The Repulse of the Red Men
To this short war may be properly attributed all the kind feelings and
fidelity to treaty stipulations manifested by the Cherokees ever
afterwards. General Rutherford instilled into the Indians so great a
fear of the whites, that never afterwards were they disposed to engage
in any cruelty, or destroy any of the property of our frontier men.
--David L. Swain: The Indian War of 1776.
During the summer of 1775 the proprietors of Transylvania were
confronted with two stupendous tasks--that of winning the favor and
support of the frontiersmen and that of rallying the rapidly dwindling
forces in Kentucky in defense of the settlements. Recognizing the
difficulty of including Martin's Station, because of its remoteness,
with the government provided for Transylvania, Judge Henderson prepared
a plan of government for the group of settlers located in Powell's
Valley. In a letter to Martin (July 30th), in regard to the recent
energetic defense of the settlers at that point against the Indians,
Henderson says: "Your spirited conduct gives me much pleasure.... Keep
your men in heart if possible, now is our time, the Indians must not
drive us." The gloom which had been occasioned by the almost complete
desertion of the stations at Harrodsburg, the Boiling Spring, and the
Transylvania Fort or Boonesborough was dispelled with the return of
Boone, accompanied by some thirty persons, on September 8th, and of
Richard Callaway with a considerable party on September 26th. The crisis
was now passed; and the colony began for the first time really to
flourish. The people on the south side of the Kentucky River universally
accepted proprietary rule for the time being. But the seeds of
dissension were soon to be sown among those who settled north of the
river, as well as among men of the stamp of James Harrod, who, having
preceded Henderson in the establishment of a settlement in Kentucky,
naturally resented holding lands under the Transylvania Company.
The great liberality of this organization toward incoming settlers had
resulted in immense quantities of land being taken up through their
land-office. [177] The ranging, hunting, and road-building were paid for
by the company; and the entire settlement was furnished with powder,
lead, and supplies, wholly on credit, for this and the succeeding year.
"Five hundred and sixty thousand acres of land are now entered," reports
Floyd on December 1st, "and most of the people waiting to have it run
out." [178] After Dunmore, having lost his hold upon the situation,
escaped to the protection of a British vessel, the Fowey, Colonel
Preston continued to prevent surveys for officers' grants within the
Transylvania territory; and his original hostility to Judge Henderson
gave place to friendship and support.
On December 1st, Colonel John Williams, resident agent of the
Transylvania Company, announced at Boonesborough the long-contemplated
and widely advertised advance in price of the lands, from twenty to
fifty shillings per hundred acres, with surveying fees of four dollars
for tracts not exceeding six hundred and forty acres. [179] At a meeting
of the Transylvania legislature, convened on December 21st, John Floyd
was chosen surveyor general of the colony, Nathaniel Henderson was
placed in charge of the Entering Office, and Richard Harrison given the
post of secretary. At this meeting of the legislature, the first open
expression of discontent was voiced in the "Harrodsburg Remonstrance,"
questioning the validity of the proprietors' title, and protesting
against any increase in the price of lands, as well as the taking up by
the proprietors and a few other gentlemen of the best lands at the Falls
of the Ohio. Every effort was made to accommodate the remonstrants, who
were led by Abraham Hite. Office fees were abolished, and the payment of
quit-rents was deferred until January 1, 1780. Despite these efforts at
accommodation, grave doubts were implanted by this Harrodsburg
Remonstrance in the minds of the people; and much discussion and
discontent ensued.
By midsummer, 1775, George Rogers Clark, a remarkably enterprising and
independent young pioneer, was "engrossing all the land he could" in
Kentucky. Upon his return to Virginia, as he relates, he "found there
was various oppinions Respecting Henderson claim. many thought it
go[o]d, others douted whether or not Virginia coud with propriety have
any pretentions to the cuntrey." [180] Jefferson displayed a liberal
attitude toward the claims of the Transylvania proprietors; and Patrick
Henry openly stated that, in his opinion, "their claim would stand
good." But many others, of the stamp of George Mason and George
Washington, vigorously asserted Virginia's charter rights over the
Western territory. [181] This sharp difference of opinion excited in
Clark's mind the bold conception of seizing the leadership of the
country and making terms with Virginia under threat of secession.
With the design of effecting some final disposition in regard to the
title of the Transylvania proprietors, Judge Henderson and Colonel
Williams set off from Boonesborough about May 1st, intending first to
appeal to the Virginia Convention and ultimately to lay their claims
before the Continental Congress. "Since they have gone," reports Floyd
to Preston, "I am told most of the men about Harrodsburg have re-assumed
their former resolution of not complying with any of the office rules
whatever. Jack Jones, it is said, is at the head of the party &
flourishes away prodigiously." [182] John Gabriel Jones was the mere
figurehead in the revolt. The real leader, the brains of the conspiracy,
was the unscrupulous George Rogers Clark. At Clark's instance, an
eight-day election was held at Harrodsburg (June 7-15), at which time a
petition to the Virginia Convention was drawn up; [183] and Clark and
Jones were elected delegates. Clark's plan, the scheme of a bold
revolutionist, was to treat with Virginia for terms; and if they were
not satisfactory, to revolt and, as he says, "Establish an Independent
Government" ... "giving away great part of the Lands and disposing of
the Remainder." In a second petition, prepared by the self-styled
"Committee of West Fincastle" (June 20th), it was alleged that "if these
pretended Proprietors have leave to continue to act in their arbitrary
manner out the controul of this colony [Virginia] the end must be
evident to every well wisher to American Liberty." [184]
The contest which now ensued between Richard Henderson and George Rogers
Clark, waged upon the floor of the convention and behind the scenes,
resulted in a conclusion that was inevitable at a moment in American
history marked by the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Virginia, under the leadership of her new governor, Patrick Henry, put
an end to the proprietary rule of the Transylvania Company. On December
7th such part of Transylvania as lay within the chartered limits of
Virginia was erected by the legislature of that colony into the County
of Kentucky. The proprietary form of government with its "marks of
vassalage," although liberalized with the spirit of democracy, was
unendurable to the independent and lawless pioneers, already intoxicated
with the spirit of freedom swept in on the first fresh breezes of the
Revolution. Yet it is not to be doubted that the Transylvania Company,
through the courage and moral influence of its leaders, made a permanent
contribution to the colonization of the West, which, in providential
timeliness and effective execution, is without parallel in our early
annals. [185]
While events were thus shaping themselves in Kentucky--events which made
possible Clark's spectacular and meteoric campaign in the Northwest and
ultimately resulted in the establishment of the Mississippi instead of
the Alleghanies as the western boundary of the Confederation--the
pioneers of Watauga were sagaciously laying strong the foundations of
permanent occupation. In September, 1775, North Carolina, through her
Provincial Congress, provided for the appointment in each district of a
Committee of Safety, to consist of a president and twelve other members.
Following the lead thus set, the Watauga settlers assumed for their
country the name of "Washington District"; and proceeded by unanimous
vote of the people to choose a committee of thirteen, which included
James Robertson and John Sevier. This district was organized "shortly
after October, 1775," according to Felix Walker; and the first step
taken after the election of the committee was the organization of a
court, consisting of five members. Felix Walker was elected clerk of the
court thus organized, and held the position for about four years. James
Robertson and John Sevier, it is believed, were also members of this
court. To James Robertson who, with the assistance of his colleagues,
devised this primitive type of frontier rule--a true commission form of
government, on the "Watauga Plan"--is justly due distinctive recognition
for this notable inauguration of the independent democracy of the Old
Southwest. The Watauga settlement was animated by a spirit of deepest
loyalty to the American cause. In a memorable petition these hardy
settlers requested the Provincial Council of North Carolina not to
regard them as a "lawless mob," but to "annex" them to North Carolina
without delay. "This committee (willing to become a party in the present
unhappy contest)", states the petition, which must have been drafted
about July 15, 1776, "resolved (which is now on our records), to adhere
strictly to the rules and orders of the Continental Congress, and in
open committee acknowledged themselves indebted to the united colonies
their full proportion of the Continental expense." [186]
While these disputes as to the government of the new communities were in
progress an additional danger threatened the pioneers. For a whole year
the British had been plying the various Indian tribes from the lakes to
the gulf with presents, supplies, and ammunition. In the Northwest
bounties had actually been offered for American scalps. During the
spring of 1776 plans were concerted, chiefly through Stuart and Cameron,
British agents among the Southern Indians, for uniting the Loyalists and
the Indians in a crushing attack upon the Tennessee settlements and the
back country of North Carolina. Already the frontier of South Carolina
had passed through the horrors of Indian uprising; and warning of the
approaching invasion had been mercifully sent the Holston settlers by
Atta-kulla-kulla's niece, Nancy Ward, the "Pocahontas of the
West"--doubtless through the influence of her daughter, who loved Joseph
Martin. The settlers, flocking for refuge into their small stockaded
forts, waited in readiness for the dreaded Indian attacks, which were
made by two forces totaling some seven hundred warriors.
On July 20th, warned in advance of the approach of the Indians, the
borderers, one hundred and seventy in all, marched in two columns from
the rude breastwork, hastily thrown up at Eaton's Station, to meet the
Indians, double their own number, led by The Dragging Canoe. The scouts
surprised one party of Indians, hastily poured in a deadly fire, and
rushed upon them with such impetuous fury that they fled precipitately.
Withdrawing now toward their breastwork, in anticipation of encountering
there a larger force, the backwoodsmen suddenly found themselves
attacked in their rear and in grave danger of being surrounded.
Extending their own line under the direction of Captain James Shelby,
the frontiersmen steadily met the bold attack of the Indians, who,
mistaking the rapid extension of the line for a movement to retreat,
incautiously made a headlong onslaught upon the whites, giving the
war-whoop and shouting: "The Unakas are running!" In the ensuing hot
conflict at close quarters, in some places hand to hand, the Indians
were utterly routed--The Dragging Canoe being shot down, many warriors
wounded, and thirteen left dead upon the field.
On the day after Thompson, Cocke, Shelby, Campbell, Madison, and their
men were thus winning the battle of the Long Island "flats," Robertson,
Sevier, and their little band of forty-two men were engaged in repelling
an attack, begun at sunrise, upon the Watauga fort near the Sycamore
Shoals. This attack, which was led by Old Abraham, proved abortive; but
as the result of the loose investment of the log fortress, maintained by
the Indians for several weeks, a few rash venturers from the fort were
killed or captured, notably a young boy who was carried to one of the
Indian towns and burned at the stake, and the wife of the pioneer
settler, William Been, who was rescued from a like fate by the
intercession of the humane and noble Nancy Ward. It was during this
siege, according to constant tradition, that a frontier lass, active and
graceful as a young doe, was pursued to the very stockade by the
fleet-footed savages. Seeing her plight, an athletic young officer
mounted the stockade at a single leap, shot down the foremost of the
pursuers, and leaning over, seized the maiden by the hands and lifted
her over the stockade. The maiden who sank breathless into the arms of
the young officer, John Sevier, was "Bonnie Kate Sherrill"--who, after
the fashion of true romance, afterward became the wife of her gallant
rescuer.
While the Tennessee settlements were undergoing the trials of siege and
attack, the settlers on the frontiers of Rowan were falling beneath the
tomahawk of the merciless savage. In the first and second weeks of July
large forces of Indians penetrated to the outlying settlements; and in
two days thirty-seven persons were killed along the Catawba River. On
July 13th, the bluff old soldier of Rowan, General Griffith Rutherford,
reported to the council of North Carolina that "three of our Captains
are killed and one wounded"; and that he was setting out that day with
what men he could muster to relieve Colonel McDowell, ten men, and one
hundred and twenty women and children, who were "besieged in some kind
of a fort." Aroused to extraordinary exertions by these daring and
deadly blows, the governments of North Carolina, South Carolina,
Virginia, and Georgia instituted a joint campaign against the Cherokees.
It was believed that, by delivering a series of crushing blows to the
Indians and so conclusively demonstrating the overwhelming superiority
of the whites, the state governments in the Old Southwest would convince
the savages of the futility of any attempt ever again to oppose them
seriously.
Within less than a week after sending his despatches to the council
Rutherford set forth at the head of twenty-five hundred men to protect
the frontiers of North Carolina and to overwhelm the foe. Leading the
South Carolina army of more than eighteen hundred men, Colonel Andrew
Williamson directed his attack against the lower Cherokee towns; while
Colonel Samuel Jack led two hundred Georgians against the Indian towns
at the heads of the Chattahoochee and Tugaloo Rivers. Assembling a force
of some sixteen hundred Virginians, Colonel William Christian
rendezvoused in August at the Long Island of Holston, where his force
was strengthened by between three and four hundred North Carolinians
under Colonels Joseph Williams and Love, and Major Winston. The various
expeditions met with little effective opposition on the whole,
succeeding everywhere in their design of utterly laying waste the towns
of the Cherokees. One serious engagement occurred when the Indians
resolutely challenged Rutherford's advance at the gap of the Nantahala
Mountains. Indian women--heroic Amazons disguised in war-paint and armed
with the weapons of warriors and the courage of despair--fought side by
side with the Indian braves in the effort to arrest Rutherford's
progress and compass his defeat. More than forty frontiersmen fell
beneath the deadly shots of this truly Spartan band before the final
repulse of the savages.
The most picturesque figures in this overwhelmingly successful campaign
were the bluff old Indian-fighter, Griffith Rutherford, wearing "a tow
hunting shirt, dyed black, and trimmed with white fringe" as a uniform;
Captain Benjamin Cleveland, a rude paladin of gigantic size, strength,
and courage; Lieutenant William Lenoir (Le Noir), the gallant and
recklessly brave French Huguenot, later to win a general's rank in the
Revolution; and that militant man of God, the Reverend James Hall,
graduate of Nassau Hall, stalwart and manly, who carried a rifle on his
shoulder and, in the intervals between the slaughter of the savages,
preached the gospel to the vindictive and bloodthirsty backwoodsmen.
Such preaching was sorely needed on that campaign--when the whites,
maddened beyond the bounds of self-control by the recent ghastly
murders, gladly availed themselves of the South Carolina bounty offered
for fresh Indian scalps. At times they exultantly displayed the reeking
patches of hair above the gates of their stockades; at others, with many
a bloody oath, they compelled their commanders either to sell the Indian
captives into slavery or else see them scalped on the spot. Twenty years
afterward Benjamin Hawkins relates that among Indian refugees in extreme
western Georgia the children had been so terrorized by their parents'
recitals of the atrocities of the enraged borderers in the campaign of
1776, that they ran screaming from the face of a white man.