USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 20
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Tuesday, 21st .- Set out, and on this day laboured very hard and got but a little way; camped on the south bank of the Ohio. Passed the two following days as the former, suffering much from hunger and fa- tigue.
Friday, 24th .- About 3 o'clock came to the mouth of a river which I thought was the Cumberland. Some of the company declared it could not be-it was so much smaller than was expected. But I never heard of any river running in between the Cumberland and Tennessee. It appeared to flow with a gentle current. We determined, however, to make the trial, pushed up some distance and encamped for the night.
Saturday, 25th .- To-day we are much encouraged; the river grows wider; the current is very gentle, and we are now convinced it is the
202
HAPPY MEETING OF THE VOY AGERS
Cumberland. I have derived great sesistance from a small square sail which was fixed up on the day we left the mouth of the river ; and to prevent any ill-effects from sudden flaws of wind, a man was stationed at each of the lower corners of the sheet with, directions to give way whenever it was necessary.
Sunday, 26th .- Got under way early ; procured some buffalo-meat; though poor it was palatable.
Monday, 27th .- Set out again ; killed a swan, which was very deli- cious.
Tuesday, 28th .- Set out very early this morning ; killed some buffalo. Wednesday, 29th .- Proceeded up the river ; gathered some herbe on the bottoms of Cumberland, which some of the company called Shawnee salad.
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Thursday, 30th .- Proceeded on our voyage. This day we killed some more buffalo.
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Friday, 31st .- Set out this day, and after running some distance, met with Col. Richard Henderson, who was running the line between Virgi- nia and North-Carolina. At this meeting we were much rejoiced. He gave us every information we wished, and further informed us that he had purchased a quantity of corn in Kentucky, to be shipped at the Falls of Ohio for the use of the Cumberland settlement. We are now without bread, and are compelled to hunt the buffalo to preserve life. Worn out with fatigue, our progress at present is slow. Camped at night near the mouth of a little river, at which place and below there is a handsome bottom of rich land. (Here we found a pair of hand-mill stones set up for grinding, but appeared not to have been used for a great length of time .:
Proceeded on quietly until the 12th of April, at which time we came to the mouth of a little river running in on the north side, by Moses Ren- foe and his company called Red River, up which they intend to settle. Here they took leave of us. We proceeded up Cumberland, nothing happening material until the 23d, when we reached the first settlement on the north side of the river, one mile and a half below the Big Salt Lick and called Eaton's Station, after a man of that name, who with several other families, came through Kentucky and settled there.
Monday, April 24th .- This day we arrived at our journey's end at the Big Salt Lick, where we have the pleasure of finding Capt. Robert- son and his company. It is a source of satisfaction to us to be enabled to restore to him and others their families and friends, who were entrusted to our care, and who, sometime since, perhaps, despaired of ever meeting again. Though our prospects at present are dreary, we have found a few log cabins which have been built on a cedar bluff above the Lick, by Capt. Robertson and his company.
The distance traversed in this inland voyage, the extreme 1780 ( danger from the navigation of the rapid and unknown ( rivers, and the hostile attacks from the savages upon their bank's, mark the emigration under Col. Donelson as one of the greatest achievements in the settlement of the West.
203
WITH THE COLONISTS AT THE BLUFF.
The names of these adventurous navigators and bold pio- neers of the Cumberland country are not, all of them, recol- lected ; some of them follow: Mrs. Robertson, the wife of James Robertson, Col. Donelson, John Donelson, Jun., Robert Cartwright, Benjamin Porter, James Cain, Isaac Neely, John Cotton, Mr. Rounsever, Jonathan Jennings, William Crutch- field, Moses Renfroe, Joseph Renfroe, James Renfroe, Solo- mon Turpin, -. Johns, Sen., Francis Armstrong, Isaac Lanier, Daniel Dunham, John Boyd, John Montgomery, John Cockrill and John Caffrey, with their respective families ; also, Mary Henry, a widow, and her family, Mary Purnell and her family, John Blackmore and John Gibson.
These, with the emigrants already mentioned as having arrived with Robertson by the way of the Kentucky trace, and the few that had remained at the Bluff to take care of the growing crops, constituted the nucleus of the Cumber- land community in 1780. Some of them plunged, at once, into the adjoining forests, and built a cabin with its necessary defences. Col. Donelson, himself, with his connexions, was of this number. He went up the Cumberland and settled upon Stone's River, a confluent of that stream, at a place since called Clover Bottom, where he erected a small fort on its south side. The situation was found to be too low, as the water, during a freshet, surrounded the fort, and it was, for that reason, removed to the north side.
Dr. Walker, the Commissioner on the part of Virginia, for running the boundary line between that state and North- Carolina, arrived at the Bluff. He was accompanied by Col. Richard Henderson and his two brothers, Nathaniel and Pleasant. Col. Henderson erected a station also, on Stone's River, and remained there some time, selling lands under . the deed made to himself and partners by the Cherokees, at Watauga, in March, 1775, as has been already mentioned. He sold one thousand acres per head at ten dollars per thou- sand. His certificate entitled the holder, at a future time, to further proceedings in a land office .* The purchase of " Transylvania in America," as made by Henderson and his associates, without any authority from the states of North-
* Haywood.
204
EXTREME DEARTH ON THE FRONTIER.
Carolina and Virginia, was, in itself, null and void, so far as it claimed to vest the title of lands in those individuals. The associates could be recognized only as private citizens, having no right to make treaties with or purchase lands from the Indians. This treaty was, however, considered as an extinguishment of the Indian title to the lands embraced within the boundaries mentioned in it. The legislatures of the two states, for this reason, and as a remuneration for the expenditures previous and subsequent to the treaty of Wa- tauga, allowed, to the Transylvania Company, a grant of two hundred thousand acres from each state.
One of the great sources of Indian invasion and of hostile instigation, had been broken up by the capture of the British posts on the Wabash and in the Illinois country, and the captivity of Colonel Hamilton, who was now a prisoner at Williamsburg. Many of the western tribes had entered into treaties of peace and friendship with Col. Clarke, which presaged a temporary quietude to the frontier people. The repeated chastisements of the Cherokees by the troops under Sevier and Shelby, seemed, for a time, to secure the friend- ship of that nation. The news of this condition of western affairs gave a new impulse to emigration, and the roads and traces to Kentucky and Cumberland were crowded with hardy adventurers, seeking home and fortune in their distant wilds. This rapid increase of population exhausted the limited supply of food in the country, and a dearth ensued. Corn, and every other article of family consumption, became remarkably scarce. The winter had been long and exceed- ingly cold. The cattle and hogs designed for the use of the emigrants in their new settlements, had perished from star- vation and the inclemency of the season. The game in the woods was, from like causes, poor and sickly, and, though easily found and taken, was unfit for food. This scarcity prevailed throughout the whole frontier line for five hundred miles, and was aggravated by the circumstance that no source of supply was within the reach of the suffering peo- ple. In the neighbouring settlements of Kentucky, corn was worth, in March, of 1780, one hundred and sixty-five dollars a bushel, in continental money, which price it main-
205
EXPOSED CONDITION OF THE COLONY.
tained until the opening spring supplied other means of sustenance .*
Such were the circumstances under which the pioneers of the Lower Cumberland formed the first permanent white settlement in Middle Tennessee. Their position was that of hardship and danger, toil and suffering. As has been well said by anothert in reference to Kentucky : they were posted in the heart of the most favourite hunting ground of numerous and hostile tribes of Indians on the north and on the south ; a ground endeared to them by its profusion of the finest game, subsisting on the luxuriant vegetation of this great natural park. It was, emphatically, the Eden of the Red Man. Was it then wonderful, that all his fiercest passions and wildest energies, should be aroused in its defence, against an enemy, whose success was the Indian's downfall ?
The little band of emigrants at the Bluff were in the centre of a vast wilderness, equi-distant from the most war-like and ferocious tribes on this continent-tribes that had frequently wasted the frontiers of Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania, with the tomahawk and with fire, and that were now aided, in the unnatural alliance of Great Britain, by the arts and treasures furnished by the agents of that government. To attack and invasion from these tribes, the geographical po- sition of the Cumberland settlers gave a peculiar exposure and a special liability. Three hundred miles of wilderness separated them from the nearest fort of their countrymen on Holston. They were, perhaps, double that distance from their seat of government in North-Carolina, while all the energies of the parent state were employed in the tremendous struggle for Independence, in the cause of which she had so early and so heartily engaged. This forlorn situation of the settlement at the Bluff became more perilous, as it was so accessible by water from the distant hostile tribes. De- scending. navigation could bring, with great rapidity, the fleets of canoes and perogues, from the Ohio and its western tributaries, loaded with the armed warriors of that region ; while upon the Tennessee River, with equal celerity, the Cherokee and Creek braves could precipitate themselves to · Mouette. + Butler.
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206
PERMANENT SETTLEMENT AT THE BLUFF.
the different landings on that stream, and co-operating with their confederates from the north, unite in one general stroke of devastation and havoc. Had this been done at the period of the first emigration, the Bluff settlement could have been annihilated. Happily, the protracted and inclement winter that inflicted its inhospitable severity and such great hard- ships upon the first emigrants, protected them from attack, by confining their enemies to their towns and wigwams. Early in January, a small party of Delaware Indians came from the direction of the Cany Fork, and passed by the head of Mill Creek, and encamped on one of its branches, which has since been called Indian Creek. The Indians proceeded to Bear Creek of Tennessee, and continued there during the summer. At this time they offered no molestation to the whites. Before the next irruption of the Indians, time was given for the erection of defences, and Robertson's second colony was planted-consisting, like the first at Watauga, of intrepid men and heroic women-fit elements for the founda- tion of a great and flourishing state. And here, at the Bluff, with its little garrison and rude stations-in the centre of a wide wilderness, and overshadowed by the huge evergreens and the ancient forest around it-amidst the snows, and ice, and storms of 1780, was fixed the seat of commerce, of learning and the arts-the future abode of refinement and hospitality, and the cradle of empire.
When the first settlers came to the Bluff in 1779-'80, Hay- wood says the country had the appearance of one which had never before been cultivated. There was no sign of any cleared land, nor other appearance of former cultivation. Nothing was presented to the eye but one large plain of woods and cane, frequented by buffaloes, elk, deer, wolves, foxes, panthers, and other animals suited to the climate. The lands adjacent to the French Lick, which Mansco, in 1769, when he first hunted here, called an old field, was a large open space, frequented and trodden by buffaloes, whose large paths led to it from all parts of the country and there con- centred. On these adjacent lands was no under-growth nor cane, as far as the water reached in time of high water. The country as far as to Elk River and beyond it, had not a
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207
ANCIENT REMAINS ON CUMBERLAND.
single permanent inhabitant, except the wild beasts of the forest ; but there were traces, as everywhere else, of having been inhabited many centuries before by a numerous popu- lation. At every lasting spring is a large collection of graves, made in a particular way, the whole covered with a stratum of mould and dirt, eight or ten inches deep. At many springs is the appearance of walls enclosing ancient habitations, the foundations of which were visible whenever the earth was cleared and cultivated-to these walls entrenchments were sometimes added. The walls sometimes enclose six, eight, or ten acres of land, and sometimes they are more extensive.
We have thus traced the stream of emigration from the Atlantic to the West. We have seen a few enterprising and adventurous men, clustering together on the banks of the remote and secluded Watauga, felling the forest, erecting the cabin, forming society and laying the foundation of go- vernment. We have seen the plain and unpretending emi- grant from the Yadkin, and his hunter associates, combining the.wisdom and virtue of the pioneer condition, and provi- ding laws and regulations suited to the wants of the new community around them. We have seen the patriotism and chivalry of the extreme western settlement rally at the sound of danger. Leaving their own frontier exposed, they mag- nanimously returned to the defence of a sister colony, and on the rugged Kenhawa, met and repulsed the savage invader. We have seen Robertson negotiate an enlargement of his border, and effect a peaceable extension of the settlements. We have seen the fortress erected, the station built, and the enemy repulsed. We have seen armaments by land and wa- ter boldly penetrate to the centre of the warlike Cherokee nation, and the soldiery of the Watauga bivouac upon the sources of the Coosa. The first settlement in Tennessee planted, defended, secure and prosperous, we have seen its founder and patriarch lead forth a new colony, through ano- ther wilderness, to experience upon another theatre, new pri- vations, and undergo new dangers, and perform new achieve- ments upon the remote Cumberland. There, for the present, we shall leave them, and return to the eastern settlements. Here was the cradle of the great State of Tennessee, where
208
REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
its infancy was spent and its early manhood formed. The vigorous shoots sent out from the parent stem-the colonies that have gone abroad from the old homestead. and peopled the great West-have ever been worthy of their ancestry. Their rapid growth and enlargement, their unexampled pros- perity and achievement, are noticed with feelings of parental fondness and pride. In no spirit of senile arrogance is the claim upon their filial piety asserted for veneration and re- gard to their East Tennessee forefathers. Through them our proud state claims to be one of the "Old Thirteen," and to be identified with them in the cause of independence and freedom.
On a preceding page, it has been mentioned that the capi- tal of Georgia was in the possession of the British, and that their posts had been extended up the Savannah River, as high as Augusta. Simultaneously with the arrival of the enemy in Georgia, was that of General Lincoln in South- Carolina, and the war of the Revolution was at once trans- ferred from the Northern to the Southern States.
It was hoped that by the co-operation of our generous ally, France, all that had been lost in the south would be recovered at a single blow ; and that by the combined forces of Lincoln and Count D'Estaing, the army under Provost, and then concentrated at Savannah, would be captured. That place was attacked on the 8th of October, but the result blasted all the high hopes of the combined armies; and their failure was the precursor of the loss of Charleston and the reduction of the Southern States. D'Estaing soon after left the coast. The southern army was nearly broken up ; sickness had diminished the number of the Carolina regi- ments, while those from the north were daily becoming weaker, by the expiration of the term of their enlistment. The quiet possession of Georgia by the enemy, brought to their aid many of the Indians, and of the loyalists who had fled from the Carolinas and Georgia and taken refuge among them. These were now emboldened to collect from all quar- ters, under cover of Provost's army. These either united with it, or joined in formidable bodies to hunt up and de- stroy the whig inhabitants. Many of these were forced, in
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209
CHARLESTON CAPITULATES.
their turn, to forsake their plantations, and transport their families beyond the mountains to the securer retreats of Wa- tauga and Nollichucky. It became evident that all that was wanting to complete British ascendancy in the South, was the possession of Charleston. Should that metropolis, and the army that defended it, be captured, the reduction of the whole state, and probably of North-Carolina also, would ensue. To attain these objects, ten thousand chosen men, with an immense supply of arms and munitions of war, were landed, on the eleventh of February, 1780, on John's Island, the command of which was taken by Sir Henry Clinton. The assembly of South-Carolina was in session ; and though the regular troops in the state did not then amount to one thousand men, and the defences of the city were in a dilapidated or unfinished condition, it was resolved with one voice to defend the capital to the last extremity. Governor Rutledge was invested with dictatorial powers, and measures were taken to hasten the arrival of reinforce- ments from the interior of the state and from North-Caro- lina. The besieged at no time amounted to four thousand men, and yet had to defend an extent of works that could not be well manned by less than ten thousand. Besides, they were badly furnished, and, before the siege was over, were even suffering for food. Yet the defence was pro- tracted, under every discouragement and disadvantage, from the 29th of March to the 12th of May, when General Lincoln found himself obliged to capitulate. The fall of the metro- polis was soon after succeeded by the rapid conquest of the interior country, and, from the seacoast to the mountains, the progress of the enemy was almost wholly an uninter- rupted triumph. The inhabitants generally submitted, and were either paroled as prisoners, or took protection as Bri- tish subjects. A few brave and patriotic men, under gal- lant and indomitable leaders, remained in arms, but were surprised and cut to pieces by Tarleton and Webster, or, for security from their pursuit, withdrew into North-Caro- lina. The march of the enemy was continued towards the populous whig settlements, and garrisons were established at prominent points of the country, with the view of pushing
14
810
CLARKE GALLANTLY ATTACKS THE ENEMY.
their conquest still further into the interior. South-Carolina was considered a subdued British province, rather than an American state, and Sir Henry Clinton, believing the conquest complete, invested Lord Cornwallis with the chief command, and sailed for New-York.
" But, in the midst of the general submission of the inhabitants, there remained a few unconquerable spirits, whom nothing but death could quell. These were Sumpter, Marion and Williams, in South-Carolina, and Clarke and Twigga, in Georgia. The three last had never submit- ted, and were ever in motion, harassing and waylaying the enemy. But their force was seldom considerable. Sumpter and Marion, after the capitulation of Charleston, had retired into North-Carolina, to recruit their commands and gather the means of carrying on that partizan war- fare in which they afterwards became so conspicuous."*
When Georgia was overrun by the British, Colonel Clarke, 179 with about one hundred of his valiant but overpowered countrymen, sought safety in the remote settlements on the Watauga and Holston. Here their representations of the atrocities perpetrated by the loyalists induced many of the frontier men to return with Clarke and retaliate the inju- ries he and his associates had suffered. Clarke thus rein- forced, approached the British camp, placed his men near the road that lead to it, and sent forward a small detachment of his men to draw out the enemy into his ambuscade. The stratagem succeeded. On the approach of the British and loy- alists, Robert Bean, of Watauga, fired at and killed the com- manding officer. Many of his men suffered the same fate. The enemy was repulsed, and in their retreat before Clarke several were killed, while he sustained the loss of but a sin- gle Georgian. Here began a lasting friendship between the Georgians and the Western settlers.
The successes of the British army had stimulated into life the hitherto dormant disaffection of some of the inhabitants of North-Carolina. That army was now approaching, in its career of conquest and victory, the southern boundary of that state. Some who had hitherto worn the mask of friendship, became now the avowed enemies of the American cause. In the settlements beyond the mountain a few tories had taken refuge. To watch their motions as well as those of the Indians,
· Johnson.
GEN. RUTHERFORD CALLS FOR THE WESTERN RIFLEMEN. 211
it was found necessary to embody scouting parties of armed men. One of these killed Bradley, a disaffected citizen from Halifax county, and notorious for his crimes and his frequent and artful escapes from justice. With him was also taken another confederate in guilt, Halley. They were both taken and shot by Robert Sevier's company of horsemen. Another tory named Dykes, was also captured. He and others had concerted a plan to come to the house of Col. Sevier and mur- der him. The wife of Dykes, who had in time of distress been treated by Sevier with great kindness and humanity, dis- closed to him the meditated mischief. Dykes himself was immediately hung. This was done by Jesse Green and John Gibson, two of the Regulators. An act of oblivion was passed for their relief.
Thus the vigilance and efforts of the Western settlers were not confined to the protection and defence of their own seclu- ded homes. They had left parents and kindred and country- men east of the Alleghanies, and their hearts yet yearned for their safety and welfare. The homes of their youth were pillaged by a foreign soldiery, and the friends they loved were slain or driven into exile. Above all, the great cause of American freedom and independence was in danger, the coun- try was invaded by a powerful foe, and the exigencies of Ca- rolina called aloud for every absent son to return to her res- cue and defence. The call was promptly obeyed. And the mountain men-the pioneers of Tennessee-were the first to resist the invaders, and restrained not from the pursuit of the vanquished enemy till they reached the coast of the Atlantic.
After the destination of the large armament under Sir 1780 Henry Clinton was ascertained to be Charleston, Gen. ( Rutherford, of North-Carolina, issued a requisition for the militia of that state to embody for the defence of their sis- ter state. That order reached Watauga, and the following proceedings were immediately had in that small but patriotic and gallant community. They are copied from the original manuscript in the possession of this writer. They are almost illegible from the ravages of time and exposure, but even now plainly shew the bold and characteristic chirography of Col. Sevier and the commissioned officers under him. There is
212 MEETING OF COL. SEVIER AND OTHER MILITIA OFFICERS.
no preamble, no circumlocution - Nothing but action, prompt and decisive action, and the names of the actors :
" At a meeting of sundry of the Militia Officers of Washington County, this 19th day of March, 1780: Present, John Sevier, Colonel, Jonathan Tipton, Major, Joseph Willson, John McNabb, Godfrey Isbell, Wm. Trim- ble, James Stinson, Robert Sevier, Captains, and Landon Carter, Lieute- nant, in the absence of Valentine Sevier, Captain.
"In order to raise one hundred men, agreeable to command of the Hon. Brigadier Rutherford, to send to the aid of South-Carolina. " It is the opinion of the officers, that each company in this county do furnish eight effective men, well equipt for war, except Samuel Williams's company, which is to furnish four men well equipt as aforesaid.
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