USA > Tennessee > The civil and political history of the state of Tennessee from its earliest settlement up to the year 1796 : including the boundaries of the state > Part 36
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Soon after Gen. Robertson had sent off an express with this communication, he received the one sent to himself by the Gov- ernor. He 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 Col. Elijah Robertson, Col. Mansco, and Col. Winchester, and Capt. John Rains, two miles
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from Nashville. A troop of horse, commanded by Col. Hays, was ordered to discover, if possible, at what point the Indians intended to make the meditated attack. Before the receipt of the dispatches from Gen. Robertson which apprised him of the deception which "The Bloody Fellow" and others were to prac- tice upon him, the Governor, on the 14th of September, received letters from "The Bloody Fellow," on whom he greatly relied, and from "The Glass," which stated that they had stopped the party from the lower towns and had turned them back, and that they were now for peace. Solicitous, if possible, to avoid the imputation which, in the miserly spirit of the times, was so often made from the seat of the general government, he instant- ly ordered all the troops which had been raised to be disbanded, and. transmitted an order to that effect by express to Gen. Rob- ertson. Very shortly afterward he received the dispatches sent by the general, and was thereby notified of the fraud which "The Bloody Fellow" and others were to put upon him, and which he had reason to apprehend they had actually practiced upon him. To his great mortification, on the 20th of September, he received a letter from "The Hanging Maw," who made him acquainted with what he had heard from John Boggs, which was that from the 15th to the 17th of September the Creeks were passing the Tennessee at the Running Water, Nickajack, and at a place called the Creek crossing-place, about thirty miles below Nickajack, on their way to fall upon the Cumberland set- tlements; and that they were joined by from one to two hundred Cherokees, among whom was John Watts; that the Creeks had with them a great quantity of powder and lead, which they had received from the Spaniards; that the whole were to rendezvous at the place where the different paths came together on their way to Nashville, and to concert their measures of attack upon the Cumberland settlements; that while he was at the Lookout Mountain he was informed that Richard Fendleston and a Frenchman had passed from Pensacola to Nashville to obtain information of the true situation of the country, and were to re- turn in ten nights, and to report such as they could collect; that he found it to be generally understood in the lower towns, as well as the other parts of the nation, that such of the inhabitants of the five lower towns as did not want war had better leave them, and that such of the other towns as did wish for war ought to
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move into them; and that some of both parties were moving, so as to take the situation which best suited their wishes for war or peace. Boggs was a half-breed, well-known to many white people, and by all parties he was viewed as a man of ve- racity.
It was immediately perceived by the Governor that the narra- tive of Derogue and Fendleston was in the main a true one. The state of public affairs, and its circumstantiality and consist- ency with the occurrence of events foretold by it, gained it cred- it; and, indeed, ever since it has not been in general doubted, though there are a few circumstances in it which are not imme- diately reconcilable with probability.
Upon the receipt of this letter from "The Hanging Maw," the Governor instantly called the Holston militia to arms, and sent off an express with the like orders to Gen. Robertson, with respect to the militia, which it was apprehended he had dis- charged. This last order did not get to Cumberland in time. In the meantime Gen. Robertson kept together the troops which he had embodied. Abraham Castleman, one of the mi- litia soldiers, had withdrawn 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 ex- pected in the neighborhood of Nashville. The order for dismiss- al of the troops now came to hand; but Gen. Robertson, fearful lest the Governor might have been imposed on, concluded not to comply with the order immediately, but to wait a few days till he could see whether the Governor would not countermand this order after having received the statements made by Derogue. The general sent off Capt. 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 Murfrees- borough now stands, and halted in the woods; and, remaining on the ground all night, he next day made a circuit around the spring where "The Black Fox's" camp was. "The Black Fox" was an Indian chief who formerly hunted and encamped at the spring not far from the spot where now is the site of Murfrees- borough. In this circuit he examined all the paths which led to the camp from the direction of the Cherokee country. Find- ing no trace of Indians, he ventured to the spring. He then re-
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turned home by way of Buchanon's Station, and informed the people that the traces of an Indian army were nowhere to be seen. The last order of the Governor had not yet arrived. The unnecessary expenditure of public money was at this time an odious charge, and he did not wish to risk it upon responsibil- ity. It was concluded that the alarm was a false one, and the inhabitants were generally inclined to go home. The Indians had crossed the Tennessee at the times already mentioned. They must have delayed between that and "The Black Fox's" camp upward of a fortnight for some purpose -- either to decide in council upon what part of the Cumberland settlements to fall, or possibly waiting for the return of Derogue and Fendleston, to give the information which would enable them to proceed the most effectually. Soon after the return of Capt. Rains the troops were marched back to Nashville.
Gen. Robertson did not think it prudent any longer to detain them against the express orders of the Governor. He discharged them, with directions to hold themselves ready to take the field at a moment's warning. This discharge took place on Friday, upon which occasion a sharp altercation took place between Gen. Robertson and Col. Robertson, the latter urging with much ve- hemence that the Indians would be upon the settlers in a few days, and would by the discharge of the troops meet with no op- position; the former doubting, from the search made by his scouts, whether the alarm might not be a false one, and at the same time being unwilling to disobey orders and to accumulate expense.
Two other men, however, were sent off to reconnoiter the country through which the Indians were necessarily to pass in coming to Nashville. These were Jonathan Gee and Seward Clayton, who went on the Indian trace leading through the place where Murfreesborough now stands to Nashville, eight or ten miles from Buchanon's Station, toward the place where Mur- freesborough now stands. As they traveled 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 Gen. Robertson's Station, and were returning home. Both par- ties advanced till they came within a few steps of each other,
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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 Buchanon'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. It was in the night- time, not far from midnight. One of the men, John McRory, lying in the block-house not far from the front gate, heard the cattle running by the fort from the east and south-east of the gate toward Nashville, and seeming to be in a state of great alarm, as they were always known to be when Indians were about. This alarmed him. He arose and looked toward the place whence they ran, and saw sixty Indians not more than a few feet from the gate of the fort and around the fort. He in- stantly fired through the port-hole and killed the chief leader of the Indians, who, on receiving the wound, immediately ex- pired. He was a Shawnee, and had quarreled with Watts, who insisted upon deferring the attack until day, and until after the garrison had dispersed to their various avocations. The whole garrison, consisting of nineteen men, flew to arms, and fired upon the Indians through the port-holes. The Indians, in turn, fired upon the fort. Capt. Rains was sent for. He and five other men went off in full gallop to Buchanon's Station, and arrived just in time to see the Indians leaving the planta- tion at the fort. They had lost some of their men. Some were found on the ground near the outside wall of the fort; others were carried off and buried in different places, and were after- ward found by the white people. During the whole time of the attack a large body of the Indians were never more distant than ten yards from the block-house, and often in large numbers close around the lower wall, shooting up through the over-jutting. They fired thirty balls through a port-hole of the over-jutting, which lodged in the roof, in the circumference of a hat. Those sticking on the outside of the wall were innumerable. On the ground next morning there was much blood, and the signs that the dead had been dragged, as well as of litters having been made to carry the wounded to their horses, which they had left a mile from the station. Near the block-house were found sev-
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eral swords, hatchets, pipes, kettles, and budgets of different In- dian articles. One of the swords was a fine Spanish blade, neat- ly mounted in the Spanish fashion-another proof of the friendly offices which the Spaniards had done for the western people. A handkerchief and moccasin were also found, one of which was known to have belonged to Gee and the other to Clayton. The party which attacked the station consisted of from four to five hundred Creeks, two hundred Cherokees, and thirty or forty Shawnees. Three were killed, and seven wounded. Of the killed, Tunbridge's step-son was left on the ground, the Shaw- nees' warrior was dragged off, and a chief of the Creeks was dragged off. Of the latter was John Watts, with a ball through one thigh, which lodged in the other, supposed to be dangerous; "The White Man Killer," "The Dragging Canoe's" brother, "The Owl's" son, a young man of the Lookout Mount- ain, a Creek warrior, who died, and a young warrior of the Run- ning Water, who died.
This Unacate, or "The White Man Killer," left Pensacola the day on which Watts arrived there. Making very little stay at his own house, he came on with his wife to Knoxville, and re- mained with Gov. Blount ten days, immediately preceding the time he set out with Watts for war. He ate and drank con- stantly at the Governor's table, was treated in the kindest man- ner, and made the strongest professions of friendship during his stay and at his departure. His visit had not even the color of business, nor could it ever be extracted from him what he had heard or seen at Pensacola. There were also sundry young Cherokee warriors with Watts, besides those who lived in the five lower towns-particularly John Walker and George Fields, two young half-breeds who had been raised among the white people, and in whom every one who knew them had the utmost confidence. The former was quite a stripling, and apparently the best-natured youth that the Governor ever saw, for so he thought him. They acted as the advance spies to Watts's party, and decoyed and killed Gee and Clayton. The Cherokees said that many of the Creeks kept at such a distance from the sta- tion that they could hardly shoot a bullet to it. With Watts there were sixteen Cherokees from Hiwassee, one from Keuka, five from Connasauga, and one from Strington's. Hiwassee lay on the river of that name, forty miles south of Chota, and eighty
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miles above the lower towns. "The Middle Striker" and "The Otter Lifter," two other signers of the treaty of Holston, were also leaders in this expedition. The latter, as late as July, 1792, gave the most unequivocal proofs of attachment to the United States, in going on board of the boats in which were the goods for the Chickasaw and Choctaw conference, and continuing with them till they had passed the lower towns, and in otherwise so conducting himself as to leave no reason to doubt that he would have defended them had they been attacked by hostile parties of his own or any other nation. His sudden change of conduct was charged by the western people to the intrigues of the Span- ish government. The Indians in this attack killed not a single .man of the white people, and they returned precipitately to their own country. This was the last formidable invasion which the Cherokees ever made upon the Cumberland settle- ments.
When the Indians retired, Gen. Robertson hastily collected what troops he could, and pursued them to Hart's big spring, near Stewart's Creek. It was discovered that they marched out, as well as in, in three columns. The general's force not being more than one hundred and eighty men, and that of the enemy being greatly superior, and they having got far ahead, he deemed it most advisable to return home, which he did.
The Indians, after their repulse at Buchanon's Station, sent runners to Pensacola to inquire when the Spaniards might be expected to co-operate with them. At this time the whole Creek and Cherokee nations were at war in reality, though a part of them affected to be at peace. The Governor had resorted to all the steps which could be taken to keep them at peace, and among others he had endeavored to alarm their fears; and to that end he caused the fact to be carefully made known to them that he had erected block-houses on the frontiers of the Cumberland and Holston settlements, and had placed garrisons in them of from twenty-five to one hundred men. But their eagerness for war could not be repressed. Nothing but war carried on among them could make them willing for peace.
On the 8th of November the Governor wrote to the chiefs of Estanaula, to be informed of the reasons why the Spaniards wished them to go to war. He put them in mind of the Span- ish cruelties in Mexico, and of their destroying and reducing to
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slavery whole nations of Indians; and he requested to know what kind of talks the Creeks had received from the Spaniards. But he did not derive from these sources much, if any, informa- tion. He stated to the Cherokee chiefs, on the 19th of Novem- ber, the number of horses which had been stolen by the Creeks, and had been carried through the upper Cherokee towns to the Creek country; and he declared to them that they should not have permitted the Creeks to have passed through their Nation, and should have taken their horses from them. If it be true that every one is spoken to with a degree of complacence pro- portioned precisely to the harm he can do, the Cherokees must have perceived from this address that their power to do harm to the Governor's people was now on the wane, and that ere- long they would be treated with the indifference and with the severity which their behavior deserved.
As soon as Col. Watts began to recover of his wounds, in De- cember, 1792, he expected a numerous party of Creeks, with which he meditated another blow upon the frontiers. The Cher- okee part of his force he appointed to be commanded by his un- cle, Talotiskee. But becoming mortified at the conduct of his countrymen, who had left him wounded in the wilderness, and at the failure of the Spanish and Creek succors which he ex- pected; and also, as is supposed, at the diminution of his fame in consequence of his late unsuccessful expedition against the people of Cumberland, he began to embrace pacific measures, and made overtures of peace to Gov. Blount. This inclination was promoted, no doubt, by another event. The Baron de Ca- rondalet, the Spanish Governor at Orleans, on the 24th of No- vember, 1792, had written to the Cherokees, in conformity, it is believed, to recent instructions from Spain. He was greatly af- flicted at the losses and misfortunes of their nation, which he had heard of by a deputation from them, of which "The Bloody Fellow" was one. He promised the intermediation of the King of Spain between the southern and northern Indians, their al- lies on the one side, and the United States on the other. He wished to keep from them in future the miseries of war. He advised a suspension of all hostility against the United States, keeping themselves within their lands on the defensive, while the great king should treat of peace between them and the Americans, and should obtain from the latter the lands neces-
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sary for the habitation of the former, with a demarkation of lim- its which would leave no room for future contest. He called for the extent of their limits, and also of those of the North- ern, that the whole might be made known to the king, his mas- ter. A Spanish recommendation, whether for war or peace, had the force of a command which could not be disobeyed. Watts, in order to prove his sincerity, sent intercessors to the Governor, who arrived at Knoxville on the 5th of January, 1793, who gave very confirmatory assurances of Watts's sincere desire for peace; and on Tuesday, the 15th, they returned to their homes in the Cherokee country, under an escort.
In the fall of this year the calamities brought upon the peo- ple by Indian warfare were general, excessive, and intolerable. But, strange as it may seem, the government of the United States was as yet unaffected by their sufferings; and Gov. Blount was obliged to vindicate them from the imputation that their conduct must have afforded some pretext for the enmity of the Indians against the Cumberland settlements, and at the same time to vindicate himself from the charge of unnecessary ex- penditures by calling into service more troops than the public exigencies made requisite. He informed the Secretary of War that the Cherokees, before and at the commencement of our Rev- olution, were settled in towns on the head waters of the Savan- nah, the Keowee, and the Tugulo, or on the Tennessee above the mouth of the Holston, upon the tract of country which at this time comprehends Elbert and Franklin Counties in Georgia, several of the western counties of South Carolina, the District of Washington in the south-western territory, and part of the District of Washington in the State of Virginia. The remain- der of their territory was down the Tennessee on the south side. The lands on the Cumberland they considered not theirs. Gen. Williamson, in 1776, destroyed their towns on the Keowee and Tugulo. Gen. Rutherford, from North Carolina, and Col. Chris- tian, from Virginia, destroyed most of their principal towns on the Tennessee. In two treaties, held shortly afterward, they ceded large tracts of territory to South Carolina and Virginia. and to North Carolina and Virginia also. Burned out and eur- tailed of their hunting-grounds, they began to erect new towns on the Tennessee, lower down, and on the Mobile River. Some settled on the Chiccamauga Creek, a hundred miles below the
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mouth of the Holston. These refused to attend the treaties, and all the mischief done was charged by the other parts upon them.
In 1782 they abandoned the Chiccamauga. Some returned to the old towns, and others went below to the distance of forty miles, and laid the foundations of five towns, since called the five lower towns, which soon became populous and the most formidable part of the nation. These removals brought them near to the Cumberland lands, and they now began to wish for the possession of them; though before the Revolution these lands belonged not to them, but to the Chickasaws. The nation of the latter, or a greater part of it, prior to the Revolution, re- sided on the north side of the Tennessee, forty miles lower down than the lowermost of the present Cherokee towns. They ceded these lands at a treaty held on the spot where Nashville now stands, in 1782, under the authority of Virginia, by Donalson and Martin. They did the same at the treaty of Hopewell, as likewise did the Cherokees; and they declared to the like effect at the late conferences held at Nashville, in the presence of the Cherokees, who did not contradict them. The Cherokees after- ward admitted in council that what they said was correct. A Cherokee chief, at the Long Island of the Holston, said to Col. Henderson: "You, Carolina Dick, have deceived your peo- ple. You told them that we sold you the Cumberland lands. We only sold you our claim. They belong to our brothers, the Chickasaws, as far as the head waters of Duck and Elk Riv- ers." The northern nations claimed and ceded the Cumberland lands, with others, to the crown of Great Britain. The chiefs, to avoid becoming unpopular with the young warriors, often deny, when the complaint is made, that they have sold the lands of the nation; or if they acknowledge it, they say that they were imposed upon, which according to Indian ideas rescinds the contract.
As to the Creeks, they have unquestionably no claim to the Cumberland lands, nor to any lands north of the Tennessee, and never had. Since the treaty of New York they have killed indiscriminately all the people in the Cumberland settlements whom they could bring within their reach. The Cherokees, or any part of the nation, have never complained of the Cumberland settlers. He then showed that the number of militia called
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into service, at the approaching invasion of seven hundred Creeks and Cherokees under Watts, was not a greater number (eight hundred and fifty ) than the occasion called for; and that they were not continued in service beyond the time that neces- sity required. He stated to the Secretary the very exposed sit- uation of the District of Mero, and the execration that would have fallen both upon himself and the government of the United States had he not resorted to those measures of defense and protection which their circumstances demanded, and had the In- dians been permitted to fall upon them in a defenseless and ex- posed state. The Governor made his vindication with a spirit and ability which entitled him to the gratitude and admiration of his countrymen.
The events which followed in rapid succession the dismissal of the troops under the command of Gen. Sevier proved the correctness of his views, and that the rigid economy of the Fed- eral government was alike incompatible with the safety of the frontier settlements and with the saving which was expected to arise from the measure. If the prolonged detainment of a few dollars in the treasury was an object of greater moment than the salvation of the frontier people from the scalping-knife of the Indians, still it was a measure which, in the end, precipitated those dollars from its coffers with accumulated profusion. Even in this point of view it must be deemed to have been founded upon bad arithmetical calculations. The Spanish government, at the same time that it kindled the flames of war amongst the Creeks and Cherokees, was no less diligent in the use of means to attach to itself the good-will of the Choctaws and Chickasaws in order to employ it when convenient to the annoyance of the people of Cumberland. Gayoso, the Spanish Governor at Natch- ez, had, in 1790, made a treaty with those nations, and had ob- tained by cession a portion of country which encompasses the Walnut Hills. Toward the beginning of this year (1792) he held another treaty with them at Natchez, at which was only the Spanish party of the Choctaw nation. He obtained from them permission for the Spaniards to continue the New Fort at the Walnut Hills, near the mouth of the Yazoo. The chiefs declared to the nation that they had sold him no lands. Even this concession, which they admitted they had made, gave so much offense to the young warriors of the nation that they
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threatened to put to death the chiefs who had been present at the treaty. But the truth is that Gov. Gayoso obtained from them the relinquishment of a large tract of country, beginning at the mouth of the Yazoo; thence ten miles up it; thence south- east to a river which empties into Lake Pont Chartrain (called Medway), and down that river. The Chickasaws who attended the conferences, at Nashville, in August, 1792, declared that the Spaniards were urging the Creeks to war with the United States. At this time Gov. Blount was not unapprehensive of the objects which the Spaniards had in view, by an intercourse of so much frequency, nor was he inattentive to the employment of meas- ures for their detection. A man by the name of Alexander Douglass had been recommended to him by Gen. Pickens. He was a Scotchman, and therefore could gain admittance to Pan- ton, the great Scotch merchant at Pensacola, who managed In- dian affairs for the Spanish government; and of course he could gain admittance, as Gov. Blount supposed, to all others of the Scotch nation who were there. He had been bred a Jesuit and understood the Spanish language, and had resided several years amongst the Indians. He had lately acted as a private tutor in the family of Gen, Pickens. This man Gov. Blount engaged to be present at Pensacola at the approaching meeting of In- dians, and to learn and communicate to him all that transpired. This man was unfortunately mistaken for another as he passed through the nation of the Chickasaws toward Knoxville, and was killed.
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