USA > Kentucky > Historical sketches of Kentucky : embracing its history, antiquities, and natural curiosities, geographical, statistical, and geological descriptions with anecdotes of pioneer life, and more than one hundred biographical sketches of distinguished pioneers, soldiers, statesmen, jurists, lawyers, divines, etc. > Part 79
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SHELBY COUNTY.
In march following, he was promoted to the situation of inspector general, with the brevet rank and pay of colonel of cavalry. Subsequently to the war, Gen- eral Harrison, in a letter to a member of the cabinet at Washington, expressed the opinion " that Colonel Todd was equal in bravery, and superior in intelligence to any officer of his rank in the army."
At the peace in 1815, and upon the disbandment of the army in 1815, he returned to his original profession at Frankfort, Kentucky, and in 18!6 married the youngest daughter of Governor Shelby. He was soon after appointed secretary of state by the new Governor Madison. Upon the death of Governor Madison. Colonel Todd resigned his office, and the year following was returned to the legis- lature from Franklin county, and again in 1818.highestover Judges Bibb and Marshall and General Hardin. His conduct in the legislature was so acceptable to his fellow citizens that he could have been re-elected at any time, but unex- pectedly he was invited by President Monroe to proceed to the government of Colombia, in South America, upon a confidential mission, with the pay and duties of a charge d'affaires. He was deputed to complete negotiations which had been in part effected by the lamented Perry, and to look into the actual condition of affairs in that country. He returned to the United States in 1821, and resumed his position at the capital of Colombia in 1822, bearing the recognition of the inde- pendence of that government. In these two trips to South America, Colonel Todd passed through seas infested with pirates. encountering hurricanes and malignant diseases, and passed one thousand miles over the Andes on mules at a time when the country was involved in a sanguinary civil war. In the summer of 1821, he received a letter from the department of state, announcing that his conduct on the mission had been approved by the president. In June, 1823, Mr. Adams, in his dispatch, said. "I have been directed by the president to assure you of his undiminished confidence in your talents, zeal and usefulness."
Colonel Todd. after declining an acceptance of several important ofhces, estab- lished himself as a cultivator of the soil, in Shelby county. For a number of years whilst engaged in improving his beautiful farm, his pen was devoted to the great subjects of religion, agriculture and politics. In 1837 and '39 he served as a commissioner in the Presbyterian General Assembly, in Philadelphia, by which the separation was effected. he sustaining the old school party. For several years he was vice president of the State agricultural society, and in 1839 delivered the annual address in the legislative hall. He had always sustained the claims of that distinguished orator and statesman, Mr. Clay, with whom from his youth up. he had maintained relations of the most intimate friendship ; but as Mr. Clay had been withdrawn from the canvass in 1835, he advocated the claims of General Harrison to the presidency. In the spring of 1810, he was invited by the committees of Ohio and Kentucky, in connection with the late Benjamin Drake, of Cincin- nati. to prepare sketches of the civil and military history of that distinguished patriot. These were received with great favor. He then moved to Cincinnati, and assumed the editorial charge of the Cincinnati Republican, devoted to the support of General Harrison's claims to the presidency. His efficiency was acknowledged by both parties. In February, '11 he accompanied General Har- rison to Washington, and at the hour of that death which covered his country as with a pall, he was near the pillow of that illustrious patriot. whose confidence he enjoyed in an eminent degree, and who designed to engage his services for the country, in the mission to Vienna, as envoy extraordinary and minister pieni- potentiary : but in the subsequent arrangements of President Tyler, it was though best to send Colonel Todd to Russia, a decision which, so far as the country " ... concerned, was most eminently judicious.
He reached St. Petersburg early in November, 1511. As the intimate friend and companion-in-arms of the lamented Harrison, he was at once commended 1. the respect of the Russian government; and being invited by the emperor to al- tend his military parades, thus had access to many sources of information and in- fluence, which a mere politician could not have enjoyed. Ho traveled into the interior of Russia, having visited Moscow and the arenal tair at Nichult Novous- red. on the Volga, where he encountered two hundred thousand people, speaking twenty different languages. He afterwards seitof Sweden, and had the good fortune of being presented to the celebrated Bernadotte, the only marshal of V :- poleon who retained his crown. As an evidence of the estimation in which Co !.
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ISAAC SHELBY.
Todd was held in the capital of Russia. he was elected a member of the Imperial Agricultural Society -- the only instance in which a foreigner was admitted. A. vote of thanks was entered on the journal ; and upon his leaving the capital. ho was presented with a gold medal. The merchants in the American trade tender- ed him a letter, with assurances of high regard and esteem, and of their great regret at his departure. A touching compliment, which any minister might be proud to receive. was extended to Col. Todd a few days before he left St. Peters- burg, by Gen. Kaveline, the governor-general of the city, who drank the health of the American minister in the following language :
"Though our respective countries be situated on two different parts of the world, and consequently very distant from each other, yet I hope that you will acknowledge with me, that there is no distance for friendship. I then dare say, Hon. Mr. Todd. that when on the distant shores of the New World, you will sometimes remember the friends you leave here, whose hearts you have won by your eminently good qualities, and in whose bosom and memory your rement- brance will remain engraved forever."
An extract from a dispatch from Mr. Webster, will show the estimation in which Col. Todd was held by both governments :
" The president directs me to express to you his approbation of the manner in which you have discharged your duties. as the representative of your country at the imperial court of Russia. While he is satisfied that you have sedulously sought, on all occasions, to promote the interests of the United States, it gives him much pleasure to understand that your public conduct and personal deport- ment have been quite satisfactory to the government to which you have been ac- credited."
President Polk thought proper to terminate Col. Todd's mission to Russia. in the fall of 1845; the secretary of state having communicated, in a private letter. that this act had not proceeded from any unfriendly feeling, but was the result of a change in the administration, and the application of what he was pleased to term the four years rule or practice, as to the continuance in office of our mims- ters.
In the course of a long public career, in war and in peace, at home and abroad, there are many interesting incidents connected with the subject of this memoir, a recital of which would gratify the public taste, but for want of space they are omitted. It will be seen that Col. Todd was reared in the military school of far- rison, and was a pupil in the diplomatic school of Monroe. Having returned to his country, in all the vigor of life, after a long and distant service. attended win great sacrifices, and maintaining a high moral standard, with a ripe experience in public affairs, and high mental accomplishments united to courteous and graer- ful manners, he has shown himself worthy to have been associated with such eminent patriots and illustrious statesmen as Madison, Monroe, Adams, Harrison, Clay and Webster.
ISAAC SHELBY, the subject of this memoir, was born on the 11th day of De- eember, 1750. near to the North Mountain, a few miles from Hagerstown. mn Maryland, where his father and grandfather settled after their arrival in America from Wales. In that early settlement of the country, which was an ved der- ing the period of his youth by Indian wars, he obtained only the elements of a plain English education ; but like his father, General Evan Shelby, bore with a strong constitution. capable of bearing great privation and fatigue, he was brought up to the use of arms and the pursuit of game.
At the age of twenty-one, he took up his residence in Western Virginia, bet ... the Alleghany mountains, having previously acquired a knowledge of strwysy and of the duties of sheriff at Fredericktown. He was engaged, in his new fes- idence. in the business of feeding and attending to herds of cattle in the even- sive range which distinguished that section of country. He was a lieutenant in the company of his father, the late General Evin Shelby. in the memorable bande fought 10th of October, 1771, at the month of the Kenhawa, at the close of which his father was the commanding officer, Colonel, Lewis, Fleming and Field being killed of disabled. The result of this battle gave peace to the frontier, at the crineal period of the colonies venturing into the eventual contest of the revo- lution, aud deterred the Indians from uniting with the British until 1776. This
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SHELBY COUNTY.
was, probably, the most severely contested conflict ever maintained with the north-western Indians: the action continued from sunrise to sunset, and the ground for half a mile along the bank of the Ohio, was alternately occupied by each of the parties in the course of the day. So sanguinary was the contest, that blood was found on each of the trees behind which the parties were posted. The Indians, under the celebrated chief Cornstalk, abandoned the ground under cover of the night. Their loss, according to the official report, exceeded that of the Americans, the latter amounting to sixty-three killed and eighty wounded. This report was drawn up by Captain Russell, reputed to be the best scholar in camp, and the father of the late Colonel William Russell, of Kentucky, The fortune of the day, as stated in Doddridge's Notes of Border War, was decided by a bold movement, to the rear of the left wing of the Indians, led by Captain Evan Shelby, in which the subject of this memoir bore a conspicuous part.
The garrison at Kenhawa was commanded by Captain Russell, and Lientenant Shelby continued in it until the troops were disbanded, in July, 1775. by order of Governor Duminore, who was apprehensive that the post might be held for the benefit of the rebel authorities. He proceeded immediately to Kentucky, and was employed as a surveyor under Henderson & Co .; who styled themselves proprietors of the country, and who had established a regular land office under their purchase from the Cherokees, He resided in the then wilderness of Kentucky. for nearly twelve months, and being without bread or salt, his health was impaired, and he returned home.
In July, 1776, during his absence from home, he was appointed captain of a minute company by the committee of safety of Virginia. In the year 1777, he was appointed, by Governo: Henry, a commissary of supplies for an extensive body of inilitia, posted at different garrisons to guard the frontier settlements, and for a treaty to be held at the Long Island of Holston river, with the Cher- okee tribe of Indians. These supplies could not have been obtained nearer than Staunton, Va., a distance of three hundred miles ; but by the most indefatigable perseverance. (one of the most conspicuous traits of his character, ) he accum- plished it to the satisfaction of his country.
In 1778. he was engaged in the commissary department, providing supplies for the continental army, and for an expedition, by the way of Pittsburg, against the north-western Indians. In the early part of 1779, he was appointed by Gover- nor Henry to furnish supplies for the campaign against the Chicamauga Indians, which he effected upon his own individual credit. In the spring of' that year. he was elected a member of the Virginia legislature from Washington county. and in the fall of that year was commissioned a major, by Governor Jefferson. in the esport of guards to the commissioners for extending the boundary line between thit State and the State of North Carolina. By the extension of that line. his resilence was found to be within the limits of the latter State, and shortly after- wards. he was appointed by Governor Caswell a colonel of the new county of Sullivan, established in consequence of the additional territory acquired by the running of that line.
In the summer of 1780, Colonel Shelby was in Kentucky, locating and secur- ing those lands, which he had five years previously marked out and improved for himself, when the intelligence of the surrender of Charleston, and the loss of the army. reached that country. He returned home in July of that year, deter- mined to enter the service of his country and remain in it until her independente . should be seenred. He could not continue to be a cool spectator of a contest m which the dearest rights and interests of his country were involved. On his val in Sullivan, he found a requisition from General Charles MeDowell. regn . - ing him to furnish al! the aid in his power to check the enemy, who had overrin the two southern States, and were on the borders of North Carolina. Colon Shelby assembled the militia of his county, called upon them to volunteer their services for a short time on that interesting occasion, and marched. in a few day .. with three hundred mounted rit! men. across the Alleghany mountains.
In a short time after his arrival at MeDowell's camp, near the Cherokee f nl of Broad river. Col. Shelby, and Lieutenant-colonels Sevier and Clarke,-the inter a refugee officer from Georgia .- were detached with six hundred men, to suspe ." a post of the enemy in front, on the waters of Pecolet river. It was a strong IV. surrounded by abbatis, built in the Cherokee war, and commanded by that disto.
525
ISAAC SHELBY.
guished loyalist, Capt. Patrick Moore; who surrendered the garrison, with one British sergeant-mejor, ninety-three loyalists, and two hundred and fifty stand of arms. Major Ferguson, of the British army, though a brigadier general in the royal militia, and the most distinguished partisan officer in the British army, made many ineth etnal efforts to surprise Col. Shelby. His advance. about six or seven hundred strong, came up with the American commander, at Cedar Spring. and before Ferguson approached with his whole force, the Americans took two officers and fifty men prisoners, and safely effected their retreat. It was in the severest part of this action, that Col. Shelby's attention was arrested by the heroic con- duct of' Col. Clarke. He often mentioned the circunistance of his ceasing in the midst of the battle, to look with astonishment and admiration at Clarke fighting.
The next important event was the battle fought at Musgrove's mill. on the south side of the Enoree river, distant forty miles. with seven hundred men, led by Cols. Shelby, Clarke, and Williams, of South Carolina. This affair took place on the 19th of August, and is more particularly described in the sketch of Col. Shelby, inserted in the first volume of the ". National Portrait Gallery," published in 1834. under the direction of the American Academy of Fine Arts. It has been introduced into the historical romance called " Horse-Shoe Robinson," and noticed, also. in McCall's History of Georgia. where the British Joss is stated to be sixty-three killed, and one hundred and sixty wounded and taken : the American loss, tour killed and nine wounded : amongst the former, Capt. Inman; and amongst the latter, Col. Clarke and Capt. Clarke. Col. Innes, the British commander of the "Queen's American Regiment," from New York. was wounded ; and all the British officers. except a subaltern, were killed or wounded; and Capt. Hawsey, a noted leader among the tories. was killed.
The Americans intended to be that evening before Ninety-Six-but at that mo- ment an express from Gen. McDowell came up, in great haste, with a short note from Gov. Caswell, dated on the battle-ground. apprising McDowell of the de- feat of the American grand army under Gen. Gates. on the 16th, near Camden. Fortunately, Col. Shelby knew Caswell's handwriting, and by distributing the prisoners among the companies, so as to make one to every three men, who car- ried them, alternately, on horseback, the detachment moved directly towards the mountains. The Americans were saved by a long and rapid march that day and night, and until the evening of the next day, without halting to refresh. Col. Shelby, after seeing the party and prisoners out of danger. retreated to the west- ern waters, and leit the prisoners in the charge of Clarke and Williams, to con- vey them to a place of safety in Virginia : for at that moment there was no corps of Americans south of that State. The brilliancy of this affair was obscured, as indeed were all the minor events of the previous war. by the deep gloom which overspread the public mind after the disastrous defeat of Gen. Gates.
Ferguson was so solicitous to recapture the prisoners, and to check these dar- ing adventures of the mountaineers, that he made a strenuous effort, with his mam body, to intercept them ; but failing of his object, he took post at a place called Gilbert-town, from whence he sent the most threatening messages, by paroled pris- oners, to the officers west of the mountains, proclaiming devastation to their coun- try. if they did not cease their opposition to the British government.
This was the most disastrous and critical period of the revolutionary war. to the south. No one could see whence a force could be raised to check the enemy in their progress to subjugate this portion of the continent.
Cornwallis, with the main army. was posted at Charlotte-town, in North Caro- lina, and Ferguson, with three thousand. at Gilbert-town ; white man of the best friends of the American government, despairing of the freedom and independence of America, took protection under the British standard. At this gloomy moment. Col. Shelby proposed to Cals. Sevier and Campbell to raise a force from their Several conaties, march hastily through the mountains, and attack and surprise Ferguson in the night. Accordingly, they collected with their thitowers. about one thousand strong. on Doe run. in the spurs of the Alleghany, on the 25th of September. 17-0, and the next day commenced their march, when it was discov- ered that three of Col. Sevier's men had deserted to the enemy. This discon- curted their first design, and induced them to turn to the left. galu his front, and act as events might suggest. They traveled through mountains almost macces- sible to horsemen. As soon as they entered the level country, they met with Col.
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SHELBY COUNTY.
Cleveland with three hundred men, and with Cols. Williams and Lacy, and other refugee officers, who had heard of Cleveland's advance, by which three hundred more were added to the force of the mountaineers. They now considered them- selves to be sufficiently strong to encounter Ferguson ; but being rather a con- fused mass, without any head, it was proposed by Col. Shelby, in a council of officers, and agreed to. that Col. Campbell, of the Virginia regiment,-an officer of enterprise, patriotism, and good sense,-should be appointed to the command. And having determined to pursue Ferguson with all practicable dispatch. twonights before the action they selected the best horses and rifles, and at the dawn of day commenced their march with nine hundred and ten expert marksmen. As Fer- guson was their object, they would not be diverted from the main point by any collection of tories in the vicinity of their route. They pursued him for the last thirty-six hours without alighting from their horses to refresh but once. at the Cowpens. for an hour, although the day of the action was so extremely wet, that the men could only keep their guns dry by wrapping their bags, blankets, and hunting shirts around the locks, which exposed their bodies to a heavy and inces- sant rain during the pursuit.
By the order of march and of battle. Col. Campbell's regiment forined the right, and Col. Shelby's regiment the left column, in the centre : the right wing was composed of Sevier's regiment. and Maj. Winston's and McDowell's battal- ions, commanded by Sevier himself ; the left wing was composed of Col. Cleve- land's regiment. the followers of Cols. Williams, Lacv, Hawthorn, and Hill, headed by Col. Cleveland in person. In this order the mountaineers pursued, un- til they found Ferguson, securely encamped on King's Mountain. which was about half a mile long, and from which, be declared the evening before, that ". God Al- mighty could not drive him." On approaching the mountain, the two centre col- umns deployed to the right and left. formed a front, and attacked the enemy, while the right and lett wings were marching to surround him. In a few minutes the action becathe general aud severe-continuing furiously for three-fourths of an hour ; when the enemy. being driven from the east to the west end of the moun- tain, surrendered at discretion. Ferguson was killed. with three hundred and se- venty-five of his officers and inen, and seven hundred and thirty captured. The Americans had sixty killed and wounded ; of the former, Col. Williams.
'This glorious achievement occurred at the most gloomy period of the revolu- tion, and was the first link in the great chain of events to the sonth, which estab- lished the independence of the United States. History has, heretofore. though improperly. ascribed this merit to the battle of the Cowpens, in January, 17 1 ; but it belongs, justly. to the victory on King's Mountain, which turned the tide of war to the south, as the victory of Trenton, under Washington. and of Ben- nington, under Stark, did to the north. It was achieved by raw, undisciplined riflemen, withont any authority from the government under which they lived, -- without pay, rations, ammunition, or even the expectance of reward, other than that which results from the noble ambition of advancing the liberty and welfare of their beloved country. It completely dispirited the tories, and so alarmed Cornwallis, who then lay only thirty miles north of King's Mountain with the main British army. that, on receiving information of Ferguson's total defent and overthrow by the riflemen from the west, under Cols. Campbell, Shelby, Cleve- land and Sevier, and that they were bearing down upon him, he ordered an in- mediate retreat-marched all night. in the utmost confusion-and retrograded as far back as Winnshorough, sixty or eighty miles, whence he did not attempt to advance until reint reed, three months after, by Gen. Leslie, with two thousand men from the Chesapeake. In the meantime, the militia of North Carolina ds- sembled in considerable force at New Providence, on the border of South Caro- lina, under Gen. Davidson ; and Gen. Smallwood, with Morgan's light corps, and the Maryland line, advanced to the same point. Gen. Gates. with the shattered remains of his army, collected at Hillsborough, also came up. as well as the new levies from Virginia. of one thousand men, under Gen. Stevens. This forer en- abled Gen. Greene, who assumed the command early in December, to hold Corn- wallis in check.
The legislature of North Carolina passed a vote of thanks to Colonel Shelby and several other officers, and directed each to be presented with an elegant sword, for their patriotic conduct in the attack and defeat of the enemy on King's moun-
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ISAAC SHELBY.
tain. on the memorable 7th of October, 1780. This resolution was carried into effect as to Colonel Shelby, in the summer of 1>13. just at the moment when, in the language of Secretary Monroe, " disclaiming all metaphysical distinctions tending to entreble the government," he was about to lead his troops far beyond the limits of the State of which he was governor. The presentation at that par- ticular time, afforded a presage of the new glory he was to acquire for himself and country in that eventful campaign.
If any were entitled to special commendation in this band of heroic spirits on King's mountain, the claim of Colonel Shelby would be well founded. He ori- ginated the expedition, and his valor and unshaken resolution. contributed to rally the right of the front line, when driven down the mountain by a tremendous charge from the enemy, at the onset of the battle. Nor have the histories of the war at the south done justice to the sagacity and judgment of Colonel Shelby upon another interesting occasion, just following the affair on King's mountain. .As soon as he had placed the prisoners beyond the reach of the enemy, he repaired to the head quarters of General Gates, and suggested to him the plan of detaching General Morgan towards the mountains. The details of this arrange- ment were submitted by him, and approved by Gates, and Greene had the good sense to adopt them, after he assumed the command. The result of his advice was exhibited in the splendid affair at the Cowpens, which added fresh laurels to the veteran brows of Morgen, Hloword and Washington.
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