USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62
Clark concluded that it was feasible to make a secret invasion of the country with a small armed force and capture the territory which he knew belonged to Virginia. Early in the summer of 1777 he sent two daring young men as spies to Illinois and the country about Vincennes, without revealing to them his purposes, but to find out existing conditions there. The report which the spies brought back was to the effect, that the French population in the villages where the British had their military posts were not devoted to the cause of England, and were taking no interest in the struggle between Great Britain and the American colonies. This report confirmed Clark in his belief that the Illinois country could be wrested from the British by a small army of resolute border men under his command; and he determined to submit his plans to Governor Henry and seek his
371
and Southwest Virginia
official support in the undertaking. To this end, on October 1st, 1777, Clark started from Harrodsburg to Williamsburg. He was engaged for more than a month in making the journey to the capital, where he promptly made known his plans to Patrick Henry, who finally gave Clark authority to raise seven companies of fifty men each, to serve as militia, and to be gathered from the counties west of the Blue Ridge. The governor advanced him twelve hundred pounds to pay the expenses of the expedition, and gave him an order to the authorities at Pittsburg to furnish him adequate supplies and ammunition, and boats to transport them, and such men as he might enlist in that vicinity, down the Ohio. Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, and George Wythe, whom Clark met at Williamsburg, pledged themselves in writing to use their influence with the Vir- ginia General Assembly to grant each man who went with the expedition three hundred acres of land in the conquered territory.
Two letters of instructions, one open, and the other sealed, were given Clark by Governor Henry. The open letter ordered Clark to use his forces to relieve the Kentucky settlers from the distress they were in on account of the frequent attacks made upon them by the Indians. And the sealed, or secret letter, directed him to invade and conquer the Illinois country that was controlled by the British. The men who were then living with their families in the frontier counties were so much engrossed with their home and community affairs that they were loth to engage in an enterprise that would take them far from their homes for a long period. Consequently, much trouble was experienced by Clark when he tried to obtain the quota of men he had authority to enlist for the expedition ; but he succeeded in enlisting about one hundred and fifty men in the coun- try about Pittsburg, and determined to start with these to the scene of proposed action. In May, 1778, he started from the Redstone settlements with his soldiers and a number of adventurers and men with families who wanted to settle in Kentucky. They used as trans- ports a flotilla of flatboats, and rowed and drifted down the Ohio to the mouth of the Kentucky. From that point the expeditionary force floated down stream to the Falls of the Ohio, arriving at that place the 27th of May. There the emigrants separated from Clark and his men, and went off to the interior settlements of Kentucky. A considerable number of the Kentucky settlers, and a small com- pany of men from the Holston and Clinch settlements joined Clark
372
History of Tazewell County
at the Falls. By previous arrangement four companies from the Clinch and Holston were to go with the expedition; but only one company, under command of Captain John Montgomery, arrived and reported for service. At the Falls, Clark for the first time revealed to his men the real object of his expedition. Those who had accompanied him down the Ohio, and the Ketuckians, readily agreed to take part in the hazardous adventure; but most of the men from the Holston and Clinch settlements refused to go on the dangerous and necessarily laborious campaign. They left the camp in the night time and started to return to their homes. Though Clark had misled these men, who had gone from Washington County, as to his real objective, he was infuriated by what he considered a desertion; and sent the Kentuckians who had horses in pursuit of the men who had started for their homes, directing the pursuers to kill all who refused to return to the camp. Only a few, however, were overtaken and they returned and went with the expedition. As they passed through the Kentucky settlements on their homeward journey, the men from the Clinch and Holston were treated very rudely and cruelly by the Kentuckians. This was very unjust as they had been deceived as to the nature of the expedition, and were justified in refusing to engage in an enterprise they had not enlisted for-one that would take them so far from their homes and families for a long time. A small number of men who went from the terri- tory which now composes Tazewell County accompanied Clark on his expedition, and were with him when he captured Kaskaskia and Vincennes. Those who were known to have gone from Tazewell, were: William Peery. Low Brown, John Lasly, and Solomon Strat- ton. To this extent the pioneers of Tazewell participated in the splendid achievements of George Rodgers Clark, who drove the British from the Northwestern territory and put Virginia in posses- sion of the vast domain which was afterwards generously ceded by our State to the United States.
On the 24th of June the expeditionary forces went aboard their flatboats at the Falls and continued their voyage down the Ohio; and upon arrival at a small island near the mouth of the Tennessee River went into camp on the island. Shortly after their arrival they were joined by a small party of American hunters who were return- ing from a hunting trip in the Illinois country. The hunters gave Clark valuable information about the defensive conditions of the
373
and Southwest Virginia
forts at Kaskaskia and Vincennes, and the sentiment of the French and creole inhabitants of the various towns about the British posts. As they were of an adventurous disposition and in sympathy with the revolting American colonists, the hunters gladly accepted Clark's request to accompany him on the campaign. Clark's army of about two hundred men left the island, and made a rapid overland march to Kaskaskia, where, on the 4th, of July, a surprise night attack was made upon the British garrison. The fort and village were captured without the loss of a man by the Virginians. Cha- hokia and Vincennes in due time were also surrendered to Clark, and the French and creole inhabitants promptly took the oath of allegi- ance to the United States.
Hamilton was then at Detroit, and was gathering together and equipping large numbers of Indians for other attacks upon the border settlements; but the successful invasion of Illinois by the Virginians forced the beastly British officer to abandon his mur- derous schemes. He was astounded by the daring, and successful venture of Clark and his wonderful small army of fighting back- woodsmen; and began immediately to make preparation for recap- turing Vincennes, and expelling the Virginians from Illinois. For this enterprise he organized a force, which was composed of one hundred and seventy-seven white men and sixty Indians. With an ample supply of arms, ammunition, and other supplies, Hamilton started with his expedition to Vincennes, and reached that place on the 17th of December. Captain Leonard Helm was in com- mand of the fort and his garrison was made up of two or three Americans and a number of creole militia. At the approach of the British the treacherous creoles deserted, leaving Helm with no sup- port but the few faithful Americans, and he was compelled to sur- render the fort.
Francis Vigo, a trader from St. Louis and an Italian by birth, had been imprisoned and cruelly treated by Hamilton while Vigo was on a visit to Vincennes. When he was released he returned to St. Louis, and as quickly as possible went to Kaskaskia and gave Clark such information as caused him to take immediate steps for marching against Vincennes. It was midwinter, and it seemed impossible for men to march on foot nearly two hundred and fifty miles through an uninhabited region, where a great part of the ground was lowlands and at the time was flooded by heavy freshets.
374
History of Tazewell County
But the fearless Clark determined to surmount all difficulties and forestall Hamilton's proposed campaign in the spring. On the 7th of February, 1779, Clark began his march to Vincennes with one hundred and seventy men, part of whom were young French creoles who had remained faithful to the American cause. Clark's march to Vincennes has been related both in history and romance as one of the marvels of the military world.
Clark came in sight of his desired goal on the afternoon of the 23rd, of February, having made the march of two hundred and forty miles in sixteen days. He sent a messenger, a ercole whom he had captured, to notify the French inhabitants, and also Hamilton, that he was going to attack the place. The people who were friendly to the Americans werc requested to remain in their houses where they would be in no danger; and the friends of the British were told to join Hamilton in the fort "and fight like men." At sundown he marched against the town and at seven o'clock entered its limits. During the night he had his men throw up intrenchments within rifle-shot distance of the fort. At sunrise on the 24th his riflemen began to pour a well directed fire into the loop-holes, and the two small cannon the British were using were soon silenced by the keen- eyed Virginia marksmen. Before noon, Clark demanded a surrender of the fort, but Hamilton haughtily refused to yield. In the after- noon a flag of truce was sent out with the request for an interview between Hamilton and Clark, which resulted in the surrender of the garrison of seventy-one men. Clark and his men hated Hamilton intensely, and spoke of him as the "hair-buyer general," alluding to his payments of large sums to Indians for the scalps they brought in from the border settlements. When Clark assailed him for his brutal acts, he tried to escape responsibility by saying that he had merely executed the orders of his superior officers who had acted under orders given them by the British Government. Soon after Vincennes was captured sufficient reinforcements arrived from Vir- ginia to enable Clark to establish permanent garrisons at Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and Chahokia. He made the Indians sue for peace, or drove them from the country; and the Revolution came to an end without the British being able to regain control of the Northwestern territory.
The permanent settlement of Kentucky had been of great value to the Clinch Valley settlements by attracting the attention of the
375
and Southwest Virginia
hostile Indians away from this region. Clark's occupation of the Illinois country was in the same way very serviceable to the pioneers. It prevented any further incursions of the Clinch region by the savages until the Revolution was ended.
BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN.
The Battle of King's Mountain was an event of far-reaching importance to the cause of American Independence. It was the privilege of a gallant band of the Tazewll pioneers to participate and render valiant service in that memorable engagement, which is generally conceded to have turned the tide in favor of the American patriots in their prolonged struggle for freedom from British oppres- sion.
Major Patrick Ferguson, a Scottish soldier of distinguished lineage, and who won unenviable distinction by many cruel deeds in the British campaigns in New York, had, for a year previous to his defeat and death at King's Mountain, been terrorizing the patriots of the Carolinas. He had first gone to the Carolinas with General Henry Clinton, when Clinton made his expedition against Charleston at the close of the year 1779. At that time Ferguson held the title of major in the British army; but just previous to his death he had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, having won the favor of his superior officers by organizing the Tories and using them effectively against the Americans. After the capture of Charleston, Sir Henry Clinton began at once to form plans for the complete subjugation of the Carolinas; and he concluded to use for this accomplishment a large Tory element that he knew was to be found in the two Carolinas. For the execution of his designs he selected Major Patrick Ferguson and Major George Hanger, both of whom were intolerant of what they termed disloyalty to the King; and these kindred wicked spirits had already in numerous instances shown a disposition to subject American citizens to inhuman treat- ment.
The two British officers were clothed with both civil and military authority, and were directed to organize local civil governments as well as subjugate the rebels. They proceeded to organize the Tories into militia companies and regiments; and these were sent out on predatory excursions, greatly to the damage and discomfort of the patriotic Americans. The barbarities inflicted upon the patriots,
376
History of Tazewell County
who refused to renew their allegiance to the British Government, attracted the attention and sympathy of the inhabitants of the Watauga and Holston settlements, known as the "over-mountain region," then a part of North Carolina, but now known as East Tennessee. Colonel John Sevier, who lived on the Watauga, and Colonel Isaac Shelby, residing on the Holston, received urgent calls for assistance from their fellow-patriots who lived in what is now Western North Carolina. Colonel Sevier dispatched a part of his regiment of militia under command of Major Charles Robertson to the assistance of Colonel Joseph MeDowell, who with a small force was contending against the large number of Tories that had flocked to Ferguson's standard. A few days after Robertson started Colonel Shelby followed with two hundred mounted riflemen, and joined MeDowell near the Cherokee ford of Broad River about the 25th . of July, 1780. Robertson and Shelby co-operated with McDowell and other of the Carolinians through the month of August, and participated in the engagement at Cedar Spring on the 24th of that month. The Tories and the Liberty men both elaim to have gotten the better of the fight; but, from the accounts given by the respective sides engaged, it was a victory for neither. Shelby and Robertson, with their commands, were in the engagement that followed soon after at Musgrove's Mill, where the mountaineer Americans won a glorious vietory. The British loss in the battle was sixty-three killed, about ninety wounded, and seventy prisoners. The American casualty list showed only four killed and nine wounded. The term of service of their men being completed, Coloncl Shelby and Major Robertson, with their volunteers from the Watauga and Holston, returned to their homes beyond the Alleghanies.
In a very short while after he returned to his home on the Hol- ston, Colonel Shelby received a message which constrained him to return to that section of North Carolina where he had so recently been fighting the Tory followers of Ferguson. The men from the Watauga and Holston had greatly enraged Ferguson by the part they had played in the recent campaign; and he resolved to make them cease their activities against his forces or treat them as traitors to the British Crown. A man by the name of Samuel Phillips, who belonged to Shelby's command, and who had been so severely wounded in the battle at Musgrove's Mill that he had to be left at Musgrove's home, had been made a prisoner by Ferguson's men.
377
and Southwest Virginia
After his recovery, Phillips was sent across the mountains to tell Shelby and the other officers of the Watauga and Holston valleys, that "if they did not desist from their opposition to the British arms, he (Ferguson) would march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword."
Shelby, who was the first to receive the message from Ferguson, sent by Phillips, went immediately to Jonesboro and communicated it to Colonel Sevier. These two fearless men decided to raise as speedily as possible an army of riflemen, and to cross the mountains and make an attack upon Ferguson before he started to execute his presumptious threat. At that time Colonel Charles McDowell and Colonel Andrew Hampton were camping at Colonel John Carter's in the Watauga Valley. They had been forced to retire before Fer- guson's large forces of Tories in the Upper Catawba Valley, and cross the mountains for safety. Sevier undertook to enlist the sup- port of McDowell and Hampton and their men for the enterprise, and Shelby engaged to procure the co-operation of Colonel William Campbell, of Washington County, Virginia.
While Shelby was engaged in collecting his own regiment of Sullivan County men, he wrote a letter to Colonel William Campbell, then living at Aspinvale, now Seven Mile Ford, in Smyth County, Virginia, and requested him to raise as large body of men as he could, and to unite with him and Sevier in the contemplated movement against Ferguson. For several weeks prior to the receipt of Shelby's letter Colonel Campbell had been actively occupied with a hundred and fifty men in suppressing a movement of the Tories to seize and destroy the works and stores at the Lead Mines, situated at the point where the county seat of Fincastle had been located, now in Wythe County. Large quantities of lead were then being mined and smelted at that place for the use of the American armies, and the British authorities were exceedingly anxious to have the plant destroyed. Two hundred Tories of the New River region embraced within the present Grayson and Carroll counties, Virginia, and the present Alleghany and Surry counties, North Carolina, had been collected to execute the plans of the British against the Lead Mines. They were well equipped with arms and ammunition, and were commanded by regularly commissioned British officers. The agents of Great Britain were also trying to get the Cherokee Indians to make an invasion of the Watauga and Holston settlements in conjunction
378
History of Tazewell County
with the British attack upon the Lead Mines. Campbell crossed the mountains with his Washington County militia in the month of August and found a large band of the Tories at a place then known as the Big Glades, or Round Mcadows, in North Carolina and near the line of Carroll County, Virginia. Upon the approach of Campbell and his men the Tories fled and dispersed so rapidly that only one of their number was killed by the men from the Holston. Because of the Tory risings, and for other, possibly personal, reasons, Camp- bell refused to join Shelby and Sevier in the proposed expedition.
On account of the threatened invasion of the Watauga and Hol- ston settlements by the Cherokecs, both Sevier and Shelby were reluctant to take all of their men for service against Ferguson. This induced Shelby to send a second urgent written appeal to Colonel William Campbell, in which he informed him of the unhappy situation in which he and Sevier were placed. Shelby also wrote to Colonel Arthur Campbell, who was then county lieutenant for Washington County. He told him of the violent threat made by Ferguson, and also gave him information about MeDowell's and Hampton's party, who had been driven from their homes and fami- lies by the Tories. This last appeal had the desired results; and both of the Campbells announced their willingness to assist in the expedition. Arthur Campbell afterwards said: "The tale of McDowell's men was a doleful one, and tended to excite the resent- ment of the people, who of late had become inurcd to danger by fighting the Indians, and who had an utter detcstation of the tyranny of the British Government."
A conference of the field officers of Washington County was held; and it was agreed that one-half of the militia of the county should be called out and mobilized at Wolf Creek, just west of the present town of Abingdon. They were to march from that point and join the forces of Shelby and Sevier at a designated place, and to go with them on the expedition against Ferguson. Colonel Arthur Campbell, in his capacity of county lieutenant, issued a call for the enrollment of companies from the several sections of the county. Responding to this eall, a company of mounted riflemen was organ- ized in that part of Clinch Valley within the present limits of Taze- well. The county court of Washington had, on the 20th of February, 1777, recommended William Bowen for a captain of militia on the Clinch; and he had been duly commissioned as such. He was
379
and Southwest Virginia
placed in command of the company of mounted riflemen, and his brother, Rees Bowen, was made lieutenant. When the time arrived for assembling at Wolf Creek, William Bowen was very sick from typhoid fever; and the company had to march with Lieutenant Rees Bowen in command. Unfortunately no roll of the company has been preserved; and, therefore, it is impossible to give the names of all the men from Tazewell who were in the engagement at King's Mountain. Tradition and imperfect records sliow that David Ward, Thomas Maxwell, James Laird, Thomas Witten, Jr., John Skeggs, and John and Thomas Peery, father and son, were members of the company that went from Tazewell and joined Campbell at Wolf Creek.
Two hundred men started on the 22nd of September, 1780, from Wolf Creek; and on the 26th reached the place of assembly at Syca- more Shoals, at the foot of Yellow Mountain, on the Watauga, three miles below the present town of Elizabethton, Tennessee. Shelby and Sevier were there, according to appointment, each with a regi- ment of two hundred and forty men; and eagerly awaiting the arrival of Campbell and his riflemen. McDowell had been at the camp with his men, but had joyfully gone in advance across the mountains to announce to his people the coming of their compatriots from the Watauga, Holston and Clinch settlements. On the 26th., just as the army was getting ready to take up its march, Colonel Arthur Campell arrived with two hundred more Washington County men. This substantial reinforcement gave great cheer to the men who had previously assembled. Soon after the arrival of the rein -- forcements, the gallant little army broke camp and started out on what proved to be a victorious expedition against the insolent Fer- guson and his Tory forces. Lyman C. Draper, in his "Kings Moun- tain And Its Heroes," thus speaks of the equipment of the forces of Campbell, Shelby, and Sevier:
"Mostly armed with the Deckard rifle, in the use of which they were expert alike against the Indians and beasts of the forest, they regarded themselves the equals of Ferguson and his practiced rifle- men and musketeers. They were little encumbered with baggage- each with a blanket, a cup by his side, with which to quench his thirst from the mountain streams, and a wallet of provisions, the latter principally parched corn meal, mixed, as it generally was,
380
History of Tazewell County
with maple sugar, making a very agreeable repast, and withal full of nourishment. An occasional skillet was taken along for a mess, in, which to warm up in water their parched meal, and cook such wild or other mcat as fortune should throw in their way. The horses, of course, had to pick their living, and were hobbled out of nights, to keep them from straying away. A few beeves were driven along the rear for subsistence, but impeding the rapidity of the march, they were abandoned after the first day's journey."
Roosevelt, who made careful investigation of all records and all the carly historians who wrote about the battle of King's Mountain, in his "Winning of the West," says of these soldiers:
"Their fringed and tasseled hunting shirts were girded in by bead-worked belts, and the trappings of their horses were stained red and yellow. On their heads they wore caps of coon-skin or mink-skin, with the tails hanging down, or else felt hats, in each of which was thrust a buck's tail or a sprig of evergreen. Every man carried a small bore rifle, a tomahawk and a scalping knife. A very few of the officers had swords, and there was not a bayonet nor a tent in the army."
The march across the Alleghany and Blue Ridge ranges was accomplished without much difficulty. No enemy except a few bushwhacking Tories were encountered. Lieutenant Larkin Cleve- land, who was leading the advance, was shot and severely wounded from ambush while crossing the Catawba on the 30th of September. Sunday, October the 1st, the army arrived at Quaker Meadows; and on Monday, the 2nd, Colonel William Campbell was selected by the corps commanders as commanding officer until a general officer should arrive from headquarters. The expedition was then within sixteen or eighteen miles of Gilbert Town, where Ferguson was sup- posed to be camping with his army; and Colonel Campbell resolved to hunt down and strike the enemy immediately.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.