USA > Tennessee > History of Tennessee the making of a state > Part 10
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The winter of 1779-80 was one of unprecedented sever- ity. John Rains drove his cattle across the Cumberland on the ice. The hardships had been a terrible ordeal even to
1 The provisions of this compact are elaborate and intricate and full of interest. Those wishing to examine it in detail are referred to Putnam, who gives it in full and who rescued it from obliviou.
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those whom experience had innured to the tests of cold and hunger. But the intense coldness had not been an unmixed evil. The news of the settlement had spread to the Cherokees, the Choctaws, and the Chickasaws. Even the nations of the Northwest heard with apprehen- sion and bitterness that the hunting-grounds between the freat Mountains and the Father of Waters had been seized by the insatiate pale-face. The winter, however, rendered the chase unprofitable, and the exposure too full of suffering. The warriors of the nation were compelled to seek the shelter of the wigwam. This gave the Cumber- land people time to erect forts and stockades. Had an attack been made, such as that which shortly after shook the foundations of the new community, resistance would have been useless.
But by the time the mild breath of spring had awakened the sleeping life of the forests, and with it the slumbering hatred of the Indians, preparations had been made which enabled the infant settlement to develop into maturity in the midst of a succession of horrors which has no equal in the bloody annals of the Southwest. It is a profitless task to repeat the dreary chronicles of ferocity and mur- der and torture. The fact of the existence of these things, and that the ground was cleared, the foundation stones fitted, is sufficient. This is the prominent event, and it stands out with sufficient prominence. Haywood says the first man killed was John Milliken, Putnam says Joseph Hay. Both agree that it was in the spring of 1780, when no one suspected danger. The first death hastened the preparations for defense. The position of the settlement, separated by three hundred miles of rough and perilous travel from the nearest post, exposed it to continuous attack from Cherokees. Creeks, and Choctaws. The at- tacks of the enemy were more deadly because of their nature. The unseen bullet came from an unexpected quar- ter. There was rarely an open attack. But parties of
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hunters and isolated . travelers were set upon. It was dangerous to leave the protection of the cabin and the stockade. In the autumn of the first year the eorn erop was a failure, and a bushel of it sold for $160 in continen- tal money. The influx of emigrants, generally welcomed as an addition of strength, was now regarded as an increase of weakness. Bread was searce and meat was difficult to get. It was dangerous to hunt and starvation was immi- nent. The Indians even tried to drive the game from the country.
The butchery of the Renfroe settlement at the moutlı of the Red River, which took place about this ...... . In the stoutest hearts quail. Scareely a day passed that did not witness the death of some one of the settlers. Jona- than Jennings, who had escaped the dangers of shipwreck and even captivity, was killed above Nashborough. John Donelson narrowly escaped the same fate. He had planted corn on Clover Bottom and had gone with two boats to gather it, when on his return the boat ahead of his own was attacked. Only one negro and one white man escaped.1 Among the killed was a son of James Robertson. But the last extremity still remained. Their ammunition began to run short, and the miserable pioneers, in the midst of desolation and deprivation, turned to flee from a place where death stood upon the threshold and where famine sat at their board. God's curse appeared to them to have settled down upon the hills and the valleys of the Cumberland. Every heart but one was filled with fear, every heart but one longed for escape.
1 Putnam, upon what authority I have been unable to discover, says there were two negroes in the boat ; "the other negro or mulatto was a free man, known as Jack Civil. IIe surrendered to the Indians, went with them to the Chickamauga towns, near Lookout Mountain, and then with the pirates and outlaws who settled the place on the Tennessee River, which hath acquired notoriety as Nickajack or Nig- ger Jack, unquestionably so named after this mulatto." This bit of philology is altogether too fanciful.
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In every block-house the cry was for flight. It swept through the settlement in a day. It was just such a crisis as we meet with in all American colonies. And the man is always found, equal to the historical exigencies of the moment. In the history of Tennessee, James Robertson is what John Smith is in the history of Vir- ginia, what the younger Winthrop is in the history of Connecticut.
Robertson is not a brilliant figure. Whatever may be the qualities of character to which the term brilliancy is properly applied, Robertson certainly did not possess them. He lacked the mental alertness, the nervous energy, the instinct of action which are characteristic of genius. His thoughts were clear and luminous, in a word, light-giving. His character was like his thoughts. He never had a flash of inspiration. He could reason well, he could act well. In the annals of the State, it is true, he rises above the mists of common-place. The light settles upon his head, but it never dazzles us. In no sense of the word was he great or talented. He lacked the far-sighted calculation and the appreciation of eco- nomic forces which made Sevier a statesman, however circumscribed his field. He lacked the decision, the quick insight, the cautious preparation, the dashing execution which made Sevier a soldier. These are his limitations. But if not great, he was admirable. There are characters whom we love but whom we distrust. There are characters whom we admire with even and impassionate serenity but upon whom we rely with utter abandon. Robertson's character was of this kind. It was well built, with solid masonry and broad foundations. He is eminently trust- worthy. We are filled with a kind of joyous admiration of our humanity when we see blended in him so much modesty and so much fortitude. He possessed rather for- titude than bravery. The lack of fear was such a part of his being that we learn to take it as a matter of course.
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It was a part of the times and the people. But his forti- tude lifts him to an altitude. It never wavers, it never quails, it never retreats. This it is that makes him one of the great figures of our history. Under peculiar cir- cumstances his qualities of character, although in them- selves not great, accomplished results which as a rule greatness alone can accomplish. His fortitude and trust- worthiness did for Middle Tennessee what the diplomacy and generalship of Sevier did for East Tennessee. He hastened its settlement by a number of years which can- not be calculated. He had from the first been recognized as the leader of the new settlement. Shortly after his arrival, he had been made colonel, an office which gave him command of the military equipment of the forts. Upon the formation of the compact, he had been elected chairman of the committee of general arbitrators. His earlier experiences in Watauga had prepared him for the position he was called on to occupy as the Atlas of the young settlement. In 1776 and later he had been com- missioner for North Carolina among the Cherokees, and during his sojourn among them he had acquired the knowledge which gave him hope and strength to with- stand the dangers which threatened the Cumberland settlement.
When, therefore, the question of retreat was agitated, he bore for the minute the destiny of Middle Tennessee upon his shoulders. He argued, he entreated, he com- manded. He infused his own unyielding spirit into some of the hardier settlers and the task was half done. " What of the lack of powder," he said; "I will go to Virginia and to North Carolina, and I promise to supply your needs." The offer was an offer to run the gauntlet, but it was accepted. With one of his sons and a few others who were unwilling for him to traverse the wilder- ness alone, he departed. The incidents of the trip have not been preserved, but it was heroic, and it saved the
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people of Middle Tennessee. He returned, after having visited the Kentucky stations, with ample supplies of am- munition. Even the overflow which swept away the last remnant of corn in the fields and drove the game to the hills was passed over as of little moment, and all hearts were cheered by the example of one man, who, like the old Roman, had not despaired of the little republic.
It may be true there is no Providence to touch the sub- tile chords which control the movements of life ; it may be true that the divine merey is only manifest in the action of general laws through universal application. But there are events which bring us so close to a realization of some higher intelligence, that they well might stagger the skeptical. An event of this kind is the saving of Fort Freeland by James Robertson, a worthy instrument in the hands of the Lord. Robertson arrived from his long and dangerous trip to Kentucky in quest of powder, on the 15th of January, 1781. For weeks he had been sleep- ing in the very shadow of death. The keenness of his eye, the elasticity of his step, the quickness of his wit, and most of all the quickness of his ear, were the instru- ments which nature had given him in the unequal contest. The hoot of an owl could awaken him from the deepest sleep. The rustle of a leaf could reach his ear. Upon his arrival the settlement was stirred with a double im- pulse of gratitude to him, and a desire to hear what news he had brought from the eastern world. They had crowded eagerly around him to learn the fate of the Wa- tauga people, and the fortunes of the war which shook two worlds, but whose noise rarely penetrated the wil- derness that engulfed them. After the long narration and the repetition of details, the old settlers had retired, and filled with thoughts of other things, had appointed no guard to watch the fort. The moon was bright, not a cloud in the sky. The light shone full upon the square block-houses, the quadrangular space within, the upright
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palisades that ran from house to house. The Indians crept out from the shadow of the forest, and gliding stealthily across the intervening space, one by one, sank into the shadows of the upright pickets, until about fifty had collected together. The gate was fastened by a chain, and one, more agile than the rest, succeeded in gaining a hold upon the clasp and loosened it. The noise awoke Robertson alone of all within, and knowing the need of quick alarm, he sprang to his feet with the cry of " In- dians !" As his cry resounded through the fort, the In- dians had thrown down the gate and dashed in. One man rushed out only to be shot down. The settlers slept rifle in hand, and they awoke ready for battle. They poured a deadly fire into the Indians who recoiled. Their assailants were invisible and they could not return the fire. They retreated towards the gate, firing as they went. They killed a negro of Robertson's. But no fur- ther harm was done. It added one more to the many claims upon the gratitude of posterity of a brave and no- ble leader.
The Indians retired but with increased hatred, with a more relentless determination to subdue the infant settle- ment. Their chief sent messengers from village to vil- lage, along the banks of the Tennessee, through the swamps and the cane-brakes of the Lower Ohio. Their hopes were aroused, their cupidity was excited, their brav- ery was appealed to. But they had been cruelly decimated by Sevier and by disease. The small-pox had made havoc among them. It was difficult to collect a large army. A band such as that which under Old Abraham and Drag- ging Canoe had invaded the Watauga settlement would have been fatal to the Cumberland. Robertson would have been unable to repeat the glorious defense of Fort Watauga. On the 2d of April, 1781, the battle was fought which decided the fate of the Cumberland settle- ment. This was the " Battle of the Bluffs " so called. It
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ended in the complete discomfiture of the assailants, who sustained severe losses. Among the curious incidents of the battle was an attack upon the Indians by the dogs in the fort, which had been trained to this end. This created a diversion which the whites turned to their ad- vantage. The same party of Indians returned in the evening and fired upon the fort from a distance, but were dispersed by a shot from an old swivel which, for want of lead, was loaded with gravel and stones.
The existence of the Cumberland settlement was prac- tieally assured by the " Battle of the Bluffs." Neverthe- less, the dangers and the distress which surrounded the individual were in a measure increased. The Indians abandoned the hope of destroying the forts, but in the laek of organized aggression they came in small bands to lay in wait, to surprise, to kill, to scalp, and then to retreat. Those who labored in the field did so in hourly expectation of attack, and sentinels were kept on guard to warn of impending danger. If several were compelled to be in the forest or at the springs, and a conference was held, this was done by forming a small military square, each man facing outward with his rifle cocked. It was in the very face of death to pass from one fort to another. The name of a man who died a natural death has been preserved. It was Robert Gilkey.
But the law of the survival of the fittest finds its exem- plifieation. The dangers which surrounded the settlers cultivated in them those faculties the highest exercise of which offered the greatest hope of safety. The rustling of a leaf might reach the ear of an Indian lurking in the shadow of the forests. The pioneers learned to pass through the woods even after the falling of the leaves, with the swiftness of the deer, without crushing a leaf or breaking a twig. The chances of warfare would rarely give more than one shot. That shot seldom went astray. Every sense was sharpened to the utmost limits of its
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possibilities. There . were those who could tell by the report of the rifle to whom it belonged ; the merest tyro could detect the difference between the report of an In- dian gun and of a gun in the possession of a friend. The accuracy of the eye, the keenness of the ear, the quickness of the body, the alertness of the foot, the nimbleness of the hand, were weapons of defense. The marvelous tales of Cooper sink into commonplace when compared with the wonderful feats and adventures of Spencer and Ed- mond Jennings, the son of the ill-fated Jonathan, and Castleman and Rains and Mansker. Before the intro- duction of powder, the Indian's weapons of warfare and the chase were inadequate to his necessities. A natural law of existence threw him upon the resources of his wit. He became cunning, quick-witted, wily, supple of body. Quick of apprehension, he learned a lesson from the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. He could imitate the hoot of an owl, the scream of a panther. the bleat of a fawn, the gobble of a turkey, till the owl would perch above his head, the panther creep from his lair. the fawn run to meet its dam. the turkey to join its mates. The art which the Indians had been transmitting from generation to generation and perfecting through een- turies of practice, the white man learned in a few years. And not only this, he went farther. Unable to determine, when he heard the sound, whether it was the imitated or the imitator. he studied the habits and the seasons of the former, and knew when to expect the voice which nature had given them. Here is a story of the brave-hearted Castleman, told in his simple and picturesque way : " It was in the dusk of the evening. The imitation of this large bird of night was very perfeet, yet I was suspicious. The woo-woo call and the woo-woo answer were not well timed and toned, and the babel-chatter was a failure ; and more than this, I am sure they are on the ground and that won't begin to do. 'I'll see you,' says I to myself, and
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as I approached I saw something of the height of a stump standing between a forked tree which divided near the ground. Well, I know there can be no stump there ; I put . Betsy ' to my face - that stump was once a live In- dian and he lay at the roots of those forked chestnuts. And if he was ever buried, it was not far off."
On one occasion old Mansker was "gobbled " up by an Indian, such was the current phrase. But not being cer- tain of the turkey, he became suspicious. Approaching cautiously, he finally " located " his adversary. He was behind a tree. Knowing that as a rule the Indian only fires at close range, and knowing also that "Nancy " could talk at long range, he made no sign of fear or attempt to guard himself. He feigned to pass to the Indian's right. As he expected, the latter attempted to follow him so as to get within shooting distance. In a moment an opening in the glade exposed the skulking body. A quick aim, a word from " Nancy," and the Indian was on his way to the happy hunting ground. Castleman once heard the bleat of a fawn near him. The burden of identification, in legal phrase. was always on the owl or the panther or the turkey or the fawn. He saw a moving body and simultaneously two guns were fired. The Indian fell dead, but his bullet cut the fringe of Castleman's shirt.
CHAPTER XV.
DAVIDSON COUNTY.
THE cold and sleet and bitter winds which pierced through the crannies of the well-aired cabins and block- houses in the winter of 1781-82 again caused a discussion of the possibility of removal. The weaker began to lose heart. Murmurs of dissatisfaction were heard. But there was never a serious danger of departure. Those who so far had withstood the trials to which they had been sub- jected would not brook the idea. " If we fail," said one, "it must never be from cowardice." Bledsoe, the stout- hearted surveyor, the shadow of whose destiny was already lengthening toward him, pointed to the future. "If we perish here, others will be sure to come, either to revenge our death or to accomplish what we have begun. If they find not our graves or our scattered bones, they may revere our memories and publish to the ages to come that we deserved a better fate." The unfaltering rock-ribbed fortitude of James Robertson put aside the suggestion with a noble rebuke. "These rich and beautiful lands were not designed to be given up to savages and wild beasts. The God of Creation and Providence has nobler purposes in view." The powder was again running short, but the settlers resolved to use less and shoot better. Nothing less than a bear, or a buffalo, or a buck was to be shot down. The means of supplying the wants felt were on hand if only a market could be found. The skins and furs were filling the forts. The waters were low, and it was difficult to get to Natchez and New
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Orleans, impossible to get to Jonesboro except by land. There was practically no method of communication with the outside world, and the Cumberland heroes spent 1782 in strengthening themselves internally. The aggressions of the savages, owing to a treaty which Robertson had made with them, were less incessant though still nnmer- ous and deadly. Frequently they turned their attention towards the houses of the settlers. The Mauldins and the Kilgores had established a fort called Kilgore's Station, on the head-waters of the Red River, but were compelled to abandon it shortly after it was erected and seek pro- tection in the central forts. Emigration had not entirely ceased, and occasionally small parties succeeded in travers- ing the wilds between Jonesboro and Nashborough, as Robertson had done under circumstances of equal danger. Late in the autumn the question of desertion was again brought forward, but Robertson again gave new heart to the settlers, and they again determined to remain, this. time with enthusiasm. He called their attention to the probable effect which the success of the Continental arms would have upon their fortunes. In April, 1782, hostili- ties ceased, and about six months later the Cumberland people heard of the close of the war which gave America its independence. Its effect was at once seen in the con- ciliatory attitude of the Indians. They came to hunt, they said, not to spill the blood of their white brothers.
With the advent of the new year came a revival of old hopes and a renewal of old undertakings. The Gov- ernment of Notables which, almost from its formation. and certainly since the abandonment in 1781 of the dif- ferent forts that elected members, had been allowed to rust in its machinery, was again furbished and put in operation. The return of many who had left in 1781 and 1782 gave new life to the settlement, and with this came the desire again to establish some form of government. On the seventh of January, 1783, the former manner of
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proceedings "was revived, pursuant to the plan agreed upon at our first sitting here." The forts had already been rebuilt and reoccupied, and in accordance with the design as originally planned, twelve men were elected to meet at Nashborough, namely, Colonel James Robertson, Captain George Freeland, Thomas Molloy, Isaac Linsey, David Rounsevall. Ileydon Wells. James Mauldin, Eben- ezer Titus, Samuel Barton, and Andrew Ewin. Robert- son was elected chairman of the committee. Andrew Ewin, who afterwards became Ewing, was made clerk. Putnam has preserved the records of the Committee of Notables. They give us a fine view of the habits, cus- toms, and modes of thought that prevailed in the Cum- berland settlement. The committee exercised, practi- cally, unlimited jurisdiction ; required people to take the oath of allegiance to the Continental Congress, engaged six spies, who were to advise the settlement of the move- ments of the Indians, organized the militia, restricted the price of whiskey, regulated trade with the Indians, and tried all manner of cases. We find records of suits in- volving horses, negroes, hogs, machinery, notes of hand (one for two cows) and the like, which enable us to catch, in the process of formation, the ideas of govern- ment entertained by our ancestors. It is worthy of note that the caption of the records is "North Carolina, Cum- berland District." The committee had once petitioned the General Assembly of North Carolina, praying them "to grant us the salutary benefits of government in all its various branches." The aspirations which filled the old Watauga people with the vain hope of becoming an inde- pendent State never obtained any foot-hold among the settlers of Middle Tennessee. A convention was held and commissioners appointed with power to "join the Franks" in their government, but nothing came of it. They stood upon too slender a foundation to think of aught but the actual present, which to them was full of danger and trouble.
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After this period the growth of the settlement was rapid. The increase of population, however, for a time merely increased the powers of resistance. The danger was still great, and the chronicles of murder, mutilation, and bloody reprisal repeat the same sorry and distressing details. Land bounties, given to soldiers of the Revolu- tion, were the immediate cause of increased emigration. In 1783 James Robertson was elected a member of the General Assembly of North Carolina, and through his in- strumentality the Cumberland settlement was made a county named Davidson, in honor of General Davidson, a gallant soldier who had lost his life in the war. A court of pleas and quarter sessions was also established in the new county. A land office was opened at the same session for receiving and recording entries of land. The Henderson-Transylvania claim and title were not re- garded. The original settlers or squatters were given certain rights of preemption. Each head of a family re- ceived 640 aeres, and such improvements as had been made previous to the first of June, 1780. Salt springs and "licks" were reserved to the State. The formation of the county transformed the mode of government more in name than in substance. Isaac Bledsoe, Samuel Bar- ton, Francis Prince, and Isaac Linsey were the first magistrates, or justices of the peace. Andrew Ewing was made clerk. A court-house was located at Nash- borough, and a prison built. The court-house was made of hewn cedar logs a foot square, the same which the gigantic Spencer offered to throw one by one over the bluff for a dollar a log. The court-room was eighteen feet square, with a shed on one side. Both prison and court- house, the building of which was let upon contract to the lowest bidder, were to be upon a rock-foundation. The formation of the county placed upon an equally solid basis the settlement on the Cumberland.
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