USA > Mississippi > The pioneers, preachers and people of the Mississippi Valley > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
277
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
allies employed until his projected combination of movements in the spring.
Col. Clark was informed, in the end of January, 1779, that Hamilton had now but eighty soldiers at Vincennes ; and preferring to take him rather than be taken byhim, prepared for a winter march against Vin- cennes. He set out on the 7th of February, with one hundred and thirty men ; having sent a detachment in an armed keel-boat, to await orders in the Wabash below the mouth of White River, and to permit no passage upon that stream. For one hundred and fifty miles the little army pursued an Indian trail, through dense forests and low prairies, soaked and flooded with the long rains of an uncommonly wet season ; across creeks commonly fordable with care, but now presenting lagoons miles broad, knee-deep, waist- deep, even arm-pit deep, so that they must carry provisions, arms, and ammunition on their heads, to keep them dry. Thus they labor on, through forest and low land, through mud and mire, through flood stream and falling rain, and in six days have ad- vanced a hundred miles, to the crossing of the Little Wabash. Wading two feet deep, and often over four, they proceed through a similar dreadful coun- try seventeen days more, and on the 1Sth encamp at evening on Embarrass River, within nine miles of the fort, and within hearing of the morning and evening gun. After waiting two days, they succeed
278
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
in capturing a boat and getting across the river. There however still remains a broad and deep sheet of water, upon reaching which the detachment- which indeed could not possibly have sustained the hardships of this extraordinary march so long, had not the weather been remarkably mild-showed evi- dent signs of alarm and despair. Col. Clark, ob- serving this, quietly put some powder in his hand, wet it with water, blacked his face, raised an Indian war-whoop, and marched into the water. Electrified and amused, the weary troops forgot their discour- agement, plunged in after their stout-hearted leader, and, singing in chorus, waded, most of the time up to their arm-pits, for miles and miles, until at last they reached the opposite highlands, so utterly worn out that many of the men fell as they touched the shore, letting their bodies lie half in the water, rather than take the two or three additional steps to higher ground.
Having sent a message to the inhabitants of the town, who thought the expedition was from Ken- tucky and never dreamed of it coming from Illinois, Clark, after resting a day or two, set out for Vin- cennes ; marched up and down among some hills, showing different colors, that his force might look three or four times as large as it was ; drew up his men back of the village, and sent fourteen riflemen to pepper the fort. So complete was the surprise.
279
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
that the crack of the rifle was Hair-buyer Hamilton's first intimation of the siege. He was at the moment -it was evening-amusing himself sociably with his prisoner Capt. Helm, over a game at cards and a glass of apple-toddy. As the report struck his ear, Helm sprang up, as if inspired, and cried ont, in his rough delight, "It's Clark, by -, and we shall all be his prisoners !" The town at once surrendered. The riflemen gathered about the fort, and shot down every man who showed himself over the wall. After the moon went down, Clark had a deep ditch dug within ninety feet of the fort; and early next day the marksmen, posting themselves in it and thus sheltered from the guns of the fort, blazed away by dozens at every port-hole, silencing two pieces of cannon in fifteen minutes, by shooting every man who touched them, until the terrified gunners re- fused to man the batteries, and the fort lay silent and unresisting beneath the unerring aim of the hunters. After eighteen hours' firing Clark summoned the fort, which Hamilton, after considerable negotiation, surrendered. Clark lost only one man before the walls; and during the siege, he also surprised and routed a party of Indians, just returned from an attack on Kentucky, and took a convoy of goods and military supplies sent from Detroit, worthi about fifty thousand dollars. Ile sent Hamilton and some of his officers to Virginia, where, along with Rocheblanc
280
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
from Kaskaskia, they were, with extreme propriety, put in close prison in irons, in retaliation for the horrid cruelties perpetrated under their command on the frontier, and for their barbarous treatment of the American prisoners.
In 1780 Col. Clark called on Kentucky for volun- teers for an inroad into the Indian country, to reta- liate for Byrd's expedition. So ready was the response that in a short time he found himself at the head of a noble force of a thousand riflemen, with whom, using the speed and secrecy so characteristic of his military movements, he surprised an Indian town in Ohio, slew seventeen of the savages, burned their dwellings, and destroyed their crops. The Indians were thus obliged to hunt for a living all summer, and could not send their accustomed war- parties against the settlements.
With his usual penetrating breadth of view, Clark had long considered a scheme for taking the British post at Detroit ; and in December, 1780, he induced the government of Virginia to cooperate with him in his design. But the invasion of Arnold interrupting the plan, he served under Steuben against him; and then resuming it, succeeded so far that two thousand troops were to rendezvous at Louisville for the expe- dition, in March, 1781, and he himself was commis- sioned brigadier-general.
But many unforeseen difficulties prevented the
281
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
army from marching ; and the bold and active Clark, who had dreamed so long of extirpating the British power in the Northwest by thus striking at its centre, was obliged to remain almost in idleness, defending the frontier against a few scattered bands of Indian marauders. Thus chafing in unwelcome restraint, he grew discontented; and then, resorting to a greater evil to cure the less, fell into habits of drink- ing; and as thus his high spirit preyed upon itself, and his unhappy vice sapped strength of mind and body together, his great powers showed signs of failure. The shrewd, observant backwoodsman, who then, as now, judged men as men, and thought them neither less nor more for titles, prerogatives, or pretensions, saw his lack of that passive endurance which marks the loftiest grade of heroism; saw that he was less a soldier and less a man; and as mind and body failed, his influence went down too.
Yet, in that period of stupid, terrified dejection, which followed the great calamity of the defeat at Blue Licks in 1782, where the furious, reckless rash- ness of one man-Hugh MeGary-cost Kentucky a confounding defeat, and the lives of sixty of her best and bravest men, Gen. Clark showed himself still a ready and active soldier. He proclaimed that he would lead his regiment upon a retaliatory expedi- tion into Ohio, and called again for volunteers, gathered to his standard with the old-time prompti-
282
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
tude. Again a thousand riflemen assembled on the Ohio, and marched upon the Indian towns. The savages fled so fast before this powerful and vengeful force, that not only did they nowhere offer to resist, but only twelve in all were either killed or taken. Five of their towns were burned, and a vast quantity of their provisions, being all their crops, were de- stroyed; and so severe was this lesson to the Indians, that from that time they dared no longer invade Kentucky, except in sly, small war-parties.
Once more, in 1786, General Clark headed an army destined against the Indian towns on the Wabash River; but the expedition was unsuccessful, and returned without reaching its destination. After this, Clark's name appears no more in public transac- tions, except as temporary holder of a major-general's commission from France in that force which the frantic visionary and revolutionary democrat, Genet, would fain have raised in Kentucky to bring Spanish Louisiana under the dominion of the French repub- lic. After long suffering from infirmities, his power- ful frame succumbed to a paralysis growing out of rheumatic disorders. £ He died at Locust Grove, near Louisville, in February, 1818, and was buried there.
This brief and unsatisfactory sketch is all that my space allows me to devote to the great qualities and bold deeds of "the Washington of the West " --
283
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
unquestionably the greatest military genius over produced by Virginia, notwithstanding that the only area for his operations was the pathless wilderness beyond the mountain; and unequalled among all the western pioneers, not only for military ability and daring, speed and secrecy, but for practical states- manship, political foresight, judgment in combining plans, and energy in executing them ; and a quality still higher, which points him out yet more clearly as a born ruler and a statesman, namely, the power of controlling men. His genius was sufficiently shown in the success with which he led his hardy little band, through unparalleled sufferings, against Vincen- nes, and in the complete obedience and subordination which he so easily obtained from the rude, reckless, and utterly independent hunters and fighters of the forest ; but it appears still more in the influence and admiration which he gained among the wild savage tribes of the Northwest, who feared and wondered at him almost as at a superhuman being.
To give one more tonch to the sketch I have attempted to draw, of life in the cabin homes of the wilderness during the Revolution-for no single lec- ture gives space for more than a sketch-let me briefly narrate a single achievement, which story has been often told before, but which has not yet lost its romantic freshness ; a story which nobly illustrates the generous daring and military abilities of the sons
284
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
of the western woods-the story of the battle of King's Mountain.
I will first briefly sketch the deeds of the mountain men before their gallant attack on Ferguson. Col. John Sevier, chief militia officer of the eastern part of the State of Tennessee-then Washington County in North Carolina-received in March, 1780, a requisi- tion from General Rutherford, of North Carolina, for one hundred men to be sent to the aid of South Carolina. Colonel Isaac Shelby, of Sullivan County, also then in North Carolina, received a similar requi- sition. They each raised two hundred mounted rifle- men ; but were fortunately too late to reach Ruther- ford, and suffer in the fatal battle of Camden. They, however, reached the camp of Colonel McDowell, Rutherford's second in command, in July, and were presently sent to attack Colonel Moore, who had been raising the tories in the western Carolinas for the king, and now occupied a strong fort on the Pacolet River. With six hundred men more under Colonel Clark of Georgia, the riflemen, a thousand in all, set off at sunset, marched twenty miles that night, and at dawn had surrounded the fort, which, after some parley, surrendered.
Cornwallis, irritated at this bold stroke, detached Col. Patrick Ferguson with one hundred picked men, to gather and train the tories of the western counties of South Carolina, and to take and hold the strongest
285
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
positions there. Ferguson was a bold, experienced and successful soldier, himself a trained and skillful rifle shot, and a ready and ingenious man. He had already invented, to oppose the fatal skill of the mountain rifles so much feared by regulars and low- land tories, a breech-loading rifle, capable of being discharged seven times in a minute. He soon raised so many loyalists as put him at the head of two thousand men, and a small body of horse. Col. McDowell detached Shelby and Col. Clark with six hundred men to watch his movements and cut off his foragers. These Ferguson repeatedly but vainly endeavored to surprise. It would have been strange indeed if the regulars could have surprised those sly Indian-fighters ! IIe did once, it is true, come up with them ; but when he did come up, the Ameri- cans, who were sharply engaged with his advanced guard, rode off with twenty prisoners, two of them officers, whom they had just taken ; so that Col. Fer- guson only lost by his haste.
Col. McDowell soon sent Shelby and Clark, to- gether with Col. Williams of South Carolina and six hundred men, to surprise a party of some five hun- dred tories at Musgrove's Mill on the Ennoree, about forty miles distant, and in a line directly beyond Fer- guson's camp. Again the hardy riders, setting out at dusk, riding hard all night long, and skirting round Ferguson's camp four or five miles off, met at dawn
286
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
a strong patrol, about half a mile from the tory camp. These they drove in, and at the same time learned that instead of five hundred, the enemy in front numbered more than twice as many, having just received a reinforcement of six hundred regulars. Evidently they could neither attack double their number, wearied as they were by their long night ride; nor could they for the same reason safely re- treat. They therefore determined to hold their ground and receive the enemy's attack. Sending forward an advanced party to skirmish, fire and retire at discretion, they speedily threw up a slight breastwork of logs and brushwood, and lay down behind it. The tory drums and bugles soon an- nounced their advance with horse and foot; they drove in the scattered advanced guard, and thinking that all the Americans were retreating, advanced hastily and in disorderly array, until they were greeted, at seventy yards from the breastwork, with a destructive fire. Undismayed, they attacked with spirit, but for a whole hour could make no impres- sion upon the feeble but stoutly defended line of the riflemen. Just as part of the Americans were be- ginning to give way, Col. Innes, the British com- mander, was wounded. Every one of his subalterns but one was already killed or wounded; Captain Ilawsey, a notorious tory leader, in command of the loyalists, was shot ; the whole British line wavered,
287
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
and a furious charge from the riflemen drove them in disorder over the Ennoree. The tories fled first, and of the regulars, who fought like brave men, more than two hundred were made prisoners.
The indefatigable mountain men, without waiting to rest, remounted their horses, which had been re- posing during the battle, and prepared to swoop down upon the British fort at Ninety-Six, thirty miles further. As they were in the act of starting, an express came up with a letter which he gave to Col. Shelby. It was forwarded by MeDowell ; was from Governor Caswell of North Carolina, dated on the battle-field of Camden, bringing the news of that fatal field ; and advised MeDowell to "get out of the way," for that the enemy would now endeavor to cut off in detail all detached parties of Americans. So much false and erroneous intelligence was abroad in those days of treachery and peril that none would have known whether to believe this sad letter, had not Col. Shelby been familiar with Gov. Caswell's hand-writing. Instant decision was necessary, and was made. It was probable that Ferguson was now informed of the defeat on the Ennorec, and would instantly push to cut them off from MeDowell. Nor would their weary horses and wearier selves admit of the further advance on Ninety-Six, through regions swarming with tories now encouraged by the British successes over Gates and Sumpter It
288
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
was not safe to delay even an hour, lest the energetic Ferguson should be upon them. The prisoners were instantly distributed, one to each three horsemen, to take turns in riding behind them; and the whole force, facing westward, rode straight for the moun- tains. Weary as they were, they pushed on all that day, all the night, and all the next day until late in the evening, without a single halt. This prompt retreat and desperate speed saved them ; for it after- ward appeared that Ferguson's second in command, Captain Dupoister, had ridden hard after them with a strong force of horse, until at the end of the second day his men broke down under the fatigue and heat. Shelby passed the mountain ; Clark and Williams carried the prisoners northward. MeDowell's army disbanded, and he and many of his men also crossed the mountain to the hospitable settlements of Wata- uga and Nollichucky, whence had come many of the bold riflemen who fought so well against Moore and Innes.
Thus disappeared the last remnant of an American army south of the Potomac, except the dispirited and broken band that remained with Gates at Hills- boro'. Congress was penniless and bankrupt; the States were little better; the army unfed, unpaid, and miserable ; the whole country distressed and dis- couraged ; the British triumphant, their forces rava- ging and rioting at will up and down the land, and
259
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
their tory allies waging an inhuman and monstrous warfare upon their whig neighbors and countrymen. Large numbers of the Carolina whigs sent their families aeross the mountains for safety, themselves remain- ing in the extremest peril to protect their property. Earl Cornwallis, having occupied his time until the arrival of provisions from Charleston, in putting into operation a rigorous system of military tyranny-not hesitating to murder and banish the whigs and rob them of their property, to uphold his authority in South Carolina-advanced from Camden toward Virginia, on the 18th of September, 1780.
Col. Ferguson, at the head of his force of regulars and loyalists, had been diligently at work among the tories in the western counties. He had followed close after Dupoister in the fruitless chase of Shelby and his mountain inen; but failing in this, had now posted himself at Gilbert Town, near Rutherfordton, in North Carolina, not far from the foot of the moun- tains. Here he delivered to one Phillips, a prisoner on parole, a hauglity message to the people west of the mountains: that if they did not cease opposing the British arms, he would come across, lay the country waste, and hang their chiefs.
This message Phillips brought to Shelby in the end of August. That leader, mounting in haste, rode fifty miles and more to his brother colonel, Sevier. and on consulting, they determined to raise as large
13
290
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
a force of riflemen as possible, make a forced march through the mountain, and surprise Ferguson, or, at least, weaken him and render him unable to fulfill his threat.
The rendezvous was fixed for the twenty-fifth of September, at Sycamore Shoals, in Watauga. Here, on the appointed day, gathered more than a thousand men, many of them armed and equipped with money obtained on the personal security of Shelby and Sevier; all well mounted ; almost every man carrying a Deckhard rifle-a choice weapon for true aim and long range, named from its maker, a famous gun- smith of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania. Nearly all wore the hunting-shirt of the backwoods, leggins and moccasins; a few appearing in their usual citizens' dress. Volunteers for the defence of their hearth- stones, they needed neither uniform nor esprit de corps, except what common danger and common patriotism inspired.
Early next morning, after prayer by a clergyman present, the riflemen mounted and took up the line of march, following trading and pioneer paths. Un- encumbered with the staff and baggage of a regular army, they moved so rapidly that on the second day they abandoned some cattle which they had under- taken to drive along for provisions. Light-armed, with rifle, shot-pouch, knife, tomahawk, knapsack and blanket, they hunted as they went, for food, and
291
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
drank the water of the mountain streams, until after passing the mountains, when they quartered them- selves on the tories.
On the day after starting, two men were missing. They had deserted to the enemy. To render their information useless, the army descended the eastern slope of the Alleghany by remote and unfrequented paths; and on reaching the foot, fell in with a party of several hundred whigs, waiting there in the woods for an opportunity to act against the British. These gladly joined them. And from all the settlements small daily additions were made to the force of brave men eager to reach the foe.
October 3d a council was held, within eighteen miles of Ferguson's post at Gilbert Town. After some discussion, a messenger was sent to Gates for a general officer to command the force, and Colonel Campbell, who had led four hundred men to the rendezvous at Watauga, was chosen commander in the interim. Next day the mountain army advanced to Gilbert Town ; but Ferguson was gone. Ile had heard of the vengeful storm gathering along the western mountains, and after exhausting the lan- guage of entreaty and reproach upon the intimidated loyalists-who feared it too-in endeavors to assemble them about his standard, he unwillingly retreated toward Cornwallis, sending him an urgent request for a reinforcement, and marching in several direc-
292
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
tions among loyalist neighborhoods, to keep out of the way of the riflemen.
But Col. Campbell and his hardy riders understand Ferguson's movements. A council is held, and a still more rapid pursuit resolved on. All that night the commanders pick the best men, horses and rifles, and at dawn set out again with nine hundred and ten of the flower of the army, leaving the rest to fol- low more leisurely. They hear, as they hasten along, of one and another large gathering of tories, but on they go; they are striking for Ferguson, and will turn aside for no meaner game. Four hundred and sixty more men, under Col. Hambright and Col. Williams, join them at the Cow Pens, where they halt and alight for an hour to refresh. Except this delay, the indefatigable riflemen never once stopped during the last thirty-six hours of the pursuit.
It is the morning of the 7th of October, 1780. The determined mountain men are still sternly hastening upon the hourly freshening traces of the fleeing Fer- guson. They ride on through a rain so heavy that they are fain to keep the locks of their rifles dry by wrapping them with blankets and hunting shirts, even at the expense of exposing themselves to the storm. The advanced guard comes up with some unarmed men, who report themselves just from Fer- guson's camp. A brief halt is made, and a close ex- amination discovers the facts, that Ferguson is in
293
OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
camp three miles in front; that next day he proposes to march to Cornwallis's headquarters; and that cer- tain roads will lead directly to his camp, which is pitched on ground which Col. Williams declares, on description, that he and some of his men know well. Brief consultation suffices. Ferguson must never reach the camp of the haughty British carl. The storm has cleared away. They resolve to march at once, to complete their work first, and rest and re- fresh afterward. The command is at once given to put the rifles in fighting condition and prime anew ; the order of battle is the well-known hereditary ma- nœuvre of the Indians and of these veteran Indian fighters : to surround the enemy and attack him at once from all sides ; and remounting, the little army is again in motion. Within one mile of the enemy an express to Cornwallis is taken; on his person is found an urgent letter to the earl, stating Ferguson's force-the number of which, eleven hundred and twenty-five men, is prudently concealed from the Americans by their officers-demanding instant re- inforcements, and informing his commander-in-chief that he is securely encamped on the top of a hill which he had named King's Mountain, in honor of his majesty ; and that "if all the rebels out of hell should attack him, they could not drive him from it." All these items, except his force, are communicated to the Americans; and spurring on, they advance at
294
PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE
a gallop to a point within sight of Ferguson's strong- hold. Arriving within view of the field of battle, it is at once evident that the right plan has been adopted. Ferguson and his regulars and tories hold the rest of the mountain, in a line about a quarter of a mile long -- an isolated height rising from the general level of the country, and covered and crowned with open woods. The final orders for the battle are given, while yet out of rifle-shot : Campbell, Shelby, Sevier, McDowell and Winston, with their men, are to file to the right, round the mountain; Hambright and Chronicle are to pass round the other way and meet them ; and Cleveland and Williams to fill the remainder of the line in front. When in position, each division is to front face, raise the war-whoop and charge. They advance again, dismount about a third of a mile from the hilltop, tie their horses, and the detachments separate for their places. Before they are quite ready, the enemy, hitherto silent and watchful, open fire and wound some of Shelby's men. Shelby and McDowell, on this, face at once toward the foe, and return their fire with effect; while Camp- bell's column, coming up, charges fiercely up the mountain and commences a fatal fire on the tories who hold that end of the line. Ferguson, hearing the firing, sends a force of regulars from the other end of his line, and with levelled bayonets they charge upon the advancing columns of MeDowell,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.