by Various
THE PIONEERS OF THE SOUTHWEST.
TWO PAPERS. II.
The route of Robertson lay over the great Indian war-path, which led, ina southwesterly direction, from the valley of Virginia to the Cherokeetowns on the lower Tennessee, not far from the present city ofChattanooga. He would, however, turn aside at the Tellico and visitEchota, which was the home of the principal chiefs. While he is pursuinghis perilous way, it may be as well to glance for a moment at the peopleamong whom he is going at so much hazard.
The Cherokees were the mountaineers of aboriginal America, and, likemost mountaineers, had an intense love of country and a keenappreciation of the beautiful in nature, as is shown by the poeticalnames they have bequeathed to their rivers and mountains. They werephysically a fine race of men, tall and athletic, of great bravery andsuperior natural intelligence. It was their military prowess alone thatenabled them to hold possession of the country they occupied against themany warlike tribes by whom they were surrounded.
They had no considerable cities, or even villages, but dwelt inscattered townships in the vicinity of some stream where fish and gamewere found in abundance. A number of these towns, bearing the musicalnames of Tallassee, Tamotee, Chilhowee, Citico, Tennassee, and Echota,were at this time located upon the rich lowlands lying between theTellico and Little Tennessee Rivers. These towns contained a population,in men, women, and children, estimated at from seven to eight thousand,of whom perhaps twelve hundred were warriors. These were known as theOttari (or "among the mountains") Cherokees.
About the same number, near the head-waters of the Savannah, in thegreat highland belt between the Blue Ridge and the Smoky Mountains, werestyled the Erati (or "in the valley") Cherokees. Another body (amongwhom were many Creeks), nearly as large, and much more lawless thaneither of the others, occupied towns lower down the Tennessee and in thevicinity of Lookout Mountain. These, from their residence near thestream of that name, were known as the Chickamaugas.
These various bodies were one people, governed by an Archimagus, orKing, who, with a supreme council of chiefs, which sat at Echota,decided all important questions in peace or war. Under him were thehalf-or vice-king and the several chiefs who governed the scatteredtownships and together composed the supreme council. In them was lodgedthe temporal power. Spiritual authority was of a far more despotic formand character. It was vested in one person, styled the Beloved man orwoman of the tribe, who, over a people so superstitious as theCherokees, held a control that was wellnigh absolute. This person wasgenerally of superior intelligence, who, like the famous Prophet of theShawnees, officiated as physician, prophet, and intercessor with theinvisible powers; and, by virtue of the supernatural authority which heclaimed, he often by a single word decided the most important questions,even when opposed by the king and the principal chiefs.
Echota was located on the northern bank of the Tellico, about five milesfrom the ruins of Fort Loudon, and thirty southwest from the presentcity of Knoxville. It was the Cherokee City of Refuge. Once within itsbounds, an open foe, or even a red-handed criminal, could dwell in peaceand security. The danger to an enemy was in going and returning. It isrelated that an Englishman who, in self-defence, once slew a Cherokee,fled to this sacred city to escape the vengeance of the kindred of hisvictim. He was treated here with such kindness that after a time hethought it safe to leave his asylum. The Indians warned him against thedanger, but he left, and on the following morning his body was found onthe outskirts of the town, pierced through and through with a score ofarrows.
About two hundred cabins and wigwams, scattered, with some order but atwide intervals, along the bank of the river, composed the village. Thecabins, like those of the white settlers, were square and built of logs;the wigwams were conical, with a frame of slender poles gatheredtogether at the top and covered with buffalo-robes, dressed and smokedto render them impervious to the weather. An opening at the side formedthe entrance, and over it was hung a buffalo-hide, which served as adoor. The fire was built in the centre of the lodge, and directlyoverhead was an aperture to let out the smoke. Here the women performedculinary operations, except in warm weather, when such employments werecarried on outside in the open air. At night the occupants of the lodgespread their skins and buffalo-robes on the ground, and then men, women,and children, stretching themselves upon them, went to sleep, with theirfeet to the fire. By day the robes were rolled into mats and made toserve as seats. A lodge of ordinary size would comfortably house a dozenpersons; but two families never occupied one domicile, and, theCherokees seldom having a numerous progeny, not more than five or sixpersons were often tenants of a single wigwam.
These rude dwellings were mostly strung along the two sides of a wideavenue, which was shaded here and there with large oaks and poplars andtrodden hard with the feet of men and horses. At the back of each lodgewas a small patch of cleared land, where the women and the negro slaves(stolen from the white settlers over the mountains) cultivated beans,corn, and potatoes, and occasionally some such fruits as apples, pears,and plums. All labor was performed by the women and slaves, as it wasconsidered beneath the dignity of an Indian brave to follow anyoccupation but that of killing, either wild beasts in the hunt orenemies in war. The house-lots were without fences, and not an enclosurecould be seen in the whole settlement, cattle and horses being left toroam at large in the woods and openings.
In the centre of Echota, occupying a wide opening, was a circular,tower-shaped structure, some twenty feet high and ninety incircumference. It was rudely built of stout poles, plastered with clay,and had a roof of the same material sloping down to broad eaves, whicheffectually protected the walls from moisture. It had a wide entrance,protected by two large buffalo-hides hung so as to meet together in themiddle. There were no windows, but an aperture in the roof, shielded bya flap of skins a few feet above the opening, let out the smoke andadmitted just enough light to dissipate a portion of the gloom thatalways shrouded the interior. Low benches, neatly made of cane, wereranged around the circumference of the room. This was the greatcouncil-house of the Cherokees. Here they met to celebrate thegreen-corn dance and their other national ceremonials; and here the kingand half-king and the princes and head-men of the various townsconsulted together on important occasions, such as making peace ordeclaring war.
At the time of which I write, several of the log cabins of Echota wereoccupied by traders, adventurous white men who, tempted by the profit ofthe traffic with the Cherokees, had been led to a more or less constantresidence among them. Their cabins contained their stock intrade,--traps, guns, powder and lead, hatchets, looking-glasses,"stroud," beads, scarlet cloth, and other trinkets, articles generallyof small cost, but highly prized by the red-men, and for which they gavein exchange peltries of great value. The trade was one of slow returns,but of great profits to the trader. And it was of about equal advantageto the Indian; for with the trap or rifle he had gotten for a few skinshe was able to secure more game in a day than his bow and arrow and rude"dead-fall" would procure for him in a month of toilsome hunting. Thetraders were therefore held in high esteem among the Cherokees, whoencouraged their living and even marrying among them. In fact, suchalliances were deemed highly honorable, and were often sought by thedaughters of the most distinguished chiefs. Consequently, among thetrader's other chattels would often be found a dusky mate and ahalf-dozen half-breed children; and this, too, when he had already awife and family somewhere in the white settlements.
These traders were an important class in the early history of thecountry. Of necessity well acquainted with the various routes traversingthe Indian territory, and with the state of feeling among the savages,and passing frequently to and fro between the Indian towns and the whitesettlements, they were often enabled to warn the whites of intendedattacks, and to guide such hostile parties as invaded the Cherokeeterritory. Though often natives of North Carolina or Virginia, and insympathy with the colonists, they were, if prudent of speech andbehavior, allowed to remain unmolested in the Indian towns
, even whenthe warriors were singing the war-song and brandishing the war-club onthe eve of an intended massacre of the settlers.
Living in Echota at this time was one of this class who, on account ofhis great services to the colonists, is deserving of special mention.His name was Isaac Thomas, and he is said to have been a native ofVirginia. He is described as a man about forty years of age, over sixfeet in height, straight, long-limbed, and wiry, and with a frame sosteeled by twenty years of mountain-life that he could endure anyconceivable hardship. His features were strongly marked and regular, andthey wore an habitual expression of comic gravity; but on occasion hisdark, deep-set eye had been known to light up with a look ofunconquerable pluck and determination. He wore moccasins andhunting-shirt of buckskin, and his face, neck, and hands, from longexposure, had grown to be of the same color as that material. Hiscoolness and intrepidity had been shown on many occasions, and thesequalities, together with his immense strength, had secured him highesteem among the Cherokees, who, like all uncivilized people, set thehighest value upon personal courage and physical prowess. It is relatedthat shortly before the massacre at Fort Loudon he interfered in adesperate feud between two Cherokee braves who had drawn their tomahawksto hew each other in pieces. Stepping between them, he wrenched theweapons from their hands, and then, both setting upon him at once, hecooled their heated valor by lifting one after the other into the airand gently tossing him into the Tellico. Subsequently, one of thesebraves saved his life at the Loudon massacre, at the imminent risk ofhis own. If I were writing fiction, I might make of this man aninteresting character: as it is, it will be seen that facts hereinafterrelated will fully justify the length of this description.
A wigwam, larger and more pretentious than most of the others in Echota,stood a little apart from the rest, and not far from the council-house.Like the others, it had a frame of poles covered with tanned skins; butit was distinguished from them by a singular "totem,"--an otter in thecoils of a water-snake. Its interior was furnished with a sort of rudesplendor. The floor was carpeted with buffalo-hides and panther-skins,and round the walls were hung eagles' tails, and the peltries of thefox, the wolf, the badger, the otter, and other wild animals. From apole in the centre was suspended a small bag,--the mysteriousmedicine-bag of the occupant. She was a woman who to this day is held ingrateful remembrance by many of the descendants of the early settlersbeyond the Alleghanies. Her personal appearance is lost to tradition,but it is said to have been queenly and commanding. She was more thanthe queen, she was the prophetess and Beloved Woman, of the Cherokees.
At this time she is supposed to have been about thirty-five years ofage. Her father was an English officer named Ward, but her mother was ofthe "blood royal," a sister of the reigning half-king Atta-Culla-Culla.The records we have of her are scanty, as they are of all her people,but enough has come down to us to show that she had a kind heart and asense of justice keen enough to recognize the rights of even herenemies. She must have possessed very strong traits of character toexercise as she did almost autocratic control over the fierce andwellnigh untamable Cherokees when she was known to sympathize with andbefriend their enemies the white settlers. Not long before the time ofwhich I am writing, she had saved the lives of two whites,--JeremiahJack and William Rankin,--who had come into collision with a party ofCherokees; and subsequently she performed many similar services to thefrontier people.
Other wigwams as imposing as that of Nancy Ward, and not far from thecouncil-house, were the habitations of the head-king Oconostota, thehalf-king Atta-Culla-Culla, and the prince of Echota, Savanuca,otherwise called the Raven. Of these men it will be necessary to saymore hereafter: here I need only remark that they have now gathered inthe council-house, with many of the principal warriors and head-men ofthe Ottari Cherokees, and that the present fate of civilization in theSouthwest is hanging on their deliberations.
They are of a gigantic race, and none of those at this conclave, exceptAtta-Culla-Culla, are less than six feet in height "without theirmoccasins." Squatted as they are gravely around the council-fire, theypresent a most picturesque appearance. Among them are theBread-Slave-Catcher, noted for his exploits in stealing negroes; theTennassee Warrior, prince of the town of that name; Noon-Day, awide-awake brave; Bloody Fellow, whose subsequent exploits will show theappropriateness of his name; Old Tassell, a wise and reasonably justold man, afterward Archimagus; and John Watts, a promising younghalf-breed, destined to achieve eminence in slaughtering white people.
As one after another of them rises to speak, the rest, with downcasteyes and cloudy visages, listen with silent gravity, only now and thenexpressing assent by a solitary "Ugh!"
There is strong, though suppressed, passion among them; but it ispassion under the control of reason. Whatever they decide to do will bedone without haste, and after a careful weighing of all theconsequences. In the midst of their deliberations the rapid tread of ahorse's feet is heard coming up the long avenue. The horseman haltsbefore the council-house, and soon the buffalo-hide parts in twain, anda tall young warrior, decorated with eagles' feathers and half clad inthe highest style of Cherokee fashion, enters the door-way. He standssilent, motionless, not moving a pace beyond the entrance, tillOconostota, raising his eyes and lifting his huge form into an erectposture, bids him speak and make known his errand.
The young brave explains that the chief of the pale-faces has come downthe great war-path to an outlying town to see the head-men of theOttari. The warriors have detained him till they can know the will oftheir father the Archimagus.
The answer is brief: "Let him come. Oconostota will hear him."
And now an hour goes by, during which these grave chiefs sit as silentand motionless as if keeping watch around a sepulchre. At its close thetramp of a body of horsemen is heard, and soon Robertson, escorted by ascore of painted warriors, enters the council-chamber. Like the rest,the new-comers are of fine physical proportions; and, as the others riseto their feet and all form in a circle about him, Robertson, who standsonly five feet nine inches and is not so robust as in later years, seemslike a pygmy among giants. Yet he is as cool, as collected, asapparently unconscious of danger, as if every one of those paintedsavages (when aroused, red devils) was his near friend orblood-relation. The chiefs glance at him, and then at one another, withas much wonderment in their eyes as was ever seen in the eyes of aCherokee. They know he is but one man and they twelve hundred, and thatby their law of retaliation his life is forfeit; and yet he standsthere, a look of singular power on his face, as if not they but he weremaster of the situation. They have seen physical bravery; but this ismoral courage, which, when a man has a great purpose, lifts him aboveall personal considerations and makes his life no more to him than thebauble he wears upon his finger.
Robertson waits for the others to speak, and there is a short pausebefore the old chief breaks the silence. Then, extending his hand toRobertson, he says, "Our white brother is welcome. We have eaten of hisvenison and drunk of his fire-water. He is welcome. Let him speak.Oconostota will listen."
The white man returns cordially the grasp of the Indian; and then, stillstanding, while all about him seat themselves on the ground, he makesknown the object of his coming. I regret I cannot give here his exactanswer, for all who read this would wish to know the very words he usedon this momentous occasion. No doubt they were, like all he said, terse,pithy, and in such scriptural phrase as was with him so habitual. I knowonly the substance of what he said, and it was as follows: that theyoung brave had been killed by one not belonging to the Wataugacommunity; that the murderer had fled, but when apprehended would bedealt with as his crime deserved; and he added that he and hiscompanion-settlers had come into the country desiring to live in peacewith all men, but more especially with their near neighbors the braveCherokees, with whom they should always endeavor to cultivate relationsof friendliness and good-fellowship.
The Indians heard him at first with silent gravity, but, as he went on,their feelings warmed to him, and fou
nd vent in a few expressive"Ughs!" and when he closed, the old Archimagus rose, and, turning to thechiefs, said, "What our white brother says is like the truth. What saymy brothers? are not his words good?"
The response was, "They are good."
A general hand-shaking followed; and then they all pressed Robertson toremain with them and partake of their hospitality. Though extremelyanxious to return at once with the peaceful tidings, he did so, and thusconverted possible enemies into positive friends; and the friendshipthus formed was not broken till the outbreak of the Revolution.
While Robertson had been away, Sevier had not been idle. He had putWatauga into the best possible state of defence. With the surprisingenergy that was characteristic of him, he had built a fort and gatheredevery white settler into it or safe within range of its muskets. Hisforce was not a hundred strong; but if Robertson had been safely out ofthe savage hold, he might have enjoyed a visit from Oconostota and histwelve hundred Ottari warriors.
The fort was planned by Sevier, who had no military training except suchas he had received under his patron and friend Lord Dunmore. Though rudeand hastily built, it was a model of military architecture, and in theconstruction of it Sevier displayed such a genius for war as readilyaccounts for his subsequent achievements.
It was located on Gap Creek, about half a mile northeast of the Watauga,upon a gentle knoll, from about which the trees, and even stumps, werecarefully cleared, to prevent their sheltering a lurking enemy. Thebuildings have now altogether crumbled away; but the spot is stillidentified by a few graves and a large locust-tree,--then a slendersapling, now a burly patriarch, which has remained to our day to pointout the spot where occurred the first conflict between civilization andsavagery in the new empire beyond the Alleghanies. For the conflict wasbetween those two forces; and the forts along the frontier--of whichthis at Watauga was the original and model--were the forerunners ofcivilization,--the "voice crying in the wilderness," announcing thereign of peace which was to follow.
The fort covered a parallelogram of about an acre, and was built of logcabins placed at intervals along the four sides, the logs notchedclosely together, so that the walls were bullet-proof. One side of thecabins formed the exterior of the fort, and the spaces between them werefilled with palisades of heavy timber, eight feet long, sharpened at theends, and set firmly into the ground. At each of the angles was ablock-house, about twenty feet square and two stories high, the upperstory projecting about two feet beyond the lower, so as to command thesides of the fort and enable the besieged to repel a close attack or anyattempt to set fire to the buildings. Port-holes were placed at suitabledistances. There were two wide gate-ways, constructed to open quickly topermit a sudden sally or the speedy rescue of outside fugitives. On oneof these was a lookout station, which commanded a wide view of thesurrounding country. The various buildings would comfortably house twohundred people, but on an emergency a much larger number might findshelter within the enclosure.
The fort was admirably adapted to its design, and, properly manned,would repel any attack of fire-arms in the hands of such desultorywarriors as the Indians. In the arithmetic of the frontier it came to beadopted as a rule that one white man behind a wall of logs was a matchfor twenty-five Indians in the open field; and subsequent events showedthis to have been not a vainglorious reckoning.
There were much older men at Watauga than either Sevier orRobertson,--one of whom was now only twenty-eight and the otherthirty,--but they had from the first been recognized as natural leaders.These two events--the building of the fort and the Cherokee mission,which displayed Sevier's uncommon military genius and Robertson'sability and address as a negotiator--elevated them still higher in theregard of their associates, and at once the cares and responsibilitiesof leadership in both civil and military affairs were thrust upon them.But Sevier, with a modesty which he showed throughout his whole career,whenever it was necessary that one should take precedence of the other,always insisted upon Robertson's having the higher position; and so itwas that in the military company which was now formed Sevier, who hadserved as a captain under Dunmore, was made lieutenant, while Robertsonwas appointed captain.
The Watauga community had been till now living under no organizedgovernment. This worked very well so long as the newly-arrivingimmigrants were of the class which is "a law unto itself;" but whenanother class came in,--men fleeing from debt in the older settlementsor hoping on the remote and inaccessible frontier to escape the penaltyof their crimes,--some organization which should have the sanction ofthe whole body of settlers became necessary. Therefore, speaking in thelanguage of Sevier, they, "by consent of the people, formed a court,taking the Virginia laws as a guide, as near as the situation of affairswould admit."
The settlers met in convention at the fort, and selected thirteen oftheir number to draft articles of association for the management of thecolony. From these thirteen, five (among whom were Sevier and Robertson)were chosen commissioners, and to them was given power to adjudicateupon all matters of controversy and to adopt and direct all measureshaving a bearing upon the peace, safety, good order, and well-being ofthe community. By them, in the language of the articles, "all thingswere to be settled."
These articles of association were the first compact of civil governmentanywhere west of the Alleghanies. They were adopted in 1772, three yearsprior to the association formed for Kentucky "under the great elm-treeoutside of the fort at Boonesboro." The simple government thusestablished was sufficient to secure good order in the colony forseveral years following.
Now ensued four more years of uninterrupted peace and prosperity, duringwhich the settlement increased greatly in numbers and extended itsborders in all directions. The Indians, true to their pledges toRobertson, continued friendly, though suffering frequently from thedepredations of lawless white men from the old settlements. These werereckless, desperate characters, who had fled from the order and law ofestablished society to find freedom for unbridled license in the newcommunity. Driven out by the Watauga settlers, they herded together inthe wilderness, where they subsisted by hunting and fishing and preyingupon the now peaceable Cherokees. They were an annoyance to both thepeaceable white man and the red; but at length, when the Indians showedfeelings of hostility, they became a barrier between the savages and theindustrious cultivators of the soil, and thus unintentionallycontributed to the well-being of the Watauga community.
No event materially affecting the interests of the colony occurredduring the four years following Robertson's visit to the Cherokees atEchota. The battles of Lexington and Concord had been fought, but theshot which was "heard round the world" did not echo till monthsafterward in that secluded hamlet on the Watauga. But when it didreverberate amid those old woods, every backwoodsman sprang to his feetand asked to be enrolled to rush to the rescue of his countrymen on theseaboard. His patriotism was not stimulated by British oppression, forhe was beyond the reach of the "king's minions." He had no grievances tocomplain of, for he drank no tea, used no stamps, and never saw atax-gatherer. It was the "glorious cause of liberty," as Sevierexpressed it, which called them all to arms to do battle for freedom andtheir countrymen.
"A company of fine riflemen was accordingly enlisted, and embodied atthe expense and risque of their private fortunes, to act in defence ofthe common cause on the sea-shore."[001] But before the volunteers couldbe despatched over the mountains it became apparent that their serviceswould be needed at home for the defence of the frontier against theIndians.
Through the trader Isaac Thomas it soon became known to the settlersthat Cameron, the British agent, was among the Cherokees, endeavoring toincite them to hostilities against the Americans. At first the Indiansresisted the enticements--the hopes of spoil and plunder and therecovery of their hunting-grounds--which Cameron held out to them. Theycould not understand how men of the same race and language could be atwar with one another. It was never so known in Indian tradition. Butsoon--late in 1775--an event occurred which showed that the virus
spreadamong them by the crafty Scotchman had begun to work, at least with theyounger braves, and that it might at any moment break out among thewhole nation. A trader named Andrew Grear, who lived at Watauga, hadbeen at Echota. He had disposed of his wares, and was about to returnwith the furs he had taken in exchange, when he perceived signs ofhostile feeling among some of the young warriors, and on his return,fearing an ambuscade on the great war-path, he left it before he reachedthe crossing at the French Broad, and went homeward by a less-frequentedtrail along the Nolachucky. Two other traders, named Boyd and Dagget,who left Echota on the following day, pursued the usual route, and werewaylaid and murdered at a small stream which has ever since borne thename of Boyd's Creek. In a few days their bodies were found, only halfconcealed in the shallow water; and as the tidings flew among thescattered settlements they excited universal alarm and indignation.
The settlers had been so long at peace with the Cherokees that they hadbeen lulled into a false security; but, the savage having once tastedblood, they knew his appetite would "grow by what it fed on," and theyprepared for a deadly struggle with an enemy of more than twenty timestheir number. The fort at Watauga was at once put into a state ofefficient defence, smaller forts were erected in the centre of everyscattered settlement, and a larger one was built on the frontier, nearthe confluence of the north and south forks of the Holston River, toprotect the more remote settlements. This last was called Fort PatrickHenry, in honor of the patriotic governor of Virginia. The one atWatauga received the name of Fort Lee.
All the able-bodied males sixteen years of age and over were enrolled,put under competent officers, and drilled for the coming struggle. Butthe winter passed without any further act of hostility on the part ofthe disaffected Cherokees. The older chiefs, true to their pledges toRobertson, still held back, and were able to restrain the youngerbraves, who thirsted for the conflict from a passion for the excitementand glory they could find only in battle.
Nancy Ward was in the secrets of the Cherokee leaders, and every worduttered in their councils she faithfully repeated to the trader IsaacThomas, who conveyed the intelligence personally or by trusty messengersto Sevier and Robertson at Watauga. Thus the settlers were enabled tocircumvent the machinations of Cameron until a more powerful enemyappeared among the Cherokees in the spring of 1776. This was JohnStuart, British superintendent of Southern Indian affairs, a man ofgreat address and ability, and universally known and beloved among allthe Southwestern tribes. Fifteen years before, his life had been savedat the Fort Loudon massacre by Atta-Culla-Culla, and a friendship hadthen been contracted between them which now secured the influence of thehalf-king in plunging the Cherokees into hostilities with the settlers.
The plan of operations had been concerted between Stuart and theBritish commander-in-chief, General Gage. It was for a universal risingamong the Creeks, Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Shawnees, who were toinvade the frontiers of Georgia, Virginia, and the Carolinas, whilesimultaneously a large military and naval force under Sir Peter Parkerdescended upon the Southern seaboard and captured Charleston. It wasalso intended to enlist the co-operation of such inhabitants of the backsettlements as were known to be favorable to the British. Thus thefeeble colonists were to be not only encircled by a cordon of fire, buta conflagration was to be lighted which should consume every patriot'sdwelling. It was an able but pitiless and bloodthirsty plan, for itwould let loose upon the settler every savage atrocity and make hisworst foes those of his own household. If successful, it would havestrangled in fire and blood the spirit of independence in the Southerncolonies.
That it did not succeed seems to us, who know the means employed tothwart it, little short of a miracle. Those means were the four hundredand forty-five raw militia under Moultrie, who, behind a pile ofpalmetto logs, on the 28th of June, 1776, repulsed Sir Peter Parker inhis attack on Sullivan's Island in the harbor of Charleston, SouthCarolina, and the two hundred and ten "over-mountain men," under Sevier,Robertson, and Isaac Shelby, who beat back, on the 20th and 21st ofJuly, the Cherokee invasion of the western frontier.
As early as the 30th of May, Sevier and Robertson were apprised by theirfaithful friend Nancy Ward of the intended attack, and at once they sentmessengers to Colonel Preston, of the Virginia Committee of Safety, foran additional supply of powder and lead and a reinforcement of such menas could be spared from home-service. One hundred pounds of powder andtwice as much lead, and one hundred militiamen, were despatched inanswer to the summons. The powder and lead were distributed among thestations, and the hundred men were sent to strengthen the garrison ofFort Patrick Henry, the most exposed position on the frontier. Theentire force of the settlers was now two hundred and ten, forty of whomwere at Watauga under Sevier and Robertson, the remainder at and nearFort Patrick Henry under no less than six militia captains, no one ofwhom was bound to obey the command of any of the others. Thismany-headed authority would doubtless have worked disastrously to theloosely-jointed force had there not been in it as a volunteer a youngman of twenty-five who in the moment of supreme danger seized theabsolute command and rallied the men to victory. His name was IsaacShelby, and this was the first act in a long career in the whole ofwhich "he deserved well of his country."
Thus, from the 30th of May till the 11th of July the settlers slept withtheir rifles in their hands, expecting every night to hear the Indianwar-whoop, and every day to receive some messenger from Nancy Ward withtidings that the warriors were on the march for the settlements. At lastthe messengers came,--four of them at once,--as we may see from thefollowing letter, in which Sevier announces their arrival to theCommittee of Safety of Fincastle County, Virginia:
"FORT LEE, July 11, 1776.
DEAR GENTLEMEN,--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 River before they return.
JOHN SEVIER."
He says nothing of the feeble fort and his slender garrison of onlyforty men; he shows no sign of fear, nor does he ask for aid in thegreat peril. The letter is characteristic of the man, and it displaysthat utter fearlessness which, with other great qualities, made him thehero of the Border. The details of the information brought by Thomas toSevier and Robertson showed how truthfully Nancy Ward had previouslyreported to them the secret designs of the Cherokees. The whole nationwas about to set out upon the war-path. With the Creeks they were tomake a descent upon Georgia, and with the Shawnees, Mingoes, andDelawares upon Kentucky and the exposed parts of Virginia, while sevenhundred chosen Ottari warriors were to fall upon the settlers on theWatauga, Holston, and Nolachucky. This last force was to be divided intotwo bodies of three hundred and fifty each, one of which, underOconostota, was to attack Fort Watauga; the other, under Dragging-Canoe,head-chief of the Chickamaugas, was to attempt the capture of FortPatrick Henry, which they supposed to be still defended by only aboutseventy men. But the two bodies were to act together, the one supportingthe other in case it should be found that the settlers were betterprepared for defence than was anticipated. The preparation for theexpedition Thomas had himself seen: its object and the points of attackhe had learned from Nancy Ward, who had come to his cabin at midnight onthe 7th of July and urged his immediate departure. He had delayedsetting out till the following night, to impart his information toWilliam Falling and Jarot and Isaac Williams, men who could be trusted,and who he proposed should set out at the same time, but by differentroutes, to warn the settlements, so that in case one or more of them waswaylaid and killed the others might have a chance to get through insafety. However, at the last moment the British agent Cameron hadhimself disclosed the purpose of the expedition to Falling and the twobrothers Williams, and detailed them with a Captain Guest to go alongwith the Indians as far as the Nolachucky, when they were to scatteramong the settlements and warn any "king's men" to join the Indians orto wear a certain badge by
which they would be known and protected inany attack from the savages. These men had set out with the Indians, buthad escaped from them during the night of the 8th, and all had arrivedat Watauga in safety.
Thomas and Falling were despatched at once with the tidings intoVirginia, the two Williamses were sent to warn the garrison at FortPatrick Henry, and then the little force at Watauga furbished up theirrifles and waited in grim expectation the coming of Oconostota.
But the garrison at Fort Patrick Henry was the first to have tidingsfrom the Cherokees. Only a few men were at the fort, the rest beingscattered among the outlying stations, but all were withinsupporting-distance. On the 19th of July the scouts came in and reportedthat a large body of Indians was only about twenty miles away andmarching directly upon the garrison. Runners were at once despatched tobring in the scattered forces, and by nightfall the one hundred andseventy were gathered at the fort, ready to meet the enemy. Then acouncil of war was held by the six militia captains to determine uponthe best plan of action. Some were in favor of awaiting the attack ofthe savages behind the walls of the fort, but one of them, WilliamCocke, who afterward became honorably conspicuous in the history ofTennessee, proposed the bolder course of encountering the enemy in theopen field. If they did not, he contended that the Indians, passing themon the flank, would fall on and butcher the defenceless women of thesettlements in their rear.
It was a step of extreme boldness, for they supposed they wouldencounter the whole body of seven hundred Cherokees; but it wasunanimously agreed to, and early on the following morning the littlearmy, with flankers and an advance guard of twelve men, marched out tomeet the enemy. They had not gone far when the advance guard came upon aforce of about twenty Indians. The latter fled, and the whites pursuedfor several miles, the main body following close upon the heels of theadvance, but without coming upon any considerable force of the enemy.Then, being in a country favorable to an ambuscade, and the eveningcoming on, they held a council and decided to return to the fort.
They had not gone upward of a mile when a large force of the enemyappeared in their rear. The whites wheeled about at once, and wereforming into line, when the whole body of Indians rushed upon them withgreat fury, shouting, "The Unacas are running! Come on! scalp them!"They attacked simultaneously the centre and left flank of the whites;and then was seen the hazard of going into battle with a many-headedcommander. For a moment all was confusion, and the companies inattempting to form in the face of the impetuous attack were beingbroken, when Isaac Shelby rushed to the front and ordered each company afew steps to the rear, where they should reform, while he, withLieutenant Moore, Robert Edmiston, and John Morrison, and a privatenamed John Findlay,--in all five men,--should meet the onset of thesavages. Instantly the six captains obeyed the command, recognizing inthe volunteer of twenty-five their natural leader, and then the battlebecame general. The Indians attacked furiously, and for a few momentsthose five men bore the brunt of the assault. With his own hand RobertEdmiston slew six of the more forward of the enemy, Morrison nearly asmany, and then Moore became engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand fightwith an herculean chieftain of the Cherokees. They were a few paces inadvance of the main body, and, as if by common consent, the firing waspartly suspended on both sides to await the issue of the conflict."Moore had shot the chief, wounding him in the knee, but not so badly asto prevent him from standing. Moore advanced toward him, and the Indianthrew his tomahawk, but missed him. Moore sprung at him with his largebutcher-knife drawn, which the Indian caught by the blade and attemptedto wrest from the hand of his antagonist. Holding on with desperatetenacity to the knife, both clinched with their left hands. A scuffleensued, in which the Indian was thrown to the ground, his right handbeing nearly dissevered, and bleeding profusely. Moore, still holdingthe handle of his knife in the right hand, succeeded with the other indisengaging his own tomahawk from his belt, and ended the strife bysinking it in the skull of the Indian. Until this conflict was ended,the Indians fought with unyielding spirit. After its issue became known,they retreated."[002] "Our men pursued in a cautious manner, lest theymight be led into an ambuscade, hardly crediting their own senses thatso numerous a foe was completely routed. In this miracle of a battle wehad not a man killed, and only five wounded, who all recovered. But thewounded of the enemy died till the whole loss in killed amounted toupward of forty."[003]
As soon as this conflict was over, a horseman was sent off to Wataugawith tidings of the astonishing victory. "A great day's work in thewoods," was Sevier's remark when speaking subsequently of this battle.
Meanwhile, Oconostota, with his three hundred and fifty warriors, hadfollowed the trail along the Nolachucky, and on the morning of the 20thhad come upon the house of William Bean, the hospitable entertainer ofRobertson on his first visit to Watauga, Bean himself was at the fort,to which had fled all the women and children in the settlement, but hiswife had preferred to remain at home. She had many friends among theIndians, and she felt confident they would pass her without molestation.She was mistaken. They took her captive, and removed her to theirstation-camp on the Nolachucky. There a warrior pointed his rifle ather, as if to fire; but Oconostota threw up the barrel and began toquestion her as to the strength of the whites. She gave him misleadingreplies, with which he appeared satisfied, for he soon told her she wasnot to be killed, but taken to their towns to teach their women how tomanage a dairy.
Those at the fort knew that Oconostota was near by on the Nolachucky,but he had deferred the attack so long that they concluded the wary andcautious old chief was waiting to be reinforced by the body underDragging-Canoe, which had gone to attack Fort Patrick Henry. News hadreached them of Shelby's victory, and, as it would be some time beforethe broken Cherokees could rally and join Oconostota, they were in noapprehension of immediate danger. Accordingly, they went about theirusual vocations, and so it happened that a number of the women venturedoutside the fort as usual to milk the cows on the morning of the 21st ofJuly. Among them was one who was destined to occupy for many years theposition of the "first lady in Tennessee."
Her name was Catherine Sherrell, and she was the daughter of SamuelSherrell, one of the first settlers on the Watauga. In age she wasverging upon twenty, and she was tall, straight as an arrow, and litheas a hickory sapling. I know of no portrait of her in existence, buttradition describes her as having dark eyes, flexible nostrils, regularfeatures, a clear, transparent skin, a neck like a swan, and a wealth ofwavy brown hair, which was a wonder to look at and was in strikingcontrast to the whiteness of her complexion. A free life in the open airhad made her as supple as an eel and as agile as a deer. It was saidthat, encumbered by her womanly raiment, she had been known to place onehand upon a six-barred fence and clear it at a single bound. And now heragility was to do her essential service.
While she and the other women, unconscious of danger, were "coaxing thesnowy fluid from the yielding udders of the kine," suddenly thewar-whoop sounded through the woods, and a band of yelling savagesrushed out upon them. Quick as thought the women turned and darted forthe gate of the fort; but the savages were close upon them in aneck-and-neck race, and Kate, more remote than the rest, was cut offfrom the entrance. Seeing her danger, Sevier and a dozen others openedthe gate and were about to rush out upon the savages, hundreds of whomwere now in front of the fort; but Robertson held them back, saying theycould not rescue her, and to go out would insure their own destruction.At a glance Kate took in the situation. She could have no help from herfriends, and the tomahawk and scalping-knife were close behind her.Instantly she turned, and, fleeter than a deer, made for a point in thestockade some distance from the entrance. The palisades were eight feethigh, but with one bound she reached the top, and with another was overthe wall, falling into the arms of Sevier, who for the first time calledher his "bonnie Kate," his "brave girl for a foot-race." The other womenreached the entrance of the fort in safety.
Then the baffled savages opened fire, and for a full hour it rainedbullets upon the little e
nclosure. But the missiles fell harmless: not aman was wounded. Driven by the light charges the Indians were accustomedto use, the bullets simply bounded off from the thick logs and did nodamage. But it was not so with the fire of the besieged. The order was,"Wait till you see the whites of your enemies' eyes, and then make sureof your man." And so every one of those forty rifles did terribleexecution.
For twenty days the Indians hung about the fort, returning again andagain to the attack; but not a man who kept within the walls was evenwounded. It was not so with a man and a boy who, emboldened by a fewdays' absence of the Indians, ventured outside to go down to the river.The man was scalped on the spot; the boy was taken prisoner, andsubjected to a worse fate in one of the Indian villages. His name wasMoore, and he was a younger brother of the lieutenant who fought sobravely in the battle near Fort Patrick Henry.
At last, baffled and dispirited, the Indians fell back to the Tellico.They had lost about sixty killed and a larger number wounded, and theyhad inflicted next to no damage upon the white settlers. They wereenraged beyond bounds and thirsting for vengeance. Only two prisonerswere in their power; but on them they resolved to wreak their extremesttortures. Young Moore was taken to the village of his captor, high up inthe mountains, and there burned at a stake. A like fate was determinedupon for good Mrs. Bean, the kindly woman whose hospitable door had everbeen open to all, white man or Indian. Oconostota would not have herdie; but Dragging-Canoe insisted that she should be offered up as asacrifice to the _manes_ of his fallen warriors; and the head-king wasnot powerful enough to prevent it.
She was taken to the summit of one of the burial-mounds,--those relicsof a forgotten race which are so numerous along the banks of theTellico. She was tied to a stake, the fagots were heaped about her, andthe fire was about to be lighted, when suddenly Nancy Ward appearedamong the crowd of savages and ordered a stay of the execution.Dragging-Canoe was a powerful brave, but not powerful enough to combatthe will of this woman. Mrs. Bean was not only liberated, but sent backwith an honorable escort to her husband.
The village in which young Moore was executed was soon visited by Sevierwith a terrible retribution; and from that day for twenty years his namewas a terror among the Cherokees.
Before many months there was a wedding in the fort at Watauga. It wasthat of John Sevier and the "bonnie Kate," famous to this day forleaping stockades and six-barred fences. He lived to be twelve yearsgovernor of Tennessee and the idol of a whole people. She shared all hislove and all his honors; but in her highest estate she was never ashamedof her lowly days, and never tired of relating her desperate leap atWatauga; and, even in her old age, she would merrily add, "I would makeit again--every day in the week--for such a husband."
EDMUND KIRKE.
