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 9
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The Legislature of Virginia, in the same year, voted Col.
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Campbell a horse, pistols, and sword, in testimony of their high respect for his distinguished gallantry. The horse was immedi- ately presented, but the sword was not till after 1810, when by a fresh resolution of the Legislature an elegant one was made and presented to his grandson, Mr. Preston. The troops, led by. Shelby, Sevier, and Cleveland, tied their horses at the foot of the mountain-except the field officers, who continued on horse- back-and from different parts of the mountain they marched directly to the summit, where the British and tories prepared to meet them with desperate valor. In spite of all opposition, they ascended the mountain, and eminently aided in the achievements of one of the most brilliant victories that was gained during the whole war. This was an enterprise undertaken from pure and patriotic motives, without the aid of the government and at a time when the dangers of the country were at a crisis. The British forces, after the battle of Camden, on the 16th of August, 1780, had spread themselves over the country, and had come as far as King's Mountain to give countenance to the tories, and to induce them to join their standard, which they began to do in great numbers.
This battle dispirited the tories, and almost demolished their hopes. In its consequences it proved to be the salvation of North Carolina, as it obliged Lord Cornwallis to retreat out of the State with the whole British army, whence he could not ad- vance till re-enforced from New York with troops to supply the places of those who were killed or made prisoners at King's Mountain.
The General Assembly of North Carolina, at their first session after the defeat of Ferguson, which was held at Halifax on the 18th of January, 1781, and was continued to the 14th of Febru- ary, passed a resolution that a sword and pistols should be pre- sented to Shelby and Sevier respectively, as a testimony of the great services they had rendered to their country on the day of this memorable defeat. This debt of gratitude and justice re- mained unpaid as late as the 10th of February, 1810. Justice to the merits of these heroes demands that it should not be en- tirely overlooked.
Col. Williams, from Ninety-six, while fighting with the utmost gallantry, was mortally wounded, and soon after died. Fifteen hundred stands of arms was one of the fruits of this victory; 150
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of the enemy, besides their commander, were laid dead on the field; S10, including 150 wounded, were made prisoners; 440 es- caped. There was no time to wait for the tardy forms of law and a court-martial to put to death ten or twelve of the tories most noted for the enormity of the offenses they had committed against their country.
An event so sudden and so unexpected instantly put a new face on our affairs, stopped the immediate progress of the ene- my; gave time to the people of North Carolina to recover from the shocks they had lately received, to resume fresh vigor, and to be ready again to meet and defeat another part of the British army, and finally to oppose such a barrier to all their forces as turned them aside from their purpose of further invasion and compelled them again to seek a respite from danger and fatigue in Wilmington, N. C., the nearest spot in their possession which afforded them shelter and security.
To speak with more particularity, Lord Cornwallis, who then lay at Charlotte with the British Grand Army, on being informed of Ferguson's total defeat and overthrow by the riflemen of the West, and that they were bearing down upon him, ordered an immediate retreat, marched all night in the utmost confusion, and retrograded as far back as Winnsboro, seventy or eighty miles; from whence he did not attempt to advance until re-en- forced by Gen. Leslie, from the Chesapeake, with two thousand men, three months later. In the meantime the militia of North Carolina assembled in considerable force at New Providence, on the borders of South Carolina, under Gen. Davidson. Gen. Smallwood, with Morgan's light corps and the Maryland line, advanced to the same point. Gen. Gates, with the shattered re- mains of his army collected at Hillsboro, also came up; and the new levies from Virginia, under Gen. Stephens, of a thou- sand men, came forward. At the same time ( which was about the 2d or 3d of December ) Gen. Greene arrived and took the command. Thus was dispelled the dismal gloom which pervaded the Southern States.
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CHAPTER III.
The Peace of 1763-Treaty of Fort Stanwix-Lindsey and Others Explored the Western Country -- A Company of Hunters Come to the Western Waters; Make a Camp in the Barrens-Human Bones in Caves-Mansco Descends the Cumberland-French Lick -- Stockade Fort on the Mound-Another Set of Hunters in 1771-Station Camp Creek-Discoveries Made and Places Named by This Company-Another Company of Hunters-November, 1775-Spencer- Came in Company with Others to Cumberland in 1776-Emigrants to Cumber- land in 1779-Others in the Latter Part of the Year Came through Kentucky to the Salt Spring or Bluff -- The Route of the Emigrants-Oil Spring-Crossed! the Cumberland on the Ice in January, 1780-Emigrants Settled at Various Places on the River-Emigrants Descend the Holston and Tennessee in Boats, and Arrive at Salt Spring on the Cumberland.
THE peace of 1763 was hailed with acclamations of joy, as well by the savages of the southern and western wilds of America as by the European colonists of the frontiers.
After so many turbulent scenes, which did not permit a re- laxation of the mind from vigilance, or of the body from action, for fear of those misfortunes which were always ready to fall upon the remiss, they heard, with unfeigned satisfaction, of the event which promised security for the present and indemnifi- cation for the past. The somnolence of repose had become the most delicious of all enjoyments. A calm succeeded the tempest- uous agitations which had so long disturbed the terrified inhab- itants. They hoped, as expressed in the language of every treaty of pacification, that the amicable relations of the late belligerents would be eternal. Forbearance from aggression was the special care of everybody; and both the white and red men lived not very distantly from each other, without annoy- ance and without the apprehension of any injurious treatment from either side. But the spirit of enterprise was not dead, and many desired to know what wonders were to be seen and what advantages were to be acquired in the western country, as far as the Mississippi, which the treaty of 1763 had made our western boundary.
They had heard of the removal of the Shawnees; of the quar- rel of the Cherokees with their late allies the Chickasaws, in
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their war with the Shawnees; they had heard that none of the tribes had ventured upon the deserted territory, and they wished to take this opportunity to explore it themselves.
Some time after the treaty of Fort Stanwix, made between Sir William Johnston and the Six Nations, in which they ceded all the country south of the Kentucky River, and between the Ohio and Cherokee Rivers, and in the year 1767, Isaac Lindsay and four others from South Carolina crossed the Alleghanies, and came to Powell's Valley, and passed the Cumberland Mountain at Cumberland Gap; thence they came to what is now called Rock Castle, which he so named from a romantic-looking rock, through the fissures of which the water dripped and froze in rows below. Down that river he came into the Cumberland, and down the Cumberland to the mouth of Stone's River, where he found Michael Stoner, who had come thither with Harrod from Illi- nois to hunt. Some French, before that time, had settled on the bluff where Nashville now stands. They, Harrod and Stoner, had gone from Fort Pitt or Pittsburg, to the Illinois. After the Shawnees left the bluff, the French kept up a station there for some time. The French had also a station at the same time on the Tennessee, ten or twelve miles above the mouth; and Fort Massac, on the Ohio.
On the second of June, 1769, a company of twenty men or more was formed of adventurers from North Carolina, Rock Bridge, in Virginia, and from New River, about five miles distant from English's Ferry, who resolved to pass over into what is now called West Tennessee, for the purpose of hunting. Of this com- pany were John Rains, Casper Mansco, Abraham Bledsoe, John Baker, Joseph Drake, Obadiah Terril, Uriah Stone, Henry Smith, Ned Cowan, and others. They assembled on Reedy Creek, which empties into New River about eight miles below Chissell's, each man having with him several horses; Mr. Rains had three. They set off on the second week in June, 1769, and came to the head of the Holston; then down the Holston to what is now called Abingdon, but then the Wolf Hills; thence to the North Fork of Holston; thence to Clinch River, at a place called Mock- ason Gap, which still retains the same name; they next came to Powell's Valley, and thence to the Gap of Cumberland Mountains; thence to Cumberland River, at the old crossing-place which led to Kentucky. No trace was then there, but has been made
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since; it is now a turnpike road. They thence traveled to Flat Lick, about six miles from the Cumberland River; thence bearing down the water-courses, and crossing the river at a remarkable tish dam, which had been made in very ancient times, in what is now the State of Kentucky. They passed the place called the Brush, near the fish dam; briers, brush, vines, and a vast quan- tity of limbs of trees were heaped up and grown together, and many immense hills and cliffs of rocks were there; thence they went in a southwardly direction, and coming to the South Fork of the Cumberland, they turned down it some distance, and crossed it; they soon came to an open country called barrens, to a place since called Price's Meadow, in what is now called Wayne County, six or seven miles from the place where Wayne court-house now stands; there they made a camp, and agreed that they should deposit at it all the game and skins that they should get, the place being in an open country, near an excellent spring. They agreed to return and make their deposits at the end of every five weeks. They dispersed in different directions, to different parts of the country, the whole company still traveling to the south- west. They came to Roaring River and the Caney Fork, at a point far above the mouth, and somewhere near the foot of the mountains. Robert Crocket, one of the company, was killed near the head waters of Roaring River, when returning to the camp provided for two or three days traveling; the Indians were there in ambush, and fired upon and killed him. The Indians were traveling to the north, seven or eight in company. His body was found on the War trace leading from the Cherokee Nation toward the Shawnee tribe. All the country through which these hunters passed was covered with high grass, which seemed inexhaustible; no traces of any human settlement could be seen, and the primeval state of things reigned in unrivaled glory; though under dry caves, on the sides of creeks, they found many places where stones were set up, that covered large quantities of human bones. They also found human bones in the caves, with which the country abounds. They continued to hunt eight or nine months, and part of them returned on the 6th of April, 1770.
In the year 1770, but 1769, as Mr. Mausco said, he, with Uriah Stone, John Baker, Thomas Gordon, Humphrey Hogan, Cash Brook, and others, ten in all, built two boats and two trapping
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canoes, loaded them with firs and bear meat, together with a de- serted boat which they found, and moved down the river to Fort Natchez, to dispose of the articles which they had, and to pur- chase others which they wanted. Navigating down the river as far as where Nashville now stands, they discovered the French Lick, where they saw an immense number of buffaloes and wild game, more than they had ever seen at any one place. The lick and all the adjoining lands were crowded with them. Their bellowings resounded from the hills and forests; some of these animals they killed, and got their hides to cover the boats. There was then a stock fort ou the mound, which they conjectured to have been built by the Cherokees, on their retreat from the Chickasaw Old Fields, where they had been defeated by the Chickasaws. Another was discovered on the Caney Fork, and one on Big Harper. Mansco and his associates sailed from thence to the mouth of the Cumberland. Upon their arrival at this place it was discovered that their meat was spoiling. They converted it into oil, and poured it into the lightest boat. for market. Here they had the misfortune to see John Brown, the mountain leader, and twenty-five others, on their way to war with the Seneca Indians. They offered no personal injury, but robbed the crews of these boats, of two guns, some ammunition. salt, and tobacco; a loss which, but for the guns, would not have been sensibly felt; for soon afterward they met some French boats, on their way to the Illinois, who appeared friendly, gave them some salt, tobacco, flour, and some taffy; the latter being a very acceptable present, as for a long time the wanderers had not tasted of spirits of any sort. They gave to the Frenchmen in exchange a few pounds of fresh meat. Mansco and his asso- ciates proceeded to Fort Natchez, but finding no sale for the articles on board their boats, they sailed to the Spanish Natchez. One of their boats got loose from its moorings at this place and floated down the river. Mansco and Baker pursued and over- took the boat at Fort Kaspel, which they brought back, and there disposed of the cargo. Uriah Stone, one of this company, had come to the Cumberland River in 1767. In that year he and a Frenchman were trapping on the river now called Stone's River, and had nearly loaded their boat with furs. In his absence the Frenchman stole off with the boat and lading. Stone then re- turned to the settlement, and came out the second time with
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Mansco and his associates. From this man Stone's River took its name. This boat was now found at Spanish Natchez. Mans- co and his company remained some days after disposing of their cargo, and then separated. Some returned home, others re- mained there. Mansco was confined by sickness from May till November. He then returned with John Baker in a boat as far as Ozinck, where he met with one Fairchild with a drove of horses intended for Georgia. They came on through the Keowee Nation to New River, where Mansco had lived before his depart- ure. In the fall of the year 1771 Mansco came out again in company with John Montgomery, Isaac Bledsoe, Joseph Drake, Henry Suggs, James Knox, and others, amongst whom was an old man by the name of Russell, who was so dim sighted that he was obliged to tie a piece of white paper at the muzzle of his gun to direct his sight at the game, and thus killed a number of deer. They encamped on Russell's Creek, so called from the circumstance of this old man getting lost. He was missing nineteen days, in very cold weather. When found by his com- panions, he was helpless, and continued so three or four days. He was nursed by his son, and recovered, and killed a number of deer afterward. The winter was rather severe than other- wise. The party built a skin house, which circumstance gave name to the place, which to this day it retains. They hunted down through this country till February, when, their ammuni- tion becoming scarce, Mansco, Henry Knox, and indeed all of the company except five whom they left to take care of the camp -- namely, Isaac Bledsoe, William Linch, William Allen, Chris- topher Stoph, and David Linch -- returned to procure ammuni- tion, and for other purposes. Linch was taken sick of the shin- gles; Bledsoe came with him into the settlements; and the other three were discovered and defeated, before the return of their companions in the ensuing spring. The winter being very in- element, they did not return to their camp till May. The attack upon the three who were left to take care of the camp was sup- posed to have been made by some of the northern Indians. They took Stoph and Allen. Hughes escaped and met the rest of the company as they were returning to the camp. The In- dians did not plunder the camp. There was nothing missing but some of the meat, which it was supposed the dogs at the camp had eaten. The dogs still remained at the camp, but were
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quite wild, as they had not seen a human being for two or three months; for Hughes had fallen in with other hunters, in Pow- ell's Valley, and informed the company who met him that he had been so long absent from camp; but in three or four days the dogs were as well tutored as ever. Thence the party trav- elled through the woods to the creek now called Station Camp Creek, on which they fixed a station, from which circumstance it has ever since invariably preserved the name of Station Camp Creek. There this party remained from May, 1772, until Au- gust, hunting and traversing the country, in which time they made many important discoveries. Drake discovered the pond now called Drake's Pond, a great resort of deer. Isaac Bledsoe discovered the lick called Bledsoe's Lick; and Drake discovered the lick since called Drake's Lick. Casper Mausco discovered the lick called Mansco's Lick. All these licks took their names from those who discovered them. About this time twenty-five of the Cherokees came to the camp and plundered it in the ab- sence of the hunters. Some of the party discovered the Indians, but before the whole company could be collected the Indians were gone. They made a visible trail where they came in, but were careful not to make one in their departure. They either went singly, or up Station Camp Creek, in the water. They took all the ammunition they could find, and all the pots and kettles that belonged to the company. They carried off also and destroyed about five hundred deer-skins, and a good deal of cloth- ing, and, in short, they broke up the hunting expedition for the present. However, the hunters continued where they were until they had consumed the remainder of their ammunition, which was but small. They then broke up the camp and moved toward the settlements. They went as far as Big Barren River, in Ken- tucky, where they met with another corps of hunters, upon which Mansco and four or five others returned, and hunted to the end of the season. They then returned to the settlements on New River. Mansco renewed his visit in November, 1775, and came to the Cumberland River with another company of the name of Bryants. They all encamped at Mansco's Lick. The greater part of them, not being pleased with the country, re- turned home; but Mansco and three others staid, and com- menced trapping Sulphur Fork and Red River. Finding that the Black Fish Indians and their company were at these places
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before them, by the number of deer carcases which they saw, and frames which they used to stretch their skins on, they con- cluded that it was useless to tarry there any longer, but deemed it essential to their own safety to ascertain where they were en- camped, and their number; and they selected Mansco to make the discovery. He conjectured that the Indians were somewhere on Red River, and resolved to strike the river, and to scour it up and down till he should find the camp. He had proceeded about twenty miles when he perceived by the sycamore trees in view, that he was near the river. He advanced but a few steps farther, when suddenly he found himself within seventy or eighty yards of the camp, which before he had not seen. He instantly placed himself behind a tree, with design, if possible, to ascertain the number of Indians who were at it. He could see only two of them; the rest he supposed to be hunting at a dis- tance. At the moment when he was about to retire, one of the two took up a tomahawk, crossed the river, and went upon the other side; the other picked up his gun, put it on his shoulder, and came directly toward the place where Mansco stood. Mansco lay close, hoping the advancing Indian would pass some other way; but he continued to advance in a straight line to- ward the spot where Mansco was, and at length came within fifteen steps of him. There being no alternative but to shoot him, Mansco cocked and presented his gun. Aiming at the most vital part of the body, he pulled trigger, and the gun fired. The Indian screamed, threw down his gun, and made for the camp, but he passed it, and pitched headlong down the bluff, dead, into the river. The other ran to the camp, but Mansco outran him, and getting there first, picked up an old gun, but could not fire it, and the Indian escaped. Mansco broke the old gun, and returned at once to his comrades. The next day they all went to the Indian camp to make further discov- eries. They found the dead Indian, and took away his toma- hawk, knife, and shot-bag but could not find his gun. The other Indian had returned and loaded his horses with his furs, and was gone. They pursued him all that day, and all night with a torch of dry cane, but could never overtake him. They then returned and came back to Mansco's Lick, where they left a piggin, which Captain De Mumbrune afterward found. They then began their journey toward the settlements on New River,
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but were detained four weeks by snow, which was waist deep. When that melted, they resumed their journey, and arrived safe at home.
Thomas Sharpe, Spencer and others, allured by the flattering accounts they had received of the fertility of the soil and the abundance of game that the country afforded, determined to pay it a visit. In the year 1776 they came to Cumberland River, and built a number of cabins. The greater part of them returned, leaving Spencer and Holliday, who remained in the country till 1779. Capt. De Mumbrune, who is yet a resident of Nashville, is a Frenchman who hunted in this country as early as 1775. He fixed his residence during the summer at the place since known by the name of Eaton's Station. He saw no Indians in the country during that summer, fall, or winter, but immense num- bers of buffaloes and other game. In the spring of the year 1776 he went to Orleans with his tallow, hides, furs, and other articles. On his return from Orleans, he obtained permission from his relation, the then late Governor of Florida, Grand Pre, to hunt on the river Arkansas; but being molested there by the Indians, he determined again to visit the Shawnee or Cumber- land River. He arrived at Deacon's Pond, near where Palmyra now stands, in February, 1777, and found six white men and a white woman. This party informed him that they had taken wa- ter where Rock Castle River disembogues into the Cumberland River, and come down it, hunting occasionally from it through the woods; that in their excursions they had seen no Indians, but had found an incredible number of buffaloes; that one of the party, by the name of William Bowen, had been killed by a buffalo; he had shot at a gang of buffaloes, one of which he wounded; it ran directly toward him, and the cane being thick, he could not get out of the way; he was trodden down so that he could not move, nor could his companions find him; he lay there seven days; when found, he was nearly exhausted and the bruised parts had mortified; on the eighth day he died. Big John, or John Duncan, one of the six, had the woman who was with him as his wife; she had become tired of him, and took up with James Ferguson, another of the six; she left her husband sick, and induced the party also to leave him. They went down the river, and no doubt he died from want of care and nour- ishment. Capt. De Mumbrune saw his corpse, and supposed
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from its appearance that he died of hunger; he was left at the place where Capt. De Mumbrune first saw them. Ferguson and his party drifted down the Ohio, into the Mississippi, on the banks of which they hunted for some time, but were all cut off except one or two, near Natchez, in 1779. In the fall of 1777 Capt. De Mumbrune went down the river, and up the Wabash to Post Saint Vincents, leaving a hunter here, to join him the next spring at the mouth of Cumberland River. In a short time the man joined him at Vincennes. Thomas Sharpe, Spencer, and John Holliday, having then lately come to this country from Kentucky, had passed very early one morning, in pursuit of a wounded buffalo, the temporary cabin which Capt. De Mum- brune had erected at the place since called Eaton's Station. The noise they made so alarmed the hunter whom Capt. De Mumbrune had left here that he swam the river, and wandered through the woods until he got amongst the French on the Wabash River. He had seen, the day before, the huge tracks of Spencer, who was a man of very uncommon size. Spencer and Holliday came from Kentucky, in company with Richard Hogan and others, in search of good lands, inteiling to secure some for themselves. They planted a small field of corn in 1778, near Bledsoe's Lick. Spencer was pleased with his situation; Holli- day wished to return, but could not persuade Spencer to return with him. When about to part, having lost one of their knives, they had but one between them. Each wanted it to skin his ven- ison and cut his meat. Spencer went with him to the barrens, on the way to Kentucky, and put him on the path, and broke the knife and gave Holliday a part. Spencer then lived in a hollow tree, near Bledsoe's Lick.
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