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by Theodore Roosevelt
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Title: The Winning of the West, Volume Two
From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1777-1783
Author: Theodore Roosevelt
Release Date: April 7, 2004 [EBook #11942]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINNING OF THE WEST, V2 ***
Produced by Mark Hamann, Terry Gilliland and PG Distributed Proofreaders
PRESIDENTIAL EDITION
THE WINNING OF THE WEST
BY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
VOLUME TWO
FROM THE ALLEGHANIES TO THE MISSISSIPPI 1777-1783
WITH MAPS
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH HIS PERMISSION TO
FRANCIS PARKMAN
TO WHOM AMERICANS WHO FEEL A PRIDE IN THE PIONEER HISTORY OF THEIR
COUNTRY ARE SO GREATLY INDEBTED
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I.--THE WAR IN THE NORTHWEST, 1777-1778.
II.--CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE ILLINOIS, 1778.
III.--CLARK'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST VINCENNES, 1779.
IV.--CONTINUANCE OF THE STRUGGLE IN KENTUCKY AND THE NORTHWEST,
1779-1781.
V.--THE MORAVIAN MASSACRE, 1779-1782.
VI.--THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE CONQUERED FRENCH SETTLEMENTS, 1779-1783.
VII.--KENTUCKY UNTIL THE END OF THE REVOLUTION, 1782-1783.
VIII.--THE HOLSTON SETTLEMENTS, 1777-1779.
IX--KING'S MOUNTAIN, 1780.
X.--THE HOLSTON SETTLEMENTS TO THE END OF THE REVOLUTION, 1781-1783.
XI.--ROBERTSON FOUNDS THE CUMBERLAND SETTLEMENT, 1779-1780.
XII.--THE CUMBERLAND SETTLEMENTS TO THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION,
1781-1783.
XIII.--WHAT THE WESTERNERS HAD DONE DURING THE REVOLUTION.
APPENDICES:
APPENDIX A--To CHAPTER I.
APPENDIX B--To CHAPTER II.
APPENDIX C--To CHAPTER III.
APPENDIX D--To CHAPTER IV.
APPENDIX E--To CHAPTER VII.
APPENDIX F--To CHAPTER VII.
APPENDIX G--To CHAPTER X.
APPENDIX H--To CHAPTER XII.
APPENDIX I--To CHAPTER XIII.
APPENDIX J--To CHAPTER XIII.
INDEX
[Illustration: The Colonies in 1774, when the First Continental Congress
assembled. The heavy line marks roughly the extension of population
westward. Based on a map by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.]
[Illustration: The States in 1783, when peace was declared. Based on a
map by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London.]
CHAPTER I.
THE WAR IN THE NORTHWEST, 1777-1778.
The Tribes Hold Councils at Detroit.
In the fall of 1776 it became evident that a formidable Indian war was
impending. At Detroit great councils were held by all the northwestern
tribes, to whom the Six Nations sent the white belt of peace, that they
might cease their feuds and join against the Americans. The
later councils were summoned by Henry Hamilton, the British
lieutenant-governor of the northwestern region, whose head-quarters were
at Detroit. He was an ambitious, energetic, unscrupulous man, of bold
character, who wielded great influence over the Indians; and the conduct
of the war in the west, as well as the entire management of frontier
affairs, was intrusted to him by the British Government. [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. Sir Guy Carleton to Hamilton, September 26, 1777.] He had
been ordered to enlist the Indians on the British side, and have them
ready to act against the Americans in the spring; [Footnote: _Do_.,
Carleton to Hamilton, October 6, 1776.] and accordingly he gathered the
tribes together. He himself took part in the war-talks, plying the
Indians with presents and fire-water no less than with speeches and
promises. The headmen of the different tribes, as they grew excited,
passed one another black, red or bloody, and tomahawk belts, as tokens
of the vengeance to be taken on their white foes. One Delaware chief
still held out for neutrality, announcing that if he had to side with
either set of combatants it would be with the "buckskins," or
backwoodsmen, and not with the red-coats; but the bulk of the warriors
sympathized with the Half King of the Wyandots when he said that the
Long Knives had for years interfered with the Indians' hunting, and that
now at last it was the Indians' turn to threaten revenge. [Footnote: "Am.
Archives," 1st Series, Vol. II., p. 517. There were several councils
held at Detroit during this fall, and it is difficult--and not very
important--to separate the incidents that occurred at each. Some took
place before Hamilton arrived, which, according to his "brief account,"
was November 9th. He asserts that he did not send out war parties until
the following June; but the testimony seems conclusive that he was
active in instigating hostility from the time of his arrival.]
Lt-Gov. Henry Hamilton. Scalp Buying.
Hamilton was for the next two years the mainspring of Indian hostility
to the Americans in the northwest. From the beginning he had been
anxious to employ the savages against the settlers, and when the home
government bade him hire them he soon proved himself very expert, as
well as very ruthless, in their use. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Germaine
to Carlton, March 26, 1777.] He rapidly acquired the venomous hatred of
the backwoodsmen, who held him in peculiar abhorrence, and nicknamed him
the "hair-buyer" general, asserting that he put a price on the scalps of
the Americans. This allegation may have been untrue as affecting
Hamilton personally; he always endeavored to get the war parties to
bring in prisoners, and behaved well to the captives when they were in
his power; nor is there any direct evidence that he himself paid out
money for scalps. But scalps were certainly bought and paid for at
Detroit; [Footnote: See the "American Pioneer," I., 292, for a very
curious account of an Indian, who by dividing a large scalp into two got
fifty dollars for each half at Detroit.] and the commandant himself was
accustomed to receive them with formal solemnity at the councils held to
greet the war parties when they returned from successful
raids. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS; _passim;_ also Heckewelder, etc.] The
only way to keep the friendship of the Indians was continually to give
them presents; these presents were naturally given to the most
successful warriors; and the scalps were the only safe proofs of a
warrior's success. Doubtless the commandant and the higher British
officers generally treated the Americans humanely when they were brought
into contact with them; and it is not likely that they knew, or were
willing to know, exactly what the savages did in all cases. But they at
least connived at the measures of their subordinates. These were
hardened, embittered, men who paid for the zeal of their Indian allies
accordingly as they received tangible proof thereof; in other words,
they hired them to murder non-combatants as well as soldiers, and paid
for each life, of any sort, that was taken. The fault lay primarily with
the British Government, and with those of its advisers who, like
Hamilton, advocated the employment of the savages. They thereby became
participants in the crimes committed; and it was idle folly for them to
prate about having bidden the savages be merciful. The sin consisted in
having let them loose on the borders; once they were let loose it was
absolutely impossible to control them. Moreover, the British sinned
against knowledge; for some of their highest and most trusted officers
on the frontier had written those in supreme command, relating the
cruelties practised by the Indians upon the defenceless, and urging that
they should not be made allies, but rather that their neutrality only
should be secured. [Footnote: E. g. in Haldimand MSS. Lieut.-Gov. Abbott
to General Carleton, June 8, 1778.] The average American backwoodsman
was quite as brutal and inconsiderate a victor as the average British
officer; in fact, he was in all likelihood the less humane of the two;
but the Englishman deliberately made the deeds of the savage his own.
Making all allowance for the strait in which the British found
themselves, and admitting that much can be said against their accusers,
the fact remains that they urged on hordes of savages to slaughter men,
women, and children along the entire frontier; and for this there must
ever rest a dark stain on their national history.
Hamilton organized a troop of white rangers from among the French,
British, and Tories at Detroit. They acted as allies of the Indians, and
furnished leaders to them. Three of these leaders were the tories McKee,
Elliot, and Girty, who had fled together from Pittsburg [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. Hamilton's letter, April 25. 1778. "April the 20th-Edward
Hayle (who had undertaken to carry a letter from me to the Moravian
Minister at Kushayhking) returned, having executed his commission--he
brought me a letter & newspapers from Mr. McKee who was Indian Agent for
the Crown and has been a long time in the hands of the Rebels at Fort
Pitt, at length has found means to make his escape with three other men,
two of the name of Girty (mentioned in Lord Dunmore's list) interpreters
& Matthew Elliott the young man who was last summer sent down from this
place a prisoner.--This last person I am informed has been at New York
since he left Quebec, and probably finding the change in affairs
unfavourable to the Rebels, has slipp'd away to make his peace here.
"23d--Hayle went off again to conduct them all safe through the Villages
having a letter & Wampum for that purpose. Alexander McKee is a man of
good character, and has great influence with the Shawanese is well
acquainted with the country & can probably give some useful
intelligence, he will probably reach this place in a few days."] they
all three warred against their countrymen with determined ferocity.
Girty won the widest fame on the border by his cunning and cruelty; but
he was really a less able foe than the two others. McKee in particular
showed himself a fairly good commander of Indians and irregular troops;
as did likewise an Englishman named Caldwell, and two French partisans,
De Quindre and Lamothe, who were hearty supporters of the British.
The British Begin a War of Extermination.
Hamilton and his subordinates, both red and white, were engaged in what
was essentially an effort to exterminate the borderers. They were not
endeavoring merely to defeat the armed bodies of the enemy. They were
explicitly bidden by those in supreme command to push back the frontier,
to expel the settlers from the country. Hamilton himself had been
ordered by his immediate official superior to assail the borders of
Pennsylvania and Virginia with his savages, to destroy the crops and
buildings of the settlers who had advanced beyond the mountains, and to
give to his Indian allies,--the Hurons, Shawnees, and other tribes,--all
the land of which they thus took possession. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS.
Haldimand to Hamilton, August 6, 1778.] With such allies as Hamilton
had this order was tantamount to proclaiming a war of extermination,
waged with appalling and horrible cruelty against the settlers, of all
ages and sexes. It brings out in bold relief the fact that in the west
the war of the Revolution was an effort on the part of Great Britain to
stop the westward growth of the English race in America, and to keep the
region beyond the Alleghanies as a region where only savages should
dwell.
All the Northwestern Tribes go to War.
All through the winter of '76-77 the northwestern Indians were preparing
to take up the tomahawk. Runners were sent through the leafless, frozen
woods from one to another of their winter camps. In each bleak, frail
village, each snow-hidden cluster of bark wigwams, the painted,
half-naked warriors danced the war dance, and sang the war song, beating
the ground with their war clubs and keeping time with their feet to the
rhythmic chant as they moved in rings round the peeled post, into which
they struck their hatchets. The hereditary sachems, the peace chiefs,
could no longer control the young men. The braves made ready their
weapons and battle gear; their bodies were painted red and black, the
plumes of the war eagle were braided into their long scalp locks, and
some put on necklaces of bears' claws, and head-dresses made of panther
skin, or of the shaggy and horned frontlet of the buffalo. [Footnote:
For instances of an Indian wearing this buffalo cap, with the horns on,
see Kercheval and De Haas.]
Before the snow was off the ground the war parties crossed the Ohio and
fell on the frontiers from the Monongahela and Kanawha to the Kentucky.
[Footnote: State Department MSS. for 1777, _passim_. So successful were
the Indian chiefs in hoodwinking the officers at Fort Pitt that some of
the latter continued to believe that only three or four hundred Indians
had gone on the war path.]
On the Pennsylvanian and Virginian frontiers the panic was tremendous.
The people fled into the already existing forts, or hastily built
others; where there were but two or three families in a place, they
merely gathered into block-houses--stout log-cabins two stories high,
with loop-holed walls, and the upper story projecting a little over the
lower. The savages, well armed with weapons supplied them from the
British arsenals on the Great Lakes, spread over the country; and there
ensued all the horrors incident to a war waged as relentlessly against
the most helpless non-combatants as against the armed soldiers in the
field. Block-houses were surprised and burnt; bodies of militia were
ambushed and destroyed. The settlers were shot down as they sat by their
hearth-stones in the evening, or ploughed the ground during the day; the
lurking Indians crept up and killed them while they still-hunted the
deer, or while they lay in wait for the elk beside the well-beaten game
trails.
The captured women and little ones were driven off to the far interior.
The weak among them, the young children, and the women heavy with child,
were tomahawked and scalped as soon as their steps faltered. The
able-bodied, who could stand the terrible fatigue, and reached their
journey's end, suffered various fates. Some were burned at the stake,
others were sold to the French or British traders, and long afterwards
made their escape, or were ransomed by their relatives. Still others
were kept in the Indian camps, the women becoming the slaves or wives of
the warriors, [Footnote: Occasionally we come across records of the
women afterwards making their escape; very rarely they took their
half-breed babies with them. De Haas mentions one such case where the
husband, though he received his wife well, always hated the
copper-colored addition to his family; the latter, by the way, grew up a
thorough Indian, could not be educated, and finally ran away, joined the
Revolutionary army, and was never heard of afterwards.] while the
children were adopted into the tribe, and grew up precisely like their
little red-skinned playmates. Sometimes, when they had come to full
growth, they rejoined the whites; but generally they were enthralled by
the wild freedom and fascination of their forest life, and never forsook
their adopted tribesmen, remaining inveterate foes of their own color.
Among the ever-recurring: tragedies of the frontier, not the least
sorrowful was the recovery of these long-missing children by their
parents, only to find that they had lost all remembrance of and love for
their father and mother, and had become irreclaimable savages, who
eagerly grasped the first chance to flee from the intolerable
irksomeness and restraint of civilized life. [Footnote: For an instance
where a boy finally returned, see "Trans-Alleghany Pioneers," p. 119;
see also pp. 126, 132, 133, for instances of the capture and treatment
of whites by Indians.]
The Attack on Wheeling.
Among others, the stockade at Wheeling [Footnote: Fort Henry. For an
account of the siege, see De Haas, pp. 223-340. It took place in the
early days of September.] was attacked by two or three hundred Indians;
with them came a party of Detroit Rangers, marshalled by drum and fife,
and carrying the British colors. [Footnote The accounts of the different
sieges of Wheeling were first written down from the statements of the
pioneers when they had grown very aged. In consequence, there is much
uncertainty as to the various incidents. Thus there seems to be a doubt
whether Girty did or did not command the Indians in this first siege.
The frontiersmen hated Girty as they did no other man, and he was
credited with numerous actions done by other white leaders of the
Indians; the British accounts say comparatively little about him. He
seems to have often fought with the Indians as one of their own number,
while his associates led organized bands of rangers; he was thus more
often brought into contact with the frontiersmen, but was really hardly
as dangerous a foe to them as were one or two of his tory companions.]
Most of the men inside the fort were drawn out by a stratagem, fell into
an ambuscade, and were slain; but the remainder made good the defence,
helped by the women, who ran the lead into bullets, cooled and loaded
the guns, and even, when the rush was made, assisted to repel it by
firing through the loopholes. After making a determined effort to storm
the stockade, in which some of the boldest warriors were slain while
trying in vain to batter down the gates with heavy timbers, the baffled
Indians were obliged to retire discomfited. The siege was chiefly
memorable because of an incident which is to this day a staple theme for
story-telling in the cabins of the mountaineers. One of the leading men
of the neighborhood was Major Samuel McColloch, renowned along the
border as the chief in a family famous for its Indian fighters, the
dread and terror of the savages, many of whose most noted warriors he
slew, and at whose hands he himself, in the end, met his death. When
Wheeling was invested, he tried to break into it, riding a favorite old
white horse. But the Indians intercepted him, and hemmed him in on the
brink of an almost perpendicular slope, [Footnote: The hill overlooks
Wheeling; the slope has now much crumbled away, and in consequence has
lost its steepness.] some three hundred feet high. So sheer was the
descent that they did not dream any horse could go down it, and instead
of shooting they advanced to capture the man whom they hated. McColloch
had no thought of surrendering, to die by fire at the stake, and he had
as little hope of resistance against so many foes. Wheeling short round,
he sat back in the saddle, shifted his rifle into his right hand, reined
in his steed, and spurred him over the brink. The old horse never
faltered, but plunged headlong down the steep, boulder-covered,
cliff-broken slope. Good luck, aided by the wonderful skill of the rider
and the marvellous strength and sure-footedness of his steed, rewarded,
as it deserved, one of the most daring feats of horsemanship of which we
have any authentic record. There was a crash, the shock of a heavy body,
half springing, half falling, a scramble among loose rocks, and the
snapping of saplings and bushes; and in another moment the awe-struck
Indians above saw their unharmed foe, galloping his gallant white horse
in safety across the plain. To this day the place is known by the name
of McColloch's leap. [Footnote: In the west this feat is as well known as
is Putnam's similar deed in the north.]
In Virginia and Pennsylvania the Indian outrages meant only the
harassing of the borderers; in Kentucky they threatened the complete
destruction of the vanguard of the white advance and, therefore the
stoppage of all settlement west of the Alleghanies until after the
Revolutionary war, when very possibly the soil might not have been ours
to settle. Fortunately Hamilton did not yet realize the importance of
the Kentucky settlements, nor the necessity of crushing them, and during
1777 the war bands organized at Detroit were sent against the country
round Pittsburg; while the feeble forts in the far western wilderness
were only troubled by smaller war parties raised among the tribes on
their own account. A strong expedition, led by Hamilton in person, would
doubtless at this time have crushed them.
The Struggle in Kentucky.
As it was, there were still so few whites in Kentucky that they were
greatly outnumbered by the invading Indians. They were, in consequence,
unable to meet the enemy in the open field, and gathered in their
stations or forted villages. Therefore the early conflicts, for the most
part, took the form of sieges of these wooden forts. Such sieges, had
little in common with the corresponding operations of civilized armies.
The Indians usually tried to surprise a fort; if they failed, they
occasionally tried to carry it by open assault, or by setting fire to
it, but very rarely, indeed, beleaguered it in form. For this they
lacked both the discipline and the commissariat. Accordingly, if their
first rush miscarried, they usually dispersed in the woods to hunt, or
look for small parties of whites; always, however, leaving some of their
number to hover round the fort and watch any thing that took place.
Masters in the art of hiding, and able to conceal themselves behind a
bush, a stone, or a tuft of weeds, they skulked round the gate before
dawn, to shoot the white sentinels; or they ambushed the springs, and
killed those who came for water; they slaughtered all of the cattle that
had not been driven in, and any one venturing incautiously beyond the
walls was certain to be waylaid and murdered. Those who were thus hemmed
in the fort were obliged to get game on which to live; the hunters
accordingly were accustomed to leave before daybreak, travel eight or
ten miles, hunt all day at the risk of their lives, and return after
dark. Being of course the picked men of the garrison, they often eluded
the Indians, or slew them if an encounter took place, but very
frequently indeed they were themselves slain. The Indians always trusted
greatly to wiles and feints to draw their foes into their power. As ever
in this woodland fighting, their superiority in hiding, or taking
advantage of cover, counterbalanced the superiority of the whites as
marksmen; and their war parties were thus at least a match, man against
man, for the Kentuckians, though the latter, together with the Watauga
men, were the best woodsmen and fighters of the frontier. Only a very
few of the whites became, like Boon and Kenton, able to beat the best of
the savages at their own game.
The innumerable sieges that took place during the long years of Indian
warfare differed in detail, but generally closely resembled one another
as regards the main points. Those that occurred in 1777 may be
considered as samples of the rest; and accounts of these have been
preserved by the two chief actors, Boon and Clark. [Footnote: In Boon's
narrative, written down by Filson, and in Clark's diary, as given by
Morehead. The McAfee MSS. and Butler's history give some valuable
information. Boon asserts that at this time the "Long Knives" proved
themselves superior to their foe in almost every battle; but the facts
do not seem to sustain him, though the statement was doubtless true as
regards a few picked men. His estimates of the Indian numbers and losses
must be received with great caution.]
Boonsborough Attacked.
Boonsborough, which was held by twenty-two riflemen, was attacked twice,
once in April and again in July, on each occasion by a party of fifty or
a hundred warriors. [Footnote: Boon says April 15th and July 4th.
Clark's diary makes the first date April 24th. Boon says one hundred
Indians, Clark "40 or 50." Clark's account of the loss on both sides
agrees tolerably well with Boon's. Clark's diary makes the second attack
take place on May 23d. His dates are probably correct, as Boon must have
written only from memory.] The first time the garrison was taken by
surprise; one man lost his scalp, and four were wounded, including Boon
himself, who had been commissioned as captain in the county militia.
[Footnote: Two of the other wounded men were Captain John Todd and
Boon's old hunting companion, Stoner.] The Indians promptly withdrew
when they found they could not carry the fort by a sudden assault. On
the second occasion the whites were on their guard, and though they had
one man killed and two wounded (leaving but thirteen unhurt men in the
fort), they easily beat off the assailants, and slew half a dozen of
them. This time the Indians stayed round two days, keeping up a heavy
fire, under cover of which they several times tried to burn the fort.
[Footnote: Clark's diary.]
Logan's Adventures.
Logan's [Footnote: Boon says July 19th, Clark's diary makes it May 30th:
Clark is undoubtedly right; he gives the names of the man who was killed
and of the two who were wounded.] station at St. Asaphs was likewise
attacked; it was held by only fifteen gunmen. When the attack was made
the women, guarded by part of the men, were milking the cows outside the
fort. The Indians fired at them from the thick cane that still stood
near-by, killing one man and wounding two others, one mortally.
[Footnote: The name of the latter was Burr Harrison; he died a fortnight
afterward.--Clark.] The party, of course, fled to the fort, and on
looking back they saw their mortally wounded friend weltering on the
ground. His wife and family were within the walls; through the loopholes
they could see him yet alive, and exposed every moment to death. So
great was the danger that the men refused to go out to his rescue,
whereupon Logan alone opened the gate, bounded out, and seizing the
wounded man in his arms, carried him back unharmed through a shower of
bullets. The Indians continued to lurk around the neighborhood, and the
ammunition grew very scarce. Thereupon Logan took two companions and
left the fort at night to go to the distant settlements on the Holston,
where he might get powder and lead. He knew that the Indians were
watching the wilderness road, and trusting to his own hardiness and
consummate woodcraft, he struck straight out across the cliff-broken,
wood-covered mountains, sleeping wherever night overtook him, and
travelling all day long with the tireless speed of a wolf. [Footnote:
Not a fanciful comparison; the wolf is the only animal that an Indian or
a trained frontiersman cannot tire out in several days' travel.
Following a deer two days in light snow, I have myself gotten near
enough to shoot it without difficulty.] He returned with the needed
stores in ten days from the time he set out. These tided the people over
the warm months.
In the fall, when the hickories had turned yellow and the oaks deep red,
during the weeks of still, hazy weather that mark the Indian summer,
their favorite hunting season, [Footnote: Usually early in
November.--McAfee MSS.] the savages again filled the land, and Logan was
obliged to repeat his perilous journey. [Footnote: Marshall, 50.] He
also continually led small bands of his followers against the Indian
war--and hunting-parties, sometimes surprising and dispersing them, and
harassing them greatly. Moreover he hunted steadily throughout the year
to keep the station in meat, for the most skilful hunters were, in those
days of scarcity, obliged to spend much of their time in the chase.
Once, while at a noted game lick, [Footnote: These game licks were
common, and were of enormous extent. Multitudes of game, through
countless generations, had tramped the ground bare of vegetation, and
had made deep pits and channels with their hoofs and tongues. See McAfee
MSS. Sometimes the licks covered acres of ground, while the game trails
leading towards them through the wood were as broad as streets, even 100
feet wide. I have myself seen small game licks, the largest not a
hundred feet across, in the Selkirks, Coeur d'Alenes, and Bighorns, the
ground all tramped up by the hoofs of elk, deer, wild sheep, and white
goats, with deep furrows and hollows where the saline deposits existed.
In the Little Missouri Bad Lands there is so much mineral matter that no
regular licks are needed. As the game is killed off the licks become
overgrown and lost.] waiting for deer, he was surprised by the Indians,
and by their fire was wounded in the breast and had his right arm
broken. Nevertheless he sprang on his horse and escaped, though the
savages were so close that one, leaping at him, for a moment grasped the
tail of the horse. Every one of these pioneer leaders, from Clark and
Boon to Sevier and Robertson, was required constantly to expose his
life; each lost sons or brothers at the hands of the Indians, and each
thinned the ranks of the enemy with his own rifle. In such a primitive
state of society the man who led others was expected to show strength of
body no less than strength of mind and heart; he depended upon his
physical prowess almost as much as upon craft, courage, and headwork.
The founder and head of each little community needed not only a shrewd
brain and commanding temper, but also the thews and training to make him
excel as woodsman and hunter, and the heart and eye to enable him to
stand foremost in every Indian battle.
Clark Shares in the Defense of Kentucky.
Clark spent most of the year at Harrodstown, taking part in the defence
of Kentucky. All the while he was revolving in his bold, ambitious heart
a scheme for the conquest of the Illinois country, and he sent scouts
thither to spy out the land and report to him what they saw. The Indians
lurked round Harrodstown throughout the summer; and Clark and his
companions were engaged in constant skirmishes with them. Once, warned
by the uneasy restlessness of the cattle (who were sure to betray the
presence of Indians if they got sight or smell of them), they were able
to surround a party of ten or twelve, who were hidden in a tall clump of
weeds. The savages were intent on cutting off some whites who were
working in a turnip patch two hundred yards from the fort; Clark's party
killed three--he himself killing one,--wounded another, and sold the
plunder they took, at auction, for seventy pounds. At other times the
skirmishes resulted differently, as on the occasion chronicled by Clark
in his diary, when they "went out to hunt Indians; one wounded Squire
Boon and escaped." [Footnote: Clark's Diary, entry for July 9th.]
The corn was brought in from the cribs under guard; one day while
shelling a quantity, a body of thirty-seven whites were attacked, and
seven were killed or wounded, though the Indians were beaten off and two
scalps taken. In spite of this constant warfare the fields near the
forts were gradually cleared, and planted with corn, pumpkins, and
melons; and marrying and mirth-making went on within the walls. One of
Clark's scouts, shortly after returning from the Illinois, got married,
doubtless feeling he deserved some reward for the hardships he had
suffered; on the wedding night Clark remarks that there was "great
merriment." The rare and infrequent expresses from Pittsburg or
Williamsburg brought letters telling of Washington's campaigns, which
Clark read with absorbed interest. On the first of October, having
matured his plans for the Illinois campaign, he left for Virginia, to
see if he could get the government to help him put them into execution.
The Holston men Help Kentucky.
During the summer parties of backwoods militia from the Holston
settlements--both Virginians and Carolinians--came out to help the
Kentuckians in their struggle against the Indians; but they only stayed
a few weeks, and then returned home. In the fall, however, several
companies of immigrants came out across the mountains; and at the same
time the small parties of hunters succeeded in pretty well clearing the
woods of Indians. Many of the lesser camps and stations had been broken
up, and at the end of the year there remained only four--Boonsborough,
Harrodstown, Logan's station at St. Asaphs, and McGarry's, at the
Shawnee Springs. They contained in all some five or six hundred
permanent settlers, nearly half of them being able-bodied riflemen.
[Footnote: The McAfee MSS. give these four stations; Boon says there
were but three. He was writing from memory, however, and was probably
mistaken; thus he says there were at that time settlers at the Falls, an
evident mistake, as there were none there till the following year.
Collins, following Marshall, says there were at the end of the year only
one hundred and two men in Kentucky,--sixty-five at Harrodstown,
twenty-two at Boonsborough, fifteen at Logan's. This is a mistake based
on a hasty reading of Boon's narrative, which gives this number for
July, and particularly adds that after that data they began to
strengthen. In the McAfee MSS. is a census of Harrodstown for the fall
of 1777, which sums up: Men in service, 81; men not in service, 4;
women, 24; children above ten, 12; children under ten, 58; slaves above
ten, 12; slaves under ten, 7; total, 198. In October Clark in his diary
records meeting fifty men with their families, (therefore permanent
settlers), on their way to Boon, and thirty-eight men on their way to
Logan's. At the end of the year, therefore, Boonsborough and Harrodstown
must have held about two hundred souls apiece; Logan's and McGarry's
were considerably smaller. The large proportion of young children
testifies to the prolific nature of the Kentucky women, and also shows
the permanent nature of the settlements. Two years previously, in 1775,
there had been, perhaps, three hundred people in Kentucky, but very many
of them were not permanent residents.]
Boon Captured.
Early in 1778 a severe calamity befell the settlements. In January Boon
went, with twenty-nine other men, to the Blue Licks to make salt for the
different garrisons--for hitherto this necessary of life had been
brought in, at great trouble and expense, from the settlements.
[Footnote: See Clark's Diary, entry for October 25, 1777.] The following
month, having sent three men back with loads of salt, he and all the
others were surprised and captured by a party of eighty or ninety
Miamis, led by two Frenchmen, named Baubin and Lorimer. [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. B., 122, p. 35. Hamilton to Carleton, April 25, 1778. He
says four-score Miamis.] When surrounded, so that there was no hope of
escape, Boon agreed that all should surrender on condition of being well
treated. The Indians on this occasion loyally kept faith. The two
Frenchmen were anxious to improve their capture by attacking
Boonsborough; but the fickle savages were satisfied with their success,
and insisted on returning to their villages. Boon was taken, first to
Old Chillicothe, the chief Shawnee town on the Little Miami, and then to
Detroit, where Hamilton and the other Englishmen treated him well, and
tried to ransom him for a hundred pounds sterling. However, the Indians
had become very much attached to him, and refused the ransom, taking
their prisoner back to Chillicothe. Here he was adopted into the tribe,
and remained for two months, winning the good-will of the Shawnees by
his cheerfulness and his skill as a hunter, and being careful not to
rouse their jealousy by any too great display of skill at the
shooting-matches.
Hamilton was urging the Indians to repeat their ravages of the preceding
year; Mingos, Shawnees, Delawares, and Miamis came to Detroit, bringing
scalps and prisoners. A great council was held at that post early in
June. [Footnote: _Do._, June 14, 1778.] All the northwestern tribes took
part, and they received war-belts from the Iroquois and messages calling
on them to rise as one man. They determined forthwith to fall on the
frontier in force. By their war parties, and the accompanying bands of
tories, Hamilton sent placards to be distributed among the frontiersmen,
endeavoring both by threat and by promise of reward, to make them desert
the patriot cause. [Footnote: Do., April 25, 1778.]
Boon Escapes and Makes a Foray.
In June a large war party gathered at Chillicothe to march against
Boonsborough, and Boon determined to escape at all hazards, so that he
might warn his mends. One morning before sunrise he eluded the vigilance
of his Indian companions and started straight through the woods for his
home where he arrived in four days, having had but one meal during the
whole journey of a hundred and sixty miles. [Footnote: Boon's
Narrative.]
On reaching Boonsborough he at once set about putting the fort in good
condition; and being tried by court-martial for the capture at the Blue
Licks, he was not only acquitted but was raised to the rank of major.
His escape had probably disconcerted the Indian war party, for no
immediate attack was made on the fort. After waiting until August he got
tired of the inaction, and made a foray into the Indian country himself
with nineteen men, defeating a small party of his foes on the Sciota. At
the same time he learned that the main body of the Miamis had at last
marched against Boonsborough. Instantly he retraced his steps with all
possible speed, passed by the Indians, and reached the threatened fort a
day before they did.
Boonsborough again Beseiged.
On the eighth day of the month the savages appeared before the stockade.
They were between three and four hundred in number, Shawnees and Miamis,
and were led by Captain Daigniau de Quindre, a noted Detroit partisan
[Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Aug. 17, 1778, Girty reports that four hundred
Indians have gone to attack "Fort Kentuck." Hamilton's letter of Sept.
16th speaks of there being three hundred Shawnees with de Quindre (whom
Boon calls Duquesne).]; with him were eleven other Frenchmen, besides
the Indian chiefs. They marched into view with British and French colors
flying, and formally summoned the little wooden fort to surrender in the
name of his Britannic Majesty. The negotiations that followed showed, on
the part of both whites and reds, a curious mixture of barbarian cunning
and barbarian childishness; the account reads as if it were a page of
Graeco-Trojan diplomacy. [Footnote: See Boon's Narrative.] Boon first got
a respite of two days to consider de Quindre's request, and occupied the
time in getting the horses and cattle into the fort. At the end of the
two days the Frenchman came in person to the walls to hear the answer to
his proposition; whereupon Boon jeered at him for his simplicity,
thanking him in the name of the defenders for having given them time to
prepare for defence, and telling him that now they laughed at his
attack. De Quindre, mortified at being so easily outwitted, set a trap
in his turn for Boon. He assured the latter that his orders from Detroit
were to capture, not to destroy, the garrison, and proposed that nine of
their number should come out and hold a treaty. The terms of the treaty
are not mentioned; apparently it was to be one of neutrality,
Boonsborough acting as if it were a little independent and sovereign
commonwealth, making peace on its own account with a particular set of
foes. At any rate, de Quindre agreed to march his forces peaceably off
when it was concluded.
Boon accepted the proposition, but, being suspicious of the good-faith
of his opponents, insisted upon the conference being held within sixty
yards of the fort. After the treaty was concluded the Indians proposed
to shake hands with the nine white treaty-makers, and promptly grappled
them. [Footnote: Apparently there were eighteen Indians on the treaty
ground, but these were probably, like the whites, unarmed.] However, the
borderers wrested themselves free, and fled to the fort under a heavy
fire, which wounded one of their number.
The Indians then attacked the fort, surrounding it on every side and
keeping up a constant fire at the loop-holes. The whites replied in
kind, but the combatants were so well covered that little damage was
done. At night the Indians pitched torches of cane and hickory bark
against the stockade, in the vain effort to set it on fire, [Footnote:
McAfee MSS.] and de Quindre tried to undermine the walls, starting from
the water mark. But Boon discovered the attempt, and sunk a trench as a
countermine. Then de Quindre gave up and retreated on August 20th, after
nine days' fighting, in which the whites had but two killed and four
wounded; nor was the loss of the Indians much heavier. [Footnote: De
Quindre reported to Hamilton that, though foiled, he had but two men
killed and three wounded. In Haldimand MSS., Hamilton to Haldimand,
October 15, 1778. Often, however, these partisan leaders merely reported
the loss in their own particular party of savages, taking no account of
the losses in the other bands that had joined them--as the Miamis joined
the Shawnees in this instance. But it is certain that Boon (or Filson,
who really wrote the Narrative) greatly exaggerated the facts in stating
that thirty-seven Indians were killed, and that the settlers picked up
125 pounds' weight of bullets which had been fired into the fort.]
This was the last siege of Boonsborough. Had de Quindre succeeded he
might very probably have swept the whites from Kentucky; but he failed,
and Boon's successful resistance, taken together with the outcome of
Clark's operations at the same time, ensured the permanency of the
American occupation. The old-settled region lying around the original
stations, or forts, was never afterwards seriously endangered by Indian
invasion.
Ferocious Individual Warfare.
The savages continued to annoy the border throughout the year 1778. The
extent of their ravages can be seen from the fact that, during the
summer months those around Detroit alone brought in to Hamilton
eighty-one scalps and thirty-four prisoners, [Footnote: Haldimand MSS.
Letter of Hamilton, September 16, 1778. Hamilton was continually sending
out small war parties; thus he mentions that on August 25th a party of
fifteen Miamis went out; on September 5th, thirty-one Miamis; on
September 9th, one Frenchman, five Chippewas, and fifteen Miamis, etc.]
seventeen of whom they surrendered to the British, keeping the others
either to make them slaves or else to put them to death with torture.
During the fall they confined themselves mainly to watching the Ohio and
the Wilderness road, and harassing the immigrants who passed along them.
[Footnote: McAfee MSS.]
Boon, as usual, roamed restlessly over the country, spying out and
harrying the Indian war parties, and often making it his business to
meet the incoming bands of settlers, and to protect and guide them on
the way to their intended homes. [Footnote: Marshall, 55.] When not on
other duty he hunted steadily, for game was still plentiful in Kentucky,
though fast diminishing owing to the wanton slaughter made by some of
the more reckless hunters. [Footnote: McAfee MSS.] He met with many
adventures, still handed down by tradition, in the chase of panther,
wolf, and bear, of buffalo, elk, and deer. The latter he killed only
when their hides and meat were needed, while he followed unceasingly the
dangerous beasts of prey, as being enemies of the settlers.
Throughout these years the obscure strife, made up of the individual
contests of frontiersman and Indian, went on almost without a break. The
sieges, surprises, and skirmishes in which large bands took part were
chronicled; but there is little reference in the books to the countless
conflicts wherein only one or two men on a side were engaged. The west
could never have been conquered, in the teeth of so formidable and
ruthless a foe, had it not been for the personal prowess of the pioneers
themselves. Their natural courage and hardihood, and their long training
in forest warfare, [Footnote: The last point is important. No Europeans
could have held their own for a fortnight in Kentucky; nor is it likely
that the western men twenty years before, at the time of Braddock's war,
could have successfully colonized such a far-off country.] made them
able to hold their own and to advance step by step, where a peaceable
population would have been instantly butchered or driven off. No regular
army could have done what they did. Only trained woodsmen could have led
the white advance into the vast forest-clad regions, out of which so
many fair States have been hewn. The ordinary regular soldier was almost
as helpless before the Indians in the woods as he would have been if
blindfolded and opposed to an antagonist whose eyes were left uncovered.
Much the greatest loss, both to Indians and whites, was caused by this
unending personal warfare. Every hunter, almost every settler, was
always in imminent danger of Indian attack, and in return was ever
ready, either alone or with one or two companions, to make excursions
against the tribes for scalps and horses. One or two of Simon Kenton's
experiences during this year may be mentioned less for their own sake
than as examples of innumerable similar deeds that were done, and woes
that were suffered, in the course of the ceaseless struggle.
Simon Kenton's Adventures.
Kenton was a tall, fair-haired man of wonderful strength and agility;
famous as a runner and wrestler, an unerring shot, and a perfect
woodsman. Like so many of these early Indian fighters, he was not at all
bloodthirsty. He was a pleasant, friendly, and obliging companion; and
it was hard to rouse him to wrath. When once aroused, however, few were
so hardy as not to quail before the terrible fury of his anger. He was
so honest and unsuspecting that he was very easily cheated by sharpers;
and he died a poor man. He was a staunch friend and follower of Boon's.
[Footnote: See McClung's "Sketches of Western Adventure," pp. 86-117;
the author had received from Kenton, and other pioneers, when very old,
the tales of their adventures as young men. McClung's volume contains
very valuable incidental information about the customs of life among the
borderers,] and about Indian warfare; but he is a very inaccurate and
untrustworthy writer; he could not even copy a printed narrative
correctly (see his account of Slover's and McKnight's adventures), and
his tales about Kenton must be accepted rather as showing the adventures
incident to the life of a peculiarly daring Indian fighter than as being
specifically and chronologically correct in Kenton's individual case.
Once, in a fight outside the stockade at Boonsborough, he saved the life
of his leader by shooting an Indian who was on the point of tomahawking
him. Boon was a man of few words, cold and grave, accustomed to every
kind of risk and hairbreadth escape, and as little apt to praise the
deeds of others as he was to mention his own; but on this occasion he
broke through his usual taciturnity to express his thanks for Kenton's
help and his admiration for Kenton himself.
Kenton went with his captain on the expedition to the Scioto. Pushing
ahead of the rest, he was attracted by the sound of laughter in a
canebrake. Hiding himself, he soon saw two Indians approach, both riding
on one small pony, and chatting and laughing together in great
good-humor. Aiming carefully, he brought down both at once, one dead and
the other severely wounded. As he rushed up to finish his work, his
quick ears caught a rustle in the cane, and looking around he saw two
more Indians aiming at him. A rapid spring to one side on his part made
both balls miss. Other Indians came up; but, at the same time, Boon and
his companions appeared, running as fast as they could while still
keeping sheltered. A brisk skirmish followed, the Indians retreated, and
Kenton got the coveted scalp. When Boon returned to the fort, Kenton
stayed behind with another man and succeeded in stealing four good
horses, which he brought back in triumph.
Much pleased with his success he shortly made another raid into the
Indian country, this time with two companions. They succeeded in driving
off a whole band of one hundred and sixty horses, which they brought in
safety to the banks of the Ohio. But a strong wind was blowing, and the
river was so rough that in spite of all their efforts they could not get
the horses to cross; as soon as they were beyond their depth the beasts
would turn round and swim back. The reckless adventurers could not make
up their minds to leave the booty; and stayed so long, waiting for a
lull in the gale, and wasting their time in trying to get the horses to
take to the water in spite of the waves, that the pursuing Indians came
up and surprised them. Their guns had become wet and useless; and no
resistance could be made. One of them was killed, another escaped, and
Kenton himself was captured.
The Indians asked him if "Captain Boon" had sent him to steal horses;
and when he answered frankly that the stealing was his own idea, they
forthwith proceeded to beat him lustily with their ramrods, at the same
time showering on him epithets that showed they had at least learned the
profanity of the traders. They staked him out at night, tied so that he
could move neither hand nor foot; and during the day he was bound on an
unbroken horse, with his hands tied behind him so that he could not
protect his face from the trees and bushes. This was repeated every day.
After three days he reached the town of Chillicothe, stiff, sore, and
bleeding.
Next morning he was led out to run the gauntlet. A row of men, women,
and boys, a quarter of a mile long, was formed, each with a tomahawk,
switch, or club; at the end of the line was an Indian with a big drum,
and beyond this was the council-house, which, if he reached, would for
the time being protect him. The moment for starting arrived; the big
drum was beaten; and Kenton sprang forward in the race. [Footnote: For
this part of Kenton's adventures compare the "Last of the Mohicans."]
Keeping his wits about him he suddenly turned to one side and darted off
with the whole tribe after him. His wonderful speed and activity enabled
him to keep ahead, and to dodge those who got in his way, and by a
sudden double he rushed through an opening in the crowd, and reached the
council-house, having been struck but three or four blows.
He was not further molested that evening. Next morning a council was
held to decide whether he should be immediately burnt at the stake, or
should first be led round to the different villages. The warriors sat in
a ring to pass judgment, passing the war club from one to another; those
who passed it in silence thereby voted in favor of sparing the prisoner
for the moment, while those who struck it violently on the ground thus
indicated their belief that he should be immediately put to death. The
former prevailed, and Kenton was led from town to town. At each place he
was tied to the stake, to be switched and beaten by the women and boys;
or else was forced to run the gauntlet, while sand was thrown in his
eyes and guns loaded with powder fired against his body to burn his
flesh.
Once, while on the march, he made a bold rush for liberty, all unarmed
though he was; breaking out of the line and running into the forest. His
speed was so great and his wind so good that he fairly outran his
pursuers; but by ill-luck, when almost exhausted, he came against
another party of Indians. After this he abandoned himself to despair. He
was often terribly abused by his captors; once one of them cut his
shoulder open with an axe, breaking the bone.
His face was painted black, the death color, and he was twice sentenced
to be burned alive, at the Pickaway Plains and at Sandusky. But each
time he was saved at the last moment, once through a sudden spasm of
mercy on the part of the renegade Girty, his old companion in arms at
the time of Lord Dunmore's war, and again by the powerful intercession
of the great Mingo chief, Logan. At last, after having run the gauntlet
eight times and been thrice tied to the stake, he was ransomed by some
traders. They hoped to get valuable information from him about the
border forts, and took him to Detroit. Here he stayed until his
battered, wounded body was healed. Then he determined to escape, and
formed his plan in concert with two other Kentuckians, who had been in
Boon's party that was captured at the Blue Licks. They managed to secure
some guns, got safely off, and came straight down through the great
forests to the Ohio, reaching their homes in safety. [Footnote: McClung
gives the exact conversations that took place between Kenton, Logan,
Girty, and the Indian chiefs. They are very dramatic, and may possibly
be true; the old pioneer would probably always remember even the words
used on such occasions; but I hesitate to give them because McClung is
so loose in his statements. In the account of this very incident he
places it in '77, and says Kenton then accompanied Clark to the
Illinois. But in reality--as we know from Boon--it took place in '78,
and Kenton must have gone with Clark first.]
Boon and Kenton have always been favorite heroes of frontier story,--as
much so as ever were Robin Hood and Little John in England. Both lived
to a great age, and did and saw many strange things, and in the
backwoods cabins the tale of their deeds has been handed down in
traditional form from father to son and to son's son. They were known to
be honest, fearless, adventurous, mighty men of their hands; fond of
long, lonely wanderings; renowned as woodsmen and riflemen, as hunters
and Indian fighters. In course of time it naturally came about that all
notable incidents of the chase and woodland warfare were incorporated
into their lives by the story-tellers. The facts were altered and added
to by tradition year after year; so that the two old frontier warriors
already stand in that misty group of heroes whose rightful title to fame
has been partly overclouded by the haze of their mythical glories and
achievements.
CHAPTER II.
CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE ILLINOIS, 1778.
Kentucky had been settled, chiefly through Boon's instrumentality, in
the year that saw the first fighting of the Revolution, and it had been
held ever since, Boon still playing the greatest part in the defence.
Clark's more far-seeing and ambitious soul now prompted him to try and
use it as a base from which to conquer the vast region northwest of the
Ohio.
The Country beyond the Ohio.
The country beyond the Ohio was not, like Kentucky, a tenantless and
debatable hunting-ground. It was the seat of powerful and warlike Indian
confederacies, and of clusters of ancient French hamlets which had been
founded generations before the Kentucky pioneers were born; and it also
contained posts that were garrisoned and held by the soldiers of the
British king. Virginia, and other colonies as well, made, it is true,
vague claims to some of this territory. [Footnote: Some of the numerous
land speculation companies, which were so prominent about this time,
both before and after the Revolution, made claims to vast tracts of
territory in this region, having bought them for various trinkets from
the Indian chiefs. Such were the "Illinois Land Company" and "Wabash
Land Company," that, in 1773 and 1775, made purchases from the
Kaskaskias and Piankeshaws. The companies were composed of British,
American, and Canadian merchants and traders, of London, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Quebec, etc. Lord Dunmore was in the Wabash Company. The
agents of the companies, in after years, made repeated but unsuccessful
efforts to get Congress to confirm their grants. Although these various
companies made much noise at the time, they introduced no new settlers
into the land, and, in fact, did nothing of lasting effect; so that it
is mere waste of time to allude to most of them. See, however, the
"History of Indiana," by John B. Dillon (Indianapolis, 1859), pp.
102-109, etc.] But their titles were as unreal and shadowy as those
acquired by the Spanish and Portuguese kings when the Pope, with empty
munificence, divided between them the Eastern and the Western
hemispheres. For a century the French had held adverse possession; for a
decade and a half the British, not the colonial authorities, had acted
as their unchallenged heirs; to the Americans the country was as much a
foreign land as was Canada. It could only be acquired by force, and
Clark's teeming brain and bold heart had long been busy in planning its
conquest. He knew that the French villages, the only settlements in the
land, were the seats of the British power, the head-quarters whence
their commanders stirred up, armed, and guided the hostile Indians. If
these settled French districts were conquered, and the British posts
that guarded them captured, the whole territory would thereby be won for
the Federal Republic, and added to the heritage of its citizens; while
the problem of checking and subduing the northwestern Indians would be
greatly simplified, because the source of much of both their power and
hostility would be cut off at the springs. The friendship of the French
was invaluable, for they had more influence than any other people with
the Indians.
Clark Sends Spies to the Illinois.
In 1777 Clark sent two young hunters as spies to the Illinois country
and to the neighborhood of Vincennes, though neither to them nor to any
one else did he breathe a hint of the plan that was in his mind. They
brought back word that, though some of the adventurous young men often
joined either the British or the Indian war parties, yet that the bulk
of the French population took but little interest in the struggle, were
lukewarm in their allegiance to the British flag, and were somewhat awed
by what they had heard of the backwoodsmen. [Footnote: The correctness
of this account is amply confirmed by the Haldimand MSS., letters of
Hamilton, _passim_; also Rocheblave to Carleton, July 4, 1778; and to
Hamilton, April 12, 1778.] Clark judged from this report that it would
not be difficult to keep the French neutral if a bold policy, strong as
well as conciliatory, was pursued towards them; and that but a small
force would be needed to enable a resolute and capable leader to conquer
at least the southern part of the country. It was impossible to raise
such a body among the scantily garrisoned forted villages of Kentucky.
The pioneers, though warlike and fond of fighting, were primarily
settlers; their soldiering came in as a purely secondary occupation.
They were not a band of mere adventurers, living by the sword and bent
on nothing but conquest. They were a group of hard-working,
hard-fighting freemen, who had come in with their wives and children to
possess the land. They were obliged to use all their wit and courage to
defend what they had already won without wasting their strength by
grasping at that which lay beyond. The very conditions that enabled so
small a number to make a permanent settlement forbade their trying
unduly to extend its bounds.
He Goes to Virginia to Raise Troops.
Clark knew he could get from among his fellow-settlers some men
peculiarly suited for his purpose, but he also realized that he would
have to bring the body of his force from Virginia. Accordingly he
decided to lay the case before Patrick Henry, then Governor of the State
of which Kentucky was only a frontier county.
On October 1, 1777, he started from Harrodsburg, [Footnote: In the
earlier MSS, it is called sometimes Harrodstown and sometimes
Harrodsburg; but from this time on the latter name is in general use.]
to go over the Wilderness road. The brief entries of his diary for this
trip are very interesting and sometimes very amusing. Before starting he
made a rather shrewd and thoroughly characteristic speculation in
horseflesh, buying a horse for £12, and then "swapping" it with Isaac
Shelby and getting £10 to boot. He evidently knew how to make a good
bargain, and had the true backwoods passion for barter. He was detained
a couple of days by that commonest of frontier mischances, his horses
straying; a natural incident when the animals were simply turned loose
on the range and looked up when required. [Footnote: This, like so many
other incidents in the every-day history of the old pioneers, is among
the ordinary experiences of the present sojourner in the far west.] He
travelled in company with a large party of men, women, and children who,
disheartened by the Indian ravages, were going back to the settlements.
They marched from fifteen to twenty miles a day, driving beeves along
for food. In addition the scouts at different times killed three buffalo
[Footnote: One at Rockcastle River, two at Cumberland Ford.] and a few
deer, so that they were not stinted for fresh meat.
When they got out of the wilderness he parted from his companions and
rode off alone. He now stayed at the settler's house that was nearest
when night overtook him. At a large house, such as that of the
Campbell's, near Abingdon, he was of course welcomed to the best, and
treated with a generous hospitality, for which it would have been an
insult to offer money in return. At the small cabins he paid his way;
usually a shilling and threepence or a shilling and sixpence for
breakfast, bed, and feed for the horse; but sometimes four or five
shillings. He fell in with a Captain Campbell, with whom he journeyed a
week, finding him "an agreeable companion." They had to wait over one
stormy day, at a little tavern, and probably whiled away the time by as
much of a carouse as circumstances allowed; at any rate, Clark's share
of the bill when he left was £1 4_s_. [Footnote: The items of expense
jotted down in the diary are curious. For a night's lodging and board
they range from 1s. 3d. to 13s. In Williamsburg, the capital, they were
for a fortnight £9 18s.] Finally, a month after leaving Harrodsburg,
having travelled six hundred and twenty miles, he reached his father's
house. [Footnote Seventy miles beyond Charlottesville; he gives an
itinerary of his journey, making it six hundred and twenty miles in all,
by the route he travelled. On the way he had his horse shod and bought a
pair of shoes for himself; apparently he kept the rest of his backwoods
apparel. He sold his gun for £15 and swapped horses again--this time
giving £7 l0_s_. to boot.]
After staying only a day at his old home, he set out for Williamsburg,
where he was detained a fortnight before the State auditors would settle
the accounts of the Kentucky militia, which he had brought with him. The
two things which he deemed especially worthy of mention during this time
were his purchase of a ticket in the State lottery, for three pounds,
and his going to church on Sunday--the first chance he had had to do so
during the year. [Footnote: When his accounts were settled he
immediately bought "a piece of cloth for a jacket; price, £4 15_s_;
buttons, etc., 3_s_."] He was overjoyed at the news of Burgoyne's
surrender; and with a light heart he returned to his father's house, to
get a glimpse of his people before again plunging into the wilds.
Clark and Patrick Henry.
After a week's rest he went back to the capital, laid his plans before
Patrick Henry, and urged their adoption with fiery enthusiasm.
[Footnote: Clark has left a full MS. memoir of the events of 1777, 1778,
and 1779. It was used extensively by Mann Butler, the first historian
who gave the campaign its proper prominence, and is printed almost
complete by Dillon, on pp. 115-167 of his "Indiana." It was written at
the desire of Presidents Jefferson and Madison; and therefore some
thirty or forty years after the events of which it speaks. Valuable
though it is, as the narrative of the chief actor, it would be still
more valuable had it been written earlier; it undoubtedly contains some
rather serious errors.] Henry's ardent soul quickly caught flame; but
the peril of sending an expedition to such a wild and distant country
was so great, and Virginia's resources were so exhausted, that he could
do little beyond lending Clark the weight of his name and influence. The
matter could not be laid before the Assembly, nor made public in any
way; for the hazard would be increased tenfold if the strictest secrecy
were not preserved. Finally Henry authorized Clark to raise seven
companies, each of fifty men, who were to act as militia and to be paid
as such. [Footnote: Henry's private letter of instructions, January 2,
1778.] He also advanced him the sum of twelve hundred pounds (presumably
in depreciated paper), and gave him an order on the authorities at
Pittsburg for boats, supplies, and ammunition; while three of the most
prominent Virginia gentlemen [Footnote: Thomas Jefferson, George Mason,
and George Wythe.] agreed in writing to do their best to induce the
Virginia Legislature to grant to each of the adventurers three hundred
acres of the conquered land, if they were successful. He was likewise
given the commission of colonel, with instructions to raise his men
solely from the frontier counties west of the Blue Ridge, [Footnote: 3
Butler, p. 48; but Henry's public instructions authorized Clark to raise
his men in any county.] so as not to weaken the people of the seacoast
region in their struggle against the British.
Clark alone Organizes the Expedition.
Thus the whole burden of making ready the expedition was laid on Clark's
shoulders. The hampered Virginian authorities were able to give him
little beyond their good-will. He is rightfully entitled to the whole
glory; the plan and the execution were both his. It was an individual
rather than a state or national enterprise.
Governor Henry's open letter of instructions merely ordered Clark to go
to the relief of Kentucky. He carried with him also the secret letter
which bade him attack the Illinois regions; for he had decided to assail
this first, because, if defeated, he would then be able to take refuge
in the Spanish dominions beyond the Mississippi. He met with the utmost
difficulty in raising men. Some were to be sent to him from the Holston
overland, to meet him in Kentucky; but a combination of accidents
resulted in his getting only a dozen or so from this source. [Footnote:
Four companies were to be raised on the Holston; but only one actually
went to Kentucky; and most of its members deserted when they found out
about the true nature of the expedition.] Around Pittsburg the jealousy
between the Virginians and Pennsylvanians hampered him greatly.
Moreover, many people were strongly opposed to sending any men to
Kentucky at all, deeming the drain on their strength more serious than
the value of the new land warranted; for they were too short-sighted
rightly to estimate what the frontiersmen had really done. When he had
finally raised his troops he was bothered by requests from the different
forts to aid detachments of the local militia in expeditions against
bands of marauding Indians.
He Starts Down the Ohio.
But Clark never for a moment wavered nor lost sight of his main object.
He worked steadily on, heedless of difficulty and disappointment, and
late in the spring at last got together four small companies of
frontiersmen from the clearings and the scattered hunters' camps. In
May, 1778, he left the Redstone settlements, taking not only his
troops--one hundred and fifty in all [Footnote: Clark's letter to George
Mason, Nov. 19, 1779. Given in "Clark's Campaign in the Illinois"
(Cincinnati, 1869), for the first time; one of Robert Clarke's excellent
Ohio Valley Historical Series.]--but also a considerable number of
private adventurers and settlers with their families. He touched at
Pittsburg and Wheeling to get his stores. Then the flotilla of clumsy
flatboats, manned by tall riflemen, rowed and drifted cautiously down
the Ohio between the melancholy and unbroken reaches of Indian-haunted
forest. The presence of the families shows that even this expedition had
the usual peculiar western character of being undertaken half for
conquest, half for settlement.
He landed at the mouth of the Kentucky, but rightly concluded that as a
starting-point against the British posts it would be better to choose a
place farther west, so he drifted on down the stream, and on the 27th of
May [Footnote: This is the date given in the deposition, in the case of
Floyd's heirs, in 1815; see MSS. in Col. Durrett's library at
Louisville. Clark's dates, given from memory, are often a day or two
out. His "Memoir" is of course less accurate than the letter to Mason.]
reached the Falls of the Ohio, where the river broke into great rapids
or riffles of swift water. This spot he chose, both because from it he
could threaten and hold in check the different Indian tribes, and
because he deemed it wise to have some fort to protect in the future the
craft that might engage in the river trade, when they stopped to prepare
for the passage of the rapids. Most of the families that had come with
him had gone off to the interior of Kentucky, but several were left, and
these settled on an island near the falls, where they raised a crop of
corn; and in the autumn they moved to the mainland. On the site thus
chosen by the clear-eyed frontier leader there afterwards grew up a
great city, named in honor of the French king, who was then our ally.
Clark may fairly be called its founder. [Footnote: It was named
Louisville in 1780, but was long known only as the Falls. Many other men
had previously recognized the advantages of the place; hunters and
surveyors had gone there, but Clark led thither the first permanent
settlers. Conolly had laid out at the Falls a grant of two thousand
acres, of which he afterwards surrendered half. His grant, covering much
of the present site of the city, was on July 1, 1780, declared to be
forfeited by a jury consisting of Daniel Boon and eleven other good men
and true, empanelled by the sheriff of the county. See Durrett MSS. in
"Papers Relating to Louisville, Ky."]
Clark at the Falls.
Here Clark received news of the alliance with France, which he hoped
would render easier his task of winning over the habitants of the
Illinois. He was also joined by a few daring Kentuckians, including
Kenton, and by the only Holston company that had yet arrived. He now
disclosed to his men the real object of his expedition. The Kentuckians,
and those who had come down the river with him, hailed the adventure
with eager enthusiasm, pledged him their hearty support, and followed
him with staunch and unflinching loyalty. But the Holston recruits, who
had not come under the spell of his personal influence, murmured against
him. They had not reckoned on an expedition so long and so dangerous,
and in the night most of them left the camp and fled into the woods. The
Kentuckians, who had horses, pursued the deserters, with orders to kill
any who resisted; but all save six or eight escaped. Yet they suffered
greatly for their crime, and endured every degree of hardship and
fatigue, for the Kentuckians spurned them from the gates of the wooden
forts, and would not for a long time suffer them to enter, hounding them
back to the homes they had dishonored. They came from among a bold and
adventurous people, and their action was due rather to wayward and
sullen disregard of authority than to cowardice.
When the pursuing horsemen came back a day of mirth and rejoicing was
spent between the troops who were to stay behind to guard Kentucky and
those who were to go onward to conquer Illinois. On the 24th of June
Clark's boats put out from shore, and shot the falls at the very moment
that there was a great eclipse of the sun, at which the frontiersmen
wondered greatly, but for the most part held it to be a good omen.
Clark had weeded out all those whom he deemed unable to stand fatigue
and hardship; his four little companies were of picked men, each with a
good captain. [Footnote: The names of the four captains were John
Montgomery, Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helm, and William Harrod. Each
company nominally consisted of fifty men, but none of them was of full
strength.] His equipment was as light as that of an Indian war party,
for he knew better than to take a pound of baggage that could possibly
be spared.
He Meets a Party of Hunters.
He intended to land some three leagues below the entrance of the
Tennessee River, [Footnote: At the old Fort Massac, then deserted. The
name is taken from that of an old French commander; it is not a
corruption of Fort Massacre, as has been asserted.] thence to march on
foot against the Illinois towns; for he feared discovery if he should
attempt to ascend the Mississippi, the usual highway by which the fur
traders went up to the quaint French hamlets that lay between the
Kaskaskia and the Illinois rivers. Accordingly he double-manned his oars
and rowed night and day until he reached a small island off the mouth of
the Tennessee, where he halted to make his final preparations, and was
there joined by a little party of American hunters, [Footnote In his
"Memoir" he says "from the States"; in his letter to Mason he calls them
"Englishmen," probably to show that they were not French, as they had
just come from Kaskaskia. He almost always spoke of the English proper
as British.] who had recently been in the French settlements. The
meeting was most fortunate. The hunters entered eagerly into Clark's
plans, joining him for the campaign, and they gave him some very
valuable information. They told him that the royal commandant was a
Frenchman, Rocheblave, whose head-quarters were at the town of
Kaskaskia; that the fort was in good repair, the militia were well
drilled and in constant readiness to repel attack, while spies were
continually watching the Mississippi, and the Indians and the coureurs
des bois were warned to be on the look-out for any American force, if
the party were discovered in time the hunters believed that the French
would undoubtedly gather together instantly to repel them, having been
taught to hate and dread the backwoodsmen as more brutal and terrible
than any Indians; and in such an event the strength of the works and the
superiority of the French in numbers would render the attack very
hazardous. But they thought that a surprise would enable Clark to do as
he wished, and they undertook to guide him by the quickest and shortest
route to the towns.
The March to Kaskaskia.
Clark was rather pleased than otherwise to learn of the horror with
which the French regarded the backwoodsmen. He thought it would render
them more apt to be panic-struck when surprised, and also more likely to
feel a strong revulsion of gratitude when they found that the Americans
meant them well and not ill. Taking their new allies for guides, the
little body of less than two hundred men started north across the
wilderness, scouts being scattered out well ahead of them, both to kill
game for their subsistence and to see that their march was not
discovered by any straggling Frenchman or Indian. The first fifty miles
led through tangled and pathless forest, the toil of travelling being
very great. After that the work was less difficult as they got out among
the prairies, but on these great level meadows they had to take extra
precautions to avoid being seen. Once the chief guide got bewildered and
lost himself; he could no longer tell the route, nor whither it was best
to march. [Footnote: Even experienced woodsmen or plainsmen sometimes
thus become lost or "turned round," if in a country of few landmarks,
where they have rarely been before.] The whole party was at once cast
into the utmost confusion; but Clark soon made the guide understand that
he was himself in greater jeopardy than any one else, and would forfeit
his life if he did not guide them straight. Not knowing the man, Clark
thought he might be treacherous; and, as he wrote an old friend, he was
never in his life in such a rage as when he found his troops wandering
at random in a country where, at any moment, they might blunder on
several times their number of hostile Indians; while, if they were
discovered by any one at all, the whole expedition was sure to miscarry.
However, the guide proved to be faithful; after a couple of hours he
found his bearings once more, and guided the party straight to their
destination.
The Surprise of Kaskaskia.
On the evening of the fourth of July [Footnote: So says Clark; and the
Haldimand MSS. contains a letter of Rocheblave of July 4th. For these
campaigns of 1778 I follow where possible Clark's letter to Mason as
being nearly contemporary; his "Memoir," as given by Dillon, comes next
in authority; while Butler, who was very accurate and painstaking, also
got hold of original information from men who had taken part in the
expedition, or from their descendants, besides making full use of the
"Memoir."] they reached the river Kaskaskia, within three miles of the
town, which lay on the farther bank. They kept in the woods until after
it grew dusk, and then marched silently to a little farm on the hither
side of the river, a mile from the town. The family were taken
prisoners, and from them Clark learned that some days before the
townspeople had been alarmed at the rumor of a possible attack; but that
their suspicions had been lulled, and they were then off their guard.
There were a great many men in the town, but almost all French, the
Indians having for the most part left. The account proved correct.
Rocheblave, the creole commandant, was sincerely attached to the British
interest. He had been much alarmed early in the year by the reports
brought to him by Indians that the Americans were in Kentucky and
elsewhere beyond the Alleghanies. He had written repeatedly to Detroit,
asking that regulars could be sent him, and that he might himself be
replaced by a commandant of English birth; for though the French were
well-disposed towards the crown, they had been frightened by the reports
of the ferocity of the backwoodsmen, and the Indians were fickle. In his
letters he mentioned that the French were much more loyal than the men
of English parentage. Hamilton found it impossible to send him
reinforcements however, and he was forced to do the best he could
without them; but he succeeded well in his endeavors to organize troops,
as he found the creole militia very willing to serve, and the Indians
extremely anxious to attack the Americans. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS.
Carleton to Hamilton, May 16, 1777; Rocheblave to Carleton, February 8,
1778; Rocheblave to Hamilton, April 12, 1778; Rocheblave to Carleton,
July 4, 1778.] He had under his orders two or three times as many men
as Clark, and he would certainly have made a good fight if he had not
been surprised. It was only Clark's audacity and the noiseless speed of
his movements that gave him a chance of success with the odds so heavily
against him.
Getting boats the American leader ferried his men across the stream
under cover of the darkness and in profound silence; the work occupying
about two hours. He then approached Kaskaskia under cover of the night,
dividing his force into two divisions, one being spread out to surround
the town so that none might escape, while he himself led the other up to
the walls of the fort.
Inside the fort the lights were lit, and through the windows came the
sounds of violins. The officers of the post had given a ball, and the
mirth-loving creoles, young men and girls, were dancing and revelling
within, while the sentinels had left their posts. One of his captives
showed Clark a postern-gate by the river-side, and through this he
entered the fort, having placed his men round about at the entrance.
Advancing to the great hall where the revel was held, he leaned silently
with folded arms against the door-post, looking at the dancers. An
Indian, lying on the floor of the entry, gazed intently on the
stranger's face as the light from the torches within flickered across
it, and suddenly sprang to his feet uttering the unearthly war-whoop.
Instantly the dancing ceased; the women screamed, while the men ran
towards the door. But Clark, standing unmoved and with unchanged face,
grimly bade them continue their dancing, but to remember that they now
danced under Virginia and not Great Britain. [Footnote: Memoir of Major
E. Denny, by Wm. H. Denny, p. 217. In "Record of the Court of Upland and
Military Journal of Major E. Denny," Philadelphia, 1860 (Historical
Society of Penn.). The story was told to Major Denny by Clark himself,
some time in '87 or '88; in process of repetition it evidently became
twisted, and, as related by Denny, there are some very manifest
inaccuracies, but there seems no reason to reject it entirely.] At the
same time his men burst into the fort, and seized the French officers,
including the commandant, Rocheblave. [Footnote: It is worth noting that
these Illinois French, and most of the Indians with whom the French fur
traders came in contact, called the Americans "Bostonnais." (In fact the
fur traders have taught this name to the northern tribes right across to
the Pacific. While hunting in the Selkirk Mountains last fall, the
Kootenai Indian who was with me always described me as a "Boston man.")
Similarly the Indians round the upper Ohio and thence southward often
called the backwoodsmen "Virginians." In each case the French and
Indians adopted the name of their leading and most inveterate enemies as
the title by which to call all of them.]
Immediately Clark had every street secured, and sent runners through the
town ordering the people to keep close to their houses on pain of death;
and by daylight he had them all disarmed. The backwoodsmen patrolled the
town in little squads; while the French in silent terror cowered within
their low-roofed houses. Clark was quite willing that they should fear
the worst; and their panic was very great. The unlooked-for and
mysterious approach and sudden onslaught of the backwoodsmen, their wild
and uncouth appearance, and the ominous silence of their commander, all
combined to fill the French with fearful forebodings for their future
fate. [Footnote: In his "Memoir" Clark dwells at length on the artifices
by which he heightened the terror of the French; and Butler enlarges
still further upon them. I follow the letter to Mason, which is much
safer authority, the writer having then no thought of trying to increase
the dramatic effect of the situation--which in Butler, and indeed in the
"Memoir" also, is strained till it comes dangerously near bathos.]
Clark's Diplomacy.
Next morning a deputation of the chief men waited upon Clark; and
thinking themselves in the hands of mere brutal barbarians, all they
dared to do was to beg for their lives, which they did, says Clark,
"with the greatest servancy [saying] they were willing to be slaves to
save their families," though the bolder spirits could not refrain from
cursing their fortune that they had not been warned in time to defend
themselves. Now came Clark's chance for his winning stroke. He knew it
was hopeless to expect his little band permanently to hold down a much
more numerous hostile population, that was closely allied to many
surrounding tribes of warlike Indians; he wished above all things to
convert the inhabitants into ardent adherents of the American
Government.
So he explained at length that, though the Americans came as conquerors,
who by the laws of war could treat the defeated as they wished, yet it
was ever their principle to free, not to enslave, the people with whom
they came in contact. If the French chose to become loyal citizens, and
to take the oath of fidelity to the Republic, they should be welcomed to
all the privileges of Americans; those who did not so choose should be
allowed to depart from the land in peace with their families.
The Creoles Espouse the American Cause.
The mercurial creoles who listened to his speech passed rapidly from the
depth of despair to the height of joy. Instead of bewailing their fate
they now could not congratulate themselves enough on their good-fortune.
The crowning touch to their happiness was given by Clark when he told
the priest, Pierre Gibault, in answer to a question as to whether the
Catholic Church could be opened, that an American commander had nothing
to do with any church save to defend it from insult, and that by the
laws of the Republic his religion had as great privileges as any other.
With that they all returned in noisy joy to their families, while the
priest, a man of ability and influence, became thenceforth a devoted and
effective champion of the American cause. The only person whom Clark
treated harshly was M. Rocheblave, the commandant, who, when asked to
dinner, responded in very insulting terms. Thereupon Clark promptly sent
him as a prisoner to Virginia (where he broke his parole and escaped),
and sold his slaves for five hundred pounds, which was distributed among
the troops as prize-money.
A small detachment of the Americans, accompanied by a volunteer company
of French militia, at once marched rapidly on Cahokia. The account of
what had happened in Kaskaskia, the news of the alliance between France
and America, and the enthusiastic advocacy of Clark's new friends, soon
converted Cahokia; and all of its inhabitants, like those of Kaskaskia,
took the oath of allegiance to America. Almost at the same time the
priest Gibault volunteered to go, with a few of his compatriots, to
Vincennes, and there endeavor to get the people to join the Americans,
as being their natural friends and allies. He started on his mission at
once, and on the first of August returned to Clark with the news that he
had been completely successful, that the entire population, after having
gathered in the church to hear him, had taken the oath of allegiance,
and that the American flag floated over their fort. [Footnote: Judge
John Law's "Address on the Colonial History of Vincennes," P 25.] No
garrison could be spared to go to Vincennes; so one of the captains
[Footnote: Leonard Helm. Vol. II.] was sent thither alone to take
command.
The priest Gibault had given convincing proof of his loyalty. He
remarked to Clark rather dryly that he had, properly speaking, nothing
to do with the temporal affairs of his flock, but that now and then he
was able to give them such hints in a spiritual way as would tend to
increase their devotion to their new friends.
Clark's Difficulties.
Clark now found himself in a position of the utmost difficulty. With a
handful of unruly backwoodsmen, imperfectly disciplined and kept under
control only by his own personal influence, he had to protect and govern
a region as large as any European kingdom. Moreover, he had to keep
content and loyal a population of alien race, creed, and language, while
he held his own against the British and against numerous tribes of
Indians, deeply imbittered against all Americans and as blood-thirsty
and treacherous as they were warlike. It may be doubted if there was
another man in the west who possessed the daring and resolution, the
tact, energy, and executive ability necessary for the solution of so
knotty a series of problems.
He was hundreds of miles from the nearest post containing any American
troops; he was still farther from the seat of government. He had no hope
whatever of getting reinforcements or even advice and instruction for
many months, probably not for a year; and he was thrown entirely on his
own resources and obliged to act in every respect purely on his own
responsibility.
Governor Patrick Henry, although leaving every thing in the last resort
to Clark's discretion, had evidently been very doubtful whether a
permanent occupation of the territory was feasible, [Footnote: In his
secret letter of instructions he orders Clark to be especially careful
to secure the artillery and military stores at Kaskia, laying such
stress upon this as to show that he regarded the place itself as of
comparatively little value. In fact, all Henry's order contemplated was
an attack on "the British post at Kaskasky." However, he adds, that if
the French are willing to become American citizens, they shall be fully
protected against their foes. The letter earnestly commands Clark to
treat not only the inhabitants, but also all British prisoners, with the
utmost humanity.] though both he, and especially Jefferson, recognized
the important bearing that its acquisition would have upon the
settlement of the northwestern boundary, when the time came to treat for
peace. Probably Clark himself had not at first appreciated all the
possibilities that lay within his conquest, but he was fully alive to
them now and saw that, provided he could hold on to it, he had added a
vast and fertile territory to the domain of the Union. To the task of
keeping it he now bent all his energies.
Clark Prepares for Defence.
The time of service of his troops had expired, and they were anxious to
go home. By presents and promises he managed to enlist one hundred of
them for eight months longer. Then, to color his staying with so few
men, he made a feint of returning to the Falls, alleging as a reason his
entire confidence in the loyalty of his French friends and his trust in
their capacity to defend themselves. He hoped that this would bring out
a remonstrance from the inhabitants, who, by becoming American citizens,
had definitely committed themselves against the British. The result was
such as he expected. On the rumor of his departure, the inhabitants in
great alarm urged him to stay, saying that otherwise the British would
surely retake the post. He made a show of reluctantly yielding to their
request, and consented to stay with two companies; and then finding that
many of the more adventurous young creoles were anxious to take service,
he enlisted enough of them to fill up all four companies to their
original strength. His whole leisure was spent in drilling the men,
Americans and French alike, and in a short time he turned them into as
orderly and well disciplined a body as could be found in any garrison of
regulars.
He also established very friendly relations with the Spanish captains of
the scattered creole villages across the Mississippi, for the Spaniards
were very hostile to the British, and had not yet begun to realize that
they had even more to dread from the Americans. Clark has recorded his
frank surprise at finding the Spanish commandant, who lived at St.
Louis, a very pleasant and easy companion, instead of haughty and
reserved, as he had supposed all Spaniards were.
Dealings with the Indians.
The most difficult, and among the most important, of his tasks, was
dealing with the swarm of fickle and treacherous savage tribes that
surrounded him. They had hitherto been hostile to the Americans; but
being great friends of the Spaniards and French they were much confused
by the change in the sentiments of the latter, and by the sudden turn
affairs had taken.
Some volunteers--Americans, French, and friendly Indians--were sent to
the aid of the American captain at Vincennes, and the latter, by threats
and promises, and a mixture of diplomatic speech-making with a show of
force, contrived, for the time being, to pacify the immediately
neighboring tribes.
Clark took upon himself the greater task of dealing with a huge horde of
savages, representing every tribe between the Great Lakes and the
Mississippi, who had come to the Illinois, some from a distance of five
hundred miles, to learn accurately all that had happened, and to hear
for themselves what the Long Knives had to say. They gathered to meet
him at Cahokia, chiefs and warriors of every grade; among them were
Ottawas and Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Sacs, and Foxes, and others
belonging to tribes whose very names have perished. The straggling
streets of the dismayed little town were thronged with many hundreds of
dark-browed, sullen-looking savages, grotesque in look and terrible in
possibility. They strutted to and fro in their dirty finery, or lounged
round the houses, inquisitive, importunate, and insolent, hardly
concealing a lust for bloodshed and plunder that the slightest mishap
was certain to render ungovernable.
Fortunately Clark knew exactly how to treat them. He thoroughly
understood their natures, and was always on his guard, while seemingly
perfectly confident; and he combined conciliation with firmness and
decision, and above all with prompt rapidity of action.
For the first two or three days no conclusion was reached, though there
was plenty of speech-making. But on the night of the third a party of
turbulent warriors [Footnote: "A party of Puans and others."--Clark's
letter to Mason.] endeavored to force their way into the house where he
was lodging, and to carry him off. Clark, who, as he records, had been
"under some apprehensions among such a number of Devils," was
anticipating treachery. His guards were at hand, and promptly seized the
savages; while the townspeople took the alarm and were under arms in a
couple of minutes, thus convincing the Indians that their friendship for
the Americans was not feigned.
Clark and the Savages.
Clark instantly ordered the French militia to put the captives, both
chiefs and warriors, in irons. He had treated the Indians well, and had
not angered them by the harshness and brutality that so often made them
side against the English or Americans and in favor of the French; but he
knew that any signs of timidity would be fatal. His boldness and
decision were crowned with complete success. The crestfallen prisoners
humbly protested that they were only trying to find out if the French
were really friendly to Clark, and begged that they might be released.
He answered with haughty indifference, and refused to release them, even
when the chiefs of the other tribes came up to intercede. Indians and
whites alike were in the utmost confusion, every man distrusting what
the moment might bring forth. Clark continued seemingly wholly unmoved,
and did not even shift his lodgings to the fort, remaining in a house in
the town, but he took good care to secretly fill a large room adjoining
his own with armed men, while the guards were kept ready for instant
action. To make his show of indifference complete, he "assembled a
Number of Gentlemen and Ladies and danced nearly the whole Night." The
perplexed savages, on the other hand, spent the hours of darkness in a
series of councils among themselves.
Next morning he summoned all the tribes to a grand council, releasing
the captive chiefs, that he might speak to them in the presence of their
friends and allies. The preliminary ceremonies were carefully executed
in accordance with the rigid Indian etiquette. Then Clark stood up in
the midst of the rings of squatted warriors, while his riflemen
clustered behind him in their tasselled hunting-shirts, travel-torn and
weather-beaten. He produced the bloody war-belt of wampum, and handed it
to the chiefs whom he had taken captive, telling the assembled tribes
that he scorned alike their treachery and their hostility; that he would
be thoroughly justified in putting them to death, but that instead he
would have them escorted safely from the town, and after three days
would begin war upon them. He warned them that if they did not wish
their own women and children massacred, they must stop killing those of
the Americans. Pointing to the war-belt, he challenged them, on behalf
of his people, to see which would make it the most bloody; and he
finished by telling them that while they stayed in his camp they should
be given food and strong drink, [Footnote: "Provisions and Rum." Letter
to Mason. This is much the best authority for these proceedings. The
"Memoir," written by an old man who had squandered his energies and sunk
into deserved obscurity, is tedious and magniloquent, and sometimes
inaccurate. Moreover, Dillon has not always chosen the extracts
judiciously. Clark's decidedly prolix speeches to the Indians are given
with intolerable repetition. They were well suited to the savages,
drawing the causes of the quarrel between the British and Americans in
phrases that could be understood by the Indian mind; but their inflated
hyperbole is not now interesting. They describe the Americans as
lighting a great council-fire, sharpening tomahawks, striking the
war-post, declining to give "two bucks for a blanket," as the British
wanted them to, etc.; with incessant allusions to the Great Spirit being
angry, the roads being made smooth, refusing to listen to the bad birds
who flew through the woods, and the like. Occasional passages are fine;
but it all belongs to the study of Indians and Indian oratory, rather
than to the history of the Americans.] and that now he had ended his
talk to them, and he wished them to speedily depart.
Not only the prisoners, but all the other chiefs in turn forthwith rose,
and in language of dignified submission protested their regret at having
been led astray by the British, and their determination thenceforth to
be friendly with the Americans.
In response Clark again told them that he came not as a counsellor but
as a warrior, not begging for a truce but carrying in his right hand
peace and in his left hand war; save only that to a few of their worst
men he intended to grant no terms whatever. To those who were friendly
he, too, would be a friend, but if they chose war, he would call from
the Thirteen Council Fires [Footnote: In his speeches, as in those of
his successors in treaty-making, the United States were sometimes spoken
of as the Thirteen Fires, and sometimes as the Great Fire.] warriors so
numerous that they would darken the land, and from that time on the red
people would hear no sound but that of the birds that lived on blood. He
went on to tell them, that there had been a mist before their eyes, but
that he would clear away the cloud and would show them the right of the
quarrel between the Long Knives and the King who dwelt across the great
sea; and then he told them about the revolt in terms which would almost
have applied to a rising of Hurons or Wyandots against the Iroquois. At
the end of his speech he offered them the two belts of peace and war.
The Indians Make Peace.
They eagerly took the peace belt, but he declined to smoke the calumet,
and told them he would not enter into the solemn ceremonies of the peace
treaty with them until the following day. He likewise declined to
release all his prisoners, and insisted that two of them should be put
to death. They even yielded to this, and surrendered to him two young
men, who advanced and sat down before him on the floor, covering their
heads with their blankets, to receive the tomahawk. [Footnote: I have
followed the contemporary letter to Mason rather than the more elaborate
and slightly different account of the "Memoir." The account written by
Clark in his old age, like Shelby's similar autobiography, is, in many
respects, not very trustworthy. It cannot be accepted for a moment where
it conflicts with any contemporary accounts.] Then he granted them full
peace and forgave the young men their doom, and the next day, after the
peace council, there was a feast, and the friendship of the Indians was
won. Clark ever after had great influence over them; they admired his
personal prowess, his oratory, his address as a treaty-maker, and the
skill with which he led his troops. Long afterwards, when the United
States authorities were endeavoring to make treaties with the red men,
it was noticed that the latter would never speak to any other white
general or commissioner while Clark was present.
After this treaty there was peace in the Illinois country; the Indians
remained for some time friendly, and the French were kept well
satisfied.
CHAPTER III.
CLARK'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST VINCENNES, 1779.
Hamilton, at Detroit, had been so encouraged by the successes of his war
parties that, in 1778, he began to plan an attack on Fort Pitt
[Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Hamilton to Carleton, January, 1778.]; but his
plans were forestalled by Clark's movements, and he, of course,
abandoned them when the astounding news reached him that the rebels had
themselves invaded the Illinois country, captured the British
commandant, Rocheblave, and administered to the inhabitants the oath of
allegiance to Congress. [Footnote: _Do_. Hamilton's letter of August
8th.] Shortly afterwards he learned that Vincennes likewise was in the
hands of the Americans.
Hamilton Prepares to Reconquer the Country.
He was a man of great energy, and he immediately began to prepare an
expedition for the reconquest of the country. French emissaries who were
loyal to the British crown were sent to the Wabash to stir up the
Indians against the Americans; and though the Piankeshaws remained
friendly to the latter, the Kickapoos and Weas, who were more powerful,
announced their readiness to espouse the British cause if they received
support, while the neighboring Miamis were already on the war-path. The
commandants at the small posts of Mackinaw and St. Josephs were also
notified to incite the Lake Indians to harass the Illinois country.
[Footnote: Hamilton to Haldimand, September 17, 1778.]
He led the main body in person, and throughout September every soul in
Detroit was busy from morning till night in mending boats, baking
biscuit, packing provisions in kegs and bags, preparing artillery
stores, and in every way making ready for the expedition. Fifteen large
bateaux and pirogues were procured, each capable of carrying from 1,800
to 3,000 pounds; these were to carry the ammunition, food, clothing,
tents, and especially the presents for the Indians. Cattle and wheels
were sent ahead to the most important portages on the route that would
be traversed; a six-pounder gun was also forwarded. Hamilton had been
deeply exasperated by what he regarded as the treachery of most of the
Illinois and Wabash creoles in joining the Americans; but he was in high
spirits and very confident of success. He wrote to his superior officer
that the British were sure to succeed if they acted promptly, for the
Indians were favorable to them, knowing they alone could give them
supplies; and he added "the Spaniards are feeble and hated by the
French, the French are fickle and have no man of capacity to advise or
lead them, and the Rebels are enterprising and brave, but want
resources." The bulk of the Detroit French, including all their leaders,
remained staunch supporters of the crown, and the militia eagerly
volunteered to go on the expedition. Feasts were held with the Ottawas,
Chippewas, and Pottawatomies, at which oxen were roasted whole, while
Hamilton and the chiefs of the French rangers sang the war-song in
solemn council, and received pledges of armed assistance and support
from the savages. [Footnote: _Do_. Hamilton to Haldimand, September 23,
October 3, 1778.]
He Starts against Vincennes.
On October 7th the expedition left Detroit; before starting the
venerable Jesuit missionary gave the Catholic French who went along his
solemn blessing and approval, conditionally upon their strictly keeping
the oath they had taken to be loyal and obedient servants of the crown.
[Footnote: Haldimand MSS., Series B., Vol. 123, p. 53. Hamilton's letter
of July 6, 1781, containing a "brief account" of the whole expedition,
taken from what he calls a "diary of transactions" that he had
preserved.] It is worthy of note that, while the priest at Kaskaskia
proved so potent an ally of the Americans, the priest at Detroit was one
of the staunchest supporters of the British. Hamilton started with
thirty-six British regulars, under two lieutenants, forty-five Detroit
volunteers (chiefly French), who had been carefully drilled for over a
year, under Captain Lamothe; seventy-nine Detroit militia, under a major
and two captains; and seventeen members of the Indian Department
(including three captains and four lieutenants) who acted with the
Indians. There were thus in all one hundred and seventy-seven whites.
[Footnote: _Do_., Series B., Vol. 122, p. 253, return of forces on Dec.
24th.] Sixty Indians started with the troops from Detroit, but so many
bands joined him on the route that when he reached Vincennes his entire
force amounted to five hundred men. [Footnote: _Do_. Hamilton's letter
of July 6, 1781, the "brief account." Clark's estimate was very close to
the truth; he gave Hamilton six hundred men, four hundred of them
Indians. See State Department MSS., No. 71, Vol. I., p. 247. Papers
Continental Congress. Letter of G. R. Clark to Gov. Henry, April 29,
1779. This letter was written seven months before that to Mason, and
many years before the "Memoir," so I have, where possible, followed it
as being better authority than either.]
Difficulties of the Route.
Having embarked, the troops and Indians paddled down stream to Lake
Erie, reaching it in a snowstorm, and when a lull came they struck
boldly across the lake, making what bateau men still call a "traverse"
of thirty-six miles to the mouth of the Maumee. Darkness overtook them
while still on the lake, and the head boats hung out lights for the
guidance of those astern; but about midnight a gale came up, and the
whole flotilla was nearly swamped, being beached with great difficulty
on an oozy flat close to the mouth of the Maumee. The waters of the
Maumee were low, and the boats were poled slowly up against the current,
reaching the portage point, where there was a large Indian village, on
the 24th of the month. Here a nine miles' carry was made to one of the
sources of the Wabash, called by the voyageurs "la petite rivière." This
stream was so low that the boats could not have gone down it had it not
been for a beaver dam four miles below the landing-place, which backed
up the current. An opening was made in the dam to let the boats pass.
The traders and Indians thoroughly appreciated the help given them at
this difficult part of the course by the engineering skill of the
beavers--for Hamilton was following the regular route of the hunting,
trading, and war parties,--and none of the beavers of this particular
dam were ever molested, being left to keep their dam in order, and
repair it, which they always speedily did whenever it was damaged.
[Footnote: Haldimand's MSS. Hamilton's "brief account."]
It proved as difficult to go down the Wabash as to get up the Maumee.
The water was shallow, and once or twice in great swamps dykes had to be
built that the boats might be floated across. Frost set in heavily, and
the ice cut the men as they worked in the water to haul the boats over
shoals or rocks. The bateaux often needed to be beached and caulked,
while both whites and Indians had to help carry the loads round the
shoal places. At every Indian village it was necessary to stop, hold a
conference, and give presents. At last the Wea village--or Ouiatanon, as
Hamilton called it--was reached. Here the Wabash chiefs, who had made
peace with the Americans, promptly came in and tendered their allegiance
to the British, and a reconnoitering party seized a lieutenant and three
men of the Vincennes militia, who were themselves on a scouting
expedition, but who nevertheless were surprised and captured without
difficulty. [Footnote: _Do._ The French officer had in his pocket one
British and one American commission; Hamilton debated in his mind for
some time the advisability of hanging him.] They had been sent out by
Captain Leonard Helm, then acting as commandant at Vincennes. He had but
a couple of Americans with him, and was forced to trust to the creole
militia, who had all embodied themselves with great eagerness, having
taken the oath of allegiance to Congress. Having heard rumors of the
British advance, he had dispatched a little party to keep watch, and in
consequence of their capture he was taken by surprise.
Hamilton Captures Vincennes.
From Ouiatanon Hamilton dispatched Indian parties to surround Vincennes
and intercept any messages sent either to the Falls or to the Illinois;
they were completely successful, capturing a messenger who carried a
hurried note written by Helm to Clark to announce what had happened. An
advance guard, under Major Hay, was sent forward to take possession, but
Helm showed so good a front that nothing was attempted until the next
day, the 17th of December, just seventy-one days after the expedition
had left Detroit, when Hamilton came up at the head of his whole force
and entered Vincennes. Poor Helm was promptly deserted by all the creole
militia. The latter had been loud in their boasts until the enemy came
in view, but as soon as they caught sight of the red-coats they began to
slip away and run up to the British to surrender their arms. [Footnote:
_Do._ Intercepted letter of Captain Helm, Series B., Vol. 122, p. 280.]
He was finally left with only one or two men, Americans. Nevertheless he
refused the first summons to surrender; but Hamilton, who knew that
Helm's troops had deserted him, marched up to the fort at the head of
his soldiers, and the American was obliged to surrender, with no terms
granted save that he and his associates should be treated with humanity.
[Footnote: Letter of Hamilton, Dec. 18-30, 1778. The story of Helm's
marching out with the honors of war is apparently a mere invention. Even
Mann Butler, usually so careful, permits himself to be led off into all
sorts of errors when describing the incidents of the Illinois and
Vincennes expeditions, and the writers who have followed him have
generally been less accurate. The story of Helm drinking toddy by the
fire-place when Clark retook the fort, and of the latter ordering
riflemen to fire at the chimney, so as to knock the mortar into the
toddy, may safely be set down as pure--and very weak--fiction. When
Clark wrote his memoirs, in his old age, he took delight in writing down
among his exploits all sorts of childish stratagems; the marvel is that
any sane historian should not have seen that these were on their face as
untrue as they were ridiculous.] The instant the fort was surrendered
the Indians broke in and plundered it; but they committed no act of
cruelty, and only plundered a single private house.
Measures to Secure his Conquest.
The French inhabitants had shown pretty clearly that they did not take a
keen interest in the struggle, on either side. They were now summoned to
the church and offered the chance--which they for the most part eagerly
embraced--of purging themselves of their past misconduct by taking a
most humiliating oath of repentance, acknowledging that they had sinned
against God and man by siding with the rebels, and promising to be loyal
in the future. Two hundred and fifty of the militia, being given back
their arms, appeared with their officers, and took service again under
the British king, swearing a solemn oath of allegiance. They certainly
showed throughout the most light-hearted indifference to chronic perjury
and treachery; nor did they in other respects appear to very good
advantage. Clark was not in the least surprised at the news of their
conduct; for he had all along realized that the attachment of the French
would prove but a slender reed on which to lean in the moment of trial.
Hamilton had no fear of the inhabitants themselves, for the fort
completely commanded the town. To keep them in good order he confiscated
all their spirituous liquors, and in a rather amusing burst of Puritan
feeling destroyed two billiard tables, which he announced were "sources
of immorality and dissipation in such a settlement." [Footnote: _Do._]
He had no idea that he was in danger of attack from without, for his
spies brought him word that Clark had only a hundred and ten men in the
Illinois county [Footnote: _Do._ "Fourscore at Kaskaskia and thirty at
Cahokia."]; and the route between was in winter one of extraordinary
difficulty.
He Goes into Winter Quarters.
He had five hundred men and Clark but little over one hundred. He was
not only far nearer his base of supplies and reinforcements at Detroit,
than Clark was to his at Fort Pitt, but he was also actually across
Clark's line of communications. Had he pushed forward at once to attack
the Americans, and had he been able to overcome the difficulties of the
march, he would almost certainly have conquered. But he was daunted by
the immense risk and danger of the movement. The way was long and the
country flooded, and he feared the journey might occupy so much time
that his stock of provisions would be exhausted before he got half-way.
In such a case the party might starve to death or perish from exposure.
Besides he did not know what he should do for carriages; and he dreaded
the rigor of the winter weather. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS.; in his
various letters Hamilton sets forth the difficulties at length.] There
were undoubtedly appalling difficulties in the way of a mid-winter march
and attack; and the fact that Clark attempted and performed the feat
which Hamilton dared not try, marks just the difference between a man of
genius and a good, brave, ordinary commander.
He Plans a Great Campaign in the Spring.
Having decided to suspend active operations during the cold weather, he
allowed the Indians to scatter back to their villages for the winter,
and sent most of the Detroit militia home, retaining in garrison only
thirty-four British regulars, forty French volunteers, and a dozen white
leaders of the Indians [Footnote: _Do._ B. Vol. 122, p. 287. Return of
Vincennes garrison for Jan. 30, 1779.]; in all eighty or ninety whites,
and a probably larger number of red auxiliaries. The latter were
continually kept out on scouting expeditions; Miamis and Shawnees were
sent down to watch the Ohio, and take scalps in the settlements, while
bands of Kickapoos, the most warlike of the Wabash Indians, and of
Ottawas, often accompanied by French partisans, went towards the
Illinois country. [Footnote: Hamilton's "brief account," and his letter
of December 18th.] Hamilton intended to undertake a formidable campaign
in the spring. He had sent messages to Stuart, the British Indian agent
in the south, directing him to give war-belts to the Chickasaws,
Cherokees, and Creeks, that a combined attack on the frontier might take
place as soon as the weather opened. He himself was to be joined by
reinforcements from Detroit, while the Indians were to gather round him
as soon as the winter broke. He would then have had probably over a
thousand men, and light cannon with which to batter down the stockades.
He rightly judged that with this force he could not only reconquer the
Illinois, but also sweep Kentucky, where the outnumbered riflemen could
not have met him in the field, nor the wooden forts have withstood his
artillery. Undoubtedly he would have carried out his plan, and have
destroyed all the settlements west of the Alleghanies, had he been
allowed to wait until the mild weather brought him his hosts of Indian
allies and his reinforcements of regulars and militia from Detroit.
Panic among the Illinois French.
But in Clark he had an antagonist whose far-sighted daring and
indomitable energy raised him head and shoulders above every other
frontier leader. This backwoods colonel was perhaps the one man able in
such a crisis to keep the land his people had gained. When the news of
the loss of Vincennes reached the Illinois towns, and especially when
there followed a rumor that Hamilton himself was on his march thither to
attack them, [Footnote: The rumor came when Clark was attending a dance
given by the people of the little village of La Prairie du Rocher. The
Creoles were passionately fond of dancing and the Kentuckians entered
into the amusement with the utmost zest.] the panic became tremendous
among the French. They frankly announced that though they much preferred
the Americans, yet it would be folly to oppose armed resistance to the
British; and one or two of their number were found to be in
communication with Hamilton and the Detroit authorities. Clark promptly
made ready for resistance, tearing down the buildings near the fort at
Kaskaskia--his head-quarters--and sending out scouts and runners; but he
knew that it was hopeless to try to withstand such a force as Hamilton
could gather. He narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by a party of
Ottawas and Canadians, who had come from Vincennes early in January,
when the weather was severe and the travelling fairly good. [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. Hamilton's letter January 24, 1779.] He was at the time
on his way to Cahokia, to arrange for the defence; several of the
wealthier Frenchmen were with him in "chairs"--presumably creaking
wooden carts,--and one of them "swampt," or mired down, only a hundred
yards from the ambush. Clark and his guards were so on the alert that no
attack was made.
Clark Receives News concerning Vincennes.
In the midst of his doubt and uncertainty he received some news that
enabled him immediately to decide on the proper course to follow. He had
secured great influence over the bolder, and therefore the leading,
spirits among the French. One of these was a certain Francis Vigo, a
trader in St. Louis. He was by birth an Italian, who had come to New
Orleans in a Spanish regiment, and having procured his discharge, had
drifted to the creole villages of the frontier, being fascinated by the
profitable adventures of the Indian trade. Journeying to Vincennes, he
was thrown into prison by Hamilton; on being released, he returned to
St. Louis. Thence he instantly crossed over to Kaskaskia, on January 27,
1779, [Footnote: State Department MSS. Letters to Washington, 33, p.
90.] and told Clark that Hamilton had at the time only eighty men in
garrison, with three pieces of cannon and some swivels mounted, but that
as soon as the winter broke, he intended to gather a very large force
and take the offensive. [Footnote: State Department MSS. Papers of
Continental Congress, No. 71, Vol. I., p. 267.]
Clark Determines to Strike the First Blow.
Clark instantly decided to forestall his foe, and to make the attack
himself, heedless of the almost impassable nature of the ground and of
the icy severity of the weather. Not only had he received no
reinforcements from Virginia but he had not had so much as "a scrip of a
pen" from Governor Henry since he had left him, nearly twelve months
before. [Footnote: _Do._] So he was forced to trust entirely to his own
energy and power. He first equipped a row-galley with two four-pounders
and four swivels, and sent her off with a crew of forty men, having
named her the Willing. [Footnote: Under the command of Clark's cousin,
Lt. John Rogers.] She was to patrol the Ohio, and then to station
herself in the Wabash so as to stop all boats from descending it. She
was the first gun-boat ever afloat on the western waters.
His March against Vincennes.
Then he hastily drew together his little garrisons of backwoodsmen from
the French towns, and prepared for the march overland against Vincennes.
His bold front and confident bearing, and the prompt decision of his
measures, had once more restored confidence among the French, whose
spirits rose as readily as they were cast down; and he was especially
helped by the creole girls, whose enthusiasm for the expedition roused
many of the more daring young men to volunteer under Clark's banner. By
these means he gathered together a band of one hundred and seventy men,
at whose head he marched out of Kaskaskia on the 7th of February.
[Footnote: Letter to Henry. The letter to Mason says it was the 5th.]
All the inhabitants escorted them out of the village, and the Jesuit
priest, Gibault, gave them absolution at parting.
The route by which they had to go was two hundred and forty miles in
length. It lay through a beautiful and well watered country, of groves
and prairies; but at that season the march was necessarily attended with
the utmost degree of hardship and fatigue. The weather had grown mild,
so that there was no suffering from cold; but in the thaw the ice on the
rivers melted, great freshets followed, and all the lowlands and meadows
were flooded. Clark's great object was to keep his troops in good
spirits. Of course he and the other officers shared every hardship and
led in every labor. He encouraged the men to hunt game; and to "feast on
it like Indian war-dancers," [Footnote: Clark's "Memoir."] each company
in turn inviting the others to the smoking and plentiful banquets. One
day they saw great herds of buffaloes and killed many of them. They had
no tents [Footnote: State Department MSS. Letters to Washington, Vol.
33, p. 90. "A Journal of Col. G. R. Clark. Proceedings from the 29th
Jan'y 1779 to the 26th March Inst." [by Captain Bowman]. This journal
has been known for a long time. The original is supposed to have been
lost; but either this is it or else it is a contemporary MS. copy. In
the "Campaign in the Illinois" (Cincinnati, Robert Clarke and Co.,
1869), p. 99, there is a printed copy of the original. The Washington
MS. differs from it in one or two particulars. Thus, the printed diary
in the "Campaign," on p. 99, line 3, says "fifty volunteers"; the MS.
copy says "50 French volunteers." Line 5 in the printed copy says "and
such other Americans"; in the MS. it says "and several other Americans."
Lines 6 and 7 of the printed copy read as follows in the MS. (but only
make doubtful sense): "These with a number of horses designed for the
settlement of Kantuck &c. Jan. 30th, on which Col. Clark," etc. Lines 10
and 11 of the printed copy read in the MS.: "was let alone till spring
that he with his Indians would undoubtedly cut us all off." Lines 13 and
14, of the printed copy read in the MS. "Jan. 31st, sent an express to
Cahokia for volunteers. Nothing extraordinary this day."]; but at
nightfall they kindled huge camp-fires, and spent the evenings merrily
round the piles of blazing logs, in hunter fashion, feasting on bear's
ham and buffalo hump, elk saddle, venison haunch, and the breast of the
wild turkey, some singing of love and the chase and war, and others
dancing after the manner of the French trappers and wood-runners.
Thus they kept on, marching hard but gleefully and in good spirits until
after a week they came to the drowned lauds of the Wabash. They first
struck the two branches of the Little Wabash. Their channels were a
league apart, but the flood was so high that they now made one great
river five miles in width, the overflow of water being three feet deep
in the shallowest part of the plains between and alongside them.
Clark instantly started to build a pirogue; then crossing over the first
channel he put up a scaffold on the edge of the flooded plain. He
ferried his men over, and brought the baggage across and placed it on
the scaffold; then he swam the pack-horses over, loaded them as they
stood belly-deep in the water beside the scaffold, and marched his men
on through the water until they came to the second channel, which was
crossed as the first had been. The building of the pirogue and the
ferrying took three days in all.
They had by this time come so near Vincennes that they dared not fire a
gun for fear of being discovered; besides, the floods had driven the
game all away; so that they soon began to feel hunger, while their
progress was very slow, and they suffered much from the fatigue of
travelling all day long through deep mud or breast-high water. On the
17th they reached the Embarras River, but could not cross, nor could
they find a dry spot on which to camp; at last they found the water
falling off a small, almost submerged hillock, and on this they huddled
through the night. At daybreak they heard Hamilton's morning gun from
the fort, that was but three leagues distant; and as they could not find
a ford across the Embarras, they followed it down and camped by the
Wabash. There Clark set his drenched, hungry, and dispirited followers
to building some pirogues; while two or three unsuccessful attempts were
made to get men across the river that they might steal boats. He
determined to leave his horses at this camp; for it was almost
impossible to get them further. [Footnote: This is not exactly stated in
the "Memoir"; but it speaks of the horses as being with the troops on
the 20th; and after they left camp, on the evening of the 21st, states
that he "would have given a good deal ... for one of the horses."]
Hardship and Suffering.
On the morning of the 20th the men had been without food for nearly two
days. Many of the Creole volunteers began to despair, and talked of
returning. Clark knew that his Americans, veterans who had been with him
for over a year, had no idea of abandoning the enterprise, nor yet of
suffering the last extremities of hunger while they had horses along. He
paid no heed to the request of the Creoles, nor did he even forbid their
going back; he only laughed at them, and told them to go out and try to
kill a deer. He knew that without any violence he could yet easily
detain the volunteers for a few days longer; and he kept up the spirits
of the whole command by his undaunted and confident mien. The canoes
were nearly finished; and about noon a small boat with five Frenchmen
from Vincennes was captured. From these Clark gleaned the welcome
intelligence that the condition of affairs was unchanged at the fort,
and that there was no suspicion of any impending danger. In the evening
the men were put in still better heart by one of the hunters killing a
deer.
It rained all the next day. By dawn Clark began to ferry the troops over
the Wabash in the canoes he had built, and they were soon on the eastern
bank of the river, the side on which Vincennes stood. They now hoped to
get to town by nightfall; but there was no dry land for leagues round
about, save where a few hillocks rose island-like above the flood. The
Frenchmen whom they had captured said they could not possibly get along;
but Clark led the men in person, and they waded with infinite toil for
about three miles, the water often up to their chins; and they then
camped on a hillock for the night. Clark kept the troops cheered up by
every possible means, and records that he was much assisted by "a little
antic drummer," a young boy who did good service by making the men laugh
with his pranks and jokes. [Footnote: Law, in his "Vincennes" (p. 32),
makes the deeds of the drummer the basis for a traditional story that is
somewhat too highly colored. Thus he makes Clark's men at one time
mutiny, and refuse to go forwards. This they never did; the Creoles once
got dejected and wished to return, but the Americans, by Clark's own
statement, never faltered at all. Law's "Vincennes" is an excellent
little book, but he puts altogether too much confidence in mere
tradition. For another instance besides this, see page 68, where he
describes Clark as entrapping and killing "upwards of fifty Indians,"
instead of only eight or nine, as was actually the case.]
Next morning they resumed their march, the strongest wading painfully
through the water, while the weak and famished were carried in the
canoes, which were so hampered by the bushes that they could hardly go
even as fast as the toiling footmen. The evening and morning guns of the
fort were heard plainly by the men as they plodded onward, numbed and
weary. Clark, as usual, led them in person. Once they came to a place so
deep that there seemed no crossing, for the canoes could find no ford.
It was hopeless to go back or stay still, and the men huddled together,
apparently about to despair. But Clark suddenly blackened his face with
gunpowder, gave the war-whoop, and sprang forwards boldly into the
ice-cold water, wading out straight towards the point at which they were
aiming; and the men followed him, one after another, without a word.
Then he ordered those nearest him to begin one of their favorite songs;
and soon the whole line took it up, and marched cheerfully onward. He
intended to have the canoes ferry them over the deepest part, but before
they came to it one of the men felt that his feet were in a path, and by
carefully following it they got to a sugar camp, a hillock covered with
maples, which once had been tapped for sugar. Here they camped for the
night, still six miles from the town, without food, and drenched
through. The prisoners from Vincennes, sullen and weary, insisted that
they could not possibly get to the town through the deep water; the
prospect seemed almost hopeless even to the iron-willed, steel-sinewed
backwoodsmen [Footnote: Bowman ends his entry for the day with: "No
provisions yet. Lord help us!"]; but their leader never lost courage for
a moment.
That night was bitterly cold, for there was a heavy frost, and the ice
formed half an inch thick round the edges and in the smooth water. But
the sun rose bright and glorious, and Clark, in burning words, told his
stiffened, famished, half-frozen followers that the evening would surely
see them at the goal of their hopes. Without waiting for an answer, he
plunged into the water, and they followed him with a cheer, in Indian
file. Before the third man had entered the water he halted and told one
of his officers [Footnote: Bowman] to close the rear with twenty-five
men, and to put to death any man who refused to march; and the whole
line cheered him again.
Then came the most trying time of the whole march. Before them lay a
broad sheet of water, covering what was known as the Horse Shoe Plain;
the floods had made it a shallow lake four miles across, unbroken by so
much as a handsbreadth of dry land. On its farther side was a dense
wood. Clark led breast high in the water with fifteen or twenty of the
strongest men next him. About the middle of the plain the cold and
exhaustion told so on the weaker men that the canoes had to take them
aboard and carry them on to the land; and from that time on the little
dug-outs plied frantically to and fro to save the more helpless from
drowning. Those, who, though weak, could still move onwards, clung to
the stronger, and struggled ahead, Clark animating them in every
possible way. When they at last reached the woods the water became so
deep that it was to the shoulders of the tallest, but the weak and those
of low stature could now cling to the bushes and old logs, until the
canoes were able to ferry them to a spot of dry land, some ten acres in
extent, that lay near-by. The strong and tall got ashore and built
fires. Many on reaching the shore fell flat on their faces, half in the
water, and could not move farther. It was found that the fires did not
help the very weak, so every such a one was put between two strong men
who ran him up and down by the arms, and thus soon made him recover.
[Footnote: Clark's "Memoir."]
Fortunately at this time an Indian canoe, paddled by some squaws, was
discovered and overtaken by one of the dug-outs. In it was half a
quarter of a buffalo, with some corn, tallow and kettles. This was an
invaluable prize. Broth was immediately made, and was served out to the
most weakly with great care; almost all of the men got some, but very
many gave their shares to the weakly, rallying and joking them to put
them in good heart. The little refreshment, together with the fires and
the bright weather, gave new life to all. They set out again in the
afternoon, crossed a deep, narrow lake in their canoes, and after
marching a short distance came to a copse of timber from which they saw
the fort and town not two miles away. Here they halted, and looked to
their rifles and ammunition, making ready for the fight. Every man now
feasted his eyes with the sight of what he had so long labored to reach,
and forthwith forgot that he had suffered any thing; making light of
what had been gone through, and passing from dogged despair to the most
exultant self-confidence.
Between the party and the town lay a plain, the hollows being filled
with little pools, on which were many water-fowl, and some of the
townspeople were in sight, on horseback, shooting ducks. Clark sent out
a few active young creoles, who succeeded in taking prisoner one of
these fowling horsemen. From him it was learned that neither Hamilton
nor any one else had the least suspicion that any attack could possibly
be made at that season, but that a couple of hundred Indian warriors had
just come to town.
Clark was rather annoyed at the last bit of information. The number of
armed men in town, including British, French, and Indians about
quadrupled his own force. This made heavy odds to face, even with the
advantage of a surprise, and in spite of the fact that his own men were
sure to fight to the last, since failure meant death by torture.
Moreover, if he made the attack without warning, some of the Indians and
Vincennes people would certainly be slain, and the rest would be thereby
made his bitter enemies, even if he succeeded. On the other hand, he
found out from the prisoner that the French were very lukewarm to the
British, and would certainly not fight if they could avoid it; and that
half of the Indians were ready to side with the Americans. Finally,
there was a good chance that before dark some one would discover the
approach of the troops and would warn the British, thereby doing away
with all chance of a surprise.
After thinking it over Clark decided, as the less of two evils, to
follow the hazardous course of himself announcing his approach. He
trusted that the boldness of such a course, together with the shock of
his utterly unexpected appearance, would paralyze his opponents and
incline the wavering to favor him. So he released the prisoner and sent
him in ahead, with a letter to the people of Vincennes. By this letter
he proclaimed to the French that he was that moment about to attack the
town; that those townspeople who were friends to the Americans were to
remain in their houses, where they would not be molested; that the
friends of the king should repair to the fort, join the "hair-buyer
general," and fight like men; and that those who did neither of these
two things, but remained armed and in the streets, must expect to be
treated as enemies. [Footnote: Clark's "Memoir."]
Surprise of the Town.
Having sent the messenger in advance, he waited until his men were
rested and their rifles and powder dry, and then at sundown marched
straight against the town. He divided his force into two divisions,
leading in person the first, which consisted of two companies of
Americans and of the Kaskaskia creoles; while the second, led by Bowman,
contained Bowman's own company and the Cahokians. His final orders to
the men were to march with the greatest regularity, to obey the orders
of their officers, and, above all, to keep perfect silence. [Footnote:
In the Haldimand MSS., Series B., Vol. 122, p. 289, there is a long
extract from what is called "Col. Clark's Journal." This is the official
report which he speaks of as being carried by William Moires, his
express, who was taken by the Indians (see his letter to Henry of April
29th; there seems, by the way, to be some doubt whether this letter was
not written to Jefferson; there is a copy in the Jefferson MSS. Series
I., Vol. I.). This is not only the official report, but also the
earliest letter Clark wrote on the subject and therefore the most
authoritative. The paragraph relating to the final march against
Vincennes is as follows:
"I order'd the march in the first division Capt. Williams, Capt.
Worthingtons Company & the Kaskaskia Volunteers, in the 2d commanded by
Capt. Bowman his own Company & the Cohos Volunteers. At sun down I put
the divisions in motion to march in the greatest order & regularity &
observe the orders of their officers. Above all to be silent--the 5 men
we took in the canoes were our guides. We entered the town on the upper
part leaving detached Lt. Bayley & 15 rifle men to attack the Fort &
keep up a fire to harrass them untill we took possession of the town &
they were to remain on that duty till relieved by another party, the two
divisions marched into the town & took possession of the main street,
put guards &c without the least molestation."
This effectually disposes of the account, which was accepted by Clark
himself in his old age, that he ostentatiously paraded his men and
marched them to and fro with many flags flying, so as to impress the
British with his numbers. Instead of indulging in any such childishness
(which would merely have warned the British, and put them on their
guard), he in reality made as silent an approach as possible, under
cover of the darkness.
Hamilton, in his narrative, speaks of the attack as being made on the
22d of February, not the 23d as Clark says.] The rapidly gathering dusk
prevented any discovery of his real numbers.
In sending in the messenger he had builded even better than he knew;
luck which had long been against him now at last favored him. Hamilton's
runners had seen Clark's camp-fires the night before; and a small
scouting party of British regulars, Detroit volunteers, and Indians had
in consequence been sent to find out what had caused them. [Footnote:
Hamilton's "brief account" in the Haldimand MSS. The party was led by
Lt. Schieffelin of the regulars and the French captains Lamothe and
Maisonville.] These men were not made of such stern stuff as Clark's
followers, nor had they such a commander; and after going some miles
they were stopped by the floods, and started to return. Before they got
back, Vincennes was assailed. Hamilton trusted so completely to the
scouting party, and to the seemingly impassable state of the country,
that his watch was very lax. The creoles in the town, when Clark's
proclamation was read to them, gathered eagerly to discuss it; but so
great was the terror of his name, and so impressed and appalled were
they by the mysterious approach of an unknown army, and the confident
and menacing language with which its coming was heralded, that none of
them dared show themselves partisans of the British by giving warning to
the garrison. The Indians likewise heard vague rumors of what had
occurred and left the town; a number of the inhabitants who were
favorable to the British, followed the same course. [Footnote: Haldimand
MSS. Series B., Vol. 122, p. 337. Account brought to the people of
Detroit of the loss of Vincennes, by a Captain Chêne, who was then
living in the village. As the Virginians entered it he fled to the woods
with some Huron and Ottawa warriors; next day he was joined by some
French families and some Miamis and Pottawatomies.] Hamilton, attracted
by the commotion, sent down his soldiers to find out what had occurred;
but before they succeeded, the Americans were upon them.
About seven o'clock [Footnote: Clark's letter to Henry.] Clark entered
the town, and at once pushed his men on to attack the fort. Had he
charged he could probably have taken it at once; for so unprepared were
the garrison that the first rifle shots were deemed by them to come from
drunken Indians. But of course he had not counted on such a state of
things. He had so few men that he dared not run the risk of suffering a
heavy loss. Moreover, the backwoodsmen had neither swords nor bayonets.
Most of the creole townspeople received Clark joyfully, and rendered him
much assistance, especially by supplying him with powder and ball, his
own stock of ammunition being scanty. One of the Indian chiefs
[Footnote: A son of the Piankeshaw head-chief Tabae.]offered to bring
his tribe to the support of the Americans, but Clark answered that all
he asked of the red men was that they should for the moment remain
neutral. A few of the young Creoles were allowed to join in the attack,
however, it being deemed good policy to commit them definitely to the
American side.
The Attack on the Fort.
Fifty of the American troops were detached to guard against any relief
from without, while the rest attacked the fort: yet Hamilton's scouting
party crept up, lay hid all night in an old barn, and at daybreak rushed
into the fort. [Footnote: Hamilton's Narrative. Clark in his "Memoir"
asserts that he designedly let them through, and could have shot them
down as they tried to clamber over the stockade if he had wished. Bowman
corroborates Hamilton, saying: "We sent a party to intercept them, but
missed them. However, we took one of their men, ... the rest making
their escape under the cover of the night into the fort." Bowman's
journal is for this siege much more trustworthy than Clark's "Memoir."
In the latter, Clark makes not a few direct misstatements, and many
details are colored so as to give them an altered aspect. As an instance
of the different ways in which he told an event at the time, and thirty
years later, take the following accounts of the same incident. The first
is from the letter to Henry (State Department MSS.), the second from the
"Memoir." I. "A few days ago I received certain intelligence of Wm.
Moires my express to you being killed near the Falls of Ohio, news truly
disagreeable to me, as I fear many of my letters will fall into the
hands of the enemy at Detroit." 2. "Poor Myres the express, who set out
on the 15th, got killed on his passage, and his packet fell into the
hands of the enemy; but I had been so much on my guard that there was
not a sentence in it that could be of any disadvantage to us for the
enemy to know; and there were private letters from soldiers to their
friends designedly wrote to deceive in cases of such accidents." Firing
was kept up with very little intermission throughout the night.
His whole account of the night attack and of his treating with Hamilton
is bombastic. If his account of the incessant "blaze of fire" of the
Americans is true, they must have wasted any amount of ammunition
perfectly uselessly. Unfortunately, most of the small western historians
who have written about Clark have really damaged his reputation by the
absurd inflation of their language. They were adepts in the
forcible-feeble style of writing, a sample of which is their rendering
him ludicrous by calling him "the Hannibal of the West," and the
"Washington of the West." Moreover, they base his claims to greatness
not on his really great deeds, but on the half-imaginary feats of
childish cunning he related in his old age.] At one o'clock the moon
set, and Clark took advantage of the darkness to throw up an
intrenchment within rifle-shot of the strongest battery, which consisted
of two guns. All of the cannon and swivels in the fort were placed about
eleven feet above the ground, on the upper floors of the strong
block-houses that formed the angles of the palisaded walls. At sunrise
on the 24th the riflemen from the intrenchment opened a hot fire into
the port-holes of the battery, and speedily silenced both guns.
[Footnote: Clark's letter to Henry.] The artillery and musketry of the
defenders did very little damage to the assailants, who lost but one man
wounded, though some of the houses in the town were destroyed by the
cannon-balls. In return, the backwoodsmen, by firing into the ports,
soon rendered it impossible for the guns to be run out and served, and
killed or severely wounded six or eight of the garrison; for the
Americans showed themselves much superior, both in marksmanship and in
the art of sheltering themselves, to the British regulars and French
Canadians against whom they were pitted.
Early in the forenoon Clark summoned the fort to surrender, and while
waiting for the return of the flag his men took the opportunity of
getting breakfast, the first regular meal they had had for six days.
Hamilton declined to surrender, but proposed a three days' truce
instead. This proposition Clark instantly rejected, and the firing again
began, the backwoodsmen beseeching Clark to let them storm the fort; he
refused. While the negotiations were going on a singular incident
occurred. A party of Hamilton's Indians returned from a successful
scalping expedition against the frontier, and being ignorant of what had
taken place, marched straight into the town. Some of Clark's
backwoodsmen instantly fell on them and killed or captured nine, besides
two French partisans who had been out with them. [Footnote: _Do_. In the
letter to Mason he says two scalped, six captured and after-wards
tomahawked. Bowman says two killed, three wounded, six captured; and
calls the two partisans "prisoners." Hamilton and Clark say they were
French allies of the British, the former saying there were two, the
latter mentioning only one. Hamilton says there were fifteen Indians.]
One of the latter was the son of a creole lieutenant in Clark's troops,
and after much pleading his father and friends procured the release of
himself and his comrade. [Footnote: The incident is noteworthy as
showing how the French were divided; throughout the Revolutionary war in
the west they furnished troops to help in turn whites and Indians,
British and Americans. The Illinois French, however, generally remained
faithful to the Republic, and the Detroit French to the crown.] Clark
determined to make a signal example of the six captured Indians, both to
strike terror into the rest and to show them how powerless the British
were to protect them; so he had them led within sight of the fort and
there tomahawked and thrown into the river. [Footnote: Hamilton, who
bore the most vindictive hatred to Clark, implies that the latter
tomahawked the prisoners himself; but Bowman explicitly says that it was
done while Clark and Hamilton were meeting at the church. Be it noticed
in passing, that both Clark and Hamilton agree that though the Vincennes
people favored the Americans, only a very few of them took active part
on Clark's side.] The sight did not encourage the garrison. The English
troops remained firm and eager for the fight, though they had suffered
the chief loss; but the Detroit volunteers showed evident signs of
panic.
Surrender of the Fort.
In the afternoon Hamilton sent out another flag, and he and Clark met in
the old French church to arrange for the capitulation. Helm, who was
still a prisoner on parole, and was told by Clark that he was to remain
such until recaptured, was present; so were the British Major Hay and
the American Captain Bowman. There was some bickering and recrimination
between the leaders, Clark reproaching Hamilton with having his hands
dyed in the blood of the women and children slain by his savage allies;
while the former answered that he was not to blame for obeying the
orders of his superiors, and that he himself had done all he could to
make the savages act mercifully. It was finally agreed that the
garrison, seventy-nine men in all, [Footnote: Letter to Henry.
Hamilton's letter says sixty rank and file of the 8th regiment and
Detroit volunteers; the other nineteen were officers and under-officers,
artillerymen, and French partisan leaders. The return of the garrison
already quoted shows he had between eighty and ninety white troops.]
should surrender as prisoners of war. The British commander has left on
record his bitter _mortification_ at having to yield the fort "to a set
of uncivilized Virginia woodsmen armed with rifles." In truth, it was a
most notable achievement. Clark had taken, without artillery, a heavy
stockade, protected by cannon and swivels, and garrisoned by trained
soldiers. His superiority in numbers was very far from being in itself
sufficient to bring about the result, as witness the almost invariable
success with which the similar but smaller Kentucky forts, unprovided
with artillery and held by fewer men, were defended against much larger
forces than Clark's. Much credit belongs to Clark's men, but most
belongs to their leader. The boldness of his plan and the resolute skill
with which he followed it out, his perseverance through the intense
hardships of the midwinter march, the address with which he kept the
French and Indians neutral, and the masterful way in which he controlled
his own troops, together with the ability and courage he displayed in
the actual attack, combined to make his feat the most memorable of all
the deeds done west of the Alleghanies in the Revolutionary war.
[Footnote: Hamilton himself, at the conclusion of his "brief account,"
speaks as follows in addressing his superiors: "The difficulties and
dangers of Colonel Clark's march from the Illinois were such as required
great courage to encounter and great perseverance to overcome. In
trusting to traitors he was more fortunate than myself; whether, on the
whole, he was entitled to success is not for me to determine." Both
Clark and Hamilton give minute accounts of various interviews that took
place between them; the accounts do not agree, and it is needless to say
that in the narration of each the other appears to disadvantage, being
quoted as practically admitting various acts of barbarity, etc.] It was
likewise the most important in its results, for had he been defeated we
would not only have lost the Illinois, but in all probability Kentucky
also.
Capture of a Convoy from Detroit.
Immediately after taking the fort Clark sent Helm and fifty men, in
boats armed with swivels, up the Wabash to intercept a party of forty
French volunteers from Detroit, who were bringing to Vincennes bateaux
heavily laden with goods of all kinds, to the value of ten thousand
pounds sterling. [Footnote: Letter to Henry.] In a few days Helm
returned successful, and the spoils, together with the goods taken at
Vincennes, were distributed among the soldiers, who "got almost rich."
[Footnote: "Memoir."] The officers kept nothing save a few needed
articles of clothing. The gun-boat _Willing_ appeared shortly after the
taking of the fort, the crew bitterly disappointed that they were not in
time for the fighting. The long-looked-for messenger from the governor
of Virginia also arrived, bearing to the soldiers the warm thanks of the
Legislature of that State for their capture of Kaskaskia and the promise
of more substantial reward. [Footnote: One hundred and fifty thousand
acres of land opposite Louisville were finally allotted them. Some of
the Piankeshaw Indians ceded Clark a tract of land for his own use, but
the Virginia Legislature very properly disallowed the grant.]
Disposal of the Prisoners.
Clark was forced to parole most of his prisoners, but twenty-seven,
including Hamilton himself, were sent to Virginia. The backwoodsmen
regarded Hamilton with revengeful hatred, and he was not well treated
while among them, [Footnote: In Hamilton's "brief account" he says that
their lives were often threatened by the borderers, but that "our guard
behaved very well, protected us, and hunted for us." At the Falls he
found "a number of settlers who lived in log-houses, in eternal
apprehension from the Indians," and he adds: "The people at the forts
are in a wretched state, obliged to enclose the cattle every night
within the fort, and carry their rifles to the field when they go to
plough or cut wood." He speaks of Boon's kindness in his short printed
narrative in the _Royal Gazette_.] save only by Boon--for the
kind-hearted, fearless old pioneer never felt any thing but pity for a
fallen enemy. All the borderers, including Clark, [Footnote: Clark, in
his letter to Mason, alludes to Hamilton's "known barbarity"; but in his
memoir he speaks very well of Hamilton, and attributes the murderous
forays to his subordinates, one of whom, Major Hay, he particularly
specifies.] believed that the British commander himself gave rewards to
the Indians for the American scalps they brought in; and because of his
alleged behavior in this regard he was kept in close confinement by the
Virginia government until, through the intercession of Washington, he
was at last released and exchanged. Exactly how much he was to blame it
is difficult to say. Certainly the blame rests even more with the crown,
and the ruling class in Britain, than with Hamilton, who merely carried
out the orders of his superiors; and though he undoubtedly heartily
approved of these orders, and executed them with eager zest, yet it
seems that he did what he could--which was very little--to prevent
unnecessary atrocities.
The crime consisted in employing the savages at all in a war waged
against men, women, and children alike. Undoubtedly the British at
Detroit followed the example of the French [Footnote: See Parkman's
"Montcalm and Wolfe," II., 421, for examples of French payments, some of
a peculiarly flagrant sort. A certain kind of American pseudo-historian
is especially fond of painting the British as behaving to us with
unexampled barbarity; yet nothing is more sure than that the French were
far mote cruel and less humane in their contests with us than were the
British.] in paying money to the Indians for the scalps of their foes.
It is equally beyond question that the British acted with much more
humanity than their French predecessors had shown. Apparently the best
officers utterly disapproved of the whole business of scalp buying; but
it was eagerly followed by many of the reckless agents and partisan
leaders, British, tories, and Canadians, who themselves often
accompanied the Indians against the frontier and witnessed or shared in
their unmentionable atrocities. It is impossible to acquit either the
British home government or its foremost representatives at Detroit of a
large share in the responsibility for the appalling brutality of these
men and their red allies; but the heaviest blame rests on the home
government.
The Country Pacified.
Clark soon received some small reinforcements, and was able to establish
permanent garrisons at Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and Cahokia. With the
Indian tribes who lived round about he made firm peace; against some
hunting bands of Delawares who came in and began to commit ravages, he
waged ruthless and untiring war, sparing the women and children, but
killing all the males capable of bearing arms, and he harried most of
them out of the territory, while the rest humbly sued for peace. His own
men worshipped him; the French loved and stood in awe of him while the
Indians respected and feared him greatly. During the remainder of the
Revolutionary war the British were not able to make any serious effort
to shake the hold he had given the Americans on the region lying around
and between Vincennes and the Illinois. Moreover he so effectually
pacified the tribes between the Wabash and the Mississippi that they did
not become open and formidable foes of the whites until, with the close
of the war against Britain, Kentucky passed out of the stage when Indian
hostilities threatened her very life.
The fame of Clark's deeds and the terror of his prowess spread to the
southern Indians, and the British at Natchez trembled lest they should
share the fate that had come on Kaskaskia and Vincennes. [Footnote:
State Department MSS. [Intercepted Letters], No. 51, Vol. II., pp. 17
and 45. Letter of James Colbert, a half-breed in the British interest,
resident at that time among the Chickasaws, May 25, 1779, etc.]
Flat-boats from the Illinois went down to New Orleans, and keel-boats
returned from that city with arms and munitions, or were sent up to
Pittsburg [Footnote: The history of the early navigation of the Ohio and
Mississippi begins many years before the birth of any of our western
pioneers, when the French went up and down them. Long before the
Revolutionary war occasional hunters, in dug-outs, or settlers going to
Natchez in flat-boats, descended these rivers, and from Pittsburg craft
were sent to New Orleans to open negotiations with the Spaniards as soon
as hostilities broke out; and ammunition was procured from New Orleans
as soon as Independence was declared.]; and the following spring Clark
built a fort on the east bank of the Mississippi below the Ohio.
[Footnote: In lat. 36° 30'; it was named Fort Jefferson. Jefferson MSS.,
1st Series, Vol. 19. Clark's letter.] It was in the Chickasaw territory,
and these warlike Indians soon assaulted it, making a determined effort
to take it by storm, and though they were repulsed with very heavy
slaughter, yet, to purchase their neutrality, the Americans were glad to
abandon the fort.
Clark Moves to the Falls of Ohio.
Clark himself, towards the end of 1779, took up his abode at the Falls
of the Ohio, where he served in some sort as a shield both for the
Illinois and for Kentucky, and from whence he hoped some day to march
against Detroit. This was his darling scheme, which he never ceased to
cherish. Through no fault of his own, the day never came when he could
put it in execution.
He was ultimately made a brigadier-general of the Virginian militia, and
to the harassed settlers in Kentucky his mere name was a tower of
strength. He was the sole originator of the plan for the conquest of the
northwestern lands, and, almost unaided, he had executed his own scheme.
For a year he had been wholly cut off from all communication with the
home authorities, and had received no help of any kind. Alone, and with
the very slenderest means, he had conquered and held a vast and
beautiful region, which but for him would have formed part of a foreign
and hostile empire [Footnote: It is of course impossible to prove that
but for Clark's conquest the Ohio would have been made our boundary in
1783, exactly as it is impossible to prove that but for Wolfe the
English would not have taken Quebec. But when we take into account the
determined efforts of Spain and France to confine us to the land east of
the Alleghanies, and then to the land southeast of the Ohio, the
slavishness of Congress in instructing our commissioners to do whatever
France wished, and the readiness shown by one of the commissioners,
Franklin, to follow these instructions, it certainly looks as if there
would not even have been an effort made by us to get the northwestern
territory had we not already possessed it, thanks to Clark. As it was,
it was only owing to Jay's broad patriotism and stern determination that
our western boundaries were finally made so far-reaching. None of our
early diplomats did as much for the west as Jay, whom at one time the
whole west hated and reviled; Mann Butler, whose politics are generally
very sound, deserves especial credit for the justice he does the New
Yorker.
It is idle to talk of the conquest as being purely a Virginian affair.
It was conquered by Clark, a Virginian, with some scant help from
Virginia, but it was retained only owing to the power of the United
States and the patriotism of such northern statesmen as Jay, Adams, and
Franklin, the negotiators of the final treaty. Had Virginia alone been
in interest, Great Britain would not have even paid her claims the
compliment of listening to them. Virginia's share in the history of the
nation has ever been gallant and leading; but the Revolutionary war was
emphatically fought by Americans for America; no part could have won
without the help of the whole, and every victory was thus a victory for
all, in which all alike can take pride.]; he had clothed and paid his
soldiers with the spoils of his enemies; he had spent his own fortune as
carelessly as he had risked his life, and the only reward that he was
destined for many years to receive was the sword voted him by the
Legislature of Virginia. [Footnote: A probably truthful tradition
reports that when the Virginian commissioners offered Clark the sword,
the grim old fighter, smarting under the sense of his wrongs, threw it
indignantly from him, telling the envoys that he demanded from Virginia
his just rights and the promised reward of his services, not an empty
compliment.]
CHAPTER IV.
CONTINUANCE OF THE STRUGGLE IN KENTUCKY AND THE NORTHWEST, 1779-1781.
Clark's Conquests Benefit Kentucky.
Clark's successful campaigns against the Illinois towns and Vincennes,
besides giving the Americans a foothold north of the Ohio, were of the
utmost importance to Kentucky. Until this time, the Kentucky settlers
had been literally fighting for life and home, and again and again their
strait had been so bad, that it seemed--and was--almost an even chance
whether they would be driven from the land. The successful outcome of
Clark's expedition temporarily overawed the Indians, and, moreover, made
the French towns outposts for the protection of the settlers; so that
for several years thereafter the tribes west of the Wabash did but
little against the Americans. The confidence of the backwoodsmen in
their own ultimate triumph was likewise very much increased; while the
fame of the western region was greatly spread abroad. From all these
causes it resulted that there was an immediate and great increase of
immigration thither, the bulk of the immigrants of course stopping in
Kentucky, though a very few, even thus early, went to Illinois. Every
settlement in Kentucky was still in jeopardy, and there came moments of
dejection, when some of her bravest leaders spoke gloomily of the
possibility of the Americans being driven from the land. But these were
merely words such as even strong men utter when sore from fresh
disaster. After the spring of 1779, there was never any real danger that
the whites would be forced to abandon Kentucky.
The Land Laws.
The land laws which the Virginia Legislature enacted about this time
[Footnote: May, 1779; they did not take effect nor was a land court
established until the following fall, when the land office was opened at
St. Asaphs, Oct. 13th. Isaac Shelby's claim was the first one considered
and granted. He had raised a crop of corn in the country in 1776.] were
partly a cause, partly a consequence, of the increased emigration to
Kentucky, and of the consequent rise in the value of its wild lands.
Long before the Revolution, shrewd and far-seeing speculators had
organized land companies to acquire grants of vast stretches of western
territory; but the land only acquired an actual value for private
individuals after the incoming of settlers. In addition to the
companies, many private individuals had acquired rights to tracts of
land; some, under the royal proclamation, giving bounties to the
officers and soldiers in the French war; others by actual payment into
the public treasury. [Footnote: The Ohio Company was the greatest of the
companies. There were "also, among private rights, the ancient
importation rights, the Henderson Company rights, etc." See Marshall,
I., 82.] The Virginia Legislature now ratified all titles to regularly
surveyed ground claimed under charter, military bounty, and old treasury
rights, to the extent of four hundred acres each. Tracts of land were
reserved as bounties for the Virginia troops, both Continentals and
militia. Each family of actual settlers was allowed a settlement right
to four hundred acres for the small sum of nine dollars, and, if very
poor, the land was given them on credit. Every such settler also
acquired a preemptive right to purchase a thousand acres adjoining, at
the regulation State price, which was forty pounds, paper money, or
forty dollars in specie, for every hundred acres. One peculiar provision
was made necessary by the system of settling in forted villages. Every
such village was allowed six hundred and forty acres, which no outsider
could have surveyed or claim, for it was considered, the property of the
townsmen, to be held in common until an equitable division could be
made; while each family likewise had a settlement right to four hundred
acres adjoining the village. The vacant lands were sold, warrants for a
hundred acres costing forty dollars in specie; but later on, towards the
close of the war, Virginia tried to buoy up her mass of depreciated
paper currency by accepting it nearly at par for land warrants, thereby
reducing the cost of these to less than fifty cents for a hundred acres.
No warrant applied to a particular spot; it was surveyed on any vacant
or presumably vacant ground. Each individual had the surveying done
wherever he pleased, the county surveyor usually appointing some skilled
woodsman to act as his deputy.
In the end the natural result of all this was to involve half the people
of Kentucky in lawsuits over their land, as there were often two or
three titles to each patch, [Footnote: McAfee MSS.] and the surveys
crossed each other in hopeless tangles. Immediately, the system gave a
great stimulus to immigration, for it made it easy for any incoming
settler to get title to his farm, and it also strongly attracted all
land speculators. Many well-to-do merchants or planters of the seaboard
sent agents out to buy lands in Kentucky; and these agents either hired
the old pioneers, such as Boon and Kenton, to locate and survey the
lands, or else purchased their claims from them outright. The advantages
of following the latter plan were of course obvious; for the pioneers
were sure to have chosen fertile, well-watered spots; and though they
asked more than the State, yet, ready money was so scarce, and the
depreciation of the currency so great, that even thus the land only cost
a few cents an acre. [Footnote: From the Clay MSS. "Virginia, Frederick
Co. to wit: This day came William Smith of [illegible] before me John A.
Woodcock, a Justice of the peace of same county, who being of full age
deposeth and saith that about the first of June 1780, being in Kentuckey
and empowered to purchase Land, for Mr. James Ware, he the deponent
agreed with a certain Simon Kenton of Kentucky for 1000 Acres of Land
about 2 or 3 miles from the big salt spring on Licking, that the sd.
Kenton on condition that the sd. Smith would pay him £100 in hand and
£100 more when sd. Land was surveyed,... sd. Kenton on his part wou'd
have the land surveyed, and a fee Simple made there to.... sd. Land was
first rate Land and had a good Spring thereon.... he agreed to warrant
and defend the same ... against all persons whatsoever.... sworn too
before me this 17th day of Nov. 1789." Later on, the purchaser, who did
not take possession of the land for eight or nine years, feared it would
not prove as fertile as Kenton had said, and threatened to sue Kenton;
but Kenton evidently had the whip-hand in the controversy, for the land
being out in the wilderness, the purchaser did not know its exact
location, and when he threatened suit, and asked to be shown it, Kenton
"swore that he would not shoe it at all." Letter of James Ware, Nov. 29,
1789.]
Inrush of Settlers.
Thus it came about that with the fall of 1779 a strong stream of
emigration set towards Kentucky, from the backwoods districts of
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. In company with the real
settlers came many land speculators, and also many families of weak,
irresolute, or shiftless people, who soon tired of the ceaseless and
grinding frontier strife for life, and drifted back to the place whence
they had come. [Footnote: Thus the increase of population is to be
measured by the net gain of immigration over emigration, not by
immigration alone. It is probably partly neglect of this fact, and
partly simple exaggeration, that make the early statements of the
additions to the Kentucky population so very untrustworthy. In 1783, at
the end of the Revolution, the population of Kentucky was probably
nearer 12,000 than 20,000, and it had grown steadily each year. Yet
Butler quotes Floyd as saying that in the spring of 1780 three hundred
large family boats arrived at the Falls, which would mean an increase of
perhaps four or five thousand people; and in the McAfee MSS. occurs the
statement that in 1779 and 1780 nearly 20,000 people came to Kentucky.
Both of these statements are probably mere estimates, greatly
exaggerated; any westerner of to-day can instance similar reports of
movements to western localities, which under a strict census dwindled
wofully.] Thus there were ever two tides--the larger setting towards
Kentucky, the lesser towards the old States; so that the two streams
passed each other on the Wilderness road--for the people who came down
the Ohio could not return against the current. Very many who did not
return nevertheless found they were not fitted to grapple with the stern
trials of existence on the border. Some of these succumbed outright;
others unfortunately survived, and clung with feeble and vicious
helplessness to the skirts of their manlier fellows; and from them have
descended the shiftless squatters, the "mean whites," the listless,
uncouth men who half-till their patches of poor soil, and still cumber
the earth in out-of-the-way nooks from the crannies of the Alleghanies
to the canyons of the southern Rocky Mountains.
In April, before this great rush of immigration began, but when it was
clearly foreseen that it would immediately take place, the county court
of Kentucky issued a proclamation to the new settlers, recommending them
to keep as united and compact as possible, settling in "stations" or
forted towns; and likewise advising each settlement to choose three or
more trustees to take charge of their public affairs. [Footnote: Durrett
MSS., in the bound volume of "Papers relating to Louisville and
Kentucky." On May 1, 1780, the people living at the Falls, having
established a town, forty-six of them signed a petition to have their
title made good against Conolly. On Feb. 7, 1781, John Todd and five
other trustees of Louisville met; they passed resolutions to erect a
grist mill and make surveys.] Their recommendations and advice were
generally followed.
Bowman Attacks Chillicothe.
During 1779 the Indian war dragged on much as usual. The only expedition
of importance was that undertaken in May by one hundred and sixty
Kentuckians, commanded by the county lieutenant, John Bowman, against
the Indian town of Chillicothe. [Footnote: MS. "Notes on Kentucky," by
George Bradford, who went there in 1779; in the Durrett collection.
Haldimand MSS., Letter of Henry Bird, June 9, 1779. As this letter is
very important, and gives for the first time the Indian side, I print it
in the Appendix almost in full. The accounts of course conflict
somewhat; chiefly as to the number of cabins burnt--from five to forty,
and of horses captured--from thirty to three hundred. They agree in all
essential points. But as among the whites themselves there is one
serious question. Logan's admirers, and most Kentucky historians, hold
Bowman responsible for the defeat; but in reality (see Butler, p. 110)
there seems strong reason to believe that it was simply due to the
unexpectedly strong resistance of the Indians. Bird's letter shows, what
the Kentuckians never suspected, that the attack was a great benefit to
them in frightening the Indians and stopping a serious inroad. It
undoubtedly accomplished more than Clark's attack on Piqua next year,
for instance.] Logan, Harrod, and other famous frontier fighters went
along. The town was surprised, several cabins burned, and a number of
horses captured. But the Indians rallied, and took refuge in a central
block-house and a number of strongly built cabins surrounding it, from
which they fairly beat off the whites. They then followed to harass the
rear of their retreating foes, but were beaten off in turn. Of the
whites, nine were killed and two or three wounded; the Indians' loss was
two killed and five or six wounded.
The defeat caused intense mortification to the whites; but in reality
the expedition was of great service to Kentucky, though the Kentuckians
never knew it. The Detroit people had been busily organizing expeditions
against Kentucky. Captain Henry Bird had been given charge of one, and
he had just collected two hundred Indians at the Mingo town when news of
the attack on Chillicothe arrived. Instantly the Indians dissolved in a
panic, some returning to defend their towns; others were inclined to beg
peace of the Americans. So great was their terror that it was found
impossible to persuade them to make any inroad as long as they deemed
themselves menaced by a counter attack of the Kentuckians. [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. De Peyster to Haldimand, Nov. 20, 1779.]
Occasional Indian Forays.
It is true that bands of Mingos, Hurons, Delawares, and Shawnees made
occasional successful raids against the frontier, and brought their
scalps and prisoners in triumph to Detroit, [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. De
Peyster to Haldimand, Oct. 20, 1779.] where they drank such astonishing
quantities of rum as to incite the indignation of the British
commander-in-chief. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Haldimand's letter, July
23, 1779.] But instead of being able to undertake any formidable
expedition against the settlers, the Detroit authorities were during
this year much concerned for their own safety, taking every possible
means to provide for the defence, and keeping a sharp look-out for any
hostile movement of the Americans. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS., April 8,
1779.]
The incoming settlers were therefore left in comparative peace. They
built many small palisaded towns, some of which proved permanent, while
others vanished utterly when the fear of the Indians was removed and the
families were able to scatter out on their farms. At the Falls of the
Ohio a regular fort was built, armed with cannon and garrisoned by
Virginia troops, [Footnote: One hundred and fifty strong, under Col.
George Slaughter.] who were sent down the river expressly to reinforce
Clark. The Indians never dared assail this fort; but they ravaged up to
its walls, destroying the small stations on Bear Grass Creek and
scalping settlers and soldiers when they wandered far from the
protection of the stockade.
The Hard Winter.
The new-comers of 1779 were destined to begin with a grim experience,
for the ensuing winter [Footnote: Boon, in his Narrative, makes a
mistake in putting this hard winter a year later; all the other
authorities are unanimous against him.] was the most severe ever known
in the west, and was long recalled by the pioneers as the "hard winter."
Cold weather set in towards the end of November, the storms following
one another in unbroken succession, while the snow lay deep until the
spring. Most of the cattle, and very many of the horses, perished; and
deer and elk were likewise found dead in the woods, or so weak and
starved that they would hardly move out of the way, while the buffalo
often came up at nightfall to the yards, seeking to associate with the
starving herds of the settlers. [Footnote: McAfee MSS. Of the McAfees'
horses ten died, and only two survived, a brown mare and "a yellow horse
called Chickasaw." Exactly a hundred years later, in the hard winter of
1879-80, and the still worse winter of 1880-81, the settlers on the
Yellowstone and the few hunters who wintered on the Little Missouri had
a similar experience. The buffalo crowded with the few tame cattle round
the hayricks and log-stables; the starving deer and antelope gathered in
immense bands in sheltered places. Riding from my ranch to a neighbor's
I have, in deep snows, passed through herds of antelope that would
barely move fifty or a hundred feet out of my way.] The scanty supply of
corn gave out, until there was not enough left to bake into johnny-cakes
on the long boards in front of the fire. [Footnote: _Do._] Even at the
Falls, where there were stores for the troops, the price of corn went up
nearly fourfold, [Footnote: From fifty dollars (Continental money) a
bushel in the fall to one hundred and seventy-five in the spring.] while
elsewhere among the stations of the interior it could not be had at any
price, and there was an absolute dearth both of salt and of vegetable
food, the settlers living for weeks on the flesh of the lean wild game,
[Footnote: McAfee MSS.] especially of the buffalo. [Footnote: Boon's
Narrative.] The hunters searched with especial eagerness for the bears
in the hollow trees, for they alone among the animals kept fat; and the
breast of the wild turkey served for bread. [Footnote: McAfee MSS.]
Nevertheless, even in the midst of this season of cold and famine, the
settlers began to take the first steps for the education of their
children. In this year Joseph Doniphan, whose son long afterwards won
fame in the Mexican war, opened the first regular school at
Boonsborough, [Footnote: _Historical Magazine_, Second Series, Vol.
VIII.] and one of the McAfees likewise served as a teacher through the
winter. [Footnote: McAfee MSS.] But from the beginning some of the
settlers' wives had now and then given the children in the forts a few
weeks' schooling.
Through the long, irksome winter, the frontiersmen remained crowded
within the stockades. The men hunted, while the women made the clothes,
of tanned deer-hides, buffalo-wool cloth, and nettle-bark linen. In
stormy weather, when none could stir abroad, they turned or coopered the
wooden vessels; for tin cups were as rare as iron forks, and the
"noggin" was either hollowed out of the knot of a tree, or else made
with small staves and hoops. [Footnote: McAfee MSS.] Every thing was of
home manufacture--for there was not a store in Kentucky,--and the most
expensive domestic products seem to have been the hats, made of native
fur, mink, coon, fox, wolf, and beaver. If exceptionally fine, and of
valuable fur, they cost five hundred dollars in paper money, which had
not at that time depreciated a quarter as much in outlying Kentucky as
at the seat of government. [Footnote: Marshall, p. 124.]
As soon as the great snow-drifts began to melt, and thereby to produce
freshets of unexampled height, the gaunt settlers struggled out to their
clearings, glad to leave the forts. They planted corn, and eagerly
watched the growth of the crop; and those who hungered after oatmeal or
wheaten bread planted other grains as well, and apple-seeds and
peach-stones. [Footnote: McAfee MSS.]
Many New Settlers Arrive in the Spring.
As soon as the spring of 1780 opened, the immigrants began to arrive
more numerously than ever. Some came over the Wilderness road; among
these there were not a few haggard, half-famished beings, who, having
stalled too late the previous fall, had been overtaken by the deep
snows, and forced to pass the winter in the iron-bound and desolate
valleys of the Alleghanies, subsisting on the carcasses of their
stricken cattle, and seeing their weaker friends starve or freeze before
their eyes. Very many came down the Ohio, in flat-boats. A good-sized
specimen of these huge unwieldly scows was fifty-five feet long, twelve
broad, and six deep, drawing three feet of water; [Footnote: Lettres
d'un Cultivateur Americain, St. John de Creve Coeur, Paris, 1787. p.
407. He visited Kentucky in 1784.] but the demand was greater than the
supply, and a couple of dozen people, with half as many horses, and all
their effects, might be forced to embark on a flat-boat not twenty-four
feet in length. [Footnote: MS. Journals of Rev. James Smith. Tours in
western country in 1785-1795 (in Col. Durrett's library).] Usually
several families came together, being bound by some tie of neighborhood
or purpose. Not infrequently this tie was religious, for in the back
settlements the few churches were almost as much social as religious
centres. Thus this spring, a third of the congregation of a Low Dutch
Reformed Church came to Kentucky bodily, to the number of fifty heads of
families, with their wives and children, their beasts of burden and
pasture, and their household goods; like most bands of new immigrants,
they suffered greatly from the Indians, much more than did the old
settlers. [Footnote: State Department MSS. No. 41, Vol. V., Memorials K,
L, 1777-1787, pp. 95-97, Petition of Low Dutch Reformed Church, etc.]
The following year a Baptist congregation came out from Virginia,
keeping up its organization even while on the road, the preacher holding
services at every long halt.
De Peyster at Detroit.
Soon after the rush of spring immigration was at its height, the old
settlers and the new-comers alike were thrown into the utmost alarm by a
formidable inroad of Indians, accompanied by French partisans, and led
by a British officer. De Peyster, a New York tory of old Knickerbocker
family, had taken command at Detroit. He gathered the Indians around him
from far and near, until the expense of subsidizing these savages became
so enormous as to call forth serious complaints from head-quarters.
[Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Haldimand to Guy Johnson, June 30, 1780.] He
constantly endeavored to equip and send out different bands, not only to
retake the Illinois and Vincennes, but to dislodge Clark from the Falls
[Footnote: _Do._ Haldimand to De Peyster, Feb. 12 and July 6, 1780.]; he
was continually receiving scalps and prisoners, and by May he had fitted
out two thousand warriors to act along the Ohio and the Wabash.
[Footnote: _Do._ De Peyster to Haldimand, June 1, 1780.] The rapid
growth of Kentucky especially excited his apprehension, [Footnote: _Do._
March 8, 1780.] and his main stroke was directed against the clusters of
wooden forts that were springing up south of the Ohio. [Footnote: _Do._
May 17 to July 19, 1780.]
Bird's Inroad.
Late in May, some six hundred Indians and a few Canadians, with a couple
of pieces of light field artillery, were gathered and put under the
command of Captain Henry Bird. Following the rivers where practicable,
that he might the easier carry his guns, he went down the Miami, and on
the 22d of June, surprised and captured without resistance Ruddle's and
Martin's stations, two small stockades on the South Fork of the Licking.
[Footnote: He marched overland from the forks of the Licking. Marshall
says the season was dry and the waters low; but the Bradford MSS.
particularly declare that Bird only went up the Licking at all because
the watercourses were so full, and that he had originally intended to
attack the settlements at the Falls.] But Bird was not one of the few
men fitted to command such a force as that which followed him; and
contenting himself with the slight success he had won, he rapidly
retreated to Detroit, over the same path by which he had advanced. The
Indians carried off many horses, and loaded their prisoners with the
plunder, tomahawking those, chiefly women and children, who could not
keep up with the rest; and Bird could not control them nor force them to
show mercy to their captives. [Footnote: Collins, Butler, etc. Marshall
thinks that if the force could have been held together it would have
depopulated Kentucky; but this is nonsense, for within a week Clark had
gathered a very much larger and more efficient body of troops.] He did
not even get his cannon back to Detroit, leaving them at the British
store in one of the upper Miami towns, in charge of a bombardier. The
bombardier did not prove a very valorous personage, and on the alarm of
Clark's advance, soon afterwards, he permitted the Indians to steal his
horses, and was forced to bury his ordnance in the woods. [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. Letter of Bombardier Wm. Homan, Aug. 18, 1780. He speaks
of "the gun" and "the smaller ordnance," presumably swivels. It is
impossible to give Bird's numbers correctly, for various bands of
Indians kept joining and leaving him.]
Clark Hears the News
Before this inroad took place Clark had been planning a foray into the
Indian country, and the news only made him hasten his preparations. In
May this adventurous leader had performed one of the feats which made
him the darling of the backwoodsmen. Painted and dressed like an Indian
so as to deceive the lurking bands of savages, he and two companions
left the fort he had built on the bank of the Mississippi, and came
through the wilderness to Harrodsburg. They lived on the buffaloes they
shot, and when they came to the Tennessee River, which was then in
flood, they crossed the swift torrent on a raft of logs bound together
with grapevines. At Harrodsburg they found the land court open, and
thronged with an eager, jostling crowd of settlers and speculators, who
were waiting to enter lands in the surveyor's office. Even the dread of
the Indians could not overcome in these men's hearts the keen and
selfish greed for gain. Clark instantly grasped the situation. Seeing
that while the court remained open he could get no volunteers, he on his
own responsibility closed it off-hand, and proclaimed that it would not
be opened until after he came back from his expedition. The speculators
grumbled and clamored, but this troubled Clark not at all, for he was
able to get as many volunteers as he wished. The discontent, and still
more the panic over Bird's inroad, made many of the settlers determine
to flee from the country, but Clark sent a small force to Crab Orchard,
at the mouth of the Wilderness road, the only outlet from Kentucky, with
instructions to stop all men from leaving the country, and to take away
their arms if they persisted; while four fifths of all the grown men
were drafted, and were bidden to gather instantly for a campaign.
[Footnote: Bradford MSS.]
His Campaign against Piqua.
He appointed the mouth of the Licking as the place of meeting. Thither
he brought the troops from the Falls in light skiffs he had built for
the purpose, leaving behind scarce a handful of men to garrison the
stockade. Logan went with him as second in command. He carried with him
a light three-pounder gun; and those of the men who had horses marched
along the bank beside the flotilla. The only mishap that befell the
troops happened to McGarry, who had a subordinate command. He showed his
usual foolhardy obstinacy by persisting in landing with a small squad of
men on the north bank of the river, where he was in consequence
surprised and roughly handled by a few Indians. Nothing was done to him
because of his disobedience, for the chief of such a backwoods levy was
the leader, rather than the commander, of his men.
At the mouth of the Licking Clark met the riflemen from the interior
stations, among them being Kenton, Harrod, and Floyd, and others of
equal note. They had turned out almost to a man, leaving the women and
boys to guard the wooden forts until they came back, and had come to the
appointed place, some on foot or on horseback, others floating and
paddling down the Licking in canoes. They left scanty provisions with
their families, who had to subsist during their absence on what game the
boys shot, on nettle tops, and a few early vegetables; and they took
with them still less. Dividing up their stock, each man had a couple of
pounds of meal and some jerked venison or buffalo meat. [Footnote:
McAfee MSS.; the Bradford MS. says six quarts of parched corn.]
All his troops having gathered, to the number of nine hundred and
seventy, Clark started up the Ohio on the second of August. [Footnote:
This date and number are those given in the Bradford MS. The McAfee MSS.
say July 1st; but it is impossible that the expedition should have
started so soon after Bird's inroad. On July 1st, Bird himself was
probably at the mouth of the Licking.] The skiffs, laden with men, were
poled against the current, while bodies of footmen and horsemen marched
along the bank. After going a short distance up stream the horses and
men were ferried to the farther bank, the boats were drawn up on the
shore and left, with a guard of forty men, and the rest of the troops
started overland against the town of Old Chillicothe, fifty or sixty
miles distant. The three-pounder was carried along on a pack-horse. The
march was hard, for it rained so incessantly that it was difficult to
keep the rifles dry. Every night they encamped in a hollow square, with
the baggage and horses in the middle.
Chillicothe, when reached, was found to be deserted. It was burned, and
the army pushed on to Piqua, a town a few miles distant, on the banks of
the Little Miami, [Footnote: The Indians so frequently shifted their
abode that it is hardly possible to identify the exact location of the
successive towns called Piqua or Pickaway.] reaching it about ten in the
morning of the 8th of August. [Footnote: "Papers relating to G. R.
Clark." In the Durrett MSS. at Louisville. The account of the death of
Joseph Rogers. This settles, by the way, that the march was made in
August, and not in July.] Piqua was substantially built, and was laid
out in the manner of the French villages. The stoutly built log-houses
stood far apart, surrounded by strips of corn-land, and fronting the
stream; while a strong block-house with loop-holed walls stood in the
middle. Thick woods, broken by small prairies, covered the rolling
country that lay around the town.
The Fight at Piqua.
Clark divided his army into four divisions, taking the command of two in
person. Giving the others to Logan, he ordered him to cross the river
above the town [Footnote: There is some conflict as to whether Logan
went up or down stream.] and take it in the rear, while he himself
crossed directly below it and assailed it in front. Logan did his best
to obey the orders, but he could not find a ford, and he marched by
degrees nearly three miles up stream, making repeated and vain attempts
to cross; when he finally succeeded the day was almost done, and the
fighting was over.
Meanwhile Clark plunged into the river, and crossed at the head of one
of his own two divisions; the other was delayed for a short time. Both
Simon Girty and his brother were in the town, together with several
hundred Indian warriors; exactly how many cannot be said, but they were
certainly fewer in number than the troops composing either wing of
Clark's army. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. McKee to De Peyster, Aug. 22,
1780. He was told of the battle by the Indians a couple of days after it
took place. He gives the force of the whites correctly as nine hundred
and seventy, forty of whom had been left to guard the boats. He says the
Indians were surprised, and that most of the warriors fled, so that all
the fighting was done by about seventy, with the two Girtys. This was
doubtless not the case; the beaten party in all these encounters was
fond of relating the valorous deeds of some of its members, who
invariably state that they would have conquered, had they not been
deserted by their associates. McKee reported that the Indians could find
no trace of the gun-wheels--the gun was carried on a pack-horse,--and so
he thought that the Kentuckians were forced to leave it behind on their
retreat. He put the killed of the Kentuckians at the modest number of
forty-eight; and reported the belief of Girty and the Indians that
"three hundred [of them] would have given [Clark's men] a total rout." A
very common feat of the small frontier historian was to put high praise
of his own side in the mouth of a foe. Withers, in his "Chronicles of
Border Warfare," in speaking of this very action, makes Girty withdraw
his three hundred warriors on account of the valor of Clark's men,
remarking that it was "useless to fight with fools or madmen." This
offers a comical contrast to Girty's real opinion, as shown in McKee's
letter.] They were surprised by Clark's swift advance just as a scouting
party of warriors, who had been sent out to watch the whites, were
returning to the village. The warning was so short that the squaws and
children had barely time to retreat out of the way. As Clark crossed the
stream, the warriors left their cabins and formed in some thick timber
behind them. At the same moment a cousin of Clark's, who had been
captured by the Indians, and was held prisoner in the town, made his
escape and ran towards the Americans, throwing up his hands, and calling
out that he was a white man. He was shot, whether by the Americans or
the Indians none could say. Clark came up and spoke a few words with him
before he died. [Footnote: Durrett MSS. Volume: "Papers referring to G.
R. Clark." The cousin's name was Joseph Rogers, a brother of the
commander of the galley.] A long-range skirmish ensued with the warriors
in the timber; but on the approach of Clark's second division the
Indians fell back. The two divisions followed in pursuit, becoming
mingled in disorder. After a slight running fight of two hours the
whites lost sight of their foes, and, wondering what had become of
Logan's wing, they gathered together and marched back towards the river.
One of the McAfees, captain over a company of riflemen from Salt River,
was leading, when he discovered an Indian in a tree-top. He and one of
his men sought shelter behind the same tree; whereupon he tried to glide
behind another, but was shot and mortally wounded by the Indian, who was
himself instantly killed. The scattered detachments now sat down to
listen for the missing wing. After half an hour's silent waiting, they
suddenly became aware of the presence of a body of Indians, who had
slipped in between them and the town. The backwoodsmen rushed up to the
attack, while the Indians whooped and yelled defiance. There was a
moment's heavy firing; but as on both sides the combatants carefully
sheltered themselves behind trees, there was very little loss; and the
Indians steadily gave way until they reached the town, about two miles
distant from the spot where the whites had halted. They then made a
stand, and, for the first time, there occurred some real fighting. The
Indians stood stoutly behind the loop-holed walls of the cabins, and in
the block-house; the Americans, advancing cautiously and gaining ground
inch by inch, suffered much more loss than they inflicted. Late in the
afternoon Clark managed to bring the three-pounder into action, from a
point below the town; while the riflemen fired at the red warriors as
they were occasionally seen running from the cabins to take refuge
behind the steep bank of the river. A few shots from the three-pounder
dislodged the defenders of the block-house; and about sunset the
Americans closed in, but only to find that their foes had escaped under
cover of a noisy fire from a few of the hindmost warriors. They had run
up stream, behind the banks, until they came to a small "branch" or
brook, by means of which they gained the shelter of the forest, where
they at once scattered and disappeared. A few of their stragglers
exchanged shots with the advance guard of Logan's wing as it at last
came down the bank; this was the only part Logan was able to take in the
battle. Of the Indians six or eight were slain, whereas the whites lost
seventeen killed, and a large number wounded. [Footnote: Bradford MS.;
the McAfee MSS. make the loss "15 or 20 Indians" in the last assault,
and "nearly as many" whites. Boon's narrative says seventeen on each
side. But McKee says only six Indians were killed and three wounded; and
Bombardier Homan, in the letter already quoted, says six were killed and
two captured, who were afterwards slain. The latter adds from hearsay
that the Americans cruelly slew an Indian woman; but there is not a
syllable in any of the other accounts to confirm this, and it may be set
down as a fiction of the by-no-means-valorous bombardier. The bombardier
mentions that the Indians in their alarm and anger immediately burnt all
the male prisoners in their villages.
The Kentucky historians give very scanty accounts of this expedition;
but as it was of a typical character it is worth while giving in full.
The McAfee MSS. contain most information about it.] Clark destroyed all
the houses and a very large quantity of corn; and he sent out
detachments which destroyed another village, and the stores of some
British and French Canadian traders. Then the army marched back to the
mouth of the Licking and disbanded, most of the volunteers having been
out just twenty-five days. [Footnote: Bradford MS.]
Effect of the Victory.
The Indians were temporarily cowed by their loss and the damage they had
suffered, [Footnote: See Haldimand MSS. De Peyster to Haldimand, Aug.
30, 1780.] and especially by the moral effect of so formidable a
retaliatory foray following immediately on the heels of Bird's inroad.
Therefore, thanks to Clark, the settlements south of the Ohio were but
little molested for the remainder of the year. [Footnote: McAfee MSS.]
The bulk of the savages remained north of the river, hovering about
their burned towns, planning to take vengeance in the spring. [Footnote:
Virginia State Papers, I., 451.]
Nevertheless small straggling bands of young braves occasionally came
down through the woods; and though they did not attack any fort or any
large body of men, they were ever on the watch to steal horses, burn
lonely cabins, and waylay travellers between the stations. They shot the
solitary settlers who had gone out to till their clearings by stealth,
or ambushed the boys who were driving in the milk cows or visiting their
lines of traps. It was well for the victim if he was killed at once;
otherwise he was bound with hickory withes and driven to the distant
Indian towns, there to be tortured with hideous cruelty and burned to
death at the stake. [Footnote: McAfee MSS. The last was an incident that
happened to a young man named McCoun on March 8, 1781.] Boon himself
suffered at the hands of one of these parties. He had gone with his
brother to the Blue Licks, to him a spot always fruitful of evil; and
being ambushed by the Indians, his brother was killed, and he himself
was only saved by his woodcraft and speed of foot. The Indians had with
them a tracking dog, by the aid of which they followed his trail for
three miles; until he halted, shot the dog, and thus escaped. [Footnote:
Boon's Narrative.]
Life of the Settlers.
During this comparatively peaceful fall the settlers fared well; though
the men were ever on the watch for Indian war parties, while the
mothers, if their children were naughty, frightened them into quiet with
the threat that the Shawnees would catch them. The widows and the
fatherless were cared for by the other families of the different
stations. The season of want and scarcity had passed for ever; from
thenceforth on there was abundance in Kentucky. The crops did not fail;
not only was there plenty of corn, the one essential, but there was also
wheat, as well as potatoes, melons, pumpkins, turnips, and the like.
Sugar was made by tapping the maple trees; but salt was bought at a very
exorbitant price at the Falls, being carried down in boats from the old
Redstone Fort. Flax had been generally sown (though in the poorer
settlements nettle bark still served as a substitute), and the young men
and girls formed parties to pick it, often ending their labor by an hour
or two's search for wild plums. The men killed all the game they wished,
and so there was no lack of meat. They also surveyed the land and tended
the stock--cattle, horses, and hogs, which throve and multiplied out on
the range, fattening on the cane, and large white buffalo-clover. At odd
times the men and boys visited their lines of traps. Furs formed almost
the only currency, except a little paper money; but as there were no
stores west of the mountains, this was all that was needed, and each
settlement raised most things for itself, and procured the rest by
barter.
The law courts were as yet very little troubled, each small community
usually enforcing a rough-and-ready justice of its own. On a few of the
streams log-dams were built, and tub-mills started. In Harrodsburg a
toll mill was built in 1779. The owner used to start it grinding, and
then go about his other business; once on returning he found a large
wild turkey-gobbler so busily breakfasting out of the hopper that he was
able to creep quietly up and catch him with his hands. The people all
worked together in cultivating their respective lands; coming back to
the fort before dusk for supper. They would then call on any man who
owned a fiddle and spend the evening, with interludes of singing and
story-telling, in dancing--an amusement they considered as only below
hunting. On Sundays the stricter parents taught their children the
catechism; but in spite of the presence of not a few devout Baptists and
Presbyterians there was little chance for general observance of
religious forms. Ordinary conversation was limited to such subjects as
bore on the day's doings; the game that had been killed, the condition
of the crops, the plans of the settlers for the immediate future, the
accounts of the last massacre by the savages, or the rumor that Indian
sign had been seen in the neighborhood; all interspersed with much
banter, practical joking, and rough, good-humored fun. The scope of
conversation was of necessity narrowly limited even for the backwoods;
for there was little chance to discuss religion and politics, the two
subjects that the average backwoodsman regards as the staples of deep
conversation. The deeds of the Indians of course formed the one
absorbing topic. [Footnote: For all this see McAfee MSS.]
An Abortive Separatist Movement.
An abortive separatist movement was the chief political sensation of
this summer. Many hundreds and even thousand of settlers from the
backwoods districts of various States, had come to Kentucky, and some
even to Illinois, and a number of them were greatly discontented with
the Virginian rule. They deemed it too difficult to get justice when
they were so far from the seat of government; they objected to the land
being granted to any but actual settlers; and they protested against
being taxed, asserting that they did not know whether the country really
belonged to Virginia or the United States. Accordingly, they petitioned
the Continental Congress that Kentucky and Illinois combined might be
made into a separate State; [Footnote: State Department MSS. No. 48. See
Appendix G. As containing an account of the first, and hitherto entirely
unnoticed, separatist movement in Kentucky, I give the petition entire.]
but no heed was paid to their request, nor did their leading men join in
making it.
Kentucky Divided into Counties.
In November the Virginia Legislature divided Kentucky into the three
counties of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Fayette, appointing for each a
colonel, a lieutenant-colonel, and a surveyor. The three colonels, who
were also justices of the counties, [Footnote: Calendar of Virginia
State Papers, Vol. II., p. 47.] were, in their order, John Floyd--whom
Clark described as "a soldier, a gentleman and a scholar," [Footnote:
_Do_., Vol. I., p. 452.]--Benjamin Logan, and John Todd. Clark, whose
station was at the Falls of the Ohio, was brigadier-general and
commander over all. Boon was lieutenant-colonel under Todd; and their
county of Fayette had for its surveyor Thomas Marshall, [Footnote:
Collins, I., 20.] the father of the great chief-justice, whose services
to the United States stand on a plane with those of Alexander Hamilton.
[Footnote: Roughly, Fayette embraced the territory north and northeast
of the Kentucky River, Jefferson that between Green River and the lower
Kentucky, and Lincoln the rest of the present State.]
Clark's Plans to Attack Detroit.
The winter passed quietly away, but as soon as the snow was off the
ground in 1781, the Indians renewed their ravages. Early in the winter
Clark went to Virginia to try to get an army for an expedition against
Detroit. He likewise applied to Washington for assistance. Washington
fully entered into his plans, and saw their importance. He would gladly
have rendered him every aid. But he could do nothing, because of the
impotence to which the central authority, the Continental Congress, had
been reduced by the selfishness and supine indifference of the various
States--Virginia among the number. He wrote Clark: "It is out of my
power to send any reinforcements to the westward. If the States would
fill their continental battalions we should be able to oppose a regular
and permanent force to the enemy in every quarter. If they will not,
they must certainly take measures to defend themselves by their militia,
however expensive and ruinous the system." [Footnote: State Department
MSS., No. 147, Vol. V. Reports of Board of War. Letter of Washington,
June 8, 1781. It is impossible to study any part of the Revolutionary
struggle without coming to the conclusion that Washington would have
ended it in half the time it actually lasted, had the jangling States
and their governments, as well as the Continental Congress, backed him
up half as effectively as the Confederate people and government backed
up Lee, or as the Northerners and the Washington administration backed
up McClellan--still more as they backed up Grant. The whole of our
Revolutionary history is a running commentary on the anarchic weakness
of disunion, and the utter lack of liberty that follows in its train.]
It was impossible to state with more straightforward clearness the fact
that Kentucky owed the unprotected condition in which she was left, to
the divided or States-rights system of government that then existed; and
that she would have had ample protection--and incidentally greater
liberty--had the central authority been stronger.
Why his Efforts were Baffled.
At last, Clark was empowered to raise the men he wished, and he passed
and repassed from Fort Pitt to the Falls of the Ohio and thence to the
Illinois in the vain effort to get troops. The inertness and
shortsightedness of the frontiersmen, above all the exhaustion of the
States, and their timid selfishness and inability to enforce their
commands, baffled all of Clark's efforts. In his letters to Washington
he bitterly laments his enforced dependence upon "persuasive arguments
to draw the inhabitants of the country into the field." [Footnote: State
Department MSS. Letters to Washington, Vol. 49, p. 235, May 21, 1781.
The entire history of the western operations shows the harm done by the
weak and divided system of government that obtained at the time of the
Revolution, and emphasizes our good fortune in replacing it by a strong
and permanent Union.] The Kentuckians were anxious to do all in their
power, but of course only a comparatively small number could be spared
for so long a campaign from their scattered stockades. Around Pittsburg,
where he hoped to raise the bulk of his forces, the frontiersmen were
split into little factions by their petty local rivalries, the envy
their leaders felt of Clark himself, and the never-ending jealousies and
bickerings between the Virginians and Pennsylvanians. [Footnote:
Calendar of Virginia State Papers, I., pp. 502, 597, etc.; II., pp. 108,
116, 264, 345. The Kentuckians were far more eager for action than the
Pennsylvanians.]
The fort at the Falls, where Clark already had some troops, was
appointed as a gathering-place for the different detachments that were
to join him; but from one cause or another, all save one or two failed
to appear. Most of them did not even start, and one body of
Pennsylvanians that did go met with an untoward fate. This was a party
of a hundred Westmoreland men under their county-lieutenant, Col.
Archibald Loughry. They started down the Ohio in flat-boats, but having
landed on a sand bar to butcher and cook a buffalo that they had killed,
they were surprised by an equal number of Indians under Joseph Brant,
and being huddled together, were all slain or captured with small loss
to their assailants. [Footnote: At Loughry's Creek, some ten miles below
the mouth of the Miami, on August 24, 1781. Diary of Captain Isaac
Anderson, quoted in "Indiana Hist. Soc. Pamphlets, No. 4," by Charles
Martindale, Indianapolis, 1888. Collins, whose accuracy by no means
equals his thirst for pure detail, puts this occurrence just a year too
late. Brant's force was part of a body of several hundred Indians
gathered to resist Clark.] Many of the prisoners, including Loughry
himself, were afterwards murdered in cold blood by the Indians.
Fighting on the Frontier.
During this year the Indians continually harassed the whole frontier,
from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, ravaging the settlements and assailing
the forts in great bands of five or six hundred warriors. [Footnote: It
is most difficult to get at the number of the Indian parties; they were
sometimes grossly exaggerated and sometimes hopelessly underestimated.]
The Continental troops stationed at Fort Pitt were reduced to try every
expedient to procure supplies. Though it was evident that the numbers of
the hostile Indians had largely increased and that even such tribes as
the Delawares, who had been divided, were now united against the
Americans, nevertheless, because of the scarcity of food, a party of
soldiers had to be sent into the Indian country to kill buffalo, that
the garrison might have meat. [Footnote: State Department MSS., No. 147,
Vol. VI. Reports of Board of War. March 15, 1781.] The Indians
threatened to attack the fort itself, as well as the villages it
protected; passing around and on each side, their war parties ravaged
the country in its rear, distressing greatly the people; and from this
time until peace was declared with Great Britain, and indeed until long
after that event, the westernmost Pennsylvanians knew neither rest nor
safety. [Footnote: _Do_., No. 148, Vol. I.. January 4, 1781; No. 149,
Vol. I., August 6, 1782; No. 149, Vol. II., p. 461; No. 149, Vol. III.,
p. 183. Federal garrisons were occasionally established at, or withdrawn
from, other posts on the upper Ohio besides Fort Pitt; but their
movements had no permanent value, and only require chronicling by the
local, State, or county historians. In 1778 Fort McIntosh was built at
Beaver Creek, on the north bank of the Ohio, and Fort Laurens seventy
miles towards the interior. The latter was soon abandoned; the former
was in Pennsylvania, and a garrison was kept there.] Among many others
the forted village at Wheeling was again attacked. But its most
noteworthy siege occurred during the succeeding summer, when [Footnote:
The commanders at the unmolested forts and the statesmen who stayed at
home only saw those members of the tribes who claimed to be peaceful,
and invariably put the number of warriors on the warpath at far too low
a figure. Madison's estimates, for instance, were very much out of the
way, yet many modern critics follow him.] Simon Girty, with fife and
drum, led a large band of Indians and Detroit rangers against it, only
to be beaten off. The siege was rendered memorable by the heroism of a
girl, who carried powder from the stockade to an outlying log-house,
defended by four men; she escaped unscathed because of her very
boldness, in spite of the fire from so many rifles, and to this day the
mountaineers speak of her deed. [Footnote: See De Haas, 263-281, for the
fullest, and probably most accurate, account of the siege; as already
explained he is the most trustworthy of the border historians. But it is
absolutely impossible to find out the real facts concerning the sieges
of Wheeling; it is not quite certain even whether there were two or
three. The testimony as to whether the heroine of the powder feat was
Betty Zane or Molly Scott is hopelessly conflicting; we do not know
which of the two brothers Girty was in command, nor whether either was
present at the first attack. Much even of De Haas' account is, to put it
mildly, greatly embellished; as for instance his statement about the
cannon (a small French gun, thrown into the Monongahela when Fort Du
Quesne was abandoned, and fished up by a man named Naly, who was in
swimming), which he asserts cut "a wide passage" through the "deep
columns" of the savages. There is no reason to suppose that the Indians
suffered a serious loss. Wheeling was a place of little strategic
importance, and its fall would not have produced any far-reaching
effects.]
It would be tiresome and profitless to so much as name the many
different stations that were attacked. In their main incidents all the
various assaults were alike, and that made this summer on McAfee's
station may be taken as an illustration.
The Attack on McAfee's Station.
The McAfees brought their wives and children to Kentucky in the fall of
'79, and built a little stockaded hamlet on the banks of Salt River, six
or seven miles from Harrodsburg. Some relatives and friends joined them,
but their station was small and weak. The stockade, on the south side,
was very feeble, and there were but thirteen men, besides the women and
children, in garrison; but they were strong and active, good woodsmen,
and excellent marksmen. The attack was made on May 4, 1781. [Footnote:
McAfee MSS. This is the date given in the MS. "Autobiography of Robert
McAfee"; the MS. "History of First Settlement on Salt River" says May
6th. I draw my account from these two sources; the discrepancies are
trivial.]
The Indians lay all night at a corn-crib three-quarters of a mile
distant from the stockade. The settlers, though one of their number had
been carried off two months before, still continued their usual
occupations. But they were very watchful and always kept a sharp
look-out, driving the stock inside the yard at night. On the day in
question, at dawn, it was noticed that the dogs and cattle betrayed
symptoms of uneasiness; for all tame animals dreaded the sight or smell
of an Indian as they did that of a wild beast, and by their alarm often
warned the settlers and thus saved their lives.
In this case the warning was unheeded. At daybreak the stock were turned
loose and four of the men went outside the fort. Two began to clear a
patch of turnip-land about a hundred and fifty yards off, leaving their
guns against a tree close at hand. The other two started towards the
corn-crib, with a horse and bag. After going a quarter of a mile, the
path dipped into a hollow, and here they suddenly came on the Indians,
advancing stealthily toward the fort. At the first fire one of the men
was killed, and the horse, breaking loose, galloped back to the fort.
The other man likewise turned and ran towards home, but was confronted
by an Indian who leaped into the path directly ahead of him. The two
were so close together that the muzzles of their guns crossed, and both
pulled trigger at once; the Indian's gun missed fire and he fell dead in
his tracks. Continuing his flight, the survivor reached the fort in
safety.
When the two men in the turnip-patch heard the firing they seized their
guns and ran towards the point of attack, but seeing the number of the
assailants they turned back to the fort, trying to drive the frightened
stock before them. The Indians coming up close, they had to abandon the
attempt, although most of the horses and some of the cattle got safely
home. One of the men reached the gate ahead of the Indians; the other
was cut off, and took a roundabout route through the woods. He speedily
distanced all of his pursuers but one; several times he turned to shoot
the latter, but the Indian always took prompt refuge behind a tree, and
the white man then renewed his flight. At last he reach a fenced
orchard, on the border of the cleared ground round the fort. Throwing
himself over the fence he lay still among the weeds on the other side.
In a minute or two the pursuer, running up, cautiously peered over the
fence, and was instantly killed; he proved to be a Shawnee chief,
painted, and decked with many silver armlets, rings, and brooches. The
fugitive then succeeded in making his way into the fort.
The settlers inside the stockade had sprung to arms the moment the first
guns were heard. The men fired on the advancing Indians, while the women
and children ran bullets and made ready the rifle-patches. Every one
displayed the coolest determination and courage except one man who hid
under a bed, until found by his wife; whereupon he was ignominiously
dragged out and made to run bullets with the women.
As the Indians advanced they shot down most of the cattle and hogs and
some of the horses that were running frantically round the stockade; and
they likewise shot several dogs that had sallied out to help their
masters. They then made a rush on the fort, but were driven off at once,
one of their number being killed and several badly hurt, while but one
of the defenders was wounded, and he but slightly. After this they
withdrew to cover and began a desultory firing, which lasted for some
time.
Suddenly a noise like distant thunder came to the ears of the men in the
fort. It was the beat of horsehoofs. In a minute or two forty-five
horsemen, headed by McGarry, appeared on the road leading from
Harrodsburg, shouting and brandishing their rifles as they galloped up.
The morning was so still that the firing had been heard a very long way;
and a band of mounted riflemen had gathered in hot haste to go to the
relief of the beleaguered stockade.
The Indians, whooping defiance, retired; while McGarry halted a moment
to allow the rescued settlers to bridle their horses--saddles were not
thought of. The pursuit was then begun at full speed. At the ford of a
small creek near by, the rearmost Indians turned and fired at the
horsemen, killing one and wounding another, while a third had his horse
mired down, and was left behind. The main body was overtaken at the
corn-crib, and a running fight followed; the whites leaving their horses
and both sides taking shelter behind the tree-trunks. Soon two Indians
were killed, and the others scattered in every direction, while the
victors returned in triumph to the station.
Slight Losses of the Indians.
It is worthy of notice that though the Indians were defeated, and though
they were pitted against first-class rifle shots, they yet had but five
men killed and a very few wounded. They rarely suffered a heavy loss in
battle with the whites, even when beaten in the open or repulsed from a
fort. They would not stand heavy punishment, and in attacking a fort
generally relied upon a single headlong rush, made under cover of
darkness or as a surprise; they tried to unnerve their antagonists by
the sudden fury of their onslaught and the deafening accompaniment of
whoops and yells. If they began to suffer much loss they gave up at
once, and if pursued scattered in every direction, each man for himself,
and owing to their endurance, woodcraft, and skill in hiding, usually
got off with marvellously little damage. At the outside a dozen of their
men might be killed in the pursuit by such of the vengeful backwoodsmen
as were exceptionally fleet of foot. The northwestern tribes at this
time appreciated thoroughly that their marvellous fighting qualities
were shown to best advantage in the woods, and neither in the defence
nor in the assault of fortified places. They never cooped themselves in
stockades to receive an attack from the whites, as was done by the
Massachusetts Algonquins in the seventeenth century, and by the Creeks
at the beginning of the nineteenth; and it was only when behind
defensive works from which they could not retreat that the forest
Indians ever suffered heavily when defeated by the whites. On the other
hand, the defeat of the average white force was usually followed by a
merciless slaughter. Skilled backwoodsmen scattered out, Indian fashion,
but their less skilful or more panic-struck brethren, and all regulars
or ordinary militia, kept together from a kind of blind feeling of
safety in companionship, and in consequence their nimble and ruthless
antagonists destroyed them at their ease.
Indian War Parties Repulsed.
Still, the Indian war parties were often checked, or scattered; and
occasionally one of them received some signal discomfiture. Such was the
case with a band that went up the Kanawha valley just as Clark was
descending the Ohio on his way to the Illinois. Finding the fort at the
mouth of the Kanawha too strong to be carried, they moved on up the
river towards the Greenbriar settlements, their chiefs shouting
threateningly to the people in the fort, and taunting them with the
impending destruction of their friends and kindred. But two young men in
the stockade forthwith dressed and painted themselves like Indians, that
they might escape notice even if seen, and speeding through the woods
reached the settlements first and gave warning. The settlers took refuge
on a farm where there was a block-house with a stockaded yard. The
Indians attacked in a body at daybreak when the door was opened,
thinking to rush into the house; but they were beaten off, and paid dear
for their boldness, for seventeen of them were left dead in the yard,
besides the killed and wounded whom they carried away. [Footnote: McKee
was the commander at the fort; the block-house was owned by Col. Andrew
Donelly; Hanlon and Prior were the names of the two young men. This
happened in May, 1778. For the anecdotes of personal prowess in this
chapter see De Haas, or else Kercheval, McClung, Doddridge, and the
fifty other annalists of those western wars, who repeat many of the same
stories. All relate facts of undoubted authenticity and wildly
improbable tales, resting solely on tradition, with exactly the same
faith. The chronological order of these anecdotes being unimportant, I
have grouped them here. It must always be remembered that both the men
and the incidents described are interesting chiefly as examples; the old
annalists give many hundreds of such anecdotes, and there must have been
thousands more that they did not relate.] In the same year a block-house
was attacked while the children were playing outside. The Indians in
their sudden rush killed one settler, wounded four, and actually got
inside the house; yet three were killed or disabled, and they were
driven out by the despairing fury of the remaining whites, the women
fighting together with the men. Then the savages instantly fled, but
they had killed and scalped, or carried off, ten of the children. Be it
remembered that these instances are taken at random from among hundreds
of others, extending over a series of years longer than the average life
of a generation.
The Indians warred with the odds immeasurably in their favor. The Ohio
was the boundary between their remaining hunting-grounds and the lands
where the whites had settled. In Kentucky alone this frontier was
already seventy miles in length. [Footnote: Virginia State Papers, I.,
437. Letter of Col. John Floyd. The Kentuckians, he notices, trust
militia more than they do regulars.] Beyond the river stretched the
frowning forest, to the Indians a sure shield in battle, a secure haven
in disaster, an impenetrable mask from behind which to plan attack.
Nature of the Indian Forays.
Clark, from his post at the Falls, sent out spies and scouts along the
banks of the river, and patrolled its waters with his gun-boat; but it
was absolutely impossible to stop all the forays or to tell the point
likely to be next struck. A war party starting from the wigwam-towns
would move silently down through the woods, cross the Ohio at any point,
and stealthily and rapidly traverse the settlements, its presence
undiscovered until the deeds of murder and rapine were done, and its
track marked by charred cabins and the ghastly, mutilated bodies of men,
women, and children.
If themselves assailed, the warriors fought desperately and effectively.
They sometimes attacked bodies of troops, but always by ambush or
surprise; and they much preferred to pounce on unprepared and
unsuspecting surveyors, farmers, or wayfarers, or to creep up to
solitary, outlying cabins. They valued the scalps of women and children
as highly as those of men. Striking a sudden blow, where there was
hardly any possibility of loss to themselves, they instantly moved on to
the next settlement, repeating the process again and again. Tireless,
watchful, cautious, and rapid, they covered great distances, and their
stealth and the mystery of their coming and going added to the terror
produced by the horrible nature of their ravages. When pursued they
dextrously covered their trail, and started homewards across a hundred
leagues of trackless wilderness. The pursuers almost of necessity went
slower, for they had to puzzle out the tracks; and after a certain
number of days either their food gave out or they found themselves too
far from home, and were obliged to return. In most instances the pursuit
was vain. Thus a party of twenty savages might make a war-trail some
hundreds of miles in length, taking forty or fifty scalps, carrying off
a dozen women and children, and throwing a number of settlements, with
perhaps a total population of a thousand souls, into a rage of terror
and fury, with a loss to themselves of but one or two men killed and
wounded.
A Great War Band Threatens Kentucky
Throughout the summer of 1781 the settlers were scourged by an unbroken
series of raids of this kind. In August McKee, Brant, and other tory and
Indian leaders assembled on the Miami an army of perhaps a thousand
warriors. They were collected to oppose Clark's intended march to
Detroit; for the British leaders were well aware of Clark's intention,
and trusted to the savages to frustrate it if he attempted to put it
into execution. Brant went off for a scout with a hundred warriors, and
destroyed Loughry's party of Westmoreland men, as already related,
returning to the main body after having done so. The fickle savages were
much elated by this stroke, but instead of being inspired to greater
efforts, took the view that the danger of invasion was now over. After
much persuasion Brant, McKee, and the captain of the Detroit rangers,
Thompson, persuaded them to march towards the Falls. On September 9th
they were within thirty miles of their destination, and halted to send
out scouts. Two prisoners were captured, from whom it was learned that
Clark had abandoned his proposed expedition. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS.
Captain A. Thompson to De Peyster, September 26, 1781.] Instantly the
Indians began to disband, some returning to their homes, and others
scattering out to steal horses and burn isolated cabins. Nor could the
utmost efforts of their leaders keep them together. They had no wish to
fight Clark unless it was absolutely necessary, in order to save their
villages and crops from destruction; and they much preferred plundering
on their own account. However, a couple of hundred Hurons and Miamis,
under Brant and McKee, were kept together, and moved southwards between
the Kentucky and Salt rivers, intending "to attack some of the small
forts and infest the roads." [Footnote: _Do._ Captain A. McKee to De
Peyster, September 26, 1781.] About the middle of the month they fell in
with a party of settlers led by Squire Boon.
Squire Boon and Floyd Defeated.
Squire Boon had built a fort, some distance from any other, and when
rumors of a great Indian invasion reached him, he determined to leave it
and join the stations on Bear Grass Creek. When he reached Long Run,
with his men, women, and children, cattle, and household goods, he
stumbled against the two hundred warriors of McKee and Brant. His people
were scattered to the four winds, with the loss of many scalps and all
their goods and cattle. The victors camped on the ground with the
intention of ambushing any party that arrived to bury the dead; for they
were confident some of the settlers would come for this purpose. Nor
were they disappointed; for next morning Floyd, the county lieutenant,
with twenty-five men, made his appearance. Floyd marched so quickly that
he came on the Indians before they were prepared to receive him. A smart
skirmish ensued; but the whites were hopelessly outnumbered, and were
soon beaten and scattered, with a loss of twelve or thirteen men. Floyd
himself, exhausted and with his horse shot, would have been captured had
not another man, one Samuel Wells, who was excellently mounted, seen his
plight. Wells reined in, leaped off his horse, and making Floyd ride, he
ran beside him, and both escaped. The deed was doubly noble, because the
men had previously been enemies. [Footnote: Marshall, I., 116. Floyd had
previously written Jefferson (Virginia State Papers, I., 47) that in his
county there were but three hundred and fifty-four militia between
sixteen and fifty-four years old; that all people were living in forts,
and that forty-seven of the settlers of all ages had been killed, and
many wounded, since January; so his defeat was a serious blow.] The
frontiersmen had made a good defence in spite of the tremendous odds
against them, and had slain four of their opponents, three Hurons and a
Miami. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Thompson's letter; McKee only mentions
the three Hurons. As already explained, the partisan leaders were apt,
in enumerating the Indian losses, only to give such as had occurred in
their own particular bands. Marshall makes the fight take place in
April; the Haldimand MSS. show that it was in September. Marshall is as
valuable for early Kentucky history as Haywood for the corresponding
periods in Tennessee; but both one and the other write largely from
tradition, and can never be followed when they contradict contemporary
reports.] Among the former was the head chief, a famous warrior; his
death so discouraged the Indians that they straightway returned home
with their scalps and plunder, resisting McKee's entreaty that they
would first attack Boonsborough.
One war party carried off Logan's family; but Logan, following swiftly
after, came on the savages so suddenly that he killed several of their
number, and rescued all his own people unhurt. [Footnote: Bradford MSS.]
Complicity of the British.
Often French Canadians, and more rarely tories, accompanied these little
bands of murderous plunderers [Footnote: At this very time a small band
that had captured a family in the Kanawha valley were pursued fifty
miles, overtaken, several killed and wounded, and the prisoners
recaptured, by Col. Andrew Donelly, mentioned in a previous note; it
consisted of two French and eight Indians. Virginia State Papers, I.,
601.]--besides the companies of Detroit rangers who went with the large
war parties--and they were all armed and urged on by the British at
Detroit. One of the official British reports to Lord George Germaine,
made on October 23d of this year, deals with the Indian war parties
employed against the northwestern frontier. "Many smaller Indian parties
have been very successful.... It would be endless and difficult to
enumerate to your Lordship the parties that are continually employed
upon the back settlements. From the Illinois country to the frontiers of
New York there is a continual succession... the perpetual terror and
losses of the inhabitants will I hope operate powerfully in our
favor" [Footnote: See full copy of the letter in Mr. Martindale's
excellent pamphlet, above quoted.];--so runs the letter. At the same
time the British commander in Canada was pointing out to his subordinate
at Detroit that the real danger to British rule arose from the extension
of the settlements westwards, and that this the Indians could prevent
[Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Haldimand to De Peyster, June 24, 1781.
Throughout the letters of the British officers at and near Detroit there
are constant allusions to scalps being brought in; but not one word, as
far as I have seen, to show that the Indians were ever reproved because
many of the scalps were those of women and children. It is only fair to
say, however, that there are several instances of the commanders
exhorting the Indians to be merciful--which was a waste of breath,--and
several other instances where successful efforts were made to stop the
use of torture. The British officers were generally personally humane to
their prisoners.]; in other words, the savages were expressly directed
to make war on non-combatants, for it was impossible to attack a
settlement without attacking the women and children therein. In return
the frontiersmen speedily grew to regard both British and Indians with
the same venomous and indiscriminate anger.
Nature of the Ceaseless Strife
In the writings of the early annalists of these Indian wars are to be
found the records of countless deeds of individual valor and cowardice,
prowess and suffering, of terrible woe in time of disaster and defeat,
and of the glutting of ferocious vengeance in the days of triumphant
reprisal. They contain tales of the most heroic courage and of the
vilest poltroonery; for the iron times brought out all that was best and
all that was basest in the human breast. We read of husbands leaving
their wives, and women their children, to the most dreadful of fates, on
the chance that they themselves might thereby escape; and on the other
hand, we read again and again of the noblest acts of self-sacrifice,
where the man freely gave his life for that of his wife or child, his
brother or his friend. Many deeds of unflinching loyalty are recorded,
but very, very few where magnanimity was shown to a fallen foe. The
women shared the stern qualities of the men; often it happened that,
when the house-owner had been shot down, his wife made good the defence
of the cabin with rifle or with axe, hewing valiantly at the savages who
tried to break through the door, or dig under the puncheon floor, or,
perhaps, burst down through the roof or wide chimney. Many hundreds of
these tales could be gathered together; one or two are worth giving, not
as being unique, but rather as samples of innumerable others of the same
kind.
Feat of the Two Poes.
In those days [Footnote: 1781, De Haas; Doddridge, whom the other
compilers follow, gives a wrong date (1782), and reverses the parts the
two brothers played.] there lived beside the Ohio, in extreme
northwestern Virginia, two tall brothers, famed for their strength,
agility, and courage. They were named Adam and Andrew Poe. In the summer
of '81 a party of seven Wyandots or Hurons came into their settlement,
burned some cabins, and killed one of the settlers. Immediately eight
backwoodsmen started in chase of the marauders; among them were the two
Poes.
The Wyandots were the bravest of all the Indian tribes, the most
dangerous in battle, and the most merciful in victory, rarely torturing
their prisoners; the backwoodsmen respected them for their prowess more
than they did any other tribe, and, if captured, esteemed themselves
fortunate to fall into Wyandot hands. These seven warriors were the most
famous and dreaded of the whole tribe. They included four brothers, one
being the chief Bigfoot, who was of gigantic strength and stature, the
champion of all, their most fearless and redoubtable fighter. Yet their
very confidence ruined them, for they retreated in a leisurely manner,
caring little whether they were overtaken or not, as they had many times
worsted the whites, and did not deem them their equals in battle.
The backwoodsmen followed the trail swiftly all day long, and, by the
help of the moon, late into the night. Early next morning they again
started and found themselves so near the Wyandots that Andrew Poe turned
aside and went down to the bed of a neighboring stream, thinking to come
up behind the Indians while they were menaced by his comrades in front.
Hearing a low murmur, he crept up through the bushes to a jutting rock
on the brink of the watercourse, and peering cautiously over, he saw two
Indians beneath him. They were sitting under a willow, talking in deep
whispers; one was an ordinary warrior, the other, by his gigantic size,
was evidently the famous chief himself. Andrew took steady aim at the
big chiefs breast and pulled trigger. The rifle flashed in the pan; and
the two Indians sprang to their feet with a deep grunt of surprise. For
a second all three stared at one another. Then Andrew sprang over the
rock, striking the big Indian's breast with a shock that bore him to the
earth; while at the moment of alighting, he threw his arm round the
small Indian's neck, and all three rolled on the ground together.
At this instant they heard sharp firing in the woods above them. The
rest of the whites and Indians had discovered one another at the same
time. A furious but momentary fight ensued; three backwoodsmen and four
Indians were killed outright, no other white being hurt, while the
single remaining red warrior made his escape, though badly wounded. But
the three men who were struggling for life and death in the ravine had
no time to pay heed to outside matters. For a moment Andrew kept down
both his antagonists, who were stunned by the shock; but before he could
use his knife the big Indian wrapped him in his arms and held him as if
in a vise. This enabled the small Indian to wrest himself loose, when
the big chief ordered him to run for his tomahawk, which lay on the sand
ten feet away, and to kill the white man as he lay powerless in the
chiefs arms. Andrew could not break loose, but watching his chance, as
the small Indian came up, he kicked him so violently in the chest that
he knocked the tomahawk out of his hand and sent him staggering into the
water. Thereat the big chief grunted out his contempt, and thundered at
the small Indian a few words that Andrew could not understand. The small
Indian again approached and after making several feints, struck with the
tomahawk, but Andrew dodged and received the blow on his wrist instead
of his head; and the wound though deep was not disabling. By a sudden
and mighty effort he now shook himself free from the giant, and
snatching up a loaded rifle from the sand, shot the small Indian as he
rushed on him. But at that moment the larger Indian, rising up, seized
him and hurled him to the ground. He was on his feet in a second, and
the two grappled furiously, their knives being lost; Andrew's activity
and skill as a wrestler and boxer making amends for his lack of
strength. Locked in each other's arms they rolled into the water. Here
each tried to drown the other, and Andrew catching the chief by the
scalp lock held his head under the water until his faint struggles
ceased. Thinking his foe dead, he loosed his grip to try to get at his
knife, but, as Andrew afterwards said, the Indian had only been "playing
possum," and in a second the struggle was renewed. Both combatants
rolled into deep water, when they separated and struck out for the
shore. The Indian proved the best swimmer, and ran up to the rifle that
lay on the sand, whereupon Andrew turned to swim out into the stream,
hoping to save his life by diving. At this moment his brother Adam
appeared on the bank, and seeing Andrew covered with blood and swimming
rapidly away, mistook him for an Indian, and shot him in the shoulder.
Immediately afterwards he saw his real antagonist. Both had empty guns,
and the contest became one as to who could beat the other in loading,
the Indian exclaiming: "Who load first, shoot first!" The chief got his
powder down first, but, in hurriedly drawing out his ramrod, it slipped
through his fingers and fell in the river. Seeing that it was all over,
he instantly faced his foe, pulled open the bosom of his shirt, and the
next moment received the ball fair in his breast. Adam, alarmed for his
brother, who by this time could barely keep himself afloat, rushed into
the river to save him, not heeding Andrew's repeated cries to take the
big Indian's scalp. Meanwhile the dying chief, resolute to save the long
locks his enemies coveted--always a point of honor among the red
men,--painfully rolled himself into the stream. Before he died he
reached the deep water, and the swift current bore his body away.
Other Feats of Personal Prowess
About this time a hunter named McConnell was captured near Lexington by
five Indians. At night he wriggled out of his bonds and slew four of his
sleeping captors, while the fifth, who escaped, was so bewildered that,
on reaching the Indian town, he reported that his party had been
attacked at night by a number of whites, who had not only killed his
companions but the prisoner likewise.
A still more remarkable event had occurred a couple of summers
previously. Some keel boats, manned by a hundred men under Lieutenant
Rogers, and carrying arms and provisions procured from the Spaniards at
New Orleans, were set upon by an Indian war party under Girty and
Elliott, [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. De Peyster to Haldimand, November 1,
1779.] while drawn up on a sand beach of the Ohio. The boats were
captured and plundered, and most of the men were killed; several
escaped, two under very extraordinary circumstances. One had both his
arms, the other both his legs, broken. They lay hid till the Indians
disappeared, and then accidentally discovered each other. For weeks the
two crippled beings lived in the lonely spot where the battle had been
fought, unable to leave it, each supplementing what the other could do.
The man who could walk kicked wood to him who could not, that he might
make a fire, and making long circuits, chased the game towards him for
him to shoot it. At last they were taken off by a passing flat-boat.
The backwoodsmen, wonted to vigorous athletic pastimes, and to fierce
brawls among themselves, were generally overmatches for the Indians in
hand-to-hand struggles. One such fight, that took place some years
before this time, deserves mention. A man of herculean strength and of
fierce, bold nature, named Bingaman, lived on the frontier in a lonely
log-house. The cabin had but a single room below, in which Bingaman
slept, as well as his mother, wife, and child; a hired man slept in the
loft. One night eight Indians assailed the house. As they burst in the
door Bingaman thrust the women and the child under the bed, his wife
being wounded by a shot in the breast. Then having discharged his piece
he began to beat about at random with the long heavy rifle. The door
swung partially to, and in the darkness nothing could be seen. The
numbers of the Indians helped them but little, for Bingaman's tremendous
strength enabled him to shake himself free whenever grappled. One after
another his foes sank under his crushing blows, killed or crippled; it
is said that at last but one was left to flee from the house in terror.
The hired man had not dared to come down from the loft, and when
Bingaman found his wife wounded he became so enraged that it was with
difficulty he could be kept from killing him. [Footnote: It is curious
how faithfully, as well as vividly, Cooper has reproduced these
incidents. His pictures of the white frontiersmen are generally true to
life; in his most noted Indian characters he is much less fortunate. But
his "Indian John" in the "Pioneers" is one of his best portraits; almost
equal praise can he given to Susquesus in the "Chainbearers."]
Incidents such as these followed one another in quick succession. They
deserve notice less for their own sakes than as examples of the way the
West was won; for the land was really conquered not so much by the
actual shock of battle between bodies of soldiers, as by the continuous
westward movement of the armed settlers and the unceasing individual
warfare waged between them and their red foes.
For the same reason one or two of the more noted hunters and Indian
scouts deserve mention, as types of hundreds of their fellows, who spent
their lives and met their deaths in the forest. It was their warfare
that really did most to diminish the fighting force of the tribes. They
battled exactly as their foes did, making forays, alone or in small
parties, for scalps and horses, and in their skirmishes inflicted as
much loss as they received; in striking contrast to what occurred in
conflicts between the savages and regular troops.
The Hunter Wetzel.
One of the most formidable of these hunters was Lewis Wetzel. [Footnote:
The name is variously spelt; in the original German records of the
family it appears as Wätzel, or Watzel.] Boon, Kenton, and Harrod
illustrate by their lives the nobler, kindlier traits of the dauntless
border-folk; Wetzel, like McGarry, shows the dark side of the picture.
He was a good friend to his white neighbors, or at least to such of them
as he liked, and as a hunter and fighter there was not in all the land
his superior. But he was of brutal and violent temper, and for the
Indians he knew no pity and felt no generosity. They had killed many of
his friends and relations, among others his father; and he hunted them
in peace or war like wolves. His admirers denied that he ever showed
"unwonted cruelty" [Footnote: De Haas, 345.] to Indian women and
children; that he sometimes killed them cannot be gainsaid. Some of his
feats were cold-blooded murders, as when he killed an Indian who came in
to treat with General Harmar, under pledge of safe conduct; one of his
brothers slew in like fashion a chief who came to see Col. Brodhead. But
the frontiersmen loved him, for his mere presence was a protection, so
great was the terror he inspired among the red men. His hardihood and
address were only equalled by his daring and courage. He was literally a
man without fear; in his few days of peace his chief amusements were
wrestling, foot-racing, and shooting at a mark. He was a dandy, too,
after the fashion of the backwoods, especially proud of his mane of long
hair, which, when he let it down, hung to his knees. He often hunted
alone in the Indian country, a hundred miles beyond the Ohio. As he
dared not light a bright fire on these trips, he would, on cold nights,
make a small coal-pit, and cower over it, drawing his blanket over his
head, when, to use his own words, he soon became as hot as in a "stove
room." Once he surprised four Indians sleeping in their camp; falling on
them he killed three. Another time, when pursued by the same number of
foes, he loaded his rifle as he ran, and killed in succession the three
foremost, whereat the other fled. In all, he took over thirty scalps of
warriors, thus killing more Indians than were slain by either one of the
two large armies of Braddock and St. Clair during their disastrous
campaigns. Wetzel's frame, like his heart, was of steel. But his temper
was too sullen and unruly for him ever to submit to command or to bear
rule over others. His feats were performed when he was either alone or
with two or three associates. An army of such men would have been wholly
valueless.
Brady and his Scouts.
Another man, of a far higher type, was Captain Samuel Brady, already a
noted Indian fighter on the Alleghany. For many years after the close of
the Revolutionary war he was the chief reliance of the frontiersmen of
his own neighborhood. He had lost a father and a brother by the Indians;
and in return he followed the red men with relentless hatred. But he
never killed peaceful Indians nor those who came in under flags of
truce. The tale of his wanderings, his captivities, his hairbreadth
escapes, and deeds of individual prowess would fill a book. He
frequently went on scouts alone, either to procure information or to get
scalps. On these trips he was not only often reduced to the last
extremity by hunger, fatigue, and exposure, but was in hourly peril of
his life from the Indians he was hunting. Once he was captured; but when
about to be bound to the stake for burning, he suddenly flung an Indian
boy into the fire, and in the confusion burst through the warriors, and
actually made his escape, though the whole pack of yelling savages
followed at his heels with rifle and tomahawk. He raised a small company
of scouts or rangers, and was one of the very few captains able to
reduce the unruly frontiersmen to order. In consequence his company on
several occasions fairly whipped superior numbers of Indians in the
woods; a feat that no regulars could perform, and to which the
backwoodsmen themselves were generally unequal, even though an overmatch
for their foes singly, because of their disregard of discipline.
[Footnote: In the open plain the comparative prowess of these forest
Indians, of the backwoodsmen, and of trained regulars was exactly the
reverse of what it was in the woods.]
So, with foray and reprisal, and fierce private war, with all the border
in a flame, the year 1781 came to an end. At its close there were in
Kentucky seven hundred and sixty able-bodied militia, fit for an
offensive campaign. [Footnote: Letter of John Todd, October 21, 1781.
Virginia State Papers, II., 562. The troops at the Falls were in a very
destitute condition, with neither supplies nor money, and their credit
worn threadbare, able to get nothing from the surrounding country
(_do_., p. 313). In Clark's absence the colonel let his garrison be
insulted by the townspeople, and so brought the soldiers into contempt,
while some of the demoralized officers tampered with the public stores.
It was said that much dissipation prevailed in the garrison, to which
accusation Clark answered sarcastically: "However agreeable such conduct
might have been to their sentiments, I believe they seldom had the means
in their power, for they were generally in a starving condition" (_do_.,
Vol. III., pp. 347 and 359).] As this did not include the troops at the
Falls, nor the large shifting population, nor the "fort soldiers," the
weaker men, graybeards, and boys, who could handle a rifle behind a
stockade, it is probable that there were then somewhere between four and
five thousand souls in Kentucky.
CHAPTER V.
THE MORAVIAN MASSACRE, 1779-1782.
The Moravians.
After the Moravian Indians were led by their missionary pastors to the
banks of the Muskingum they dwelt peacefully and unharmed for several
years. In Lord Dunmore's war special care was taken by the white leaders
that these Quaker Indians should not be harmed; and their villages of
Salem, Gnadenhutten, and Schönbrunn received no damage whatever. During
the early years of the Revolutionary struggle they were not molested,
but dwelt in peace and comfort in their roomy cabins of squared timbers,
cleanly and quiet, industriously tilling the soil, abstaining from all
strong drink, schooling their children, and keeping the Seventh Day as a
day of rest. They sought to observe strict neutrality, harming neither
the Americans nor the Indians, nor yet the allies of the latter, the
British and French at Detroit. They hoped thereby to offend neither
side, and to escape unhurt themselves.
But this was wholly impossible. They occupied an utterly untenable
position. Their villages lay mid-way between the white settlements
southeast of the Ohio, and the towns of the Indians round Sandusky, the
bitterest foes of the Americans, and those most completely under British
influence. They were on the trail that the war-parties followed whether
they struck at Kentucky or at the valleys of the Alleghany and
Monongahela. Consequently the Sandusky Indians used the Moravian
villages as halfway houses, at which to halt and refresh themselves
whether starting on a foray or returning with scalps and plunder.
The Wild Indians Hate Them.
By the time the war had lasted four or five years both the wild or
heathen Indians and the backwoodsmen had become fearfully exasperated
with the unlucky Moravians. The Sandusky Indians were largely Wyandots,
Shawnees, and Delawares, the latter being fellow-tribesmen of the
Christian Indians; and so they regarded the Moravians as traitors to the
cause of their kinsfolk, because they would not take up the hatchet
against the whites. As they could not goad them into declaring war, they
took malicious pleasure in trying to embroil them against their will,
and on returning from raids against the settlements often passed through
their towns solely to cast suspicion on them and to draw down the wrath
of the backwoodsmen on their heads. The British at Detroit feared lest
the Americans might use the Moravian villages as a basis from which to
attack the lake posts; they also coveted their men as allies; and so the
baser among their officers urged the Sandusky tribes to break up the
villages and drive off the missionaries. The other Indian tribes
likewise regarded them with angry contempt and hostility; the Iroquois
once sent word to the Chippewas and Ottawas that they gave them the
Christian Indians "to make broth of."
So Do the Americans.
The Americans became even more exasperated. The war parties that
plundered and destroyed their homes, killing their wives, children, and
friends with torments too appalling to mention, got shelter and
refreshment from the Moravians, [Footnote: Heckewelder's "Narrative of
the Mission of the United Brethren," Philadelphia, 1820, p. 166.]
--who, indeed, dared not refuse it. The backwoodsmen, roused to a mad
frenzy of rage by the awful nature of their wrongs, saw that the
Moravians rendered valuable help to their cruel and inveterate foes, and
refused to see that the help was given with the utmost reluctance.
Moreover, some of the young Christian Indians backslid, and joined their
savage brethren, accompanying them on their war parties and ravaging
with as much cruelty as any of their number. [Footnote: _Pennsylvania
Packet_ (Philadelphia, April 16, 1782); Heckewelder, 180; Loskiel's
"History of the Mission of the United Brethren" (London, 1794), P--172.
] Soon the frontiersmen began to clamor for the destruction of the
Moravian towns; yet for a little while they were restrained by the
Continental officers of the few border forts, who always treated these
harmless Indians with the utmost kindness.
They Blindly Court their Fate.
On either side were foes, who grew less governable day by day, and the
fate of the hapless and peaceful Moravians, if they continued to dwell
on the Muskingum, was absolutely inevitable. With blind fatuity their
leaders, the missionaries, refused to see the impending doom; and the
poor, simple Indians clung to their homes till destroyed. The American
commander at Pittsburg, Col. Gibson, endeavored to get them to come into
the American lines, where he would have the power, as he already had the
wish, to protect them; he pointed out that where they were they served
in some sort as a shield to the wild Indians, whom he had to spare so as
not to harm the Moravians. [Footnote: Loskiel, p. 137.] The Half King
of the Wyandots, from the other side, likewise tried to persuade them
to abandon their dangerous position, and to come well within the Indian
and British lines, saying: "Two mighty and angry gods stand opposite to
each other with their mouths wide open, and you are between them, and
are in danger of being crushed by one or the other, or by both."
[Footnote: State Department MSS., No. 41, Vol. III., pp. 78, 79; extract
from diary of Rev. David Zeisburger.] But in spite of these warnings,
and heedless of the safety that would have followed the adoption of
either course, the Moravians followed the advice of their missionaries
and continued where they were. They suffered greatly from the wanton
cruelty of their red brethren; and their fate remains a monument to
the cold-blooded and cowardly brutality of the borderers, a stain on
frontier character that the lapse of time cannot wash away; but it is
singular that historians have not yet pointed out the obvious truth,
that no small share of the blame for their sad end should be put to
the credit of the blind folly of their missionary leaders. Their only
hope in such a conflict as was then raging, was to be removed from
their fatally dangerous position; and this the missionaries would not
see. As long at they stayed where they were, it was a mere question of
chance and time whether they would be destroyed by the Indians or the
whites; for their destruction at the hands of either one party or the
other was inevitable.
Their fate was not due to the fact that they were Indians; it resulted
from their occupying an absolutely false position. This is clearly shown
by what happened twenty years previously to a small community of
non-resistant Christian whites. They were Dunkards--Quaker-like
Germans--who had built a settlement on the Monongahela. As they helped
neither side, both distrusted and hated them. The whites harassed them
in every way, and the Indians finally fell upon and massacred them.
[Footnote: Withers, 59.] The fates of these two communities, of white
Dunkards and red Moravians, were exactly parallel. Each became hateful
to both sets of combatants, was persecuted by both, and finally fell a
victim to the ferocity of the race to which it did not belong.
Evil Conduct of the Backwoodsmen.
The conduct of the backwoodsmen towards these peaceful and harmless
Christian Indians was utterly abhorrent, and will ever be a subject of
just reproach and condemnation; and at first sight it seems incredible
that the perpetrators of so vile a deed should have gone unpunished and
almost unblamed. It is a dark blot on the character of a people that
otherwise had many fine and manly qualities to its credit. But the
extraordinary conditions of life on the frontier must be kept in mind
before passing too severe a judgment. In the turmoil of the harassing
and long-continued Indian war, and the consequent loosening of social
bonds, it was inevitable that, as regards outside matters, each man
should do what seemed right in his own eyes. The bad and the good alike
were left free and untrammelled to follow the bent of their desires. The
people had all they could do to beat off their savage enemies, and to
keep order among themselves. They were able to impose but slight checks
on ruffianism that was aimed at outsiders. There were plenty of good and
upright men who would not harm any Indians wrongfully, and who treated
kindly those who were peaceable. On the other hand, there were many of
violent and murderous temper. These knew that their neighbors would
actively resent any wrong done to themselves, but knew, also, that,
under the existing conditions, they would at the worst do nothing more
than openly disapprove of an outrage perpetrated on Indians.
Its Explanation.
The violence of the bad is easily understood. The indifference displayed
towards their actions by the better men of the community, who were
certainly greatly in the majority, is harder to explain. It rose from
varying causes. In the first place, the long continuance of Indian
warfare, and the unspeakable horrors that were its invariable
accompaniments had gradually wrought up many even of the best of the
backwoodsmen to the point where they barely considered an Indian as a
human being. The warrior was not to them a creature of romance. They
knew him for what he was--filthy, cruel, lecherous, and faithless. He
sometimes had excellent qualities, but these they seldom had a chance to
see. They always met him at his worst. To them he was in peace a lazy,
dirty, drunken beggar, whom they despised, and yet whom they feared; for
the squalid, contemptible creature might at any moment be transformed
into a foe whose like there was not to be found in all the wide world
for ferocity, cunning, and blood-thirsty cruelty. The greatest Indians,
chiefs like Logan and Cornstalk, who were capable of deeds of the
loftiest and most sublime heroism, were also at times cruel monsters or
drunken good-for-nothings. Their meaner followers had only such virtues
as belong to the human wolf--stealth, craft, tireless endurance, and the
courage that prefers to prey on the helpless, but will fight to the
death without flinching if cornered.
Grimness of the Backwoods Character.
Moreover, the backwoodsmen were a hard people; a people who still lived
in an iron age. They did not spare themselves, nor those who were dear
to them; far less would they spare their real or possible foes. Their
lives were often stern and grim; they were wonted to hardship and
suffering. In the histories or traditions of the different families
there are recorded many tales of how they sacrificed themselves, and, in
time of need, sacrificed others. The mother who was a captive among the
Indians might lay down her life for her child; but if she could not save
it, and to stay with it forbade her own escape it was possible that she
would kiss it good-by and leave it to its certain fate, while she
herself, facing death at every step, fled homewards through hundreds of
miles of wilderness. [Footnote: See Hale's "Trans-Alleghany Pioneers,"
the adventures of Mrs. Inglis. She was captured on the head-waters of
the Kanawha, at the time of Braddock's defeat. The other inhabitants of
the settlement were also taken prisoners or massacred by the savages,
whom they had never wronged in any way. She was taken to the Big Bone
Lick in Kentucky. On the way her baby was born, but she was not allowed
to halt a day on account of this incident. She left it in the Indian
camp, and made her escape in company with "an old Dutch woman." They
lived on berries and nuts for forty days, while they made their way
homewards. Both got in safely, though they separated after the old Dutch
woman, in the extremity of hunger, had tried to kill her companion that
she might eat her. When Cornstalk's party perpetrated the massacre of
the Clendennins during Pontiac's war (see Stewart's Narrative), Mrs.
Clendennin likewise left her baby to its death, and made her escape; her
husband had previously been killed and his bloody scalp tied across her
jaws as a gag.] The man who daily imperilled his own life, would, if
water was needed in the fort, send his wife and daughter to draw it from
the spring round which he knew Indians lurked, trusting that the
appearance of the women would make the savages think themselves
undiscovered, and that they would therefore defer their attack.
[Footnote: As at the siege of Bryan's Station.] Such people were not
likely to spare their red-skinned foes. Many of their friends, who had
never hurt the savages in any way, had perished the victims of wanton
aggression. They themselves had seen innumerable instances of Indian
treachery. They had often known the chiefs of a tribe to profess warm
friendship at the very moment that their young men were stealing and
murdering. They grew to think of even the most peaceful Indians as
merely sleeping wild beasts, and while their own wrongs were ever
vividly before them, they rarely heard of or heeded those done to their
foes. In a community where every strong courageous man was a bulwark to
the rest, he was sure to be censured lightly for merely killing a member
of a loathed and hated race.
Many of the best of the backwoodsmen were Bible-readers, but they were
brought up in a creed that made much of the Old Testament, and laid
slight stress on pity, truth, or mercy. They looked at their foes as the
Hebrew prophets looked at the enemies of Israel. What were the
abominations because of which the Canaanites were destroyed before
Joshua, when compared with the abominations of the red savages whose
lands they, another chosen people, should in their turn inherit? They
believed that the Lord was king for ever and ever, and they believed no
less that they were but obeying His commandment as they strove mightily
to bring about the day when the heathen should have perished out of the
land; for they had read in The Book that he was accursed who did the
work of the Lord deceitfully, or kept his sword back from blood. There
was many a stern frontier zealot who deemed all the red men, good and
bad, corn ripe for the reaping. Such a one rejoiced to see his fellows
do to the harmless Moravians as the Danites once did to the people of
Laish, who lived quiet and secure, after the manner of the Sidonians,
and had no business with any man, and who yet were smitten with the edge
of the sword, and their city burnt with fire.
The Moravians Themselves not Blameless.
Finally, it must not be forgotten that there were men on the frontier
who did do their best to save the peaceful Indians, and that there were
also many circumstances connected with the latter that justly laid them
open to suspicion. When young backsliding Moravians appeared in the war
parties, as cruel and murderous as their associates, the whites were
warranted in feeling doubtful as to whether their example might not
infect the remainder of their people. War parties, whose members in
dreadful derision left women and children impaled by their trail to
greet the sight of the pursuing husbands and fathers, found food and
lodging at the Moravian towns. No matter how reluctant the aid thus
given, the pursuers were right in feeling enraged, and in demanding that
the towns should be removed to where they could no longer give comfort
to the enemy. When the missionaries refused to consent to this removal,
they thereby became helpers of the hostile Indians; they wronged the
frontiersmen, and they still more grievously wronged their own flocks.
They certainly had ample warning of the temper of the whites. Col.
Brodhead was in command at Fort Pitt until the end of 1781. At the time
that General Sullivan ravaged the country of the Six Nations, he had led
a force up the Alleghany and created a diversion by burning one or two
Iroquois towns. In 1781 he led a successful expedition against a town of
hostile Delawares on the Muskingum, taking it by surprise and
surrounding it so completely that all within were captured. Sixteen
noted warriors and marauders were singled out and put to death. The
remainder fared but little better, for, while marching back to Fort
Pitt, the militia fell on them and murdered all the men, leaving only
the women and children. The militia also started to attack the
Moravians, and were only prevented by the strenuous exertions of
Brodhead. Even this proof of the brutality of their neighbors was wasted
on the missionaries.
Maltreated by the British and Wild Indians.
The first blow the Moravians received was from the wild Indians. In the
fall of this same year (1781) their towns were suddenly visited by a
horde of armed warriors, horsemen and footmen, from Sandusky and
Detroit. Conspicuous among them were the Wyandots, under the Half King;
the Delawares, also led by a famous chief, Captain Pipe; and a body of
white rangers from Detroit, including British, French, and tories,
commanded by the British Captain Elliott, and flying the British
flag. [Footnote: State Department MSS., No. 41, Vol. III., p. 77.] With
them came also Shawnees, Chippewas, and Ottawas. All were acting in
pursuance of the express orders of the commandant at Detroit. [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. De Peyster to Haldimand, October 5th and 21st, 1781;
McKee to De Peyster, October 18th.] These warriors insisted on the
Christian Indians abandoning their villages and accompanying them back
to Sandusky and Detroit; and they destroyed many of the houses, and much
of the food for the men and the fodder for the horses and cattle. The
Moravians begged humbly to be left where they were, but without avail.
They were forced away to Lake Erie, the missionaries being taken to
Detroit, while the Indians were left on the plains of Sandusky. The wild
Indians were very savage against them, but the British commandant would
not let them be seriously maltreated, [Footnote: _Do_., December u,
1781.] though they were kept in great want and almost starved.
Also by the Americans.
A few Moravians escaped, and remained in their villages; but these,
three or four weeks later, were captured by a small detachment of
American militia, under Col. David Williamson, who had gone out to make
the Moravians either move farther off or else come in under the
protection of Fort Pitt. Williamson accordingly took the Indians to the
fort, where the Continental commander, Col. John Gibson, at once
released them, and sent them back to the villages unharmed. [Footnote:
Gibson was the old friend of the chief Logan. It is only just to
remember that the Continental officers at Fort Pitt treated the
Moravians even better than did the British officers at Detroit.] Gibson
had all along been a firm friend of the Moravians. He had protected them
against the violence of the borderers, and had written repeated and
urgent letters to Congress and to his superior officers, asking that
some steps might be taken to protect the friendly Christian
Indians. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Jan. 22, 1780 (intercepted letters).]
In the general weakness and exhaustion, however, nothing was done; and,
as neither the State nor Federal governments took any steps to protect
them, and as their missionaries refused to learn wisdom, it was evident
that the days of the Moravians were numbered. The failure of the
government to protect them was perhaps inevitable, but was certainly
discreditable.
The very day after Gibson sent the Christian Indians back to their
homes, several murders were committed near Pittsburg, and many of the
frontiersmen insisted that they were done with the good will or
connivance of the Moravians. The settlements had suffered greatly all
summer long, and the people clamored savagely against all the Indians,
blaming both Gibson and Williamson for not having killed or kept captive
their prisoners. The ruffianly and vicious of course clamored louder
than any; the mass of people who are always led by others, chimed in, in
a somewhat lower key; and many good men were silent for the reasons
given already. In a frontier democracy, military and civil officers are
directly dependent upon popular approval, not only for their offices,
but for what they are able to accomplish while filling them. They are
therefore generally extremely sensitive to either praise or blame.
Ambitious men flatter and bow to popular prejudice or opinion, and only
those of genuine power and self-reliance dare to withstand it.
Williamson was physically a fairly brave officer and not naturally
cruel; but he was weak and ambitious, ready to yield to any popular
demand, and, if it would advance his own interests, to connive at any
act of barbarity. [Footnote: This is the most favorable estimate of his
character, based on what Doddridge says (p. 260). He was a very
despicable person, but not the natural brute the missionaries painted
him.] Gibson, however, who was a very different man, paid no heed to the
cry raised against him.
They Refuse to be Warned and Return to their Homes.
With incredible folly the Moravians refused to heed even such rough
warnings as they had received. During the long winter they suffered
greatly from cold and hunger, at Sandusky, and before the spring of 1782
opened, a hundred and fifty of them returned to their deserted villages.
That year the Indian outrages on the frontiers began very early. In
February there was some fine weather; and while it lasted, several
families of settlers were butchered, some under circumstances of
peculiar atrocity. In particular, four Sandusky Indians having taken
some prisoners, impaled two of them, a woman and a child, while on their
way to the Moravian towns, where they rested and ate, prior to
continuing their journey with their remaining captives. When they left
they warned the Moravians that white men were on their trail. [Footnote:
Heckewelder, 3:1.] A white man who had just escaped this same impaling
party, also warned the Moravians that the exasperated borderers were
preparing a party to kill them; and Gibson, from Fort Pitt, sent a
messenger to them, who, however, arrived too late. But the poor
Christian Indians, usually very timid, now, in the presence of a real
danger, showed a curious apathy; their senses were numbed and dulled by
their misfortunes, and they quietly awaited their doom. [Footnote:
Loskiel, 176.]
It was not long deferred. Eighty or ninety frontiersmen, under
Williamson, hastily gathered together to destroy the Moravian towns. It
was, of course, just such an expedition as most attracted the brutal,
the vicious, and the ruffianly; but a few decent men, to their shame,
went along. They started in March, and on the third day reached the
fated villages. That no circumstance might be wanting to fill the
measure of their infamy, they spoke the Indians fair, assured them that
they meant well, and spent an hour or two in gathering together those
who were in Salem and Gnadenhutten, putting them all in two houses at
the latter place. Those at the third town, of Schönbrunn, got warning
and made their escape.
As soon as the unsuspecting Indians were gathered in the two houses, the
men in one, the women and children in the other, the whites held a
council as to what should be done with them. The great majority were for
putting them instantly to death. Eighteen men protested, and asked that
the lives of the poor creatures should be spared; and then withdrew,
calling God to witness that they were innocent of the crime about to be
committed. By rights they should have protected the victims at any
hazard. One of them took off with him a small Indian boy, whose life was
thus spared. With this exception only two lads escaped.
They are Massacred.
When the murderers told the doomed Moravians their fate, they merely
requested a short delay in which to prepare themselves for death. They
asked one another's pardon for whatever wrongs they might have done,
knelt down and prayed, kissed one another farewell, "and began to sing
hymns of hope and of praise to the Most High." Then the white butchers
entered the houses and put to death the ninety-six men, women, and
children that were within their walls. More than a hundred years have
passed since this deed of revolting brutality; but even now a just man's
blood boils in his veins at the remembrance. It is impossible not to
regret that fate failed to send some strong war party of savages across
the path of these inhuman cowards, to inflict on them the punishment
they so richly deserved. We know that a few of them were afterwards
killed by the Indians; it is a matter of keen regret that any escaped.
When the full particulars of the affair were known, all the best leaders
of the border, almost all the most famous Indian fighters, joined in
denouncing it. [Footnote: Col. James Smith, then of Kentucky, in 1799
calls it "an act of barbarity equal to any thing I ever knew to be
committed by the savages themselves, except the burning of prisoners."]
Nor is it right that the whole of the frontier folk should bear the
blame for the deed. It is a fact, honorable and worthy of mention, that
the Kentuckians were never implicated in this or any similar massacre.
[Footnote: The Germans of up-country North Carolina were guilty of as
brutal massacres as the Scotch-Irish backwoodsmen of Pennsylvania. See
Adair, 245. There are two or three individual instances of the barbarity
of Kentuckians--one being to the credit of McGarry,--but they are
singularly few, when the length and the dreadful nature of their Indian
wars are taken into account. Throughout their history the Kentucky
pioneers had the right on their side in their dealings with the Indians.
They were not wanton aggressors; they entered upon vacant
hunting-grounds, to which no tribe had a clear title, and to which most
even of the doubtful titles had been fairly extinguished. They fought
their foes fiercely, with varying fortune, and eventually wrested the
land from them; but they very rarely wronged them; and for the numerous
deeds of fearful cruelty that were done on Kentucky soil, the Indians
were in almost every case to blame.]
But at the time, and in their own neighborhood--the corner of the Upper
Ohio valley where Pennsylvania and Virginia touch,--the conduct of the
murderers of the Moravians roused no condemnation. The borderers at
first felt about it as the English Whigs originally felt about the
massacre of Glencoe. For some time the true circumstances of the affair
were not widely known among them. They were hot with wrath against all
the red-skinned race; and they rejoiced to hear of the death of a number
of treacherous Indians who pretended to be peaceful, while harboring and
giving aid and comfort to, and occasionally letting their own young men
join, bands of avowed murderers. Of course, the large wicked and
disorderly element was loud in praise of the deed. The decent people, by
their silence, acquiesced.
A terrible day of reckoning was at hand; the retribution fell on but
part of the real criminals, and bore most heavily on those who were
innocent of any actual complicity in the deed of evil. Nevertheless it
is impossible to grieve overmuch for the misfortune that befell men who
freely forgave and condoned such treacherous barbarity.
Crawford Marches against Sandusky.
In May a body of four hundred and eighty Pennsylvania and Virginia
militia gathered at Mingo Bottom, on the Ohio, with the purpose of
marching against and destroying the towns of the hostile Wyandots and
Delawares in the neighborhood of the Sandusky River. The Sandusky
Indians were those whose attacks were most severely felt by that portion
of the frontier; and for their repeated and merciless ravages they
deserved the severest chastisement. The expedition against them was from
every point of view just; and it was undertaken to punish them, and
without any definite idea of attacking the remnant of the Moravians who
were settled among them. On the other hand, the militia included in
their ranks most of those who had taken part in the murderous expedition
of two months before; this fact, and their general character, made it
certain that the peaceable and inoffensive Indians would, if
encountered, be slaughtered as pitilessly as their hostile brethren.
How little the militia volunteers disapproved of the Moravian massacre
was shown when, as was the custom, they met to choose a leader. There
were two competitors for the place, Williamson, who commanded at the
massacre, being one; and he was beaten by only five votes. His
successful opponent, Colonel William Crawford, was a fairly good
officer, a just and upright man, but with no special fitness for such a
task as that he had undertaken. Nor were the troops he led of very good
stuff [Footnote: A minute and exhaustive account of Crawford's campaign
is given by Mr. C. W. Butterfield in his "Expedition against Sandusky."
(Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1873). Mr. Butterfield shows
conclusively that the accepted accounts are wholly inaccurate, being
derived from the reports of the Moravian missionaries, whose
untruthfulness (especially Heckewelder's) is clearly demonstrated. He
shows the apocryphal nature of some of the pretended narratives of the
expedition, such as two in "The American Pioneer," etc. He also shows
how inaccurate McClung's "sketches" are--for McClung was like a host of
other early western annalists, preserving some valuable facts in a good
deal of rubbish, and having very little appreciation indeed of the
necessity of so much as approximate accuracy. Only a few of these early
western historians had the least conception of the value of evidence or
of the necessity of sifting it, or of weighing testimony.
On the other hand, Mr. Butterfield is drawn into grave errors by his
excessive partisanship of the borderers. He passes lightly over their
atrocious outrages, colors favorably many of their acts, and praises the
generalship of Crawford and the soldiership of his men; when in reality
the campaign was badly conducted from beginning to end, and reflected
discredit on most who took part in it; Crawford did poorly, and the bulk
of his men acted like unruly cowards.]; though they included a few
veteran Indian fighters.
The party left Mingo Bottom on the 25th of May. After nine days' steady
marching through the unbroken forests they came out on the Sandusky
plains; billowy stretches of prairie, covered with high coarse grass and
dotted with islands of timber. As the men marched across them they
roused quantities of prairie fowl, and saw many geese and sand-hill
cranes, which circled about in the air, making a strange clamor.
Crawford hoped to surprise the Indian towns; but his progress was slow
and the militia every now and then fired off their guns. The spies of
the savages dogged his march and knew all his movements [Footnote:
Heckewelder, 336. Butterfield shows conclusively that there is not the
slightest ground to accept Heckewelder's assertion that Crawford's
people openly declared that "no Indian was to be spared, friend or
foe."]; and runners were sent to Detroit asking help. This the British
commandant at once granted. He sent to the assistance of the threatened
tribes a number of lake Indians and a body of rangers and Canadian
volunteers, under Captain Caldwell. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. May 14,
1782. De Peyster to Haldimand.]
The Fight at Sandusky.
On the fourth of June Crawford's troops reached one of the Wyandot
towns. It was found to be deserted; and the army marched on to try and
find the others. Late in the afternoon, in the midst of the plains, near
a cranberry marsh, they encountered Caldwell and his Detroit rangers,
together with about two hundred Delawares, Wyandots, and lake Indians.
[Footnote: _Do_. Official report of Lt. John Turney of the rangers, June
7, 1782.] The British and Indians united certainly did not much exceed
three hundred men; but they were hourly expecting reinforcements, and
decided to give battle. They were posted in a grove of trees, from which
they were driven by the first charge of the Americans. A hot skirmish
ensued, in which, in spite of Crawford's superiority in force, and of
the exceptionally favorable nature of the country, he failed to gain any
marked advantage. His troops, containing so large a leaven of the
murderers of the Moravians, certainly showed small fighting capacity
when matched against armed men who could defend themselves. After the
first few minutes neither side gained or lost ground.
Of the Americans five were killed and nineteen wounded--in all
twenty-four. Of their opponents the rangers lost two men killed and
three wounded, Caldwell being one of the latter; and the Indians four
killed and eight wounded--in all seventeen. [Footnote: _Do_. Probably
some of this loss occurred on the following day. I rely on Butterfield
for the American loss, as he quotes Irvine's official report, etc. He of
course wrote without knowledge of the British reports; and his account
of the Indian losses and numbers is all wrong. He fails signally in his
effort to prove that the Americans behaved bravely.]
That night Crawford's men slept by their watch-fires in the grove, their
foes camping round about in the open prairie. Next morning the British
and Indians were not inclined to renew the attack; they wished to wait
until their numbers were increased. The only chance of the American
militia was to crush their enemies before reinforcements arrived, yet
they lay supine and idle all day long, save for an occasional harmless
skirmish. Crawford's generalship was as poor as the soldiership of his
men.
Rout of the Whites.
In the afternoon the Indians were joined by one hundred and forty
Shawnees. At sight of this accession of strength the disspirited militia
Rout gave up all thought of any thing but flight, though they were still
equal in numbers to their foes. That night they began a hurried and
disorderly retreat. The Shawnees and Delawares attacked them in the
darkness, causing some loss and great confusion, and a few of the troops
got into the marsh. Many thus became scattered, and next morning there
were only about three hundred men left together in a body. Crawford
himself was among the missing, so Williamson took command, and hastily
continued the retreat. The savages did not make a very hot pursuit;
nevertheless, in the afternoon of that day a small number of Indians and
Detroit rangers overtook the Americans. They were all mounted. A slight
skirmish followed, and the Americans lost eleven men, but repulsed their
pursuers. [Footnote: Who were probably at this point much fewer in
number than the Americans; Butterfield says the reverse, but his account
is untrustworthy on these matters.] After this they suffered little
molestation, and reached Mingo Bottom on the 13th of the month.
[Footnote: As Butterfield shows, Heckewelder's account of Crawford's
whole expedition is a piece of sheer romancing.]
Many of the stragglers came in afterwards. In all about seventy either
died of their wounds, were killed outright, or were captured. Of the
latter, those who were made prisoners by the Wyandots were tomahawked
and their heads stuck on poles; but if they fell into the hands of the
Shawnees or Delawares they were tortured to death with fiendish cruelty.
Among them was Crawford himself, who had become separated from the main
body when it began its disorderly night retreat. After abandoning his
jaded horse he started homewards on foot, but fell into the hands of a
small party of Delawares, together with a companion named Knight.
These two prisoners were taken to one of the Delaware villages. The
Indians were fearfully exasperated by the Moravian massacre [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. De Peyster to Haldimand, June 23, 1782.]; and some of
the former Moravians, who had rejoined their wild tribesmen, told the
prisoners that from that time on not a single captive should escape
torture. Nevertheless it is likely that Crawford would have been burned
in any event, and that most of the prisoners would have been tortured to
death even had the Moravians never been harmed; for such had always been
the custom of the Delawares.
The British, who had cared for the remnants of the Moravians, now did
their best to stop the cruelties of the Indians, [Footnote: _Do_. Aug.
18, 1782.] but could accomplish little or nothing. Even the Mingos and
Hurons told them that though they would not torture any Americans, they
intended thenceforth to put all their prisoners to death. [Footnote:
_Do_. Dec. 1, 1782.]
Crawford Tortured to Death.
Crawford was tied to the stake in the presence of a hundred Indians.
Among them were Simon Girty, the white renegade, and a few Wyandots.
Knight, Crawford's fellow-captive, was a horrified spectator of the
awful sufferings which he knew he was destined by his captors ultimately
to share. Crawford, stripped naked, and with his hands bound behind him,
was fastened to a high stake by a strong rope; the rope was long enough
for him to walk once or twice round the stake. The fire, of small
hickory poles, was several yards from the post, so as only to roast and
scorch him. Powder was shot into his body, and burning fagots shoved
against him, while red embers were strewn beneath his feet. For two
hours he bore his torments with manly fortitude, speaking low, and
beseeching the Almighty to have mercy on his soul. Then he fell down,
and his torturers scalped him, and threw burning coals on his bare
skull. Rising, he walked about the post once or twice again, and then
died. Girty and the Wyandots looked on, laughing at his agony, but
taking no part in the torture. When the news of his dreadful fate was
brought to the settlements, it excited the greatest horror, not only
along the whole frontier, but elsewhere in the country; for he was
widely known, was a valued friend of Washington and was everywhere
beloved and respected.
Knight, a small and weak-looking man, was sent to be burned at the
Shawnee towns, under the care of a burly savage. Making friends with the
latter, he lulled his suspicions, the more easily because the Indian
evidently regarded so small a man with contempt; and then, watching his
opportunity, he knocked his guard down and ran off into the woods,
eventually making his way to the settlements.
Another of the captives, Slover by name, made a more remarkable escape.
Slover's life history had been curious. When a boy eight years old,
living near the springs of the Kanawha, his family was captured by
Indians, his brother alone escaping. His father was killed, and his two
little sisters died of fatigue on the road to the Indian villages; his
mother was afterwards ransomed. He lived twelve years with the savages,
at first in the Miami towns, and then with the Shawnees. When twenty
years old he went to Fort Pitt, where, by accident, he was made known to
some of his relations. They pressed him to rejoin his people, but he had
become so wedded to savage life that he at first refused. At last he
yielded, however, took up his abode with the men of his own color, and
became a good citizen, and a worthy member of the Presbyterian Church.
At the outbreak of the Revolution he served fifteen months as a
Continental soldier, and when Crawford started against the Sandusky
Indians, he went along as a scout.
Slover, when captured, was taken round to various Indian towns, and saw
a number of his companions, as well as other white prisoners, tomahawked
or tortured to death. He was examined publicly about many matters at
several Great Councils--for he spoke two or three different Indian
languages fluently. At one of the councils he heard the Indians solemnly
resolve to take no more prisoners thereafter, but to kill all Americans,
of whatever sex and age; some of the British agents from Detroit
signifying their approval of the resolution. [Footnote: Slover asserts
that it was taken in consequence of a message sent advising it by the
commandant at Detroit. This is doubtless untrue; the commandant at
Detroit did what he could to stop such outrages, although many of his
more reckless and uncontrollable subordinates very probably pursued an
opposite course. The ignorant and violently prejudiced backwoodsmen
naturally believed all manner of evil of their British foes; but it is
singular that writers who ought to be well informed should even now
continue to accept all their wild assertions as unquestioned facts. The
conduct of the British was very bad; but it is silly to describe it in
the terms often used. The year after their escape Slover dictated, and
Knight wrote, narratives of their adventures, which were together
published in book form at Philadelphia in 1783. They are very
interesting.]
Slover's Escape.
At last he was condemned to be burned, and was actually tied to the
stake. But a heavy shower came on, so wetting the wood that it was
determined to reprieve him till the morrow. That night he was bound and
put in a wigwam under the care of three warriors. They laughed and
chatted with the prisoner, mocking him, and describing to him with
relish all the torments that he was to suffer. At last they fell asleep,
and, just before daybreak, he managed to slip out of his rope and
escape, entirely naked.
Catching a horse, he galloped away sitting on a piece of old rug, and
guiding the animal with the halter. He rode steadily and at speed for
seventy miles, until his horse dropped dead under him late in the
afternoon. Springing off, he continued the race on foot. At last he
halted, sick and weary; but, when he had rested an hour or two, he heard
afar off the halloo of his pursuers. Struggling to his feet he continued
his flight, and ran until after dark. He then threw himself down and
snatched a few hours' restless sleep, but, as soon as the moon rose, he
renewed his run for life, carefully covering his trail whenever
possible. At last he distanced his enemies. For five days he went
straight through the woods, naked, bruised, and torn, living on a few
berries and a couple of small crawfish he caught in a stream. He could
not sleep nor sometimes even lie down at night because of the
mosquitoes. On the morning of the sixth day he reached Wheeling, after
experiencing such hardship and suffering as none but an iron will and
frame could have withstood.
Woe on the Frontier.
Until near the close of the year 1782 the frontiers suffered heavily. A
terrible and deserved retribution fell on the borderers for their crime
in failing to punish the dastardly deed of Williamson and his
associates. The Indians were roused to savage anger by the murder of the
Moravians, and were greatly encouraged by their easy defeat of
Crawford's troops. They harassed the settlements all along the Upper
Ohio, the Alleghany and the Monongahela, and far into the interior,
[Footnote: Va. State Papers, III., 235.] burning, ravaging, and
murdering, and bringing dire dismay to every lonely clearing, and every
palisaded hamlet of rough log-cabins.
CHAPTER VI.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE CONQUERED FRENCH SETTLEMENTS, 1779-1783.
Illinois Made a County.
The Virginian Government took immediate steps to provide for the civil
administration of the country Clark had conquered. In the fall of 1778
the entire region northwest of the Ohio was constituted the county of
Illinois, with John Todd as county-lieutenant or commandant.
Todd was a firm friend and follower of Clark's, and had gone with him on
his campaign against Vincennes. It therefore happened that he received
his commission while at the latter town, early in the spring of '79. In
May he went to Kaskaskia, to organize the county; and Clark, who
remained military commandant of the Virginia State troops that were
quartered in the district, was glad to turn over the civil government to
the charge of his old friend.
Together with his commission, Todd received a long and excellent letter
of instructions from Governor Patrick Henry. He was empowered to choose
a deputy-commandant, and officers for the militia; but the judges and
officers of the court were to be elected by the people themselves. He
was given large discretionary power, Henry impressing upon him with
especial earnestness the necessity to "cultivate and conciliate the
French and Indians." [Footnote: See Col. John Todd's "Record Book,"
while County Lieutenant of Illinois. There is an MS. copy in Col.
Durrett's library at Louisville. It is our best authority for these
years in Illinois. The substance of it is given on pp. 49-68 of Mr.
Edward G. Mason's interesting and valuable pamphlet on "Illinois in the
18th Century" (Chicago, Fergus Printing Co., 1881).] With this end in
view, he was bidden to pay special heed to the customs of the creoles,
to avoid shocking their prejudices, and to continually consult with
their most intelligent and upright men. He was to coöperate in every way
with Clark and his troops, while at the same time the militia were to be
exclusively under his own control. The inhabitants were to have strict
justice done them if wronged by the troops; and Clark was to put down
rigorously any licentiousness on the part of his soldiers. The wife and
children of the former British commandant--the creole Rocheblave--were
to be treated with particular respect, and not suffered to want for any
thing. He was exhorted to use all his diligence and ability to
accomplish the difficult task set him. Finally Henry advised him to lose
no opportunity of inculcating in the minds of the French the value of
the liberty the Americans brought them, as contrasted with "the slavery
to which the Illinois was destined" by the British.
This last sentence was proved by subsequent events to be a touch of
wholly unconscious but very grim humor. The French were utterly unsuited
for liberty, as the Americans understood the term, and to most of them
the destruction of British rule was a misfortune. The bold,
self-reliant, and energetic spirits among them, who were able to become
Americanized, and to adapt themselves to the new conditions, undoubtedly
profited immensely by the change. As soon as they adopted American ways,
they were received by the Americans on terms of perfect and cordial
equality, and they enjoyed a far higher kind of life than could possibly
have been theirs formerly, and achieved a much greater measure of
success. But most of the creoles were helplessly unable to grapple with
the new life. They had been accustomed to the paternal rule of priest
and military commandant, and they were quite unable to govern
themselves, or to hold their own with the pushing, eager, and often
unscrupulous, new-comers. So little able were they to understand
precisely what the new form of government was, that when they went down
to receive Todd as commandant, it is said that some of them, joining in
the cheering, from force of habit cried "Vive le Roi."
For the first year of Todd's administration, while Clark still remained
in the county as commandant of the State troops, matters went fairly
well. Clark kept the Indians completely in check, and when some of them
finally broke out, and started on a marauding expedition against
Cahokia, he promptly repulsed them, and by a quick march burned their
towns on Rock River, and forced them to sue for peace. [Footnote: In the
beginning of 1780. Bradford MS.]
Todd appointed a Virginian, Richard Winston, as commandant at Kaskaskia;
all his other appointees were Frenchmen. An election was forthwith held
for justices; to the no small astonishment of the Creoles, unaccustomed
as they were to American methods of self-government. Among those whom
they elected as judges and court officers were some of the previously
appointed militia captains and lieutenants, who thus held two positions.
The judges governed their decisions solely by the old French laws and
customs. [Footnote: State Department MSS., No. 48, p. 51.] Todd at once
made the court proceed to business. On its recommendation he granted
licenses to trade to men of assured loyalty. He also issued a
proclamation in reference to new settlers taking up lands. Being a
shrewd man, he clearly foresaw the ruin that was sure to arise from the
new Virginia land laws as applied to Kentucky, and he feared the inrush
of a horde of speculators, who would buy land with no immediate
intention of settling thereon. Besides, the land was so fertile in the
river bottoms, that he deemed the amount Virginia allotted to each
person excessive. So he decreed that each settler should take up his
land in the shape of one of the long narrow French farms, that stretched
back from the water-front; and that no claim should contain a greater
number of acres than did one of these same farms. This proclamation
undoubtedly had a very good effect.
Financial Difficulties.
He next wrestled steadily, but much less successfully, with the
financial question. He attempted to establish a land bank, as it were,
setting aside a great tract of land to secure certain issues of
Continental money. The scheme failed, and in spite of his public
assurance that the Continental currency would shortly be equal in value
to gold and silver, it swiftly sank until it was not worth two cents on
the dollar.
This wretched and worthless paper-money, which the Americans brought
with them, was a perfect curse to the country. Its rapid depreciation
made it almost impossible to pay the troops, or to secure them supplies,
and as a consequence they became disorderly and mutinous. Two or three
prominent creoles, who were devoted adherents of the American cause,
made loans of silver to the Virginian Government, as represented by
Clark, thereby helping him materially in the prosecution of his
campaign. Chief among these public-spirited patriots were Francis Vigo,
and the priest Gibault, both of them already honorably mentioned. Vigo
advanced nearly nine thousand dollars in specie,--piastres or Spanish
milled dollars,--receiving in return bills on the "Agent of Virginia,"
which came back protested for want of funds; and neither he nor his
heirs ever got a dollar of what was due them. He did even more. The
creoles at first refused to receive any thing but peltries or silver for
their goods; they would have nothing to do with the paper, and to all
explanations as to its uses, simply answered "that their commandants
never made money." [Footnote: Law's "Vincennes," pp. 49, 126. For some
inscrutable reason, by the way, the Americans for a long time persisted
in speaking of the place as _St._ Vincennes.] Finally they were
persuaded to take it on Vigo's personal guaranty, and his receiving it
in his store. Even he, however, could not buoy it up long.
Gibault likewise [Footnote See his letter to Governor St. Clair, May I,
1790.] advanced a large sum of money, parted with his titles and beasts,
so as to set a good example to his parishioners, and, with the same
purpose, furnished goods to the troops at ordinary prices, taking the
paper in exchange as if it had been silver. In consequence he lost over
fifteen hundred dollars, was forced to sell his only two slaves, and
became almost destitute; though in the end he received from the
government a tract of land which partially reimbursed him. Being driven
to desperate straits, the priest tried a rather doubtful shift. He sold,
or pretended to sell, a great natural meadow, known as la prairie du
pont, which the people of Cahokia claimed as a common pasture for their
cattle. His conduct drew forth a sharp remonstrance from the Cahokians,
in the course of which they frankly announced that they believed the
priest should confine himself to ecclesiastical matters, and should not
meddle with land grants, especially when the land he granted did not
belong to him. [Footnote: State Department MSS., No. 48, p. 41. Petition
of J. B. La Croix and A. Girardin.]
It grew steadily more difficult to get the Creoles to furnish supplies;
Todd had to forbid the exportation of any provisions whatever, and,
finally, the soldiers were compelled to levy on all that they needed.
Todd paid for these impressed goods, as well as for what the contractors
furnished, at the regulation prices--one third in paper-money and two
thirds in peltries; and thus the garrisons at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and
Vincennes were supplied with powder, lead, sugar, flour, and, above all,
hogsheads of taffia, of which they drank an inordinate quantity.
The justices did not have very much work; in most of the cases that came
before them the plaintiff and defendant were both of the same race. One
piece of recorded testimony is rather amusing, being to the effect that
"Monsieur Smith est un grand vilain coquin." [Footnote: This and most of
the other statements for which no authority is quoted, are based on
Todd's MS. "Record Book."]
Burning of Negroes Accused of Sorcery.
Yet there are two entries in the proceedings of the Creole courts for
the summer of 1779, as preserved in Todd's "Record Book," which are of
startling significance. To understand them it must be remembered that
the Creoles were very ignorant and superstitious, and that they one and
all including, apparently, even, their priests, firmly believed in
witchcraft and sorcery. Some of their negro slaves had been born in
Africa, the others had come from the Lower Mississippi or the West
Indies; they practised the strange rites of voudooism, and a few were
adepts in the art of poisoning. Accordingly the French were always on
the look-out lest their slaves should, by spell or poison, take their
lives. It must also be kept in mind that the pardoning power of the
commandant did not extend to cases of treason or murder--a witchcraft
trial being generally one for murder,--and that he was expressly
forbidden to interfere with the customs and laws, or go counter to the
prejudices, of the inhabitants.
At this time the Creoles were smitten by a sudden epidemic of fear that
their negro slaves were trying to bewitch and poison them. Several of
the negroes were seized and tried, and in June two were condemned to
death. One, named Moreau, was sentenced to be hung outside Cahokia. The
other, a Kaskaskian slave named Manuel, suffered a worse fate. He was
sentenced "to be chained to a post at the water-side, and there to be
burnt alive and his ashes scattered." [Footnote: The entries merely
record the sentences, with directions that they be immediately executed.
But there seems very little doubt that they were for witchcraft, or
voudouism, probably with poisoning at the bottom--and that they were
actually carried out. See Mason's pamphlet, p. 59.] These two sentences,
and the directions for their immediate execution, reveal a dark chapter
in the early history of Illinois. It seems a strange thing that, in the
United States, three years after the declaration of independence, men
should have been burnt and hung for witchcraft, in accordance with the
laws, and with the decision of the proper court. The fact that the
victim, before being burned, was forced to make "honorable fine" at the
door of the Catholic church, shows that the priest at least acquiesced
in the decision. The blame justly resting on the Puritans of
seventeenth-century New England must likewise fall on the Catholic
French of eighteenth-century Illinois.
Early in the spring of 1780 Clark left the country; he did not again
return to take command, for after visiting the fort on the Mississippi,
and spending the summer in the defence of Kentucky, he went to Virginia
to try to arrange for an expedition against Detroit. Todd also left
about the same time, having been elected a Kentucky delegate to the
Virginia Legislature. He afterwards made one or two flying visits to
Illinois, but exerted little influence over her destiny, leaving the
management of affairs entirely in the hands of his deputy, or
lieutenant-commandant for the time being. He usually chose for this
position either Richard Winston, the Virginian, or else a Creole named
Timothea Demunbrunt.
Disorders in the Government.
Todd's departure was a blow to the country; but Clark's was a far more
serious calamity. By his personal influence he had kept the Indians in
check, the Creoles contented, and the troops well fed and fairly
disciplined. As soon as he went, trouble broke out. The officers did not
know how to support their authority; they were very improvident, and one
or two became implicated in serious scandals. The soldiers soon grew
turbulent, and there was constant clashing between the civil and
military rulers. Gradually the mass of the Creoles became so angered
with the Americans that they wished to lay their grievances before the
French Minister at Philadelphia; and many of them crossed the
Mississippi and settled under the Spanish flag. The courts rapidly lost
their power, and the worst people, both Americans and Creoles, practised
every kind of rascality with impunity. All decent men joined in
clamoring for Clark's return; but it was impossible for him to come
back. The freshets and the maladministration combined to produce a
dearth, almost a famine, in the land. The evils were felt most severely
in Vincennes, where Helm, the captain of the post, though a brave and
capable man, was utterly unable to procure supplies of any kind. He did
not hear of Clark's success against Piqua and Chillicothe until October.
Then he wrote to one of the officers at the Falls, saying that he was
"sitting by the fire with a piece of lightwood and two ribs of an old
buffloe, which is all the meat we have seen this many days. I
congratulate your success against the Shawanohs, but there's never
doubts where that brave Col. Clark commands; we well know the loss of
him in Illinois.... Excuse Haste as the Lightwood's Just out and mouth
watering for part of the two ribs." [Footnote: Calendar of Va. State
Papers, I., pp. 380, 382, 383, Oct. 24-29, 1780.]
La Balme's Expedition.
In the fall of 1780 a Frenchman, named la Balme, led an expedition
composed purely of Creoles against Detroit. He believed that he could
win over the French at that place to his side, and thus capture the fort
as Clark had captured Vincennes. He raised some fifty volunteers round
Cahokia and Kaskaskia, perhaps as many more on the Wabash, and marched
to the Maumee River. Here he stopped to plunder some British traders;
and in November the neighboring Indians fell on his camp, killed him and
thirty or forty of his men, and scattered the rest. [Footnote: Haldimand
MSS. De Peyster to Haldimand, Nov. 16, 1780.] His march had been so
quick and unexpected that it rendered the British very uneasy, and they
were much rejoiced at his discomfiture and death.
The following year a new element of confusion was added. In 1779 Spain
declared war on Great Britain. The Spanish commandant at New Orleans was
Don Bernard de Galvez, one of the very few strikingly able men Spain has
sent to the western hemisphere during the past two centuries. He was
bold, resolute, and ambitious; there is reason to believe that at one
time he meditated a separation from Spain, the establishment of a
Spanish-American empire, and the founding of a new imperial house.
However this may be, he threw himself heart and soul into the war
against Britain; and attacked British West Florida with a fiery energy
worthy of Wolfe or Montcalm. He favored the Americans; but it was patent
to all that he favored them only the better to harass the British.
[Footnote: State Department MSS., No. 50, p. 109.]
Besides the Creoles and the British garrisons, there were quite a number
of American settlers in West Florida. In the immediate presence of
Spanish and Indian foes, these, for the most part, remained royalists.
In 1778 a party of armed Americans, coming down the Ohio and
Mississippi, tried to persuade them to turn whig, but, becoming
embroiled with them, the militant missionaries were scattered and driven
off. Afterwards the royalists fought among themselves; but this was a
mere faction quarrel, and was soon healed. Towards the end of 1779,
Galvez, with an army of Spanish and French Creole troops, attacked the
forts along the Mississippi--Manchac, Baton Rouge, Natchez, and one or
two smaller places,--speedily carrying them and capturing their
garrisons of British regulars and royalist militia. During the next
eighteen months he laid siege to and took Mobile and Pensacola. While he
was away on his expedition against the latter place, the royalist
Americans round Natchez rose and retook the fort from the Spaniards; but
at the approach of Galvez they fled in terror, marching overland towards
Georgia, then in the hands of the tories. On the way they suffered great
loss and damage from the Creeks and Choctaws.
A Spanish Attempt on St. Joseph.
The Spanish commander at St. Louis was inspired by the news of these
brilliant victories to try if he, too, could not gain a small wreath at
the expense of Spain's enemies. Clark had already become thoroughly
convinced of the duplicity of the Spaniards on the upper Mississippi; he
believed that they were anxious to have the British retake Illinois, so
that they, in their turn, might conquer and keep it. [Footnote: Clark to
Todd, March, 1780. Va. State Papers, I., 338.] They never had the chance
to execute this plan; but, on January 2, 1781, a Spanish captain, Don
Eugénio Pierro, led a hundred and twenty men, chiefly Indians and
Creoles, against the little French village, or fur post, of St. Joseph,
where they burned the houses of one or two British traders, claimed the
country round the Illinois River as conquered for the Spanish king, and
forthwith returned to St. Louis, not daring to leave a garrison of any
sort behind them, and being harassed on their retreat by the Indians. On
the strength of this exploit Spain afterwards claimed a large stretch of
country to the east of the Mississippi. In reality it was a mere
plundering foray. The British at once retook possession of the place,
and, indeed, were for some time ignorant whether the raiders had been
Americans or Spaniards. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Haldimand to De
Peyster, April 10, 1781. Report of Council at St. Joseph, March 11,
1781.] Soon after the recapture, the Detroit authorities sent a scouting
party to dislodge some Illinois people who had attempted to make a
settlement at Chicago. [Footnote: _Do._ Haldimand to De Peyster, May 19,
1782. This is the first record of an effort to make a permanent
settlement at Chicago.]
At the end of the year 1781 the unpaid troops in Vincennes were on the
verge of mutiny, and it was impossible longer even to feed them, for the
inhabitants themselves were almost starving. The garrison was therefore
withdrawn; and immediately the Wabash Indians joined those of the Miami,
the Sandusky, and the Lakes in their raids on the settlements.
[Footnote: Va. State Papers, III., 502.] By this time, however,
Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown, and the British were even more
exhausted than the Americans. Some of the French partisans of the
British at Detroit, such as Rocheblave and Lamothe, who had been
captured by Clark, were eager for revenge, and desired to be allowed to
try and retake Vincennes and the Illinois; they saw that the Americans
must either be exterminated or else the land abandoned to them.
[Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Letter of Rocheblave, Oct. 7, 1781; of
Lamothe, April 24, 1782.] But the British commandant was in no condition
to comply with their request, or to begin offensive operations. Clark
had not only conquered the land, but he had held it firmly while he
dwelt therein; and even when his hand was no longer felt, the order he
had established took some little time before crumbling. Meanwhile, his
presence at the Falls, his raids into the Indian country, and his
preparations for an onslaught on Detroit kept the British authorities at
the latter place fully occupied, and prevented their making any attempt
to recover what they had lost. By the beginning of 1782 the active
operations of the Revolutionary war were at an end, and the worn-out
British had abandoned all thought of taking the offensive anywhere,
though the Indian hostilities continued with unabated vigor. Thus the
grasp with which the Americans held the conquered country was not
relaxed until all danger that it would be taken from them had ceased.
Confusion at Vincennes.
In 1782 the whole Illinois region lapsed into anarchy and confusion. It
was perhaps worst at Vincennes, where the departure of the troops had
left the French free to do as they wished. Accustomed for generations to
a master, they could do nothing with their new-found liberty beyond
making it a curse to themselves and their neighbors. They had been
provided with their own civil government in the shape of their elective
court, but the judges had literally no idea of their proper functions as
a governing body to administer justice. At first they did nothing
whatever beyond meet and adjourn. Finally it occurred to them that
perhaps their official position could be turned to their own advantage.
Their townsmen were much too poor to be plundered; but there were vast
tracts of fertile wild land on every side, to which, as far as they
knew, there was no title, and which speculators assured them would
ultimately be of great value. Vaguely remembering Todd's opinion, that
he had power to interfere under certain conditions with the settlement
of the lands, and concluding that he had delegated this power, as well
as others, to themselves, the justices of the court proceeded to make
immense grants of territory, reciting that they did so under "_les
pouvoirs donnés a Mons'rs Les Magistrats de la cour de Vincennes par le
Snr. Jean Todd, colonel et Grand Judge civil pour les États Unis_";
Todd's title having suffered a change and exaltation in their memories.
They granted one another about fifteen thousand square miles of land
round the Wabash; each member of the court in turn absenting himself for
the day on which his associates granted him his share.
This vast mass of virgin soil they sold to speculators at nominal
prices, sometimes receiving a horse or a gun for a thousand acres. The
speculators of course knew that their titles were worthless, and made
haste to dispose of different lots at very low prices to intending
settlers. These small buyers were those who ultimately suffered by the
transaction, as they found they had paid for worthless claims. The
speculators reaped the richest harvest; and it is hard to decide whether
to be amused or annoyed at the childish and transparent rascality of the
French Creoles. [Footnote: State Department MSS., Nos. 30 and 48. Laws
"Vincennes."]
Lawlessness in the Illinois.
In the Illinois country proper the troops, the American settlers,
speculators, and civil officials, and the Creole inhabitants all
quarrelled together indiscriminately. The more lawless new-comers stole
horses from the quieter Creoles; the worst among the French, the idle
coureurs-des-bois, voyageurs, and trappers plundered and sometimes
killed the peaceable citizens of either nationality. The soldiers became
little better than an unruly mob; some deserted, or else in company with
other ruffians, both French and American, indulged in furious and
sometimes murderous orgies, to the terror of the Creoles who had
property. The civil authorities, growing day by day weaker, were finally
shorn of all power by the military. This, however, was in nowise a
quarrel between the French and the Americans. As already explained, in
Todd's absence the position of deputy was sometimes filled by a Creole
and sometimes by an American. He had been particular to caution them in
writing to keep up a good understanding with the officers and troops,
adding, as a final warning: "If this is not the case you will be
unhappy." Unfortunately for one of the deputies, Richard Winston, he
failed to keep up the good understanding, and, as Todd had laconically
foretold, he in consequence speedily became very "unhappy." We have only
his own account of the matter. According to this, in April, 1782, he was
taken out of his house "in despite of the civil authority, disregarding
the laws and on the malitious alugation of Jno. Williams and Michel
Pevante." Thus a Frenchman and an American joined in the accusation, for
some of the French supported the civil, others the military,
authorities. The soldiers had the upper hand, however, and Winston
records that he was forthwith "confined by tyrannick military force."
From that time the authority of the laws was at an end, and as the
officers of the troops had but little control, every man did what
pleased him best.
In January, 1781, the Virginia Legislature passed an act ceding to
Congress, for the benefit of the United States, all of Virginia's claim
to the territory northwest of the Ohio; but the cession was not
consummated until after the close of the war with Great Britain, and the
only immediate effect of the act was to still further derange affairs in
Illinois. The whole subject of the land cessions of the various States,
by which the northwest territory became Federal property, and the heart
of the Union, can best be considered in treating of post-revolutionary
times.
The French Creoles had been plunged in chaos. In their deep distress
they sent to the powers that the chances of war had set above them
petition after petition, reciting their wrongs and praying that they
might be righted. There is one striking difference between these
petitions and the similar requests and complaints made from time to time
by the different groups of American settlers west of the Alleghanies.
Both alike set forth the evils from which the petitioners suffered, and
the necessity of governmental remedy. But whereas the Americans
invariably asked that they be allowed to govern themselves, being
delighted to undertake the betterment of their condition on their own
account, the French, on the contrary, habituated through generations to
paternal rule, were more inclined to request that somebody fitted for
the task should be sent to govern them. They humbly asked Congress
either to "immediately establish some form of government among them, and
appoint officers to execute the same," or else "to nominate
commissioners to repair to the Illinois and inquire into the situation."
[Footnote: State Department MSS., No. 30, p. 453. Memorial of François
Carbonneaux, agent for the inhabitants of Illinois.]
One of the petitions is pathetic in its showing of the bewilderment into
which the poor Creoles were thrown as to who their governors really
were. It requests "their Sovereign Lords," [Footnote: "Nos Souverains
Seigneurs." The letter is ill-written and worse spelt, in an
extraordinary French patois. State Department MSS., No. 30, page 459. It
is dated December 3, 1782. Many of the surnames attached are marked with
a cross; others are signed. Two are given respectively as "Bienvenus
fils" and "Blouin fils."] whether of the Congress of the United States
or of the Province of Virginia, whichever might be the owner of the
country, to nominate "a lieutenant or a governor, whomever it may please
our Lords to send us." [Footnote: State Department MSS., No. 30, p. 459,
"de nomer un lieutenant ou un gouverneur tel qu'il plaira a nos
Seigneurs de nous l'envoyer."] The letter goes on to ask that this
governor may speak French, so that he may preside over the court; and it
earnestly beseeches that the laws may be enforced and crime and
wrong-doing put down with a strong hand.
The conquest of the Illinois Territory was fraught with the deepest and
most far-reaching benefits to all the American people; it likewise
benefited, in at least an equal degree, the boldest and most energetic
among the French inhabitants, those who could hold their own among
freemen, who could swim in troubled waters; but it may well be doubted
whether to the mass of the ignorant and simple Creoles it was not a
curse rather than a blessing.
CHAPTER VII.
KENTUCKY UNTIL THE END OF THE REVOLUTION, 1782-1783.
Seventeen hundred and eighty-two proved to be Kentucky's year of blood.
The British at Detroit had strained every nerve to drag into the war the
entire Indian population of the northwest. They had finally succeeded in
arousing even the most distant tribes--not to speak of the twelve
thousand savages immediately tributary to Detroit. [Footnote: Haldimand
MSS. Census for 1782, 11,402.] So lavish had been the expenditure of
money and presents to secure the good-will of the savages and enlist
their active services against the Americans, that it had caused serious
complaint at headquarters. [Footnote: _Do._ Haldimand to De Peyster,
April 10, October 6, 1781.]
Renewal of the Indian Forays.
Early in the spring the Indians renewed their forays; horses were
stolen, cabins burned, and women and children carried off captive. The
people were confined closely to their stockaded forts, from which small
bands of riflemen sallied to patrol the country. From time to time these
encountered marauding parties, and in the fights that followed sometimes
the whites, sometimes the reds, were victorious.
One of these conflicts attracted wide attention on the border because of
the obstinacy with which it was waged and the bloodshed that accompanied
it. In March a party of twenty-five Wyandots came into the settlements,
passed Boonsborough, and killed and scalped a girl within sight of
Estill's Station. The men from the latter, also to the number of
twenty-five, hastily gathered under Captain Estill, and after two days'
hot pursuit overtook the Wyandots. A fair stand-up fight followed, the
better marksmanship of the whites being offset, as so often before, by
the superiority their foes showed in sheltering themselves. At last
victory declared for the Indians. Estill had despatched a lieutenant and
seven men to get round the Wyandots and assail them in the rear; but
either the lieutenant's heart or his judgment failed him, he took too
long, and meanwhile the Wyandots closed in on the others, killing nine,
including Estill, and wounding four, who, with their unhurt comrades,
escaped. It is said that the Wyandots themselves suffered heavily.
[Footnote: Of course not as much as their foes. The backwoodsmen (like
the regular officers of both the British and American armies in similar
cases, as at Grant's and St. Clair's defeats) were fond of consoling
themselves for their defeats by snatching at any wild tale of the losses
of the victors. In the present instance it is even possible that the
loss of the Wyandots was very light instead of very heavy.]
These various ravages and skirmishes were but the prelude to a far more
serious attack. In July the British captains Caldwell and McKee came
down from Detroit with a party of rangers, and gathered together a great
army of over a thousand Indians [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Letter from
Capt. Caldwell, August 26, 1782; and letter of Captain McKee, August 28,
1782. These two letters are very important, as they give for the first
time the British and Indian accounts of the battle of the Blue Licks; I
print them in the Appendix.]--the largest body of either red men or
white that was ever mustered west of the Alleghanies during the
Revolution. They meant to strike at Wheeling; but while on their march
thither were suddenly alarmed by the rumor that Clark intended to attack
the Shawnee towns. [Footnote: This rumor was caused by Clark's gunboat,
which, as will be hereafter mentioned, had been sent up to the mouth of
the Licking; some Shawnees saw it, and thought Clark was preparing for
an inroad.] They at once countermarched, but on reaching the threatened
towns found that the alarm had been groundless. Most of the savages,
with characteristic fickleness of temper, then declined to go farther;
but a body of somewhat over three hundred Hurons and Lake Indians
remained. With these, and their Detroit rangers, Caldwell and McKee
crossed the Ohio and marched into Kentucky, to attack the small forts of
Fayette County.
Fayette lay between the Kentucky and the Ohio rivers, and was then the
least populous and most exposed of the three counties into which the
growing young commonwealth was divided. In 1782 it contained but five of
the small stockaded towns in which all the early settlers were obliged
to gather. The best defended and most central was Lexington, round which
were grouped the other four--Bryan's (which was the largest), McGee's,
McConnell's, and Boon's. Boon's Station, sometimes called Boon's new
station, where the tranquil, resolute old pioneer at that time dwelt,
must not be confounded with his former fort of Boonsborough, from which
it was several miles distant, north of the Kentucky. Since the
destruction of Martin's and Ruddle's stations on the Licking, Bryan's on
the south bank of the Elkhorn was left as the northernmost outpost of
the settlers. Its stout, loopholed palisades enclosed some forty cabins,
there were strong block-houses at the corners, and it was garrisoned by
fifty good riflemen.
These five stations were held by backwoodsmen of the usual Kentucky
stamp, from the up-country of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North
Carolina. Generations of frontier life had made them with their fellows
the most distinctive and typical Americans on the continent, utterly
different from their old-world kinsfolk. Yet they still showed strong
traces of the covenanting spirit, which they drew from the
Irish-Presbyterian, the master strain in their mixed blood. For years
they had not seen the inside of a church; nevertheless, mingled with men
who were loose of tongue and life, there still remained many
Sabbath-keepers and Bible-readers, who studied their catechisms on
Sundays, and disliked almost equally profane language and debauchery.
[Footnote: McAfee MSS.]
Patterson and Reynolds.
An incident that occurred at this time illustrates well their feelings.
In June a fourth of the active militia of the county was ordered on
duty, to scout and patrol the country. Accordingly forty men turned out
under Captain Robert Patterson. They were given ammunition, as well as
two pack-horses, by the Commissary Department. Every man was entitled to
pay for the time he was out. Whether he would ever get it was
problematical; at the best it was certain to be given him in worthless
paper-money. Their hunters kept them supplied with game, and each man
carried a small quantity of parched corn.
The company was ordered to the mouth of the Kentucky to meet the armed
row-boat, sent by Clark from the Falls. On the way Patterson was much
annoyed by a "very profane, swearing man" from Bryan's Station, named
Aaron Reynolds. Reynolds was a good-hearted, active young fellow, with a
biting tongue, not only given to many oaths, but likewise skilled in the
rough, coarse banter so popular with the backwoodsmen. After having
borne with him four days Patterson made up his mind that he would have
to reprove him, and, if no amendment took place, send him home. He
waited until, at a halt, Reynolds got a crowd round him, and began to
entertain them "with oaths and wicked expressions," whereupon he
promptly stepped in "and observed to him that he was a very wicked and
profane man," and that both the company as well as he, the Captain,
would thank him to desist. On the next day, however, Reynolds began to
swear again; this time Patterson not only reproved him severely, but
also tried the effect of judicious gentleness, promising to give him a
quart of spirits on reaching the boat if he immediately "quit his
profanity and swearing." Four days afterwards they reached the boat, and
Aaron Reynolds demanded the quart of spirits. Patterson suggested a
doubt as to whether he had kept his promise, whereupon he appealed to
the company, then on parade, and they pronounced in his favor, saying
that they had not heard him swear since he was reproved. Patterson, who
himself records the incident, concludes with the remark: "The spirits
were drank." [Footnote: Patterson's paper, given by Col. John Mason
Brown, in his excellent pamphlet on the "Battle of the Blue Licks"
(Franklin, Ky., 1882). I cannot forbear again commenting on the really
admirable historic work now being done by Messrs. Brown, Durrett, Speed,
and the other members of the Louisville "Filson Club."] Evidently the
company, who had so impartially acted as judges between their
fellow-soldier and their superior officer, viewed with the same
equanimity the zeal of the latter and the mixed system of command,
entreaty, and reward by which he carried his point. As will be seen, the
event had a striking sequel at the battle of the Blue Licks.
Throughout June and July the gunboat patrolled the Ohio, going up to the
Licking. Parties of backwoods riflemen, embodied as militia, likewise
patrolled the woods, always keeping their scouts and spies well spread
out, and exercising the greatest care to avoid being surprised. They
greatly hampered the Indian war bands, but now and then the latter
slipped by and fell on the people they protected. Early in August such a
band committed some ravages south of the Kentucky, beating back with
loss a few militia who followed it. Some of the Fayette men were about
setting forth to try and cut off its retreat, when the sudden and
unlooked-for approach of Caldwell and McKee's great war party obliged
them to bend all their energies to their own defence.
The blow fell on Bryan's Station. The rangers and warriors moved down
through the forest with the utmost speed and stealth, hoping to take
this, the northernmost of the stockades, by surprise. If they had
succeeded, Lexington and the three smaller stations north of the
Kentucky would probably likewise have fallen.
The Attack on Bryan's Station.
The attack was made early on the morning of the 16th of August. Some of
the settlers were in the corn-fields, and the rest inside the palisade
of standing logs; they were preparing to follow the band of marauders
who had gone south of the Kentucky. A few outlying Indian spies were
discovered, owing to their eagerness; and the whites being put on their
guard, the attempt to carry the fort by the first rush was, of course,
foiled. Like so many other stations--but unlike Lexington,--Bryan's had
no spring within its walls; and as soon as there was reason to dread an
attack, it became a matter of vital importance to lay in a supply of
water. It was feared that to send the men to the spring would arouse
suspicion in the minds of the hiding savages; and, accordingly, the
women went down with their pails and buckets as usual. The younger girls
showed some nervousness, but the old housewives marshalled them as
coolly as possible, talking and laughing together, and by their
unconcern completely deceived the few Indians who were lurking near
by--for the main body had not yet come up. [Footnote: Caldwell's letter
says that a small party of Indians was sent ahead first; the watering
incident apparently took place immediately on this small party being
discovered.] This advance guard of the savages feared that, if they
attacked the women, all chance of surprising the fort would be lost; and
so the water-carriers were suffered to go back unharmed. [Footnote: This
account rests on tradition; it is recorded by McClung, a most
untrustworthy writer; his account of the battle of the Blue Licks is
wrong from beginning to end. But a number of gentlemen in Kentucky have
informed me that old pioneers whom they knew in their youth had told
them that they had themselves seen the incident, and that, as written
down, it was substantially true. So with Reynold's speech to Girty. Of
course, his exact words, as given by McClung, are incorrect; but Mr. L.
C. Draper informs me that, in his youth, he knew several old men who had
been in Bryan's Station, and had themselves heard the speech. If it were
not for this I should reject it, for the British accounts do not even
mention that Girty was along, and do not hint at the incident. It was
probably an unauthorized ruse of Girty's. The account of the decoy party
of Indians is partially confirmed by the British letters. Both Marshall
and McClung get this siege and battle very much twisted in their
narratives; they make so many mistakes that it is difficult to know what
portion of their accounts to accept. Nevertheless it would be a great
mistake to neglect all, even of McClung's statements. Thus Boon and Levi
Todd in their reports make no mention of McGarry's conduct; and it might
be supposed to be a traditional myth, but McClung's account is
unexpectedly corroborated by Arthur Campbell's letter, hereafter to be
quoted, which was written at the time.
Marshall is the authority for Netherland's feat at the ford. Boon's
description in the Filson narrative differs on several points from his
earlier official letter, one or two grave errors being made; it is one
of the incidents which shows how cautiously the Filson sketch must be
used, though it is usually accepted as unquestionable authority.] Hardly
were they within the fort, however, when some of the Indians found that
they had been discovered, and the attack began so quickly that one or
two of the men who had lingered in the corn-fields were killed, or else
were cut off and fled to Lexington, while, at the same time,
swift-footed runners were sent out to carry the alarm to the different
stockades, and summon their riflemen to the rescue.
At first but a few Indians appeared, on the side of the Lexington road;
they whooped and danced defiance to the fort, evidently inviting an
attack. Their purpose was to lure the defenders into sallying out after
them, when their main body was to rush at the stockade from the other
side. But they did not succeed in deceiving the veteran Indian fighters
who manned the heavy gates of the fort, stood behind the loopholed
walls, or scanned the country round about from the high block-houses at
the corners. A dozen active young men were sent out on the Lexington
road to carry on a mock skirmish with the decoy party, while the rest of
the defenders gathered behind the wall on the opposite side. As soon as
a noisy but harmless skirmish had been begun by the sallying party, the
main body of warriors burst out of the woods and rushed towards the
western gate. A single volley from the loopholes drove them back, while
the sallying party returned at a run and entered the Lexington gate
unharmed, laughing at the success of their counter-stratagem.
The Indians surrounded the fort, each crawling up as close as he could
find shelter behind some stump, tree, or fence. An irregular fire began,
the whites, who were better covered, having slightly the advantage, but
neither side suffering much. This lasted for several hours, until early
in the afternoon a party from Lexington suddenly appeared and tried to
force its way into the fort.
The runners who slipped out of the fort at the first alarm went straight
to Lexington. There they found that the men had just started out to cut
off the retreat of the marauding savages who were ravaging south of the
Kentucky. Following their trail they speedily overtook the troops, and
told of the attack on Bryan's. Instantly forty men under Major Levi Todd
countermarched to the rescue. Being ignorant of the strength of the
Indians they did not wait for the others, but pushed boldly forward,
seventeen being mounted and the others on foot. [Footnote: Va. State
Papers, III., p. 300. McClung's and Collins' accounts of this incident
are pure romance.]
The road from Lexington to Bryan's for the last few hundred yards led
beside a field of growing corn taller than a man. Some of the Indians
were lying in this field when they were surprised by the sudden
appearance of the rescuers, and promptly fired on them. Levi Todd and
the horsemen, who were marching in advance, struck spurs into their
steeds, and galloping hard through the dust and smoke reached the fort
in safety. The footmen were quickly forced to retreat towards Lexington;
but the Indians were too surprised by the unlooked-for approach to
follow, and they escaped with the loss of one man killed and three
wounded. [Footnote: _Do._]
That night the Indians tried to burn the fort, shooting flaming arrows
onto the roofs of the cabins and rushing up to the wooden wall with
lighted torches. But they were beaten off at each attempt. When day
broke they realized that it was hopeless to make any further effort,
though they still kept up a desultory fire on the fort's defenders; they
had killed most of the cattle and pigs, and some of the horses, and had
driven away the rest.
Girty, who was among the assailants, as a last shift, tried to get the
garrison to surrender, assuring them that the Indians were hourly
expecting reinforcements, including the artillery brought against
Ruddle's and Martin's stations two years previously; and that if forced
to batter down the walls no quarter would be given to any one. Among the
fort's defenders was young Aaron Reynolds, the man whose profanity had
formerly roused Captain Patterson's ire; and he now undertook to be
spokesman for the rest. Springing up into sight he answered Girty in the
tone of rough banter so dear to the backwoodsmen, telling the renegade
that he knew him well, and despised him, that the men in the fort feared
neither cannon nor reinforcements, and if need be, could drive Girty's
tawny followers back from the walls with switches; and he ended by
assuring him that the whites, too, were expecting help, for the country
was roused, and if the renegade and his followers dared to linger where
they were for another twenty-four hours, their scalps would surely be
sun-dried on the roofs of the cabins.
The Indians knew well that the riflemen were mustering at all the
neighboring forts; and, as soon as their effort to treat failed, they
withdrew during the forenoon of the 17th. [Footnote: There are four
contemporary official reports of this battle: two American, those of
Boon and Levi Todd; and two British, those of McKee and Caldwell. All
four agree that the fort was attacked on one day, the siege abandoned on
the next, pursuit made on the third, and the battle fought on the
fourth. Boon and Todd make the siege begin on August 16th, and the
battle take place on the 19th; Caldwell makes the dates the 15th and
18th; McKee makes them the 18th and 21st. I therefore take Boon's and
Todd's dates.
McClung and Marshall make the siege last three or four days instead of
less than two.
All the accounts of the battle of the Blue Licks, so far, have been very
inaccurate, because the British reports have never been even known to
exist, and the reports of the American commanders, printed in the
Virginia State papers, have but recently seen the light. Mr. Whitsitt,
in his recent excellent "Life of Judge Wallace," uses the latter, but
makes the great mistake of incorporating into his narrative some of the
most glaring errors of McClung and Marshall.] They were angry and sullen
at their discomfiture. Five of their number had been killed and several
wounded. Of the fort's defenders four had been killed and three wounded.
Among the children within its walls during the siege there was one, the
youngest, a Kentucky-born baby, named Richard Johnson; over thirty years
later he led the Kentucky mounted riflemen at the victory of the Thames,
when they killed not only the great Indian chief Tecumseh, but also, it
is said, the implacable renegade Simon Girty himself, then in extreme
old age.
Battle Of the Blue Licks.
All this time the runners sent out from Bryan's had been speeding
through the woods, summoning help from each of the little walled towns.
The Fayette troops quickly gathered. As soon as Boon heard the news he
marched at the head of the men of his station, among them his youngest
son Israel, destined shortly to be slain before his eyes. The men from
Lexington, McConnell's, and McGee's, rallied under John Todd, who was
County Lieutenant, and, by virtue of his commission in the Virginia
line, the ranking officer of Kentucky, second only to Clark. Troops also
came from south of the Kentucky River; Lieutenant-Colonel Trigg and
Majors McGarry and Harlan led the men from Harrodsburg, who were soonest
ready to march, and likewise brought the news that Logan, their County
Lieutenant, was raising the whole force of Lincoln in hot haste, and
would follow in a couple of days.
These bands of rescuers reached Bryan's Station on the afternoon of the
day the Indians had left. The men thus gathered were the very pick of
the Kentucky pioneers; sinewy veterans of border strife, skilled hunters
and woodsmen, long wonted to every kind of hardship and danger. They
were men of the most dauntless courage, but unruly and impatient of all
control. Only a few of the cooler heads were willing to look before they
leaped; and even their chosen and trusted leaders were forced to advise
and exhort rather than to command them. All were eager for battle and
vengeance, and were excited and elated by the repulse that had just been
inflicted on the savages; and they feared to wait for Logan lest the foe
should escape. Next morning they rode out in pursuit, one hundred and
eighty-two strong, all on horseback, and all carrying long rifles. There
was but one sword among them, which Todd had borrowed from Boon--a rough
weapon, with short steel blade and buckhorn hilt. As with most frontier
levies, the officers were in large proportion; for, owing to the system
of armed settlement and half-military organization, each wooden fort,
each little group of hunters or hard-fighting backwoods farmers, was
forced to have its own captain, lieutenant, ensign, and sergeant.
[Footnote: For the American side of the battle of Blue Licks I take the
contemporary reports of Boon, Levi Todd, and Logan, Va. State Papers,
Vol. III., pp. 276, 280, 300, 333. Boon and Todd both are explicit that
there were one hundred and eighty-two riflemen, all on horseback, and
substantially agree as to the loss of the frontiersmen. Later reports
underestimate both the numbers and loss of the whites. Boon's Narrative,
written two years after the event, from memory, conflicts in one or two
particulars with his earlier report. Patterson, writing long afterwards,
and from memory, falls into gross errors, both as to the number of
troops and as to some of them being on foot; his account must be relied
on chiefly for his own adventures. Most of the historians of Kentucky
give the affair very incorrectly. Butler follows Marshall; but from the
Clark papers he got the right number of men engaged. Marshall gives a
few valuable facts; but he is all wrong on certain important points. For
instance, he says Todd hurried into action for fear Logan would
supersede him in the command; but in reality Todd ranked Logan.
McClung's ornate narrative, that usually followed, hangs on the very
slenderest thread of truth; it is mainly sheer fiction. Prolix, tedious
Collins follows the plan he usually does when his rancorous prejudices
do not influence him, and presents half a dozen utterly inconsistent
accounts, with no effort whatever to reconcile them. He was an
industrious collector of information, and gathered an enormous quantity,
some of it very useful; he recorded with the like complacency authentic
incidents of the highest importance and palpable fabrications or
irrelevant trivialities; and it never entered his head to sift evidence
or to exercise a little critical power and judgment.]
The Indians, in their unhurried retreat, followed the great buffalo
trace that led to the Blue Licks, a broad road, beaten out through the
forest by the passing and repassing of the mighty herds through
countless generations. They camped on the farther side of the river;
some of the savages had left, but there were still nearly three hundred
men in all--Hurons and lake Indians, with the small party of rangers.
[Footnote: Caldwell says that he had at first "three hundred Indians and
Rangers," but that before the battle "nigh 100 Indians left." McKee says
that there were at first "upwards of three hundred Hurons and Lake
Indians," besides the rangers and a very few Mingos, Delawares, and
Shawnees. Later he says of the battle: "We were not much superior to
them in numbers, they being about two hundred."
Levi Todd put the number of the Indians at three hundred, which was
pretty near the truth; Boon thought it four hundred; later writers
exaggerate wildly, putting it even at one thousand.]
The backwoods horsemen rode swiftly on the trail of their foes, and
before evening came to where they had camped the night before. A careful
examination of the camp-fires convinced the leaders that they were
heavily outnumbered; nevertheless they continued the pursuit, and
overtook the savages early the following morning, the 19th of August.
As they reached the Blue Licks, they saw a few Indians retreating up a
rocky ridge that led from the north bank of the river. The backwoodsmen
halted on the south bank, and a short council was held. All turned
naturally to Boon, the most experienced Indian fighter present, in whose
cool courage and tranquil self-possession all confided. The wary old
pioneer strongly urged that no attack be made at the moment, but that
they should await the troops coming up under Logan. The Indians were
certainly much superior in numbers to the whites; they were aware that
they were being followed by a small force, and from the confident,
leisurely way in which they had managed their retreat, were undoubtedly
anxious to be overtaken and attacked. The hurried pursuit had been quite
proper in the first place, for if the Indians had fled rapidly they
would surely have broken up into different bands, which could have been
attacked on even terms, while delay would have permitted them to go off
unscathed. But, as it was, the attack would be very dangerous; while the
delay of waiting for Logan would be a small matter, for the Indians
could still be overtaken after he had arrived.
Well would it have been for the frontiersmen had they followed Boon's
advice. [Footnote: Va. State Papers, III., 337. Col. Campbell's letter
of Oct. 3, 1782. The letter is interesting as showing by contemporary
authority that Boon's advice and McGarry's misbehavior are not mere
matters of tradition. It is possible that there was some jealousy
between the troops from Lincoln and those from Fayette; the latter had
suffered much from the Indians, and were less rash in consequence; while
many of the Lincoln men were hot for instant battle.] Todd and Trigg
both agreed with him, and so did many of the cooler riflemen--among
others a man named Netherland, whose caution caused the young hotheads
to jeer at him as a coward. But the decision was not suffered to rest
with the three colonels who nominally commanded. Doubtless the council
was hasty and tumultuous, being held by the officers in the open,
closely pressed upon, and surrounded by a throng of eager, unruly
soldiers, who did not hesitate to offer advice or express
dissatisfaction. Many of the more headlong and impatient among the bold
spirits looking on desired instant action; and these found a sudden
leader in Major Hugh McGarry. He was a man utterly unsuited to command
of any kind; and his retention in office after repeated acts of violence
and insubordination shows the inherent weakness of the frontier militia
system. He not only chafed at control, but he absolutely refused to
submit to it; and his courage was of a kind better fitted to lead him
into a fight than to make him bear himself well after it was begun. He
wished no delay, and was greatly angered at the decision of the council;
nor did he hesitate to at once appeal therefrom. Turning to the crowd of
backwoodsmen he suddenly raised the thrilling war-cry, and spurred his
horse into the stream, waving his hat over his head and calling on all
who were not cowards to follow him. The effect was electrical. In an
instant all the hunter-soldiers plunged in after him with a shout, and
splashed across the ford of the shallow river in huddled confusion.
Boon and Todd had nothing to do but follow. On the other side they got
the men into order, and led them on, the only thing that was possible
under the circumstances. These two leaders acted excellently throughout;
and they now did their best to bring the men with honor through the
disaster into which they had been plunged by their own headstrong folly.
As the Indians were immediately ahead, the array of battle was at once
formed. The troops spread out into a single line. The right was led by
Trigg, the centre by Colonel-Commandant Todd in person, with McGarry
under him, and an advance guard of twenty-five men under Harlan in
front; while the left was under Boon. The ground was equally favorable
to both parties, the timber being open and good. [Footnote: Levi Todd's
letter, Aug. 26, 1782.] But the Indians had the advantage in numbers,
and were able to outflank the whites.
In a minute the spies brought word that the enemy were close in front.
[Footnote: It is absolutely erroneous to paint the battle as in any way
a surprise. Boon says: "We discovered the enemy lying in wait for us; on
this discovery we formed our columns into a single line, and marched up
in their front." There was no ambush, except that of course the Indians,
as usual, sheltered themselves behind trees or in the long grass. From
what Boon and Levi Todd say, it is evident that the firing began on both
sides at the same time. Caldwell says the Indians fired one gun
whereupon the Kentuckians fired a volley.] The Kentuckians galloped up
at speed to within sixty yards of their foes, leaped from their horses,
and instantly gave and received a heavy fire. [Footnote: Levi Todd's
letter.] Boon was the first to open the combat; and under his command
the left wing pushed the Indians opposite them back for a hundred yards.
The old hunter of course led in person; his men stoutly backed him up,
and their resolute bearing and skilful marksmanship gave to the whites
in this part of the line a momentary victory.
But on the right of the Kentucky advance, affairs went badly from the
start. The Indians were thrown out so as to completely surround Triggs'
wing. Almost as soon as the firing became heavy in front, crowds of
painted warriors rose from some hollows of long grass that lay on
Trigg's right and poured in a close and deadly volley. Rushing forward,
they took his men in rear and flank, and rolled them up on the centre,
killing Trigg himself. Harlan's advance guard was cut down almost to a
man, their commander being among the slain. The centre was then assailed
from both sides by overwhelming numbers. Todd did all he could by voice
and example to keep his men firm, and cover Boon's successful advance,
but in vain. Riding to and fro on his white horse, he was shot through
the body, and mortally wounded. He leaped on his horse again, but his
strength failed him; the blood gushed from his mouth; he leaned forward,
and fell heavily from the saddle. Some say that his horse carried him to
the river, and that he fell into its current. With his death the centre
gave way; and of course Boon and the men of the left wing, thrust in
advance, were surrounded on three sides. A wild rout followed, every one
pushing in headlong haste for the ford. "He that could remount a horse
was well off; he that could not, had no time for delay," wrote Levi
Todd. The actual fighting had only occupied five minutes. [Footnote:
Levi Todd's letter.]
In a mad and panic race the Kentuckians reached the ford, which was
fortunately but a few hundred yards from the battle-field, the Indians
being mixed in with them. Among the first to cross was Netherland, whose
cautious advice had been laughed at before the battle. No sooner had he
reached the south bank, than he reined up his horse and leaped off,
calling on his comrades to stop and cover the flight of the others; and
most of them obeyed him. The ford was choked with a struggling mass of
horsemen and footmen, fleeing whites and following Indians. Netherland
and his companions opened a brisk fire upon the latter, forcing them to
withdraw for a moment and let the remainder of the fugitives cross in
safety. Then the flight began again. The check that had been given the
Indians allowed the whites time to recover heart and breath. Retreating
in groups or singly through the forest, with their weapons reloaded,
their speed of foot and woodcraft enabled such as had crossed the river
to escape without further serious loss.
Boon was among the last to leave the field. His son Israel was slain,
and he himself was cut off from the river; but turning abruptly to one
side, he broke through the ranks of the pursuers, outran them, swam the
river, and returned unharmed to Bryan's Station.
Among the men in the battle were Capt. Robert Patterson and young Aaron
Reynolds. When the retreat began Patterson could not get a horse. He was
suffering from some old and unhealed wounds received in a former Indian
fight, and he speedily became exhausted. As he was on the point of
sinking, Reynolds suddenly rode up beside him, jumped off his horse, and
without asking Patterson whether he would accept, bade him mount the
horse and flee. Patterson did so, and was the last man over the ford. He
escaped unhurt, though the Indians were running alongside and firing at
him. Meanwhile Reynolds, who possessed extraordinary activity, reached
the river in safety and swam across. He then sat down to take off his
buckskin trowsers, which, being soaked through, hampered him much; and
two Indians suddenly pounced on and captured him. He was disarmed and
left in charge of one. Watching his chance, he knocked the savage down,
and running off into the woods escaped with safety. When Patterson
thanked him for saving his life, and asked him why he had done it, he
answered, that ever since Patterson had reproved him for swearing, he
had felt a strong and continued attachment for him. The effect of the
reproof, combined with his narrow escape, changed him completely, and he
became a devout member of the Baptist Church. Patterson, to show the
gratitude he felt, gave him a horse and saddle, and a hundred acres of
prime land, the first he had ever owned.
The loss of the defeated Kentuckians had been very great. Seventy were
killed outright, including Colonel Todd and Lieutenant-Colonel Trigg,
the first and third in command. Seven were captured, and twelve of those
who escaped were badly wounded. [Footnote: Those are the figures of
Boon's official report, and must be nearly accurate. The later accounts
give all sorts of numbers.] The victors lost one of the Detroit rangers
(a Frenchman), and six Indians killed and ten Indians wounded.
[Footnote: Caldwell's letter. But there are some slight discrepancies
between the letters of McKee and Caldwell. Caldwell makes the loss at
Bryan's Station and the Blue Licks together twelve killed and twelve
wounded; McKee says eleven killed and fourteen wounded. Both exaggerate
the American loss, but not as much as the Americans exaggerated that of
the Indians, Boon in his narrative giving the wildest of all the
estimates.] Almost their whole loss was caused by the successful advance
of Boon's troops, save what was due to Netherland when he rallied the
flying backwoodsmen at the ford.
Of the seven white captives four were put to death with torture; three
eventually rejoined their people. One of them owed his being spared to a
singular and amusing feat of strength and daring. When forced to run the
gauntlet he, by his activity, actually succeeded in reaching the
council-house unharmed; when almost to it, he turned, seized a powerful
Indian and hurled him violently to the ground, and then, thrusting his
head between the legs of another pursuer, he tossed him clean over his
back, after which he sprang on a log, leaped up and knocked his heels
together, crowed in the fashion of backwoods victors, and rallied the
Indians as a pack of cowards. One of the old chiefs immediately adopted
him into the tribe as his son.
All the little forted villages north of the Kentucky, and those lying
near its southern bank, were plunged into woe and mourning by the
defeat. [Footnote: Arthur Campbell, in the letter already quoted,
comments with intense bitterness on the defeat, which, he says, was due
largely to McGarry's "vain and seditious expressions." He adds that Todd
and Trigg had capacity but no experience, and Boon experience but no
capacity, while Logan was "a dull and narrow body," and Clark "a sot, if
nothing worse." Campbell was a Holston Virginian, an able but very
jealous man, who disliked the Kentucky leaders, and indeed had no love
for Kentucky itself; he had strenuously opposed its first erection as a
separate county.] In every stockade, in almost every cabin, there was
weeping for husband or father, son, brother, or lover. The best and
bravest blood in the land had been shed like water. There was no one who
had not lost some close and dear friend, and the heads of all the people
were bowed and their hearts sore stricken.
The bodies of the dead lay where they had fallen, on the hill-slope, and
in the shallow river; torn by wolf, vulture, and raven, or eaten by
fishes. In a day or two Logan came up with four hundred men from south
of the Kentucky, tall Simon Kenton marching at the head of the troops,
as captain of a company. [Footnote: McBride's "Pioneer Biography," I.,
210] They buried the bodies of the slain on the battle-field, in long
trenches, and heaped over them stones and logs. Meanwhile the victorious
Indians, glutted with vengeance, recrossed the Ohio and vanished into
the northern forests.
The Indian ravages continued throughout the early fall months; all the
outlying cabins were destroyed, the settlers were harried from the
clearings, and a station on Salt River was taken by surprise,
thirty-seven people being captured. Stunned by the crushing disaster at
the Blue Licks, and utterly disheartened and cast down by the continued
ravages, many of the settlers threatened to leave the country. The
county officers sent long petitions to the Virginia Legislature,
complaining that the troops posted at the Falls were of no assistance in
checking the raids of the Indians, and asserting that the operations
carried on by order of the Executive for the past eighteen months had
been a detriment rather than a help. The utmost confusion and
discouragement prevailed everywhere. [Footnote: Va. State Papers, III.,
pp. 301, 331. Letter of William Christian, September 28th. Petition of
Boon, Todd, Netherland, etc., September 11th. In Morehead's "address" is
a letter from Nathaniel Hart. He was himself as a boy, witness of what
he describes. His father, who had been Henderson's partner and bore the
same name as himself, was from North Carolina. He founded in Kentucky a
station known as White Oak Springs; and was slain by the savages during
this year. The letter runs: "It is impossible at this day to make a just
impression of the sufferings of the pioneers about the period spoken of.
The White Oak Springs fort in 1782, with perhaps one hundred souls in it
was reduced in August to three fighting white men--and I can say with
truth that for two or three weeks my mother's family never unclothed
themselves to sleep, nor were all of them within that time at their
meals together, nor was any household business attempted. Food was
prepared and placed where those who chose could eat. It was the period
when Bryant's station was beseiged, and for many days before and after
that gloomy event we were in constant expectation of being made
prisoners. We made application to Col. Logan for a guard and obtained
one, but not until the danger was measureably over. It then consisted of
two men only. Col. Logan did every thing in his power, as County
Lieutenant, to sustain the different forts--but it was not a very easy
matter to order a married man from a fort where his family was to defend
some other when his own was in imminent danger.
"I went with my mother in January, 1783, to Logan's station to prove my
father's will. He had fallen in the preceding July. Twenty armed men
were of the party. Twenty-three widows were in attendance upon the court
to obtain letters of administration on the estates of their husbands who
had been killed during the past year."
The letter also mentions that most of the original settlers of the fort
were from Pennsylvania, "orderly respectable people and the men good
soldiers. But they were unaccustomed to Indian warfare, and the
consequence was that of some ten or twelve men all were killed but two
or three." This incident illustrates the folly of the hope, at one time
entertained, that the Continental troops, by settling in the west on
lands granted them, would prove a good barrier against the Indians; the
best Continentals in Washington's army would have been almost as
helpless as British grenadiers in the woods.]
Clark's Counter-Stroke.
At last the news of repeated disaster roused Clark into his old-time
energy. He sent out runners through the settlements, summoning all the
able-bodied men to make ready for a blow at the Indians. The pioneers
turned with eager relief towards the man who had so often led them to
success. They answered his call with quick enthusiasm; beeves,
pack-horses, and supplies were offered in abundance, and every man who
could shoot and ride marched to the appointed meeting-places. The men
from the eastern stations gathered at Bryan's, under Logan; those from
the western, at the Falls, under Floyd. The two divisions met at the
mouth of the Licking, where Clark took supreme command. On the 4th of
November, he left the banks of the Ohio and struck off northward through
the forest, at the head of one thousand and fifty mounted riflemen. On
the 10th he attacked the Miami towns. His approach was discovered just
in time to prevent a surprise. The Indians hurriedly fled to the woods,
those first discovered raising the alarm-cry, which could be heard an
incredible distance, and thus warning their fellows. In consequence no
fight followed, though there was sharp skirmishing between the advance
guard and the hindermost Indians. Ten scalps were taken and seven
prisoners, besides two whites being recaptured. Of Clark's men, one was
killed and one wounded. The flight of the Indians was too hasty to
permit them to save any of their belongings. All the cabins were burned,
together with an immense quantity of corn and provisions--a severe loss
at the opening of winter. McKee, the Detroit partisan, attempted to come
to the rescue with what Indians he could gather, but was met and his
force promptly scattered. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Letter of Alex.
McKee, November 15, 1782. He makes no attempt to hide the severity of
the blow; his letter shows a curious contrast in tone to the one he
wrote after the Blue Licks. He states that the victory has opened the
road to Detroit to the Americans.] Logan led a detachment to the head of
the Miami, and burned the stores of the British traders. The loss to the
savages at the beginning of cold weather was very great; they were
utterly cast down and panic-stricken at such a proof of the power of the
whites, coming as it did so soon after the battle of the Blue Licks. The
expedition returned in triumph, and the Kentuckians completely regained
their self-confidence; and though for ten years longer Kentucky suffered
from the inroads of small parties of savages, it was never again
threatened by a serious invasion. [Footnote: Va. State Papers, p. 381.
Clark's letter of November 27, 1782.]
Wonderful Growth of Kentucky.
At the beginning of 1783, when the news of peace was spread abroad,
immigration began to flow to Kentucky down the Ohio, and over the
Wilderness road, in a flood of which the volume dwarfed all former
streams into rivulets. Indian hostilities continued at intervals
throughout this year, [Footnote: _Do_., p. 522. Letter of Benjamin
Logan, August 11, 1783.] but they were not of a serious nature. Most of
the tribes concluded at least a nominal peace, and liberated over two
hundred white prisoners, though they retained nearly as many more.
[Footnote: _Pennsylvania Packet_, No. 1,079, August 12, 1783.]
Nevertheless in the spring one man of note fell victim to the savages,
for John Floyd was waylaid and slain as he was riding out with his
brother. Thus within the space of eight months, two of the three county
lieutenants had been killed, in battle or ambush.
The inrush of new settlers was enormous, [Footnote: McAfee MSS.] and
Kentucky fairly entered on its second stage of growth. The days of the
first game hunters and Indian fighters were over. By this year the herds
of the buffalo, of which the flesh and hides had been so important to
the earlier pioneers, were nearly exterminated; though bands still
lingered in the remote recesses of the mountains, and they were
plentiful in Illinois. The land claims began to clash, and interminable
litigation followed. This rendered very important the improvement in the
judiciary system which was begun in March by the erection of the three
counties into the "District of Kentucky," with a court of common law and
chancery jurisdiction coextensive with its limits. The name of Kentucky,
which had been dropped when the original county was divided into three,
was thus permanently revived. The first court sat at Harrodsburg, but as
there was no building where it could properly be held, it adjourned to
the Dutch Reformed Meeting-house six miles off. The first grand jury
empanelled presented nine persons for selling liquor without license,
eight for adultery and fornication, and the clerk of Lincoln County for
not keeping a table of fees; besides several for smaller offences.
[Footnote: Marshall, I., 159.] A log court-house and a log jail were
immediately built.
Manufactories of salt were started at the licks, where it was sold at
from three to five silver dollars a bushel. [Footnote: McAfee MSS.] This
was not only used by the settlers for themselves, but for their stock,
which ranged freely in the woods; to provide for the latter a tree was
chopped down and the salt placed in notches or small troughs cut in the
trunk, making it what was called a lick-log. Large grist-mills were
erected at some of the stations; wheat crops were raised; and small
distilleries were built. The gigantic system of river commerce of the
Mississippi had been begun the preceding year by one Jacob Yoder, who
loaded a flat-boat at the Old Redstone Fort, on the Monongahela, and
drifted down to New Orleans, where he sold his goods, and returned to
the Falls of the Ohio by a roundabout course leading through Havana,
Philadelphia, and Pittsburg. Several regular schools were started. There
were already meeting-houses of the Baptist and Dutch Reformed
congregations, the preachers spending the week-days in clearing and
tilling the fields, splitting rails, and raising hogs; in 1783 a
permanent Presbyterian minister arrived, and a log church was speedily
built for him. The sport-loving Kentuckians this year laid out a race
track at Shallowford Station. It was a straight quarter of a mile
course, within two hundred yards of the stockade; at its farther end was
a canebrake, wherein an Indian once lay hid and shot a rider, who was
pulling up his horse at the close of a race. There was still but one
ferry, that over the Kentucky River at Boonsborough; the price of
ferriage was three shillings for either man or horse. The surveying was
still chiefly done by hunters, and much of it was in consequence very
loose indeed. [Footnote: McAfee MSS. Marshall, Collins, Brown's
pamphlets.]
The first retail store Kentucky had seen since Henderson's, at
Boonsborough, was closed in 1775, was established this year at the
Falls; the goods were brought in wagons from Philadelphia to Pittsburg,
and thence down the Ohio in flat-boats. The game had been all killed off
in the immediate neighborhood of the town at the Falls, and Clark
undertook to supply the inhabitants with meat, as a commercial
speculation. Accordingly he made a contract with John Saunders, the
hunter who had guided him on his march to the Illinois towns; the latter
had presumably forgiven his chief for having threatened him with death
when he lost the way. Clark was to furnish Saunders with three men, a
packhorse, salt, and ammunition; while Saunders agreed to do his best
and be "assiduously industrious" in hunting. Buffalo beef, bear's meat,
deer hams, and bear oil were the commodities most sought after. The meat
was to be properly cured and salted in camp, and sent from time to time
to the Falls, where Clark was to dispose of it in market, a third of the
price going to Saunders. The hunting season was to last from November
1st to January 15th. [Footnote: Original agreement in Durrett MSS.;
bound volume of "Papers Relating to G. R. Clark." This particular
agreement is for 1784; but apparently he entered into several such in
different years.]
Thus the settlers could no longer always kill their own game; and there
were churches, schools, mills, stores, race tracks, and markets in
Kentucky.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE HOLSTON SETTLEMENTS, 1777-1779.
Organization of the Holston Settlements.
The history of Kentucky and the Northwest has now been traced from the
date of the Cherokee war to the close of the Revolution. Those portions
of the southwestern lands that were afterwards made into the State of
Tennessee, had meanwhile developed with almost equal rapidity. Both
Kentucky and Tennessee grew into existence and power at the same time,
and were originally settled and built up by precisely the same class of
American backwoodsmen. But there were one or two points of difference in
their methods of growth. Kentucky sprang up afar off in the wilderness,
and as a separate entity from the beginning. The present State has grown
steadily from a single centre, which was the part first settled; and the
popular name of the commonwealth has always been Kentucky. Tennessee, on
the other hand, did not assume her present name until a quarter of a
century after the first exploration and settlement had begun; and the
State grew from two entirely distinct centres. The first settlements,
known as the Watauga, or afterwards more generally as the Holston,
settlements, grew up while keeping close touch with the Virginians, who
lived round the Tennessee head-waters, and also in direct communication
with North Carolina, to which State they belonged. It was not until 1779
that a portion of these Holston people moved to the bend of the
Cumberland River and started a new community, exactly as Kentucky had
been started before. At first this new community, known as the
Cumberland settlement, was connected by only the loosest tie with the
Holston settlements. The people of the two places were not grouped
together; they did not even have a common name. The three clusters of
Holston, Cumberland, and Kentucky settlements developed independently of
one another, and though their founders were in each case of the same
kind, they were at first only knit one to another by a lax bond of
comradeship.
In 1776 the Watauga pioneers probably numbered some six hundred souls in
all. Having at last found out the State in which they lived, they
petitioned North Carolina to be annexed thereto as a district or county.
The older settlements had evidently been jealous of them, for they found
it necessary to deny that they were, as had been asserted, "a lawless
mob"; it may be remarked that the Transylvanian colonists had been
obliged to come out with a similar statement. In their petition they
christened their country "Washington District," in honor of the great
chief whose name already stood first in the hearts of all Americans. The
document was written by Sevier. It set forth the history of the
settlers, their land purchases from the Indians, their successful effort
at self-government, their military organization, with Robertson as
captain, and finally their devotion to the Revolutionary cause; and
recited their lack of proper authority to deal promptly with felons,
murderers, and the like, who came in from the neighboring States, as the
reason why they wished to become a self-governing portion of North
Carolina. [Footnote: The petition, drawn up in the summer of '76, was
signed by 112 men. It is given in full by Ramsey, p. 138. See also
Phelan, p. 40.] The legislature of the State granted the prayer of the
petitioners, Washington District was annexed, and four representatives
therefrom, one of them Sevier, took their seats that fall in the
Provincial Congress at Halifax. But no change whatever was made in the
government of the Watauga people until 1777. In the spring of that year
laws were passed providing for the establishment of courts of pleas and
quarter sessions in the district, as well as for the appointment of
justices of the peace, sheriffs, and militia officers; and in the fall
the district was made a county, under the same name. The boundaries of
Washington County were the same as those of the present State of
Tennessee, and seem to have been outlined by Sevier, the only man who at
that time had a clear idea as to what should be the logical and definite
limits of the future State.
Upholding the Law.
The nominal change of government worked little real alteration in the
way the Holston people managed their affairs. The members of the old
committee became the justices of the new court, and, with a slight
difference in forms, proceeded against all offenders with their former
vigor. Being eminently practical men, and not learned in legal
technicalities, their decisions seem to have been governed mainly by
their own ideas of justice, which, though genuine, were rough. As the
war progressed and the southern States fell into the hands of the
British, the disorderly men who had streamed across the mountains became
openly defiant towards the law. The tories gathered in bands, and every
man who was impatient of legal restraint, every murderer, horse-thief,
and highway robber in the community flocked to join them. The militia
who hunted them down soon ceased to discriminate between tories and
other criminals, and the courts rendered decisions to the same effect.
The caption of one indictment that has been preserved reads against the
defendant "in toryism." He was condemned to imprisonment during the war,
half his goods was confiscated to the use of the State, and the other
half was turned over for the support of his family. In another case the
court granted a still more remarkable order, upon the motion of the
State attorney, which set forth that fifteen hundred pounds, due to a
certain H., should be retained in the hands of the debtor, because
"there is sufficient reason to believe that the said H's estate will be
confiscated to the use of the State for his misdemeanours."
There is something refreshing in the solemnity with which these
decisions are recorded, and the evident lack of perception on the part
of the judges that their records would, to their grandchildren, have a
distinctly humorous side. To tories, and evil-doers generally, the humor
was doubtless very grim; but as a matter of fact, the decisions, though
certainly of unusual character, were needful and just. The friends of
order had to do their work with rough weapons, and they used them most
efficiently. Under the stress of so dire an emergency as that they
confronted they were quite right in attending only to the spirit of law
and justice, and refusing to be hampered by the letter. They would have
discredited their own energy and hard common-sense had they acted
otherwise, and, moreover, would have inevitably failed to accomplish
their purpose.
In the summer of '78, when Indian hostilities almost entirely ceased,
most of the militia were disbanded, and, in consequence, the parties of
tories and horse-thieves sprang into renewed strength, and threatened to
overawe the courts and government officers. Immediately the leaders
among the whigs, the friends of order and liberty, gathered together and
organized a vigilance committee. The committee raised two companies of
mounted riflemen, who were to patrol the country and put to death all
suspicious characters who resisted them or who refused to give security
to appear before the committee in December. The proceedings of the
committee were thus perfectly open; the members had no idea of acting
secretly or against order. It was merely that in a time of general
confusion they consolidated themselves into a body which was a most
effective, though irregular, supporter of the cause of law. The mounted
riflemen scoured the country and broke up the gangs of evil-doers,
hanging six or seven of the leaders, while a number of the less
prominent were brought before the committee, who fined some and
condemned others to be whipped or branded. All of doubtful loyalty were
compelled to take the test oath. [Footnote: Haywood, p. 58. As
Haywood's narrative is based largely on what the pioneers in their old
age told him, his dates, and especially his accounts of the numbers and
losses of the Indians in their battles, are often very inaccurate. In
this very chapter he gives, with gross inaccuracy of detail, an account
of one of Sevier's campaigns as taking place in 1779, whereas it really
occurred after his return from King's Mountain. There is therefore need
to be cautious in using him.]
Such drastic measures soon brought about peace; but it was broken again
and again by similar risings and disturbances. By degrees most of the
worst characters fled to the Cherokees, or joined the British as their
forces approached the up-country. Until the battle of Kings Mountain,
the pioneers had to watch the tories as closely as they did the Indians;
there was a constant succession of murders, thefts, and savage
retaliations. Once a number of tories attempted to surprise and murder
Sevier in his own house; but the plot was revealed by the wife of the
leader, to whom Sevier's wife had shown great kindness in her time of
trouble. In consequence the tories were themselves surprised and their
ringleaders slain. Every man in the country was obliged to bear arms the
whole time, not only because of the Indian warfare, but also on account
of the inveterate hatred and constant collisions between the whigs and
the loyalists. Many dark deeds were done, and though the tories, with
whom the criminal classes were in close alliance, were generally the
first and chief offenders, yet the patriots cannot be held guiltless of
murderous and ferocious reprisals. They often completely failed to
distinguish between the offenders against civil order, and those whose
only crime was an honest, if mistaken, devotion to the cause of the
king.
Land laws
Early in '78 a land office was opened in the Holston settlements, and
the settlers were required to make entries according to the North
Carolina land laws. Hitherto they had lived on their clearings
undisturbed, resting their title upon purchase from the Indians and upon
their own mutual agreements. The old settlers were given the prior right
to the locations, and until the beginning of '79 in which to pay for
them. Each head of a family was allowed to take up six hundred and forty
acres for himself, one hundred for his wife, and one hundred for each of
his children, at the price of forty shillings per hundred acres, while
any additional amount cost at the rate of one hundred shillings, instead
of forty. All of the men of the Holston settlements were at the time in
the service of the State as militia, in the campaign against the
Indians; and when the land office was opened, the money that was due
them sufficed to pay for their claims. They thus had no difficulty in
keeping possession of their lands, much to the disappointment of the
land speculators, many of whom had come out at the opening of the
office. Afterwards large tracts were given as bounty, or in lieu of pay,
to the Revolutionary soldiers. All the struggling colonies used their
wild land as a sort of military chest; it was often the only security of
value in their possession.
The same year that the land office was opened, it was enacted that the
bridle path across the mountains should be chopped out and made into a
rough wagon road. [Footnote: However this was not actually done until
some years later.] The following spring the successful expedition
against the Chicamaugas temporarily put a stop to Indian troubles. The
growing security, the opening of the land office, and the increase of
knowledge concerning the country, produced a great inflow of settlers in
1779, and from that time onward the volume of immigration steadily
increased.
Character and Life of the Settlers.
Many of these new-comers were "poor whites," or crackers; lank, sallow,
ragged creatures, living in poverty, ignorance, and dirt, who regarded
all strangers with suspicion as "outlandish folks." [Footnote: Smythe's
Tours, I., 103, describes the up-country crackers of North Carolina and
Virginia.] With every chance to rise, these people remained mere squalid
cumberers of the earth's surface, a rank, up-country growth, containing
within itself the seeds of vicious, idle pauperism, and
semi-criminality. They clustered in little groups, scattered throughout
the backwoods settlements, in strong contrast to the vigorous and manly
people around them.
By far the largest number of the new-comers were of the true, hardy
backwoods stock, fitted to grapple with the wilderness and to hew out of
it a prosperous commonwealth. The leading settlers began, by thrift and
industry, to acquire what in the backwoods passed for wealth. Their
horses, cattle, and hogs throve and multiplied. The stumps were grubbed
out of the clearings, and different kinds of grains and roots were
planted. Wings were added to the houses, and sometimes they were roofed
with shingles. The little town of Jonesboro, the first that was not a
mere stockaded fort, was laid off midway between the Watauga and the
Nolichucky.
As soon as the region grew at all well settled, clergymen began to come
in. Here, as elsewhere, most of the frontiersmen who had any religion at
all professed the faith of the Scotch-Irish; and the first regular
church in this cradle-spot of Tennessee was a Presbyterian log
meeting-house, built near Jonesboro in 1777, and christened Salem
Church. Its pastor was a pioneer preacher, who worked with fiery and
successful energy to spread learning and religion among the early
settlers of the southwest. His name was Samuel Doak. He came from New
Jersey, and had been educated in Princeton. Possessed of the vigorous
energy that marks the true pioneer spirit, he determined to cast in his
lot with the frontier folk. He walked through Maryland and Virginia,
driving before him an old "flea-bitten grey" horse, loaded with a
sackful of books; crossed the Alleghanies, and came down along blazed
trails to the Holston settlements. The hardy people among whom he took
up his abode were able to appreciate his learning and religion as much
as they admired his adventurous and indomitable temper; and the stern,
hard, God-fearing man became a most powerful influence for good
throughout the whole formative period of the southwest. [Footnote: See
"East Tennessee a Hundred Years Ago," by the Hon. John Allison,
Nashville, 1887, p. 8.]
Not only did he found a church, but near it he built a log high-school,
which soon became Washington College, the first institution of the kind
west of the Alleghanies. Other churches, and many other schools, were
soon built. Any young man or woman who could read, write, and cipher
felt competent to teach an ordinary school; higher education, as
elsewhere at this time in the west, was in the hands of the clergy.
As elsewhere, the settlers were predominantly of Calvinistic stock; for
of all the then prominent faiths Calvinism was nearest to their feelings
and ways of thought. Of the great recognized creeds it was the most
republican in its tendencies, and so the best suited to the
backwoodsmen. They disliked Anglicanism as much as they abhorred and
despised Romanism--theoretically at least, for practically then as now
frontiersmen were liberal to one another's religious opinions, and the
staunch friend and good hunter might follow whatever creed he wished,
provided he did not intrude it on others. But backwoods Calvinism
differed widely from the creed as first taught. It was professed by
thorough-going Americans, essentially free and liberty-loving, who would
not for a moment have tolerated a theocracy in their midst. Their
social, religious, and political systems were such as naturally
flourished in a country remarkable for its temper of rough and
self-asserting equality. Nevertheless the old Calvinistic spirit left a
peculiar stamp on this wild border democracy. More than any thing else,
it gave the backwoodsmen their code of right and wrong. Though they were
a hard, narrow, dogged people, yet they intensely believed in their own
standards and ideals. Often warped and twisted, mentally and morally, by
the strain of their existence, they at least always retained the
fundamental virtues of hardihood and manliness.
Presbyterianism was not, however, destined even here to remain the
leading frontier creed. Other sects still more democratic, still more in
keeping with backwoods life and thought, largely supplanted it.
Methodism did not become a power until after the close of the
Revolution; but the Baptists followed close on the heels of the
Presbyterians. They, too, soon built log meeting-houses here and there,
while their preachers cleared the forest and hunted elk and buffalo like
the other pioneer settlers. [Footnote: Ramsey, 144.]
To all the churches the preacher and congregation alike went armed, the
latter leaning their rifles in their pews or near their seats, while the
pastor let his stand beside the pulpit. On week-days the clergymen
usually worked in the fields in company with the rest of the settlers;
all with their rifles close at hand and a guard stationed. In more than
one instance when such a party was attacked by Indians the servant of
the Lord showed himself as skilled in the use of carnal weapons as were
any of his warlike parishioners.
The leaders of the frontiersmen were drawn from among several families,
which, having taken firm root, were growing into the position of
backwoods gentry. Of course the use of this term does not imply any
sharp social distinctions in backwoods life, for there were none such.
The poorest and richest met on terms of perfect equality, slept in one
another's houses, and dined at one another's tables. But certain
families, by dint of their thrift, the ability they showed in civil
affairs, or the prowess of some of their members in time of war, had
risen to acknowledged headship.
The part of Washington County northwest of the Holston was cut off and
made into the county of Sullivan by the North Carolina Legislature in
1779. In this part the Shelbys were the leading family; and Isaac Shelby
was made county lieutenant. It had been the debatable ground between
Virginia and North Carolina, the inhabitants not knowing to which
province they belonged, and sometimes serving the two governments
alternately. When the line was finally drawn, old Evan Shelby's estate
was found to lie on both sides of it; and as he derived his title from
Virginia, he continued to consider himself a Virginian, and held office
as such. [Footnote: Campbell MSS. Notes by Gov. David Campbell.]
In Washington County Sevier was treated as practically commander of the
militia some time before he received his commission as county
lieutenant. He was rapidly becoming the leader of the whole district. He
lived in a great, rambling one-story log house on the Nolichucky, a
rude, irregular building with broad verandas and great stone
fire-places. The rooms were in two groups, which were connected by a
covered porch--a "dog alley," as old settlers still call it, because the
dogs are apt to sleep there at night. Here he kept open house to all
comers, for he was lavishly hospitable, and every one was welcome to bed
and board, to apple-jack and cider, hominy and corn-bread, beef,
venison, bear meat, and wild fowl. When there was a wedding or a
merrymaking of any kind he feasted the neighborhood, barbecuing
oxen--that is, roasting them whole on great spits,--and spreading board
tables out under the trees. He was ever on the alert to lead his mounted
riflemen against the small parties of marauding Indians that came into
the country. He soon became the best commander against Indians that
there was on this part of the border, moving with a rapidity that
enabled him again and again to overtake and scatter their roving
parties, recovering the plunder and captives, and now and then taking a
scalp or two himself. His skill and daring, together with his unfailing
courtesy, ready tact, and hospitality, gained him unbounded influence
with the frontiersmen, among whom he was universally known as
"Nolichucky Jack." [Footnote: MSS. "Notes of Conversations with Old
Pioneers," by Ramsey, in Tenn. Hist. Soc. Campbell MSS.]
The Virginian settlements on the Holston, adjoining those of North
Carolina, were in 1777 likewise made into a county of Washington. The
people were exactly the same in character as those across the line; and
for some years the fates of all these districts were bound up together.
Their inhabitants were still of the usual backwoods type, living by
tilling their clearings and hunting; the elk and buffalo had become very
scarce, but there were plenty of deer and bear, and in winter countless
wild swans settled down on the small lakes and ponds. The boys followed
these eagerly; one of them, when an old man, used to relate how his
mother gave him a pint of cream for every swan he shot, with the result
that he got the pint almost every day. [Footnote: "Sketch of Mrs.
Elizabeth Russell," by her grandson, Thomas L. Preston, Nashville, 1888,
p. 29. An interesting pamphlet.]
The leading family among these Holston Virginians was that of the
Campbells, who lived near Abingdon. They were frontier farmers, who
chopped down the forest and tilled the soil with their own hands. They
used the axe and guided the plow as skilfully as they handled their
rifles; they were also mighty hunters, and accustomed from boyhood to
Indian warfare. The children received the best schooling the back
country could afford, for they were a book-loving race, fond of reading
and study as well as of out-door sports. The two chief members were
cousins, Arthur and William. Arthur was captured by the northern Indians
when sixteen, and was kept a prisoner among them several years; when
Lord Dunmore's war broke out he made his escape, and acted as scout to
the Earl's army. He served as militia colonel in different Indian
campaigns, and was for thirty years a magistrate of the county; he was a
man of fine presence, but of jealous, ambitious, overbearing temper. He
combined with his fondness for Indian and hunter life a strong taste for
books, and gradually collected a large library. So keen were the
jealousies, bred of ambition, between himself and his cousin William
Campbell, they being the two ranking officers of the local forces, that
they finally agreed to go alternately on the different military
expeditions; and thus it happened that Arthur missed the battle of
King's Mountain, though he was at the time County Lieutenant.
William Campbell stood next in rank. He was a man of giant strength,
standing six feet two inches in height, and straight as a spear-shaft,
with fair complexion, red hair, and piercing, light blue eyes. A firm
friend and staunch patriot, a tender and loving husband and father,
gentle and courteous in ordinary intercourse with his fellows, he was,
nevertheless, if angered, subject to fits of raging wrath that impelled
him to any deed of violence. [Footnote: Campbell MSS. Notes, by Gov.
David Campbell.] He was a true type of the Roundheads of the frontier,
the earnest, eager men who pushed the border ever farther westward
across the continent. He followed Indians and tories with relentless and
undying hatred; for the long list of backwoods virtues did not include
pity for either public or private foes. The tories threatened his life
and the lives of his friends and families; they were hand in glove with
the outlaws who infested the borders, the murderers, horse-thieves, and
passers of counterfeit money. He hunted them down with a furious zest,
and did his work with merciless thoroughness, firm in the belief that he
thus best served the Lord and the nation. One or two of his deeds
illustrate admirably the grimness of the times, and the harsh contrast
between the kindly relations of the border folks with their friends, and
their ferocity towards their foes. They show how the better
backwoodsmen, the upright, church-going men, who loved their families,
did justice to their neighbors, and sincerely tried to serve God, not
only waged an unceasing war on the red and white foes of the State and
of order, but carried it on with a certain ruthlessness that indicated
less a disbelief in, than an utter lack of knowledge of, such a virtue
as leniency to enemies.
One Sunday Campbell was returning from church with his wife and some
friends, carrying his baby on a pillow in front of his saddle, for they
were all mounted. Suddenly a horseman crossed the road close in front of
them, and was recognized by one of the party as a noted tory. Upon being
challenged, he rode off at full speed. Instantly Campbell handed the
baby to a negro slave, struck spur into his horse, and galloping after
the fugitive, overtook and captured him. The other men of the party came
up a minute later. Several recognized the prisoner as a well-known tory;
he was riding a stolen horse; he had on him letters to the British
agents among the Cherokees, arranging for an Indian rising. The party of
returning church-goers were accustomed to the quick and summary justice
of lynch law. With stern gravity they organized themselves into a court.
The prisoner was adjudged guilty, and was given but a short shrift; for
the horsemen hung him to a sycamore tree before they returned to the
road where they had left their families.
On another occasion, while Campbell was in command of a camp of militia,
at the time of a Cherokee outbreak, he wrote a letter to his wife, a
sister of Patrick Henry, that gives us a glimpse of the way in which he
looked at Indians. His letter began, "My dearest Betsy"; in it he spoke
of his joy at receiving her "sweet and affectionate letter"; he told how
he had finally got the needles and pins she wished, and how pleased a
friend had been with the apples she had sent him. He urged her to buy a
saddle-horse, of which she had spoken, but to be careful that it did not
start nor stumble, which were bad faults, "especially in a woman's
hackney." In terms of endearment that showed he had not sunk the lover
in the husband, he spoke of his delight at being again in the house
where he had for the first time seen her loved face, "from which happy
moment he dated the hour of all his bliss," and besought her not to
trouble herself too much about him, quoting to her Solomon's account of
a good wife, as reminding him always of her; and he ended by commending
her to the peculiar care of Heaven. It was a letter that it was an honor
to a true man to have written; such a letter as the best of women and
wives might be proud to have received. Yet in the middle of it he
promised to bring a strange trophy to show his tender and God-fearing
spouse. He was speaking of the Indians; how they had murdered men,
women, and children near-by, and how they had been beaten back; and he
added: "I have now the scalp of one who was killed eight or nine miles
from my house about three weeks ago. The first time I go up I shall take
it along to let you see it." Evidently it was as natural for him to
bring home to his wife and children the scalp of a slain Indian as the
skin of a slain deer. [Footnote: See Preston's pamphlet on Mrs. Russell,
pp. 11-18.]
The times were hard, and they called for men of flinty fibre. Those of
softer, gentler mould would have failed in the midst of such
surroundings. The iron men of the border had a harsh and terrible task
allotted them; and though they did it roughly, they did it thoroughly
and on the whole well. They may have failed to learn that it is good to
be merciful, but at least they knew that it is still better to be just
and strong and brave; to see clearly one's rights, and to guard them
with a ready hand.
These frontier leaders were generally very jealous of one another. The
ordinary backwoodsmen vied together as hunters, axemen, or wrestlers; as
they rose to leadership their rivalries grew likewise, and the more
ambitious, who desired to become the civil and military chiefs of the
community, were sure to find their interests clash. Thus old Evan Shelby
distrusted Sevier; Arthur Campbell was jealous of both Sevier and Isaac
Shelby; and the two latter bore similar feelings to William Campbell.
When a great crisis occurred all these petty envies were sunk; the
nobler natures of the men came uppermost; and they joined with unselfish
courage, heart and hand, to defend their country in the hour of her
extreme need. But when the danger was over the old jealousies cropped
out again.
Some one or other of the leaders was almost always employed against the
Indians. The Cherokees and Creeks were never absolutely quiet and at
peace.
Indian Troubles.
After the chastisement inflicted upon the former by the united forces of
all the southern backwoodsmen, treaties were held with them, [Footnote:
See _ante_, Chapter XI. of Vol. I.] in the spring and summer of 1777.
The negotiations consumed much time, the delegates from both sides
meeting again and again to complete the preliminaries. The credit of the
State being low, Isaac Shelby furnished on his own responsibility the
goods and provisions needed by the Virginians and Holston people in
coming to an agreement with the Otari, or upper Cherokees [ Footnote:
Shelby's MS. autobiography, copy in Col. Durrett's library.]; and some
land was formally ceded to the whites.
But the chief Dragging Canoe would not make peace. Gathering the boldest
and most turbulent of the young braves about him, he withdrew to the
great whirl in the Tennessee, [Footnote: Va. State Papers, III., 271;
the settlers always spoke of it as the "suck" or "whirl."] at the
crossing-place of the Creek war parties, when they followed the trail
that led to the bend of the Cumberland River. Here he was joined by many
Creeks, and also by adventurous and unruly members from almost all the
western tribes [Footnote: Shelby MS.]--Chickasaws, Chocktaws, and
Indians from the Ohio. He soon had a great band of red outlaws round
him. These freebooters were generally known as the Chickamaugas, and
they were the most dangerous and least controllable of all the foes who
menaced the western settlements. Many tories and white refugees from
border justice joined them, and shared in their misdeeds. Their shifting
villages stretched from Chickamauga Creek to Running Water. Between
these places the Tennessee twists down through the sombre gorges by
which the chains of the Cumberland ranges are riven in sunder. Some
miles below Chickamauga Creek, near Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain towers
aloft into the clouds; at its base the river bends round Moccasin Point,
and then rushes through a gap between Walden's Ridge and the Raccoon
Hills. Then for several miles it foams through the winding Narrows
between jutting cliffs and sheer rock walls, while in its boulder-strewn
bed the swift torrent is churned into whirlpools, cataracts, and rapids.
Near the Great Crossing, where the war parties and hunting parties were
ferried over the river, lies Nick-a-jack Cave, a vast cavern in the
mountain side. Out of it flows a stream, up which a canoe can paddle two
or three miles into the heart of the mountain. In these high fastnesses,
inaccessible ravines, and gloomy caverns the Chickamaugas built their
towns, and to them they retired with their prisoners and booty after
every raid on the settlements.
No sooner had the preliminary treaty been agreed to in the spring of '77
than the Indians again began their ravages. In fact, there never was any
real peace. After each treaty the settlers would usually press forward
into the Indian lands, and if they failed to do this the young braves
were sure themselves to give offence by making forays against the
whites. On this occasion the first truce or treaty was promptly broken
by the red men. The young warriors refused to be bound by the promises
of the chiefs and headmen, and they continued their raids for scalps,
horses, and plunder. Within a week of the departure of the Indian
delegates from the treaty ground in April, twelve whites were murdered
and many horses stolen. Robertson, with nine men, followed one of these
marauding parties, killed one Indian, and retook ten horses; on his
return he was attacked by a large band of Creeks and Cherokees, and two
of his men were wounded; but he kept hold of the recaptured horses and
brought them safely in. [Footnote: Chas. Robertson to Captain-General of
North Carolina, April 27, 1777.] On the other hand, a white scoundrel
killed an Indian on the treaty ground, in July, the month in which the
treaties were finally completed in due form. By act of the Legislature
the Holston militia were kept under arms throughout most of the year,
companies of rangers, under Sevier's command, scouring the woods and
canebrakes, and causing such loss to the small Indian war parties that
they finally almost ceased their forays. Bands of these Holston rangers
likewise crossed the mountains by Boon's trail, and went to the relief
of Boonsborough and St. Asaphs, in Kentucky, then much harassed by the
northwestern warriors. [Footnote: See _ante_ Chap. I.] Though they did
little or no fighting, and stayed but a few days, they yet by their
presence brought welcome relief to the hard-pressed Kentuckians.
[Footnote: Monette (followed by Ramsey and others) hopelessly confuses
these small relief expeditions; he portrays Logan as a messenger from
Boon's Station, is in error as to the siege of the latter, etc.]
Kentucky during her earliest and most trying years received
comparatively little help from sorely beset Virginia; but the
backwoodsmen of the upper Tennessee valley--on both sides of the
boundary--did her real and lasting service.
In 1778 the militia were disbanded, as the settlements were very little
harried; but as soon as the vigilance of the whites was relaxed the
depredations and massacres began again, and soon became worse than ever.
Robertson had been made superintendent of Indian affairs for North
Carolina; and he had taken up his abode among the Cherokees at the town
of Chota in the latter half of the year 1777. He succeeded in keeping
them comparatively quiet and peaceable during 1778, and until his
departure, which took place the following year, when he went to found
the settlements on the Cumberland River.
But the Chickamaugas refused to make peace, and in their frequent and
harassing forays they were from time to time joined by parties of young
braves from all the Cherokee towns that were beyond the reach of
Robertson's influence--that is, by all save those in the neighborhood of
Chota. The Chickasaws and Choctaws likewise gave active support to the
king's cause; the former scouted along the Ohio, the latter sent bands
of young warriors to aid the Creeks and Cherokees in their raids against
the settlements. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Letter of Rainsford and Tait
to Hamilton. April 9, 1779.]
The British agents among the southern Indians had received the letters
Hamilton sent them after he took Vincennes; in these they were urged at
once to send out parties against the frontier, and to make ready for a
grand stroke in the spring. In response the chief agent, who was the
Scotch captain Cameron, a noted royalist leader, wrote to his official
superior that the instant he heard of any movement of the northwestern
Indians he would see that it was backed up, for the Creeks were eager
for war, and the Cherokees likewise were ardently attached to the
British cause; as a proof of the devotion of the latter, he added: "They
keep continually killing and scalping in Virginia, North Carolina, and
the frontier of Georgia, although the rebels are daily threatening to
send in armies from all quarters and extirpate the whole tribe."
[Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Series B., Vol. 117, p. 131. Letter of
Alexander Cameron, July 15, 1779.] It would certainly be impossible to
desire better proof than that thus furnished by this royal officer, both
of the ferocity of the British policy towards the frontiersmen, and of
the treachery of the Indians, who so richly deserved the fate that
afterwards befell them.
While waiting for the signal from Hamilton, Cameron organized two Indian
expeditions against the frontier, to aid the movements of the British
army that had already conquered Georgia. A great body of Creeks,
accompanied by the British commissaries and most of the white traders
(who were, of course, tories), set out in March to join the king's
forces at Savannah; but when they reached the frontier they scattered
out to plunder and ravage. A body of Americans fell on one of their
parties and crushed it; whereupon the rest returned home in a fright,
save about seventy, who went on and joined the British. At the same time
three hundred Chickamaugas, likewise led by the resident British
commissaries, started out against the Carolina frontier. But Robertson,
at Chota, received news of the march, and promptly sent warning to the
Holston settlements [Footnote: _Do_. "A rebel commissioner in Chote
being informed of their movements here sent express into Holston river."
This "rebel commissioner" was in all probability Robertson.]; and the
Holston men, both of Virginia and North Carolina, decided immediately to
send an expedition against the homes of the war party. This would not
only at once recall them from the frontier, but would give them a
salutary lesson.
Accordingly the backwoods levies gathered on Clinch River, at the mouth
of Big Creek, April 10th, and embarked in pirogues and canoes to descend
the Tennessee. There were several hundred of them [Footnote: State
Department MSS. No. 51, Vol. II., p. 17, a letter from the British
agents among the Creeks to Lord George Germaine, of July 12, 1779. It
says, "near 300 rebels"; Haywood, whose accounts are derived from oral
tradition, says one thousand. Cameron's letter of July 15th in the
Haldimand MSS. says seven hundred. Some of them were Virginians who had
been designed for Clark's assistance in his Illinois campaign, but who
were not sent him. Shelby made a very clever stroke, but it had no
permanent effect, and it is nonsense to couple it, as has been recently
done, with Clark's campaigns.] under the command of Evan Shelby; Isaac
Shelby having collected the supplies for the expedition by his
individual activity and on his personal credit. The backwoodsmen went
down the river so swiftly that they took the Chickamaugas completely by
surprise, and the few warriors who were left in the villages fled to the
wooded mountains without offering any resistance. Several Indians were
killed [Footnote: Cameron in his letter says four, which is probably
near the truth. Haywood says forty, which merely represents the
backwoods tradition on the subject, and is doubtless a great
exaggeration.] and a number of their towns were burnt, together with a
great deal of corn; many horses and cattle were recaptured, and among
the spoils were large piles of deer hides, owned by a tory trader. The
troops then destroyed their canoes and returned home on foot, killing
game for their food; and they spread among the settlements many stories
of the beauty of the lands through which they had passed, so that the
pioneers became eager to possess them. The Chickamaugas were alarmed and
confounded by this sudden stroke; their great war band returned at once
to the burned towns, on being informed by swift runners of the
destruction that had befallen them. All thoughts of an immediate
expedition against the frontier were given up; peace talks were sent to
Evan Shelby [Footnote: State Department MSS. No. 71, Vol. I., p. 255,
letter of Evan Shelby, June 4, 1779.]; and throughout the summer the
settlements were but little molested.
Yet all the while they were planning further attacks; at the same time
that they sent peace talks to Shelby they sent war talks to the
Northwestern Indians, inviting them to join in a great combined movement
against the Americans. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Series B., Vol. 117, p.
157. A talk from the Cherokees to the envoy from the Wabash and other
Indians, July 12, 1779. One paragraph is interesting: "We cannot forget
the talk you brought us some years ago into this Nation, which was to
take up the hatchet against the Virginians. We heard and listened to it
with great attention, and before the time that was appointed to lift it
we took it up and struck the Virginians. Our Nation was alone and
surrounded by them. They were numerous and their hatchets were sharp;
and after we had lost some of our best warriors, we were forced to leave
our towns and corn to be burnt by them, and now we live in the grass as
you see us. But we are not yet conquered, and to convince you that we
have not thrown away your talk here are 4 strands of whampums we
received from you when you came before as a messenger to our Nation."]
When the news of Hamilton's capture was brought it wrought a momentary
discouragement; but the efforts of the British agents were unceasing,
and by the end of the year most of the southwestern Indians were again
ready to take up the hatchet. The rapid successes of the royal armies in
the southern States had turned the Creeks into open antagonists of the
Americans, and their war parties were sent out in quick succession, the
British agents keeping alive the alliance by a continued series of
gifts--for the Creeks were a venal, fickle race whose friendship could
not otherwise be permanently kept. [Footnote: State Department MSS.
Papers Continental Congress. Intercepted Letters, No. 51. Vol. II.
Letter of British Agents Messrs. Rainsford, Mitchell, and Macullagh, of
July 12, 1779. "The present unanimity of the Creek Nation is no doubt
greatly owing to the rapid successes of His Majesty's forces in the
Southern provinces, as they have now no cause to apprehend the least
danger from the Rebels ... we have found by experience that without
presents the Indians are not to be depended on."]
As for the Cherokees, they had not confined themselves to sending the
war belt to the northwestern tribes, while professing friendship for the
Americans; they had continued in close communication with the British
Indian agents, assuring them that their peace negotiations were only
shams, intended to blind the settlers, and that they would be soon ready
to take up the hatchet. [Footnote: _Do_., No. 71, Vol. II., p. 189.
Letter of David Tait to Oconostota. "I believe what you say about
telling lies to the Virginians to be very right."] This time Cameron
himself marched into the Cherokee country with his company of fifty
tories, brutal outlaws, accustomed to savage warfare, and ready to take
part in the worst Indian outrages. [Footnote: _Do_., No. 51, Vol. II.
Letter of the three agents. "The Cherokees are now exceedingly well
disposed. Mr. Cameron is now among them ... Captain Cameron has his
company of Loyal Refugees with him, who are well qualified for the
service they are engaged in.... He carried up with him a considerable
quantity of presents and ammunition which are absolutely necessary to
engage the Indians to go upon service."] The ensuing Cherokee war was
due not to the misdeeds of the settlers--though doubtless a few lawless
whites occasionally did wrong to their red neighbors--but to the
short-sighted treachery and ferocity of the savages themselves, and
especially to the machinations of the tories and British agents. The
latter unceasingly incited the Indians to ravage the frontier with torch
and scalping knife. They deliberately made the deeds of the torturers
and women-killers their own, and this they did with the approbation of
the British Government, and to its merited and lasting shame.
Yet by the end of 1779 the inrush of settlers to the Holston regions had
been so great that, as with Kentucky, there was never any real danger
after this year that the whites would be driven from the land by the red
tribes whose hunting-ground it once had been.
CHAPTER IX.
KING'S MOUNTAIN, 1780.
The British in the Southern States.
During the Revolutionary war the men of the west for the most part took
no share in the actual campaigning against the British and Hessians.
Their duty was to conquer and hold the wooded wilderness that stretched
westward to the Mississippi; and to lay therein the foundations of many
future commonwealths. Yet at a crisis in the great struggle for liberty,
at one of the darkest hours for the patriot cause, it was given to a
band of western men to come to the relief of their brethren of the
seaboard and to strike a telling and decisive blow for all America. When
the three southern provinces lay crushed and helpless at the feet of
Cornwallis, the Holston backwoodsmen suddenly gathered to assail the
triumphant conqueror. Crossing the mountains that divided them from the
beaten and despairing people of the tidewater region, they killed the
ablest lieutenant of the British commander, and at a single stroke undid
all that he had done.
By the end of 1779 the British had reconquered Georgia. In May, 1780,
they captured Charleston, speedily reduced all South Carolina to
submission, and then marched into the old North State. Cornwallis, much
the ablest of the British generals, was in command over a mixed force of
British, Hessian, and loyal American regulars, aided by Irish volunteers
and bodies of refugees from Florida. In addition, the friends to the
king's cause, who were very numerous in the southernmost States, rose at
once on the news of the British successes, and thronged to the royal
standards; so that a number of regiments of tory militia were soon
embodied. McGillivray, the Creek chief, sent bands of his warriors to
assist the British and tories on the frontier, and the Cherokees
likewise came to their help. The patriots for the moment abandoned hope,
and bowed before their victorious foes.
Cornwallis himself led the main army northward against the American
forces. Meanwhile he entrusted to two of his most redoubtable officers
the task of scouring the country, raising the loyalists, scattering the
patriot troops that were still embodied, and finally crushing out all
remaining opposition. These two men were Tarleton the dashing
cavalryman, and Ferguson the rifleman, the skilled partisan leader.
Colonel Ferguson.
Patrick Ferguson, the son of Lord Pitfour, was a Scotch soldier, at this
time about thirty-six years old, who had been twenty years in the
British army. He had served with distinction against the French in
Germany, had quelled a Carib uprising in the West Indies, and in 1777
was given the command of a company of riflemen in the army opposed to
Washington. [Footnote: "Biographical Sketch or Memoir of
Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Ferguson," by Adam Ferguson, LL.D.,
Edinburgh, 1817, p. 11. The copy was kindly lent me by Mr. Geo. H. Moore
of the Lenox Library.] He played a good part at Brandywine and Monmouth.
At the former battle he was wounded by an American sharpshooter, and had
an opportunity, of which he forbore taking advantage, to himself shoot
an American officer of high rank, who unsuspectingly approached the
place where he lay hid; he always insisted that the man he thus spared
was no less a person than Washington. While suffering from his wound,
Sir William Howe disbanded his rifle corps, distributing it among the
light companies of the different regiments; and its commander in
consequence became an unattached volunteer in the army. But he was too
able to be allowed to remain long unemployed. When the British moved to
New York he was given the command of several small independent
expeditions, and was successful in each case; once, in particular, he
surprised and routed Pulaski's legion, committing great havoc with the
bayonet, which was always with him a favorite weapon. His energy and
valor attracted much attention; and when a British army was sent against
Charleston and the South he went along, as a lieutenant-colonel of a
recently raised regular regiment, known as the American Volunteers.
[Footnote: Though called volunteers they were simply a regular regiment
raised in America instead of England; Ferguson's "Memoir" p. 30, etc.,
always speaks of them as regulars. The British gave an absurd number of
titles to their various officers; thus Ferguson was a brigadier-general
of militia, lieutenant-colonel of volunteers, a major in the army, etc.]
Cornwallis speedily found him to be peculiarly fitted for just such
service as was needed; for he possessed rare personal qualities. He was
of middle height and slender build, with a quiet, serious face and a
singularly winning manner; and withal, he was of literally dauntless
courage, of hopeful, eager temper, and remarkably fertile in shifts and
expedients. He was particularly fond of night attacks, surprises, and
swift, sudden movements generally, and was unwearied in drilling and
disciplining his men. Not only was he an able leader, but he was also a
finished horseman, and the best marksman with both pistol and rifle in
the British army. Being of quick, inventive mind, he constructed a
breech-loading rifle, which he used in battle with deadly effect. This
invention had been one of the chief causes of his being brought into
prominence in the war against America, for the British officers
especially dreaded the American sharpshooters. [Footnote: Ferguson's
"Memoir," p. 11.] It would be difficult to imagine a better partisan
leader, or one more fitted by his feats of prowess and individual skill,
to impress the minds of his followers. Moreover, his courtesy stood him
in good stead with the people of the country; he was always kind and
civil, and would spend hours in talking affairs over with them and
pointing out the mischief of rebelling against their lawful sovereign.
He soon became a potent force in winning the doubtful to the British
side, and exerted a great influence over the tories; they gathered
eagerly to his standard, and he drilled them with patient perseverance.
After the taking of Charleston Ferguson's volunteers and Tarleton's
legion, acting separately or together, speedily destroyed the different
bodies of patriot soldiers. Their activity and energy was such that the
opposing commanders seemed for the time being quite unable to cope with
them, and the American detachments were routed and scattered in quick
succession. [Footnote: "History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781,"
Lt.-Col. Tarleton, London (1787). See also the "Strictures" thereon, by
Roderick Mackenzie, London, same date.] On one of these occasions, the
surprise at Monk's Corners, where the American commander, Huger, was
slain, Ferguson's troops again had a chance to show their skill in the
use of the bayonet.
Tarleton did his work with brutal ruthlessness; his men plundered and
ravaged, maltreated prisoners, outraged women, and hung without mercy
all who were suspected of turning from the loyalist to the whig side.
His victories were almost always followed by massacres; in particular,
when he routed with small loss a certain Captain Buford, his soldiers
refused to grant quarter, and mercilessly butchered the beaten.
Americans. [Footnote: It is worth while remembering that it was not
merely the tories who were guilty of gross crimes; the British regulars,
including even some of their officers, often behaved with abhorrent
brutality.]
Ferguson, on the contrary, while quite as valiant and successful a
commander, showed a generous heart, and treated the inhabitants of the
country fairly well. He was especially incensed at any outrage upon
women, punishing the offender with the utmost severity, and as far as
possible he spared his conquered foes. Yet even Ferguson's tender
mercies must have seemed cruel to the whigs, as may be judged by the
following extract from a diary kept by one of his lieutenants [Footnote:
Diary of Lt. Anthony Allaire, entry for March 24, 1780.]: "This day Col.
Ferguson got the rear guard in order to do his King and country justice,
by protecting friends and widows, and destroying rebel property; also to
collect live stock for the use of the army. All of which we effect as we
go by destroying furniture, breaking windows, etc., taking all their
horned cattle, horses, mules, sheep, etc., and their negroes to drive
them." When such were the authorized proceedings of troops under even
the most merciful of the British commanders, it is easy to guess what
deeds were done by uncontrolled bodies of stragglers bent on plunder.
When Ferguson moved into the back country of the two Carolinas still
worse outrages followed. In the three southernmost of the thirteen
rebellious colonies there was a very large tory party. [Footnote: Gates
MSS., _passim_, for July-October, 1780. _E.g._, letter of Mr. Ramsey,
August 9, 1780, describes how "the Scotch are all lying out," the number
of tories in the "Drowning Creek region," their resistance to the levy
of cattle, etc. In these colonies, as in the middle colonies, the tory
party was very strong.] In consequence the struggle in the Carolinas and
Georgia took the form of a ferocious civil war. Each side in turn
followed up its successes by a series of hangings and confiscations,
while the lawless and violent characters fairly revelled in the
confusion. Neither side can be held guiltless of many and grave
misdeeds; but for reasons already given the bulk--but by no means the
whole--of the criminal and disorderly classes espoused the king's cause
in the regions where the struggle was fiercest. They murdered, robbed,
or drove off the whigs in their hour of triumph; and in turn brought
down ferocious reprisals on their own heads and on those of their
luckless associates.
Moreover Cornwallis and his under-officers tried to cow and overawe the
inhabitants by executing some of the men whom they deemed the chief and
most criminal leaders of the rebellion, especially such as had sworn
allegiance and then again taken up arms; [Footnote: Gates MSS. See Letter
from Sumter, August 12th and _passim_, for instances of hanging by
express command of the British officers.] of course retaliation in kind
followed. Ferguson himself hung some men; and though he did his best to
spare the country people, there was much plundering and murdering by his
militia.
In June he marched to upper South Carolina, moving to and fro, calling
out the loyal militia. They responded enthusiastically, and three or
four thousand tories were embodied in different bands. Those who came to
Ferguson's own standard were divided into companies and regiments, and
taught the rudiments of discipline by himself and his subalterns. He
soon had a large but fluctuating force under him; in part composed of
good men, loyal adherents of the king (these being very frequently
recent arrivals from England, or else Scotch highlanders), in part also
of cut-throats, horse-thieves, and desperadoes of all kinds who wished
for revenge on the whigs and were eager to plunder them. His own regular
force was also mainly composed of Americans, although it contained many
Englishmen. His chief subordinates were Lieutenant-Colonels De
Peyster [Footnote: A relative of the Detroit commander.] and Cruger; the
former usually serving under him, the latter commanding at Ninety-Six.
They were both New York loyalists, members of old Knickerbocker
families; for in New York many of the gentry and merchants stood by the
king.
Ferguson Approaches the Mountains.
Ferguson moved rapidly from place to place, breaking up the bodies of
armed whigs; and the latter now and then skirmished fiercely with
similar bands of tories, sometimes one side winning sometimes the other.
Having reduced South Carolina to submission the British commander then
threatened North Carolina; and Col. McDowell, the commander of the whig
militia in that district, sent across the mountains to the Holston men
praying that they would come to his help. Though suffering continually
from Indian ravages, and momentarily expecting a formidable inroad, they
responded nobly to the call. Sevier remained to patrol the border and
watch the Cherokees, while Isaac Shelby crossed the mountains with a
couple of hundred mounted riflemen, early in July. The mountain men were
joined by McDowell, with whom they found also a handful of Georgians and
some South Carolinians; who when their States were subdued had fled
northward, resolute to fight their oppressors to the last.
The arrival of the mountain men put new life into the dispirited whigs.
On July 30th a mixed force, under Shelby and two or three local militia
colonels, captured Thickett's fort, with ninety tories, near the
Pacolet. They then camped at the Cherokee ford of Broad River, and sent
out parties of mounted men to carry on a guerilla or partisan warfare
against detachments, not choosing to face Ferguson's main body. After a
while they moved south to Cedar Spring. Here, on the 8th of August, they
were set upon by Ferguson's advanced guard, of dragoons and mounted
riflemen. These they repulsed, handling the British rather roughly; but,
as Ferguson himself came up, they fled, and though he pursued them
vigorously he could not overtake them. [Footnote: Shelby's MS.
Autobiography, and the various accounts he wrote of these affairs in his
old age (which Haywood and most of the other local American historians
follow or amplify), certainly greatly exaggerate the British force and
loss, as well as the part Shelby himself played, compared to the Georgia
and Carolina leaders. The Americans seemed to have outnumbered
Ferguson's advance guard, which was less than two hundred strong, about
three to one. Shelby's account of the Musgrove affair is especially
erroneous. See p. 120 of L. C. Draper's "King's Mountain and Its Heroes"
(Cincinnati, 1881). Mr. Draper has with infinite industry and research
gathered all the published and unpublished accounts and all the
traditions concerning the battle; his book is a mine of information on
the subject. He is generally quite impartial, but some of his
conclusions are certainly biassed; and the many traditional statements,
as well as those made by very old men concerning events that took place
fifty or sixty years previously, must be received with extreme caution.
A great many of them should never have been put in the book at all. When
they take the shape of anecdotes, telling how the British are overawed
by the mere appearance of the Americans on some occasion (as pp. 94, 95,
etc.), they must be discarded at once as absolutely worthless, as well
as ridiculous. The British and tory accounts, being forced to explain
ultimate defeat, are, if possible, even more untrustworthy, when taken
solely by themselves, than the American.]
On the 18th of the month the mountain men, assisted as usual by some
parties of local militia, all under their various colonels, performed
another feat; one of those swift, sudden strokes so dear to the hearts
of these rifle-bearing horsemen. It was of a kind peculiarly suited to
their powers; for they were brave and hardy, able to thread their way
unerringly through the forests, and fond of surprises; and though they
always fought on foot, they moved on horseback, and therefore with great
celerity. Their operations should be carefully studied by all who wish
to learn the possibilities of mounted riflemen. Yet they were impatient
of discipline or of regular service, and they really had no one
commander. The different militia officers combined to perform some
definite piece of work, but, like their troops, they were incapable of
long-continued campaigns; and there were frequent and bitter quarrels
between the several commanders, as well as between the bodies of men
they led.
It seems certain that the mountaineers were, as a rule, more formidable
fighters than the lowland militia, beside or against whom they battled;
and they formed the main strength of the attacking party that left the
camp at the Cherokee ford before sunset on the 17th. Ferguson's army was
encamped southwest of them, at Fair Forest Shoals; they marched round
him, and went straight on, leaving him in their rear. Sometimes they
rode through open forest, more often they followed the dim wood roads;
their horses pacing or cantering steadily through the night. As the day
dawned they reached Musgrove's Ford, on the Enoree, having gone forty
miles. Here they hoped to find a detachment of tory militia; but it had
been joined by a body of provincial regulars, the united force being
probably somewhat more numerous than that of the Americans. The latter
were discovered by a patrol, and the British after a short delay marched
out to attack them. The Americans in the meantime made good use of their
axes, felling trees for a breastwork, and when assailed they beat back
and finally completely routed their assailants. [Footnote: Shelby's
account of this action, written in his old age, is completely at fault;
he not only exaggerates the British force and loss, but he likewise
greatly overestimates the number of the Americans--always a favorite
trick of his. Each of the militia colonels of course claimed the chief
share of the glory of the day. Haywood, Ramsey, and even Phelan simply
follow Shelby. Draper gives all the different accounts; it is quite
impossible to reconcile them; but all admit that the British were
defeated.
I have used the word "British"; but though there were some Englishmen
and Scotchmen among the tories and provincials, they were mainly
loyalist Americans.] However, the victory was of little effect, for just
as it was won word was brought to Shelby that the day before Cornwallis
had met Gates at Camden, and had not only defeated but practically
destroyed the American army; and on the very day of the fight on the
Enoree, Tarleton surprised Sumter, and scattered his forces to the four
winds. The panic among the whigs was tremendous, and the mountaineers
shared it. They knew that Ferguson, angered at the loss of his
detachment, would soon be in hot pursuit, and there was no time for
delay. The local militia made off in various directions; while Shelby
and his men pushed straight for the mountains, crossed them, and
returned each man to his own home. Ferguson speedily stamped out the few
remaining sparks of rebellion in South Carolina, and crossing the
boundary into the North State he there repeated the process. On
September 12th he caught McDowell and the only remaining body of militia
at Cane Creek, of the Catawba, and beat them thoroughly, [Footnote:
Draper apparently endorses the absurd tradition that makes this a whig
victory instead of a defeat. It seems certain (see Draper), contrary to
the statements of the Tennessee historians, that Sevier had no part in
these preliminary operations.] the survivors, including their commander,
fleeing over the mountains to take refuge with the Holston men. Except
for an occasional small guerilla party there was not a single organized
body of American troops left south of Gates' broken and dispirited army.
All the southern lands lay at the feet of the conquerors. The British
leaders, overbearing and arrogant, held almost unchecked sway throughout
the Carolinas and Georgia; and looking northward they made ready for the
conquest of Virginia. [Footnote: The northern portion of North Carolina
was still in possession of the remainder of Gates' army, but they could
have been brushed aside without an effort.] Their right flank was
covered by the waters of the ocean, their left by the high mountain
barrier-chains, beyond which stretched the interminable forest; and they
had as little thought of danger from one side as from the other.
The Mountaineers Gather to the Attack.
Suddenly and without warning, the wilderness sent forth a swarm of
stalwart and hardy riflemen, of whose very existence the British had
hitherto been ignorant. [Footnote: "A numerous army now appeared on the
frontier drawn from Nolachucky and other settlements beyond the
mountains, whose very names had been unknown to us." Lord Rawdon's
letter of October 24, 1780. Clarke of Georgia had plundered a convoy of
presents intended for the Indians, at Augusta, and the British wrongly
supposed this to be likewise the aim of the mountaineers.] Riders
spurring in hot haste brought word to the king's commanders that the
backwater men had come over the mountains. The Indian fighters of the
frontier, leaving unguarded their homes on the western waters, had
crossed by wooded and precipitous defiles, and were pouring down to the
help of their brethren of the plains.
Ferguson had pushed his victories to the foot of the Smoky and the
Yellow mountains. Here he learned, perhaps for the first time, that
there were a few small settlements beyond the high ranges he saw in his
front; and he heard that some of these backwoods mountaineers had
already borne arms against him, and were now harboring men who had fled
from before his advance. By a prisoner whom he had taken he at once sent
them warning to cease their hostilities, and threatened that if they did
not desist he would march across the mountains, hang their leaders, put
their fighting men to the sword, and waste their settlements with fire.
He had been joined by refugee tories from the Watauga, who could have
piloted him thither; and perhaps he intended to make his threats good.
It seems more likely that he paid little heed to the mountaineers,
scorning their power to do him hurt; though he did not regard them with
the haughty and ignorant disdain usually felt for such irregulars by the
British army officers.
When the Holston men learned that Ferguson had come to the other side of
the mountains, and threatened their chiefs with the halter and their
homes with the torch, a flame of passionate anger was kindled in all
their hearts. They did not wait for his attack; they sallied from their
strongholds to meet him. Their crops were garnered, their young men were
ready for the march; and though the Otari war bands lowered like
thunder-clouds on their southern border, they determined to leave only
enough men to keep the savages at bay for the moment, and with the rest
to overwhelm Ferguson before he could retreat out of their reach.
Hitherto the war with the British had been something afar off; now it
had come to their thresholds and their spirits rose to the danger.
Shelby was the first to hear the news. He at once rode down to Sevier's
home on the Nolichucky; for they were the two county lieutenants,
[Footnote: Shelby was regularly commissioned as county lieutenant.
Sevier's commission was not sent him until several weeks later; but he
had long acted as such by the agreement of the settlers, who paid very
little heed to the weak and disorganized North Carolina government.] who
had control of all the militia of the district. At Sevier's log-house
there was feasting and merry-making, for he had given a barbecue, and a
great horse race was to be run, while the backwoods champions tried
their skill as marksmen and wrestlers. In the midst of the merry-making
Shelby appeared, hot with hard riding, to tell of the British advance,
and to urge that the time was ripe for fighting, not feasting. Sevier at
once entered heartily into his friend's plan, and agreed to raise his
rifle-rangers, and gather the broken and disorganized refugees who had
fled across the mountains under McDowell. While this was being done
Shelby returned to his home to call out his own militia and to summon
the Holston Virginians to his aid. With the latter purpose he sent one
of his brothers to Arthur Campbell, the county lieutenant of his
neighbors across the border. Arthur at once proceeded to urge the
adoption of the plan on his cousin, William Campbell, who had just
returned from a short and successful campaign against the tories round
the head of the Kanawha, where he had speedily quelled an attempted
uprising.
Gates had already sent William Campbell an earnest request to march down
with his troops and join the main army. This he could not do, as his
militia had only been called out to put down their own internal foes,
and their time of service had expired. [Footnote: Gates MSS. Letter of
William Campbell, Sept. 6, 1780. He evidently at the time failed to
appreciate the pressing danger; but he ended by saying that "if the
Indians were not harassing their frontier," and a corps of riflemen were
formed, he would do all in his power to forward them to Gates.] But the
continued advance of the British at last thoroughly alarmed the
Virginians of the mountain region. They promptly set about raising a
corps of riflemen, [Footnote: Gates MSS. Letter of William Preston,
Sept. 18, 1780. The corps was destined to join Gates, as Preston says;
hence Campbell's reluctance to go with Shelby and Sevier. There were to
be from five hundred to one thousand men. See letter of Wm. Davidson,
Sept. 18, 1780.] and as soon as this course of action was determined on
Campbell was foremost in embodying all the Holston men who could be
spared, intending to march westward and join any Virginia army that
might be raised to oppose Cornwallis. While thus employed he received
Shelby's request, and, for answer, at first sent word that he could not
change his plans; but on receiving a second and more urgent message he
agreed to come as desired. [Footnote: Shelby's MS. Autobiography.
Campbell MSS., especially MS. letters of Col. Arthur Campbell of Sept.
3, 1810, Oct. 18, 1810, etc.; MS. notes on Sevier in Tenn. Hist. Soc.
The latter consist of memoranda by his old soldiers, who were with him
in the battle; many of their statements are to be received cautiously,
but there seems no reason to doubt their account of his receiving the
news while giving a great barbecue. Shelby is certainly entitled to the
credit of planning and starting the campaign against Ferguson.]
The appointed meeting-place was at the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga.
There the riflemen gathered on the 25th of September, Campbell bringing
four hundred men, Sevier and Shelby two hundred and forty each, while
the refugees under McDowell amounted to about one hundred and sixty.
With Shelby came his two brothers, one of whom was afterwards slightly
wounded at King's Mountain; while Sevier had in his regiment no less
than six relations of his own name, his two sons being privates, and his
two brothers captains. One of the latter was mortally wounded in the
battle.
To raise money for provisions Sevier and Shelby were obliged to take, on
their individual guaranties, the funds in the entry-taker's offices that
had been received from the sale of lands. They amounted in all to nearly
thirteen thousand dollars, every dollar of which they afterward
refunded.
The March to the Battle.
On the 26th [Footnote: "State of the proceedings of the western army
from Sept. 25, 1780, to the reduction of Major Ferguson and the army
under his command," signed by Campbell, Shelby, and Cleavland. The
official report; it is in the Gates MSS. in the N. Y. Hist. Society. It
was published complete at the time, except the tabulated statement of
loss, which has never been printed; I give it further on.] they began
the march, over a thousand strong, most of them mounted on swift, wiry
horses. They were led by leaders they trusted, they were wonted to
Indian warfare, they were skilled as horsemen and marksmen, they knew
how to face every kind of danger, hardship, and privation. Their fringed
and tasselled hunting-shirts were girded in by bead-worked belts, and
the trappings of their horses were stained red and yellow. On their
heads they wore caps of coon-skin or mink-skin, with the tails hanging
down, or else felt hats, in each of which was thrust a buck-tail or a
sprig of evergreen. Every man carried a small-bore rifle, a tomahawk,
and a scalping knife. A very few of the officers had swords, and there
was not a bayonet nor a tent in the army. [Footnote: Gen. Wm. Lenoir's
account, prepared for Judge A. D. Murphy's intended history of North
Carolina. Lenoir was a private in the battle.] Before leaving their
camping-ground at the Sycamore Shoals they gathered in an open grove to
hear a stern old Presbyterian preacher [Footnote: Rev. Samuel Doak.
Draper, 176. A tradition, but probably truthful, being based on the
statements of Sevier and Shelby's soldiers in their old age. It is the
kind of an incident that tradition will often faithfully preserve.]
invoke on the enterprise the blessing of Jehovah. Leaning on their long
rifles, they stood in rings round the black-frocked minister, a grim and
wild congregation, who listened in silence to his words of burning zeal
as he called on them to stand stoutly in the battle and to smite their
foes with the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.
The army marched along Doe River, driving their beef cattle with them,
and camped that night at the "Resting-Place," under Shelving Rock,
beyond Crab Orchard. Next morning they started late, and went up the
pass between Roan and Yellow mountains. The table-land on the top was
deep in snow. [Footnote: Diary of Ensign Robert Campbell.] Here two
tories who were in Sevier's band deserted and fled to warn Ferguson; and
the troops, on learning of the desertion, abandoned their purpose of
following the direct route, and turned to the left, taking a more
northerly trail. It was of so difficult a character that Shelby
afterwards described it as "the worst route ever followed by an army of
horsemen." [Footnote: Shelby MS.] That afternoon they partly descended
the east side of the range, camping in Elk Hollow, near Roaring Run. The
following day they went down through the ravines and across the spurs by
a stony and precipitous path, in the midst of magnificent scenery, and
camped at the mouth of Grassy Creek. On the 29th they crossed the Blue
Ridge at Gillespie's Gap, and saw afar off, in the mountain coves and
rich valleys of the upper Catawba, the advanced settlements of the
Carolina pioneers,--for hitherto they had gone through an uninhabited
waste. The mountaineers, fresh from their bleak and rugged hills, gazed
with delight on the soft and fertile beauty of the landscape. That night
they camped on the North Fork of the Catawba, and next day they went
down the river to Quaker Meadows, McDowell's home.
At this point they were joined by three hundred and fifty North Carolina
militia from the counties of Wilkes and Surrey, who were creeping along
through the woods hoping to fall in with some party going to harass the
enemy. [Footnote: Shelby MS. Autobiography. See also Gates MSS. Letter
of Wm. Davidson, Sept. 14, 1780. Davidson had foreseen that there would
be a fight between the western militia and Ferguson, and he had sent
word to his militia subordinates to join any force--as McDowell's--that
might go against the British leader. The alarm caused by the latter had
prevented the militia from joining Davidson himself.] They were under
Col. Benjamin Cleavland, a mighty hunter and Indian fighter, and an
adventurous wanderer in the wilderness. He was an uneducated
backwoodsman, famous for his great size, and his skill with the rifle,
no less than for the curious mixture of courage, rough good humor, and
brutality in his character. He bore a ferocious hatred to the royalists,
and in the course of the vindictive civil war carried on between the
whigs and tories in North Carolina he suffered much. In return he
persecuted his public and private foes with ruthless ferocity, hanging
and mutilating any tories against whom the neighboring whigs chose to
bear evidence. As the fortunes of the war veered about he himself
received many injuries. His goods were destroyed, and his friends and
relations were killed or had their ears cropped off. Such deeds often
repeated roused to a fury of revenge his fierce and passionate nature,
to which every principle of self-control was foreign. He had no hope of
redress, save in his own strength and courage, and on every favorable
opportunity he hastened to take more than ample vengeance. Admitting all
the wrongs he suffered, it still remains true that many of his acts of
brutality were past excuse. His wife was a worthy helpmeet. Once, in his
absence, a tory horse-thief was brought to their home, and after some
discussion the captors, Cleavland's sons, turned to their mother, who
was placidly going on with her ordinary domestic avocations, to know
what they should do with the prisoner. Taking from her mouth the
corn-cob pipe she had been smoking, she coolly sentenced him to be hung,
and hung he was without further delay or scruple. [Footnote: Draper,
448.] Yet Cleavland was a good friend and neighbor, devoted to his
country, and also a staunch Presbyterian. [Footnote: Allaire's Diary,
entry for October 29th.]
The tories were already on the alert. Some of them had been harassing
Cleavland, and they had ambushed his advance guard, and shot his
brother, crippling him for life. But they did not dare try to arrest the
progress of so formidable a body of men as had been gathered together at
Quaker Meadows; and contented themselves with sending repeated warnings
to Ferguson.
On October 1st the combined forces marched past Pilot Mountain, and
camped near the heads of Cane and Silver creeks. Hitherto each colonel
had commanded his own men, there being no general head, and every
morning and evening the colonels had met in concert to decide the day's
movements. The whole expedition was one of volunteers, the agreement
between the officers and the obedience rendered them by the soldiers
simply depending on their own free-will; there was no legal authority on
which to go, for the commanders had called out the militia without any
instructions from the executives of their several States. [Footnote:
Gates MSS. Letter of Campbell, Shelby, Cleavland, etc., Oct. 4, 1780.]
Disorders had naturally broken out. The men of the different companies
felt some rivalry towards one another; and those of bad character, sure
to be found in any such gathering, could not be properly controlled.
Some of Cleavland's and McDowell's people were very unruly; and a few of
the Watauga troops also behaved badly, plundering both whigs and tories,
and even starting to drive the stolen stock back across the mountains.
[Footnote: Deposition of Col. Matthew Willoughby (who was in the fight),
April 30, 1823, _Richmond Enquirer_, May 9, 1823.]
At so important a crisis the good-sense and sincere patriotism of the
men in command made them sink all personal and local rivalries. On the
2d of October they all gathered to see what could be done to stop the
disorders and give the army a single head; for it was thought that in a
day or two they would close in with Ferguson. They were in Col. Charles
McDowell's district, and he was the senior officer; but the others
distrusted his activity and judgment, and were not willing that he
should command. To solve the difficulty Shelby proposed that supreme
command should be given to Col. Campbell, who had brought the largest
body of men with him, and who was a Virginian, whereas the other four
colonels were North Carolinians. [Footnote: Though by birth three were
Virginians, and one, Shelby, a Marylander. All were Presbyterians.
McDowell, like Campbell, was of Irish descent; Cleavland of English,
Shelby of Welsh, and Sevier of French Huguenot. The families of the
first two had originally settled in Pennsylvania.] Meanwhile McDowell
should go to Gates' army to get a general to command them, leaving his
men under the charge of his brother Joseph, who was a major. This
proposition was at once agreed to; and its adoption did much to ensure
the subsequent success. Shelby not only acted wisely, but magnanimously;
for he was himself of superior rank to Campbell, and moreover was a
proud, ambitious man, desirous of military glory.
The army had been joined by two or three squads of partisans, including
some refugee Georgians. They were about to receive a larger
reinforcement; for at this time several small guerilla bands of North
and South Carolina whigs were encamped at Flint Hill, some distance west
of the encampment of the mountain men. These Flint Hill bands numbered
about four hundred men all told, under the leadership of various militia
colonels--Hill, Lacey, Williams, Graham, and Hambright. [Footnote:
Hambright was a Pennsylvania German, the father of eighteen children.
Hill, who was suffering from a severe wound, was unfit to take an active
part in the King's Mountain fight. His MS. narrative of the campaign is
largely quoted by Draper.] Hill and Lacey were two of Sumter's
lieutenants, and had under them some of his men; Williams, [Footnote:
Bancroft gives Williams an altogether undeserved prominence. As he had a
commission as brigadier-general, some of the British thought he was in
supreme command at King's Mountain; in a recent magazine article Gen. De
Peyster again sets forth his claims. In reality he only had a small
subordinate or independent command, and had no share whatever in
conducting the campaign, and very little in the actual battle, though he
behaved with much courage and was killed.] who was also a South
Carolinian, claimed command of them because he had just been
commissioned a brigadier-general of militia. His own force was very
small, and he did not wish to attack Ferguson, but to march southwards
to Ninety-Six. Sumter's men, who were more numerous, were eager to join
the mountaineers, and entirely refused to submit to Williams. A hot
quarrel, almost resulting in a fight, ensued; Hill and Lacey accusing
Williams of being bent merely on plundering the wealthy tories and of
desiring to avoid a battle with the British. Their imputation on his
courage was certainly unjust; but they were probably quite right when
they accused him of a desire to rob and plunder the tories. A succession
of such quarrels speedily turned this assemblage of militia into an
armed and warlike rabble. Fortunately Hill and Lacey prevailed, word was
sent to the mountaineers, and the Flint Hill bands marched in loose
order to join them at the Cowpens. [Footnote: Gates MSS. Letter of Gen.
Wm. Davidson, Oct. 3, 1780. Also Hill's Narrative.]
The mountain army had again begun its march on the afternoon of the
third day of the month. Before starting the colonels summoned their men,
told them the nature and danger of the service, and asked such as were
unwilling to go farther to step to the rear; but not a man did so. Then
Shelby made them a short speech, well adapted to such a levy. He told
them when they encountered the enemy not to wait for the word of
command, but each to "be his own officer," and do all he could,
sheltering himself as far as possible, and not to throw away a chance;
if they came on the British in the woods they were "to give them Indian
play," and advance from tree to tree, pressing the enemy unceasingly. He
ended by promising them that their officers would shrink from no danger,
but would lead them everywhere, and, in their turn, they must be on the
alert and obey orders.
When they set out their uncertainty as to Ferguson's movements caused
them to go slowly, their scouts sometimes skirmishing with lurking
tories. They reached the mouth of Cane Creek, near Gilbert Town, on
October 4th. With the partisans that had joined them they then numbered
fifteen hundred men. McDowell left them at this point to go to Gates
with the request for the appointment of a general to command them.
[Footnote: Gates MSS. (in New York Hist. Soc.). It is possible that
Campbell was not chosen chief commander until this time; Ensign Robert
Campbell's account (MSS. in Tenn. Hist. Soc.) explicitly states this to
be the case. The Shelby MS. and the official report make the date the
1st or 2d. One letter in the Gates MSS. has apparently escaped all
notice from historians and investigators; it is the document which
McDowell bore with him to Gates. It is dated "Oct. 4th, 1780, near
Gilbert town," and is signed by Cleavland, Shelby, Sevier, Campbell,
Andrew Hampton, and J. Winston. It begins: "We have collected at this
place 1500 good men drawn from the counties of Surrey, Wilkes, Burk,
Washington, and Sullivan counties (_sic_) in this State and Washington
County in Virginia." It says that they expect to be joined in a few days
by Clark of Ga. and Williams of S. C. with one thousand men (in reality
Clark, who had nearly six hundred troops, never met them); asks for a
general; says they have great need of ammunition, and remarks on the
fact of their "troops being all militia, and but little acquainted with
discipline." It was this document that gave the first impression to
contemporaries that the battle was fought by fifteen hundred Americans.
Thus General Davidson's letter of Oct. 10th to Gates, giving him the
news of the victory, has served as a basis for most subsequent writers
about the numbers. He got his particulars from one of Sumter's men, who
was in the fight; but he evidently mixed them up in his mind, for he
speaks of Williams, Lacey, and their companions as joining the others at
Gilbert Town, instead of the Cowpens; makes the total number three
thousand, whereas, by the official report of October 4th, Campbell's
party only numbered fifteen hundred, and Williams, Lacey, etc., had but
four hundred, or nineteen hundred in all; says that sixteen hundred good
horses were chosen out, evidently confusing this with the number at
Gilbert Town; credits Ferguson with fourteen hundred men, and puts the
American loss at only twenty killed.] For some days the men had been
living on the ears of green corn which they plucked from the fields, but
at this camping-place they slaughtered some beeves and made a feast.
The mountaineers had hoped to catch Ferguson at Gilbert Town, but they
found that he had fled towards the northeast, so they followed after
him. Many of their horses were crippled and exhausted, and many of the
footmen footsore and weary; and the next day they were able to go but a
dozen miles to the ford of Green River.
That evening Campbell and his fellow-officers held a council to decide
what course was best to follow. Lacey, riding over from the militia
companies who were marching from Flint Hill, had just reached their
camp; he told them the direction in which Ferguson had fled, and at the
same time appointed the Cowpens as the meeting-place for their
respective forces. Their whole army was so jaded that the leaders knew
they could not possibly urge it on fast enough to overtake Ferguson, and
the flight of the latter made them feel all the more confident that they
could beat him, and extremely reluctant that he should get away. In
consequence they determined to take seven or eight hundred of the least
tired, best armed, and best mounted men, and push rapidly after their
foe, picking up on the way any militia they met, and leaving the other
half of their army to follow as fast as it could.
At daybreak on the morning of the sixth the picked men set out, about
seven hundred and fifty in number. [Footnote: MS. narrative of Ensign
Robert Campbell (see also Draper, 221) says seven hundred; and about
fifty of the footmen who were in good training followed so quickly after
them that they were able to take part in the battle. Lenoir says the
number was only five or six hundred. The modern accounts generally fail
to notice this Green River weeding out of the weak men, or confuse it
with what took place at the Cowpens; hence many of them greatly
exaggerate the number of Americans who fought in the battle.] In the
afternoon they passed by several large bands of tories, who had
assembled to join Ferguson; but the Holston men were resolute in their
determination to strike at the latter, and would not be diverted from
it, nor waste time by following their lesser enemies.
Riding all day they reached the Cowpens when the sun had already set, a
few minutes after the arrival of the Flint Hill militia under Lacey,
Hill, and Williams. The tired troops were speedily engaged in skinning
beeves for their supper, roasting them by the blazing camp-fires; and
fifty acres of corn, belonging to the rich tory who owned the Cowpens,
materially helped the meal. Meanwhile a council was held, in which all
the leading officers, save Williams, took part. Campbell was confirmed
as commander-in-chief, and it was decided to once more choose the
freshest soldiers, and fall on Ferguson before he could either retreat
or be reinforced. The officers went round, picking out the best men, the
best rifles, and the best horses. Shortly after nine o'clock the choice
had been made, and nine hundred and ten [Footnote: The official report
says nine hundred; Shelby, in all his earlier narratives, nine hundred
and ten; Hill, nine hundred and thirty-three. The last authority is
important because he was one of the four hundred men who joined the
mountaineers at the Cowpens, and his testimony confirms the explicit
declaration of the official report that the nine hundred men who fought
in the battle were chosen after the junction with Williams, Lacey, and
Hill. A few late narratives, including that of Shelby in his old age,
make the choice take place before the junction, and the total number
then amount to thirteen hundred; evidently the choice at the Cowpens is
by these authors confused with the choice at Green River. Shelby's
memory when he was old was certainly very treacherous; in similar
fashion he, as has been seen, exaggerated greatly his numbers at the
Enoree. On the other hand, Robert Campbell puts the number at only seven
hundred, and Lenoir between six and seven hundred. Both of these thus
err in the opposite direction.] picked riflemen, well mounted, rode out
of the circle of flickering firelight, and began their night journey. A
few determined footmen followed, going almost as fast as the horse, and
actually reached the battle-field in season to do their share of the
fighting.
Ferguson Makes Ready.
All this time Ferguson had not been idle. He first heard of the advance
of the backwoodsmen on September 30th, from the two tories who deserted
Sevier on Yellow Mountain. He had furloughed many of his loyalists, as
all formidable resistance seemed at an end; and he now sent out
messengers in every direction to recall them to his standard. Meanwhile
he fell slowly back from the foot-hills, so that he might not have to
face the mountaineers until he had time to gather his own troops. He
instantly wrote for reinforcements to Cruger, at Ninety-Six. Cruger had
just returned from routing the Georgian Colonel Clark, who was besieging
Augusta. In the chase a number of Americans were captured, and thirteen
were hung. The British and tories interpreted the already sufficiently
severe instructions of their commander-in-chief with the utmost
liberality, even the officers chronicling the hanging with exultant
pleasure, as pointing out the true way by which to end the war.
[Footnote: Draper, p. 201, quotes a printed letter from a British
officer to this effect.]
Cruger, in his answer to Ferguson, explained that he did not have the
number of militia regiments with which he was credited; and he did not
seem to quite take in the gravity of the situation, [Footnote: Probably
Ferguson himself failed to do so at this time.] expressing his pleasure
at hearing how strongly the loyalists of North Carolina had rallied to
Ferguson's support, and speaking of the hope he had felt that the North
Carolina tories would by themselves have proved "equal to the mountain
lads." However, he promptly set about forwarding the reinforcements that
were demanded; but before they could reach the scene of action the fate
of the campaign had been decided.
Ferguson had not waited for outside help. He threw himself into the work
of rallying the people of the plains, who were largely loyalists,
[Footnote: Gates MSS. Letter of Davidson, September 14th, speaks of the
large number of tories in the counties where Ferguson was operating.]
against the over-mountain men, appealing not only to their royalist
sentiments, but to their strong local prejudices, and to the dread many
of them felt for the wild border fighters. On the 1st of October he sent
out a proclamation, of which copies were scattered broadcast among the
loyalists. It was instinct with the fiery energy of the writer, and well
suited to goad into action the rough tories, and the doubtful men, to
whom it was addressed. He told them that the Back Water men had crossed
the mountains, with chieftains at their head who would surely grant
mercy to none who had been loyal to the king. He called on them to grasp
their arms on the moment and run to his standard, if they desired to
live and bear the name of men; to rally without delay, unless they
wished to be eaten up by the incoming horde of cruel barbarians, to be
themselves robbed and murdered, and to see their daughters and wives
abused by the dregs of mankind. In ending, he told them scornfully that
if they chose to be spat [Footnote: The word actually used was still
stronger.] upon and degraded forever by a set of mongrels, to say so at
once, that their women might turn their backs on them and look out for
real men to protect them.
Hoping to be joined by Cruger's regiments, as well as by his own
furloughed men, and the neighboring tories, he gradually drew off from
the mountains, doubling and turning, so as to hide his route and puzzle
his pursuers. Exaggerated reports of the increase in the number of his
foes were brought to him, and, as he saw how slowly they marched, he
sent repeated messages to Cornwallis, asking for reinforcements;
promising speedily to "finish the business," if three or four hundred
soldiers, part dragoons, were given him, for the Americans were
certainly making their "last push in this quarter." [Footnote: See
letter quoted by Tarleton.] He was not willing to leave the many loyal
inhabitants of the district to the vengeance of the whigs [Footnote:
Ferguson's "Memoir," p. 32.]; and his hopes of reinforcements were well
founded. Every day furloughed men rejoined him, and bands of loyalists
came into camp; and he was in momentary expectation of help from
Cornwallis or Cruger. It will be remembered that the mountaineers on
their last march passed several tory bands. One of these alone, near the
Cowpens, was said to have contained six hundred men; and in a day or two
they would all have joined Ferguson. If the whigs had come on in a body,
as there was every reason to expect, Ferguson would have been given the
one thing he needed--time; and he would certainly have been too strong
for his opponents. His defeat was due to the sudden push of the mountain
chieftains; to their long, swift ride from the ford of Green River, at
the head of their picked horse-riflemen.
The British were still in the dark as to the exact neighborhood from
which their foes--the "swarm of backwoodsmen," as Tarleton called them
[Footnote: "Tarleton's Campaigns," p. 169.]--really came. It was
generally supposed that they were in part from Kentucky, and that Boon
himself was among the number. [Footnote: British historians to the
present day repeat this. Even Lecky, in his "History of England," speaks
of the backwoodsmen as in part from Kentucky. Having pointed out this
trivial fault in Lecky's work, it would be ungracious not to allude to
the general justice and impartiality of its accounts of these
revolutionary campaigns--they are very much more trustworthy than
Bancroft's, for instance. Lecky scarcely gives the right color to the
struggle in the south; but when Bancroft treats of it, it is not too
much to say that he puts the contest between the whigs and the British
and tories in a decidedly false light. Lecky fails to do justice to
Washington's military ability, however; and overrates the French
assistance.] However, Ferguson probably cared very little who they were;
and keeping, as he supposed, a safe distance away from them, he halted
at King's Mountain in South Carolina on the evening of October 6th,
pitching his camp on a steep, narrow hill just south of the North
Carolina boundary. The King's Mountain range itself is about sixteen
miles in length, extending in a southwesterly course from one State into
the other. The stony, half isolated ridge on which Ferguson camped was
some six or seven hundred yards long and half as broad from base to
base, or two thirds that distance on top. The steep sides were clad with
a growth of open woods, including both saplings and big timber. Ferguson
parked his baggage wagons along the northeastern part of the mountain.
The next day he did not move; he was as near to the army of Cornwallis
at Charlotte as to the mountaineers, and he thought it safe to remain
where he was. He deemed the position one of great strength, as indeed it
would have been, if assailed in the ordinary European fashion; and he
was confident that even if the rebels attacked him, he could readily
beat them back. But as General Lee, "Light-Horse Harry," afterwards
remarked, the hill was much easier assaulted with the rifle than
defended with the bayonet.
The backwoodsmen, on leaving the camp at the Cowpens, marched slowly
through the night, which was dark and drizzly; many of the men got
scattered in the woods, but joined their commands in the morning--the
morning of October 7th. The troops bore down to the southward, a little
out of the straight route, to avoid any patrol parties; and at sunrise
they splashed across the Cherokee Ford. [Footnote: "Am. Pioneer," II.,
67. An account of one of the soldiers, Benj. Sharp, written in his old
age; full of contradictions of every kind (he for instance forgets they
joined Williams at the Cowpens); it cannot be taken as an authority, but
supplies some interesting details.] Throughout the forenoon the rain
continued but the troops pushed steadily onwards without halting,
[Footnote: Late in life Shelby asserted that this steadiness in pushing
on was due to his own influence. The other accounts do not bear him
out.] wrapping their blankets and the skirts of their hunting-shirts
round their gun-locks, to keep them dry. Some horses gave out, but their
riders, like the thirty or forty footmen who had followed from the
Cowpens, struggled onwards and were in time for the battle. When near
King's Mountain they captured two tories, and from them learned
Ferguson's exact position; that "he was on a ridge between two
branches," [Footnote: _I. e._, brooks.] where some deer hunters had
camped the previous fall. These deer hunters were now with the oncoming
backwoodsmen, and declared that they knew the ground well. Without
halting, Campbell and the other colonels rode forward together, and
agreed to surround the hill, so that their men might fire upwards
without risk of hurting one another. It was a bold plan; for they knew
their foes probably outnumbered them; but they were very confident of
their own prowess, and were anxious to strike a crippling blow. From one
or two other captured tories, and from a staunch whig friend, they
learned the exact disposition of the British and loyalist force, and
were told that their noted leader wore a light, parti-colored
hunting-shirt; and he was forthwith doomed to be a special target for
the backwoods rifles. When within a mile of the hill a halt was called,
and after a hasty council of the different colonels--in which Williams
did not take part,--the final arrangements were made, and the men, who
had been marching in loose order, were formed in line of battle. They
then rode forward in absolute silence, and when close to the west slope
of the battle-hill, beyond King's Creek, drew rein and dismounted. They
tied their horses to trees, and fastened their great coats and blankets
to the saddles, for the rain had cleared away. A few of the officers
remained mounted. The countersign of the day was "Buford," the name of
the colonel whose troops Tarleton had defeated and butchered. The final
order was for each man to look carefully at the priming of his rifle,
and then to go into battle and fight till he died.
The Battle.
The foes were now face to face. On the one side were the American
backwoodsmen, under their own leaders, armed in their own manner, and
fighting after their own fashion, for the freedom and the future of
America; on the opposite side were other Americans--the loyalists, led
by British officers, armed and trained in the British fashion, and
fighting on behalf of the empire of Britain and the majesty of the
monarchy. The Americans numbered, all told, about nine hundred and fifty
men. [Footnote: Nine hundred and ten horsemen (possibly nine hundred, or
perhaps nine hundred and thirty-three) started out; and the footmen who
kept up were certainly less than fifty in number. There is really no
question as to the American numbers; yet a variety of reasons have
conspired to cause them to be generally greatly overstated, even by
American historians. Even Phelan gives them fifteen hundred men,
following the ordinary accounts. At the time, many outsiders supposed
that all the militia who were at the Cowpens fought in the battle; but
this is not asserted by any one who knew the facts. General J. Watts
DePeyster, in the _Mag. of Am. Hist._ for 1880,--"The Affair at King's
Mountain,"--gives the extreme tory view. He puts the number of the
Americans at from thirteen hundred to nineteen hundred. His account,
however, is only based on Shelby's later narratives, told thirty years
after the event, and these are all that need be considered. When Shelby
grew old, he greatly exaggerated the numbers on both sides in all the
fights in which he had taken part. In his account of King's Mountain, he
speaks of Williams and the four hundred Flint Hill men joining the
attacking body _after_, not _before_, the nine hundred and ten picked
men started. But his earlier accounts, including the official report
which he signed, explicitly contradict this. The question is thus purely
as to the time of the junction; as to whether it was after or before
this that the body of nine hundred actual fighters was picked out.
Shelby's later report contains the grossest self-contradictions. Thus it
enumerates the companies which fought the battle in detail, the result
running up several hundred more than the total he gives. The early and
official accounts are in every way more worthy of credence; but the
point is settled beyond dispute by Hill's narrative. Hill was one of the
four hundred men with Williams, and he expressly states that after the
junction at the Cowpens the force, from both commands, that started out
numbered nine hundred and thirty-three. The question is thus definitely
settled. Most of the later accounts simply follow the statements Shelby
made in his old age.] The British forces were composed in bulk of the
Carolina loyalists--troops similar to the Americans who joined the
mountaineers at Quaker Meadows and the Cowpens [Footnote: There were
many instances of brothers and cousins in the opposing ranks at King's
Mountain; a proof of the similarity in the character of the forces.];
the difference being that besides these low-land militia, there were
arrayed on one side the men from the Holston, Watauga, and Nolichucky,
and on the other the loyalist regulars. Ferguson had, all told, between
nine hundred and a thousand troops, a hundred and twenty or thirty of
them being the regulars or "American Volunteers," the remainder tory
militia. [Footnote: The American official account says that they
captured the British provision returns, according to which their force
amounted to eleven hundred and twenty-five men. It further reports, of
the regulars nineteen killed, thirty-five wounded and left on the ground
as unable to march, and seventy-eight captured; of the tories two
hundred and six killed, one hundred and twenty-eight wounded and left on
the ground unable to march, and six hundred and forty-eight captured.
The number of tories killed must be greatly exaggerated. Allaire, in his
diary, says Ferguson had only eight hundred men, but almost in the same
sentence enumerates nine hundred and six, giving of the regulars
nineteen killed, thirty-three wounded, and sixty-four captured (one
hundred and sixteen in all, instead of one hundred and thirty-two, as in
the American account), and of the tories one hundred killed, ninety
wounded, and "about" six hundred captured. This does not take account of
those who escaped. From Ramsey and De Peyster down most writers assert
that every single individual on the defeated side were killed or taken;
but in Colonel Chesney's admirable "Military Biography" there is given
the autobiography or memoir of a South Carolina loyalist who was in the
battle. His account of the battle is meagre and unimportant, but he
expressly states that at the close he and a number of others escaped
through the American lines by putting sprigs of white paper in their
caps, as some of the whig militia did--for the militia had no uniforms,
and were dressed alike on both sides. A certain number of men who
escaped must thus be added.] The forces were very nearly equal in
number. What difference there was, was probably in favor of the British
and tories. There was not a bayonet in the American army, whereas
Ferguson trusted much to this weapon. All his volunteers and regulars
were expert in its use, and with his usual ingenuity he had trained
several of his loyalist companies in a similar manner, improvising
bayonets out of their hunting-knives. The loyalists whom he had had with
him for some time were well drilled. The North Carolina regiment was
weaker on this point, as it was composed of recruits who had joined him
but recently. [Footnote: There were undoubtedly very many horse-thieves,
murderers, and rogues of every kind with Ferguson, but equally
undoubtedly the bulk of his troops were loyalists from principle, and
men of good standing, especially those from the seaboard. Many of the
worst tory bandits did not rally to him, preferring to plunder on their
own account. The American army itself was by no means free from
scoundrels. Most American writers belittle the character of Ferguson's
force, and sneer at the courage of the tories, although entirely unable
to adduce any proof of their statements, the evidence being the other
way. Apparently they are unconscious of the fact that they thus wofully
diminish the credit to be given to the victors. It may be questioned if
there ever was a braver or finer body of riflemen than the nine hundred
who surrounded and killed or captured a superior body of well posted,
well led, and courageous men, in part also well drilled, on King's
Mountain. The whole world now recognizes how completely the patriots
were in the right; but it is especially incumbent on American historians
to fairly portray the acts and character of the tories, doing justice to
them as well as to the whigs, and condemning them only when they deserve
it. In studying the Revolutionary war in the Southern States, I have
been struck by the way in which the American historians alter the facts
by relying purely on partisan accounts, suppressing the innumerable whig
excesses and outrages, or else palliating them. They thus really destroy
the force of the many grave accusations which may be truthfully brought
against the British and tories. I regret to say that Bancroft is among
the offenders. Hildreth is an honorable exception. Most of the British
historians of the same events are even more rancorous and less
trustworthy than the American writers; and while fully admitting the
many indefensible outrages committed by the whigs, a long-continued and
impartial examination of accessible records has given me the belief that
in the districts where the civil war was most ferocious, much the
largest number of the criminal class joined the tories, and the misdeeds
of the latter were more numerous than those of the whigs. But the
frequency with which both whigs and tories hung men for changing sides,
shows that quite a number of the people shifted from one party to the
other; and so there must have been many men of exactly the same stamp in
both armies. Much of the nominal changing of sides, however, was due to
the needless and excessive severity of Cornwallis and his lieutenants.]
The Americans were discovered by their foes when only a quarter of a
mile away. They had formed their forces as they marched. The right
centre was composed of Campbell's troops; the left centre of Shelby's.
These two bodies separated slightly so as to come up opposite sides of
the narrow southwestern spur of the mountain. The right wing was led by
Sevier, with his own and McDowell's troops. On the extreme right Major
Winston, splitting off from the main body a few minutes before, had led
a portion of Cleavland's men by a roundabout route to take the mountain
in the rear, and cut off all retreat. He and his followers "rode like
fox-hunters," as was afterwards reported by one of their number who was
accustomed to following the buck and the gray fox with horn and hound.
They did not dismount until they reached the foot of the mountain,
galloping at full speed through the rock-strewn woods; and they struck
exactly the right place, closing up the only gap by which the enemy
could have retreated. The left wing was led by Cleavland. It contained
not only the bulk of his own Wilkes and Surrey men, but also the North
and South Carolinians who had joined the army at the Cowpens under the
command of Williams, Lacey, Hambright, Chronicle, and others.
[Footnote: Draper gives a good plan of the battle. He also gives some
pictures of the fighting, in which the backwoodsmen are depicted in full
Continental uniform, which probably not a man--certainly very few of
them--wore.] The different leaders cheered on their troops by a few last
words as they went into the fight; being especially careful to warn them
how to deal with the British bayonet charges. Campbell had visited each
separate band, again requesting every man who felt like flinching not to
go into the battle. He bade them hold on to every inch of ground as long
as possible, and when forced back to rally and return at once to the
fight. Cleavland gave much the same advice; telling his men that when
once engaged they were not to wait for the word of command, but to do as
he did, for he would show them by his example how to fight, and they
must then act as their own officers. The men were to fire quickly, and
stand their ground as long as possible, if necessary sheltering
themselves behind trees. If they could do no better they were to
retreat, but not to run quite off; but to return and renew the struggle,
for they might have better luck at the next attempt. [Footnote: Ramsay
("Revolution in South Carolina"), writing in 1785, gives the speech
verbatim, apparently from Cleavland himself. It is very improbable that
it is verbally correct, but doubtless it represents the spirit of his
remarks.]
So rapid were the movements of the Americans, and so unexpected the
attack, that a loyalist officer, who had been out reconnoitring, had
just brought word to the British commander that there was no sign of
danger, when the first shots were heard; and by the time the officer had
paraded and posted his men, the assault had begun, his horse had been
killed, and he himself wounded. [Footnote: "Essays in Military
Biography," Col. Charles Cornwallis Chesney, London, 1874. On p. 323
begins a memoir of "A Carolina Loyalist in the Revolutionary War." It is
written by the loyalist himself, who was presumably a relation of Col.
Chesney's. It was evidently written after the event, and there are some
lapses. Thus he makes the war with the Cherokees take place in 1777,
instead of '76. His explanation of Tarleton's defeat at the Cowpens must
be accepted with much reserve. At King's Mountain he says the Americans
had fifteen hundred men, instead of twenty-five hundred, of which
Allaire speaks. Allaire probably consciously exaggerated the number.]
When Ferguson learned that his foes were on him, he sprang on his horse,
his drums beat to arms, and he instantly made ready for the fight.
Though surprised by the unexpected approach of the American, he exerted
himself with such energy that his troops were in battle array when the
attack began. The outcrops of slaty rock on the hill-sides made ledges
which, together with the boulders strewn on top, served as breastworks
for the less disciplined tories; while he in person led his regulars and
such of the loyalist companies as were furnished with the hunting-knife
bayonets. He hoped to be able to repulse his enemies by himself taking
the offensive, with a succession of bayonet charges; a form of attack in
which his experience with Pulaski and Huger had given him great
confidence.
At three o'clock in the afternoon the firing began, as the Americans
drove in the British pickets. The brunt of the battle fell on the
American centre, composed of Campbell's and Shelby's men, who sustained
the whole fight for nearly ten minutes [Footnote: Campbell MSS. Letter
of Col. Wm. Campbell, Oct. 10, 1780, says 10 minutes: the official
report (Gates MSS.) says 5 minutes.] until the two wings had had time to
get into place and surround the enemy. Campbell began the assault,
riding on horseback along the line of his riflemen. He ordered them to
raise the Indian war-whoop, which they did with a will, and made the
woods ring. [Footnote: _Richmond Enquirer_ (Nov. 12, 1822 and May 9,
1823) certificates of King's Mountain survivors--of James Crow, May 6,
1813; David Beattie, May 4, 1813, etc., etc. All the different
commanders claimed the honor of beginning the battle in after-life; the
official report decides it in favor of Campbell and Shelby, the former
being the first actually engaged, as is acknowledged by Shelby in his
letter to Arthur Campbell on October 12, 1780.] They then rushed upwards
and began to fire, each on his own account; while their war cries echoed
along the hill-side. Ferguson's men on the summit responded with heavy
volley firing, and then charged, cheering lustily. The mountain was
covered with smoke and flame, and seemed to thunder. [Footnote: Haywood,
71; doubtless he uses the language of one of the actors.]
Ferguson's troops advanced steadily, their officers riding at their
head, with their swords flashing; and the mountaineers, who had no
bayonets, could not withstand the shock. They fled down the hill-side,
and being sinewy, nimble men, swift of foot, they were not overtaken,
save a few of sullen temper, who would not retreat and were bayoneted.
One of their officers, a tall backwoodsman, six feet in height, was cut
down by Lieutenant Allaire, a New York loyalist, as the latter rode at
the head of his platoon. No sooner had the British charge spent itself
than Campbell, who was riding midway between the enemy and his own men,
called out to the latter in a voice of thunder to rally and return to
the fight, and in a minute or two they were all climbing the hill again,
going from tree to tree, and shooting at the soldiers on the summit.
Campbell's horse, exhausted by the breakneck galloping hither and
thither over the slope, gave out; he then led the men on foot, his voice
hoarse with shouting, his face blackened with powder; for he was always
in the front of the battle and nearest the enemy.
No sooner had Ferguson returned from his charge on Campbell than he
found Shelby's men swarming up to the attack on the other side. Shelby
himself was at their head. He had refused to let his people return the
dropping fire of the tory skirmishers until they were close up. Ferguson
promptly charged his new foes and drove them down the hill-side; but the
instant he stopped, Shelby, who had been in the thick of the fight,
closest to the British, brought his marksmen back, and they came up
nearer than ever, and with a deadlier fire. [Footnote: Shelby MS.] While
Ferguson's bayonet-men--both regulars and militia--charged to and fro,
the rest of the loyalists kept up a heavy fire from behind the rocks on
the hill-top. The battle raged in every part, for the Americans had by
this time surrounded their foes, and they advanced rapidly under cover
of the woods. They inflicted much more damage than they suffered, for
they were scattered out while the royalist troops were close together,
and moreover, were continually taken in flank. Ferguson, conspicuous
from his hunting-shirt, [Footnote: The "Carolina Loyalist" speaks as if
the hunting-shirt were put on for disguise; he says Ferguson was
recognized, "although wearing a hunting-shirt."] rode hither and thither
with reckless bravery, his sword in his left hand-for he had never
entirely regained the use of his wounded right--while he made his
presence known by the shrill, ear-piercing notes of a silver whistle
which he always carried. Whenever the British and tories charged with
the bayonet, under Ferguson, De Peyster, or some of their lieutenants,
the mountaineers were forced back down the hill; but the instant the red
lines halted and returned to the summit, the stubborn riflemen followed
close behind, and from every tree and boulder continued their irregular
and destructive fire. The peculiar feature of the battle was the success
with which, after every retreat, Campbell, Shelby, Sevier, and Cleavland
rallied their followers on the instant; the great point was to prevent
the men from becoming panic-stricken when forced to flee. The pealing
volleys of musketry at short intervals drowned the incessant clatter of
the less noisy but more deadly backwoods rifles. The wild whoops of the
mountain men, the cheering of the loyalists, the shouts of the officers,
and the cries of the wounded mingled with the reports of the firearms,
and shrill above the din rose the calling of the silver whistle.
Wherever its notes were heard the wavering British line came on, and the
Americans were forced back. Ferguson dashed from point to point, to
repel the attacks of his foes, which were made with ever-increasing
fury. Two horses were killed under him; [Footnote: Ferguson's "Memoir,"
p. 32.] but he continued to lead the charging parties; slashing and
hewing with his sword until it was broken off at the hilt. At last, as
he rode full speed against a part of Sevier's men, who had almost gained
the hill crest, he became a fair mark for the vengeful backwoods
riflemen. Several of them fired together and he fell suddenly from his
horse, pierced by half a dozen bullets almost at the same instant. The
gallant British leader was dead, while his foot yet hung in the stirrup.
[Footnote: The "South Carolina Loyalist" says he was killed just as he
had slain Col. Williams "with his left hand." Ramsey, on the other side,
represents Col. Williams as being shot while dashing forward to kill
Ferguson. Williams certainly was not killed by Ferguson himself; and in
all probability the latter was slain earlier in the action and in an
entirely different part of the line. The "Loyalist" is also in error as
to Cleavland's regiment being the first that was charged. There is no
ground whatever for the statement that Ferguson was trying to escape
when shot; nor was there any attempt at a charge of horsemen, made in
due form. The battle was purely one of footmen and the attempt to show
an effort at a cavalry charge at the end is a simple absurdity.]
The silver whistle was now silent, but the disheartened loyalists were
rallied by De Peyster, who bravely continued the fight. [Footnote: In
his _Hist. Mag._ article Gen. Watts De Peyster clears his namesake's
reputation from all charge of cowardice; but his account of how De
Peyster counselled and planned all sorts of expedients that might have
saved the loyalists is decidedly mythical.] It is said that he himself
led one of the charges which were at this time made on Cleavland's line;
the "South Fork" men from the Catawba, under Hambright and Chronicle,
being forced back, Chronicle being killed and Hambright wounded. When
the Americans fled they were scarcely a gun's length ahead of their
foes; and the instant the latter faced about, the former were rallied by
their officers, and again went up the hill. One of the backwoodsmen was
in the act of cocking his rifle when a loyalist, dashing at him with the
bayonet, pinned his hand to his thigh; the rifle went off, the ball
going through the loyalist's body, and the two men fell together.
Hambright, though wounded, was able to sit in the saddle, and continued
in the battle. Cleavland had his horse shot under him, and then led his
men on foot. As the lines came close together, many of the whigs
recognized in the tory ranks their former neighbors, friends, or
relatives; and the men taunted and jeered one another with bitter
hatred. In more than one instance brother was slain by brother or cousin
by cousin. The lowland tories felt an especial dread of the
mountaineers; looking with awe and hatred on their tall, gaunt, rawboned
figures, their long, matted hair and wild faces. One wounded tory, as he
lay watching them, noticed their deadly accuracy of aim, and saw also
that the loyalists, firing from the summit, continually overshot their
foes.
The British regulars had lost half their number; the remainder had been
scattered and exhausted in their successive charges. The bayonet
companies of the loyalist militia were in the same plight; and the North
Carolina tories, the least disciplined, could no longer be held to their
work. Sevier's men gained the summit at the same time with Campbell's
and part of Shelby's. The three colonels were heading their troops; and
as Sevier saw Shelby, he swore, by God, the British had burned off part
of his hair; for it was singed on one side of his head.
When the Holston and Watauga men gained the crest the loyalists broke
and fled to the east end of the mountain, among the tents and baggage
wagons, where they again formed. But they were huddled together, while
their foes surrounded them on every hand. The fighting had lasted an
hour; all hope was gone; and De Peyster hoisted a white flag.
In the confusion the firing continued in parts of the lines on both
sides. Some of the backwoodsmen did not know what a white flag meant;
others disregarded it, savagely calling out, "Give them Buford's play,"
in allusion to Tarleton's having refused quarter to Buford's troops.
[Footnote: Deposition of John Long, in _Enquirer_, as quoted.] Others of
the men as they came up began shooting before they learned what had
happened; and some tories who had been out foraging returned at this
moment, and also opened fire. A number of the loyalists escaped in
turmoil, putting badges in their hats like those worn by certain of the
American militia, and thus passing in safety through the whig lines.
[Footnote: Chesney, p. 333.] It was at this time, after the white flag
had been displayed, that Col. Williams was shot, as he charged a few of
the tories who were still firing. The flag was hoisted again, and white
handkerchiefs were also waved, from guns and ramrods. Shelby, spurring
up to part of their line, ordered the tories to lay down their arms,
which they did. [Footnote: Shelby MS.] Campbell, at the same moment,
running among his men with his sword pointed to the ground, called on
them for God's sake to cease firing; and turning to the prisoners he
bade the officers rank by themselves, and the men to take off their hats
and sit down. He then ordered De Peyster to dismount; which the latter
did, and handed his sword to Campbell. [Footnote: Campbell MSS. Letter
of General George Rutledge (who was in the battle, an eye-witness of
what he describes), May 27, 1813. But there is an irreconcilable
conflict of testimony as to whether Campbell or Evan Shelby received De
Peyster's sword.] The various British officers likewise surrendered
their swords, to different Americans; many of the militia commanders who
had hitherto only possessed a tomahawk or scalping-knife thus for the
first time getting possession of one of the coveted weapons.
Almost the entire British and tory force was killed or captured; the
only men who escaped were the few who got through the American lines by
adopting the whig badges. About three hundred of the loyalists were
killed or disabled; the slightly wounded do not seem to have been
counted. [Footnote: For the loyalist losses, see _ante_, note discussing
their numbers. The "South Carolina Loyalist" says they lost about a
third of their number. It is worthy of note that the actual fighting at
King's Mountain bore much resemblance to that at Majuba Hill a century
later; a backwoods levy was much like a Boer commando.] The
colonel-commandant was among the slain; of the four militia colonels
present, two were killed, one wounded, [Footnote: In some accounts this
officer is represented as a major, in some as a colonel; at any rate he
was in command of a small regiment, or fragment of a regiment.] and the
other captured--a sufficient proof of the obstinacy of the resistance.
The American loss in killed and wounded amounted to less than half,
perhaps only a third, that of their foes. [Footnote: The official report
as published gave the American loss as twenty-eight killed and sixty
wounded. The original document (in the Gates MSS., N. Y. Hist. Soc.)
gives the loss in tabulated form in an appendix, which has not
heretofore been published. It is as follows:
RETURN OF KILLED AND WOUNDED.
KILLED | WOUNDED |
Col. | Col. |
| Major. | | Major. |
| | Capt. | | | Capt. |
| | | Lieut. | | | | Lieut. |
| | | | Ensign. | | | | | Ensign. |
| | | | | Sergt. | | | | | | Sergt. |
| | | | | | Private. | | | | | | Private.
REGIMENTS. | | | | | | | Total.| | | | | | | Total.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Grand
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Total.
Campbell's.. 1 2 4 5 12 | 1 3 17 21 33
McDowell's.. 4 4 | 4 4 8
Thomas'..... | 8 8 8
Cleavland's. 8 8 | 1 2 10 13 21
Shelby's.... |
Sevier's.... 2 2 | 10 10 12
Hayes'...... 1 1 | 3 3 4
Brannon's... | 3 3 3
Col. Williams'1 1 | 1
-----------------------------------------------------
1 1 1 2 4 19 28 | 1 3 3 55 62 90
It will be seen that these returns are imperfect. They do not include
Shelby's loss; yet his regiment was alongside of Campbell's, did its
full share of the work, and probably suffered as much as Sevier's, for
instance. But it is certain that in the hurry not all the killed and
wounded were enumerated (compare Draper, pp. 302-304). Hayes', Thomas',
and "Brannon's" (Brandon's) commands were some of those joining at the
Cowpens. Winston's loss is doubtless included under Cleavland's. It will
be seen that Williams' troops could have taken very little part in the
action.] Campbell's command suffered more than any other, the loss among
the officers being especially great; for it bore the chief part in
withstanding the successive bayonet charges of the regulars, and the
officers had been forced to expose themselves with the utmost freedom,
in order to rally their men when beaten back. [Footnote: It would be
quite impossible to take notice of the countless wild absurdities of the
various writers who have given "histories" so-called, of the battle. One
of the most recent of them, Mr. Kirke, having accepted as the number of
the British dead two hundred and twenty-five, and the wounded one
hundred and eighty five, says that the disproportion shows "the
wonderful accuracy of the backwoods rifle"--the beauty of the argument
being that it necessarily implies that the backwoodsmen only fired some
four hundred and ten shots. Mr. Kirke's account of the battle having
been "won" owing to a remarkable ride taken by Sevier to rally the men
at the critical moment is, of course, without any historic basis
whatever.]
After the Victory.
The mountain-men had done a most notable deed. They had shown in
perfection the best qualities of horse-riflemen. Their hardihood and
perseverance had enabled them to bear up well under fatigue, exposure,
and scanty food. Their long, swift ride, and the suddenness of the
attack, took their foes completely by surprise. Then, leaving their
horses, they had shown in the actual battle such courage, marksmanship,
and skill in woodland fighting, that they had not only defeated but
captured an equal number of well-armed, well-led, resolute men, in a
strong position. The victory was of far-reaching importance, and ranks
among the decisive battles of the Revolution. It was the first great
success of the Americans in the south, the turning-point in the southern
campaign, and it brought cheer to the patriots throughout the Union. The
loyalists of the Carolinas were utterly cast down, and never recovered
from the blow; and its immediate effect was to cause Cornwallis to
retreat from North Carolina, abandoning his first invasion of that
State. [Footnote: "Tarleton's Campaigns," p. 166.]
The expedition offered a striking example of the individual initiative
so characteristic of the backwoodsmen. It was not ordered by any one
authority; it was not even sanctioned by the central or State
governments. Shelby and Sevier were the two prime movers in getting it
up; Campbell exercised the chief command; and the various other leaders,
with their men, simply joined the mountaineers, as they happened to hear
of them and come across their path. The ties of discipline were of the
slightest. The commanders elected their own chief without regard to rank
or seniority; in fact the officer [Footnote: Williams.] who was by rank
entitled to the place was hardly given any share in the conduct of the
campaign. The authority of the commandant over the other officers, and
of the various colonels over their troops, resembled rather the control
exercised by Indian chiefs over their warriors than the discipline
obtaining in a regular army. But the men were splendid individual
fighters, who liked and trusted their leaders; and the latter were bold,
resolute, energetic, and intelligent.
Cornwallis feared that the mountain men would push on and attack his
flank; but there was no such danger. By themselves they were as little
likely to assail him in force in the open as Andreas Hofer's
Tyrolese--with whom they had many points in common--were to threaten
Napoleon on the Danubian plains. Had they been Continental troops, the
British would have had to deal with a permanent army. But they were only
militia [Footnote: The striking nature of the victory and its important
consequences must not blind us to the manifold shortcomings of the
Revolutionary militia. The mountaineers did well in spite of being
militia; but they would have done far better under another system. The
numerous failures of the militia as a whole must be balanced against the
few successes of a portion of them. If the States had possessed wisdom
enough to back Washington with Continentals, or with volunteers such as
those who fought in the Civil War, the Revolutionary contest would have
been over in three years. The trust in militia was a perfect curse. Many
of the backwoods leaders knew this. The old Indian fighter, Andrew
Lewis, about this time wrote to Gates (see Gates MSS., Sept. 30, 1780),
speaking of "the dastardly conduct of the militia," calling them "a set
of poltroons," and longing for Continentals.]after all, however
formidable from their patriotic purpose and personal prowess. The
backwoods armies were not unlike the armies of the Scotch Highlanders;
tumultuous gatherings of hardy and warlike men, greatly to be dreaded
under certain circumstances, but incapable of a long campaign, and
almost as much demoralized by a victory as by a defeat. Individually or
in small groups they were perhaps even more formidable than the
Highlanders; but in one important respect they were inferior, for they
totally lacked the regimental organization which the clan system gave
the Scotch Celts.
The mountaineers had come out to do a certain thing--to kill Ferguson
and scatter his troops. They had done it, and now they wished to go
home. The little log-huts in which their families lived were in daily
danger of Indian attack; and it was absolutely necessary that they
should be on hand to protect them. They were, for the most part, very
poor men, whose sole sources of livelihood were the stock they kept
beyond the mountains. They loved their country greatly, and had shown
the sincerity of their patriotism by the spontaneous way in which they
risked their lives on this expedition. They had no hope of reward; for
they neither expected nor received any pay, except in liquidated
certificates, worth two cents on the dollar. Shelby's share of these,
for his services as colonel throughout '80 and '81, was sold by him for
"six yards of middling broadcloth" [Footnote: Shelby's MS.
autobiography.]; so it can be readily imagined how little each private
got for the King's Mountain expedition. [Footnote: Among these privates
was the father of Davy Crockett.]
The day after the battle the Americans fell back towards the mountains,
fearing lest, while cumbered by prisoners and wounded, they should be
struck by Tarleton or perhaps Cruger. The prisoners were marched along
on foot, each carrying one or two muskets, for twelve hundred stand of
arms had been captured. The Americans had little to eat, and were very
tired; but the plight of the prisoners was pitiable. Hungry, footsore,
and heartbroken, they were hurried along by the fierce and boastful
victors, who gloried in the vengeance they had taken, and recked little
of such a virtue as magnanimity to the fallen. The only surgeon in
either force was Ferguson's. He did what he could for the wounded; but
that was little enough, for, of course, there were no medical stores
whatever. The Americans buried their dead in graves, and carried their
wounded along on horse-litters. The wounded loyalists were left on the
field, to be cared for by the neighboring people. The conquerors showed
neither respect nor sympathy for the leader who had so gallantly fought
them. [Footnote: But the accounts of indignity being shown him are not
corroborated by Allaire and Ryerson, the two contemporary British
authorities, and are probably untrue.] His body and the bodies of his
slain followers were cast into two shallow trenches, and loosely covered
with stones and earth. The wolves, coming to the carnage, speedily dug
up the carcasses, and grew so bold from feasting at will on the dead
that they no longer feared the living. For months afterwards King's
Mountain was a favorite resort for wolf hunters.
The victory once gained, the bonds of discipline over the troops were
forthwith loosened; they had been lax at the best, and only the strain
of the imminent battle with the British had kept them tense for the
fortnight the mountaineers had been away from their homes. All the men
of the different commands were bragging as to their respective merits in
the battle, and the feats performed by the different commanders.
[Footnote: Certificate of Matthew Willoughby, in _Richmond Enquirer_, as
quoted.] The general break up of authority, of course, allowed full play
to the vicious and criminal characters. Even before the mountaineers
came down the unfortunate Carolinas had suffered from the misdeeds of
different bodies of ill-disciplined patriot troops, [Footnote: Gates
MSS., Deposition of John Satty, and others, Sept. 7, 1780; of Wm.
Hamilton, Sept. 12th, etc., etc., etc.] almost as much as from the
British and tories. The case was worse now. Many men deserted from the
returning army for the especial purpose of plundering the people of the
neighborhood, paying small heed which cause the victims had espoused;
and parties continually left camp avowedly with this object. Campbell's
control was of the slightest; he was forced to entreat rather than
command the troops, complaining that they left their friends in "almost
a worse situation than the enemy would have done," and expressing what
was certainly a moderate "wish," that the soldiers would commit no
"unnecessary injury" on the inhabitants of the county. [Footnote:
Campbell's General Orders, Oct. 14th, and Oct. 26th.] Naturally such
very mild measures produced little effect in stopping the plundering.
However, Campbell spoke in stronger terms of an even worse set of
outrages. The backwoodsmen had little notion of mercy to beaten enemies,
and many of them treated the captured loyalists with great brutality,
even on the march, [Footnote: "Our captors ... cutting and striking us
in a most savage manner,"--"South Carolina Loyalist."] Col. Cleavland
himself being one of the offenders. [Footnote: Allaire's diary, entry of
Nov. 1st.] Those of their friends and relatives who had fallen into the
hands of the tories, or of Cornwallis' regulars, had fared even worse;
yet this cannot palliate their conduct. Campbell himself, when in a fit
of gusty anger, often did things he must have regretted afterwards; but
he was essentially manly, and his soul revolted at the continued
persecution of helpless enemies. He issued a sharp manifesto in
reference to the way the prisoners were "slaughtered and disturbed,"
assuring the troops that if it could not be prevented by moderate
measures, he would put a stop to it by taking summary vengeance on the
offenders. [Footnote: Campbell's General Orders, Oct. 11th.] After this
the prisoners were, on the whole, well treated. When they met a couple
of Continental officers, the latter were very polite, expressing their
sympathy for their fate in falling into such hands; for from Washington
and Greene down, the Continental troops disliked and distrusted the
militia almost as much as the British regulars did the tories.
There was one dark deed of vengeance. It had come to be common for the
victors on both sides to hang those whom they regarded as the chief
offenders among their conquered opponents. As the different districts
were alternately overrun, the unfortunate inhabitants were compelled to
swear allegiance in succession to Congress and to king; and then, on
whichever side they bore arms, they were branded as traitors. Moreover,
the different leaders, both British and American, from Tarleton and
Ferguson to Sumter and Marion, often embodied in their own ranks some of
their prisoners, and these were of course regarded as deserters by their
former comrades. Cornwallis, seconded by Rawdon, had set the example of
ordering all men found in the rebel ranks after having sworn allegiance
to the king, to be hung; his under-officers executed the command with
zeal, and the Americans, of course, retaliated. Ferguson's troops
themselves had hung some of their prisoners. [Footnote: Allaire's Diary,
entry for Aug. 20th; also see Aug. 2d. He chronicles these hangings with
much complacency, but is, of course, shocked at the "infamous" conduct
of the Americans when they do likewise.]
All this was fresh in the minds of the Americans who had just won so
decisive a victory. They were accustomed to give full vent to the
unbridled fury of their passions; they with difficulty brooked control;
they brooded long over their own wrongs, which were many and real, and
they were but little impressed by the misdeeds committed in return by
their friends. Inflamed by hatred and the thirst for vengeance, they
would probably have put to death some of their prisoners in any event;
but all doubt was at an end when on their return march they were joined
by an officer who had escaped from before Augusta, and who brought word
that Cruger's victorious loyalists had hung a dozen of the captured
patriots. [Footnote: Shelby MS.] This news settled the doom of some of
the tory prisoners. A week after the battle a number of them were tried,
and thirty were condemned to death. Nine, including the only tory
colonel who had survived the battle, were hung; then Sevier and Shelby,
men of bold, frank nature, could no longer stand the butchery, and
peremptorily interfered, saving the remainder. [Footnote: _Do._] Of the
men who were hung, doubtless some were murderers and marauders, who
deserved their fate; others, including the unfortunate colonel, were
honorable men, executed only because they had taken arms for the cause
they deemed right.
Leaving the prisoners in the hands of the lowland militia, the
mountaineers returned to their secure fastnesses in the high
hill-valleys of the Holston, the Watauga, and the Nollchucky. They had
marched well and fought valiantly, and they had gained a great victory;
all the little stockaded forts, all the rough log-cabins on the
scattered clearings, were jubilant over the triumph. From that moment
their three leaders were men of renown. The legislatures of their
respective states thanked them publicly and voted them swords for their
services. Campbell, next year, went down to join Greene's army, did
gallant work at Guilford Courthouse, and then died of camp-fever. Sevier
and Shelby had long lives before them. [Footnote: Thirty years after the
battle, when Campbell had long been dead, Shelby and Sevier started a
most unfortunate controversy as to his conduct in the battle. They
insisted that he had flinched, and that victory was mainly due to them.
Doubtless they firmly believed what they said; for as already stated,
the jealousies and rivalries among the backwoods leaders were very
strong; but the burden of proof, after thirty years' silence, rested on
them, and they failed to make their statements good--nor was their act a
very gracious one. Shelby bore the chief part in the quarrel, Campbell's
surviving relatives, of course, defending the dead chieftain. I have
carefully examined all the papers in the case, in the Tenn. Historical
Society, the Shelby, MSS., and the Campbell MSS., besides the files of
the _Richmond Enquirer_, etc.; and it is evident that the accusation was
wholly groundless.
Shelby and Sevier rest their case:
1st, on their memory, thirty years after the event, of some remarks of
Campbell to them in private after the close of the battle, which they
construed as acknowledgments of bad conduct. Against these memories of
old men it is safe to set Shelby's explicit testimony, in a letter
written six days after the battle (see _Virginia Argus_, Oct. 26, 1810),
to the good-conduct of the "gallant commander" (Campbell).
2d, on the fact that Campbell was seen on a black horse in the rear
during the fighting; but a number of men of his regiment swore that he
had given his black horse to a servant who sat in the rear, while he
himself rode a bay horse in the battle. See their affidavits in the
_Enquirer_.
3d, on the testimony of one of Shelby's brothers, who said he saw him in
the rear. This is the only piece of positive testimony in the case. Some
of Campbell's witnesses (as Matthew Willoughby) swore that this brother
of Shelby was a man of bad character, engaged at the time in stealing
cattle from both Whigs and Tories.
4th, on the testimony of a number of soldiers who swore they did not see
Campbell in the latter part of the battle, nor until some moments after
the surrender. Of course, this negative testimony is simply valueless;
in such a hurly burly it would be impossible for the men in each part of
the line to see all the commanders, and Campbell very likely did not
reach the places where these men were until some time after the
surrender. On the other hand, forty officers and soldiers of Campbell's,
Sevier's, and Shelby's regiments, headed by General Rutledge, swore that
they had seen Campbell valiantly leading throughout the whole battle,
and foremost at the surrender. This positive testimony conclusively
settles the matter; it outweighs that of Shelby's brother, the only
affirmative witness on the other side. But it is a fair question as to
whether Campbell or another of Shelby's brothers received De Peyster's
sword.]
CHAPTER X.
THE HOLSTON SETTLEMENTS TO THE END OF THE REVOLUTION, 1781-83.
John Sevier.
John Sevier had no sooner returned from doing his share in defeating
foes who were of his own race, than he was called on to face another set
of enemies, quite as formidable and much more cruel. These were the red
warriors, the ancient owners of the soil, who were ever ready to take
advantage of any momentary disaster that befell their hereditary and
victorious opponents, the invading settlers.
For many years Sevier was the best Indian fighter on the border. He was
far more successful than Clark, for instance, inflicting greater loss on
his foes and suffering much less himself, though he never had any thing
like Clark's number of soldiers. His mere name was a word of dread to
the Cherokees, the Chickamaugas, and the upper Creeks. His success was
due to several causes. He wielded great influence over his own
followers, whose love for and trust in "Chucky Jack" were absolutely
unbounded; for he possessed in the highest degree the virtues most
prized on the frontier. He was open-hearted and hospitable, with winning
ways towards all, and combined a cool head with a dauntless heart; he
loved a battle for its own sake, and was never so much at his ease as
when under fire; he was a first-class marksman, and as good a horseman
as was to be found on the border. In his campaigns against the Indians
he adopted the tactics of his foes, and grafted on them some important
improvements of his own. Much of his success was due to his adroit use
of scouts or spies. He always chose for these the best woodsmen of the
district, men who could endure as much, see as much, and pass through
the woods as silently, as the red men themselves. By keeping these
scouts well ahead of him, he learned accurately where the war parties
were. In the attack itself he invariably used mounted riflemen, men
skilled in forest warfare, who rode tough little horses, on which they
galloped at speed through the forest. Once in position they did the
actual fighting on foot, sheltering themselves carefully behind the
tree-trunks. He moved with extreme rapidity and attacked with
instantaneous suddenness, using ambushes and surprises wherever
practicable. His knowledge of the whereabouts and size of the hostile
parties, and the speed of his own movements, generally enabled him to
attack with the advantage of numbers greatly on his side. [Footnote: The
old Tennessee historians, headed by Haywood, base their accounts, of the
actions on statements made by the pioneers, or some of the pioneers,
forty or fifty years after the event; and they do a great deal of
bragging about the prowess of the old Indian fighters. The latter did
most certainly perform mighty deeds; but often in an entirely different
way from that generally recorded; for they faced a foe who on his own
ground was infinitely more to be dreaded than the best trained European
regulars. Thus Haywood says that after the battle of the Island Flats,
the whites were so encouraged that thenceforward they never asked
concerning their enemies, "how many are they?" but "where are they?" Of
course, this is a mere piece of barbaric boasting. If the whites had
really acted on any such theory there would have been a constant
succession of disasters like that at the Blue Licks. Sevier's latest
biographer, Mr. Kirke, in the "Rear-guard of the Revolution," goes far
beyond even the old writers. For instance, on p. 141 he speaks of
Sevier's victories being "often" gained over "twenty times his own
number" of Indians. As a matter of fact, one of the proofs of Sevier's
skill as a commander is that he almost always fought with the advantage
of numbers on his side. Not a single instance can be produced where
either he or any one else during his lifetime gained a victory over
twenty times his number of Indians, unless the sieges are counted. It is
necessary to keep in mind the limitations under which Haywood did his
work, in order to write truthfully; but a debt of gratitude will always
be due him for the history he wrote. Like Marshall's, it is the book of
one who himself knew the pioneers, and it has preserved very much of
value which would otherwise have been lost. The same holds true of
Ramsey.] He could then outflank or partially surround the Indians, while
his sudden rush demoralized them; so that, in striking contrast to most
other Indian fighters, he inflicted a far greater loss than he received.
He never fought a big pitched battle, but, by incessantly harrying and
scattering the different war bands, he struck such terror to the hearts
of the Indians that he again and again, in a succession of wars, forced
them into truces, and for the moment freed the settlements from their
ravages. He was almost the only commander on the frontier who ever
brought an Indian war, of whatever length, to an end, doing a good deal
of damage to his foes and suffering very little himself. Still, he never
struck a crushing blow, nor conquered a permanent peace. He never did
any thing to equal Clark's campaigns in the Illinois and against
Vincennes, and, of course, he cannot for a moment be compared to his
rival and successor, grim Old Hickory, the destroyer of the Creeks and
the hero of New Orleans.
Sevier's Cherokee Campaigns.
When the men of the Holston or upper Tennessee valley settlements
reached their homes after the King's Mountain expedition, they found
them menaced by the Cherokees. Congress had endeavored in vain to
persuade the chiefs of this tribe to make a treaty of peace, or at least
to remain neutral. The efforts of the British agents to embroil them
with the whites were completely successful; and in November the Otari or
Overhill warriors began making inroads along the frontier. They did not
attack in large bands. A constant succession of small parties moved
swiftly through the county, burning cabins, taking scalps, and, above
all, stealing horses. As the most effectual way of stopping such
inroads, the alarmed and angered settlers resolved to send a formidable
retaliatory expedition against the Overhill towns. [Footnote: Campbell
MSS. Letter of Gov. Thos. Jefferson, Feb. 17, 1781.] All the Holston
settlements both north and south of the Virginia line joined in sending
troops. By the first week in December, 1780, seven hundred mounted
riflemen were ready to march, under the joint leadership of Colonel
Arthur Campbell and of Sevier, the former being the senior officer. They
were to meet at an appointed place on the French Broad.
Sevier started first, with between two and three hundred of his Watauga
and Nolichucky followers. He marched down to the French Broad, but could
hear nothing of Campbell. He was on the great war trace of the southern
Indians, and his scouts speedily brought him word that they had
exchanged shots with a Cherokee war party, on its way to the
settlements, and not far distant on the other side of the river. He
instantly crossed, and made a swift march towards the would-be
marauders, camping on Boyd's Creek. The scouts were out by sunrise next
morning--December 16th,--and speedily found the Indian encampment, which
the warriors had just left. On receipt of the news Sevier ordered the
scouts to run on, attack the Indians, and then instantly retreat, so as
to draw them into an ambuscade. Meanwhile the main body followed
cautiously after, the men spread out in a long line, with the wings
advanced; the left wing under Major Jesse Walton, the right under Major
Jonathan Tipton, while Sevier himself commanded the centre, which
advanced along the trail by which the scouts were to retreat. When the
Indians were drawn into the middle, the two wings were to close in, when
the whole party would be killed or captured.
The plan worked well. The scouts soon came up with the warriors, and,
after a moment's firing, ran back, with the Indians in hot pursuit.
Sevier's men lay hid, and, when the leading warriors were close up, they
rose and fired. Walton's wing closed in promptly; but Tipton was too
slow, and the startled Cherokees ran off through the opening he had
left, rushed into a swamp impassable for horsemen, and scattered out,
each man for himself, being soon beyond pursuit. Nevertheless, Sevier
took thirteen scalps, many weapons, and all their plunder. In some of
their bundles there were proclamations from Sir Henry Clinton and other
British commanders.
The Indians were too surprised and panic-struck to offer any serious
resistance, and not a man of Sevier's force was even wounded. [Footnote:
Campbell MSS. Copy of the official report of Col. Arthur Campbell, Jan.
15, 1781. The accounts of this battle of Boyd's Creek illustrate well
the growth of such an affair under the hands of writers who place
confidence in all kinds of tradition, especially if they care more for
picturesqueness than for accuracy. The contemporary official report is
explicit. There were three hundred whites and seventy Indians. Of the
latter, thirteen were slain. Campbell's whole report shows a jealousy of
Sevier, whom he probably knew well enough was a man of superior ability
to himself; but this jealousy appears mainly in the coloring. He does
not change any material fact, and there is no reason for questioning the
substantial truth of his statements.
Forty years afterward Haywood writes of the affair, trying to tell
simply the truth, but obliged to rely mainly on oral tradition. He
speaks of Sevier's troops as only two hundred in number; and says
twenty-eight Indians were killed. He does not speak of the number of the
Indians, but from the way he describes Sevier's troops as encircling
them, he evidently knew that the white men were more numerous than their
foes. His mistake as to the number of Indian dead is easily explicable.
The official report gives twenty-nine as the number killed in the entire
campaign, and Haywood, as in the Island Flats battle, simply puts the
total of several skirmishes into one.
Thirty years later comes Ramsey. He relies on traditions that have grown
more circumstantial and less accurate. He gives two accounts of what he
calls "one of the best-fought battles in the border war of Tennessee";
one of these accounts is mainly true; the other entirely false; he does
not try to reconcile them. He says three whites were wounded, although
the official report says that in the whole campaign but one man was
killed and two wounded. He reduces Sevier's force to one hundred and
seventy men, and calls the Indians "a large body."
Thirty-four years later comes Mr. Kirke, with the "Rear-guard of the
Revolution." Out of his inner consciousness he evolves the fact that
there were "not less than a thousand" Indians, whom Sevier, at the head
of one hundred and seventy men, vanquishes, after a heroic combat, in
which Sevier and some others perform a variety of purely imaginary
feats. By diminishing the number of the whites, and increasing that of
the Indians, he thus makes the relative force of the latter about
_twenty-five times as great as it really was_, and converts a clever
ambuscade, whereby the whites gave a smart drubbing to a body of Indians
one fourth their own number, into a Homeric victory over a host six
times as numerous as the conquerors.
This is not a solitary instance; on the contrary it is typical of almost
all that is gravely set forth as history by a number of writers on these
western border wars, whose books are filled from cover to cover with
just such matter. Almost all their statements are partly, and very many
are wholly, without foundation.]Having thus made a very pretty stroke,
Sevier returned to the French Broad, where Campbell joined him on the
22d, with four hundred troops. Among them were a large number of
Shelby's men, under the command of Major Joseph Martin. The next day the
seven hundred horsemen made a forced march to the Little Tennessee; and
on the 24th crossed it unopposed, making a feint at one ford, while the
main body passed rapidly over another. The Indians did not have the
numbers to oppose so formidable a body of good fighters, and only
ventured on a little very long range and harmless skirmishing with the
vanguard. Dividing into two bodies, the troops destroyed Chota and the
other towns up and down the stream, finding in them a welcome supply of
provisions. The next day Martin, with a detachment, fell on a party of
flying Indians, killed one, and captured seventeen horses loaded with
clothing, skins, and the scanty household furniture of the cabins; while
another detachment destroyed the part of Chilhowee that was on the
nearer side of the river. On the 26th the rest of Chilhowee was burned,
three Indians killed, and nine captured. Tipton, with one hundred and
fifty men, was sent to attack another town beyond the river; but owing
to the fault of their commander, [Footnote: His "unmilitary behavior,"
says Campbell. Ramsey makes him one of the (imaginary) wounded at Boyd's
Creek. Kirke improves on this by describing him as falling "badly
wounded" just as he was about to move his wing forward, and ascribes to
his fall the failure of the wing to advance.] this body failed to get
across. The Indian woman, Nancy Ward, who in '76 had given the settlers
timely warning of the intended attack by her tribesmen here came into
camp. She brought overtures of peace from the chiefs; but to these
Campbell and Sevier would not listen, as they wished first to demolish
the Hiawassee towns, where the warriors had been especially hostile.
Accordingly, they marched thither. On their way there were a couple of
skirmishes, in which several Indians were killed and one white man. The
latter, whose name was Elliot, was buried in the Tellico town, a cabin
being burned down over his grave, that the Indians might not know where
it was. The Indians watched the army from the hills. At one point a
warrior was seen stationed on a ridge to beat a drum and give signals to
the rest; but the spies of the whites stole on him unawares, and shot
him. The Hiawassee towns and all the stores of provisions they contained
were destroyed, the work being finished on the last day of the year.
On January 1, 1781, the army broke up into detachments which went home
by different routes, some additional towns being destroyed. The Indians
never ventured to offer the invaders a pitched battle. Many of the war
parties were absent on the frontier, and, at the very time their own
country was being invaded, they committed ravages in Powell's Valley,
along the upper Holston, and on the Kentucky road, near Cumberland Gap.
The remaining warriors were cowed by Sevier's first success, and were
puzzled by the rapidity with which the troops moved; for the mounted
riflemen went at speed wherever they wished, and were not encumbered by
baggage, each man taking only his blanket and a wallet of parched corn.
All the country of the Overhill Cherokees was laid waste, a thousand
cabins were burned, and fifty thousand bushels of corn destroyed.
Twenty-nine warriors in all were killed, and seventeen women and
children captured, not including the family of Nancy Ward, who were
treated as friends, not prisoners. But one white man was killed and two
wounded. [Footnote: Campbell MSS. Arthur Campbell's official report. The
figures of the cabins and corn destroyed are probably exaggerated. All
the Tennessee historians, down to Phelan, are hopelessly in the dark
over this campaign. Haywood actually duplicates it (pp. 63 and 99)
recounting it first as occurring in '79, and then with widely changed
incidents as happening in '8l--making two expeditions. When he falls
into such a tremendous initial error, it is not to be wondered at that
the details he gives are very untrustworthy. Ramsey corrects Haywood as
far as the two separate expeditions are concerned, but he makes a number
of reckless statements apparently on no better authority than the
traditions current among the border people, sixty or seventy years after
the event. These stand on the same foundation with the baseless tale
that makes Isaac Shelby take part in the battle of Island Flats. The
Tennessee historians treat Sevier as being the chief commander; but he
was certainly under Campbell; the address they sent out to the Indians
is signed by Campbell first, Sevier second, and Martin third. Haywood,
followed by Ramsey, says that Sevier marched to the Chickamauga towns,
which he destroyed, and then marched down the Coosa to the region of the
Cypress Swamps. But Campbell's official report says that the towns "in
the neighborhood of Chickamauga and the Town of Cologn, situated on the
sources of the Mobile" were _not_ destroyed, nor visited, and he
carefully enumerates all the towns that the troops burned and the
regions they went through. They did not go near Chickamauga nor the
Coosa. Unless there is some documentary evidence in favor of the
assertions of Haywood and Ramsey they cannot for a moment be taken
against the explicit declaration of the official report.
Mr. Kirke merely follows Ramsey, and adds a few flourishes of his own,
such as that at the Chickamauga towns "the blood of the slaughtered
cattle dyed red the Tennessee" for some twenty miles, and that "the
homes of over forty thousand people were laid in ashes." This last
estimate is just about ten times too strong, for the only country
visited was that of the Overhill Cherokees, and the outside limit for
the population of the devastated territory would be some four thousand
souls, or a third of the Cherokee tribe, which all told numbered perhaps
twelve thousand people.]
In the burnt towns, and on the dead warriors, were found many letters
and proclamations from the British agents and commanders, showing that
almost every chief in the nation had been carrying on a double game; for
the letters covered the periods at which they had been treating with the
Americans and earnestly professing their friendship for the latter and
their determination to be neutral in the contest then waging. As
Campbell wrote in his report to the Virginian governor, no people had
ever acted with more foolish duplicity.
Before returning, the three commanders, Campbell, Sevier, and Martin,
issued an address to the Otari chiefs and warriors, and sent it by one
of their captured braves, who was to deliver it to the head-men.
[Footnote: Campbell MSS. Issued at Kai-a-tee, Jan. 4, 1781; the copy
sent to Governor Jefferson is dated Feb. 28th.] The address set forth
what the white troops had done, telling the Indians it was a just
punishment for their folly and perfidy in consenting to carry out the
wishes of the British agents; it warned them shortly to come in and
treat for peace, lest their country should again be visited, and not
only laid waste, but conquered and held for all time. Some chiefs came
in to talk, and were met at Chota [Footnote: The Tennessee historians
all speak of this as a treaty; and probably a meeting did take place as
described; but it led to nothing, and no actual treaty was made until
some months later.]; but though they were anxious for peace they could
not restrain the vindictive spirit of the young braves, nor prevent them
from harassing the settlements. Nor could the white commanders keep the
frontiersmen from themselves settling within the acknowledged boundaries
of the Indian territory. They were constantly pressing against the
lines, and eagerly burst through at every opening. When the army marched
back from burning the Overhill towns, they found that adventurous
settlers had followed in its wake, and had already made clearings and
built cabins near all the best springs down to the French Broad. People
of every rank showed keen desire to encroach on the Indian lands.
[Footnote: Calendar of Va. State Papers, II., letter of Col. Wm.
Christian to Governor of Virginia, April 10, 1781.]
The success of this expedition gave much relief to the border, and was
hailed with pleasure throughout Virginia [Footnote: State Department
MSS., No. 15, Feb. 25, 1781.] and North Carolina. Nevertheless the war
continued without a break, bands of warriors from the middle towns
coming to the help of their disheartened Overhill brethren. Sevier
determined to try one of his swift, sudden strokes against these new
foes. Early in March he rode off at the head of a hundred and fifty
picked horsemen, resolute to penetrate the hitherto untrodden wilds that
shielded the far-off fastnesses where dwelt the Erati. Nothing shows his
daring, adventurous nature more clearly than his starting on such an
expedition; and only a man of strong will and much power could have
carried it to a successful conclusion. For a hundred and fifty miles he
led his horsemen through a mountainous wilderness where there was not so
much as a hunter's trail. They wound their way through the deep defiles
and among the towering peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains, descending by
passes so precipitous that it was with difficulty the men led down them
even such surefooted beasts as their hardy hill-horses. At last they
burst out of the woods and fell like a thunderbolt on the towns of the
Erati, nestling in their high gorges. The Indians were completely taken
by surprise; they had never dreamed that they could be attacked in their
innermost strongholds, cut off, as they were, from the nearest
settlements by vast trackless wastes of woodland and lofty, bald-topped
mountain chains. They had warriors enough to overwhelm Sevier's band by
sheer force of numbers, but he gave them no time to gather. Falling on
their main town, he took it by surprise and stormed it, killing thirty
warriors and capturing a large number of women and children. Of these,
however, he was able to bring in but twenty, who were especially
valuable because they could be exchanged for white captives. He burnt
two other towns and three small villages, destroying much provision and
capturing two hundred horses. He himself had but one man killed and one
wounded. Before the startled warriors could gather to attack him he
plunged once more into the wilderness, carrying his prisoners and
plunder, and driving the captured horses before him; and so swift were
his motions that he got back in safety to the settlements. [Footnote:
_Do_. Letters of Col. Wm. Christian, April 10, 1781; of Joseph Martin,
March 1st; and of Arthur Campbell, March 28th. The accounts vary
slightly; for instance, Christian gives him one hundred and eighty,
Campbell only one hundred and fifty men. One account says he killed
thirty, another twenty Indians. Martin, by the way, speaks bitterly of
the militia as men "who do duty at times as their inclination leads
them." The incident, brilliant enough anyhow, of course grows a little
under Ramsey and Haywood; and Mr. Kirke fairly surpasses himself when he
comes to it.] The length of the journey, the absolutely untravelled
nature of the country, which no white man, save perhaps an occasional
wandering hunter, had ever before traversed, the extreme difficulty of
the route over the wooded, cliff-scarred mountains, and the strength of
the Cherokee towns that were to be attacked, all combined to render the
feat most difficult. For its successful performance there was need of
courage, hardihood, woodcraft, good judgment, stealth, and great
rapidity of motion. It was one of the most brilliant exploits of the
border war.
Even after his return Sevier was kept busy pursuing and defeating small
bands of plundering savages. In the early summer he made a quick inroad
south of the French Broad. At the head of over a hundred hard riders he
fell suddenly on the camp of a war party, took a dozen scalps, and
scattered the rest of the Indians in every direction. A succession of
these blows completely humbled the Cherokees, and they sued for peace;
thanks to Sevier's tactics, they had suffered more loss than they had
inflicted, an almost unknown thing in these wars with the forest
Indians. In midsummer peace was made by a treaty at the Great Island of
the Holston.
End of the War with the British and Tories.
During the latter half of the year, when danger from the Indians had
temporarily ceased, Sevier and Shelby led down bands of mounted riflemen
to assist the American forces in the Carolinas and Georgia. They took an
honorable share under Marion in some skirmishes against the British and
Hessians but they did not render any special service, and Greene found
he could place no reliance on them for the actual stubborn campaigns
that broke the strength of the king's armies. They enlisted for very
short periods, and when their time was up promptly returned to their
mountains, for they were sure to get home-sick and uneasy about their
families; and neither the officers nor the soldiers had any proper idea
of the value of obedience. Among their own hills and forests and for
their own work, they were literally unequalled; and they were ready
enough to swoop down from their strongholds, strike some definite blow,
or do some single piece of valiant fighting in the low country, and then
fall back as quickly as they had come. But they were not particularly
suited for a pitched battle in the open, and were quite unfitted to
carry on a long campaign. [Footnote: Shelby MSS. Of course Shelby paints
these skirmishes in very strong colors. Haywood and Ramsey base their
accounts purely on his papers.]; [Footnote: Ramsey and his followers
endeavor to prove that the mountain men did excellently in these 1781
campaigns; but the endeavor is futile. They were good for some one
definite stroke, but their shortcomings were manifest the instant a long
campaign was attempted; and the comments of the South Carolina
historians upon their willingness to leave at unfortunate moments are on
the whole just. They behaved somewhat as Stark and the victors at
Bennington did when they left the American army before Saratoga;
although their conduct was on the whole better than that of Stark's men.
They were a brave, hardy, warlike band of irregulars, probably better
fighters than any similar force on this continent or elsewhere; but
occasional brilliant exceptions must not blind us to the general
inefficiency of the Revolutionary militia, and their great inferiority
to the Continentals of Washington, Greene, and Wayne. See Appendix.]
In one respect the mountain men deserve great credit for their conduct
in the Carolinas. As a general thing they held aloof from the
plundering. The frightful character of the civil war between the whigs
and tories, and the excesses of the British armies, had utterly
demoralized the southern States; they were cast into a condition of
anarchic disorder, and the conflicts between the patriots and loyalists
degenerated into a bloody scramble for murder and plunder wherein the
whigs behaved as badly as ever the tories had done. [Footnote: In the
Clay MSS. there is a letter from Jesse Benton (the father of the great
Missouri Senator) to Col. Thos. Hart, of March 23d, 1783, which gives a
glimpse of the way in which the tories were treated even after the
British had been driven out; it also shows how soon maltreatment of
royalists was turned into general misrule and rioting. The letter runs,
in part, as follows:
"I cannot help mentioning to You an Evil which seems intaild upon the
upper part of this State, to wit, Mobbs and commotions amongst the
People. I shall give you the particulars of the last Work of this kind
which lately happend, & which is not yet settled; Plunder being the
first cause. The Scoundrels, under the cloak of great Whigs cannot bear
the thought of paying the unfortunate Wretches whom Fame and ill will
call Tories (though many of them perhaps honest, industrious and useful
men) for plunderd property; but on the other Hand think they together
with their Wives and Children (who are now beging for Mercy) ought to be
punished to the utmost extremity. I am sorry that Col. O Neal and his
Brother Peter, who have been useful men and whom I am in hopes are
pretty clear of plundering, should have a hand in Arbitrary measures at
this Day when the Civil Laws might take place.
"One Jacob Graves son of old John of Stinking Quarter, went off & was
taken with the British Army, escaped from the Guards, came & surrendered
himself to Gen'l Butler, about the middle of Last month & went to his
Family upon Parole. Col. O Neal being informed of this, armed himself
with Gun and sword, went to Graves's in a passion, Graves shut the Door,
O Neal broke it down, Graves I believe thinking his own Life at stake,
took his Brothers Gun which happened to be in the house & shot O Neal
through the Breast.
"O Neal has suffered much but is now recovering. This accident has
inflamed and set to work those who were afraid of suffering for their
unjust and unwarrantable Deeds, the Ignorant honest men are also willing
to take part against their Rulers & I don't know when nor where it is to
end, but I wish it was over. At the Guilford Feb'y Court Peter O Neal &
others armed with clubs in the Face of the Court then sitting and in the
Court house too, beat some men called Tories so much that their Lives
were despaired of, broke up the Court and finally have stopd the civil
Laws in that County. Your old Friend Col. Dunn got out at Window, fled
in a Fright, took cold and died immediately. Rowan County Court I am
told was also broke up.
"If O Neal should die I fear that a number of the unhappy wretches
called Tories will be Murdered, and that a man disposed to do justice
dare not interfere, indeed the times seem to imitate the commencement of
the Regulators."] Men were shot, houses burned, horses stolen, and
negroes kidnapped; even the unfortunate freedmen of color were hurried
off and sold into slavery. It was with the utmost difficulty that a few
wise and good commanders, earnest lovers of their country, like the
gallant General Pickens, were able to put a partial stop to these
outrages, and gather a few brave men to help in overcoming the foreign
foe. To the honor of the troops under Sevier and Shelby be it said that
they took little part in these misdeeds. There were doubtless some men
among them who shared in all the evil of that turbulent time; but most
of these frontier riflemen, though poor and ignorant, were sincerely
patriotic; they marched to fight the oppressor, to drive out the
stranger, not to ill-treat their own friends and countrymen.
Towards the end of these campaigns, which marked the close of the
Revolutionary struggle, Shelby was sent to the North Carolina
Legislature, where he served for a couple of terms. Then, when peace was
formally declared, he removed to Kentucky, where he lived ever
afterwards. Sevier stayed in his home on the Nolichucky, to be
thenceforth, while his life lasted, the leader in peace and war of his
beloved mountaineers.
Quarrels over the Land
Early in 1782 fresh difficulties arose with the Indians. In the war just
ended the Cherokees themselves had been chiefly to blame. The whites
were now in their turn the aggressors the trouble being, as usual, that
they encroached on lands secured to the red men by solemn treaty. The
Watauga settlements had been kept compact by the presence of the
neighboring Indians. They had grown steadily but slowly. They extended
their domain slightly after every treaty, such treaty being usually
though not always the sequel to a successful war; but they never gained
any large stretch of territory at once. Had it not been for the presence
of the hostile tribes they would have scattered far and wide over the
country, and could not have formed any government.
The preceding spring (1781) the land office had been closed, not to be
opened until after peace with Great Britain was definitely declared, the
utter demoralization of the government bringing the work to a
standstill. The rage for land speculation, however, which had continued,
even in the stormiest days of the Revolution, grew tenfold in strength
after Yorktown, when peace at no distant day was assured. The wealthy
land speculators of the seaboard counties made agreements of various
sorts with the more prominent frontier leaders in the effort to secure
large tracts of good country. The system of surveying was much better
than in Kentucky, but it was still by no means perfect, as each man
placed his plot wherever he chose, first describing the boundary marks
rather vaguely, and leaving an illiterate old hunter to run the lines.
Moreover, the intending settler frequently absented himself for several
months, or was temporarily chased away by the Indians, while the
official record books were most imperfect. In consequence, many
conflicts ensued. The frontiersmen settled on any spot of good land they
saw fit, and clung to it with defiant tenacity, whether or not it
afterwards proved to be on a tract previously granted to some land
company or rich private individual who had never been a hundred miles
from the sea-coast. Public officials went into these speculations. Thus
Major Joseph Martin, while an Indian agent, tried to speculate in
Cherokee lands. [Footnote: See Va. State Papers, III., 560.] Of course
the officer's public influence was speedily destroyed when he once
undertook such operations; he could no longer do justice to outsiders.
Occasionally the falseness of his position made him unjust to the
Indians; more often it forced him into league with the latter, and made
him hostile to the borderers. [Footnote: This is a chief reason why the
reports of the Indian agents are so often bitterly hostile towards those
of their own color.]
Before the end of the Revolution the trouble between the actual settlers
and the land speculators became so great that a small subsidiary civil
war was threatened. The rough riflemen resolutely declined to leave
their clearings, while the titular owners appealed to the authority of
the loose land laws, and wished them to be backed up by the armed force
of the State. [Footnote: See in Durrett MSS. papers relating to Isaac
Shelby; letter of John Taylor to Isaac Shelby, June 8, 1782.]
The government of North Carolina was far too weak to turn out the
frontiersmen in favor of the speculators to whom the land had been
granted,--often by fraudulent means, or at least for a ridiculously
small sum of money. Still less could it prevent its unruly subjects from
trespassing on the Indian country, or protect them if they were
themselves threatened by the savages. It could not do justice as between
its own citizens, and it was quite incompetent to preserve the peace
between them and outsiders. [Footnote: Calendar of Va. State Papers,
III., p. 213.] The borderers were left to work out their own salvation.
Further Indian Troubles.
By the beginning of 1782 settlements were being made south of the French
Broad. This alarmed and irritated the Indians, and they sent repeated
remonstrances to Major Martin, who was Indian agent, and also to the
governor of North Carolina. The latter wrote Sevier, directing him to
drive off the intruding settlers, and pull down their cabins. Sevier did
not obey. He took purely the frontier view of the question, and he had
no intention of harassing his own staunch adherents for the sake of the
savages whom he had so often fought. Nevertheless, the Cherokees always
liked him personally, for he was as open-handed and free-hearted to them
as to every one else, and treated them to the best he had whenever they
came to his house. He had much justification for his refusal, too, in
the fact that the Indians themselves were always committing outrages.
When the Americans reconquered the southern States many tories fled to
the Cherokee towns, and incited the savages to hostility; and the
outlying settlements of the borderers were being burned and plundered by
members of the very tribes whose chiefs were at the same time writing to
the governor to complain of the white encroachments. [Footnote: _Do_.,
p. 4.]
When in April the Cherokees held a friendly talk with Evan Shelby they
admitted that the tories among them and their own evil-disposed young
men committed ravages on the whites, but asserted that most of them
greatly desired peace, for they were weak and distressed, and had shrunk
much in numbers. [Footnote: _Do_., p. 171, April 29, 1782.] The trouble
was that when they were so absolutely unable to control their own bad
characters, it was inevitable that they should become embroiled with the
whites.
The worst members of each race committed crimes against the other, and
not only did the retaliation often fall on the innocent, but,
unfortunately, even the good men were apt to make common cause with the
criminals of their own color. Thus in July the Chickamaugas sent in a
talk for peace; but at that very time a band of their young braves made
a foray into Powell's valley, killing two settlers and driving off some
stock. They were pursued, one of their number killed, and most of the
stock retaken. In the same month, on the other hand, two friendly
Indians, who had a canoe laden with peltry, were murdered on the Holston
by a couple of white ruffians, who then attempted to sell the furs. They
were discovered, and the furs taken from them; but to their disgrace be
it said, the people round about would not suffer the criminals to be
brought to justice. [Footnote: _Do_., pp. 213, 248.]
The mutual outrages continued throughout the summer, and in September
they came to a head. The great majority of the Otari of the Overhill
towns were still desirous of peace, and after a council of their
head-men the chief Old Tassel, of the town of Chota, sent on their
behalf a strong appeal to the governors of both Virginia and North
Carolina. The document is written with such dignity, and yet in a tone
of such curious pathos, that it is worth giving in full, as putting in
strongest possible form the Indian side of the case, and as a sample of
the best of these Indian "talks."
"A Talk to Colonel Joseph Martin, by the Old Tassell, in Chota, the 25th
of September, 1782, in favour of the whole nation. For His Excellency,
the Governor of North Carolina. Present, all the chiefs of the friendly
towns and a number of young men.
"Brother: I am now going to speak to you. I hope you will listen to me.
A string. I intended to come this fall and see you, but there was such
confusion in our country, I thought it best for me to stay at home and
send my Talks by our friend Colonel Martin, who promised to deliver them
safe to you. We are a poor distressed people, that is in great trouble,
and we hope our elder brother will take pity on us and do us justice.
Your people from Nolichucky are daily pushing us out of our lands. We
have no place to hunt on. Your people have built houses within one day's
walk of our towns. We don't want to quarrel with our elder brother; we,
therefore, hope our elder brother will not take our lands from us, that
the Great Man above gave us. He made you and he made us; we are all his
children, and we hope our elder brother will take pity on us, and not
take our lands from us that our father gave us, because he is stronger
than we are. We are the first people that ever lived on this land; it is
ours, and why will our elder brother take it from us? It is true, some
time past, the people over the great water persuaded some of our young
men to do some mischief to our elder brother, which our principal men
were sorry for. But you our elder brothers come to our towns and took
satisfaction, and then sent for us to come and treat with you, which we
did. Then our elder brother promised to have the line run between us
agreeable to the first treaty, and all that should be found over the
line should be moved off. But it is not done yet. We have done nothing
to offend our elder brother since the last treaty, and why should our
elder brother want to quarrel with us? We have sent to the Governor of
Virginia on the same subject. We hope that between you both, you will
take pity on your younger brother, and send Col. Sevier, who is a good
man, to have all your people moved off our land. I should say a great
deal more, but our friend, Colonel Martin, knows all our grievances, and
he can inform you. A string." [Footnote: Ramsey, 271. The "strings" of
wampum were used to mark periods and to indicate, and act as reminders
of, special points in the speech.]
The speech is interesting because it shows that the Indians both liked
and respected Sevier, their most redoubtable foe; and because it
acknowledges that in the previous war the Cherokees themselves had been
the wrongdoers. Even Old Tassel had been implicated in the treacherous
conduct of the chiefs at that period; but he generally acted very well,
and belonged with the large number of his tribesmen who, for no fault of
their own, were shamefully misused by the whites.
The white intruders were not removed. No immediate collision followed on
this account; but when Old Tassel's talk was forwarded to the governor,
small parties of Chickamaugas, assisted by young braves from among the
Creeks and Erati, had already begun to commit ravages on the outlying
settlements. Two weeks before Old Tassel spoke, on the 11th of
September, a family of whites was butchered on Moccasin Creek. The
neighbors gathered, pursued the Indians, and recaptured the survivors.
[Footnote: Calendar of Va. State Papers, III., p. 317.] Other outrages
followed, throughout the month. Sevier as usual came to the rescue of
the angered settlers. He gathered a couple of hundred mounted riflemen,
and made one of his swift retaliatory inroads. His men were simply
volunteers, for there was no money in the country treasury with which to
pay them or provide them with food and provisions; it was their own
quarrel, and they furnished their own services free, each bringing his
horse, rifle, ammunition, blanket, and wallet of parched corn. Naturally
such troops made war purely according to their own ideas, and cared
nothing whatever for the commands of those governmental bodies who were
theoretically their superiors. They were poor men, staunch patriots, who
had suffered much and done all they could during the Revolution
[Footnote: _Do_.]; now, when threatened by the savages they were left to
protect themselves, and they did it in their own way. Sevier led his
force down through the Overhill towns, doing their people no injury and
holding a peace talk with them. They gave him a half breed, John Watts,
afterwards one of their chiefs, as guide; and he marched quickly against
some of the Chickamauga towns, where he destroyed the cabins and
provision hoards. Afterwards he penetrated to the Coosa, where he burned
one or two Creek villages. The inhabitants fled from the towns before he
could reach them; and his own motions were so rapid that they could
never gather in force strong enough to assail him. [Footnote: The
authority for this expedition is Haywood (p. 106); Ramsey simply alters
one or two unimportant details. Haywood commits so many blunders
concerning the early Indian wars that it is only safe to regard his
accounts as true in outline; and even for this outline it is to be
wished we had additional authority. Mr. Kirke, in the "Rear-guard," p.
313, puts in an account of a battle on Lookout Mountain, wherein Sevier
and his two hundred men defeat "five hundred tories and savages." He
does not even hint at his authority for this, unless in a sentence of
the preface where he says, "a large part of my material I have derived
from what may be termed 'original sources'--old settlers." Of course the
statement of an old settler is worthless when it relates to an alleged
important event which took place a hundred and five years before, and
yet escaped the notice of all contemporary and subsequent historians. In
plain truth unless Mr. Kirke can produce something like contemporary--or
approximately contemporary--documentary evidence for this mythical
battle, it must be set down as pure invention. It is with real
reluctance that I speak thus of Mr. Kirke's books. He has done good
service in popularizing the study of early western history, and
especially in calling attention to the wonderful careers of Sevier and
Robertson. Had he laid no claim to historic accuracy I should have been
tempted to let his books pass unnoticed; but in the preface to his "John
Sevier" he especially asserts that his writings "may be safely accepted
as authentic history." On first reading his book I was surprised and
pleased at the information it contained; when I came to study the
subject I was still more surprised and much less pleased at discovering
such wholesale inaccuracy--to be perfectly just I should be obliged to
use a stronger term. Even a popular history ought to pay at least some
little regard to truth.] Very few Indians were killed, and apparently
none of Sevier's people; a tory, an ex-British sergeant, then living
with an Indian squaw, was among the slain.
This foray brought but a short relief to the settlements. On Christmas
day three men were killed on the Clinch; and it was so unusual a season
for the war parties to be abroad that the attack caused widespread
alarm. [Footnote: Calendar of Va. State Papers, III., p. 424.] Early in
the spring of 1783 the ravages began again. [Footnote: _Do_., p. 479.]
Some time before General Wayne had addressed the Creeks and Choctaws,
reproaching them with the aid they had given the British, and
threatening them with a bloody chastisement if they would not keep the
peace. [Footnote: State Department MSS. Letters of Washington, No. 152,
Vol. XI., Feb. I, 1782.] A threat from Mad Anthony meant something, and
the Indians paid at least momentary heed. Georgia enjoyed a short
respite, which, as usual, the more reckless borderers strove to bring to
an end by encroaching on the Indian lands, while the State authorities,
on the other hand, did their best to stop not only such encroachments,
but also all travelling and hunting in the Indian country, and
especially the marking of trees. This last operation, as Governor Lyman
Hall remarked in his proclamation, gave "Great Offence to the Indians,"
[Footnote: Gazette of the State of Georgia, July 10. 1783.] who
thoroughly understood that the surveys indicated the approaching
confiscation of their territory.
Towards the end of 1783 a definite peace was concluded with the
Chickasaws, who ever afterwards remained friendly [Footnote: Va. State
Papers, III., p. 548.]; but the Creeks, while amusing the Georgians by
pretending to treat, let their parties of young braves find an outlet
for their energies by assailing the Holston and Cumberland settlements.
[Footnote: _Do_., p. 532.] The North Carolina Legislature, becoming
impatient, passed a law summarily appropriating certain lands that were
claimed by the unfortunate Cherokees. The troubled peace was continually
threatened by the actions either of ungovernable frontiersmen or of
bloodthirsty and vindictive Indians. [Footnote: _Do_., p. 560.] Small
parties of scouts were incessantly employed in patrolling the southern
border.
Growth of the Settlements.
Nevertheless, all pressing danger from the Indians was over. The Holston
settlements throve lustily. Wagon roads were made, leading into both
Virginia and North Carolina. Settlers thronged into the country, the
roads were well travelled, and the clearings became very numerous. The
villages began to feel safe without stockades, save those on the extreme
border, which were still built in the usual frontier style. The
scattering log school-houses and meeting-houses increased steadily in
numbers, and in 1783, Methodism, destined to become the leading and
typical creed of the west, first gained a foothold along the Holston,
with a congregation of seventy-six members. [Footnote: "History of
Methodism in Tennessee," John B. M'Ferrin (Nashville, 1873), I., 26.]
These people of the upper Tennessee valleys long continued one in
interest as in blood. Whether they lived north or south of the Virginia
or North Carolina boundary, they were more closely united to one another
than they were to the seaboard governments of which they formed part.
Their history is not generally studied as a whole, because one portion
of their territory continued part of Virginia, while the remainder was
cut off from North Carolina as the nucleus of a separate State. But in
the time of their importance, in the first formative period of the young
west, all these Holston settlements must be treated together, or else
their real place in our history will be totally misunderstood.
[Footnote: Nothing gives a more fragmentary and twisted view of our
history than to treat it purely by States; this is the reason that a
State history is generally of so little importance when taken by itself.
On the other hand it is of course true that the fundamental features in
our history can only be shown by giving proper prominence to the
individual state life.]
Frontier Towns.
The two towns of Abingdon and Jonesboro, respectively north and south of
the line, were the centres of activity. In Jonesboro the log
court-house, with its clapboard roof, was abandoned, and in its place a
twenty-four-foot-square building of hewn logs was put up; it had a
shingled roof and plank floors, and contained a justice's bench, a
lawyers' and clerk's bar, and a sheriff's box to sit in. The county of
Washington was now further subdivided, its southwest portion being
erected into the county of Greene, so that there were three counties of
North Carolina west of the mountains. The court of the new county
consisted of several justices, who appointed their own clerk, sheriff,
attorney for the State, entry-taker, surveyer, and registrar. They
appropriated money to pay for the use of the log-house where they held
sessions, laid a tax of a shilling specie on every hundred pounds for
the purpose of erecting public buildings, laid out roads, issued
licenses to build mills, and bench warrants to take suspected persons.
[Footnote: Ramsey, 277. The North Carolina Legislature, in 1783, passed
an act giving Henderson two hundred thousand acres, and appointed Joseph
Martin Indian agent, arranged for a treaty with the Cherokees, and
provided that any good men should be allowed to trade with the Indians.]
Abingdon was a typical little frontier town of the class that
immediately succeeded the stockaded hamlets. A public square had been
laid out, round which, and down the straggling main street, the few
buildings were scattered; all were of logs, from the court house and
small jail down. There were three or four taverns. The two best were
respectively houses of entertainment for those who were fond of their
brandy, and for the temperate. There were a blacksmith shop and a couple
of stores. [Footnote: One was "kept by two Irishmen named Daniel and
Manasses Freil" (_sic_; the names look very much more German than
Irish).] The traders brought their goods from Alexandria, Baltimore, or
even Philadelphia, and made a handsome profit. The lower taverns were
scenes of drunken frolic, often ending in free fights. There was no
constable, and the sheriff, when called to quell a disturbance, summoned
as a posse those of the bystanders whom he deemed friendly to the cause
of law and order. There were many strangers passing through; and the
better class of these were welcome at the rambling log-houses of the
neighboring backwoods gentry, who often themselves rode into the taverns
to learn from the travellers what was happening in the great world
beyond the mountains. Court-day was a great occasion; all the
neighborhood flocked in to gossip, lounge, race horses, and fight. Of
course in such gatherings there were always certain privileged
characters. At Abingdon these were to be found in the persons of a
hunter named Edward Callahan, and his wife Sukey. As regularly as
court-day came round they appeared, Sukey driving a cart laden with
pies, cakes, and drinkables, while Edward, whose rolls of furs and deer
hides were also in the cart, stalked at its tail on foot, in full
hunter's dress, with rifle, powder-horn, and bullet-bag, while his fine,
well-taught hunting-dog followed at his heels. Sukey would halt in the
middle of the street, make an awning for herself and begin business,
while Edward strolled off to see about selling his peltries. Sukey never
would take out a license, and so was often in trouble for selling
liquor. The judges were strict in proceeding against offenders--and even
stricter against the unfortunate tories--but they had a humorous liking
for Sukey, which was shared by the various grand juries. By means of
some excuse or other she was always let off, and in return showed great
gratitude to such of her benefactors as came near her mountain cabin.
[Footnote: Campbell MSS.; an account of the "Town of Abingdon," by David
Campbell, who "first saw it in 1782."]
Court-day was apt to close with much hard drinking; for the backwoodsmen
of every degree dearly loved whiskey.
CHAPTER XI.
ROBERTSON FOUNDS THE CUMBERLAND SETTLEMENT, 1779-1780.
James Robertson.
Robertson had no share in the glory of King's Mountain, and no part in
the subsequent career of the men who won it; for, at the time, he was
doing his allotted work, a work of at least equal importance, in a
different field. The year before the mountaineers faced Ferguson, the
man who had done more than any one in founding the settlements from
which the victors came, had once more gone into the wilderness to build
a new and even more typical frontier commonwealth, the westernmost of
any yet founded by the backwoodsmen.
Robertson had been for ten years a leader among the Holston and Watauga
people. He had at different times played the foremost part in organizing
the civil government and in repelling outside attack. He had been
particularly successful in his dealings with the Indians, and by his
missions to them had managed to keep the peace unbroken on more than one
occasion when a war would have been disastrous to the whites. He was
prosperous and successful in his private affairs; nevertheless, in 1779,
the restless craving for change and adventure surged so strongly in his
breast that it once more drove him forth to wander in the forest. In the
true border temper he determined to abandon the home he had made, and to
seek out a new one hundreds of miles farther in the heart of the
hunting-grounds of the red warriors.
The point pitched upon was the beautiful country lying along the great
bend of the Cumberland. Many adventurous settlers were anxious to
accompany Robertson, and, like him, to take their wives and children
with them into the new land. It was agreed that a small party of
explorers should go first in the early spring, to plant corn, that the
families might have it to eat when they followed in the fall.
The Cumberland Country.
The spot was already well known to hunters. Who had first visited it
cannot be said; though tradition has kept the names of several among the
many who at times halted there while on their wanderings. [Footnote: One
Stone or Stoner, perhaps Boon's old associate, is the first whose name
is given in the books. But in both Kentucky and Tennessee it is idle to
try to find out exactly who the first explorers were. They were
unlettered woodsmen; it is only by chance that some of their names have
been kept and others lost; the point to be remembered is that many
hunters were wandering over the land at the same time, that they drifted
to many different places, and that now and then an accident preserved
the name of some hunter and of some place he visited.] Old Kasper
Mansker and others had made hunting trips thither for ten years past;
and they had sometimes met the Creole trappers from the Illinois. When
Mansker first went to the Bluffs, [Footnote: The locality where
Nashborough was built, was sometimes spoken of as the Bluffs, and
sometimes as the French Lick.] in 1769, the buffaloes were more numerous
than he had ever seen them before; the ground literally shook under the
gallop of the mighty herds, they crowded in dense throngs round the
licks, and the forest resounded with their grunting bellows. He and
other woodsmen came back there off and on, hunting and trapping, and
living in huts made of buffalo hides; just such huts as the hunters
dwelt in on the Little Missouri and Powder rivers as late as 1883,
except that the plainsmen generally made dug-outs in the sides of the
buttes and used the hides only for the roofs and fronts. So the place
was well known, and the reports of the hunters had made many settlers
eager to visit it, though as yet no regular path led thither. In 1778
the first permanent settler arrived in the person of a hunter named
Spencer, who spent the following winter entirely alone in this remote
wilderness, living in a hollow sycamore-tree. Spencer was a giant in his
day, a man huge in body and limb, all whose life had been spent in the
wilderness. He came to the bend of the Cumberland from Kentucky in the
early spring, being in search of good land on which to settle. Other
hunters were with him, and they stayed some time. A creole trapper from
the Wabash was then living in a cabin on the south side of the river. He
did not meet the new-comers; but one day he saw the huge moccasin tracks
of Spencer, and on the following morning the party passed close by his
cabin in chase of a wounded buffalo, halloing and shouting as they
dashed through the underwood. Whether he thought them Indians, or
whether, as is more likely, he shared the fear and dislike felt by most
of the Creoles for the American backwoodsmen, cannot be said; but
certainly he left his cabin, swam the river, and plunging into the
forest, straightway fled to his kinsfolk on the banks of the Wabash.
Spencer was soon left by his companions; though one of them stayed with
him a short time, helping him to plant a field of corn. Then this man,
too, wished to return. He had lost his hunting-knife; so Spencer went
with him to the barrens of Kentucky, put him on the right path, and
breaking his own knife, gave his departing friend a piece of the metal.
The undaunted old hunter himself returned to the banks of the
Cumberland, and sojourned throughout the fall and winter in the
neighborhood of the little clearing on which he had raised the corn
crop; a strange, huge, solitary man, self-reliant, unflinching, cut off
from all his fellows by endless leagues of shadowy forest. Thus he dwelt
alone in the vast dim wastes, wandering whithersoever he listed through
the depths of the melancholy and wintry woods, sleeping by his camp-fire
or in the hollow tree-trunk, ever ready to do battle against brute or
human foe--a stark and sombre harbinger of the oncoming civilization.
Spencer's figure, seen through the mist that shrouds early western
history, is striking and picturesque in itself; yet its chief interest
lies in the fact that he was but a type of many other men whose lives
were no less lonely and dangerous. He had no qualities to make him a
leader when settlements sprang up around him. To the end of his days he
remained a solitary hunter and Indian fighter, spurning restraint and
comfort, and seeking the strong excitement of danger to give zest to his
life. Even in the time of the greatest peril from the savages he would
not stay shut up in the forts, but continued his roving, wandering life,
trusting to his own quick senses, wonderful strength, and iron nerves.
He even continued to lie out at night, kindling a fire, and then lying
down to sleep far from it. [Footnote: _Southwestern Monthly_, Nashville,
1852, vol. II. General Hall's narrative.]
Robertson Travels Thither.
Early in the year 1779 a leader of men came to the place where the old
hunter had roamed and killed game; and with the new-comer came those who
were to posses the land. Robertson left the Watauga settlements soon
after the spring opened, [Footnote: It is very difficult to reconcile
the dates of these early movements; even the contemporary documents are
often a little vague, while Haywood, Ramsey, and Putnam are frequently
months out of the way. Apparently Robertson stayed as commissioner in
Chota until February or March, 1779, when he gave warning of the
intended raid of the Chickamaugas, and immediately afterwards came back
to the settlements and started out for the Cumberland, before Shelby
left on his Chickamauga expedition. But it is possible that he had left
Chota before, and that another man was there as commissioner at the time
of the Chickamauga raid which was followed by Shelby's counter-stroke.]
with eight companions, one of them a negro. He followed Boon's
trace,--Wilderness Road,--through Cumberland Gap, and across the
Cumberland River. Then he struck off southwest through the wilderness,
lightening his labor by taking the broad, well-beaten buffalo trails
whenever they led in his direction; they were very distinct near the
pools and springs, and especially going to and from the licks. The
adventurers reached the bend of the Cumberland without mishap, and fixed
on the neighborhood of the Bluff, the ground near the French Lick, as
that best suited for their purpose; and they planted a field of corn on
the site of the future forted village of Nashborough. A few days after
their arrival they were joined by another batch of hunter-settlers, who
had come out under the leadership of Kasper Mansker.
As soon as the corn was planted and cabins put up, most of the intending
settlers returned to their old homes to bring out their families,
leaving three of their number "to keep the buffaloes out of the corn."
[Footnote: Haywood, 83.] Robertson himself first went north through the
wilderness to see George Rogers Clark in Illinois, to purchase
cabin-rights from him. This act gives an insight into at least some of
the motives that influenced the adventurers. Doubtless they were
impelled largely by sheer restlessness and love of change and
excitement; [Footnote: Phelan, p. 111, fails to do justice to these
motives, while very properly insisting on what earlier historians
ignored, the intense desire for land speculation.] and these motives
would probably have induced them to act as they did, even had there been
no others. But another and most powerful spring of action was the desire
to gain land--not merely land for settlement, but land for speculative
purposes. Wild land was then so abundant that the quantity literally
seemed inexhaustible; and it was absolutely valueless until settled. Our
forefathers may well be pardoned for failing to see that it was of more
importance to have it owned in small lots by actual settlers than to
have it filled up quickly under a system of huge grants to individuals
or corporations. Many wise and good men honestly believed that they
would benefit the country at the same time that they enriched themselves
by acquiring vast tracts of virgin wilderness, and then proceeding to
people them. There was a rage for land speculation and land companies of
every kind.
The private correspondence of almost all the public men of the period,
from Washington, Madison, and Gouverneur Morris down, is full of the
subject. Innumerable people of position and influence dreamed of
acquiring untold wealth in this manner. Almost every man of note was
actually or potentially a land speculator; and in turn almost every
prominent pioneer from Clark and Boon to Shelby and Robertson was either
himself one of the speculators or an agent for those who were. Many
people did not understand the laws on the subject, or hoped to evade
them; and the hope was as strong in the breast of the hunter, who made a
"tomahawk claim" by blazing a few trees, and sold it for a small sum to
a new-comer, as in that of the well-to-do schemer, who bought an Indian
title for a song, and then got what he could from all outsiders who came
in to dwell on the land.
This speculative spirit was a powerful stimulus to the settlement not
only of Kentucky, but of middle Tennessee. Henderson's claim included
the Cumberland country, and when North Carolina annulled his rights, she
promised him a large but indefinitely located piece of land in their
place. He tried to undersell the state in the land market, and
undoubtedly his offers had been among the main causes that induced
Robertson and his associates to go to the Cumberland when they did. But
at the time it was uncertain whether Cumberland lay in Virginia or North
Carolina, as the line was not run by the surveyors until the following
spring; and Robertson went up to see Clark, because it was rumored that
the latter had the disposal of Virginia "cabin-rights"; under which each
man could, for a small sum, purchase a thousand acres, on condition of
building a cabin and raising a crop. However, as it turned out, he might
have spared himself the journey, for the settlement proved to be well
within the Carolina boundary.
Many Settlers Join Him.
In the fall very many men came out to the new settlement, guided thither
by Robertson and Mansker; the former persuading a number who were bound
to Kentucky to come to the Cumberland instead. Among them were two or
three of the Long Hunters, whose wanderings had done so much to make the
country known. Robertson's especial partner was a man named John
Donelson. The latter went by water and took a large party of immigrants,
including all the women and children, down the Tennessee, and thence up
the Ohio and Cumberland to the Bluff or French Lick. [Footnote: The plan
was that Robertson should meet this party at the Muscle Shoals, and that
they should go from thence overland; but owing to the severity of the
winter, Robertson could not get to the shoals.] Among them were
Robertson's entire family, and Donelson's daughter Rachel, the future
wife of Andrew Jackson, who missed by so narrow a margin being mistress
of the White House. Robertson, meanwhile, was to lead the rest of the
men by land, so that they should get there first and make ready for the
coming of their families.
Robertson's party started in the fall, being both preceded and followed
by other companies of settlers, some of whom were accompanied by their
wives and children. Cold weather of extraordinary severity set in during
November; for this was the famous "hard winter" of '79-80, during which
the Kentucky settlers suffered so much. They were not molested by
Indians, and reached the Bluff about Christmas. The river was frozen
solid, and they all crossed the ice in a body; when in mid-stream the
ice jarred, and--judging from the report--the jar or crack must have
gone miles up and down the stream; but the ice only settled a little and
did not break. By January first there were over two hundred people
scattered on both sides of the river. In Robertson's company was a man
named John Rains, who brought with him twenty-one horned cattle and
seventeen horses; the only cattle and horses which any of the immigrants
succeeded in bringing to the Cumberland. But he was not the only man who
had made the attempt. One of the immigrants who went in Donelson's
flotilla, Daniel Dunham by name, offered his brother John, who went by
land, £100 to drive along his horses and cattle. John accepted, and
tried his best to fulfil his share of the bargain; but he was seemingly
neither a very expert woodsman nor yet a good stock hand. There is no
form of labor more arduous and dispiriting than driving unruly and
unbroken stock along a faint forest or mountain trail, especially in bad
weather; and this the would-be drover speedily found out. The animals
would not follow the trail; they incessantly broke away from it, got
lost, scattered in the brush, and stampeded at night. Finally the
unfortunate John, being, as he expressed it, nearly "driven mad by the
drove," abandoned them all in the wilderness. [Footnote: MSS. on "Dunham
Pioneers," in Nashville Hist. Society. Daniel, a veteran stockman, was
very angry when he heard what had happened.]
Voyage of the "Adventure."
The settlers who came by water passed through much greater peril and
hardship. By a stroke of good fortune the journal kept by Donelson, the
leader of the expedition, has been preserved. [Footnote: Original MS.
"Journal of Voyage intended by God's permission in the good boat
_Adventure_ from Fort Patrick Henry of Holston River to the French Salt
Springs on Cumberland River, kept by John Donelson." An abstract, with
some traditional statements interwoven, is given by Haywood; the journal
itself, with some inaccuracies, and the name of the writer misspelt by
Ramsey; and in much better and fuller shape by A. N. Putnam in his
"History of Middle Tennessee." I follow the original, in the Nashville
Historical Society.] As with all the other recorded wanderings and
explorations of these backwoods adventurers, it must be remembered that
while this trip was remarkable in itself, it is especially noteworthy
because, out of many such, it is the only one of which we have a full
account. The adventures that befell Donelson's company differed in
degree, but not in kind, from those that befell the many similar
flotillas that followed or preceded him. From the time that settlers
first came to the upper Tennessee valley occasional hardy hunters had
floated down the stream in pirogues, or hollowed out tree-trunks. Before
the Revolution a few restless emigrants had adopted this method of
reaching Natchez; some of them made the long and perilous trip in
safety, others were killed by the Chickamaugas or else foundered in the
whirlpools, or on the shoals. The spring before Donelson started, a
party of men, women, and children, in forty canoes or pirogues, went
down the Tennessee to settle in the newly conquered Illinois country,
and skirmished with the Cherokees or their way. [Footnote: State
Department MSS., No. 51, Vol. II., p. 45:
"JAMES COLBERT TO CHAS. STUART.
"CHICKASAW NATION, May 25, 1779.
"Sir,--I was this day informed that there is forty large Cannoes loaded
with men women and children passed by here down the Cherokee River who
on their way down they took a Dellaway Indian prisoner & kept him till
they found out what Nation he was of--they told him they had come from
Long Island and were on their way to Illinois with an intent to
settle--Sir I have some reason to think they are a party of Rebels. My
reason is this after they let the Dellaway Indian at liberty they met
with some Cherokees whom they endeavoured to decoy, but finding they
would not be decoyed they fired on them but they all made their Escape
with the Loss of their arms and ammunition and one fellow wounded, who
arrived yesterday. The Dellaway informs me that Lieut. Governor Hamilton
is defeated and himself taken prisoner," etc.
It is curious that none of the Tennessee annalists have noticed the
departure of this expedition; very, very few of the deeds and wanderings
of the old frontiersmen have been recorded; and in consequence
historians are apt to regard these few as being exceptional, instead of
typical. Donelson was merely one of a hundred leaders of flotillas that
went down the western rivers at this time.]
Donelson's flotilla, after being joined by a number of other boats,
especially at the mouth of the Clinch, consisted of some thirty craft,
all told--flat-boats, dug-outs, and canoes. There were probably two or
three hundred people, perhaps many more, in the company; among them, as
the journal records, "James Robertson's lady and children," the latter
to the number of five. The chief boat, the flag-ship of the flotilla,
was the _Adventure_, a great scow, in which there were over thirty men,
besides the families of some of them.
They embarked at Holston, Long Island, on December 22d, but falling
water and heavy frosts detained them two months, and the voyage did not
really begin until they left Cloud Creek on February 27, 1780. The first
ten days were uneventful. The Adventure spent an afternoon and night on
a shoal, until the water fortunately rose, and, all the men getting out,
the clumsy scow was floated off. Another boat was driven on the point of
an island and sunk, her crew being nearly drowned; whereupon the rest of
the flotilla put to shore, the sunken boat was raised and bailed out,
and most of her cargo recovered. At one landing-place a man went out to
hunt, and got lost, not being taken up again for three days, though
"many guns were fired to fetch him in," and the four-pounder on the
Adventure was discharged for the same purpose. A negro became "much
frosted in his feet and legs, of which he died." Where the river was
wide a strong wind and high sea forced the whole flotilla to lay to, for
the sake of the smaller craft. This happened on March 7th, just before
coming to the uppermost Chickamauga town; and that night, the wife of
one Ephraim Peyton, who had himself gone with Robertson, overland, was
delivered of a child. She was in a boat whose owner was named Jonathan
Jennings.
The next morning they soon came to an Indian village on the south shore.
The Indians made signs of friendliness, and two men started toward them
in a canoe which the _Adventure_ had in tow, while the flotilla drew up
on the opposite side of the river. But a half-breed and some Indians
jumping into a pirogue paddled out to meet the two messengers and
advised them to return to their comrades, which they did. Several canoes
then came off from the shore to the flotilla. The Indians who were in
them seemed friendly and were pleased with the presents they received;
but while these were being distributed the whites saw a number of other
canoes putting off, loaded with armed warriors, painted black and red.
The half-breed instantly told the Indians round about to paddle to the
shore, and warned the whites to push off at once, at the same time
giving them some instructions about the river. The armed Indians went
down along the shore for some time as if to intercept them; but at last
they were seemingly left behind.
In a short time another Indian village was reached, where the warriors
tried in vain to lure the whites ashore; and as the boats were hugging
the opposite bank, they were suddenly fired at by a party in ambush, and
one man slain. Immediately afterwards a much more serious tragedy
occurred. There was with the flotilla a boat containing twenty-eight
men, women, and children, among whom small-pox had broken out. To guard
against infection, it was agreed that it should keep well in the rear;
being warned each night by the sound of a horn when it was time to go
into camp. As this forlorn boat-load of unfortunates came along, far
behind the others, the Indians, seeing its defenceless position, sallied
out in their canoes, and butchered or captured all who were aboard.
Their cries were distinctly heard by the rearmost of the other craft,
who could not stem the current and come to their rescue. But a dreadful
retribution fell on the Indians; for they were infected with the disease
of their victims, and for some months virulent small-pox raged among
many of the bands of Creeks and Cherokees. When stricken by the disease,
the savages first went into the sweat-houses, and when heated to
madness, plunged into the cool streams, and so perished in multitudes.
When the boats entered the Narrows they had lost sight of the Indians on
shore, and thought they had left them behind. A man, who was in a canoe,
had gone aboard one of the larger boats with his family, for the sake of
safety while passing through the rough water. His canoe was towed
alongside, and in the rapids it was overturned, and the cargo lost. The
rest of the company, pitying his distress over the loss of all his
worldly goods, landed, to see if they could not help him recover some of
his property. Just as they got out on the shore to walk back, the
Indians suddenly appeared almost over them, on the high cliffs opposite,
and began to fire, causing a hurried retreat to the boats. For some
distance the Indians lined the bluffs, firing from the heights into the
boats below. Yet only four people were wounded, and they not
dangerously. One of them was a girl named Nancy Gower. When, by the
sudden onslaught of the Indians, the crew of the boat in which she was
were thrown into dismay, she took the helm and steered, exposed to the
fire of the savages. A ball went through the upper part of one of her
thighs, but she neither flinched nor uttered any cry; and it was not
known that she was wounded until, after the danger was past, her mother
saw the blood soaking through her clothes. She recovered, married one of
the frontiersmen, and lived for fifty years afterwards, long enough to
see all the wilderness filled with flourishing and populous States.
One of the clumsy craft, however, did not share the good fortune that
befell the rest, in escaping with so little loss and damage. Jonathan
Jennings' boat, in which was Mrs. Peyton, with her new-born baby, struck
on a rock at the upper end of the whirl, the swift current rendering it
impossible for the others to go to his assistance; and they drifted by,
leaving him to his fate. The Indians soon turned their whole attention
to him, and from the bluffs opened a most galling fire upon the disabled
boat. He returned it as well as he could, keeping them somewhat in
check, for he was a most excellent marksman. At the same time he
directed his two negroes, a man and woman, his nearly grown son, and a
young man who was with him, to lighten the boat by throwing his goods
into the river. Before this was done, the negro man, the son, and the
other young man most basely jumped into the river, and swam ashore. It
is satisfactory to record that at least two of the three dastards met
the fate they deserved. The negro was killed in the water, and the other
two captured, one of them being afterwards burned at the stake, while
the other, it is said, was ultimately released. Meanwhile Mrs. Jennings,
assisted by the negro woman and Mrs. Peyton, actually succeeded in
shoving the lightened boat off the rock, though their clothes were cut
in many places by the bullets; and they rapidly drifted out of danger.
The poor little baby was killed in the hurry and confusion; but its
mother, not eighteen hours from child-bed, in spite of the cold, wet,
and exertion, kept in good health. Sailing by night as well as day, they
caught up with the rest of the flotilla before dawn on the second
morning afterwards, the men being roused from their watch-fires by the
cries of "help poor Jennings," as the wretched and worn-out survivors in
the disabled boat caught the first glimpse of the lights on shore.
Having successfully run the gauntlet of the Chickamauga banditti, the
flotilla was not again molested by the Indians, save once when the boats
that drifted near shore were fired on by a roving war party, and five
men wounded. They ran over the great Muscle Shoals in about three hours
without accident, though the boats scraped on the bottom here and there.
The swift, broken water surged into high waves, and roared through the
piles of driftwood that covered the points of the small islands, round
which the currents ran in every direction; and those among the men who
were unused to river-work were much relieved when they found themselves
in safety. One night, after the fires had been kindled, the tired
travellers were alarmed by the barking of the dogs. Fearing that Indians
were near by, they hastily got into the boats and crossed to camp on the
opposite shore. In the morning two of them returned to pick up some
things that had been left; they found that the alarm had been false, for
the utensils that had been overlooked in the confusion were undisturbed,
and a negro who had been left behind in the hurry was still sleeping
quietly by the camp-fires.
On the 20th of the month they reached the Ohio. Some of the boats then
left for Natchez, and others for the Illinois country; while the
remainder turned their prows up stream, to stem the rapid current--a
task for which they were but ill-suited. The work was very hard, the
provisions were nearly gone, and the crews were almost worn out by
hunger and fatigue. On the 24th they entered the mouth of the
Cumberland. The _Adventure_, the heaviest of all the craft, got much
help from a small square-sail that was set in the bow.
Two days afterwards the hungry party killed some buffalo, and feasted on
the lean meat, and the next day they shot a swan "which was very
delicious," as Donelson recorded. Their meal was exhausted and they
could make no more bread; but buffalo were plenty, and they hunted them
steadily for their meat; and they also made what some of them called
"Shawnee salad" from a kind of green herb that grew in the bottoms.
On the last day of the month they met Col. Richard Henderson, who had
just come out and was running the line between Virginia and North
Carolina. The crews were so exhausted that the progress of the boats
became very slow, and it was not until April 24th that they reached the
Big Salt Lick, and found Robertson awaiting them. The long, toilsome,
and perilous voyage had been brought to a safe end.
There were then probably nearly five hundred settlers on the Cumberland,
one half of them being able-bodied men in the prime of life. [Footnote:
Two hundred and fifty-six names are subscribed to the compact of
government; and in addition there were the women, children, the few
slaves, and such men as did not sign.] The central station, the capitol
of the little community, was that at the Bluff, where Robertson built a
little stockaded hamlet and called it Nashborough [Footnote: After A.
Nash; he was the governor of North Carolina; where he did all he could
on the patriot side. See Gates MSS. Sept. 7, 1780.]; it was of the usual
type of small frontier forted town. Other stations were scattered along
both sides of the river; some were stockades, others merely
block-houses, with the yard and garden enclosed by stout palings. As
with all similar border forts or stations, these were sometimes called
by the name of the founder; more rarely they were named with reference
to some natural object, such as the river, ford, or hill by which they
were, or commemorated some deed, or the name of a man the frontiersmen
held in honor; and occasionally they afforded true instances of
clan-settlement and clan-nomenclature, several kindred families of the
same name building a village which grew to be called after them. Among
these Cumberland stations was Mansker's (usually called Kasper's or
Gaspers--he was not particular how his name was spelled), Stone River,
Bledsoe's, Freeland's, Eatons', Clover-Bottom, and Fort Union.
As the country where they had settled belonged to no tribe of Indians,
some of the people thought they would not be molested, and, being eager
to take up the best lands, scattered out to live on separate claims.
Robertson warned them that they would soon suffer from the savages; and
his words speedily came true--whereupon the outlying cabins were
deserted and all gathered within the stockades. In April roving parties
of Delawares, Chickasaws, and Choctaws began to harass the settlement.
As in Kentucky, so on the banks of the Cumberland, the Indians were the
first to begin the conflict. The lands on which the whites settled were
uninhabited, and were claimed as hunting-grounds by many hostile tribes;
so that it is certain that no one tribe had any real title to them.
Formation of a Government.
True to their customs and traditions, and to their race-capacity for
self-rule, the settlers determined forthwith to organize some kind of
government under which justice might be done among themselves, and
protection afforded against outside attack. Not only had the Indians
begun their ravages, but turbulent and disorderly whites were also
causing trouble. Robertson, who had been so largely instrumental in
founding the Watauga settlement, and giving it laws, naturally took the
lead in organizing this, the second community which he had caused to
spring up in the wilderness. He summoned a meeting of delegates from the
various stations, to be held at Nashborough; [Footnote: It is to Putnam
that we owe the publication of the compact of government, and the full
details of the methods and proceedings by which it was organized and
carried on. See "History of Middle Tennessee," pp. 84-103.] Henderson
being foremost in advocating the adoption of the plan.
In fact, Henderson, the treaty-maker and land-speculator, whose purchase
first gave the whites clear color of title to the valleys of the
Kentucky and Cumberland, played somewhat the same part, though on a
smaller scale, in the settlement made by Robertson as in that made by
Boon. He and the Virginian commissioner Walker, had surveyed the
boundary line and found that the Cumberland settlements were well to the
south of it. He then claimed the soil as his under the Cherokee deed;
and disposed of it to the settlers who contracted to pay ten dollars a
thousand acres. This was but a fraction of the State price, so the
settlers were all eager to hold under Henderson's deed; one of the
causes of their coming out had been the chance of getting land so cheap.
But Henderson's claim was annulled by the legislature, and the
satisfaction-piece of 200,000 acres allotted him was laid off elsewhere;
so his contracts with the settlers came to nothing, and they eventually
got title in the usual way from North Carolina. They suffered no loss in
the matter, for they had merely given Henderson promises to pay when his
title was made good.
The settlers, by their representatives, met together at Nashborough, and
on May 1, 1780, entered into articles of agreement or a compact of
government. It was doubtless drawn up by Robertson, with perhaps the
help of Henderson, and was modelled upon what may be called the
"constitution" of Watauga, with some hints from that of Transylvania.
[Footnote: Phelan, the first historian who really grasped what this
movement meant, and to what it was due, gives rather too much weight to
the part Henderson played. Henderson certainly at this time did not
aspire to form a new State on the Cumberland; the compact especially
provided for the speedy admission of Cumberland as a county of North
Carolina. The marked difference between the Transylvania and the
Cumberland "constitutions," and the close agreement of the latter with
the Watauga articles, assuredly point to Robertson as the chief author.]
The settlers ratified the deeds of their delegates on May 13th, when
they signed the articles, binding themselves to obey them to the number
of two hundred and fifty-six men. The signers practically guaranteed one
another their rights in the land, and their personal security against
wrong-doers; those who did not sign were treated as having no rights
whatever--a proper and necessary measure as it was essential that the
naturally lawless elements should be forced to acknowledge some kind of
authority.
The compact provided that the affairs of the community should be
administered by a Court or Committee of twelve Judges, Triers or General
Arbitrators, to be elected in the different stations by vote of all the
freemen in them who were over twenty-one years of age. Three of the
Triers were to come from Nashborough, two from Mansker's, two from
Bledsoe's, and one from each of five other named stations. [Footnote:
Putnam speaks of these men as "notables"; apparently they called
themselves as above. Putnam's book contains much very valuable
information; but it is written in most curious style and he interlards
it with outside matter; much that he puts in quotation marks is
apparently his own material. It is difficult to make out whether his
"tribunal of notables" is his own expression or a quotation, but
apparently it is the former.] Whenever the freemen of any station were
dissatisfied with their Triers, they could at once call a new election,
at which others might be chosen in their stead. The Triers had no
salaries, but the Clerk of the Court was allowed some very small fees,
just enough to pay for the pens, ink, and paper, all of them scarce
commodities. [Footnote: Haywood, 126.] The Court had jurisdiction in all
cases of conflict over land titles; a land office being established and
an entry taker appointed. Over half of the compact was devoted to the
rules of the land office. The Court, acting by a majority of its
members, was to have jurisdiction for the recovery of debt or damages,
and to be allowed to tax costs. Three Triers were competent to make a
Court to decide a case where the debt or damage was a hundred dollars or
less; and there was no appeal from their decision. For a larger sum an
appeal lay to the whole Court. The Court appointed whomsoever it pleased
to see decisions executed. It had power to punish all offences against
the peace of the community, all misdemeanors and criminal acts, provided
only that its decisions did not go so far as to affect the life of the
criminal. If the misdeed of the accused was such as to be dangerous to
the State, or one "for which the benefit of clergy was taken away by
law," he was to be bound and sent under guard to some place where he
could be legally dealt with. The Court levied fines, payable in money or
provisions, entered up judgments and awarded executions, and granted
letters of administration upon estates of deceased persons, and took
bonds "payable to the chairman of the Committee." The expenses were to
be paid proportionately by the various settlers. It was provided, in
view of the Indian incursions, that the militia officers elected at the
various stations should have power to call out the militia when they
deemed it necessary to repel or pursue the enemy. They were also given
power to fine such men as disobeyed them, and to impress horses if need
be; if damaged, the horses were to be paid for by the people of the
station in the proportion the Court might direct. It was expressly
declared that the compact was designed as a "temporary method of
restraining the licentious"; that the settlement did not desire to be
exempt from the ratable share of the expense for the Revolutionary war,
and earnestly asked that North Carolina would immediately make it part
of the State, erecting it into a county. Robertson was elected chairman
of the Court, and colonel of the militia, being thus made both civil and
military commandant of the settlement. In common with the other Triers
he undertook the solemnization of marriages; and these were always held
legal, which was fortunate, as it was a young and vigorous community, of
which the members were much given to early wedlock.
Thus a little commonwealth, a self-governing state, was created. It was
an absolute democracy, the majority of freemen of full age in each
stockade having power in every respect, and being able not only to
elect, but to dismiss their delegates at any moment. Their own good
sense and a feeling of fair play could be depended upon to protect the
rights of the minority, especially as a minority of such men would
certainly not tolerate any thing even remotely resembling tyranny. They
had formed a representative government in which the legislative and
judicial functions were not separated, and were even to a large extent
combined with the executive. They had proceeded in an eminently
practical manner, having modelled their system on what was to them the
familiar governmental unit of the county with its county court and
county militia officers. They made the changes that their peculiar
position required, grafting the elective and representative systems on
the one they adopted, and of course enlarging the scope of the court's
action. Their compact was thus in some sort an unconscious reproduction
of the laws and customs of the old-time court-leet, profoundly modified
to suit the peculiar needs of backwoods life, the intensely democratic
temper of the pioneers and above all the military necessities of their
existence. They had certain theories of liberty and justice; but they
were too shrewd and hard-headed to try to build up a government on an
entirely new foundation, when they had ready to hand materials with
which they were familiar. They knew by experience the workings of the
county system; all they did was to alter the immediate channel from
which the court drew its powers, and to adapt the representation to the
needs of a community where constant warfare obliged the settlers to
gather in little groups, which served as natural units.
When the settlers first came to the country they found no Indians living
in it, no signs of cultivation or cleared land, and nothing to show that
for ages past it had been inhabited. It was a vast plain, covered with
woods and canebrakes, through which the wild herds had beaten out broad
trails. The only open places were the licks, sometimes as large as
corn-fields, where the hoofs of the game had trodden the ground bare of
vegetation, and channelled its surface with winding seams and gullies.
It is even doubtful if the spot of bare ground which Mansker called an
"old field" or sometimes a "Chickasaw old field" was not merely one of
these licks. Buffalo, deer, and bear abounded; elk, wolves, and panthers
were plentiful.
Yet there were many signs that in long by-gone times a numerous
population had dwelt in the land. Round every spring were many graves,
built in a peculiar way, and covered eight or ten inches deep by mould.
In some places there were earth-covered foundations of ancient walls and
embankments that enclosed spaces of eight or ten acres. The Indians knew
as little as the whites about these long-vanished mound-builders, and
were utterly ignorant of the race to which they had belonged. [Footnote:
Haywood. At present it is believed that the mound-builders were Indians.
Haywood is the authority for the early Indian wars of the Cumberland
settlement, Putnam supplying some information.]
Indian Hostilities.
For some months the whites who first arrived dwelt in peace. But in the
spring, hunting and war parties from various tribes began to harass the
settlers. Unquestionably the savages felt jealous of the white hunters,
who were killing and driving away the game, precisely as they all felt
jealous of one another, and for the same reason. The Chickasaws in
particular, were much irritated by the fort Clark had built at Iron
Bank, on the Mississippi. But the most powerful motive for the attacks
was doubtless simply the desire for scalps and plunder. They gathered
from different quarters to assail the colonists, just as the wild beasts
gathered to prey on the tame herds.
The Indians began to commit murders, kill the stock, and drive off the
horses in April, and their ravages continued unceasingly throughout the
year. Among the slain was a son of Robertson, and also the unfortunate
Jonathan Jennings, the man who had suffered such loss when his boat was
passing the whirl of the Tennessee River. The settlers were shot as they
worked on their clearings, gathered the corn crops, or ventured outside
the walls of the stockades. Hunters were killed as they stooped to drink
at the springs, or lay in wait at the licks. They were lured up to the
Indians by imitations of the gobbling of a turkey or the cries of wild
beasts. They were regularly stalked as they still-hunted the game, or
were ambushed as they returned with their horses laden with meat. The
inhabitants of one station were all either killed or captured. Robertson
led pursuing parties after one or two of the bands, and recovered some
plunder; and once or twice small marauding parties were met and
scattered, with some loss, by the hunters. But, on the whole, very
little could be done at first to parry or revenge the strokes of the
Indians. [Footnote: Putnam, p. 107, talks as if the settlers were
utterly unused to Indian warfare, saying that until the first murder
occurred, in this spring, "few, if any" of them had ever gazed on the
victim of scalping-knife and tomahawk. This is a curiously absurd
statement. Many of the settlers were veteran Indian fighters. Almost all
of them had been born and brought up on the frontier, amid a succession
of Indian wars. It is, unfortunately, exceedingly difficult in Putnam's
book to distinguish the really valuable authentic information it
contains from the interwoven tissue of matter written solely to suit his
theory of dramatic effect. He puts in with equal gravity the "Articles
of Agreement" and purely fictitious conversations, jokes, and the like.
(See pp. 126, 144, and _passim_.)]
Horses and cattle had been brought into the new settlement in some
number during the year; but the savages killed or drove off most of
them, shooting the hogs and horned stock, and stealing the riding
animals. The loss of the milch cows in particular, was severely felt by
the women. Moreover, there were heavy freshets, flooding the low bottoms
on which the corn had been planted, and destroying most of the crop.
These accumulated disasters wrought the greatest discouragement among
the settlers. Many left the country, and most of the remainder, when
midsummer was past, began to urge that they should all go back in a body
to the old settlements. The panic became very great. One by one the
stockades were deserted, until finally all the settlers who remained
were gathered in Nashborough and Freelands. [Footnote: By some accounts
there were also a few settlers left in Eaton's Station; and Mansker's
was rarely entirely deserted for any length of time.] The Cumberland
country would have been abandoned to the Indians, had Robertson not
shown himself to be exactly the man for whom the crisis called.
Robertson was not a dashing, brilliant Indian fighter and popular
frontier leader, like Sevier. He had rather the qualities of Boon, with
the difference that he was less a wandering hunter and explorer, and
better fitted to be head of a settled community. He was far-seeing,
tranquil, resolute, unshaken by misfortune and disaster; a most
trustworthy man, with a certain severe fortitude of temper. All people
naturally turned to him in time of panic, when the ordinarily bold and
daring became cowed and confused. The straits to which the settlers were
reduced, and their wild clamor for immediate flight, the danger from the
Indians, the death of his own son all combined failed to make him waver
one instant in his purpose. He strongly urged on the settlers the danger
of flight through the wilderness. He did not attempt to make light of
the perils that confronted them if they remained, but he asked them to
ponder well if the beauty and fertility of the land did not warrant some
risk being run to hold it, now that it was won. They were at last in a
fair country fitted for the homes of their children. Now was the time to
keep it. If they abandoned it, they would lose all the advantages they
had gained, and would be forced to suffer the like losses and privations
if they ever wished to retake possession of it or of any similar tract
of land. He, at least, would not turn back, but would stay to the bitter
end.
His words and his steadfast bearing gave heart to the settlers, and they
no longer thought of flight. As their corn had failed them they got
their food from the woods. Some gathered quantities of walnuts,
hickory-nuts, and shelbarks, and the hunters wrought havoc among the
vast herds of game. During the early winter one party of twenty men that
went up Caney Fork on a short trip, killed one hundred and five bears,
seventy-five buffaloes, and eighty-seven deer, and brought the flesh and
hides back to the stockades in canoes; so that through the winter there
was no lack of jerked and smoke-dried meat.
The hunters were very accurate marksmen; game was plenty, and not shy,
and so they got up close and rarely wasted a shot. Moreover, their
smallbore rifles took very little powder--in fact the need of excessive
economy in the use of ammunition when on their long hunting-trips was
one of the chief reasons for the use of small bores. They therefore used
comparatively little ammunition. Nevertheless, by the beginning of
winter both powder and bullets began to fail. In this emergency
Robertson again came to the front to rescue the settlement he had
founded and preserved. He was accustomed to making long, solitary
journeys through the forest, unmindful of the Indians; he had been one
of the first to come from North Carolina to Watauga; he had repeatedly
been on perilous missions to the Cherokees; he had the previous year
gone north to the Illinois country to meet Clark. He now announced that
he would himself go to Kentucky and bring back the needed ammunition;
and at once set forth on his journey, across the long stretches of
snow-powdered barrens, and desolate, Indian-haunted woodland.
CHAPTER XII.
THE CUMBERLAND SETTLEMENTS TO THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION, 1781-1783.
Robertson passed unharmed through the wilderness to Kentucky. There he
procured plenty of powder, and without delay set out on his return
journey to the Cumberland. As before, he travelled alone through the
frozen woods, trusting solely to his own sharp senses for his safety.
Attack on Freeland's.
In the evening of January 15, 1781, he reached Freeland's station, and
was joyfully received by the inmates. They supped late, and then sat up
for some time, talking over many matters. When they went to bed all were
tired, and neglected to take the usual precautions against surprise;
moreover, at that season they did not fear molestation. They slept
heavily, none keeping watch. Robertson alone was wakeful and suspicious;
and even during his light slumbers his keen and long-trained senses were
on the alert.
At midnight all was still. The moon shone brightly down on the square
block-houses and stockaded yard of the lonely little frontier fort; its
rays lit up the clearing, and by contrast darkened the black shadow of
the surrounding forest. None of the sleepers within the log-walls
dreamed of danger. Yet their peril was imminent. An Indian war band was
lurking near by, and was on the point of making an effort to carry
Freeland's station by an attack in the darkness. In the dead of the
night the attempt was made. One by one the warriors left the protection
of the tangled wood-growth, slipped silently across the open space, and
crouched under the heavy timber pickets of the palisades, until all had
gathered together. Though the gate was fastened with a strong bar and
chain, the dextrous savages finally contrived to open it.
In so doing they made a slight noise, which caught Robertson's quick
ear, as he lay on his buffalo-hide pallet. Jumping up he saw the gate
open, and dusky figures gliding into the yard with stealthy swiftness.
At his cry of "Indians," and the report of his piece, the settlers
sprang up, every man grasping the loaded arm by which he slept. From
each log cabin the rifles cracked and flashed; and though the Indians
were actually in the yard they had no cover, and the sudden and
unexpected resistance caused them to hurry out much faster than they had
come in. Robertson shot one of their number, and they in return killed a
white man who sprang out-of-doors at the first alarm. When they were
driven out the gate was closed after them; but they fired through the
loopholes; especially into one of the block-houses, where the chinks had
not been filled with mud, as in the others. They thus killed a negro,
and wounded one or two other men; yet they were soon driven off.
Robertson's return had been at a most opportune moment. As so often
before and afterwards, he had saved the settlement from destruction.
Other bands of Indians joined the war party, and they continued to hover
about the stations, daily inflicting loss and damage on the settlers.
They burned down the cabins and fences, drove off the stock and killed
the hunters, the women and children who ventured outside the walls, and
the men who had gone back to their deserted stockades. [Footnote:
Haywood says they burned "immense quantities of corn"; as Putnam points
out, the settlers could have had very little corn to burn. Haywood is
the best authority for the Indian fighting in the Cumberland district
during '80, '81, and '82. Putnam supplies some details learned from Mrs.
Robertson in her old age. The accounts are derived mainly from the
statements of old settlers; but the Robertsons seem always to have kept
papers, which served to check off the oral statements. For all the
important facts there is good authority. The annals are filled with name
after name of men who were killed by the Indians. The dates, and even
the names, may be misplaced in many of these instances; but this is
really a matter of no consequence, for their only interest is to show
the nature of the harassing Indian warfare, and the kind of adventure
then common.]
Attack on Nashborough.
On the 2d day of April another effort was made by a formidable war party
to get possession of one of the two remaining stations--Freeland's and
Nashborough--and thus, at a stroke, drive the whites from the Cumberland
district. This time Nashborough was the point aimed at.
A large body [Footnote: How large it is impossible to say. One or two
recent accounts make wild guesses, calling it 1,000; but this is sheer
nonsense; it is more likely to have been 100.] of Cherokees approached
the fort in the night, lying hid in the bushes, divided into two
parties. In the morning three of them came near, fired at the fort, and
ran off towards where the smaller party lay ambushed, in a thicket
through which ran a little "branch." Instantly twenty men mounted their
horses and galloped after the decoys. As they overtook the fugitives
they saw the Indians hid in the creek-bottom, and dismounted to fight,
turning their horses loose. A smart interchange of shots followed, the
whites having, if any thing, rather the best of it, when the other and
larger body of Indians rose from their hiding-place, in a clump of
cedars, and running down, formed between the combatants and the fort,
intending to run into the latter, mixed with the fleeing riflemen. The
only chance of the hemmed-in whites was to turn and try to force their
way back through their far more numerous foes. This was a desperate
venture, for their pieces were all discharged, and there was no time to
reload them; but they were helped by two unexpected circumstances. Their
horses had taken flight at the firing, and ran off towards the fort,
passing to one side of the intervening line of Indians; and many of the
latter, eager for such booty, ran off to catch them. Meanwhile, the
remaining men in the fort saw what had happened, and made ready for
defense, while all the women likewise snatched up guns or axes, and
stood by loopholes and gate. The dogs in the fort were also taking a
keen interest in what was going on. They were stout, powerful animals,
some being hounds and others watch dogs, but all accustomed to contests
with wild beasts; and by instinct and training they mortally hated
Indians. Seeing the line of savages drawn up between the fort and their
masters, they promptly sallied out and made a most furious onset upon
their astonished foes. Taking advantage of this most opportune
diversion, the whites ran through the lines and got into the fort, the
Indians being completely occupied in defending themselves from the dogs.
Five of the whites were killed, and they carried two wounded men into
the fort. Another man, when almost in safety, was shot, and fell with a
broken thigh; but he had reloaded his gun as he ran, and he killed his
assailant as the latter ran up to scalp him. The people from the fort
then, by firing their rifles, kept his foes at bay until he could be
rescued; and he soon recovered from his hurt. Yet another man was
overtaken almost under the walls, the Indian punching him in the
shoulder with the gun as he pulled the trigger; but the gun snapped, and
a hunter ran out of the fort and shot the Indian. The gates were closed,
and the whites all ready; so the Indians abandoned their effort and drew
off. They had taken five scalps and a number of horses; but they had
failed in their main object, and the whites had taken two scalps,
besides killing and wounding others of the red men, who were carried off
by their comrades.
After the failure of this attempt the Indians did not, for some years,
make any formidable attack on any of the larger stations. Though the
most dangerous of all foes on their own ground, their extreme caution
and dislike of suffering punishment prevented them from ever making
really determined efforts to carry a fort openly by storm; moreover,
these stockades were really very defensible against men unprovided with
artillery, and there is no reason for supposing that any troops could
have carried them by fair charging, without suffering altogether
disproportionate loss. The red tribes acted in relation to the
Cumberland settlements exactly as they had previously done towards those
on the Kentucky and Watauga. They harassed the settlers from the outset;
but they did not wake up to the necessity for a formidable and combined
campaign against them until it was too late for such a campaign to
succeed. If, at the first, any one of these communities had been forced
to withstand the shock of such Indian armies as were afterwards brought
against it, it would, of necessity, have been abandoned.
Indian Hostilities.
Throughout '81 and '82 the Cumberland settlers were worried beyond
description by a succession of small war parties. In the first of these
years they raised no corn; in the second they made a few crops on fields
they had cleared in 1780. No man's life was safe for an hour, whether he
hunted, looked up strayed stock, went to the spring for water, or tilled
the fields. If two men were together, one always watched while the other
worked, ate, or drank; and they sat down back to back, or, if there were
several, in a ring, facing outwards, like a covey of quail. The Indians
were especially fond of stealing the horses; the whites pursued them in
bands, and occasionally pitched battles were fought, with loss on both
sides, and apparently as often resulting in the favor of one party as of
the other. The most expert Indian fighters naturally became the leaders,
being made colonels and captains of the local militia. The position and
influence of the officers depended largely on their individual prowess;
they were the actual, not titular, leaders of their men. Old Kasper
Mansker, one of the most successful, may be taken as a type of the rest.
He was ultimately made a colonel, and shared in many expeditions; but he
always acted as his own scout, and never would let any of his men ride
ahead or abreast of him, preferring to trust to his own eyes and ears
and knowledge of forest warfare. The hunters, who were especially
exposed to danger, were also the men who inflicted most loss on the
Indians, and though many more of the settlers than of their foes were
slain, yet the tables were often turned on the latter, even by those who
seemed their helpless victims. Thus, once, two lads were watching at a
deer lick, when some Indians came to it; each of the boys chose his man,
fired, and then fled homewards; coming back with some men they found
they had killed two Indians, whose scalps they took.
The eagerness of the Indians to get scalps caused them frequently to
scalp their victims before life was extinct; and, as a result, there
were numerous instances in which the scalped unfortunate, whether man,
woman, or child, was rescued and recovered, living many years. One of
these instances is worth giving in the quaint language of the old
Tennessee historian, Haywood:
"In the spring of the year 1782 a party of Indians fired upon three
persons at French Lick, and broke the arms of John Tucker and Joseph
Hendricks, and shot down David Hood, whom they scalped and stamped, as
he said, and followed the others towards the fort; the people of the
fort came out and repulsed them and saved the wounded men. Supposing the
Indians gone, Hood got up softly, wounded and scalped as he was, and
began to walk towards the fort on the bluff, when, to his mortification,
he saw, standing upon the bank of the creek, a number of Indians, the
same who had wounded him before, making sport of his misfortune and
mistake. They then fell upon him again, and having given him, in several
places, new wounds that were apparently mortal, then left him. He fell
into a brush heap in the mow, and next morning was tracked and found by
his blood, and was placed as a dead man in one of the out-houses, and
was left alone; after some time he recovered, and lived many years."
Many of the settlers were killed, many others left for Kentucky,
Illinois, or Natchez, or returned to their old homes among the
Alleghanies; and in 1782 the inhabitants, who had steadily dwindled in
numbers, became so discouraged that they again mooted the question of
abandoning the Cumberland district in a body. Only Robertson's great
influence prevented this being done; but by word and example he finally
persuaded them to remain. The following spring brought the news of peace
with Great Britain. A large inflow of new settlers began with the new
year, and though the Indian hostilities still continued, the Cumberland
country throve apace, and by the end 1783 the old stations had been
rebuilt and many new ones founded. Some of the settlers began to live
out on their clearings. Rude little corn-mills and "hominy pounders"
were built beside some of the streams. The piles of furs and hides that
had accumulated in the stockades were sent back to the coast country on
pack-horses. After this year there was never any danger that the
settlements would be abandoned.
During the two years of petty but disastrous Indian warfare that
followed the attack on Freelands, the harassed and diminishing settlers
had been so absorbed in the contest with the outside foe that they had
done little towards keeping up their own internal government. When 1783
opened new settlers began to flock in, the Indian hostilities abated,
and commissioners arrived from North Carolina under a strong guard, with
the purpose of settling the claim of the various settlers [Footnote:
Haywood. Six hundred and forty acres were allowed by preëmption claim to
each family settled before June 1, 1780; after that date they had to
make proper entries in the courts. The salt-licks were to be held as
public property.] and laying off the bounty lands, promised to the
Continental troops. [Footnote: Isaac Shelby was one of these
commissioners.] It therefore became necessary that the Committee or
Court of Triers should again be convened, to see that justice was done
as between man and man.
Internal Government.
The ten men elected from the different stations met at Nashborough on
January 7th, Robertson being again made chairman, as well as colonel of
the militia, while a proper clerk and sheriff were chosen. Each member
took a solemn oath to do equal justice according to the best of his
skill and ability. A number of suits between the settlers themselves
were disposed of. These related to a variety of subjects. A kettle had
been "detained" from Humphrey Hogan; he brought suit, and it was awarded
him, the defendant "and his mother-in-law" being made to pay the cost of
the suit. A hog case, a horse used in hunting, a piece of cleared
ground, a bed which had not been made according to contract, the
ownership of a canoe, and of a heifer, a "clevis lent and delayed to be
returned"--such were some of the cases on which the judges had to
decide. There were occasional slander suits; for in a small backwoods
community there is always much jealousy and bitter gossip. When suit was
brought for "cattle won at cards," the committee promptly dismissed the
claim as illegal; they evidently had clear ideas as to what was good
public policy. A man making oath that another had threatened his life,
the latter was taken and put under bonds. Another man produced a note of
hand for the payment of two good cows, "against John Sadler"; he "proved
his accompt," and procured an attachment against the estate of "Sd.
Sadler." When possible, the Committee compromised the cases, or advised
the parties to adjust matters between themselves. The sheriff executed
the various decrees, in due form; he arrested the men who refused to pay
heed to the judgments of the court, and when necessary took out of their
"goods and chattles, lands and tenements," the damages awarded, and also
the costs and fees. The government was in the hands of men who were not
only law-abiding themselves but also resolute to see that the law was
respected by others.
The committee took cognizance of all affairs concerning the general
welfare of the community. They ordered roads to be built between the
different stations, appointing overseers who had power to "call out
hands to work on the same." Besides the embodiment of all the full-grown
men as militia,--those of each station under their own captain,
lieutenant, and ensign,--a diminutive force of paid regulars was
organized; that is, six spies were "kept out to discover the motions of
the enemy so long as we shall be able to pay them; each to receive
seventy-five bushels of Indian corn per month." They were under the
direction of Colonel Robertson, who was head of all the branches of the
government. One of the committee's regulations followed an economic
principle of doubtful value. Some enterprising individuals, taking
advantage of the armed escort accompanying the Carolina commissioners,
brought out casks of liquors. The settlers had drunk nothing but water
for many months, and they eagerly purchased the liquor, the merchants
naturally charging all that the traffic would bear. This struck the
committee as a grievance, and they forthwith passed a decree that any
person bringing in liquor "from foreign ports," before selling the same,
must give bond that they would charge no more than one silver dollar, or
its value in merchandise, per quart.
Some of the settlers would not enter the association, preferring a
condition of absolute freedom from law. The committee, however, after
waiting a proper time, forced these men in by simply serving notice,
that thereafter they would be treated as beyond the pale of the law, not
entitled to its protection, but amenable to its penalties. A petition
was sent to the North Carolina Legislature, asking that the protection
of government should be extended to the Cumberland people, and showing
that the latter were loyal and orderly, prompt to suppress sedition and
lawlessness, faithful to the United States, and hostile to its enemies.
[Footnote: This whole account is taken from Putnam, who has rendered
such inestimable service by preserving these records.] To show their
good feeling the committee made every member of the community, who had
not already done so, take the oath of abjuration and fidelity.
Affairs with Outside Powers.
Until full governmental protection could be secured the commonwealth was
forced to act as a little sovereign state, bent on keeping the peace,
and yet on protecting itself against aggression from the surrounding
powers, both red and white. It was forced to restrain its own citizens,
and to enter into quasi-diplomatic relations with its neighbors. Thus
early this year fifteen men, under one Colbert, left the settlements and
went down the river in boats, ostensibly to trade with the Indians, but
really to plunder the Spaniards on the Mississippi. They were joined by
some Chickasaws, and at first met with some success in their piratical
attacks, not only on the Spanish trading-boats, but on those of the
French Creoles, and even the Americans, as well. Finally they were
repulsed in an attempt against the Spaniards at Ozark; some were killed,
and the rest scattered. [Footnote: Calendar Va. State Papers, III., pp.
469, 527.] Immediately upon learning of these deeds, the Committee of
Triers passed stringent resolutions forbidding all persons trading with
the Indians until granted a license by the committee, and until they had
furnished ample security for their good behavior. The committee also
wrote a letter to the Spanish governor at New Orleans, disclaiming all
responsibility for the piratical misdeeds of Colbert and his gang, and
announcing the measures they had taken to prevent any repetition of the
same in the future. They laid aside the sum of twenty pounds to pay the
expenses of the messengers who carried this letter to the Virginian
"agent" at the Illinois, whence it was forwarded to the Spanish
Governor. [Footnote: Putnam, pp. 185, 189, 191.]
One of the most difficult questions with which the committee had to deal
was that of holding a treaty with the Indians. Commissioners came out
from Virginia and North Carolina especially to hold such a treaty
[Footnote: Donelson, who was one of the men who became discouraged and
went to Kentucky, was the Virginian commissioner. Martin was the
commissioner from North Carolina. He is sometimes spoken of as if he
likewise represented Virginia.]; but the settlers declined to allow it
until they had themselves decided on its advisability. They feared to
bring so many savages together, lest they might commit some outrage, or
be themselves subjected to such at the hands of one of the many wronged
and reckless whites; and they knew that the Indians would expect many
presents, while there was very little indeed to give them. Finally, the
committee decided to put the question of treaty or no treaty to the vote
of the freemen in the several stations; and by a rather narrow majority
it was decided in the affirmative. The committee then made arrangements
for holding the treaty in June, some four miles from Nashborough; and
strictly prohibited the selling of liquor to the savages. At the
appointed time many chiefs and warriors of the Chickasaws, Cherokees,
and even Creeks appeared. There were various sports, such as ball-games
and footraces; and the treaty was brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
[Footnote: Putnam, 196.] It did not put a complete stop to the Indian
outrages, but it greatly diminished them. The Chickasaws thereafter
remained friendly; but, as usual, the Cherokee and Creek chiefs who
chose to attend were unable to bind those of their fellows who did not.
The whole treaty was, in fact, on both sides, of a merely preliminary
nature. The boundaries it arranged were not considered final until
confirmed by the treaty of Hopewell a couple of years later.
Robertson meanwhile was delegated by the unanimous vote of the settlers
to go to the Assembly of North Carolina, and there petition for the
establishment of a regular land office at Nashborough, and in other ways
advance the interests of the settlers. He was completely successful in
his mission. The Cumberland settlements were included in a new county,
called Davidson [Footnote: In honor of General Wm. Davidson, a very
gallant and patriotic soldier of North Carolina during the Revolutionary
war. The county government was established in October, 1783.]; and an
Inferior Court of Pleas and Common Sessions, vested by the act with
extraordinary powers, was established at Nashborough. The four justices
of the new court had all been Triers of the old committee, and the
scheme of government was practically not very greatly changed, although
now resting on an indisputably legal basis. The Cumberland settlers had
for years acted as an independent, law-abiding, and orderly
commonwealth, and the Court of Triers had shown great firmness and
wisdom. It spoke well for the people that they had been able to
establish such a government, in which the majority ruled, while the
rights of each individual were secured. Robertson deserves the chief
credit as both civil and military leader. The committee of which he was
a member, had seen that justice was done between man and man, had
provided for defense against the outside foe, and had striven to prevent
any wrongs being done to neutral or allied powers. When they became
magistrates of a county of North Carolina they continued to act on the
lines they had already marked out. The increase of population had
brought an increase of wealth. The settlers were still frontiersmen,
clad in buckskin or homespun, with rawhide moccasins, living in
log-cabins, and sleeping under bearskins on beds made of buffalo hides;
but as soon as they ventured to live on their clearings the ground was
better tilled, corn became abundant, and cattle and hogs increased as
the game diminished. Nashborough began to look more like an ordinary
little border town. [Footnote: The justices built a court-house and jail
of hewed logs, the former eighteen feet square, with a lean-to or shed
of twelve feet on one side. The contracts for building were let out at
vendue to the lowest bidder.]
Correspondence with the Spaniards.
During this year Robertson carried on some correspondence with the
Spanish governor at New Orleans, Don Estevan Miro. This was the
beginning of intercourse between the western settlers and the Spanish
officers, an intercourse which was absolutely necessary, though it
afterwards led to many intrigues and complications. Robertson was
obliged to write to Miro not only to disclaim responsibility for the
piratical deeds of men like Colbert, but also to protest against the
conduct of certain of the Spanish agents among the Creeks and
Chickamaugas. No sooner had hostilities ceased with the British than the
Spaniards began to incite the savages to take up once more the hatchet
they had just dropped, [Footnote: Calendar of Va. State Papers, III.,
584, 608, etc.] for Spain already recognized in the restless borderers
possible and formidable foes.
Miro in answering Robertson assured him that the Spaniards were very
friendly to the western settlers, and denied that the Spanish agents
were stirring up trouble. He also told him that the harassed Cherokees,
weary of ceaseless warfare, had asked permission to settle west of the
Mississippi--although they did not carry out their intention. He ended
by pressing Robertson and his friends to come down and settle in Spanish
territory, guaranteeing them good treatment. [Footnote: Robertson MSS.
As the letter is important I give it in full in the Appendix.]
In spite of Miro's fair words the Spanish agents continued to intrigue
against the Americans, and especially against the Cumberland people. Yet
there was no open break. The Spanish governor was felt to be powerful
for both good and evil, and at least a possible friend of the settlers.
To many of their leaders he showed much favor, and the people as a whole
were well impressed by him; and as a compliment to him they ultimately,
when the Cumberland counties were separated from those lying to the
eastward, united the former under the name of Mero [Footnote: So spelt;
but apparently his true name was Miro.] District.
CHAPTER XIII.
WHAT THE WESTERNERS HAD DONE DURING THE REVOLUTION, 1783.
When the first Continental Congress began its sittings the only
frontiersmen west of the mountains, and beyond the limits of continuous
settlement within the old Thirteen Colonies, [Footnote: This
qualification is put in because there were already a few families on the
Monongahela, the head of the Kanawha, and the upper Holston; but they
were in close touch with the people behind them.] were the two or three
hundred citizens of the little Watauga commonwealth. When peace was
declared with Great Britain the backwoodsmen had spread westward, in
groups, almost to the Mississippi, and they had increased in number to
some twenty-five thousand souls, [Footnote: These figures are simply
estimates; but they are based on careful study and comparison, and
though they must be some hundreds, and maybe some thousands, out of the
way, are quite near enough for practical purposes.] of whom a few
hundred dwelt in the bend of the Cumberland, while the rest were about
equally divided between Kentucky and Holston.
The Winning of the West.
This great westward movement of armed settlers was essentially one of
conquest, no less than of colonization. Thronging in with their wives
and children, their cattle, and their few household goods, they won and
held the land in the teeth of fierce resistance, both from the Indian
claimants of the soil and from the representatives of a mighty and
arrogant European power. The chain of events by which the winning was
achieved is perfect; had any link therein snapped it is likely that the
final result would have been failure. The wide wanderings of Boon and
his fellow hunters made the country known and awakened in the minds of
the frontiersmen a keen desire to possess it. The building of the
Watauga commonwealth by Robertson and Sevier gave a base of operations,
and furnished a model for similar communities to follow. Lord Dunmore's
war made the actual settlement possible, for it cowed the northern
Indians, and restrained them from seriously molesting Kentucky during
its first and most feeble years. Henderson and Boon made their great
treaty with the Cherokees in 1775, and then established a permanent
colony far beyond all previous settlements, entering into final
possession of the new country. The victory over the Cherokees in 1776
made safe the line of communication along the Wilderness road, and
secured the chance for further expansion. Clark's campaigns gained the
Illinois, or northwestern regions. The growth of Kentucky then became
very rapid; and in its turn this, and the steady progress of the Watauga
settlements, rendered possible Robertson's successful effort to plant a
new community still farther west, on the Cumberland.
The Wars of the Backwoodsmen
The backwoodsmen pressed in on the line of least resistance, first
taking possession of the debatable hunting-grounds lying between the
Algonquins of the north and the Appalachian confederacies of the south.
Then they began to encroach on the actual tribal territories. Every step
was accompanied by stubborn and bloody fighting with the Indians. The
forest tribes were exceedingly formidable opponents; it is not too much
to say that they formed a far more serious obstacle to the American
advance than would have been offered by an equal number of the best
European troops. Their victories over Braddock, Grant, and St. Clair,
gained in each case with a smaller force, conclusively proved their
superiority, on their own ground, over the best regulars, disciplined
and commanded in the ordinary manner. Almost all of the victories, even
of the backwoodsmen, were won against inferior numbers of Indians.
[Footnote: That the contrary impression prevails is due to the boastful
vanity which the backwoodsmen often shared with the Indians, and to the
gross ignorance of the average writer concerning these border wars. Many
of the accounts in the popular histories are sheer inventions. Thus, in
the "Chronicles of Border Warfare," by Alex. S. Withers (Clarksburg,
Va., 1831, p. 301), there is an absolutely fictitious account of a feat
of the Kentucky Colonel Scott, who is alleged to have avenged St.
Clair's defeat by falling on the victorious Indians while they were
drunk, and killing two hundred of them. This story has not even a
foundation in fact; there was not so much as a skirmish of the sort
described. As Mann Butler--a most painstaking and truthful
writer--points out, it is made up out of the whole cloth, thirty years
after the event; it is a mere invention to soothe the mortified pride of
the whites. Gross exaggeration of the Indian numbers and losses prevails
even to this day. Mr. Edmund Kirke, for instance, usually makes the
absolute or relative numbers of the Indians from five to twenty-five
times as great as they really were. Still, it is hard to blame backwoods
writers for such slips in the face of the worse misdeeds of the average
historian of the Greek and Roman wars with barbarians.] The red men were
fickle of temper, and large bodies could not be kept together for a long
campaign, nor, indeed, for more than one special stroke; the only piece
of strategy any of their chiefs showed was Cornstalk's march past
Dunmore to attack Lewis; but their tactics and discipline in the battle
itself were admirably adapted to the very peculiar conditions of forest
warfare. Writers who speak of them as undisciplined, or as any but most
redoubtable antagonists, fall into an absurd error. An old Indian
fighter, who, at the close of the last century, wrote, from experience,
a good book on the subject, summed up the case very justly when he said:
"I apprehend that the Indian discipline is as well calculated to answer
the purpose in the woods of America as the British discipline is in
Flanders; and British discipline in the woods is the way to have men
slaughtered, with scarcely any chance of defending themselves."
[Footnote: Col. Jas. Smith, "An Account," etc., Lexington, Ky., 1799.] A
comparison of the two victories gained by the backwoodsmen, at the Great
Kanawha, over the Indians, and at Kings Mountain over Ferguson's British
and tories, brings out clearly the formidable fighting capacity of the
red men. At the Kanawha the Americans outnumbered their foes, at King's
Mountain they were no more than equal; yet in the former battle they
suffered twice the loss they did in the latter, inflicted much less
damage in return, and did not gain nearly so decisive a victory.
Twofold Character of the Revolution.
The Indians were urged on by the British, who furnished them with arms,
ammunition, and provisions, and sometimes also with leaders and with
bands of auxiliary white troops, French, British, and tories. It was
this that gave to the revolutionary contest its twofold character,
making it on the part of the Americans a struggle for independence in
the east, and in the west a war of conquest, or rather a war to
establish, on behalf of all our people, the right of entry into the
fertile and vacant regions beyond the Alleghanies. The grievances of the
backwoodsmen were not the same as the grievances of the men of the
seacoast. The Ohio Valley and the other western lands of the French had
been conquered by the British, not the Americans. Great Britain had
succeeded to the policy as well as the possessions of her predecessor,
and, strange to say, had become almost equally hostile to the colonists
of her own stock. As France had striven for half a century, so England
now in her turn strove, to bar out the settlers of English race from the
country beyond the Alleghanies. The British Crown, Parliament, and
people were a unit in wishing to keep woodland and prairie for the sole
use of their own merchants, as regions tenanted only by Indian hunters
and French trappers and traders. They became the guardians and allies of
all the Indian tribes. On the other hand, the American backwoodsmen were
resolute in their determination to go in and possess the land. The aims
of the two sides thus clashed hopelessly. Under all temporary and
apparent grounds of quarrel lay this deep-rooted jealousy and
incompatibility of interests. Beyond the Alleghanies the Revolution was
fundamentally a struggle between England, bent on restricting the growth
of the English race, and the Americans, triumphantly determined to
acquire the right to conquer the continent.
The West Actually Conquered.
Had not the backwoodsmen been successful in the various phases of the
struggle, we would certainly have been cooped up between the sea and the
mountains. If in 1774 and '76 they had been beaten by the Ohio tribes
and the Cherokees, the border ravaged, and the settlements stopped or
forced back as during what the colonists called Braddock's War,
[Footnote: During this Indian war, covering the period from Braddock's
to Grant's defeats, Smith, a good authority, estimates that the
frontiers were laid waste, and population driven back, over an area
nearly three hundred miles long by thirty broad.] there is every reason
to believe that the Alleghanies would have become our western frontier.
Similarly, if Clark had failed in his efforts to conquer and hold the
Illinois and Vincennes, it is overwhelmingly probable that the Ohio
would have been the boundary between the Americans and the British.
Before the Revolution began, in 1774, the British Parliament had, by the
Quebec Act, declared the country between the Great Lakes and the Ohio to
be part of Canada; and under the provisions of this act the British
officers continued to do as they had already done--that is, to hold
adverse possession of the land, scornfully heedless of the claims of the
different colonies. The country was _de facto_ part of Canada; the
Americans tried to conquer it exactly as they tried to conquer the rest
of Canada; the only difference was that Clark succeeded, whereas Arnold
and Montgomery failed.
But only Definitely Secured by Diplomacy.
Of course the conquest by the backwoodsmen was by no means the sole
cause of our acquisition of the west. The sufferings and victories of
the westerners would have counted for nothing, had it not been for the
success of the American arms in the east, and for the skill of our three
treaty-makers at Paris--Jay, Adams, and Franklin, but above all the two
former, and especially Jay. On the other hand, it was the actual
occupation and holding of the country that gave our diplomats their
vantage-ground. When the treaty was made, in 1782, the commissioners of
the United States represented a people already holding the whole Ohio
Valley, as well as the Illinois. The circumstances of the treaty were
peculiar; but here they need to be touched but briefly, and only so far
as they affected the western boundaries. The United States, acting
together with France and Spain, had just closed a successful war with
England; but when the peace negotiations were begun, they speedily found
that their allies were, if any thing, more anxious than their enemy to
hamper their growth. England, having conceded the grand point of
independence, was disposed to be generous, and not to haggle about
lesser matters. Spain, on the contrary, was quite as hostile to the new
nation as to England. Through her representative, Count Aranda, she
predicted the future enormous expansion of the Federal Republic at the
expense of Florida, Louisiana, and Mexico, unless it was effectually
curbed in its youth. The prophecy has been strikingly fulfilled, and the
event has thoroughly justified Spain's fear; for the major part of the
present territory of the United States was under Spanish dominion at the
close of the Revolutionary war. Spain, therefore, proposed to hem in our
growth by giving us the Alleghanies for our western boundary. [Footnote:
At the north this boundary was to follow the upper Ohio, and end towards
the foot of Lake Erie. See maps at end of volume.] France was the ally
of America; but as between America and Spain, she favored the latter.
Moreover, she wished us to remain weak enough to be dependent upon her
further good graces. The French court, therefore, proposed that the
United States should content themselves with so much of the
trans-Alleghany territory as lay round the head-waters of the Tennessee
and between the Cumberland and Ohio. This area contained the bulk of the
land that was already settled [Footnote: Excluding only so much of
Robertson's settlement as lay south of the Cumberland, and Clark's
conquest.]; and the proposal showed how important the French court
deemed the fact of actual settlement.
Thus the two allies of America were hostile to her interests. The open
foe, England, on the contrary was anxious to conclude a separate treaty,
so that she might herself be in better condition to carry on
negotiations with France and Spain; she cared much less to keep the west
than she did to keep Gibraltar, and an agreement with the United States
about the former left her free to insist on the retention of the latter.
Congress, in a spirit of slavish subserviency, had instructed the
American commissioners to take no steps without the knowledge and advice
of France. Franklin was inclined to obey these instructions; but Jay,
supported by Adams, boldly insisted on disregarding them; and
accordingly a separate treaty was negotiated with England. In settling
the claims to the western territory, much stress was laid on the old
colonial charters; but underneath all the verbiage it was practically
admitted that these charters conferred merely inchoate rights, which
became complete only after conquest and settlement. The States
themselves had already by their actions shown that they admitted this to
be the case. Thus North Carolina, when by the creation of Washington
County--now the State of Tennessee--she rounded out her boundaries,
specified them as running to the Mississippi. As a matter of fact the
royal grant, under which alone she could claim the land in question,
extended to the Pacific; and the only difference between her rights to
the regions east and west of the river was that her people were settling
in one, and could not settle in the other. The same was true of
Kentucky, and of the west generally; if the States could rightfully
claim to run to the Mississippi, they could also rightfully claim to run
to the Pacific. The colonial charters were all very well as furnishing
color of title; but at bottom the American claim rested on the peculiar
kind of colonizing conquest so successfully carried on by the
backwoodsmen. When the English took New Amsterdam they claimed it under
old charters; but they very well knew that their real right was only
that of the strong hand. It was precisely so with the Americans and the
Ohio valley. They produced old charters to support their title; but in
reality it rested on Clark's conquests and above all on the advance of
the backwoods settlements. [Footnote: Mr. R. A. Hinsdale, in his
excellent work on the "Old Northwest" (New York, 1888), seems to me to
lay too much stress on the weight which our charter-claims gave us, and
too little on the right we had acquired by actual possession. The
charter-claims were elaborated with the most wearisome prolixity at the
time; but so were the English claims to New Amsterdam a century earlier.
Conquest gave the true title in each case; the importance of a claim is
often in inverse order to the length at which it is set forth in a
diplomatic document. The west was gained by: (1) the westward movement
of the backwoodsmen during the Revolution; (2) the final success of the
Continental armies in the east; (3) the skill of our diplomats at Paris;
failure on any one of these three points would have lost us the west.
Mr. Hinsdale seems to think that Clark's conquest prevented the Illinois
from being conquered from the British by the Spaniards; but this is very
doubtful. The British at Detroit would have been far more likely to have
conquered the Spaniards at St. Louis; at any rate there is small
probability that they would have been seriously troubled by the latter.
The so-called Spanish conquest of St. Joseph was not a conquest at all,
but an unimportant plundering raid.
The peace negotiations are best discussed in John Jay's chapter thereon,
in the seventh volume of Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of
North America." Sparks' account is fundamentally wrong on several
points. Bancroft largely follows him, and therefore repeats and shares
his errors.]
This view of the case is amply confirmed by a consideration of what was
actually acquired under the treaty of peace which closed the
Revolutionary struggle. Map-makers down to the present day have almost
invariably misrepresented the territorial limits we gained by this
treaty. They represent our limits in the west in 1783 as being the Great
Lakes, the Mississippi, and the 31st parallel of latitude from the
Mississippi to the Chattahoochee; [Footnote: The map in Mr. Hinsdale's
book may be given as a late instance.] but in reality we did not acquire
these limits until a dozen years later, by the treaties of Jay and
Pinckney. Two points must be kept in mind: first, that during the war
our ally, Spain, had conquered from England that portion of the Gulf
coast known as West Florida; and second, that when the treaty was made
the United States and Great Britain mutually covenanted to do certain
things, some of which were never done. Great Britain agreed to recognize
the lakes as our northern boundary, but, on the alleged ground that we
did not fulfil certain of our promises, she declined to fulfil this
agreement, and the lake posts remained in her hands until the Jay treaty
was ratified. She likewise consented to recognize the 31st parallel as
our southern boundary, but by a secret article it was agreed that if by
the negotiations she recovered West Florida, then the boundary should
run about a hundred miles farther north, ending at the mouth of the
Yazoo. The discovery of this secret article aroused great indignation in
Spain. As a matter of fact, the disputed territory, the land drained by
the Gulf rivers, was not England's to grant, for it had been conquered
and was then held by Spain. Nor was it given up to us until we acquired
it by Pinckney's masterly diplomacy. The treaty represented a mere
promise which in part was not and in part could not be fulfilled. All
that it really did was to guarantee us what we already possessed--that
is, the Ohio valley and the Illinois, which we had settled and conquered
during the years of warfare. Our boundary lines were in reality left
very vague. On the north the basin of the Great Lakes remained British;
on the south the lands draining into the Gulf remained Spanish, or under
Spanish influence. The actual boundaries we acquired can be roughly
stated in the north to have followed the divide between the waters of
the lake and the waters of the Ohio, and in the south to have run across
the heads of the Gulf rivers. Had we remained a loose confederation
these boundaries, would more probably have shrunk than advanced; we did
not overleap them until some years after Washington had become the head
of a real, not merely a titular, nation. The peace of 1783, as far as
our western limits were affected, did nothing more than secure us
undisturbed possession of lands from which it had proved impossible to
oust us. We were in reality given nothing more than we had by our own
prowess gained; the inference is strong that we got what we did get only
because we had won and held it.
The Backwoods Governments.
The first duty of the backwoodsmen who thus conquered the west was to
institute civil government. Their efforts to overcome and beat back the
Indians went hand in hand with their efforts to introduce law and order
in the primitive communities they founded; and exactly as they relied
purely on themselves in withstanding outside foes, so they likewise
built up their social life and their first systems of government with
reference simply to their special needs, and without any outside help or
direction. The whole character of the westward movement, the methods of
warfare, of settlement, and government, were determined by the extreme
and defiant individualism of the backwoodsmen, their inborn independence
and self-reliance, and their intensely democratic spirit. The west was
won and settled by a number of groups of men, all acting independently
of one another, but with a common object, and at about the same time.
There was no one controlling spirit; it was essentially the movement of
a whole free people, not of a single master-mind. There were strong and
able leaders, who showed themselves fearless soldiers and just
law-givers, undaunted by danger, resolute to persevere in the teeth of
disaster; but even these leaders are most deeply interesting because
they stand foremost among a host of others like them. There were
hundreds of hunters and Indian fighters like Mansker, Wetzel, Kenton,
and Brady; there were scores of commonwealth founders like Logan, Todd,
Floyd, and Harrod; there were many adventurous land speculators like
Henderson; there were even plenty of commanders like Shelby and
Campbell. These were all men of mark; some of them exercised a powerful
and honorable influence on the course of events in the west. Above them
rise four greater figures, fit to be called not merely State or local,
but national heroes. Clark, Sevier, Robertson, and Boon are emphatically
American worthies. They were men of might in their day, born to sway the
minds of others, helpful in shaping the destiny of the continent. Yet of
Clark alone can it be said that he did a particular piece of work which
without him would have remained undone. Sevier, Robertson, and Boon only
hastened, and did more perfectly, a work which would have been done by
others had they themselves fallen by the wayside. [Footnote: Sevier's
place would certainly have been taken by some such man as his chief
rival, Tipton. Robertson led his colony to the Cumberland but a few days
before old Mansker led another; and though without Robertson the
settlements would have been temporarily abandoned, they would surely
have been reoccupied. If Henderson had not helped Boon found Kentucky,
then Hart or some other of Henderson's associates would doubtless have
done so; and if Boon had been lacking, his place would probably have
been taken by some such man as Logan. The loss of these men would have
been very serious, but of no one of them can it be said, as of Clark,
that he alone could have done the work he actually did.] Important
though they are for their own sakes, they are still more important as
types of the men who surrounded them.
The individualism of the backwoodsmen, however, was tempered by a sound
common-sense, and capacity for combination. The first hunters might come
alone or in couples, but the actual colonization was done not by
individuals, but by groups of individuals. The settlers brought their
families and belongings either on pack-horses along the forest trails,
or in scows down the streams; they settled in palisaded villages, and
immediately took steps to provide both a civil and military
organization. They were men of facts, not theories; and they showed
their usual hard common-sense in making a government. They did not try
to invent a new system; they simply took that under which they had grown
up, and applied it to their altered conditions. They were most familiar
with the government of the county; and therefore they adopted this for
the framework of their little independent, self-governing commonwealths
of Watauga, Cumberland, and Transylvania. [Footnote: The last of these
was the most pretentious and short-lived and least characteristic of the
three, as Henderson made an abortive effort to graft on it the utterly
foreign idea of a proprietary colony.]
They were also familiar with the representative system; and accordingly
they introduced it into the new communities, the little forted villages
serving as natural units of representation. They were already thoroughly
democratic, in instinct and principle, and as a matter of course they
made the offices elective, and gave full play to the majority. In
organizing the militia they kept the old system of county lieutenants,
making them elective, not appointive; and they organized the men on the
basis of a regiment, the companies representing territorial divisions,
each commanded by its own officers, who were thus chosen by the fighting
men of the fort or forts in their respective districts. Thus each of the
backwoods commonwealths, during its short-lived term of absolute
freedom, reproduced as its governmental system that of the old colonial
county, increasing the powers of the court, and changing the justices
into the elective representatives of an absolute democracy. The civil
head, the chairman of the court or committee, was also usually the
military head, the colonel-commandant. In fact the military side of the
organization rapidly became the most conspicuous, and, at least in
certain crises, the most important. There were always some years of
desperate warfare during which the entire strength of the little
commonwealth was drawn on to resist outside aggression, and during these
years the chief function of government was to provide for the griping
military needs of the community, and the one pressing duty of its chief
was to lead his followers with valor and wisdom in the struggle with the
stranger. [Footnote: My friend, Professor Alexander Johnson, of
Princeton, is inclined to regard these frontier county organizations as
reproductions of a very primitive type of government indeed, deeming
that they were formed primarily for war against outsiders, that their
military organization was the essential feature, the real reason for
their existence. I can hardly accept this view in its entirety; though
fully recognizing the extreme importance of the military side of the
little governments, it seems to me that the preservation of order, and
especially the necessity for regulating the disposition of the land,
were quite as powerful factors in impelling the settlers to act
together. It is important to keep in mind the territorial organization
of the militia companies and regiments; a county and a regiment, a
forted village and a company, were usually coextensive.]
These little communities were extremely independent in feeling, not only
of the Federal Government, but of their parent States, and even of one
another. They had won their positions by their own courage and
hardihood; very few State troops and hardly a Continental soldier had
appeared west of the Alleghanies. They had heartily sympathized with
their several mother colonies when they became the United States, and
had manfully played their part in the Revolutionary war. Moreover they
were united among themselves by ties of good-will and of services
mutually rendered. Kentucky, for instance, had been succored more than
once by troops raised among the Watauga Carolinians or the Holston
Virginians, and in her turn she had sent needed supplies to the
Cumberland. But when the strain of the war was over the separatist
spirit asserted itself very strongly. The groups of western settlements
not only looked on the Union itself very coldly, but they were also more
or less actively hostile to their parent States, and regarded even one
another as foreign communities; [Footnote: See in Gardoqui MSS. the
letters of George Rogers Clark to Gardoqui, March 15, 1788; and of John
Sevier to Gardoqui, September 12, 1788; and in the Robertson MS. the
letter of Robertson to McGillivray, August 3, 1788. It is necessary to
allude to the feeling here; but the separatist and disunion movements
did not gather full force until later, and are properly to be considered
in connection with post-revolutionary events.] they considered the
Confederation as being literally only a lax league of friendship.
Character of the Pioneer Population.
Up to the close of the Revolutionary contest the settlers who were
building homes and States beyond the Alleghanies formed a homogeneous
backwoods population. The wood-choppers, game hunters, and Indian
fighters, who dressed and lived alike, were the typical pioneers. They
were a shifting people. In every settlement the tide ebbed and flowed.
Some of the new-comers would be beaten in the hard struggle for
existence, and would drift back to whence they had come. Of those who
succeeded some would take root in the land, and others would move still
farther into the wilderness. Thus each generation rolled westward,
leaving its children at the point where the wave stopped no less than at
that where it started. The descendants of the victors of King's Mountain
are as likely to be found in the Rockies as in the Alleghanies.
With the close of the war came an enormous increase in the tide of
immigration; and many of the new-comers were of a very different stamp
from their predecessors. The main current flowed towards Kentucky, and
gave an entirely different character to its population. The two typical
figures in Kentucky so far had been Clark and Boon, but after the close
of the Revolution both of them sank into unimportance, whereas the
careers of Sevier and Robertson had only begun. The disappearance of the
two former from active life was partly accidental and partly a resultant
of the forces that assimilated Kentucky so much more rapidly than
Tennessee to the conditions prevailing in the old States. Kentucky was
the best known and the most accessible of the western regions; within
her own borders she was now comparatively safe from serious Indian
invasion, and the tide of immigration naturally flowed thither. So
strong was the current that, within a dozen years, it had completely
swamped the original settlers, and had changed Kentucky from a peculiar
pioneer and backwoods commonwealth into a State differing no more from
Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina than these differed from one
another.
The men who gave the tone to this great flood of new-comers were the
gentry from the sea-coast country, the planters, the young lawyers, the
men of means who had been impoverished by the long-continued and
harassing civil war. Straitened in circumstances, desirous of winning
back wealth and position, they cast longing eyes towards the beautiful
and fertile country beyond the mountains, deeming it a place that
afforded unusual opportunities to the man with capital, no less than to
him whose sole trust was in his own adventurous energy.
Most of the gentle folks in Virginia and the Carolinas, the men who
lived in great roomy houses on their well-stocked and slave-tilled
plantations, had been forced to struggle hard to keep their heads above
water during the Revolution. They loyally supported the government, with
blood and money; and at the same time they endeavored to save some of
their property from the general wreck, and to fittingly educate their
girls, and those of their boys who were too young to be in the army. The
men of this stamp who now prepared to cast in their lot with the new
communities formed an exceptionally valuable class of immigrants; they
contributed the very qualities of which the raw settlements stood most
in need. They had suffered for no fault of their own; fate had gone hard
with them. The fathers had been in the Federal or Provincial congresses;
the older sons had served in the Continental line or in the militia. The
plantations were occasionally overrun by the enemy; and the general
disorder had completed their ruin. Nevertheless, the heads of the
families had striven to send the younger sons to school or college. For
their daughters they did even more; and throughout the contest, even in
its darkest hours, they sent them down to receive the final touches of a
lady-like education at some one of the State capitals not at the moment
in the hands of the enemy--such as Charleston or Philadelphia. There the
young ladies were taught dancing and music, for which, as well as for
their frocks and "pink calamanco shoes," their fathers paid enormous
sums in depreciated Continental currency. [Footnote: Clay MSS. Account
of Robert Morris with Miss Elizabeth Hart, during her residence in
Philadelphia in 1780-81. The account is so curious that I give it in
full in the Appendix.]
Even the close of active hostilities, when the British were driven from
the Southern States, brought at first but a slight betterment of
condition to the straggling people. There was no cash in the land, the
paper currency was nearly worthless, every one was heavily in debt, and
no one was able to collect what was owing to him. There was much mob
violence, and a general relaxation of the bonds of law and order. Even
nature turned hostile; a terrible drought shrunk up all the streams
until they could not turn the grist-mills, while from the same cause the
crops failed almost completely. A hard winter followed, and many cattle
and hogs died; so that the well-to-do were brought to the verge of
bankruptcy and the poor suffered extreme privations, being forced to go
fifty or sixty miles to purchase small quantities of meal and grain at
exorbitant prices. [Footnote: Clay MSS. Letters of Jesse Benton, 1782
and '83. See Appendix.]
This distress at home inclined many people of means and ambition to try
their fortunes in the west: while another and equally powerful motive
was the desire to secure great tracts of virgin lands, for possession or
speculation. Many distinguished soldiers had been rewarded by successive
warrants for unoccupied land, which they entered wherever they chose,
until they could claim thousands upon thousands of acres. [Footnote:
Thus Col. Wm. Christian, for his services in Braddock's and Dunmore's
wars and against the Cherokees, received many warrants; he visited
Kentucky to enter them, 9,000 acres in all. See "Life of Caleb Wallace,"
by Wm. H. Whitsitt, Louisville, 1888.] Sometimes they sold these
warrants to outsiders; but whether they remained in the hands of the
original holders or not, they served as a great stimulus to the westward
movement, and drew many of the representatives of the wealthiest and
most influential families in the parent States to the lands on the
farther side of the mountains.
At the close of the Revolution, however, the men from the sea-coast
region formed but an insignificant portion of the western pioneers. The
country beyond the Alleghanies was first won and settled by the
backwoodsmen themselves, acting under their own leaders, obeying their
own desires, and following their own methods. They were a marked and
peculiar people. The good and evil traits in their character were such
as naturally belonged to a strong, harsh, and homely race, which, with
all its shortcomings, was nevertheless bringing a tremendous work to a
triumphant conclusion. The backwoodsmen were above all things
characteristically American; and it is fitting that the two greatest and
most typical of all Americans should have been respectively a sharer and
an outcome of their work. Washington himself passed the most important
years of his youth heading the westward movement of his people; clad in
the traditional dress of the backwoodsmen, in tasselled hunting-shirt
and fringed leggings, he led them to battle against the French and
Indians, and helped to clear the way for the American advance. The only
other man who in the American roll of honor stands by the side of
Washington, was born when the distinctive work of the pioneers had
ended; and yet he was bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh; for
from the loins of this gaunt frontier folk sprang mighty Abraham
Lincoln.
APPENDICES.
* * * * *
APPENDIX A--TO CHAPTER I.
During the early part of this century our more pretentious historians
who really did pay some heed to facts and wrote books that--in addition
to their mortal dulness--were quite accurate, felt it undignified and
beneath them to notice the deeds of mere ignorant Indian fighters. They
had lost all power of doing the best work; for they passed their lives
in a circle of small literary men, who shrank from any departure from
conventional European standards.
On the other hand, the men who wrote history for the mass of our people,
not for the scholars, although they preserved much important matter, had
not been educated up to the point of appreciating the value of evidence,
and accepted undoubted facts and absurd traditions with equal good
faith. Some of them (notably Flint and one or two of Boon's other
biographers) evidently scarcely regarded truthfulness and accuracy of
statement as being even desirable qualities in a history. Others wished
to tell the facts, but lacked all power of discrimination. Certain of
their books had a very wide circulation. In some out-of-the-way places
they formed, with the almanac, the staple of secular literature. But
they did not come under the consideration of trained scholars, so their
errors remained uncorrected; and at this day it is a difficult, and
often an impossible task, to tell which of the statements to accept and
which to reject.
Many of the earliest writers lived when young among the old companions
of the leading pioneers, and long afterwards wrote down from memory the
stories the old men had told them. They were themselves often clergymen,
and were usually utterly inexperienced in wild backwoods life, in spite
of their early surroundings--exactly as to-day any town in the Rocky
Mountains is sure to contain some half-educated men as ignorant of
mountain and plains life, of Indians and wild beasts, as the veriest
lout on an eastern farm. Accordingly they accepted the wildest stories
of frontier warfare with a faith that forcibly reminds one of the
equally simple credulity displayed by the average classical scholar
concerning early Greek and Roman prowess. Many of these primitive
historians give accounts of overwhelming Indian numbers and enormous
Indian losses, that read as if taken from the books that tell of the
Gaulish hosts the Romans conquered, and the Persian hordes the Greeks
repelled; and they are almost as untrustworthy.
Some of the anecdotes they relate are not far removed from the
Chinese-like tale--given, if my memory is correct, in Herodotus--of the
Athenian soldier, who went into action with a small grapnel or anchor
attached by a chain to his waist, that he might tether himself out to
resist the shock of the charging foe. A flagrant example is the story
which describes how the white man sees an Indian very far off making
insulting gestures; how he forthwith loads his rifle with two
bullets--which the narrator evidently thinks will go twice as far and
twice as straight as one,--and, taking careful aim, slays his enemy.
Like other similar anecdotes, this is told of a good many different
frontier heroes; the historian usually showing a delightful lack of
knowledge of what is and what is not possible in hunting, tracking, and
fighting. However, the utter ignorance of even the elementary principles
of rifle-shooting may not have been absolutely confined to the
historians. Any one accustomed to old hunters knows that their theories
concerning their own weapons are often rather startling. A year ago last
fall I was hunting some miles below my ranch (on the Little Missouri) to
lay in the winter stock of meat, and was encamped for a week with an old
hunter. We both had 45-75 Winchester rifles; and I was much amused at
his insisting that his gun "shot level" up to two hundred yards--a
distance at which the ball really drops considerably over a foot. Yet he
killed a good deal of game; so he must either in practice have
disregarded his theories, or else he must have always overestimated the
distances at which he fired.
The old writers of the simpler sort not only delighted in impossible
feats with the rifle, but in equally impossible deeds of strength,
tracking and the like; and they were very fond of attributing all the
wonderful feats of which they had heard to a single favorite hero, not
to speak of composing speeches for him.
It seems--though it ought not to be--necessary to point out to some
recent collectors of backwoods anecdotes, the very obvious truths: that
with the best intentions in the world the average backwoodsman often has
difficulty in describing a confused chain of events exactly as they took
place; that when the events are described after a long lapse of years
many errors are apt to creep in; and that when they are reported from
tradition it is the rarest thing imaginable for the report to be
correct.
* * * * *
APPENDIX B-TO CHAPTER II.
(The following account of the first negotiations of the Americans with
the Indians near Vincennes is curious as being the report of one of the
Indians; but it was evidently colored to suit his hearer, for as a
matter of fact the Indians of the Wabash were for the time being awed
into quiet, the Piankeshaws sided with the Americans, and none of them
dared rise until the British approached.)
(_Haldimand MSS._, Series B, Vol. 122, p. 219.)
Proceedings of the Rebels at St. Vincennes as related to Lieut Govr.
Hamilton by Neegik an Ottawa War Chief sent forward to gain
intelligence. Camp at Rocher de Bout 14th Octr. 1778--
On the Rebels first arrival at St. Vincennes they took down the English
Flag left there by Lieut. Gen. Abbott, wrapped a large stone in it, and
threw it into the Ouabash, saying to the Indians, thus we mean to treat
your Father--
Having called the Indians together they laid a War Belt colored red, & a
belt colored green before them, telling them that if they delighted in
mischief and had no compassion on their wives & children they might take
up the red one, if on the contrary they were wise & preferred peace, the
green one--
The old Tobacco a chief of the [Piankeshaws] spoke as follows--My
brothers--you speak in a manner not to be understood, I never yet saw,
nor have I heard from my ancestors that it was customary to place good &
bad things in the same dish--You talk to us as if you meant us well, yet
you speak of War & peace in the same minute, thus I treat the speeches
of such men--on which with a violent kick he spurned their belts from
him.
The son of Lagesse, a young Chief of the Pontconattamis of St Joseph
spoke next to them.
My Brothers--'Tis because I have listened to the voice of our old men, &
because I have regard to our women & children that I have not before now
struck my Tomahawk into some of your heads--attend to what I say, I will
only go to see in what condition our wives & children are (meaning I
will first place them in security) & then you may depend on seeing me
again--
The Rebel speaker then said--
You are young men & your youth excuses your ignorances, you would not
else talk as you do--Our design is to march thro' your country, & if we
find any fires in our way, we shall just tread them out as we walk along
& if we meet with any obstacle or barrier we shall remove it with all
ease, but the bystanders must take care lest the splinters should scar
their faces.
We shall then proceed to Detroit where your father is whom we consider
as a Hog put to fatten in a penn, we shall enclose him in his penn, till
he be fat, & then we will throw him into the river--We shall draw a
reinforcement from the Falls on the Ohio & from thence & the Ilinois
send six hundred men to Chicagou--
To this the Indians replied--You that are so brave, what need have you
to be reinforced, go to Detroit, you that can put out our fires & so
easyly remove our barriers.--This we say to you, take care that in
attempting to extinguish our fires you do not burn yourselves, & that in
breaking down our barriers you do not run splinters into your hands. You
may also expect that we shall not suffer a single Frenchman to accompany
you to Detroit.
End of the Conference.
* * * * *
APPENDIX C--TO CHAPTER IV.
(From Canadian Archives.)
(_Haldimand MSS._, Series B, Vol. 122, p. 351.)
(Copy.)
UPPER ST. DUSKI, June 9, 1779.
Dear Sir,
After much running about, some presents to Chiefs, we had collected at
the Mingo Town near 200 Savages chiefly Shawanese--When lo! a runner
arrived with accounts of the Shawanese towns being attacked by a body
from Kentuck, they burnt five houses, killed one Indian & wounded the
Chief badly--lost their own Commander _Heron_ or _Herington_--they
carried off 30 Horses, were pursued by fifty Shawanese, the Shawanese
were beat back with loss of five & six wounded--News flew that all the
Towns were to be attack'd & our little body seperated in an instant past
reassembling--confusion still prevails--much counselling--no
resolves--many are removing--more for peace.
The Delawares make it dangerous travelling. By this opportunity Davison
& Cook return sick--Girty is flying about--McCarty stays with me with
some Ottawas--these unsteady Rogues put me out of all patience,--I will
go with him in a few days, if nothing material occurs--See the Enemy
that I may not be laugh'd at then return.--The Rebels mean I believe to
destroy the Villages & corn now up--the method they bring their little
armies into the field as follows: Every Family on the Borders receive
orders to send according to their strength (one or two men) to the place
of Rendezvous at a time appointed (on pain of fine or imprisonment) with
fifteen or twenty days Provisions, they immediately receive their
ammunition & proceed quickly to action--I am credibly inform'd by
various means, that they can raise in that manner three or four thousand
in a few days for such excursions--I was obliged to Kill four more
Cattle for the Indians at the Mingo Town--they are always Cooking or
Counselling.
I have nothing more to inform you off if anything material occurs, which
I really expect in a day or two, I will inform you by Express.
I am &c
HENRY BIRD.
To CAPT. LERNOULT.
(Copy.)
June 12th, UPPER ST. DUSKI.
Sir,
Couriers after Couriers arrive with accounts of the Rebels advancing to
destroy the Savage Villages now all their corn is planted--
* * * * *
APPENDIX D--TO CHAPTER IV.
(_State Department MSS._; No. 48, Vol. "Memorials &c Inhabitants of
Illinois, Kaskaskias and Kentucky.")
The Petition and Prayr. of the people of that Part of Contry [sic] now
Claim'd. by the State of Virginia in the Countys of Kaintuckey and
Ilinois Humbly Sheweth--That we the leige Subjects of the United States
Labour under many Greivences on acount of not being formd into a
Seperate State or the Mind and Will of Congress more fully known
respecting us--And we Humbly beg leave to Present to the Honorable
Continental Congress our Humble Petition seting forth the Grievences and
oppressions we labour under and Pray Congress may Consider Such our
greivences and grant us redress.
We your Petitioners being situate in a wide Extencive Uncultivated
Contry and Exposd. on every side to incursions of the Savage Indians
humbly Conceive Ourselves approssed by several acts of the general
assembly of Virginia for granting large Grants for waist and
unapropriated lands on the Western Waters without Reservation for
Cultivating and Settling the same whereby Setling the Contry is
Discouraged and the inhabitants are greatly Exposd. to the Saviges by
whome our wives and Childring are daly Cruily murdered Notwithstanding
our most Humble Petitions Canot Obtain Redress--By an other act we are
Taxd. which in our Present Situation we Conceive to be oppresive and
unjust being Taxd. with money and grain whilst Enrold and in actual Pay
residing in Garrisons. We are Situate from Six Hundred to one Thousand
Miles from our Present Seite of Goverment, Whereby Criminals are
Suffered to Escape with impunity, Great numbers who ware Ocationaly
absent are Deprived of an Opertunity of their Just Rights and
Emprovements and here we are Obliged to Prosecute all Apeals, and
whillst we remain uncertain whether the unbounded Claim of This
Extencive Contry Ought of right to belong to the United States or the
State of Virginia, They have by another late act required of us to Sware
alegince to the State of Virginia in Particular Notwithstanding we have
aredy taken the Oath of alegance to the united States. These are
Greivences too Heavy to be born, and we do Humbly Pray that the
Continental Congress will Take Proper Methods to form us into a Seperate
State or grant us Such Rules and regulations as they in their Wisdoms
shall think most Proper, During the Continuance of the Present War and
your Petitioners shall ever Pray
May 15th, 1780.
[Signed] ROBERT TYLER
RICHARD CONNOR
THOMAS HUGHES
ARCHIBALD MCDONALD
ABRAHAM VAN METER
(and others to the number of 640).
* * * * *
APPENDIX E--TO CHAPTER VII.
(_Haldimand MSS._ Series B, Vol. 123, p. 302.)
Sir,
My Letter of the 22nd & 23rd of July informed you of the reports brought
us of the Enemy's motions at that time which was delivered by the Chiefs
of the standing Stone Village & confirmed by Belts & Strings of Wampum
in so earnest a manner that could not but gain Credit with us. We had
upon this occasion the greatest Body of Indians collected to an
advantageous peice of ground near the Picawee Village that have been
assembled in this Quarter since the commencement of the War & perhaps
may never be in higher spirits to engage the Enemy, when the return of
Scouts from the Ohio informed us that the account we had received was
false; this disappointment notwithstanding all our endeavours to keep
them together occasioned them to disperse in disgust with each other,
the inhabitants of this Country who were the most immediately interested
in keeping in a Body ware the first that broke off & though we advanced
towards the Ohio with upwards of three hundred Hurons & Lake Indians few
of the Delawares, Shawanese or Mingoes followed us. On our arrival at
the Ohio we remain'd still in uncertainty with respect to the Enemys
motions, & it was thought best from hence to send Scouts to the Falls &
that the main Body should advance into the Enemy's Country and endeavour
to lead out a party from some of their Forts by which we might be able
to gain some certain Intelligence accordingly we crossed the Ohio and
arrived the 18th Inst. at one of the Enemys settlements--call'd Bryans
Station, but the Indians discovering their numbers prevented their
coming out and the Lake Indians finding this rush'd up to the Fort and
set several out Houses on fire but at too great a distance to touch the
Fort the Wind blowing the Contrary way. The firing continued this day
during which time a Party of about twenty of the Enemy approached a part
that happened not to be Guarded & about one half of them reached it the
rest being drove back by a few Indians who ware near the place, the next
morning finding it to no purpose to keep up a fire longer upon the Fort
as we were getting men killed, & had already several men wounded which
ware to be carried, the Indians determined to retreat & the 20th reached
the Blue Licks where we encamp'd near an advantageous Hill and expecting
the enemy would pursue determined here to wait for them keeping spies at
the Lick who in the morning of the 21st discovered them & at half past 7
o'clock we engaged them & in a short time totally defeated them, we ware
not much superior to them in Numbers they being about two hundred picked
men from the settlement of Kentucky. Commanded by the Colonels Todd,
Trigg, Boon & Todd, with the Majors Harlin, and McGary most of whom fell
in the action, from the best inquiry I could make upon the spot there
was upwards of one hundred & forty killed & taken with near an hundred
rifles several being thrown into a deep River that ware not recovered.
It was said by the Prisoners that a Colonel Logan was expected to join
them with one hundred men more we waited upon the ground to-day for him,
but seeing there was not much probability of his coming we set off &
crossed the ohio the second day after the action. Captain Caldwell & I
arrived at this place last night with a design of sending some
assistance to those who are bring on the wounded people who are fourteen
in number, we had Ten Indians kill'd with Mr. La Bute of the Indian
Department who by sparing the life of one of the Enemy & endeavouring to
take him Prisoner loss'd his own, to our disappointment we find no
Provisions brought forward to this place or likely hood of any for some
time, and we have entirely subsisted since we left this on what we got
in the Woods, and took from the Enemy. The Prisoners all agree in their
account that there is no talk of an Expedition from that Quarter, nor
indeed are they able without assistance from the Colonies, & that the
Militia of the Country have been employed during the summer in Building
the Fort at the Falls, & what they call a Row Galley which has made one
trip up the River to the Mouth of the big Miamis & occasioned that alarm
that created us so much trouble, she carries one six pounder, six four
pounders & two two pounders & Row's eighty oars, she had at the big Bone
Lick one hundred men but being chiefly draughts from the Militia many of
them left her on different parts of the River. One of the Prisoners
mentions the arrival of Boats lately from Fort Pitt & that Letters has
pass'd between the Commanding officer of that place & Mr. Clark
intimating that preparation is making there for another Expedition into
the Indian Country, we have since our arrival heard something of this
matter and that the particulars has been forwarded to you, a Detachment
of Rangers with a large party of Delawares, & Shawanese are gone that
way who will be able to discover the truth of this matter.
I am this day favoured with yours of the 6th Augt. containing the report
of Isaac Gians concerning the Cruelties of the Indians. It is true they
have made sacrifices to their revenge after the massacre of their women
& children some being known to them to be perpetraters of it, but it was
done in my absence or before I could reach any of the places to
interfere. And I can assure you Sir that there is not a white person
here wanting in their duty to represent to the Indians in the strongest
terms the highest abhorence of such conduct as well as the bad
consequences that may attend it to both them & us being contrary to the
rule of carrying on war by Civilized nations, however it is not
improbable that Gians may have exaggerated matters greatly being
notoriously known for a disaffected person and concerned in sending
Prisoners away with Intelligence to the Enemy at the time Captain Bird
came out as we ware then informed. I flatter myself that I may by this
time have an answer to the Letter I had the honor of writing to the
Commandr. in Chief on leaving Detroit. Mr. Elliot is to be the Bearer of
this who will be able to give you any farther information necessary
respecting matters here.
I am with respect Sir your most obedient & Very Humble Servant
A. MCKEE.
SHAWANESE COUNTRY,
August 28th, 1782.
Major DE PEYSTER.
* * * * *
APPENDIX F--TO CHAPTER VII.
(_Haldimand MSS._, Series B, Vol. 123, p. 297.)
Extract of a letter from Captain Caldwell, dated at Wakitamiki, August
26, 1782.
"When I last had the pleasure of writing you, I expected to have struck
at Wheeling as I was on my march for that place, but was overtaken by a
Messenger from the Shawnese, who informed me that the Enemy was on their
march for their Country, which obliged me to turn their way, and to my
great mortification found the alarm false & that it was owing to a
Gondals coming up to the mouth of Licking Creek, and landing some men
upon the South side of the Ohio which when the Indians saw supposed it
must be Clark. It would have been a lucky circumstance if they had come
on, as I had eleven hundred Indians on the ground, and three hundred
within a days march of me. When the Report was contradicted They mostly
left us, many of them had left their Towns no way equipped for War, as
they expected as well as myself to fight in a few days, notwithstanding
I was determined to pay the Enemy a visit with as many Indians as would
follow me: accordingly I crossed the Ohio with three hundred Indians &
Rangers, and Marched for Bryants Station on Kentuck, and surrounded the
Fort the 15th in the morning, & tried to draw 'em out by sending up a
small party to try to take a Prisoner and shew themselves, but the
Indians were in too great a hurry and the whole shewed too soon--I then
saw it was in vain to wait any longer and so drew nigh the Fort, burnt 3
Houses which are part of the Fort but the wind being contrary prevented
it having the desired effect. Killed upwards of 300 Hogs, 150 Head of
Cattle, and a number of Sheep, took a number of Horses, pull'd up and
destroy'd their Potatoes, cut down a great deal of their Corn, burn't
their Hemp and did other considerable damage--by the Indians exposing
themselves too much we had 5 Killed & 2 Wounded.
We retreated the 16th and came as far as Biddle's former Station, when
nigh 100 Indians left me, as they went after their things they left at
the Forks of Licking, and I took the Road by the blue Licks as it was
nigher and the ground more advantageous in case the Enemy should pursue
us--got to the Licks on the 17th and encamped.
On the 18th in the morning, one of my party that was watching the Road
came in and told me the Enemy was within a mile of us, upon which I drew
up to fight them--at 1/2 past seven they advanced in three Divisions in
good order, they had spied some of us and it was the very place they
expected to overtake us.--We had but fired one Gun till they gave us a
Volley and stood to it very well for some time,'till we rushed in upon
them, when they broke immediately.--We pursued for about two miles, and
as the enemy was mostly on horseback, it was in vain to follow further.
We killed and took one hundred and Forty six. Amongst the killed is Col.
Todd the Commandr Col. Boon, Lt. Col. Trigg, Major Harlin who commanded
their Infantry, Major Magara and a number more of their officers. Our
loss is Monsr. La Bute killed, he died like a warrior fighting Arm to
Arm, six Indians killed and ten wounded--The Indians behaved extremely
well, and no people could behave better than both Officers & men in
general--The Indians I had with me were the Wyandots and Lake
Indians--The Wyandots furnished me with what provisions I wanted, and
behaved extremely well."
* * * * *
APPENDIX G--TO CHAPTER X.
It has been so habitual among American writers to praise all the deeds,
good, bad, and indifferent, of our Revolutionary ancestors, and to
belittle and make light of what we have recently done, that most men
seem not to know that the Union and Confederate troops in the Civil War
fought far more stubbornly and skilfully than did their forefathers at
the time of the Revolution. It is impossible to estimate too highly the
devoted patriotism and statesmanship of the founders of our national
life; and however high we rank Washington, I am confident that we err,
if any thing, in not ranking him high enough, for on the whole the world
has never seen a man deserving to be placed above him; but we certainly
have overestimated the actual fighting qualities of the Revolutionary
troops, and have never laid enough stress on the folly and jealousy with
which the States behaved during the contest. In 1776 the Americans were
still in the gristle; and the feats of arms they then performed do not
bear comparison with what they did in the prime of their lusty youth,
eighty or ninety years later. The Continentals who had been long drilled
by Washington and Greene were most excellent troops; but they never had
a chance to show at their best, because they were always mixed in with a
mass of poor soldiers, either militia or just-enlisted regulars.
The resolute determination of the Americans to win, their trust in the
justice of their cause, their refusal to be cast down by defeat, the
success with which they overran and conquered the west at the very time
they were struggling for life or death in the east, the heroic grandeur
of their great leader--for all this they deserve full credit. But the
militia who formed the bulk of the Revolutionary armies did not
generally fight well. Sometimes, as at Bunker's Hill and King's
Mountain, they did excellently, and they did better, as a rule, than
similar European bodies--than the Spanish and Portuguese peasants in
1807-12, for instance. At that time it was believed that the American
militia could not fight at all; this was a mistake, and the British paid
dearly for making it; but the opposite belief, that militia could be
generally depended upon, led to quite as bad blunders, and the
politicians of the Jeffersonian school who encouraged the idea made us
in our turn pay dearly for our folly in after years, as at Bladensburg
and along the Niagara frontier in 1812. The Revolutionary war proved
that hastily gathered militia, justly angered and strung to high
purpose, could sometimes whip regulars, a feat then deemed impossible;
but it lacked very much of proving that they would usually do this.
Moreover, even the stalwart fighters who followed Clark and Sevier, and
who did most important and valorous service, cannot point to any one
such desperate deed of fierce courage as that of the doomed Texans under
Bowie and Davy Crockett in the Alamo.
A very slight comparison of the losses suffered in the battles of the
Revolution with those suffered in the battles of the Civil War is
sufficient to show the superiority of the soldiers who fought in the
latter (and a comparison of the tactics and other features of the
conflicts will make the fact even clearer). No Revolutionary regiment or
brigade suffered such a loss as befell the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg,
where it lost 215 out of 263 men, 82 per cent.; the 9th Illinois at
Shiloh, where it lost 366 out of 578 men, 63 per cent.; the 1st Maine at
Petersburg, which lost 632 out of 950 men, 67 per cent.; or Caldwell's
brigade of New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania troops, which, in
Hancock's attack at Fredericksburg, lost 949 out of 1,947 men, 48 per
cent.; or, turning to the Southern soldiers, such a loss as that of the
1st Texas at Antietam, when 186 out of 226 men fell, 82 per cent.; or of
the 26th North Carolina, which, at Gettysburg, lost 588 out of 820 men,
72 per cent.; or the 8th Tennessee, at Murfreesboro, which lost 306 out
of 444 men, or 68 per cent.; or Garnett's brigade of Virginians, which,
in Pickett's charge, lost 941 men out of 1,427, or 65 per cent.
There were over a hundred regiments, and not a few brigades, in the
Union and Confederate armies, each of which in some one action suffered
losses averaging as heavy as the above. The Revolutionary armies cannot
show such a roll of honor as this. Still, it is hardly fair to judge
them by this comparison, for the Civil War saw the most bloody and
desperate fighting that has occurred of late years. None of the European
contests since the close of the Napoleonic struggles can be compared to
it. Thus the Light Brigade at Balaclava lost only 37 per cent., or 247
men out of 673, while the Guards at Inkermann lost but 45 per cent., or
594 out of 1,331; and the heaviest German losses in the Franco-Prussian
war were but 49 and 46 per cent., occurring respectively to the Third
Westphalian Regiment at Mars-le-Tours, and the Garde-Schutzen battalion
at Metz.
These figures are taken from "Regimental Losses in the American Civil
War," by Col. Wm. F. Fox, Albany, 1881; the loss in each instance
includes few or no prisoners, save in the cases of Garnett's brigade and
of the Third Westphalian Regiment.
* * * * *
APPENDIX H--TO CHAPTER XII.
(From the _Robertson MSS._, Vol. I., Letter of Don Miro.)
NEW ORLEANS, the 20th April, 1783.
Sir
I received yours of 29th January last, & am highly pleased in seeing the
good intentions of the People of that District, & knowing the falsehood
of the report we have heard they are willing to attack their Province.
You ought to make the same account of the news you had that the Indians
have been excited in their Province against you, since I wrote quite the
contrary at different times to Alexander McGillevray to induce him to
make peace, & lastly he answered me that he gave his word to the
Governor of North Carolina that the Creeks would not trouble again those
settlements: notwithstanding after the letter received from you, and
other from Brigadier general Daniel Smith Esqr I will writte to him
engaging him to be not more troublesome to you.
I have not any connection with Cheroquis & Marcuten, but as they go now
& then to Illinois I will give advice to that Commander to induce them
to be quiet: in respect to the former in the month of May of last year
they asked the permission of settling them selves on the west side of
the Mississippi River which is granted & they act accordingly, you
plainly see you are quite free from their incursions.
I will give the Passeport you ask for your son-in-law, & I will be
highly pleased with his coming down to setle in this Province & much
more if you, & your family should come along with him, since I can
assure you that you will find here your welfare, without being either
molested on religious matters or paying any duty & under the
circumstances of finding allwais market for your crops which makes every
one of the planters settled at Natchez or elsewhere to improve every
day, much more so than if they were to purchase the Lands, as they are
granted gratis.
I wish to be usefull to you being with regard sir
Your most obt. hl. servant ESTEVAN MIRO.
(Dupte.) Colonel JAMES ROBERTSON, Esqr.
The duplicity of the Spaniards is well illustrated by the fact that the
Gardoqui MSS. give clear proof that they were assisting the Creeks with
arms and ammunition at the very time Miro was writing these letters. See
the Gardoqui MSS., _passim_, especially Miro's letter of June 28, 1786.
APPENDIX I-TO CHAPTER XIII.
Account of Robert Morris with Miss Betsey Hart, Philadelphia, 1780-81.
From the Clay MSS.
DR. MISS HARTE IN ACCOUNT CURRENT WITH ROBERT MORRIS CR. [Oldest
daughter of Col. Thomas Hart. She married Dr. Richard Pendell.]
1780
Aug. 29
To cash paid for a Pair of Shoes for you
£64,2,6 at 60 for 1 £ 1,1,4
(Continental, Exchange, Specie)
To a Chest of Sugar delivered Mrs. Brodeau & Porterage
1107,15,0 Do 18,9,3
To two ps Sheeting Delivered Ditto
1116,0,0 at Do 18,12,0
To cash paid Wm. McDugall's Bill for one & a half Quarters Tuition at
Dancing
223,10,0 at Do 3,12,6
Paid E. Denaugheys Bill for washing Done for you
95,12,6 at Do 1,11,10
Dec. 6
To Ditto for Hannah Estys Bill for making Frocks for you £257,10
Paid D Denaugheys Bill for Washg £125.12.6
383,3,6 at 75 for 1 5,2,2
Dec. 29
To Ditto pair for pair of Pink Calemancoi Shoes for you
78,15,0 at Do 1,1,0
1781
Feb. 3
To Ditto paid B. Victor your music master for one Quarter Tuition of
Music
506,5,0 at 75 for 1 6,15,0
To the following Articles delivered Mrs. Brodeau on your Accot
One firkin of Butter one Box of Candles & a Box of Soap
Amounting p Account to
629,1,2 at Do 8,7,9
To Cash paid Mrs. Brodeau in full of her Accot. to October last
against you
3856,17,6 at Do 51,8,6
Total: £115, 3,5 (Specie)
Allowed for Depreciation 57,13,7
=========
£172,17,0
Received Philad. April 7th 1781 the One hundred and Seventy
two Pounds 17/ State Specie being in full the amount of the annexed
account
for Robt. Morris
£172.17. State Specie
J. SWANNICK
APPENDIX J--TO CHAPTER XIII.
In the Clay MSS. the letters of Jesse Benton to Col. Hart, of December
4, 1782, and March 22, 1783, paint vividly the general distress in the
Carolinas. They are taken up mostly with accounts of bad debts and of
endeavors to proceed against various debtors; they also touch on other
subjects.
In the first, of December 4,1782, Benton writes: "It seems the powers
above are combined against us this year. Such a Drouth was never known
here [in the upper Carolinas] before; Corn sells from the stack at 4 &
5/ p. Bushel, Wheat 6 & 8/, Rye the same, Oats 3/ 6 &c &c ... I have not
had Water to keep the Grist Mill Fuling Mill and Oyl Mill at Work before
this Week.... Johny Rice has gone to Kentuck with his goods to buy Furs,
but before he went we talked of your debts and he did not like to be
concerned, saying he should gain ill will for no profit; However I will
immediately enforce the Law to recover your Debts ... the Lands which
You had of me would sell as soon as any but this hard year makes many
settlers and few buyers. I have heard nothing more of Major Haywoods
desire of purchasing & all I ever heard upon the subject was from his
son-in-law who now appears very sick of his late purchase of Elegant
Buildings.... Your Brother Capt. Nat Hart, our worthy and respectable
Friend, I doubt is cut off by the Savages at the time and in the manner
as first represented, to wit, that he went out to hunt his horses in the
month of July or August it is supposed the Indians in Ambuscade between
Boonsboro and Knockbuckle, intended to take him Prisonner, but killd his
horse and at the same time broke his Thigh, that the savages finding
their Prisonner with his Thigh broken was under the necessity of puting
him to Death by shooting him through the Heart at so small a Distance as
to Powder burn his Flesh. He was Tomhawkd, scalped & lay two Days before
he was found and buried. This Account has come by difrent hands &
confirmd to Col. Henderson by a Letter from an intimate Friend of his at
Kentuck."
This last bit of information is sandwiched in between lamentations over
bad debts, concerning which the writer manifested considerably more
emotion than over the rather startling fate of Captain Hart.
The second letter contains an account of the "trafficking off" of a
wagon and fine pair of Pennsylvania horses, the news that a debt had
been partially liquidated by the payment of sixty pounds' worth of rum
and sugar, which in turn went to pay workmen, and continues: "The common
people are and will be much distressed for want of Bread. I have often
heard talk of Famine, but never thought of seeing any thing so much like
it as the present times in this part of the Country. Three fourths of
the Inhabitants of this country are obliged to purchase their Bread at
50 & 60 miles distance at the common price of 16/ and upwards per
barrel. The winter has been very hard upon the live stock & I am
convinced that abundance of Hogs and Cattle will die this Spring for
want of Food.... Cash is now scarcer here than it ever was before.... I
have been industrious to get the Mills in good repair and have succeeded
well, but have rcd. very little benefit from them yet owing intirely to
the general failure of a Crop. We have done no Merchant work in the
Grist Mill, & she only supplies my Family and workmen with Bread. Rye,
the people are glad to eat. Flaxseed the cattle have chiefly eaten
though I have got as much of that article as made 180 Gallons of Oyl at
4/ per bushel. The Oyl is in great demand; I expect two dollars p.
Gallon for it at Halifax or Edenton, & perhaps a better price. We were
very late in beginning with the Fulling Business; for want of water....
[there are many] Mobbs and commotions among the People."
INDEX TO VOLUMES I. AND II.
Abingdon, a typical frontier town, II;
_Adventure_, the, voyage of, II;
Algonquins, the, their location, I;
dwellings and dress;
their relations with the Iroquois and the southern Indians;
tribal relations;
their numbers;
lack of cohesion;
numbers in the field;
their prowess in war;
their mode of war;
their discipline in battle;
their superiority to European troops;
usually the attacking party;
their cruelty
Allaire, Lieut., a New York loyalist, II;
Alleghanies, the, our western border for a century and a half, I;
America, its importance and accessibility, I;
twofold character of warfare in;
Spain's share in the conquest of;
difference between the Spanish-English conquests in;
constant succession of contests in;
her allies hostile to her interests, II;
Americans, a distinct people from the British, I;
western conquest, the great work of the;
their sharpshooters dreaded by the British officers, II;
as soldiers, Appendix;
Appalachian Confederacies, the, I;
their geographical position;
origin of the name;
how divided;
numbers;
Australia, small difficulty in settling;
Axe, the, its importance in the conquest of the west;
Backwoods levies, the character of;
Backwoodsmen, the, of Kentucky, I;
of the Alleghanies;
little in common with the tide-water inhabitants;
Americans by birth and parentage;
Scotch-Irish, the dominant strain in their blood;
from one people;
their creed, Presbyterian;
their intense Americanism;
their difference from the rest of the world;
their villages;
not a town-building race;
won and kept their lands by force;
their natural weapons;
their forts;
their mode of life;
size of farms;
society, dress, and arms;
their first lesson;
their helpfulness;
sports and quarrels;
weddings;
funerals;
schooling;
home employments;
pack-trains;
dangers of life;
as hunters;
warlike character;
their own soldiers;
military organization;
administration of justice;
sharp contrasts of society among;
wickedness of the lawless among;
their summary modes of punishment;
their superstitions;
their religion;
summary of their lives;
desire for revenge;
hasten to join Lewis;
assemble at the great levels of Greenbriar;
march of Lewis' army;
grimness of their character, II;
gather at Bryan's Station;
defeated at the Blue Licks;
fate of the captured;
their increase during the Revolution;
their wars;
governments instituted by them;
their individualism;
character of the pioneer population;
what they had done at the close of the Revolution;
Balme La, his expedition against Detroit, II;
Baubin captures Boon, II;
Bear Grass Creek, ravaged by Indians, II;
Big Bone Lick, remains of mastodon discovered at, I;
Big Foot, a gigantic chief of the Wyandots, II;
fight with Andrew Poe, 134;
killed by Adam Poe;
Big Island of the French Broad, the;
Christian's army reach, I;
Bingaman, his fight in the dark, II;
Bird, Capt. Henry, dissolution of his expedition, II;
his inroad;
his retreat;
loses his cannon;
Blue Licks, visited by Boon, II;
Indians retreat to;
the backwoodsmen reach;
the fight begins;
battle of the;
defeat of the whites;
a wild panic;
the Indians checked;
a crushing disaster;
Boiling Springs, fort built at, I;
Boon, Daniel, his birth, I;
removes to North Carolina and marries;
his passion for hunting and exploration;
his appearance;
his character;
his inscription on a tree;
connection with Henderson;
his claim to distinction;
his success;
goes to Kentucky;
beauty of the country and abundance of game;
attacked by Indians;
capture and escape;
wanderings;
joined by his brother;
lonely sojourn in the wilderness;
joined by other hunters;
"Gulliver's Travels" in camp;
returns to North Carolina;
meets the McAfees' at Powell's Valley;
attempts to settle Kentucky;
attacked by Indians;
his son killed;
pilots in Lord Dunmore's surveyors;
in command of frontier forts;
attacked by Indians;
reaches the Kentucky River;
begins to build Boonsborough;
welcomes Henderson's company;
the fort at Boonsborough;
returns to North Carolina for his family;
his prominence in Kentucky history;
serves as a Kentucky burgess in the Virginia Legislature;
his strange life;
his daughter captured by Indians and rescued;
the historic tree;
original letter of;
wounded in the attack on Boonsborough, II;
captured by Indians;
taken to Old Chillicothe;
adopted into the Shawnee tribe;
escapes from the Indians;
makes a foray into the Indian country;
outwits de Quindre;
thanks Kenton for saving his life;
comes to the rescue of Kenton;
a favorite hero of frontier story;
loses his brother by the Indians;
lieut.-colonel under Todd;
marches to relieve Bryan's Station;
opposed to the attack at Blue Licks;
commands the left wing at battle of Blue Licks;
his successful advance;
surrounded and routed;
last to leave the field;
his son Isaac slain;
Boon, Squire, joins his brother Daniel in Kentucky, I;
Boonsborough, founding of, saves Kentucky, I;
receives Henderson and his party;
completion of the fort;
land office opens at;
store opened by the Transylvania company;
meeting of the Transylvanian Legislature;
attacked by Indians, II;
again besieged;
retreat of the Indians;
school opened at;
Boon's Station, not Boonsborough, II;
Borderers, the, misdeeds of, I;
contempt for Pennsylvanian government;
Border Wars, the, inevitable, I;
begun by the Indians;
struggle for the land, one great cause of;
Bowman, John, advances against Vincennes, II;
attacks Chillicothe;
defeated by the Indians
Brady, Capt. Samuel, a noted Indian fighter, II;
captured and bound to the stake;
escapes;
whips the Indians;
Brant, Joseph, surprises Loughry, II;
defeats Squire Boon and Floyd
British, the,
incite the southern Indians to war against the Americans, I;
hatred of, inherited by the sons and grandsons of the backwoodsmen;
their intrigues with the Indians;
scalp-buying, II;
begun a war of extermination;
their complicity in the Indian murders;
in the Southern States;
defeated at King's Mountain;
Brodhead, Col., in command at Fort Pitt, II;
burns some Iroquois towns;
prevents the militia from attacking the Moravians;
Bryan's Station, attack on, II;
danger of procuring water;
the settlers rally to the relief of
Buford, Captain, routed by Tarleton, II
Butler, his party attacked by Cherokees, I
Cahokia, converted to the American cause, II;
council at
Caldwell, Capt., a good commander of irregular troops, II;
commands Canadian volunteers;
defeats Crawford at Sandusky;
wounded;
invades Kentucky;
letter from, Appendix;
California, the winning of, I;
Calk, William, his journal of Henderson's journey, II;
Callahan, Edward, a privileged character, II;
Cameron, the British agent in the Cherokee country, I;
attempt to capture him;
leads his tories and the Cherokees against South Carolina;
organizes expeditions against the frontier, II;
Campbell, Arthur, his character, II;
misses the battle of King's Mountain;
his jealousy;
Campbell, William, his appearance and character, II;
anecdotes of;
raises troops to oppose Cornwallis;
made commander-in-chief;
encourages his men on the eve of battle;
begins the assault at King's Mountain;
rallies his troops;
manifesto to his troops;
death of
Canada, extension westward of the English race in, I;
Canadian archives, II, Appendix;
Carolinas, the, attacked by Indians and tories, I;
Carpenter, a Cherokee chief, I;
signs the treaty of the Sycamore Shoals;
Carter's Valley, ravaged by the Indians, I;
Castleman, his escape from death, I;
Charleston captured by the British, II;
Cherokees, the, in the barbarous rather than savage state, I;
divided into the Otari and the Erati;
their numbers;
and location;
not successful fighters;
their dwellings;
character;
games and amusements;
renegade bands of;
their great war trail;
treaty with Virginia;
negotiations opened with;
the Otaris assemble at the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga;
irritated at the conduct of the frontiersmen;
take up the tomahawk at the bidding of the British;
begin the war on the frontier;
numbers of their warriors;
suddenness of their attack;
fall upon the Watauga settlers;
ravage Carter's Valley;
defeated by the whites at the battle of the Island Flats;
the Watauga fort besieged;
retreat from the Watauga;
ravage the Georgian and Carolinian frontiers;
come down the Catawba;
their furious attacks on South Carolina;
their country invaded;
towns destroyed;
again attacked;
defeat of the Indians;
destruction of the Cherokee settlements;
the warriors gather at the Big Island of the French Broad;
flight of the Indians;
sue for peace;
destruction of Tuskega;
peace declared;
their severe chastisement;
defeated by Sevier, II;
their country overrun;
the country of the Erati ravaged by Sevier;
sue for peace;
attack Nashborough;
Chicago, attempted settlement of, II
Chickamaugas, the, a tribe of freebooters, I;
their fastnesses;
refuse to make peace;
their towns burned;
Chickasaws, the, belonged to the Appalachian Confederacy, I;
the smallest of the Southern nations;
their numbers;
their unity;
their wars and successes;
definite peace concluded with, II;
Chillicothe, attacked by Boon, II;
burned;
Chippewas, the, location of, I;
Choctaws, the, an Appalachian tribe, I;
the rudest of the confederacy;
their location;
numbers;
character;
Christian, Col. William, commands the Fincastle men, I;
refused permission to march with Lewis;
reaches the Great Kanawha after the battle;
gathers the Virginia troops at the Great Island of the Holston;
marches against the Cherokees;
reply to the Cherokees;
destroys the Indian towns;
agrees to terms of peace;
marches homeward;
Chronicle, killed at King's Mountain, II;
Civil war on the border, I;
Clark, George Rogers;
compared to Allen and Marion, I;
relieves a party of hunters in Kentucky;
with Cresap at the outbreak of Lord Dunmore's war;
his character;
accompanies Lord Dunmore;
arrives at Harrodstown;
sent to Virginia as a delegate;
presents petition to Governor and Council;
asks for gunpowder;
transports it in safety to Kentucky;
procures the erection of Kentucky County;
living at Harrodstown, II;
shares in the defence of Kentucky;
skirmishes with the Indians;
matures his plans for the Illinois campaign;
goes to Virginia to raise troops;
incidents of travel;
lays his plans before Patrick Henry;
authorized to raise troops;
organizes the expedition;
difficulty in raising men;
starts down the Ohio;
lands at the mouth of the Kentucky;
reaches the Falls of the Ohio;
joined by Kenton and the Kentuckians;
meets a party of hunters;
the march to Kaskaskia;
surprises the town;
a dramatic picture;
his diplomacy;
his winning stroke;
sends troops to Cahokia;
his difficulties;
prepares for defence;
establishes friendly relations with the Spanish authorities;
dealings with the Indians;
apprehensive of treachery;
puts the Indians in irons;
his seeming carelessness;
offers peace or war to the Indians;
makes peace with the Indians;
his influence over them;
prepares to resist Hamilton;
narrow escape from the Indians;
receives news of Vincennes;
determines to strike the first blow;
equips the first gunboat on the Western waters;
marches against Vincennes;
reaches the drowned lands of the Wabash;
hardships and sufferings of his troops;
encourages his troops;
difficulties of approach to Vincennes;
crosses the Horse Shoe Plain;
exhaustion of the troops;
surprises Vincennes;
attacks the fort;
summons the fort to surrender;
destroys a scouting party;
surrender of the fort;
reproaches Hamilton;
importance of the result of the expedition;
sends Helm to intercept a convoy;
disposes of his prisoners;
receives reinforcements;
pacifies the country;
builds a fort on the Mississippi;
moves to the Falls of the Ohio;
made a brigadier-general;
greatness of his deeds;
hears of Bird's inroads;
his campaign against Piqua;
musters his troops at the mouth of the Licking;
starts up the Ohio;
burns Chillicothe;
surprises the Indians at Piqua;
disperses the Indians;
destroys the town;
disbands his army;
effects of the victory;
his plan to attack Detroit;
why his efforts were baffled;
commandant of State troops;
roused by the battle of the Blue Licks;
his counter-stroke;
destroys the Miami towns;
undertakes to supply the settlements with meat;
Clay MSS., II, Appendix;
Cleavland, Col. Benjamin, commands North Carolina militia, II;
commands left wing at King's Mountain;
Clinch River, settlers of, at war with Shawnees, I;
a feeder of the Tennessee River;
Conolly, Capt. John, his hostilities against Pennsylvania, I;
his rashness;
his open letter;
appalled by the storm he had raisen;
holds councils with Delawares and Iroquois;
defied by the Shawnees;
Cornstalk, a Shawnee chief, I;
first heard of in Pontiac's war;
opposed to the war with the whites;
his strategy;
advances to attack Lewis;
crossing the Ohio;
fails to surprise Lewis' army;
displays the only generalship at the battle of the Great Kanawha;
bids defiance to his foes;
sues for peace;
his eloquence;
his grand death
Cornwallis, Lord, in command at the South, II;
marches through the up-country;
retreats from North Carolina;
Crab Orchard, regarded with affection by travellers, I;
Crawford, Col. William, a fairly good officer, II;
marches against Sandusky;
routed;
captured;
tortured;
a valued friend of Washington
Creeks, the, made up of many bands, I;
strongest of the Appalachian tribes;
their numbers;
location;
semi-civilization of;
their cattle and slaves;
agriculture;
mode of life;
towns;
houses;
council-house;
dress and adornments;
red and white towns of;
feasts and dances;
looseness of the Creek Confederacy;
the Chief McGillivray;
their hostility to the whites;
scalps, their ideal of glory;
observe a kind of nominal neutrality;
incited by the British to war;
their reply to the Cherokees;
ravage the Georgia frontier;
Creoles, the, of Kaskaskia, II;
panic among, at the loss of Vincennes;
French abandon the Illinois country;
unfit for self-government;
Cresap, a type of the pioneer, I;
with his band at Wheeling;
attacks friendly Shawnees;
continues hostilities;
accused of the murder of Logan's kinsfolk;
deposed from his command;
restored by Lord Dunmore;
a scout with Lord Dunmore;
dies a revolutionary soldier;
Cruger, Lieut.-Col.;
commands at Ninety-six, II;
letter to Ferguson;
Cumberland Gap;
origin of name, I., note;
traversed by Floyd;
Cumberland River;
origin of name, I., note;
Boon driven back to the valley of the;
Cumberland Settlement, the;
started at the bend of the Cumberland River, II;
founded by Robertson;
abundance of game;
formation of a government;
Indian hostilities;
attack on Freeland's Station;
Nashborough attacked by Indians;
Indian hostilities;
internal government;
affairs with outside powers;
establishment of county government;
Debatable Land, the, I;
formed by the hunting-grounds between the Ohio and the Tennessee;
Delawares, the, location of, I;
oppressed by the Iroquois;
their growth in warlike power;
hold councils with Conolly;
declare for neutrality;
De Peyster, at Detroit, II;
serves under Cornwallis;
rallies the loyalists at King's Mountain;
surrenders;
Detroit, population of, I., note;
in British hands;
the tribes hold councils at, II;
De Peyster at;
Dewitt's Corners
scene of treaty with the lower Cherokees, I;
Doak, Samuel, Rev.;
his journey to Jonesboro, II;
his powerful influence;
Doniphan, Joseph, opens school at Boonsborough, II;
Dragging Canoe;
opposed to the treaty of Sycamore Shoals, I;
an inveterate foe to the whites;
warns Henderson;
ravages the country near Eaton's Station;
leads the Indians at the battle of the Island Flats;
severely wounded;
refuses to accept peace;
Dunham, Daniel, his offer to his brother, II;
Dunmore, Lord, Governor of Virginia, I;
ambitious of glory;
prepares for war;
raises a formidable army;
takes command in person;
marches to Fort Pitt;
changes his plans;
descends the Ohio to the Hockhocking;
ascends the Hockhocking and marches to the Scioto;
destroys certain of the hostile towns;
accused of treachery;
his ferocious conduct;
orders Lewis to join him;
orders the backwoodsmen to march homewards;
makes treaty of peace with the Indians;
sends Gibson to Logan;
reads Logan's letter to the army;
marches home;
resolution of thanks to;
driven from Virginia at the outbreak of the Revolution;
East Florida, her decay under Spanish rule, I;
Eaton Station, situation of, I;
country around ravaged by Indians;
settlers gather at;
march from to the Island Flats;
Elk Creek reached by Lewis' army, I;
Elliot, a tory leader, II;
Elliott, Capt., removes the Moravians from their homes, II;
England, making of, I;
separate position of;
struggle with Holland for naval supremacy;
wins Canada and the Ohio Valley from France;
her policy in the Northwest;
adopts the French policy;
Eseneka, captured by Williamson, I;
christened Fort Rutledge;
garrisoned by Williamson;
Estill, Capt.;
overtakes the Wyandots, II;
is killed;
Estill's Station, girl scalped at, II;
Europe, immense emigration from, I;
Explorers, different kinds of, I;
Falls of the Ohio, II;
Clark joined by Kenton and others at the;
Clark removes to the;
a regular fort built;
Fayette County, invaded by the Indians, II;
Ferguson, Patrick, son of Lord Pitcairn, II;
wounded at Brandywine;
surprises Pulaski's legion;
Lieut.-Col. of the American Volunteers;
his appearance;
mode of warfare;
commits outrages in the back-country;
character of his forces;
rapidity of his movements;
approaches the mountains;
makes ready to receive the backwoodsmen;
rallies the loyalists;
halts at King's Mountain;
his confidence in the bayonet;
attacked by the mountaineers;
at the battle of King's Mountain;
his reckless bravery;
his death;
Field, Colonel John, serves under Gen. Lewis, I;
starts off on his own account;
despatched to the front;
his timely arrival;
restores the battle;
death of;
Fincastle men, the,
from the Holston, Clinch, Watauga, and New River settlements, I;
commanded by Col. William Christian;
delay of;
most of them too late to join in the battle of the Great Kanawha;
reach the Great Kanawha after the battle;
First explorers, I;
Fleming, Col. William, I;
serves under Gen. Lewis;
ordered to advance;
rallies the backwoodsmen;
Florida, the winning of, I;
Floyd, John, I;
leads a party of surveyors to Kentucky;
descends the Kanawha;
surveys for Washington and Henry;
goes down the Ohio;
his party splits up at mouth of the Kentucky;
arrives at Falls of the Ohio;
explores the land;
reaches Clinch River;
appointed colonel, II;
defeated at Long Run;
with Clark among the Miamis;
ravages the country;
killed by Indians;
Forests, the, I;
extended from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi,
penetrated by hunters;
Forest Warfare, merciless ferocity of, I;
Fort Pitt, I;
claimed by Virginia;
Lord Dunmore's army advances to;
Fort Rutledge. See Eseneka;
France, the ally of America, II;
Freeland station, attacked by Indians;
French Broad River, a feeder of the Tennessee, I;
French Creoles, the;
life of, I;
tillers of the soil among;
much mixture of blood among;
unthriftiness of;
utterly unacquainted with liberty;
as traders and trappers;
great personal influence of the priesthood among;
personal character of;
social life of;
villages of.
Frontier, the, outrages and reprisals on, I;
ravaged by the northwestern Indians, II;
ravages on the, following the Moravian massacre
de Galvez, Don Bernard, Spanish commandant at New Orleans, II;
meditates the establishment of a Spanish-American empire;
attacks British West Florida;
captures the forts along the Mississippi;
takes Mobile and Pensacola
Game, abundance of, in Illinois prairies, I;
in Kentucky;
enormous quantities of, seen at French Lick, now Nashville, Tenn.;
Georgia, ravaged by the Indians and tories, I;
her share in the struggle
Germanic peoples, overflow of, I;
conquer Europe;
fails to extend Germany.
Gibault, Pierre, the priest of Kaskaskia, II;
a devoted champion in the American cause;
goes to Vincennes;
advances money to Clark;
Gibson, John, bears Logan's speech to Lord Dunmore, I;
Girty, Simon, "The White Renegade," I;
arrives in camp;
shows a spark of compassion;
serves under Hamilton, II.;
his cunning and cruelty;
saves Kenton's life;
a witness of Crawford's awful torture;
at the attack on Bryan's Station.
Gnadenhütten, a settlement of Moravian Indians, I;
Greathouse, his claim to remembrance, I;
murders Logan's kinsfolk;
Great Kanawha, battle of the, I;
fierce attack of the Indians;
the backwoodsmen five way;
they push the Indians;
Charles Lewis mortally wounded;
death of Col. Field;
Isaac Shelby in command;
steadiness of the backwoodsmen;
skill and bravery of the Indians;
Cornstalk cheers his braves;
flank movement of the Indians repulsed;
the Indians outflanked;
the Indians fall back;
end of the action;
loss of the whites exceeds that of the Indians;
a purely American victory;
results of the battle;
Isaac Shelby's account of, Appendix;
Wm. Preston's account of, Appendix;
Great Kanawha River, Lord Dunmore's forces to unite at the mouth of, I;
Great Smoky Mountains, I;
Half-breeds of the Red River and the Saskatchewan, I;
Hambright wounded at King's Mountain, II;
Hamilton, Henry, summons a council of the tribes at Detroit, II;
his character;
Lieutenant-Governor of the Northwest;
the mainspring of hostility to the Americans;
nicknamed the "hair-buyer" general;
organizes a troop of rangers;
tries to ransom Boon;
plans an attack on Fort Pitt;
marches to reconquer Illinois;
muster of his forces;
starts against Vincennes;
difficulties of the route;
captures Vincennes;
measures to secure his conquest;
goes into winter quarters;
plans a great campaign;
surrenders Vincennes to Clark;
sent a prisoner to Virginia;
hatred towards, of the backwoodsmen;
Hammond, Colonel, rallies the troops at the capture of Eseneka, I;
crosses the Kiowee;
saves the troops a second time from disaster;
Hampton, Lieutenant, gallantly seconds Hammond's efforts, I;
Harlan, with the Harrodsburg men at the battle of the Blue Licks, II;
leads the advance guard; his death;
Harrod, James, hunts in Tennessee, I;
with Saowdowski founds Harrodsburg;
leads a band to Kentucky;
his memory revered by the old settlers;
Harrodsburg, settlement of, I;
made the county seat;
toll mill built in, II;
Harrodstown, fort built at, I;
a baptist preacher's account of;
convention at;
delegates chosen to go to Williamsburg;
arrival of Clark. See Harrodsburg.
Hart, Colonel, letter of Jesse Benton to, II, Appendix;
Hart, Nathaniel, a partner of Henderson, I;
Hay, Major, bluffed by Helm, II;
Helm, Captain Leonard, commands at Vincennes, II;
surrenders to Hamilton;
intercepts a convoy;
Henderson, Richard, a land speculator, I;
his colonizing scheme;
confidence in Boon;
negotiates the treaty of the Sycamore Shoals;
obtains a grant of the lands between the Kentucky and the Cumberland
rivers;
names his new colony Transylvania;
sends Boon to Kentucky;
follows Boon;
leaves his wagons in Powell's Valley;
met by Boon's runner;
reaches Boonsborough;
opens a land office;
organizes a government;
addresses the delegates;
advises game laws;
collapse of the Transylvania colony;
denounced by Lord Dunmore;
drifts out of history;
Henry, Patrick, adopts Clark's plans, II;
letter of instructions to Clark;
History, peculiarity of English, I;
Hockhocking, the stockade built at the mouth of, I;
Holland, naval warfare with Spain and England, I;
Holston, Great Island, garrisoned by troops by Christian's army, I;
treaties of peace made at;
Holston Men, the, help Kentucky, II;
join Clark at the Falls of the Ohio;
desert at night;
their sufferings;
respond to McDowell's appeal;
advance to meet Ferguson;
begin their march;
at the battle of King's Mountain;
after the victory;
Holston River, a feeder of the Tennessee River, I;
Holston Settlements, the, organization of, II;
first known as the Watauga settlements;
start a new community;
christened "Washington District,";
the laws upheld;
tories and horse thieves;
land laws;
Indian troubles;
character and life of the settlers;
arrival of clergymen;
Calvinism their prominent faith;
the leading families;
jealousies of the leaders;
war with the Chickamaugas, the Creeks, and Cherokees;
inrush of settlers;
war with Indians;
end of the war with the British and Tories;
quarrels over the land;
system of surveying;
further Indian troubles;
peace concluded with the Chickasaws;
growth of;
frontier towns;
frontier characters
Huger slain at Monk's Corners, II
Hunters, the, perils of, I;
unsuccessful in killing buffalo with small-bore rifles;
a party relieved by Clark;
Hurons, the. See Wyandots;
Illinois, the, location of the scattered survivors of, I;
Clark's conquest of, II;
claimants of;
Clark sends spies to;
made a county;
Todd appointed commandant;
financial difficulties;
burning of negroes accused of sorcery;
disorders of the government;
lawlessness;
the land question;
benefits of the conquest of;
memorial of the inhabitants of;
Illinois Towns, the, situation of, I;
population of;
Indian Fighters, I;
Indian Lands, untrustworthiness of official reports regarding
encroachments on, I.
Indians, the, the most formidable of savage foes, I;
effect of, upon our history;
estimate of their numbers;
civilization of, in the Indian territory;
strongest and most numerous tribes of, in the southwest;
number of the northwest;
strike the first blow in Kentucky;
tribes engaged in Lord Dunmore's war;
their inroads;
double dealing of;
a true history of our national dealings with, greatly needed;
instances of our Indian injustice;
question of the ownership of land;
Indian reservations;
our Indian policy;
literature of the Indian question;
foolish sentiment wasted on;
employment of, by the British against the Americans, II;
slight losses of, in conflicts with the whites;
Indian Talks, a sample of, II;
Indian Wars, importance of, I;
Lord Dunmore's begun by the Shawnees;
the northwest Indians go to war, II;
odds immeasurably in favor of the Indians;
nature of their forays;
nature of the ceaseless strife;
Iroquois hold their own for two centuries, I;
their dwelling-place;
their numbers;
hostile relations with the Algonquins of the northwest;
ancient superiority acknowledged
Island Flats on the Holston River, I;
march of the settlers to, from Eaton Station;
Indians surprised near;
the battle of;
defeat of the Indians
Jack, Colonel Samuel, destroys some Indian towns, I;
Jails, scarcity of, in the wilderness, I;
Jennings, Jonathan, accompanies Donaldson, II;
his boat wrecked;
killed by the Indians;
Johnson, Richard, a babe at Bryan's Station during the attack, II;
leads the Kentucky riflemen at the victory of the Thames;
Jonesborough, first town in the Holston settlements, II;
Salem church built at;
Kaskaskia, condition of, reported to Clark, II;
march of Clark to;
surprised;
ball at the fort;
interrupted by Clark
Kenton, Simon, first heard of, I;
reaches Kentucky;
one of his companions burned alive by Indians;
a scout in Lord Dunmore's army;
the bane of the Indian tribes;
saved from torture and death by Logan;
reaches Boonsborough;
his character, II;
saves Boon's life;
accompanies Boon to the Scioto;
fight with the Indians;
steals horses from the Indians;
captured by the Indians;
treatment of, by the Indians;
runs the gauntlet;
taken from town to town;
tortured by women and boys;
abandons himself to despair;
ransomed by traders;
escapes and reaches home in safety;
a favorite hero of frontier history;
joins Clark at the Falls of the Ohio;
with Logan at the Blue Licks;
Kentucky claimed by a dozen tribes, I;
belonged to no one;
famous for game;
excites Boon's interest;
its beauty as seen by Boon;
first white victim to Indian treachery;
"like a paradise,";
abandoned by whites in 1774;
isolation of the first settlers;
called by the Cherokees "the dark and bloody ground,";
religion of the settlers;
Jefferson and Henry determine to keep it a part of Virginia;
foothold of the Americans in;
permanent settlers come in;
early marriages;
dislike to the Episcopal Church;
Baptist preachers arrive in;
different types among the settlers;
three routes to;
danger from savages;
hardships endured by settlers;
amusements and explorations;
growth of;
war with the Indians;
population of as set forth in Shater's "History of Kentucky";
the struggle in, II;
whites outnumbered by the invading Indians in;
bloodthirstiness of war in;
settled chiefly through Boon's instrumentality;
Clark's conquests benefit;
land laws;
inrush of settlers;
occasional Indian forays;
the hard winter;
an abortive separatist movement;
divided into counties;
Indian war parties repulsed;
threatened by a great war band;
renewal of Indian forays;
wonderful growth of;
first grand jury impanelled;
court house and jail built;
manufactories of salt started;
grist mills erected;
race track laid out
King's Mountain where Ferguson halted, II;
battle of;
victory of the Americans at;
importance of the victory at;
Knight captured with Crawford, II;
witnesses his tortures;
escapes;
Lamothe supports the British, II;
Language spread of the English, I;
Latin race leader of Europe, I;
Leni-Lenape, the. See Delawares;
Levels of Greenbriar, the gathering-place of Lewis' army, I;
Lewis, General Andrew,
in command of frontiersmen in Lord Dunmore's army, I;
the force under his command;
divides his army into three divisions;
leaves his worst troops to garrison small forts;
reaches the Kanawha River;
camps at Point Pleasant at the mouth of the Kanawha;
prepares to obey Lord Dunmore's orders;
attacked by Indians;
despatches Col. Field to the front;
fortifies his camp;
battle of the Great Kanawha;
repulses the Indians;
leaves his sick and wounded in camp and marches to join Lord;
Dunmore;
served creditably in the Revolution;
Lewis Colonel Charles, a brother of General Lewis, I;
commands Augusta troops;
marches with the bulk of Gen. Lewis' army;
ordered to advance;
mortally wounded;
Lexington how named I;
Logan an Iroquois of note, I;
a friend of the whites;
murder of his kinsfolk;
his revenge;
letter to Cresap;
refuses to attend a council;
his eloquent speech;
perishes in a drunken brawl;
evidence of the authenticity of his speech;
intercedes successfully for Kenton II;
Logan, Benjamin leads a party to Kentucky, I;
his character;
his bravery II;
goes to the Holston for powder and lead;
surprised by Indians;
second in command;
missing at the fight at Piqua;
appointed colonel;
capture of his family by the savages and their rescue;
raises the whole force of Lincoln;
buries the dead after the battle of the Blue Licks;
with Clark in the Miami country;
destroys stores of British traders;
Logan's Station, fort built at, I;
attacked by Indians, II;
Long Hunters, the, why so called, I;
Long Knives, designation given Virginians by the Indians, I;
extension of the term, I;
Long Run, Squire Boon defeated at, II
Lord Dunmore's War, begun by the Indians, I;
Cresap's reprisals;
murder of Logan's kinsfolk;
wrath of the Indians;
the frontier ravaged by Indians;
panic on the border;
Logan's revenge;
counterstrokes of backwoodsmen;
burn a Shawnee village;
the opening act of the drama that was closed at Yorktown;
Lorimer surprises and captures Boon, II;
Loughry, annihilation of his party, II;
Louisiana, purchase of, I;
ceded by France to Spain
Louisville, founded by Clark, II;
Lulbegrud Creek, origin of name, I;
McAfee brothers, the, incident in their career, I;
visit Kentucky;
meet Cornstalk and the Shawnees;
visit Big Bone Lick;
their sufferings on their homeward journey;
reach Powell's Valley;
meet Boon there;
return to Kentucky;
build a stockade, II;
attacked by Indians;
narrow individual escapes;
relieved by McGarry
McConnell, names his hut Lexington, I;
captured near Lexington, II;
slays his captors and escapes
McCulloch, Major Samuel, a leading man on the border, II;
escape from the Indians
McDowell, Col., asks the Holston men for help, II;
beaten by Ferguson;
goes to Gates' army
McGarry, reaches Kentucky, I;
his character;
surprised by Indians, II;
relieves McAfee's Station;
his insubordination;
serves under Col. Todd
McGillivray, Alexander, chief of the Creek nation, I;
his birth;
education;
claimed by the Creeks;
his chieftainship;
aids the British, I;
McGillivray, Lachlan, his career;
marriage;
children;
influence over the savages
McKee, a tory leader, II;
a fairly good commander;
defeated by Clark;
a letter to De Peyster;
Maine, settlers of, confined to the sea-coast, I;
Mansker, Kasper,
leads a party of hunters down the Cumberland River, I;
returns overland to Georgia;
returns to Tennessee;
skill as a marksman and woodsman;
his "Nancy,";
outwits an Indian;
adventure with Indians;
becomes a Methodist;
hunts in the Cumberland country, II
Marshall, Thomas, surveyor of Fayette County, II;
Martin, Major Joseph, joins Sevier's troops, II;
disperses the Indians;
tries to speculate in Cherokee lands;
sample Indian "talk" to;
Methodism, a power after the Revolution, II
Miamis, the, location of, I;
surprise and capture Boon, II
Milfort, a French adventurer, I;
marries a sister of McGillivray;
his untruthfulness and braggadocio;
Mingos, the, renegade Indians, I;
a mongrel banditti;
their camp destroyed;
declare for neutrality;
try to kill the American Indian agents;
Miro, Estevan, letter to Robertson, II;
Monk's Corners, Ferguson defeats the Americans at, II;
Monongahela, Valley of the, claimed by Virginia, I;
Moravian Indians, the, a peaceful race, I;
mostly Delawares;
oppressed in Pennsylvania;
remove to the West;
settle on the Muskingum;
teachings of the missionaries;
their strict neutrality, II;
hated by the wild Indians;
the British endeavor to break up their villages;
exasperate the Americans;
blindly court their fate;
evil conduct of the backwoodsmen;
Moravians themselves not blameless;
maltreated by the British and wild Indians;
maltreated by the Americans;
return to their homes;
warned of their danger;
massacred;
Morris, Robert, account with Miss Betsy Hart, II;
Mound Builders, the, remains of, I;
at mouth of the Scioto;
Munceys, the, a sub-tribe of the Delawares, I
Muscogees, the. See Creeks;
Nashborough, built by Robertson, II;
attacked by Indians;
failure of the attack;
government established at;
treaty with the Indians held at;
Natchez, the, take refuge with the Chickasaws, I;
Neely, Alexander, takes two Indian scalps, I;
Netherland, jeered at as a coward, II;
rallies his comrades;
checks the Indians;
New England, English stock purest in, I
New Mexico, the winning of, I;
New York, small proportion of English blood in, in 1775, I
"Nolichucky Jack." See John Sevier;
Nolichucky River, a feeder of the Tennessee River, I;
North Carolina, separated from Eastern Tennessee by the Unaka
Mountains, I;
a turbulent and disorderly colony;
war between Tryon and the Regulators;
Northwest, the, settlement of, preceded by the regular army, I;
settled under national ordinance of 1787;
English conquest of;
claims of the colonies to;
worthlessness of titles to;
how we gained it;
French inhabitants little affected by change of allegiance;
war in, II
Oconostota, head-chief of the Cherokees, I;
signs the treaty of the Sycamore Shoals;
warns the treaty-makers;
Ohio Valley, in possession of the French, I;
conquered by the British, II;
Old Chillicothe, near Pickaway Plains;
Old Tassell, his "talk" to Col. Martin, II
Ottawas, the, location of, I;
Ouatinous, the. See Weas;
Pack-trains, sole means of transport, I;
Patterson, Capt. Robert, patrols the country, II;
annoyed by Reynolds;
compact with Reynolds;
at the battle of the Blue Licks;
saved by Reynolds;
shows his gratitude;
Peace, difficulties in the way of, I;
Pennsylvania, English blood in, in 1775, I;
evil of Indian policy in;
imminency of fight with Virginia;
conflict of interests with Virginia;
traders;
neutrality in Lord Dunmore's war;
her traders protected by Shawnees;
panic on the frontier;
Pensacola, residence of the Governor of West Florida, I;
Personal prowess, II;
Piankeshaws, the, associated with the Miamis, I;
Pickaway Plains, base of Lord Dunmore's operations, I;
Picken's Fort, gathering-place of Williamson's forces, I;
Pierre, Don Eugénio, plunders St. Joseph, II;
Pike, Capt., a famous Delaware chief, II;
Piqua, the fight at, II;
destroyed by Clark;
Poe, Adam, starts in pursuit of Indians, II;
saves his brother;
Poe, Andrew, pursues the Indians, II;
fight with two Indians;
saved by his brother;
Point Pleasant, camping-place of Lewis' army, I;
battle of;
murder of Cornstalk at;
Population, movements of, I;
Portugal, her share in the New World, I.
Pottawattamies, the, location of, I;
Powell's Valley, Boon and the McAfees meet in, I;
visited by Floyd;
Henderson leaves his wagons at;
Prairie, origin of our use of the word, I;
description of Illinois;
Presbyterian-Irish. See Scotch-Irish;
Presbyterianism, leading creed of the frontier, II;
Preston, Wm., account of the battle of the Great Kanawha, I;
Quebec, Province of, a French state to-day, I;
de Quindre, Captain Daignian, a noted Detroit partisan, II;
outwitted by Boon;
Race, accountability of each, for individual misdeeds, I;
Raven, signs the treaty of the Sycamore Shoals, I;
Redhawk, murdered at Point Pleasant, I;
Revolution, the, I;
Westerners in the;
civil war on the border;
Whigs and Tories;
ferocity of the partisans;
the British rouse the Indian tribes to begin hostilities;
twofold character of, II;
Rewards offered by the South Carolina Legislature, I;
Reynolds, Aaron, "a very profane, swearing man," II;
rebuked by Patterson;
taunts Girty;
saves Patterson at the battle of the Blue Licks;
capture of, by the Indians and escape;
Rifle, the, the national weapon of the backwoodsman, I;
Robertson, James, comes to the Watauga in 1770, I;
a mighty hunter;
returns to North Carolina;
leads a band of settlers to Tennessee;
his energy and ability;
a member of the civil government of the Watauga Commonwealth;
treats with the Cherokees;
his mission of peace;
trusted by the Cherokees;
success of mission;
a sergeant in Lord Dunmore's war;
discovers Cornstalk's army;
attacks the Indians;
made superintendent of Indian affairs;
sends warning to the Holston settlements;
value of Gilmore's Life of;
founds the Cumberland settlement, II;
travels to the Cumberland;
visits George Rogers Clark;
guides settlers to the Cumberland;
builds Nashborough;
warns the settlers;
draws up a compact of government;
his son killed by the Indians;
his character
Rocheblave commands at Kaskaskia, II;
attached to the British interest;
treated harshly by Clark;
sent a prisoner to Virginia
Rogers, Lieut., defeated by Girty and Elliott, II;
Russell, Capt., joins Lewis before the battle of the Great Kanawha, I;
Rutherford, Gen. Griffith, relieves the besieged stations, I;
takes the field against the Cherokees;
his route;
destroys the middle towns;
proceeds against the valley towns;
escapes falling-into an ambush;
returns to Canucca;
meets Williamson;
reaches home in safety;
result of his expedition;
St. Asaphs. See Logan's Station, I;
St. Augustine, her prosperity and decay, I;
Sacs and Foxes, the, their location, I;
Salem, a settlement of Moravian Indians, I;
Salem Church, the first in Tennessee, II;
Sandusky, the fight at, II;
Saunders, John, his contract with Clark, II;
Scioto River, the, remains of mound builders at mouth of, I;
Scotch-Irish, the,
the dominant strain in the blood of the backwoodsmen, I;
a mixed people;
their religious antipathies;
a bold and hardy race;
backbone of the order-loving element;
staunch patriots;
Seminoles, the, their bloody wars with the Spaniards, I;
an offshoot of the Creeks;
Senecas, the, the largest of the Six Nations, I;
Sevier, John, plays a chief part in the history of Tennessee, I;
reaches the Watauga;
his ancestry and education;
his appearance and influence;
a member of the Watauga civil government;
builds a fort;
in Lord Dunmore's war;
notifies the Fincastle men of the Indian advance;
falls in love and marries during the siege of the Watauga fort;
value of Gilmore's Life of;
attempted murder of, II;
leader of the whole district;
his home and hospitality;
"Nolichucky Jack,";
patrols the border;
raises his rifle-rangers;
leads the right wing at the battle of King's Mountain;
rallies his men;
the best Indian fighter on the border;
influence over his followers;
secret of his success;
campaigns against the Cherokees;
defeats the Indians;
issues an address to the Otari chiefs;
expedition against the Erati;
ravages their country;
services in the Revolutionary war;
Sevier, Valentine, stumbles upon the Indians and escapes, I;
Shawnees, the location of, I;
closely united to the Delawares and Wyandots;
under Cornstalk meet the McAfee's;
declare war;
discriminate between Virginians and Pennsylvanians;
defy Conolly;
defeated by backwoodsmen;
their town Muskingum burned;
give hostages to Lord Dunmore;
declare for neutrality;
give the war belt to the Cherokees
Shelby, Evan, a captain in Lewis' army, I;
joins Lewis before the battle of the Great Kanawha;
transfers the command to his son Isaac;
his estate, II;
surprises the Chickamaugas
Shelby, Isaac, serves under his father, I;
a prominent figure on the border;
commands at the battle of the Great Kanawha;
his letter with account of the battle of the Great Kanawha;
county lieutenant, II;
lends his credit to the state;
crosses the mountains;
carries on a guerilla warfare;
rides to Sevier's;
gathers his troops;
proposes Campbell as commander;
addresses the troops;
commands the left centre at King's Mountain;
in the thick of the fight;
Sherrill, Kate, escapes from the Indians;
marries Sevier;
Six Nations, the, surrender lands to the English, I;
took no part in Lord Dunmore's war;
send the white belt of peace to the northwestern tribes, II;
Slover, his curious history, II;
captured by the Indians;
condemned to be burned;
his escape
Southwest, the, won by individual settlers, II;
Sowdowsky, with Harrod founds Harrodsburg, I;
descends the Mississippi;
Spain, her conquests in America in the 16th century, I;
wars with Holland, England, and France;
surrenders both Floridas to England;
declares war on Great Britain, II;
claims country to the east of the Mississippi;
hostile to America
Spencer, the first permanent settler in the Cumberland country, II;
mode of life;
Stoner, hunts in the bend of the Cumberland, I;
pilots in Lord Dunmore's surveyors;
Sullivan County, erected, II;
Surveyors, the, their part in the exploration of the West, I;
descend the Ohio;
Washington, Clark, and Boon among;
sent by Lord Dunmore to the Falls of the Ohio;
Sycamore Shoals, the, treaty of;
Tallasotchee, the white chief of, I;
Tarleton, his brutality, II;
Tennessee, description of the eastern part of, I;
first settlements in;
formed part of North Carolina;
first settlers mainly from Virginia;
character of the first settlers of;
organized into Washington county, North Carolina;
Texas, the meaning of, I;
Tipton, Major Jonathan, commands Sevier's right wing, II;
failure of his expedition;
Todd, John, reaches Boonsborough, I;
defeated at the Licking by Indians;
appointed colonel, II;
commandant of Illinois;
his letter of instructions;
appoints Winston commandant at Kaskaskia;
his financial difficulties;
extract from his "Record Book,";
elected a delegate to the Virginia legislature;
ranking officer in Kentucky;
pursues the Indians;
leads the centre at the battle of the Blue Licks;
his bravery and death;
Todd, Major Levi, marches to the relief of Bryan's Station, II;
at the battle of the Blue Licks;
Torments, inflicted by Indians, I;
Transylvania, Henderson's colony, I;
meeting of the legislature of;
legislature of, dissolved;
collapse of the colony;
Trappers, descend the Mississippi, I;
Treaty of Fort Stanwix, I;
Trigg, Lieut.-Col., leads the men from Harrodsburg, II;
commands the right at the battle of the Blue Licks;
surrounded and killed;
Twigtwees, the. See Miamis;
Unaka Mountains, I;
United States, had to be conquered before being settled, I;
territorial advances of the people of the;
the Southwest won by the people themselves;
the Northwest won by the nation;
the boundaries of, II;
Vigo, Francis, a St. Louis trader, II;
bears news from Vincennes to Clark;
a public-spirited patriot;
loans silver to the Virginian government;
Vincennes, situation of, I;
confusion at, II;
proceedings of the rebels at;
Virginia, French, Irish, and German mixture in, I;
makes a treaty with the Cherokee Indians;
boundaries claimed by;
border ravaged by Indians;
Virginians, Lord Dunmore's war fought wholly by them, I;
the only foes dreaded by the Indians;
styled by the Indians "Long Knives,";
gather at the Great Island of the Holston;
march against;
the Cherokees;
reach the Big Island of the French Broad;
ravage the Cherokee towns;
return home;
Walton, Major Jesse, serves under Sevier, II;
Ward, Nancy, brings overtures of peace, II;
her family respected;
Warfare, ferocious individual, II;
Washington College founded by Doak, II;
Washington District. See Holston settlements;
Washington, Gen. Geo., unable to help Clark, II;
Watauga Commonwealth, 1769, date of first permanent settlement, I;
supposed by settlers to form part of Virginia;
discovered to be part of North Carolina;
immigration from North Carolina to;
character of the settlers;
palisaded villages in;
life of the settlers;
their amusements;
settlers organize a government;
articles of the Watauga Association;
their first convention held at Robertson's Station;
plan of civil government;
endures for six years;
settlers ordered to leave their lands;
settlers successfully solve the problem of self-government;
makes a treaty with Cherokees;
attacked by the Cherokees;
Watauga Fort, the, commanded by Sevier and Robertson, I;
attacked by the Indians;
the Indians beaten back;
Watauga River, a feeder of the Tennessee River, I;
first settlement on the banks of the;
Watts, John, Sevier's guide against the Chickamauga towns, II
Wayne, Gen. Anthony, threatens the Indians, II;
Weas, the, living with the Miamis, I;
Wells, his noble deed, II;
West, the, the winning of, II;
actually conquered;
definitely secured by diplomacy;
West Florida, its boundaries, I;
Wetzel, Lewis, a formidable hunter, II;
his adventures;
Wheeling, attacked by Indians, II;
attacked by Simon Girty;
heroism of a girl;
Whites, the, provocation suffered by, I;
retaliation by;
White Top Mountain, a landmark, I;
Wilderness, the, life in, I;
Wilderness Road, the, forever famous in Kentucky history, I;
exists to-day;
Williams, Col., shot at the battle of King's Mountain, II
Williamson, Colonel Andrew, gathers a force at Picken's Fort, I;
advances against the Indians;
his campaign against the Cherokees;
attempt to surprise Cameron;
falls into an ambush;
defeats the Indians;
destroys their houses;
garrisons Fort Rutledge;
meets Rutherford;
falls into an ambush;
defeats the Indians;
reaches the valley towns;
joined by Rutherford;
destroys all the Cherokee settlements west of Appalachians;
returns to Fort Rutledge;
Williamson, Col. David,
removes the remnant of the Moravians to Fort Pitt, II;
blamed by the people;
leads the frontiersmen to the Moravian towns;
commands the retreat from Sandusky;
_Willing_, the, the first gunboat in western waters, II;
reaches Vincennes;
Winnebagos, the, location of, I;
Winston, Major, cuts off the retreat of the British, II;
Winston, Richard, appointed commandant at Kaskaskia, II;
becomes "unhappy";
Wyandots, the, location of, I;
redoubtable foes;
claim respect from the Algonquins;
surpass their neighbors in mercifulness as well as valor;
the Half King of, threatens revenge, II;
defeat and kill Estill;
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Winning of the West, Volume Two
by Theodore Roosevelt
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