking behind every tree that grew by the way;

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

but what, he said, was one life periled to save five hundred ? Thus Eobertson reasoned with his neighbors and
friends; and then, giving a parting kiss to his wife and
child, he mounted his horse and rode off into the wilderness.
His route lay over the great Indian war-path, which
led from the Valley of Virginia, in a southwesterly direction, to the Cherokee towns on the Little Tennessee, following pretty nearly the course now taken by the East
Tennessee and Georgia Eailroad. Eobertson, however,
would turn aside from it at the junction of the Little
Tennessee and Tellico, and visit the capital town,
Echota, which I have already described, for here dwelt
Oconostota, and here no doubt was now in session the
great council, deliberating upon the fate of the white
settlers. Along the route were traces of the hurried
passage of the six hundred warriors only two days before ; but Eobertson encountered no one till about noon
on the second day, when he suddenly espied a white man,
coming toward him heavily armed, and finely mounted.
Each halted to reconnoitre the other for a few moments;
and then the stranger, uttering a pleasurable exclamation, rode forward and grasped the hand of Eobertson.
He was the Indian trader, Isaac Thomas, whom I have
mentioned as having been saved from the Tellico massacre twelve years before. He was living at Echota, and
had been sent by the Indian prophetess to Watauga, to
warn the settlers of their danger. He knew Eobertson,
and told him of his errand; and then the two concluded

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81

that he had better turn about and escort Eobertson to
the Cherokee headquarters.
This man, Isaac Thomas, on account of his services to
the colonists at this time, and during the Eevolution, is
deserving of particular mention. He belonged to a class
who were quite numerous upon the border, and of much
importance in the early history of the country. Of necessity well acquainted with the various avenues leading
to the Indian territory, and with the state of feeling
among the savages, and passing frequently between the
Indian towns and the white settlements, they were often
able to warn the whites of intended attacks, and to guide
such hostile parties as invaded the Indian country.
Though generally natives of North Carolina and Virginia, and known to be in sympathy with the colonists,
they were, if prudent of speech and behavior, allowed to
remain unmolested in the Indian towns, even when the
warriors were shouting the war-song and brandishing the
war-club on the eve of an intended attack on the settlements. The reason of this was, that traffic with them was
of great advantage to the Indian; for, with the trap or
rifle that he could get from the trader for a few skins, he
could secure more game in a day than his bow and arrow,
or rude " dead-fall," would procure in a month of toilsome hunting. The traders were, therefore, held in
high esteem by the Indians ; and the Cherokees encouraged their living and even marrying among them. In
fact, such alliances were deemed highly honorable, and
were of ten sought by the daughters of distinguished chief-

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

tains. Consequently, among the trader's other chattels
would often be found a dusky mate, and half a dozen
half-breed children ; and this, too, when .he already had
a wife and family somewhere in the settlements.
This, howeyer, was not the case with the trader we
haye now under notice. He was at this time a bachelor,
though he died the father of a large and highly respectable family in Sevier County, Tennessee. He is said to
have been a native of Virginia, and at this time about
forty years of age. He is described as being over six feet
in height, straight, strong-limbed, and wiry, and with a
frame so steeled by twenty years of forest-life that he
could endure almost any conceivable hardship. His features are said to have been strongly marked, but regular,
and to have worn an habitual expression of comic gravity; but on occasions his dark, deep-set eye had been
known to light up with a look of unconquerable pluck
and determination. He wore leggins, moccasins, and
bunting-shirt of buckskin; and from long exposure his
face, neck, and hands had become tanned to the color of
that material. His cool intrepidity had been shown on
many occasions ; and this quality, together with his immense strength, secured him great respect among the
Cherokees, who, like all uncivilized people, set a high
value on personal courage and mere physical prowess.
It is related that, shortly before the Tellico massacre, he
interfered in a feud between two Cherokee braves, who
had drawn their tomahawks to hew each other in pieces.
Having wrenched the weapons from their hands, both set

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83

upon him, and he cooled their heated yalor by lifting one
after the other into the air and tossing him into the
Tellico. One of those braves subsequently sayed his life
at the massacre near Fort Loudon.
It was fortunate for Eobertson that he encountered
this man, for it secured him safe-conduct and access to
the Cherokee chieftains at Echota. It was after dark
when they entered the long ayenue which was the only
street in the town. They had been met by a young
braye before reaching the precincts of the sacred city,
and him they had dispatched to apprise Oconostota of
the coming of Robertson. The answer was that the chief
of the pale-faces was welcome, and Oconostota would
give him audience on the morrow, when the great council of the nation would be in session.
Eobertson repaired for the night to the house of
Thomas — a one-and-a-half-story log-cabin, containing
the trader's stock of traps, guns, powder and lead, hatchets, looking-glasses, "stroud," beads, scarlet cloth, and
trinkets, articles of small cost, but highly prized by the
red-man. The incidents of this heroic visit have been
handed down from father to son among the descendants
of Robertson ; but I shall venture to relate only so many
of them as have been authenticated to me by two or
three independent narrations. Tradition states that
early on the following day the Indians from the near-by
settlements began to pour into Echota, till, by an hour
before noon, fully twelve hundred had gathered in the
open space around the council-house. They were all in

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

war-paint, and armed as if to go upon the war-path, and
the lowering looks they cast upon Eobertson, as he sat in
the doorway of the trader's cabin, spoke plainly of a general feeling of hostility to the white settlers. Evidently
the war-spirit of the tribe was aroused, and it would be a
miracle if Kobertson averted the storm that was impending. As the sun touched the meridian, a young brave
came to the house of Thomas, and announced that the
great chief of the Oherokees was seated in the midst of
his warriors, and would listen to the chief of the palefaces.
With much ceremony Eobertson was ushered into the
council-house, where some sixty of the chieftains were
collected. The larger number occupied the seats ranged
around the circumference of the room, but about a dozen
of the head men, or princes, of the tribe were seated in
a circle on the ground in the center of the apartment.
Among them were those Eobertson had met at Watauga,
and, as he was sorry to see, Dragging Canoe, head chieftain of the Ohickamaugas, a turbulent and bloodthirsty
warrior, who had absented himself from the council with
the whites, and refused to be a party to the lease of
land to the settlers. They all were arrayed in the highest style of Cherokee half-nakedness, and most of them
were of such herculean proportions that, standing among
them, Eobertson seemed but as a pygmy among giants.
Only one of them—Atta-Culla-Culla—was below six feet
in height, and all were broad-shouldered, deep-chested,
and of magnificent physical development. Their faces,

0 S THE OUTPOSTS.
1T

85

it is said, wore an expression of deep gravity and intense
passion, but passion under the control of reason. They
seemed bent upon action, but it would be action without
haste, and with a deliberate survey of the consequences.
Kobertson was a man of the keenest sensibilities, but
he had such wonderful control of his nerves as to have
the best command of himself when in the greatest danger. He knew that his own life, as well as the present
fate of Southwestern civilization, hung on what he said
and did during this interview; but, from what else we
know of him, we can readily believe that he was now as
cool and self-collected as if it had been he, and not the
savage and treacherous Oconostota, who was holding the
trembling scale whose upward or downward dip meant
life or death to hundreds of helpless women and children. It is said that the outer circle of chieftains rose
as Kobertson entered, and gathered about him with looks
of as much wonderment as was ever seen on the face of a
Cherokee. "What," they no doubt asked themselves,
" i s the secret of this man's unmoved serenity? He is
but one, we twelve hundred, and by our law of retaliation his life is forfeit. Whence, then, his look of singular power, as if he were a king, even greater than Oconostota ?" They had physical bravery, but they knew
nothing of moral courage, which, when a man has a
great purpose, lifts him above all thought of self, and
makes his life no more to him than the bauble he wears
upon his finger.
There was silence, it is said, for a few moments, when

86

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

Oconostota rose and gave Eobertson welcome to Echota.
Then he bade him speak, for he and his warriors would
listen. I regret that I can not give Robertson's exact
words on this important occasion. He never recounted
anything more than their substance, which was, that the
young brave had been killed by one not belonging to the
Watauga settlement. The murderer had fled, but would
surely be apprehended and dealt with as his crime deserved. Then he told the chieftains that the settlers
had come into the country desiring to live in peace with
all men, and more particularly with their neighbors the
brave Cherokees. By all means in their power, he and
his friends should endeavor always to cultivate with
them relations of good-fellowship.
The Indians listened at first with silent gravity, but,
as Eobertson went on, his evident sincerity awoke their
kindly feelings, and they gave them vent in a few expressive " U g h s ! " At the close the old archimagus
rose, and, turning to the chieftains, said: " What our
white brother says is like the truth. What say my
brothers ? Are not his words good ? "
The response was, " They are good," and a general
hand-shaking followed, during which all present urged
Robertson to remain a few days and partake of their
hospitality. Though anxious to return with the peaceful tidings, he considered it policy to remain. Thus he
converted possible enemies into positive friends, and they
were not alienated from him until the machinations of
Captain John Stuart lured them into the army of the

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87

civilized King of Great Britain on the outbreak of the
Eevolution.
While Eobertson was at Echota at this time, he made
the personal acquaintance of the prophetess of whom I
have spoken. This woman was the more than q u e e n she was the inspired sibyl—of the Oherokees. The power
of Oconostota was absolute in time of war, but, in war
or peace, it had to give way to that of the prophetess,
when she spoke the will of the invisible guardian of the
nation. Her influence was always exerted on the side of
humanity, and to this day she is held in grateful remembrance by the descendants of the early settlers. An instance of her kindly disposition toward the whites had
occurred just prior to Eobertson's visit to Echota. Two
settlers, named Jeremiah Jack and William Eankin, had
ventured down the Tellico with goods to exchange for
corn, and had come into collision with a disorderly party
of Oherokees. Their lives were about to be sacrificed,
when the prophetess suddenly appeared among the Indians, commanding them to desist from their hostile
intentions, for the white men were their brothers. The
settlers went back, their canoe loaded with corn, and
publishing everywhere the goodness of Nancy Ward, the
" Beloved Woman."
She is supposed to have been at this time about
thirty-five years of age. Her father had been an English
officer named Ward, but her mother was of the bloodroyal, being a sister of the reigning vice-king, AttaCulla-Culla. The accounts I have been able to glean of

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

her are scanty, but they are enough to show that she had
a most kind heart, and a sense of justice keen enough to
recognize the rights of the enemies of her nation. She
must have possessed very strong traits of character to
retain, as she did, almost autocratic control oyer the
fierce and untamable Cherokees, when she was known to
sympathize with and befriend the white settlers. Kobertson felt the importance of securing her continued
good-will, and he was accordingly glad of this opportunity of an interview. He has left no further account of
it, or of her, than that her lodge was furnished in a style
of barbaric splendor, and that she was a woman " queenly and commanding." He now returned as speedily as
he could to the settlers, who were waiting in anxious
suspense the result of his mission.
While Eobertson was away, Sevier had not been idle.
With the surprising energy characteristic of him, he had
built a fort at Watauga, and gathered every white settler into it, or safe within the range of its muskets. His
force was not more than a hundred strong; but, had
Eobertson been safely out of the savage hold, he would
not have objected to a visit from Oconostota and his
twelve hundred Ottari warriors. Sevier had no military
training, except such as he had received under his friend
Lord Dunmore, whose knowledge of the art of war was
not considered very great; but this rude and hastily
constructed log fortress was a model of military architecture.
It was located on Gap Creek, about half a mile north-

ON THE OUTPOSTS.

89

east of the Watauga, and on a gentle knoll, from around
which the trees, and even the stumps, were carefully
cleared to prevent their sheltering a lurking enemy.
The buildings have altogether crumbled away, but the
spot where they stood is identified by a few graves and a
large locust-tree, which remains to remind the visitor of
the first conflict between civilization and savagery beyond the Alleghanies. The fort covered a parallelogram
of about an acre, and was built of log-cabins placed at
intervals along the four sides, the logs notched and fitted
closely together, so that the walls were bullet-proof.
The outer side of the cabins formed the exterior of the
fort, the spaces between them being filled with palisades
of heavy timber, eight feet long, sharpened at the upper
ends, and set firmly in the ground. At each of the angles was a block-house about twenty feet square and two
stories high, the upper story projecting about two feet
beyond the lower, and provided with port-holes, so as to
command the sides of the buildings. The whole had
two wide gateways constructed to open quickly, and
thus admit of a sudden sally or the speedy rescue of outside fugitives. On one of these gateways was a lookout
station, commanding a wide view of the surrounding
country. The various buildings would comfortably
house two hundred people, but in an emergency a much
larger number could find shelter within the inclosure.
This fort was the original and model for a multitude
of others that were subsequently built beyond the
mountains. They were the forerunners of civilization—

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

the "voice crying in the wilderness," and announcing
the reign of peace which was to follow. Admirably
adapted to their object, they would, when properly
manned, easily repel any attack of fire-arms in the hands
of such desultory warriors as the Indians. In the arithmetic of the border, it soon came to be adopted as a rule
that one white man behind a wall of logs was equal to
twenty-five Indians in the open field, and subsequent
events proved this to have been not a vain-glorious reckoning.
These two events—Sevier's skill in putting the settlement in a posture for defense, and Bobertson's successful
embassy to the Cherokees—elevated the two young men
still higher in the estimation of the settlers; and they
never lost the leading positions they then attained—one
as the soldier, the other as the diplomatist, of the nascent commonwealth. In Bobertson's absence, Sevier had
embodied the settlers in a military company, of which
they proposed that he should have command; but he
insisted upon Eobertson being made captain and himself
lieutenant, and this while Eobertson had no military
experience, and he himself was a captain by commission
in the Virginia forces. But thus it ever was in the dealings of these two men with each other. In honor, one
always preferred the other.

CHAPTER IV.
BEE0BE THE STOEM.

years of unbroken peace with the -Cherokees
followed Robertson's visit to Oconostota. True to their
pledges, the Indians remained friendly, though often
suffering from the depredations of lawless white men
from the seaboard settlements. These were reckless,
desperate characters, fleeing from crime, who hoped to
find freedom for unbridled license in a new community.
Driven out by the Watauga settlers, they herded together
for a time in the forest, subsisting by hunting, fishing,
and preying upon the peaceable Cherokees, till at last,
hunted down by them, they took final refuge among the
Chickamaugas, the mongrel band of robbers and cutthroats, who were headed by the turbulent and savage
Dragging Canoe, of whom I shall have to speak hereafter.
But the stream of immigration that now poured over
the mountains was of a totally different character. It
flowed at first around the settlements on the Watauga,
and then spread along the Holston as far west as Carter's
Valley, and on lands not included in the lease from the
Indians. Among the new-comers were all classes—the
FOUR

92

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

trader, the hunter, the land-speculator, and the farmer,
but they were mostly of the latter class, who had come
for permanent occupation. They were nearly all from
Virginia, and of Scotch-Irish descent, generally poor,
and threading the old Indian war-path or some narrow
trace blazed by the hunters, with only a single packhorse, which carried all their worldly possessions. But
they had strong arms and stout hearts, and added at
once to the wealth and security of the young community. They became, by the mere act of settlement, large
land-owners, and their names are borne to-day by many
of the leading families of the Southwest. Forts, modeled after the one at Watauga, were built for the protection of the outlying settlers, and the colonists soon felt
as secure as in their old homes in Virginia.
In the fall of 1773 Boone again appeared in the Watauga settlement. He was on his way, with his wife and
children and the families of four or five other pioneers,
to make the first settlement in Kentucky. Hitherto no
white woman had ever crossed the Cumberland Mounttains. He set out for Cumberland Gap late in September, and was soon joined by a party of forty well-armed
hunters. The whole formed a caravan of eighty persons, and, unconscious of danger, they were proceeding
through a narrow defile when they were suddenly startled by the terrific yells of a large body of Indians. The
first fire killed six of the whites, among whom was a son
of Boone, aged twenty. The whole body then fell back
to the Watauga settlement, where Boone remained till

JBEFOBE THE STOEM.

93

after the close of what is known as Lord Dunmore's War,
which soon broke out along the borders of Virginia.
The scene of hostilities was remote from the "Watauga
settlers, but it soon became known among them that
Logan had succeeded in combining most of the northern
tribes against the whites, and was then endeavoring to
draw the Cherokees and Chickasaws into the coalition.
This done, the tomahawk and scalping-knife would be
brandished about their own dwellings. Weak as they
were, they at once volunteered for the aid of their old
friends in Virginia. John Sevier resumed his rank in
the Virginia line, and took command of a company in
Colonel Innes's regiment, and Evan Shelby raised fifty
volunteers, and with them hastened to join General
Lewis on the Ohio. In this company Isaac Shelby—
who, we have seen, received his commission from the
commandant of Fincastle County two years before—was
lieutenant, and James Robertson and Valentine Sevier,
Jr., were appointed sergeants. Thus it appears that,
while Sevier had gone up one grade in military rank,
Eobertson had come down several grades; but both
" promotions " were voluntary. It mattered nothing to
either of these men whether they served in the rank or
file, fought on foot or on horseback. The thing to do
was to strike the blow where and when it was needed.
The Watauga company marched twenty-five days
through a trackless wilderness, over mountain-gorges,
and amid deep defiles, where not even an Indian trail
had made a pathway, and at last joined the Virginia

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KEAK-GUAKD OF THE KEVOLUTIOK

army as it lay encamped near the junction of the Kanawha and the Ohio. For the details of the battle fought
there, I must refer to other histories. I only allude to
it here because it was in this, the most fiercely contested
Indian conflict ever fought on this continent, that the
" t a l l Watauga boys" were apprenticed to the bloody
trade it was theirs to follow for almost a generation.
Here, too, the singular fortune attended them which
made them thrice again the deciders of a great conflict.
In the morning they saved the army from surprise, and
in the evening they turned the tide to victory. At four o'clock, on the morning of October 10, 1774,
one thousand Virginians lay sleeping under the trees at
the mouth of the Kanawha, dreaming of their homes,
and their wives and children—dreaming, when not two
miles away fifteen hundred Shawnees, Delawares, and
Mingoes, led by the heroic Cornstalk and the infuriated
Logan, were stealing down upon them. It js the hour
when men sleep the soundest; but just then James
Eobertson and Valentine Sevier awoke, and, taking their
guns, went out to shoot some deer for the breakfast of
their company. They had not proceeded far before they
heard the stealthy glide of some large body through
the forest. They halt and listen; and soon, not ten
paces away, they see through the darkness the creeping forms of the on-coming enemy. They discharge
their pieces at the advancing horde; then turn and
make all speed to alarm the sleeping army. The sudden
discharge of the two rifles brought the Indians to a

BEFORE THE STORM.

95

halt, and gaye time for the Virginians to form in
readiness to receive them.
All day the battle raged, at times like the howling
of a tempest, and all day the yictory wayered, now to
this side and now to that, till the dead were piled in
heaps, and more than one fifth of both armies had
fallen. But, still the yoice of Cornstalk was heard
aboye the din, bidding his warriors " Be strong!
Press forward !" Colonel Lewis had fallen early in
the fight, leaving his regiment to the command of Evan
Shelby; and now, just as darkness is coming on, with
the battle yet undecided, Isaac Shelby, who is left in
command of the Watauga company, sees that, by creeping along the bank of the Kanawha, he can, in the
shelter of the underbrush, gain the rear of the enemy.
Taking two other companies with him, he does this,
and then pours a sudden and destructive volley upon
the savages. Taken thus between two fires, the Indians
are panic-stricken and flee in all directions. In vain
Cornstalk and Logan attempt to rally them. They
scatter, like October leaves before the wind, to their
far homes on the Scioto. Peace soon follows; and then
Boone is at liberty to pursue his darling project of settling Kentucky.
But for the intrigues of John Stuart, and the barbarous policy adopted by the British Cabinet of midnight
massacre among men and women of their own kindred,
this victory would have effectually cowed the savages,
and brought permanent peace to the border. As it was,

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KEAK-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

the fact that a thousand frontiersmen could be got
together at the tap of a drum, to fight all day as they
fought at Point Pleasant, seemed to be a lesson lost
upon both the British and the Indians.
Peace being concluded, the Watauga fifty returned
to their homes, racked their rifles and powder-horns
over their doorways, and resumed the axe and the
plow with which they were subduing the wilderness.
Sevier remained behind in Virginia, detained by the
illness of his wife, who soon after died, leaving him, at
the age of twenty-nine, a widower with two manly boys
of nine and eleven years. He had been married before
he was seventeen.
In the mean time, in his enforced idleness, Boone
had been dreaming of Kentucky, and Colonel Eichard
Henderson had continued to indulge in his splendid
vision of a great commonwealth beyond the Cumberland. The Six Nations had relinquished their title to
this territory to his Majesty King George ; but the
Cherokees still claimed the whole of Kentucky as a
hunting-ground. Their title must be extinguished before any peaceable occupation could be had of the country. Robertson had been much among them during
the more than four years he had been their neighbor;
had acquired their language, and won the friendship
of some of their principal chieftains; and he now reported to Boone that the nation had become fond of
gay clothing, ear and nose jewels, and tinkling ornaments, and if those were offered them in sufficient

BEEOKE THE STOEM.

97

quantity the Indians would no doubt sell their northern hunting-grounds. "Upon this hint, Boone conferred
with Colonel Henderson; and then with one or two
companions he went among the Cherokees. "None of
you/ 5 he said to them, "have towns in that wilderness.
Other Indian hunters kill the game there—probably
more of it than you do. We will pay you for your
claim. Come to the Sycamore Shoals [Watauga], and
have a talk with your friends."
On the 17th of March, 1775, the Indians came, twelve
hundred warriors ; and again all the settlers—now numbering two hundred and fifty men, besides women and
children—gathered together to meet them, till at least
two thousand people were collected around the fort at
Watauga. Among the Indians were Oconostota, AttaCulla-Culla, and the principal chieftains of the tribe;
and among the whites were Sevier, Kobertson, Boone,
Henderson, and some of his associates in the land company. A great pow-wow ensued, with feasting and dancing, and other "manly exercises," and during it the
trinkets which had been laboriously brought from over
the mountains on pack-horses were temptingly displayed
before the simple savages. Their eyes were dazzled by the
gilded show, and their heads turned by the fire-water of
Henderson, till they were eager to sell their birthright
for this mess of pottage. But not so Oconostota. He
was fond of the whisky of the white man, but in the
dregs of his cup he beheld a vision of the future of his
red race, and, in the great council which followed, he
5

28

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

lifted up his voice in what—read now at the distance of a
century—we see was a prophecy.
He began by reminding the Indians of the time,
which he could remember, when his nation could count
sixty populous towns, and muster six thousand invincible
warriors; and then he spoke of the gradual encroachments
of the white man, how step by step he had advanced upon
their hunting-grounds, and how the red-man had withered and vanished away before him. He told how the
white man's insatiable greed for land had robbed them of
the homes and groves of their ancestors, and how whole
nations had melted away in his presence, like snow before
the sun, leaving scarcely their names behind, except as
recorded in the boastful annals of their enemies and destroyers. He had once hoped the white man would not
penetrate beyond the mountains, so far was it from the
ocean on which he traded and kept up his connections
with his race in Europe. But this hope had now vanished. He had crossed the Alleghanies and settled upon
the Cherokee lands, and now he wanted his encroachment
sanctioned by the solemnity of a treaty. Grant him that,
and the same encroaching spirit would lead him upon
other land of the Cherokees. He would call for new cessions, till at last the country which held their wigwams,
and had, time out of mind, been the home of their ancestors, would be wrested from them, and the weak remnant
of a once great nation would be driven into the far Western wilderness, there to dwell for but a short space before
they again beheld the advancing banners of the same

BEFORE THE STORM.

99

greedy host, and were driven westward to the great
ocean beyond the setting sun, where, there being no land
left except for their graves, the white man would proclaim the total extinction of their race.
Oconostota closed his impassioned address by urging
the Cherokees to run all risks and incur all consequences
rather than submit to any further encroachments of the
white race.
In a grand council of the Indians all have a right to
speak, and it is what a man says, and not the man who
says it, that gives weight to the words which are uttered.
Oconostota was a great and wise chieftain, but he had
no sooner taken his seat than a young warrior arose,
whose eyes had been dazzled by the white man's trinkets.
He reminded the Indians that their hereditary enemies,
the Shawnees, the Mingoes, the Senecas, and the Delawares, often came to their northern hunting-grounds,
and if they met there a Cherokee they left his bones to
be buried in the winter's snow. The white man knew
how to meet them, and if he settled Kentucky he would
be a wall between the Cherokees and their northern enemies.
His words, and the eloquence of Henderson's trinkets, prevailed over the appeal of Oconostota, and the old
arehimagus was obliged to assent to the desired cession,
and to sign the treaty which followed.
Then it appearing, writes Sevier, " t h a t persons of
distinction were actually making purchases forever—gentlemen of the law, supposed to be better judges of the

100

KEAR-GUAED OF THE REVOLUTION.

Constitution than we were—thus yielding a precedent;
and considering the bad consequences which would attend the reversion being purchased out of our hands, we
next proceeded to make a purchase of the lands, reserving those in our possession in sufficient tracts for our
own use, and resolving to dispose of the remainder for
the good of the community."
This treaty was signed two days subsequent to the
Henderson purchase; and thus the settlers, "for two
thousand pounds sterling, paid in goods," became possessed of their homes in fee simple. When the two
treaties had been executed, Oconostota said to Boone,
" Young man, we have sold you a fine territory; but I
fear you will have some difficulty in getting it settled "—
which remark shows that the wily old chieftain, though
for the moment overborne by the greed of his people for
gewgaws, was already meditating the dark and treacherous policy which made him for twenty years the most
powerful enemy of "Western civilization. Even when infirm and almost bedridden, his unconquerable spirit continued to animate the whole Cherokee nation; and he
did not die till his old eyes had beheld his prophecy
fulfilled in the natural result of his own deeds—his nation crushed and trodden underfoot by John Sevier, and
about to be driven to a far-distant wilderness beyond the
Mississippi.
When the execution of the Watauga treaties became
known in North Carolina, the royal governor of that
province issued a proclamation declaring them illegal,

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101

and without authority from his government. This soon
reached the ears of the Cherokees, and helped Oconostota
to bring oyer the nation to the yiew that the treaties were
of no binding force whatever. This was the kind of protection which the British gave to the colonists.
In but little more than a month after the signing of
these treaties, the battles of Lexington and Concord were
fought; and the shot which was soon to be "heard
around the world" echoed in that secluded hamlet on
the "Watauga. As it sounded through those old woods,
every backwoodsman sprang to his feet, grasped his rifle,
and asked to be enrolled for the succor of his countrymen on the seaboard. In that whole mountain-region
there was not a single Tory. Every man among them
was a patriot, burning to fight, and, if need be, to die
for his country. And their patriotism was not stimulated by British oppression. They were beyond the
reach of the "red-coated minions" of King George.
No tax-gatherer had ever been among them. They paid
no tea nor stamp duty, for they drank corn-whisky
flavored with spring-water, and sealed their legal documents with melted rosin and a hot poker. As Sevier
expressed it, it was their love for " t h e glorious cause of
liberty" which led them to enroll, " a t the expense and
risk of their private fortunes," a fine body of riflemen, to
act on the seaboard in defense of the common cause.
Up to this time, for more than five years, they had
stood alone, giving to, and not receiving aid from, the
seaboard settlements—and this while surrounded by a

102

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

dense host of sayages. And now what do they do ?
The worthy annalist of Tennessee, Dr. J. G-. M. Eamsey,
searching some time ago among the archives of North
Carolina, discovered, " i n an old bundle of paper.s, lying,
on an upper shelf, almost out of reach, and probably not
seen before for seventy-five years," a document in the
handwriting of John Seyier, which answers the question.
They proceed to address a memorial to the patriot (rebel)
Legislature of North Carolina, asking to be "annexed"
to that colony, that they may aid in the "present"unhappy contest," and bear their "full proportion" of the
Continental expenses. This memorial was signed by one
hundred and fourteen—-every man then present at the
"Watauga station—and all but two of them were able to
affix their names in good, legible English.
Their petition was granted, and the whole of what is
now Tennessee was organized into what was called, in
honor of the newly made commander of the American
armies, the "Washington District," with power to elect
delegates to a Constitutional Convention, which was soon
to assemble at Halifax, North Carolina, to form a State
Constitution. John Sevier, Charles Eobertson, and John
Carter were elected delegates to this convention, and they
attended, leaving James Eobertson to manage affairs at
home. In the Declaration of Eights which was adopted
by this Congress is this clause, introduced by Sevier into
the article defining the limits of the State : " That it shall
not be so construed as to prevent the establishment of
one or more governments westward of this State, by con-

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103

sent of the Legislature " ; thus showing that he had already in mind the establishment of a separate commonwealth beyond the Alleghanies.
The riflemen who had been embodied were not dispatched to the seaboard, because a hostile feeling was
soon manifested among the Cherokees, and it became
apparent that every able-bodied man among them would
speedily be needed for the defense of their own firesides.
The policy of employing the scalping-knife of the
Indian as the ally of England in her conflict with her
reyolted colonies was denounced in Parliament by the
great Lord Chatham, but it was inaugurated by the
British Cabinet at the very beginning of the struggle,
and was persisted in even up to the War of 1812. The
ignominy of thus arraying savagery against civilization
belongs, by way of eminence, to John Stuart, British
superintendent of Southern Indian affairs, who himself,
as we have seen, so narrowly escaped a savage death at
the hands of the infuriated Oconostota. He first conceived and instigated the barbarous policy, and, as early
as June 12, 1775, he concerted with General Gage, then
commander-in-chief of the British armies in America, a
gigantic scheme for the banding together of all the Western tribes in a combined attack on the rear of the colonies, while the British forces should make a simultaneous
descent on the Southern seaboard. Gage laid the plan
before the British Cabinet, and, early in 1776, Captain
Stuart received instructions from the English War De-

104:

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

partment to carry it into execution. The details of it
may be gathered from the following words of a British
historian: *
" British agents were employed in engaging the Indians to make a diversion and to enter the Southern colonies on their back and defenseless parts. Accustomed
to their disposition and habits of mind, the agents found
but little difficulty in bringing them oyer to their purpose
by presents and hopes of spoil and plunder. A large
body of men was to be sent to West Florida, in order to
penetrate through the territory of the Creeks, Chiekasaws, and Cherokees. The warriors of these nations
were to join the body, and the Caroliuas and Virginia
were immediately to be invaded. At the same time, the
attention of the colonies was to be diverted by another
formidable naval and military force, which was to make
an impression on the sea-coast. But this undertaking
was not to depend solely on the British army and Indians. It was intended to engage the assistance of such
of the white inhabitants of the back settlements as were
known to be well affected to the British cause. Circular
letters were accordingly sent to those persons by Mr.
Stuart, requiring not only the well-affected, but also
those who wished to preserve their property from the
miseries of a civil war, to repair to the royal standard as
soon as it should be erected in the Cherokee country,
with all their horses, cattle, and provisions, for which
they should be liberally paid."
* 0. Stedman, " History of the American War," vol. i.

BEFOKE THE STOEM.

105

Thus the colonists were to be encircled by a cordon
of fire ; every man's home was to be enveloped in flames,
and his worst foes were to be those of his own household. The plan was studiously concealed at the time,
but was subsequently brought to light in the pages of
an English historian, who was himself an actor in the
events. Twice the British attempted to put it into
execution, and twice they failed, by the help of Almighty God and that handful of backwoodsmen on the
banks of the Watauga. They were only a handful, and
thus have almost escaped the notice of historians, but
they bore the brunt of the savage onset, and, while it
was yet burning, extinguished the brand that was intended to consume the colonies.

CHAPTEE V.
THE PIEST STBUGGLE.

T H E British fleet under Sir Peter Parker was to capture Charleston, and to land a large army under Sir
Henry Clinton. This force was to overrun the Carolinas
and Virginia, while a strong body of Creeks and Cherokees, led by Oconostota, Dragging Canoe, and other
chieftains, should devastate the western border. Thus
the Southern colonies would be enveloped and crushed
in the folds of an anaconda. But of this bloody plan
the colonists were as yet in total ignorance.
Alexander Cameron was still the British agent, subordinate to Stuart, living among the Cherokees. He
had a personal animosity against Sevier and Eobertson,
and the kind of loyalty which did not scruple to commit midnight massacre in the interest of his sovereign.
Early in 1775 the settlers were apprized by the Indian
trader, Isaac Thomas, that Cameron was at Echota, endeavoring to incite the Cherokees to hostilities by the
hopes of spoil and plunder, and the recovery of the hunting-grounds out of which, he said, they had been defrauded by the Watauga treaty. The Indians could not
at first understand how men of the same race and Ian-

THE FIRST STRUGGLE.

107

guage could be at war with one another. It had never
been so known in Indian tradition. But an event soon
occurred which showed that the virus implanted by the
crafty Scotchman had begun to spread among the younger braves, and might soon break out over the whole nation.
A trader named Andrew Greer, whose home was at
Watauga, had been on a trading visit to Echota. He
had disposed of his wares, and was about to return with
the furs he had received in exchange, when he thought
he perceived signs of hostile feeling among some of the
young warriors. Fearing an ambuscade on his way
home, he left the usual route over the great war-path,
and took a less frequented trail along the Nolichucky.
Two other traders, named Boyd and Dagget, who left
Echota on the following day, pursued the usual route,
and were waylaid and murdered at a small stream, which
has ever since borne the name of Boyd's Creek. In a
few days their bodies were discovered, only half-concealed
in the shallow water; and, as the tidings flew from hamlet to hamlet, universal alarm and indignation were excited throughout the white settlements.
The settlers had been so long at peace with the
Cherokees that they had been lulled into a false security ;
but they knew that the savage, having once tasted blood,
would have his appetite whetted by what it fed on ; and
they must now prepare for a desperate struggle with
an enemy of twenty times their number. The fort at
Watauga was at once put in a condition for efficient de-

108

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

fense; smaller forts were erected in the center of every
scattered settlement, and a larger one was built on the
frontier, near the confluence of the North and South
Forks of the Holston. This last was called Fort Patrick
Henry, in honor of the patriot Governor of Virginia; the
one on the Watauga received the name of Fort Lee.
Every able-bodied male, sixteen years of age and over,
was now enrolled, placed under competent officers, and
drilled for the struggle that seemed to be impending.
All were unerring marksmen, and all were armed with
the famous Deckard rifle, a gun with a stock three to
four feet long, and a barrel of about thirty inches, spiral
grooved, and of remarkable precision for a long shot.
But the winter wore away without any further act of
hostility on the part of the Cherokees. Oconostota, who
was deeper in the counsels of Stuart than even Cameron,
knew that the time for action had not yet arrived. He
therefore held back; and he was able to restrain the
younger warriors who thirsted for the conflict, because of
the excitement and glory they could find only in war.
Nancy "Ward was in the secrets of the Cherokee leaders,
and every word uttered in their councils she fully reported to Isaac Thomas, by whom intelligence was constantly conveyed by trusty messengers to Sevier and Eobertson.
Thus things went on till the spring of 1776, when
John Stuart himself appeared among the Cherokees,.
bound on a personal mission to the Northern tribes, with
several boat-loads of arms and ammunition, to prepare

THE FIRST STRUGGLE.

109

them for the coming contest. He and Oconostota kept
their own counsel, but Nancy Ward reported that his
coming boded an early attack upon the settlements. At
last, on the 30th of May, 1776, she said to Thomas :
" Send my white brothers word to be ready; for the bolt
will fall very soon, and at midnight. Let them be vigilant and well prepared."
Sevier at once sent to Colonel Preston, commandant
of the Virginia border, for an additional supply of powder and lead. Two hundred pounds of lead and half as
much powder were all that could be spared, but this was
at once distributed—the greater part being sent to Fort
Patrick Henry, the most exposed position on the frontier. The settlement was now under the government of
North Carolina, but no military officer had yet been
placed in command of the district. The entire force of
the settlers was two hundred and ten men, forty of
whom were at Fort Lee, under Sevier and Koberfcson; the
rest at and near Fort Patrick Henry, under no less than
six militia captains, no one of whom was bound to obey the
order of any of the others. This many-headed authority would, doubtless, have wrought disaster to the loosejointed force, had there not been with it, as a volunteer
private, the young man of twenty-five who had turned
the tide at Point Pleasant. Here again was he to show
that he "deserved well of his country."
Now, from the 30th of May, 1776, until the 11th of
July following, the settlers sleep with their rifles in their
hands, expecting every night to hear the war-whoop of

110

REAR-GUARD OF THE REYOLUTIOJST.

the Cherokees, and every day to receive some messenger
from Nancy Ward, who shall announce that the warriors
are on the march to the settlements. At last messengers
came—four at once, as we may see by the following letter from Sevier to the Virginia Committee of Safety :
"FORT LEE, July 11,1776.

" DEAR GEKTLEMEJT : Isaac Thomas, William Falling, Jarot Williams, and one more, have this moment
come in by making their escape from the Indians, and
say six hundred Indians and whites were to start for
this fort, and intend to drive the country up to New
Biver before they return.
J O H K SEyiER."
He says nothing of the feeble fort, or its slender
garrison of forty men, about to be outnumbered fifteen
to one. He asks for no re-enforcements ; and he shows
no fear in face of the great peril. The letter is merely
to warn his Virginia friends that the country is to be
driven as far up as New River. It is altogether characteristic of the man, absolutely fearless, and thinking
always, in however great a strait, first of others and last
of himself.
The details of the information brought by Thomas
to Sevier and Eobertson showed how truthfully Nancy
Ward had previously reported the secret designs of the
Cherokees. The whole nation was about to go upon the
war-path. With the Creeks, they were to make a descent upon Georgia; and with the Shawnees, Mingoes,

THE FIKST STKUGGLE.

HI

and Delawares, upon the exposed parts of Virginia;
while seven hundred chosen Ottari warriors were to fall
upon the settlers on the Watauga, Holston, and Nolichucky. This last force was to be divided into two
bands of three hundred and fifty men each, one of
which, under Oconostota, was to attack the fort at
Watauga, the other, under Dragging Canoe, to capture
Fort Patrick Henry, which they supposed to be only
weakly defended. But the two bodies were to act together—one supporting the other in case the settlers
made a stouter defense than was anticipated.
The preparations for the march Thomas had himself
seen; its objects, and the points to be attacked, he had
learned from Nancy Ward, who had come to his cabin
at midnight on the 7th of July, and urged his immediate departure for the settlements. He had delayed
setting out till the following night, in order to give his
information to his friends William Falling, Jarot and
Isaac Williams, who he proposed should set out at the
same time, but by different routes, so that, in case one
or more of them should be waylaid and killed, there
might be a chance for at least one to get through to the
settlements. However, at the last moment, the British
agent, Cameron, had himself disclosed the purpose of
the expedition to Falling and the two brothers Williams, and detailed them, with a Captain Guest, to go
along with the Indians as far as the Nolichucky.
There they were to scatter among the settlements, and
warn any "king's m a n " to join the Indians, or to

112

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

wear a certain badge by which he would be known and
protected in any attack from the savages. They all
had set out with the Indians; but had escaped from
them during the night of the 8th, and arrived in
safety at Watauga.
Falling was sent with Sevier's letter into Virginia;
the two brothers Williams were dispatched to give the
alarm at Fort Patrick Henry; but Thomas remained
to fight it out with the little garrison at Watauga.
Then, in those July days, when the bells throughout
the country were pealing out the newly declared birth
of a nation, those forty resolute men prime afresh their
rifles, and wait, with bated breath, the onset of the
savage horde that the British have let loose for the
butchery of the two hundred women and children who
crouch there under their protection.
But the first attack was not at Watauga. The garrison at Fort Patrick Henry had two days' prior tidings
from the Cherokees. Only a few men were stationed
at the fort, the rest being scattered among the outlying
stations, but all were within easy supporting distance.
The women and children had been gathered into the
fort at Watauga, or hastily sent on pack-horses over the
line into Virginia near the head of the Holston, to what
was known as the Backwater settlements. Scouts were
kept out in all directions; and on the morning of July
19th they came in, reporting a large body of Indians,
only twenty miles away, and marching directly upon the
garrison. Kunners were sent out at once to bring in

THE FIRST STRUGGLE.

113

the scattered forces, and by nightfall one hundred and
seyenty men had gathered at the fort, ready to meet
the enemy.
Then a council was held by the six militia captains
to decide upon the best plan of action. The most were
in fayor of awaiting the attack of the sayages behind the
walls of the fort; but two of them—James Shelby (a
younger brother of Isaac), and William Cocke, afterward
honorably conspicuous in the history of Tennessee—proposed the bolder course of encountering the enemy in
the open field. If they did not do this, there would be
danger that the Indians, passing them on the flank,
would fall on and massacre the defenseless women and
children who had been sent to the rear. It was a step
of extreme boldness—for the little force expected to
encounter the entire body of seyen hundred Cherokees
—but it was agreed to unanimously.
Early on the following morning the little army,
with flankers and an adyance guard of twelve, marched
out to meet the enemy. They had not gone far before
the men in advance came upon about twenty of the
Indians, who at once turned and fled precipitately.
The adyance guard pursued, and the main body followed for some distance, but without coming upon any
considerable body of the enemy. Mght now was soon
coming o n ; and they were in a country broken into
defiles, and overgrown with underbrush, and thus favorable to an Indian ambuscade. Fearing this, the officers called a,halt; and in another council decided to

114:

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

retrace their steps to the fort, and wait for the morning. It was difficult to restrain the men from an advance, but the return march was begun, and had proceeded about a mile, when suddenly in their rear appeared the whole force of the enemy. Evidently the
twenty Indians had been a decoy to lead the whites
into an ambuscade; and, seeing it had failed, the savages had come on to fight in the open field.
The whites wheeled about, and were forming into
line, when the whole body of Indians rushed furiously
upon them, not waiting to reload their rifles, but brandishing their scalping-knives and tomahawks, and shouting : " The Unakas are running ! Come on, and scalp
them !" Simultaneously they attacked the center and
left flank of the whites ; and then was seen the hazard
of going into battle with a many-headed commander.
For a moment all was confusion, and the companies
were being broken in attempting to form in the face
of the impetuous attack, when Isaac Shelby—having no
command, and present only as a volunteer—rushed to the
front, and ordered each company a few steps to the rear,
to reform, while he and four others should meet the
onset of the savages.
Eecognizing in the young volunteer their natural
leader, the men obeyed his command instantly; and
during the few moments occupied in forming into line
he and Lieutenants William Moore, Eobert Edmiston,
and John Morrison, and private John Eindley, the old
companion of Boone, bore the brunt of the assault. In

THE FIEST STRUGGLE.

115

hand-to-hand conflict Edmiston slew three or four of
the Indians, Morrison as many more, Findley was badly wounded, and then Moore became engaged in a desperate struggle with a herculean chieftain, and, as if by
general consent, the Indians paused to await its issue.
This delay, no doubt, saved much loss of life among
the one hundred and seventy. It lasted for some minutes, but ended by Moore's sinking his tomahawk into
the brain of the Indian.
Meanwhile the whites had formed into line, and
poured a destructive volley in among the Oherokees, who,
now that the single-handed conflict was over, made a
rapid movement upon the five men who so bravely stood
as a forlorn hope during those few perilous moments.
The five fell back into the line, but Edmiston, being in
the center, still bore the weight of a furious assault.
He was a strict Scotch Presbyterian, but is said to have
been called to account for some profane language used
on this occasion. Twenty-six savages were dead upon
the ground, and Dragging Canoe himself was badly
wounded, before they gave up the contest. Then they
slowly withdrew, carrying off their wounded. In all,
forty of them were killed. Of the whites, none were
killed, and only four seriously disabled.
The conflict over, Shelby sent off a horseman with
the tidings to Watauga. " A great day's -work in the
woods !" was Sevier's exultant remark, when the messenger told him of the astonishing victory.
Meanwhile Oconostota and his three hundred and

116

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

fifty warriors had followed the trail along the Noliehucky, and, on the morning of the 20th, had come
upon the house of William Bean, the hospitable entertainer of Robertson on his first visit to Watauga. The
small fort near by had been abandoned, and all the settlers, men, women, and children, had fled for protection
to Fort Lee—all except the good Mrs. Bean, who, having
many friends among the Indians, was confident she
would not be molested. In this she was mistaken. The
Indians took her captive, and removed her to their camp
on the Nolichucky. There she was brought before Oconostota, who questioned her as to the strength of the
whites and the disposition of their forces. She gave him
misleading replies, with which he appeared satisfied;
but another chieftain pointed his rifle at her as if to fire,
when the old king threw up the barrel, and assured Mrs.
Bean that she should not be killed, but taken to their
towns to teach the Indian women how to manage a
dairy.
The garrison at the fort knew that Oconostota was
near by on the Noliehucky, but he had deferred the
attack so long that they concluded the wary old chieftain had decided to wait till he could be re-enforced by
Dragging Canoe after the capture of Fort Patrick Henry.
News had reached them of Shelby's victory, and, thinking it would be some days before the broken Cherokees
could rally to the support of Oconostota, they were in no
apprehension of sudden danger. Hence, they went about
their vocations much as usual, and so it was that a

THE FIEST STRUGGLE,

117

number of women ventured outside the fort in the early
morning of July 21st. Among them was one who was
afterward to occupy for many years the position of the
first lady in Tennessee. Her name was Catherine Sherrill, and she was the daughter of one of the first settlers.
I know of no portrait of her in existence, but tradition
describes her as being now about twenty years old, tall,
straight as an arrow, and lithe as a hickory sapling. She
had, it is said, regular features, dark eyes, flexible nostrils, a neck like a swan, a clear, transparent skin, and
a wealth of dark-brown hair that was in striking contrast
with the whiteness of her complexion. A free life in the
woods had made her as agile as a deer, and she had been
known to place her hand upon a six-barred fence, and,
encumbered by her womanly attire, to clear it at a
single bound. Now her agility was to do her essential
service.
"While, unconscious of danger, she and some other
women were engaged in domestic pursuits at a little distance from the fort, suddenly the war-whoop echoed
through the woods, and a band of yelling savages rushed
out upon them. Quick as thought the women spring to
their feet and dart toward the gate of the fort; but the
savages are close upon them in a neck-and-neck race, and
Catherine, more remote than the rest, is cut off from the
entrance. Sevier sees her danger, and, with about a
dozen others, opens the gate and is rushing out to her
rescue, in the face of two or three hundred savages,
when Eobertson holds him back, saying, " You can not

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help her, and going out will destroy the whole of us."
Then they coyer her with their rifles, and Seyier sends
at least one of her pursuers to the happy huntinggrounds.
At a glance Kate takes in the situation. She can
haye no help from her friends, and the tomahawk and
scalping-knife are close behind her. The savages are
between her and the gate of the fort, but quickly she
turns, and, fleeter than the deer, makes for a point in
the stockade at some distance from the entrance. The
palisades are eight feet high, but with one bound she
reaches the top, then clambers oyer, and falls into the
arms of Seyier, who is waiting to receive her. Then,
for the first time, he calls her his " Bonnie Kate," his
"brave girl for a foot-race." The other women have
entered at the gate in safety.
The baffled savages now opened fire, and for a full
hour it rains bullets upon the little inclosure. But the
missiles fall harmless; not a man is wounded. Driven
by the light charges the Indians use, the bullets merely
bound from the thick logs, and do no kind of damage.
But it was not so with the fire of the besieged. The
order was, "Wait till you are sure of your man—don't
waste your powder"; and so every one of those forty rifles
did terrible execution.
For twenty days the Indians hung about the fort, but
not a man who kept within the walls was so much as
wounded. But it was not so with a man and a boy who,
made bold by a few days' silence of the Indians, vent-

THE FIRST STRUGGLE.

119

ured to go outside and down to the river. The man
was scalped on the spot; the boy was reserved for a
worse fate, when the fight was over, in one of the Indian villages. He was a younger brother of Lieutenant
Moore, who fought so bravely at Fort Patrick Henry.
At the end of twenty days Oconostota heard of re-enforcements being on the way from Virginia for the relief
of the garrison, and, baffled and dispirited, he fell back
to his home on the Tellico. He had lost about sixty
killed, and probably had a larger number wounded, and
he had inflicted next to no damage upon the white settlers. Instead of spoil and glory, he had given only
death and disgrace to his warriors ; and now they clamor
for leave to hunt other game than such as wields a Deckard rifle—all but Dragging Canoe and his band of Chickamauga bandits. This chieftain's wound had made him
furious. He was enraged beyond expression, and thirsting for vengeance. Only two prisoners were in his power, but on them he determined to wreak the extremest
tortures.
Young Moore was taken to the village of his captor,
high up in the mountains, and there burned at a stake;
and a like fate was determined for Mrs. Bean, the kindly
woman from whose hospitable door no one—white man
or red—ever went away unwelcome. Oconostota would
have spared her life, but Dragging Canoe insisted that she
should be offered a sacrifice to the manes of his fallen
warriors; and the opposition of even the archimagus
was powerless.

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KEAK-GUAKD OF THE EEVOLUTION.

Mrs. Bean was taken to the summit of one of the
ancient burial-mounds, which are still so numerous
along the banks of the Tellico. She is here tied to a
stake, the fagots are heaped about her, and fire is about
to be set to them, when suddenly Nancy "Ward appeals
among the throng of revengeful savages and orders a
stay of the execution. Dragging Canoe is a powerful
chieftain, but he is not powerful enough to combat the
will of this woman. Mrs. Bean is not only liberated—
with an honorable escort she is sent back to her husband.
The body of Indians under Dragging Canoe, which
was defeated near Port Patrick Henry, scattered at once
into the forest. The larger number went directly south
with their wounded chieftain, but a portion broke up
into small bands in pursuit of plunder. One of these
small parties strayed as far east as Wolf Hills—now
Abingdon—in the "Holston Valley" district of Virginia. The Eev. Charles Cummings had been pastor
of two congregations here since 1772. He was a godly
man, and a very efficient member of the church militant
—what in our days would be termed a "fighting parson." It was his custom on Sundays to array himself in
his clerical vestments, and, with a shot-pouch slung about
his neck and a rifle thrown over his shoulders, to enter
his church, and, thus armed, ascend the pulpit. Then,
laying his pouch on the cushion before him, and standing his rifle in a corner, he would begin religious services
to a congregation armed in much the same manner.
As this gentleman with four others was going to work

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121

in his field a few days after the battle near Fort Patrick
Henry, they were suddenly attacked by one of Dragging
Canoe's marauding bands. The first fire killed one—
who had fought in the battle—and wounded two of the
others; but with, the remaining man Cummings beat
back his twenty assailants, and brought off the wounded
men in safety. He subsequently accompanied Sevier in
most of his campaigns ; and it was profanely said of him
that he never went into a fight without stripping off his
coat, " praying like time, and then fighting like—hades !"
It was this man, with about a hundred of his parishioners, who was now hurrying to the relief of the beleaguered garrison at Watauga. Evan Shelby also raised
a hundred horsemen and marched to the fort; but, before
the arrival of either party, Oconostota had hastily raised
the siege and withdrawn to the Tellico.
Oconostota did not set out upon his raid along the
border until he had been told by John Stuart that the
guns of Sir Peter Parker had opened upon Fort Moultrie
in Charleston Harbor. As has been said, the two attacks
were parts of one huge plan, involving a vast expense,
and nearly a year's preparation. A large fleet and five
thousand British soldiers and seamen were employed in
the seaboard attack, but on the 28th. of June, 1776, it
was repulsed by precisely four hundred and thirty-five
men posted behind a pile of palmetto-logs in the harbor
of Charleston. This is well-known history; and we have
now seen how less than half that number of raw backwoodsmen, led by Sevier and Shelby, frustrated the
6

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other half of the mighty combination. In brief, two
separate forces, numbering all told only six hundred and
forty-fiye men, acting widely apart and without concert,
brought to naught a most skillfully conceived and maturely considered plan, backed by the whole power of the
British Empire.

CHAPTER VI.
BETKIBUTIOtf.

THE attempt of Stuart to unite the Southern Indians
in a combined attack upon the border settlements was
successful. There was a general uprising in his department. The Choctaws, Creeks, and Erati Cherokees descended upon South Carolina and Georgia; the Shawnees, Delawares, and Mingoes upon the back counties of
Virginia; and, as we have seen, the Ottari Cherokees
and Chickamaugas upon the Watauga settlements. The
attack on Virginia was led by the Cherokee chief Eaven,
but he turned back without striking a blow on learning
of the repulse of Oconostota and Dragging Canoe on the
Holston and Watauga. Therefore I am right in saying
that four hundred and thirty-five men under Moultrie in
Charleston Harbor, and two hundred and ten under
Sevier and Shelby in the backwoods of Carolina, beat
back this front and rear assault from five thousand
British and not less than fifteen thousand Indians.
Napoleon affirmed that Providence is always on the side
of the heaviest artillery; but a recent orator has said that
"One with God is a majority."
It soon became known among the colonists that this

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

concerted raid of the Indians had been instigated byGreat Britain. Before the attack upon Charleston, Stuart had left that city in great haste, leaying behind him
some of his books and papers. These fell into the hands
of the patriots. Among them were copies of his correspondence with Cameron, his agent residing among the
Cherokees, which disclosed the whole of his atrocious
plan to whelm in blood the Southern colonies. About
the same time, also, a stranger rode up one night to the
door of Charles Eobertson at Watauga, and left with him
a letter from Henry Stuart, a brother of Captain Stuart,
who was then with the Cherokees. This gentleman was
in no way related to James Eobertson, but he was a true
patriot. However, it must have been supposed by Stuart
that he was secretly loyal to the crown, for he disclosed
to him the British plan, and invited him to come to the
Cherokee nation, or else to sign a paper owning allegiance to King George. This last would protect him from
the " inevitable r u i n " which he said was about to overtake all enemies of Great Britain. It was also soon discovered that British officers, disguised as Indians, had in
many instances led and directed the attacks of the savages.
These facts, communicated to the "committees of
safety " which existed in every county, were soon spread
abroad among the people, and excited everywhere general
indignation. When a Christian king was thus seen banding together the savages for the extermination of his own
kindred, every man became a patriot; it decided the

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125

wavering and fired the lukewarm to resist to the death
the rule of the British Government. Havoc and burning
and the tomahawk might be in every man's dwelling,
but that were better than submission to a king who incited the midnight murder of women and children.
Thus aroused, the colonists rose and fell upon the Indians. A force from Georgia swept the Creek towns on
the Tugaloo Eiver; in early August eleven hundred and
fifty South Carolinians met and utterly defeated Cameron and a large body of Tories and Cherokees at Oconoree ; and North Carolina embodied two thousand men
under General Rutherford, who penetrated the mountainregion as far as the Hiwassee, defeated the Erati Cherokees, and laid waste the whole Indian territory. Thirty
or forty towns were burned, crops and cattle destroyed,
and the Indians scattered among the forests in a starving condition.
Simultaneous with these events, Patrick Henry, then
Governor of Virginia, directed Colonel Christian, of the
Backwater settlements, to embody the border-men and
descend upon Oconostota on the Tellico. They rendezvoused at the Great Island of the Holston, eighteen hundred strong, and in the first days of August set out on a
march of nearly two hundred miles into the Indian country. With them went Isaac Thomas as guide, James
Robertson at the head of the men of Watauga, and John
Sevier in command of a select company of scouts, who
were to serve as the eyes and ears of the army. What is
surprising is the promptness with which these various

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forces were embodied, and the celerity of their movements. This is accounted for by the fact that eyery
frontiersman was a soldier and acted as his own commissary. With his pouch filled with parched corn, he trusted
to his rifle for the remainder of his rations. Thus it was
parched corn and gunpowder that carried civilization
beyond the Alleghanies.
In a few days Thomas had led the army to the crossing of the French Broad Biver. Here the Indians, to
the number, as is variously stated, of one to three thousand, had made a stand, and prepared to resist the invasion. The great war-path which here crossed the river
led into the richest part of their country, and the Indians were at first determined to defend the crossing to the
last extremity; but a white trader, named Starr, who
was among them, dissuaded them from any attempt at
resistance. In an earnest harangue he told them it was
folly to contend with the white man, that the Great
Spirit intended he should overrun and occupy all the
lowlands that could be cultivated. To the red-man he
had given the hills and forests where he might subsist on
game without tilling the soil, which was work fit only
for women. To struggle with the white man was, therefore, to fight with destiny ; the only safety for the Indians lay in a speedy retreat to their mountain fastnesses.
Owing perhaps to this harangue, but more probably
to the tidings of disaster which came to them from every
quarter, a panic ensued among the Cherokees. They
disbanded and dispersed, making-no organized attempt

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127

at resistance. However, small parties hung upon the
skirts of the whites, ready for a struggle with destiny—
whenever it could be taken at a disadvantage.
Crossing the river, the whites found the Indian camp
broken up and deserted ; but they pressed rapidly on to
the Cherokee towns along the Little Tennessee and Tellico. Every one of those towns was burned except
Echota. The standing grain was destroyed, the cattle
were slaughtered, not enough corn was left in all the
country for a solitary hoe-cake—except at Echota. That
town, and all within it, was spared, because it was the
home of !Nancy Ward, the friendly prophetess. But on
the village high up in the mountains, in which young
Moore was burned, fell, if possible, a more severe retribution. Sevier went to it in person ; and ever afterward,
for more than twenty years, his name was a terror among
the Cherokees. Not a woman or a child was injured;
but it is significantly stated that " n o males were taken
prisoners." Sevier began then his system of "carrying
the war into the enemy's country."
The campaign lasted three months; but not a single white man was killed or wounded, which was the
more remarkable, as the Indians on several occasions
attempted to ambush small parties. Thus were the savages consumed in the fire of their own kindling. The
Cherokees were considered the most guilty, and on them
fell the severest chastisement. Their wigwams—which
the Indian loves as the white man does his home—were
desolated, and their wives and children were brought to

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the very yerge of famine. For this is war, civilized or
uncivilized, which lets loose among men the all-devouring, remorseless passions which are born in the dark
abodes of sheol.
And now Oconostota, his pride humbled, his spirits
broken, and many of his bravest warriors lying unburied
in the forest, sued for peace with his enemies. It was
granted, but only on condition that he should make
other large cessions of the territory to which he clung
as the only guarantee of the continued existence of his
race and nation. Even harder conditions might have
been exacted, for the nation, like its king, was completely subdued and disheartened. Only one man among
them still carried himself erect, and defied his enemies.
This was Dragging Canoe, head chief of the Chickamaugas. Still smarting from his wounds, and his sore
defeat by a white stripling, he stood aloof, indomitable
and, as he deemed, invincible. He refused to " come
in," and swore eternal vengeance against the white settlers.
Among the men in Colonel Christian's army were
many from the interior counties of Virginia, who saw
now for the first time the limpid streams, the rich
valleys, and luxuriant uplands of lower Tennessee, and
experienced its genial climate, where the heats of August and September are tempered by a cool breeze which
comes continually down from the mountain altitudes,
"stealing and giving odors." They were enraptured
with the country; and, even before peace was con-

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129

eluded, they chose out spots for the homes to which
they soon afterward emigrated. Thus was the little
commonwealth on the Watauga strengthened by the
very efforts which the British and Indians had made
to destroy it.
And the war, and the danger from the Indians, did
not drive away any of the original settlers. They saw
how, unaided, they had repulsed their assailants, and
they felt no fear for the future. The struggle had
drilled them to military life, and inspired them with
a contempt for their savage enemies. In the words
of their old historian,* their question henceforth was,
"Where are they to be found ?" not "How many are
they ? " N~o better material for soldiers ever existed.
They were active, fearless, patient of fatigue, inured to
hardship, and expert with the rifle, the most deadly
weapon then in existence. They only needed a leader
to become, though but a handful, an invincible host,
which should put a girdle of fire round the rude cradle of Western civilization. And that leader was even
then standing among them, and, in the providence of
God, being trained for the important work he was to
do for his country. He won no glory in this campaign,
for he met no enemy; but as commander of the scouts
he thoroughly explored the country, so that every stream,
every hill, every mountain-path, was distinctly mapped
in his memory, which is said to have been so remarkable
Haywood.

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

that he could at a later time, when the head man among
a hundred thousand, call by name every man, woman,
and child in the territory. Moreover, at this time he
met, and became familiar with, the Backwater men, and
the rough riders of Wilkes and Surry, whom he was
afterward to lead, with the brave Campbell and Cleveland, on that long march to King's Mountain.
A suspension of hostilities being agreed upon, to be
followed by a formal treaty in the ensuing April, the
army was now marched back to the Holston, and there
disbanded—all but four hundred Backwater men under
Evan Shelby and Anthony Bledsoe, who were retained
to patrol the Watauga settlements; for it was not deemed
safe to leave them exposed to the raids of Dragging
Canoe and his horde of Chickamaugas.
These Indians, though numbering not more than
fifteen hundred warriors, were the most ferocious and
formidable of any along the border. Nominally Cherokees, they were in reality a mongrel horde, part Creek,
part Cherokee, and part renegade white men, who on
account of their crimes had fled from the seaboard settlements. Herding with these Indians, these white men
had become worse than the savage, more lawless, untamable, and bloodthirsty. Owning a slack allegiance to
Oconostota, the tribe was yet practically independent,
a band of outlaws, thieves, and murderers, with a hand
against every man, and numbering among them the very
worst characters, white and red, to be found upon the
border. Dr. Eamsey appropriately terms them " t h e

KETKIBUTIOK

131

Barbary powers of the West," and their country " t h e
Algiers of the American interior."
The region they at this time occupied is the most
picturesque in all Tennessee. Their towns were scattered
along the two banks of the river of that name from
Chickamauga Creek to below Mck-a-jack Cave, and thus
they held the southern gateway of the Alleghanies.
The same causes which have led the modern engineer
to lay here the tracks of eight great railways, and which
have made this point the center of some of the most
important military operations of this century, led the
untutored Indian to select it as the crossing-place of
his hunting and war parties in their excursions south to
the Coosa and Tallapoosa, and north to the Cumberland
and Ohio. It commands both the river and the pass
into the mountains, and moreover is full of well-nigh
inaccessible fastnesses, where a handful of men might
defy an army. To these secret recesses the Chickamaugas, when hard pressed, could resort, and laugh to scorn
the impotent wrath of their enemies.
The scenery of the whole region is picturesque and
beautiful beyond description. About eight miles below
Chickamauga Creek, and two and a half from the present " city of Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain lifts its
huge bulk above the clouds. The river flows at its
base, and from its opposite bank rises "Walden's Eidge,
in a long range a thousand feefc high, and crowned with
towering oaks and poplars, which have stood there for
centuries. The view from the top of Lookout is to-day

132

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

one of the most magnificent to be anywhere seen in
this country. The eye ranges into five States, over
spreading forests, waving fields, scattered farm-houses,
and populous towns, nestling among high mountains
that roll away in successive billows, as if they were the
crested waves of some fearfully disturbed ocean, which
had been arrested and petrified in its onward sweep
ages before man was created. The tall cliffs of Cumberland Gap, a hundred and sixty miles away, are distinctly visible; and through the whole wide landscape
winds the silvery Tennessee, now hidden by some overhanging wood, now emerging into some grass-covered
valley, but ever rushing on, broadening as it comes,
till it pours around the foot of Lookout, a foaming
torrent half a mile in width. Then, as if loath to leave
the abodes of men, it turns back upon itself in a sharp
curve, forming a curious bend, which, from its resemblance to the human foot, was called by the Indians
Moccasin Point. Then the river plunges into a narrow gorge between the jutting cliffs of Walden's Eidge
and Kaccoon Mountain, and winds again its tortuous
way till, a mere silver thread, it is lost in the haze of
the far northwest.
For several miles below Lookout Mountain the Tennessee is a foaming rapid, where, contracted into a
narrow channel, between overhanging cliffs, the furious
waters dash from side to side, and rush madly on, over
huge bowlders and masses of rock, in a thousand cascades and whirlpools. Vast sums have been expended

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133

in late years to remove these obstructions, but even now
navigation at this point is difficult and dangerous. At
the time of which I write, these rapids could not be
passed except at high water, and then a light canoe, a
steady hand, and the most skillful of oarsmen, were
needed to avert disaster. All along the river for miles
the shores are bold, frowning with bare rock, or overgrown with tangled wildness; but as Nick-a-jack Cave
is neared, some twenty miles below Chattanooga, this
wildness deepens into a most oppressive solitude. Over
the whole shore and river there broods, even now, a somber silence, a dreary loneliness, which seem to invite
to deeds of violence and crime; and what must it have
been before law had overspread this region, when no
human eye was here to witness, " no vigilance to detect,
no power to punish, no force to avenge v the dark deeds
which were often committed by the bloodthirsty Chickamaugas ! For this is the scene of some of their foulest crimes, and from these gloomy retreats they laughed
at their pursuers.
Their principal hiding-place was Niek-a-jack Cave,
a spacious, gloomy cavern, entered from the river, which
at this point is contracted into a narrow channel, and
overhung by projecting cliffs and towering precipices.
Both of its banks are here bold and elevated, and in some
places the bare, perpendicular rock affords scarcely a foothold between the cliffs and the river. Here and there
a cove indents the shore, where are wooded recesses
that would shelter and conceal a thousand; and break-

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

ing in from the foot of Cumberland Mountain, round
which the river sweeps in a furious flood, is a narrow
opening that leads into this now well-known cavern.
The cave is about eighty feet wide, and in the center
fifteen feet high, and it is arched over with pure granite. A clear stream, fed by underground springs, issues
from it, and following this a canoe can proceed four or
five miles into the very bowels of the mountain.
In this vast cavern, and the neighboring caves, the
Ohickamaugas took refuge when pursued by Sevier and
his riflemen. The place was then altogether unknown
to the whites ; but, had it been known, a hundred resolute men could have defended it against any force that
Sevier could have brought against it.
The war had not extended to this home of Dragging
Canoe; his corn was still standing; and, secure in these
unassailable fastnesses, and fired also by a revenge which
the religion of the Indians exalted into a virtue, he now
refused all overtures for peace, and impatiently waited
for the healing of his wound that he might again sound
the midnight war-whoop about the white man's dwelling.
But the winter passed away without any molestation
from the Cherokees. The nation at large had enough to
do to keep soul and body together, and the Chickamaugas,
who had corn and provender in plenty, had acquired a
wholesome dread of the white settlers. They would not
move without Dragging Canoe, and he still lay upon
his buffalo-robe at the mouth of Ohickamauga Creek,

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135

writhing with his wound, and yenting his rage in impotent declarations of war against the pale-faces. So the
settlers had time for social converse and meditation,
which last is said to be the mother of all wisdom.
They met together in their rude cabins, and discussed
the situation ; and then Seyier reminded them that they
had shown the ability to defend themselves, and might
now safely dispense with, the guard of four hundred
men so generously loaned them by Patrick Henry.
Every man that Virginia could muster was needed on
the seaboard. Besides, Oconostota and the great body
of Cherokees would not again go upon the war-path
till they had planted and harvested another crop of
corn; and as for Dragging Canoe and his bandits,
Eobertson and he could attend to them, now that a
force of more than two hundred men could be quickly
got together in the settlements. If they could not, Evan
Shelby, who was only forty miles away, would hasten
to their help at the first sound of their rifles.
This Sevier said, and it was acted upon, except that
Shelby in going away insisted upon leaving a garrison
in Fort Patrick Henry. This would relieve the settlers
from station duty, and permit them to give their undivided time to peaceful employments. However, Sevier
was cautious as well as bold. He gathered the settlers
together around two stations, one under himself, the
other under Eobertson, and both with Fort Lee between
them and the enemy. Nor did he relax his personal
vigilance. Mounted on a fast animal he was everywhere,

136

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

at all hours of the day and night; for he had more
faith in his own eyes than in those of any other man,
however clear-sighted.
So the winter wore away, and spring arrived, and
the Legislature of North Carolina came together. Hitherto the State had acted as if not aware that she had
an unprotected child, housed in some exposed hut off
there beyond the Alleghanies. She had neglected its
infancy and its feeble youth, though, even when it was
scarcely able to go alone, it had prepared to go to her
aid in her struggle with the gigantic power across the
ocean. But this she had ignored; and she had left
it, when set upon by overpowering numbers, to get
its help from Virginia, and had moved against its enemies only when there was danger that they would scale
her own back fence and make havoc in her farm-yard,
Now that the youth had shown he could not only stand
alone, but soundly thrash his own and her enemies, his
anxious step-mother thought it was about time he should
be kept in order and brought under the dominion of law.
He might continue to feed and clothe and defend himself, but she would guide and govern and control him.
So she threw over him what some of her lawyers called
the aegis of North Carolina, gave him courts of pleas
and quarter-sessions, to decide suits, and pass judgment
upon offenders, and a sheriff to execute the decisions
of these tribunals. Moreover, she gave him an entrytaker, of whom he might buy lands which he had already bought and paid for, and to whom he might pay

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taxes, for the privilege of living under her protection, she
herself being too weak to protect herself, and too poor
to pay for a barrel of gunpowder!
To all this Watauga assented; but the settlers took
good care that the officials set over them should be men
of their own choosing. They elected Valentine Sevier
sheriff, and John Sevier clerk of the county; and they
placed over the new courts John Sevier, James Bobertson, and the other judges who had constituted the
self-formed tribunal which up to that time had secured uninterrupted peace and good order in the new
community. So the change was merely nominal. Sevier and Eobertson continued to embody in themselves
all judicial and administrative functions: they merely
no longer acted in their own names, but by authority
of the State. " Hereafter," as is said by Dr. Eamsey,
" Watauga, happy, independent, free, and self-reliant,
the cradle of the great West, is merged into and becomes a part of North Carolina."

CHAPTEK VII.
PEACE WHICH WAS NOT PEACE.

and the head men of the Cherokees, met,
the commissioners of Virginia and North Carolina, in
the spring of 1777, to arrange the details of the peace;
and, while they were exchanging the "diplomatic
courtesies" which are customary on such occasions,
Dragging Canoe got again upon horseback, and came
down upon the Watauga settlers with a " t a l k " not
so courteous, but far more in harmony with the nature
of the Indian. He brought with him the greater number of his warriors, but he did not attack in any large
body. Breaking his force into small parties, he intended to fall at midnight upon exposed stations and
isolated farm-houses, and to vanish before morning into
the security of the forest. His first attack was on
Frederick Calvert, one of the original settlers, whom
he shot and scalped in his own house. Calvert survived, but to meet a worse fate some ten years afterward.
Before morning of the same day—April 10, 1777—
Dragging Canoe himself, with a considerable body of his
warriors, stole upon Kobertson's barn, near his dwelling, on the upper end of the island in the Watauga,
OJCONOSTOTA,

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139

and got away with ten of his finest horses. Bobertson discovered the loss in the morning, and then, with
only the nine men that he had with him on his plantation, he followed on the trail of the marauders. He
soon came up with and surprised the Indians, killing one
of them and recapturing the animals. The savages scattered into the forest; but, ashamed of being routed by
so small a force, Dragging Canoe gathered his men together again, and turned back upon the track of Bobertson. Overtaking him not far from his house, he fired
a volley which wounded two of the whites; but, though
largely outnumbered, Eobertson beat off the Indians,
and got safely home with all of his men and horses.
This was the opening of a short war, during which
Sevier may be said to have begun his long career as an
Indian fighter. He had, as we have seen, already encountered the savages in conflict; but now, for nineteen
years, he passed the larger part of his time in the saddle. When the struggle began he had but a little more
than two hundred men, and arrayed against him in
open hostility were Dragging Canoe and his fifteen
hundred desperate banditti, and, in treacherous amity,
nine thousand allied Creeks and Cherokees, who professed friendship, but were ready to strike a blow in aid
of the Chickamauga chieftain whenever it could be done
under cover of secrecy. Moreover, during the greater
portion of these nineteen years, the whole of this large
force was combined in open warfare against the whites;
and the fact that Sevier not only protected the infant

140

KEAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

settlements, but finally completely crushed this strong
body of savages, is proof that he was not only a soldier, but a military genius of a high order. He led raw,
undisciplined backwoodsmen into battle, and with the
first wave of his hand, the first sound of his voice, transformed them into soldiers and heroes. By some strange
magnetic power he infused into them his own unconquerable spirit, till every one became invincible and irresistible, a lightning-bolt that rent the Indian ranks as the
electric fluid rends the serried forest. And he entirely
reversed the tactics hitherto observed in Indian warfare.
It was no longer a skulking behind trees, a patient and
cautious waiting to take the foe at a disadvantage, but
an open wood, an onward gallop, a wild halloo, and then
a storm of bullets before which the Indians scattered
like dry leaves before a November tornado. His movements were like the wind, his attacks like the whirlwind—a rush and a roar, and then a silent scene of
death and devastation ! He never took thought of his
personal safety, was ever in the hottest of the fight, and
the flash of his sword told always where to look for the
largest heaps of slain, yet in thirty-five battles he never
was so much as wounded. He seemed to bear a charmed
life, and the missiles to pass him by as if they were conscious that he was reserved to do a great work for his
country. This is remarkable; but his great military
achievements can be easily accounted for. They were
due to his tactics of "Attack, and not defense," and to
the celerity of his movements, which disconcerted and

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141

confounded his enemies. He fought on foot, but he
moved on the fleetest of horses, and he never stopped to
consult a commissary. His scouts might creep stealthily
through the woods, without bending a branch or stirring
a leaf, to get upon the trail of the enemy; but, that once
discovered, Sevier's movement was as swift, as direct, and
as destructive, as that of the hurricane. Thus it was
that he girdled with a wall of fire the infant settlements
along the Holston and Watauga, often meeting enemies
of twenty times his own number, without ever losing a
battle. If I were to recount his operations in detail, I
should swell this volume to much beyond its intended
compass. I can only mention those which have a direct
bearing on the course of this history.
Dragging Canoe was active and brave, and he moved
with great rapidity ; but wherever the Indians appeared,
even in small bodies, there were they met by Sevier, or
some of his trusted lieutenants, among whom may be
mentioned his two brothers, Valentine and Eobert,
Major Cosby, Captain Evans, and Major Jonathan Tipton, who all displayed superior qualities as border soldiers. Small companies of rangers under these men
regularly patrolled the more exposed localities, and
trusty spies constantly scoured the woods and canebrakes
in the neighborhood of the settlements. These precautions effectually guarded the settlers from surprise, and
prepared them to successfully meet the midnight raids
of the savages.
Tired at last of continual defeat, and disgusted with

142

REAR-GUARD GF THE REVOLUTION.

this new mode of warfare of the whites, Dragging Canoe
retired, toward the close of the summer, to his secure
fastnesses along the Tennessee, to wait there for a time
when, with the help of Oconostota, he could combine
the entire Creek and Cherokee nations in another general assault upon the settlements. This he could not
then do, for Eobertson was stationed among them, and
had acquired the warm friendship of old Tassell, Savanuca, and other of the leading chieftains, and such an
ascendency oyer the Cherokee nation at large, as held
in check the machinations of Oconostota and the British agent.
The treaty of peace with the Indians had been
signed on the 20th of July, 1777, and on the same
day Eobertson was commissioned as agent for North
Carolina to reside among the Cherokees. By written
instructions from the Governor, he was directed to
repair to Echota, with the warriors returning from the
treaty, and to remain in the Cherokee country till
otherwise ordered. He was to ascertain the disposition
of the nation toward the whites, its relations with the
northern, ; southern, and western tribes, and to report
on these, and particularly on any manifestation of renewed hostility on the part of Dragging Canoe and
the Chickamaugas. He was also to search in all the
Indian towns for persons disaffected to the American
cause, to require of them an oath of allegiance to the
United States, and, in case of their refusal to make such
oath, to cause their expulsion from the Cherokee terri-

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143

tory. And, in addition, he was to procure the restoration of all property which had been stolen from the
whites, " t o inform the government of all occurrences
worthy of notice, to conduct himself with prudence,
and to obtain the favor and confidence of the chiefs;
and, in matters with respect to which he was not particularly instructed, he was to exercise his own discretion, always keeping in view the honor and interest
of the United States in general, and of North Carolina
in particular,"
This important appointment came to Eobertson unsought. Speaking of it in later years, he said : " Without inquiring how, I found myself invested with office
by the Old North State ; we lived and fought as neighbors, for each other, and our united country. Whether
we were Virginians or Carolinians we asked and cared
not; we were all for the general Congress and for
Washington."
The appointment required a long separation from
his family, and his abode amid a barbarous and turbulent people, from some of the disaffected among whom
his life might at any time be in danger ; but Eobertson
did not for a moment hesitate in accepting the duties
and hazards of the position. He resided with the
Cherokeesfor more than a year, and, by His "winning
ways" and practical wisdom, succeeded in completely
thwarting the plans of the British agent, backed as
they were by the treacherous influence of the archimagus of the nation. The great body of Creeks and

1M

KEAR-GUAKD OF THE REVOLUTION.

Oherokees were kept at peace, and even the fierce and
untamable Dragging Canoe was held to his huntinggrounds along the Tennessee. This last result was,
however, mainly owing to the wholesome dread which
this chieftain had conceived of Sevier and his riflemen;
against whom he no longer dared to move without the
support of his whole nation.
Thus freed from active operations against Dragging
Canoe, Sevier was able to afford men and supplies for
the relief of Boone, who was now beleaguered by a swarm
of northern Indians in his fort at Boonesborough. This
siege forms one of the most remarkable pages in border
history. It began on the 4th of July, 1777, and lasted
till well into the following September, and at its outset
the fort had but a slender garrison, and a meager supply of corn and ammunition. Without help the garrison would soon be reduced to starvation; but how to
obtain it with the place beleaguered by thousands of
Indians, who, under the lead of skillful British officers,
guarded every outlet, was the question. In this emergency the brave Captain Logan volunteered to run the
gantlet of the savages, and make his way to Watauga.
It was two hundred miles through an untrodden forest,
with only the sun and stars to guide his course; but,
with a select party of woodsmen, Logan set out on the
perilous journey. Under cover of a dark night, he
crept noiselessly from the fort, and, by hiding in the
underbrush, managed to elude the savages. Then with
but a single sack of parched corn for rations, the party

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145

journeyed by unfrequented ways, concealing themselves
by day, and traveling only by night, till they came to
Sevier at Watauga, about the time of Robertson's departure for Echota. Sevier gave them a hundred riflemen,
loaded them down with supplies upon pack-horses, and
sent them back to Boonesborough. This timely succor
enabled the fort to hold out, and finally to beat off its
assailants. As we go on with this history we shall see
that, in as great a strait, Boone gave a like succor to
Eobertson.
By the spring of 1778 Sevier was at the head of a
well-equipped and disciplined force of over five hundred
men, all of whom were inured to hardship, familiar
with camp-life, and animated with a common spirit to
resist to the death the oppressions of the British and
the barbarities of the Cherokees. Hitherto immigration
had come on pack-horses along the old Indian paths, or
the narrow traces blazed by hunters; but in 1777 a
wide wagon-road had been opened across the mountains
into Burke County, North Carolina, and whole caravans
of settlers now poured over it, and spread upon the
lands recently acquired from the Indians. They were
generally men of larger property than the first settlers,
and they added greatly to the prosperity and safety of
the new commonwealth. Every able-bodied man among
them, between the ages of eighteen and fifty, was at
once enrolled in the militia, and over the whole Sevier
was now placed by a regular commission as lieutenantcolonel. Prior to this time he had held command by
1

146

BEAB-GUAKD OF THE KEVOLUTION.

"the will of the people/' who recognized in him their
natural leader. Evan Shelby was about the same time
commissioned a colonel in the Virginia line, and he
now was in active service with the American forces
upon the seaboard.
But, though relieved for the moment from active
service against the Indians, Sevier found at this time
far more disagreeable employment for himself and his
captains nearer home and in the heart of nearly every
one of the settlements. While the majority of the people east of the mountains were patriots, among them
were a large number who still adhered to the cause of
Great Britain. Some of these were orderly and respectable citizens; but much the greater portion were a lawless banditti, who, gathering in small gangs, prowled
OYGT the country, depredating upon the patriots, and in
many instances committing inhuman atrocities upon
unarmed men and unprotected women and children.
Houses were sacked, their occupants. stripped of food
and clothing, and, when not murdered outright, often
tied to trees, severely whipped, and left weltering in
their blood, to die of exposure or starvation, unless
relieved by some neighbor, or a chance passer through
the forest. During 1778 and 1779 these predatory and
murdering bands rendered the condition of the western
counties of North Carolina and that portion of Southwestern Virginia lying upon the head-waters of the
Holston, and known as the Backwater settlements,
truly deplorable, Driven frorn thq seaboard, these

PEACE WHICH WAS M)T PEACE.

147

desperadoes collected in sufficient strength to defy
the patriot militia, and the war there became, what
Stuart had planned it should be, a hand-to-hand conflict around every man's dwelling. It called forth the
worst passions of both sides : civilized man became a
savage; and the struggle one of life and death, in which
one or the other party must be exterminated. Writing
of this state of things in the Carolinas, General Greene
says : " The animosity between the "Whigs and Tories
renders their situation truly deplorable. There is not
a day passes but there are more or less who fall a sacrifice to this savage disposition. The Whigs seem determined to extirpate the Tories, and the Tories the
Whigs. Some thousand have fallen in this way in this
quarter, and the evil rages with more violence than ever.
If a stop can not be put to these massacres, the country
will be depopulated in a few months more, as neither
Whig nor Tory can live."*
Wilkes and Surry Counties, North Carolina, and the
Backwater settlements of Virginia were distant from
Watauga only from fifty to a hundred miles—the one
being now accessible to it over the wagon-road which
had been recently opened across the mountain, the
other by the wide war-path that the Indians, time
out of mind, had traversed up the Valley of Virginia.
These districts were peopled, even more exclusively
than Watauga, by a stalwart race of Presbyterians, of
Scotch-Irish descent, and not unlike in general char* Greene's " Life of General Greene," vol. iii, p. 227.

148

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

acteristics to the famous Ironsides of Cromwell. They
"feared the Lord, but kept their powder dry," and
were eyer ready to throttle a bear, scalp an Indian,
or engage in a hand-to-hand struggle with the most
desperate Tory. They were worthy disciples of Parson
Cummings, who preached to two of their congregations, and of whom, it was said, as already mentioned,
that on going into battle he would strip off: his coat,
"pray like time, and then fight like sheol!" There
was not a man among them who was not a patriot.
As early as January 20, 1775, they had met together
—Parson Cummings, Colonels Preston and Christian,
William and Arthur Campbell, and other of their leading men—and drafted and sent to the Continental Congress an address in which they said: " I f no pacific
measures shall be proposed or adopted by Great Britain, and our enemies attempt to dragoon us out of those
inestimable privileges which we are entitled to as subjects, and reduce us to slayery, we declare that we are
deliberately and resolutely determined neyer to surrender them to any power upon earth but at the expense
of our lives. These are our real, though unpolished,
sentiments of liberty and loyalty, and in them we are
resolved to live and die."
It was among such a people that the Tories had now
scattered in small bands, and were attempting to sustain
themselves by midnight depredations. The reception
they received may be gathered from a few instances of
well-authenticated history.

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149

About one mile east of Seven-Mile Ford, and not far
from the present town of Marion, in Southwest Virginia,
lived Colonel William Campbell, who held command of
the Backwater district. He was a man of decided character and opinions, God-fearing and church-going, but
liable upon provocation to outswear what is related of
the profane army in Flanders. He was particularly obnoxious to the Tories, who had placarded his gates,
threatening his life, and on one dark night had waylaid
him in a dense forest. He was of stalwart frame—"six
feet two inches, and well-proportioned "—and of desperate courage, and this had saved him from the midnight
assassins. He had been away with his regiment in Eastern Virginia, but, on the occasion now referred to,, had
returned home for a brief visit to his wife, who was a
worthy sister of Patrick Henry. He had attended church
on Sunday, as became a good Presbyterian, and was returning home with his wife, and a few friends, when,
looking up the road, he observed a man, mounted on
a fine horse, turning abruptly into the woods, as if to
avoid a meeting with the party of church-goers. This
excited his suspicions, and, inquiring who the man was,
Campbell was told that he was one Hopkins, an infamous bandit and Tory, who had baffled all attempts to
bring him to justice. Instantly putting spurs to his
horse, he followed on the track of the fleeing desperado.
After a hard chase he came up with him, and then, at
the close of a desperate struggle in which he neatly lost
his own life, he overcame and captured hini. Then

150

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

Campbell rode back to his wife and friends, and in answer to her eager question, "What did you do with
h i m ? " he said, merely, " O h , we hung him, Betty—
that's all I"
Quite as summary was the mode of dealing with this
class of Tories in Surry and Wilkes Counties. The leading men in this district were Colonel Benjamin Cleveland
and Major Joseph Winston, both of whom afterward
fought bravely by the side of Campbell at King's Mountain. Cleveland was a magistrate as well as a military
man, and he became the terror of all the Tories in his
region. He was a man of herculean proportions, rough
and ready in his ways and summary in his judgments;
but he had withal a kindly and humane disposition, and
took no pleasure in inflicting punishment and suffering
upon eyen the most guilty. On one occasion one of the
most notorious criminals in the county was brought before him, and promptly sentenced to be hanged. There
being some delay in leading the man out to execution,
Cleveland said, " Waste no time, swing him off quick !"
whereupon the criminal turned coolly upon him and retorted, "You needn't be in such a d—d hurry about
it, colonel !" Struck with the coolness of the man,
Cleveland directed the excutioners to let him go. Subdued by this unexpected turn of affairs, the Tory said to
Cleveland, with much feeling : "Well, old fellow, you've
conquered me. Forever after this I'll fight on your
side I" And he kept his word, becoming one of Cleveland's best soldiers.

PEACE WHICH WAS NOT PEACE.

151

The fact that such a man should have been forced to
send to execution nearly a hundred of his fellow-creatures reveals the lamentable condition of anarchy and
terror that ruled in this mountain-region during the
Revolutionary period. It was "your life or*mine" ; the
two classes could by no possibility exist together. Even
woman forgot her gentler nature, and became as inexorable a judge as the most severe magistrate. It is related that on one occasion, during the absence of Colonel
Cleveland, a Tory horse-thief was brought to the house to
be tried for his offenses. There being no safe place to confine the prisoner, and, fearing he might escape before their
father's return, the colonel's sons went to their mother
for advice as to what to do in the circumstances. Asking the criminal's offense, and learning that the evidence
against him was overwhelming, Mrs. Cleveland inquired
what their father would do with the man if he were at
home. " H a n g him," was the answer. "Well, then,"
she said, "you had better hang him." He was accordingly hanged from the cross-bar of the gate in front
of her doorway.
It is evident that such a condition of things could
not continue long in any community. The patriots were
in the majority, and such as were left of the Tories at
length fled to the Indians or across the mountains to the
settlements along the Holston and Watauga. Had they
been content to adopt peaceful pursuits, they might have
here dwelt in security. But they were not. They at
once began the same system of plunder and massacre that

152

REAR-GUAKD Otf THE REVOLUTION.

had made them a scourge to the older communities.
Under the lead of a Captain Grimes, they soon waylaid
and murdered a peaceable citizen named Millican; and
another they kidnapped, and, bearing him to a high
precipice on the upper waters of the Watauga, forced
him, by threats to cast him down headlong, to buy his
life at the sacrifice of all his property. Other outrages
soon followed, and they eyen planned to murder Seyier in
his own dwelling; and doubtless they would haye done
this—for he slept with doors unbarred—had they not
been betrayed by the wife of one of them, who, in her
distress, had been treated by Seyier with great humanity.
Nothing but this last attempt was needed to arouse
the settlers to a flame of exasperation. The courts of
pleas and quarter sessions, which had been established
among them by North Carolina, had no jurisdiction in
capital cases—they could not hang for murder—and such
good order had hitherto ruled in the settlements that
there had been no occasion for a court of higher authority. But the necessity now was urgent—too urgent to
admit of the long delay that would be inyolyed in any
reference to North Carolina. So these people, who had
once had an independent existence, again assumed to
themselves supreme authority. They came together,
passed their own laws, and elected a yigilance committee to attend to their execution. Eyery man—old
settler or new-comer—was required to take an oath of
allegiance to the United States, and, failing to do this,
he was to be expelled from the district. Those that had

PEACE WHICH WAS 1ST0T PEACE.

153

committed crimes were to be duly punished, but only
after a fair trial by a jury regularly impaneled. Two
companies of light horsemen, under Captain Eobert Sevier and Captain William Bean, the first settler, were
put by Colonel Sevier at the control of the vigilance
committee, and they soon had administered the oath in
every hamlet among the scattered settlements. Thus
was good order speedily restored, and, by the end of
sixty days, not a man who was not a patriot was left anywhere upon the waters of the Holston or Watauga. The
Tories—such as had not been suspended from the
branches of the chincapin—-fled to Oconostota. Being
refused asylum by him, owing to the continued presence
of Kobertson, who required of the Cherokees a strict observance of the treaty, they made their way to Dragging
Canoe in his distant lairs along the Tennessee, and thus
contributed to swell his band of outlaws.
During the ten years which had now passed since the
first settlement beyond the mountains, society had been
gradually emerging from the hunter and pastoral state,
to which it was of necessity at first confined, into the
agricultural condition, wherein the simplicity of patriarchal life is exchanged for the more artificial customs
and relations of modern communities. Men no longer
procured their principal subsistence from the forest, but
from the soil, thereby coming under the original law,
" I n the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread"—which
law, while it enforces greater toil, marks a higher grade
of civilization.

154

KEAR-GUAKD OF THE KEVOLUTION.

The opening of roads, which had introduced wheeled
vehicles, had brought with them increased wealth and
greater refinement. Dwellings became more comfortable,
and barns were no longer exposed ricks, with a slight covering of split saplings. The saw came in to supplement
the axe, plank floors took the place of rived puncheons,
and even roofs began to be covered with shingles. The
first house covered in this manner was erected in 1777,
and its going up was deemed an event so notable that it
has found its way into history. Logs, however, continued to be the usual material for the walls of houses, for
nothing else was impervious to bullets, and security was
still the prime requisite in a dwelling.
Soon after the advent of courts, a county-seat was
established and a court-house erected. The county-seat
was duly incorporated by the Legislature, and named
Jonesboro, in honor of a prominent North Carolinian,
and a court-house was erected there in 1779. Heretofore
the sessions of court had been held in the houses of
prominent citizens, but now Justice was to have a domicile of her own, from which to issue those stern decrees
which struck terror into the hearts of Tories and horsethieves. However, her temple was not of the most imposing description. Her tripod was a rough bench,
without a back, or a soft spot to sit on, and her bar a
sawed joist which had never made the acquaintance of a
jack-plane. The edifice was built of round logs, freshly
cut from the adjacent forest, and the records of Washington County have preserved to us its exact specifica-

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155

tion. It was to be "twenty-four feet square, diamond
corners, and hewn down after it is built u p ; nine feet
high between the two floors ; body of the house four feet
above upper floor; floors neatly laid with plank ; shingles
of roof to be hung with pegs. A justice's bench, a lawyer's and clerk's bar ; also, a sheriff's box to sit in."
There was not a sash nor a pane of glass in the entire building. But the absence of these was not regarded
as a discomfort or an inconvenience. The sessions were
usually held in mild weather, and, from the narrow dimensions of the court-room, much the larger number of
attendants had to congregate outside on the grass and in
the shade of the great trees which still towered there in
primitive grandeur. Though excluded from the inner
sanctuary of justice, this outside auditory could see and
hear all the sacred proceedings by means of the wide,
open windows. The sessions of court then, as now in
that region, were occasions of great gatherings of the
people. From far and near they came together, not
merely to transact business with the court, but to exchange news, discuss the political situation, and decide
which among them had the fastest racers.
A good horse was a passion among this people.
From the first, Sevier had encouraged the introduction
and raising of the finest breeds, for upon fleet animals he
depended for the celerity of his movements against the
Indians. A fine animal was not merely a luxury to be
proud of, but a military necessity whereon might often
hang the safety of the scattered community. Hence, a

156

BEAK-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

fleet and trusty horse was the most yaluable of possessions.
Sevier himself cultivated the choicest breeds, and to
him, and to the necessity which he was the first to appreciate and provide for, is it owing that Tennessee and
Kentucky have to-day the finest stock of racing animals
in the world.
In the wake of the court came the attorney, and the
records show that, in one way or another, two of this
fraternity managed to sustain life in the new settlements.
There is no evidence to determine whether they subsisted
upon fees, or by the raising of corn and potatoes; but
the names of the two having come down to us, we are
able to affirm that they never attained to any especial
prominence or influence in the community. Of more
importance to the body politic was the schoolmistress,
who now was to be found at nearly every cross-road in
the older settlements. She was usually a single woman,
of uncertain age, who, having no children of her own,
was supposed to be the better able to instruct those of
other people. She occupied a small log-house, generally
about sixteen feet square, and often without floor or windows, and, if she was not a shining light of erudition, she
did turn out men and women many of whom became ornaments to the nation.
These rude school-houses were for several years, the
only places of worship, but in 1779 a building was
erected which was especially devoted to religious services.
A Baptist congregation was organized, and over it was installed the Rev. Tidence Lane, who thus became the first

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157

settled minister of the gospel beyond the Alleghanies,
Before him, however, had come the Bey. Samuel Doak,
who journeyed about the settlements, and preached, like
John, in the open wilderness. Mr. Doak was a man of
rare qualities, and from the first exerted a strong and
wide influence upon the community. Next to Seyier
and Eobertson, he was the most important factor in the
young commonwealth, not acting like them directly upon
events, but upon the men by whom events were created.
In this way he was a great power for good. He founded
"Washington College, and gave the whole of his long life
to the promotion of education, good order, and gooti
morals among the backwoods people. Sevier and Eobertson cleared the ground and turned up the furrow;
this man threw in the seed, which sprang up and bore a
plentiful harvest to civilization.
And now, at the close of 1778, there was peace beyond
the mountains. Oconostota had been subdued. Dragging Canoe was held in check, and the disorderly Tories
had been driven to seek refuge among the congenial
bandits on the lower Tennessee and Chickamauga. In
these circumstances it was deemed prudent for Eobertson to leave his post among the Indians, and return to
the society of his family, and the comforts and refinements of civilized life. Neither he nor Sevier then surmised that events were at that moment impending
which might drench their firesides in blood, and subject
them and their descendants to the iron rule of a hated
government.

CHAPTEE VIII.
ANOTHER COIL OF THE A^ACOKDA.

the repulse of Sir Henry Clinton from before
Charleston, and the defeat of the Cherokees on the
frontier in 1776, the Southern colonies had a respite
o"f nearly three years from British invasion. The anaconda system of Stuart had been temporarily abandoned, and the whole strength of the English concentrated upon the subjugation of the North. The results, however, were anything but satisfactory. After
nearly four years of fighting, the British held New York,
but had been obliged to evacuate Philadelphia, and
their successes in the field had been more than counterbalanced by the loss of the entire army of Burgoyne
at Saratoga.
But the situation of the Americans was by no means
hopeful. The Northern army was reduced to seventeen
thousand men, poorly equipped and provisioned; and
the finances of Congress were in so crippled a condition
that no money could be raised for offensive operations.
Loans could not be negotiated, and the Continental
currency had depreciated to such an extent that twenty
dollars had a purchasing value of only one dollar! In
AFTER

ANOTHER COIL OF THE ANACONDA.

159

these circumstances the patriot armies could merely
maintain their ground ; they could make no moremeiit
toward the expulsion of the British forces from the
country.
This was the state of affairs when Sir Henry Clinton,
in 1778, succeeded General Howe in command of the
British forces in America. This active and enterprising officer had led the attack on Charleston in 1776,
and was familiar with the plan of Stuart for a combined
front and rear attack upon the Southern colonies. He
saw that this period—when the American armies of the
North were unable to move, and there was next to no
patriot force embodied at the South-—was a favorable
time to again attempt to carry the gigantic plan into
execution. This he accordingly decided to d o ; and on
this occasion he determined that the "anaconda" should
take a wider sweep, and inwrap in its folds not only
the South and Southwest, but the whole country lying
east of the Mississippi. From his stronghold of Detroit,
Henry Hamilton, the Lieutenant-Governor of Canada,
was to combine and organize the Northern Indians,
while Stuart and Oconostota marshaled the Southern
tribes, and the British commander-in-chief descended
upon Savannah, thereby flanking the pile of palmettologs which in 1776 had ingloriously repulsed the combined forces of Clinton and Sir Peter Parker. Savannah taken, direct communication would be again opened
between the British and Creeks and Cherokees, and
there would be, as Clinton supposed, no opposing force

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that could prevent the co-operation of the Southern
Indians with his Northern allies under Hamilton. A
foothold secured in Georgia, Charleston would be taken
from the land side, and a strong British force would
then overrun all the Southern colonies, rallying the disaffected, and sweeping northward in such numbers as
to defy opposition, and effectually subjugate the whole
country.
Such was the plan, sagacious, deeply matured, widesweeping, and it seemed out of the power of the colonies
to offer to it any effectual resistance. It did not, however, succeed; and, in relating how it failed, I shall have
to record another miracle in American history—another
proof of the falsity of Napoleon's axiom that "Providence fights always on the side of the heaviest artillery."
Everything being in readiness, toward the close of
1778 the British columns were set in motion. On the
29th of December Savannah fell, with scarcely any resistance, and British posts were at once established as far
inland as Augusta. Direct communication being thus
opened with the Creeks and Cherokees, a large supply of
warlike stores was sent forward to Dragging Canoe at
Chiekamauga—not to Oconostota, lest tidings of the arrival should reach Sevier and Shelby on the Watauga.
This being done, Hamilton began to execute his part of
the extended programme. With six hundred choice
troops and some Indian allies, he advanced from Detroit
to the fort at Vincennes on the Wabash, intending to
march thence against Kaskaskia on the Mississippi, where

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161

he expected to be joined by a large body of Cherokees
and Chickasaws, with whom he would proceed to a
general rendezvous of all the tribes at the mouth of the
Tennessee.
But Hamilton had a passion for scalps, and he halted
at Vincennes to allow his Indian allies to gather these
favorite trophies from among the neighboring white settlers. By this halt his force was scattered and reduced,
and this proved his destruction. Suddenly, one morning in March, as if springing out of the ground, there
appeared before the gates of the fort a weather-beaten
man, in tattered regimentals of the Continental service, demanding its instant and unconditional surrender.
Where he had come from, or what force he might have
at his back, Hamilton could not so much as conjecture;
but, when he learned his name, he took his demand into
serious and respectful consideration.
This man was George Eogers Clark, one of the most
picturesque figures in American history. Patriotic, energetic, and ambitious, he had also a reckless intrepidity
that led him to take delight in enterprises of the most
adventurous and apparently impossible character. But
he lacked the iron will, the unselfish and elevated aims,
and the high moral qualities of Sevier and Eobertson,
and so he fell short of being a hero. He was more of the
old-time knight-errant than the modern soldier, and he
was not a born leader of men, like the two I have mentioned. However, he performed great services at this
period to his country, and for these the mantle of char-

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ity should be cast over his subsequent errors and shortcomings.
The massacre in the Wyoming Valley, in the summer
of 1778, awoke Virginia to the necessity of protecting
her western frontier from the incursions of the Indians.
Patrick Henry at once commissioned Clark to raise a
regiment for that service; and soon, with two hundred
borderers, but without supplies or other equipment than
the trusty Deckard rifle, he set out on foot for a march
of nearly fifteen hundred miles down the Ohio and into
the unknown wilderness of " t h e Illinois." His bivouac
was the open forest, his only subsistence the game he
killed by the way, but, before winter had fairly set in,
he had driven the savages to the west of the Mississippi,
and captured the fort at Kaskaskia, near the west bank
of that river.
I t was the purpose of Hamilton to attack Clark at
Kaskaskia, and, with the aid he expected from the savages, he counted on making an easy conquest of him and
his forces. Clark knew nothing of this design, nor of
the mighty plan of which it was one of the feebler ramifications. He simply heard of the advance of Hamilton
from Detroit, and divined that his objective point was
Vincennes. With the instinct of the hound in pursuit
of his game, he scented the prey afar off, and, with the
directness and speed of that animal, he was at once on
the trail of the enemy. Greater energy he could not
have shown had he fully known what would be the consequences of his movements. It was a march of a hun-

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163

dred and fifty miles through dense forests, tangled undergrowth, and deep morasses, where, time and again, he
and his men waded to their arm-pits in water, breaking
the ice before them for a passage ; but he kept on his
way, and, on the morning of the 5th of March, 1779, appeared, as I have said, before the fort, and demanded its
surrender. Hamilton asked for terms, but Clark refused
any to a "scalp-trader," as he contemptuously termed
the British commander. He peremptorily gave him his
election between unconditional surrender and such quarter as his savage allies were wont to extend to their enemies. Without firing a shot, Hamilton accepted the
former alternative; and, when his well-appointed force
stacked their arms and marched into the center of
Clark's half-starved battalion, he had the chagrin to
discover that he had surrendered to a body of but one
hundred and sixty shoeless, ragged, and wretchedly
equipped backwoodsmen! On the charge of committing
atrocities not countenanced in civilized warfare, Hamilton was put in irons and marched off to Williamsburg,
Virginia, there to be dealt with as a common felon.
After a long and rigorous imprisonment, he escaped
hanging only in consequence of the personal intercession
of Washington with Thomas Jefferson, then Governor of
Virginia.
The head gone, the Northwestern coalition fell into
speedy dissolution. Thus was so much of Clinton's
plan frustrated. But the anaconda was scotched, not
killed. The extremity had been shorn away, but the head

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and trunk were still full of vital force, and the monster
might yet, with slimy coil, infold the struggling colonies,
crushing their life out in its deadly embrace.
Dragging Canoe was invulnerable to British gold, but
he had a weakness for British gunpowder; for, savage
as he was, he had the sense to know that, more than
gold, it was the moving force of the eighteenth century
—as, indeed, it will be of every coming century, until
men recognize the fact that love, and not brute force,
is the ruling power of the universe. Hitherto he had
been destitute of that dynamic element, and though his
recent re-enforcements of Tories had augmented his force
to fully two thousand men, he was absolutely powerless;
for only a madman would think of confronting the rifles
of Nolichucky Jack with empty gun-barrels. But now
he had powder enough to celebrate the king's birthday
every day in the year for a twelvemonth.
It was intended that Dragging Canoe and Oconostota
should not move until Hamilton had marshaled the
Northern tribes at the mouth of the Tennessee, when
the whole savage horde—numerous as the forest-leaves,
and irresistible as the tornado—should sweep down on
the unprepared settlements, whelming them in a swift
and wide-spread destruction. The coalition of the
Northern tribes was, as we have seen, soon scattered to
the four winds; but without them Dragging Canoe and
Oconostota could muster for the field at least fifteen
thousand well-armed Creeks, Choctaws, Cherokees, and
Chickasaws, every man of them brave and expert with

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165

the rifle, and the whole led by so able a soldier as
John Stuart, of the British Highlanders. And what
force could the whites gather to withstand such an avalanche of savages ? All told, they could now muster
from fifteen hundred to two thousand men—a half of
the number from around Watauga, led by Sevier and
Shelby, and it may be as many more from Surry and
Wilkes Counties, and the Backwater settlements, under
Colonels Campbell and Cleveland. But this force was
dispersed over a mountain country two hundred miles
in extent. It would take time to bring it together, and
the descent of the savages was intended to be sudden
and without warning—a midnight raid in overpowering
numbers upon every one of the scattered settlements.
Thus the outlook for the whites was gloomy, and, to
all who do not recognize an invisible agency in earthly
affairs, it might well seem altogether hopeless. But now
occurred one of those trifling events which are so often
decisive of great results in human history. The vast
combination of Hamilton had been frustrated by a little delay; this was to miscarry for an altogether opposite reason.
Dragging Canoe had been so long without powder
that now, like a child with a new toy, he was impatient
till he should be allowed to play with it. He knew
that he was not to move till Hamilton had mustered
the Northern tribes, and he himself had fully distributed
the ammunition among the Southern Indians; but his
long good behavior had relaxed the vigilance of the whites,

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and some of their outlying "settlements now lay sleeping in fancied security, not more than sixty miles away.
It might be weeks before the Northern snows would
allow Hamilton to begin his march ; and meanwhile
might he not gather a few scalps to ornament his wigwam ? The temptation was too great for the virtue of an
undisciplined Indian, who had in possession arms and ammunition of the specie value of a hundred thousand dollars. So, about the time that Hamilton set out from
Detroit, Dragging Canoe and a few of his warriors went
upon a brief raid against the more exposed of the white
settlements. In a midnight attack on the house of one
Boilston, on the extreme frontier, he lost four of his
braves, and killed two of the whites—Jarot Williams
and Alexander Hardin, Indian traders who have been
hitherto mentioned. He attacked a few other farmhouses, but was beaten off without doing any material
damage. Then, having done just enough to warn and
arouse the settlers, he retired to his home on the Ohickamauga.
A blow upon the extremity of the human body is
at once transmitted by the nerves to the common center of sensation, the brain. In like manner—so perfect
was Sevier's system for transmitting intelligence—an attack on the most remote border was, by trusty scouts,
promptly conveyed to him at the center of operations,
Watauga. Thus it was that now, before twenfcy-four
hours had passed, his fleet light horsemen were patrolling every hamlet and every by-path in the territory.

ANOTHER COIL OF THE ANACONDA.

167

Was the attack at Boilston's the precursor of an assault
in force, or was it an isolated raid, originating in the
restlessness of the Indian under his long-enforced inactivity ? These were the questions that occurred to Sevier. A few days would answer them ; but, meanwhile,
of one thing he was certain—the British had thrown
over the mountains from Augusta a supply of ammunition to the savages. It had come to Dragging Canoe,
and not to Oconostota, lest he should be apprised of its
arrival by his faithful friend the Cherokee prophetess.
Eobertson, with whom he was in the habit of conferring
in all emergencies, was away with an exploring party
upon the Cumberland; therefore, when a few days had
passed, and no general attack had followed, he saddled
his horse and rode the forty miles that lay between
him and Evan Shelby, at King's Meadows.
At home with the sturdy Welshman were his four
stalwart sons—Evan, Moses, James, and Isaac—the last
of whom had been surveying lands in Kentucky, and acting as commissary-general of the Virginia forces, since
he last appeared in this history. The six men sat down
to a conference upon the situation. They all agreed
that it was evident the Indians had received a supply
of arms and ammunition at Chickamauga, which must
be captured at once, or by the time that spring had
fully opened the whole force of Creeks and Cherokees
would be upon the war-path. But how to capture it
was the question. No one present had ever been at
Chickamauga, but all knew that it was located among

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inaccessible mountains, and deemed to be impregnable
to any attack by land. But might it not be assailed
by water, if celerity and secrecy were observed in the
movement ? And would not seven hundred to a thousand men be enough to meet the two thousand Tories
and savages assembled there, if the latter were taken by
surprise, and unprepared for the encounter ?
The foregoing points having been discussed, an important difficulty presented itself. The men could be
readily enrolled, but the money to equip and supply
them was altogether wanting. The existing war had so
completely exhausted the resources of both North Carolina and Virginia that it would be a mere waste of
time to apply to either government for assistance. And
aid from individuals was equally as hopeless. Not a man
in the territory had in possession so much as a hundred dollars of even the depreciated Continental currency
then in general circulation. However, the Latin adage,
that " riches are the sinews of war," is a mistake.
Par truer is the Jewish proverb, " A good name is rather
to be chosen than great riches." Among these six was
a young man of only twenty-eight, whose name was so
" g o o d " that on it, for something more than a year, he
had fed and clothed the entire armies of Virginia; and
he would pledge it now for this expedition, trusting to
the British powder they hoped to capture to meet his
obligations. This young man was Isaac Shelby, the
same who had defeated Dragging Canoe at Long Island
Plats, and turned the trembling scale at the close of

ANOTHER COIL OF THE A^ACOKDA.

169

the terrible day at Point Pleasant. A rendezvous being
then appointed for the mouth of Big Creek, on the Holston, not far from the present town of Kogersville, Sevier remounted his horse and rode back to Watauga.
The machinery of war was at once set in motion.
Swiftly the scouts of Sevier sped through the settlements,
and promptly the hardy backwoodsmen gathered to the
rendezvous. Then, when mounted patrols had been stationed in every direction, to prevent the possibility of
intelligence reaching the enemy, a strong force set to
work to build a fleet of boats for the expedition. Even
at this day the poplar grows in this region to a diameter of five feet and upward. These giant trees were
felled, dug out with the axe and the adze, and fashioned into canoes, and a few flat-bottomed boats were
constructed of planks floated down from the saw-mill
at Watauga. More than a hundred of these rude craft
were soon launched upon the Holston, and it may be
safely affirmed that another such maritime array was
never seen in civilized warfare. About noon of the
10th of April, 1797, the flotilla drew out from the shore
and started upon its way down the river.
How many men were in the expedition it is impossible to state with exactness, for the leaders did not
always count their own troops, or those of an enemy.
Accounts differ, but the most probable estimate is seven
hundred and fifty—one fifth of whom had been shortly
before enlisted by Colonel John Montgomery for the
re-enforeement of George Eogers Clark, whose recent
8

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brilliant exploit at Vincennes allowed them a short delay in joining his forces. The remainder were drawn,
in probably about equal numbers, from the "Watauga
and Backwater settlements, by Sevier and Eyan Shelby.
The force represented about one half of the military
strength of the region, and a larger number it was not
prudent to withdraw, because the advancing expedition
would soon leaye Oconostota in its rear, and he might
descend upon the settlements if he should learn that
they were unguarded. The whole was under the command of Eyan Shelby, he being the senior and ranking
officer; but among the troops were Seyier and Isaac
Shelby, and several others competent to lead an army.
By the windings of the river the distance was three
hundred miles, and they would enter an unknown wilderness which only one man among them had ever visited
by water. The river was on the spring freshet, and
this had increased the usually rapid current to a most
dangerous velocity; besides, their pilot—named Hudson
—told them that a part of the route was over dangerous
shoals and through furious rapids, where a single false
stroke might send their frail craft to the bottom.
There was need, therefore, of care and skill to escape
the perils of the river, and of silence and watchfulness
to avoid the dangers of the land—for, seen by any roving savage, their movements might be made known to
Oconostota. The little army had, in fact, undertaken
a most hazardous enterprise. It was plunging into an
unknown region, to attack a strongly posted force of

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171

three times its number, when, by its very movements,
it would create an enemy in its rear of about twice its
own strength, and capable of doing it vital injury. So,
silently the men plied their oars, and narrowly they
watched the forests and undergrowth that lined the
banks of the river. "With muffled paddles, and at dead
of night, they passed the mouth of the Little Tennessee, near which lay Oconostota and his twelve hundred
warriors; and soon afterward, with a bolder sweep, they
pulled out of the Holston, and into the safer, because
broader, Tennessee.
In the early morning of the 13th of April they
rounded to at the mouth of Chickamauga Creek, within
a short distance of the lair of Dragging Canoe. The
town stretched for a mile or more along the bank of
a stream lined with canebrakes, the lower portion of
which was now submerged by the freshet, so that the
canoes could approach, entirely concealed, to the very
doorways of the wigwams. About five hundred warriors
occupied this place, the remainder having their homes
in towns located at intervals lower down the river.
As the first boat came to land, the men in it encountered a solitary Indian, whom they made a prisoner, promising him his life if he would faithfully guide
them to the quarters of Dragging Canoe. This the
savage did, and a scene of the wMest confusion followed.
Taken by surprise, and panic-stricken, the Indians made
scarcely auy resistance, but fled precipitately to the adjacent woods and mountains. Forty warriors were killed

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on the spot, and Dragging Canoe and the rest were
hunted to inaccessible jungles and mountain recesses
where the troops could not penetrate. Meanwhile, a
guard being placed over the magazine where was stored
the British gunpowder, the torch was applied to every
dwelling in Chickamauga, and soon all that was left of
the town was a mass of smoking cinders.
While this was going on, detachments were dispatched
to the other towns along the river, and, before darkness
came upon that day, no less than eleven conflagrations
marked the spots where had stood as many Indian villages. Not a hut was spared, not a measure of meal,
nor an article of provision. Twenty thousand bushels
of corn were destroyed, and the routed warriors were
left without subsistence, or any powder with which to
secure game from the forest. Besides the great quantity of arms and ammunition, the troops captured one
hundred and fifty horses, a hundred head of cattle, and
large stores of goods which the British had accumulated
for distribution among their Northern allies.
The work of destruction over, the troops broke up
their boats, and, loading the spoils upon the captured
horses, returned to their homes through the forest.
The march was long and toilsome, but, before the close
of a month, every man was at his home on the Holston or the Watauga. Thus speedily, and without the
loss of a single life> did this small band of backwoodsmen destroy the vast coalition that was intended to
sweep the border settlements from existence. For at

ANOTHER COIL OF THE ANACONDA.

173

least a year to come the Southwestern Indians would
be powerless—they could not subsist without corn, nor
fight without ammunition, and, cooped up as the British
soon were in Savannah, they were unable to lend them
any assistance.
And here I would again call attention to the fact
that two small bodies of men, acting without concert,
and widely apart, frustrated, for a second time, the
gigantic plan by which the British commander expected to wind an anaconda coil about the Southern colonies. It is within the scope of credibility to assign one
such occurrence to what may be termed " a fortuitous
concourse of events," but can we in reason so account for
two such occurrences ? And what if a third, quite as
remarkable, should follow within a little more than a
year, in which these same backwoodsmen would be the
important actors ?
Had the front been as successfully defended as the
rear, the close of the year 1779 might have seen the
end of British domination in America. But it was not
so to be. For two long years the Southern sea-coast
was to be furrowed with the red plowshare of war,
and it was to be rescued at last from the clutch of the
British lion by these same over-mountain men who
had thus far so bravely stood as the rear-guard of the
Eevolution. At the occurrences on the sea-coast I shall
have to glance briefly in another chapter; now I must
note in its chronological order an event which had an
important bearing upon the progress of Western civili-

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zation. This was the departure of James Eobertson
from "Watauga, and his settlement with a body of emigrants, on the Cumberland, at a distance of fifteen
days' travel from the most westerly of the white settlements.
Though Seyier was the master-spirit and moying
spring of eyery event beyond the Alleghanies, Eobertson was nominally the " head man" in the Watauga
community; and he was honored, trusted, and beloved,
by every man, woman, and child, throughout the scattered settlements. Moreover, he was a man of marked
and decided character, and his most characteristic trait,
shown on numberless occasions through a long career,
was strong, practical common sense. "While he had
the cool intrepidity that could confront, and by sheer
moral force subdue, a horde of hostile Cherokees, he never
ventured needlessly into danger. He was superlatively
cautious, looking always before he leaped, and never
adopting a course until he had carefully weighed all its
consequences. "What, then, could be his motive in now
leaying the ease, security, and comparatiye opulence he
had acquired during ten long and perilous years, to
plunge again amid the hardships, privations, and dangers
of a distant wilderness, where he would be surrounded
by savage foes, and far beyond all human succor ? The
answer, I think, is to be gathered from the phrase that
was ever on his lips, "Man proposes,but God disposes/'
The feeling was upon him which was upon Luther when
he said : " God hurries and drives me. I am not mas-

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175

fcer of myself; I wish to be quiet, but am hurried into
the midst of tumults." The Scotch Presbyterianism, in
which he had been educated, had revealed to him an
Overruling Mind, directing all human affairs. That
Power had not so strangely saved his life ten years before without a purpose, which purpose it had gradually
dawned upon him was that he should be the forerunner of civilization in the Western wilderness. This being
his settled conviction, he was prepared to make every
sacrifice and endure every hardship that came in the
way of what seemed to him duty. And so, I believe,
it has been with all men who have done any special
work which has greatly benefited the world. They
have recognized an invisible guiding, which has led
them at times into acts that to mere worldly wisdom
have seemed the extreme of folly.
Eobertson and Sevier were as hand and brain to
one another. There was between the two that union of
mind and soul which comes only to men who have the
same aims and aspirations, and who have shared deadly
perils together. And now Sevier remonstrated with
Eobertson. It was folly to leave his well-won honors;
it was madness to tempt again the dangers of an untrodden wilderness. ,-Then Eobertson, reticent with all
others, but ever open with Sevier, disclosed to him his
plans and purposes. The result was that Sevier said,
"Go, and I will go with you." But to this Eobertson would not consent. The Watauga settlements, he
said, without Sevier, would soon be broken up and

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the settlers driven beyond the mountains. No other
leader than he could carry them through the gloomy
years that might be before them. They were both soldiers of civilization, and each had his allotted duty. It
was Kobertson's to lead the advance, Sevier's to guard
the rear. Let each one do his allotted work, and leave
the results to the Supreme Disposer.
This is, in substance, what was said between Sevier
and Kobertson ; and then they parted, to meet again only
at long intervals for sixteen years, when Sevier had
crushed the Cherokees, and, at the head of a great State,
enforced a lasting peace upon the border. But this,
and the subsequent career of Kobertson, I shall have to
recount in another volume.

CHAPTEE IX.
THE KEAK-GTJAED AT THE FE0NT.

Now, for more than a year, peace prevailed along
the entire Western frontier. George Eogers Clark, soon
after the fall of Vincennes, captured the British posts
on the Wabash and in the Illinois country, and this,
with the continued captivity of Governor Hamilton,
prevented any further attempt at a coalition of the
Northern Indians. The Southern tribes had been rendered powerless, for the time, by the loss of their ammunition at Chickamauga; and, moreover, their most
enterprising chieftain, Dragging Canoe, could not move
until he had planted and harvested a crop of corn to
carry his people through the winter.
This condition of things being speedily known east
of the mountains, it induced a fresh tide of emigration from the seaboard, which soon added materially to
the strength of Sevier and his backwoodsmen. During
the entire summer and autumn of 1779 every road
and every mountain trace leading into the new territory was crowded with hardy adventurers, seeking homes
beyond the reach of the red-coated soldiery of King
George. On the frontier they might be exposed to the

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inroads of the savages ; but this danger they could meet
if led by Sevier, the fame of whose exploits had already
traveled far beyond the mountains. To the Indians his
name had become a terror, but to the settlers it was a
pledge of good order and security. Thus was the fame
of one man largely instrumental in building up a great
commonwealth.
Early in 1779 the British had overrun the larger
part of Georgia. Defeating General Ashe at Brier Creek,
they projected an expedition against Charleston, but
were repulsed at Stono Ferry, and driven back to Savannah, where, in October, they were besieged by a force
under General Lincoln. The attack failed, and the
Americans were forced to retreat, with the loss, among
others, of the brave Count Pulaski. This closed the
campaign of 1779, and Sir Henry Clinton prepared for
another and stronger effort for the reduction of the
Carolinas. He determined that both front and rear
should be again infolded in the coil of the anaconda;
and, if the rear attack should fail, the front should be
made in such force as to render it irresistible.
Accordingly, after enjoying his Christmas dinner in
New York, the British commander on the following day
went on board the fleet of Admiral Arbuthnot, and set
sail, with seventy-five hundred men, for Charleston.
He was soon followed by Lord Eawdon, with an additional body of twenty-five hundred, and on the 11th of
February the combined forces were landed on John's
Island, in the vicinity of Charleston. The city made

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179

a stubborn defense, but on the 12th of May General
Lincoln was obliged to capitulate with his entire army.
The fall of Charleston decided the fate of South
Carolina; but, to make sure of its complete subjugation,
and as a step in the northward march of his army,
Clinton dispatched three expeditions into the interior.
One of these, under Lieutenant-Colonel Browne, was to
reoccupy Augusta, open communications with the Southern Indians, and supply them with arms and ammunition for another rising ; another, under Lieutenant-Colonel Cruger, was to overrun and subdue the country
around Ninety-six; and the third, a larger force, under
Lord Cornwallis, was to march directly northward and
disperse some bodies of patriots who were understood
to be gathering on the borders of North Carolina. This
done, the three bodies were to unite and carry the war
into North Carolina and Virginia; and it was hoped
that a junction would be formed with the army in New
York, and the whole country south of the Hudson be
subjugated, before the close of the campaign. Such was
the brilliant dream of Sir Henry Clinton, which, had it
come to pass, would have changed the fate of the American Continent. But, like his previous dream, it was
to be rudely dispelled, and by the same means—the
sharp rifle-crack of a few hardy backwoodsmen.
A rapid conquest of the whole of South Carolina,
from the sea-coast to the mountains, was the result of
these expeditions. The march of the British was an uninterrupted triumph. Everywhere the people submitted,

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took British "protections," or were paroled as prisoners.
The country was full of Tories, who now nocked to the
royal standard in great numbers, augmenting at their
every step the strength of the British forces. A few
small bodies of patriots remained in arms after the fall
of Charleston; but these were soon cut to pieces, or
driven across the line into North Carolina, where, hiding in swamps and forests, they hoped to recruit sufficient strength to be able to harass the outskirts of the
advancing enemy. Among these last were Sumter and
Marion, who had already acquired fame as partisan soldiers. In less than a month from the fall of Charleston the only organized force of patriots within the limits
of South Carolina were a few hundred mounted militia,
who had their headquarters at the Cherokee Ford of
Broad Kiver. They were principally North Carolinians,
under the command of Colonel Charles McDowell, of
Quaker Meadows, in Burke County ; but with them were
about a hundred Georgians, under the indomitable Elijah Clarke, and about thirty South Carolinians, under
the brave Colonel James Williams, whose plantation, in
the district of Ninety-six, was soon occupied by the
British commander, Ferguson, as his headquarters.
Thus the whole of Georgia and South Carolina lay
prostrate at the feet of the invader. So complete was
the subjugation of the two colonies, that they were regarded, and spoken of, by the patriots in Virginia as
" t h e lost provinces."* Seeing the success of the various
* Lee's " Memoirs," vol. i.

THE KEAR-GUAKD AT THE FRONT.

181

British movements, and deeming that there was now no
obstacle to the full success of his wide-sweeping plan
for the subjugation of the entire country, Sir Henry
Clinton, on the 5th of June, embarked for New York,
leaving to Lord Oornwallis the task of carrying the
war into North Carolina, and thence, through Virginia,
northward. At this time strong detachments of British
held Augusta and Ninety-six, and a larger force, under
Lord Kawdon, had advanced as far north as Camden.
But the heats of July and August are unfavorable
to the movement of troops upon the seaboard of the
Carolinas, and Oornwallis decided to suspend his northward march until the autumn months, when the harvests should have been gathered, and he could sustain his army at a distance from his base of supplies at
Charleston. In the mean time he would send forward
to Augusta arms and ammunition, to equip the Creeks
and Cherokees for the intended rising; and dispatch
a competent officer into the back country, to recruit
and embody the loyalists who occupied the mountainregion and the district along the base of the Alleghanies.
Already a body of eight hundred, under a Colonel Bryan, had joined the British forces, and another was being organized by Colonel Patrick Moore, a noted Tory,
on the borders of North Carolina.
Among these mountain people were many of respectable character, well-to-do, peaceable, and order-loving ;
but much the Jarger number then, as now, were of a
very "low-down" description. They were mostly de-

182

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

scended from the more worthless of the poor white settlers, who, driven back from the seaboard, had herded
among these wooded hills with the hordes of horsethieves and criminals who had escaped from justice in
the older settlements. The progeny of these people are
even at this day a foul blot on American civilization.
The women are coarse and destitute of both intelligence
and virtue, and the men rough, brutal in their instincts,
and of no civilized use except as food for gunpowder.
Trained and well led, however, they make good soldiers.
And what these people are now they were in the time
of the Eevolution. Major Hanger, an officer under
Oornwallis, who was on recruiting service among them,
says : " In the back parts of Carolina you may search
after an angel with as much chance of finding one as
[of finding] a parson. In my time you might travel
sixty or seventy miles and not see a church, or even a
schism-shop meeting-house. I have often called at a loghouse in the woods, inhabited by eight or ten persons;
and merely from curiosity, have asked the master of the
house, (Pray, my friend, of what religion are you ?'
' Of what religion, sir ?' 6 Yes, my friend, of what religion are you ?—or, to what sect do you belong ?' ' Oh !
now I understand you; why, for the matter of that,
religion does not trouble us much in these parts.'
This race of men," Hanger continues, "are more savage than the Indians, and possess every one of their
vices, but not one of their virtues. I have known one
of them to travel two hundred miles through the woods,

THE REAR-GUARD AT THE EROKT.

183

never keeping any road or path, guided by the sun by
day and the stars by night, to kill a particular person
belonging to the opposite party. He would shoot him
before his own door, and ride away, to boast of what he
had done on his return. I speak only of backwoodsmen, not of the inhabitants in general of South Carolina, for, in all America, there are not better-educated
or better-bred men than the planters."*
These people were the natural enemies of the respectable classes, who were generally patriots; and
from among them Oornwallis expected to draw a large
body of recruits to his army. To this end, on the
18th of May, only six days after the capitulation of
Charleston, he dispatched Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick
Ferguson to raise the royal standard in the border counties. This gentleman was one of the most active and
enterprising officers in the British service. Intrepid and
determined, he was yet of genial manners, and open
to the better impulses of humanity; and also possessed
of a personal magnetism that gave him a strong ascendency over his own men and the country-people. Entering the army at an early age, he had secured a large
experience in war, and was universally regarded as one
of the most able and accomplished of the British commanders. He had acquired such skill in the use of the
rifle that he was considered, by his fellow-soldiers, the
best marksman living; and he had invented a weapon
to be loaded at the breech, which he could fire, with
* Hanger's " Life and Opinions," vol. ii, pp. 403-405.

184:

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

wonderful precision, seven times in a minute. It was his
own opinion that Washington had been at the mercy of
this unerring rifle just before the battle of Brandywine.
In a letter to his relative, Dr. Adam Ferguson, the eminent Scottish historian and philosopher, he relates the
incident as follows: " A rebel officer, remarkable by
a hussar dress, passed toward our army, within a hundred yards of my right flank, not perceiving us. He
was followed by another, dressed in dark green and blue,
mounted on a bay horse, with a remarkably high cocked
hat. I ordered three good shots to steal near to and
fire at them; but the idea disgusting me, I recalled
the order. The hussar, in returning, made a circuit,
but the other passed within a hundred yards of us,
upon which I advanced from the wood toward him.
Upon my calling, he stopped; but, after looking at me,
he proceeded. I again drew his attention, and made
signs to him to stop, leveling my piece afc him ; but he
slowly cantered away. As I was within that distance
at which, in the quickest firing, I could have lodged
half a dozen balls in and about him before he was out
of my reach, I had only to determine; but it was not
pleasant to fire at the back of an unoffending individual, who was acquitting himself very coolly of his duty,
so I let him alone."
On the following day Ferguson learned, from some
patriot officers he had captured, that Washington had
been all that morning in the position indicated, dressed
in every point as above described, and attended by only

THE REAR-GUARD.AT THE FRONT.

185

a French officer in hussar uniform. He adds, " I am
not sorry I did not know at the time who it was." On
such slight events often hang the fate of nations.
Whether this was or was not Washington, there can be
but one opinion of the humanity of Ferguson.
Ferguson set out at once for Ninety-six, with a body
of a hundred and fifty or two hundred picked regulars,
and there established a camp of instruction, to which
flocked all the Tories of the region. " H i s camp," says
an old historian,* "became at onoe the rendezvous of
the desperate, the idle and vindictive, as well as of the
youth of the loyalists whose zeal or ambition prompted
them to military service. There was a part of South
Carolina which had not yet been trodden by a hostile
foot, and the projected march through this unexplored
and as yet undevastated region drew many to the standard of Ferguson. This was the country which stretches
along the foot of the mountains toward the borders of
North Carolina. The progress of the British commander
and his unnatural confederates was marked with blood
and lighted up with conflagrations."
By the middle of June, Ferguson's army numbered
over two thousand, and then, drilling his men as he
marched, he moved gradually northward. Then, McDowell, seeing that his native State would soon be invaded by a force greatly superior to his own, sent urgent dispatches over the mountains, asking immediate
aid of Sevier and Shelby. This led to the rear-guard
Johnson.

186

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

being advanced to the front, and to the " tall Watauga
boys" being brought again into action. They were in
daily expectation of an attack from the Cherokees;
they knew that South Carolina was overrun by an irresistible force, and they might be marching to a swift
destruction; but they did not hesitate to become' the
forlorn hope, as they had, all along, been the rear-guard,
of the Revolution. In the early days of July they joined
McDowell, four hundred strcmg, at the Cherokee Ford
of Broad River, in South Carolina. Two hundred of
them were from the upper part of "Washington District,
which had been erected into the new county of Sullivan, and placed under Isaac Shelby as colonel; the remainder were from directly around Watauga, and under
the immediate command of Major Charles Robertson—
it not being deemed prudent for Sevier to leave on so
distant an expedition in view of the threatening attitude of the Indians. The principal command, therefore, devolved upon Shelby.
Even with this re-enforcement, McDowell's force
numbered less than a thousand men, and was far too
weak to cope with Ferguson. He, consequently, pursued a sort of guerrilla warfare—hanging upon the
flanks of the British, and intercepting and cutting off
such small parties as were intending to join them.
This was just the service to call into exercise the tireless energy and activity of Shelby and the over-mountain men. Marching by night, and sleeping or fighting
by day, they were ever on the move, and during the

THE EEAE-GUAED AT THE FEONT.

187

little more than thirty days that they remained with
McDowell they gained no less than three important
•victories—not important in themselves, but in their results ; for they were the first small links in the chain
of events that forced Comwallis, only fourteen months
later, to surrender at Yorktown.
McDowell was a good and brave soldier, and a most
enthusiastic patriot, but he was altogether too slow and
methodical of movement to cope with so active an adversary as Ferguson. Indeed, the British commander
seems to have paid him very little attention. With the
exception of a few slight skirmishes, no collision occurred between the opposing forces until Shelby's arrival on the Broad Eiver. But Shelby was there not to
look idly on while the British devastated the country;
not to parry blows, but to give them—-to attack, and
not to defend, and to attack according to the whirlwind tactics he had learned of Sevier over the mountains. He had not been two days with McDowell, when
Ferguson became aware of the fact that a new moving
force had taken possession of the Americans.
About twenty miles from McDowell's camp, and at
about the same distance from Ferguson's, was Thicketty
Fort, a strong redoubt, which had been erected four
years before, during a war with the Indians. Of this
fort the Tory colonel, Patrick Moore, had taken possession, and he was here gathering and drilling a body of
loyalists, with whom to join Ferguson. He was supplied
with a British sergeant-major to discipline his recruits;

188

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

but he gaye them actual exercise in the art of war by
plundering the defenseless women and children who had
been left behind in their homes by the patriots. He
stripped them of everything they had to eat and to
Wear, often leaving them not a measure of meal, nor an
ounce of salt to season their porridge. Before Shelby
had been twenty-four hours with McDowell he set out
at sunset, with his own four hundred mounted riflemen,
and an additional two hundred under Colonel Elijah
Clarke to put an end to Moore's marauding. He surrounded the fort just at break of day, and summoned it
to surrender. Its only entrance was a small wicket,
and it was inclosed by a strong abattis, and defended by
ninety-four men, with two hundred and fifty stand of
arms, loaded with ball and buck-shot, and so placed
at the port-holes that the garrison could easily have
repulsed a force twice as strong as that of the assailants. But at a second summons, without firing a shot,
Moore surrendered.
The news soon traveled to Ferguson, who at once detached one of his best officers, Major Dunlap, with eight
hundred men, to pursue and bring Shelby to battle,
while he should follow more leisurely in the rear, to aid
in any decisive engagement. After considerable marching and counter-marching, Dunlap and Shelby came together not far from Spartanburg, one morning in early
August. Shelby had gone into camp on Fair Forest
Creek, about two miles from Cedar Spring, to refresh,
with a night's rest, his tired men and horses* As usual,

THE BEAK-GUAKD AT THE EEONT.

189

he had sent out trusty scouts to scour the country in
all directions, and the day before had let a new recruit,
named Josiah Culbertson, visit his home, which was in
the neighborhood. After passing the night with his
friends, Culbertson rose before day and rode rapidly to
the previous encampment of Shelby. Every man in it
was astir, loading his gun or saddling his horse, in
preparation for an immediate movement; but, to the
surprise of the young American, they all wore the British uniform! They were too much absorbed in their
occupations to particularly notice him ; and coolly turning his horse's head, he rode slowly away from the encampment. When once out of sight he thrust spurs
into his animal, and flew away on the route he supposed Shelby to have taken. He soon found him drawn
up on favorable ground and in readiness for battle.
The scouts had reported the near neighborhood of the
British, but from Culbertson Shelby received an accurate description of their forces.
I need not describe the battle. It was a fierce handto-hand struggle, with sabers and pistols and the buttends of rifles, each man singling out his enemy, and in
some instances engaging more than one, owing to the
superior numbers of the British. Clarke showed uncommon bravery and prowess. Shelby relates that in
the very midst of the fight he had to pause to witness his
unequal contest with two stalwart Britons. One had
given him a saber-blow upon the head, the other a thrust
in the neck, which, but for his stock-buckle, would

190

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

have ended his life ; and then a heavy saber-stroke
forced his sword from his hand, and he was a prisoner.
But he was so for but a moment. Disarmed, and in
the grasp of two men, each as strong as he, he suddenly
felled one to the ground and sent the other into a rapid
retreat. This sort of fighting lasted for half an hour,
when Dunlap drew off his men, with a loss of between
twenty and thirty in killed and wounded, and leaving
in Shelby's hands twenty prisoners, two of whom were
British officers. Shelby had only four or five killed and
two badly wounded.
Dunlap had fled scarcely two miles from the battleground, when he was met by Ferguson with his whole
army. It was now Shelby's turn to retreat, for he was
confronted by four or five times his own number, led
by one of the ablest officers of the British army. Gathering his prisoners and wounded together—all but the
two, who were too badly hurt to be moved—he took
the direction of McDowell's camp on Broad Eiver.
Forming frequently on advantageous ground, he retarded the pursuit till, when about five miles away, he
came to a rocky hill which lay directly across the roadway. The hill was about sixty feet high, and so steep
that in some places the men were obliged to dismount
and help their horses up the ascent. The position was
not unlike that chosen by Ferguson at King's Mountain, which General Bernard, one of the ablest of Napoleon's engineers, pronounced capable of defense against
any body of disciplined troops attacking in a regular

THE REAR-GUARD AT THE ERONT.

191

manner. Here Shelby and Clarke formed their columns
and awaited the enemy. When Ferguson came up they
taunted him to attack them; hut, deeming the position
impregnable, he forbore an assault, abandoned the pursuit, and left Shelby to ride leisurely off to a junction
with McDowell. But the taunts of these raw provincial officers rankled in the breast of Ferguson, and influenced him subsequently to acts which had disastrous
consequences.
These two conflicts were the first rumbling of the
storm that was to overwhelm Cornwallis; but they had
no immediate results beyond inspiriting the patriots by
an exhibition of what brave and determined men can do,
when battling against great odds, for their country.
McDowell had moved his camp to a place called
Smith's Ford, about twenty miles lower down Broad
Eiver. Ferguson lay twenty-six miles to the southwest
of h i m ; and fourteen miles beyond Ferguson, at Musgrove's Mills, on the south bank of the Enoree River, was
an intrenched camp of, as variously stated, from two to
four hundred Tories. It was deemed important to capture these Tories; but the enterprise would be a most
hazardous one, for Ferguson lay directly between the
patriots and their object, and at not more than two
hours' distance from Musgrove's. However, after a few
days' rest, Shelby and Clarke again mounted their horses
and set out on this expedition. "With them went a
number of officers as volunteers, among whom were
Major Joseph McDowell, brother of the colonel; Captain

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KEAR-GUAKD OF THE EEVOLUTIOK

Valentine Sevier, brother of John Sevier; and Colonels
James Williams and Thomas Brandon, the last two residents of the district and familiar with its every bypath. At that very time Ferguson was encamped on
Brandon's plantation.
The troops set out from Smith's Ford about an hour
before sunset, on the 18th of August, two days subsequent to the battle of Camden, of which great disaster
they were as yet in ignorance. They kept to the woods
until after dark, and then took a road which passed some
three or four miles to the west of Ferguson's encampment. It was a hard ride of forty miles, most of the
way upon a gallop, but at the dawn of day they were
within half a mile of the enemy. Here they sent out a
small party of scouts to reconnoitre, and, while awaiting
their return, encountered a countryman who told them
that the Tories had been re-enforced during the previous
night by six hundred regular troops, under a Colonel
Ennes, of the British army. With them were Captain
Abraham De Peyster, second in command to Ferguson;
Captain David Fanning, a noted loyalist partisan ; Major
Fraser, of the regular army, and other skillful officers.
Hastily the patriot leaders gathered together for consultation. Beyond a doubt the information was correct—it was too much in detail to be otherwise; but
what should be done in the circumstances ? To attack
a well-posted body of regular troops of nearly twice
their number would be sheer madness ; but to attempt
a retreat, their horses broken down by a hard ride of

THE EEAK-GUAKD AT THE EBONT.

193

forty miles, was impossible. While consulting together,
they heard a sharp firing at a short distance. It was
the scouts, who had encountered a patrol of the enemy,
killing one and wounding two, and sending the rest in
precipitate flight to the British camp. Soon the scouts
came in, reporting this skirmish, and then it became
certain that the British would soon know that the
Americans were in the vicinity, and would sally out to
attack them. Thus, there was now no alternative—they
must stand their ground and encounter greatly superior
numbers.
They threw up a hasty breastwork of brush and decayed logs, and formed in a semicircular line across the
road, which here climbed a ridge, thickly overgrown
with trees and underbrush, which would effectually conceal them from the enemy. In the space of thirty minutes they were in readiness for attack, strongly posted
behind a breast-high intrenchment. Then Shelby sent
forward Captain Shadrach Inman, who had served bravely against the British and Tories in Georgia, with twenty-five mounted men, to lure the enemy on, and tempt
them to cross the river. The ruse worked admirably.
Plunging into the stream, the British came on with
charged bayonets, Captain Inman falling slowly back,
and keeping up a show of fighting. At last, when the
British were within seventy yards of the concealed
breastwork, Inman and his men scattered into the woods
along the road-side, and then from behind the breastwork the Americans poured a destructive volley into the
9

194:

KEAR-GUABD OF THE REVOLUTION.

ranks of the advancing enemy. The orders of Shelby
were, " Don't fire till you see the whites of the Tories'
eyes!" or, as by another account, " Till you can count
the buttons on their coats !" and in the hands of those
unerring marksmen every rifle did bloody execution.
For half an hour the firing continued; and then William Smith, of Watauga, shouted, "I've killed their
commander!" and about the same instant young Kobert Bean, the son of William Bean, the first settler, exclaimed that he had unhorsed Major Fraser, the second
in command. Then Shelby raised the famous Tennessee yell, and rushed out with his men upon the enemy.
The British bravely contested the ground for a short
distance, falling slowly back, but soon their retreat became a rout, and they fled down the road, through the
woods, and over the hills to the river. With reckless
speed they rushed to the ford, through which they
plunged in the wildest confusion, hotly pursued by the
victorious backwoodsmen. Sixty-three'were killed, ninety
wounded, and seventy taken prisoners. Of the Americans only four were killed and eight or nine wounded;
but among the killed was the brave Inman, who had
contributed so largely to the success of the battle. The
disparity in the losses was owing to the fatal aim of the
Watauga riflemen, and to their being shielded, during
most of the fight, by the hastily constructed breastwork.
According to their custom, the over-mountain men
had dismounted to fight the battle. Their horses were

THE REAR-GUARD AT THE FRONT.

195

tethered in a dense wood in the rear, out of range of the
firing; and now, the British having fled across the
Enoree, every man sprang into his saddle to give a more
rapid pursuit to the enemy. While this was being done,
Shelby, Clarke, Brandon, and Williams came together,
as if by instinct, for a hurried consultation. It was the
one wish of the last two mentioned to free their home
district from the presence of the enemy. Ninety-six was
but twenty miles away. They could be there by sunset, and, taken by surprise, Cruger would have no alternative but surrender. Ninety-six taken, Augusta was
only fifty miles farther away, and there Cornwallis had
accumulated a vast amount of warlike stores to arm the
Creeks and Cherokees. The fort there was defended
by Colonel Browne with only a hundred and fifty British regulars. It could be quickly carried by assault,
and, the arms and ammunition it contained being captured, there would be hope of another interval of peace
to the settlements beyond the mountains.
Shelby was rapid in decision as well as fertile in resource. He saw the great advantages that might result
from the movement, and instantly he resolved upon the
expedition. He was about to give the order to march,
when a horseman rode up in hot haste to the little group
of officers. He was covered with the foam and dust of
nearly fifty miles of hard riding. He handed a letter
to Shelby from McDowell, which inclosed one addressed
to the latter from Governor Caswell, of North Carolina.
This last was dated from the battle-field of Camden, and

196

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

apprised McDowell of the great disaster. The army,
which had been so long gathering under Gates and De
Kalb to stay the northward march of Cornwallis, had
been utterly routed, and its broken fragments were then
fleeing in all directions, not to pause in their flight till
a hundred and fifty miles lay between them and the field
of battle. " T h e enemy will no doubt," added the Governor, "endeavor to improve his victory by cutting up
^all the small corps of Americans; therefore, let every
separate detachment get out of the way as quickly as
possible." Being questioned, the messenger said that
McDowell was already moving toward Gilbert Town, a
small hamlet at the base of the mountains in North
Carolina.
There was no room to question the information, for
Shelby was familiar with the handwriting of the Governor. He had corresponded with him, and his signature was affixed to his own commission as colonel.
Therefore, he accepted the truth, and with lightningglance his quick mind took in the situation. He saw
that all was lost east of the mountains; that from the
Potomac to Southern Georgia the British rode triumphant, and, except in forests and morasses, there was
nowhere a hiding-place for a patriot. Everywhere
would soon be heard the hated tramp of the red dragoon—everywhere but in that lone eyrie of the eagle
beyond the Alleghanies. There Freedom had still a
home, and that home she would keep unpolluted by
hostile tread, or, sword in hand, Shelby would die with

THE REAR-GUARD AT THE FRONT.

197

Sevier and his mountain-men. Such was the quick resolve of this man of iron—iron fused now into steel by
the fiery trial through which his country was passing.
He ordered the seventy prisoners to be mounted behind
as many of his troops, and then, with one wave of his
hand, he said, "Now, boys, to the mountains!"
There was need of haste, for already the fugitives
from the battle were half-way to Ferguson's encampment,
and, before another hour, he would be in rapid pursuit
with fresh men and horses. Shelby's horses were jaded,
his men exhausted by fifteen hours of constant marching
and fighting; but no sooner was the word given, than
they were on their way, straight as the bird flies, for the
Alleghanies. All that August day, all that sultry night,
and all the following day they marched, never once
drawing rein till they were sixty miles away in the
mountain-region. The horses nibbled the corn-stalks
that stood in the fields through which they were passing, and the men ate the raw ears and a few peaches that
grew along the road-side. At last they halted, after
forty-eight hours of such fatigue as men seldom endure,
and then scarcely one among them could recognize his
most intimate acquaintance. The faces of all were so
bloated, their eyes so swollen, as to have altogether lost
their characteristic appearance. As Shelby had expected,
they were pursued by a strong force of Ferguson's
mounted men, who followed their trail till the close of
the day of the battle. Then, only thirty minutes behind
the retreating patriots, the British went into camp, too

198

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

much exhausted with the intense heat to proceed farther.
Thus was the right wing of the rear-guard trained by
both victory and defeat to do far more effectual battle
for its country.
And now the brave little army broke into pieces.
Shelby and his men took the Indian trail over the
mountains to Watauga; Williams, with a sufficient
guard, set out by unfrequented ways to a safe asylum
with the prisoners; but Clarke, with but a hundred
men, faced south, right into the British lines, determined to capture Augusta. His State was trampled
underfoot, his wife and children were homeless, and he
himself was an outlaw with a price upon his head; but
to this indomitable man all was not lost so long as he
could wield a sword or carry a musket. He crept slowly
along the base of the mountains, gathering strength as
he went, and, in the early days of September, with seven
hundred men, swooped down upon Augusta. Browne
he cooped up in the fort without food or water; a large
body of Cherokees, who were there for arms and ammunition, he scattered to the four winds; and the prize was
all but in his grasp, when Cruger with a strong force
from Ninety-six came upon him, and he was forced to
retreat to the mountains. The word went that he was
fleeing north, and, to capture him, Ferguson delayed a
junction with Cornwallis long enough to enable the
over-mountain men to come up with him at King's
Mountain. Had Clarke not been a fugitive, that turning battle of the Eevolution would not have been fought,

THE REAR-GUARD AT THE FRONT.

199

nor Cornwallis been checked in his victorious march
northward. Thus, reading history at the end of a century, we see that disaster is sometimes a necessary prelude
to victory.
But these devoted men did not see events as we see
them. To them this was the darkest hour of the Eevolution. Even Washington, writing to Steuben, said,
" T h e prospect is gloomy, and the storm threatens";
and to General Reed, "I have almost ceased to hope."
But the darkness is deepest just before the dawn, and
even now, amid this intense gloom, a cloud is gathering
far away upon the Alleghanies—a cloud no larger than
a man's hand, but which is forging the lightning-bolt
that shall rend in pieces the British power in the colonies. The bursting of that small cloud will clear the
sky, and thenceforward, in the sunlight of success, the
American arms will move on to assured and final victory.

CHAPTEE X.
THE GATHEBIHG OF THE CLAM.

BUT, while gloom overspreads the seaboard, there are
feasfcing and jollity beyond the Alleghanies. The Indians are still upon their good behavior. They have
not yet been furnished with their full supply of powder,
and, until they are, Oconostota will not move, for on
this occasion he intends to make sure of driving the settlers far east of the mountains; and Cornwallis designs
that he shall penetrate into Southwest Virginia as far
as the present town of Wytheville, and seize there the
Chiswell lead-mines, which are the sole source of supply for the border patriots. So the Indian king waits in
grim impatience the arrival of the arms and ammunition
which Clarke will soon have so nearly in his grasp at
Augusta. But the Ohickamaugas are restless. With ten
grains of powder in their pouches they can not keep
still; so, a small body ventures upon an insignificant
raid against the settlement at the mouth of Flat Creek,
on the Nolichucky. They are easily repulsed by Major
Jonathan Tipton, who is second in command to Sevier,
while Charles Kobertson is absent in South Carolina.
Having, therefore, nothing to do, Sevier occupies his

THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS.

201

leisure by getting up, for the 14th of August, a grand
celebration at his rambling log-palace on the Nolichucky.
It is such a celebration as occurs to most men only once
in a lifetime; but to Sevier it comes twice, for he is an
exceptional man, not to be confined to the limits, nor
judged by the rules, which are applied to the ordinary
run of humanity. To it he invites all his friends—which
term with him includes every man, woman, and child
in the territory. And from far and near they come, a
greater gathering than ever yet was seen west of the
Alleghanies. They overflow the spacious dwelling, and
gather in joyous groups about the green lawn that slopes
down to the rapid Nolichucky. Here, under the old
wide-spreading trees, are long tables that will seat several
thousands, and near by a couple of huge oxen, split from
head to tail, are roasting upon large gridirons over charcoal-fires. For this is a genuine backwoods barbecue, at
which cider and apple-jack will flow freely, and there
will be feasting and dancing till the stars grow pale upon
the mountains.
But, before these exercises begin, there is a short
ceremony to be witnessed in the spacious drawing-room.
Here is ISTolichucky Jack, divested of hunting-shirt, and
clad, " for this occasion only," in the uniform of a Continental colonel; and by his side is a tall, queenly-looking woman, superbly dressed—for the backwoods. Their
hands are clasped together, and before them stands the
grave Parson Doak, his head crowned with an unsightly
skull-cap, but with a smile upon his face which, merely

202

REAK-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

to look at, is a benediction. He was one of those men
who seem sent into the world to give ocular proof of the
life of serene loveliness that lies above us. He asks the
couple a few questions, and says over them a few words,
and then they are man and wife—Nolichucky Jack and
the "bonnie Kate " who four years before leaped into his
arms over the high stockade at Watauga. Henceforth
she is to be a mother to his manly boys, and for thirtyfive years she will nerve his soul to such struggles as
come to only a few men in a century. In and of himself Nolichucky Jack was a hero, but, without the devotion of this noble woman, he might not always have
been able to stand so erect as he did amid the treachery
of friends and the constant onslaughts of his savage enemies.
The wedding viands were scarcely cold, when a body
of horsemen wound down the mountain-side and came
to a halt in the court-yard of Sevier's mansion. They
were war-worn and weather-beaten. Their hunting-shirts
were smeared with mud and stained with blood, and the
bandaged limbs of some of them showed that they had
received as well as given blows in some deadly encounters. Sevier came out to meet them ; and, as soon as they
caught sight of his manly form in the doorway, they set up
the Tennessee yell which he was the first to introduce into
Southern warfare. Greeting and hand-shaking followed,
and Sevier had a kindly word of recognition for every
one of them—for all had been there before, and at free
quarters. And here I may as well say that, while North

THE GATHEKING OF THE CLASTS.

203

Carolina enrolled the men and commissioned the officers,
she never paid one of her over-mountain soldiers a dollar.
They fed and equipped themselves, and those not able to
do this were furnished with outfit and supplies by the
more wealthy among them. Sevier was a man of large
wealth for the times, and he kept open house to all
comers. His dwelling was the usual rendezvous on occasions of alarm, and hence he often had hundreds of his
soldiery quartered for days upon him. Every man was
at home in his house, and this seemed entirely natural,
inasmuch as Sevier was so open-handed that all that he
had, and he himself, came to be regarded as the common
property of the community.
From Shelby Sevier received his first accurate account of affairs upon the seaboard; for in those times
news passed by word of mouth in the backwoods, and
was not always to be entirely relied upon. Sevier recognized fully the gravity of the situation ; but he was more
hopeful, though not less determined, than his younger
compatriot. He did not believe that the country could
be wholly subjugated. There is that, he thought, in
the Anglo-Saxon which prefers death to submission to
a ruler not of his own selection. This was the choice
which he and his men had taken. They should contest their mountain-passes foot by foot, and if at last
they were overrun by irresistible numbers, and death
upon the battle-field was denied them, those that remained alive would take water down the Tennessee and
Mississippi, and find more peaceful graves among the

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Spaniards of Louisiana. Let come what might come,
they would not live under the British Government. But
this alternative would' not be presented. If the seaboard should submit, the mountains would be free. For
more than ten years the men of Watauga had stood
alone, battling at times with odds that were twenty to
one against them. And they had been but a handful, while now they counted nearly a thousand rifles.
Among those mountain fastnesses that single thousand
was a match for ten thousand British, and that was more
than Cornwallis had in his armies. Therefore Sevier
bade Shelby to be of good cheer; for they never had
been, and never would be, beaten.
This was the natural language of Sevier's intrepid
soul; and, in thus estimating his own prowess, he reckoned solely upon his own sword and the steady aim of
his unerring rifles. As yet he took no account, as did
Eobertson, of those invisible forces that do battle for
the right—the horses and chariots of fire that the young
man saw encamped round about Elisha.
The over-mountain men dispersed to their homes,
and Shelby rode on to his cattle-ranch at King's Meadows. But he did not remain there long. In the last
days of August there came to him one Samuel Philips,
a distant relative, with a message from the British commander, Ferguson, who had advanced to the eastern base
of the mountains in rapid pursuit of McDowell. Philips was probably one of Shelby's men who had been
wounded, and left behind after the battle at Musgrove's

THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS.

205

Mill. Taken prisoner by Ferguson, he had been humanely treated, then paroled, and sent forward to Shelby,
with word that, if he and the others did not "desist
from their opposition to the British arms, he would
march his army oyer the mountains, hang the leaders,
and lay the country waste with fire and sword." Ferguson was then only sixty miles south of Watauga, and
still moying northward after McDowell. In his army
were a number of Tories who had been driven out from
Watauga, and one whom Kobert Sevier's horsemen had
subjected to a coat of tar and feathers during the
previous summer. These men were well acquainted
with the border settlements and the mountain-passes,
and now, their natural antagonism inflamed by bitter
resentment, they proposed to guide Ferguson to an easy
conquest of the over-mountain region.
It is possible that Ferguson intended to attempt the
execution of this threat, for the Watauga and Backwater districts were the only ones south of Virginia
that did not now recognize the kingly authority; and,
besides, they were on the direct road to the Ohiswell
lead-mines, the capture of which he must have known
was deemed a capital object by Cornwallis. But, however this may have been, his idle words were prolific
of grave results; to borrow the phrase of Kobertson,
"Never was threat so impotent and yet so powerful."
Their first result was to put Shelby upon horseback
for a ride of forty miles to the house of Sevier, on the
Nolichucky. Sevier was not at home, but twenty miles

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

away, attending a horse-race at the new county-seat,
Jonesboro—for, even in these soul-trying times, Nolichucky Jack could think of whatever was likely to improve that important component of his little army, the
fleet racer. Again Shelby mounted his horse, and in a
few hours had repeated to Sevier the message he had
received from Ferguson.
The details of this important interview, and which
of the two men first proposed the heroic enterprise of
which it was the inception, can not be positively stated.
I am not aware that Sevier was ever known to speak of
i t ; and,if he did, his love of Shelby, and modest reticence in regard to his own achievements, would most
likely have led him to attribute the larger credit to
his younger compatriot. But a careful consideration of
what has been written by Shelby, and what is known of
Sevier, leads to the conclusion that the idea of the expedition originated with the soldier, all whose tactics were
comprised in the one word, attack—sudden, sharp, vigorous, and in the enemy's country. Writing about the
battle of King's Mountain, in 1823, Shelby said : " I went
fifty or sixty miles to see Colonel Sevier, who was the
efficient commander of Washington County, North Carolina, to inform him of the message I had received, and
to concert with him measures for our defense. After
some consultation, we determined to march with all the
men we could raise, and attempt to surprise Ferguson
by attacking him in his camp, or at any rate before he
was prepared for us. We accordingly appointed a time

THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS.

207

and place of rendezvous." The words that I have italicized show clearly that Shelby had no thought of attack
until he met Sevier, with whom, I therefore conclude,
the whole plan of the expedition originated. Ferguson
had bearded the lion in his lair. From the nature of
the man it was inevitable that he should spring from
his covert, pounce down upon the boastful Briton and
destroy him.
The result of this interview Governor Shelby relates
as follows : " I t was known to us that some two or three
hundred of the militia who had been under the command of Colonel McDowell, and were driven by the success of the enemy from the lower country, were then on
the Western waters, and mostly in the county of Washington, North Carolina. I saw some of their officers
before we parted; Colonel Sevier engaged to give notice
to these refugees, and to bring them into our measure.
On my part, I undertook to procure the aid and co-operation of Colonel William Campbell, of Washington County, Virginia, and the men of that county, if practicable."
For two whole days these two men conferred together, and the Fates were busy while they talked with
each other in that rude log mansion on the Nolichucky. For this was a pivotal event, and on their
decision hung, perhaps, the course of centuries. What
passed between them is not known, but I can imagine
i t ; for once, at a like pivotal period, I sat by while Chase
and Lincoln discussed measures on which depended the
fate of this nation. As they weighed one course against

208

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

another, scanned the present, and tried to forecast the
future, the great curtain seemed to uproll before me, and
disclose to my view those hidden forces which control
our human destiny. For we are but puppets, moved at
the will of higher powers—powers that are of good, and
so, however deep the gloom, we may take heart and
have courage.
If my view of these two men be correct, it was Shelby who proposed to act on the defensive—to guard the
mountain-passes, and hang upon Ferguson's flank and
rear, and thus decimate and finally destroy him. But,
if this were done, who would manage the latent Tories
among them, and meet the coming onslaught of the
Creeks and Oherokees ? Might not the settlers thus be
caught between two fires, and be crushed by overwhelming numbers ? Would it not be better to cross the
mountains, annihilate Ferguson, and then turn upon
the Indians ? Thirty days would finish Ferguson, and
meanwhile the settlers who should remain at home could
be gathered into forts, where they could hold Oconostota
at bay until the return of the expedition. Ferguson's
army was the left wing of Cornwallis, and that destroyed,
or even badly broken, the British general would be
forced to fall back upon Charleston, and thus give the
patriots time to rally and recover their lost country.
This plan, so bold and so comprehensive, was worthy of
the genius of Sevier. It was the one adopted; and a
rendezvous was at once appointed for the 25th of September, at the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga.

THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS.

209

A bolder enterprise is, I think, not recorded in the
history of any people. Prom the Wolf Hills to the
Nolichucky they could not, all told, muster a thousand
rifles. In their front, not sixty miles away, were gathering not less than five thousand well-armed sayages ; and
in their rear, just over the mountains, were hordes of
banded Tories, and a well-drilled British army, said to
number twenty-five hundred. And yet these men proposed to divide in the presence of this cloud of enemies,
and to hurl only half their force against those British
bayonets, across two hundred miles of country, with no
supplies, and no arms except their trusty rifles! Men
occasionally do heroic deeds in the stress of desperate
circumstances. But the situation of the settlers was by
no means desperate. It was no vainglorious boast of
Sevier that his one thousand among those mountains
would be a match for a British ten thousand; and his
men had too often beaten the Cherokees to fear a raid
from Oconostota. An Indian fight had no more terror
to them than a hunting-frolic, and it was not near so
exciting as a horse-race. What, then, could prompt
them to be now the forlorn hope of the country ? Not,
surely, pay, for her debts North Carolina paid in promises, and her promises had now a market value of only
one cent on the dollar ! Not glory, for they knew their
names would never be so much as mentioned east of
the Alleghanies. It was, and it could have been, nothing but a pure hatred of oppression, and a pure love
for liberty. The spirit was upon them which was upon

210

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

Gideon when he marshaled his three hundred, and so,
though but a handful, they became a host, irresistible
and invincible.
Shelby gone to carry out his part of the programme,
Sevier called his couriers together, to rouse the settlements and gather up the scattered fragments of McDowell's army. On fleet horses they go over forest-trails
and mountain-paths and traveled roads, and as they go
there echoes everywhere the cry: " T h e red-coats are
coming ! Kally for Chucky Jack and freedom !" As
words leap upon the electric wire, as fire flashes along
a powder-train, so the message sped from mouth to
mouth, from hamlet to hamlet, from farm-house to farmhouse, till the whole territory broke into a blaze of indignant fire, amid which men grasped their rifles, leaped
upon their horses, and hurried away to the rendezvous.
The whole country rose, and all—men and women,
beardless youth and gray-haired age—came together on
that September day under those old oaks along the Watauga.
And then occurred a scene such as never before or
since has been witnessed in history. Every man was
eager to be led against the enemy; but all could not go,
for a half must remain to guard the settlements. So,
that none might have cause of complaint, a draft was resorted to—a draft to decide, not who should go, but who
should be compelled to stay at home ! Among those not
drafted for the home-guard was Joseph, the elder son of
Sevier, who, being eighteen, came just within the limit;

THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS.

211

but his younger brother, James, was not yet sixteen, and
so was shut off from the enrollment. But the boy was
bound to go, and, being refused by his father, applied to
his young mother to intercede for him. She took him
to Sevier and said, "Here, Mr. Sevier, is another of
your boys who wants to go to the war; but we have no
horse for him, and, poor fellow, it is too great a distance
for him to walk." The horse was got, and the boy went
" to the war," and fought like a man at King's Mountain.
Horses were scarce, for many had been recently stolen
by the Indians, and some of the men, too, were short of
necessary equipments. These last could be had for pay
from the few stores scattered about the settlements, but
Sevier's exchequer was exhausted from frequent drafts
of a similar nature, and not a man among his neighbors had a dollar of any kind of currency. All had
expended their ready means in taking up their lands,
or in paying taxes to the entry-taker. He—John Adair
—had all the money in the territory. The expedition
seemed about to be retarded, perhaps altogether frustrated, because of Sevier's lack of means to pay for the
equipment of his soldiery. Never before did so much
hang upon the possession of a small amount of legal currency. But in this emergency Sevier bethought him of
Adair, and, going to him, suggested that he should loan
to him and Shelby whatever moneys he had collected.
The following was Adair's answer: " Colonel Sevier, I
have no right to make any such disposition of this
money ; it belongs to the impoverished treasury of North

212

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

Carolina. But, if the country is overrun by the British,
liberty is gone. Let the money go too. Take it. If by
its use the enemy is driven from the country, I can
trust that country to justify and vindicate my conduct.
Take i t ! " Sevier took it, and thus his men were fully
equipped for the expedition.
Years afterward, in examining some papers of Sevier's
that had been found in the attic of a deserted house in
Knoxville, Dr. Eamsey came upon the following receipt, which, as the amount is exactly the same that was
loaned by Adair to Sevier, is evidence that the latter refunded the money to North Carolina, the very State for
whose defense—yea, salvation—it had been expended :
"Kec'd Jan'y 31st, 1782, of Mr. John Adair, Entrytaker in the county of Sullivan, twelve thousand, seyen
hundred and thirty-five dollars, which is placed to his
credit on the Treasury books.
"Per

" 12.735 Dollars.

EGBERT LAHIER,

Treas'" Salisbury Dist."

By the 18th of September the runners had gathered together one hundred and sixty of McDowell's refugee troops, and under Major Joseph McDowell they
went into camp at Sycamore Shoals, impatient to be led
to the recovery of their homes. Colonel Charles McDowell had, at the first word from Sevier, hastened over
the mountains to learn the whereabout of Ferguson,
rouse the patriots, and call to their aid Colonel Cleveland and the rough-riders of Wilkes and Surry Counties.

THE GATHERING OF THE CLA¥S.

213

Meanwhile Shelby had been mustering his men, and
applying for help from Colonel William Campbell, who
commanded the militia of the Backwater settlements.
He was too much occupied to ride the forty miles to
Seven-Mile Ford; so he sent his brother, Captain Moses
Shelby, with a letter to Campbell. The doughty Presbyterian had just returned from an expedition, in which he
had, with Colonel Cleveland, repulsed a raid of two hundred Tories on the Chiswell lead-mines, but he sent answer declining to follow Ferguson, and saying that he
had decided to raise all the men he could, and march to
the borders of Virginia, to oppose the progress of Cornwallis, who had already advanced his headquarters as far
north as the town of Charlotte, North Carolina. Not
content with this reply, Shelby sent again to him the
same messenger, with a request still more urgent, and at
the same time dispatched John Adair to his kinsman
Arthur Campbell, the commandant of the county, to
represent the vast importance of the expedition. This
brought the two Campbells together, and then it was
decided that William Campbell should join Sevier and
Shelby, with two hundred of the best men in the settlement. Sending to Colonel Cleveland to join them on
the march with as many men as he could muster,
Campbell set out at once for Shelby's home at King's
Meadows, his men proceeding under Major William Edmonston, by the shorter route of the main-traveled road,
which led direct to Watauga.
Thus it was that, on the morning of September 25th,

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

eight hundred and forty stalwart oyer-mountain men,
under their bravest leaders, were assembled in camp at
Sycamore Shoals, ready to go upon the expedition. Of
these, one hundred and sixty were what was left of McDowell's command, four hundred and eighty were "tall
Watauga boys" under Seyier and Shelby, and the remainder were the Backwater Presbyterians led by William Campbell. A finer body of men neyer were brought
together on this planet. They were uniformly tall, sinewy, and powerful. Bred mostly upon the border, they
were inured to hardship and familiar with danger, and
they had that passionate love of freedom which, born in
our Anglo-Saxon blood, is nowhere more fully fostered
and developed than amid the free, unconventional life
of the backwoods. Of boundless courage, and every one
of them a sharp-shooter, they were more than a match
for an equal number of the drilled soldiery of any king
in Christendom. They might be cut down, but they
could not be beaten. They went into battle to die or to
conquer. In their conflicts with the Indians, defeat was
certain death; so their fights were life-and-death struggles. The result was—whatever the odds—always victory. Sevier and Shelby, their two greatest leaders,
were born generals, and so they were literally invincible.
We may at this day thank God that, in this darkest hour
of a century, there was left this small band of heroes to
rush to the rescue of freedom.
As they are arrayed now under the old oaks of that
mighty forest, they form a picture for some great scenic

THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS.

215

painter. Beneath them, in that "old field opening,"
are the bones of a long-buried race, who, it may be in
some far-off age, gathered there to be, like them, led forth
to battle, and around them are their mothers and wives
and children, and the home-guard of four hundred and
eighty who have been drafted to be left behind for their
protection. All have come together to witness the going
forth of this little band, some of whom they fear will
never return ; for all know the strait is desperate that
calls to the front this rear-guard of the country. Nearly
every man has his trusty horse beside him. They are
hardy, powerful animals, strong of limb and fleet of foot,
and accoutred now in red and yellow trappings of almost barbaric splendor. The men are arrayed in homespun, with hunting-shirts of buckskin or blue linsey,
gayly decorated with fringe and tassels. In their hats,
in lieu of plumes, are bucks' tails and sprigs of evergreen, and to their backs is strapped a knapsack or a
blanket; while a buckskin wallet, filled with the meal of
parched corn, saturated with maple-sirup, dangles from
their shoulders. This is the whole of their outfit, but
occasionally a skillet may be seen fastened to the pommel
of a saddle, in which they will cook the game they may
kill on the expedition. Their arms are a stout huntingknife, which each one carries in his girdle, and the long
Deckard rifle that now rests against his shoulder. Their
march will be hindered by no tents or camp equipage,
no baggage or baggage-wagons. Their subsistence will
be water from the brooks and the parched corn in their

216

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

knapsacks; their bivouac the spreading trees, with the
broad heaven above them. Thus lightly encumbered,
they will move like the wind, or rather like some dark,
electric cloud, from which, every now and then, leaps
forth the lightning. They are good for forty miles a
day, and can march and fight for forty-eight hours without rest or refreshment, as they showed when led by
Shelby on the Musgrove's Mill expedition. !
For among them are those same men and that same
leader—the steel-sinewed youth who, a few years before,
turned the tide at Long Island Flats and Point Pleasant.
And there, too, is Sevier, who is incarnate victory, who
never strikes but he discomfits the enemy. He is the
idol of them all—all love him as if he were their brother
—as, in truth, he is, for his great heart infolds them all.
Ardent and impetuous, he is also wary and far-seeing.
He moves among them now with a free word for all, and
that word is to every man hope and inspiration. His
dancing eye is aflame with a wild joy, as if he were already rushing on the enemy, and in its gleam his men
see a sure presage of victory. There, too, is the redhaired Campbell, huge of frame and stern of mien, and
a host in the day of battle, and with him are Edmonston
and Moore, who stood so like a wall at the battle of the
Flats when Shelby's men were forming. But I need
not single them out. They all were heroes.
While they are gathered there, a shout goes up along
the valley and echoes among the wood-crowned hills
like the roll of distant thunder. It is Arthur Campbell,

THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS.

217

with a re-enforcement of the stalwart Scotch Presbyterians of the Backwater. He has thought overnight
upon the expedition, and he fears that the eight hundred and forty will not be enough to grapple with Ferguson. So he issues a second call, and is soon on his
way with another two hundred, leaving to himself only
one third of his strength to meet the expected onset of
the Cherokees. All told, not more than seven hundred
men will now be left to guard a hundred miles of frontier, and these are scarcely enough to man the forts and
patrol the outlying settlements. But Sevier does not
fear. He will be not more than a month away, and at
the head of the home-guard will be Arthur Campbell
and Charles Eobertson. With greetings and consultations the day is far spent,* and word now goes about
among the troops that they are not to march till the
morning. So they break into little groups and go into
camp for the night in the near-by fort or under the great
trees, the men with their wives and children about them.
Early in the morning they all come together again
on the camping-ground, every man with his horse and
his rifle, ready to set out on the expedition. With
them now is Parson Doak, the pioneer preacher of the
region. With uncovered heads the men gather instinctively about him, and in earnest tones he asks for them
the guidance and protection of the Giver of victory and
the God of battles. He adds a few stirring sentences
that make the blood leap in their veins, closing with
the words, " G o forth, my brave men—go forth with
10

218

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

the sword of the Lord and of Gideon !" With one accord they take up the words, and, shouting, " With the
sword of the Lord and of our Gideons !" they set out on
their perilous march in pursuit of the victorious enemy.
Not often on this planet has there gone up such a
shout, and not often from its mountain recesses has
there issued such a band of heroes to do battle for their
country.

CHAPTEE XL
THE MAKCH TO THE BATTLE.

AMID the blessings and Godspeed of fathers and
mothers, and wives and children, those warriors of the
wilderness took their toilsome way up the rocky heights
and into the wooded defiles of the Alleghanies. The
most of them were on horseback, but a few followed on
foot with the long, noiseless tread of the backwoodsman.
Their hardy looks, their tall, athletic forms, their manycolored costumes and long-barreled rifles gleaming in
the new-risen sun made a most imposing spectacle. No
drum-beat kept time to their footsteps, but silently and
stern they climbed the stony mountain - path, intent
upon the grim work that was before them. In single
file, or at most two by two, they matched, for the way
was narrow—a mere hunter's trace through the primitive
forest. Following the margin of a mountain-brook, they
came, at the end of twenty miles, to the bank of Big
Doe Eiyer, a limpid stream of the purest of water. Here
they tethered their horses among the trees, unslung their
knapsacks, and went into bivouac for the night.
In the morning they were early astir, and, at the distance of four miles, came to the base of Eoan Mountain,

220

KEAK-GUAKD OF THE KEVOLUTIOK

one of the loftiest of the Alleghanies. Leaving it at the
south, they ascended a gap called Bright's Trace, and
climbed the Yellow Mountain to its summit. Behind
them they had left mild September weather, but now
they found, says one of their number, " t h e sides and
top of the mountain covered with snow shoe-mouth
deep, and on the summit about a hundred acres of
beautiful table-land, in which a spring issued and ran
oyer into the Watauga." On this open space the men
were drawn up in battalions under their several leaders,
and exercised in their various evolutions. On discharging their rifles, they could distinguish scarcely any report, so rare is the atmosphere on this elevated paradeground, nearly a mile above the sea. Here occurred a
slight incident that had an important influence upon the
expedition.
Two of Sevier's men—James Crawford and Samuel
Chambers—did not answer to their names on this parade,
and it was at once surmised that they had deserted to
Ferguson. For the hope of a paltry reward they were
about to betray their comrades to the enemy. On the
usual route were several passes where a hundred men
could dispute the progress of a thousand, and, if the
deserters made haste, the British might come upon the
little army before it had emerged from the mountains.
The leaders gathered hastily together, a,nd instantly decided to change the route of the expedition. At the
summit of the Alleghanies the frequented trace bore
nearly due south, but they turned now directly east into

THE MAKCH TO THE BATTLE.

221

the untrodden forest. Occasionally a hunter had passed
that way, but never a man on horseback. There was no
path; for miles nothing but rolling stones, and pointed
rocks, and steep declivities, down which the horsemen
were forced to dismount and lead their animals. They
passed through narrow defiles and over rocky ledges,
where a single false step would plunge man and beast
down to swift destruction. But several miles of such
travel brought them to Oak Hollow, a slight depression
amid the mountains, where a limpid spring issues from a
wooded inclosure. Here, too much exhausted to proceed farther, they went into camp for the night.
They were now in the midsfc of scenery that is magnificent beyond description. Towering above them were
several of the tallest peaks of the Alleghanies, clad in
perpetual green, and, nestling at their feet, were grassy
hollows, sprinkled with the myrtle and rhododendron,
and arrayed in all the brilliant hues of autumn. After
another day of clambering through rocky ravines and
along the bed and margin of mountain streamlets, where
only the wo]f and wild rabbit had ever dared to tread, the
adventurous band left behind them the mountain snows
and descended upon a valley clad in verdure, where the
air had an almost summer mildness. In three days they
had marched sixty miles over such a route as never yet
was traveled by horsemen, but at last they emerged from
Gillespie's Gap, and beheld in the distance the smoke of
the settlements upon the rich valleys of the upper Catawba. Here they were joined by Colonel McDowell,

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

who had left Sevier twelve days before at the rendezvous
on the Watauga.
McDowell had been at his home at Quaker Meadows,
some forty miles away, and near the present site of Morganton. He brought encouraging tidings. Ferguson,
he said, was still at his quarters at or near Gilbert Town;
and at Quaker Meadows the over-mountain men would
be joined by Colonel Cleveland and three or four hundred of the brave riders of Wilkes and Surry Counties.
About as many of Sumter's men, under Colonels Hill
and Lacey, were understood to be near Flint Hill, not
fifty miles away, and it was probable they could be induced to join the expedition. Assured now of success,
the little army pressed rapidly forward, resting on this,
the fourth night of their march, at the plantation of a
wealthy Tory, where, says Ensign Campbell, "we obtained an abundance of every necessary refreshment."
Early on the following morning they were on their
way again, crossing before noon Silver and Linville
Mountains, and marching thence down the northwest
bank of the Catawba to Quaker Meadows, the home of
the McDowells. Here they were most hospitably entertained—Major McDowell even inviting them to help
themselves to his dry rails to feed their camp-fires. In
the course of the night they were joined by Colonel
Cleveland and a well-mounted force of three hundred
and fifty. They now numbered nearly fourteen hundred, and Ferguson lay not forty miles away, with an
army, as they still supposed, of not less than twenty-five

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223

hundred; but feeling able to cope with him, they pressed
still more eagerly forward. The roads now were better,
and their advance more rapid. They soon passed Pilot's
Knob, and shortly after noon entered a gap in the South
Mountain. Here a deluge of rain came down—one of
those violent storms to which this mountain-region is
subject—and they went into camp at a distance of about
sixteen miles from Gilbert Town, sending out scouts to
learn the exact position of Ferguson.***
The storm continued with the utmost violence during the following day, and it was not deemed prudent to move until they had more definite information
as to the strength and position of Ferguson. In these
circumstances the field-officers came together for consultation. The force had been raised by no less than
five officers of equal rank, and it had, therefore, a lack
of symmetry and organization. On going into battle it
would be necessary to have one efficient head, and some
one proposed they should send to General Gates for a
general officer to command them. This was generally
assented to, but it did not meet the views of Sevier and
Shelby. They had come out to fight Ferguson, who
was now only a few miles away. Gates was understood
to be at Hillsboro, a hundred and fifty miles distant,
and, if they delayed to hear from him, the enemy might
elude their grasp, and get within the lines of Cornwallis at Charlotte. " Then," said Governor Shelby, in
a conversation with General Hardin, in 1819, " i t was
determined that a board of officers should convene each

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KEAR-GUABD OF THE KEVOLUTICXN".

night, and decide on the plan of operations for the next
day, and that one of the officers should see those orders
executed, as officer of the day, until they should otherwise conclude." As all of the superior officers, except
Campbell, were from North Carolina, and he commanded
the largest regiment, he was unanimously elected as the
chief executive. McDowell was the ranking colonel, but
he was considered too dilatory of movement for the
emergency; however, to save his feelings, it was agreed
that he should proceed to General Gates for a- general
officer, leaving his regiment in charge of his brother,
Major Joseph McDowell.
The following morning was the seventh day of the
march. The storm had cleared away, and, though they
had no very definite information of Ferguson, the colonels decided to resume the pursuit. As they were about
to set out, Sevier rode among the men, and asked
all to come together in a circle, to "hear the news"
from Colonel Cleveland. Cleveland was a rough borderer, but he had a rude sort of eloquence, which always inspired his troops with some of his own indomitable spirit. The men gathered about their officers, and
then, removing his hat, Cleveland addressed them as
follows:
"Now, my brave fellows, I have come to tell you the
news. The enemy, is at hand, and we must up and at
them. Now is the time for every man of you to do his
country a priceless service—such as shall lead your children to exult in the fact that their fathers were the

THE MARCH TO THE BATTLE.

225

conquerors of Ferguson. When the pinch comes, I
shall be with you. But, if any of you shrink from sharing in the battle and the glory, you can now have the
opportunity of backing out, and leaving; and you shall
have a few minutes for considering the matter."
When Cleveland had concluded, Major McDowell
said with a pleasant smile on his face : "Well, my good
fellows, what kind of a story will you, who back out,
have to relate when you get home, leaving your braver
comrades to fight the battle and gain the victory ? "
And then Shelby added: " You have all been informed of the offer; you who desire to decline it will,
when the word is given, march three steps to the rear,
and stand; prior to which a few more minutes will be
granted you for consideration."
A silence of several minutes ensued, when word was
given by the several officers to their respective commands, that "those who desired to back out should
step three paces to the rear." Not a man stirred from
the ranks. They glanced at one another, a glow of
pride upon their faces, and then all around the circle
broke out a murmur of applause. From that moment
every man among them knew he could rely upon his
comrades to the death. The officers shared in this feeling. " I am heartily glad," said Shelby to the men—
a
I a m heartily glad to see that to a man you resolve to
meet and fight your country's foes. When we encounter the enemy, don't wait for the word of command.
Let each one of you be his own officer, and do the very

226

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

best you can; taking every care you can of yourselves,
and availing yourselves of every advantage that chance
may throw in your way. If in the woods, shelter yourselves, and give them Indian play; advance from tree
to tree, pressing the enemy, and killing and disabling
all you can. Your officers will shrink from no danger—
they will be constantly with you, and the moment the
enemy give way, be on the alert, and strictly obey
orders.''*
Of such material was this rear-guard of the Eevolution. Had they been less brave, less self-devoted, this
country might have had a different history.
Every man was then ordered to provide two meals in
his knapsack, and to be ready to march in three hours.
Then they set out, threading the -windings of Cane
Creek, and by night arriving in the neighborhood of Gilbert Town, when, to their great chagrin, they learned
that the game had flown. Ferguson had suddenly decamped from the vicinity some days before, announcing
his intention to march to the British station at Ninetysix.
The over-mountain men arrived at Gilbert Town on
the 4th of October. Four days before, the two deserters,
Crawford and Chambers, had come to Ferguson with
tidings of the rapid approach of the patriots through
the defiles of the Alleghanies. From them he also
* This report is taken from the narration of John Spetts, one of the
survivors of the expedition, to Lyman C. Draper, LL. D., author of
"King's Mountain and its Heroes."

THE MARCH TO THE BATTLE.

227

learned the strength and composition of the patriot
force, and the fact that they expected to be soon joined
by the men of Wilkes and Surry. He now mustered,
in camp, not more than twelve hundred men, haying
greatly depleted his army in his eagerness to capture
Clarke on his retreat from Augusta, to do which he had
express orders from Cornwallis. Clarke was understood
to be moving northward along the base of the mountains, and many of Ferguson's men being from that section, he had allowed them to go home on furlough, in
the hope to thereby gain knowledge of Clarke's movements. Thus had Ferguson reduced his strength at the
time of his utmost need, and thus did Clarke, by his
very defeat, render a most essential service to his country.
The intelligence startled Ferguson. He saw that, instead of intimidating the Backwater men by his threats,
he had merely drawn them from their mountain-coverts
to give him battle in the open plain. His short experience of Shelby and his men had shown him that they
were tireless riders and brave fighters, and re-enforced,
as they doubtless soon would be, by Sumter's broken
brigade, they would become an enemy too formidable
for him to encounter in his present weakened condition.
Quickly he saw his danger, and energetically he prepared
to meet it. He was but eighty miles distant from Cornwallis, and had four days the start of his enemy. In
these circumstances, a timid leader would have made
the best of his way to hisr main body. But Ferguson

228

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

was not a timid leader. "No brayer man than he ever
wore a British uniform; and such a thing as final retreat never entered into his calculations. He was intent upon the capture of Clarke, and now, as it seemed
to him, fortune had thrown in his way a still greater
achievement—the capture or destruction of the oyermountain men, which one blow would completely crush
out disloyalty in North Carolina. He made his plans
accordingly. He resolved to stay in that region to intercept Clarke; but to elude the Backwater men until
he had collected his scattered force, or received re-enforcements, when he would give them battle, and, as
he expressed it, "finish the business in that quarter."
This resolution taken, Ferguson at once dispatched
expresses to gather in his f urloughed men, and sent trusty messengers to Cruger and Cornwallis, asking for speedy
re-enforcements. This done, it seemed only necessary
to throw Sevier and the over-mountain men off his track
for a few days, to accomplish a brilliant achievement
that should win for him both promotion and glory.
But Ferguson was trusting his fate to various contingencies. What if his messengers should fail to get
through to Cornwallis ? What if his furloughed men,
seeing the dark cloud that was rolling down from
the mountains, should prefer the shelter of their mudchinked cabins ? And what if among his pursuers were
not only Shelby, who could fight and march a hundred
miles in forty-eight hours, but Nolichucky Jack, who
had been known to keep his saddle for a week, to ride

THE MAEOH TO THE BATTLE.

229

sixty miles a day, day in and day out, and whose Tennessee yell was always a knell of death and disaster to
his enemies ? But of this man Ferguson had as yet no
knowledge ; so he quietly put his strategy in operation,
troubled with no misgivings.
Giving out that he was about to march to Ninetysix, he took the direct route to that strong British station. Arriving at Denard's Ford of the Broad Eiver,
late in the afternoon of Sunday, the 1st of October, he
went into camp for the night in a strong position, and
in the morning sent out circular letters, calling to him
the men of that strong Tory neighborhood. Some of
these letters have been preserved, and their urgent appeals show that, while determined to stand his ground,
Ferguson realized the danger of his position. In them
he styled the over-mountain men "barbarians," and
" t h e dregs of mankind," and said: " I f you wish or
deserve to live, and bear the name of men, grasp your
arms in a moment and run to camp. The Backwater
men have crossed the mountains ; McDowell, Hampton,
Shelby, and Cleveland are at their head, so that you
know what you have to depend upon. If you choose
to be degraded for ever and ever by a set of mongrels,
say so at once9 and let your women turn their backs
upon you, and look out for real men to protect them ! "
From the ford, where Ferguson was now encamped,
M"inety-six was distant nearly a hundred miles directly
south, while the headquarters of Cornwallis, at Charlotte, were only about seventy miles almost due east-

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REAR-GUABD OF THE REVOLUTION.

erly. It was not Ferguson's intention to fall back
upon either position, but, the nearer he should get to
Cornwallis, the sooner would he receive his desired
re-enforcements. To march in that direction, and send
his pursuers far down on the route to Ninety-six, was
the object of his strategy. He was now in the midst of
a dense forest, remote from any dwelling, and on the
bank of a fordable river, which ran for twenty miles in
the direction of Cornwallis's quarters. He had only to
march a few miles along the bed of that river, hiding
his footsteps in the running stream, and to capture and
detain the few patriots of the region, to prevent intelligence of his movements from reaching Sevier and Shelby when they should move down from Gilbert Town.
They would here lose his trail, but the chances were that
they would push directly on, believing the report that
he was on the march to Ninety-six. Thus they would
be wasting their strength on a southerly route, while he
was thirty miles away at the east, and in receipt, no
doubt, of re-enforcements from Cornwallis. He could
then easily retrace his steps to Gilbert Town, intercept
Sevier and Shelby, and also draw the fugitive Clarke
into the net he had laid for his compatriots.
These were, no doubt, Ferguson's tactics, though
there is no written evidence of it, and the exact route
he pursued is lost to even the traditions of the neighborhood. The only record of his movements at this time
is in the diary of Allaire, one of his lieutenants. He
says, under date of Monday, October 2d: " Got in mo-

THE MAEOH TO THE BATTLE.

231

tion at four o'clock in the afternoon; forded Broad
River; marched four miles ; formed in line of action,
and lay on our arms." At four o'clock on the following
morning Ferguson was again in motion, and marching
twenty miles on the direct route to Charlotte, he went
into camp at night about a mile east of Buffalo Creek,
a tributary of Broad Kiver, only two days' march from
Cornwallis, and fully twenty-five miles distant from the
route that would be taken by his pursuers, who had not
yet arrived at Gilbert Town.
Here, feeling reasonably secure, Ferguson decided to
wait his expected re-enforcements, but he sent out scouts
to learn the exact whereabout of his enemy. For some
reason, to him unaccountable, he had not yet heard from
Cornwallis, and only a single company of eighty men
had joined him from Cruger, at Ninety-six. Multitudes of Tories came to his camp, but yery few of
his furloughed troops, or men able to carry a musket.
They were mostly aged loyalists, handier with the tongue
than with the sword, and just now Ferguson was in
sore need of the more cutting kind of implement.
However, he gave courteous welcome to all, for he was a
well-mannered gentleman, and content to talk, when he
could not fight, for his king and country. Among his
visitors was a venerable, white-haired man, who especially
won his confidence. The old man's mouth was full of
loyalty to the good king, who was so kindly serving out
to his distant children free rations of grape and gunpowder ; and he hoped that every one of tne over-mount-

232

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

ain men might partake so freely of these rations as to
never again hunger. Like most men of decided bravery,
Ferguson was unsuspicious and outspoken. He did not
recognize the devil's livery of deceit in which the old
gentleman was arrayed; so he opened his plans to him
freely, and told him he had just dispatched a messenger
to Oornwallis for Tarleton and four hundred of his invincible dragoons. They would arrive in four days, at
the latest, and then he would make short work of the
men from the Backwater.
What Ferguson told his aged visitor was doubtless
true; but his dispatch never got to Oornwallis. The
messenger probably shared the fate of the two who had
set out with his previous dispatch from near Gilbert
Town. Calling on their way at the house of a patriot
for breakfast, these men allowed their haste to betray
them, and, being then closely followed by the farmers5
sons, they were obliged to hide in the woods until their
missive was too old to be of any service to Ferguson.
This was one of those contingencies on which hung the
fate of the British commander; and it was also one of
those small events, pregnant with great consequences,
which meet us everywhere in the history of this rearguard of the Eevolution.
The aged loyalist who had so won upon the confidence of Ferguson was at heart a stanch patriot. Doubtless he was ashamed of the devil's clothing in which he
had arrayed himself to worm out the secrets of the British officer. It is certain that he did penance for his

THE MAKCH TO THE BATTLE.

233

falsehood by a ride of more than twenty miles, on a dark
night, through a dismal forest and over swollen streams
to the nearest American encampment. This was at Flint
Hill, where lay the broken remains of Sumter's brigade.
The heroic leader himself was in hiding, badly wounded,
and his men were now in command of Colonels Hill and
Lacey, of South Carolina, who were waiting for some
opportunity to strike a blow for the patriot cause. They
numbered about four hundred men—far too weak a force
to attempt to cope with Ferguson, and this they keenly
regretted, when told by the old dissembler that the British commander lay within a few hours' ride of their
rifles. But, toward the close of that day—the 5th of
October—they learned from their scouts of the advance
of the over-mountain men to Gilbert Town and their
march toward Ninety-six, in the vain hope of overtaking
Ferguson. Instantly the two colonels resolved to set
them right, and to tender their own men to re-enforce
the expedition. Colonel Hill was suffering from a recent wound, and could not endure a night ride of thirty
miles; but at eight o'clock Colonel Lacey mounted his
horse, and, attended by only a single guide, set out to
find the men from the Backwater.
The night was again very dark. They soon lost
their way, and, suspecting treachery, Lacey was twice
on the point of shooting his guide; but merciful
thoughts came to him on each occasion, and some hours
after midnight he was rewarded by being led to the outlying pickets of the over-mountain men, who were en-

234:

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

camped only two miles beyond where they had lost the
trail of Ferguson at Denard's Ford. Stating his errand,
Lacey was blindfolded and led to the quarters of the
commanding colonels. Every one of them was astir,
though it wanted yet some hours to daybreak; but they
received his advances with distrust, taking him at first
for a Tory spy. In this region a man could not trust
his nearest neighbor, and Lacey was a stranger to every
one in the encampment. But he was not to be repulsed.
He told them what he knew about Ferguson, and, offering to join his force with theirs, proposed to set out at
once to attack him, before he could receive his expected
re-enforcement from Cornwallis. Lacey's evident sincerity at last convinced the wary backwoodsmen, and
they gladly accepted his proposal, agreeing to join him
at sunset of the following day at the Oowpens, a place
which, only a hundred days later, was to witness the disastrous defeat of Tarleton by General Morgan. The colonels then told Lacey that they had lost the trail of Ferguson at the crossing of Broad Eiver, but, convinced that
he had gone on to Ninety-six, they had spent the greater
part of the night in selecting seren hundred of their
best-mounted men, with whom they meant to pursue
and bring him to battle before he could effect a junction
with Colonel Cruger. His arrival had saved them from
that fatal mistake; and thus it was that the night-ride
of the venerable wearer of devil's clothing had important
consequences.
The Cowpens was twenty-one miles from the camp of

THE MAECH TO THE BATTLE.

235

the patriot colonels, and about the same distance from
Sumter's men at Flint Hill. To reach the latter place
Lacey had a rough ride of nearly thirty miles, over a
wretched road and through a hilly country; but he was
at the rendezvous with his troops a little after sunset on
the 6th of October, thus riding fifty miles, and mustering and marching his men, in the short space of fifteen
hours. At the Oowpens Lacey was soon joined by Sevier and the other colonels, with their seven hundred
chosen mounted men. The remainder of the force, numbering six hundred and ninety, had been left behind to
follow on the trail of the advance as rapidly as they
were able ; but they were not counted on for effective
service, it being thought that the utmost speed would be
required to reach Ferguson before he should receive reenforcements.
With Colonels Hill and Lacey was Colonel Williams,
the efficient officer who had fought so gallantly at Musgrove's Mill. Their combined forces numbered about
four hundred and fifty; but when the best men, best
rifles, and best horses, were winnowed from among the
rest, there were found only two hundred and ten who
were thought capable of * marching fifty miles without food, and then fighting a fresh and well-disciplined
enemy of superior numbers. When the selection was
completed, the flying squadron counted precisely nine
hundred and ten men—truly a small force to have committed to it the task of turning an important page in
human history.

236

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

The Cowpens received its name from being the residence of a wealthy Tory, who employed a large number
of pens in the stalling of his cattle. Some of his animals were now made contraband of war by the patriots,
and it is recorded by one of the expedition that they
reaped fifty acres of his. corn in about ten minutes. The
night was again very dark, and heavy clouds portended an
early storm, but soon hundreds of camp-fires cast a lurid
glow over all the surrounding country. By these fires
the half-famished men were having a feast that they had
not known since leaving "Watauga. They had marched
for ten days through a thinly settled country, destitute
of provisions, and their fare had been of the most meager
description. Parched corn-meal, or the green ear roasted, had been their principal ration, and one of them
says, "I thought green pumpkins, sliced and fried,
about the sweetest eating I ever had in my life." Even
of such food their supply had been scanty, but now they
had broiled beef in plenty—eaten, however, without salt,
and in haste, for the order to march would be issued as
soon as the officers should have finished the winnowing
of the newly arrived forces. The order came before the
more tardy among them had fully broiled their steaks;
but the larger number managed to provide a few ears of
roasted corn for their knapsacks.
And there was need of haste. A scout, who joined
the force on its arrival at the Cowpens, reported that he
had seen Ferguson tha,t very morning, marching eastward, and ten miles distant from his late encampment.

THE MAEOH TO THE BATTLE.

237

His army did not exceed fifteen hundred men, but it was
moying toward Cornwallis, and was not, at that time,
more than thirty miles from Charlotte. Another scout
soon came in, bringing tidings that Major Gibbs, a noted
loyalist, was only four miles away, with from four to six
hundred Tories, whom he intended to lead to Ferguson
on the following day; and other smaller bodies of loyalists were known to be in the neighborhood. There was
need, therefore, of haste, if the patriots would overtake
Ferguson before he was joined by these Tories, and had
received re-enforcements from headquarters, from which
he was now distant only a forced march of less than twenty-four hours. By some, it was proposed that the little
army should fall on and annihilate Gibbs and the other
Tories; but this was opposed by Sevier and Shelby.
They had, they again said, come out to fight Ferguson. Let the meaner game go. If he were crushed, the
head would be gone, and the body would inevitably fall
to pieces.
The information brought by the scouts was correct.
Ferguson had broken camp at four o'clock on the morning of that day, and marched sixteen miles to King's
Mountain. He was pretty accurately informed of the
movements of tbe over-mountain men, as may be seen
from the following dispatch, which, on setting out, he
sent to Cornwallis :
" M Y LORD : A doubt does not remain with regard
to the intelligence I sent your lordship. They are since

238

KEAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

joined by Clarke and Sumter—of course, are become an
object of some consequence. Happily, their leaders are
obliged to feed their followers with such hopes, and so
to natter them with accounts of our weakness and fear,
that, if necessary, I should hope for success against them
myself; but, numbers compared, that must be but doubtful.
" I am on my march toward you by a road leading
from Cherokee Ford, north of King's Mountain. Three
or four hundred good soldiers, part dragoons, would finish the business. Something must he done soon. This
is their last push in this quarter."
Ferguson was mistaken as to Clarke and Sumter.
Thirty of Clarke's men, and all that remained of Sumter's, were with the patriots ; but the two leaders themselves were absent from their commands, Sumter at that
time wounded and in concealment, and Clarke, his wife,
and some of his scattered troops, enjoying the hospitality
of the " Bonnie Kate," at Sevier's log palace on the Nolichucky. He also greatly overestimated the patriot force.
Allaire states that they were twenty-five hundred strong
when they attacked at King's Mountain, and this was
probably Ferguson's present estimate.- But, however
much he exaggerated his enemy's strength, Ferguson had
no thought of further retreat. He had now taken up a
strong position, from which, he said, he could not be
driven by all the rebels out of—sheol, and there he intended to hold his ground. This is evident from the

THE MAKCH TO THE BATTLE.

239

following extract from a biographical sketch of him,
written by his distinguished relative, Dr. Adam Ferguson : " He dispatched a messenger to Lord Cornwallis,
to inform his lordship of what had passed—of the enemies he had to deal with—of the route he had taken
to ayoid them; earnestly expressing his wish that he
might be enabled to coyer a country in which there were
so many well-affected inhabitants; adding that for this
purpose he should halt at King's Mountain, hoping that
he might be there supported by a detachment from his
lordship, and saved the necessity of any further retreat." This letter was intercepted by the patriots, and
a duplicate that was sent on the following day, arrived
too late to prevent the disaster which overtook Ferguson.
The nine hundred and ten mounted men set out on
their march from the Cowpens about nine o'clock that
evening, and they were followed by about fifty foot-soldiers, whose ardor to meet the enemy could not be repressed by either mud, or storm, or darkness. For the
night was intensely dark, and a drizzling rain was falling, miring the roads, and making them all but impassable for foot-passengers. Before many hours the drizzle
became a pouring rain, and to shield their rifles from
the wet the men were obliged to wrap their blankets and
hunting-shirts about the locks, thus exposing their bodies to the full fury of the storm. The rain lasted all
the night, but they kept on, wet to the skin, and often
losing their way in the darkness, but never halting a
moment till, with the first streak of day, they came to

240

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

the range of low hills which overlook the Cherokee
Ford of Broad River. Here they drew up on the summit, while Enoch Gilmer, their most trusted scout, went
forward to reconnoitre the ford, it being feared that
the enemy might have waylaid the crossing.
Of this scout I may as well say a few words, for he
was of great service to the expedition. The over-mountain men were in a strange country, where nearly every
man they met was a Tory, and not merely a Tory, but
a creature of low, half-devilish instincts, from whom it
was next to impossible to extract truthful and reliable information. Without any purpose except pure mischief
they took delight in misleading the expedition, and
would have counted it a huge joke had it miscarried
through their false tidings. It was owing to the solemn assertions of two of these men, that they had seen
Ferguson on the road to Ninety-six, that the patriot colonels were led to follow on that route after they had
lost the trail of the enemy at Broad River. As I have
said, a hundred years have not improved these people.
They still inhabit that region, live in the same mudchinked hovels, wear the same coarse "butternuts/'
and have the same personal characteristics—those of the
porcine animal, whose flesh is their favorite article of
diet. Giving freedom to such men was literally casting
"'pearls before swine," but to this end were Sevier and
his comrades now marching and fighting.
The scout Gilmer was unacquainted with the region,
but was peculiarly fitted for gathering information in

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241

any locality. He belonged to a class of which some conspicuous examples were developed by our recent civil
war—born actors, who could assume any character at
pleasure, laugh and weep in the same breath, be grave
or gay, wise or " otherwise," a sane man or a lunatic,
and act each part so naturally as to deceive the most
astute reader of human nature. To these uncommon
traits Gilmer added absolute fearlessness, perfect selfpossession, keen observation, and a shrewdness that could
neither be misled nor baffled. While the troops were detained at the Cowpens, he had pushed on a few miles to
the house of a wealthy Tory, and in an incredibly short
time had so won on his confidence as to draw from him
all that he knew of the enemy's intentions. Cornwallis, the Tory said, was calling in his outposts and concentrating his forces, to give Gates another crushing defeat, when North Carolina would be fully at his feet, and
an unobstructed road opened before him through Virginia,
which State he would enter with a larger army than
had yet been seen on American soil. All which might
have come to pass but for the handful of cold and
hungry men, in dripping blankets and hunting-shirts,
wearied with forty-two miles of hard riding, who, within a few hours, filed swiftly past the old Tory's doorway. They looked to him like a battalion of drowned
rats, but their powder was dry, and so were the locks of
their unerring Deckard rifles, and before the sun should
again go down he should hear that the brilliant dream of
Cornwallis had been dispelled in a smoke of their raising.
n

242

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

Gilmer now rode fearlessly forward to the Cherokee
Ford, and soon the men in waiting on the hills heard him
singing at the top of his voice, " Barney Linn," a song of
the period. At this signal that the road was clear, they
again moved forward. The river was swollen with the
still falling rain, but the troops could be no wetter than
they were, and, holding their rifles aloft, they plunged
boldly into the deep and rapid stream—those best mounted taking the upper side> as most able to withstand the
current. "When all were safely over, they pressed on
again. They were satisfied that Ferguson was not far
in advance, and on the road they were pursuing, but
of how far away he was, or how posted, they were ignorant. To make these discoveries, Gilmer was again sent
forward. He dashed off at a rapid gallop, the squad
following at a slower pace, till at a short distance they
came to the camping-ground which Ferguson had left
only twenty-four hours before. Here the officers called
a halt of a few minutes to allow the men to snatch a
hasty and meager breakfast from the store in their knapsacks, and some standing corn they found by the roadside. The men feasted upon the raw ears, and served
out the stalks to their horses. This done, they took to
the road again, satisfied from the fresh tracks that they
were not far in the rear of Ferguson.
They had marched twenty-one miles in a pouring
rain, and now the storm increased, and the rain came
down even faster. The windows of heaven seemed to
be open and pouring out a deluge of water. It struck

THE MAKOH TO THE BATTLE.

243

upon their drenched bodies like pellets of hail, chilling
them through to the very marrow of their bones. Some
of the horses gave out, and some of the men sank exhausted upon their saddles. In these circumstances a
few of the colonels held a hurried consultation, and riding forward to Shelby, who led the advance, told him
that they had decided to halt for a while to give the
men a little rest and refreshment. " I will not stop
until night," he answered, curtly, " if I follow Ferguson
into Cornwallis's lines !" Without reply they rode back
to their commands, and no more was said about rest or
refreshment.
At the distance of eleven miles from the ford they
came upon a semi-loyalist, from whom they learned that
Ferguson was encamped only eight miles beyond; and
here they fortunately captured a couple of Tories.
Being promised their liberty, these men gave the patriots
some account of the situation of the enemy, and guided
them on the way to his encampment. So they pressed
on again, with renewed courage. About noon the rain
ceased, the clouds cleared away, and the sun came out
bright and glorious, sending warmth into their chilled
limbs, stiffened as they were from nearly fifty miles of
constant riding. A smile seemed now to overspread the
whole of Nature, and in this both officers and men saw
an omen of good fortune to the expedition ; so again
they took courage, and pressed still more eagerly forward.
At the end of another five miles, some of Sevier's

2M

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

men entered a Tory dwelling. Prom the men of the
family they could extract nothing more than that Ferguson was not far away; but, as they left the house, a
woman followed them who asked, " How many are there
of you ?" "Enough to whip Eerguson, if we can find
him !" they answered. " H e is on that mountain," she
replied, pointing to a spur of the King's Mountain range,
about three miles away.
Kiding on some distance farther, Colonel Campbell,
and some other officers who were in the advance, descried the horse of Gilmer tied at the gateway of a house
about half a mile up the road. Campbell had no special
acquaintance with the scout, but he had been told of
his vaunted coolness and bravery, and he determined
upon a practical joke that should test his possession of
those qualities. Making a lasso of a rope, he put spurs
to his horse, and with several others rode at full gallop
for the dwelling. Entering it, they found Gilmer seated
at dinner with the family, two of whom were women,
and one young and good-looking. " You d—d rascal,"
shouted the devout Presbyterian, " we have got you ! "
" A true king's man," replied Gilmer, with even stronger
emphasis. Dragging the scout from the table, the pious
colonel swore that he would hang him from the crossbar of the gate before the doorway; at which the women screamed and burst into tears. Seeing this, Major
Chronicle, who was Gilmer's friend, besought the colonel not to hang him there, lest his ghost should disturb the family. To this the colonel assented, declar-

THE MAKCH TO THE BATTLE.

245

ing, however, that the Tory should swing from the first
overhanging limb. Then the scout was dragged away,
and, when well out of sight of the house, was duly released, and asked to tell his story. In such rude sports
these men could engage on the very eve of a desperate
battle.
The family were of decided Tory principles. The
scout had ingratiated himself with them by professing
to be a " t r u e king's man," who desired to find Ferguson in order to enlist with him. This so overjoyed
the women that they allowed the scout to express his
sympathy with their principles by giving each a hearty
smack; and this pressure of the lips so opened the
heart and mouth of the younger woman, that she told
Gilmer she had been to Ferguson's camp, with some
poultry, that very morning; and that it was only three
miles away, on a ridge between two streams, where a
party of hunters had encamped during the previous
autumn. Among these hunters had been Major Chronicle and Captain Mattocks, two of the officers on the expedition, so that the patriots had now exact knowledge
of Ferguson's position.
Scarcely slackening the pace of the squadron, the
commanding colonels now gathered about Chronicle,
and, as they rode forward, listened to his description
of the position of Ferguson. At once and unanimously
they decided to surround his encampment, and attempt
the capture or destruction of his entire army. A plan
of battle was speedily agreed upon. Still sitting upon

24:6

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

their horses, they provided for every detail of the coming engagement. The little army should be divided
into four columns, two of which, under Sevier and Shelby, should march forward in the road; the two others,
under Campbell and Cleveland, on each side of it, and
all in full view of one another. In this order they
should move onward as noiselessly as possible to the foot
of the mountain, when Sevier and Campbell should de^
ploy to the right, Cleveland and Shelby to the left, and
thus completely encircle Ferguson. Then dismounting,
and tethering their horses in the timber, they should
raise the Tennessee yell, and simultaneously, all around
the circle, begin the attack. It is not known with whom
this plan of battle originated; but, from whomever it
came, it was a flash of genius. No other could have
succeeded. Approached according to the rules of modern warfare, the position of the British was impregnable.
This was Ferguson's own opinion, and it was confirmed
by General Bernard, an aide-de-camp of Napoleon, who,
after examining the ground, said : " The shape of the
hill itself would be an eternal monument of the military
genius and skill of Colonel Ferguson. . . . No other plan
of assault but that pursued by the mountain-men could
have succeeded against him."
Hitherto the men had marched without any regard
to military order, singly or in small squads, as suited
their convenience; but now a halt was called, and every
man was ordered to take his appropriate position under
his proper commander. Strict silence was also enjoined,

THE MARCH TO THE BATTLE.

247

and then, as mute as the jaded beasts they rode, the
battalion moved again rapidly forward. At a little distance, Sevier's advance captured two or three Tories,
who confirmed the scout's report of the position of Ferguson, and pointed out the locality of his pickets. These
were come upon noiselessly by Shelby, and captured
without firing a g u n ; and a short distance farther on
a youth was made prisoner, who was riding express
to Cornwallis. On him were found dispatches from
Ferguson, which were read to the men—all but the
statement of his numbers, which, being larger than their
own, was kept secret by the officers. Then, when within about a third of a mile of the enemy's position,
they halted amid the thick woods and fastened their
horses to the branches of trees. The nine hundred and
ten mounted men were all there, and, incredible as it
may seem, the fifty riflemen who had come on afoot
were also present. They had marched nearly fifty miles
in eighteen hours, through mud, and rain, and darkness.
The men were now ordered to strap their blankets and
overcoats to their saddles. This done, the final word was
given, "Fresh prime your guns, and every man go into
battle firmly resolved to fight till he dies !" Then stern
and silently they encircled the hill; and then the long
roll of the British drum echoed amid the trees, and a
shower of bullets, falling among Shelby's men, proclaimed that the battle had begun.

CHAPTER XII.
KIKG'S MOUOTAItf.

T H E spot where the battle was fought is not entitled
to the name of mountain. It is a narrow ridge of
ground, about a third of a mile long, and at its greatest breadth not more than three hundred and fifty feet
wide—a mere spur of a loftier eminence known as King's
Mountain. Standing anywhere upon its summit, a man
is within short range of a rifleman posted on either
side of the hill. It rises only sixty feet from the surrounding country, but its sides slope steeply, and at the
time of the battle were covered with a heavy growth
of timber, behind which the assailants could shield their
approach; but at the summit they would be met by a
high escarpment of rocks, broken, jagged, and heaped
confusedly together, forming in many places a breastwork as difficult to scale as the stone walls of a fortress.
Behind these rocks Ferguson was posted, his baggagewagons drawn together to protect the most exposed point
of his position, which was at the wider extremity of the
elevation. With him was a force of something more
than eleven hundred men, about one hundred and fifty
of whom were British regulars, armed with musket and

KING'S MOUNTAIN.

249

bayonet, and the remainder Tory militia, provided with
rifles, and many of them with long butcher-knives, made
to fit firmly into the muzzles of their pieces. In a
charge, these knives would be as effective as the regular bayonet. The Tories Ferguson had carefully drilled
during several months, and he relied upon them with
nearly as much confidence as on his famous regulars.
Defended by such soldiers, he regarded his position as
impregnable.
The over-mountain men had marched for thirty-six
hours with scarcely any rest or food; but, now pausing
only long enough to strap their blankets to their saddles, and tether their horses among the trees, they filed
rapidly around the ridge, to attack an enemy thus
strongly posted, refreshed by rest and sleep, and, as their
leaders knew from the captured dispatches, considerably
their superior in numbers. Sevier led the way with the
right wing, Cleveland and Williams followed with the
left, and Campbell and Shelby with the center brought
up the rear, and in this order the combined forces moved
steadily to their assigned places. These taken, they
would completely encircle the enemy's position, Shelby
being opposite to Campbell, Sevier to Williams and Lacy,
and the forces of Cleveland joining those of Sevier at the
wider extremity of the ridge, which was barricaded by
the baggage-wagons. As Shelby and Campbell had a
shorter distance to march than the others, they would
be-the first to reach their places; but orders were given
them to defer the attack until Sevier and Cleveland had

250

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

got into position, when the latter should raise the Tennessee yell, and all should rush simultaneously upon the
enemy. But the early firing of the British frustrated
this arrangement.
As Shelby approached the hill, he discovered a gap
leading directly to the enemy's position on the summit.
Entering this, he was met by a volley from the British,
and his men began to fall around him. They pleaded for
permission to return the fire ; but he answered : "K~o !
Press on to your places, and your fire will not be wasted."
They pressed rapidly on, and thus the battle began ten
minutes before Sevier and Cleveland had reached their
appointed positions.
Meanwhile, hearing the firing, Campbell ordered his
men to scale the hill, and attack on the side opposite
to Shelby. The doughty Presbyterian was in his shirtsleeves, stripped for the fight; and, waving above his
head an old claymore which had come down to him from
his Scottish ancestors, he shouted to his men: " Here
they are, my brave boys ; shout like h—11, and fight
like devils 1 " The ground at this point is craggy,
abrupt, and difficult of ascent; but, creeping slowly up
the acclivity, and dodging from tree to tree, it was not
many minutes before Campbell's men were near the summit. There they paused, and poured in a volley upon
the solid mass of British, which mowed them down
as grain is mown down by the sickle. At the same
moment Shelby, having reached his position, opened a
fire on the British rear, and soon the signal-yell broke

KING'S MOUNTAIN.

251

from the farther end of the hill, and the deadly work began all around the mountain. The shout was taken up
by the whole attacking force, till the woods echoed with
the unearthly sound—more terrible even than the sharp
crack of the backwoods rifles. Hearing it, De Peyster
said to Ferguson, "This is ominous—these are those
yelling devils !" He had heard that shout at Musgrove's
Mill, and knew that it meant desperate fightiug.
But Ferguson was not to be intimidated by yells or
bullets. Instantly he ordered his regulars to charge
down upon Campbell with the bayonet, and a like force
of Tories to drive Shelby from the other side with their
butcher-knives. Campbell's men fell back slowly till
some of them were thrust through and through, when
the rest retreated more rapidly to the very foot of the
hill and even beyond it. But Campbell had them well
in hand. When it seemed to him that they had gone
far enough, he called to them to halt and reload. This
they did in a moment, and up the hill they went
again, driving the British before them, and pouring
upon them a rapid fire that crimsoned the hill-side.
On the retreat, Lieutenant Edmonston, who had fought
so bravely at Long Island Flats, was thrust through the
arm, but, sheltering himself only long enough to have the
limb bandaged, he joined his men in the return charge,
saying, " Boys, let us at it again!"
In a similar manner Shelby was driven down the
opposite slope by the butcher-knife bayonets of the
Tories. Firing as they went, his men fell back slowly

252

KEAR-GUAKD OF THE KEVOLUTION".

to the foot of the declivity. However, falling back with
them, as with Campbell, did not mean retreat. Every
man knew it to be the prearranged tactics of the leaders,
and when Shelby shouted, "Now, boys, reload, and let's
advance upon them and give them another fire!" they
quickly turned, formed in columns, and went up the
hill again, their leader at their head. All through the
fight, " Shelby, a man of the hardiest make, stiff as iron,
among the dauntless singled out for dauntlessness, went
right onward and upward, like a man who had but one
thing to do, and but one thought—to do it." *
Sevier and Cleveland had already joined in the attack, and now, says Shelby, " t h e mountain was covered
with flame and smoke, and seemed to thunder." As
Cleveland led his men to the attack he could not resist
making them a speech after his backwoods fashion.
In broken sentences he shouted as they climbed the
hill in the face of a terrible fire : " M y brave fellows,
we have beaten the Tories, and we can beat them again.
They are all cowards. If they had the spirit of men,
they would join us in supporting the independence of
the country. "When you are engaged, do not wait for
the word of command. I will show you by my example how to fight. I can undertake no more. Every
man must act on his own judgment. Eire as fast as
you can, and stand your ground as long as you can.
"When you can do no better, get behind trees, or retreat;
* Bancroft.

KING'S MOUNTAIN".

253

but I beg you not to run quite off." Then, pointing
to the crest of the hill down which a deadly fire was
plunging, he cried, "Yonder is your enemy, and the
enemy of mankind !"
Then they went up the hill, and from behind trees,
and rocks, and fallen logs, and every natural protection,
poured their well-directed fire, pausing only to reload,
which done, they would dash suddenly for some higherup shelter, their leader every now and then calling out,
" A little nearer, my brave men, a little nearer ! " Thus
they crept up the slope, firing as they went, and every
bullet doing its fatal work, till they stood face to face
with the Tories on the summit. Then ensued a fearful
hand-to-hand encounter, in which, singling out their
opponents, men grappled with one another in deadly
struggle, amid shouts and yells and curses that echoed
far away amid the peaceful forest. Such is war,
stripped of its sham glory, and seen in its utter nakedness—a carnival of wild beasts, a pastime for devils.
If great principles were not at stake, if through such
fiery ordeals the race of man did not rise to higher levels
of progress and freedom, what human being would have
the heart to turn a single page in this world's bloody
history ?
Meanwhile Sevier had led his men up to the eastern
crest, right against the center and most solid masses of
the enemy. He made them no harangue—none was
needed, for they were accustomed to follow where he led,
without thought or question. Every man among them

254:

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

had been with him before in as deadly peril. Straight up
the hill they went, right into the enemy's fire, pausing
only at the very summit. Here the barricade of rocks
gave them the same protection it gave the enemy, and
even greater, for the British were firing down-hill, and
of necessity overshot the mark, wounding only the trees
along the hill-side. In Sevier's little army every man
was a sharp-shooter, and when he halted at the summit,
and said, " Now, boys, single out your men, take sure
aim, and—fire !" the havoc that followed was terrible.
The British went down like bent grain before a torrent
of hail—they were piled in heaps, like sea-weed thrown
up by an ocean-storm. The hill streamed red with the
carnage.
The little mountain was now everywhere in eruption,
belching forth smoke and lightning and thunder. One
long, sulphureous blaze encircled and flashed everywhere
along it from base to summit. Two thousand stalwart men were wrestling there in a life-and-death struggle, and the shouts of the combatants, the cries of the
wounded, the moans of the dying, mingling with the
sharp report of the rifle, and the startling Indian yell
that every now and then broke forth along the American
lines, made up a din deafening and appalling. But
above it all rose the shrill whistle of the British commander, by which he rallied and directed his men in
the conflict. In his wounded left hand he carried a
slim silver tube, and its well-understood signals conveyed
his orders to all parts of the mountain. Though him-

KING'S MOUNTAIN.

255

self in the thickest of the fight abreast of Sevier, he
was thus in a manner everywhere present.
Thus, for more than half an hour the battle raged,
the patriots now repulsed and now again driving the
enemy. Time and again the British bayonets drive them
down the hill, and time and again they reform and force
the enemy back with terrible slaughter. As those on one
side of the l^ill give way, those on the other advance,
and thus the British are between two fires continually.
This happens to all but Sevier's men, who from behind
their barricade of rocks pour in a fire so rapid that
they can not be approached by the bayonet. Huddled
closely together, Ferguson's soldiers are a broad target
for the unerring backwoods rifle. Their ranks are being
thinned rapidly, and, seeing this, the British leader musters his bayonets for a supreme effort. Twice has he
driven Campbell down the hill, and twice has Campbell
returned to the onset; and now again with closed ranks
De Peyster,his second in command, forces the heroic
Presbyterians down the declivity, while along the British
lines goes up the shout, "Tarleton and his legion are
coming !" The weary patriots hear the shout, and their
fire slackens. The famous legion is a terror throughout
the Carolinas. To be taken by it in rear, with such an
enemy in front, might well appall the bravest. The
quick ear of Sevier catches the sound, and his keen
eye discerns the danger. His brother Robert has been
struck down by his side, three of his riflemen are
stretched dead at his feet, and his best men are wavering.

256

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

It is indeed the crisis of the battle, for, looking off to
the south, he sees that Campbell's retreat h'as become a
rout—some of his men are transfixed, some have been
pushed headlong over the cliffs, and all are fleeing in
disorder. They seem irreparably broken. That British
shout is in their ears, and the panic of Camden is about
to be repeated. But Sevier is never so cool as in the moment of greatest danger. He speaks a few words to his
men, and then, amid that storm of bullets, leaps upon
his horse and rushes with his entire left wing to the
rescue of Campbell.
The pious Presbyterian is dismounted, and posted
half-way between his own men and the pursuing British.
His shirt is unbuttoned, a red bandanna is about his
head, his face is begrimed with smoke and powder, and,
flourishing his old claymore about him, he is calling
upon his men to halt, with oaths strong enough to rend
the mountain from base to summit. But his men do
not halt. That British shout has got into their legs,
and it drives them farther and farther away from the
enemy. But now Sevier and his riflemen are among
them. Of that strange magnetic power, by which one
can infuse his spirit into a thousand, I suppose no man
ever possessed a larger share than this intrepid soldier
of the backwoods. Those who saw him in battle have
said, " His eyes were flames of fire, and his words
electric bolts, crashing down the ranks of the enemy."
He now says but little, but what he does say arrests
that demoralized crowd till they turn about, and, with

KING'S MOUNTAIN".

257

the braye Campbell, and his own Watauga boys, rush
again fiercely up the mountain. A wounded Tory, who
was lying half-way down the slope, has described their
appearance as they now returned to the onset. "They
were," he says, " t h e most powerful-looking men lever
beheld—tall, raw-boned, and sinewy, such men, as a body,
as were never before seen in the Carolinas. They appeared like so many devils from the infernal regions,
so full of excitement were they as they rushed like enraged lions up the mountain."
Sevier watches them as they go up the slope, and
then, still on horseback, and within short musket-range
of the enemy, he moves along among the other weary
patriots, and, everywhere he moves, the men gather
strength, and rush with renewed courage upon the
enemy. " Let them come on, my men," he says—" Gibbs
and Moore and their Tories, arid Tarleton and his dragoons to boot! One more charge will end Ferguson,
and then we will finish Tarleton and the Tories !" It
was this ride of Sevier that won the battle.
But Sevier was back in his place in time to join in
the last desperate grapple with the enemy. It lasted
twenty minutes, during which the two forces were not
a hundred feet apart, and the slaughter was terrific.
As Campbell's men and the Watauga boys mounted
the crest, they were joined by Shelby, and together they
scaled the rocks and moved down upon the enemy.
Slowly the British regulars fell back toward the eastern end of the hill, where Sevier and Cleveland were

258

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

mowing down their Tory comrades; Ferguson orders a
charge, to end this cross-firing, and De Peyster moves
forward with a strong force of leveled bayonets; hut,
when he reaches the lines of Sevier, only twelve of his
men are fit for duty—the rest had been shot down
by the Watauga riflemen. Slowly but steadily Shelby
and Campbell push the British back along the crest of
the mountain, which now is slippery with blood, and
strewed with the dead and the dying. Soon British
and Tories are huddled together at the farther end of
the hill, where the hail is falling from the rifles of Sevier and Cleveland. The Tories raise a white flag, but
Ferguson orders it down. Soon another goes up, which
he levels with his sword ; and then De Peyster tells him
that further resistance is a waste of life, and urges a
surrender. This the British leader refuses; but soon,
seeing that all is lost, he spurs his horse directly upon
Sevier's lines, with the desperate resolve to break* through
and escape down the mountain. One of Sevier's men,
named Gilliland, recognizes him by the linen huntingshirt which he wears over his uniform. Gilliland is leaning against a tree, severely wounded and well-nigh exhausted, but he levels his rifle at the British leader.
It flashes in the pan, and he calls to his comrade, Eobert Young, " There is Ferguson—shoot him I " Young
fires, and the British officer falls from his horse, mortally
wounded. No less than ^.je other rifles crack at almost
the same instant, and each one of as many Watauga
riflemen claimed to have killed Ferguson. No doubt

KING'S MOUNTAIN.

259

they all told the truth, for that number of mortal
wounds were found upon the body of the British leader.
A scene of wild confusion follows. Seeing his leader
fallen, and unable to form six of his men together, De
Peyster orders a white flag raised. Its bearer is at once
shot down by the infuriated patriots, some of whom
do not understand this signal of surrender. Another
flag is then raised on the end of a rifle, and Eyan
Shelby rides forward and receives the sword of the
British commander, where he stands, near the baggagewagons. There, in a few moments, Sevier and Shelby
come together for the first time since the beginning
of the battle. Sevier, as he scans the face of his
younger comrade, utters an exclamation of surprise,
saying, "They have singed off your hair!" A British
musket had been discharged so near as to burn Shelby's
beard. Then they order the enemy to throw down their
arms, and the patriots to cease firing. The last order is
obeyed by all but one solitary rifle. Ping! ping! it
goes every few seconds, from the farther end of the hill,
and its balls fall with deadly effect among the solid
mass of British and Tories. The discharges are from
a young lad just at the edge of the crest, and an officer is sent to order him to stop firing. " I won't!"
he answers; " t h e rascals have shot my father, and I
shall keep on shooting till I have killed every one of
them !" This he said to two or three other messengers,
and he did not desist till Sevier himself rode up to
him. Then the boy threw away his rifle, and in a

260

KEAK-GUABD OF THE BEVOLUTIOK

transport of joy embraced his father, whom he had
thought killed by the Tories. He had been misled by
the report of the fall of his uncle Eobert.
On that blood-stained hill there lay, when night fell
upon the carnage, two hundred and twenty-five British
dead, and one hundred and eighty-fire more or less severely wounded. Of the corps of regulars only twenty
were left fit for duty. All the rest of Ferguson's command, some seven hundred, were prisoners. ISTot a man
escaped. The American loss was only twenty-eight
killed and sixty wounded; but among the killed were
the brave Colonel "Williams, and Major Chronicle and
Captain Mattocks, whose knowledge of the ground had
contributed so largely to the success of the battle. Eobert Sevier died on the march homeward. The disparity
of the British and American loss is partly accounted
for by the fact that down-hill firing overshoots the mark.
This was understood by Putnam and Stark, who, at
Bunker Hill, told their men to "aim at their waistbands." The great disproportion of British killed to
their wounded shows the wonderful accuracy of the
backwoods rifle. Thirty-seven killed is the usual ratio
to one hundred and eighty-five more or less injured,
instead of which the British death-roll on this bloody
field ran up to an excess of forty above the wounded.
It was a remarkable battle. If we take no account
of the small numbers engaged, and consider only the
valor displayed, and the results that followed, it must be
classed as one of the most notable conflicts in American

KING'S MOUNTAIN.

261

history. The British fought as well as Britons ever
fought—which is saying that they showed all the bravery
of which man is supposed to be capable. Their leader,
too, displayed not only valor and skill, but an indomitable
will and exalted heroism. All through the fight he was
everywhere, animating his men, and, so long as he lived,
they might be shot down, but they could not be conquered. And he fell at last because he preferred death
to surrender. But he fought against Sevier and Shelby,
men as heroic as he, and actuated by far higher motives.
With him it was love of glory, and loyalty to his
king; with them love of freedom, and fidelity to the
rights of man : and so, in the long ages that are coming, when kings and kingcraft shall have perished from
the earth, Ferguson will be accounted a brave soldier,
but Sevier and Shelby will be ranked among the heroes
of the race—and so will the unnamed nine hundred
who, on that bloody day, faint with hunger, and weary
with hard riding, marched so steadily upon those British
bayonets. One of them received what was thought to
be a mortal wound in the abdomen, but his life was
saved because he had not tasted food for forty-eight
hours! Said Sevier when he was an old man, and
the country on the eve of a second war with Great
Britain : " I was then ready to hazard everything dear
to man to secure our independence. I am now as willing to risk all to retain it." It was this spirit that
conquered at King's Mountain.
A terrible night followed the terrible day of ^ the

262

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

battle. The cold was intense, and a strong wind swept
across the mountain. The wounded lay around where
they had fallen, upon the bare ground, among the unburied dead, with no shelter but the gray sky aboye
them. There were no splints for their shattered limbs,
no bandages for their flowing wounds, and only one
surgeon among the entire two hundred and fifty. Said
one who witnessed it, " The scene was heart-rending in
the extreme—the groans of the dying, and the constant
cry of the wounded for 6 water ! water ! ' " The seyen
hundred prisoners were huddled together in a narrow
space, guarded by a handful of patriots, exhausted by
long fasting, and far more weary than their captiyes.
Near by were stacked fifteen hundred captured muskets, which a desperate rush would enable them to regain, and momently the patriot leaders expected to hear
the distant tread of the seyen hundred Tories under
Moore and Gibbs, and the inyincible legion of Tarleton.
Overpowered by hunger and fatigue, some of the men
slept, but no sleep came to the eyes of the leaders.
They knew that eyen a more desperate battle might be
before them; and so would it haye been had not Ferguson's dispatches been delayed and intercepted, and had
not, too, the names of Seyier and Shelby struck a wholessome terror into the hearts of the surrounding Tories.
But the dismal night wore away afc last, and the sun
arose upon the bloody field of King's Mountain. Neyer
before on this earth did its rising meet a more grateful
welcome. As its first beams chased away the shadows

KING'S MOUNTAIN.

263

of the night, they sent down into the hearts of the weary
patriots new strength and courage. It is probable that
only one man among them had even a dim foresight of
the great results which were to follow the day's conflict,
and now as he moved about among the tired men there
was in his eye the steady gleam of assured triumph.
He told them the tide had turned, the spell of British
invincibility had been broken. Henceforth there might
be battles, but every battle would be a victory.
So the men arose and made ready for the weary march
homeward. The captured arms were loaded upon the
shoulders of the prisoners, hasty litters were prepared
for the badly wounded, and at ten o'clock in the morning they set out on their march, leaving Campbell and
a small squad behind to bury the dead upon the mountain. Encumbered as they were with wounded, and themselves scarcely able to drag one foot after another, it
was nearly night before they reached a deserted plantation only twelve miles from the field of battle. Here
they found an abundance of dry rails for their campfires, and a patch of sweet-potatoes large enough to give
them all the much-needed rations. While regaling
themselves upon this simple fare, they were joined by
the force they had left behind on their hurried march
to the battle. They had with them a few cattle, and
these were added to the frugal repast of their halffamished comrades.
Thereafter, for several days, the progress of the troops
was painfully slow. At the end of a week they had

264

KEAK-GUABD OF THE KEVOLUTION.

gone no farther west than BickerstafPs, a place about
nine miles northeast of the present town of Butherford,
and only forty miles from the field of battle. They
numbered now, including prisoners and wounded, not
far from twenty-five hundred men, and being in a sparsely settled region, which had been stripped bare by the
recent march of Ferguson's forces, they suffered much for
want of provisions. For two entire days they marched
without any food whatever—not an ear of corn, nor a
solitary sweet-potato. At Bickerstaff's they secured a
meager supply, and here occurred a scene which exhibits
the deplorable animosity that then existed between the
patriot and Tory elements in this section. " T h e battle
of Camden," says General Preston, "had made Cornwallis
complete master of South Carolina. This power he was
using with cruelty unparalleled in modern civilized conquest ; binding down the conquered people like malefactors, regarding each rebel as a condemned criminal,
and checking every murmur, answering every suspicion,
with the sword and the fire-brand. If a suspected Whig
fled from his house to escape the insult, the scourge,
or the rope, the myrmidons of Ferguson and Tarleton
burned it down, and ravished his wife and daughters;
if a son refused to betray his parent, he was hanged
like a dog; if a wife refused to tell the hiding-place
of her husband, she was impaled by the butcher-knife
of the Tory; and to add double horror and infamy to
the deep damnation of such deeds, Americans were
forced to be the instruments for perpetrating them.

KIKG'S MOUNTAIN.

265

That which Tarleton was ashamed to do, he had done by
Americans—-neighbors, kinsmen of his victims." While
Sevier and Shelby were on the march to King's Mountain, the monster Browne had executed thirty of Clarke's
soldiers at Augusta with circumstances of savage torture ;
and now at Bickerstaffs the over-mountain men heard
that Oruger at Ninety-six had, only a day or two before,
hanged eleven men for no other crime than being patriots.
The tidings exasperated Campbell and Cleveland beyond
expression. They lived among Tories, and had come
to regard them as wild beasts, that are to be slain on
sight, and without warning. They had now, they said,
upward of thirty of these Tory leaders among their
prisoners—men stained with every crime—and they demanded that they should be instantly tried, and, if found
guilty, executed in retaliation for the British enormities.
A court-martial of twelve field-officers was accordingly convened, and, says Shelby, "thirty-six men were
tried, and found guilty of breaking open houses, killing
the men, turning the women and children out-of-doors,
and burning the houses." The court was convened late
in the day, and it was far into the night when the trial
of the whole number was concluded. The proceedings
were conducted wifch order and decorum. Witnesses
were duly examined, and the charges against each man
were fully proved before the sentence was passed upon
him—instant death by hanging.
Among those arraigned to answer for their lives were
Crawford and Chambers, the two of Sevier's men who had
12

266

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

deserted on the second day from Watauga, and warned
Ferguson of the approach of the over-mountain men.
Their treachery had occasioned the long and terrible
march, the uncertain fight with superior numbers, and
all the suffering and privation which the half-famished
patriots had endured since leaving Gilbert Town. If
events had followed their natural order—if what we misname " chance " had not interposed to delay the British
leader—their act would have brought disaster upon the
expedition, and consigned, perhaps, every one of the
patriots to the gallows or a British prison. If crime
were to be estimated by its consequences, theirs was of
a deeper dye than that of Andr6, who, only twelve days
before, had been sent to the gallows by Washington.
The men composing the court were of iron mold,
stern and inflexible, and yet justice with them was
tempered with mercy. Chambers was but a stripling,
and it soon became apparent that he had been led away
by his older comrade, Crawford. This appearing, he was
instantly pardoned, but the man Crawford was as promptly sentenced to immediate execution. Then ensued an
incident such as, so far as I know, never occurred m
a court of justice, not even in one organized as a drumhead court-martial. I t was related to me by Dr. Ramsey, who had it in detail from George Washington Sevier, a younger son of the general.
Sevier was not a member of the court—he had no
heart for such work—but he was present at the proceedings. When sentence of death had been passed

KING'S MOUNTAIN.

267

upon Crawford, he asked that the criminal might be
giyen up to him, he being a member of his regiment.
Being questioned by one of the court as to what he
would do with the man, Seyier replied, "1 shall let him
go, for he has a wife and children." So had nearly all
of the patriots, was the answer, and Crawford might
haye made eyery one of their wiyes a widow. Not one
among the condemned was a greater criminal. This
Seyier admitted, still he thought Crawford had not fully
realized the consequences of his action. Howeyer, Providence had overruled his wrong-doing, and giyen them
the victory. He did not wish his share in it to be stained
by the blood of a neighbor. This man belonged to him,
for he was from oyer the mountain. Therefore, he asked
his life, and he would be responsible for his good conduct in future.
So the man was giyen up to Seyier, and ever afterward was a true patriot and a worthy citizen. It
was by acts like this that Sevier knit men to him by
bands stronger than those welded of iron. It was not
his splendid abilities, but his great loving-kindness, his
tender regard for even the wayward and the criminal,
that won for him, during forty-five years, such unwavering devotion as has never been bestowed on any other
public man in this country.
Crawford being liberated, the other condemned men
were led out to execution. It was the 14th of October.
The night was cold and dark. Thick clouds overhung
the sky, presaging the storm that was to burst upon

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION

them on the morrow. There was neither moon nor star,,
but hundreds of pine-torches cast a lurid glow oyer all
the surrounding forest. A great tree, which for years
afterward was known as the Gallows-Oak, stood near
the road-side. Beneath it a rude scaffold had been
erected, and from one of its huge limbs a stout rope
was dangling. There, three by three, those thirty-fiye
souls were to be launched into the great future. Not
one of them was thought fit to liye in this w o r l d God pity them if they should be found unfit to liye in
any other! Three by three they were marched out,
surrounded by guards four deep, their rifles at the halftrigger. Near by sat the twelye officers of the court on
horseback, and standing around were not less than a
thousand riflemen, each one intent upon seeing justice
done upon the oppressors of their compatriots. Eyery
man had his rifle in hand; so to those thirty-fiye hapless souls there was no chance of escape, no hope of reprieve—to all human appearance their doom was absolutely fixed and certain. They felt it to be so, and, to
do them justice, they were ready to meet their fate like
men; they went to the scaffold with as firm a tread as
eyer a soldier went to battle. So nine of them stepped
from this world into that dim, uncertain realm which
we call eternity. Among them were the miscreant
Grimes, who had been driyen out from Watauga, and
other Tory leaders, at the bare recital of whose deeds
the blood, eyen now, runs cold with horror.
In the fourth trio now about to be led to execution

KING'S MOUNTAIN.

269

was a Tory named Baldwin, a man steeped in crime,
but who had a trace of goodness in him, or he could not
have won the devoted affection of a brother too young to
know much of this world's wickedness. This lad, a mere
stripling, had come to say a final farewell; and now as
the condemned man was about to be led to the scaffold,
the youth threw himself upon him with a burst of passionate grief that melted the hearts of the by-standers.
Ifc seemed that only force could separate the two, and
to this the guard hesitated to resort. This hesitation
gave the lad more time to indulge his frantic grief, and—
to cut the cords that bound his brother. This done,
he suddenly relaxed his embrace, and, as suddenly the
condemned man leaped through the cordon of guards,
and bounded away into the forest. A thousand rifles
covered him, every one of which could bring down a
bird flying, but not one was raised to arrest the fugitive.
Admiration for the daring of the boy stayed their hands,
and softer feelings than those which spring from a stern
sense of retributive justice took possession of the assembled riflemen.
The executions had taken place near the encampment of Sevier, and he and Shelby stood together not
far from the Gallows-Oak when this scene was enacted.
They observed its effect upon the men, and saw that
advantage could be taken of it to stop the summary
proceedings. The men no longer thirsted for vengeance,
but were open to feelings more akin to humanity. Moreover, nine lives would, as well as thirty-five, assure Corn-

270

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

wallis and the Tories that further atrocities would meet
with a sure retaliation. As they said this to each other,
one of the officers of the court complained loudly to
the guard of the momentary delay, and commanded
them, with great oaths, to go on more rapidly with the
executions. This same officer had been attacked with
"stage-fright" toward the close of the'action at King's
Mountain, and had apologized to Shelby for it on the
day following the battle. Sevier regarded him now
intently for a moment, then with a smile that was
peculiar to him, said, " Why, colonel, if we all had been
as much in earnest in the action, more would have been
killed, and fewer left to be hanged." More abruptly,
and with less courtesy, Shelby added : "This work must
stop. We have talked it over, and it must stop. There
has been enough of it." The opposition of these two
men did that which, half an hour before, had seemed to
be impossible—it saved the lives of the twenty-five con-,
demned Tories. But the execution of the nine had
its intended effect. Thereafter no more patriots were
hanged in the Carolinas.
About two o'clock on the following morning, one of
the condemned Tories came to Shelby, where he was
asleep under a tree. " Y o u have saved my life," he
said to him, " a n d I will tell you a secret. Tarleton
will be here in the morning! A woman has brought
us the news."
The information was possibly not correct, but prudence required that it should be acted upon. At any

KING'S MOUNTAIN.

271

other time it would have been welcome tidings to the
patriots; but now, jaded with a long march, half famished, and encumbered with a host of prisoners and
wounded, they were in no condition to meet an onset
from the impetuous troop of Tarleton. They had for
days expected an attack, and had made dispositions to
meet i t ; and it is possible that, if the British leader had
overtaken them, the desperate energy with which they
would have fought might have brought upon him a like
disaster to that which soon afterward befell him at the
Cowpens. But the patriots would have fought at great
disadvantage, and they prudently resolved to avoid an
engagement. This could be done only by a forced march
of thirty-two miles to the ford of the Catawba at Quaker
Meadows.
This course being decided upon, before the dawn of
day the little army was set in motion. The badly
wounded were conveyed to secluded retreats in the
mountains, the convalescent were mounted on the horses
of their comrades, and the weary troop took up their
toilsome way, over a broken and hilly country, and a
rough and stony road, impassable except for horse and
foot-passengers. Not a pound of provisions was in the
camp at starting, and not a soul in the cavalcade—officers or men, prisoners or wounded—tasted food during
the weary march of twenty-four hours that followed. It
was not long before they were overtaken by the storm
which the previous night had foretold. The rain began
to fall shortly after daybreak, and soon it came down

272

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION

in torrents. But this only hastened their movements,
for it foreboded a freshet in the rivers, and their safety
depended upon reaching the Catawba while it was still
fordable. So, all through the day, and far into a cold
and dismal night, they marched, the mud up to their
knees, and often losing their way in the woods; but at
last, worn out with fatigue and fasting, and every one
of them, from the leaders to the meanest private, " a s
wet as if he had been dragged through the Catawba,"
they arrived at the bank of that river. It was two
o'clock in the morning, intensely dark, and.the Catawba
was breast-high and rapidly rising; but they plunged at
once into the rushing stream, and every man of them
reached the opposite shore in safety. In three more
hours the river had risen far beyond its banks, and for
many days it was an impassable barrier between the
patriots and any pursuit from Tarleton.
But, strange as it may seem, while the patriots were
thus retreating from the British, Tarleton and Cornwallis were fleeing from them, quite as rapidly, and in
a much more disorderly manner. The panic which
seized upon the British commander was the first fruits
of the battle of King's Mountain. And yet the tidings
brought by the condemned Tory to Shelby were substantially true. Not hearing from Ferguson, and in total
ignorance of his fate, Cornwallis, on the morning of the
10th—three days after the King's Mountain battle—dispatched Tarleton, with a strong body of horse and artillery, to find Ferguson, and aid him in exterminating the

KING'S MOUNTAIN.

273

rebels from over the mountains. Tarleton marched that
day twenty miles on the direct route of the patriots,
and, had he continued the pursuit, would have come up
with them on the morning that information of his movements came to Shelby. But at his first night's encampment he was overtaken by a messenger from Oornwallis,
recalling him at once to headquarters.
Soon after Tarleton had set out, the British commander learned, from a "venerable Whig" in whom he
had confidence, of the total defeat of Ferguson by the
over-mountain men, who then, he was told, three thousand strong, flushed with victory, and daily re-enforced
by the patriots of Mecklenburg County, were marching
to attack him in his headquarters. During the day this
information was confirmed, and Oornwallis suddenly resolved to turn his back upon this new enemy, who had
thus unexpectedly descended upon him from the mountains. With Tarleton detached, and Eerguson destroyed,
he thought himself in no condition to meet such a foe
as rumor pictured the over-mountain men—a horde of
giants, fearless of danger, enamored of fight, deadly sure
with the rifle, clad in the Indian hunting-shirt, and,
like the Indians, rushing into battle with an unearthly
yell which sent a strange paralysis through the frame,
and froze the heart of the bravest stock-still with horror.
These were not the soldiers Oornwallis came out to fight;
so, recalling Tarleton, he began a hasty and disastrous
retreat toward Charleston. I need not recount the rest,
for it is well-known history0

274:

KEAK-GUAKD OF THE KEVOLUTIOK

The British power in the colonies was broken at
King's Mountain. " T h a t glorious victory," said Jefferson, "was the joyful annunciation of that turn in the
tide of success which terminated the Eevolutionary War
with the seal of independence." And it was more than a
" t u r n in the tide"—it was the cause, the active force
which set in motion the train of great events that followed. To it may be directly traced Blackstocks, Cowpens, Guilford, Eutaw, and the crowning victory of Yorktown. And this victory, so pregnant with great results,
was won by men who rushed spontaneously to the rescue
of their country. They acted without orders, without
pay, without hope of reward, and did not demand so
much as the thanks of their government. Had they
done so, they might have been disappointed; for the
greatest hero among them lies to-day in a far-away, untended grave, overgrown with weeds, and unmarked by
even a stone to tell his name to his passing countrymen.

CHAPTER XIII.
AH IHDIAH WAR.

T H E object of the expedition being now accomplished, and the little army in absolute security, Sevier
was at liberty to think of the poorly defended settlers
he had left behind on the Watauga. He had been away
twenty days; six or eight more days must necessarily
elapse before he could arrive at his home; and, beyond
a doubt, his absence would be no sooner known among
the Cherokees than Oconostota would set his warriors
in motion for a descent upon the settlements. This
thought had often weighed upon his mind, on the long
march and in the desperate battle ; but until now he
could not leave his comrades without endangering the
results of the expedition. It was therefore with a feeling of intense relief that, on the morning after the arrival of the patriots at Quaker Meadows, he saw the Catawba a broad and furious flood, totally impassable for
either foot or horsemen. Giving his men only time
enough to refresh themselves with food and rest, he
called,them all about him, and asked those who felt
equal to a rapid homeward march to step a few paces
forward. The movement was so general that Sevier was

276

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

forced to make his own selection, and, choosing about
a hundred of the best-conditioned, he dispatched them
at once, under Captain Eussell, oyer the mountains.
With the remainder of his own, and the most of Shelby's
force, he was to follow as soon as the men were able
to set out on the journey. Shelby himself was to remain with the prisoners till they were conducted to a
place of security in Virginia. With Shelby continued
about fifty of his own and Sevier's riflemen, who, enlisting afterward with Morgan, came to share under Moses
Shelby in the glory of defeating Tarleton at the Cowpens, and in the subsequent capture of Augusta, Georgia.
Seyier would haye giyen his weary troops a longer rest,
but his impatience had infected them, and at two o'clock
of that afternoon they set out on the march homeward.
They arrived not an hour too soon, as Seyier learned
when he alighted at the doorway of his home on the
Nblichucky. Awaiting him there was Isaac Thomas,
the Indian trader, who, with another trader named Harlin, had been sent forward by Nancy Ward to warn Seyier that the entire Creek and Cherokee nations were
on the war-path, and about to moye in strong force
upon Watauga. Thomas had arriyed several days before,
and the tidings he brought had spread general alarm
throughout the settlements. Leaving their dwellings
and their garnered crops, the more remote of the settlers had fled to the fort for protection. Major Charles
Robertson had made the best dispositions for defense
that were possible, but the cry everywhere was for Se-

AN INDIAX WAR.

277

vier. "When is Nolichucky Jack coming?" "Without
him there was fear, with him a sense of absolute security0
So, sometimes, is one man stronger than a thousand.
Sevier listened to the report of Thomas while he sat,
travel-stained, and wearied with a long march, by a great
wood-fire in the "reception-room" of his log dwelling.
By his side was his young wife, and around him were
his two manly boys, his brother Valentine,, and several
of his officers on the expedition. His brother Eobert
he had left behind on the march across Yellow Mountain, and his dead body was even then being borne to a
lonely grave on the banks of the Watauga. After listening to the report of Thomas, Sevier announced the
necessity of setting out at once to meet the Cherokees.
They must be checked before they reached the crossing
of the French Broad Eiver. Once there, they would
break into small parties, and scatter havoc and burning throughout the settlements. With Kussell's command, which had been refreshed by two days' rest, he
would set out to meet the Indians as soon as " K a t e "
had given him a dinner. With that hundred he would
hold the savages in check, till the rest of his men could
come up with him; but they should follow as soon as
men and horses had a few days' rest and refreshment.
Thus, with scarcely an hour's delay, and after twentyeight days of hard riding, Sevier sprang again into the
saddle, and with only a hundred men went forth to
meet a thousand. All night they marched, and on the
evening of the second day went into camp on Long

278

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

Creek, not far from the crossing of the French Broad
Eiver. They were on the great Indian war-path, which
route the Indians would naturally take ; but as yet they
had seen no trace of the savages. However, the settlements were now safely behind them, and they could
proceed with less haste and more caution. As they
went into camp at nightfall, they sent forward a small
party to reconnoitre. On ascending a slight knoll at
a short distance, the little force of twenty came suddenly upon a thousand savages. Without stopping to
dismount, they fired upon the Indians; then, turning
their horses' heads, they rode rapidly back to the encampment. Sevier at once put his men into position
for a night attack, and thus they lay on their arms till
the morning, expecting every moment to hear the warwhoop of the savages. Before daybreak they were joined
by seventy of the men who had been left behind on the
Nolichucky. Worn and weary as they were, these men
had clamored to be led to the help of their beloved
commander.
Thus re-enforced, Sevier advanced in the morning to
meet the enemy. He moved cautiously, with scouts in
front, and outliers on both flanks, but he marched all
day without encountering an enemy. A dead Indian was
found at the spot where the advance had come upon
them on the previous evening, and this showed that the
savages had retreated in haste and disorder, for their invariable custom was to bear off their killed and wounded.
Here were found traces of a body numbering not less

AN INDIAN WAR.

279

than a thousand. Their spies had, no doubt, discovered Sevier's re-enforcement of the night before, and its
numbers, magnified by their fears, had led their main
body to fall hastily back to a position better fitted for an
ambuscade. This Sevier conjectured, and he also now
knew their strength, but he pressed more vigorously forward. Crossing the French Broad at what is now
known as Sevier's Island, he went into camp on Boyd's
Creek, where was shed the first blood that Watauga
offered up in the Eevolution. Here the men slept again
on their arms, momently expecting an attack, but the
night wore away without any demonstration from the
Indians.
Soon after daybreak the little army was again in
motion. Sevier rode with the advance-guard, which, at
the distance of three miles, came upon the deserted camp
of the Indians, their fires not yet extinguished. Giving
orders that his men should form in three divisions, the
right wing under Major Walton, the left under Major
Jonathan Tipton, the center to be led by himself, he
galloped forward with a small party to unearth the
enemy, and draw them on to an attack. He had gone
but three fourths of a mile when he came upon the
Indians, concealed in the tall grass, and formed in a
half-moon, evidently with the intention to inclose his
little army. He was on the alert, but the hasty firing of
a few braves fully disclosed their position. Giving his
little party directions to fire, and then to retreat slowly,
loading and firing, he galloped rapidly back to the main

280

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

body. To them he gave orders which, had they been,
fully executed, would haye enveloped and destroyed the
enemy. The right wing was to wheel to the left, the
left wing to the right, while he, with the center, met the
onset of the savages. Thus exposed to a triple fire, the
Indians must have suffered terribly, and, if they did not
overpower the whites by sheer force of numbers, few of
them would be left to carry the tidings of defeat back to
Chickamauga.
As was expected, the Indians rushed rapidly forward
in pursuit of the decoy party till their advance was
checked by a terrible fire from the center under Sevier.
Then Walton wheeled to the left, with as much precision
as if on parade, and the left wing attempted the same
movement; but at this moment Tipton, who had fought
bravely by the side of Sevier at King's Mountain, fell,
badly wounded. This disconcerted his men and delayed the movement, and now the Indians, mowed down
by Sevier's fire and seeing they were likely to be
surrounded, were seized with sudden panic, and broke
through the gap in front of the left wing, fleeing wildly
across a swamp which lined the banks of the streamlet.
Instantly Sevier ordered a charge, and his men, springing upon their horses, plunged into the morass, their
leader in the advance. He had emptied his pistols upon
the fleeing savages, when he came close upon a stalwart
warrior, who, seeing he was about to be overtaken,
turned and fired at him from a distance of not more
than ten paces. The ball grazed Sevier's temple and

AST ItfDIAJST WAR.

281

cut away a lock of his hair, but, spurring his horse forward, he raised his sword and aimed a heavy blow at
the Indian. The savage parried the stroke with his rifle,
and a desperate encounter followed with sword and gunbarrel. It was a contest of agility and skill with immense strength and brute bravery, and for a few moments
the issue seemed doubtful; but, at length, one of Sevier's
men, coming up, leveled his rifle and dispatched the
Indian.
Dragging Canoe was not personally known among the
whites. His visits to them had been at night, and they
had seen his features only at long range of a rifle, when
they were not easily distinguished. But Indians subsequently captured affirmed that the warrior now killed
was none other than the ferocious chieftain of the Chickamaugas. It is certain that from this date he disappears
from border history. If this were he, then this most
implacable foe of the whites met his fate on the very
spot where he had shed the first blood of the settlers.
The Indians scattered among the adjacent woods and
hills, where they could not be pursued by cavalry. They
left twenty-eight dead on the field, and carried away a
large number of wounded. Of the whites not one was
killed, and only Major Tipton and two others were seriously wounded. This result was due to the short conflict and the rapid fire of the backwoodsmen.
Sevier was now between the settlements and the retreating Indians, and, the object of his rapid march being
thus accomplished, he went into camp on Sevier's Island,

282

KEAK-GUARD OF THE EEYOLUTIOK

to wait for his expected re-enforcements. With so small
a force it was not deemed prudent to penetrate farther
into the Indian country in the face of so large a body of
the enemy, who at every step might receive additions to
their numbers. However, it was not long before Sevier was joined by more of his own men from Watauga,
a force of Backwater troops under Arthur Campbell, and
a portion of Shelby's regiment under Major Martin—
Shelby himself being still away with the King's Mountain prisoners. The little army now numbered seven
hundred, every man experienced in Indian warfare, and
many of them tried in the furnace of King's Mountain.
With such a force Sevier did not hesitate to push forward into the Cherokee and Creek country, where he
might be opposed by a force of ten times his own number
—led, perhaps, by exasperated Tories and British officers.
At Echota Sevier found a body of a thousand savages
posted to defend the principal crossing of the Little Tennessee ; but, passing over at a ford two miles below, he
came suddenly upon their rear, and, without striking a
blow, they fled to the mountains. The Indian towns
thus left to their mercy, the troops began the work of
destruction. For the sake of Nancy Ward, Echota was
again spared, but every other village of the Ottari Cherokees was given to the flames. Their corn was burned,
their cattle were destroyed, and not a solitary wigwam
was left to shelter their wives and children from the winter that was fast approaching.
A like fate befell the villages along the Tellico and

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283

Hiwassee, and then Sevier pressed on to the Chickamauga towns, near the present site of Chattanooga.
The Tory and Indian banditti that herded together
there fled, as he approached, to their secret haunts along
the river, from which they soon beheld their crops and
their homes going up in one wide conflagration, while the
blood of their slaughtered cattle dyed red the Tennessee
to the very mouth of the immense cavern in which they
had concealed themselves. This done, Sevier pressed on
again into the country of the Creeks. Going down the
Coosa Eiver into Georgia as far as the region of the longleaved pine and the cypress, his route was everywhere
marked by blackened ruin and wide-spread devastation.
Everywhere the Indians fled before him. A general
panic had seized upon them. Only a few days before,
they had heard that Nolichucky Jack was away, fighting
the British in the Carolinas, and now he was applying
the torch to their own dwellings ! The pale-faced chief
was ubiquitous, and a conflict with him was a war with
destiny. "When his sword was once unsheathed, it drank
Indian blood as the earth drinks rain—ever thirsty and
never satisfied. And there was some truth in this, for
the few men that were met were shot down without
mercy. Only the women and children were taken prisoners. More than fifty towns were destroyed; and
the homes of over forty thousand people laid in ashes!
There was not a cultivated field in the whole of this
Indian country that was not a scorched and smoking
desolation. Not for years could the Creeks and Chero-

284

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kees recover from the wide-spread destruction. And
yet the man who caused all this havoc was of a nature
most kind and gentle and tender-hearted, the idol of his
friends and beloved by his very enemies. A terrible
necessity impelled him. In no other way could he reduce the Indians to peace, or protect the homes and lives
of the white settlers.
The life of only one white man was lost on this expedition. It was that of Captain James Elliott, who
had fought under Shelby at King's Mountain. He was
shot by a concealed Indian when the troops first arrived
on the Tellico, and his death served to inflame them to
a more ruthless destruction. He was buried in an Indian hut, which was burned over his grave, that the
Indians might not find and mutilate his body.
After sixty-five days, Sevier returned to Echota, and
from there issued an address to the Indians. The paper bears unmistakable marks of his composition, but
it is signed jointly by him and the two other leaders,
Martin and Campbell. It was as follows:
" CHIEFS AKD WAEEIOES : "We came into your country to fight your young men. We have killed many of
them, and destroyed your towns. You know you began
the war by listening to the bad counsels of the King of
England and the falsehoods told you by his agents. We
are now satisfied with what is done, as it may convince
your nation that we can distress you much at any time
when you are so foolish as to engage in war against us.

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285

If you desire peace, as we understand you do, we, out of
pity to your women and children, are disposed to treat
with you on that subject.
"We therefore send you this by one of your young
men, who is our prisoner, to tell you that, if you are disposed to make peace, six of your head men must come to
our agent, Major Martin, at the Great Island, within two
moons, so as to giye him time to meet them with a flagguard, at the boundary-line on Holston Eiver. To the
wires and children of those men of your nation who protested against the war, if they are willing to take refuge
at the Great Island until peace is restored, we will give
a supply of provisions to keep them alive.
"Warriors, listen attentively! If we receive no answer to this message until the time already mentioned
expires, we shall then conclude that you intend to continue to be our enemies. We will then be compelled to
send another strong force into your country, that will
come prepared to remain in it and to take possession of
it as a conquered country, without making you any compensation."
In answer to this address, a body of about two
hundred Oherokees, among whom were Hanging Maw,
John Watfcs, and Noonday, three of the principal Ottari
chieftains, came, within a short time, into Echota.
Through them a peace was made with the Ottari branch
of the Oherokees, and an exchange of prisoners effected,
by which numbers of white women and children were

286

KEAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

restored to their homes after months and, in a few
instances, years of captivity. These things done, the
troops scattered to their homes, and Sevier returned to
his farm on the Nolichucky. Arrived there, he learned
that the General Assembly of North Carolina, at its first
session after the defeat of Ferguson, had passed a resolution that a sword and pair of pistols should be presented
to both himself and Shelby, in testimony of the great
services they had rendered the country. The swords
were not delivered till 1813. The one given to Sevier
was donated to the State by his son, George Washington
Sevier, and it now hangs in the office of the Secretary of
State in the Capitol at Nashville. On one side of it is
engraved—
" STATE OE NORTH CAROLINA
TO

COLONEL J O H N

SEVXEB."

On the other side is—
"KING'S

MOUNTAIN,

7th October, 1780."
At the same time Sevier received a commission from
Governor Nash, of North Carolina, appointing him colonel commandant of Washington County. Hitherto, for
ten years, he had been commander by the universal suffrage of the people, and in virtue of his eminent qualifications for leadership. Commissioned colonels, much
his seniors, had been content to serve under him, and
his men had never failed to follow where he led; hence

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287

it is not very clear of what particular value this commission was to Sevier. "With or without it, he had to
serve without pay, and be his own commissary. More
gratifying to him, doubtless, was a resolve of the General
Assembly of the State, which was transmitted soon afterward. It was dated February 13, 1781, and was as
follows :
"Resolved, That Colonel Isaac Shelby, of Sullivan
County, and John Sevier, Esq., of Washington County,
be informed by this resolve, which shall be communicated to them, that the General Assembly of this State
are feelingly impressed with the very generous and patriotic services rendered by the inhabitants of the said counties, to which their influence has in a great degree contributed. And it is earnestly urged that they would
press a continuance of the same active exertion ; that the
state of the country is such as to call forth its utmost
powers immediately, in order to preserve its freedom and
independence."
In communicating this resolve, the Governor drew a
melancholy picture of the condition of seaboard Carolina.
The Tories had again risen everywhere, and, banded together, were carrying blood and havoc into the homes of
the patriots. Cornwallis was again advancing, and detachments from his army were laying waste the most
fertile and populous districts of the State. This being
the condition of things, the Governor conjured Sevier and
Shelby to rush again to the rescue of their distressed fellow-citizens. General Greene also wrote Sevier, remind-

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REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

ing him of his glorious services at King's Mountain, and
earnestly urging him to come to his aid with as many of
his mountaineers as he could muster. These appeals fell
on willing ears, but Sevier's hands were tied—his men
had now again to defend their own firesides. However,
he dispatched a small force under Charles Eobertson to
Greene, and they soon afterward gave a good account of
themselves at Guilford Court-House. Had he been able
to go himself with his whole force, it is possible that the
disaster which overtook Cornwallis at Yorktown might
have overwhelmed him at Guilford seven months previously.
The picture which the Governor drew of the condition of the eastern counties was only too true. The
anaconda had been scotched, not killed, by the defeat at
King's Mountain and the terrible punishment inflicted
by Sevier upon the Creeks and Cherokees. At Wmnsboro, after a disastrous retreat of a hundred miles, Cornwallis recovered from the panic which had overtaken him
when he thought himself pursued by three thousand
victorious over mountain men. There he learned that
they had retired to their lairs beyond the Alleghanies,
and, sending north for re-enforcements, he prepared to
resume his fatal project of a march northward through
the Carolinas and Virginia. Joined by General Leslie
with fifteen hundred men, he had already put his army
in motion, when he heard that Sevier was sweeping with
a besom of destruction through the Indian country. But
this in no way disheartened him. The misery of forty

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289

or fifty thousand half-clad savages did not lie very heavy
upon his lordship's conscience. If the now famous overmountain leader could be kept where he was—prevented
from descending upon his flank with his "yelling devils "
—the march of Oornwallis might yet be triumphant, for
Greene alone could not, he thought, offer any effectual
resistance to his progress.
It was, therefore, of prime importance to keep the
over-mountain men busy at home with the Creeks and
Cherokees. In this the agents of Oornwallis were helped
by a division among the Indians. A strong party under
the lead of Old Tassel, John Watts, Noonday, and Hanging Maw, were in favor of observing the peace which
had been agreed upon at Echota; but a still stronger
party, headed by the unconquerable old Oconostota, were
violent for war till either they or the white settlers
should be exterminated. They looked upon their ruined
fields, their burned dwellings, and the new-made graves
of their fallen braves, only to feel a keener thirst for
vengeance, a deeper hatred of the accursed race who had
encroached upon their hunting-grounds and desecrated
the homes of their ancestors. True, Dragging Canoe
was dead, but his spirit still lived among the Chickamaugas; the country of the Ottari was devastated, but
their warriors remained, well armed, and eager to meet
the whites ; and, more than this, the homes of the Erati
had never yet been invaded; they had corn in plenty,
and their twelve hundred warriors were burning to
avenge the wrongs inflicted upon their brothers on the
13

290

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

other side of the Smoky Mountains. It was not difficult for the British agents to fan this inflammable mass
into a flame. What was it to them if the simple savages
should rush upon certain destruction ? What cared they,
so long as they accomplished the object of the British
general to keep Sevier west of the mountains ? In
this, for the entire summer of 1781, they were successful.
Sevier returned from the Boyd's Creek expedition in
February, and early in March he discovered that there
was to be no peace with the Cherokees. They did not
appear in any large body, but small parties hung about
the more remote settlements, descending upon some unguarded dwelling and whelming men, women, and children in indiscriminate massacre. Instantly garrisons
were stationed in the most exposed positions, and a cordon of light troops was placed all along the frontier.
The wide extent of territory to be guarded involved
the employment of so many of Sevier's men, that—the
detachment being still away with Greene—it would seem
to have been impossible for him to muster a force strong
enough for any important offensive operation. And yet,
at this very time, he undertook and executed the most
brilliant exploit in his history—one which, I think, has
no parallel in the achievements of George Rogers Clark,
or any other border soldier. He had become convinced
that some of the recent raids had been perpetrated by
the Erati Cherokees, who had their homes high up in
the gorges of the Smoky Mountains, the gigantic range

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291

which is now the southwestern boundary between Tennessee and North Carolina. These Indians were a body
of bold, hardy mountaineers, twelve hundred strong, and
their country was intrenched amid rocky fastnesses that
were reported to be impregnable. Few white men had
ever visited their stronghold, and those who had, reported it unassailable by any civilized soldiery. By atiy
route that could then be taken it was two hundred miles
from Watauga, and the way to it was through trackless
forests, across furious torrents and dangerous rivers, and
over mountains, steep and rugged, and loftier than any
east of the Mississippi. Only one white man at Watauga—
Isaac Thomas—had ever entered this stronghold, and he
had gone to it through the Indian country, on its southwestern side, from which it was always approached by
its inhabitants. No Indian, no white trader or hunter,
was known to have ever entered it from the eastern side,
and of this region civilized man was as ignorant as of the
interior of Africa. It is to-day as wild a country as is
anywhere to be found on this continent. But from this
side Sevier determined to approach it, and with but one
hundred and thirty men to storm this inaccessible position, defended as it was by twelve hundred brave mountaineers. He took but one hundred and thirty, because
not another man could be spared from the defense of the
settlements. With Isaac Thomas as guide, he set out
early in March, when the streams are at their highest and
the snow still lies upon the upper slopes of the mountains. I say with Isaac Thomas as guide, but Thomas

292

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

knew nothing of the route; he could only direct Sevier
when they should have arrived in the enemy's country.
So, with only a compass to direct his way, Sevier set
out on his adventurous expedition. Crossing the Nblichucky near his home, he followed up the western bank
of the French Broad, fording the river near what is now
known as the Painted Rocks, and thence passing on to
Warm Springs, which had been discovered by two hunters in 1778, but had not yet a single inhabitant. Here
he climbed the banks of Laurel Run, and then, striking
southward, ascended the Walnut Mountains—a trackless
waste of rock and tangled forest, with not a path, nor
a trail, nor even a trace blazed by a passing hunter.
Thenceforward his way for more than a hundred miles
lay through a wilderness, where human foot had scarcely
trod, and man was so strange a sight that4 even the timid
deer and wild rabbit came out from their coverts to gaze
on the cavalcade as it passed.
Over fallen trees and through matted underbrush
the over-mountain men kept their way, now scaling some
huge, slippery rock, and now floundering along some
steep, stony ravine, where one false step of his horse
might plunge the rider down headlong ; and at the end
of twenty miles from Warm Springs they came to the
Ivy, a mountain torrent then two hundred feet wide, and
rushing to the French Broad with the speed of a frightened animal. Its waters were too deep to ford, and the
furious current would have appalled even the boldest
swimmer; but these skillful horsemen plunged fearlessly

AN INDIAN WAR.

293

into the torrent, and, though swept nearly a thousand
feet down the stream, gained the opposite bank in safety.
Then their way lay through a less broken country,
over gently rolling hills, gradually descending and sloping southward—the home now of the fragrant " goldenleaf," of fame among tobacco-smokers. Till then the
French Broad had been lined with inaccessible cliffs, but
soon they came to sloping banks, along which they
wound for another twenty miles till they arrived at the
Swananoa—the river of the dancing waters—not far from
the present town of Asheville. They were now in the
latitude of the Erati, but sixty miles away as the bird
flies, and, by the route they must pursue, all of a hundred. Turning, therefore, their faces due west, they
forded the Swananoa, and then the French Broad, and
struck again into a never-trodden wilderness. For here,
so far as is known, man had never been, nor any living
thing save the beasts of the forest. And here again the
wild creatures came out to meet them—the startled deer,
the growling panther, and the surly bear; the meat of
which last, seasoned with the salt they carried in their
knapsacks, was their favorite ration, varied only with
parched-corn meal, sweetened with maple-sugar, of which
a month's supply was slung across their saddles.
By good fortune they soon struck an open gorge,
trending westward—4he Balsam Gap, through which
now runs the road into this wild region. When not
upon the Walnut Mountains they had hitherto trav->
ersed a country two thousand feet and more above the

294

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

sea; but now they were constantly ascending, till even
the valleys were at an altitude of more than half a mile.
The air here is clear and pure, and laden with all the
odors of the forest, and the mountain-streams are limpid
and cool, and sparkling in their purity. If man had
only to minister to his physical needs, and to admire the
beauties of his earthly habitation, this region would be
the spot wherein to doze away existence. But Sevier
had work in hand; consciously or unconsciously, he was
acting an important part in the great drama of human
history, and, though this was but a minor act, he was
intent upon the business before him.
So, in the clear, unclouded sky of spring he climbed
those rocky ways—twenty miles in a day—till, at noon
of the tenth day from his leaving home, he came to
Clingman's Dome, where it rose, a giant earthquakemound, right across his pathway. He had measured
the distance by the speed of his horse, and now he felt
sure that he was in the region of the Erati. In this view
Thomas coincided, but the old woodman was at a loss for
the bearing of the Indian towns. The question could
be answered only by ascending the mountain, and from
some opening along its slope, or the bald spot upon its
summit, obtaining a view of the surrounding country.
A peculiar feature of all these Smoky Mountains is these
bald spots on their tops, where neither tree nor bush
grows, but the soil is deep and the grass luxuriant. According to Indian tradition, they are the foot-prints of
the Great Spirit of Evil, left when he has come to the

AN" INDIAN WAR.

295

earth, and strode from mountain-top to mountain-top in
the darkness, the lightning, and the thunder. One may
not see why his Satanic lordship needs go up so high to
get a view of this world's wickedness; but this he does,
if Cherokee legend is to be trusted.
The foot of man had never scaled Clingman's Dome,
but Sevier determined to climb its wooded slopes to its
very summit, where it soars aloffc,gigantic, cloud-piercing, and higher than any peak but one among the Appalachians ; and with broad vision looks down on all
things not bounded by the rotundity of this planet.
His horse, and the bulk of his men, he left at the base
of the slope, and then, with Isaac Thomas and a halfdozen others, Sevier slowly and on foot climbed the
steep and lofty mountain. Its lower slopes are to this
day clothed with majestic forests of cherry, walnut, and
poplar; but, as one goes up, these giant trees give way
to the slender pine, the scrub-oak, and the gnarled
beech, and, still higher up, the somber balsam, ta]3ering
a hundred and fifty feet toward the clouds. As it is
now, so it was then, for the woodman had not then, nor
has he yet, invaded these forest solitudes. These different growths denote different degrees of temperature,
and, when one is at the summit, he is in the climate of
Canada.
The little party set out about noon, but it was after
nightfall when they had climbed to the top of the
mountain. Midway up they came into a cloud, which
drenched them like a fine rain; but, when they arrived

296

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

at the summit, the sky was clear, and the moon and stars
were shining.
They had ascended above the cloud,
which now overhung earth and forest like a wide pall of
inky blackness, shutting all below from their vision.
The summit was carpeted with a deep, green sward,
sprinkled with heather and rhododendron. I do not
know that the idea occurred to them; but once, in a
similar position, it seemed to me that I was cut off from
the earth, and floating almost alone on a green island
through the infinite spaces of creation. It was not long
before an occasional gleam lit up the cloud, followed by
low, rumbling thunder. Soon the gleams became flashing sheets of fire, zigzagging through the dense mass, and
awaking echoes as loud as the explosion of a thousand
parks of artillery. The first was the skirmish-fire, this
last the discharges of warring battalions. Quicker and
louder they grew, till the whole world below was in a
fiery commotion—flash following flash, and each flash
revealing a cloudy sea, in which the black mountainpeaks around seemed like islands in some fearfully disturbed ocean. At the height of the storm the cloud
below was a rolling flame, casting a light like that of
day upon the bare mountain-tops and the tall balsams
that grew near their summits. These men had seen
King's Mountain, its volleys of fire, and the sulphurous
flame that girdled the hill in the crisis of the conflict;
but what was that, or any struggle of puny man, to this
fearful battling of the elements ? If one would learn
" man's place in nature," he should witness some such

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297

storm from the summit of a high mountain, the world
helow wrapped in flame, and he standing, as it were,
in the very presence of the Infinite. After a time the
storm broke, the cloud fled away, and then these men,
looking down, beheld the camp-fires of their comrades
at the foot of the mountain. The men below were
drenched with the storm, while the blankets of those
above were as dry as if rain had never fallen. Wrapping
these about them, they soon sank into such sleep as is
apt to follow hard riding.
The morning sun disclosed to Sevier a scene of unparalleled magnificence.
He was in a wilderness of
mountains. Directly around him rose thirty-three peaks,
all six thousand feet and more above the sea, and some
of them several hundred feet higher than Mount Washington ; while farther away were the Black and Bald
Mountains, the Blue Eidge, the Balsam, Cowee, and
Nantihala ranges, and the tall Unakas, interspersed
with lower ridges, and broken by deep valleys, and all
bathed in a sea of green that shone in the sun like burnished copper. For two hundred miles in every direction the country was open to his vision. It lay at
his feet in one vast forest-fringed panorama—a rolling
ocean of verdure. Far away at the northeast, where
the deep green of the woods melted into a misty purple,
he could trace the courses of the Holston, the Watauga,
and his own Nolichucky, and, nearer by, the silvery
windings of the Tennessee as it rushed past the stronghold of the Ohickamaugas.

298

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

But the view at the south was the one which riveted
Sevier's attention. There the Little Tennessee breaks
through the mountains, in a broader flood, and amid
deeper gorges, than those which have won for the region
of the French Broad the name of being the most picturesque in this country. This region is interlaced by romantic streams—the Oconalufta, the Tuckasege, and the
Nantihala, and threaded by deep, secluded valleys, which
are walled in by precipitous cliffs and precipices. Sevier knew these valleys to be the homes of the Erati,
but his eye ranged in vain for any sign of life in all the
wide, forest-covered region. At last he thought he detected a slight haze, a thin mist, rising from the very
base of the mountain on which he was standing. It
seemed directly below him, but his experienced eye knew
it to be miles away, and the smoke of an Indian village.
Between it and him was the Welch Bald, a mountain
a mile in height, but, that crossed on its lower slopes,
he would be in the country of the enemy.
Eapidly now Sevier descended the lofty Dome, and
put his force in motion to pass the Welch Bald before
nightfall. Its sides were so steep that the men were
obliged to dismount and lead their horses, and in many
places to almost drag them up the acclivities; but, this
obstacle surmounted, their way was less arduous. They
went into camp for the night among the trees, but with
the first streak of day were again in motion, and not
long after noon stood upon the heights above the principal Indian village of Tuckasege. Here noiselessly

AN INDIAN WAR.

299

they tethered their horses, ate a hasty meal, and then,
still more noiselessly, descended upon the Erati.
The rest is soon told. Taken by surprise, the Indians made scarcely any resistance. Fifty of their warriors were slain on the spot, and a large number of
women and children taken prisoners. The other warriors fled into the forest, and, scattering among the
remaining villages, spread everywhere the tidings that
"'Chucky Jack" was among them ! A general panic ensued, and men, women, and children hid themselves in
inaccessible haunts among the mountains, where they
could not be followed. Then the torch was set to the
Indian villages. Nearly twenty were burned, all the
grain and cattle were destroyed, and the whole country
was laid waste, and so left—a smoking desolation. Thus
were these savages made to drink of the chalice they had
held to the lips of the white settlers. This work done,
Sevier returned by the way he came, with his prisoners.
They would be of use to exchange for the whites who
were held captive among the Indians. The expedition
lasted twenty-nine days, and not a man uj)on it was
either killed or wounded.
This ruthless destruction broke the spirit of the
Erati, and almost to a man they united with the peace
party, which, under Old Tassel, was now making strong
headway in the nation. Two thirds of the Cherokee
warriors at once suspended hostilities; but still, his old
hatred fanned by the British agents, Oconostota held
out, and with him the turbulent tribe of Chickamauga

300

BEAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

outlaws. Afraid to meet the whites in the open field,
they hung as usual about the more exposed settlements,
and those to a large extent had to be abandoned by the
settlers. Sevier patrolled eyery road and every by-path
in the territory, but he could not guard every detached
farm-house. His men frequently routed small bodies of
the Indians, neither asking nor giving quarter; and one
night in August, Sevier himself surrounded and exterminated a party of about twenty; but no engagement
of any consequence occurred during the season. It was
a constant guerrilla warfare, in which Sevier's whole
force was engaged, without rest, as well as without glory.
At last, the Chickamaugas, tiring of continual defeat,
drew off to their homes, and there sought solace in their
misfortunes by making a scape-goat of the decrepit old
Oconostota. They accused him to the nation of being
the cause of all its disasters ; and, thus re-enforced, the
peace party had no difficulty in dethroning the old king,
and electing in his stead the moderate and peace-loving
Old Tassel.
Such was the inglorious fate of the ablest chief ever
known among the Oherokees, who in his youth had been
courted by George II, and for fifty years had held almost despotic sway over nearly ten thousand Creek and
Cherokee warriors. For twenty years longer, without
power or influence, he was to wander about, begging a
measure of meal, or a gallon of whisky, from his " white
brothers," and then, a homeless, weak, besotted, and
despised old man, he was to sink into the grave, seeing

AST INDIAN WAR.

301

the entire subjugation of his country, and feeling that it
had been brought about by his persistent folly in listening to the counsels of the Cabinet of Great Britain.
The news of Oconostota's deposition came to Sevier early
in September, and it was not many weeks afterward before he was again called by General Greene to the rescue
of his countrymen on the other side of the mountains.

OHAPTEE XIV.
THE EIHAL CONFLICTS.

Shelby returned from escorting the King's
Mountain prisoners into Virginia, he repaired at once,
with his small force of oyer-mountain men, to the headquarters of General Gates at Hillsborough. Cornwallis
had then suspended his retrograde movement, and was
gathering his forces together at Winnsboro, in preparation for another march northward. His purpose was
divined by Shelby, whose short service in South Carolina had informed him that the region along the foot
of the mountains was the very hot-bed of Toryism. If
the people there were not overawed and restrained by
the presence of a patriot force, they would flock in
great numbers to the standard of Cornwallis, and thus
swell his army, already too large to be withstood by any
body the patriots could bring into the field. These views
Shelby presented to Gates, and recommended to him the
sending of a moderate force into that region. This was
not at once done, on account of the depleted and disorganized condition of Gates's army> now reduced to
barely fourteen hundred men ; but the suggestion was
WHEK

THE FI1STAL CONFLICTS.

303

acted upon by Greene when he assumed command early
in November. He dispatched General Morgan upon that
service, and hence ensued the battle of the Cowpens—
which was the echo to that of King's Mountain. In
this battle, as I have said, Shelby's small force bore a
part under his brother Moses; but Shelby himself had
previously repaired to Halifax, to take his seat in the
General Assembly of North Carolina, to which he had
shortly before been elected. His presence in the Legislature explains his absence from the border operations
of Sevier in the summer of 1781.
Cornwallis moved northward, and early in September
the combined French and American forces were closing
down upon him at Yorktown and Gloucester. Greene
had fought the battle of Eutaw, and driven the British
commander, Stuart, back toward the seaboard ; and he
was now apprehensive that Cornwallis would attempt
to escape by a retrograde movement through North
Carolina to Charleston, where, joined by Stuart, and
further re-enforced by Sir Henry Clinton, he might
protract the war indefinitely. At this time Greene
wrote to "Washington, " I am trying to collect a body
of militia to oppose Lord Cornwallis, should he attempt
to escape." The militia he referred to were the overmountain men of Sevier and Shelby.
To those leaders Greene had written on the 16th of
September, urging them to come to him with all speed,
and bringing as many riflemen as could be spared
from the defense of the settlements. Owing to the dis-

304:

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

turbed state of the region, Greene's messengers did not
reach Sevier and Shelby till some weeks afterward; but
when they did, the patriot leaders at once issued a call
for five hundred volunteers, and in a few days were
on the march with them over the mountains to Charlotte. There they heard of the surrender of Cornwallis
on the 19th of October. This seemed to them an ending of the war, and they were about to return with
their men homeward, when Greene proposed their joining Marion in driving Stuart into Charleston. The
lower country was being devastated by the British and
Tories, and, with the over-mountain men added to his
own force, Marion would be able to drive them back
to the seaboard. There was no counting overnight
upon the peaceable behavior of the Chickamaugas, and
Sevier and Shelby were already two hundred miles from
their homes. They were asked to go still farther away,
and for an indefinite period; but they consented, and'
joined Marion at Davis's Ferry, on the Santee, in November.
The arrival of the over-mountain men gave Marion
a splendid body of cavalry and mounted riflemen, and
put him in condition to meet the British commander,
who was none other than Captain (now Colonel) John
Stuart, of the British Highlanders. Marion set his force
at once in motion, and moved forward to the vicinity
of the enemy, who was posted at a place called Ferguson's Swamp, on the great road to Charleston, and about
twenty-five miles distant from that city. Here occurred

THE FINAL CONFLICTS.

305

one of those exploits that were characteristic of Sevier
and Shelby. They had heard of a body of Hessians,
posted on the Charleston road, about ten miles in the
rear of Stuart, who were in a state of mutiny. This
force could probably be captured without much resistance, and at once Sevier and Shelby asked the approval
of Marion to an expedition for that purpose.
With a body of about five hundred horsemen they
set out in the early morning, and, making a wide detour
through the woods to avoid Stuart, and riding rapidly,
they came on the evening of the second day to a point
on the Charleston road about two miles below the enemy's position. Here they lay on their arms overnight,
and in the morning learned that the disaffected Hessians
had been already marched off to Charleston. They were
now between that place and Stuart, and on the line of
his communications; but he, with a greatly superior
force, lay between them and Marion. Their main object
had eluded them, but, not to return empty-handed, they
determined, despite the danger of interference from Stuart, to assault and carry the British position. It was
strongly intrenched, defended by an abattis, and a force
of one hundred and fifty regulars, well supplied with arms
and ammunition, and was said to be defensible against
any force not supplied with artillery.
Advancing upon the British position at break of day,
Sevier and Shelby sent in a flag, demanding an unconditional surrender. The answer returned was that the
place would be held to the last extremity. Time was

306

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

of great value, and it was better to secure a victory by
negotiation than by fighting, so Shelby now went in himself, and made a second demand upon the British commander. He told him that his force was composed of
over-mountain men, who fought with knife and tomahawk, as well as rifle, and, if once their blood was up,
they could not be restrained. If the commander was so
foolhardy as to allow his post to be stormed, he must
take the consequences. The officer then inquired if the
Americans had any cannon. " We have guns enough,"
' answered Shelby, " to blow you to atoms in a moment!"
"Then," said the officer, " I suppose I must surrender."
At the worst, he could have held out until Stuart's
whole army was upon the little force of patriots, for
Shelby's " g u n s " were all of rifle-caliber.
The patriots took a large supply of muskets, and
the entire garrison prisoners, and, setting fire to the
buildings and abattis, they mounted the captured force
behind them, and, without a moment's delay, set out to
return to Marion. He was sixty miles away, but, again
making a wide detour, they were in his camp at three
o'clock on the following morning. They were closely
pursued by Stuart, who, with his whole army, arrived
within three miles of the American camp at sunriseonly three hours later than Sevier and Shelby. Marion
was strongly posted in the rear of a swamp, and he desired nothing so much as an attack from the British.
Accordingly, he ordered Sevier and Shelby to advance
to the edge of the swamp, and to begin the attack as

THE FINAL CONFLICTS.

307

soon as the enemy appeared in force before them. But
the enemy did not appear. Suddenly, without striking
a blow, Stuart wheeled about and began a rapid and disorderly retreat to the very gates of Charleston. From
some prisoners who had escaped he had learned that
the men now opposed to him were the "yelling devils"
of King's Mountain, led by Sevier and Shelby. During
five years these men had repeatedly balked his deeply
concerted and wide-sweeping plan to subjugate the
Southern colonies, and now their very names were to
send him fleeing in disorder to his intrenchments at
Charleston. The anaconda had been for some time dead;
but until now it had not been fully conscious that it
had gone out of existence. This is the last that history
has to do with John Stuart, of the British Highlanders.
The British thus cooped up in Charleston, in January, 1782, Governor Eutledge convened the Legislature
of the State, at a small town about thirty miles distant;
and thus, after two years of bayonet rule, civil government was restored to South Carolina. This done, the
work of the over-mountain men was accomplished, and
they returned, "through a deep snow," to their distant
homes on the Holston and Watauga.
On his arrival at the settlements, Sevier found affairs
in a greatly disturbed condition. Large numbers of Tories, who had fled from the Carolinas, had taken refuge
among the Chickamaugas, and were inciting them to renewed hostilities, and even among the better part of the

308

BEAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

Cherokee nation there was a wide and serious dissatisfaction. Settlers had followed in the wake of Sevier's expeditions, and in considerable numbers had erected farmhouses and inclosed fields within the limits of the Indian
country. Against this the Cherokees protested loudly
—loud enough to be heard by Governor Alexander Martin, five hundred miles away, over the mountains. This
appears from a letter which the Governor addressed to
Sevier from Danbury, on February 11, 1782. It was as
follows:
" COLOKEL JOHK SEVIEK.

" SIR : I am distressed with the repeated complaints
of the Indians respecting the daily incursions of our
people on their lands beyond the French Broad Eiver.
I beg you, sir, to prevent the injuries these savages
justly complain of, who are constantly imploring the
protection of the State, and appealing to its justice
in vain. By interposing your influence on these, our
unruly citizens, I think will have sufficient weight, without going to extremities disgraceful to them and disagreeable to the State. You will, therefore, please to
warn these intruders off the lands reserved for the
Indians by the late act of the Assembly; that they remove immediately, at least by the middle of March,
otherwise they will be drove off. If you find them still
refractory at the above time, you will draw forth a body
of your militia on horseback, and pull down their cabins
and drive them off, laying aside every consideration of

THE FINAL CONFLICTS.

309

their entreaties to the contrary. You will please to give
me the earliest information of your proceedings."
What heed Sevier gave to these orders of the Governor does not appear from either record or tradition; but
it is probable that he bestowed upon them no attention.
His view was that of Kobertson, that " Providence never
intended that this rich and beautiful country should be
given up to wild beasts and savages," and he may not
have been overscrupulous about observing treaties that
were daily broken by the Indians. Moreover, it is unlikely that he would obey, from any source, orders to
" p u l l down their cabins," and expel from the fields
they had planted, the yery men who had shared with
him the march, the bivouac, and the deadly onset of
these same savages. Martin was Governor of North
Carolina, but he had yery little power beyond the Alleghanies. There Sevier was autocrat, ruling by yirtue of
the hold he had upon the affections of the people. They
loved him because of his loving-kindness to them; and
could it be expected that the man so mercifully kind as
to forgive the deserter who had imperiled the lives of a
thousand of his comrades, would now proceed against
his old companions in arms at the head of " a body of
his militia on horseback" ?
This view of Sevier's action, or rather inaction, is
confirmed by a " t a l k " addressed by Old Tassel to Gov©ernor Martin on the 25th of September, 1782—more than
seven months later. It clearly shows that the settlers

310

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION".

had not been remoyed at that period. Old Tassel spoke,
he said, "for the whole nation," and in the presence "of
all the chiefs of the friendly towns, and a number of
young men " ; and in his appeal there is a certain pathos
which leads us to pity " the poor Indian," and to almost
forget that one half of the Cherokees were the most
bloodthirsty of villains. He said to the Governor :
"Brother, I am now going to speak to you. I
hope you will listen to me. A string. I intended to
come this fall and see you, but there was subh confusion
in our country, I thought it best for me to stay at
home, and send my talks by our friend Colonel Martin,
who promises to deliver them safe to you. We are a
poor, distressed people, in great trouble, and we hope our
elder brother will take pity on us and do us justice.
Your people from Nolichucky are daily pushing us out
of our lands. We have no place to hunt on. Your
people have built houses within one day's walk of our
towns. We don't want to quarrel with our elder brother ;
we, therefore, hope our elder brother will not take our
lands from us, that the Great Man above gave us. He
made you and he made u s ; we are all his children, and
we hope our elder brother will take pity on us, and not
take our lands from us—that our Father gave us—because he is stronger than we are. We are the first people that ever lived on this land ; it is ours, and why will
our elder brother take it from us ? It is true, some time
past, the people over the great water persuaded some of
our young men to do some mischief to our elder brother,

THE FINAL CONFLICTS.

311

which our principal men were sorry for. But you, our
elder brothers, came to our towns and took satisfaction,
and then sent for us to come and treat with you, which
we did. Then our elder brother promised to have the
line run between us agreeably to the first treaty, and all
that should be found over the line should be moved off.
But it is not done yet. We have done nothing to offend
our elder brother since the last treaty, and why should
our elder brother want to quarrel with us ? We have
sent to the Governor of Virginia on the same subject.
We hope that, between you both, you will take pity on
your younger brother, and send Colonel Sevier, who is a
good man, to have all your people moved off our land."
This message illustrates the universal trust reposed
in Sevier, even by his enemies. The very savages whom
he had fought almost constantly for six years, and whom
he had only recently punished with appalHng severity,
now, in their day of trouble, turn to him and beseech
that he may be sent to them, because he is " a good
man." It was, as I have said, this trait of large-hearted
goodness, more than his other great qualities, that bound
all men to Sevier, and enabled him to control so absolutely the rude elements by which Providence was clearing a way for civilization beyond the Alleghanies.
But while Old Tassel was making these piteous appeals to his elder brother, his own unruly children, the
Chickamaugas, banded with hordes of desperate Tories,
were raiding upon the whole frontier as far north as
Virginia. The authorities of that State were at once

312

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

aroused, and speedily embodied a force to descend upon
the Indian towns along the Tennessee. This force, several hundred strong, rendezvoused at the Great Island
of the Holston, and there waited for supplies and ammunition. They waited till it was discovered that no
supplies could be had, the State having no money in its
treasury, and not enough credit to buy a pound of powder or a flitch of bacon. Shelby was away in Kentucky,
and therefore could not, as before, come to the rescue
of the bankrupt Commonwealth. Hence, the expedition
was abandoned.
But Sevier's treasury was in a more flourishing condition. Perhaps in all the territory there was not a
hundred dollars of legal currency, but he and his riflemen had granaries full of corn, and with this—-parched
and ground and saturated with maple-sirup—they had
gone on many a long march together. Seeing now that
Virginia could not inflict deserved chastisement upon
the Ohickamaugas, Sevier took the work in hand himself, though compelled, by the necessity of leaving the
settlements properly protected, to go into the enemy's
country with a force which would be no more than a
body-guard to a modern general. With but two hundred
men he marched directly upon Echota. There he held
a conference with Old Tassel and the Ottari chieftains,
and so won their good-will that they not only laid
aside their grievances, but gave him the escort of John
Watts—afterward their head chieftain—to guide the little army by the shortest and most direct route to the

THE FINAL CONFLICTS.

313

Lookout towns on the Tennessee. But to this result
Nancy "Ward largely contributed. The Chickamaugas
had given no heed to her counsels or commands, and it
was therefore right, she thought, that they should feel
the wrath of the Great Spirit.
The friendship of the Ottari being thus secured, Sevier deemed it prudent to move with his slender force
against the Chickamaugas. On the eighth day after setting out from the Nolichucky he came to their towns,
and laid one after another of them in ashes, the Indians
fleeing as before to their hiding-places along the river,
where, not knowing the way, he could not follow. This
was true of all but a body of about five hundred Tories
and savages, who, under their ferocious chiefs, Categiskey, Big Fool, and Bloody Fellow, made a stand upon
one of the upper slopes of Lookout Mountain, and there
bade Sevier defiance. Crossing the broad river in the face
of the enemy, he climbed the rugged mountain and attacked and routed this banditti on the identical spot
where, eighty years later, Hooker fought his famous
"battle above the clouds." Here his usual good fortune
attended him. Nofc one of his men was killed, and
only three were slightly wounded. The most remarkable thing about all of Sevier's expeditions is the small
number of casualties that befell his riflemen. In thirtyfour battles—large and small—which he fought with the
Indians during a period of twenty years, his total loss
was only six killed—a death-roll without a parallel in
modern warfare. This result was due to the celerity of
14

314

KEAK-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

his movements and the impetuosity of his attacks, which
always disconcerted, and thus rendered powerless the
enemy. *
This defeat subdued for a time the warlike spirit of
the Chickamaugas, and soon afterward peace was proclaimed with Great Britain. Then the men of the rearguard returned to their homes, hung their rifles over their
doorways, and went about the more peaceable employments of civilization. They had rendered great and
vital services to their country. So far as I know, no
other body of equal numbers ever achieved such great
results in human history. They balked the deeply laid
plans of the British Cabinet, backed by the whole power of the British Empire. This they did in 1776, when
but a- handful of two hundred, and again in 1780, when,
only a thousand strong, they climbed the Alleghanies
* I should hesitate to make this statement had I not for it the authority of General Sevier himself. Among a large number of his letters,
which'have been most kindly furnished me by his great-granddaughter,
the wife of the Hon. W. O'Neil Perkins, of Franklin, Tennessee, is one
addressed by him to her grandfather, George Washington Sevier. It is
dated February 20, 1814, and was written from "Washington when Sevier
was there as a member of Congress. In it he writes to his son: " The
accounts from General Jackson to Pinckney, of his last battles, have just
arrived. He had twenty-five killed and seventy-five wounded, and says
he killed two hundred of the enemy. After the first two actions he
retreated to Fort Strother. There have been many brave men killed and
wounded in the Creek campaign which might, by prudent conduct, have
been avoided. These campaigns are very different from our former ones.
In all mine the killed did not exceed six—a wide contrast indeed.'"

THE FINAL CONFLICTS.

315

and descended, a living avalanche, upon the British
bayonets. And, in the closing crisis, they rushed once
more to the front, and gave a final blow to the fleeing
invaders. All this they did while their homes were
encircled with savage fire — while the tomahawk was
brandished above their heads, and the midnight torch
was applied to their dwellings. They scaled untraveled
heights, and waded the deep swamps of the seaboard;
and under the broiling sun of the San tee, and amid the
snow-storms of the Alleghanies, in such hunger and thirst
and weariness as human nature seldom endures, they
everywhere sought and found and conquered the enemy.
And, more than all this, while in hourly danger by day
and by night, and beleaguered by foes in front and in
rear, they planted civilization west of the Alleghanies,
and in those untrodden forests hewed out a home for
the uncounted millions who are to follow them. Though
but a handful, they did a great work—a work that could
not have been better done had they been a hundred
thousand. For all this the men of the rear-guard
deserve to be held in grateful remembrance by their
country.
The surrender of Cornwallis was the natural sequence
to the battle of King's Mountain, and it broke fche power
of Great Britain over her revolted colonies. "When the
British prime minister, Lord North, heard of it, he threw
up his arms like -one who had received "a ball in the
breast," and exclaimed, as he paced wildly to and fro,
" 0 God ! it is all over !" It did, indeed, for the mo-

316

REAR-GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION.

ment, seem to be " all oyer " with the magnificent British. Empire which had been builded by the elder Pitt.
Fiye hundred million dollars had been added to its national debt, and it had lost three millions of its subjects,
and the larger portion of its possessions in America;
while Ireland was in reyolt, and the great powers of
Europe were banded together for its destruction. It
seemed about to sink from a yast world-power, girdling
the globe, to an insignificant European kingdom, of no
more influence or consequence in human affairs than the
little German principality from which its monarchs had
sprung. To the yerge of this ruin it had been brought
by its narrow-minded king, who, ruling by his own peryerse will, had sought to obstruct ciyil progress, by
shackling his subjects, at home and abroad, with an
effete feudalism which the world had long outgrown.
And George III would haye giyen a death-blow to England's power, had there not been an English people, and
a younger and greater Pitt, to lift Britain up to eyen a
higher summit of greatness. Eeading now the past in
the light cast on it by the present, we see that it had
so to be, for not otherwise could England and the English race achieye their destiny, which is to carry freedom
and civilization around the globe—a free-will offering to
all the nations of the earth. But this work was to be
done, not only by the ocean-girt nation, but by the English race, and the race was to be educated up to its high
mission to mankind. Hence, an offshoot was seyered
from the parent trunk, and planted here, where it might

THE FINAL CONFLICTS.

317

grow untrammeled by feudal ideas and kingly traditions—itself free, and therefore fit to be the apostle of
freedom. This new growth was to overshadow this
continent, but to strike its strongest roots into the rich
virgin soil west of the Alleghanies. There was to be
its home, the seat of its empire, the heart-center of its
teeming millions. Hence it is that the work of these
men—Sevier, and Shelby, and Kobertson—the earlier
portion of which I have here most imperfectly delineated, was not of passing moment, but of lasting significance—was pregnant with results which will be felt along
the ages. Therefore, though obscure dwellers in the
forest, doing their life-work in silence, seclusion, and
all manner of untoward surroundings, they were important actors in the great drama that is being played
out upon this planet. They were conscious of their
high mission ; they felt that they were doing the behests
of a higher than human wisdom; and so they sought
neither human reward nor human glory, and were content to go to their graves, leaving their work and their
names scarcely so much as noticed in history0

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