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diff --git a/old/potsw10.txt b/old/potsw10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..57cf3ec --- /dev/null +++ b/old/potsw10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6865 @@ +*Gutenberg's Pioneers of the Old Southwest by Constance Skinner* + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.05.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by Doris Ringbloom + + + + + +Title: Pioneers of the Old Southwest, +A Chronicle of the Dark and Bloody Ground + +Author: Constance Lindsay Skinner + + + + +This Book, Volume 18 In The Chronicles Of America Series, Allen +Johnson, Editor, Was Donated To Project Gutenberg By The James J. +Kelly Library Of St. Gregory's University; Thanks To Alev Akman. + + + + +Acknowledgment + +This narrative is founded largely on original sources--on the +writings and journals of pioneers and contemporary observers, +such as Doddridge and Adair, and on the public documents of the +period as printed in the Colonial Records and in the American +Archives. But the author is, nevertheless, greatly indebted to +the researches of, other writers, whose works are cited in the +Bibliographical Note. The author's thanks are due, also, to Dr. +Archibald Henderson, of the University of North Carolina, for his +kindness in reading the proofs of this book for comparison with +his own extended collection of unpublished manuscripts relating +to the period. + +C. L. S. + +April, 1919. + + +CONTENTS + +I. THE TREAD OF PIONEERS +II. FOLKWAYS +III. THE TRADER +IV. THE PASSING OF THE FRENCH PERIL +V. BOONE, THE WANDERER +VI. THE FIGHT FOR KENTUCKY +VII. THE DARK AND BLOODY GROUND VIII. TENNESSEE +IX. KING'S MOUNTAIN +X. SEVIER, THE STATEMAKER +XI. BOONE'S LAST DAYS +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Pioneers Of The Old Southwest + +Chapter I. The Tread Of Pioneers + +The Ulster Presbyterians, or "Scotch-Irish," to whom history has +ascribed the dominant role among the pioneer folk of the Old +Southwest, began their migrations to America in the latter years +of the seventeenth century. It is not known with certainty +precisely when or where the first immigrants of their race +arrived in this country, but soon after 1680 they were to be +found in several of the colonies. It was not long, indeed, before +they were entering in numbers at the port of Philadelphia and +were making Pennsylvania the chief center of their activities in +the New World. By 1726 they had established settlements in +several counties behind Philadelphia. Ten years later they had +begun their great trek southward through the Shenandoah Valley of +Virginia and on to the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. There +they met others of their own race--bold men like themselves, +hungry after land--who were coming in through Charleston and +pushing their way up the rivers from the seacoast to the "Back +Country," in search of homes. + +These Ulstermen did not come to the New World as novices in the +shaping of society; they had already made history. Their +ostensible object in America was to obtain land, but, like most +external aims, it was secondary to a deeper purpose. What had +sent the Ulstermen to America was a passion for a whole freedom. +They were lusty men, shrewd and courageous, zealous to the death +for an ideal and withal so practical to the moment in business +that it soon came to be commonly reported of them that "they kept +the Sabbath and everything else they could lay their hands on," +though it is but fair to them to add that this phrase is current +wherever Scots dwell. They had contested in Parliament and with +arms for their own form of worship and for their civil rights. +They were already frontiersmen, trained in the hardihood and +craft of border warfare through years of guerrilla fighting with +the Irish Celts. They had pitted and proved their strength +against a wilderness; they had reclaimed the North of Ireland +from desolation. For the time, many of them were educated men; +under the regulations of the Presbyterian Church every child was +taught to read at an early age, since no person could be admitted +to the privileges of the Church who did not both understand and +approve the Presbyterian constitution and discipline. They were +brought up on the Bible and on the writings of their famous +pastors, one of whom, as early as 1650, had given utterance to +the democratic doctrine that "men are called to the +magistracy by the suffrage of the people whom they govern, and +for men to assume unto themselves power is mere tyranny and +unjust usurpation." In subscribing to this doctrine and in +resisting to the hilt all efforts of successive English kings to +interfere in the election of their pastors, the Scots of Ulster +had already declared for democracy. + +It was shortly after James VI of Scotland became James I of +England and while the English were founding Jamestown that the +Scots had first occupied Ulster; but the true origin of the +Ulster Plantation lies further back, in the reign of Henry VIII, +in the days of the English Reformation. In Henry's Irish realm +the Reformation, though proclaimed by royal authority, had never +been accomplished; and Henry's more famous daughter, Elizabeth, +had conceived the plan, later to be carried out by James, of +planting colonies of Protestants in Ireland to promote loyalty in +that rebellious land. Six counties, comprising half a million +acres, formed the Ulster Plantation. The great majority of the +colonists sent thither by James were Scotch Lowlanders, but among +them were many English and a smaller number of Highlanders. These +three peoples from the island of Britain brought forth, through +intermarriage, the Ulster Scots. + +The reign of Charles I had inaugurated for the Ulstermen an era +of persecution. Charles practically suppressed the Presbyterian +religion in Ireland. His son, Charles II, struck at Ireland in +1666 through its cattle trade, by prohibiting the exportation of +beef to England and Scotland. The Navigation Acts, excluding +Ireland from direct trade with the colonies, ruined Irish +commerce, while Corporation Acts and Test Acts requiring +conformity with the practices of the Church of England bore +heavily on the Ulster Presbyterians. + +It was largely by refugees from religious persecution that +America in the beginning was colonized. But religious persecution +was only one of the influences which shaped the course and formed +the character of the Ulster Scots. In Ulster, whither they had +originally been transplanted by James to found a loyal province +in the midst of the King's enemies, they had done their work too +well and had waxed too powerful for the comfort of later +monarchs. The first attacks upon them struck at their religion; +but the subsequent legislative acts which successively ruined the +woolen trade, barred nonconformists from public office, stifled +Irish commerce, pronounced non-Episcopal marriages irregular, and +instituted heavy taxation and high rentals for the land their +fathers had made productive--these were blows dealt chiefly for +the political and commercial ends of favored classes in England. + +These attacks, aimed through his religious conscience at the +sources of his livelihood, made the Ulster Scot perforce what he +was--a zealot as a citizen and a zealot as a merchant no less +than as a Presbyterian. Thanks to his persecutors, he made a +religion of everything he undertook and regarded his civil rights +as divine rights. Thus out of persecution emerged a type of man +who was high-principled and narrow, strong and violent, as +tenacious of his own rights as he was blind often to the rights +of others, acquisitive yet self-sacrificing, but most of all +fearless, confident of his own power, determined to have and to +hold. + +Twenty thousand Ulstermen, it is estimated, left Ireland for +America in the first three decades of the eighteenth century. +More than six thousand of them are known to have entered +Pennsylvania in 1729 alone, and twenty years later they numbered +one-quarter of that colony's population. During the five years +preceding the Revolutionary War more than thirty thousand +Ulstermen crossed the ocean and arrived in America just in time +and in just the right frame of mind to return King George's +compliment in kind, by helping to deprive him of his American +estates, a domain very much larger than the acres of Ulster. They +fully justified the fears of the good bishop who wrote Lord +Dartmouth, Secretary for the Colonies, that he trembled for the +peace of the King's overseas realm, since these thousands of +"phanatical and hungry Republicans" had sailed for America. + +The Ulstermen who entered by Charleston were known to the +inhabitants of the tidewater regions as the "Scotch-Irish." Those +who came from the north, lured southward by the offer of cheap +lands, were called the "Pennsylvania Irish." Both were, however, +of the same race--a race twice expatriated, first from Scotland +and then from Ireland, and stripped of all that it had won +throughout more than a century of persecution. To these exiles +the Back Country of North Carolina, with its cheap and even free +tracts lying far from the seat of government, must have seemed +not only the Land of Promise but the Land of Last Chance. Here +they must strike their roots into the sod with such interlocking +strength that no cataclysm of tyranny should ever dislodge +them--or they must accept the fate dealt out to them by their +former persecutors and become a tribe of nomads and serfs. But to +these Ulster immigrants such a choice was no choice at all. They +knew themselves strong men, who had made the most of opportunity +despite almost superhuman obstacles. The drumming of their feet +along the banks of the Shenandoah, or up the rivers from +Charleston, and on through the broad sweep of the Yadkin Valley, +was a conquering people's challenge to the Wilderness which lay +sleeping like an unready sentinel at the gates of their Future. + +It is maintained still by many, however often disputed, that the +Ulstermen were the first to declare for American Independence, as +in the Old Country they were the first to demand the separation +of Church and State. A Declaration of Independence is said to +have been drawn up and signed in Mecklenburg County, North +Carolina, on May 20, 1775.* However that maybe, it is certain +that these Mecklenburg Protestants had received special schooling +in the doctrine of independence. They had in their midst for +eight years (1758-66) the Reverend Alexander Craighead, a +Presbyterian minister who, for his "republican doctrines" +expressed in a pamphlet, had been disowned by the Pennsylvania +Synod acting on the Governor's protest, and so persecuted in +Virginia that he had at last fled to the North Carolina Back +Country. There, during the remaining years of his life, as the +sole preacher and teacher in the settlements between the Yadkin +and the Catawba rivers he found willing soil in which to sow the +seeds of Liberty. + +* See Hoyt, "The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence"; and +"American Archives," Fourth Series. vol. II, p. 855. + + +There was another branch of the Scottish race which helped to +people the Back Country. The Highlanders, whose loyalty to their +oath made them fight on the King's side in the Revolutionary War, +have been somewhat overlooked in history. Tradition, handed down +among the transplanted clans--who, for the most part, spoke only +Gaelic for a generation and wrote nothing--and latterly recorded +by one or two of their descendants, supplies us with all we are +now able to learn of the early coming of the Gaels to Carolina. +It would seem that their first immigration to America in small +bands took place after the suppression of the Jacobite rising in +1715--when Highlanders fled in numbers also to France--for by +1729 there was a settlement of them on the Cape Fear River. We +know, too, that in 1748 it was charged against Gabriel Johnston, +Governor of North Carolina from 1734 to 1752, that he had shown +no joy over the King's "glorious victory of Culloden" and that +"he had appointed one William McGregor, who had been in the +Rebellion in the year 1715 a Justice of the Peace during the last +Rebellion [1745] and was not himself without suspicion of +disaffection to His Majesty's Government." It is indeed possible +that Gabriel Johnston, formerly a professor at St. Andrew's +University, had himself not always been a stranger to the kilt. +He induced large numbers of highlanders to come to America and +probably influenced the second George to moderate his treatment +of the vanquished Gaels in the Old Country and permit their +emigration to the New World. + +In contrast with the Ulstermen, whose secular ideals were +dictated by the forms of their Church, these Scots adhered still +to the tribal or clan system, although they, too, in the +majority, were Presbyterians, with a minority of Roman +Catholics and Episcopalians. In the Scotch Highlands they had +occupied small holdings on the land under the sway of their +chief, or Head of the Clan, to whom they were bound by blood and +fealty but to whom they paid no rentals. The position of the Head +of the Clan was hereditary, but no heir was bold enough to step +forward into that position until he had performed some deed of +worth. They were principally herders, their chief stock being the +famous small black cattle of the Highlands. Their wars with each +other were cattle raids. Only in war, however, did the Gael lay +hands on his neighbor's goods. There were no highwaymen and +housebreakers in the Highlands. No Highland mansion, cot, or barn +was ever locked. Theft and the breaking of an oath, sins against +man's honor, were held in such abhorrence that no one guilty of +them could remain among his clansmen in the beloved glens. These +Highlanders were a race of tall, robust men, who lived simply and +frugally and slept on the heath among their flocks in all +weathers, with no other covering from rain and snow than their +plaidies. It is reported of the Laird of Keppoch, who was leading +his clan to war in winter time, that his men were divided as to +the propriety of following him further because he rolled a +snowball to rest his head upon when he lay down. "Now we despair +of victory," they said, "since our leader has become go +effeminate he cannot sleep without a pillow!"* + +* MacLean, "An Historical Account of the Settlement of Scotch +High.landers in America." + + +The "King's glorious victory of Culloden" was followed by a +policy of extermination carried on by the orders and under the +personal direction of the Duke of Cumberland. When King George at +last restrained his son from his orgy of blood, he offered the +Gaels their lives and exile to America on condition of their +taking the full oath of allegiance. The majority accepted his +terms, for not only were their lives forfeit but their crops and +cattle had been destroyed and the holdings on which their +ancestors had lived for many centuries taken from them. The +descriptions of the scenes attending their leave-taking of the +hills and glens they loved with such passionate fervor are among +the most pathetic in history. Strong men who had met the ravage +of a brutal sword without weakening abandoned themselves to the +agony of sorrow. They kissed the walls of their houses. They +flung themselves on the ground and embraced the sod upon which +they had walked in freedom. They called their broken farewells to +the peaks and lochs of the land they were never again to see; +and, as they turned their backs and filed down through the +passes, their pipers played the dirge for the dead. + +Such was the character, such the deep feeling, of the race which +entered North Carolina from the coast and pushed up into the +wilderness about the headwaters of Cape Fear River. Tradition +indicates that these hillsmen sought the interior because the +grass and pea vine which overgrew the innercountry stretching +towards the mountains provided excellent fodder for the cattle +which some of the chiefs are said to have brought with them. +These Gaelic herders, perhaps in negligible numbers, were in the +Yadkin Valley before 1730, possibly even ten years earlier. In +1739 Neil MacNeill of Kintyre brought over a shipload of Gaels to +rejoin his kinsman, Hector MacNeill, called Bluff Hector from his +residence near the bluffs at Cross Creek, now Fayetteville. Some +of these immigrants went on to the Yadkin, we are told, to unite +with others of their clan who had been for some time in that +district. The exact time of the first Highlander on the Yadkin +cannot be ascertained, as there were no court records and the +offices of the land companies were not then open for the sale of +these remote regions. But by 1753 there were not less than four +thousand Gaels in Cumberland County, where they occupied the +chief magisterial posts; and they were already spreading over the +lands now comprised within Moore, Anson, Richmond, Robeson, +Bladen, and Sampson counties. In these counties Gaelic was as +commonly heard as English. + +In the years immediately preceding the Revolution and even in +1776 itself they came in increasing numbers. They knew nothing of +the smoldering fire just about to break into flames in the +country of their choice, but the Royal Governor, Josiah Martin, +knew that Highland arms would soon be ceded by His Majesty. He +knew something of Highland honor, too; for he would not let the +Gaels proceed after their landing until they had bound themselves +by oath to support the Government of King George. So it was that +the unfortunate Highlanders found themselves, according too their +strict code of honor, forced to wield arms against the very +Americans who had received and befriended them--and for the +crowned brother of a prince whose name is execrated to this day +in Highland song and story! + +They were led by Allan MacDonald of Kingsborough; and tradition +gives us a stirring picture of Allan's wife--the famous Flora +MacDonald, who in Scotland had protected the Young Pretender in +his flight--making an impassioned address in Gaelic to the +Highland soldiers and urging them on to die for honor's sake. +When this Highland force was conquered by the Americans, the +large majority willingly bound themselves not to fight further +against the American cause and were set at liberty. Many of them +felt that, by offering their lives to the swords of the +Americans, they had canceled their obligation to King George and +were now free to draw their swords again and, this time, in +accordance with their sympathies; so they went over to the +American side and fought gallantly for independence. + + +Although the brave glory of this pioneer age shines so brightly +on the Lion Rampant of Caledonia, not to Scots alone does that +whole glory belong. The second largest racial stream which flowed +into the Back Country of Virginia and North Carolina was German. +Most of these Germans went down from Pennsylvania and were +generally called "Pennsylvania Dutch," an incorrect rendering of +Pennsylvanische Deutsche. The upper Shenandoah Valley was settled +almost entirely by Germans. They were members of the Lutheran, +German Reformed, and Moravian churches. The cause which sent vast +numbers of this sturdy people across the ocean, during the first +years of the eighteenth century, was religious persecution. By +statute and by word the Roman Catholic powers of Austria sought +to wipe out the Salzburg Lutherans and the Moravian followers of +John Huss. In that region of the Rhine country known in those +days as the German Palatinate, now a part of Bavaria, Protestants +were being massacred by the troops of Louis of France, then +engaged in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-13) and in the +zealous effort to extirpate heretics from the soil of Europe. In +1708, by proclamation, Good Queen Anne offered protection to the +persecuted Palatines and invited them to her dominions. Twelve +thousand of them went to England, where they were warmly received +by the English. But it was no slight task to settle twelve +thousand immigrants of an alien speech in England and enable them +to become independent and self-supporting. A better solution of +their problem lay in the Western World: The Germans needed homes +and the Queen's overseas dominions needed colonists. They were +settled at first along the Hudson, and eventually many of them +took up lands in the fertile valley of the Mohawk. + +For fifty years or more German and Austrian Protestants poured +into America. In Pennsylvania their influx averaged about fifteen +hundred a year, and that colony became the distributing center +for the German race in America. By 1727, Adam Muller and his +little company had established the first white settlement in the +Valley of Virginia. In 1732 Joist Heydt went south from York, +Pennsylvania, and settled on the Opequan Creek at or near the +site of the present city of Winchester. + +The life of Count Zinzendorf, called "the Apostle," one of the +leaders of the Moravian immigrants, glows like a star out of +those dark and troublous times. Of high birth and gentle nurture, +he forsook whatever of ease his station promised him and fitted +himsclf for evangelical work. In 1741 he visited the Wyoming +Valley to bring his religion to the Delawares and Shawanoes. He +was not of those picturesque Captains of the Lord who bore their +muskets on their shoulders when they went forth to preach. +Armored only with the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, +and the sword of the spirit, his feet "shod with the preparation +of the gospel of peace," he went out into the country of these +bloodthirsty tribes and told them that he had come to them in +their darkness to teach the love of the Christ which lighteth the +world. The Indians received him suspiciously. One day while he +sat in his tent writing, some Delawares drew near to slay him and +were about to strike when they saw two deadly snakes crawl in +from the opposite side of the tent, move directly towards the +Apostle, and pass harmlessly over his body. Thereafter they +regarded him as under spiritual protection. Indeed so widespread +was his good fame among the tribes that for some years all +Moravian settlements along the borders were unmolested. Painted +savages passed through on their way to war with enemy bands or to +raid the border, but for the sake of one consecrated spirit, whom +they had seen death avoid, they spared the lives and goods of his +fellow believers. When Zinzendorf departed a year later, his +mantle fell on David Zeisberger, who lived the love he taught +for over fifty years and converted many savages. Zeisberger was +taken before the Governor and army heads at Philadelphia, who had +only too good reason to be suspicious of priestly counsels in the +tents of Shem: but he was able to impress white men no less than +simple savages with the nobility of the doctrine he had learned +from the Apostle. + +In 1751 the Moravian Brotherhood purchased one hundred thousand +acres in North Carolina from Lord Granville. Bishop Spangenburg +was commissioned to survey this large acreage, which was situated +in the present county of Forsyth east of the Yadkin, and which is +historically listed as the Wachovia Tract. In 1753, twelve +Brethren left the Moravian settlements of Bethlehem and Nazareth, +in Pennsylvania, and journeyed southward to begin the founding of +a colony on their new land. Brother Adam Grube, one of the +twelve, kept a diary of the events of this expedition.* + +* This diary is printed in full in "Travels in the American +Colonies." edited by N. D. Mereness. + + +Honor to whom honor is due. We have paid it, in some measure, to +the primitive Gaels of the Highlands for their warrior strength +and their fealty, and to the enlightened Scots of Ulster for +their enterprise and for their sacrifice unto blood that free +conscience and just laws might promote the progress and safeguard +the intercourse of their kind. Now let us take up for a moment +Brother Grube's "Journal" even as we welcome, perhaps the more +gratefully, the mild light of evening after the flooding sun, or +as our hearts, when too strongly stirred by the deeds of men, +turn for rest to the serene faith and the naive speech of little +children. + +The twelve, we learn, were under the leadership of one of their +number, Brother Gottlob. Their earliest alarms on the march were +not caused, as we might expect, by anticipations of the painted +Cherokee, but by encounters with the strenuous "Irish." One of +these came and laid himself to sleep beside the Brethren's camp +fire on their first night out, after they had sung their evening +hymn and eleven had stretched themselves on the earth for +slumber, while Brother Gottlob, their leader, hanging his hammock +between two trees, ascended--not only in spirit--a little higher +than his charges, and "rested well in it." Though the alarming +Irishman did not disturb them, the Brethren's doubts of that race +continued, for Brother Grube wrote on the 14th of October: "About +four in the morning we set up our tent, going four miles beyond +Carl Isles [Carlisle, seventeen miles southwest of Harrisburg] so +as not to be too near the Irish Presbyterians. After breakfast +the Brethren shaved and then we rested under our tent.... +People who were staying at the Tavern came to see what kind of +folk we were.... Br Gottlob held the evening service and then +we lay down around our cheerful fire, and Br Gottlob in his +hammock." Two other jottings give us a racial kaleidoscope of the +settlers and wayfarers of that time. On one day the Brethren +bought "some hay from a Swiss," later "some kraut from a German +which tasted very good to us"; and presently "an Englishman came +by and drank a cup of tea with us and was very grateful for it." +Frequently the little band paused while some of the Brethren went +off to the farms along the route to help "cut hay." These kindly +acts were usually repaid with gifts of food or produce. + +One day while on the march they halted at a tavern and farm in +Shenandoah Valley kept by a man whose name Brother Grube wrote +down as "Severe." Since we know that Brother Grube's spelling of +names other than German requires editing, we venture to hazard a +guess that the name he attempted to set down as it sounded to him +was Sevier. And we wonder if, in his brief sojourn, he saw a lad +of eight years, slim, tall, and blond, with daring and +mischievous blue eyes, and a certain, curve of the lips that +threatened havoc in the hearts of both sexes when he should be a +man and reach out with swift hands and reckless will for his +desires. If he saw this lad, he beheld John Sevier, later to +become one of the most picturesque and beloved heroes of the Old +Southwest. + +Hardships abounded on the Brethren's journey, but faith and the +Christian's joy, which no man taketh from him, met and surmounted +them. "Three and a half miles beyond, the road forked.... We +took the right hand road but found no water for ten miles. It +grew late and we had to drive five miles into the night to find a +stoppingplace." Two of the Brethren went ahead "to seek out the +road" through the darkened wilderness. There were rough hills in +the way; and, the horses being exhausted, "Brethren had to help +push." But, in due season, "Br Nathanael held evening prayer and +then we slept in the care of Jesus," with Brother Gottlob as +usual in his hammock. Three days later the record runs: "Toward +evening we saw Jeams River, the road to it ran down so very steep +a hill that we fastened a small tree to the back of our wagon, +locked the wheels, and the Brethren held back by the tree with +all their might." Even then the wagon went down so fast that most +of the Brethren lost their footing and rolled and tumbled +pell-mell. But Faith makes little of such mishaps: "No harm was +done and we thanked the Lord that he had so graciously protected +us, for it looked dangerous and we thought at times that it could +not possibly be done without accident but we got down safely... +we were all very tired and sleepy and let the angels be our +guard during the night." Rains fell in torrents, making streams +almost impassable and drenching the little band to the skin. The +hammock was empty one night, for they had to spend the dark hours +trench-digging about their tent to keep it from being washed +away. Two days later (the 10th of November) the weather cleared +and "we spent most of the day drying our blankets and mending and +darning our stockings." They also bought supplies from settlers +who, as Brother Grube observed without irony, + +"are glad we have to remain here so long and that it means money +for them. In the afternoon we held a little Lovefeast and rested +our souls in the loving sacrifice of Jesus, wishing for beloved +Brethren in Bethlehem and that they and we might live ever close +to Him.... Nov. 16. We rose early to ford the river. The bank +was so steep that we hung a tree behind the wagon, fastening it +in such a way that we could quickly release it when the wagon +reached the water. The current was very swift and the lead horses +were carried down a bit with it. The water just missed running +into the wagon but we came safely to the other bank, which +however we could not climb but had to take half the things out of +the wagon, tie ropes to the axle on which we could pull, help our +horses which were quite stiff, and so we brought our ark again to +dry land." + +On the evening of the 17th of November the twelve arrived safely +on their land on the "Etkin" (Yadkin), having been six weeks on +the march. They found with joy that, as ever, the Lord had +provided for them. This time the gift was a deserted cabin, +"large enough that we could all lie down around the walls. We at +once made preparation for a little Lovefeast and rejoiced +heartily with one another." + +In the deserted log cabin, which, to their faith, seemed as one +of those mansions "not built with hands" and descended +miraculously from the heavens, they held their Lovefeast, while +wolves padded and howled about the walls; and in that Pentacostal +hour the tongue of fire descended upon Brother Gottlob, so that +he made a new song unto the Lord. Who shall venture to say it is +not better worth preserving than many a classic? + +We hold arrival Lovefeast here + In Carolina land, +A company of Brethren true, + A little Pilgrim-Band, +Called by the Lord to be of those + Who through the whole world go, +To bear Him witness everywhere + And nought but Jesus know. + +Then, we are told, the Brethren lay down to rest and "Br Gottlob +hung his hammock above our heads"--as was most fitting on this of +all nights; for is not the Poet's place always just a little +nearer to the stars? + +The pioneers did not always travel in groups. There were families +who set off alone. One of these now claims our attention, for +there was a lad in this family whose name and deeds were to sound +like a ballad of romance from out the dusty pages of history. +This family's name was Boone. + +Neither Scots nor Germans can claim Daniel Boone; he was in blood +a blend of English and Welsh; in character wholly English. His +grandfather George Boone was born in 1666 in the hamlet of Stoak, +near Exeter in Devonshire. George Boone was a weaver by trade and +a Quaker by religion. In England in his time the Quakers were +oppressed, and George Boone therefore sought information of +William Penn, his co-religionist, regarding the colony which Penn +had established in America. In 1712 he sent his three elder +children, George, Sarah, and Squire, to spy out the land. Sarah +and Squire remained in Pennsylvania, while their brother returned +to England with glowing reports. On August 17, 1717, George +Boone, his wife, and the rest of his children journeyed to +Bristol and sailed for Philadelphia, arriving there on the 10th +of October. The Boones went first to Abingdon, the Quaker +farmers' community. Later they moved to the northwestern frontier +hamlet of North Wales, a Welsh community which, a few years +previously, had turned Quaker. Sarah Boone married a German named +Jacob Stover, who had settled in Oley Township, Berks County. In +1718 George Boone took up four hundred acres in Oley, or, to be +exact, in the subdivision later called Exeter, and there he lived +in his log cabin until 1744, when he died at the age of +seventy-eight. He left eight children, fifty-two grandchildren, +and ten greatgrandchildren, seventy descendants in all--English, +German, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish blended into one family of +Americans.* + +* R. G. Thwaites, "Daniel Boone", p. 5. + + +Among the Welsh Quakers was a family of Morgans. In 1720 Squire +Boone married Sarah Morgan. Ten years later he obtained 250 acres +in Oley on Owatin Creek, eight miles southeast of the present +city of Reading; and here, in 1734, Daniel Boone was born, the +fourth son and sixth child of Squire and Sarah Morgan Boone. +Daniel Boone therefore was a son of the frontier. In his +childhood he became familiar with hunters and with Indians, for +even the red men came often in friendly fashion to his +grandfather's house. Squire Boone enlarged his farm by thrift. He +continued at his trade of weaving and kept five or six looms +going, making homespun cloth for the market and his neighbors. + +Daniel's father owned grazing grounds several miles north of the +homestead and each season he sent his stock to the range. Sarah +Boone and her little Daniel drove the cows. From early spring +till late autumn, mother and son lived in a rustic cabin alone on +the frontier. A rude dairy house stood over a cool spring, and +here Sarah Boone made her butter and cheese. Daniel, aged ten at +this time, watched the herds; at sunset he drove them to the +cabin for milking, and locked them in the cowpens at night. + +He was not allowed firearms at that age, so he shaped for himself +a weapon that served him well. This was a slender smoothly shaved +sapling with a small bunch of gnarled roots at one end. So expert +was he in the launching of this primitive spear that he easily +brought down birds and small game. When he reached his twelfth +year, his father bought him a rifle; and he soon became a crack +shot. A year later we find him setting off on the autumn +hunt--after driving the cattle in for the winter-with all the +keenness and courage of a man twice his thirteen years. His rifle +enabled him to return with meat for the family and skins to be +traded in Philadelphia. When he was fourteen his brother Sam +married Sarah Day, an intelligent young Quakeress who took a +special interest in her young brother-in-law and taught him "the +rudiments of three R's." + +The Boones were prosperous and happy in Oley and it may be +wondered why they left their farms and their looms, both of which +were profitable, and set their faces towards the Unknown. It is +recorded that, though the Boones were Quakers, they were of a +high mettle and were not infrequently dealt with by the Meeting. +Two of Squire Boone's children married "worldlings"--non- +Quakers--and were in consequence "disowned" by the Society. In +defiance of his sect, which strove to make him sever all +connection with his unruly offspring, Squire Boone refused to +shut his doors on the son and the daughter who had scandalized +local Quakerdom. The Society of Friends thereupon expelled him. +This occurred apparently during the winter of 1748-49. In the +spring of 1750 we see the whole Boone family (save two sons) with +their wives and children, their household goods and their stock, +on the great highway, bound for a land where the hot heart and +the belligerent spirit shall not be held amiss. + +Southward through the Shenandoah goes the Boone caravan. The +women and children usually sit in the wagons. The men march ahead +or alongside, keeping a keen eye open for Indian or other enemy +in the wild, their rifles under arm or over the shoulder. Squire +Boone, who has done with Quakerdom and is leading all that he +holds dear out to larger horizons, is ahead of the line, as we +picture him, ready to meet first whatever danger may assail his +tribe. He is a strong wiry man of rather small stature, with +ruddy complexion, red hair, and gray eyes. Somewhere in the line, +together, we think, are the mother and son who have herded cattle +and companioned each other through long months in the cabin on +the frontier. We do not think of this woman as riding in the +wagon, though she may have done so, but prefer to picture her, +with her tall robust body, her black hair, and her black +eyes--with the sudden Welsh snap in them--walking as sturdily as +any of her sons. + +If Daniel be beside her, what does she see when she looks at him? +A lad well set up but not overtall for his sixteen years, +perhaps--for "eye-witnesses" differ in their estimates of Daniel +Boone's height--or possibly taller than he looks, because his +figure has the forest hunter's natural slant forward and the +droop of the neck of one who must watch his path sometimes in +order to tread silently. It is Squire Boone's blood which shows +in his ruddy face--which would be fair but for its tan--and in +the English cut of feature, the straw-colored eyebrows, and the +blue eyes. But his Welsh mother's legacy is seen in the black +hair that hangs long and loose in the hunter's fashion to his +shoulders. We can think of Daniel Boone only as exhilarated by +this plunge into the Wild. He sees ahead--the days of his great +explorations and warfare, the discovery of Kentucky? Not at all. +This is a boy of sixteen in love with his rifle. He looks ahead +to vistas of forest filled with deer and to skies clouded with +flocks of wild turkeys. In that dream there is happiness enough +for Daniel Boone. Indeed, for himself, even in later life, he +asked little, if any, more. He trudges on blithely, whistling. + + + +Chapter II. Folkways + +These migrations into the inland valleys of the Old South mark +the first great westward thrust of the American frontier. Thus +the beginnings of the westward movement disclose to us a feature +characteristic also of the later migrations which flung the +frontier over the Appalachians, across the Mississippi, and +finally to the shores of the Pacific. The pioneers, instead of +moving westward by slow degrees, subduing the wilderness as they +went, overleaped great spaces and planted themselves beyond, out +of contact with the life they had left behind. Thus separated by +hundreds of miles of intervening wilderness from the more +civilized communities, the conquerors of the first American +"West," prototypes of the conquerors of succeeding "Wests," +inevitably struck out their own ways of life and developed their +own customs. It would be difficult, indeed, to find anywhere a +more remarkable contrast in contemporary folkways than that +presented by the two great community groups of the South--the +inland or piedmont settlements, called the Back Country, and the +lowland towns and plantations along the seaboard. + +The older society of the seaboard towns, as events were soon to +prove, was not less independent in its ideals than the frontier +society of the Back Country; but it was aristocratic in tone and +feeling. Its leaders were the landed gentry--men of elegance, and +not far behind their European contemporaries in the culture of +the day. They were rich, without effort, both from their +plantations, where black slaves and indentured servants labored, +and from their coastwise and overseas trade. Their battles with +forest and red man were long past. They had leisure for +diversions such as the chase, the breeding and racing of +thoroughbred horses, the dance, high play with dice and card, +cockfighting, the gallantry of love, and the skill of the rapier. +Law and politics drew their soberer minds. + +Very different were the conditions which confronted the pioneers +in the first American "West." There every jewel of promise was +ringed round with hostility. The cheap land the pioneer had +purchased at a nominal price, or the free land he had taken by +"tomahawk claim"--that is by cutting his name into the bark of a +deadened tree, usually beside a spring--supported a forest of +tall trunks and interlacing leafage. The long grass and weeds +which covered the ground in a wealth of natural pasturage +harbored the poisonous copperhead and the rattlesnake and, being +shaded by the overhead foliage, they held the heavy dews and bred +swarms of mosquitoes, gnats, and big flies which tortured both +men and cattle. To protect the cattle and horses from the attacks +of these pests the settlers were obliged to build large +"smudges"--fires of green timber--against the wind. The animals +soon learned to back up into the dense smoke and to move from one +grazing spot to another as the wind changed. But useful as were +the green timber fires that rolled their smoke on the wind to +save the stock, they were at the same time a menace to the +pioneer, for they proclaimed to roving bands of Cherokees that a +further encroachment on their territory had been made by their +most hated enemies--the men who felled the hunter's forest. Many +an outpost pioneer who had made the long hard journey by sea and +land from the old world of persecution to this new country of +freedom, dropped from the red man's shot ere he had hewn the +threshold of his home, leaving his wife and children to the +unrecorded mercy of his slayer. + +Those more fortunate pioneers who settled in groups won the first +heat in the battle with the wilderness through massed effort +under wariness. They made their clearings in the forest, built +their cabins and stockades, and planted their cornfields, while +lookouts kept watch and rifles were stacked within easy reach. +Every special task, such as a "raising," as cabin building was +called, was undertaken by the community chiefly because the +Indian danger necessitated swift building and made group action +imperative. But the stanch heart is ever the glad heart. Nothing +in this frontier history impresses us more than the joy of the +pioneer at his labors. His determined optimism turned danger's +dictation into an occasion for jollity. On the appointed day for +the "raising," the neighbors would come, riding or afoot, to the +newcomer's holding--the men with their rifles and axes, the women +with their pots and kettles. Every child toddled along, too, +helping to carry the wooden dishes and spoons. These free givers +of labor had something of the Oriental's notion of the sacred +ratification of friendship by a feast. + +The usual dimensions of a cabin were sixteen by twenty feet. The +timber for the building, having been already cut, lay at +hand--logs of hickory, oak, young pine, walnut, or persimmon. To +make the foundations, the men seized four of the thickest logs, +laid them in place, and notched and grooved and hammered them +into as close a clinch as if they had grown so. The wood must +grip by its own substance alone to hold up the pioneer's +dwelling, for there was not an iron nail to be had in the whole +of the Back Country. Logs laid upon the foundation logs and +notched into each other at the four corners formed the walls; +and, when these stood at seven feet, the builders laid parallel +timbers and puncheons to make both flooring and ceiling. The +ridgepole of the roof was supported by two crotched trees and the +roofing was made of logs and wooden slabs. The crevices of the +walls were packed close with red clay and moss. Lastly, spaces +for a door and windows were cut out. The door was made thick and +heavy to withstand the Indian's rush. And the windowpanes? They +were of paper treated with hog's fat or bear's grease. + +When the sun stood overhead, the women would give the welcome +call of "Dinner!" Their morning had not been less busy than the +men's. They had baked corn cakes on hot stones, roasted bear or +pork, or broiled venison steaks; and--above all and first of all +--they had concocted the great "stew pie" without which a raising +could hardly take place. This was a disputatious mixture of deer, +hog, and bear--animals which, in life, would surely have +companioned each other as ill! It was made in sufficient quantity +to last over for supper when the day's labor was done. At supper +the men took their ease on the ground, but with their rifles +always in reach. If the cabin just raised by their efforts stood +in the Yadkin, within sight of the great mountains the pioneers +were one day to cross, perhaps a sudden bird note warning from +the lookout, hidden in the brush, would bring the builders with a +leap to their feet. It might be only a hunting band of friendly +Catawbas that passed, or a lone Cherokee who knew that this was +not his hour. If the latter, we can, in imagination, see him look +once at the new house on his hunting pasture, slacken rein for a +moment in front of the group of families, lift his hand in sign +of peace, and silently go his way hillward. As he vanishes into +the shadows, the crimson sun, sinking into the unknown wilderness +beyond the mountains, pours its last glow on the roof of the +cabin and on the group near its walls. With unfelt fingers, +subtly, it puts the red touch of the West in the faces of the +men--who have just declared, through the building of a cabin, +that here is Journey's End and their abiding place. + + +There were community holidays among these pioneers as well as +labor days, especially in the fruit season; and there were +flower-picking excursions in the warm spring days. Early in April +the service berry bush gleamed starrily along the watercourses, +its hardy white blooms defying winter's lingering look. This +bush--or tree, indeed, since it is not afraid to rear its +slender trunk as high as cherry or crab apple--might well be +considered emblematic of the frontier spirit in those regions +where the white silence covers the earth for several months and +shuts the lonely homesteader in upon himself. From the pioneer +time of the Old Southwest to the last frontier of the Far North +today, the service berry is cherished alike by white men and +Indians; and the red men have woven about it some of their +prettiest legends. When June had ripened the tree's blue-black +berries, the Back Country folk went out in parties to gather +them. Though the service berry was a food staple on the frontier +and its gathering a matter of household economy, the folk made +their berry-picking jaunt a gala occasion. The women and children +with pots and baskets--the young girls vying with each other, +under the eyes of the youths, as to who could strip boughs the +fastest--plucked gayly while the men, rifles in hand, kept guard. +For these happy summer days were also the red man's scalping days +and, at any moment, the chatter of the picnickers might be +interrupted by the chilling war whoop. When that sound was heard, +the berry pickers raced for the fort. The wild +fruits--strawberries, service berries, cherries, plums, crab +apples--were, however, too necessary a part of the pioneer's +meager diet to be left unplucked out of fear of an Indian attack. +Another day would see the same group out again. The children +would keep closer to their mothers, no doubt; and the laughter of +the young girls would be more subdued, even if their coquetry +lacked nothing of its former effectiveness. Early marriages were +the rule in the Back Country and betrothals were frequently +plighted at these berry pickings. + +As we consider the descriptions of the frontiersman left for us +by travelers of his own day, we are not more interested in his +battles with wilderness and Indian than in the visible effects of +both wilderness and Indian upon him. His countenance and bearing +still show the European, but the European greatly altered by +savage contact. The red peril, indeed, influenced every side of +frontier life. The bands of women and children at the +harvestings, the log rollings, and the house raisings, were not +there merely to lighten the men's work by their laughter and +love-making. It was not safe for them to remain in the cabins, +for, to the Indian, the cabin thus boldly thrust upon his +immemorial hunting grounds was only a secondary evil; the greater +evil was the white man's family, bespeaking the increase of the +dreaded palefaces. The Indian peril trained the pioneers to +alertness, shaped them as warriors and hunters, suggested the +fashion of their dress, knit their families into clans and the +clans into a tribe wherein all were of one spirit in the +protection of each and all and a unit of hate against their +common enemy. + +Too often the fields which the pioneer planted with corn were +harvested by the Indian with fire. The hardest privations +suffered by farmers and stock were due to the settlers having to +flee to the forts, leaving to Indian devastation the crops on +which their sustenance mainly, depended. Sometimes, fortunately, +the warning came in time for the frontiersman to collect his +goods and chattels in his wagon and to round up his live stock +and drive them safely into the common fortified enclosure. At +others, the tap of the "express"--as the herald of Indian danger +was called--at night on the windowpane and the low word whispered +hastily, ere the "express" ran on to the next abode, meant that +the Indians had surprised the outlying cabins of the settlement. + +The forts were built as centrally as possible in the scattered +settlements. They consisted of cabins, blockhouses, and +stockades. A range of cabins often formed one side of a fort. The +walls on the outside were ten or twelve feet high with roofs +sloping inward. The blockhouses built at the angles of the fort +projected two feet or so beyond the outer walls of the cabins and +stockades, and were fitted with portholes for the watchers and +the marksmen. The entrance to the fort was a large folding gate +of thick slabs. It was always on the side nearest the spring. The +whole structure of the fort was bullet-proof and was erected +without an iron nail or spike. In the border wars these forts +withstood all attacks. The savages, having proved that they could +not storm them, generally laid siege and waited for thirst to +compel a sortie. But the crafty besieger was as often outwitted +by the equally cunning defender. Some daring soul, with silent +feet and perhaps with naked body painted in Indian fashion, would +drop from the wall under cover of the night, pass among the +foemen to the spring, and return to the fort with water. + +Into the pioneer's phrase-making the Indian influence penetrated +so that he named seasons for his foe. So thoroughly has the term +"Indian Summer," now to us redolent of charm, become +disassociated from its origins that it gives us a shock to be +reminded that to these Back Country folk the balmy days following +on the cold snap meant the season when the red men would come +back for a last murderous raid on the settlements before winter +should seal up the land. The "Powwowing Days" were the mellow +days in the latter part of February, when the red men in council +made their medicine and learned of their redder gods whether or +no they should take the warpath when the sap pulsed the trees +into leaf. Even the children at their play acknowledged the +red-skinned schoolmaster, for their chief games were a training +in his woodcraft and in the use of his weapons. Tomahawk-throwing +was a favorite sport because of its gruesome practical purposes. +The boys must learn to gauge the tomahawk's revolutions by the +distance of the throw so as to bury the blade in its objective. +Swift running and high jumping through the brush and fallen +timber were sports that taught agility in escape. The boys +learned to shoot accurately the long rifles of their time, with a +log or a forked stick for a rest, and a moss pad under the barrel +to keep it from jerking and spoiling the aim. They wrestled with +each other, mastered the tricks of throwing an opponent, and +learned the scalp hold instead of the toe hold. It was part of +their education to imitate the noises of every bird and beast of +the forest. So they learned to lure the turkey within range, or +by the bleat of a fawn to bring her dam to the rifle. A +well-simulated wolf's howl would call forth a response and so +inform the lone hunter of the vicinity of the pack. This forest +speech was not only the language of diplomacy in the hunting +season; it was the borderer's secret code in war. Stray Indians +put themselves in touch again with the band by turkey calls in +the daytime and by owl or wolf notes at night. The frontiersmen +used the same means to trick the Indian band into betraying the +place of its ambuscade, or to lure the strays, unwitting, within +reach of the knife. + +In that age, before the forests had given place to farms and +cities and when the sun had but slight acquaintance with the sod, +the summers were cool and the winters long and cold in the Back +Country. Sometimes in September severe frosts destroyed the corn. +The first light powdering called "hunting snows" fell in October, +and then the men of the Back Country set out on the chase. Their +object was meat--buffalo, deer, elk, bear-for the winter larder, +and skins to send out in the spring by pack-horses to the coast +in trade for iron, steel, and salt. The rainfall in North +Carolina was much heavier than in Virginia and, from autumn into +early winter, the Yadkin forests were sheeted with rain; but wet +weather, so far from deterring the hunter, aided him to the kill. +In blowing rain, he knew he would find the deer herding in the +sheltered places on the hillsides. In windless rain, he knew that +his quarry ranged the open woods and the high places. The fair +play of the pioneer held it a great disgrace to kill a deer in +winter when the heavy frost had crusted the deep snow. On the +crust men and wolves could travel with ease, but the deer's sharp +hoofs pierced through and made him defenseless. Wolves and dogs +destroyed great quantities of deer caught in this way; and men +who shot deer under these conditions were considered no huntsmen. +There was, indeed, a practical side to this chivalry of the +chase, for meat and pelt were both poor at this season; but the +true hunter also obeyed the finer tenet of his code, for he would +go to the rescue of deer caught in the crusts--and he killed many +a wolf sliding over the ice to an easy meal. + +The community moral code of the frontier was brief and rigorous. +What it lacked of the "whereas" and "inasmuch" of legal ink it +made up in sound hickory. In fact, when we review the activities +of this solid yet elastic wood in the moral, social, and economic +phases of Back Country life, we are moved to wonder if the +pioneers would have been the same race of men had they been +nurtured beneath a less strenuous and adaptable vegetation! The +hickory gave the frontiersman wood for all implements and +furnishings where the demand was equally for lightness, strength, +and elasticity. It provided his straight logs for building, his +block mortars hollowed--by fire and stone--for corn-grinding, his +solid plain furniture, his axles, rifle butts, ax handles, and so +forth. It supplied his magic wand for the searching out of +iniquity in the junior members of his household, and his most +cogent argument, as a citizen, in convincing the slothful, the +blasphemous, or the dishonest adult whose errors disturbed +communal harmony. Its nuts fed his hogs. Before he raised stock, +the unripe hickory nuts, crushed for their white liquid, supplied +him with butter for his corn bread and helped out his store of +bear's fat. Both the name and the knowledge of the uses of this +tree came to the earliest pioneers through contact with the red +man, whose hunting bow and fishing spear and the hobbles for his +horses were fashioned of the "pohickory" tree. The Indian women +first made pohickory butter, and the wise old men of the Cherokee +towns, so we are told, first applied the pohickory rod to the +vanity of youth! + +A glance at the interior of a log cabin in the Back Country of +Virginia or North Carolina would show, in primitive design, what +is, perhaps, after all the perfect home--a place where the +personal life and the work life are united and where nothing +futile finds space. Every object in the cabin was practical and +had been made by hand on the spot to answer a need. Besides the +chairs hewn from hickory blocks, there were others made of slabs +set on three legs. A large slab or two with four legs served as a +movable table; the permanent table was built against the wall, +its outer edge held up by two sticks. The low bed was built into +the wall in the same way and softened for slumber by a mattress +of pine needles, chaff, or dried moss. In the best light from the +greased paper windowpanes stood the spinning wheel and loom, on +which the housewife made cloth for the family's garments. Over +the fireplace or beside the doorway, and suspended usually on +stags' antlers, hung the firearms and the yellow powderhorns, the +latter often carved in Indian fashion with scenes of the hunt or +war. On a shelf or on pegs were the wooden spoons, plates, bowls, +and noggins. Also near the fireplace, which was made of large +flat stones with a mud-plastered log chimney, stood the grinding +block for making hominy. If it were an evening in early spring, +the men of the household would be tanning and dressing deerskins +to be sent out with the trade caravan, while the women sewed, +made moccasins or mended them, in the light of pine knots or +candles of bear's grease. The larger children might be weaving +cradles for the babies, Indian fashion, out of hickory twigs; and +there would surely be a sound of whetting steel, for scalping +knives and tomahawks must be kept keen-tempered now that the days +have come when the red gods whisper their chant of war through +the young leafage. + +The Back Country folk, as they came from several countries, +generally settled in national groups, each preserving its own +speech and its own religion, each approaching frontier life +through its own native temperament. And the frontier met each and +all alike, with the same need and the same menace, and molded +them after one general pattern. If the cabin stood in a typical +Virginian settlement where the folk were of English stock, it may +be that the dulcimer and some old love song of the homeland +enlivened the work--or perhaps chairs were pushed back and young +people danced the country dances of the homeland and the Virginia +Reel, for these Virginian English were merry folk, and their +religion did not frown upon the dance. In a cabin on the +Shenandoah or the upper Yadkin the German tongue clicked away +over the evening dish of kraut or sounded more sedately in a +Lutheran hymn; while from some herder's but on the lower Yadkin +the wild note of the bagpipes or of the ancient four-stringed +harp mingled with the Gaelic speech. + +Among the homes in the Shenandoah where old England's ways +prevailed, none was gayer than the tavern kept by the man whom +the good Moravian Brother called "Severe." There perhaps the +feasting celebrated the nuptials of John Sevier, who was barely +past his seventeenth birthday when he took to himself a wife. Or +perhaps the dancing, in moccasined feet on the puncheon flooring, +was a ceremonial to usher into Back Country life the new +municipality John had just organized, for John at nineteen had +taken his earliest step towards his larger career, which we shall +follow later on, as the architect of the first little governments +beyond the mountains. + +In the Boone home on the Yadkin, we may guess that the talk was +solely of the hunt, unless young Daniel had already become +possessed of his first compass and was studying its ways. On such +an evening, while the red afterglow lingered, he might be mending +a passing trader's firearms by the fires of the primitive forge +his father had set up near the trading path running from +Hillsborough to the Catawba towns. It was said by the local +nimrods that none could doctor a sick rifle better than young +Daniel Boone, already the master huntsman of them all. And +perhaps some trader's tale, told when the caravan halted for the +night, kindled the youth's first desire to penetrate the +mountain-guarded wilderness, for the tales of these Romanies of +commerce were as the very badge of their free-masonry, and entry +money at the doors of strangers. + +Out on the border's edge, heedless of the shadow of the mountains +looming between the newly built cabin and that western land where +they and their kind were to write the fame of the Ulster Scot in +a shining script that time cannot dull, there might sit a group +of stern-faced men, all deep in discussion of some point of +spiritual doctrine or of the temporal rights of men. Yet, in +every cabin, whatever the national differences, the setting was +the same The spirit of the frontier was modeling out of old clay +a new Adam to answer the needs of a new earth. + +It would be far less than just to leave the Back Country folk +without further reference to the devoted labors of their clergy. +In the earliest days the settlers were cut off from their church +systems; the pious had to maintain their piety unaided, except in +the rare cases where a pastor accompanied a group of settlers of +his denomination into the wilds. One of the first ministers who +fared into the Back Country to remind the Ulster Presbyterians of +their spiritual duties was the Reverend Hugh McAden of +Philadelphia. He made long itineraries under the greatest +hardships, in constant danger from Indians and wild beasts, +carrying the counsel of godliness to the far scattered flock. +Among the Highland settlements the Reverend James Campbell for +thirty years traveled about, preaching each Sunday at some +gathering point a sermon in both English and Gaelic. A little +later, in the Yadkin Valley, after Craighead's day there arose a +small school of Presbyterian ministers whose zeal and +fearlessness in the cause of religion and of just government had +an influence on the frontiersmen that can hardly be +overestimated. + +But, in the beginning, the pioneer encountered the savagery of +border life, grappled with it, and reacted to it without guidance +from other mentor than his own instincts. His need was still the +primal threefold need family, sustenance, and safe sleep when the +day's work was done. We who look back with thoughtful eyes upon +the frontiersman--all links of contact with his racial past +severed, at grips with destruction in the contenting of his +needs--see something more, something larger, than he saw in the +log cabin raised by his hands, its structure held together solely +by his close grooving and fitting of its own strength. Though the +walls he built for himself have gone with his own dust back to +the earth, the symbol he erected for us stands. + + + +Chapter III. The Trader + +The trader was the first pathfinder. His caravans began the +change of purpose that was to come to the Indian warrior's route, +turning it slowly into the beaten track of communication and +commerce. The settlers, the rangers, the surveyors, went westward +over the trails which he had blazed for them years before. Their +enduring works are commemorated in the cities and farms which +today lie along every ancient border line; but of their +forerunner's hazardous Indian trade nothing remains. Let us +therefore pay a moment's homage here to the trader, who first--to +borrow a phrase from Indian speech--made white for peace the red +trails of war. + +He was the first cattleman of the Old Southwest. Fifty years +before John Findlay,* one of this class of pioneers, led Daniel +Boone through Cumberland Gap, the trader's bands of horses roamed +the western slopes of the Appalachian Mountains and his cattle +grazed among the deer on the green banks of the old Cherokee +(Tennessee) River. He was the pioneer settler beyond the high +hills; for he built, in the center of the Indian towns, the first +white man's cabin--with its larger annex, the trading house--and +dwelt there during the greater part of the year. He was America's +first magnate of international commerce. His furs--for which he +paid in guns, knives, ammunition, vermilion paint, mirrors, and +cloth--lined kings' mantles, and hatted the Lords of Trade as +they strode to their council chamber in London to discuss his +business and to pass those regulations which might have seriously +hampered him but for his resourcefulness in circumventing them! + +* The name is spelled in various ways: Findlay, Finlay, Findley. + + +He was the first frontier warrior, for he either fought off or +fell before small parties of hostile Indians who, in the interest +of the Spanish or French, raided his pack-horse caravans on the +march. Often, too, side by side with the red brothers of his +adoption, he fought in the intertribal wars. His was the first +educative and civilizing influence in the Indian towns. He +endeavored to cure the Indians of their favorite midsummer +madness, war, by inducing them to raise stock and poultry and +improve their corn, squash, and pea gardens. It is not necessary +to impute to him philanthropic motives. He was a practical man +and he saw that war hurt his trade: it endangered his summer +caravans and hampered the autumn hunt for deerskins. + +In the earliest days of the eighteenth century, when the +colonists of Virginia and the Carolinas were only a handful, it +was the trader who defeated each successive attempt of French and +Spanish agents to weld the tribes into a confederacy for the +annihilation of the English settlements. The English trader did +his share to prevent what is now the United States from becoming +a part of a Latin empire and to save it for a race having the +Anglo-Saxon ideal and speaking the English tongue. + +The colonial records of the period contain items which, taken +singly, make small impression on the casual reader but which, +listed together, throw a strong light on the past and bring that +mercenary figure, the trader, into so bold a relief that the +design verges on the heroic. If we wonder, for instance, why the +Scotch Highlanders who settled in the wilds at the headwaters of +the Cape Fear River, about 1729, and were later followed by Welsh +and Huguenots, met with no opposition from the Indians, the +mystery is solved when we discover, almost by accident, a few +printed lines which record that, in 1700, the hostile natives on +the Cape Fear were subdued to the English and brought into +friendly alliance with them by Colonel William Bull, a trader. We +read further and learn that the Spaniards in Florida had long +endeavored to unite the tribes in Spanish and French territory +against the English and that the influence of traders prevented +the consummation. The Spaniards, in 1702, had prepared to invade +English territory with nine hundred Indians. The plot was +discovered by Creek Indians and disclosed to their friends, the +traders, who immediately gathered together five hundred warriors, +marched swiftly to meet the invaders, and utterly routed them. +Again, when the Indians, incited by the Spanish at St. Augustine, +rose against the English in 1715, and the Yamasi Massacre +occurred in South Carolina, it was due to the traders that some +of the settlements at least were not wholly unprepared to defend +themselves. + +The early English trader was generally an intelligent man; +sometimes educated, nearly always fearless and resourceful. He +knew the one sure basis on which men of alien blood and far +separated stages of moral and intellectual development can meet +in understanding--namely, the truth of the spoken word. He +recognized honor as the bond of trade and the warp and woof of +human intercourse. The uncorrupted savage also had his plain +interpretation of the true word in the mouths of men, and a name +for it. He called it the "Old Beloved Speech"; and he gave his +confidence to the man who spoke this speech even in the close +barter for furs. + +We shall find it worth while to refer to the map of America as it +was in the early days of the colonial fur trade, about the +beginning of the eighteenth century. A narrow strip of loosely +strung English settlements stretched from the north border of New +England to the Florida line. North Florida was Spanish territory. +On the far distant southwestern borders of the English colonies +were the southern possessions of France. The French sphere of +influence extended up the Mississippi, and thence by way of +rivers and the Great Lakes to its base in Canada on the borders +of New England and New York. In South Carolina dwelt the Yamasi +tribe of about three thousand warriors, their chief towns only +sixty or eighty miles distant from the Spanish town of St. +Augustine. On the west, about the same distance northeast of New +Orleans, in what is now Alabama and Georgia, lay the Creek +nation. There French garrisons held Mobile and Fort Alabama. The +Creeks at this time numbered over four thousand warriors. The +lands of the Choctaws, a tribe of even larger fighting strength, +began two hundred miles north of New Orleans and extended along +the Mississippi. A hundred and sixty miles northeast of the +Choctaw towns were the Chickasaws, the bravest and most +successful warriors of all the tribes south of the Iroquois. The +Cherokees, in part seated within the Carolinas, on the upper +courses of the Savannah River, mustered over six thousand men at +arms. East of them were the Catawba towns. North of them were the +Shawanoes and Delawares, in easy communication with the tribes of +Canada. Still farther north, along the Mohawk and other rivers +joining with the Hudson and Lake Ontario stood the "long houses" +of the fiercest and most warlike of all the savages, the Iroquois +or Six Nations. + +The Indians along the English borders outnumbered the colonists +perhaps ten to one. If the Spanish and the French had succeeded +in the conspiracy to unite on their side all the tribes, a red +billow of tomahawk wielders would have engulfed and extinguished +the English settlements. The French, it is true, made allies of +the Shawanoes, the Delawares, the Choctaws, and a strong faction +of the Creeks; and they finally won over the Cherokees after +courting them for more than twenty years. But the Creeks in part, +the powerful Chickasaws, and the Iroquois Confederacy, or Six +Nations, remained loyal to the English. In both North and South +it was the influence of the traders that kept these red tribes on +the English side. The Iroquois were held loyal by Sir William +Johnson and his deputy, George Croghan, the "King of Traders." +The Chickasaws followed their "best-beloved" trader, James Adair; +and among the Creeks another trader, Lachlan McGillivray, wielded +a potent influence. + +Lachlan McGillivray was a Highlander. He landed in Charleston in +1735 at the age of sixteen and presently joined a trader's +caravan as packhorse boy. A few years later he married a woman of +the Creeks. On many occasions he defeated French and Spanish +plots with the Creeks for the extermination of the colonists in +Georgia and South Carolina. His action in the final war with the +French (1760), when the Indian terror was raging, is typical. +News came that four thousand Creek warriors, reinforced by French +Choctaws, were about to fall on the southern settlements. At the +risk of their lives, McGillivray and another trader named Galphin +hurried from Charleston to their trading house on the Georgia +frontier. Thither they invited several hundred Creek warriors, +feasted and housed them for several days, and finally won them +from their purpose. McGillivray had a brilliant son, Alexander, +who about this time became a chief in his mother's nation perhaps +on this very occasion, as it was an Indian custom, in making a +brotherhood pact, to send a son to dwell in the brother's house. +We shall meet that son again as the Chief of the Creeks and the +terrible scourge of Georgia and Tennessee in the dark days of the +Revolutionary War. + +The bold deeds of the early traders, if all were to be told, +would require a book as long as the huge volume written by James +Adair, the "English Chickasaw." Adair was an Englishman who +entered the Indian trade in 1785 and launched upon the long and +dangerous trail from Charleston to the upper towns of the +Cherokees, situated in the present Monroe County, Tennessee. Thus +he was one of the earliest pioneers of the Old Southwest; and he +was Tennessee's first author. "I am well acquainted," he says, +"with near two thousand miles of the American continent"--a +statement which gives one some idea of an early trader's +enterprise, hardihood, and peril. Adair's "two thousand miles" +were twisting Indian trails and paths he slashed out for himself +through uninhabited wilds, for when not engaged in trade, +hunting, literature, or war, it pleased him to make solitary +trips of exploration. These seem to have led him chiefly +northward through the Appalachians, of which he must have been +one of the first white explorers. + +A many-sided man was James Adair--cultured, for his style suffers +not by comparison with other writers of his day, no stranger to +Latin and Greek, and not ignorant of Hebrew, which he studied to +assist him in setting forth his ethnological theory that the +American Indians were the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of +Israel. Before we dismiss his theory with a smile, let us +remember that he had not at his disposal the data now available +which reveal points of likeness in custom, language formation, +and symbolism among almost all primitive peoples. The formidable +title-page of his book in itself suggests an author keenly +observant, accurate as to detail, and possessed of a versatile +and substantial mind. Most of the pages were written in the towns +of the Chickasaws, with whom he lived "as a friend and brother," +but from whose "natural jealousy" and "prying disposition" he was +obliged to conceal his papers. "Never," he assures us, "was a +literary work begun and carried on with more disadvantages!" + +Despite these disabilities the author wrote a book of absorbing +interest. His intimate sympathetic pictures of Indian life as it +was before the tribes had been conquered are richly valuable to +the lover of native lore and to the student of the history of +white settlement. The author believes, as he must, in the +supremacy of his own race, but he nevertheless presents the +Indians' side of the argument as no man could who had not made +himself one of them. He thereby adds interest to those fierce +struggles which took place along the border; for he shows us the +red warrior not as a mere brute with a tomahawk but as a human +creature with an ideal of his own, albeit an ideal that must give +place to a better. Even in view of the red man's hideous methods +of battle and inhuman treatment of captives, we cannot ponder +unmoved Adair's description of his preparations for war--the +fasting, the abstention from all family intercourse, and the +purification rites and prayers for three days in the house set +apart, while the women, who might not come close to their men in +this fateful hour, stood throughout the night till dawn chanting +before the door. Another poetic touch the author gives us, from +the Cherokee--or Cheerake as he spells it--explaining that the +root, chee-ra, means fire. A Cherokee never extinguished fire +save on the occasion of a death, when he thrust a burning torch +into the water and said, Neetah intahah--"the days appointed him +were finished." The warrior slain in battle was held to have been +balanced by death and it was said of him that "he was weighed on +the path and made light." Adair writes that the Cherokees, until +corrupted by French agents and by the later class of traders who +poured rum among them like water, were honest, industrious, and +friendly. They were ready to meet the white man with their +customary phrase of good will "I shall firmly shake hands with +your speech." He was intimately associated with this tribe from +1735 to 1744, when he diverted his activities to the Chickasaws. + +It was from the Cherokees' chief town, Great Telliko, in the +Appalachians, that Adair explored the mountains. He describes the +pass through the chain which was used by the Indians and which, +from his outline of it, was probably the Cumberland Gap. He +relates many incidents of the struggle with the French-- +manifestations even in this remote wilderness of the vast +conflict that was being waged for the New World by two imperial +nations of the Old. + +Adair undertook, at the solicitation of Governor Glen of South +Carolina, the dangerous task of opening up trade with the +Choctaws; a tribe mustering upwards of five thousand warriors who +were wholly in the French interest. Their country lay in what is +now the State of Mississippi along the great river, some seven +hundred miles west and southwest of Charleston. After passing the +friendly Creek towns the trail led on for 150 miles through what +was practically the enemy's country. Adair, owing to what he +likes to term his "usual good fortune," reached the Choctaw +country safely and by his adroitness and substantial presents won +the friendship of the influential chief, Red Shoe, whom he found +in a receptive mood, owing to a French agent's breach of +hospitality involving Red Shoe's favorite wife. Adair thus +created a large proEnglish faction among the Choctaws, and his +success seriously impaired French prestige with all the +southwestern tribes. Several times French Choctaws bribed to +murder him, waylaid Adair on the trail--twice when he was +alone--only to be baffled by the imperturbable self-possession +and alert wit which never failed him in emergencies. + +Winning a Choctaw trade cost Adair, besides attacks on his life, +2200 pounds, for which he was never reimbursed, notwithstanding +Governor Glen's agreement with him. And, on his return to +Charleston, while the Governor was detaining him "on one pretext +or another," he found that a new expedition, which the Governor +was favoring for reasons of his own, had set out to capture his +Chickasaw trade and gather in "the expected great crop of +deerskins and beaver...before I could possibly return to the +Chikkasah Country." Nothing daunted, however, the hardy trader +set out alone. + +"In the severity of winter, frost, snow, hail and heavy rains +succeed each other in these climes, so that I partly rode and +partly swam to the Chikkasah country; for not expecting to stay +long below [in Charleston] I took no leathern canoe. Many of the +broad, deep creeks...had now overflowed their banks, ran at a +rapid rate and were unpassable to any but DESPERATE PEOPLE... +the rivers and swamps were dreadful by rafts of timber driving +down the former and the great fallen trees floating in the +latter.... Being forced to wade deep through cane swamps or woody +thickets, it proved very troublesome to keep my firearms dry on +which, as a second means, my life depended." + +Nevertheless Adair defeated the Governor's attempt to steal his +trade, and later on published the whole story in the Charleston +press and sent in a statement of his claims to the Assembly, with +frank observations on His Excellency himself. We gather that his +bold disregard of High Personages set all Charleston in an +uproar! + +Adair is tantalizingly modest about his own deeds. He devotes +pages to prove that an Indian rite agrees with the Book of +Leviticus but only a paragraph to an exploit of courage and +endurance such as that ride and swim for the Indian trade. We +have to read between the lines to find the man; but he well +repays the search. Briefly, incidentally, he mentions that on one +trip he was captured by the French, who were so + +"well acquainted with the great damages I had done to them and +feared others I might occasion, as to confine me a close prisoner +...in the Alebahma garrison. They were fully resolved to have +sent me down to Mobile or New Orleans as a capital criminal to +be hanged...BUT I DOUBTED NOT OF BEING ABLE TO EXTRICATE +MYSELF SOME WAY OR OTHER. They appointed double centries over me +for some days before I was to be sent down in the French King's +large boat. They were strongly charged against laying down their +weapons or suffering any hostile thing to be in the place where I +was kept, as they deemed me capable of any mischief.... About an +hour before we were to set off by water I escaped from them by +land.... I took through the middle of the low land covered +with briers at full speed. I heard the French clattering on +horseback along the path...and the howling savages pursuing..., +but MY USUAL GOOD FORTUNE enabled me to leave them far +enough behind...." + + +One feels that a few of the pages given up to Leviticus might +well have been devoted to a detailed account of this escape from +"double centries" and a fortified garrison, and the plunge +through the tangled wilds, by a man without gun or knife or +supplies, and who for days dared not show himself upon the trail. + +There is too much of "my usual good fortune" in Adair's +narrative; such luck as his argues for extraordinary resources in +the man. Sometimes we discover only through one phrase on a page +that he must himself have been the hero of an event he relates in +the third person. This seems to be the case in the affair of +Priber, which was the worst of those "damages" Adair did to the +French. Priber was "a gentleman of curious and speculative +temper" sent by the French in 1786 to Great Telliko to win the +Cherokees to their interest. At this time Adair was trading with +the Cherokees. He relates that Priber, + +"more effectually to answer the design of his commission...ate, +drank, slept, danced, dressed, and painted himself with the +Indians, so that it was not easy to distinguish him from the +natives,--he married also with them, and being endued with a +strong understanding and retentive memory he soon learned their +dialect, and by gradual advances impressed them with a very ill +opinion of the English, representing them as fraudulent, +avaritious and encroaching people; he at the same time inflated +the artless savages with a prodigious high opinion of their own +importance in the American scale of power.... Having thus +infected them...he easily formed them into a nominal +republican government--crowned their old Archimagus emperor after +a pleasing new savage form, and invented a variety of +high-sounding titles for all the members of his imperial +majesty's red court." + +Priber cemented the Cherokee empire "by slow but sure degrees to +the very great danger of our southern colonies." His position was +that of Secretary of State and as such, with a studiedly +provocative arrogance, he carried on correspondence with the +British authorities. The colonial Government seems, on this +occasion, to have listened to the traders and to have realized +that Priber was a danger, for soldiers were sent to take him +prisoner. The Cherokees, however, had so firmly "shaked hands" +with their Secretary's admired discourse that they threatened to +take the warpath if their beloved man were annoyed, and the +soldiers went home without him--to the great hurt of English +prestige. The Cherokee empire had now endured for five years and +was about to rise "into a far greater state of puissance by the +acquisition of the Muskohge, Chocktaw and the Western Mississippi +Indians," when fortunately for the history of British +colonization in America, "an accident befell the Secretary." + +It is in connection with this "accident" that the reader suspects +the modest but resourceful Adair of conniving with Fate. Since +the military had failed and the Government dared not again employ +force, other means must be found; the trader provided them. The +Secretary with his Cherokee bodyguard journeyed south on his +mission to the Creeks. Secure, as he supposed, he lodged +overnight in an Indian town. But there a company of English +traders took him into custody, along with his bundle of +manuscripts presumably intended for the French commandant at Fort +Alabama, and handed him over to the Governor of Georgia, who +imprisoned him and kept him out of mischief till he died. + +As a Briton, Adair contributed to Priber's fate; and as such he +approves it. As a scholar with philosophical and ethnological +leanings, however, he deplores it, and hopes that Priber's +valuable manuscripts may "escape the despoiling hands of military +power." Priber had spent his leisure in compiling a Cherokee +dictionary; Adair's occupation, while domiciled in his winter +house in Great Telliko, was the writing of his Indian Appendix to +the Pentateuch. As became brothers in science, they had exchanged +notes, so we gather from Adair's references to conversations and +correspondence. Adair's difficulties as an author, however, had +been increased by a treacherous lapse from professional etiquette +on the part of the Secretary: "He told them [the Indians] that in +the very same manner as he was their great Secretary, I was the +devil's clerk, or an accursed one who marked on paper the bad +speech of the evil ones of darkness." On his own part Adair +admits that his object in this correspondence was to trap the +Secretary into something more serious than literary errata. That +is, he admits it by implication; he says the Secretary "feared" +it. During the years of their duel, Adair apparently knew that the +scholarly compiler of the Cherokee dictionary was secretly +inciting members of this particular Lost Tribe to tomahawk the +discoverer of their biblical origin; and Priber, it would seem, +knew that he knew! + +Adair shows, inferentially, that land encroachment was not the +sole cause of those Indian wars with which we shall deal in a +later chapter. The earliest causes were the instigations of the +French and the rewards which they offered for English scalps. But +equally provocative of Indian rancor were the acts of sometimes +merely stupid, sometimes dishonest, officials; the worst of +these, Adair considered, was the cheapening of the trade through +the granting of general licenses. + + +"Formerly each trader had a license for two [Indian] towns.... +At my first setting out among them, a number of traders... +journeyed through our various nations in different companies and +were generally men of worth; of course they would have a living +price for their goods, which they carried on horseback to the +remote Indian countries at very great expences.... [The +Indians] were kept under proper restraint, were easy in their +minds and peaceable on account of the plain, honest lessons daily +inculcated on them...but according to the present unwise +plan, two and even three Arablike peddlars sculk about in one of +those villages...who are generally the dregs and offscourings +of our climes...by inebriating the Indians with their +nominally prohibited and poisoning spirits, they purchase the +necessaries of life at four and five hundred per cent cheaper +than the orderly traders.... Instead of showing good examples +of moral conduct, beside the other part of life, they instruct +the unknowing and imitating savages in many diabolical lessons of +obscenity and blasphemy." + + +In these statements, contemporary records bear him out. There is +no sadder reading than the many pleas addressed by the Indian +chiefs to various officials to stop the importation of liquor +into their country, alleging the debauchment of their young men +and warning the white man, with whom they desired to be friends, +that in an Indian drink and blood lust quickly combined. + +Adair's book was published in London in 1775. He wrote it to be +read by Englishmen as well as Americans; and some of his +reflections on liberty, justice, and Anglo-Saxon unity would not +sound unworthily today. His sympathies were with "the principles +of our Magna Charta Americana"; but he thought the threatened +division of the English-speaking peoples the greatest evil that +could befall civilization. His voluminous work discloses a man +not only of wide mental outlook but a practical man with a sense +of commercial values. Yet, instead of making a career for +himself among his own caste, he made his home for over thirty +years in the Chickasaw towns; and it is plain that, with the +exception of some of his older brother traders, he preferred the +Chickasaw to any other society. + +The complete explanation of such men as Adair we need not expect +to find stated anywhere--not even in and between the lines of his +book. The conventionalist would seek it in moral obliquity; the +radical, in a temperament that is irked by the superficialities +that comprise so large a part of conventional standards. The +reason for his being what he was is almost the only thing Adair +did not analyze in his book. Perhaps, to him, it was self evident. +We may let it be so to us, and see it most clearly presented in a +picture composed from some of his brief sketches: A land of grass +and green shade inset with bright waters, where deer and domestic +cattle herded together along the banks; a circling group of +houses, their white-clayed walls sparkling under the sun's rays, +and, within and without, the movement of "a friendly and +sagacious people," who "kindly treated and watchfully guarded" +their white brother in peace and war, and who conversed daily +with him in the Old Beloved Speech learned first of Nature. "Like +towers in cities beyond the common size of those of the Indians" +rose the winter and summer houses and the huge trading house +which the tribe had built for their best beloved friend in the +town's center, because there he would be safest from attack. On +the rafters hung the smoked and barbecued delicacies taken in the +hunt and prepared for him by his red servants, who were also his +comrades at home and on the dangerous trail. "Beloved old women" +kept an eye on his small sons, put to drowse on panther skins so +that they might grow up brave warriors. Nothing was there of +artifice or pretense, only "the needful things to make a +reasonable life happy." All was as primitive, naive, and +contented as the woman whose outline is given once in a few +strokes, proudly and gayly penciled: "I have the pleasure of +writing this by the side of a Chikkasah female, as great a +princess as ever lived among the ancient Peruvians or Mexicans, +and she bids me be sure not to mark the paper wrong after the +manner of most of the traders; otherwise it will spoil the making +good bread or homony!" + +His final chapter is the last news of James Adair, type of the +earliest trader. Did his bold attacks on corrupt officials and +rum peddlers--made publicly before Assemblies and in print--raise +for him a dense cloud of enmity that dropped oblivion on his +memory? Perhaps. But, in truth, his own book is all the history +of him we need. It is the record of a man. He lived a full life +and served his day; and it matters not that a mist envelops the +place where unafraid he met the Last Enemy, was "weighed on the +path and made light." + + + +Chapter IV. The Passing Of The French Peril + +The great pile of the Appalachian peaks was not the only barrier +which held back the settler with his plough and his rifle from +following the trader's tinkling caravans into the valleys beyond. +Over the hills the French were lords of the land. The +frontiersman had already felt their enmity through the torch and +tomahawk of their savage allies. By his own strength alone he +could not cope with the power entrenched beyond the hills; so he +halted. But that power, by its unachievable desire to be overlord +of two hemispheres, was itself to precipitate events which would +open the westward road. + +The recurring hour in the cycle of history, when the issue of +Autocracy against Democracy cleaves the world, struck for the men +of the eighteenth century as the second half of that century +dawned. In our own day, happily, that issue has been perceived by +the rank and file of the people. In those darker days, as France +and England grappled in that conflict of systems which culminated +in the Seven Years' War, the fundamental principles at stake were +clear to only a handful of thinking men. + +But abstractions, whether clear or obscure, do not cause +ambassadors to demand their passports. The declaration of war +awaits the overt act. Behold, then, how great a matter is kindled +by a little fire! The casus belli between France and England in +the Seven Years' War--the war which humbled France in Europe and +lost her India and Canada--had to do with a small log fort built +by a few Virginians in 1754 at the Forks of the Ohio River and +wrested from them in the same year by a company of Frenchmen from +Canada. + +The French claimed the valley of the Ohio as their territory; the +English claimed it as theirs. The dispute was of long standing. +The French claim was based on discovery; the English claim, on +the seato-sea charters of Virginia and other colonies and on +treaties with the Six Nations. The French refused to admit the +right of the Six Nations to dispose of the territory. The English +were inclined to maintain the validity of their treaties with the +Indians. Especially was Virginia so inclined, for a large share +of the Ohio lay within her chartered domain. + +The quarrel had entered its acute phase in 1749, when both the +rival claimants took action to assert their sovereignty. The +Governor of Canada sent an envoy, Celoron de Blainville, with +soldiers, to take formal possession of the Ohio for the King of +France. In the same year the English organized in Virginia the +Ohio Company for the colonization of the same country; and +summoned Christopher Gist, explorer, trader, and guide, from his +home on the Yadkin and dispatched him to survey the land. + +Then appeared on the scene that extraordinary man, Robert +Dinwiddie, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, erstwhile citizen of +Glasgow. His correspondence from Virginia during his seven years' +tenure of office (1751-58) depicts the man with a vividness +surpassing paint. He was as honest as the day--as honest as he +was fearless and fussy. But he had no patience; he wanted things +done and done at once, and his way was THE way to do them. People +who did not think as he thought didn't THINK at all. On this +drastic premise he went to work. There was of course continuous +friction between him and the House of Burgesses. Dinwiddie had +all a Scot's native talent for sarcasm. His letters, his +addresses, perhaps in particular his addresses to the House, +bristled with satirical thrusts at his opponents. If he had +spelled out in full all the words he was so eager to write, he +would have been obliged to lessen his output; so he used a +shorthand system of his own, peculiar enough to be remarkable +even though abbreviations were the rule in that day. Even the +dignity of Kings he sacrificed to speed, and we find "His +Majesty" abbreviated to "H M'y"; yet a smaller luminary known as +"His Honor" fares better, losing only the last letter--"His +Hono." "Ho." stands for "house" and "yt" for "that," "what," +"it," and "anything else," as convenient. Many of his letters +wind up with "I am ve'y much fatig'd." We know that he must have +been! + +It was a formidable task that confronted Dinwiddie--to possess +and defend the Ohio. Christopher Gist returned in 1751, having +surveyed the valley for the Ohio Company as far as the Scioto and +Miami rivers, and in the following year the survey was ratified +by the Indians. The Company's men were busy blazing trails +through the territory and building fortified posts. But the +French dominated the territory. They had built and occupied with +troops Fort Le Boeuf on French Creek, a stream flowing into the +Allegheny. We may imagine Dinwiddie's rage at this violation of +British soil by French soldiers and how he must have sputtered to +the young George Washington, when he summoned that officer and +made him the bearer of a letter to the French commander at Fort +Le Boeuf, to demand that French troops be at once withdrawn from +the Ohio. + +Washington made the journey to Fort Le Boeuf in December, 1753, +but the mission of course proved fruitless. Dinwiddie then wrote +to London urging that a force be sent over to help the colonies +maintain their rights and, under orders from the Crown, suggested +by himself, he wrote to the governors of all the other colonies +to join with Virginia in raising troops to settle the ownership +of the disputed territory. From Governor Dobbs of North Carolina +he received an immediate response. By means of logic, sarcasm, +and the entire force of his prerogatives, Dinwiddie secured from +his own balking Assembly 10,000 pounds with which to raise +troops. From Maryland he obtained nothing. There were three +prominent Marylanders in the Ohio Company, but--or because of +this--the Maryland Assembly voted down the measure for a military +appropriation. On June 18, 1754, Dinwiddie wrote, with unusually +full spelling for him: + +"I am perswaded had His Majesty's Com'ds to the other Colonies +been duely obey'd, and the necessary Assistance given by them, +the Fr. wou'd have long ago have been oblig'd entirely to have +evacuated their usurp'd Possession of the King's Lands, instead +of w'ch they are daily becoming more formidable, whilst every +Gov't except No. Caro. has amus'd me with Expectations that have +proved fruitless, and at length refuse to give any Supply, unless +in such a manner as must render it ineffectual." + +This saddened mood with its deliberate penmanship did not last +long. Presently Dinwiddie was making a Round Robin of himself in +another series of letters to Governors, Councilors, and +Assemblymen, frantically beseeching them for "H. M'y's hono." and +their own, and, if not, for "post'r'ty," to rise against the +cruel French whose Indians were harrying the borders again and +"Basely, like Virmin, stealing and carrying off the helpless +infant"--as nice a simile, by the way, as any Sheridan ever put +into the mouth of Mrs. Malaprop. + +Dinwiddie saw his desires thwarted on every hand by the selfish +spirit of localism and jealousy which was more rife in America in +those days than it is today. Though the phrase "capitalistic war" +had not yet been coined, the great issues of English civilization +on this continent were befogged, for the majority in the +colonies, by the trivial fact that the shareholders in the Ohio +Company stood to win by a vigorous prosecution of the war and to +lose if it were not prosecuted at all. The irascible Governor, +however, proceeded with such men and means as he could obtain. + +And now in the summer of 1754 came the "overt act" which +precipitated the inevitable war. The key to the valley of the +Ohio was the tongue of land at the Forks, where the Allegheny and +the Monongahela join their waters in the Beautiful River. This +site--today Pittsburgh--if occupied and held by either nation +would give that nation the command of the Ohio. Occupied it was +for a brief hour by a small party of Virginians, under Captain +William Trent; but no sooner had they erected on the spot a crude +fort than the French descended upon them. What happened then all +the world knows: how the French built on the captured site their +great Fort Duquesne; how George Washington with an armed force, +sent by Dinwiddie to recapture the place, encountered French and +Indians at Great Meadows and built Fort Necessity, which he was +compelled to surrender; how in the next year (1755) General +Braddock arrived from across the sea and set out to take Fort +Duquesne, only to meet on the way the disaster called "Braddock's +Defeat"; and how, before another year had passed, the Seven +Years' War was raging in Europe, and England was allied with the +enemies of France. + +>From the midst of the debacle of Braddock's defeat rises the +figure of the young Washington. Twenty-three he was then, tall +and spare and hardbodied from a life spent largely in the open. +When Braddock fell, this Washington appeared. Reckless of the +enemy's bullets, which spanged about him and pierced his clothes, +he dashed up and down the lines in an effort to rally the +panic-stricken redcoats. He was too late to save the day, but not +to save a remnant of the army and bring out his own Virginians in +good order. Whether among the stay-at-homes and voters of credits +there were some who would have ascribed Washington's conduct on +that day to the fact that his brothers were large shareholders in +the Ohio Company and that Fort Duquesne was their personal +property or "private interest," history does not say. We may +suppose so. + +North Carolina, the one colony which had not "amus'd" the +Governor of Virginia "with Expectations that proved fruitless," +had voted 12,000 pounds for the war and had raised two companies +of troops. One of these, under Edward Brice Dobbs, son of +Governor Dobbs, marched with Braddock; and in that company as +wagoner went Daniel Boone, then in his twenty-second year. Of +Boone's part in Braddock's campaign nothing more is recorded save +that on the march he made friends with John Findlay, the trader, +his future guide into Kentucky; and that, on the day of the +defeat, when his wagons were surrounded, he escaped by slashing +the harness, leaping on the back of one of his horses, and +dashing into the forest. + + +Meanwhile the southern tribes along the border were comparatively +quiet. That they well knew a colossal struggle between the two +white races was pending and were predisposed to ally themselves +with the stronger is not to be doubted. French influence had long +been sifting through the formidable Cherokee nation, which still, +however, held true in the main to its treaties with the English. +It was the policy of the Governors of Virginia and North Carolina +to induce the Cherokees to enter strongly into the war as allies +of the English. Their efforts came to nothing chiefly because of +the purely local and suicidal Indian policy of Governor Glen of +South Carolina. There had been some dispute between Glen and +Dinwiddie as to the right of Virginia to trade with the +Cherokees; and Glen had sent to the tribes letters calculated to +sow distrust of all other aspirants for Indian favor, even +promising that certain settlers in the Back Country of North +Carolina should be removed and their holdings restored to the +Indians. These letters caused great indignation in North +Carolina, when they came to light, and had the worst possible +effect upon Indian relations. The Indians now inclined their ear +to the French who, though fewer than the English, were at least +united in purpose. + +Governor Glen took this inauspicious moment to hold high festival +with the Cherokees. It was the last year of his administration +and apparently he hoped to win promotion to some higher post by +showing his achievements for the fur trade and in the matter of +new land acquired. He plied the Cherokees with drink and induced +them to make formal submission and to cede all their lands to the +Crown. When the chiefs recovered their sobriety, they were filled +with rage at what had been done, and they remembered how the +French had told them that the English intended to make slaves of +all the Indians and to steal their lands. The situation was +complicated by another incident. Several Cherokee warriors +returning from the Ohio, whither they had gone to fight for the +British, were slain by frontiersmen. The tribe, in accordance +with existing agreements, applied to Virginia for redress--but +received none. + +There was thus plenty of powder for an explosion. Governor +Lyttleton, Glen's successor, at last flung the torch into the +magazine. He seized, as hostages, a number of friendly chiefs who +were coming to Charleston to offer tokens of good will and forced +them to march under guard on a military tour which the Governor +was making (1759) with intent to overawe the savages. When this +expedition reached Prince George, on the upper waters of the +Savannah, the Indian hostages were confined within the fort; and +the Governor, satisfied with the result of his maneuver departed +south for Charleston. Then followed a tragedy. Some Indian +friends of the imprisoned chiefs attacked the fort, and the +commander, a popular young officer, was treacherously killed +during a parley. The infuriated frontiersmen within the fort fell +upon the hostages and slew them all--twenty-six chiefs--and the +Indian war was on. + +If all were to be told of the struggle which followed in the Back +Country, the story could not be contained in this book. Many +brave and resourceful men went out against the savages. We can +afford only a passing glance at one of them. Hugh Waddell of +North Carolina was the most brilliant of all the frontier +fighters in that war. He was a young Ulsterman from County Down, +a born soldier, with a special genius for fighting Indians, +although he did not grow up on the border, for he arrived in +North Carolina in 1753, at the age of nineteen. He was appointed +by Governor Dobbs to command the second company which North +Carolina had raised for the war, a force of 450 rangers to +protect the border counties; and he presently became the most +conspicuous military figure in the colony. As to his personality, +we have only a few meager details, with a portrait that suggests +plainly enough those qualities of boldness and craft which +characterized his tactics. Governor Dobbs appears to have had a +special love towards Hugh, whose family he had known in Ireland, +for an undercurrent of almost fatherly pride is to be found in +the old Governor's reports to the Assembly concerning Waddell's +exploits. + +The terror raged for nearly three years. Cabins and fields were +burned, and women and children were slaughtered or dragged away +captives. Not only did immigration cease but many hardy settlers +fled from the country. At length, after horrors indescribable and +great toll of life, the Cherokees gave up the struggle. Their +towns were invaded and laid waste by imperial and colonial +troops, and they could do nothing but make peace. In 1761 they +signed a treaty with the English to hold "while rivers flow and +grasses grow and sun and moon endure." + + +In the previous year (1760) the imperial war had run its course +in America. New France lay prostrate, and the English were +supreme not only on the Ohio but on the St. Lawrence and the +Great Lakes. Louisbourg, Quebec, Montreal, Oswego, Niagara, +Duquesne, Detroit--all were in English hands. + +Hugh Waddell and his rangers, besides serving with distinction in +the Indian war, had taken part in the capture of Fort Duquesne. +This feat had been accomplished in 1758 by an expedition under +General Forbes. The troops made a terrible march over a new +route, cutting a road as they went. It was November when they +approached their objective. The wastes of snow and their +diminished supplies caused such depression among the men that the +officers called a halt to discuss whether or not to proceed +toward Fort Duquesne, where they believed the French to be +concentrated in force. Extravagant sums in guineas were named as +suitable reward for any man who would stalk and catch a French +Indian and learn from him the real conditions inside the fort. +The honor, if not the guineas, fell to John Rogers, one of +Waddell's rangers. From the Indian it was learned that the French +had already gone, leaving behind only a few of their number. As +the English drew near, they found that the garrison had blown up +the magazine, set fire to the fort, and made off. + +Thus, while New France was already tottering, but nearly two +years before the final capitulation at Montreal, the English +again became masters of the Ohio Company's land--masters of the +Forks of the Ohio. This time they were there to stay. Where the +walls of Fort Duquesne had crumbled in the fire Fort Pitt was to +rise, proudly bearing the name of England's Great Commoner who +had directed English arms to victory on three continents. + +With France expelled and the Indians deprived of their white +allies, the westward path lay open to the pioneers, even though +the red man himself would rise again and again in vain endeavor +to bar the way. So a new era begins, the era of exploration for +definite purpose, the era of commonwealth building. In entering +on it, we part with the earliest pioneer--the trader, who first +opened the road for both the lone home seeker and the great land +company. He dwindles now to the mere barterer and so--save for a +few chance glimpses--slips out of sight, for his brave days as +Imperial Scout are done. + + + +Chapter V. Boone, The Wanderer + +What thoughts filled Daniel Boone's mind as he was returning from +Braddock's disastrous campaign in 1755 we may only conjecture. +Perhaps he was planning a career of soldiering, for in later +years he was to distinguish himself as a frontier commander in +both defense and attack. Or it may be that his heart was full of +the wondrous tales told him by the trader, John Findlay, of that +Hunter's Canaan, Kentucky, where buffalo and deer roamed in +thousands. Perhaps he meant to set out ere long in search of the +great adventure of his dreams, despite the terrible dangers of +trail making across the zones of war into the unknown. + +However that may be, Boone straightway followed neither of these +possible plans on his return to the Yadkin but halted for a +different adventure. There, a rifle shot's distance from his +threshold, was offered him the oldest and sweetest of all hazards +to the daring. He was twenty-two, strong and comely and a whole +man; and therefore he was in no mind to refuse what life held out +to him in the person of Rebecca Bryan. Rebecca was the daughter +of Joseph Bryan, who had come to the Yadkin from Pennsylvania +some time before the Boones; and she was in her seventeenth year. + +Writers of an earlier and more sentimental period than ours have +endeavored to supply, from the saccharine stores of their fancy, +the romantic episodes connected with Boone's wooing which history +has omitted to record. Hence the tale that the young hunter, +walking abroad in the spring gloaming, saw Mistress Rebecca's +large dark eyes shining in the dusk of the forest, mistook them +for a deer's eyes and shot--his aim on this occasion fortunately +being bad! But if Boone's rifle was missing its mark at ten +paces, Cupid's dart was speeding home. So runs the story +concocted a hundred years later by some gentle scribe ignorant +alike of game seasons, the habits of hunters, and the way of a +man with a maid in a primitive world. + +Daniel and Rebecca were married in the spring of 1756. Squire +Boone, in his capacity as justice of the peace, tied the knot; +and in a small cabin built upon his spacious lands the young +couple set up housekeeping. Here Daniel's first two sons were +born. In the third year of his marriage, when the second child +was a babe in arms, Daniel removed with his wife and their young +and precious family to Culpeper County in eastern Virginia, for +the border was going through its darkest days of the French and +Indian War. During the next two or three years we find him in +Virginia engaged as a wagoner, hauling tobacco in season; but +back on the border with his rifle, after the harvest, aiding in +defense against the Indians. In 1759 he purchased from his father +a lot on Sugar Tree Creek, a tributary of Dutchman's Creek (Davie +County, North Carolina) and built thereon a cabin for himself. +The date when he brought his wife and children to live in their +new abode on the border is not recorded. It was probably some +time after the close of the Indian War. Of Boone himself during +these years we have but scant information. We hear of him again +in Virginia and also as a member of the pack-horse caravan which +brought into the Back Country the various necessaries for the +settlers. We know, too, that in the fall of 1760 he was on a lone +hunting trip in the mountains west of the Yadkin; for until a few +years ago there might be seen, still standing on the banks of +Boone's Creek (a small tributary of the Watauga) in eastern +Tennessee, a tree bearing the legend, "D Boon cilled A BAR on +this tree 1760." Boone was always fond of carving his exploits on +trees, and his wanderings have been traced largely by his +arboreal publications. In the next year (1761) he went with +Waddell's rangers when they marched with the army to the final +subjugation of the Cherokee. + +That Boone and his family were back on the border in the new +cabin shortly after the end of the war, we gather from the fact +that in 1764 he took his little son James, aged seven, on one of +his long hunting excursions. From this time dates the intimate +comradeship of father and son through all the perils of the +wilderness, a comradeship to come to its tragic end ten years +later when, as we shall see, the seventeen-year-old lad fell +under the red man's tomahawk as his father was leading the first +settlers towards Kentucky. In the cold nights of the open camp, +as Daniel and James lay under the frosty stars, the father kept +the boy warm snuggled to his breast under the broad flap of his +hunting shirt. Sometimes the two were away from home for months +together, and Daniel declared little James to be as good a +woodsman as his father. + +Meanwhile fascinating accounts of the new land of Florida, ceded +to Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, had leaked into the +Back Country; and in the winter of 1765 Boone set off southward +on horseback with, seven companions. Colonel James Grant, with +whose army Boone had fought in 1761, had been appointed Governor +of the new colony and was offering generous inducements to +settlers. The party traveled along the borders of South Carolina +and Georgia. No doubt they made the greater part of their way +over the old Traders' Trace, the "whitened" warpath; and they +suffered severe hardships. Game became scarcer as they proceeded. +Once they were nigh to perishing of starvation and were saved +from that fate only through chance meeting with a band of Indians +who, seeing their plight, made camp and shared their food with +them--according to the Indian code in time of peace. + +Boone's party explored Florida from St. Augustine to Pensacola, +and Daniel became sufficiently enamored of the tropical south to +purchase there land and a house. His wife, however, was unwilling +to go to Florida, and she was not long in convincing the hunter +that he would soon tire of a gameless country. A gameless +country! Perhaps this was the very thought which turned the +wanderer's desires again towards the land of Kentucky.* The +silencing of the enemy's whisper in the Cherokee camps had opened +the border forests once more to the nomadic rifleman. Boone was +not alone in the desire to seek out what lay beyond. His +brother-in-law, John Stewart, and a nephew by marriage, Benjamin +Cutbirth, or Cutbird, with two other young men, John Baker and +James Ward, in 1766 crossed the Appalachian Mountains, probably +by stumbling upon the Indian trail winding from base to summit +and from peak to base again over this part of the great hill +barrier. They eventually reached the Mississippi River and, +having taken a good quantity of peltry on the way, they launched +upon the stream and came in time to New Orleans, where they made +a satisfactory trade of their furs. + +* Kentucky, from Ken-ta-ke, an Iroquois word meaning "the place +of old fields." Adair calls the territory "the old fields." The +Indians apparently used the word "old," as we do in a sense of +endearment and possession as well as relative to age. + + +Boone was fired anew by descriptions of this successful feat, in +which two of his kinsmen had participated. He could no longer be +held back. He must find the magic door that led through the vast +mountain wall into Kentucky--Kentucky, with its green prairies +where the buffalo and deer were as "ten thousand thousand cattle +feeding" in the wilds, and where the balmy air vibrated with the +music of innumerable wings. + +Accordingly, in the autumn of 1767, Boone began his quest of the +delectable country in the company of his friend, William Hill, +who had been with him in Florida. Autumn was the season of +departure on all forest excursions, because by that time the +summer crops had been gathered in and the day of the deer had +come. By hunting, the explorers must feed themselves on their +travels and with deerskins and furs they must on their return +recompense those who had supplied their outfit. Boone, the +incessant but not always lucky wanderer, was in these years ever +in debt for an outfit. + +Boone and Hill made their way over the Blue Ridge and the +Alleghanies and crossed the Holston and Clinch rivers. Then they +came upon the west fork of the Big Sandy and, believing that it +would lead them to the Ohio, they continued for at least a +hundred miles to the westward. Here they found a buffalo trace, +one of the many beaten out by the herds in their passage to the +salt springs, and they followed it into what is now Floyd County +in eastern Kentucky. But this was not the prairie land described +by Findlay; it was rough and hilly and so overgrown with laurel +as to be almost impenetrable. They therefore wended their way +back towards the river, doubtless erected the usual hunter's camp +of skins or blankets and branches, and spent the winter in +hunting and trapping. Spring found them returning to their homes +on the Yadkin with a fair winter's haul. + +Such urgent desire as Boone's, however, was not to be defeated. +The next year brought him his great opportunity. John Findlay +came to the Yadkin with a horse pack of needles and linen and +peddler's wares to tempt the slim purses of the Back Country +folk. The two erstwhile comrades in arms were overjoyed to +encounter each other again, and Findlay spent the winter of +1768-69 in Boone's cabin. While the snow lay deep outside and +good-smelling logs crackled on the hearth, they planned an +expedition into Kentucky through the Gap where Virginia, +Tennessee, and Kentucky touch one another, which Findlay felt +confident he could find. Findlay had learned of this route from +cross-mountain traders in 1753, when he had descended the Ohio to +the site of Louisville, whence he had gone with some Shawanoes as +a prisoner to their town of Es-kip-pa-ki-thi-ki or Blue Licks.* + +* Hanna, "The Wilderness Trail," vol. II, pp. 215-16. + +On the first day of May, 1769, Boone and Findlay, accompanied by +John Stewart and three other venturesome spirits, Joseph Holden, +James Mooney, and William Cooley, took horse for the fabled land. +Passing through the Cumberland Gap, they built their first camp +in Kentucky on the Red Lick fork of Station Camp Creek. + +This camp was their base of operations. From it, usually in +couples, we infer, the explorers branched out to hunt and to take +their observations of the country. Here also they prepared the +deer and buffalo meat for the winter, dried or smoked the geese +they shot in superabundance, made the tallow and oil needed to +keep their weapons in trim, their leather soft, and their kits +waterproof. Their first ill luck befell them in December when +Boone and Stewart were captured by a band of Shawanoes who were +returning from their autumn hunt on Green River. The Indians +compelled the two white men to show them the location of their +camp, took possession of all it contained in skins and furs and +also helped themselves to the horses. They left the explorers +with just enough meat and ammunition to provide for their journey +homeward, and told them to depart and not to intrude again on the +red men's hunting grounds. Having given this pointed warning, the +Shawanoes rode on northward towards their towns beyond the Ohio. +On foot, swiftly and craftily, Boone and his brother-in-law +trailed the band for two days. They came upon the camp in dead of +night, recaptured their horses, and fled. But this was a game in +which the Indians themselves excelled, and at this date the +Shawanoes had an advantage over Boone in their thorough knowledge +of the territory; so that within fortyeight hours the white men +were once more prisoners. After they had amused themselves by +making Boone caper about with a horse bell on his neck, while +they jeered at him in broken English, "Steal horse, eh?" the +Shawanoes turned north again, this time taking the two +unfortunate hunters with them. Boone and Stewart escaped, one day +on the march, by a plunge into the thick tall canebrake. Though +the Indians did not attempt to follow them through the mazes of +the cane, the situation of the two hunters, without weapons or +food, was serious enough. When they found Station Camp deserted +and realized that their four companions had given them up for +dead or lost and had set off on the trail for home, even such +intrepid souls as theirs may have felt fear. They raced on in +pursuit and fortunately fell in not only with their party but +with Squire Boone, Daniel's brother, and Alexander Neely, who had +brought in fresh supplies of rifles, ammunition, flour, and +horses. + +After this lucky encounter the group separated. Findlay was ill, +and Holden, Mooney, and Cooley had had their fill of Kentucky; +but Squire, Neely, Stewart, and Daniel were ready for more +adventures. Daniel, too, felt under the positive necessity of +putting in another year at hunting and trapping in order to +discharge his debts and provide for his family. Near the mouth of +Red River the new party built their station camp. Here, in idle +hours, Neely read aloud from a copy of "Gulliver's Travels" to +entertain the hunters while they dressed their deerskins or +tinkered their weapons. In honor of the "Lorbrulgrud" of the +book, though with a pronunciation all their own, they christened +the nearest creek; and as "Lulbegrud Creek" it is still known. + +Before the end of the winter the two Boones were alone in the +wilderness. Their brother-in-law, Stewart, had disappeared; and +Neely, discouraged by this tragic event, had returned to the +Yadkin. In May, Squire Boone fared forth, taking with him the +season's catch of beaver, otter, and deerskins to exchange in the +North Carolinian trading houses for more supplies; and Daniel was +left solitary in Kentucky. + +Now followed those lonely explorations which gave Daniel Boone +his special fame above all Kentucky's pioneers. He was by no +means the first white man to enter Kentucky; and when he did +enter, it was as one of a party, under another man's guidance--if +we except his former disappointing journey into the laurel +thickets of Floyd County. But these others, barring Stewart, who +fell there, turned back when they met with loss and hardship and +measured the certain risks against the possible gains. Boone, the +man of imagination, turned to wild earth as to his kin. His +genius lay in the sense of oneness he felt with his wilderness +environment. An instinct he had which these other men, as +courageous perhaps as he, did not possess. + +Never in all the times when he was alone in the woods and had no +other man's safety or counsel to consider, did he suffer ill +fortune. The nearest approach to trouble that befell him when +alone occurred one day during this summer when some Indians +emerged from their green shelter and found him, off guard for the +moment, standing on a cliff gazing with rapture over the vast +rolling stretches of Kentucky. He was apparently cut off from +escape, for the savages were on three sides, advancing without +haste to take him, meanwhile greeting him with mock amity. Over +the cliff leaped Boone and into the outspread arms of a friendly +maple, whose top bloomed green about sixty feet below the cliff's +rim, and left his would-be captors on the height above, grunting +their amazement. + +During this summer Boone journeyed through the valleys of the +Kentucky and the Licking. He followed the buffalo traces to the +two Blue Licks and saw the enormous herds licking up the salt +earth, a darkly ruddy moving mass of beasts whose numbers could +not be counted. For many miles he wound along the Ohio, as far as +the Falls. He also found the Big Bone Lick with its mammoth +fossils. + +In July, 1770, Daniel returned to the Red River camp and there +met Squire Boone with another pack of supplies. The two brothers +continued their hunting and exploration together for some months, +chiefly in Jessamine County, where two caves still bear Boone's +name. In that winter they even braved the Green River ground, +whence had come the hunting Shawanoes who had taken Daniel's +first fruits a year before. In the same year (1770) there had +come into Kentucky from the Yadkin another party of hunters, +called, from their lengthy sojourn in the twilight zone, the Long +Hunters. One of these, Gasper Mansker, afterwards related how the +Long Hunters were startled one day by hearing sounds such as no +buffalo or turkey ever made, and how Mansker himself stole +silently under cover of the trees towards the place whence the +strange noises came, and descried Daniel Boone prone on his back +with a deerskin under him, his famous tall black hat beside him +and his mouth opened wide in joyous but apparently none too +tuneful song. This incident gives a true character touch. It is +not recorded of any of the men who turned back that they sang +alone in the wilderness. + +In March, 1771, the two Boones started homeward, their horses +bearing the rich harvest of furs and deerskins which was to clear +Daniel of debt and to insure the comfort of the family he had not +seen for two years. But again evil fortune met them, this time in +the very gates--for in the Cumberland Gap they were suddenly +surrounded by Indians who took everything from them, leaving them +neither guns nor horses. + + + +Chapter VI. The Fight For Kentucky + +When Boone returned home he found the Back Country of North +Carolina in the throes of the Regulation Movement. This movement, +which had arisen first from the colonists' need to police their +settlements, had more recently assumed a political character. The +Regulators were now in conflict with the authorities, because the +frontier folk were suffering through excessive taxes, +extortionate fees, dishonest land titles, and the corruption of +the courts. In May, 1771, the conflict lost its quasi-civil +nature. The Regulators resorted to arms and were defeated by the +forces under Governor Tryon in the Battle of the Alamance. + +The Regulation Movement, which we shall follow in more detail +further on, was a culmination of those causes of unrest which +turned men westward. To escape from oppression and to acquire +land beyond the bounds of tyranny became the earnest desire of +independent spirits throughout the Back Country. But there was +another and more potent reason why the country east of the +mountains no longer contented Boone. Hunting and trapping were +Boone's chief means of livelihood. In those days, deerskins sold +for a dollar a skin to the traders at the Forks or in +Hillsborough; beaver at about two dollars and a half, and otter +at from three to five dollars. A pack-horse could carry a load of +one hundred dressed deerskins, and, as currency was scarce, a +hundred dollars was wealth. Game was fast disappearing from the +Yadkin. To Boone above all men, then, Kentucky beckoned. When he +returned in the spring of 1771 from his explorations, it was with +the resolve to take his family at once into the great game +country and to persuade some of his friends to join in this +hazard of new fortunes. + +The perils of such a venture, only conjectural to us at this +distance, he knew well; but in him there was nothing that shrank +from danger, though he did not court it after the rash manner of +many of his compeers. Neither reckless nor riotous, Boone was +never found among those who opposed violence to authority, even +unjust authority; nor was he ever guilty of the savagery which +characterized much of the retaliatory warfare of that period when +frenzied white men bettered the red man's instruction. In him, +courage was illumined with tenderness and made equable by +self-control. Yet, though he was no fiery zealot like the +Ulstermen who were to follow him along the path he had made and +who loved and revered him perhaps because he was so different +from themselves, Boone nevertheless had his own religion. It was +a simple faith best summed up perhaps by himself in his old age +when he said that he had been only an instrument in the hand of +God to open the wilderness to settlement. + +Two years passed before Boone could muster a company of colonists +for the dangerous and delectable land. The dishonesty practiced +by Lord Granville's agents in the matter of deeds had made it +difficult for Daniel and his friends to dispose of their acreage. +When at last in the spring of 1773 the Wanderer was prepared to +depart, he was again delayed; this time by the arrival of a +little son to whom was given the name of John. By September, +however, even this latest addition to the party was ready for +travel; and that month saw the Boones with a small caravan of +families journeying towards Powell's Valley, whence the Warrior's +Path took its way through Cumberland Gap. At this point on the +march they were to be joined by William Russell, a famous +pioneer, from the Clinch River, with his family and a few +neighbors, and by some of Rebecca Boone's kinsmen, the Bryans, +from the lower Yadkin, with a company of forty men. + +Of Rebecca Boone history tells us too little--only that she was +born a Bryan, was of low stature and dark eyed, that she bore her +husband ten children, and lived beside him to old age. Except on +his hunts and explorations, she went with him from one cabined +home to another, always deeper into the wilds. There are no +portraits of her. We can see her only as a shadowy figure moving +along the wilderness trails beside the man who accepted his +destiny of God to be a way-shower for those of lesser faith. + +"He tires not forever on his leagues of march +Because her feet are set to his footprints, +And the gleam of her bare hand slants across his shoulder." + +Boone halted his company on Walden Mountain over Powell's Valley +to await the Bryan contingent and dispatched two young men under +the leadership of his son James, then in his seventeenth year, to +notify Russell of the party's arrival. As the boys were returning +with Russell's son, also a stripling, two of his slaves, and some +white laborers, they missed the path and went into camp for the +night. When dawn broke, disclosing the sleepers, a small war band +of Shawanoes, who had been spying on Boone and his party, fell +upon them and slaughtered them. Only one of Russell's slaves and +a laborer escaped. The tragedy seems augmented by the fact that +the point where the boys lost the trail and made their night +quarters was hardly three miles from the main camp--to which an +hour later came the two survivors with their gloomy tidings. +Terror now took hold of the little band of emigrants, and there +were loud outcries for turning back. The Bryans, who had arrived +meanwhile, also advised retreat, saying that the "signs" about +the scene of blood indicated an Indian uprising. Daniel carried +the scalped body of his son, the boy-comrade of his happy hunts, +to the camp and buried it there at the beginning of the trail. +His voice alone urged that they go on. + +Fortunately indeed, as events turned out, Boone was overruled, +and the expedition was abandoned. The Bryan party and the others +from North Carolina went back to the Yadkin. Boone himself with +his family accompanied Russell to the Clinch settlement, where he +erected a temporary cabin on the farm of one of the settlers, and +then set out alone on the chase to earn provision for his wife +and children through the winter. + + +Those who prophesied an Indian war were not mistaken. When the +snowy hunting season had passed and the "Powwowing Days" were +come, the Indian war drum rattled in the medicine house from the +borders of Pennsylvania to those of Carolina. The causes of the +strife for which the red men were making ready must be briefly +noted to help us form a just opinion of the deeds that followed. +Early writers have usually represented the frontiersmen as saints +in buckskin and the Indians as fiends without the shadow of a +claim on either the land or humanity. Many later writers have +merely reversed the shield. The truth is that the Indians and the +borderers reacted upon each other to the hurt of both. +Paradoxically, they grew like enough to hate one another with a +savage hatred--and both wanted the land. + +Land! Land! was the slogan of all sorts and conditions of men. +Tidewater officials held solemn powwows with the chiefs, gave +wampum strings, and forthwith incorporated.* Chiefs blessed their +white brothers who had "forever brightened the chain of +friendship," departed home, and proceeded to brighten the blades +of their tomahawks and to await, not long, the opportunity to use +them on casual hunters who carried in their kits the compass, the +"land-stealer." Usually the surveying hunter was a borderer; and +on him the tomahawk descended with an accelerated gusto. Private +citizens also formed land companies and sent out surveyors, +regardless of treaties. Bold frontiersmen went into No Man's Land +and staked out their claims. In the very year when disaster +turned the Boone party back, James Harrod had entered Kentucky +from Pennsylvania and had marked the site of a settlement. + +* The activities of the great land companies are described in +Alvord's exhaustive work, "The Mississippi Valley in British +Politics." + + +Ten years earlier (1763), the King had issued the famous and much +misunderstood Proclamation restricting his "loving subjects" from +the lands west of the mountains. The colonists interpreted this +document as a tyrannous curtailment of their liberties for the +benefit of the fur trade. We know now that the portion of this +Proclamation relating to western settlement was a wise provision +designed to protect the settlers on the frontier by allaying the +suspicions of the Indians, who viewed with apprehension the +triumphal occupation of that vast territory from Canada to the +Gulf of Mexico by the colonizing English. By seeking to compel +all land purchase to be made through the Crown, it was designed +likewise to protect the Indians from "whisky purchase," and to +make impossible the transfer of their lands except with consent +of the Indian Council, or full quota of headmen, whose joint +action alone conveyed what the tribes considered to be legal +title. Sales made according to this form, Sir William Johnson +declared to the Lords of Trade, he had never known to be +repudiated by the Indians. This paragraph of the Proclamation was +in substance an embodiment of Johnson's suggestions to the Lords +of Trade. Its purpose was square dealing and pacification; and +shrewd men such as Washington recognized that it was not intended +as a final check to expansion. "A temporary expedient to quiet +the minds of the Indians," Washington called it, and then himself +went out along the Great Kanawha and into Kentucky, surveying +land. + +It will be asked what had become of the Ohio Company of Virginia +and that fort at the Forks of the Ohio; once a bone of contention +between France and England. Fort Pitt, as it was now called, had +fallen foul of another dispute, this time between Virginia and +Pennsylvania. Virginia claimed that the far western corner of her +boundary ascended just far enough north to take in Fort Pitt. +Pennsylvania asserted that it did nothing of the sort. The Ohio +Company had meanwhile been merged into the Walpole Company. +George Croghan, at Fort Pitt, was the Company's agent and as such +was accused by Pennsylvania of favoring from ulterior motives the +claims of Virginia. Hotheads in both colonies asseverated that +the Indians were secretly being stirred up in connection with the +boundary disputes. If it does not very clearly appear how an +Indian rising would have settled the ownership of Fort Pitt, it +is evident enough where the interests of Virginia and +Pennsylvania clashed. Virginia wanted land for settlement and +speculation; Pennsylvania wanted the Indians left in possession +for the benefit of the fur trade. So far from stirring up the +Indians, as his enemies declared, Croghan was as usual giving +away all his substance to keep them quiet.* Indeed, during this +summer of 1774, eleven hundred Indians were encamped about Fort +Pitt visiting him. + +* The suspicion that Croghan and Lord Dunmore, the Governor of +Virginia, were instigating the war appears to have arisen out of +the conduct of Dr. John Connolly, Dunmore's agent and Croghan's +nephew. Croghan had induced the Shawanoes to bring under escort +to Fort Pitt certain English traders resident in the Indian +towns. The escort was fired on by militiamen under command of +Connolly, who also issued a proclamation declaring a state of war +to exist. Connolly, however, probably acted on his own +initiative. He was interested in land on his own behalf and was +by no means the only man at that time who was ready to commit +outrages on Indians in order to obtain it. As Croghan lamented, +there was "too great a spirit in the frontier people for killing +Indians." + + +Two hundred thousand acres in the West--Kentucky and West +Virginia--had been promised to the colonial officers and soldiers +who fought in the Seven Years' War. But after making the +Proclamation the British Government had delayed issuing the +patents. Washington interested himself in trying to secure them; +and Lord Dunmore, who also had caught the "land-fever,"* prodded +the British authorities but won only rebuke for his inconvenient +activities. Insistent, however, Dunmore sent out parties of +surveyors to fix the bounds of the soldiers' claims. James +Harrod, Captain Thomas Bullitt, Hancock Taylor, and three McAfee +brothers entered Kentucky, by the Ohio, under Dunmore's orders. +John Floyd went in by the Kanawha as Washington's agent. A +bird's-eye view of that period would disclose to us very few +indeed of His Majesty's loving subjects who were paying any +attention to his proclamation. Early in 1774, Harrod began the +building of cabins and a fort, and planted corn on the site of +Harrodsburg. Thus to him and not to Boone fell the honor of +founding the first permanent white settlement in Kentucky + +* See Alvord, "The Mississippi Valley in British Politics," vol. +II, pp. 191-94. + + +When summer came, its thick verdure proffering ambuscade, the air +hung tense along the border. Traders had sent in word that +Shawanoes, Delawares, Mingos, Wyandots, and Cherokees were +refusing all other exchange than rifles, ammunition, knives, and +hatchets. White men were shot down in their fields from ambush. +Dead Indians lay among their own young corn, their scalp locks +taken. There were men of both races who wanted war and meant to +have it--and with it the land. + +Lord Dunmore, the Governor, resolved that, if war were +inevitable, it should be fought out in the Indian country. With +this intent, he wrote to Colonel Andrew Lewis of Botetourt +County, Commander of the Southwest Militia, instructing him to +raise a respectable body of troops and "join me either at the +mouth of the Great Kanawha or Wheeling, or such other part of the +Ohio as may be most convenient for you to meet me." The Governor +himself with a force of twelve hundred proceeded to Fort Pitt, +where Croghan, as we have seen, was extending his hospitality to +eleven hundred warriors from the disaffected tribes. + +On receipt of the Governor's letter, Andrew Lewis sent out +expresses to his brother Colonel Charles Lewis, County Lieutenant +of Augusta, and to Colonel William Preston, County Lieutenant of +Fincastle, to raise men and bring them with all speed to the +rendezvous at Camp Union (Lewisburg) on the Big Levels of the +Greenbrier (West Virginia). Andrew Lewis summoned these officers +to an expedition for "reducing our inveterate enemies to reason." +Preston called for volunteers to take advantage of "the +opportunity we have so long wished for...this useless People +may now at last be oblidged to abandon their country." These men +were among not only the bravest but the best of their time; but +this was their view of the Indian and his alleged rights. To +eliminate this "useless people," inveterate enemies of the white +race, was, as they saw it, a political necessity and a religious +duty. And we today who profit by their deeds dare not condemn +them. + +Fervor less solemn was aroused in other quarters by Dunmore's +call to arms. At Wheeling, some eighty or ninety young +adventurers, in charge of Captain Michael Cresap of Maryland, +were waiting for the freshets to sweep them down the Ohio into +Kentucky. When the news reached them, they greeted it with the +wild monotone chant and the ceremonies preliminary to Indian +warfare. They planted the war pole, stripped and painted +themselves, and starting the war dance called on Cresap to be +their "white leader." The captain, however, declined; but in that +wild circling line was one who was a white leader indeed. He was +a sandy-haired boy of twenty--one of the bold race of English +Virginians, rugged and of fiery countenance, with blue eyes +intense of glance and deep set under a high brow that, while +modeled for power, seemed threatened in its promise by the too +sensitive chiseling of his lips. With every nerve straining for +the fray, with thudding of feet and crooning of the blood song, +he wheeled with those other mad spirits round the war pole till +the set of sun closed the rites. "That evening two scalps were +brought into camp," so a letter of his reads. Does the bold +savage color of this picture affright us? Would we veil it? Then +we should lose something of the true lineaments of George Rogers +Clark, who, within four short years, was to lead a tiny army of +tattered and starving backwoodsmen, ashamed to quail where he +never flinched, through barrens and icy floods to the conquest of +Illinois for the United States. + +Though Cresap had rejected the role of "white leader," he did not +escape the touch of infamy. "Cresap's War" was the name the +Indians gave to the bloody encounters between small parties of +whites and Indians, which followed on that war dance and +scalping, during the summer months. One of these encounters must +be detailed here because history has assigned it as the immediate +cause of Dunmore's War. + +Greathouse, Sapperton, and King, three traders who had a post on +Yellow Creek, a tributary of the Ohio fifty miles below +Pittsburgh, invited several Indians from across the stream to +come and drink with them and their friends. Among the Indians +were two or three men of importance in the Mingo tribe. There +were also some women, one of whom was the Indian wife of Colonel +John Gibson, an educated man who had distinguished himself as a +soldier with Forbes in 1768. That the Indians came in amity and +apprehended no treachery was proved by the presence of the women. +Gibson's wife carried her halfcaste baby in her shawl. The +disreputable traders plied their guests with drink to the point +of intoxication and then murdered them. King shot the first man +and, when he fell, cut his throat, saying that he had served many +a deer in that fashion. Gibson's Indian wife fled and was shot +down in the clearing. A man followed to dispatch her and her +baby. She held the child up to him pleading, with her last +breath, that he would spare it because it was not Indian but "one +of yours." The mother dead, the child was later sent to Gibson. +Twelve Indians in all were killed. + +Meanwhile Croghan had persuaded the Iroquois to peace. With the +help of David Zeisberger, the Moravian missionary, and White +Eyes, a Delaware chief, he and Dunmore had won over the Delaware +warriors. In the Cherokee councils, Oconostota demanded that the +treaty of peace signed in 1761 be kept. The Shawanoes, however, +led by Cornstalk, were implacable; and they had as allies the +Ottawas and Mingos, who had entered the council with them. + +A famous chief of the day and one of great influence over the +Indians, and also among the white officials who dealt with Indian +affairs, was Tachnech-dor-us, or Branching Oak of the Forest, a +Mingo who had taken the name of Logan out of compliment to James +Logan of Pennsylvania. Chief Logan had recently met with so much +reproach from his red brothers for his loyalty to the whites that +he had departed from the Mingo town at Yellow Creek. But, +learning that his tribe had determined to assist the Shawanoes +and had already taken some white scalps, he repaired to the place +where the Mingos were holding their war council to exert his +powers for peace. There, in presence of the warriors, after +swaying them from their purpose by those oratorical gifts which +gave him his influence and his renown, he took the war hatchet +that had already killed, and buried it in proof that vengeance +was appeased. Upon this scene there entered a Mingo from Yellow +Creek with the news of the murders committed there by the three +traders. The Indian whose throat had been slit as King had served +deer was Logan's brother. Another man slain was his kinsman. The +woman with the baby was his sister. Logan tore up from the earth +the bloody tomahawk and, raising it above his head, swore that he +would not rest till he had taken ten white lives to pay for each +one of his kin. Again the Mingo warriors declared for war and +this time were not dissuaded. But Logan did not join this red +army. He went out alone to wreak his vengeance, slaying and +scalping. + + +Meanwhile Dunmore prepared to push the war with the utmost vigor. +His first concern was to recall the surveying parties from +Kentucky, and for so hazardous an errand he needed the services +of a man whose endurance, speed, and woodcraft were equal to +those of any Indian scout afoot. Through Colonel Preston, his +orders were conveyed to Daniel Boone, for Boone's fame had now +spread from the border to the tidewater regions. It was stated +that "Boone would lose no time," and "if they are alive, it is +indisputable but Boone must find them." + +So Boone set out in company with Michael Stoner, another expert +woodsman. His general instructions were to go down the Kentucky +River to Preston's Salt Lick and across country to the Falls of +the Ohio, and thence home by Gaspar's Lick on the Cumberland +River. Indian war parties were moving under cover across "the +Dark and Bloody Ground" to surround the various groups of +surveyors still at large and to exterminate them. Boone made his +journey successfully. He found John Floyd, who was surveying for +Washington; he sped up to where Harrod and his band were building +cabins and sent them out, just in time as it happened; he reached +all the outposts of Thomas Bullitt's party, only one of whom fell +a victim to the foe*; and, undetected by the Indians, he brought +himself and Stoner home in safety, after covering eight hundred +miles in sixty-one days. + +* Hancock Taylor, who delayed in getting out of the country and +was cut off. + + +Harrod and his homesteaders immediately enlisted in the army. How +eager Boone was to go with the forces under Lewis is seen in the +official correspondence relative to Dunmore's War. Floyd wanted +Boone's help in raising a company: "Captain Bledsoe says that +Boone has more [influence] than any man now disengaged; and you +know what Boone has done for me...for which reason I love the +man." Even the border, it would seem, had its species of +pacifists who were willing to let others take risks for them, for +men hung back from recruiting, and desertions were the order of +the day. Major Arthur Campbell hit upon a solution of the +difficulties in West Fincastle. He was convinced that Boone could +raise a company and hold the men loyal. And Boone did. + +For some reason, however, Daniel's desire to march with the army +was denied. Perhaps it was because just such a man as he--and, +indeed, there was no other--was needed to guard the settlement. +Presently he was put in command of Moore's Fort in Clinch Valley, +and his "diligence" received official approbation. A little later +the inhabitants of the valley sent out a petition to have Boone +made a "captain" and given supreme command of the lower forts. +The settlers demanded Boone's promotion for their own security. + +"The land it is good, it is just to our mind, +Each will have his part if his Lordship be kind, +The Ohio once ours, we'll live at our ease, +With a bottle and glass to drink when we please." + +So sang the army poet, thus giving voice, as bards should ever +do, to the theme nearest the hearts of his hearers--in this case, +Land! Presumably his ditty was composed on the eve of the march +from Lewisburg, for it is found in a soldier's diary. + +On the evening of October 9,1774, Andrew Lewis with his force of +eleven hundred frontiersmen was encamped on Point Pleasant at the +junction of the Great Kanawha with the Ohio. Dunmore in the +meantime had led his forces into Ohio and had erected Fort Gower +at the mouth of the Hockhocking River, where he waited for word +from Andrew Lewis.* + +* It has been customary to ascribe to Lord Dunmore motives of +treachery in failing to make connections with Lewis; but no real +evidence has been advanced to support any of the charges made +against him by local historians. The charges were, as Theodore +Roosevelt says, "an afterthought." Dunmore was a King's man in +the Revolution; and yet in March, 1775, the Convention of the +Colony of Virginia, assembled in opposition to the royal party, +resolved: "The most cordial thanks of the people of this colony +are a tribute justly due to our worthy Governor Lord Dunmore, for +his truly noble, wise, and spirited conduct which at once evinces +his Excellency's attention to the true interests of this colony, +and a real in the executive department which no dangers can +divert, or difficulties hinder, from achieving the most important +services to the people who have the happiness to live under his +administration." (See "American Archives," Fourth Series, vol. +II, p. 170.) Similar resolutions were passed by his officers on +the march home from Ohio; at the same time, the officers passed +resolutions in sympathy with the American cause. Yet it was +Andrew Lewis who later drove Dunmore from Virginia. Well might +Dunmore exclaim, "That it should ever come to this!" + + +The movements of the two armies were being observed by scouts +from the force of red warriors gathered in Ohio under the great +leader of the Shawanoes. Cornstalk purposed to isolate the two +armies of his enemy and to crush them in turn before they could +come together. His first move was to launch an attack on Lewis at +Point Pleasant. In the dark of night, Cornstalk's Indians crossed +the Ohio on rafts, intending to surprise the white man's camp at +dawn. They would have succeeded but for the chance that three or +four of the frontiersmen, who had risen before daybreak to hunt, +came upon the Indians creeping towards the camp. Shots were +exchanged. An Indian and a white man dropped. The firing roused +the camp. Three hundred men in two lines under Charles Lewis and +William Fleming sallied forth expecting to engage the vanguard of +the enemy but encountered almost the whole force of from eight +hundred to a thousand Indians before the rest of the army could +come into action. Both officers were wounded, Charles Lewis +fatally. The battle, which continued from dawn until an hour +before sunset, was the bloodiest in Virginia's long series of +Indian wars. The frontiersmen fought as such men ever +fought--with the daring, bravery, swiftness of attack, and skill +in taking cover which were the tactics of their day, even as at a +later time many of these same men fought at King's Mountain and +in Illinois the battles that did so much to turn the tide in the +Revolution.* + +* With Andrew Lewis on this day were Isaac Shelby and William +Campbell, the victorious leaders at King's Mountain, James +Robertson, the "father of Tennessee," Valentine Sevier, Daniel +Morgan, hero of the Cowpens, Major Arthur Campbell, Benjamin +Logan, Anthony Bledsoe, and Simon Kenton. With Dunmore's force +were Adam Stephen, who distinguished himself at the Brandywine, +George Rogers Clark, John Stuart, already noted through the +Cherokee wars, and John Montgomery, later one of Clark's four +captains in Illinois. The two last mentioned were Highlanders. +Clark's Illinois force was largely recruited from the troops who +fought at Point Pleasant. + + +Colonel Preston wrote to Patrick Henry that the enemy behaved +with "inconceivable bravery," the head men walking about in the +time of action exhorting their men to "lie close, shoot well, be +strong, and fight." The Shawanoes ran up to the muzzles of the +English guns, disputing every foot of ground. Both sides knew +well what they were fighting for--the rich land held in a +semicircle by the Beautiful River. + +Shortly before sundown the Indians, mistaking a flank movement by +Shelby's contingent for the arrival of reinforcements, retreated +across the Ohio. Many of their most noted warriors had fallen and +among them the Shawano chief, Puck-e-shin-wa, father of a famous +son, Tecumseh.* Yet they were unwilling to accept defeat. When +they heard that Dunmore was now marching overland to cut them off +from their towns, their fury blazed anew. "Shall we first kill +all our women and children and then fight till we ourselves are +slain?" Cornstalk, in irony, demanded of them; "No? Then I will +go and make peace." + +* Thwaites, "Documentary History of Dunmore's War." + + +By the treaty compacted between the chiefs and Lord Dunmore, the +Indians gave up all claim to the lands south of the Ohio, even +for hunting, and agreed to allow boats to pass unmolested. In +this treaty the Mingos refused to join, and a detachment of +Dunmore's troops made a punitive expedition to their towns. Some +discord arose between Dunmore and Lewis's frontier forces +because, since the Shawanoes had made peace, the Governor would +not allow the frontiersmen to destroy the Shawano towns. + +Of all the chiefs, Logan alone still held aloof. Major Gibson +undertook to fetch him, but Logan refused to come to the treaty +grounds. He sent by Gibson the short speech which has lived as an +example of the best Indian oratory: + +"I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's +cabin hungry and he gave him not meat: if ever he came cold and +naked and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long +and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for +peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed +as they passed and said, 'Logan is the friend of the white men.' +I had even thought to have lived with you but for the injuries of +one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and +unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing +my women and children. There remains not a drop of my blood in +the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. +I have sought it; I have killed many; I have fully glutted my +vengeance: for my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do +not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never +felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is +there to mourn for Logan? Not one."* + +* Some writers have questioned the authenticity of Logan's +speech, inclining to think that Gibson himself composed it, +partly because of the biblical suggestion in the first few lines. +That Gibson gave biblical phraseology to these lines is apparent, +though, as Adair points out there are many examples of similitude +in Indian and biblical expression. But the thought is Indian and +relates to the first article of the Indian's creed, namely, to +share his food with the needy. "There remains not a drop of my +blood in the veins of any living creature" is a truly Indian +lament. Evidently the final four lines of the speech are the most +literally translated, for they have the form and the primitive +rhythmic beat which a student of Indian poetry quickly recognizes. +The authenticity of the speech, as well as the innocence +of Cresap, whom Logan mistakenly accused, was vouched for by +George Rogers Clark in a letter to Dr. Samuel Brown dated June +17, 1798. See Jefferson papers, Series 6, quoted by English, +"Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio." vol. II. +p. 1029. + + +By rivers and trails, in large and small companies, started home +the army that had won the land. The West Fincastle troops, from +the lower settlements of the Clinch and Holston valleys, were to +return by the Kentucky River, while those from the upper valley +would take the shorter way up Sandy Creek. To keep them in +provisions during the journey it was ordered that hunters be sent +out along these routes to kill and barbecue meat and place it on +scaffolds at appropriate spots. + +The way home by the Kentucky was a long road for weary and +wounded men with hunger gnawing under their belts. We know who +swung out along the trail to provide for that little band, +"dressed in deerskins colored black, and his hair plaited and +bobbed up." It was Daniel Boone--now, by popular demand, Captain +Boone--just "discharged from Service," since the valley forts +needed him no longer. Once more only a hunter, he went his way +over Walden Mountain--past his son's grave marking the place +where HE had been turned back--to serve the men who had opened +the gates. + + + +Chapter VII. The Dark And Bloody Ground + +With the coming of spring Daniel Boone's desire, so long +cherished and deferred, to make a way for his neighbors through +the wilderness was to be fulfilled at last. But ere his ax could +slash the thickets from the homeseekers' path, more than two +hundred settlers had entered Kentucky by the northern waterways. +Eighty or more of these settled at Harrodsburg, where Harrod was +laying out his town on a generous plan, with "in-lots" of half an +acre and "out-lots" of larger size. Among those associated with +Harrod was George Rogers Clark, who had surveyed claims for +himself during the year before the war. + +While over two hundred colonists were picking out home sites +wherever their pleasure or prudence dictated, a gigantic land +promotion scheme--involving the very tracts where they were +sowing their first corn--was being set afoot in North Carolina by +a body of men who figure in the early history of Kentucky as the +Transylvania Company. The leader of this organization was Judge +Richard Henderson.* Judge Henderson dreamed a big dream. His +castle in the air had imperial proportions. He resolved, in +short, to purchase from the Cherokee Indians the larger part of +Kentucky and to establish there a colony after the manner and the +economic form of the English Lords Proprietors, whose day in +America was so nearly done. Though in the light of history the +plan loses none of its dramatic features, it shows the practical +defects that must surely have prevented its realization. Like +many another Caesar hungering for empire and staking all to win +it, the prospective lord of Kentucky, as we shall see, had left +the human equation out of his calculations. + +* Richard Henderson (1734-1785) was the son of the High Sheriff +of Granville County. At first an assistant to his father, he +studied law and soon achieved a reputation by the brilliance of +his mind and the magnetism of his personality. As presiding Judge +at Hillsborough he had come into conflict with the violent +element among the Regulators, who had driven him from the court +and burned his house and barns. For some time prior to his +elevation to the bench, he had been engaged in land speculations. +One of Boone's biographers suggests that Boone may have been +secretly acting as Henderson's agent during his first lonely +explorations of Kentucky. However this may be, it does not appear +that Boone and his Yadkin neighbors were acting with Henderson +when in September, 1773, they made their first attempt to enter +Kentucky as settlers. + + +Richard Henderson had known Daniel Boone on the Yadkin; and it +was Boone's detailed reports of the marvelous richness and beauty +of Kentucky which had inspired him to formulate his gigantic +scheme and had enabled him also to win to his support several men +of prominence in the Back Country. To sound the Cherokees +regarding the purchase and to arrange, if possible, for a +conference, Henderson dispatched Boone to the Indian towns in the +early days of 1775. + +Since we have just learned that Dunmore's War compelled the +Shawanoes and their allies to relinquish their right to Kentucky, +that, both before and after that event, government surveyors were +in the territory surveying for the soldiers' claims, and that +private individuals had already laid out town sites and staked +holdings, it may be asked what right of ownership the Cherokees +possessed in Kentucky, that Henderson desired to purchase it of +them. The Indian title to Kentucky seems to have been hardly less +vague to the red men than it was to the whites. Several of the +nations had laid claim to the territory. As late as 1753, it will +be remembered, the Shawanoes had occupied a town at Blue Licks, +for John Findlay had been taken there by some of them. But, +before Findlay guided Boone through the Gap in 1769, the +Shawanoes had been driven out by the Iroquois, who claimed +suzerainty over them as well as over the Cherokees. In 1768, the +Iroquois had ceded Kentucky to the British Crown by the treaty of +Fort Stanwix; whereupon the Cherokees had protested so +vociferously that the Crown's Indian agent, to quiet them, had +signed a collateral agreement with them. Though claimed by many, +Kentucky was by common consent not inhabited by any of the +tribes. It was the great Middle Ground where the Indians hunted. +It was the Warriors' Path over which they rode from north and +south to slaughter and where many of their fiercest encounters +took place. However shadowy the title which Henderson purposed to +buy, there was one all-sufficing reason why he must come to terms +with the Cherokees: their northernmost towns in Tennessee lay +only fifty or sixty miles below Cumberland Gap and hence +commanded the route over which he must lead colonists into his +empire beyond the hills. + +The conference took place early in March, 1775, at the Sycamore +Shoals of the Watauga River. Twelve hundred Indians, led by their +"town chiefs"--among whom were the old warrior and the old +statesman of their nation, Oconostota and Attakullakulla--came to +the treaty grounds and were received by Henderson and his +associates and several hundred white men who were eager for a +chance to settle on new lands. Though Boone was now on his way +into Kentucky for the Transylvania Company, other border leaders +of renown or with their fame still to win were present, and among +them James Robertson, of serious mien, and that blond gay knight +in buckskin, John Sevier. + +It is a dramatic picture we evolve for ourselves from the meager +narratives of this event--a mass of painted Indians moving +through the sycamores by the bright water, to come presently into +a tense, immobile semicircle before the large group of armed +frontiersmen seated or standing about Richard Henderson, the man +with the imperial dream, the ready speaker whose flashing eyes +and glowing oratory won the hearts of all who came under their +sway. What though the Cherokee title be a flimsy one at best and +the price offered for it a bagatelle! The spirit of Forward +March! is there in that great canvas framed by forest and sky. +The somber note that tones its lustrous color, as by a sweep of +the brush, is the figure of the Chickamaugan chief, Dragging +Canoe, warrior and seer and hater of white men, who urges his +tribesmen against the sale and, when they will not hearken, +springs from their midst into the clear space before Henderson +and his band of pioneers and, pointing with uplifted arm, warns +them that a dark cloud hangs over the land the white man covets +which to the red man has long been a bloody ground.* + +* This utterance of Dragging Canoe's is generally supposed to be +the origin of the descriptive phrase applied to Kentucky--"the +Dark and Bloody Ground." See Roosevelt, "The Winning of the +West," vol. I, p.229. + + +The purchase, finally consummated, included the country lying +between the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers almost all the present +State of Kentucky, with the adjacent land watered by the +Cumberland River and its tributaries, except certain lands +previously leased by the Indians to the Watauga Colony. The tract +comprised about twenty million acres and extended into Tennessee. + +Daniel Boone's work was to cut out a road for the wagons of the +Transylvania Company's colonists to pass over. This was to be +done by slashing away the briers and underbrush hedging the +narrow Warriors' Path that made a direct northward line from +Cumberland Gap to the Ohio bank, opposite the mouth of the Scioto +River. Just prior to the conference Boone and "thirty guns" had +set forth from the Holston to prepare the road and to build a +fort on whatever site he should select. + +By April, Henderson and his first group of tenants were on the +trail. In Powell's Valley they came up with a party of Virginians +Kentucky bound, led by Benjamin Logan; and the two bands joined +together for the march. They had not gone far when they heard +disquieting news. After leaving Martin's Station, at the gates of +his new domain, Henderson received a letter from Boone telling of +an attack by Indians, in which two of his men had been killed, +but "we stood on the ground and guarded our baggage till the day +and lost nothing."* These tidings, indicating that despite +treaties and sales, the savages were again on the warpath, might +well alarm Henderson's colonists. While they halted, some +indecisive, others frankly for retreat, there appeared a company +of men making all haste out of Kentucky because of Indian unrest. +Six of these Henderson persuaded to turn again and go in with +him; but this addition hardly offset the loss of those members of +his party who thought it too perilous to proceed. Henderson's own +courage did not falter. He had staked his all on this stupendous +venture and for him it was forward to wealth and glory or retreat +into poverty and eclipse. Boone, in the heart of the danger, was +making the same stand. "If we give way to them [the Indians] +now," he wrote, "it will ever be the case." + +* Bogart, "Daniel Boone and the Hunters of Kentucky." p. 121. + + +Signs of discord other than Indian opposition met Henderson as he +resolutely pushed on. His conversations with some of the +fugitives from Kentucky disclosed the first indications of the +storm that was to blow away the empire he was going in to found. +He told them that the claims they had staked in Kentucky would +not hold good with the Transylvania Company. Whereupon James +McAfee, who was leading a group of returning men, stated his +opinion that the Transylvania Company's claim would not hold good +with Virginia. After the parley, three of McAfee's brothers +turned back and went with Henderson's party, but whether with +intent to join his colony or to make good their own claims is not +apparent. Benjamin Logan continued amicably with Henderson on the +march but did not recognize him as Lord Proprietor of Kentucky. +He left the Transylvania caravan shortly after entering the +territory, branched off in the direction of Harrodsburg, and +founded St. Asaph's Station, in the present Lincoln County, +independently of Henderson though the site lay within Henderson's +purchase. + +Notwithstanding delays and apprehensions, Henderson and his +colonists finally reached Boone's Fort, which Daniel and his +"thirty guns"--lacking two since the Indian encounter--had +erected at the mouth of Otter Creek. + +An attractive buoyancy of temperament is revealed in Henderson's +description in his journal of a giant elm with tall straight +trunk and even foliage that shaded a space of one hundred feet. +Instantly he chose this "divine elm" as the council chamber of +Transylvania. Under its leafage he read the constitution of the +new colony. It would be too great a stretch of fancy to call it a +democratic document, for it was not that, except in deft phrases. +Power was certainly declared to be vested in the people; but the +substance of power remained in the hands of the Proprietors. + +Terms for land grants were generous enough in the beginning, +although Henderson made the fatal mistake of demanding +quitrents--one of the causes of dissatisfaction which had led to +the Regulators' rising in North Carolina. In September he +augmented this error by more than doubling the price of land, +adding a fee of eight shillings for surveying, and reserving to +the Proprietors one-half of all gold, silver, lead, and sulphur +found on the land. No land near sulphur springs or showing +evidences of metals was to be granted to settlers. Moreover, at +the Company's store the prices charged for lead were said to be +too high--lead being necessary for hunting, and hunting being the +only means of procuring food--while the wages of labor, as fixed +by the Company, were too low. These terms bore too heavily on +poor men who were risking their lives in the colony. + +Hence newcomers passed by Boonesborough, as the Transylvania +settlement was presently called, and went elsewhere. They settled +on Henderson's land but refused his terms. They joined in their +sympathies with James Harrod, who, having established Harrodsburg +in the previous year at the invitation of Virginia, was not in +the humor to acknowledge Henderson's claim or to pay him tribute. +All were willing to combine with the Transylvania Company for +defense, and to enforce law they would unite in bonds of +brotherhood in Kentucky, even as they had been one with each +other on the earlier frontier now left behind them. But they +would call no man master; they had done with feudalism. That +Henderson should not have foreseen this, especially after the +upheaval in North Carolina, proves him, in spite of all his +brilliant gifts, to have been a man out of touch with the spirit +of the time. + +The war of the Revolution broke forth and the Indians descended +upon the Kentucky stations. Defense was the one problem in all +minds, and defense required powder and lead in plenty. The +Transylvania Company was not able to provide the means of defense +against the hordes of savages whom Henry Hamilton, the British +Governor at Detroit, was sending to make war on the frontiers. +Practical men like Harrod and George Rogers Clark--who, if not a +practical man in his own interests, was a most practical +soldier--saw that unification of interests within the territory +with the backing of either Virginia or Congress was necessary. +Clark personally would have preferred to see the settlers combine +as a freemen's state. It was plain that they would not combine +and stake their lives as a unit to hold Kentucky for the benefit +of the Transylvania Company, whose authority some of the most +prominent men in the territory had refused to recognize. The +Proprietary of Transylvania could continue to exist only to the +danger of every life in Kentucky. + +While the Proprietors sent a delegate to the Continental Congress +to win official recognition for Transylvania, eighty-four men at +Harrodsburg drew up a petition addressed to Virginia stating +their doubts of the legality of Henderson's title and requesting +Virginia to assert her authority according to the stipulations of +her charter. That defense was the primary and essential motive of +the Harrodsburg Remonstrance seems plain, for when George Rogers +Clark set off on foot with one companion to lay the document +before the Virginian authorities, he also went to plead for a +load of powder. In his account of that hazardous journey, as a +matter of fact, he makes scant reference to Transylvania, except +to say that the greed of the Proprietors would soon bring the +colony to its end, but shows that his mind was seldom off the +powder. It is a detail of history that the Continental Congress +refused to seat the delegate from Transylvania. Henderson himself +went to Virginia to make the fight for his land before the +Assembly.* + +* In 1778 Virginia disallowed Henderson's title but granted him +two hundred thousand acres between the Green and Kentucky rivers +for his trouble and expense in opening up the country. + + +The magnetic center of Boonesborough's life was the lovable and +unassuming Daniel Boone. Soon after the building of the fort +Daniel had brought in his wife and family. He used often to state +with a mild pride that his wife and daughters were the first +white women to stand on the banks of the Kentucky River. That +pride had not been unmixed with anxiety; his daughter Jemima and +two daughters of his friend, Richard Galloway, while boating on +the river had been captured by Shawanoes and carried off. Boone, +accompanied by the girls' lovers and by John Floyd (eager to +repay his debt of life-saving to Boone) had pursued them, tracing +the way the captors had taken by broken twigs and scraps of dress +goods which one of the girls had contrived to leave in their +path, had come on the Indians unawares, killed them, and +recovered the three girls unhurt. + +In the summer of 1776, Virginia took official note of "Captain +Boone of Boonesborough," for she sent him a small supply of +powder. The men of the little colony, which had begun so +pretentiously with its constitution and assembly, were now +obliged to put all other plans aside and to concentrate on the +question of food and defense. There was a dangerous scarcity of +powder and lead. The nearest points at which these necessaries +could be procured were the Watauga and Holston River settlements, +which were themselves none too well stocked. Harrod and Logan, +some time in 1777, reached the Watauga fort with three or four +packhorses and filled their packs from Sevier's store; but, as +they neared home, they were detected by red scouts and Logan was +badly wounded before he and Harrod were able to drive their +precious load safely through the gates at Harrodsburg. In the +autumn of 1777, Clark, with a boatload of ammunition, reached +Maysville on the Ohio, having successfully run the gauntlet +between banks in possession of the foe. He had wrested the powder +and lead from the Virginia Council by threats to the effect that +if Virginia was so willing to lose Kentucky--for of course "a +country not worth defending is not worth claiming"--he and his +fellows were quite ready to take Kentucky for themselves and to +hold it with their swords against all comers, Virginia included. +By even such cogent reasoning had he convinced the Council--which +had tried to hedge by expressing doubts that Virginia would +receive the Kentucky settlers as "citizens of the State"--that it +would be cheaper to give him the powder. + +Because so many settlers had fled and the others had come closer +together for their common good, Harrodsburg and Boonesborough +were now the only occupied posts in Kentucky. Other settlements, +once, thriving, were abandoned; and, under the terror, the Wild +reclaimed them. In April, 1777, Boonesborough underwent its first +siege. Boone, leading a sortie, was shot and he fell with a +shattered ankle. An Indian rushed upon him and was swinging the +tomahawk over him when Simon Kenton, giant frontiersman and hero +of many daring deeds, rushed forward, shot the Indian, threw +Boone across his back, and fought his way desperately to safety. +It was some months ere Boone was his nimble self again. But +though he could not "stand up to the guns," he directed all +operations from his cabin. + +The next year Boone was ready for new ventures growing from the +settlers' needs. Salt was necessary to preserve meat through the +summer. Accordingly Boone and twenty-seven men went up to the Blue +Licks in February, 1778, to replenish their supply by the simple +process of boiling the salt water of the Licks till the saline +particles adhered to the kettles. Boone was returning alone, with +a pack-horse load of salt and game, when a blinding snowstorm +overtook him and hid from view four stealthy Shawanoes on his +trail. He was seized and carried to a camp of 120 warriors led by +the French Canadian, Dequindre, and James and George Girty, two +white renegades. Among the Indians were some of those who had +captured him on his first exploring trip through Kentucky and +whom he had twice given the slip. Their hilarity was unbounded. +Boone quickly learned that this band was on its way to surprise +Boonesborough. It was a season when Indian attacks were not +expected; nearly threescore of the men were at the salt spring +and, to make matters worse, the walls of the new fort where the +settlers and their families had gathered were as yet completed on +only three sides. Boonesborough was, in short, well-nigh +defenseless. To turn the Indians from their purpose, Boone +conceived the desperate scheme of offering to lead them to the +salt makers' camp with the assurance that he and his companions +were willing to join the tribe. He understood Indians well enough +to feel sure that once possessed of nearly thirty prisoners, the +Shawanoes would not trouble further about Boonesborough but would +hasten to make a triumphal entry into their own towns. That some, +perhaps all, of the white men would assuredly die, he knew well; +but it was the only way to save the women and children in +Boonesborough. In spite of Dequindre and the Girtys, who were +leading a military expedition for the reduction of a fort, the +Shawanoes fell in with the suggestion. When they had taken their +prisoners, the more bloodthirsty warriors in the band wanted to +tomahawk them all on the spot. By his diplomatic discourse, +however, Boone dissuaded them, for the time being at least, and +the whole company set off for the towns on the Little Miami. + +The weather became severe, very little game crossed their route, +and for days they subsisted on slippery elm bark. The lovers of +blood did not hold back their scalping knives and several of the +prisoners perished; but Black Fish, the chief then of most power +in Shawanoe councils, adopted Boone as his son, and gave him the +name of Sheltowee, or Big Turtle. Though watched zealously to +prevent escape, Big Turtle was treated with every consideration +and honor; and, as we would say today, he played the game. He +entered into the Indian life with apparent zest, took part in +hunts and sports and the races and shooting matches in which the +Indians delighted, but he was always careful not to outrun or +outshoot his opponents. Black Fish took him to Detroit when some +of the tribe escorted the remainder of the prisoners to the +British post. There he met Governor Hamilton and, in the hope of +obtaining his liberty, he led that dignitary to believe that he +and the other people of Boonesborough were eager to move to +Detroit and take refuge under the British flag.* It is said that +Boone always carried in a wallet round his neck the King's +commission given him in Dunmore's War; and that he exhibited it +to Hamilton to bear out his story. Hamilton sought to ransom him +from the Indians, but Black Fish would not surrender his new son. +The Governor gave Boone a pony, with saddle and trappings, and +other presents, including trinkets to be used in procuring his +needs and possibly his liberty from the Shawanoes. + +* So well did Boone play his part that he aroused suspicion even +in those who knew him best. After his return to Boonesborough his +old friend, Calloway, formally accused him of treachery on two +counts: that Boone had betrayed the salt makers to the Indians +and had planned to betray Boonesborough to the British. Boone was +tried and acquitted. His simple explanation of his acts satisfied +the court-martial and made him a greater hero than ever among the +frontier folk. + + +Black Fish then took his son home to Chillicothe. Here Boone +found Delawares and Mingos assembling with the main body of the +Shawanoe warriors. The war belt was being carried through the +Ohio country. Again Boonesborough and Harrodsburg were to be the +first settlements attacked. To escape and give warning was now +the one purpose that obsessed Boone. He redoubled his efforts to +throw the Indians off their guard. He sang and whistled blithely +about the camp at the mouth of the Scioto River, whither he had +accompanied his Indian father to help in the salt boiling. In +short, he seemed so very happy that one day Black Fish took his +eye off him for a few moments to watch the passing of a flock of +turkeys. Big Turtle passed with the flock, leaving no trace. To +his lamenting parent it must have seemed as though he had +vanished into the air. Daniel crossed the Ohio and ran the 160 +miles to Boonesborough in four days, during which time he had +only one meal, from a buffalo he shot at the Blue Licks. When he +reached the fort after an absence of nearly five months, he found +that his wife had given him up for dead and had returned to the +Yadkin. + +Boone now began with all speed to direct preparations to +withstand a siege. Owing to the Indian's leisurely system of +councils and ceremonies before taking the warpath, it was not +until the first week in September that Black Fish's painted +warriors, with some Frenchmen under Dequindre, appeared before +Boonesborough. Nine days the siege lasted and was the longest in +border history. Dequindre, seeing that the fort might not be +taken, resorted to trickery. He requested Boone and a few of his +men to come out for a parley, saying that his orders from +Hamilton were to protect the lives of the Americans as far as +possible. Boone's friend, Calloway, urged against acceptance of +the apparently benign proposal which was made, so Dequindre +averred, for "bienfaisance et humanite." But the words were the +words of a white man, and Boone hearkened to them. With eight of +the garrison he went out to the parley. After a long talk in +which good will was expressed on both sides, it was suggested by +Black Fish that they all shake hands and, as there were so many +more Indians than white men, two Indians should, of course, shake +hands with one white man, each grasping one of his hands. The +moment that their hands gripped, the trick was clear, for the +Indians exerted their strength to drag off the white men. +Desperate scuffling ensued in which the whites with difficulty +freed themselves and ran for the fort. Calloway had prepared for +emergencies. The pursuing Indians were met with a deadly fire. +After a defeated attempt to mine the fort the enemy withdrew. + +The successful defense of Boonesborough was an achievement of +national importance, for had Boonesborough fallen, Harrodsburg +alone could not have stood. The Indians under the British would +have overrun Kentucky; and George Rogers Clark--whose base for +his Illinois operations was the Kentucky forts--could not have +made the campaigns which wrested the Northwest from the control +of Great Britain. + +Again Virginia took official note of Captain Boone when in 1779 +the Legislature established Boonesborough "a town for the +reception of traders" and appointed Boone himself one of the +trustees to attend to the sale and registration of lots. An odd +office that was for Daniel, who never learned to attend to the +registration of his own; he declined it. His name appears again, +however, a little later when Virginia made the whole of Kentucky +one of her counties with the following officers: Colonel David +Robinson, County Lieutenant; George Rogers Clark, Anthony +Bledsoe, and John Bowman, Majors; Daniel Boone, James Harrod, +Benjamin Logan, and John Todd, Captains. + + +Boonesborough's successful resistance caused land speculators as +well as prospective settlers to take heart of grace. Parties made +their way to Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, and even to the Falls of +the Ohio, where Clark's fort and blockhouses now stood. In the +summer of 1779 Clark had erected on the Kentucky side of the +river a large fort which became the nucleus of the town of +Louisville. Here, while he was eating his heart out with +impatience for money and men to enable him to march to the attack +of Detroit, as he had planned, he amused himself by drawing up +plans for a city. He laid out private sections and public parks +and contemplated the bringing in of families only to inhabit his +city, for, oddly enough, he who never married was going to make +short shift of mere bachelors in his City Beautiful. Between pen +scratches, no doubt, he looked out frequently upon the river to +descry if possible a boatload of ammunition or the banners of the +troops he had been promised. + +When neither appeared, he gave up the idea of Detroit and set +about erecting defenses on the southern border, for the Choctaws +and Cherokees, united under a white leader named Colbert, were +threatening Kentucky by way of the Mississippi. He built in 1780 +Fort Jefferson in what is now Ballard County, and had barely +completed the new post and garrisoned it with about thirty men +when it was besieged by Colbert and his savages. The Indians, +assaulting by night, were lured into a position directly before a +cannon which poured lead into a mass of them. The remainder fled +in terror from the vicinity of the fort; but Colbert succeeded in +rallying them and was returning to the attack when he suddenly +encountered Clark with a company of men and was forced to abandon +his enterprise. + +Clark knew that the Ohio Indians would come down on the +settlements again during the summer and that to meet their +onslaughts every man in Kentucky would be required. He learned +that there was a new influx of land seekers over the Wilderness +Road and that speculators were doing a thriving business in +Harrodsburg; so, leaving his company to protect Fort Jefferson, +he took two men with him and started across the wilds on foot for +Harrodsburg. To evade the notice of the Indian bands which were +moving about the country the three stripped and painted +themselves as warriors and donned the feathered headdress. So +successful was their disguise that they were fired on by a party +of surveyors near the outskirts of Harrodsburg. + +The records do not state what were the sensations of certain +speculators in a land office in Harrodsburg when a blue-eyed +savage in a war bonnet sprang through the doorway and, with +uplifted weapon, declared the office closed; but we get a hint of +the power of Clark's personality and of his genius for dominating +men from the terse report that he "enrolled" the speculators. He +was informed that another party of men, more nervous than these, +was now on its way out of Kentucky. In haste he dispatched a +dozen frontiersmen to cut the party off at Crab Orchard and take +away the gun of every man who refused to turn back and do his bit +for Kentucky. To Clark a man was a gun, and he meant that every +gun should do its duty. + +The leaders and pioneers of the Dark and Bloody Ground were now +warriors, all under Clark's command, while for two years longer +the Red Terror ranged Kentucky, falling with savage force now +here, now there. In the first battle of 1780, at the Blue Licks, +Daniel's brother, Edward Boone, was killed and scalped. Later on +in the war his second son, Israel, suffered a like fate. The toll +of life among the settlers was heavy. Many of the best-known +border leaders were slain. Food and powder often ran short. Corn +might be planted, but whether it would be harvested or not the +planters never knew; and the hunter's rifle shot, necessary +though it was, proved only too often an invitation to the lurking +foe. But sometimes, through all the dangers of forest and trail, +Daniel Boone slipped away silently to Harrodsburg to confer with +Clark; or Clark himself, in the Indian guise that suited the wild +man in him not ill, made his way to and from the garrisons which +looked to him for everything. + +Twice Clark gathered together the "guns" of Kentucky and, +marching north into the enemy's country, swept down upon the +Indian towns of Piqua and Chillicothe and razed them. In 1782, in +the second of these enterprises, his cousin, Joseph Rogers, who +had been taken prisoner and adopted by the Indians and then wore +Indian garb, was shot down by one of Clark's men. On this +expedition Boone and Harrod are said to have accompanied Clark. + +The ever present terror and horror of those days, especially of +the two years preceding this expedition, are vividly suggested by +the quaint remark of an old woman who had lived through them, as +recorded for us by a traveler. The most beautiful sight she had +seen in Kentucky, she said, was a young man dying a natural death +in his bed. Dead but unmarred by hatchet or scalping knife, he +was so rare and comely a picture that the women of the post sat +up all night looking at him. + + +But, we ask, what golden emoluments were showered by a grateful +country on the men who thus held the land through those years of +want and war, and saved an empire for the Union? What practical +recognition was there of these brave and unselfish men who daily +risked their lives and faced the stealth and cruelty lurking in +the wilderness ways? There is meager eloquence in the records. +Here, for instance, is a letter from George Rogers Clark to the +Governor of Virginia, dated May 27, 1783: + +"Sir. Nothing but necessity could induce me to make the following +request to Your Excellency, which is to grant me a small sum of +money on account; as I can assure you, Sir, that I am exceedingly +distressed for the want of necessary clothing etc and don't know +any channel through which I could procure any except of the +Executive. The State I believe will fall considerably in my debt. +Any supplies which Your Excellency favors me with might be +deducted out of my accounts."* + +* "Calendar of Virginia State Papers," vol. III, p. 487. + + +Clark had spent all his own substance and all else he could beg, +borrow--or appropriate--in the conquest of Illinois and the +defense of Kentucky. His only reward from Virginia was a grant of +land from which he realized nothing, and dismissal from her +service when she needed him no longer. + +All that Clark had asked for himself was a commission in the +Continental Army. This was denied him, as it appears now, not +through his own errors, which had not at that time taken hold on +him, but through the influence of powerful enemies. It is said +that both Spain and England, seeing a great soldier without +service for his sword, made him offers, which he refused. As long +as any acreage remained to him on which to raise money, he +continued to pay the debts he had contracted to finance his +expeditions, and in this course he had the assistance of his +youngest brother, William, to whom he assigned his Indiana grant. + +His health impaired by hardship and exposure and his heart broken +by his country's indifference, Clark sank into alcoholic +excesses. In his sixtieth year, just six years before his death, +and when he was a helpless paralytic, he was granted a pension of +four hundred dollars. There is a ring of bitter irony in the +words with which he accepted the sword sent him by Virginia in +his crippled old age: "When Virginia needed a sword I gave her +one." He died near Louisville on February 13, 1818. + +Kentucky was admitted to the Union in 1792. But even before +Kentucky became a State her affairs, particularly as to land, +were arranged, let us say, on a practical business basis. Then it +was discovered that Daniel Boone had no legal claim to any foot +of ground in Kentucky. Daniel owned nothing but the clothes he +wore; and for those--as well as for much powder, lead, food, and +such trifles--he was heavily in debt. + +So, in 1788, Daniel Boone put the list of his debts in his +wallet, gathered his wife and his younger sons about him, and, +shouldering his hunter's rifle, once more turned towards the +wilds. The country of the Great Kanawha in West Virginia was +still a wilderness, and a hunter and trapper might, in some +years, earn enough to pay his debts. For others, now, the paths +he had hewn and made safe; for Boone once more the wilderness +road. + + + +Chapter VIII. Tennessee + +Indian law, tradition, and even superstition had shaped the +conditions which the pioneers faced when they crossed the +mountains. This savage inheritance had decreed that Kentucky +should be a dark and bloody ground, fostering no life but that of +four-footed beasts, its fertile sod never to stir with the green +push of the corn. And so the white men who went into Kentucky to +build and to plant went as warriors go, and for every cabin they +erected they battled as warriors to hold a fort. In the first +years they planted little corn and reaped less, for it may be +said that their rifles were never out of their hands. We have +seen how stations were built and abandoned until but two stood. +Untiring vigilance and ceaseless warfare were the price paid by +the first Kentuckians ere they turned the Indian's place of +desolation and death into a land productive and a living +habitation. + +Herein lies the difference, slight apparently, yet significant, +between the first Kentucky and the first Tennessee* colonies. +Within the memory of the Indians only one tribe had ever +attempted to make their home in Kentucky--a tribe of the fighting +Shawanoes--and they had been terribly chastised for their +temerity. But Tennessee was the home of the Cherokees, and at +Chickasaw Bluffs (Memphis) began the southward trail to the +principal towns of the Chickasaws. By the red man's fiat, then, +human life might abide in Tennessee, though not in Kentucky, and +it followed that in seasons of peace the frontiersmen might +settle in Tennessee. So it was that as early as 1757, before the +great Cherokee war, a company of Virginians under Andrew Lewis +had, on an invitation from the Indians, erected Fort Loudon near +Great Telliko, the Cherokees' principal town, and that, after the +treaty of peace in 1761, Waddell and his rangers of North +Carolina had erected a fort on the Holston. + +* Tennessee. The name, Ten-as-se, appears on Adair's map as one +of the old Cherokee towns. Apparently neither the meaning nor the +reason why the colonists called both state and river by this name +has been handed down to us. + + +Though Fort Loudon had fallen tragically during the war, and +though Waddell's fort had been abandoned, neither was without +influence in the colonization of Tennessee, for some of the men +who built these forts drifted back a year or two later and setup +the first cabins on the Holston. These earliest settlements, thin +and scattered, did not survive; but in 1768 the same settlers or +others of their kind--discharged militiamen from Back Country +regiments--once more made homes on the Holston. They were joined +by a few families from near the present Raleigh, North Carolina, +who had despaired of seeing justice done to the tenants on the +mismanaged estates of Lord Granville. About the same time there +was erected the first cabin on the Watauga River, as is generally +believed, by a man of the name of William Bean (or Been), hunter +and frontier soldier from Pittsylvania County, Virginia. This +man, who had hunted on the Watauga with Daniel Boone in 1760, +chose as the site of his dwelling the place of the old hunting +camp near the mouth of Boone's Creek. He soon began to have +neighbors. + + +Meanwhile the Regulation Movement stirred the Back Country of +both the Carolinas. In 1768, the year in which William Bean built +his cabin on the bank of the Watauga, five hundred armed +Regulators in North Carolina, aroused by irregularities in the +conduct of public office, gathered to assert their displeasure, +but dispersed peaceably on receipt of word from Governor Tryon +that he had ordered the prosecution of any officer found guilty +of extortion. Edmund Fanning, the most hated of Lord Granville's +agents, though convicted, escaped punishment. Enraged at this +miscarriage of justice, the Regulators began a system of +terrorization by taking possession of the court, presided over by +Richard Henderson. The judge himself was obliged to slip out by a +back way to avoid personal injury. The Regulators burned his +house and stable. They meted out mob treatment likewise to +William Hooper, later one of the signers of the Declaration of +Independence. + +Two elements, with antithetical aims, had been at work in the +Regulation; and the unfortunate failure of justice in the case of +Fanning had given the corrupt element its opportunity to seize +control. In the petitions addressed to Governor Tryon by the +leaders of the movement in its earlier stages the aims of +liberty-loving thinkers are traceable. It is worthy of note that +they included in their demands articles which are now +constitutional. They desired that "suffrage be given by ticket +and ballot"; that the mode of taxation be altered, and each +person be taxed in proportion to the profits arising from his +estate; that judges and clerks be given salaries instead of +perquisites and fees. They likewise petitioned for repeal of the +act prohibiting dissenting ministers from celebrating the rites +of matrimony. The establishment of these reforms, the petitioners +of the Regulation concluded, would "conciliate" their minds to +"every just measure of government, and would make the laws what +the Constitution ever designed they should be, their protection +and not their bane." Herein clearly enough we can discern the +thought and the phraseology of the Ulster Presbyterians. + +But a change took place in both leaders and methods. During the +Regulators' career of violence they were under the sway of an +agitator named Hermon Husband. This demagogue was reported to +have been expelled from the Quaker Society for cause; it is on +record that he was expelled from the North Carolina Assembly +because a vicious anonymous letter was traced to him. He deserted +his dupes just before the shots cracked at Alamance Creek and +fled from the colony. He was afterwards apprehended in +Pennsylvania for complicity in the Whisky Insurrection. + +Four of the leading Presbyterian ministers of the Back Country +issued a letter in condemnation of the Regulators. One of these +ministers was the famous David Caldwell, son-in-law of the +Reverend Alexander Craighead, and a man who knew the difference +between liberty and license and who proved himself the bravest of +patriots in the War of Independence. The records of the time +contain sworn testimony against the Regulators by Waightstill +Avery, a signer of the Mecklenburg Resolves, who later presided +honorably over courts in the western circuit of Tennessee; and +there is evidence indicating Jacobite and French intrigue. That +Governor Tryon recognized a hidden hand at work seems clearly +revealed in his proclamation addressed to those "whose +understandings have been run away with and whose passions have +been led in captivity by some evil designing men who, actuated by +cowardice and a sense of that Publick Justice which is due to +their Crimes, have obscured themselves from Publick view." What +the Assembly thought of the Regulators was expressed in 1770 in a +drastic bill which so shocked the authorities in England that +instructions were sent forbidding any Governor to approve such a +bill in future, declaring it "a disgrace to the British Statute +Books." + +On May 16, 1771, some two thousand Regulators were precipitated +by Husband into the Battle of Alamance, which took place in a +district settled largely by a rough and ignorant type of Germans, +many of whom Husband had lured to swell his mob. Opposed to him, +were eleven hundred of Governor Tryon's troops, officered by such +patriots as Griffith Rutherford, Hugh Waddell, and Francis Nash. +During an hour's engagement about twenty Regulators were killed, +while the Governor's troops had nine killed and sixty-one +wounded. Six of the leaders were hanged. The rest took the oath +of allegiance which Tryon administered. + +It has been said about the Regulators that they were not cast +down by their defeat at Alamance but "like the mammoth, they +shook the bolt from their brow and crossed the mountains," but +such flowery phrases do not seem to have been inspired by facts. +Nor do the records show that "fifteen hundred Regulators" +arrived at Watauga in 1771, as has also been stated. Nor are the +names of the leaders of the Regulation to be found in the list of +signatures affixed to the one "state paper" of Watauga which was +preserved and written into historic annals. Nor yet do those +names appear on the roster of the Watauga and Holston men who, in +1774, fought with Shelby under Andrew Lewis in the Battle of +Point Pleasant. The Boones and the Bryans, the Robertsons, the +Seviers, the Shelbys, the men who opened up the West and shaped +the destiny of its inhabitants, were genuine freemen, with a +sense of law and order as inseparable from liberty. They would +follow a Washington but not a Hermon Husband. + +James Hunter, whose signature leads on all Regulation manifestoes +just prior to the Battle of Alamance, was a sycophant of Husband, +to whom he addressed fulsome letters; and in the real battle for +democracy--the War of Independence--he was a Tory. The Colonial +Records show that those who, "like the mammoth," shook from them +the ethical restraints which make man superior to the giant +beast, and who later bolted into the mountains, contributed +chiefly the lawlessness that harassed the new settlements. They +were the banditti and, in 1776, the Tories of the western hills; +they pillaged the homes of the men who were fighting for the +democratic ideal. + +It was not the Regulation Movement which turned westward the +makers of the Old Southwest, but the free and enterprising spirit +of the age. It was emphatically an age of doers; and if men who +felt the constructive urge in them might not lay hold on +conditions where they were and reshape them, then they must go +forward seeking that environment which would give their genius +its opportunity. + +Of such adventurous spirits was James Robertson, a Virginian born +of Ulster Scot parentage, and a resident of (the present) Wake +County, North Carolina, since his boyhood. Robertson was +twenty-eight years old when, in 1770, he rode over the hills to +Watauga. We can imagine him as he was then, for the portrait +taken much later in life shows the type of face that does not +change. It is a high type combining the best qualities of his +race. Intelligence, strength of purpose, fortitude, and moral +power are there; they impress us at the first glance. At +twenty-eight he must have been a serious young man, little given +to laughter; indeed, spontaneity is perhaps the only good trait +we miss in studying his face. He was a thinker who had not yet +found his purpose--a thinker in leash, for at this time James +Robertson could neither read nor write. + +At Watauga, Robertson lived for a while in the cabin of a man +named Honeycut. He chose land for himself and, in accordance with +the custom of the time, sealed his right to it by planting corn. +He remained to harvest his first crop and then set off to gather +his family and some of his friends together and escort them to +the new country. But on the way he missed the trail and wandered +for a fortnight in the mountains. The heavy rains ruined his +powder so that he could not hunt; for food he had only berries +and nuts. At one place, where steep bluffs opposed him, he was +obliged to abandon his horse and scale the mountain side on foot. +He was in extremity when he chanced upon two huntsmen who gave +him food and set him on the trail. If this experience proves his +lack of the hunter's instinct and the woodsman's resourcefulness +which Boone possessed, it proves also his special qualities of +perseverance and endurance which were to reach their zenith in +his successful struggle to colonize and hold western Tennessee. +He returned to Watauga in the following spring (1771) with his +family and a small group of colonists. Robertson's wife was an +educated woman and under her instruction he now began to study. + +Next year a young Virginian from the Shenandoah Valley rode on +down Holston Valley on a hunting and exploring trip, and loitered +at Watauga. Here he found not only a new settlement but an +independent government in the making; and forthwith he determined +to have a part in both. This young Virginian had already shown +the inclination of a political colonist, for in the Shenandoah +Valley he had, at the age of nineteen, laid out the town of New +Market (which exists to this day) and had directed its municipal +affairs and invited and fostered its clergy. This young +Virginian--born on September 23, 1745, and so in 1772 +twenty-seven years of age--was John Sevier, that John Sevier +whose monument now towers from its site in Knoxville to testify +of both the wild and the great deeds of old Tennessee's beloved +knight. Like Robertson, Sevier hastened home and removed his +whole family, including his wife and children, his parents and +his brothers and sisters, to this new haven of freedom at +Watauga. + +The friendship formed between Robertson and Sevier in these first +years of their work together was never broken, yet two more +opposite types could hardly have been brought together. Robertson +was a man of humble origin, unlettered, not a dour Scot but a +solemn one. Sevier was cavalier as well as frontiersman. On his +father's side he was of the patrician family of Xavier in France. +His progenitors, having become Huguenots, had taken refuge in +England, where the name Xavier was finally changed to Sevier. +John Sevier's mother was an Englishwoman. Some years before his +birth his parents had emigrated to the Shenandoah Valley. Thus it +happened that John Sevier, who mingled good English blood with +the blue blood of old France, was born an American and grew up a +frontier hunter and soldier. He stood about five feet nine from +his moccasins to his crown of light brown hair. He was +well-proportioned and as graceful of body as he was hard-muscled +and swift. His chin was firm, his nose of a Roman cast, his mouth +well-shaped, its slightly full lips slanting in a smile that +would not be repressed. Under the high, finely modeled brow, +small keen dark blue eyes sparkled with health, with +intelligence, and with the man's joy in life. + +John Sevier indeed cannot be listed as a type; he was individual. +There is no other character like him in border annals. He was +cavalier and prince in his leadership of men; he had their +homage. Yet he knew how to be comrade and brother to the +lowliest. He won and held the confidence and friendship of the +serious-minded Robertson no less than the idolatry of the wildest +spirits on the frontier throughout the forty-three years of the +spectacular career which began for him on the day he brought his +tribe to Watauga. In his time he wore the governor's purple; and +a portrait painted of him shows how well this descendant of the +noble Xaviers could fit himself to the dignity and formal +habiliments of state; Yet in the fringed deerskin of frontier +garb, he was fleeter on the warpath than the Indians who fled +before him; and he could outride and outshoot--and, it is said, +outswear--the best and the worst of the men who followed him. +Perhaps the lurking smile on John Sevier's face was a flicker of +mirth that there should be found any man, red or white, with +temerity enough to try conclusions with him. None ever did, +successfully. + +The historians of Tennessee state that the Wataugans formed their +government in 1772 and that Sevier was one of its five +commissioners. Yet, as Sevier did not settle in Tennessee before +1773, it is possible that the Watauga Association was not formed +until then. Unhappily the written constitution of the little +commonwealth was not preserved; but it is known that, following +the Ulsterman's ideal, manhood suffrage and religious +independence were two of its provisions. The commissioners +enlisted a militia and they recorded deeds for land, issued +marriage licenses, and tried offenders against the law. They +believed themselves to be within the boundaries of Virginia and +therefore adopted the laws of that State for their guidance. They +had numerous offenders to deal with, for men fleeing from debt or +from the consequence of crime sought the new settlements just +across the mountains as a safe and adjacent harbor. The attempt +of these men to pursue their lawlessness in Watauga was one +reason why the Wataugans organized a government. + +When the line was run between Virginia and North Carolina beyond +the mountains, Watauga was discovered to be south of Virginia's +limits and hence on Indian lands. This was in conflict with the +King's Proclamation, and Alexander Cameron, British agent to the +Cherokees, accordingly ordered the encroaching settlers to +depart. The Indians, however, desired them to remain. But since +it was illegal to purchase Indian lands, Robertson negotiated a +lease for ten years. In 1775, when Henderson made his purchase +from the Cherokees, at Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga, Robertson +and Sevier, who were present at the sale with other Watauga +commissioners, followed Henderson's example and bought outright +the lands they desired to include in Watauga's domain. In 1776 +they petitioned North Carolina for "annexation." As they were +already within North Carolina's bounds, it was recognition rather +than annexation which they sought. This petition, which is the +only Wataugan document to survive, is undated but marked as +received in August, 1776. It is in Sevier's handwriting and its +style suggests that it was composed by him, for in its manner of +expression it has much in common with many later papers from his +pen. That Wataugans were a law-loving community and had formed +their government for the purpose of making law respected is +reiterated throughout the document. As showing the quality of +these first western statemakers, two paragraphs are quoted: + +"Finding ourselves on the frontiers, and being apprehensive that +for want of 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 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 permit. This was intended for ourselves, and WAS +DONE BY CONSENT OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL." + +The petition goes on to state that, among their measures for +upholding law, the Wataugans had enlisted "a company of fine +riflemen" and put them under command of "Captain James +Robertson." + +"We...thought proper to station them on our frontiers in +defense of the common cause, at the expense and risque of our own +private fortunes, till farther public orders, which we flatter +ourselves will give no offense.... We pray your mature and +deliberate consideration in our behalf, that you may annex us to +your Province (whether as county, district, or other division) in +such manner as may enable us to share in the glorious cause of +Liberty: enforce our laws under authority and in every respect +become the best members of society; and for ourselves and our +constituents we hope we may venture to assure you that we shall +adhere strictly to your determinations, and that nothing will be +lacking or anything neglected that may add weight (in the civil +or military establishments) to the glorious cause in which we are +now struggling, or contribute to the welfare of our own or ages +yet to come." + +One hundred and thirteen names are signed to the document. In the +following year (1777) North Carolina erected her overhill +territory into Washington County. The Governor appointed justices +of the peace and militia officers who in the following year +organized the new county and its courts. And so Watauga's +independent government, begun in the spirit of true liberty, came +as lawfully to its end. + +But for nearly three years before their political status was thus +determined, the Wataugans were sharing "in the glorious cause of +Liberty" by defending their settlements against Indian attacks. +While the majority of the young Cherokee warriors were among +their enemies, their chief battles were fought with those from +the Chickamaugan towns on the Tennessee River, under the +leadership of Dragging Canoe. The Chickamaugans embraced the more +vicious and bloodthirsty Cherokees, with a mixture of Creeks and +bad whites, who, driven from every law-abiding community, had +cast in their lot with this tribe. The exact number of white +thieves and murderers who had found harbor in the Indian towns +during a score or more of years is not known; but the letters of +the Indian agents, preserved in the records, would indicate that +there were a good many of them. They were fit allies for Dragging +Canoe; their hatred of those from whom their own degeneracy had +separated them was not less than his. + +In July, 1776, John Sevier wrote to the Virginia Committee as +follows: + +"Dear Gentlemen: Isaac Thomas, William Falling, Jaret 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." + +Thus was heralded the beginning of a savage warfare which kept +the borderers engaged for years. + +It has been a tradition of the chroniclers that Isaac Thomas +received a timely warning from Nancy Ward, a half-caste Cherokee +prophetess who often showed her good will towards the whites; and +that the Indians were roused to battle by Alexander Cameron and +John Stuart, the British agents or superintendents among the +overhill tribes. There was a letter bearing Cameron's name +stating that fifteen hundred savages from the Cherokee and +Creek nations were to join with British troops landed at +Pensacola in an expedition against the southern frontier +colonies. This letter was brought to Watauga at dead of night by +a masked man who slipped it through a window and rode away. +Apparently John Sevier did not believe the military information +contained in the mysterious missive, for he communicated nothing +of it to the Virginia Committee. In recent years the facts have +come to light. This mysterious letter and others of a similar +tenor bearing forged signatures are cited in a report by the +British Agent, John Stuart, to his Government. It appears that +such inflammatory missives had been industriously scattered +through the back settlements of both Carolinas. There are also +letters from Stuart to Lord Dartmouth, dated a year earlier, +urging that something be done immediately to counteract rumors +set afloat that the British were endeavoring to instigate both +the Indians and the negroes to attack the Americans. + +Now it is, of course, an established fact that both the British +and the American armies used Indians in the War of Independence, +even as both together had used them against the French and the +Spanish and their allied Indians. It was inevitable that the +Indians should participate in any severe conflict between the +whites. They were a numerous and a warlike people and, from their +point of view, they had more at stake than the alien whites who +were contesting for control of the red man's continent. Both +British and Americans have been blamed for "half-hearted attempts +to keep the Indians neutral." The truth is that each side strove +to enlist the Indians--to be used, if needed later, as warriors. +Massacre was no part of this policy, though it may have been +countenanced by individual officers in both camps. But it is +obvious that, once the Indians took the warpath, they were to be +restrained by no power and, no matter under whose nominal +command, they would carry on warfare by their own methods.* + +* "There is little doubt that either side, British or Americans, +stood ready to enlist the Indians. Already before Boston the +Americans had had the help of the Stockbridge tribe. Washington +found the service committed to the practise when he arrived at +Cambridge early in July. Dunmore had taken the initiative in +securing such allies, at least is purpose; but the insurgent +Virginians had had of late more direct contact with the tribes +and were now striving to secure them but with little success." +"The Westward Movement," by Justin Winsor, p. 87. + +General Ethan Allen of Vermont, as his letters show, sent +emissaries into Canada in an endeavor to enlist the French +Canadians and the Canadian Indians against the British in Canada. +See "American Archives," Fourth Series, vol. II, p. 714. The +British General Gage wrote to Lord Dartmouth from Boston, June +18, 1775: "We need not be tender of calling on the Savages as the +rebels have shown us the example, by bringing as many Indians +down against us as they could collect." "American Archives." +Fourth Series, vol. ii, p. 967. + +In a letter to Lord Germain, dated August 23, 1776, John Stuart +wrote: "Although Mr. Cameron was in constant danger of +assassination and the Indians were threatened with invasion +should they dare to, protect him, yet he still found means to +prevent their falling on the settlement." See North Carolina +"Colonial Records," vol. X, pp. 608 and 763. Proof that the +British agents had succeeded in keeping the Cherokee neutral till +the summer of 1776 is found in the instructions, dated the 7th of +July, to Major Winston from President Rutledge of South Carolina, +regarding the Cherokees, that they must be forced to give up the +British agents and "INSTEAD OF REMAINING IN A STATE OF NEUTRALITY +with respect to British Forces they must take part with us +against them." See North Carolina "Colonial Records," vol. X, p. +658. + + +Whatever may have been the case elsewhere, the attacks on the +Watauga and Holston settlements were not instigated by British +agents. It was not Nancy Ward but Henry Stuart, John Stuart's +deputy, who sent Isaac Thomas to warn the settlers. In their +efforts to keep the friendship of the red men, the British and +the Americans were providing them with powder and lead. The +Indians had run short of ammunition and, since hunting was their +only means of livelihood, they must shoot or starve. South +Carolina sent the Cherokees a large supply of powder and lead +which was captured en route by Tories. About the same time Henry +Stuart set out from Pensacola with another consignment from the +British. His report to Lord Germain of his arrival in the +Chickamaugan towns and of what took place there just prior to the +raids on the Tennessee settlements is one of the most +illuminating as well as one of the most dramatic papers in the +collected records of that time.* + +* North Carolina "Colonial Records," vol. X, pp. 763-785. + + +Stuart's first act was secretly to send out Thomas, the trader, +to warn the settlers of their peril, for a small war party of +braves was even then concluding the preliminary war ceremonies. +The reason for this Indian alarm and projected excursion was the +fact that the settlers had built one fort at least on the Indian +lands. Stuart finally persuaded the Indians to remain at peace +until he could write to the settlers stating the grievances and +asking for negotiations. The letters were to be carried by Thomas +on his return. + +But no sooner was Thomas on his way again with the letters than +there arrived a deputation of warriors from the Northern +tribes--from "the Confederate nations, the Mohawks, Ottawas, +Nantucas, Shawanoes and Delawares"--fourteen men in all, who +entered the council hall of the Old Beloved Town of Chota with +their faces painted black and the war belt carried before them. +They said that they had been seventy days on their journey. +Everywhere along their way they had seen houses and forts +springing up like, weeds across the green sod of their hunting +lands. Where once were great herds of deer and buffalo, they had +watched thousands of men at arms preparing for war. So many now +were the white warriors and their women and children that the red +men had been obliged to travel a great way on the other side of +the Ohio and to make a detour of nearly three hundred miles to +avoid being seen. Even on this outlying route they had crossed +the fresh tracks of a great body of people with horses and cattle +going still further towards the setting sun. But their cries were +not to be in vain; for "their fathers, the French" had heard them +and had promised to aid them if they would now strike as one for +their lands. + +After this preamble the deputy of the Mohawks rose. He said that +some American people had made war on one of their towns and had +seized the son of their Great Beloved Man, Sir William Johnson, +imprisoned him, and put him to a cruel death; this crime demanded +a great vengeance and they would not cease until they had taken +it. One after another the fourteen delegates rose and made their +"talks" and presented their wampum strings to Dragging Canoe. The +last to speak was a chief of the Shawanoes. He also declared that +"their fathers, the French," who had been so long dead, were +"alive again," that they had supplied them plentifully with arms +and ammunition and had promised to assist them in driving out the +Americans and in reclaiming their country. Now all the Northern +tribes were joined in one for this great purpose; and they +themselves were on their way to all the Southern tribes and had +resolved that, if any tribe refused to join, they would fall upon +and extirpate that tribe, after having overcome the whites. At +the conclusion of his oration the Shawanoe presented the war +belt--nine feet of six-inch wide purple wampum spattered with +vermilion--to Dragging Canoe, who held it extended between his +two hands, in silence, and waited. Presently rose a headman whose +wife had been a member of Sir William Johnson's household. He +laid his hand on the belt and sang the war song. One by one, +then, chiefs and warriors rose, laid hold of the great belt and +chanted the war song. Only the older men, made wise by many +defeats, sat still in their places, mute and dejected. "After +that day every young fellow's face in the overhills towns +appeared blackened and nothing was now talked of but war." + +Stuart reports that "all the white men" in the tribe also laid +hands on the belt. Dragging Canoe then demanded that Cameron and +Stuart come forward and take hold of the war belt--"which we +refused." Despite the offense their refusal gave--and it would +seem a dangerous time to give such offense--Cameron delivered a +"strong talk" for peace, warning the Cherokees of what must +surely be the end of the rashness they contemplated. Stuart +informed the chief that if the Indians persisted in attacking the +settlements with out waiting for answers to his letters, he would +not remain with them any longer or bring them any more +ammunition. He went to his house and made ready to leave on the +following day. Early the next morning Dragging Canoe appeared at +his door and told him that the Indians were now very angry about +the letters he had written, which could only have put the +settlers on their guard; and that if any white man attempted to +leave the nation "they had determined to follow him but NOT TO +BRING HIM BACK." Dragging Canoe had painted his face black to +carry this message. Thomas now returned with an answer from "the +West Fincastle men," which was so unsatisfactory to the tribe +that war ceremonies were immediately begun. Stuart and Cameron +could no longer influence the Indians. "All that could now be +done was to give them strict charge not to pass the Boundary +Line, not to injure any of the King's faithful subjects, not to +kill any women and children"; and to threaten to "stop all +ammunition" if they did not obey these orders. + + +The major part of the Watauga militia went out to meet the +Indians and defeated a large advance force at Long Island Flats +on the Holston. The Watauga fort, where many of the settlers had +taken refuge, contained forty fighting men under Robertson and +Sevier. As Indians usually retreated and waited for a while after +a defeat, those within the fort took it for granted that no +immediate attack was to be expected; and the women went out at +daybreak into the fields to milk the cows. Suddenly the war whoop +shrilled from the edge of the clearing. Red warriors leaped from +the green skirting of the forest. The women ran for the fort. +Quickly the heavy gates swung to and the dropped bar secured +them. Only then did the watchmen discover that one woman had been +shut out. She was a young woman nearing her twenties and, if +legend has reported her truly, "Bonnie Kate Sherrill" was a +beauty. Through a porthole Sevier saw her running towards the +shut gates, dodging and darting, her brown hair blowing from the +wind of her race for life--and offering far too rich a prize to +the yelling fiends who dashed after her. Sevier coolly shot the +foremost of her pursuers, then sprang upon the wall, caught up +Bonnie Kate, and tossed her inside to safety. And legend says +further that when, after Sevier's brief widowerhood, she became +his wife, four years later, Bonnie Kate was wont to say that she +would be willing to run another such race any day to have another +such introduction! + +There were no casualties within the fort and, after three hours, +the foe withdrew, leaving several of their warriors slain. + +In the excursions against the Indians which followed this opening +of hostilities Sevier won his first fame as an "Indian +fighter"--the fame later crystallized in the phrase "thirty-five +battles, thirty-five victories." His method was to take a very +small company of the hardiest and swiftest horsemen--men who +could keep their seat and endurance, and horses that could keep +their feet and their speed, on any steep of the mountains no +matter how tangled and rough the going might be--swoop down upon +war camp, or town, and go through it with rifle and hatchet and +fire, then dash homeward at the same pace before the enemy had +begun to consider whether to follow him or not. In all his +"thirty-five battles" it is said he lost not more than fifty men. + +The Cherokees made peace in 1777, after about a year of almost +continuous warfare, the treaty being concluded on their side by +the old chiefs who had never countenanced the war. Dragging Canoe +refused to take part, but he was rendered innocuous for the time +being by the destruction of several of the Chickamaugan villages. +James Robertson now went to Chota as Indian agent for North +Carolina. So fast was population growing, owing to the opening of +a wagon road into Burke County, North Carolina, that Washington +County was divided. John Sevier became Colonel of Washington and +Isaac Shelby Colonel of the newly erected Sullivan County. +Jonesborough, the oldest town in Tennessee, was laid out as the +county seat of Washington; and in the same year (1778) Sevier +moved to the bank of the Nolichucky River, so-called after the +Indian name of this dashing sparkling stream, meaning rapid or +precipitous. Thus the nickname given John Sevier by his devotees +had a dual application. He was well called Nolichucky Jack. + + +When Virginia annulled Richard Henderson's immense purchase but +allowed him a large tract on the Cumberland, she by no means +discouraged that intrepid pioneer. Henderson's tenure of Kentucky +had been brief, but not unprofitable in experience. He had +learned that colonies must be treated with less commercial +pressure and with more regard to individual liberty, if they were +to be held loyal either to a King beyond the water or to an +uncrowned leader nearer at hand. He had been making his plans for +colonization of that portion of the Transylvania purchase which +lay within the bounds of North Carolina along the Cumberland and +choosing his men to lay the foundations of his projected +settlement in what was then a wholly uninhabited country; and he +had decided on generous terms, such as ten dollars a thousand +acres for land, the certificate of purchase to entitle the holder +to further proceedings in the land office without extra fees. +To head an enterprise of such danger and hardship Henderson +required a man of more than mere courage; a man of resource, of +stability, of proven powers, one whom other men would follow and +obey with confidence. So it was that James Robertson was chosen +to lead the first white settlers into middle Tennessee. He set +out in February, 1779, accompanied by his brother, Mark +Robertson, several other white men, and a negro, to select a site +for settlement and to plant corn. Meanwhile another small party +led by Gaspar Mansker had arrived. As the boundary line between +Virginia and North Carolina had not been run to this point, +Robertson believed that the site he had chosen lay within +Virginia and was in the disposal of General Clark. To protect the +settlers, therefore, he journeyed into the Illinois country to +purchase cabin rights from Clark, but there he was evidently +convinced that the site on the Cumberland would be found to lie +within North Carolina. He returned to Watauga to lead a party of +settlers into the new territory, towards which they set out in +October. After crossing the mountain chain through Cumberland +Gap, the party followed Boone's road--the Warriors' Path--for +some distance and then made their own trail southwestward through +the wilderness to the bluffs on the Cumberland, where they built +cabins to house them against one of the coldest winters ever +experienced in that county. So were laid the first foundations of +the present city of Nashville, at first named Nashborough by +Robertson.* On the way, Robertson had fallen in with a party of +men and families bound for Kentucky and had persuaded them to +accompany his little band to the Cumberland. Robertson's own wife +and children, as well as the families of his party, had been left +to follow in the second expedition, which was to be made by water +under the command of Captain John Donelson. + +* In honor of General Francis Nash, of North Carolina, who was +mortally wounded at Germantown, 1777. + + +The little fleet of boats containing the settlers, their +families, and all their household goods, was to start from Fort +Patrick Henry, near Long Island in the Holston River, to float +down into the Tennessee and along the 652 miles of that widely +wandering stream to the Ohio, and then to proceed up the Ohio to +the mouth of the Cumberland and up the Cumberland until +Robertson's station should appear--a journey, as it turned out, +of some nine hundred miles through unknown country and on waters +at any rate for the greater part never before navigated by white +men. + +"Journal of a voyage, intended by God's permission, in the good +boat Adventure" is the title of the log book in which Captain +Donelson entered the events of the four months' journey. Only a +few pages endured to be put into print: but those few tell a tale +of hazard and courage that seems complete. Could a lengthier +narrative, even if enriched with literary art and fancy, bring +before us more vividly than do the simple entries of Donelson's +log the spirit of the men and the women who won the West? If so +little personal detail is recorded of the pioneer men of that day +that we must deduce what they were from what they did, what do we +know of their unfailing comrades, the pioneer women? Only that +they were there and that they shared in every test of courage and +endurance, save the march of troops and the hunt. Donelson's +"Journal" therefore has a special value, because in its terse +account of Mrs. Jennings and Mrs. Peyton it depicts unforgettably +the quality of pioneer womanhood.* + +* This Journal is printed in Ramsey's "Annals of Tennessee." + + +"December 22nd, 1779. Took our departure from the fort and fell +down the river to the mouth of Reedy Creek where we were stopped +by the fall of water and most excessive hard frost." + + +Perhaps part of the "Journal" was lost, or perhaps the "excessive +hard frost" of that severe winter, when it is said even droves of +wild game perished, prevented the boats, from going on, for the +next entry is dated the 27th of February. On this date the +Adventure and two other boats grounded and lay on the shoals all +that afternoon and the succeeding night "in much distress." + + +"March 2nd. Rain about half the day.... Mr. Henry's boat being +driven on the point of an island by the force of the current was +sunk, the whole cargo much damaged and the crew's lives much +endangered, which occasioned the whole fleet to put on shore and +go to their assistance.... + +"Monday 6th. Got under way before sunrise; the morning proving +very foggy, many of the fleet were much bogged--about 10 o'clock +lay by for them; when collected, proceeded down. Camped on the +north shore, where Captain Hutching's negro man died, being much +frosted in his feet and legs, of which he died. + +"Tuesday, 7th. Got under way very early; the day proving very +windy, a S.S.W., and the river being wide occasioned a high sea, +insomuch that some of the smaller crafts were in danger; +therefore came to at the uppermost Chiccamauga town, which was +then evacuated, where we lay by that afternoon and camped that +night. The wife of Ephraim Peyton was here delivered of a child. +Mr. Peyton has gone through by land with Captain Robertson. + +"Wednesday 8th...proceed down to an Indian village which was +inhabited...they insisted on us to come ashore, called us +brothers, and showed other signs of friendship.... And here +we must regret the unfortunate death of young Mr. Payne, on board +Captain Blakemore's boat, who was mortally wounded by reason of +the boat running too near the northern shore opposite the town, +where some of the enemy lay concealed; and the more tragical +misfortune of poor Stuart, his family and friends, to the number +of twenty-eight persons. This man had embarked with us for the +Western country, but his family being diseased with the small +pox, it was agreed upon between him and the company that he +should keep at some distance in the rear, for fear of the +infection spreading, and he was warned each night when the +encampment should take place by the sound of a horn.... The +Indians having now collected to a considerable number, observing +his helpless situation singled off from the rest of the fleet, +intercepted him and killed and took prisoners the whole crew...; +their cries were distinctly heard...". + + +After describing a running fight with Indians stationed on the +bluffs on both shores where the river narrowed to half its width +and boiled through a canyon, the entry for the day concludes: +"Jennings's boat is missing." + + +"Friday 10th. This morning about 4 o'clock we were surprised by +the cries of "help poor Jennings" at some distance in the rear. +He had discovered us by our fires and came up in the most +wretched condition. He states that as soon as the Indians +discovered his situation [his boat had run on a rock] they turned +their whole attention to him and kept up a most galling fire at +his boat. He ordered his wife, a son nearly grown, a young man +who accompanies them and his negro man and woman, to throw all +his goods into the river to lighten their boat for the purpose of +getting her off; himself returning their fire as well as he +could, being a good soldier and an excellent marksman. But before +they had accomplished their object, his son, the young man and +the negro, jumped out of the boat and left.... Mrs. Jennings, +however, and the negro woman, succeeded in unloading the boat, +but chiefly by the exertions of Mrs. Jennings who got out of the +boat and shoved her off, but was near falling a victim to her own +intrepidity on account of the boat starting so suddenly as soon +as loosened from the rock. Upon examination he appears to have +made a wonderful escape for his boat is pierced in numberless +places with bullets. It is to be remarked that Mrs. Peyton, who +was the night before delivered of an infant, which was +unfortunately killed upon the hurry and confusion consequent upon +such a disaster, assisted them, being frequently exposed to wet +and cold.... Their clothes were very much cut with bullets, +especially Mrs. Jennings's." + + +Of the three men who deserted, while the women stood by under +fire, the negro was drowned and Jennings's son and the other +young man were captured by the Chickamaugans. The latter was +burned at the stake. Young Jennings was to have shared the same +fate; but a trader in the village, learning that the boy was +known to John Sevier, ransomed him by a large payment of goods, +as a return for an act of kindness Sevier had once done to him. + + +"Sunday 12th.... After running until about 10 o'clock came in +sight of the Muscle Shoals. Halted on the northern shore at the +appearance of the shoals, in order to search for the signs +Captain James Robertson was to make for us at that place...that +it was practicable for us to go across by land...we can +find none--from which we conclude that it would not be prudent to +make the attempt and are determined, knowing ourselves in such +imminent danger, to pursue our journey down the river.... +When we approached them [the Shoals] they had a dreadful +appearance.... The water being high made a terrible roaring, +which could be heard at some distance, among the driftwood heaped +frightfully upon the points of the islands, the current running +in every. possible direction. Here we did not know how soon we +should be dashed to pieces and all our troubles ended at once... +Our boats frequently dragged on the bottom and appeared +constantly in danger of striking. They warped as much as in a +rough sea. But by the hand of Providence we are now preserved +from this danger also. I know not the length of this wonderful +shoal; it had been represented to me to be twenty-five or thirty +miles. If so, we must have descended very rapidly, as indeed we +did, for we passed it in about three hours." + + +On the twentieth the little fleet arrived at the mouth of the +Tennessee and the voyagers landed on the bank of the Ohio. + + +"Our situation here is truly disagreeable. The river is very high +and the current rapid, our boats not constructed for the purpose +of stemming a rapid stream, our provisions exhausted, the crews +almost worn down with hunger and fatigue, and know not what +distance we have to go or what time it will take us to our place +of destination. The scene is rendered still more melancholy as +several boats will not attempt to ascend the rapid current. Some +intend to descend the Mississippi to Natchez; others are bound +for the Illinois--among the rest my son-in-law and daughter. We +now part, perhaps to meet no more, for I am determined to pursue +my course, happen what will. + +"Tuesday 21st. Set out and on this day labored very hard and got +but little way.... Passed the two following days as the +former, suffering much from hunger and fatigue. + +"Friday 24th. About three o'clock came to the mouth of a river +which I thought was the Cumberland. Some of the company declared +it could not be--it was so much smaller than was expected.... +We determined however to make the trial, pushed up some distance +and encamped for the night. + +"Saturday 25th. Today we are much encouraged; the river grows +wider;...we are now convinced it is the Cumberland.... + +"Sunday 26th...procured some buffalo meat; though poor it was +palatable. + +"Friday 31st...met with Colonel Richard Henderson, who is +running the line between Virginia and North Carolina. At this +meeting we were much rejoiced. He gave us every information we +wished, and further informed us that he had purchased a quantity +of corn in Kentucky, to be shipped at the Falls of Ohio for the +use of the Cumberland settlement. We are now without bread and +are compelled to hunt the buffalo to preserve life.... + +"Monday, April 24th. This day we arrived at our journey's end at +the Big Salt Lick, where we have the pleasure of finding Captain +Robertson and his company. It is a source of satisfaction to us +to be enabled to restore to him and others their families and +friends, who were entrusted to our care, and who, sometime since, +perhaps, despaired of ever meeting again...." + + +Past the camps of the Chickamaugans--who were retreating farther +and farther down the twisting flood, seeking a last standing +ground in the giant caves by the Tennessee--these white voyagers +had steered their pirogues. Near Robertson's station, where they +landed after having traversed the triangle of the three great +rivers which enclose the larger part of western Tennessee, stood +a crumbling trading house marking the defeat of a Frenchman who +had, one time, sailed in from the Ohio to establish an outpost of +his nation there. At a little distance were the ruins of a rude +fort cast up by the Cherokees in the days when the redoubtable +Chickasaws had driven them from the pleasant shores of the +western waters. Under the towering forest growth lay vast burial +mounds and the sunken foundations of walled towns, telling of a +departed race which had once flashed its rude paddles and had its +dream of permanence along the courses of these great waterways. +Now another tribe had come to dream that dream anew. Already its +primitive keels had traced the opening lines of its history on +the face of the immemorial rivers. + + + +Chapter IX. King's Mountain + +About the time when James Robertson went from Watauga to fling +out the frontier line three hundred miles farther westward, the +British took Savannah. In 1780 they took Charleston and Augusta, +and overran Georgia. Augusta was the point where the old trading +path forked north and west, and it was the key to the Back +Country and the overhill domain. In Georgia and the Back Country +of South Carolina there were many Tories ready to rally to the +King's standard whenever a King's officer should carry it through +their midst. A large number of these Tories were Scotch, chiefly +from the Highlands. In fact, as we have seen, Scotch blood +predominated among the racial streams in the Back Country from +Georgia to Pennsylvania. Now, to insure a triumphant march +northward for Cornwallis and his royal troops, these sons of +Scotland must be gathered together, the loyal encouraged and +those of rebellious tendencies converted, and they must be +drilled and turned to account. This task, if it were to be +accomplished successfully, must be entrusted to an offcer with +positive qualifications, one who would command respect, whose +personal address would attract men and disarm opposition, and +especially one who could go as a Scot among his own clan. +Cornwallis found his man in Major. Patrick Ferguson. + +Ferguson was a Highlander, a son of Lord Pitfour of Aberdeen, and +thirty-six years of age. He was of short stature for a +Highlander--about five feet eight--lean and dark, with straight +black hair. He had a serious unhandsome countenance which, at +casual glance, might not arrest attention; but when he spoke he +became magnetic, by reason of the intelligence and innate force +that gleamed in his eyes and the convincing sincerity of his +manner. He was admired and respected by his brother officers and +by the commanders under whom he had served, and he was loved by +his men. + +He had seen his first service in the Seven Years' War, having +joined the British army in Flanders at the age of fifteen; and he +had early distinguished himself for courage and coolness. In +1768, as a captain of infantry, he quelled an insurrection of the +natives on the island of St. Vincent in the West Indies. Later, +at Woolwich, he took up the scientific study of his profession of +arms. He not only became a crack shot, but he invented a new type +of rifle which he could load at the breach without ramrod and so +quickly as to fire seven times in a minute. Generals and +statesmen attended his exhibitions of shooting; and even the King +rode over at the head of his guards to watch Ferguson rapidly +loading and firing. + +In America under Cornwallis, Ferguson had the reputation of being +the best shot in the army; and it was soon said that, in his +quickness at loading and firing, he excelled the most expert +American frontiersman. Eyewitnesses have left their testimony +that, seeing a bird alight on a bough or rail, he would drop his +bridle rein, draw his pistol, toss it in the air, catch and aim +it as it fell, and shoot the bird's head off. He was given +command of a corps of picked riflemen; and in the Battle of the +Brandywine in 1777 he rendered services which won acclaim from +the whole army. For the honor of that day's service to his King, +Ferguson paid what from him, with his passion for the rifle, must +have been the dearest price that could have been demanded. His +right arm was shattered, and for the remaining three years of his +short life it hung useless at his side. Yet he took up swordplay +and attained a remarkable degree of skill as a left-handed +swordsman. + +Such was Ferguson, the soldier. What of the man? For he has been +pictured as a wolf and a fiend and a coward by early chroniclers, +who evidently felt that they were adding to the virtue of those +who fought in defense of liberty by representing all their foes +as personally odious. We can read his quality of manhood in a few +lines of the letter he sent to his kinsman, the noted Dr. Adam +Ferguson, about an incident that occurred at Chads Ford. As he +was lying with his men in the woods, in front of Knyphausen's +army, so he relates, he saw two American officers ride out. He +describes their dress minutely. One was in hussar uniform. The +other was in a dark green and blue uniform with a high cocked hat +and was mounted on a bay horse: + +"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 +retiring made a circuit, but the other passed within a hundred +yards of us, upon which I advanced from the wood towards 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; +levelling my piece at 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 or 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. The day +after, I had been telling this story to some wounded officers, +who lay in the same room with me, when one of the surgeons who +had been dressing the wounded rebel officers came in and told us +that they had been informing him that General Washington was all +the morning with the light troops, and only attended by a French +officer in hussar dress, he himself dressed and mounted in every +point as above described. I AM NOT SORRY THAT I DID NOT KNOW AT +THE TIME WHO IT WAS.* + +*Doubt that the officer in question was Washington was expressed +by James Fenimore Cooper. Cooper stated that Major De Lancey, his +father-in-law, was binding Ferguson's arm at the time when the +two officers were seen and Ferguson recalled the order to fire, +and that De Lancey said he believed the officer was Count +Pulaski. But, as Ferguson, according to his own account, "leveled +his piece" at the officer, his arm evidently was not wounded +until later in the day. The probability is that Ferguson's +version, written in a private letter to his relative, is correct +as to the facts, whatever may be conjectured as to the identity +of the officer. See Draper's King's "Mountain and its Heroes," +pp. 52-54. + + +Ferguson had his code towards the foe's women also. On one +occasion when he was assisting in an action carried out by +Hessians and Dragoons, he learned that some American women had +been shamefully maltreated. He went in a white fury to the +colonel in command, and demanded that the men who had so +disgraced their uniforms instantly be put to death. + +In rallying the loyalists of the Back Country of Georgia and the +Carolinas, Ferguson was very successful. He was presently in +command of a thousand or more men, including small detachments of +loyalists from New York and New Jersey, under American-born +officers such as De Peyster and Allaire. There were good honest +men among the loyalists and there were also rough and vicious men +out for spoils--which was true as well of the Whigs or Patriots +from the same counties. Among the rough element were Tory +banditti from the overmountain region. It is to be gathered from +Ferguson's records that he did not think any too highly of some +of his new recruits, but he set to work with all energy to make +them useful. + +The American Patriots hastily prepared to oppose him. Colonel +Charles McDowell of Burke County, North Carolina, with a small +force of militia was just south of the line at a point on the +Broad River when he heard that Ferguson was sweeping on +northward. In haste he sent a call for help across the mountains +to Sevier and Shelby. Sevier had his hands full at Watauga, but +he dispatched two hundred of his troops; and Isaac Shelby, with a +similar force from Sullivan County crossed the mountains to +McDowell's assistance. These "overmountain men" or "backwater +men," as they were called east of the hills, were trained in +Sevier's method of Indian warfare--the secret approach through +the dark, the swift dash, and the swifter flight. "Fight strong +and run away fast" was the Indian motto, as their women had often +been heard to call it after the red men as they ran yelling to +fall on the whites. The frontiersmen had adapted the motto to fit +their case, as they had also made their own the Indian tactics of +ambuscade and surprise attacks at dawn. To sleep, or ride if +needs must, by night, and to fight by day and make off, was to +them a reasonable soldier's life. + +But Ferguson was a night marauder. The terror of his name, which +grew among the Whigs of the Back Country until the wildest +legends about his ferocity were current, was due chiefly to a +habit he had of pouncing on his foes in the middle of the night +and pulling them out of bed to give fight or die. It was +generally both fight and die, for these dark adventures of his +were particularly successful. Ferguson knew no neutrals or +conscientious objectors; any man who would not carry arms for the +King was a traitor, and his life and goods were forfeit. A report +of his reads: "The attack being made at night, no quarter could +be given." Hence his wolfish fame. "Werewolf " would have been a +fit name for him for, though he was a wolf at night, in the +daylight he was a man and, as we have seen, a chivalrous one. + +In the guerrilla fighting that went on for a brief time between +the overmountain men and various detachments of Ferguson's +forces, sometimes one side, sometimes the other, won the heat. +But the field remained open. Neither side could claim the +mastery. In a minor engagement fought at Musgrove's Mill on the +Enoree, Shelby's command came off victor and was about to pursue +the enemy towards Ninety-Six when a messenger from McDowell +galloped madly into camp with word of General Gates's crushing +defeat at Camden. This was a warning for Shelby's guerrillas to +flee as birds to their mountains, or Ferguson would cut them off +from the north and wedge them in between his own force and the +victorious Cornwallis. McDowell's men, also on the run for +safety, joined them. For forty-eight hours without food or rest +they rode a race with Ferguson, who kept hard on their trail +until they disappeared into the mystery of the winding mountain +paths they alone knew. + +Ferguson reached the gap where they had swerved into the towering +hills only half an hour after their horses' hoofs had pounded +across it. Here he turned back. His troops were exhausted from +the all-night ride and, in any case, there were not enough of +them to enable him to cross the mountains and give the Watauga +men battle on their own ground with a fair promise of victory. So +keeping east of the hills but still close to them, Ferguson +turned into Burke County, North Carolina. He sat him down in +Gilbert Town (present Lincolnton, Lincoln County) at the foot of +the Blue Ridge and indited a letter to the "Back Water Men," +telling them that if they did not lay down their arms and return +to their rightful allegiance, he would come over their hills and +raze their settlements and hang their leaders. He paroled a +kinsman of Shelby's, whom he had taken prisoner in the chase, and +sent him home with the letter. Then he set about his usual +business of gathering up Tories and making soldiers of them, and +of hunting down rebels. + +One of the "rebels" was a certain Captain Lytle. When Ferguson +drew up at Lytle's door, Lytle had already made his escape; but +Mrs. Lytle was there. She was a very handsome woman and she had +dressed herself in her best to receive Ferguson, who was reported +a gallant as well as a wolf. After a few spirited passages +between the lady in the doorway and the officer on the white +horse before it, the latter advised Mrs. Lytle to use her +influence to bring her husband back to his duty. She became grave +then and answered that her husband would never turn traitor to +his country. Ferguson frowned at the word "traitor," but +presently he said: "Madam, I admire you as the handsomest woman I +have seen in North Carolina. I even half way admire your zeal in +a bad cause. But take my word for it, the rebellion has had its +day and is now virtually put down. Give my regards to Captain +Lytle and tell him to come in. He wiil not be asked to compromise +his honor. His verbal pledge not again to take up arms against +the King is all that will be asked of him."* + +* Draper,"King's Mountain and its Heroes," pp. 151-53. + + +This was another phase of the character of the one-armed +Highlander whose final challenge to the backwater men was now +being considered in every log cabin beyond the hills. A man who +would not shoot an enemy in the back, who was ready to put the +same faith in another soldier's honor which he knew was due to +his own, yet in battle a wolfish fighter who leaped through the +dark to give no quarter and to take none--he was fit challenger +to those other mountaineers who also had a chivalry of their own, +albeit they too were wolves of war. + +When Shelby on the Holston received Ferguson's pungent letter, he +flung himself on his horse and rode posthaste to Watauga to +consult, with Sevier. He found the bank of the Nolichucky teeming +with merrymakers. Nolichucky ,Jack was giving an immense barbecue +and a horse race. Without letting the festival crowd have an +inkling of the serious nature of Shelby's errand, the two men +drew apart to confer. It is said to have been Sevier's idea that +they should muster the forces of the western country and go in +search of Ferguson ere the latter should be able to get +sufficient reinforcements to cross the mountains. Sevier, like +Ferguson, always preferred to seek his foe, knowing well the +advantage of the offensive. Messengers were sent to Colonel +William Campbell of the Virginia settlements on the Clinch, +asking his aid. Campbell at first refused, thinking it better to +fortify the positions they held and let Ferguson come and put the +mountains between himself and Cornwallis. On receipt of a second +message, however, he concurred. The call to arms was heard up and +down the valleys, and the frontiersmen poured into Watauga. The +overhill men were augmented by McDowell's troops from Burke +County, who had dashed over the mountains a few weeks before in +their escape from Ferguson. + +At daybreak on the 26th of September they mustered at the +Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga, over a thousand strong. It was a +different picture they made from that other great gathering at +the same spot when Henderson had made his purchase in money of +the Dark and Bloody Ground, and Sevier and Robertson had bought +for the Wataugans this strip of Tennessee. There were no Indians +in this picture. Dragging Canoe, who had uttered his bloody +prophecy, had by these very men been driven far south into the +caves of the Tennessee River. But the Indian prophecy still hung +over them, and in this day with a heavier menace. Not with money, +now, were they to seal their purchase of the free land by the +western waters. There had been no women in that other picture, +only the white men who were going forward to open the way and the +red men who were retreating. But in this picture there were +women--wives and children, mothers, sisters, and sweethearts. All +the women of the settlement were there at this daybreak muster to +cheer on their way the men who were going out to battle that they +might keep the way of liberty open not for men only but for women +and children also. And the battle to which the men were now going +forth must be fought against Back Country men of their own stripe +under a leader who, in other circumstances, might well have been +one of themselves--a primitive spirit of hardy mountain stock, +who, having once taken his stand, would not barter and would not +retreat. + +"With the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" cried their pastor, +the Reverend Samuel Doak, with upraised hands, as the +mountaineers swung into their saddles. And it is said that all +the women took up his words and cried again and again, "With the +sword of the Lord and of our Gideons!" To the shouts of their +women, as bugles on the wind of dawn, the buckskin-shirted army +dashed out upon the mountain trail. + +The warriors' equipment included rifles and ammunition, +tomahawks, knives, shot pouches, a knapsack, and a blanket for +each man. Their uniforms were leggings, breeches, and long loose +shirts of gayly fringed deerskin, or of the linsey-woolsey spun +by their women. Their hunting shirts were bound in at the waist +by bright-colored linsey sashes tied behind in a bow. They wore +moccasins for footgear, and on their heads high fur or deerskin +caps trimmed with colored bands of raveled cloth. Around their +necks hung their powderhorns ornamented with their own rude +carvings. + +On the first day they drove along with them a number of beeves +but, finding that the cattle impeded the march, they left them +behind on the mountain side. Their provisions thereafter were +wild game and the small supply each man carried of mixed corn +meal and maple sugar. For drink, they had the hill streams. + +They passed upward between Roan and Yellow mountains to the top +of the range. Here, on the bald summit, where the loose snow lay +to their ankles, they halted for drill and rifle practice. When +Sevier called up his men, he discovered that two were missing. He +suspected at once that they had slipped away to carry warning to +Ferguson, for Watauga was known to be infested with Tories. Two +problems now confronted the mountaineers. They must increase the +speed of their march, so that Ferguson should not have time to +get reinforcements from Cornwallis; and they must make that extra +speed by another trail than they had intended taking so that they +themselves could not be intercepted before they had picked up the +Back Country militia under Colonels Cleveland, Hampbright, +Chronicle, and Williams, who were moving to join them. We are not +told who took the lead when they left the known trail, but we may +suppose it was Sevier and his Wataugans, for the making of new +warpaths and wild riding were two of the things which +distinguished Nolichucky Jack's leadership. Down the steep side +of the mountain, finding their way as they plunged, went the +overhill men. They crossed the Blue Ridge at Gillespie's Gap and +pushed on to Quaker Meadows, where Colonel Cleveland with 350 men +swung into their column. Along their route, the Back Country +Patriots with their rifles came out from the little hamlets and +the farms and joined them. + +They now had an army of perhaps fifteen hundred men but no +commanding officer. Thus far, on the march, the four colonels had +conferred together and agreed as to procedure; or, in reality, +the influence of Sevier and Shelby, who had planned the +enterprise and who seem always to have acted in unison, had +swayed the others. It would be, however, manifestly improper to +go into battle without a real general. Something must be done. +McDowell volunteered to carry a letter explaining their need to +General Gates, who had escaped with some of his staff into North +Carolina and was not far off. It then occurred to Sevier and +Shelby, evidently for the first time, that Gates, on receiving +such a request, might well ask why the Governor of North +Carolina, as the military head of the State, had not provided a +commander. The truth is that Sevier and Shelby had been so busy +drumming up the militia and planning their campaign that they had +found no time to consult the Governor. Moreover, the means +whereby the expedition had been financed might not have appealed +to the chief executive. After finding it impossible to raise +sufficient funds on his personal credit, Sevier had appropriated +the entry money in the government land office to the business in +hand--with the good will of the entry taker, who was a patriotic +man, although, as he had pointed out, he could not, OFFICIALLY, +hand over the money. Things being as they were, no doubt +Nolichucky Jack felt that an interview with the Governor had +better be deferred until after the capture of Ferguson. Hence the +tenor of this communication to General Gates: + +"As we have at this time called out our militia without any +orders from the Executive of our different States and with the +view of expelling the Enemy out of this part of the Country, we +think such a body of men worthy of your attention and would +request you to send a General Officer immediately to take the +command.... All our Troops being Militia and but little +acquainted with discipline, we could wish him to be a Gentleman +of address, and able to keep up a proper discipline WITHOUT +DISGUSTING THE SOLDIERY." + +For some unknown reason--unless it might be the wording of this +letter!--no officer was sent in reply. Shelby then suggested +that, since all the officers but Campbell were North Carolinians +and, therefore, no one of them could be promoted without arousing +the jealousy of the others, Campbell, as the only Virginian, was +the appropriate choice. The sweet reasonableness of selecting a +commander from such a motive appealed to all, and Campbell became +a general in fact if not in name! Shelby's principal aim, +however, had been to get rid of McDowell, who, as their senior, +would naturally expect to command and whom he considered "too far +advanced in life and too inactive" for such an enterprise. At +this time McDowell must have been nearly thirty-nine; and Shelby, +who was just thirty, wisely refused to risk the campaign under a +general who was in his dotage! + +News of the frontiersmen's approach, with their augmented force, +now numbering between sixteen and eighteen hundred, had reached +Ferguson by the two Tories who had deserted from Sevier's troops. +Ferguson thereupon had made all haste out of Gilbert Town and was +marching southward to get in touch with Cornwallis. His force was +much reduced, as some of his men were in pursuit of Elijah Clarke +towards Augusta and a number of his other Tories were on +furlough. As he passed through the Back Country he posted a +notice calling on the loyalists to join him. If the overmountain +men felt that they were out on a wolf hunt, Ferguson's +proclamation shows what the wolf thought of his hunters. + +"To the Inhabitants of North Carolina. + +"Gentlemen: Unless you wish to be eat up by an innundation of +barbarians, who have begun by murdering an unarmed son before the +aged father, and afterwards lopped off his arms, and who by their +shocking cruelties and irregularities give the best proof of +their cowardice and want of discipline: I say if you wish to be +pinioned, robbed and murdered, and see your wives and daughters +in four days, abused by the dregs of mankind--in short if you +wish to deserve to live and bear the name of men, grasp your arms +in a moment and run to camp. + +"The Back Water 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 +forever and ever by a set of mongrels, say so at once, and let +your women turn their backs upon you, and look out for real men +to protect them. + +"Pat. Ferguson, Major 71st Regiment."* + +* Draper, "King's Mountain and its Heroes," p. 204. + + +Ferguson's force has been estimated at about eleven hundred men, +but it is likely that this estimate does not take the absentees +into consideration. In the diary of Lieutenant Allaire, one of +his officers, the number is given as only eight hundred. Because +of the state of his army, chroniclers have found Ferguson's +movements, after leaving Gilbert Town, difficult to explain. It +has been pointed out that he could easily have escaped, for he +had plenty of time, and Charlotte, Cornwallis's headquarters, was +only sixty miles distant. We have seen something of Ferguson's +quality, however, and we may simply take it that he did not want +to escape. He had been planning to cross the high hills--to him, +the Highlander, no barrier but a challenge--to fight these men. +Now that they had taken the initiative he would not show them his +back. He craved the battle. So he sent out runners to the main +army and rode on along the eastern base of the mountains, seeking +a favorable site to go into camp and wait for Cornwallis's aid. +On the 6th of October he reached the southern end of the King's +Mountain ridge, in South Carolina, about half a mile south of the +northern boundary. Here a rocky, semi-isolated spur juts out from +the ridge, its summit--a table-land about six hundred yards long +and one hundred and twenty wide at its northern end--rising not +more than sixty feet above the surrounding country. On the summit +Ferguson pitched his camp. + +The hill was a natural fortress, its sides forested, its bald top +protected by rocks and bowlders. All the approaches led through +dense forest. An enemy force, passing through the immediate, +wooded territory, might easily fail to discover a small army +nesting sixty feet above the shrouding leafage. Word was +evidently brought to Ferguson here, telling him the now augmented +number of his foe, for he dispatched another emissary to +Cornwallis with a letter stating the number of his own troops and +urging full and immediate assistance. + +Meanwhile the frontiersmen had halted at the Cowpens. There they +feasted royally off roasted cattle and corn belonging to the +loyalist who owned the Cowpens. It is said that they mowed his +fifty acres of corn in an hour. And here one of their spies, in +the assumed role of a Tory, learned Ferguson's plans, his +approximate force, his route, and his system of communication +with Cornwallis. The officers now held council and determined to +take a detachment of the hardiest and fleetest horsemen and sweep +down on the enemy before aid could reach him. About nine o'clock +that evening, according to Shelby's report, 910 mounted men set +off at full speed, leaving the main body of horse and foot to +follow after at their best pace. + +Rain poured down on them all that night as they rode. At daybreak +they crossed the Broad at Cherokee Ford and dashed on in the +drenching rain all the forenoon. They kept their firearms and +powder dry by wrapping them in their knapsacks, blankets, and +hunting shirts. The downpour had so churned up the soil that many +of the horses mired, but they were pulled out and whipped forward +again. The wild horsemen made no halt for food or rest. Within +two miles of King's Mountain they captured Ferguson's messenger +with the letter that told of his desperate situation. They asked +this man how they should know Ferguson. He told them that +Ferguson was in full uniform but wore a checkered shirt or dust +cloak over it. This was not the only messenger of Ferguson's who +failed to carry through. The men he had sent out previously had +been followed and, to escape capture or death, they had been +obliged to lie in hiding, so that they did not reach Cornwallis +until the day of the battle. + +At three o'clock on the afternoon of the 7th of October, the +overmountain men were in the forest at the base of the hill. The +rain had ceased and the sun was shining. They dismounted and +tethered their steaming horses. Orders were given that every man +was to "throw the priming out of his pan, pick his touchhole, +prime anew, examine bullets and see that everything was in +readiness for battle." The plan of battle agreed on was to +surround the hill, hold the enemy on the top and, themselves +screened by the trees, keep pouring in their fire. There was a +good chance that most of the answering fire would go over their +heads. + +As Shelby's men crossed a gap in the woods, the outposts on the +hill discovered their presence and sounded the alarm. Ferguson +sprang to horse, blowing his silver whistle to call his men to +attack. His riflemen poured fire into Shelby's contingent, but +meanwhile the frontiersmen on the other sides were creeping up, +and presently a circle of fire burst upon the hill. With fixed +bayonets, some of Ferguson's men charged down the face of the +slope, against the advancing foe, only to be shot in the back as +they charged. Still time and time again they charged; the +overhill men reeled and retreated; but always their comrades took +toll with their rifles; Ferguson's men, preparing for a mounted +charge, were shot even as they swung to their saddles. Ferguson, +with his customary indifference to danger, rode up and down in +front of his line blowing his whistle to encourage his men. +"Huzza, brave boys! The day is our own!" Thus he was heard to +shout above the triumphant war whoops of the circling foe, +surging higher and higher about the hill. + +But there were others in his band who knew the fight was lost. +The overmountain men saw two white handkerchiefs, axed to +bayonets, raised above the rocks; and then they saw Ferguson dash +by and slash them down with his sword. Two horses were shot under +Ferguson in the latter part of the action; but he mounted a third +and rode again into the thick of the fray. Suddenly the cry +spread among the attacking troops that the British officer, +Tarleton, had come to Ferguson's rescue; and the mountaineers +began to give way. But it was only the galloping horses of their +own comrades; Tarleton had not come. Nolichucky Jack spurred out +in front of his men and rode along the line. Fired by his courage +they sounded the war whoop again and renewed the attack with +fury. + +"These are the same yelling devils that were at Musgrove's Mill," +said Captain De Peyster to Ferguson. + +Now Shelby and Sevier, leading his Wataugans, had reached the +summit. The firing circle pressed in. The buckskin-shirted +warriors leaped the rocky barriers, swinging their tomahawks and +long knives. Again the white handkerchiefs fluttered. Ferguson +saw that the morale of his troops was shattered. + +"Surrender," De Peyster, his second in command, begged of him. + +"Surrender to those damned banditti? Never!" + +Ferguson turned his horse's head downhill and charged into the +Wataugans, hacking right and left with his sword till it was +broken at the hilt. A dozen rifles were leveled at him. An iron +muzzle pushed at his breast, but the powder flashed in the pan. +He swerved and struck at the rifleman with his broken hilt. But +the other guns aimed at him spoke; and Ferguson's body jerked +from the saddle pierced by eight bullets. Men seized the bridle +of the frenzied horse, plunging on with his dead master dragging +from the stirrup. + +The battle had lasted less than an hour. After Ferguson fell, De +Peyster advanced with a white flag and surrendered his sword to +Campbell. Other white flags waved along the hilltop. But the +killing did not yet cease. It is said that many of the +mountaineers did not know the significance of the white flag. +Sevier's sixteen-year-old son, having heard that his father had +fallen, kept on furiously loading and firing until presently he +saw Sevier ride in among the troops and command them to stop +shooting men who had surrendered and thrown down their arms. + +The victors made a bonfire of the enemy's baggage wagons and +supplies. Then they killed some of his beeves and cooked them; +they had had neither food nor sleep for eighteen hours. They dug +shallow trenches for the dead and scattered the loose earth over +them. Ferguson's body, stripped of its uniform and boots and +wrapped in a beef hide, was thrown into one of these ditches by +the men detailed to the burial work, while the officers divided +his personal effects among themselves. + +The triumphant army turned homeward as the dusk descended. The +uninjured prisoners and the wounded who were able to walk were +marched off carrying their empty firearms. The badly wounded were +left lying where they had fallen. + +At Bickerstaff's Old Fields in Rutherford County the frontiersmen +halted; and here they selected thirty of their prisoners to be +hanged. They swung them aloft, by torchlight, three at a time, +until nine had gone to their last account. Then Sevier +interposed; and, with Shelby's added authority, saved the other +twenty-one. Among those who thus weighted the gallows tree were +some of the Tory brigands from Watauga; but not all the victims +were of this character. Some of the troops would have wreaked +vengeance on the two Tories from Sevier's command who had +betrayed their army plans to Ferguson; but Sevier claimed them as +under his jurisdiction and refused consent. Nolichucky Jack dealt +humanely by his foes. To the coarse and brutish Cleveland, now +astride of Ferguson's horse and wearing his sash, and to the +three hundred who followed him, may no doubt be laid the worst +excesses of the battle's afterpiece. + +Victors and vanquished drove on in the dark, close to the great +flank of hills. From where King's Mountain, strewn with dead and +dying, reared its black shape like some rudely hewn tomb of a +primordial age when titans strove together, perhaps to the ears +of the marching men came faintly through the night's stillness +the howl of a wolf and the answering chorus of the pack. For the +wolves came down to King's Mountain from all the surrounding +hills, following the scent of blood, and made their lair where +the Werewolf had fallen. The scene of the mountaineers' victory, +which marked the turn of the tide for the Revolution, became for +years the chief resort of wolf hunters from both the Carolinas. + +The importance of the overmountain men's victory lay in what it +achieved for the cause of Independence. King's Mountain was the +prelude to Cornwallis's defeat. It heartened the Southern +Patriots, until then cast down by Gates's disaster. To the +British the death of Ferguson was an irreparable loss because of +its depressing effect on the Back Country Tories. Ding's +Mountain, indeed, broke the Tory spirit. Seven days after the +battle General Nathanael Greene succeeded to the command of the +Southern Patriot army which Gates had led to defeat. Greene's +genius met the rising tide of the Patriots' courage and hope and +took it at the flood. His strategy, in dividing his army and +thereby compelling the division of Cornwallis's force, led to +Daniel Morgan's victory at the Cowpens, in the Back Country of +South Carolina, on January 17, 1781--another frontiersmen's +triumph. Though the British won the next engagement between +Greene and Cornwallis--the battle of Guilford Court House in the +North Carolina Back Country, on the 15th of March--Greene +madethem pay so dearly for their victory that Tarleton called it +"the pledge of ultimate defeat"; and, three days later, +Cornwallis was retreating towards Wilmington. In a sense, then, +King's Mountain was the pivot of the war's revolving stage, which +swung the British from their succession of victories towards the +surrender at Yorktown. + +Shelby, Campbell, and Cleveland escorted the prisoners to +Virginia. Sevier, with his men, rode home to Watauga. When the +prisoners had been delivered to the authorities in Virginia, the +Holston men also turned homeward through the hills. Their route +lay down through the Clinch and Holston valleys to the settlement +at the base of the mountains. Sevier and his Wataugans had gone +by Gillespie's Gap, over the pathway that hung like a narrow +ribbon about the breast of Roan Mountain, lifting its crest in +dignified isolation sixty-three hundred feet above the levels. +The "Unakas" was the name the Cherokees had given to those white +men who first invaded their hills; and the Unakas is the name +that white men at last gave to the mountain. + +Great companies of men were to come over the mountain paths on +their way to the Mississippi country and beyond; and with them, +as we know, were to go many of these mountain men, to pass away +with their customs in the transformations that come with +progress. But there were others who clung to these hills. They +were of several stocks--English, Scotch, Highlanders, Ulstermen, +who mingled by marriage and sometimes took their mates from among +the handsome maids of the Cherokees. They spread from the Unakas +of Tennessee into the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky; and they +have remained to this day what they were then, a primitive folk +of strong and fiery men and brave women living as their +forefathers of Watauga and Holston lived. In the log cabins in +those mountains today are heard the same ballads, sung still to +the dulcimer, that entertained the earliest settlers. The women +still turn the old-fashioned spinning wheels. The code of the men +is still the code learned perhaps from the Gaels--the code of the +oath and the feud and the open door to the stranger. Or were +these, the ethical tenets of almost all uncorrupted primitive +tribes, transmitted from the Indian strain and association? Their +young people marry at boy and girl ages, as the pioneers did, and +their wedding festivities are the same as those which made +rejoicing at the first marriage in Watauga. Their common speech +today contains words that have been obsolete in England for a +hundred years. + +Thrice have the mountain men come down again from their +fastnesses to war for America since the day of King's Mountain +and thrice they have acquitted themselves so that their deeds are +noted in history. A souvenir of their part in the War of 1812 at +the Battle of the Thames is kept in one of the favorite names for +mountain girls--"Lake Erie." In the Civil War many volunteers +from the free, non-slaveholding mountain regions of Kentucky and +Tennessee joined the Union Army, and it is said that they +exceeded all others in stature and physical development. And in +our own day their sons again came down from the mountains to +carry the torch of Liberty overseas, and to show the white stars +in their flag side by side with the ancient cross in the flag of +England against which their forefathers fought. + + + +Chapter X. Sevier, The Statemaker + +After King's Mountain, Sevier reached home just in time to fend +off a Cherokee attack on Watauga. Again warning had come to the +settlements that the Indians were about to descend upon them. +Sevier set out at once to meet the red invaders. Learning from +his scouts that the Indians were near he went into ambush with +his troops disposed in the figure of a half-moon, the favorite +Indian formation. He then sent out a small body of men to fire on +the Indians and make a scampering retreat, to lure the enemy on. +The maneuver was so well planned and the ground so well chosen +that the Indian war party would probably have been annihilated +but for the delay of an officer at one horn of the half-moon in +bringing his troops into play. Through the gap thus made the +Indians escaped, with a loss of seventeen of their number. The +delinquent officer was Jonathan Tipton, younger brother of +Colonel John Tipton, of whom we shall hear later. It is possible +that from this event dates the Tiptons' feud with Sevier, which +supplies one of the breeziest pages in the story of early +Tennessee. + +Not content with putting the marauders to flight, Sevier pressed +on after them, burned several of the upper towns, and took +prisoner a number of women and children, thus putting the red +warriors to the depth of shame, for the Indians never deserted +their women in battle. The chiefs at once sued for peace. But +they had made peace often before. Sevier drove down upon the +Hiwassee towns, meanwhile proclaiming that those among the tribe +who were friendly might send their families to the white +settlement, where they would be fed and cared for until a sound +peace should be assured. He also threatened to continue to make +war until his enemies were wiped out, their town sites a heap of +blackened ruins, and their whole country in possession of the +whites, unless they bound themselves to an enduring peace. + +Having compelled the submission of the Otari and Hiwassee towns, +yet finding that depredations still continued, Sevier determined +to invade the group of towns hidden in the mountain fastnesses +near the headwaters of the Little Tennessee where, deeming +themselves inaccessible except by their own trail, the Cherokees +freely plotted mischief and sent out raiding parties. These hill +towns lay in the high gorges of the Great Smoky Mountains, 150 +miles distant. No one in Watauga had ever been in them except +Thomas, the trader, who, however, had reached them from the +eastern side of the mountains. With no knowledge of the Indians' +path and without a guide, yet nothing daunted, Sevier, late in +the summer of 1781 headed his force into the mountains. So steep +were some of the slopes they scaled that the men were obliged to +dismount and help their horses up. Unexpectedly to themselves +perhaps, as well as to the Indians, they descended one morning on +a group of villages and destroyed them. Before the fleeing +savages could rally, the mountaineers had plunged up the steeps +again. Sevier then turned southward into Georgia and inflicted a +severe castigation on the tribes along the Coosa River. + +When, after thirty days of warfare and mad riding, Sevier arrived +at his Bonnie Kate's door on the Nolichucky, he found a messenger +from General Greene calling on him for immediate assistance to +cut off Cornwallis from his expected retreat through North +Carolina. Again he set out, and with two hundred men crossed the +mountains and made all speed to Charlotte, in Mecklenburg County, +where he learned that Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown on +October 19, 1781. Under Greene's orders he turned south to the +Santee to assist a fellow scion of the Huguenots, General Francis +Marion, in the pursuit of Stuart's Britishers. Having driven +Stuart into Charleston, Sevier and his active Wataugans returned +home, now perhaps looking forward to a rest, which they had +surely earned. Once more, however, they were hailed with alarming +news. Dragging Canoe had come to life again and was emerging from +the caves of the Tennessee with a substantial force of +Chickamaugan warriors. Again the Wataugans, augmented by a +detachment from Sullivan County, galloped forth, met the red +warriors, chastised them heavily, put them to rout, burned their +dwellings and provender, and drove them back into their hiding +places. For some time after this, the Indians dipped not into the +black paint pots of war but were content to streak their humbled +countenances with the vermilion of beauty and innocence. + + +It should be chronicled that Sevier, assisted possibly by other +Wataugans, eventually returned to the State of North Carolina the +money which he had forcibly borrowed to finance the King's +Mountain expedition; and that neither he nor Shelby received any +pay for their services, nor asked it. Before Shelby left the +Holston in 1782 and moved to Kentucky, of which State he was to +become the first Governor, the Assembly of North Carolina passed +a resolution of gratitude to the overmountain men in general, and +to Sevier and Shelby in particular, for their "very generous and +patriotic services" with which the "General Assembly of this +State are feelingly impressed." The resolution concluded by +urging the recipients of the Assembly's acknowledgments to +"continue" in their noble course. In view of what followed, this +resolution is interesting! + +For some time the overhill pioneers had been growing dissatisfied +with the treatment they were receiving from the State, which on +the plea of poverty had refused to establish a Superior Court for +them and to appoint a prosecutor. As a result, crime was on the +increase, and the law-abiding were deprived of the proper legal +means to check the lawless. In 1784 when the western soldiers' +claims began to reach the Assembly, there to be scrutinized by +unkindly eyes, the dissatisfaction increased. The breasts of the +mountain men--the men who had made that spectacular ride to bring +Ferguson to his end--were kindled with hot indignation when they +heard that they had been publicly assailed as grasping persons +who seized on every pretense to "fabricate demands against the +Government." Nor were those fiery breasts cooled by further +plaints to the effect that the "industry and property" of those +east of the hills were "becoming the funds appropriated to +discharge the debts" of the Westerners. They might with justice +have asked what the industry and property of the Easterners were +worth on that day when the overhill men drilled in the snows on +the high peak of Yellow Mountain and looked down on Burke County +overrun by Ferguson's Tories, and beyond, to Charlotte, where lay +Cornwallis. + +The North Carolina Assembly did not confine itself to impolite +remarks. It proceeded to get rid of what it deemed western +rapacity by ceding the whole overmountain territory to the United +States, with the proviso that Congress must accept the gift +within twelve months. And after passing the Cession Act, North +Carolina closed the land office in the undesired domain and +nullified all entries made after May 25, 1784. The Cession Act +also enabled the State to evade its obligations to the Cherokees +in the matter of an expensive consignment of goods to pay for new +lands. + +This clever stroke of the Assembly's brought about immediate +consequences in the region beyond the hills. The Cherokees, who +knew nothing about the Assembly's system of political economy but +who found their own provokingly upset by the non-arrival of the +promised goods, began again to darken the mixture in their paint +pots; and they dug up the war hatchet, never indeed so deeply +patted down under the dust that it could not be unearthed by a +stub of the toe. Needless to say, it was not the thrifty and +distant Easterners who felt their anger, but the nearby +settlements. + +As for the white overhill dwellers, the last straw had been laid +on their backs; and it felt like a hickory log. No sooner had the +Assembly adjourned than the men of Washington, Sullivan, and +Greene counties, which comprised the settled portion of what is +now east Tennessee, elected delegates to convene for the purpose +of discussing the formation of a new State. They could assert +that they were not acting illegally, for in her first +constitution North Carolina had made provision for a State beyond +the mountains. And necessity compelled them to take steps for +their protection. Some of them, and Sevier was of the number, +doubted if Congress would accept the costly gift; and the +majority realized that during the twelve months which were +allowed for the decision they would have no protection from +either North Carolina or Congress and would not be able to +command their own resources. + +In August, 1784, the delegates met at Jonesborough and passed +preliminary resolutions; and then adjourned to meet later in the +year. The news was soon disseminated through North Carolina and +the Assembly convened in October and hastily repealed the Cession +Act, voted to establish the District of Washington out of the +four counties, and sent word of the altered policy to Sevier, +with a commission for himself as Brigadier General. From the +steps of the improvised convention hall, before which the +delegates had gathered, Sevier read the Assembly's message and +advised his neighbors to proceed no further, since North Carolina +had of her own accord redressed all their grievances. But for +once Nolichucky Jack's followers refused to follow. The adventure +too greatly appealed. Obliged to choose between North Carolina +and his own people, Sevier's hesitation was short. The State of +Frankland, or Land of the Free, was formed; and Nolichucky Jack +was elevated to the office of Governor--with a yearly salary of +two hundred mink skins. + +Perhaps John Tipton had hoped to head the new State, for he had +been one of its prime movers and was a delegate to this +convention. But when the man whom he hated--apparently for no +reason except that other men loved him--assented to the people's +will and was appointed to the highest post within their gift, +Tipton withdrew, disavowing all connection with Frankland and +affirming his loyalty to North Carolina. From this time on, the +feud was an open one. + +That brief and now forgotten State, Frankland, the Land of the +Free, which bequeathed its name as an appellation for America, +was founded as Watauga had been founded--to meet the practical +needs and aspirations of its people. It will be remembered that +one of the things written by Sevier into the only Watauga +document extant was that they desired to become "in every way the +best members of society." Frankland's aims, as recorded, included +the intent to "improve agriculture, perfect manufacturing, +ENCOURAGE LITERATURE and every thing truly laudable." + +The constitution of Frankland, agreed to on the 14th of November, +1785, appeals to us today rather by its spirit than by its +practical provisions. "This State shall be called the +Commonwealth of Frankland and shall be governed by a General +Assembly of the representatives of the freemen of the same, a +Governor and Council, and proper courts of justice.... The +supreme legislative power shall be vested in a single House of +Representatives of the freemen of the commonwealth of Frankland. +The House of Representatives of the freemen of the State shall +consist of persons most noted for wisdom and virtue." + +In these exalted desires of the primitive men who held by their +rifles and hatchets the land by the western waters, we see the +influence of the Reverend Samuel Doak, their pastor, who founded +the first church and the first school beyond the great hills. +Early in the life of Watauga he had come thither from Princeton, +a zealous and broadminded young man, and a sturdy one, too, for +he came on foot driving before him a mule laden with books. +Legend credits another minister, the Reverend Samuel Houston, +with suggesting the name of Frankland, after he had opened the +Convention with prayer. It is not surprising to learn that this +glorified constitution was presently put aside in favor of one +modeled on that of North Carolina. + +Sevier persuaded the more radical members of the community to +abandon their extreme views and to adopt the laws of North +Carolina. However lawless his acts as Governor of a bolting +colony may appear, Sevier was essentially a constructive force. +His purposes were right, and small motives are not discernible in +his record. He might reasonably urge that the Franklanders had +only followed the example of North Carolina and the other +American States in seceding from the parent body, and for similar +causes, for the State's system of taxation had long borne heavily +on the overhill men. + +The whole transmontane populace welcomed Frankland with +enthusiasm. Major Arthur Campbell, of the Virginian settlements, +on the Holston, was eager to join. Sevier and his Assembly took +the necessary steps to receive the overhill Virginians, provided +that the transfer of allegiance could be made with Virginia's +consent. Meanwhile he replied in a dignified manner to the pained +and menacing expostulations of North Carolina's Governor. North +Carolina was bidden to remember the epithets her assemblymen had +hurled at the Westerners, which they themselves had by no means +forgotten. And was it any wonder that they now doubted the love +the parent State professed to feel for them? As for the puerile +threat of blood, had their quality really so soon become +obliterated from the memory of North Carolina? At this sort of +writing, Sevier, who always pulsed hot with emotion and who had a +pretty knack in turning a phrase, was more than a match for the +Governor of North Carolina, whose prerogatives he had usurped. + +The overmountain men no longer needed to complain bitterly of the +lack of legal machinery to keep them "the best members of +society." They now had courts to spare. Frankland had its courts, +its judges, its legislative body, its land office--in fact, a +full governmental equipment. North Carolina also performed all +the natural functions of political organism, within the western +territory. Sevier appointed one David Campbell a judge. Campbell +held court in Jonesborough. Ten miles away, in Buffalo, Colonel +John Tipton presided for North Carolina. It happened frequently +that officers and attendants of the rival law courts met, as they +pursued, their duties, and whenever they met they fought. The +post of sheriff--or sheriffs, for of course there were two--was +filled by the biggest and heaviest man and the hardest hitter in +the ranks of the warring factions. A favorite game was raiding +each other's courts and carrying off the records. Frankland sent +William Cocke, later the first senator from Tennessee, to +Congress with a memorial, asking Congress to accept the territory +North Carolina had offered and to receive it into the Union as a +separate State. Congress ignored the plea. It began to appear +that North Carolina would be victor in the end; and so there were +defections among the Franklanders. Sevier wrote to Benjamin +Franklin asking his aid in establishing the status of Frankland; +and, with a graceful flourish of his ready pen, changed the new +State's name to Franklin by way of reinforcing his arguments. But +the old philosopher, more expert than Sevier in diplomatic +calligraphy, only acknowledged the compliment and advised the +State of Franklin to make peace with North Carolina. + +Sevier then appealed for aid and recognition to the Governor of +Georgia, who had previously appointed him Brigadier General of +militia. But the Governor of Georgia also avoided giving the +recognition requested, though he earnestly besought Sevier to +come down and settle the Creeks for him. There were others who +sent pleas to Sevier, the warrior, to save them from the savages. +One of the writers who addressed him did not fear to say "Your +Excellency," nor to accord Nolichucky Jack the whole dignity of +the purple in appealing to him as the only man possessing the +will and the power to prevent the isolated settlements on the +Cumberland from being wiped out. That writer was his old friend, +James Robertson. + +In 1787, while Sevier was on the frontier of Greene County, +defending it from Indians, the legal forces of North Carolina +swooped down on his estate and took possession of his negroes. It +was Tipton who represented the law; and Tipton carried off the +Governor's slaves to his own estate. When Nolichucky Jack came +home and found that his enemy had stripped him, he was in a +towering rage. With a body of his troops and one small cannon, he +marched to Tipton's house and besieged it, threatening a +bombardment. He did not, however, fire into the dwelling, though +he placed some shots about it and in the extreme corners. This +opera bouffe siege endured for several days, until Tipton was +reinforced by some of his own clique. Then Tipton sallied forth +and attacked the besiegers, who hastily scattered rather than +engage in a sanguinary fight with their neighbors. Tipton +captured Sevier's two elder sons and was only strained from +hanging them on being informed that two of his own sons were at +that moment in Sevier's hands. + +In March, 1788, the State of Franklin went into eclipse. Sevier +was overthrown by the authorities of North Carolina. Most of the +officials who had served under him were soothed by being +reappointed to their old positions. Tipton's star was now in the +ascendant, for his enemy was to be made the vicarious sacrifice +for the sins of all whom he had "led astray." Presently David +Campbell, still graciously permitted to preside over the Superior +Court, received from the Governor of North Carolina the following +letter: + +"Sir: It has been represented to the Executive that John Sevier, +who style's himself Captain-General of the State of Franklin, has +been guilty of high treason in levying troops to oppose the laws +and government of the State.... You will issue your warrant to +apprehend the said John Sevier, and in case he cannot be +sufficiently secured for trial in the District of Washington, +order him to be committed to the public gaol." + + +The judge's authority was to be exercised after he had examined +the "affidavits of credible persons." Campbell's judicial opinion +seems to have been that any affidavit against "the said John +Sevier" could not be made by a "credible person." He refused to +issue the warrant. Tipton's friend, Spencer, who had been North +Carolina's judge of the Superior Court in the West and who was +sharing that honor now with Campbell, issued the warrant and sent +Tipton to make the arrest. + +Sevier was at the Widow Brown's inn with some of his men when +Tipton at last came up with him. It was early morning. Tipton and +his posse were about to enter when the portly and dauntless +widow, surmising their errand, drew her chair into the doorway, +plumped herself down in it, and refused to budge for all the +writs in North Carolina. Tipton blustered and the widow rocked. +The altercation awakened Sevier. He dressed hurriedly and came +down. As soon as he presented himself on the porch, Tipton +thrust his pistol against his body, evidently with intent to fire +if Sevier made signs of resistance. Sevier's furious followers +were not disposed to let him be taken without a fight, but he +admonished them to respect the law, and requested that they would +inform Bonnie Kate of his predicament. Then, debonair as ever, +with perhaps a tinge of contempt at the corners of his mouth, he +held out his wrists for the manacles which Tipton insisted on +fastening upon them. + +It was not likely that any jail in the western country could hold +Nolichucky Jack overnight. Tipton feared a riot; and it was +decided to send the prisoner for incarceration and trial to +Morgantown in North Carolina, just over the hills. + +Tipton did not accompany the guards he sent with Sevier. It was +stated and commonly believed that he had given instructions of +which the honorable men among his friends were ignorant. When the +party entered the mountains, two of the guards were to lag behind +with the prisoner, till the others were out of sight on the +twisting trail. Then one of the two was to kill Sevier and assert +that he had done it because Sevier had attempted to escape. It +fell out almost as planned, except that the other guard warned +Sevier of the fate in store for him and gave him a chance to +flee. In plunging down the mountain, Sevier's horse was entangled +in a thicket. The would-be murderer overtook him and fired; but +here again fate had interposed for her favorite. The ball had +dropped out of the assassin's pistol. So Sevier reached +Morgantown in safety and was deposited in care of the sheriff, +who was doubtless cautioned to take a good look at the prisoner +and know him for a dangerous and a daring man. + +There is a story to the effect that, when Sevier was arraigned in +the courthouse at Morgantown and presently dashed through the +door and away on a racer that had been brought up by some of his +friends, among those who witnessed the proceedings was a young +Ulster Scot named Andrew Jackson; and that on this occasion these +two men, later to become foes, first saw each other. Jackson may +have been in Morgantown at the time, though this is disputed; but +the rest of the tale is pure legend invented by some one whose +love of the spectacular led him far from the facts. The facts are +less theatrical but much more dramatic. Sevier was not arraigned +at all, for no court was sitting in Morgantown at the time.* The +sheriff to whom he was delivered did not need to look twice at +him to know him for a daring man. He had served with him at +King's Mountain. He struck off his handcuffs and set him at +liberty at once. Perhaps he also notified General Charles +McDowell at his home in Quaker Meadows of the presence of a +distinguished guest in Burke County, for McDowell and his brother +Joseph, another officer of militia, quickly appeared and went on +Sevier's bond. Nolichucky Jack was presently holding a court of +his own in the tavern, with North Carolina's men at arms--as many +as were within call--drinking his health. So his sons and a +company of his Wataugans found him, when they rode into +Morgantown to give evidence in his behalf--with their rifles. +Since none now disputed the way with him, Sevier turned homeward +with his cavalcade, McDowell and his men accompanying him as far +as the pass in the hills. + +* Statement by John Sevier, Junior, in the Draper MSS., quoted by +Turner, "Life of General John Sevier," p. 182. + + +No further attempt was made to try John Sevier for treason, +either west or east of the mountains. In November, however, the +Assembly passed the Pardon Act, and thereby granted absolution to +every one who had been associated with the State of Franklin, +EXCEPT JOHN SEVIER. In a clause said to have been introduced by +Tipton, now a senator, or suggested by him, John Sevier was +debarred forever from "the enjoyment of any office of profit or +honor or trust in the State of North Carolina." + +The overhill men in Greene County took due note of the Assembly's +fiat and at the next election sent Sevier to the North Carolina +Senate. Nolichucky Jack, whose demeanor was never so decorous as +when the illconsidered actions of those in authority had made him +appear to have circumvented the law, considerately waited outside +until the House had lifted the ban--which it did perforce and by +a large majority, despite Tipton's opposition--and then took his +seat on the senatorial bench beside his enemy. The records show +that he was reinstated as Brigadier General of the Western +Counties and also appointed at the head of the Committee on +Indian Affairs. + + +Not only in the region about Watauga did the pioneers of +Tennessee endure the throes of danger and strife during these +years. The little settlements on the Cumberland, which were +scattered over a short distance of about twenty-five or thirty +miles and had a frontier line of two hundred miles, were terribly +afflicted. Their nearest white neighbors among the Kentucky +settlers were one hundred and fifty miles away; and through the +cruelest years these could render no aid--could not, indeed, hold +their own stations. The Kentuckians, as we have seen, were +bottled up in Harrodsburg and Boonesborough; and, while the +northern Indians led by Girty and Dequindre darkened the Bloody +Ground anew, the Cumberlanders were making a desperate stand +against the Chickasaws and the Creeks. So terrible was their +situation that panic took hold on them, and they would have fled +but for the influence of Robertson. He may have put the question +to them in the biblical words, "Whither shall I flee?" For they +were surrounded, and those who did attempt to escape were +"weighed on the path and made light." Robertson knew that their +only chance of survival was to stand their ground. The greater +risks he was willing to take in person, for it was he who made +trips to Boonesborough and Harrodsburg for a share of the powder +and lead which John Sevier was sending into Kentucky from time to +time. In the stress of conflict Robertson bore his full share of +grief, for his two elder sons and his brother fell. He himself +was often near to death. One day he was cut off in the fields and +was shot in the foot as he ran, yet he managed to reach shelter. +There is a story that, in an attack during one of his absences, +the Indians forced the outer gate of the fort and Mrs. Robertson +went out of her cabin, firing, and let loose a band of the savage +dogs which the settlers kept for their protection, and so drove +out the invaders. + +The Chickasaws were loyal to the treaty they had made with the +British in the early days of James Adair's association with them. +They were friends to England's friends and foes to her foes. +While they resented the new settlements made on land they +considered theirs, they signed a peace with Robertson at the +conclusion of the War of Independence. They kept their word with +him as they had kept it with the British. Furthermore, their +chief, Opimingo or the Mountain Leader, gave Robertson his +assistance against the Creeks and the Choctaws and, in so far as +he understood its workings, informed him of the new Spanish and +French conspiracy, which we now come to consider. So once again +the Chickasaws were servants of destiny to the English-speaking +race, for again they drove the wedge of their honor into an +Indian solidarity welded with European gold. + +Since it was generally believed at that date that the tribes were +instigated to war by the British and supplied by them with their +ammunition, savage inroads were expected to cease with the +signing of peace. But Indian warfare not only continued; it +increased. In the last two years of the Revolution, when the +British were driven from the Back Country of the Carolinas and +could no longer reach the tribes with consignments of firearms +and powder, it should have been evident that the Indians had +other sources of supply and other allies, for they lacked nothing +which could aid them in their efforts to exterminate the settlers +of Tennessee. + +Neither France nor Spain wished to see an English-speaking +republic based on ideals of democracy successfully established in +America. Though in the Revolutionary War, France was a close ally +of the Americans and Spain something more than a nominal one, the +secret diplomacy of the courts of the Bourbon cousins ill matched +with their open professions. Both cousins hated England. The +American colonies, smarting under injustice, had offered a field +for their revenge. But hatred of England was not the only reason +why activities had been set afoot to increase the discord which +should finally separate the colonies from Great Britain and leave +the destiny of the colonies to be decided by the House of +Bourbon. Spain saw in the Americans, with their English modes of +thought, a menace to her authority in her own colonies on both +the northern and southern continents. This menace would not be +stilled but augmented if the colonies should be established as a +republic. Such an example might be too readily followed. Though +France had, by a secret treaty in 1762, made over to Spain the +province of Louisiana, she was not unmindful of the Bourbon +motto, "He who attacks the Crown of one attacks the other." And +she saw her chance to deal a crippling blow at England's prestige +and commerce. + +In 1764, the French Minister, Choiseul, had sent a secret agent, +named Pontleroy, to America to assist in making trouble and to +watch for any signs that might be turned to the advantage of les +duex couronnes. Evidently Pontleroy's reports were encouraging +for, in 1768, Johann Kalb--the same Kalb who fell at Camden in +1780--arrived in Philadelphia to enlarge the good work. He was +not only, like several of the foreign officers in the War of +Independence, a spy for his Government, but he was also the +special emissary of one Comte de Broglie who, after the colonies +had broken with the mother country, was to put himself at the +head of American affairs. This Broglie had been for years one of +Louis XV's chief agents in subterranean diplomacy, and it is not +to be supposed that he was going to attempt the stupendous task +of controlling America's destiny without substantial backing. +Spain had been advised meanwhile to rule her new Louisiana +territory with great liberality--in fact, to let it shine as a +republic before the yearning eyes of the oppressed Americans, so +that the English colonists would arise and cast off their +fetters. Once the colonies had freed themselves from England's +protecting arm, it would be a simple matter for the Bourbons to +gather them in like so many little lost chicks from a rainy yard. +The intrigants of autocratic systems have never been able to +understand that the urge of the spirit of independence in men is +not primarily to break shackles but to STAND ALONE and that the +breaking of bonds is incidental to the true demonstration of +freedom. The Bourbons and their agents were no more nor less +blind to the great principle stirring the hearts of men in their +day than were the Prussianized hosts over a hundred years later +who, having themselves no acquaintance with the law of liberty, +could not foresee that half a world would rise in arms to +maintain that law. + +When the War of Independence had ended, the French Minister, +Vergennes, and the Spanish Minister, Floridablanca, secretly +worked in unison to prevent England's recognition of the new +republic; and Floridablanca in 1782 even offered to assist +England if she would make further efforts to subdue her "rebel +subjects." Both Latin powers had their own axes to grind, and +America was to tend the grindstone. France looked for recovery of +her old prestige in Europe and expected to supersede England in +commerce. She would do this, in the beginning, chiefly through +control of America and of America's commerce. Vergennes therefore +sought not only to dictate the final terms of peace but also to +say what the American commissioners should and should not demand. +Of the latter gentlemen he said that they possessed "caracteres +peu maniables!" In writing to Luzerne, the French Ambassador in +Philadelphia, on October 14, 1782, Vergennes said: "it behooves +us to leave them [the American commissioners] to their illusions, +to do everything that can make them fancy that we share them, and +undertake only to defeat any attempts to which those illusions +might carry them if our cooperation is required." Among these +"illusions" were America's desires in regard to the fisheries and +to the western territory. Concerning the West, Vergennes had +written to Luzerne, as early as July 18, 1780: "At the moment +when the revolution broke out, the limits of the Thirteen States +did not reach the River [Mississippi] and it would be absurd for +them to claim the rights of England, a power whose rule they had +abjured." By the secret treaty with Spain, furthermore, France +had agreed to continue the war until Gibraltar should be taken, +and--if the British should be driven from Newfoundland--to share +the fisheries only with Spain, and to support Spain in demanding +that the Thirteen States renounce all territory west of the +Alleghanies. The American States must by no means achieve a +genuine independence but must feel the need of sureties, allies, +and protection.* + +* See John Jay, "On the Peace Negotiations of 1782-1788 as +Illustrated by the Secret Correspondence of France and England," +New York, 1888. + + +So intent was Vergennes on these aims that he sent a secret +emissary to England to further them there. This act of his +perhaps gave the first inkling to the English statesmen* that +American and French desires were not identical and hastened +England's recognition of American independence and her agreement +to American demands in regard to the western territory. When, to +his amazement, Vergennes learned that England had acceded to all +America's demands, he said that England had "bought the peace" +rather than made it. The policy of Vergennes in regard to America +was not unjustly pronounced by a later French statesman "A VILE +SPECULATION." + +* "Your Lordship was well founded in your suspicion that the +granting of independence to America as a previous measure is a +point which the French have by no means at heart and perhaps are +entirely averse from." Letter from Fitzherbert to Grantham, +September 3, 1782. + + +Through England's unexpected action, then, the Bourbon cousins +had forever lost their opportunity to dominate the young but +spent and war-weakened Republic, or to use America as a catspaw +to snatch English commerce for France. It was plain, too, that +any frank move of the sort would range the English alongside of +their American kinsmen. Since American Independence was an +accomplished fact and therefore could no longer be prevented, the +present object of the Bourbon cousins was to restrict it. The +Appalachian Mountains should be the western limits of the new +nation. Therefore the settlements in Kentucky and Tennessee must +be broken up, or the settlers must be induced to secede from the +Union and raise the Spanish banner. The latter alternative was +held to be preferable. To bring it about the same methods were to +be continued which had been used prior to and during the +war--namely, the use of agents provocateurs to corrupt the +ignorant and incite the lawless, the instigation of Indian +massacres to daunt the brave, and the distribution of gold to buy +the avaricious. + +As her final and supreme means of coercion, Spain refused to +America the right of navigation on the Mississippi and so +deprived the Westerners of a market for their produce. The +Northern States, having no immediate use for the Mississippi, +were willing to placate Spain by acknowledging her monopoly of +the great waterway. But Virginia and North Carolina were +determined that America should not, by congressional enactment, +surrender her "natural right"; and they cited the proposed +legislation as their reason for refusing to ratify the +Constitution. "The act which abandons it [the right of +navigation] is an act of separation between the eastern and +western country," Jefferson realized at last. "An act of +separation"--that point had long been very clear to the Latin +sachems of the Mississippi Valley! + +Bounded as they were on one side by the precipitous mountains and +on the other by the southward flow of the Mississippi and its +tributary, the Ohio, the trappers and growers of corn in Kentucky +and western Tennessee regarded New Orleans as their logical +market, as the wide waters were their natural route. If market +and route were to be closed to them, their commercial advancement +was something less than a dream. + +In 1785, Don Estevan Miro, a gentleman of artful and winning +address, became Governor of Louisiana and fountainhead of the +propaganda. He wrote benign and brotherly epistles to James +Robertson of the Cumberland and to His Excellency of Franklin, +suggesting that to be of service to them was his dearest aim in +life; and at the same time he kept the southern Indians +continually on the warpath. When Robertson wrote to him of the +Creek and Cherokee depredations, with a hint that the Spanish +might have some responsibility in the matter, Miro replied by +offering the Cumberlander a safe home on Spanish territory with +freedom of religion and no taxes. He disclaimed stirring up the +Indians. He had, in fact, advised Mr McGillivray, chief of the +Creeks, to make peace. He would try again what he could do with +Mr. McGillivray. As to the Cherokees, they resided in a very +distant territory and he was not acquainted with them; he might +have added that he did not need to be: his friend McGillivray was +the potent personality among the Southern tribes. + +In Alexander McGillivray, Miro found a weapon fashioned to his +hand. If the Creek chieftain's figure might stand as the symbol +of treachery, it is none the less one of the most picturesque and +pathetic in our early annals. McGillivray, it will be remembered, +was the son of Adair's friend Lachlan McGillivray, the trader, +and a Creek woman whose sire had been a French officer. A +brilliant and beautiful youth, he had given his father a pride in +him which is generally denied to the fathers of sons with Indian +blood in them. The Highland trader had spared nothing in his +son's education and had placed him, after his school days, in the +business office of the large trading establishment of which he +himself was a member. At about the age of seventeen Alexander had +become a chieftain in his mother's nation; and doubtless it is he +who appears shortly afterwards in the Colonial Records as the +White Leader whose influence is seen to have been at work for +friendship between the colonists and the tribes. When the +Revolutionary War broke out, Lachlan McGillivray, like many of +the old traders who had served British interests so long and so +faithfully, held to the British cause. Georgia confiscated all +his property and Lachlan fled to Scotland. For this, his son +hated the people of Georgia with a perfect hatred. He remembered +how often his father's courage alone had stood between those same +people and the warlike Creeks. He could recall the few days in +1760 when Lachlan and his fellow trader, Galphin, at the risk of +their lives had braved the Creek warriors--already painted for +war and on the march--and so had saved the settlements of the +Back Country from extermination. He looked upon the men of +Georgia as an Indian regards those who forget either a blood gift +or a blood vengeance. And he embraced the whole American nation +in his hatred for their sakes. + +In 1776 Alexander McGillivray was in his early thirties-the exact +date of his birth is uncertain.* He had, we are told, the tall, +sturdy, but spare physique of the Gael, with a countenance of +Indian color though not of Indian cast. His overhanging brows +made more striking his very large and luminous dark eyes. He bore +himself with great dignity; his voice was soft, his manner +gentle. He might have been supposed to be some Latin courtier but +for the barbaric display of his dress and his ornaments. He +possessed extraordinary personal magnetism, and his power +extended beyond the Creek nation to the Choctaws and Chickasaws +and the Southern Cherokees. He had long been wooed by the +Louisiana authorities, but there is no evidence that he had made +alliance with them prior to the Revolution. + +* Probably about 1741 or 1742. Some writers give 1739 and others +1746. His father landed in Charleston, Pickett ("History of +Alabama") says, in 1735, and was then only sixteen. + + +Early in the war he joined the British, received a colonel's +commission, and led his formidable Creeks against the people of +Georgia. When the British were driven from the Back Countries, +McGillivray, in his British uniform, went on with the war. When +the British made peace, McGillivray exchanged his British uniform +for a Spanish one and went on with the war. In later days, when +he had forced Congress to pay him for his father's confiscated +property and had made peace, he wore the uniform of an American +Brigadier General; but he did not keep the peace, never having +intended to keep it. It was not until he had seen the Spanish +plots collapse and had realized that the Americans were to +dominate the land, that the White Leader ceased from war and +urged the youths of his tribe to adopt American civilization. + +Spent from hate and wasted with dissipation, he retired at last +to the spot where Lachlan had set up his first Creek home. Here +he lived his few remaining days in a house which he built on the +site of the old ruined cabin about which still stood the little +grove of apple trees his father had planted. He died at the age +of fifty of a fever contracted while he was on a business errand +in Pensacola. Among those who visited him in his last years, one +has left this description of him: "Dissipation has sapped a +constitution originally delicate and feeble. He possesses an +atticism of diction aided by a liberal education, a great fund of +wit and humor meliorated by a perfect good nature and +politeness." Set beside that kindly picture this rough etching by +James Robertson: "The biggest devil among them [the Spaniards] is +the half Spaniard, half Frenchman, half Scotchman and altogether +Creek scoundrel, McGillivray." + +How indefatigably McGillivray did his work we know from the +bloody annals of the years which followed the British-American +peace, when the men of the Cumberland and of Franklin were on the +defensive continually. How cleverly Mire played his personal role +we discover in the letters addressed to him by Sevier and +Robertson. These letters show that, as far as words go at any +rate, the founders of Tennessee were willing to negotiate with +Spain. In a letter dated September 12, 1788, Sevier offered +himself and his tottering State of Franklin to the Spanish King. +This offer may have been made to gain a respite, or it may have +been genuine. The situation in the Tennessee settlements was +truly desperate, for neither North Carolina nor Congress +apparently cared in the least what befell them or how soon. North +Carolina indeed was in an anomalous position, as she had not yet +ratified the Federal Constitution. If Franklin went out of +existence and the territory which it included became again part +of North Carolina, Sevier knew that a large part of the newly +settled country would, under North Carolina's treaties, revert to +the Indians. That meant ruin to large numbers of those who had +put their faith in his star, or else it meant renewed conflict +either with the Indians or with the parent State. The +probabilities aria that Sevier hoped to play the Spaniards +against the Easterners who, even while denying the Westerners' +contention that the mountains were a "natural" barrier between +them, were making of them a barrier of indifference. It would +seem so, because, although this was the very aim of all Miro's +activities so that, had he been assured of the sincerity of the +offer, he must have grasped at it, yet nothing definite was done. +And Sevier was presently informing Shelby, now in Kentucky, that +there was a Spanish plot afoot to seize the western country. + +Miro had other agents besides McGillivray--who, by the way, was +costing Spain, for his own services and those of four tribes +aggregating over six thousand warriors, a sum of fifty-five +thousand dollars a year. McGillivray did very well as +superintendent of massacres; but the Spaniard required a +different type of man, an American who enjoyed his country's +trust, to bring the larger plan to fruition. Miro found that man +in General James Wilkinson, lately of the Continental Army and +now a resident of Kentucky, which territory Wilkinson undertook +to deliver to Spain, for a price. In 1787 Wilkinson secretly took +the oath of allegiance to Spain and is listed in the files of the +Spanish secret service, appropriately, as "Number Thirteen." He +was indeed the thirteenth at table, the Judas at the feast. +Somewhat under middle height, Wilkinson was handsome, graceful, +and remarkably magnetic. Of a good, if rather impoverished, +Maryland family, he was well educated and widely read for the +times. With a brilliant and versatile intellectuality and ready +gifts as a speaker, he swayed men easily. He was a bold soldier +and was endowed with physical courage, though when engaged in +personal contests he seldom exerted it--preferring the red tongue +of slander or the hired assassin's shot from behind cover. His +record fails to disclose one commendable trait. He was +inordinately avaricious, but love of money was not his whole +motive force: he had a spirit so jealous and malignant that he +hated to the death another man's good. He seemed to divine +instantly wherein other men were weak and to understand the +speediest and best means of suborning them to his own +interests--or of destroying them. + +Wilkinson was able to lure a number of Kentuckians into the +separatist movement. George Rogers Clark seriously disturbed the +arch plotter by seizing a Spanish trader's store wherewith to pay +his soldiers, whom Virginia had omitted to recompense. This act +aroused the suspicions of the Spanish, either as to Number +Thirteen's perfect loyalty or as to his ability to deliver the +western country. In 1786, when Clark led two thousand men against +the Ohio Indians in his last and his only unsuccessful campaign, +Wilkinson had already settled himself near the Falls (Louisville) +and had looked about for mischief which he might do for profit. +Whether his influence had anything to do with what amounted +virtually to a mutiny among Clark's forces is not ascertainable; +but, for a disinterested onlooker, he was overswift to spread the +news of Clark's debacle and to declare gleefully that Clark's sun +of military glory had now forever set. It is also known that he +later served other generals treacherously in Indian expeditions +and that he intrigued with Mad Anthony Wayne's Kentucky troops +against their commander. + +Spain did not wish to see the Indians crushed; and Wilkinson +himself both hated and feared any other officer's prestige. How +long he had been in foreign pay we can only conjecture, for, +several years before he transplanted his activities to Kentucky, +he had been one of a cabal against Washington. Not only his +ambitions but his nature must inevitably have brought him to the +death-battle with George Rogers Clark. As a military leader, Clark +had genius, and soldiering was his passion. In nature, he was +open, frank, and bold to make foes if he scorned a man's way as +ignoble or dishonest. Wilkinson suavely set about scheming for +Clark's ruin. His communication or memorial to the Virginia +Assembly--signed by himself and a number of his friends +--villifying Clark, ended Clark's chances for the commission in +the Continental Army which he craved. It was Wilkinson who made +public an incriminating letter which had Clark's signature +attached and which Clark said he had never seen. It is to be +supposed that Number Thirteen was responsible also for the +malevolent anonymous letter accusing Clark of drunkenness and +scheming which, so strangely, found its way into the Calendar of +State Papers of Virginia.* As a result, Clark was censured by +Virginia. Thereupon he petitioned for a Court of Inquiry, but +this was not granted. Wilkinson had to get rid of Clark; for if +Clark, with his military gifts and his power over men, had been +elevated to a position of command under the smile of the +Government, there would have been small opportunity for James W +Wilkinson to lead the Kentuckians and to gather in Spanish gold. +So the machinations of one of the vilest traitors who ever sold +his country were employed to bring about the stultification and +hence the downfall of a great servant. + +* See Thomas M. Greene's "The Spanish Conspiracy," p. 78, +footnote. It is possible that Wilkinson's intrigues provide data +for a new biography of Clark which may recast in some measure the +accepted view of Clark at this period. + + +Wilkinson's chief aids were the Irishmen, O'Fallon, Nolan, and +Powers. Through Nolan, he also vended Spanish secrets. He sold, +indeed, whatever and whomever he could get his price for. So +clever was he that he escaped detection, though he was obliged to +remove some suspicions. He succeeded Wayne as commander of the +regular army in 1796. He was one of the commissioners to receive +Louisiana when the Purchase was arranged in 1803. He was still on +the Spanish pay roll at that time. Wilkinson's true record came +to light only when the Spanish archives were opened to +investigators. + +There were British agents also in the Old Southwest, for the +dissatisfaction of the Western men inspired in Englishmen the +hope of recovering the Mississippi Basin. Lord Dorchester, +Governor of Canada, wrote to the British Government that he had +been approached by important Westerners; but he received advice +from England to move slowly. For complicity in the British +schemes, William Blount, who was first territorial Governor of +Tennessee and later a senator from that State, was expelled from +the Senate. + +Surely there was never a more elaborate network of plots that +came to nothing! The concession to Americans in 1796 of the right +of navigation on the Mississippi brought an end to the scheming. + +In the same year Tennessee was admitted to the Union, and John +Sevier was elected Governor Sevier's popularity was +undiminished, though there were at this time some sixty thousand +souls in Tennessee, many of whom were late comers who had not +known him in his heyday. His old power to win men to him must +have been as strong as ever, for it is recorded that he had only +to enter a political meeting--no matter whose--for the crowd to +cheer him and shout for him to "give them a talk." + + +This adulation of Sevier still annoyed a few men who had +ambitions of their own. Among these was Andrew Jackson, who had +come to Jonesborough in 1788, just after the collapse of the +State of Franklin. He was twenty-one at that time, and he is said +to have entered Jonesborough riding a fine racer and leading +another, with a pack of hunting dogs baying or nosing along after +him. A court record dated May 12, 1788, avers that "Andrew +Jackson, Esq. came into Court and produced a licence as an +Attorney With A Certificate sufficiently Attested of his Taking +the Oath Necessary to said office and Was admitted to Practiss as +an Attorney in the County Courts." Jackson made no history in old +Watauga during that year. Next year he moved to Nashville, and +one year later, when the Superior Court was established (1790), +he became prosecuting attorney. + +The feud between Jackson and Sevier began about the time that +Tennessee entered the Union. Jackson, then twenty-nine, was +defeated for the post of Major General of the Militia through the +influence which Sevier exercised against him, and it seems that +Jackson never forgave this opposition to his ambitions. By the +close of Sevier's third term, however, in 1802, when Archibald +Roane became Governor, the post of Major General was again vacant. +Both Sevier and Jackson offered themselves for it, and Jackson +was elected by the deciding vote of the Governor, the military +vote having resulted in a tie. A strong current of influence had +now set in against Sevier and involved charges against his honor. +His old enemy Tipton was still active. The basis of the charges +was a file of papers from the entry-taker's office which a friend +of Tipton's had laid before the Governor; with an affidavit to +the effect that the papers were fraudulent. Both the Governor and +Jackson believed the charges. When we consider what system or +lack of system of land laws and land entries obtained in Watauga +and such: primitive communities--when a patch of corn sealed a +right and claims were made by notching trees with tomahawks--we +may imagine that a file from the land office might appear easily +enough to smirch a landholder's integrity. The scandal was, of +course, used in an attempt to ruin Sevier's candidacy for a +fourth term as Governor and to make certain Roane's reflection. +To this end Jackson bent all his energies but without success. +Nolichucky Jack was elected, for the fourth time, as Governor of +Tennessee. + +Not long after his inauguration, Sevier met Jackson in Knoxville, +where Jackson was holding court. The charges against Sevier were +then being made the subject of legislative investigation +instituted by Tipton, and Jackson had published a letter in the +Knoxville "Gazette" supporting them. At the sight of Jackson, +Sevier flew into a rage, and a fiery altercation ensued. The two +men were only restrained from leaping on each other by the +intervention of friends. The next day Jackson sent Sevier a +challenge which Sevier accepted, but with the stipulation that +the duel take place outside the State. Jackson insisted on +fighting in Knoxville, where the insult had been offered. Sevier +refused. "I have some respect," he wrote, "for the laws of the +State over which I have the honor to preside, although you, a +judge, appear to have none." No duel followed; but, after some +further billets-doux, Jackson published Sevier as "a base coward +and poltroon. He will basely insult but has not the courage to +repair the wound." Again they met, by accident, and Jackson +rushed upon Sevier with his cane. Sevier dismounted and drew his +pistol but made no move to fire. Jackson, thereupon, also drew +his weapon. Once more friends interfered. It is presumable that +neither really desired the duel. By killing Nolichucky Jack, +Jackson would have ended his own career in Tennessee--if Sevier's +tribe of sons had not, by a swifter means, ended it for him. At +this date Jackson was thirty-six. Sevier was fifty-eight; and he +had seventeen children. + +The charges against Sevier, though pressed with all the force +that his enemies could bring to bear, came to nothing. He +remained the Governor of Tennessee for another six years--the +three terms in eight years allowed by the constitution. In 1811 +he was sent to Congress for the second time, as he had +represented the Territory there twenty years earlier. He was +returned again in 1813. At the conclusion of his term in 1815 he +went into the Creek country as commissioner to determine the +Creek boundaries, and here, far from his Bonnie Kate and his +tribe, he died of fever at the age of seventy. His body was +buried with full military honors at Tuckabatchee, one of the +Creek towns. In 1889, Sevier's remains were removed to Knoxville +and a high marble spire was raised above them. + +His Indian enemies forgave the chastisement he had inflicted on +them and honored him. In times of peace they would come to him +frequently for advice. And in his latter days, the chiefs would +make state visits to his home on the Nolichucky River. "John +Sevier is a good man"--so declared the Cherokee, Old Tassel, +making himself the spokesman of history. Sevier had survived his +old friend, co-founder with him of Watauga, by one year. James +Robertson had died in 1814 at the age of seventy-two, among the +Chickasaws, and his body, like that of his fellow pioneer, was +buried in an Indian town and lay there until 1825, when it was +removed to Nashville. + + +What of the red tribes who had fought these great pioneers for +the wide land of the Old Southwest and who in the end had +received their dust and treasured it with honor in the little +soil remaining to them? Always the new boundary lines drew closer +in, and the red men's foothold narrowed before the pushing tread +of the whites. The day came soon when there was no longer room +for them in the land of their fathers. But far off across the +great river there was a land the white men did not covet yet. +Thither at last the tribes--Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and +Creek--took their way. With wives and children, maids and youths, +the old and the young, with all their goods, their cattle and +horses, in the company of a regiment of American troops, +they--like the white men who had superseded them--turned +westward. In their faces also was the red color of the west, but +not newly there. From the beginning of their race, Destiny had +painted them with the hue of the brief hour of the dying sun. + + + +Chapter XI. Boone's Last Days + +One spring day in 1799, there might have been observed a great +stir through the valley of the Kanawha. With the dawn, men were +ahorse, and women, too. Wagons crowded with human freight wheeled +over the rough country, and boats, large and small, were afloat +on the streams which pour into the Great Kanawha and at length +mingle with the Ohio at Point Pleasant, where the battle was +fought which opened the gates of Kentucky. + +Some of the travelers poured into the little settlement at the +junction of the Elk and the Kanawha, where Charleston now lies. +Others, who had been later in starting or had come from a greater +distance, gathered along the banks of the Kanawha. At last shouts +from those stationed farthest up the stream echoed down the +valley and told the rest that what they had come out to see was +at hand. + +Several pirogues drifted into view on the river, now brightening +in the sunshine. In the vessels were men and their families; +bales and bundles and pieces of household furnishings, heaped to +the gunwale; a few cattle and horses standing patiently. But it +was for one man above all that the eager eyes of the settlers +were watching, and him they saw clearly as his boat swung by--a +tall figure, erect and powerful, his keen friendly blue eyes +undimmed and his ruddy face unlined by time, though sixty-five +winters had frosted his black hair. + +For a decade these settlers had known Daniel Boone, as +storekeeper, as surveyor, as guide and soldier. They had eaten of +the game he killed and lavishly distributed. And they too--like +the folk of Clinch Valley in the year of Dunmore's War--had +petitioned Virginia to bestow military rank upon their protector. +"Lieutenant Colonel" had been his title among them, by their +demand. Once indeed he had represented them in the Virginia +Assembly and, for that purpose, trudged to Richmond with rifle +and hunting dog. Not interested in the Legislature's proceedings, +he left early in the session and tramped home again. + +But not even the esteem of friends and neighbors could hold the +great hunter when the deer had fled. So Daniel Boone was now on +his way westward to Missouri, to a new land of fabled herds and +wide spaces, where the hunter's gun might speak its one word with +authority and where the soul of a silent and fearless man might +find its true abode in Nature's solitude. Waving his last +farewells, he floated past the little groups--till their shouts +of good will were long silenced, and his fleet swung out upon +the Ohio. + +As Boone sailed on down the Beautiful River which forms the +northern boundary of Kentucky, old friends and newcomers who had +only heard his fame rode from far and near to greet and godspeed +him on his way. Sometimes he paused for a day with them. Once at +least--this, was in Cincinnati where he was taking on +supplies--some one asked him why, at his age, he was leaving the +settled country to dare the frontier once more. + +"Too crowded," he answered; "I want more elbow-room!" + +Boone settled at the Femme Osage Creek on the Missouri River, +twenty-five miles above St. Charles, where the Missouri flows +into the Mississippi. There were four other Kentucky families at +La Charette, as the French inhabitants called the post, but these +were the only Americans. The Spanish authorities granted Boone +840 acres of land, and here Daniel built the last cabin home he +was to erect for himself and his Rebecca. + +The region pleased him immensely. The governmental system, for +instance, was wholly to his mind. Taxes were infinitesimal. There +were no elections, assemblies, or the like. A single magistrate, +or Syndic, decided all disputes and made the few regulations and +enforced them. There were no land speculators, no dry-mouthed +sons of the commercial Tantalus, athirst for profits. Boone used +to say that his first years in Missouri were the happiest of his +life, with the exception of his first long hunt in Kentucky. + +In 1800 he was appointed Syndic of the district of Femme Osage, +which office he filled for four years, until Louisiana became +American territory. He was held in high esteem as a magistrate +because of his just and wise treatment of his flock, who brought +him all their small bickerings to settle. He had no use for legal +procedure, would not listen to any nice subtleties, saying that +he did not care anything at all about the EVIDENCE, what he +wanted was the TRUTH. His favorite penalty for offenders was the +hickory rod "well laid on." Often he decided that both parties in +a suit were equally to blame and chastised them both alike. When +in March, 1804, the American Commissioner received Louisiana for +the United States, Delassus, Lieutenant Governor of Upper +Louisiana, reporting'on the various officials in the territory, +wrote of the Femme Osage Syndic: "Mr. Boone, a respectable old +man, just and impartial, he has already, since I appointed him, +offered his resignation owing to his infirmities. Believing I +know his probity, I have induced him to remain, in view of my +confidence in him for the public good."* + +*Thwaites, "Daniel Boone. "To this and other biographies of +Boone, cited in the Bibliographical Note at the end of this +volume, the author is indebted for the material contained in this +chapter. + + +Daniel, no doubt supposing that a Syndic's rights were +inviolable, had neglected to apply to the Governor at New Orleans +for a ratification of his grant. He was therefore dispossessed. +Not until 1810, and after he had enlisted the Kentucky +Legislature in his behalf, did he succeed in inducing Congress to +restore his land. The Kentucky Legislature's resolution was +adopted because of "the many eminent services rendered by Colonel +Boone in exploring and settling the western country, from which +great advantages have resulted not only to the State but to the +country in general, and that from circumstances over which he had +no control he is now reduced to poverty; not having so far as +appears an acre of land out of the vast territory he has been a +great instrument in peopling." Daniel was seventy-six then; so it +was late in the day for him to have his first experience of +justice in the matter of land. Perhaps it pleased him, however, +to hear that, in confirming his grant, Congress had designated +him as "the man who has opened the way for millions of his +fellow-men." + +The "infirmities" which had caused the good Syndic to seek relief +from political cares must have been purely magisterial. The +hunter could have been very little affected by them, for as soon +as he was freed from his duties Boone took up again the silent +challenge of the forest. Usually one or two of his sons or his +son-in-law, Flanders Calloway, accompanied him, but sometimes his +only companions were an old Indian and his hunting dog. On one of +his hunting trips he explored a part of Kansas; and in 1814, when +he was eighty, he hunted big game in the Yellowstone where again +his heart rejoiced over great herds as in the days of his first +lone wanderings in the Blue Grass country. At last, with the +proceeds of these expeditions he was able to pay the debts he had +left behind in Kentucky thirty years before. The story runs that +Daniel had only fifty cents remaining when all the claims had +been settled, but so contented was he to be able to look an +honest man in the face that he was in no disposition to murmur +over his poverty. + +When after a long and happy life his wife died in 1813, Boone +lived with one or other of his sons* and sometimes with Flanders +Calloway. Nathan Boone, with whom Daniel chiefly made his home, +built what is said to have been the first stone house in +Missouri. Evidently the old pioneer disapproved of stone houses +and of the "luxuries" in furnishings which were then becoming +possible to the new generation, for one of his biographers speaks +of visiting him in a log addition to his son's house; and when +Chester Harding, the painter, visited him in 1819 for the purpose +of doing his portrait, he found Boone dwelling in a small log +cabin in Nathan's yard. When Harding entered, Boone was broiling +a venison steak on the end of his ramrod. During the sitting, one +day, Harding asked Boone if he had ever been lost in the woods +when on his long hunts in the wilderness. + +* Boone's son Nathan won distinction in the War of 1812 and +entered the regular army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant +Colonel. Daniel Morgan Boone is said to have been the first +settler in Kansas (1827). One of Daniel's grandsons, bearing the +name of Albert Gallatin Boone, was a pioneer of Colorado and was +to the forefront in Rocky Mountain exploration. Another grandson +was the scout, Kit Carson, who led Fremont to California. + + +"No, I never got lost," Boone replied reflectively, "but I was +BEWILDERED once for three days." Though now having reached the +age of eighty-five, Daniel was intensely interested in California +and was enthusiastic to make the journey thither next spring and +so to flee once more from the civilization which had crept +westward along his path. The resolute opposition of his sons, +however, prevented the attempt. + +A few men who sought out Boone in his old age have left us brief +accounts of their impressions. Among these was Audubon. "The +stature and general appearance of this wanderer of the western +forests," the naturalist wrote, "approached the gigantic. His +chest was broad, and prominent; his muscular powers displayed +themselves in every limb; his countenance gave indication of his +great courage, enterprise and perseverance; and, when he spoke, +the very motion of his lips brought the impression that whatever +he uttered could not be otherwise than strictly true." + +Audubon spent a night under Boone's roof. He related afterwards +that the old hunter, having removed his hunting shirt, spread his +blankets on the floor and lay down there to sleep, saying that he +found it more comfortable than a bed. A striking sketch of Boone +is contained in a few lines penned by one of his earliest +biographers: "He had what phrenologists would have considered a +model head--with a forehead peculiarly high, noble and bold, thin +compressed lips, a mild clear blue eye, a large and prominent +chin and a general expression of countenance in which +fearlessness and courage sat enthroned and which told the +beholder at a glance what he had been and was formed to be." In +criticizing the various portraits of Daniel, the same writer +says: "They want the high port and noble daring of his +countenance.... Never was old age more green, or gray hairs +more graceful. His high, calm, bold forehead seemed converted by +years into iron." + +Although we are indebted to these and other early chroniclers for +many details of Boone's life, there was one event which none of +his biographers has related; yet we know that it must have taken +place. Even the bare indication of it is found only in the +narrative of the adventures of two other explorers. + +It was in the winter of 1803 that these two men came to Boone's +Settlement, as La Charette was now generally called. They had +planned to make their winter camp there, for in the spring, when +the Missouri rose to the flood, they and their company of +frontiersmen were to take their way up that uncharted stream and +over plains and mountains in quest of the Pacific Ocean. They +were refused permission by the Spanish authorities to camp at +Boone's Settlement; so they lay through the winter some forty +miles distant on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, across +from the mouth of the Missouri. Since the records are silent, we +are free to picture as we choose their coming to the settlement +during the winter and again in the spring, for we know that they +came. + +We can imagine, for instance, the stir they made in La Charette +on some sparkling day when the frost bit and the crusty snow sent +up a dancing haze of diamond points. We can see the friendly +French habitants staring after the two young leaders and their +men--all mere boys, though they were also husky, seasoned +frontiersmen--with their bronzed faces of English cast, as in +their gayly fringed deerskins they swaggered through the hamlet +to pay their respects to the Syndic. We may think of that +dignitary as smoking his pipe before his fireplace, perhaps; or +making out, in his fantastic spelling, a record of his primitive +court--for instance, that he had on that day given Pierre a dozen +hickory thwacks, "well laid on," for starting a brawl with +Antoine, and had bestowed the same upon Antoine for continuing +the brawl with Pierre. A knock at the door would bring the +amiable invitation to enter, and the two young men would step +across his threshold, while their followers crowded about the +open door and hailed the old pathfinder. + +One of the two leaders--the dark slender man with a subtle touch +of the dreamer in his resolute face--was a stranger; but the +other, with the more practical mien and the shock of hair that +gave him the name of Red Head among the tribes, Boone had known +as a lad in Kentucky. To Daniel and this young visitor the +encounter would be a simple meeting of friends, heightened in +pleasure and interest somewhat, naturally, by the adventure in +prospect. But to us there is something vast in the thought of +Daniel Boone, on his last frontier, grasping the hands of William +Clark and Meriwether Lewis. + +As for the rough and hearty mob at the door, Daniel must have +known not a few of them well; though they had been children in +the days when he and William Clark's brother strove for Kentucky. +It seems fitting that the soldiers with this expedition should +have come from the garrison at Kaskaskia; since the taking of +that fort in 1778 by George Rogers Clark had opened the western +way from the boundaries of Kentucky to the Mississippi. And among +the young Kentuckians enlisted by William Clark were sons of the +sturdy fighters of still an earlier border line, Clinch and +Holston Valley men who had adventured under another Lewis at +Point Pleasant. Daniel would recognize in these--such as Charles +Floyd--the young kinsmen of his old-time comrades whom he had +preserved from starvation in the Kentucky wilderness by the kill +from his rifle as they made their long march home after Dunmore's +War. + +In May, Lewis and Clark's pirogues ascended the Missouri and the +leaders and men of the expedition spent another day in La +Charette. Once again, at least, Daniel was to watch the westward +departure of pioneers. In 1811, when the Astorians passed, one of +their number pointed to the immobile figure of "an old man on the +bank, who, he said, was Daniel Boone." + +Sometimes the aged pioneer's mind cast forward to his last +journey, for which his advancing years were preparing him. He +wrote on the subject to a sister, in 1816, revealing in a few +simple lines that the faith whereby he had crossed, if not more +literally removed, mountains was a fixed star, and that he looked +ahead fearlessly to the dark trail he must tread by its single +gleam. Autumn was tinting the forest and the tang he loved was in +the air when the great hunter passed. The date of Boone's death +is given as September 26, 1820. He was in his eighty-sixth year. +Unburdened by the pangs of disease he went out serenely, by the +gentle marches of sleep, into the new country. + +The convention for drafting the constitution of Missouri, in +session at St. Louis, adjourned for the day, and for twenty days +thereafter the members wore crape on their arms as a further mark +of respect for the great pioneer. Daniel was laid by Rebecca's +side, on the bank of Teugue Creek, about a mile from the Missouri +River. In 1845, the Missouri legislators hearkened to +oft-repeated pleas from Kentucky and surrendered the remains of +the pioneer couple. Their bones lie now in Frankfort, the capital +of the once Dark and Bloody Ground, and in 1880 a monument was +raised over them. + +To us it seems rather that Kentucky itself is Boone's monument; +even as those other great corn States, Illinois and Indiana, are +Clark's. There, these two servants unafraid, who sacrificed +without measure in the wintry winds of man's ingratitude, are +each year memorialized anew; when the earth in summer--the season +when the red man slaughtered--lifts up the full grain in the ear, +the life giving corn; and when autumn smiles in golden peace over +the stubble fields, where the reaping and binding machines have +hummed a nation's harvest song. + + + +Bibliographical Note + +The Races And Their Migration + +C. A. Hanna, "The Scotch-Irish," 2 vols. New York, 1902. A very +full if somewhat over-enthusiastic study. + +H. J. Ford, "The Scotch-Irish in America." Princeton, 1915. +Excellent. + +A. G. Spangenberg, Extracts from his Journal of travels in North +Carolina, 1752. Publication of the Southern History Association. +Vol. I, 1897. + +A. B. Faust, "The German Element in the United States," 2 vols. +(1909). + +J. P. MacLean, "An Historical Account of the Settlements of +Scotch Highlanders in America" (1900). + +S. H. Cobb, "The Story of the Palatines" (1897). + +N. D. Mereness (editor), "Travels in the American Colonies." New +York, 1916. This collection contains the diary of the Moravian +Brethren cited in the first chapter of the present volume. + +Life In The Back Country + +Joseph Doddridge, "Notes on the Settlements and Indian Wars of +the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania," from 1763 to +1783. Albany, 1876. An intimate description of the daily life of +the early settlers in the Back Country by one of themselves. J. +F. D. Smyth, "Tour in the United States of America," 2 vols. +London, 1784. Minute descriptions of the Back Country and +interesting pictures of the life of the settlers; biased as to +political views by Royalist sympathies. + +William H. Foote, "Sketches of North Carolina," New York, 1846. +See Foote also for history of the first Presbyterian ministers in +the Back Country. As to political history, inaccurate. + +Early History And Exploration + +J. S. Bassett (editor), "The Writings of Colonel William Byrd of +Westover." New York, 1901. A contemporary record of early +Virginia. + +Thomas Walker, "Journal of an Exploration in the Spring of the +Year 1750." Boston, 1888. The record of his travels by the +discoverer of Cumberland Gap. + +William M. Darlington (editor), "Christopher Gist's Journals." +Pittsburgh, 1893. Contains Gist's account of his surveys for the +Ohio Company, 1750. + +C. A. Hanna, "The Wilderness Trail," 2 vols. New York, 1911. An +exhaustive work of research, with full accounts of Croghan and +Findlay. See also Croghan's and Johnson's correspondence in vol. +VII, New York Colonial Records. + +James Adair, "The History of the American Indians," etc. London, +1775. The personal record of a trader who was one of the earliest +explorers of the Alleghanies and of the Mississippi region east +of the river; a many-sided work, intensely interesting. + +C. W. Alvord, "The Genesis of the Proclamation of 1763." +Reprinted from Canadian Archives Report, 1906. A new and +authoritative interpretation. In this connection see also the +correspondence between Sir William Johnson and the Lords of Trade +in vol. VII of New York Colonial Records. + +Justin Winsor, "The Mississippi Basin. The Struggle in America +between England and France." Cambridge, 1895. Presents the +results of exhaustive research and the coordination of facts by +an historian of broad intellect and vision. + +"Colonial and State Records of North Carolina. 30 vols. The chief +fountain source of the early history of North Carolina and +Tennessee. + +W. H. Hoyt, "The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence." New +York, 1907. This book presents the view generally adopted by +historians, that the alleged Declaration of May 20, 1775, is +spurious. + +Justin Winsor (editor), "Narrative and Critical History of +America." 8 vols. (1884-1889). Also "The Westward Movement. +"Cambridge, 1897. Both works of incalculable value to the +student. + +C. W. Alvord, "The Mississippi. Valley in British Politics." 2 +vols. Cleveland, 1917. A profound work of great value to +students. + +Kentucky + +R. G. Thwaites and L. P. Kellogg (editors), "Documentary History +of Dunmore's War," 1774. Compiled from the Draper Manuscripts in +the library of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Madison, 1905. A +collection of interesting and valuable documents with a +suggestive, introduction. + +R. G. Thwaites, "Daniel Boone." New York, 1902. A short and +accurate narrative of Boone's life and adventures compiled from +the Draper Manuscripts and from earlier printed biographies. + +John P. Hale, "Daniel Boone, Some Facts and Incidents not +Hitherto Published." A pamphlet giving an account of Boone in +West Virginia. Printed at Wheeling, West Virginia. Undated. + +Timothy Flint, "The First White Man of the West or the Life and +Exploits of Colonel Dan'l Boone." Cincinnati, 1854. Valuable only +as regards Boone's later years. + +John S. C. Abbott, "Daniel Boone, the Pioneer of Kentucky." New +York, 1872. Fairly accurate throughout. + +J. M. Peck, "Daniel Boone" (in Sparks, "Library of American +Biography." Boston, 1847). + +William Henry Bogart. "Daniel Boone and the Hunters of Kentucky." +New York, 1856. + +William Hayden English, "Conquest of the Country Northwest of the +River Ohio, 1778-1783," and "Life of General George Rogers +Clark," 2 vols. Indianapolis, 1896. An accurate and valuable work +for which the author has made painstaking research among printed +and unprinted documents. Contains Clark's own account of his +campaigns, letters he wrote on public and personal matters, and +also letters from contemporaries in defense of his reputation. + +Theodore Roosevelt, "The Winning of the West," 4 vols. New York, +1889-1896. A vigorous and spirited narrative. + +Tennessee + +J. G. M. Ramsey, "The Annals of Tennessee." Charleston, 1853. +John Haywood, "The Civil and Political History of the State of +Tennessee." Nashville, 1891. + +(Reprint from 1828.) These works, with the North Carolina +"Colonial Records," are the source books of early Tennessee. In +statistics, such as numbers of Indians and other foes defeated by +Tennessee heroes, not reliable. Incorrect as to causes of Indian +wars during the Revolution. On this subject see letters and +reports by John and Henry Stuart in North Carolina "Colonial +Records," vol. X; and letters by General Gage and letters and +proclamation by General Ethan Allen in American Archives, Fourth +Series, vol. II, and by President Rutledge of South Carolina in +North Carolina "Colonial Records," vol. X. See also Justin +Winsor, "The Westward Movement." + +J. Allison, "Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History." Nashville, +1897. Contains interesting matter relative to Andrew Jackson in +his younger days as well as about other striking figures of the +time. + +F. M. Turner, "The Life of General John Sevier." New York, 1910. +A fairly accurate narrative of events in which Sevier +participated, compiled from the "Draper Manuscripts." + +A. W. Putnam, "History of Middle Tennessee, or Life and Times of +General James Robertson." Nashville, 1859. A rambling lengthy +narrative containing some interesting material and much that is +unreliable. Its worst fault is distortion through sentimentality, +and indulgence in the habit of putting the author's rodomontades +into the mouths of Robertson and other characters. + +J. S. Bassett, "Regulators of North Carolina," in Report of the +American Historical Association, 1894. + +L. C. Draper, "King's Mountain and its Heroes." Cincinnati, 1881. +The source book on this event. Contains interesting biographical +material about the men engaged in the battle. + + +French And Spanish Intrigues + +Henry Doniol, "Histoire de la participation de la France d +l'etablissement des Etats-Unis d'Amerique," 5 vols. Paris, +1886-1892. A complete exposition of the French and Spanish policy +towards America. during the Revolutionary Period. + +Manuel Serrano y Sanz, "El brigadier Jaime Wilkinson y sus tratos +con Espana para la independencia del Kentucky, anos 1787 a 1797." +Madrid, 1915. A Spanish view of Wilkinson's intrigues with Spain, +based on letters and reports in the Spanish Archives. + +Thomas Marshall Green, "The Spanish Conspiracy." Cincinnati, +1891. A good local account, from American sources. The best +material on this subject is found in Justin Winsor's "The +Westward Movement and Narrative and Critical History" because +there viewed against a broad historical background. See Winsor +also for the Latin intrigues in Tennessee. For material on +Alexander McGillivray see the American Archives and the Colonial +Records of Georgia. + +Edward S. Corwin, "French Policy and the American Alliance of +1778." Princeton, 1916. Deals chiefly with the commercial aspects +of French policy and should be read in conjunction with Winsor, +Jay, and Fitzmaurice's "Life of William, Earl of Shelburne." 3 +vols. London, 1875. + +John Jay, "On the Peace Negotiations of 1782-83 as Illustrated by +the Secret Correspondence of France and England." New York, 1888. +A paper read before the American Historical Association, May 23, 1887. + + + + + +End of Gutenberg's Pioneers of the Old Southwest by Constance Skinner + |