Franklin Township (part 12 of 19)

So general was the sentiment, even in North-Carolina, in favour of the separation, and so little inclination there, to prevent it by legislative interference, that the General Assembly,, though convened by the Proclamation of the Governor and Council, "failed to meet." Such was the decision of the people of North-Carolina, east of the mountain, on the abstract question of a new state west of it. A like opinion was entertained by Dr. Franklin, and other statetmen abroad. As to the time and the mode of a measur^ of sach magnitude, there could not be expected to be entire unftnimity - there never is - there never will be. Those adopted, in 1784, at first as has been seen, gave very gweral satiitaction, and harmonized the community most directly inter* ested, as being the best time and manner of providing th^ least objectionable measures to quiet the discontented ao^ aggrieved citizens of the ceded country. Was the revolt <f^ 1784 justifiable - was it wise - was it patriotic - did it ^it9'^ vent greater evils - would a different policy have secure^^ greater good, or produced better results T may be questioDtf^A of difiicult solution. However these may be answered^ verdict of the contemporaries of the revolters has ever in their favour, vindicating their patriotism and asserting integrity of their motives. Those most active, and deter-^""^ mined, and steadfast in the revolt, were, and never ceased be, the greatest favourites of their countrymen, public sentiment is seldom wrong - ^it never condemns th&JP^ innocent - it rarely vindicates the guilty. While it nevei^K^' screens the wilful offebder, it excuses or palliates nninten^-^^^ tional error. It always sustains good intentions and purposes, and rewards the faithful public servant. This emphatically true as to the Franklin leaders. In 1780, i late Governor, Sevier, now a private citizen, and under tri for offences against North-Carolina - ineligible under laws to any office - was triumphantly elected a member oz ^c^of her Senate - his disabilities were removed by a special enact--^^-^^ ment in his favour, and he allowed to take his seat. A uev0^^" '^ Congressional District is formed, embracing Cumberland£3»^^ with the late revolted counties - the same Franklin leader i*i ^ elected the member to the Congress of the United States^^^^*** Her Western Territory is ceded again by North-Carolina tc^^ *® Congress, and the "Territory south-west of the River Ohio^^^^^^^. is organized, and again " Sevier and his captains^^ are prominent, as will be hereafter seen, amongst its officers. Territory becomes the State of Tennessee, and the Exvernor of Franklin is at once called upon to become its chieft^ magistrate, in which the partiality of his countrymen con^ - - dnaes him for twelve years, when he is transferred by the people of the Knoxvllle District to the United States Conj^ress. He is then appointed by the President of the United States to establish an Indian boundary in Alabama ; and, during his absence on that service, by the continued confidence 3f his constituents, he is elected the second time, and withmt his knowledge or consent, to Congress. This testimolial of the popularity of the leader of the Franklin revolt, wns the last his grateful countrymen could bestow. He died n the Creek nation, during his absence on the public service, md was buried with the honours of war. What further Uid higher honours awaited him, may be inferred from the tattering vote and manner of his last election.

The associates of Governor Sevier, in the Franklin Govemnenty received through life similar attestations of public retard and confidence. William Cocke, Esq., who belonged o tjbie Legislature and the State Council of Franklin, and WBM its Commissioner to North-Can>lina and to the United i^ates Congress, a general of its militia, and one of its most nlightened advocates throughout its existence, retained, af- :er the overthrow of Franklin, the uninterrupted confidence li the western people. A member of the first Legislature of fennessee, he was by that body elected one of the repre- MQtatives of her sovereignty in the Senate of the United States^ and was aflerwcirds elected the second time to the Htfoe position. At the expiration of his second term, he was T^osferred to a seat in the Judiciary. 'Although quite an dd man, in the war of 1812, he became a volunteer in her mlitia, and was, to the end of his life, considered a publicipirited citizen and a patriot. James White, the father of lie late Senator White, a member of the Franklin Legislante, and remarkable for the constancy of his devotion to In interests, even when forsaken by its earliest friends, relaiiied, through a long life, the unwavering esteem of his fellow citizens. The founder of Knoxville is still recollected vith fondness and respect He was a member of the Terriitorial House of Representatives - of the Convention which brmed the Constitution of Tennessee, and afterwards Speaksr of its Senate, and Presiding Justice of Knox County 3oart - a general commanding, at an advanced age, a bri- gade of militia in defence of the Independence, which, in his youth, he had assisted to gain. To extreme old age, he retained the esteem and affection of his fellow citizens, and never had a stain upon his unsullied good name.

In this enumeration of the Franklin leaders, it would be infidelity to historical truth, and, in this writer, it were a filial impiety, not to mention Colonel Francis Alexander Ramsey, the youthful Secretary of the Franklin Convention. Besides other civil and military oflices held by him under that government, he was a member of its Council ; and in that capacity, was entrusted with the delicate duty of negotiating with the parent state, the terms of separation and independence. As evidences of his trust-worthiness, capacity and patriotism, he had conferred upon him by the Territorial Government, as well as that of the State of Tennessee, oflices which implied ability, probity, efiiciency and zeal in the public service, and high personal character. One of the pioneers of Tennessee, in all the varied phases of political organization through which the state has passed, Colonel Ramsey not only held oflices of honour and trust, but discharged their duties to the entire satisfaction of the people, and the authorities of government. Offices were showered upon him, and he proved himself competent and worthy of them.

To the names already mentioned, might well be added those of their associates, Doak, Carter, Reese, Houston, Newell, Weir, Hamilton. Conway and others ; each distinguished afterwards for piety, public spirit, unobtrusive private Mrorth, and military and political services to the country. Revolters in 1784, they were, nevertheless, the purest patriots and the best men of their day. It is singular and well worthy of re- Ynark, that not one of the master-spirits of Franklin, perhaps not one of its officers, in a long life of .usefulness or distinction afterwards, ever forfeited the esteem, or lost the confidence, of his countrymen. They became the officers under the Territorial Government, and, soon after, the leading spirits of the proud State of Tennessee ; a beautiful comment upon the purity of their principles, and the loftiness of their patriotism - a fit tribute of respect for their public services and their private virtue.

Chapter

A YOUNG Brave, at the treaty of Watauga, was overheard by the interpreter, to urge, in support of the Transylvania cession, this argument : that the settlement and occupancy of the ceded territory, by the whites, would interpose an im* pregnable barrier between the Northern and Southern Indians, and that the latter would, in future, have quiet and undisturbed possession of the choice hunting grounds south of the Cumberland. His argument prevailed against the prophetic warning and eloquent remonstrance of Occonostota. That aged chieO;ain, covered over with scars, the evidence of many a hard-fought battle for the Dark and Bloody Ground, signed the treaty reluctantly, and taking Daniel Boon by the hand, said, with most significant earnestness : '* Brother, vre have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it ; " words of ominous import, as subsequent events too mournfully proved These events, so far as the pioneers of Tennessee were engaged in then^, will now be narrated. '* Much trouble,^' indeed, was experienced in settling the ceded country, and that adjoining it. Instead of serving as a barrier between the common claimants, the settlers became a central point of attack - a target at which the surrounding tribes all aimed their deadliest sdiot.

We left; the colony of Robertson and others, near the ( French Lick, at the end of a protracted and severe winl ter. The opening spring enabled the savages to resume hostilities. The whole line of frontier, from Pennsylvania to Georgia, was simultaneously assailed by marauding parties of Indians, distributed along its entire extent. Terror and consternation were only the precursors of havoc and desolation. The leading chiefs of the Shawnees tribe, which had once held possession of the Cumberland Valley, were unremitting in their efforts to bring about a general concert of action among all the northwestern tribes, for a grand exterminating invasion, daring the next summer. In this they had the approbation and enconragement of British agents and officers, at Detroit and on the Maamee, who assured them of the powerful aid of their great ally, George III.* Similar influences were constantly at work with the southern tribes ; and in addition to these general causes of dissatisfaction and hostility. Fort Jefferson had been boilt^ the previous year, in the territory of the ChJekasaws, without their consent, and the chief, Colbert, prepared to repel die invaders by force. The proximity of this tribe to the Cumberland settlement, was cause of serious apprehension and alarm. But the first assault upon the Cumberiand aettleiv was made by the southern Indians - the Cherokees and Creeks. They seized the first opportunity after the kard winter was over, to approach the ** improvements ^ aromid the Bluff, and to carry amongst the settlers the work of massacre and devastation. We abridge from Haywood aad ^ The Museum," an account of it :

In the month of April, Keywood and Milliken, two himi<^8o i ^^^ coming to the fort, stopped on Richland Creel^ ( five or six miles from the Bluff, and as one of them stepped down to the creek to drink, the Indians fired upon and killed Milliken. Keywood, escaping, brought intelligence of the affair to the fort. Mr. Rains then moved to the Bluff, where he continued four years before he could venture again to settle in the country. The Indians soon after killed Joseph Hay on the Lick Branch, and a party of them * invested Freeland's Station, and finding an old man, Bernard, making an improvement, at what was then called Denton's Lick, killed him, cut off his head, and carried it away. With the old man were two small boys, Joseph and William Dunham, who escaped unhurt and gave the alarm to the people at Freeland^s. A young man, Milliken, between the fort and Denton's Lick, not having heard the alarm, was surprised by the Indians, killed, and his head, also, was cut off and carried away. The murderers were either Creeks or Cherokees.

Soon afterwards, in July or August, a party of Indians, believed to be Delawares, killed Jonathan Jennings, at the point of the first island above Nashville. Higher up the Cumberland River, on the north side, on the bluff where William Williams, Esquire, since lived, Ned Carver was killed ; his wife and two children escaped, and came to Nashville. The same party, in a day or two after, killed William Neely, at Neely's Lick, and took his daughter prisoner.

At Eaton's Sitition, they also killed James Mayfield, near the place where, previously. Porter had been shot in the daytime by Indians in the cedars, in view of the station. Iti November or December, they shot Jacob Stump, and attempted to kill the old man, Frederic Stump, but he reached the station in safety, after being pursued by the Indians three miles. At Mansco's Lick, Jesse Balestine and John Shockley were killed. In the winter of the same year, David Goin and Risby Kennedy were killed at the same place, and Mansco's Station was broken up ; some of its inhabitants went to Nashville, and others to Kentucky. At Bled« soe's lAckf or on the creek near it, two persons were killed : W. Johnston and Daniel Mungle, hunting together on Barren River, the former was killed, and the latter escaped by flight

Late in this year, a company of Indians tried to intercept Thomas Sharp Spencer, returning to the Bluff with several horses loaded with meat, after a successful hunt. They fired at, but missed him. The horses were daptured, and with their cargo, were taken up the river.

At Station-Camp Creek, the same Indians took other liorses, that had strayed -from a camp of white men near at liand, but which had not been discovered by the enemy.

At Asher's Station, two miles and a half from where Gallatin now stands, some white men were sleeping in a cabin ; the Indians crept up at break of day, and fired, killing one man, whom they scalped. They also wounded another, Philips, and captured several horses. With these, they went off in the direction of Bledsoe's Lick, when they were unexpectedly met by Alexander Buchanan, James Manifee, William. Ellis, Alexander Thompson, and other hunters, return- iDg to the Bluff. Buchnnan killed one Indian ; another was wounded, and the whole pnrly dispersed, leaving, in their flight, the horses taken froni Spencer and Philips,

In May of this year, Freeland's Station was visited by the Indians; one man, D. Larimnn.vas killed, and his head cut off. The whites pursued Ihe retreating savages to the neighbourhood of Duck River, near the place since known as Gordon's Ferry, where they came in hearing of them prepaid ing their camp-fires. The party of while men immediately dismounted, and marched upon the Indian camp, which waa found deserted ; the eneiny escaped. Of the pursuers, who numbered about twenty, the names only of four are known : Alexander Buchanan, John Brock, William Mann, and Capt. James Robertson. This was the first military excursioa in that direction, and reflects great credit upon the adventure and gallantry of those who made it. As it wns bloodlesSi the enemy was not deterred from repeating their inroads and aggressions upon the feeble settlements on the Cumberland, and, in a short time after, Isaac Lefevre was killed near the fort on the Bluff, at the spot where Nathan Ewing, Esq., since lived. Solomon Philips went out, about the same time, to the place since called Cross's Old Field, and was shot at, and wounded, by the Indians, He survived till he reached the fort, but soon died. Samuel Murray, who was with him in the field, was shot dead. Near th^ oiouDd, Eouth of where Ihe steam-mill since stood, Bartlett Renfroe was killed, and John Maxwell and John Kendrick were taken prisoners.

It has been already mentioned, that some of the emigrant* that had come in boats down the Tennessee, bad stopped ~^^ Red River, with the intention of there forming a settleme^^B^^ Amongst these, were several families of the name of Ra^^*^ froe, and their connexions, Nathan and Solomon TurpS:^ In June or July, their settlement was attacked by a party "^ Choctaws and Chickasaw Indiana ; Nathan Turpia at»-^ another man were killed at the station. The residue wei^' forced to withdraw to the stronger settlement at the Blot ^* The Renfroes took charge of the women and children, aiK^*' conducted them in safely. They afterwards, in compantf^ with others from the BluflT, went to the station on Red River, got quiet possession of some property they had left there, and were upon their return march. At night they encamped about two miles north of Sycamore, at a creek, since called Battle Creek. In the morning, Joseph Renfroe going to the spring, was fired at and instantly killed by the Indians, who lay concealed in the bushes. They then broke in upon the camp, and killed old Mr. Johns and his wife, and all his family. Only one woman, Mrs. Jones, escaped ; Henry Ramsey, a bold and intrepid man, who had gone from the Bluff, took her off, and brought her in safety to the station. Eleven or twelve others, there at the time of the attack, were all killed ; the Indians, taking possession of the horses and other property, went off towards the south.

The ostensible ground of these hostilities by the Chickasaws, was the erection, by General George Rogers Clarke, of Fort Jefferson, eighteen miles below the mouth of the Ohio, and on the east side of the Mississippi. All the territory west of the Tennessee, the Chickasaws pretended to hold by an undisputed claim. Offended at darkens intrusion upon their lands, these savages, till then neutral, became the allies of the British nation, and were so at the time this mischief was perpetrated. In 1782, Captain Robertson made peace with them.

In the summer of this year, Philip Catron, riding 17S0 5 ^''^"^ Freeland's Station to the Bluff, was fired on by ( the Indians, at the place since occupied by Ephraim Foster, Esquire. He was wounded in the breast, so that he spit blood, but he recovered. About the same time, as Captain John Caffrey and Dailiel Williams were rising the bank, in going towards the Bluff, they were fired upon and wounded. They reached the station.

In the fall of this year, the Indians depredated further upon the settlers, by stealing horses from the Bluff. Leiper, with fifteen men, pursued and overtook them on the south side of Harper, near where Ellison formerly lived. They were encamped at night, and the evening was wet. Leiper and his men fired upon them, wounded one, regained their horses and all their baggage, and returned.

Nearly at the same time. Col. John Donelson had gons up the Cumberland to the Clover Bottom, wiih two boat^ for the purpose of bringing to the Bluff the corn which he and others had raised there the preceding summer. They had laden the boats with the corn, and had proceeded a small distance down the river, when the Colonel, recollecting that he had forgotten to gather some cotton which had been planted at the lower end of the field, a&ked the men in the other boat to put to bank, for the purpose of picking out a part of it. They urged that it was growing late, and that they ought to go on. He waived the exercise of his authority, and had scarcely landed his own boat, when hit companions in the other were suddenly attacked by a party of Indians, who lay in ambush to intercept the boats on their return. The Arc of the Indians was fatal. All were killed except a free negro and one white mtn, who swam to shorCi and wandered many days in the woods before he reached the BlulT. The next morning after the defeat, the people at the Station found the boat floating in the river. It was brought to the shore, and a dead man was in it. In this aQ'air, Abel Gower, Senr., and Abel Gower, Junr., and John Robertson, son of Captain Robertson, were kilted. Some others were wounded and taken prisoners. Col. Donelson escaped to Mansco's Station.

The woods abounded in game, and the hunters prooared a full supply of meat for the inh&bttants by killing beai^ buffalo and deer. A party of twenty men went up the Cany Fork as high as Flinn's Creek, and returned io o&- Qoea with their meat, during the winter. In their buntiitg excursion they killed one hundred and five bears, seventyfive buffalo, and more than eighty deer. This Bource of supply furnished most of the families at the Bluff with meat A freshet, in J uly, had destroyed most of the corn on the lowlands and islands, and many suffered the want of bread The scarcity of this article, and the multiplied disasten and dangers which every moment threatened the settlements with destruction, at length disheartened some of the inhabitants. A considerable part of them moved to Kentucky and Illinois. The severity of the winter and the want of horseSf put a stop to this emigration, and all the remaining inhabitants collected themselves together into two stations - the Bluflf and Freeland's.

Forty or fifty Indians, at the still hour of midnight, January 17S1 \ fifteenth, of this year, made an attack on Freeland*8 ( Station. Captain James Robertson had, the evening before, returned from the Kentucky settlements. Whilst on his journey through the intervening wilderness, he had accustomed himself to more vigilance than the residents of the felt it necessary, in their fancied security, to exercise. He was the first to hear the noise which the cautious savages made in opening the gate« He arose and alarmed the men in the station. But the Indians had efiected an entrance. The cry of Indians^ brought Major Lucas out of bed ; he was shot. The alarm having become general, the Indians retreated through the gate, but fired in the port-holes through the house in which Major Lucas lived. In this house a negro of Captain Robertson was shot. These were the only fatal shots, though not less than five hundred werp fired into that house ; it was the only one in which the port-holes were not filled up with mud. The whites numbered only eleven, but they made good use of the advantage they possessed in the other houses in the fort. Captain Robertson shot an Indian. The whole body of them soon after retreated. The moon shone bright, otherwise this attack would probably have succeeded, as the fort was once in possession of the Indians. They had found means to loosen the chain on the inside, which confined the gate, and they were also superior in numbers.

After this repulse, the Indians received reinforcements from the Cherokee nation. They burnt up every thing before them, immense quantities of corn and other produce, as well as the houses and fences, and the unoccupied stations of the whites. The alarm became general. All who could get to the Bluff or Eaton's Station, did so, but many never saw tlieir comrades in those places ; some were killed sleeping i some were awakened only lo be apprised that their laat moment was come ; some were killed in the noon-day, when not suspecHng danger ; death seemed ready to embrace the whole of the adventurers. In the morning, when Hansco's Lick Station was broken up, two men who had slept alittle later than their companions, were shot by twv gnns pointed throngh a port hole by the Indians. These were David Goin and Patrick Quigley. Many of the terrified settlers moved to Kentucky, or went down the river. It is ftrange that all did not go out of the way of impending danger Heroism was then an attribute even with the gentler sex. Mrs. Dunham sent a small girl out of the fort, to bring in she wanted, aud the Indians being there, took hold of the child and scalped, without kilting her. The mother hearing the cries of the child, advanced towards the place where she was, and was shot hy the Indians and wounded dMigerousIy. She and the daughter lived many years afterwards.

Late in March, of this year, Colonel Samuel Barton, pasting near the head of the branch which extends from tha stone bridge, was fired upon by Indians in ambash, and wounded in.tbe wrist. He ran with the blood streaming from the wound, followed by a warrior in close pursuit. They were seen from the fort, and Martin, one of the soldiers in it, ran out to meet and assist his comrade. The parsuing Indian retreated.

On the second day of April, in this year, a desperate attempt was made by the Indians to take the fort and station at the Bluff. A numerous body of Cherokee warriors came there in the night and lay around in ambush. Next morning three of them came in sight, and fired at the fort on the Bluff and immediately retreated. Nineteen horsemen in the fort, at once mounted their horses and followed them. When they came to the branch, over which the stone bridge has since been built, they discovered Indians in the creek and in the thickets near it. These arose from their places of concealment and fired upon the horsemen. The latter dismounted to give them battle, and returned their fire with great alacrity. Another party of the enemy lay concealed in the wild brush and cedars, near the place where Mr. De Mumbrune's hoase stood in 1821, ready to rush into the fort, in rear of the combatants. The horses ran back to the fort - the horsemen being left on foot. To guard against the expected assault from the Indians against those in the fort, its gates were closed, and preparations made for defence. In the meantime, the battle raged without. Peter Gill, Alexander Buchanan, George Kennedy, Zachariah White and Captain Leiper, were killed on the spot. James Manifee and Joseph Moonshaw, and others, were wounded before they could reach the fort. At the place where the stone house of Cross was afterwards built, Isaac Lucas had his thigh broken by a ball. His comrades had gotten within the fort, and the Indians rushed upon him to take his scalp. One of them running towards him, and being at a short distance from the supposed victim of his barbarous revenge, was fired upon and shot through the body by Lucas, who, with his rifle well charged, was lying unable to rise from the ground. The Indian died instantly. The people in the fort, in order to save Lucas, kept up a brisk and warm fire upon those parties of .the assailants who attempted to get to him, and finally succeeded in driving them ofi*. Lucas was taken and brought into the fort by his own people.

Amongst those who escaped towards the fort, was Edward Swanson, who was so closely pursued by an Indian warrior as to be overtaken by him. The Indian punched him with the muzzle of his gun, and pulled trigger, when the gun snapped. Swanson laid hold of the muzzle, and wringing the lock to one side, spilled the priming from the pan. The Indian looked into the pan, and finding no powder in it, struck bim with the gun barrel, the muzzle foremost ; the stroke not bringing him to the ground, the Indian clubbed his gun, and striking Swanson with it near the lock, knocked him down. At this moment John Buchanan, Sen., father of the late Major Buchanan, seeing the certain death that impended his comrade, gallantly rushed from the fort to the rescue of Swanson. Coming near enough to fire, he discharged his rifle at the Indian, who, gritting his teeth on receiving its contenls, retired to a stump near at hand. Bachanan brought off Swansoii, and they both got into the fort without further injury. From the stump to which the wounded warrior retired, was found, after the Indian forces bftd withdrawn, a trail, made by a body dragged along upon the ground, macb marked wilh blood.

When the Indians fired upon the horsemen at the branch, the party of them lying in ambush at DeMambrune's, rose and marched towards the river, forming a line between the combatants and the fort. In the meantime, when the firing between the dismounted horsemen and the enemy had commenced, the horses tooli fright, and ran in full speed on the Bouth side of the Indian line towards the French Lick, passing by the fort on the Bluff. Seeing this, a number of Indians in the line, eager to get possession of the horses, left their ranks and went in pursuit of them. At this instant the dogs in the fort, seeing the confusion, and hearing the firing, raa towards the branch, and came to that part of the Indian line that remained yet unbroken, and having been trained to hostilities against Indians, made a moat furious onset upon them, and disabled them from doing any thing more than defending themselves. Whilst thus engaged, the whites passed near them, through the interval in the Indian line ntsde by those who bad gone from it in pursuit of the horses. Had it not been for these fortunate circumstances, the white men could never have succeeded in reaching the fort through the Indian line which had taken post between it and them. Sach of the nineteen as survived, would have had to break tfarongfa the line, their own guns being empty, whilst those of the Indians were well charged.

This attack was well planned by the Indians, and was carried on with some spirit. At length they retired, leaving upon the field the dead Indian killed by Lucas; another was found buried on the east side of the creek, in a hollovt, north of the place since occupied by Mr. Hume. Many of the Indians were seen hopping with tame feet or legs, and otherwise wounded. Their loss could never be ascertained. It

Rbmabkablb Recotbrt Op David Hood

On the night of the same day in which this affair took place, another party of Indians, who had not come up in time to be present at the battle, marched to the ground since occupied by Poyzer*s and Condon's houses and lots, and fired some time upon the fort. A swivel, charged with small rocks and pieces of pots, was discharged at them. They immediately withdrew.

^ In the summer of this year, William Hood was killed by a party of Indians, on the outside of the fort, at Freeland's Station. They did not, at that time, attack the station. Between that place and the French Lick, about the same time, they killed old Peter Renfroe, and withdrew. In the fall, Timothy Terril, from North-Carolina, was killed.

As Jacob Freeland was hunting on Stoner's Lick Creek, at the place where John Castleman since lived, he was killed by the Indians. There, also, at another time, they killed Joseph Castleman. Jacob Castleman soon after, going in the woods to hunt, was surprised and killed.

Like atrocities marked the spring of this year. At the - i F'^®^^!^ Lick, three persons were fired upon by a party ( of Indians. John Tucker and Joseph Hendricks were wonnded, and being pursued till in sight of the fort, they were rescued and their pursuers repulsed. The third, David Hood, the Indians shot down, scalped and trampled upon him, and believing him dead, they left him and gave chase to his wounded comrades. Hood, supposing the Indians were gone, wounded and scalped as he was, got up softly, and began to walk towards the fort at the Blufi*. To his mortification and surprise, he saw, standing upon the bank of the creek before him, the same Indians who had wounded him, making sport of his misfortunes and mistake. They then fell on him again, and inflicting other apparently mortal wounds, left him. He fell into a brush heap in the snoWf and next morning, search being made by the whites, he was found by his blood, and being taken home, was placed in an

The first mill erected was near Eaton's Station, on the farm since occupied by Mr. Talbot. It was the property of James Wells, Esq.; the next, by Colonel George Manscoi the third, by Captain Frederick Stump, on White's Creek; the fourth, by David Ronfifer, on the same creek; and the next, by Major J. Buchanan.

After their unsuccessful attempt against the Bluff, in 1 781, the Indians continued occasional irruptions and depredatioaa throughout the forming settlements on Cumberland. In that year little corn was raised. The scarcity of grain compeUed the settlers to plant more largely, and raise more grain in 1782, and to procure subsistence by bunting. In both these pursuits, many became victims to the stratagem and cruelty of their savage enemy.

A settlement had been begun at Kilgore's Station, on the north side of Cumberland, on lied River. At this place Samuel Martin and Isaac Johnston, returning to the Bluff) were fired upon by the Indians. They took Martin prisoner, and carried him into the Creek nation. He remained there nearly a year, and came home elegantly dressed, with two valuable horses and silver spurs. It was said, afterwards^ that he had concerted with the Indians the timq and place of the attack made by them, and that he was a sharer in the plunder. Isaac Johnston escaped and came home.

Of the other settlers at Kilgore's, were two young men named Mason, Moses Maiding, Ambrose Maiding, Josiah Hoskins, Jesse Simons, and others. The two young men, Mason, had gone to Clay Lick, and had posted themselves in a secret place to watch for deer. Whilst they were thus situated, seven Indians came to the Lick ; the lads took good aim, 6red upon and killed two Indians, and then ran with all speed to the fort, where, being joined by three of the garrison, they returned to the Lick, found and scalped the dead Indians, and returned. That night John and Ephraiin Peyton, on their way to Kentucky, called in and remained all night at the fort. During the night all the horses that were there were stolen. In the morning pursuit was made, and tho Indians were overtaken in the evening, at a creek, since called Peyton's Creek. They were fired upon. One was killed and the rest of them fled, leaving the stolen horses to the owners. The pursuers returned that mght, in the direction of the fort, and encamped, and were progressing, next morning, on their way. In the meantime, the Indians, by a circuitous route, had got between them and the station, and when the whites came near enough, fired upon them, killing one of the Mason, and Josiah Hoskins, and taking some spoil. The Indians then retreated. Discouraged by these daring depredations, the people at Kilgore's Station broke up their establishment and joined those at the Bluff.

In this year, also, George Aspie was killed, on Drake's Creek, by the Indians, and Thomas Spencer, wounded. In the fall William McM urray was killed near Winchester's Mill, on Bledsoe's Creek, and General Smith was wounded. Noah Trammel was killed on Goose Creek. Maiden's Station, on Red River, was broken up and abandoned.

Such were the difficulties and dangers th&t accompanied the infancy of the Cumberland settlements, that, from necessity, it became a custom of the country for one or two persons to stand as watchmen or sentinels, whilst others Isc boured in the field ; and even whilst one went to a spring to drink, another stood on the watch, with his rifle ready to protect him, by shooting a creeping Indian, or one rising from the thickets of canes and brush that covered him from view; and wherever four or five were assembled together at a spring, or other place, where business required them to be, they held their guns in their hands, and with their backs turned to each other, one faced the north, alnother the south, another the west - watching, in all directions, for a lurking or creeping enemy. Whilst the people at the Blufi* were so much harassed and galled by the Indians that they could not plant nor cultivate their corn-fields, a proposition was made, in a council of the inhabitants, to break up the settlements and go ofiT. Captain Robertson pertinaciously resisted this proposition. It was then impossible to reach Kentucky ; the In- diaos were tn force upon all the roads and passages which led to it ; for the same reason, it was also impossible, and equallj impracticable, to remove to thesettlemeatson Holston. No other means of escape remained, but that of going down the river in boats, and making good their retreat to the Illinois, And even to this plan, great obstacles were opposed ; for how was the wood to be obtained, with which to make the boats ? The Indians were, every day, in the skirts of the BlnlT, lying concealed among the shrubs and cedar trees, ready to inflict death upon whoever should attempt to go to the woods. These difficulties were alt stated by Captain Robertson. He held out the dangers attendant upon the attempt, on the one hand ; the fine country they were on the point of possessing, on the other. To these he added, the probability of new acquisitions of numbers from the older settlements, and the certainty of being able, by careful attention to circumstances, to defend and support themselves till succour could arrive. At length, the parental advice and authority of Robertson prevailed. He finally succeeded in quieting the Apprehensions of his co-colonists; and they gradually relinquished the design of evacuating the portions they occupied, now somewhat hallowed to them by the recollection of past dangers, endnred toils, difficalties oTercome, and triumphs achieved.

The expectations of Captain Robert^n were, in part, soon realized. The revolutionary war was ended ; an abatement of Indian hostility soon followed ; and additional emigrants from North-Carolina and other states, gave renewed strength and animation and permanence to his

Sing, as they did, some alleviation of the suffering endured on Cumberland, stil), in 1763,' the offensive oporations of the Indians were occasionally continued. One (rf the guard who came to the Bluff with the Commissionera fVom North-Carolina, Roger Top, was killed at the plaee where Mr. Deaderick has since lived. At the same time and place, Roger Glass was wounded. Within two days after these acts of hostility, a settler, passing the place where

The Ghickasaws, early in 1788, assembled in the vicinity of Nashville, at Robertson's Station, where a treaty was coneluded, ceding and relinquishing to North-Carolina a region of country extending nearly forty miles south of Cumberland River, to the ridge dividing the tributaries of that stream from those of Duck and Elk.*

The policy of Spain, at this time, was, to secure the good fbelings, if not the aid, of the southern Indians. The agents of that Power invited those tribes to meet and hold conferences with them, at the Walnut Hills. From these conferences they returned, as was believed, with dispositions less amicable to the new settlements on the Cumberland. No large body of them invaded that country, but small parties of Indians were constantly waylaying the paths and surrounding the corn-fields of the emigrantSi Such of them as were exploring the country, and making locations, were closely watched, and some of them killed. Ireson And Bamett, on a surveying excursion, were shot down and killed. On Richland Creek, near what has since been the plantation of Mr. Irwin, William Daniel, Joseph Dunham, Joshua Norrington, and Joel Mills, were all killed ; and in a path leading from Dunham's Fort to Armstrong's, at the head of the same ereek, where Castleman since lived, a soldier was killed as he passed from one fort to the other.

At Armstrong's Fort, as Patsy, the daughter of Mr. Rains, was riding on horseback, with a young woman, Betsey Williams, behind her, they were fired upon by the Indians, and the latter killed ; the former escaped. A short time aAer- 'wards, near the same place, Joseph Noland was killed ; and daring the same summer, a son of Thomas Noland ; and during the fall, the old man, himself, were also killed near this same place. About the same time, the Indians killed the iatber of Betsey Williams, above mentionefl.

the BlufT, not far from the farm at the present time owned by A. R. Crozier, Esq., on the Turnpike leading fron Nashville to Lebanon. There the Indians, in this year, killed Samuel Buchanan, William Mulherrln and three others, who were gaarding the station. Going from the Bluff to Kentucky, Witliara Overall was killed, and Joshua Thomas mortally wounded. The Indians having stolen horses from the Bluff, Captain William Pruett raised twenty men and pursued them to Richland Creek of Elk River, overtook them, and recaptured the horses on the waters of Big Creek. They fired upon, but did not kill any of the Indians. As they returned, they encamped near a creek on the norlh side of Duck River. As they b'pgan their march next morning, they were fired upon by ibe Indians in their rear, Moses Brown was killed in a cane-brake, and the ground being unfavourable, the whites retreated a mile and a half to more open ground, and there halted and formed. The Indians came up and'^n engagement ensued. Captain Pruett and Daniel Johnson were shot down, and Morris Shine was wounded. Being overpowered, the survivors of Ibe party made good their escape to the Bluff, with the loss of their recaptured horses.

These repeated aggressions and depredations upon the lives and property of the settlers, were the more pertinaeiously renewed and persisted in, from the fact, that North- Carolina had, in April of this year, appropriated the lands hitherto claimed by the Chickasaws and Gherokees, except those which, by the same act, were allowed to them for t1)eir hunting grounds. This unceremonious intrusion npon their supposd rights, together with the machinations of the agents of Spain, had the effect to exasperate their hostility to the settlements of the whites now beginning to expand and acquire permanence, by the additional strength of other emigrants from a different direction. Turnbull, a trader, came from Natchez with horses and skins procured in the Chickasaw nation. Prom th^ same place, Absalom Hooper, Thomas James, Philip Alston, James Drumgnid, James Cole, James Donelson and others, also arrived. A station was this year established by Samuel Hays on Stone's River.

Oallantrt Of Mason And Tbammsl

Constantly harassed and alarmed by the continued re- 1784 ^ currence of Indian hostility against his colony^ Col. I Robertson could no longer resist the conviction, that his savage neig)ibours on the south were instigated in their unfriendly conduct to the people on Cumberland by some foreign influence, and he suspected that influence might be from the agents of Spain. He entered into correspondence with one of them, Mr. Portell, assuring him of a disposition on the part of his countrymen to maintain with the Spanish colonists the most friendly relations. Mr. Portell, in reply, expressed his gratitude for the amicable behaviour of the Cumbefland people, and promised to maintain the best relations on his side, and expressed a wish to be useful to the Colonel and his countrymen. Still, inpursions for the purpose of murder and plunder, continued to be made by the Indians. Early in this year, Philip Trammel and Philip Mason were killed* As one amongst a thousand instances of the unequalled fortitude and gallantry of the first settlers, a recitation is here given of the conflict in which they ended their existence. These two men had killed a deer at the head of White's Creek, and were skinning it. The Indians stole up to the place and fired upon them. They wounded Mason and carried ofl* the venison. Trammel got assistance from Eaton's Station, and followed the Indians. He came up with them ; they fought, and he killed two of them. The Indians being reinforced, and Mason having received a second and mortal wound, the whites were once more obliged to retreat. Trammel found some other white men in the woods, and induced them to go back with him to the place where the Indians were. They found the latter, and immediately renewed the fight. They killed three Indians, and fought till both parties were tired. Trammel and Josiah Hoskins, enthusiastically courageous, and determined to make the enemy yield the palm of victory, gallantly precipitated themselves into the midst' of the retreating Indians, where they fell by the hands of the foe. The rest of the white men maintained their ground until both parties were exhausted and willing to rest from their martial labours.

ta be specially mentioned. Aspie, Andrew Lucas, Thomas S. Spencer and Johnston, had left the Bluff on horseback on a hunting toor. They had reached the head waters of Drake's Creek, where their horses had stopped to drink. At this moment a parly of Indians iired upon them. Lucaa was . shot through the neck and through the mouth. He, however, dismounted with the rest, but in attemping to fire, the blood gushed from his mouth and wet his priming ; perceiving this, he crawled into a bunch of briers. A^ie, as he alighted from his horse, received a bullet which broke his thigh ; but he Htitl fought heroically, Johnston and Spencer acquitted themselves with incomparable gallantry, but were obliged to give way, and to leave Aspie to his fate, though be entreated them earnestly not to forsake him. The lodiaiu killed and scalped Aspi/j, but did not find Lucas, who shortly afterwards returned to his friends. Spencer, in the heat of the engagement, was shot, but the ball split on the bone and his life was spared. The whole Aspie family were superlatively brave. A brother had been previously killed in tho battle at the Bluff. When he first fell, he placed himself in a position to reach a loaded gun, with which he shot an Indlao running up to scalp him.

Id this year also, Cornelius Riddle was shot by the lndiAD% Dear Buchanan's Station. He had killed two turkeys, and hanging them upon a bush, had gpne off into the woods to hunt for more. The Indians hearing the report of his gun, came to the place, and Unding the turkeys, lay in ambusli where they were, and on Riddle's coming to take them away* they Iired upon and killed him.

In the year 1785, Moses Brown was killed, near the place I7M S °" Richland Creek afterwards occupied by Jesse ( Wharton, Esq,, and then known as Brown's Station, Col. Robertson and Col. Weakly had gone, with Edmond Hickman, aSurveyor, to survey entered lands on Piny River. The Indians came upon them suddenly, and killed Hickman. The same year they killed a man living with William Stuart, on the plantation where Judge Haywood afterwards lived.

Chickasaw Boumdaet

Hall and W. Gibson, settled this year above Bledsoe's Lick, and Charles Morgan established a station on the west side of Bledsoe's Creek, five miles from the Lick. The Indians killed Peter Barnett and David Steele, below Clarkesville, on the waters of Blooming Grove. They also wounded William Cratoher and went off, leaving a knife sticking in him ; . he recovered.

On the second day of March, John Peyton, a Surveyor, Ephraim Peyton, Thomas Pugh and John Frazier, had commenced their survey upon a creek, since called Defeated Creek,^ on the north side of Cumberland, in what is now Smith county, and had made a camp. While they were sleeping around the camp about midnight, a great number of Cherokee Indians surrounded and fired upon them. All but one of them were wounded, but they ran through the Indian line, made their escape and got home, losing their horses, compass, chain, blankets, saddles and bridles. The Indians retreated immediately to their towns, and were not over* taken.

The Commissioners of the United States, Benjamin Haw- 1786 i ^i^^ Andrew Pickens, and Joseph Martin, concluded ( a treaty with the Chickasaw Commissioners, Piomingo, head warrior and first minister, Mingatushka, one of the leading chiefs, and Latopoia, first beloved man of that nation, at Hopewell, January lOth, 1786. The boundary of the lands allotted to the Chickasaw nation to live and hunt on,

*<B^aQ on the ridge that divides the waters running into the Cumbiriimd from those running into the Tennessee, at a point in a line to be nm north-east, which shall strike the Tennessee at the mouth of Duck River; thence running westerly along the said ridge till it shall strike the Ohio ; thence down the southern bank thereof to the Mississippi ; llienoe down the same to the Choctaw line of Natchez District ; thence along the said line, or the line of the district, eastwardlj as far as the Chidcasaws claimed, and lived and hunted on, the twenty-ninth of Nofember, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two. Thence the said iKmndary eastwardly shall be the lands allotted to the Choctaws and Cherokees, to live and hunt on, and the lands at present in possession of the Creeks, saving and reserving for the establishment of a trading post, - tract of land, to be laid out at the lower point of the Muscle Shoals, at fhe mouth of Ocochappo.** and confirmed that made in 1788, with Donelson and Martin, Commissioners of North-Carolina. This Treaty encouraged emigration to Camberland.

The settlements were now becoming stronger by annual ar« IW \ rivals of emigrants, bat had not expanded much, except ( in the direction towards Red River. There the new settlers underwent the usual initiation from Indian ontraga and aggression. Hendrick's Station, on Station-Camp Credc, was assaulted in the night; the house, in which were Mr. and Mrs. Price and their children, was broken into, the parents were killed and their children badly wounded. A boy named Baird, was killed in the day time, and several horses were stolen. Near the Locust-land, where General Hall now liyei^ above Bledsoe's Lick, the Indians killed William Hall and his son Richard, and another man. In May« the Indians came to Richland Creek, and in daylight killed Mark Robertsmi, near the place where Robertson's Mill was since erected. He was a brother of Col. Robertson, and was returning from his house.

During the summer, the Indians came to Drake's Creek, where William Montgomery lived, shot down and scalped his son, and wounded John Allen. In the same neighbourhood they killed Mr. Morgan, Sen., and were pursued by a party of white men under the command of George Winchester, who followed on their trail. Another party, commanded by Captain William Martin, also followed them by a nearer route, and not having found their trail, encamped near it. The other party, on the same night, came on the trail, and seeing the camp of Martin, fired into it and killed William Ridley, the son of George Ridley, late of Davidson county.

Considerable delay occurred before Evans's battalion could be recruited, equipped, provided with supplies, and sent forward to Cumberland, as provided for by the Assembly of North-Carolina. Impatient of this delay, Colonel Bledsoe asks permission of Governor Caswell to carry an expedition against the Chickamaugas. His letter is dated from Kentucky, whither he and Colonel Robertson had gone, to procure additional forces, with which to chastise the enemy.

Kentucky, Juno l^t, 1787, Dear Sir: - At this ])lace T received accounts from Cumbi'Hand, that f^ince 1 last did ni}8eif the pleasure of flddi,ebsiiig you, three pen^ona Lave been killed at that phicc, within about sovt-n miles of Nashville; and ther6 ia scarcely a day, that the Indians do not st^'al horses in either Sumner or Davidson counties ; and I am informed, the people are exceedingly dispirited, having had accounts t{iat several northern tribes, ia. conjunction with the Creek nation, have determined the destruction of that diffenceless country, this summer ; and their hopes seem blasted, as to Major Evanses assistance. Colonel Robertson has lately been to this country to get some assistance to carry on a campaign against the Chickamauga towns, and got some assurance from the several officers. The time appointed for the rendezvous, was 6xed to the 15th instaot| but, finding the men cannot be drawn out at that season of the year, I liave thought it my duty to ask your advice in the matter : whether, or sot, we shall have leave of government to carry on such a campaign, if yt^ can make ourselves able, with the assistance of our friends, the Virgianians, as they promised us, immediately after harvest.

CuMBRRLAKD, June 12th, 1787. Dear Sir : - Nothing but the distress of a bleeding country could induce us to trouble you on so disagreeable a subject. We enclose you a li»t of the killed in this quarter, since «)ur departure from this country to the Assembly ; this, with the numbers wounded, the vast numbers of Loracs stolen from the inhabitants, has, in a.degree, flagged the spirits of the people. A report is now hero, and has prevailed throughout this country, and we are induced to believe it is true, that the Spaniards are doin<ir all they can to encourage the several savage tribes to war against the Americans. It is certain, the Chickasaws infonn us, that Spanish traders offer a reward for scalps of the Americans. A disorderly set of French and Spanish tradeii^ are continually on the Tennessee, that, we actually fear, are a grc'at means of encouraging the Indians to do us much mischief Wo siiould wish to take some measures to remove these disorderly traders from the Tennessee, and wish your Excellency's advice in the matter.

At length, the Indian atrocities becoming so bold and freqaent, it appeared necessary, for the protection and defence of the settlements, that ofTensive operations should be carried on against the Indians in their own towns. One hundred and thirty men, from the different settlements on Cumber-' laody volunteered for that purpose, and assembled at the liou!>e of Colonel Robertson. Of this force he took the command, assisted by Colonel Robert Hays and Colonel James

Ford, and inarched for the Indian village, Coldwater, with two Chickasaws as pilots. They crossed at the mouth of Sooth Harper; thence they went a direct course f5 the mouth of Turnbuirs Creek, and up that stream to its head ; thence to Lick Creek, of Duck River ; thence down that creek seven or eight miles, leaving the creek to the right hand; thence to an old and very large Lick; thence to Duck River, where the old Chickasaw trace crossed it ; thence, leaving the trace to the right hand, they went to the head ol Swan Creek ; thence to a creek then called Blue Water, running into the Tennessee River, about a mile and -a half above the lower end of the Muscle Shoals. When within ten miles of these rapids, they heard the roaring of the falls. One of the Indian guides, with several of the most ' active soldiers, was ordered to go to the riven These, about midnight, returned, saying the river was too distant for them to foaoh that night and return to camp. In the morning, they pursued the same course they had done the day befons. At IS 4/elock, they struck the river at the lower end of the Muscle Shoals, where it is said the road now crosses, and <Amioealed themselves in the woods till night. On the north Bide of the river they discovered, on a blufi^ a plain path leading along the river, which seemed to be much travelled; and on the south side, opposite to them, were seen several Indian cabins or lodges. Several of the soldiers went down secretly, took their station under the bank, and concealed themselves under the cane, to observe what could be seen on the other side. They had not long remained in their place of concealment, when they saw some Indians reconnoitering and evidently looking out for the troops of Col. Robertson. In doing this, they passed into an island near the south bank of the river, where they entered a canoe, and came half way over the stream. Not being able to see any of the invaders, the Indians returned to the island where they had started from, and fastened the canoe. When they left the river, Captain Rains was sent with fifteen men up the path, along the north bank, with orders from Col. Robertson to capture an Indian, if possible, alive. He executed the order, but did not see an Indian. He went nearly to the mouth of

And Attack On Coldwateb

Bluewater Creek, when about sunset be was recalled, baving made no discoveries. It was determined to cross tbe river ' tbat nigbt, and tbe soldiers, wbo bad watcbed tbe movements of tbe Indians, swam over tbe river and went up to tbe cabins, but tbey found not a single living being in tbe village. Tbey tben untied tbe canoe and returned in it to tbe north bank. It was found to be a very large one, but old and having a bole in its bottom. Tbis tbe men contrived to stop with their shirts. Into tbis frail and leaky barque, forty men, with their fire-arms, entered. Tbey started from tbe shore, and tbe canoe sprang aleak and began to sink. Jumping into the water, the men swam back with tbe canoe to tbe northern bank. In these operations, some noise was necessarily made, and considerable time consumed, and tbe embarkation of the troops was delayed till daylight. With a piece of linn bark, tbe hole in tbe canoe was at length coveredy and forty or fifty men crossed over in it, and took possession of the bank on tbe south side. Tbe remainder of the troops swam over with the horses. Having all crossed the river in safety, attention was paid to drying their clothes and eqaipments. A rain came on and forced the men into the cabins. After tbe clouds cleared away, tbe troops mounted, aod seeing a well beaten path, leading from tbe river out into the barrens, in a western direction, tbey dashed into it and followed it briskly. At tbe distance of five or six miles they came to com fields, and a mile or two further they came to Coldwater Creek. Tbis most of the troops crossed by a path so narrow that a single horse could only pass it up the bank. On the other side of the creek was a number of cabins, built upon the low grounds, which extended to the river about three hundred yards below. Tbe people of the town were surprised by its sudden and unexpected invasion, and fled precipitately to their boats at tbe river, and were oloselv pursued by such of the men as had crossed the creek. Captain Rains had remained on its other side, with Benjamin Castleman, William Loggins, William Steele and Martin Duncan, and seeing the retreat and flight of the enemy, went down tbe east side of tbe creek to intercept them. Tbe retreating Indians, as tbey ran down on the

Other side, and had their attention drawn to those who porsned them on the same side of the creek* crossed over and came to the spot where Captain Rains and his men were, and were fired upon, while looking back at their pursuers, and not perceiving the snare Into which they had Tallen. Three of them dropped down dead. Three French traders and a white woman, who had got. into a boat and would not surrender, but mixed with the Indians and seemed determined to partake of their fate, whatever it might be, were killed by the troops. They wounded and took prisoner the principal tra^ der and owner of the goods, and five or six other Frenchmen, who lived there as traders. These had in the town, stores of taffla, sugar, coffee, cloths, blankets, Indian wares of all sorts, salt, shot, Indian paintS| knives, powder, tomahawfa^ tobacco and other articles, suitable for Indian commeroe. The troops killed many of the Indians after they had got into the boats, and gave them so hot and deadly a filre fh>m the bank of the river, that they were forced to Jomp into the water, and were shot whilst in it, until, as the Chickasaws afterwards informed them, twenty-six of the Creek warriors were killed in the river. The troops immediately afterwards collected all the boats that were upon the river, and brought them up the creek, opposite to the town, and placed a guard over them. Each of the Indian guides was, next morning, presented with a horse, a gun, and as many blankets and clothes as the horses could carry, as their portion of the spoils, and despatched to their homes. The name of one of them was Toka, a chief.

After the departure of the Chickasaw guides, the troops buried the white men and the woman killed in the engagement of the day before, set fire to and burned up the town, and destroyed the domestic animals that were found in and around it. The goods of the traders had been removed from the stores, and with the prisoners, were now put into three or four boats, under the charge of Jonathan Denton, Benjamin Drake, and John and Moses Eskridge, to navigate them. They were directed to descend the Tennessee to some con* venient point on its southern shore, where they were to meet; the mounted troops, and assist them in c:ossing. At the time the boats started down the river, the horsemen began their march by land, but being without pilots, and entirely unacquainted with the windings of the stream, they took a course that led them further from it than they intended, into the piny woods, where they encamped. The next day they went to the river, where they saw several persons at a distance on the islands, who proved to be their own boatmen^ Neither knew the other till some of the boatmen, nearing the shore, made the agreeable discovery, that the horsemen on the land were their friends. The troops then moved down the river a few miles, and came to a place just above the point of an island, where the descent to the river was easy and convenient for embarkation, and where the bank on the opposite side afforded a safe landing. Uere» with the assistance of the boats, they crossed over. The whole command encamped together on the north shore, and found they had not lost a single man, and that not one was wounded. The place at which the crossing was made, is near what has since been known as Colbert's Ferrv.

The horsemen, after leaving camp on the Tennessee, marched oearly a north course, till they struck the path leading to the Chickasaw Old Crossing, on Duck River, where they had crossed going out, and pursuing their own trace, returned unmolested to the Bluff.

At the encampment on the Tennessee, the French prisoners Vfere allowed to take all their tmnks and wearing apparel, And an equal division was made of the sugar and coffee amongst the troops and prisoners. To the latter was also l^ven a canoe, in which, after bidding farewell, they ascended the river.

The dry goods were ordered, under the care of the same Iboatmen, to Nashville. Sailing down the river some days, Ihey met other French boats laden with goods, and having on board French trp-ders, who, being great I j' rejoiced at seeing their countrymen, as they supposed the Cumberland boatmen to be, returning home, saluted them by firing their gans. The latter, descen ling the river with their guns charged, came alongside of the French boats, boarded them and- captured the boats and crews, and conducted them to a place a few miles below Nashville. There the captors gave the Frenchmen a canoe, and dismissed them with peraiission to go down the river, which they did.

The spoils taken at Coldwater, were brought to Eaton^s Station and sold, and the proceeds divided amongst the troops. They returned to Col. Robertson's on the nineteenth day after the commencement of the expedition at his house. From this place, Col. Robertson wrote Gov. Caswell under date -

"Nashville, July 2d, 1787. Sir : - I had tho pleasure of receiving your Excellency's letter to Col. Bledsoe and myself, in which you were so obliging as to mentiQii you would render every aid iu your power to our country. Never was there a time in which your Excellency's assistance an4 attention were more necessary than the present The war being exceedingly hot in the spring, I marched some men near the Chickamaugas ; but wishuig to avoid an open war, returned without doing them any mischiei^ leaving a' letter containing every offer of peace that could be made on honourable terms ; in consequence of which, they sent a flag to treat, thongh I have every reason to doubt their sincerity, as sevieral persons wer» killed during their stay, and one man at my house, in their sight They impute the mischief we suffer to the Creeks. A few days after their departure, my brother, Mark Robertson, being killed near my house, I, by the advice of the officers, civil and military, raised about one hundred and thirty men, and followed their tracks, near the lower end of the Muscle Shoals, where some Indians discovered us^ fired on our back picket, and alarmed a small town of Cherokees. We found, where wo crasscd Tennessee, pictures of two scalps, made a' few days before; which scalps, we were afterwards informed, were carried into said town by seven Cherokees, who were|^here when we attacked them. Though they constantly kept out spies, we had the good fortune to cross Tennessee, and go eighteen miles down the river, till in sight of the town, before the Indians discovered us. We made a rapid charge and entirely defeated them. The aUack began at the mouth of a large creek ; we forced them into the creek and river, and what escaped, either got off in boats or swam the river. About twenty were killed, and several wounded. The whole town, as we were afterwards informed by a Frenchman, whom we found there, had been councilling three days, at the instigation of a princij)al Creek chief, and had unanimously agreed to fight us, if we crossed Tennessee. From what passed at this consultation, I have every reason to believe the Creeks totally averse to peace, notwithstanding thoy have had no cause of offence. We have been exceedingly particular in giving tliem no reason to complain. Their force consisted of ten Creeks and thirty-five Cherokee warriors, together with nine Frenchmen, chiefly from Detroit, who had joined the Indians against us. Among the dead was the Creek chief before mentioned, a mischievous Cherokee chief, three Frenchmen and &

Firencbwoman, who was killed by accident, in one of the boats. In this action we lost not a single man ; but a partj of fiftj men, who was sent to the mouth of Duck River, was there attacked by a largo number of Indians, and we had one man killed and eight wounded. "We were piloted by two Chickasaws, in this expedition ; their nation seem, on every occasion, our friends, and if it were possible to supply them with trade, at the Chickasaw Bluff, there is no doubt but they and the Choctaws would find full employment for our enemies.

From the constant incursions of the Indians, I have been obliged to keep the militia very much in service on scouts, guards, <fec., and havo been under the necessity of promising them pay, without which, I am paiBuaded, the army would have totally broken up, as many have already Qone. I hope you will approve the promise I have made to the inhabitants. Sumner county seems to be in peace, compared with this, "being more out of the range of the Indians. I have not an opportunity of seeing Col. Bledsoe, or I make no doubt he would join me in informing your Excellency that our situation, at present, is deplorable - deprived of raising subsistence, and constantly harassed with perfonning military duty, our only hope is in the troops promised us by ths General Assembly ; but, as yet, we have no news of them. I earnestly beg your Excellency to forward them with all possible expedition. I liope that yourEsoellency will, by express or otherwise, favour me with an answer.

This spirited invasion of the heart of the Indian country, and the success that had attended the assault against Cold- 'water, were followed by a short respite from savage aggression* Heretofore, there had not been an hour of safety to an J settler on the waters of Cumberland, and offensive measures were adopted and energetically executed. The vengeance so long delayed, had, at length, fallen with most fatal effect upon those who had so frequently provoked it. At Goldwater, Colonel Robertson discovered the sources from which the Indians were supplied with the materials which enabled them to make inroads upon the new settlements ; the means by which, and the channels through which, they received them ; and the practicable modes of cutting them offy as well as the facility of seizing upon the stores, when deposited in villages near the place of disembarkation. The advantages acquired by his expedition were various and important, and by putting the Indians in danger at home, and making it necessary for them to act on the defensive, near their own villages, had greatly diminished the vigour of their enterprises against the feeble settlements.

These advantages, however, vi^ere eomewhat coaatsracled by the unforfcanate issue of another expedition, coaneotsd^ia part, with that so gallantly carried on by Colonel Rpbertiion, and undertaken aboat the same time, with the view of moaring its sucoess.

When the troops started on the campaign to Goldwater, David Hay, of Nashville, had the command of a company l|here, and determined to carry them, simultaneously, against like enemy, by water ; not only to assist their coantryoieii w the assault upon the Indian vitlag^s^ but to carry to tfaem provisions and supplies, which, it was apprehended, tbey might need on their arrival at the Tennessee River, and«]M^ ticularly, in case of the detention of the horsemen in that neighbourhood, for a longer time than was anticipated. Captain Hay and his men descended the river in three boal% and passing around into the Tennessee, had proeeeded anoMH lasted op that stream to the mouth of Dock Rivera When ibey had reached that stream, the boat commanded by Moaes Shelby, entered into it a small distance, for the porpose of examining a canoe^ which he observed there, faatelMd to the bank. A party of Indians had concealed themaelves in the cane and behind the trees, not more than ten or twelve feet from the canoe, and from the boat itself, and poured in a most unexpected fire into the boat. John Top and Hugh Roquering were shot through the body ; Edward Hogan, through the arm, the ball fracturing the bone ; Josiah Renfroe was shot through the head, and killed on the spot. The survivors made great haste to get the boat offy but, having the prow up the small river, and several of the crew being wholly disabled, and some of them greatly dismayed by the sudden fire and destruction which had come upon them, acted in disorder, and with great difficulty got the boat again into the Tennessee, beyond the reach of the Indian guns, before they could reload and fire a second time. Had this movement been executed with less alacrity and despatch, the rash and unadvised act of going to the canoe, would have caused the whole crew to become victims to the stratagem of the Indians. As it was, their artful plot had too well succeeded, and the expedition, which promised so much, and thus far had been prosecuted without interruption, was abandoned. Captain Hay returned, with his wounded n)en, to Nashville, where,, alone, surgical and medical assistance could be procured.

The affair at Coldwater, and the capture of the French traders and their goods on the Tennessee, had involved Col. Robertson in a difficulty with a nation then at peace with the United States. That officer deemed it necessary, therefore, to make a written exposition of the causes and motives vrhich led to the campaign which he had conducted, and in which citizens of France had been made to suffer. This communication he addressed to a functionary at the Illinois* He stated in it,

**That for some years past a trade had been carried on by Frenchmen from the Wabash, wilh the Indians on Tennessee. The trade had been fi>nnerly managed by a Mr. Veiz, and while he carried it on the Indians were peaceable towards us ; but for two or three years past, these Indians had been extremely inimical, at all seasons killin<2: our men, women and children, and stealing our horses. Ue had sufficient evidence of the fact also, that these Indians were excited to war against us by the suffgestions of these traders, who both advised them to war, and

Skve them goods for carrying it on. The Chickasaws had told him at they had been offered goods by those traders if they would go to mst against us. And one John Rogers declared, that he had seen a Creek fellow have on a pair of arm-bands, which he said were given to him by the French traders, for going to wa^ against our people. Their incursions upon us this spring have been more severe than usual, and I determined to distress them. For this purpose, he stated that he had taken a part of the militia of Davidson county, followed th(^ tracks of one of their scalping parties, who had just been doing murder here, and pursuing them to a town on Tennessee, at the mouth of Coldwater, had destroyed the town, and killed, as he supposed, about twenty of the Indians. The scalps of two of our people whom they had lately murdered, were found in the town. Some of the French imprudently put themselves in the action, and some of them fell. From that place he sent a party around to the River Cumbeiland by water. On the Tennessee they found five Frenchmen, with two boats, havin^: on board goods to trade with those very Indians. The commander of the party ei4)tured the boats with the traders, and brought them round to the Cumberland, and gave them their choice, cither ti> come up to the settlement and stand their trial for what they had done, thereby to try lUid regain their goods, or else they might go home at once without their goods ; they chose the latter. The taking of these boaU, said Col. Bobertson, was without my knowled<;e or approbation. I am now endeavouring to collect the pro|:erty which was in them, and I desire the ownere to be notified, that if Qxey oonld make it appear that Oiey not gnilty of a breach of the laws, and did not intend to finniui oar enemiee with powder, lead and other gooda, for onr destraction, on «^ plying here at Nashville, they can have their property again. He declared that if those Indians would be peaceable, we shoold never attempl to deprive them of any trade they oould procure. But whilst they continue at war, said he, any trados who furnish them witili arma and ammnnition, will render themselves very insecure.''

The fearless irraption of the troops under Robertson, was followed by a temporary relaxation of Indian hostility. Baft soon after their route and discomfiture at Coldwater, Uwy collected in small bodies, crossed the Tennessee, and oommenced an undistinguishing carnage upon the settlers, of all ages and sexes. One of these was pursued by a small body of white men under Captain Shannon. The Indiana had reached the bank of Tennessee River ; some were in their camp, eating, others making preparations to cross to the op* posite shore. The former were discovered by Shannon^ men, who fired and rushed impetudusly upon them. Caademan killed one. Another, proving too strong, took Luke Anderson's gun from him, but before he could discharge her, William Pillow, since a coloujel, of Maury county, and the uncle of Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, of the United States Army, shot the Indian and recovered the gun. The remaining Indians, who were without the camp, were commanded by Big Foot, a leading warrior of determined bravery. Believing, from the report of the guns which had been fired, that the number of the assailants was inconsiderable, these resolved to attack the whites, and did so. A terrible conflict ensued. Victory, for some time wavering, at length declared against the Indians. Their leader and five of his followers were killed, the rest raised the yell and disappeared in the bushes. Late in July, of this year, two hundred Creek warriors, em- ( bodied for the purpose, as they said, of taking satisfac- ( tion for three Indians killed in an afiair eighteen miles below Chota. Mr. Perrault met and delivered, and expounded to them a letter, written by Col. .Robertson, and addressed to their nation. Perrault endeavoured to dissuade them from hostilities and to get them to turn back, but his nnssion was fruitless. They persevered in their march, adding to their rejection of the overtures for peace, a threat, that if their territory should be again invaded, or another Creek should be killed after their present incursion, the whites might expect a merciless war.

Of the battalion ordered to be raised for the protection of Davidson county. Major Evans was appointed to take the command. These troops arrived on Cumberland in successive detachments, accompanying parties of emigrants, that were constantly augmenting the resources and defences of the country. Col. Robertson,. to add further to the efficiency of Evans's battalion, was enabled, from the increased strength of the population, to select and detach a certain portion of it to act as patrols or spies. It was their business to go through the woods from the borders of the settlements - in every direction, and to every place where there was an Indian or a buffalo trace - to the crossing places on rivers and creeks, to look after the Indians, and to notice the trails they had made in their marches. At that time canes and weeds grew up sd luxuriantly, in all parts of the country, that two or three men, even without horses, could not pass through ^without leaving a discernible trace, which might be followed with no risk of mistake. Amongst the patrols selected for the performance of this service, was Captain John Rains. Col. Robertson was led to this choice by the experience he had had in his prowess and diligence. His orders to him had always been executed punctually, promptly, and with a degree of bravery that was never exceeded. An occasion Mon offered for the exercise of these eminent qualities. The Indians killed Randal Gentry, not far from the Bluff, at Ihe place where Mr. Foster since lived. About the same time, Curtis Williams and Thomas Fletcher, with his son, "Were also killed near the mouth of Harper. Captain Rains 'was ordered to pursue the perpetrators of this mischief. He soon raised sixty men and followed them. Their trace was .^und and pursuit made ; he passed Mill Creek, Big Harper, the Fishing Ford of Duck River, Elk River, at the mouth of Swan Creek, and Flint River. Not being able to overtake the enemy, he left their trace and went westwardly, and struck McCutchin's trace. Before he reached Elk River, he diac^vered tracks of Indians going in the direction of Nasbvilla. At the crossing of the river, he came to the camp which they had left the morning before. He went forward six miles and halted, sending forward a few of his men to see that the enemy was not so near as to hear his men forming their encampment These retufned without having seen any of the Indians. Next morning Captain Rains continned the pursuit, and in the afternoon found the place they had encamped the preceding night. The ground had been cleared of leaves and brush, and upon this the war dancti had been celebrated. There were, moreover, evidences of a wary -and deliberate invasion for hostile purposes, and of very cantious and watchful progress. The troops, after crossing Daek River, at the mouth of Globe and Fountain Creek, encamped at night on its north side. Renewing their march next morning,* they came, at the distance of six miles on the waleia of Rutherford's Creek, near where Solomon Herring has since lived, upon the camp of the Indians. It was fired upon, whioa the Indians immediately fled, leaving one of their nambar dead. Captain Rains, with his company, then returned to Nashville.

The same vigilant officer soon after received the orders of Colonel Robertson to raise another company, and scour the woods southwardly from Nashville, and destroy an}' Indians that might be found, east of the line dividing the Cherokee and Chickasaw nations. Sixty men constituted the command. They took the Chickasaw trace, crossing Duck River and Swan Creek, pursuing the Chickasaw path, which was recognized as the boundary. They then left the path, going south and cast up the Tennessee River. After two days, they came upon an Indian trail, and made pursuit. They overtook them, killed four men, and captured a boy. Seven horses, guns, blankets, skins, and all the Indians had, were taken. The troop then returned to Nashville.

The boy, who had been taken prisoner in this engagement, was the son of a Chickasaw woman. His father was a Creek warrior. Mountain Leader, a distinguished chief of her nation, wrote, in behalf of the mother, to Captain Rains, and proposed to exchange, for his prisoner, the son of a Mrs.

Third Campaign Of Rains

Naine, who had been stolen by the Creeks from her, on White's CriBck, and taken to the interior of their nation. Batterboo, a son of the Mountain Leader, had re captured him from the Creeks. The exchange, as proposed, was agreed to and made.

In September, of this year. Captain Rains, being reinforced by a like number of men, commanded by Captain Shannon, made his third expedition. The troop passed Greene's Lick and Pond Spring, towards the head of Elk, scouring the woods in various directions. They came upon a fresh Indian trail, which they followed, and soon overtook the enemy. Captain Rains, and one of his men, Beverly Ridley, pursued one of them and killed him. John Rains, Jun., and Robert Evans, outran another, and made him prisoner. All the rest escaped by flight. In the camp of this party were found large quantities of skins and other plunder, which, with fifteen horses, fell into the bands of the whites.

Besides these excursions of Captain Rains, other companies made similar expeditions in every direction throughout the country. Of the troops sent over Cumberland Mountain, to protect the infant settlements, was a company of rangers^ commanded by Captain William Martin. He remained in tfaat frontier nearly two years ; sometimes stationed in a fort, sometimes pursuing marauding parties of Indians, sometimes opening up channels of travel, by which emigrants could more easily reach the forming settlements.* The Indians soon became more wary in their invasions of the settlements, as the woods through which they had to pass were constantly traversed by armed bodies of men, endeavouring to find their trails and prevent their inro2»ds. In addition to these companies raised from the settlers, a part of Major Evanses battalion was distributed over the country, and placed at the diflferent stations, in such proportions as emergencies required. The command of Captain Hadley remained for nearly two years, and added alike to the population and security of the country. Scouts were sc^t out

* At the Talladega battle, after Colonel Pillow was wounded » bis Lieutenant- Coleiiel WQliam Martin, took oommand, and was conspicuous for his good oon« duet.

fiwn BIflAH>e*s Lick to the Cnny Fork, under the command ,(tf Colonel Winchester. They frequently fell upon Indian ^railB, and met war parties in the woods, with great variety ot fortane, Bometimes disastrous and sometimes successftil.

Bat, notwithstanding all these measures of defence and pMOAntLon, the Indians occasionally succeeded in penetrating to the more exposed frontier stations, and murdering the inhabitantB. In thi^ way Samuel Buchanan was killed. The Indiameatne upon him, ploughing in the field, and fired upon him. He ran, and was pursued by twelve Indians, tftklng, in their pursuit, the form of a half-moon. When he iMme to the btutf of the creek, below the field, be jumped down a steep bank into the creek, where he was overtaken, Idllod and scalped. But the frontier, generally, was so vigiilutly guarded by brave men, experienced in Indian fighting, jlliat little soeoess followed the incursions of the enemy - more onfrequent, and conducted with timidity and «aatioD.

I TJia settlements had received considerable addition of .|^ I emignuits. Agricultural pursuits were rewarded by - ( bountiful crops, and the implacable enmity of the lavages was the only interruption to general prosperity. In February, the Indiana came In Bledsoe's Station, in the night time, and wounded George Hamilton, and went off. Near Asher's Station, on the north side of Cambsrland, thej wounded Jesse Maxey ; he fell, and Uiey scalped him and stuck a knife into hia body. Contrary to expectation, he recovered.

The Indians came to the house of William Montgomery, on Drake's Creek, In daylight, and killed, at the spring, not a hundred yards from the house, his three sons. In Mansh, of the same year, a party of Creeks kilted Peyton, the aim of Col. James Robertson, at his plantation on Rioblattd Creek, and captured a lad, John Johnston, and retained him in captivity several years. Robert Jones was kilted, some time afterwards, at Wilson's Station, and Benjamin Willlanu^ near the head of Station-Camp Creek. Mrs. Neely was killed, and Robert Edroondson wounded, in Neety's B*o4 and in October following, Dunham and Astill were' killed.

Mission Of H066Att And Ewikg

These repeated acts of hostility on the part of the Creek nation, were generally ascribed to Spanish influence. That tribe had no real cause of displeasure against the people of Cumberland. They claimed no territory upon which settlements had been formed ; no encroachments upon th^ir possessions had been made ; no acts of oflTensive war been perpetrated by Robertson and his colonists, except in defence of themselves and their families. Under these circumstances, it was determined to inquire, in a formal manner, from the Chief of the Creek nation, what were the grounds of their offensive deportment towards the settlers. Colonel Robertson and Colonel Anthony Bledsoe, therefore, addressed a joint letter to the celebrated McGillevray, which was transmitted to him by special messengers, Mr. Hoggatt and Ifr. Ewing. To this communication, the chief replied from Little Tallassee, April 4, 1788. In his reply, he mentioned that, in common with other southern tribes, the Creeks had adhered to the British interest during the late war. That after peace was made, he had accepted proposals for friendship between their people, but that while that accommodation was pending, six of his nation were killed in the anair at Coldwater ; and these warriors belonging to different towns, in each of which they had connexions of the first consequence, a violent clamour followed, which had given rise to the expeditions that afterwards took place against Cumberland. The affair at Coldwater, he continued, has since been amply retaliated, and I will now use my best endeavours to bring about a peace between us. This friendly overture was scarcely received on Cumberland, when, on the twentieth of July, hostilities were again renewed.

Unfortunately for the country, the first victim was an individual prominent for his private virtues and for his public services, civil and militar}', rendered to the people on the frontier from the first settlement of Holston and Cumberland. Col. Anthony Bledsoe, having broken up his own fort, on what was known as the Greenfield Grant, had moved into the fort of his brother, Isaac Bledsoe, at Bledsoe's Lick, and occupied one end of his house. About midnight, of July 20th, after the families living in the fort had retired to bed, James Clendening announced that the Indians were approaching near the houses. A party of them had formed an ambuscade about forty yards in front of the ptasage separating the houses of the two brothersi and, with the yiew of drawing out the inmatdi, a few of the Indiana rode rapidly through a lane near the fort. Col. Anthoqy Bledsoe^ hearing the alarm, immediately arose, and, with his servant Campbell, went boldly into the passage. The night was clear ^nd the moon shone brightly. The Indians iSredi Campbell was killed, and the colonel received a mortal wound, being shot directly through the body. He died 9t sunrise next morning.

The fire of the Indians aroused William Hall, who was also at Bledsoe's Lick, and he made inunediate prepatalioa to resist a further anticipated attack. With some citlier gunmen, he went to the port-holes, and there remsiiied till daylight The Indiaqjs, seeing the fort was upon its gmM^ made no fhrther assault, and withdrew.

At this period, it will be recollected, that the Unioii waiiA di^^er, and on the point of dissolution from the imbeeilitf of its own structure, and that North-Carolina betrayed both inability and disinclination to furnish her trans-montant counties any assistance. Col. Robertson adopted the policy oftemporizing and amusing, for the time being, both the Creek chieftain and the agents of Spain, and to dissemble the deep resentment their conduct had excited. With this view, he replied to McGillevray on the 3d of August, and though the recent death of his friend Col. Bledsoe, must have greatly irritated him, he suppressed every feeling of resentment and asperity. He acknowledged the satisfaction McGillevray^s letter had given to his countrymen, and even seemed to extenuate the recent aggressions of the Creeks upon the settlers. He mentioned, without comment, the death of Col. Bledsoe, and alb a means of further conciliation, added, that he had caused a deed for a lot in Nashville to be recorded in his name, and begged to know whether he would accept a tract or two of land in our young country. "I would say much to yon,** he continued, *' respecting this fine country, but am fully sensible you are better able to judge what may take place a few years hence, than myself. In all probability, we cannot long remain iu our present state, and if the British or any commercial nation, who may possess the mouth of the Mississippi River, would furnish us with trade, and receive our produce, there ^annot be a doubt, but that the people west of the Apalachian Mountains will open their eyes to their true interests. I shall be very happy to have your sentiments on these matters." This piece of diplomacy was not, as will be seen hereafter, without its effect upon those for whose use it was specially intended.

Thus skilfully did the young diplomatist at the Bluff*, conduct the negotiation for its safety. To a further complaint made by McGiilevray, of encroachments by settlers upon Oreek territory, Col. Robertson again replied : " He regretted tfae circumstances, and excused both himself and the people of Cumberland from blame, by remarking, that they were not a part of the state*' whose people made the encroachments. The people of Cumberland, he avowed, only claimed the lands which the Cherokces had sold in 1775, to Col. Henderson, and for which they were paid. He had not expected to be blamed for his late expedition against the Indians below the Muscle Shoals, who were known to be a lawless banditti, and subject to the regulations of no nation. He had been subjected, recently, to the mortification of seeing one of his own children inhumanly massacred, a shock that almost eonquered the fortitude which he had been endeavouring, firom his earliest youth, to provide as -a shield against the calamitous evils of this life. At the same time a neighbour's child was made prisoner, whom he requested the good offices of McGiilevray to have restored. He had, last fall, stopped an excursion against the Cherokces, on hearing from Doct. White their friendly professions. He importuned McGiilevray to punish the refractory part of his nation, as the only means of preserving peace." Here grief imperceptibly stole upon his mind, ^d poured forth itself in nature's simple strains. *'It is a matter of no reflection," said he, " to a brave man, to see a father, a son, or a brother, fall iu the field of action. But

To these strong and pathetic appeals of Col. RobertsoDt McGillevray replied, that he had endeavouredto get the Little Turkey and Bloody Fellow to refrain future hostilities against the whites, and that he would persist in measares most proper to keep the Creeks from further hostilities against Cumberland.

The people of Tennessee have reason to venerate the memory of James Robertson, alike for his military and civil services, and the earnest and successful manner in which he conducted his negotiations for peace and commerce. His probity and weight of character, secured to his remonstraih ces with Indian and Spanish agents, respectful attention and consideration. His earnest and truthful manner was rarely disregarded by either.