USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > Nashville Business Directory, 1855-6 > Part 13
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"General Robertson immediately raised the militia, leaving a few to keep up the different stations. He collected five hundred men, and placed them under the command of Colonel Elijah Robertson, Colonel Mansco and Colonel Winchester, and Captain John Rains, two miles from Nashville. A troop of horse, com- manded by Colonel Hays, was ordered to discover, if possible, at what point the Indians intended to make the meditated attack.
" Abraham Castleman, one of the militia soldiers, had with- drawn himself from the army for some days, and at length returned and stated that he had been as far as the Black Fox's camp, where he had seen the signs of a numerous army of Indians, and that they might shortly be expected in the neigh- borhood of Nashville. The general sent off Captain Rains to ascertain the reality of the facts detailed by Castleman. Rains took with him a young man, Abraham Kennedy, and went to the place where Murfreesboro' now stands, and halted in the woods, and remaining on the ground all night, he next day made a cir- cuit around the spring where the Black Fox's camp was. The Black Fox was an Indian chief, who formerly hunted and en- camped at the spring not far from the spot where now is the site of Murfreesboro'. In this circuit he examined all the paths which led to the camp from the direction of the Cherokee country. Finding no traces of Indians, he ventured to the spring ; he then returned home by way of Buchanan's Station, and informed the
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people that the traces of an Indian army were nowhere to be seen. Soon after the return of Captain Bains, the troops were marched back to Nashville.
"Two other men, however, were sent off to reconnoitre the country through which the Indians were necessarily to pass in coming to Nashville. These were Jonathan Gee and Seward Clay- ton, who went on the Indian trace leading through the place where Murfreesboro' now stands, to Nashville, eight or ten miles from Buchanan's Station ; as they travelled along the path talking loudly, they saw meeting them the advance of the Indian army, who called to them in English to know who they were, to which question, without disguise, they answered. Upon being asked in return, who they were, they said they were spies from General Robertson's Station, and were returning home ; both parties ad- vanced till they came within a few steps of each other, when the Indians fired and killed Gee dead in the road. They broke the arm of the other, who ran into the woods, but being pursued by a great number of them, they overtook and killed him also. Thence they marched rank and file, in three lines abreast, with quick step till they arrived at Buchanan's Station, where the people were wholly unapprised of their coming, and did not expect it. This was on Sunday next after the discharge of the troops, being the 30th of September."
Under these repeated sufferings, it is not strange that the people cried aloud for revenge, and demanded permission to retaliate upon the savages the injuries and cruel treatment they had received from them. But the cautious policy of Government still inculcated lessons of resignation and forbearance. The state of the negotiation with Spain was plead as an excuse for repressing, for the time being, the pent-up indignation of the Western people under the wanton provocations and murders they daily endured. But law-abiding as they were, and loyal to the authority of Con- gress as they afterwards proved themselves to be, the spirit to avenge their wrongs and redress themselves could no longer be suppressed.
" About the first of August, 1793, Abraham Castleman raised a company of volunteers to assist him in retaliating upon the
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Indians a great number of injuries which he had received from them, particularly those of killing several of his near relations. On arriving near the Tennessee, ten of his company turned back, because General Robertson's orders prohibited all scouting parties from crossing that river. But Castleman, whom the Indians called the Fool Warrior, with Zachariah Maclin, John Camp, Eli Hammond, Ezekiel Caruthers, and Frederick Stull, all dressed like Indians, and painted in the same manner, so as not to be distinguished, crossed the river, as is generally believed, below Nickajack, and took the trace towards the Indian nation, which led, as they supposed, to Will's Town. After travelling about ten miles on the south side of the river, they came in view of a camp of forty or fifty Creeks, who were on their way to kill and plun- der the whites in the Cumberland settlements. They were eat- ing two and two, and betrayed no alarm at the approach of their supposed friends, but continued eating until the small squad of white men came within a few paces of them, when the latter sud- denly raised their guns and fired on them. Castleman killed two Indians, and each of the others one. The shock being so sudden and unexpected, dismayed and confounded the Indians, and, before they could recover from it and resume the possession of themselves, the whites had retreated so far as to render pursuit unavailing. This happened on the 15th of August, 1793: on the 21st, they all got back safe to Nashville.
" About the 5th of August, Captains Rains and Gordon pur- sued a party of Indians who had killed one Samuel Miller, near Joslin's Station. After crossing Duck River, their signs were very fresh, and on pursuing them seven miles further, they were overtaken. The pursuers killed some of them on the ground, and took prisoner a boy of twelve years of age. One of them called out that he was a Chickasaw, and, by that finesse, made his escape. On examining the prisoner, they proved to be all of them Creeks from the Upper Uphalie towns.
"In this year, 1793, the Indians fired on Thomas Sharpe Spencer, near where Major David Wilson since lived, in Sumner County. Mrs. A. Bledsoe, in company, was thrown from her horse, but Spencer bravely rescued her from the hands of the
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Indians, and conducted her to a place of safety. About this time several persons were killed in the County of Sumner, whose names are not recollected. In this year, James McCune was killed by the Indians at Hays's Station, on Stone's River ; one of the Castleman's was also killed, and another wounded. About the 1st of December, 1793, James Randal Robertson, son of Gen. Robertson, and John Grimes, were killed by the Cherokees of the lower towns, on the waters of the Cany Fork, where they had gone to trap for beavers.
" As early as the 13th of November, 1793, General Robertson had conceived, and secretly harbored, the design of destroying the five lower towns of the Cherokees. He expressed a decided disapprobation of all negotiation with them, as it would but lull the people of the territory into security, and make them the surer victims of Cherokee perfidy. He, by way of introducing the sub- ject to notice, asked of General Sevier, in a familiar way, when the lower towns would get their deserts ? It was hinted, by the governor, said he, that it will be in the spring; I suspect before that time. But it may be immaterial to us, considering our ex- posed situation, and the little protection we have. He pressed General Sevier to carry an expedition of fifteen hundred men into the Cherokee country before the ensuing spring. We shall see that the former idea, with whomsoever it may have originated, came to maturity in the following year; though, at this time, no one, for fear of the displeasure of Government, would either be the author, advocate, promoter, or even connive at the design.
"On the 20th of February, 1794, numerous small divisions of Indians appeared in all parts of the frontiers of Mero District, marking every path and plantation with the fatal signs of their visitation. They stole nearly all the horses that belonged to the district, and butchered a number of the citizens. In many in- stances they left the divided limbs of the slain scattered over the ground. Jonathan Robertson, from whom, on all occasions, the Indians had received as good as they sent, was about this time, with three lads of the name of Cowan, fired upon by five Indians ; one of the lads was slightly wounded, and a ball passed through
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Robertson's hat. He and the lads returned the fire, and drove off the Indians, having wounded two of them mortally, as was supposed. On the death of Helen, Captain Murray followed the Indians, and, at the distance of one hundred and twenty miles, came up with them on the banks of the Tennessee, and destroyed the whole party to the number of eleven. Two women of the party were captured, and treated with humanity.
"On the 20th of March, 1794, James Bryan was fired upon by the Indians from an ambuscade near a path, within four miles of Nashville ; and, on the same day, Charles Bratton was killed and scalped near the house of Major White, in Sumner County.
"On the 21st of April, 1794, Anthony Bledsoe, son of Colonel Anthony Bledsoe, and Anthony Bledsoe, son ef Colonel Isaac Bledsoe, were killed and scalped by Indians near a stone quarry near the house of Searcy Smith, in Sumner County. At the same time, two horses and a negro fellow were taken from Mr. Smith's wagon.
"On the 29th of May, 1794, in the absence of Gen. Robertson, Colonel Winchester was ordered to keep the allowed number of troops on the frontiers. On the 11th of June, the Indians killed Mrs. Gear within four miles of Nashville. Captain Gordon fol- lowed them on their retreat upwards of ninety miles, killed one, and lost one of his party, Robert McRory. He overtook them at the foot of Cumberland Mountain, near the place where Cald- well's bridge now is. Captain Gordon was a brave and active officer, distinguished through life for a never-failing presence of mind, as well as for the purest integrity and independence of principle. He had much energy, both of mind and body, and was in all, or nearly all, the expeditions from Tennessee, which were carried on against the Indians or other enemies of the coun- try, and in all of them was conspicuous for these qualities. He now sleeps with the men of other times, but his repose is guarded by the affectionate recollections of all who knew him.
" On the 6th of July, 1794, Isaac Mayfield was killed by In- dians within five miles of Nashville. He was standing sentinel for his son-in-law while he hoed his corn, and got the first fire at the Indians; but there being from twelve to fifteen of them, and
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very near to him, he could not escape. Eight balls penetrated his body ; he was scalped, a new English bayonet was thrust through his face, and two bloody tomahawks left near his man- gled body. He was the sixth person of his name who had been killed or captured by the Creeks and Cherokees. Major George Winchester was killed and scalped by the Indians, near Major Wilson's, in the District of Mero, on the public road leading from his own house to Sumner Court House : he was a Justice of the Peace, and was on his way to Court. He was a valuable citizen, and a good civil and military officer."
1794 Joseph Brown led Colonel Roberts' scouting party, by the head waters of Elk River, across the Cumberland Mountain, with a view to find a route to the lower Indian towns-Nickajack and others-where his father and brothers had been murdered five years before, and where he, his mother and younger sister, had been retained as prisoners. Soon after the discovery of this practicable route, General James Robertson raised a company of volunteers from Nashville and the surrounding neighborhoods, urging the Nickajack expedition.
In this noble army were Joseph Brown and William Trousdale, since Governor of Tennessee, and a United States General in the Mexican War. The former was then a grown man, and had ful- filled, to the letter, the prediction of the old Indian woman, who had, five years before, warned the confederates, " that if he was not killed then, he would soon be grown, and would get away and pilot an army there, and have them all cut off." He had been the pilot, and with Fendlestone, did conduct the troops along the route, unknown to any of them, and though disabled, from a wound through his shoulder, which was still discharging pieces of exfoliated bone, he, with one hand, swam across the river, and was among the first to reach its southern bank.
As soon as the troops had crossed, and were collected together, they marched up the mountain, between the point of which and the river, stood the town of Nickajack. A mile higher up the river, after passing through a very narrow strait formed by the river on one side, and the mountain jutting into and projecting over it on the other, they came to a spacious plain of low lands,
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on which stood another town called Running Water. They pene- trated into the heart of Nickajack before they were discovered, and first alarmed the Indians by the report of their guns.
Nickajack was a small town, inhabited by two or three hundred men and their families. The army killed in their town a consi- derable number of warriors. Some of the Indians endeavored to make their escape in canoes, to the other side of the river, but were fired upon, and men, women and children perished in the dreadful havoc.
After the troops got on the mountain, on the other side of the town, Joseph Brown was sent back with twenty men to head and intercept the Indians, at the mouth of the creek below the town, when the main body of the assailants should have driven the enemy to that point. This he effected successfully, though his return was resisted the whole way down, about a quarter of a mile, by the constant fire of the Indians. Brown and his men guarded the mouth of the creek, while the troops above were kill- ing and capturing those between the two parties. When Brown met the main body, he inquired if they had taken any prisoners, and was immediately conducted to a house in which a number of them had been fastened up. . When he came to the door he was at once recognized by the captives, who appeared to be horror stricken-remembering, no doubt, that they had murdered his people in the same town, five years before. At length, one of them ventured to speak to him, reminding Brown that his life had been spared by them, and importuning him now to plead in their behalf. He quieted her apprehension, by remarking that these were white people, who did not kill women and children. Her answer was, "O see skinney Cotanconey !" " Oh, that is good news for the wretched!"
These land pirates had supposed their towns to be inaccessible, and were reposing at their ease, in conscious security, up to the moment when, under the guidance of Brown, the riflemen burst in upon them, and dispelled the illusion. " Where did you come from ?" said one of the astonished prisoners to Brown ; "did you come from the clouds ? or did you sprout out from the ground ?" " We have not come from the clouds," answered Brown, " but we
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can go anywhere we please. We did not wish to kill the Indians, but you have forced that sad necessity upon us."
Andrew Jackson, then a private, was one of Ore's men, who then showed his love of country, and his fitness for command. Ilis judgment in planning the attack on Nickajack, and his good conduct generally on the campaign, impressed those who wit- nessed it favorably.
John Pillow emigrated to Cumberland in 1784. His wife was Miss Johnston, whose five brothers were soldiers of 1776. John Pillow settled near Nashville, where with his two sons, William and Gideon, he encountered all the hardships, and perils, and privations of frontier life, and of constant conflict with the vari- ous Indian tribes, which, to the close of his life, infested and devastated the country.
Gideon Pillow, the father of Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, late of the United States Army in Mexico, was an active soldier in the ex- pedition against Nickajack, and swam the Tennessee River in the celebrated capture of that Indian fortress.
Colonel Valentine Sevier had removed west of Cumberland Mountain, and built a station near Clarkesville. This the In- dians attacked. An account of the assault is copied from his letter to his brother, General Sevier, dated-
CLARKESVILLE, Dec. 18, 1794.
" DEAR BROTHER :- The news from this place is desperate with me. On Tuesday, 11th of November last, about twelve o'clock, my station was attacked by about forty Indians. On so sudden a surprise, they were in almost every house before they were dis- covered. All the men belonging to the station were out, only Mr. Snider and myself. Mr. Snider, Betsy his wife, his son John, and my son Joseph, were killed in Snider's house. I saved Snider, so the Indians did not get his scalp, but shot and toma- hawked him in a barbarous manner. They also killed Ann King and her son James, and scalped my daughter Rebecca. I hope she will still recover. The Indians have killed whole families about here this fall. You may hear the cries of some persons for their friends daily.
"The engagement, commenced by the Indians at my house,
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continued about an hour, as the neighbors say. Such a scene no man ever witnessed before. Nothing but screams and roaring of guns, and no man to assist me for some time. The Indians have robbed all the goods out of every house, and have destroyed all my stock. You will write our ancient father this horrid news ; also my son Johnny. My health is much impaired. The remains of my family are in good health. I am so distressed in my mind that I can scarcely write.
" Your affectionate brother, till death, "VALENTINE SEVIER."
The exceedingly long catalogue of Indian outrages and aggres- sions upon the frontier of Mero and Hamilton Districts, and the account of the spirited manner in which the inhabitants so suc- cessfully repelled them, could have been indefinitely extended. A volume could be filled with these already detailed, and those which have been necessarily omitted. For fourteen years, con- stant warfare existed on Cumberland, without even a temporary abatement. On the other side of the mountain, the condition of the inhabitants was little better, for the same period. In each section of the country, there were unremitted offences on the part of the Indians, and persevering vigilance, enterprise, and intre- pidity by the frontier people. No part of the West-no part of the world-suffered more, or resistsd more bravely or more suc- cessfully, than the frontiers of Tennessee.
John McNairy, Andrew Jackson, James Robertson, Thomas Hardeman, and Joel Lewis, were members of the Convention at Knoxville, in 1796.
Robert Weakly and Seth Lewis were representatives in the first Legislature of Tennessee, and Joel Lewis senator from Davidson County.
At this session, 1796, Tennessee County was divided, and the Counties of Robertson and Montgomery established out of its ter- ritory. The former was so named in honor of General James Robertson, the patriarch of Watauga, and the founder of the Cumberland settlements. He was a native of North Carolina, and emigrated to Watauga in 1768. Abundant incidents of 16
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his performances in the civil, political, and military services of his country, in every period of difficulty, embarrassment, and danger, might be related, but what we have given must suffice. His efforts, in a more private capacity, to benefit his fellow-citi- zens were disinterested, great, and unremitted. "He treated the Indians, when known enemies, as the enemies of his country ; when known friends of peace, as its friends. His fellow men he treated as such, according to known merit-for the errors of the misguided, he exercised charity to a proper extent-those hard- ened in vice, he let the law punish. He practised virtue, and encouraged it in others ; vice he discountenanced by precept and by example. His house, and all he had, were opened freely to the distressed of every condition. He loved his friends, and he held his enemies at defiance. To his wife he was indebted for a knowledge of the alphabet, and for instruction how to read and write. To Lis Creator he was indebted for rich mental endow- ments-to himself, for mental improvement. To his God was he indebted for that firmness and indomitable courage which the circumstances that surrounded him called so constantly into ex- ercise." Besides the civil and political positions which General Robertson occupied in the Watauga Association, in the Legisla- ture and Convention of North Carolina, the Territory, and the State of Tennessee, he was deputy superintendent on the part of the United States, for the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes, and was several times appointed to treat with the Southern Indians for a relinquishment of their claims to land in the Southwest. Previous to and at the time of his death, Gen. Robertson was the United States agent to the Chickasaw nation. A detail of his acts in behalf of his country, and an enumeration of his suffer- ings by personal exposure, in the wilderness, in the field of battle, in the besieged fort, and the assaulted station, in losses of rela- tives, and of private property, would fill a volume.
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Public Buildings, ett.
THE STATE CAPITOL.
THE site for this building is, perhaps, the most beautiful in the world. Imagine a hill within the centre of a city, rising in every. direction to the height of 197 feet above the level of the Cumber- land River, at Nashville ; four feet of its crest being removed, leaving a plateau of solid limestone for the construction of the building. You look down upon the city beneath your feet, and the prospect beyond, on all sides, presents a distant amphitheatre of mountain ranges.
Rome, from her seven hills, the Athenian Acropolis, nor the Cape of Collona, affords so splendid a site for an Odeum. In plan and elevation, the design and whole character of the architecture is essentially Grecian ; consisting of a Doric basement, supporting on its four fronts, porticos of the Ionic order, taken from the example of the Erectheum at Athens. In the centre of the build- ing, rises a tower above the roof, to the height of 80 feet, the superstructure of which is after the order of the Choragic monu- ment of Lysicrates at Athens. The whole structure is composed of fossilated limestone, hewn and chiselled from quarries in the neighborhood of Nashville ; the blocks of stone weighing from six to ten tons.
The various chambers, halls, and porticos are arched through- out. The rafters of the roof are of wrought iron, having a span of the whole width of the building, being supported by the in- terior walls at the north end, and by the columns of the southern (183)
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division of the building, the whole covered with thick sheets of copper. In plan, the basement story is intersectek by longitudi- nal and transverse halls of wide dimensions ; to the right and left of which are large and commodious rooms appropriated to the use of the Governor, Supreme Court, Secretary of State, Federal Court, etc. The crypt, or cellar story, in part, is to be used as a depository of arms. From the great central hall you approach the principal story by a double flight of stairs, which leads to the chambers of the Senate and House of Representatives, the Li- brary, and to the other rooms in connection therewith. The com- mittee rooms of the House are disposed on the same floor, to the right and left, communicating immediately with it and the lobbies ; over these rooms the galleries are placed. Flanking the public hall, private stairways are constructed, leading from the crypt to the various stories, and to the roof. A geometrical stair- way leads from the level of the roof to the top of the tower, where you land upon an arched platform, which is intended for an Ob- servatory. The tower is built up, from the foundation, of solid stone, containing four niches in the basement, and eight in the principal story, with spacious halls leading to the right and left. The principal stairway, which is thirty feet in width, leads from the centre of the building to the HIall of Representatives, Senate Chamber, and Library.
The Hall of Representatives contains sixteen fluted columns of the Roman Ionic order, two fect eight inches in diameter, and twenty-one feet ten inches in height, from the eave of the galleries over the committee rooms. The shafts of these columns are all in one piece. A chief beauty and convenience in the design of the principal story, so much superior to the plan of the Capitol at Washington, is that the committee rooms are on the same floor with, and surrounding the Hall of Representatives; the dimen- sions of this room are 100 feet by 70: height of ceiling from floor, 40 feet. The forum of the House of Representatives consists of a semi-circular platform, 5 fect in height, forming three seeps, upon which there is a screen of East Tennessee variegated marble, thirteen feet in height, twelve feet wide and one foot in
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