USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 16
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The several invasions, by as many separate parties of Cherokee warriors, well armed, and carrying with them full supplies of ammunition, were ascribed to the instigation of British officers. The imputation is a serious one, and should not be made without adequate testimony. It is abhorrent to the feelings of civilized man ; it is in direct conflict with the kindly sympathies of a christian people, and it is repugnant to all the pleasant charities of life, to incite a blood-thirsty and barbarous nation to perpetrate outrage and cruelty, rapine and murder, havoc and war, indiscriminately upon valiant men, helpless women and innocent children. Not only was this invasion by the Cherokees imputed to British agency, but the details of it were traced to a concerted plan of attack, arranged by Gen. Gage and the Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
John Stuart was sole agent and Superintendent of his Majesty's Indian Affairs for the Southern District. For a long time he had been suspected of endeavouring to influ- ence the Indians against the American cause. In support of these suspicions, a gentleman from North-Carolina had given some particulars to the committee of intelligence, in Charleston, which he had collected from the Catawba In- dians. Stuart departed suddenly from Charleston, just before
* Letter of General Campbell, of Abingdon.
161
CAPTAIN STUART'S LETTER-BOOK.
. the meeting of the Provincial Congress, and went to Savan- nah. There his official letter-book was seen, by Mr. Haber- sham, in which a full confirmation was found of the suspi- cions excited against him, and proving that his intention was, evidently, to arouse the resentment and stimulate the bad passions of the savages in their neighbourhood against Anglo-Americans struggling against oppression, and vindi- cating the rights of freemen. In the letter-book was found a despatch from Mr. Cameron, saying to Mr. Stuart, "that the traders must, by some means or other, get ammunition among them, or otherwise they may become troublesome to him for the want of it." The ammunition was, doubtless, furnished, and went into the outfit of the several detach- ments of warriors that soon after invaded the quiet and unoffending pioneers of Tennessee.
Only one of these written disclosures of the murderous policy adopted by England against American citizens, had yet reached the frontier ; but there were other sources of in- formation, not less authentic or reliable, from which the machinations of the enemy were soon made known. The traders noticed at first a spirit of suspicion and discontent, and directly after unmistakable evidences of fixed resentment and hostility. This discovery was communicated to the settlers, and along with the friendly interposition of the Che- rokee Pocahontas, saved the settlements from a surprise that might otherwise have proved fatal.
Simultaneously with these several invasions of the frontier settlements of Virginia and North-Carolina by the Cherokees, that warlike nation was carrying into execution the mur- derous policy instigated by British officers against South- Carolina and Georgia. A plan for compelling the colonies
- to submission, had been concerted between the British com- mander-in-chief, General Gage, and the Superintendent of Southern Indian Affairs, John Stuart. That plan shall be given in the words of a British historian :*
"British agents were again employed, in engaging the Indians to make a diversion, and to enter the Southern Colonies on their back and defenciees parts. Accustomed to their dispositions and habits of mind,
. C. Stedman, History American War, vol. 1.
11
102
PREPARATIONS TO INVADE
the agents found but little difficulty in bringing them over to their pur- pose, by presents and hopes of spoil and plunder. A large body of men was to be sent to West Florida, in order to penetrate through the terri- tories of the Creeks, Chickasaws and Cherokees. The warriors of these nations were to join the body, and the Carolinas and Virginia were im- mediately to be invaded. At the same time the attention of the colo- nies was to be diverted, by another formidable naval and military force, which was to make an impression on the sea coast. But this under- taking was not to depend solely on the British army and Indians. It was intended to engage the assistance of such of the white inhabitants of the back settlements, as were known to be well affected to the British cause. Circular letters were accordingly sent to those persons by Mr. Stuart, requiring not only the well affected, but also those who wished to preserve their property from the miseries of a civil war, to repair to the royal standard as soon as it should be erected in the Cherokee country, with all their horses, cattle and provisions, for which they should be liberally paid."
A part only of this complicated plan was executed. Sir Peter Parker appeared with a British squadron in May, of the coast of North-Carolina, and early in June prepared to attack Charleston with a large naval and military force. The Indians were true to their engagement. Being informed that a .British fleet with troops had arrived off Charleston, they proceeded to take up the war club, and with the dawn of day on the first day of July, the Cherokees poured down upon the frontiers of South-Carolina, massacring without distinction of age or sex, all persons who fell into their power. Several white men with whom Cameron and Stuart had been intriguing, painted and dressed as Indians, marched with and directed their attacks upon the most defenceless points of the frontier. The news of the gallant defence at Sullivan's Island, and the repulse of Sir Peter Parker, in the harbour of Charleston, on the 28th of June, arrived soon after that glorious victory, and frustrated in part the plan as con- certed.
. Preparations were immediately made, to march with an imposing force upon the Cherokee nation. The whole fron- tier, from Georgia to the head of Holston in Virginia, had been invaded at once ; and the four southern colonies, now on the point of becoming sovereign and independent states, assumed an offensive position, and determined in their turn to invade and destroy their deluded and savage enemies.
163
THE CHEROKEE NATION.
The Cherokee nation at this time occupied, as places of resi- § dence or as hunting grounds, all the territory west and 1776 north of the upper settlements in Georgia, and west of the Carolinas and South-western Virginia. They were the most warlike and enterprising of the native tribes, and, ex- cept the Creeks, were the most numerous. Intercourse with the whites had made them acquainted with the use of small arms and some of the modes of civilized warfare. They had made some advances in agriculture. They lived in towns of various sizes-their government was simple, and in time of war especially, the authority of their chiefs and warriors was supreme. Their country was known by three great geo- graphical divisions : The Lower Towns, the Middle Settle- ments and Vallies, and the Over-hill Towns.
The number of warriors were, in the
Middle Settlements and Vallies, 878
In Lower Towns, 356
In Over-hill Towns, 1757
Total Cherokee men in Towns, -
1991
To these may be added such warriors as lived in the less compact settlements, estimated at five hundred. *
To inflict suitable chastisement upon the Cherokees, seve- ral expeditions were at once made into their territories. Colo- nel McBury and Major Jack, from Georgia, entered the Indian settlements on Tugaloo, and defeating the enemy, destroyed all their towns on that river. General Williamson, of South- Carolina, early in July began to embody the militia of that state, and before the end of that month was at the head of. an army of eleven hundred and fifty men, marching to meet Cameron, who was, with a large body of Esseneca Indians and disaffected white men, encamped at Oconoree. Encounter- ing and defeating this body of the enemy, he destroyed their town and a large amount of provisions. He burned Sugaw Town, Soconee, Keowee, Ostatoy, Tugaloo and Brass Town. He proceeded against Tomassee, Chehokee and Eustustie, where, observing a recent trail of the enemy, he made pur- suit and soon met and vanquished three hundred of their warriors. These towns he afterwards destroyed.
· Drayton.
-
-
164
GENERAL RUTHERFORD'S ARMY.
In the meantime, an army had been raised in North-Caro- lina, under command of General Rutherford, and a place of joining their respective forces had been agreed upon by that officer and Colonel Williamson, under the supposition that nothing less than their united force was adequate to the reduc- tion of the Middle Settlements and Vallies. Colonel Martin Armstrong, of Surry county, in August raised a small regiment of militia and marched with them to join General Rutherford. Benjamin Cleveland was one of Armstrong's captains. Wil- liam (afterwards general) Lenoir was Cleveland's first lien- tenant, and William Gray his second lieutenant. Armstrong's regiment crossed John's River at McKenney's ford, passed the Quaker Meadows and crossed the Catawba at Greenlee's ford, and at Cathey's Fort joined the army under General Rutherford, consisting of above two thousand men. The Blue Ridge was crossed by this army at the Swannanæ Gap, and the march continued down the river of the same name to its mouth, near to which they crossed the French Broad. From that river the army marched up Hominy Creek, leaving Pis- gah on the left and crossing Pigeon a little below the mouth of the East Fork. Thence through the mountain to Richland Creek, above the present Waynesville, and ascending that creek and crossing Tuckaseigee River at an Indian town. They then crossed the Cowee Mountain, where they had an engagement with the enemy, in which but one white man was wounded. The Indians carried off their dead. From thence the army marched to the Middle Towns on Tennessee River, where they expected to form a junction with the South-Caro- lina troops under General Williamson. Here, after waiting a few days, they left a strong guard and continued the march to the Hiwassee towns. All the Indian villages were found evacuated, the warriors having fled without offering any resistance. Few were killed or wounded on either side, and but few prisoners taken by the whites-but they destroyed all the buildings, crops and stock of the enemy, and left them in a starving condition. This army returned by the same route it had marched. They destroyed thirty or forty Cherokee towns. * The route has since been known as Rutherford's Trace.
* Gen. Lenoir's letter to this writer.
160
GENERAL CHRISTIAN INVADES CHEROKEE NATION.
While the troops commanded by McBury, Williamson and Rutherford, were thus desolating the Lower Towns and Middle Settlements of the Cherokees, another army, not less valiant or enterprising, had penetrated to the more secure, because more remote, Over-hill Towns. We have seen that the great chieftains of these interior places, Dragging-Canoe, Old Abram of Chilhowee, and Raven, had, at the head of their several commands, fallen upon Watauga and the other infant settlements, and although signally repulsed, some of them had united with another detachment, under another leader, and were spreading devastation and ruin upon the unprotected settlements near the head of Holston and Clinch, in Virginia. The government of that state, indignant at aggressions so unprovoked and so offensive, soon acted in a manner suitable to her exalted sense of national honour. Orders were immediately given to Col. William Christian to raise an army and to march them at once into the heart of the Cherokee country. The place of rendezvous was the Great Island of Holston. This service was undertaken with the greatest alacrity, and so active were the exertions of the officers and men that by the first of August several compa- nies had assembled at the place appointed. This prepara- tory movement was itself sufficient to drive off the Indians who still remained lurking around the settlements. Soon after Col. Christian was reinforced by three or four hundred North-Carolina militia, under Col. Joseph Williams, Col. Love and Major Winston. To these were added such gun- men as could be spared from the neighbouring forts and stations. The whole army took up the line of march for the Cherokee towns, nearly two hundred miles distant. Crossing the Holston at the Great Island, they marched eight miles and encamped at the Double Springs, on the head waters of Lick Creek. Here the army remained a few days, till the reinforcement from Watauga should overtake it. The whole force now amounted to eighteen hundred men, including pack-horse men and bullock drivers. All were well armed with rifles, tomahawks and butcher knives. The army was all infantry, except a single company of light horse. While on the march the precaution was taken to send forward
.
106
ARMY WADES FRENCH BROAD,
sixteen spies to the crossing place of the French Broad. The Indians had boasted that the white men should never cross that river. Near the mouth of Lick Creek were extensive cane-brakes, which, with a lagoon or swamp of a mile long, obstructed the march. The army succeeded, however, in crossing through this pass. The packs and beeves did not get through till midnight. At the encampment that night, Alexander Harlin came in and informed Col. Christian that a body of three thousand warriors were awaiting his arrival at French Broad, and would certainly there dispute his pas- sage across that stream. He was ordered into camp with the spies. At the bend of Nollichucky the camps of the enemy were found by the spies, deserted, but affording unerring evidence that the Indians were embodied in large numbers. This, with the message of Harlin, put the com- mander on his guard, and the march was resumed, next day, with every precaution and preparation against a surprise. Harlin was dismissed with a request from Col. Christian that he would inform the Indians of his determination to cross not only the French Broad, but the Tennessee, before he stopped. The route to be pursued was unknown and through a wilderness. Isaac Thomas, a trader among the Cherokees, acted as the pilot. He conducted the army along a narrow but plain war path up Long Creek to its source, and down Dumplin Creek to a point a few miles from its mouth, where the war path struck across to the ford of French Broad, near what has since been known as Buckingham's Island. As they came down Dumplin, and before they reached the river, the army was met by Fallen, a trader, having a white flag in his rifle. Christian directed that he should not be dis- turbed and that no notice should be taken of his embassy. He departed immediately, and gave to the Indians informa- tion that the whites, as numerous as the trees, were march- ing into their country. Arrived at the river, Col. Christian ordered every mess to kindle a good fire and strike up tent, as though he intended to encamp there several days. During the night a large detachment was sent down the river to an island, near where Brabson's mill now stands, with direo- tions to cross the river at that place, and to come up the
167
NEAR BUCKINGHAM'S IBLAND.
river, on its southern bank, next morning. This order was executed with great difficulty. The ford was deep, and the water so rapid as to require the men to march in platoons of four abreast, so as to brace each other against the impetu- ous stream. In one place the water reached nearly to the shoulders of the men, but the ammunition and the guns were kept dry.
.
Next morning the main body crossed the river near the Big Island. They marched in order of battle, expecting an attack from the Indians, who were supposed to be lying about in ambush ; but to their surprise no trace was found even of a recent camp. The detachment met no molestation from the enemy, and, joining the main body, a halt was made one day, for the purpose of drying the baggage and provi- sions which had got wet in crossing the river.
When it was understood in the Cherokee nation that Christian was about to invade their territory, one thousand warriors assembled at the Big Island of French Broad to resist the invaders. The great war path, which led through it, was considered as the gate to the best part of their coun- try ; and the island being the key to it, the Indians deter- mined to maintain and defend that point to the last extremity. From that place, a message was sent by Fallen, as already mentioned, addressed to the commanding officer, not to at- tempt the crossing, as a formidable host of their braves would be there to dispute the passage. After the departure of the messenger, a trader named Starr, who was in the Indian encampment, harangued the warriors in an earnest . tone. He said that the Great Spirit had made the one race of white clay and the other of red ; that he had intended the former to conquer and subdue the latter, and that the pale faces would not only invade their country, but would over- run and occupy it. He advised, therefore, an immediate abandonment of their purpose of defence, and a retreat to their villages and the fastnesses of their mountains. The trader's counsels prevailed-all defensive measures were abandoned, and, without waiting for the return of their mes- sengers, the warriors dispersed, and the island was found deserted and their encampments broken up and forsaken.
168
ARMY CROSSES TENNESSEE.
The next morning the army resumed its march. The route led along the valley of Boyd's Creek and down Ellejay to Lit- tle River. From there to the Tennessee River not an Indian was seen. Col. Christian supposed that, as the Cherokee settlements and towns were upon the opposite bank, he would meet a formidable resistance in attempting to cross it. When the troops came within a few miles of the ford, · he called upon them to follow him in a run till they came to the river. This was done, and, pushing through, they took possession of a town called Tamotlee, above the mouth of Telico. The army, pack horses, &c., were all safely crossed over before night, and the encampment was made in the deserted town. Next morning they marched to the Great Island Town, which was taken without resistance. The fertile lands in the neighbourhood furnished a supply of corn, potatoes and other provisions, and the Indian huts made comfortable bivouacs for the troops. The commander, for these reasons, made this place, temporarily, head-quarters and a centre for future operations. A panic had seized the Cherokee warriors, and not one of them could be found. Small detachments were, therefore, from time to time, sent out to different parts of the nation, and finding no armed enemy to contend against, they adopted, as not a less effec- tual chastisement of the implacable enemy, the policy of laying waste and burning their fields and towns. In this manner Neowee, Telico, Chilhowee and other villages were destroyed. Occasionally, during these excursions, a few warriors were seen, escaping from one town to a place of greater safety, and were killed. No males were taken pri- soners. These devastations were confined to such towns as were known to have advised or consented to hostilities, while such, like the Beloved Town, Chota, as had been disposed to peace, were spared. Col. Christian endeavoured to convince the Cherokees that he warred only with enemies. He sent ont three or four men with white flags, and requested a talk with the chiefs. Six or seven immediately came in. In a few days several others, from the more distant towns, came forward also and proposed peace. It was granted, but not to take effect till a treaty should be made by representatives
169
A CONDITIONAL PEACE AGREED UPON.
from the whole tribe, to assemble the succeeding May, at Long Island. A suspension of hostilities was, in the mean- time, provided for, with the exception of two towns high up in the mountains, on Tennessee River. These had burnt a prisoner, a youth named Moore, whom they had taken at Watauga. Tuskega and the other excepted town were reduced to ashes.
Colonel Christian finding nothing more to occupy his army longer, broke up his camp at Great Island Town, marched to Chota, recrossed the Tennessee and returned to the settle- ments. In this campaign of about three months, not one man was killed. A few, from inclement weather and undue fatigue, became sick. . No one died. The Rev. Charles Cummings accompanied the expedition as chaplain, and was thus the first christian minister that ever preached in Tennessee. A pioneer of civilization, of learning and of religion-let his memory not be forgotten !
Most of the troops commanded by Christian were disbanded at Long Island, where they had been mustered into service. A portion of them were retained and went into winter quar- ters. A new fort was erected there, which, in honour of the patriotic Governor of Virginia, was called "Fort Henry." Its ruins are still pointed out on the lands of Colonel Nether- land. Supplies of provisions were brought to it from Rock Bridge and Augusta counties, in wagons and on pack-horses.
Captain Thompson, who commanded a company at Long Island in July preceding, was with his company in this cam- paign, and formed the life-guard of the commanding general.
In the centre of the Cherokee towns, taken by Christian's troops, was found a circular tower, rudely built and covered with dirt, thirty feet in diameter and about twenty feet high. This tower was used as a council house and as a place for celebrating the green corn dance and other national ceremo- nials. Within it were beds, made of cane, rather tastefully arranged around its circumference. Each tower had a single entrance, a narrow door. There was neither window nor chimney.
The unexpected invasions made by the hitherto peaceable Cherokees upon the infant settlements, retarded for a time
170
NEW FLOOD OF EMIGRANTS.
the rapid growth and enlargement by which they had been, for five years, so signally distinguished. But the remarkable success that had followed the unaided efforts of some of the stations, to repulse the assailants and to defend themselves, left little ground of apprehension for the future. Not one emigrant deserted the frontier or crossed the mountain for safety. On the other hand, the campaign that had been carried into the heart of the enemy's country, had done more for the new settlements than the mere security it afforded from pre- sent assault or future invasion. The volunteers who com- posed the command of Christian were, many of them, from the more interior counties of North-Carolina and Virginia. In their marches they had seen and noticed the fertile vallies, the rich uplands, the sparkling fountains, the pellucid streams, the extensive grazing and hunting grounds, and had felt the genial influences of the climate of the best part of East Ten- nessee. Each soldier, upon his return home, gave a glowing account of the adaptation of the country to all the purposes of agriculture. The story was repeated from one to another, till upon the Roanoke and the Yadkin the people spoke fami- liarly of the Holston, the Nollichucky, the French Broad, Lit- tle River and the Tennessee. Particular places were selected, springs designated and points chosen as centres for future settlements. A flood of emigration followed to strengthen, build up and enlarge the little community already planted across the mountain.
Notwithstanding these accessions to their strength, the frontier people continued their accustomed vigilance. A gar- rison was still maintained in Fort Henry. The military com- mand of the country was in the hands of Col. Arthur Camp- bell, of Washington county, Virginia, under the belief that the settlements were included within the limits of that state. Col. Campbell ordered Captain Robertson to keep the Wa- tauga people assembled in two places for mutual protection and safety-he designated Patton's and Rice's Mills as the most suitable points, on account of the weakness of the set- tlement below the fort, and of the danger to which they might soon be exposed.
In addition to these precautionary measures, it was ordered
191
LETTER FROM COLONEL ROBERTSON
by the authorities of Virginia that four hundred men, under the command of Col. Evan Shelby and Major Anthony Bled- soe, should be stationed on the south-western frontiers, at such places as would most effectually protect the inhabitants against the Indians. A part of the Cherokees were known to be still hostile-their towns had been destroyed and their country laid waste, but their warriors had survived, and some of them still panted for revenge, and had resolved to repu- diate any participation in the contemplated treaty.
A letter is preserved from Col. Charles Robertson, Trustee of the Watauga Association. In it will be found some infor- mation never before published. It follows :
WASHINGTON DISTRICT, 27th April, 1777. His Excellency RICHARD CASWELL,
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