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 37
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On the 11th of December, 1792, Gen. Robertson having re- ceived permission from the Governor to supply the Chickasaws with corn, had made contracts for the delivery thereof at the Chickasaw Bluffs. Some had been sent down, and had actually been there delivered; but the Governor now stated that the de- livery ought not to be made at the bluff, for, that being a free gift, they could afford to carry it down the river themselves, and that they could do it as well as the white people. "If delivered at the bluff," he remarked, "they would use it much more pro- fusely than if conveyed thither by themselves." The Choc- taws, he said, would petition for corn at the same time, and that it could not be refused to them, since it was granted to the Chickasaws. He forbade the making of further deliverances at the bluff, or at any other place except near the general's
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house, unless it were found actually necessary to preserve their friendship for the United States at this crisis; and he advised an express to Piomingo, to inform him that he must apply for the corn on the Cumberland near Gen. Robertson's plantation. He dreaded the querulous dissatisfaction of his superiors, who never failed, when opportunity offered, to grumble at the im- providence of western expenditures, insomuch that the people of the south-western territory began very seriously to think that to themselves might justly be applied the old proverb of jump- ing from the frying-pan into the fire.
On the Sth of January, in the year 1793, the head men of the Cherokees professing to be disposed for peace, and having ap- pointed the 17th of April for a conference, with a view to the restoration of peace, and the Governor hoping from the meas- ures he had taken and the present temper of the Indians that peace would be restored, he dismissed the whole of Gen. Sevier's brigade, except a company of infantry and twenty-five of the cavalry, all of them to be continued at West Point until the ar- rival of the regular troops. The company of cavalry, as well as the one of infantry in the Cumberland settlements, were ordered to range and not to live in the block-houses. They were direct- ed to keep in the same paths on which the Indians generally came into the settlements, and sometimes to waylay them at a distance from the settlements. About this time a Shawnee dep- utation of nine persons was on the way to the Choctaws to per- suade them to go to war against the United States.
After the defeat of Watts and the desertion of him by his people, together with the apprehensions of the Cherokees that Gen. Sevier would fall upon their towns and destroy them and their property, they felt a dejection and despondency which which produced a momentary desire for peace, of which Watts made a profession.
Some time in February, 1793, the Governor sent presents to him, Talotiskee, and "The Glass" by a person specially commis- sioned to deliver them, for the purpose of confirming their pa- cific inclinations. Experience soon demonstrated that these were but slender substitutes for Gen. Sevier's brigade.
On the 12th of January, 1793, the Indians, as usual, stole horses from the District of Mero. About the middle of Janu- ary seven or eight of them crossed the Cumberland River to the
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north side, near the mouth of White's Creek, seven miles from Nashville, and there fell in with a Mr. Gower, whom they fired on and mortally wounded. He, notwithstanding, escaped to Hickman's Station, where in a few days he expired. On the same day a man was wounded on the south side, near the same place. On the 17th of the same month five Indians were dis- covered in a canebrake near Bledsoe's Lick. They were imme- diately pursued by a party of Capt. Tate's company, stationed at Taylor's Spring, and by a part of Capt. Morgan's company, who were not in service, but lived near the place where the In- dians were seen. On examination in the neighborhood, it ap- peared they had previously stolen five horses, which they had secreted, and instantly mounted on being discovered, and has- tily retired toward the Cherokee Nation.
On the 16th of January, 1793, Col. Hugh Tenin was fired on near Clarksville, on the north side of the Cumberland, and badly wounded. On the 1Sth Maj. Evan Shelby, brother of Gov. Shelby, James Harney, and a negro belonging to Moses Shelby were killed, and a number of horses taken, on the north side of the Cumberland, near the mouth of Red River. On the 19th of January two boys of the name of Davidson were fired on in a canoe, near Clarksville. On the 22d of January Capt. William Overall and Mr. Burnet were killed in the trace from Kentucky to the Dry Spring. The flesh was cut from the bones of Over- all. Nine horses, laden with goods and whisky, were taken at the same time. On the 24th of January a salt boat from Ken- tucky and a French pettiauga were fired on at the mouth of the Half Pone, on the Cumberland. In the salt boat Malachia Gas- kins and David Crow were killed, Robert Wells and John Milee- gin wounded, the latter in five places St. Clair Pruit was shot through the knee, and died. In the French boat two were killed and one mortally wounded. On the 26th of January Thomas Heal and Anthony Bledsoe, son of Col. Anthony Bled- soe, were fired on near Nashville, on the north side of the Cum- berland, and both shot through the body. These outrages were committed after the withdrawal of the troops commanded by Capts. Christian and Tate, part of Maj. Sharpe's battalion, from the protection of Mero District.
On Tuesday, the 19th of March, Mr. Nolan was killed by the Indians on the waters of the Little Harper, ten miles from Nash-
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ville; and in this month two parties of Creeks passed from Cum- berland with the scalps of three white people and two negroes, and one negro belonging to Mr. Parker, of Cumberland, and several valuable horses.
On the 17th of February two negroes belonging to James Clendennen were killed in the field, within one hundred yards of his house. On the same day Thomas Bledsoe, son of the late Col. Anthony Bledsoe, was fired on and wounded. The Indians followed him to a spot within fifty yards from the stockade at Greenfield. On the 22d of February two boys, sons of Col. Saunders, were fired on and scalped, one of whom died instant- ly; the other lived several days. On the 24th of February Capt. Samuel Hays was killed within three hundred steps of John Donalson's house.
On the 28th of March, 1793, Gov. Blount having received in- formation that the upper Creeks and lower Cherokees would fall on the Cumberland settlements in the full moon of April, which was about the 25th of the month, immediately transmitted the intelligence to Gen. Robertson, with instructions to him forth- with to order into service a full company of mounted infantry or cavalry, to consist of eighty men exclusive of commissioned officers, to waylay the Indian paths leading to the settlements, and to explore the woods where their principal camps might probably be found within the lands of the United States or of the Indians within the limits of fifty miles from the settlements; and should they find Indians within those limits, to treat them as enemies, except women and children. He recommended act- ive and enterprising men and officers, to be well armed, to divide themselves into three parties, and to search different sections of the country, between the Cumberland settlements and those of the Indians .. This number of active men would be sufficient, he supposed, to check such advancing parties of Indians as they might fall in with, or otherwise to intimidate them by the signs of the horses, by which they would discover that the settlements were alarmed and on their guard, and thus induce them to re- treat. The service of these troops was to commence between the 14th and 1Sth of April, and to continue for one month, unless the danger was so imminent as to make their further service in- dispensable for the protection of the frontiers; and then they were to be continued in service not exceeding two months. The
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troops thus to be raised were to be at liberty to pursue incursive parties as far as to the river Tennessee, and to punish them with the utmost severity. The Governor promised also to order an- other company from the District of Hamilton, to pass at South- west Point on the 18th of April, and to turn off the Cumberland Mountain to the southward of the trace, crossing the Caney Fork high up, and to strike the traces that led from the lower Cherokees to the Cumberland settlements, and to scour the country down to Nashville. "Small parties of Creeks," said he, "and also of lower Cherokees, are daily passing and repassing to the Cumberland settlements, killing the people and stealing their property." He was glad of the approaching war between the Creeks and Chickasaws, but could not take any part until so ordered by the President; though he left Gen. Robertson at liberty to supply the Chickasaws with such quantities of corn as was necessary for their support.
On the 9th of April, 1793, Col. Isaac Bledsoe was killed by a . party of twenty Indians in his field near his own house. On the 10th the house of Mrs. Simpson was set on fire in the night, but the flames were extinguished by men who were in the house. On the 11th John Hammond and a man of the name of Dowdy were killed near the mouth of the Sycamore, in Tennessee County. On the 14th Henry Howdishall and Samuel Pharr were killed near Gen. Rutherford's. On the 1Sth John Benton was killed in the road between Capt. Reece's and Col. Winches- ter's mill. On the same day two men were killed on the road to Kentucky. On the 19th two men were killed within hearing of Clarksville. On the 20th Richard Shaffer and a man of the name of Gombrell were killed, and James Dean wounded. On the 27th a party of Indians, at first supposed to be sixty, but afterward discovered to be two hundred, attacked the station at Greenfield, and killed Mr. Jarvis and a negro fellow belonging to Mr. Parker. This station was saved by the signal bravery of William Neely, William Wilson, and William Hall, who killed two Indians and wounded several others. Neely and Hall had each lost a father and two brothers by the savages. The people murmured, and demanded where were the blessings of govern- ment, and whether protection would ever be afforded to them, and when. On the 28th Francis Ransom was killed near the drip- ping spring, on the trace between Kentucky and Cumberland.
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Between the 1st of April, 1793, and the 18th of May six hun- dred and sixty Creeks crossed at the lower towns of the Chero- kees, for war against the people of Mero District. On the 29th of April Gov. Blount sent from West Point, at the mouth of the Clinch, one hundred and twenty men, under the command of Maj. Hugh Beard, to their relief. The complaints of the people frequently broke forth against the government, and ac- cused it of the most culpable neglect for leaving them so long . exposed and unprotected; but still the ways of peace were steadily pursued, and every thing was made to be quiet in pres- ence of the great object which the government had in view to accomplish.
On the 9th of May, 1793, a party of Indians fired upon four children at Johnson's Station, near Nashville, wounded three, one of whom they scalped, and caught the fourth boy by the jacket, but he stripped it off and escaped.
A short time before the 1st of June, 1793, many parties of Creeks recrossed the Tennessee at the lower Cherokee towns, on their way home from Kentucky and Cumberland, with numer- ous scalps and valuable horses. Public resentment was heated to a degree of intenseness which can hardly at this time be ad- equately conceived of. Restrained by governmental functiona- ries and orders from action, it sought for opportunities, and wasted itself in bitterness.
On the 25th of May some Chickasaws were on a visit from their nation to Gov. Blount at Knoxville, and in their company was a Cherokee, who went into the woods to see their horses, about six hundred yards from Gov. Blount's house in Knoxville. Some persons, aiming at the Cherokee, as it was supposed, who had made himself very obnoxious to the whites, fired upon them and wounded Morris, one of the Chickasaws, so that he died the next day. The Governor caused him to be buried with pomp- ous ceremony. The inhabitants of Knoxville generally, and many from the adjacent country, attended the funeral with gen- eral and unfeigned expressions of regret and of indignation at the horrid deed. By all these appearances the other Chicka- saws were soothed and satisfied, being well convinced of the friendly esteem of the white people for the most part toward them. The act was universally condemned.
On the 12th of May, 1793, Capts. Rains and Johnston, with a
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detachment of cavalry consisting of a hundred men, set off from Nashville on a tour of duty to the southward. Gen. Robertson had ordered them out to scour the woods and paths and crossing- places at rivers and creeks, to discover the trails of Indians com- ing to the Cumberland settlements. These regulations gave the Indians much trouble, and rendered it very dangerous to them to approach the settlements. But, though they were considerably repressed, they were not entirely stopped; their eagerness for blood and plunder kept them forever restless, be the dangers they had to encounter what they might.
In June, 1793, Maj. Beard returned to Knoxville from Cum- berland, to which he had gone with assistance against the inva- sion of the Creeks, according to the new plan of defense, which the then present circumstances and population admitted of and suggested. Both in going to and returning from Nashville he passed by the heads of the southern waters of the Cumberland, and to the southward of the settlements, through the midst of the main Creek camps, from which they so repeatedly issued against the frontiers. He found many abandoned camps, but fell in with only three small parties, of whom he killed two and wounded several. A man of his own party ( Mr. Alexander ) re- ceived a slight flesh wound in the attack on Smith's River. This new practice of searching for Indians in the thickets and at their camping-places, after it became known to them, began to inspire no small apprehension of danger in crossing the Tennessee. Numerous parties of Indians, however, still daily recrossed the Tennessee, about the middle of June, 1793, with scalps and horses which they had taken from Tennessee and Kentucky.
Between the 20th of May and the 13th of August, 1793, the Indians killed and wounded upward of twenty persons in the District of Mero. On the 20th of May John Hacker was killed on Drake's Creek. On the 20th of June James Steele and his daughter were killed, and his son wounded. On the 4th Adam Fleener, Richard Robertson, and William Bartlett were killed, and Abraham Young and John Mayfield were wounded. On the 1st of July Jacob Castleman and Joseph Castleman were killed, and Hans Castleman wounded, at Hays's Station. On the 15th William Campbell was wounded near Nashville. On the 18th Mr. Joslin was wounded at his own house. On the 19th Mr. Smith was killed at Johnson's Lick. The people un-
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der so many sufferings cried aloud for revenge and for liberty to retaliate upon the savages the cruel treatment they had received from them; but the cautious policy of the government still in- culcated lessons of resignation and forbearance. The people, uninformed of the reasons for the adoption of this course, mur- mured the opinion that if matters went on a few years more as they now did few, if any, of the present race would live to en- joy the fruits expected, and for the attainment of which such extraordinary forbearance was enjoined.
About the Ist of August, 1793, Abraham Castleman raised a company of volunteers to assist him in retaliating upon the In- dians a great number of injuries which he had received from them, particularly those of killing several of his near relations. Ou arriving near the Tennessee ten of his company turned back, because Gen. 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 toward the Indian nation which led, as they supposed, to Will's Town. After traveling 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 plunder the whites in the Cumberland settlements. They were eating,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, and 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 pur- suit unavailing. This happened on the 15th of August, 1793. On the 21st they all got back safe to Nashville. This party of Indians had with them large bundles, but no squaws or horses, and were painted black.
About the 5th of August Capts. Rains and Gordon pursued a party of Indians who had killed one Samuel Miller near Jos- lin's Station. After crossing Duck River,.their signs were very
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fresh. On pursuing them seven miles farther, they were over- taken. 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 es- cape. On examining the prisoners, they proved to be all of them Creeks from the upper Uphalie towns. On the 19th of August, 1793, in the night-time, the Indians stole from Brown's Sta- tion a tub of clothes which were in the wash. About the same time two horses were stolen from Col. Barton's by Indians, which were retaken the next day. On the 20th of August, 1793, the owner of an evacuated house in Tennessee County, having gone to his plantation, perceived signs of Indians, and collect- ed a party of men, seven in number, and went in search of them. They met the Indians in a path, and fired on them. Next morn- ing they found one Indian lying dead on the ground, and two traces of blood making off, by which it appeared that there were two wounded. The Indians did not return the fire. On the 21st of August, 1793, the Indians killed the widow Baker and all her family, except two who made their escape. Her family of children was numerous. About the same time Robert Willis's family, consisting of a wife and two children, were killed by the Indians. Mr. Willis was from home. Some short time before the 9th of November, 1793, some horses having been stolen, and Indians seen near Croft's Mill in Sumner County; Col. James Winchester ordered out Lieut. Snoddy, with thirty men, to scour the woods about the Caney Fork, and if possible to discover the main encampment. On the 4th of November he met two In- dians, who fled; and he pursued them to a large camp near the Rock Island ford, of the Caney Fork, where he took twenty- eight good Spanish blankets, two match-coats, eight new brass kettles, one firelock, three new swords, Spanish blades, a bag of vermilion, powder and lead, several bayonets, spears, war hatchets, bridles, and halters. Evening coming on, he withdrew from the camp about a mile to an eminence, where he halted his men, and they lay on their arms all night. About the dawn of day they appeared, advancing with trailed arms, and at the dis- tance of about thirty yards a firing commenced, and was kept up from three to four rounds, when the Indians retreated, leav- ing one fellow on the ground, and were seen to bear off several wounded. Lieut. Snoddy had two men killed and three wound ..
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ed. He deserved and received much commendation for his gal- lantry.
In this year (1793) the Indians fired on Thomas Sharpe Spencer, near where Maj. 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 Indians, and conducted her to a place of safety. About this time several persons were killed in the county of Summer, 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 Castlemans was also killed and another wounded. About the Ist of December, 1793, James Randel Robertson, son of Gen. Robertson, and John Grimes were killed by the Cher- okees of the lower towns, on the waters of the Caney Fork, where they had gone to trap for beavers. On the 23d of Decem- ber the Indians fired on John Nolen and William Montgomery, the latter receiving a ball in the thigh and another which broke his arm. On the 30th Samuel Blair and Thomas Wilcox were fired on six miles from Nashville. The former had his powder- horn shot off, and a ball through his clothes, and the latter had his horse killed. About the last of December John Dier and Benjamin Lindsey were killed below the mouth of Red River.
At this time many of our people were in slavery with the Creek Indians, and were treated by them in all respects as slaves. In the Cayelegies, Mrs. Williams and child; Alice Thompson, of Nashville; Mrs. Caffrey and child, of Nashville. In "The Hog" villages, Mr. Brown, of the District of Mero; in the Clewatly town, Miss Scarlet; in the White Grounds, Miss Wilson, of the District of Mero, and a boy and girl; in the Col- ummies, a boy five years of age; at the Big Talassee, a boy eight or ten years of age, and a girl seven or eight years of age; in the Pocontala-hassee, a boy twelve or thirteen years of age; in the Oakfuskee, a lad fifteen years of age; in the Red Ground, a man called John; in Casauders, a boy whose age and name were not known; in Lesley Town, a young woman who was repeatedly threatened with death for refusing to cohabit with Lesley's son; and in some other town were Mrs. Crocket and her son. But the Indians unintermittedly pretended a desire for peace, and so completely had they counterfeited that Mr. Barnard stated
to the Governor of Georgia, Mr. Telfair, that the upper Creeks,
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to a man, seemed to be quiet; though not many days before the date of his letter, on the 18th of September, 1793, as he stated, they had six of their men killed on their hunting-grounds on the south side of the Tennessee River by the Cumberland people, and one of the six as great a man as any amongst them. He ought to have known that the scene of action was below the town of Nickajack, not very far from the south bank of the Ten- nessee, not on the hunting-grounds of the Creeks, but on their common road to Cumberland, to kill and to steal. And he ought to have known that the Creek claim to lands was bounded by the ridge which divides the waters of the Tennessee and Mobile. When they were not far from the bank of the Tennessee, in a body of forty or fifty men, and painted black, it was not to be doubted, exclaimed the people of Cumberland, that they were for war; and that they should have been treated as enemies was neither a fit subject for lamentation nor complaint.
As early as the 13th of November, 1793, Gen. Robertson had conceived and secretly harbored the design of destroying the five lower towns of the Cherokees. He expressed a decided dis- approbation of all negotiations 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 subject to notice, asked of Gen. 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 sus- pect before that time. But it may be immaterial to us, consid- ering our exposed situation and the little protection we have." He pressed Gen. Sevier to carry an expedition of fifteen hun- dred 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 conuive at the design.
The affairs of the Chickasaws are now about to claim atten- tion, and will be found to require a detail of explication neither compendious nor at the same time very agreeable.
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