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 44
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Such was the strong current of feeling in favor of the Chick- asaws, who had been drawn into the war in consequence of their attachment to the people of the United States, that the troops, perhaps, could not have been restrained had the attempt been made; and therefore, they were permitted, with some little en- couragement, to act as they pleased. The people of Mero were greatly attached to the Chickasaws by various acts of friend- ship, and were exceedingly unwilling to leave them undefended against the Creeks. So certain were the Chickasaws of their being entitled to the consideration of the government that they confidently expected orders from the President to the people of Mero to aid them, and would not be convinced that such orders would not be forwarded till after some of them had waited at Nashville expecting the answer from the President till the 30th of April. Gen. Robertson knew of the instructions to the Gov- ernor from the Secretary of War, and therefore did not author- ize the raising of troops in defense of the Chickasaws. He had been furnished with a copy of the letter which contained them,
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and his honest soul lamented in silence the unapproved restraint. With pleasure he continued to perform for the Chickasaws such good offices as he was not precluded from by the government. He was authorized to send them more corn, and to order for the Chickasaws who might visit him victuals, drink, and salt. The corn was not to be sent in boats belonging to the white people, but in boats of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, for otherwise there would be an infraction of the state of neutrality. - Under the cover of this authority the general sent to them, on the 27th of April, 1795, five hundred stands of arms, powder, lead, ver- milion, whisky, corn, and other articles for the use of the Chick- asaws, which were landed at the Chickasaw Bluffs, and from thence were carried and deposited in the magazines of the Chickasaw nation. In the boats which carried the above ar- ticles were fifteen Chickasaws and twenty of the white people, who had determined to go into the Chickasaw Nation with Maj. Coffield. The boats were fired upon at Dyer's Island, twenty- five miles below Clarksville, by a party of Creeks. They wound- ed Maj. Coffield, James Lindsay, and another. Gen. Robertson stated in a letter to the Governor that he was unauthorized by the government to order out a detachment of the militia for the protection of the Chickasaws, and lamented this circumstance because the Chickasaws, he said, were reduced to their present distressed situation by their friendship for the people of the United States. Underwood, a chief of the Chickasaws, was the person who was killed in the late skirmish. On the 9th of May, 1795, the goods promised to be given to the Chickasaws in this year were about to be sent on, and the Secretary of War, Mr. Pickering, gave directions about them. He thought that to make up the sum of three thousand dollars, the cost of trans- portation might properly be added to the price of the goods. "But in the present instance," he said, "this has not been so much regarded as the making up of a useful assortment of ar- ticles for our friends, the Chickasaws." He sent to Gen. Rob- ertson an invoice, with the prices inclosed, and remarked that if purchased at Nashville their cost would have been six thou- sand dollars. These goods being a free gift, and not furnished in consequence of any stipulation by treaty, in which case the nation would have a right to dispose of them, they were ordered to be distributed in a manner in which Gen. Robertson believed
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they would produce the most beneficial effects. If delivered all at once, and divided among all the people, it was apprehended that the portion of each individual would be so small as to make no useful impression. At the northward it was remarked that supplies to the chiefs, to widows, orphans, and others, any way distressed, had appeared to give great satisfaction. It might be proposed to the chiefs of each tribe to receive and distribute their respective proportions among the most needy of their tribe, who are incapable of supplying themselves by hunting or other means. The chiefs will always expect to be remem- bered. . Should this idea be adopted, then the bulk of the goods might be delivered so soon as the chiefs of the respective tribes should be ready to receive them, reserving an assortment for contingent demands until the next annual supply. "For it does not appear," said he, "that there will henceforward be occa- sion for indefinite supplies. Peace will undoubtedly be made," he said, "the ensuing summer, with the Indian nations north- west of the Ohio, and of course no war parties of Chickasaws or Choctaws will be required to join our troops." What pro- portion of the goods now sent should be reserved for contingent demands, it was left to Gen. Robertson to determine. If, how- ever, some additional supplies should be found to be necessary, Gen. Robertson was authorized to order them to be furnished; but it was hoped and expected that this would be very small. The agent of the United States was to be instructed in what manner to procure the additional supplies which circumstances should make indispensable in the opinion of Gen. Robertson.
On the 1st of July, 1795, Col. Henly appointed Mr. Overton to take into his possession sundry articles which the Secretary of War and of the Treasury had ordered to be delivered to Mr. Anthony Foster, to be conducted to the Cumberland River, and to be placed, on their arrival at Nashville, in the hands of some agent to be appointed by Col. Henly, subject to be issued to the order of Gen. Robertson. These articles were six three and one-half inch howitzers, ten quarter casks of rifle powder, five hundred pounds of lead, one thousand flints-ammunition for one hundred rounds complete for each piece, including twenty- five grape or case shot-four plow irons, with a quanity of dry goods, amounting in all to $2,713.44. The howitzers, farming utensils, and goods were, he said, for the Chickasaws, and that
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it lay with Gen. Robertson to order them to be delivered; and as for the warlike articles, he was of the opinion that they should be delivered to the Chickasaws on their arrival at Nash- ville.
The Cherokees had solicited Gov. Brown to preserve peace between them and the Chickasaws, which he promised to at- tempt. He also endeavored to bring about a peace between the Creeks and Chickasaws. On the Sth of May he had requested Gen. Robertson to proceed to the Chickasaw nation to dispose them to peace with the Creeks, to procure from them the Creek prisoners whom they had taken, and to inform them that if they would not make peace with the Creeks the United States would not any longer furnish them with powder or ball or other munitions or implements of war. The Governor attributed to the Chickasaws the peaceable disposition of the Creeks and Cherokees at this time toward the people of the Territory. He wished a military post to be established at the Creek cross- ing, and as that was claimed both by the Cherokees and Chick- asaws, he instructed the general to apply to the Chickasaws for their consent; and stated that he would cause application to be made to the Cherokees at their great council, which was to be held at Estanaula. Gen. Robertson, in compliance with this request, soon afterward set off for the Chickasaw Nation, and was there when the Creeks made the attack on the 2Sth. The Creeks were not idle, nor were they deficient in zeal for prose- cuting the war with the Chickasaws. They sent runners to the Shawnees and other northern tribes, reminding them that for several years past the Chickasaws had joined the armies of the United States against them, and inviting them to unite in the destruction of this nation.
In the latter part of May, 1795, Gov. Gayoso went to the Chickasaw nation, and recommended to them in the most per- suasive terms to signify to the Creeks their willingness to be at peace, and that satisfaction for any wrongs that had been done should be made by the offending to the offended nation, as had been agreed upon at the Walnut Hills between the Creeks, Chero- kees, and Chickasaws, under the superintendence of the Spanish agents. Following his advice, a Chickasaw assembly was held, in which it was agreed to address the Creeks and to offer a peace upon the condition that all former offenses should be put
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in oblivion, and that their former friendship should be renewed This address, on the 13th of June, was transmitted to the Gov- ernor of New Orleans, to be laid before the Creek nation, with a roll of tobacco in token of friendship, until without fear they could smoke together and be in peace as brothers. On the 27th of July the Creeks returned their answer: "We have smoked your tobacco in token of friendship; it is the wish of the Creek nation that the war hatchet should be buried forever, and that war among the red people should cease." The Chickasaws were desired to deliver their prisoners to Gen. Robertson as a proof of their sincerity in wishing for peace, and to restrain the young men from rash acts.
The Governor of New Orleans forwarded to the Choctaws a Creek talk, with beads and tobacco, which they smoked on the 10th of June, and had brightened the chain of friendship with that nation, and held them fast by the hand, and remembered the times of old, when they buried the hatchet, never, as they hoped, to rise again. But the Choctaws greatly lamented that the Creeks and their elder brothers, the Chickasaws, were at war, when they might be much better employed in hunting and planting for their families. "The Great Father," said they, "made us all red people and desired us to live in peace, but, in- stead of following his advice, we take bad council and kill one another. We wish," continued the Choctaws, "to make peace between you and the Chickasaws. We send you white beads, and we have sent a talk to the Chickasaws to advise them to kill no more red men and to be at peace. We know that they are sorry for what they did. They will take our talks, and we hope you will take them also. Therefore make peace and spill no more blood. Give us your answer, and send it to our father, the commandant at Mobile. Our father in Orleans has told us that the Americans have sold us and our lands. They may do so; but if we continue united, they can never take them away from us. If we kill one another, who will be left to defend them? When you shall have thought of these things, rement- ber the good advice our fathers, the Spaniards, gave us every day. They have promised us guns and ammunition to defend ourselves, if we should be attacked. Send peace talks to this place for the Chickasaws, and receive the white beads in token . of everlasting peace between you and us. And send this talk
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to your brothers-the Cherokees -- that they may make peace also."
The Chickasaws were active in their endeavors to procure al- lies for the support of their quarrel. William Colbert visited Gov. Blount on the 22d of July, 1795, had a day appointed by the Governor for his audience, and addressed him. He men- tioned the visit of Piomingo to the President in the summer of 1794, and the document respecting boundaries which the Pres- ident gave him. He mentioned also the information given to the Chickasaws that there was a league of friendship between them and the United States, and that the one was to assist the other against their enemies. Having a commission from the United States, and seeing Creeks going to war against the peo- ple of Cumberland, he killed them; and hearing of no assistance from the United States, he had come here to know the reason why it was so. He reminded the Governor of what was deliv- ered at Nashville, in the summer of 1792, that both bloods were to be the same; that in killing the enemies of the United States he expected immediate assistance; otherwise, his being a small nation, he should have reflected before he proceeded to extrem- ities. He considered the United States and the Chickasaws as brothers, and that they ought mutually to assist each other. He was a warrior, he said, and was entitled to speak; and he de- clared that had it not been for the confidence he had in the white people he should not have acted the part that he had. His bus- iness with the Governor, he said, was to claim assistance. He blamed the representatives and Mr. Seagrove, the Creek agent, and attributed to them his failure to get assistance before. "The Creeks," said he, "have made peace with the United States, by the advice of the Cherokees, that they might have leisure to fall on the Chickasaws and extirpate them." Then they would re- new the war with the white people. The frontiers would not now enjoy peace, said he, but for the war of the Creeks with the Chickasaws.
On the following day he requested to be informed by the Gov- ernor in pointed terms whether any troops would be raised to join the Chickasaws in their war against the Creeks. The Chickasaws, he observed, were too small a nation to fight them without assistance, He could not return without a definite an- swer. If he could not obtain it here, he must go to the Presi-
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dent of the United States. He dwelt upon the smallness of the Chickasaw nation, their friendship for the people of the United States, and the perpetual enmity of the Creeks; that many years ago the Chickasaws refused to join in a league of the red na- tions against the United States, and that they declined the invi- tations and offers of the Spaniards and English; that they had fought the enemies of the United States on the Ohio, while a part of the Creeks and Cherokees were with their enemies. They had stolen their negroes and led them off, had killed sey- eral of the Chickasaws and several white men who lived among them-because they were the friends of the Chickasaws-with the assistance of the northern tribes. The Spaniards, he said, had long endeavored to effect a junction of the Chickasaws with the Creeks and Cherokees against the United States, and had taken advantage of their then present perplexities to build forts upon their lands at the Chickasaw Bluffs. They had built forts also in the Chickasaw Nation, said he, to help them to annoy the Chickasaws. He anxiously wished to know why a garrison of the United States had not been stationed on the Tennessee, as requested by his nation, which would keep the Creeks in check. Unless there was something done to intimidate them, he feared that Log Town, the place of his residence, would be cut off be- fore he could return. The President could not be fully in- formed, or otherwise a visit to him would be unnecessary. "He must be ignorant," said he, "of the enmity of the Creeks, and of the friendship and sufferings of our people."
Gov. Blount, in reply, explained the Presidential document and the military commission in a different sense from that in which the Chickasaws understood them, and he informed him of the orders of the President that six howitzers, powder, and ball should be sent to the Chickasaws, and offered to provide horses for his visit to the President. Not being satisfied with this reply, he set off to visit the President; and having pre- viously intimated that his wife and family had not been well supplied with provisions, and having requested that their wants in his absence should be attended to, the Governor promised compliance, and immediately recommended to Gen. Robertson the performance of that duty. He recommended, also, that some presents should be taken from the Chickasaw goods, and be made to such of the Chickasaws as had returned from Knoxville.
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In the summer of this year the Spaniards had been careful to inform the Creeks that three hundred Americans had lately taken up their residence among the Chickasaws, with a view to erect a fort at the bluff, for the purpose of protecting boats com- ing down the river with arms and other supplies for the Chick- asaws, their enemies. Of this the Creeks complained to the Governor, and he assured them that the people of the United States, or any detachment of them, had not, as the Spaniards represented, taken up their residence in the Chickasaw country with a view to erect a fort at the Chickasaw Bluffs, for the pur- pose of protecting the boats which should go down the Missis- sippi with corn and other supplies for the Chickasaws. He ac- knowledged that some white people in the spring went from Cumberland to the Chickasaws, but had returned. They had not gone by the authority of the government, or for the purpose of assisting the Chickasaws, but happened to be there when the Creeks came; they belonged to the eastern States, and had long since gone home; that Gov. Gayoso had taken possession of the bluff himself. The Creeks, however, secretly resented the aid sent to the Chickasaws in the spring, and meditated a blow both upon them and the people of Mero District. The Creeks, about the time of Colbert's application to the Governor, were making great preparations in their own nation to prosecute the war against the Chickasaws. They had resolved to raise five thousand troops, and expected to have an augmentation of their numbers by the accession of a corps of Cherokees of from five hundred to a thousand men. But they agreed to desist from their operations in consequence of letters from Mr. Seagrove, from the Choctaws and Chickasaws, and in compliance with the wishes of Gov. Blount, expressed by Col. Titsworth, who had gone to the nation to recover his daughter, who was there in captivity.
The Creeks deceitfully professed a desire for peace, and the Governor believed them. He directed Gen. Robertson to go to the Chickasaws, and to assure them of the desire which the Creeks had for peace, and to request them as an introductory step to the commencement of a negotiation for that purpose to deliver to him the Creeks who were prisoners in their posses- sion, that he might in their behalf deliver them to the Creeks at the ensuing conferences, which were to be held with them at
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Tellico on the 10th of October, 1795. Gen. Robertson was di- rected to detain the howitzers, powder, and ball destined for the Chickasaws, the Creeks being no longer in a state of warfare. And, moreover, the general was instructed explicitly to declare to Piomingo and his nation that if they persisted in war against the Creeks they were not to expect supplies from the United States during the continuance of it. He was further instructed to inform the Chickasaws, should they make inquiries of him upon the subject, that the President would not long suffer the fort to remain at the Chickasaw Bluffs which the Spaniards had lately erected there, and to explain to them the nature of the sale of lands which the State of Georgia had lately made, and to assure them that their rights were in no shape affected by these sales. To the Creeks themselves he wrote in very concil- iating terms; appointed the 10th of October as the day on which he would meet them at Tellico; promised to obtain their coun- trymen who were in captivity with the Chickasaws; stated to them that he had sent Gen. Robertson on that business as being the one who could most probably effect it, and had directed him to say to the Chickasaws that the Creeks would be at peace with them upon their giving up the prisoners and ceasing from all further hostility.
The Governor was soon awakened out of the security into which he had been lulled by Creek dissimulation. He was in- formed by a confidential agent in the Creek Nation, upon whom he could rely, that the Creeks were preparing another expedi- tion against the Chickasaws with all possible secrecy and activ- ity, and that the peace talks to the white people and Chickasaws were designed to draw the latter from their strongholds, and to disarm the former of their vigilance. The Creeks had decep- tively called for the mediation of the United States, and Gen. Robertson had been sent to give assurance of their pacific dis- position. It was now not concealed from the Creeks that if they still persevered in hostilities the United States would in- terfere, and would march an army into their country. This communication was made by Gov. Blount to Cornell, a chief of the Creeks, with a request that it should be laid before the Creek council. The Governor, who never before departed from that smoothness of deportment and suavity of expression which are so indispensable to the successful management of affairs,
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concluded with this strong declaration: "The Creeks must be at peace with the Chickasaws."
On the 1st of September, 1795, the Choctaws had given notice to the Chickasaws that the Creeks would shortly be upon them. Piomingo sent men to Gen. Robertson, to conduct boats with supplies for the nation to the Chickasaw Bluffs. He stated to the general that as the assistance which the Chickasaws had ex- pected was out of his power, he ( Piomingo) still hoped that he had by engaging the Creeks in war contributed to the relief of the people of Cumberland, though difficulties were brought on themselves. "But you shall hear," said he, "that I died like a man."
The lower towns of the Creeks abhorred the duplicity which the other Creeks were practicing, and not one of them joined those others in their expedition against the Chickasaws. And moreover, they transmitted to the upper towns a spirited remon- strance against the course they were taking. After the arrival of the two Creek women who will be presently mentioned from the Chickasaws, and the delivery of their story to the Creek warriors, there was no lenient which could assauge their raging displeasure. They marched; but by the 16th of September sev- eral squads had returned, without having made any successful attempt. The Creeks were willing to make peace with the Chickasaws, but deemed it a point of honor previously to obtain some satisfaction for the wrongs supposed to have been done by them.
On the 19th of September the Chickasaw chie's had returned from visiting the President; and so much was the Governor pes- tered by these people that, losing hold of his usual equanimity, he sincerely wished to his confidants that this might be the last of his red brethren that he should ever see on their way to visit their great father. They returned in bad humor, and many condescensions and compliances were necessary to keep them from being more so. These he directed Gen. Robertson to see made. He wished a report from the general previous to the 10th of October, showing how far he had executed the orders to obtain from the Chickasaws the Creeks who were prisoners in their country; "and in case," said he, "the Creeks have fallen upon the Chickasaws, you are to take care of them," adding by way of repetition: "I say, take care of them; for they must not be injured."
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In a few days after the address of the Governor to the Creeks, in which he tells them they must be at peace with the Chicka- saws, he received indubitable information that the Creek war- riors were collecting from all quarters of the Nation to make a descent upon the Chickasaws; that they were to rendezvous in the woods, and were to leave the Creek Nation on the 4th of September. Their number was estimated at one thousand. In- stantly he wrote to Piomingo, the great chief of the Chickasaws, and dispatched an express to him stating this information, and he desired Gen. Winchester to give it all possible acceleration.
On the 15th he received ample confirmation of these facts by Col. White, who was directly from the Creek Nation with Capt. Singleton. The mediation of the United States, they had learned from the Creeks, was intended to throw the Chickasaws off their guard and to draw them from their fastnesses, that they might be taken by surprise and that satisfaction might be taken for the sixteen Creeks whom they had killed. The Creeks had been marching in the Nation in small detachments from the 22d of August to the 7th of September, and were to rendezvous on Cedar Creek, a hundred and forty miles from the Creek Na- tion and sixty from the. Chickasaws. Their number was sup- posed to be two thousand. "The Mad Dog," a Creek chief, said in the council that it was a war between the red people, with which the whites had no concern, and ought not to intermeddle in any respect. Other members of the council. and a great part of the Creek nation, strongly reprobated the measures which the Creeks were then pursuing. It had been represented by two Creek women, who had recently escaped from the Chicka- saws, that the latter, in speaking of the Creeks and of the late attack upon the Chickasaw towns, had said that they were not men, but women; and that they would appropriate them to the same uses, an indelicate expression, to be sure, but implying, ac- cording to the ideas of these savages, the most contemptuous imputation that could be made. A great part of the nation was exasperated even to madness, as far more civilized nations have sometimes been by contemptuous language. The Creeks in- quired of the number of men who had gone with Gen. Robert- son to the Chickasaw Nation, and upon being answered that they were only an escort, they desired to know what that was. Col. White told them it consisted of from twelve to twenty men.
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