The Advance-Guard of Western Civilization

Preface

. The substance of the present volume was given to the public in a course of lectures which the writer de livered before the Lowell Institute, of Boston, in the winter of 1887-'88. Those lectures are here amplified and enlarged into what is intended to be a full narra tive of an episode which is, perhaps, the most unique and remarkable in American history. The narrative is the result of eight years' careful study of early events in the Southwest, nearly four of which years were passed upon the ground where the events occurred, and it is the writer's sincere conviction that it may be accepted as authentic history. To make sure that it should be authentic, the proof-sheets of the volume have been submitted for revision and correction to the Hon. John M. Lea, President of the Tennessee Historical Society, the Eev.

Dr. John Berrien Lindsley, late Chancellor of the University of Nashville, and the Hon. Bandall M. Ewing — three gentlemen who are undoubtedly better acquainted with the early history of the Southwest than any others now living. They have read carefully this volume, and also the writer's two preceding ones on collateral subjects — "The Bear-Guard of the Revolu-

PREFACE.

. IV tion" and "John Sevier as a Commonwealth-Builder" — and their suggestions in regard to them all have been followed in the minutest particulars. The writer is therefore confident that all that is related in the three books will bear the closest scrutiny. Some valuable notes furnished to the present volume by Mr. Ewing, having been received too late to be embodied in the text, are inserted in Appendix B. The three volumes cover a neglected period of Ameri can history, and they disclose facts well worthy the at tention of historians — namely, that these Western men turned the tide of the American Revolution, and subse quently saved the newly-formed Union from disruption, and thereby made possible our present great republic. This should be enough to secure for their story an at tentive hearing, had it not the added charm of present ing to view three characters — John Sevier, James Rob ertson, and Isaac Shelby — who are as worthy of the imitation of our American youth as any in their coun try's history.

In the preparation of this volume the writer has had the advantage of personal intercourse with the descendants of the men he portrays, and he has also consulted — so far as he knows — all that has been written upon the subject. A list of these authorities he has given in the preface to "John Sevier as a Commonwealth-Builder." In addition to them, in the present book he has made use of Gayarre's "Spanish Domination in Louisiana" and the "American State Papers," the fifth volume of

PREFACE.

. V which reports very fully the Indian affairs of that early period. He has also in one part of his work received valuable aid from John Mason Brown, Esq., of Louis ville, Kentucky. To him, and to Hon. John M. Lea, Dr. John Berrien Lindsley, of Nashville, Tennessee, and the Hon. Randall M. Ewing, he would here record his grateful acknowledgments. He will merely add, in the words of William H. Stephens : "I speak for that heroic State who was bap tized in her infancy with the sprinkling of Revolutionary blood on King's Mountain ; who, five years afterward, struck again for independence under the banner of the daring young State of Franklin ; who grappled, single handed and alone, for fifty years, with the dusky war riors of the forest in all their battles from the Ken tucky line to the Southern Gulf ; who beat back the British legions at New Orleans ; who smote the false Spaniard at Pensacola ; who rushed with Taylor into the breach at Monterey, and shared in the triumphal march from Vera Cruz to Mexico."

In this and my two preceding volumes I have endeavored to rescue from oblivion her earliest and greatest heroes ; and, if I have done my work as faithfully as I ought, historians will no longer ignore their existence, but be swift to assign to them the exalted places to which they are entitled in American history. James R. Gilmore. (Edmund Kirke.) New Haven, Connecticut, August, 1888. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Page

On the Outposts 1 The important crisis in American affairs when the first settlements were formed beyond the Alleghanies — The colonies about to revolt, and Great Britain preparing to crush them by a front and rear assault — The rear attack beaten off by a handful of Western settlers — These settlers the advance-guard of Western civilization — Their grand qualities — Nothing more heroic in their history than their settlement of the district along the Cumberland — Their journey across Kentucky to the present site of Nashville — Description of the country — The settlers erect a fort and organize themselves into a military body — Select loca tions for their dwellings — Perilous voyage of the women and children down the Holston and Tennessee — Intended attack of the Indians frustrated by the elements — The settlers form a civil government — Their mode of life — The first victim to savage atrocity — The Indians surround and attempt to starve out the settlements — Daring raid of Robertson — The first wedding at Nashville — A desperate war — Settlers threatened with starvation — Inflexible resolution of Robertson — He breaks through the Indian lines to secure ammunition — Returns from the perilous trip in safety and is received with great rejoicing — Attack on Freeland's Station beaten off by Robertson — This Robertson's last fight with the Chickasaws— He soon afterward meets the Chickasaw king, Piomingo, and contracts witU him a friendship that lasts till his death.

CONTENTS. CHAPTER H. PAGE A Rain of Fire 29 The character of James Robertson — His belief that he was chosen by Providence to be the forerunner of Western civilization — His unquestioning faith and great moral courage — A remarkable sleet— War breaks out with the Cherokees — The fort at Nashville and the life of Robertson saved by the intrepidity of his wife — The whole settlement a battle-ground — A hostile coalition of the Northern tribes — Perilous state of the settle ments — Instances of heroism — David Hood hoodwinks the In dians — A company of discrowned royalties — The scouts and their skill in woodcraft — Great mortality among the settlers — Their mode of life in this rain of fire — Settlers propose to abandon the colony — This opposed by Robertson.

Chapter III

The Day dawnins 56 A savage warfare — Thrilling escape of a woman— An unexpected re-enforcement — Toleration of Robertson — News of the surrender of Cornwallis — Contemptible treatment of her soldiers by North Carolina — Her " bounty " warrants — A renewal of In dian hostilities — The Chickamaugas attack Buchanan's Station — Peace made with the Cherokees — The settlers abandon the forts and dwell in their homesteads — North Carolina erects the settlements into a county — Nashville prospers — Robertson elected to the Legislature — Establishes a court — Some of its en actments — A distillery erected— A primitive currency — Pioneer preachers — A road opened to Clinch River — A store opened at Nashville — Cloudless prospects, but a storm brewing.

Chapter IV

A Raid upon the Creeks 77 Spanish complications — Importance of the Cumberland colony as holding disputed territory — Prophetic views of the Spanish minister — McGillivray, the Creek chief, calls the attention of Spain to the danger threatened by the settlers to her North American possessions — The character and appearance of this CONTENTS. IX PAGB man — He forms a treaty with the Spaniards and attempts to combine the Southern tribes for the extermination of the settlers — Builds a station on the Tennessee, whence he makes con stant raids upon the Cumberland — The station discovered by Piomingo, who informs Robertson — His narrow escape from death at the hands of the Indians — The watchful sagacity of the settlers' dogs — Letter of Piomingo to Robertson, which in forms him of the hostility of Spain — He sends two of his chiefs to guide Robertson to McGillivray's station — The Coldwater ex pedition and defeat of the Creeks — Extraordinary endurance of Hugh Rogan.

Chapter V

Dark Days upon the Cumberland 106 McGillivray resolves upon an overwhelming effort to exterminate the Cumberland colony — Aid given to Robertson by Sevier, which enables him to beat off the attack — Activity and sleepless vigilance of the scouts — Remonstrance of Robertson to the Legislature — His memorial respectfully considered and the set tlers fully authorized to take care of themselves — Robertson sends peace messengers to McGillivray — The embassy courte ously received, but the war continues — Murder of Colonel An thony Bledsoe — Intrepidity of Hugh Rogan — How Colonel Bledsoe wrote his will — Robertson retorts upon McGillivray his double-dealing.

Chapter VI

The Spanish Complication 125 A wider view of the situation — The Cumberland colony only the advance-guard of a larger host who were scaling the Alle ghanies — A convention in Kentucky and its results — Importance to the settlers of the navigation of the Mississippi — John Jay's negotiations with the Spanish envoy, Gardoqui — Jay proposes to Congress to yield the navigation of the Mississippi for twenty years — The proposition received with universal indignation at the West — Open talk in Kentucky of forming an independ ent government — The opportunity favorable for an ambitious man, unscrupulous as to means — Such a man appears in James Wilkinson— His career and disreputable course in the army — CONTENTS. X PAGE The war over, he seeks a fresh field for his activity in Ken tucky—His plan to secure an exclusive right to navigate the Mississippi.

Chapter VII

The Treason of Wilkinson 145 How he made his attempt to capture the Spanish trade— His bribe to Gayoso — Sends a load of produce down the Mississippi and follows it by land to New Orleans — His produce saved from seizure by Daniel Clark — His reception by Governor Miro — Forms an agreement with him to swing Kentucky into the arms of Spain — Returns to Kentucky with a permit for unrestricted trade with New Orleans — Wins over to his treasonable design some of the leading men in Kentucky — A convention called for July 28, 1*788, to consider the separation of Kentucky from Virginia — Wilkinson seduces a majority of the delegates to then vote the district out of the Union — Character and influence of Isaac Shelby — The Spanish minister sends an envoy to John Sevier with overtures of an alliance with Spain — Sevier draws from the envoy a disclosure of Wilkinson's project, and warns Shelby of it in time for the latter to frustrate his treason — Wil kinson's account of the proceedings of the convention to Miro, which fully reveals his treason.

Chapter VIII

A Deceitful Peace 182 Miro's long-continued overtures to Robertson — Correspond ence of General Daniel Smith with the Spanish governor — Robert son refuses all dealings with theSpaniards— His remarkable letter to John Sevier, and incorruptible patriotism — His narrow escape — Andrew Jackson's first military exploit — His original orthog raphy—News arrives of the adoption of the Constitution, and inauguration of Washington — Great rejoicing among the settlers in consequence — Treaty with the Creeks and Cherokees—Popu lation of the Cumberland colony — Great increase in the number of stations — Sevier's view of the Indians. CONTENTS. XI

Chapter IX. Page

A Storm on the Cumberland . . . . .197 Affairs in Kentucky — Miro sets a watch upon Wilkinson, who, though appointed to the United States Army, continues his treasonable connection with the Spaniards — Large influx of im migration — Washington's fruitless overtures to Spain — Treach ery of McGillivray — Cherokee spies appear in the settlements — War begins with several bloody butcheries — General uprising of the people — Another narrow escape of Robertson — Heroic re pulse of seven hundred Indians by fifteen men and thirty women behind the log walls of Buchanan's Station — Among the rescuers a stripling, named Joseph Brown, who is instrumental in crushing the Chickamaugas.

Chapter X

Captivity amono the Chickamaugas 227 The treacherous murder of Colonel Brown and his oldest sons near Nick-a-jack Cave — His younger son, Joseph, made captive — He is about to be killed by a chief, who predicts that if al lowed to live he will pilot an army there and destroy them all, but is saved by a wretched Frenchwoman — Is held in captivity nearly a year, and endures innumerable hardships, but is then ransomed by John Sevier — After four years removes to the Cumberland, and offers to guide Robertson to the secret haunts of the Chickamaugas.

CHAPTER XL

Spanish Machinations 244 Two more years of savage warfare on the Cumberland — Only fifteen of the original settlers had escaped slaughter — Evan Shelby, Isaac Bledsoe, and three brothers of the scout Castle man are killed — Retaliatory raid of Castleman — Heroic exploits of Jonathan Robertson and " Grandma Hays " — Joseph Brown is wounded — The settlers appeal to be led against the Chicka maugas—The attitude of the State Department — Carondelet now Spanish governor —His energy and overtures to the Indians — Engages the Cherokees in the hostilities against Robertson — CONTENTS. XII PAGE Piomingo's letters to Robertson, who supplies him with arms and ammunition — Impudent letter of Carondelet to Robertson, and his courteous reply — Spanish intrigues against Piomingo, and his reported assassination.

Chapter XII

The Chickamauga Expedition 275 The Spaniards form an extensive coalition of the Indians against the Americans — Robertson induces the Legislature to ask the protection of Congress, which body adjourns without acting on the subject — In these circumstances Robertson de cides upon an expedition against the Chickamaugas — He sends for Joseph Brown, who explores a route through the forest to Nick-a jack, and then guides an army of five hundred and fifty men to the destruction of the Chickamauga towns — Robertson's report of the expedition to the governor — Dissatisfaction of the Government, and resignation of Robertson as brigadier-general — The justification of his course by Congress.

Chapter XIII

Piomingo 293 His unexpected appearance on the Cumberland — Leads a body of warriors to the help of General Wayne — The Creeks continue their warfare — Attack on Valentine Sevier's station — Unpleas ant correspondence between Governor Blount and Secretary Pickering — Hostilities between the Creeks and Chickasaws — Robertson gives aid to Piomingo in arms and men — The Creeks attack the Chickasaw capital, and are ignominiously repulsed — Piomingo offers the Creeks peace, which they accept, but their younger warriors treacherously invade the Chickasaw country — They are again repulsed, and a genuine peace is then brought about through the influence of Gayoso and Robertson.

Chapter XIV

Conclusion 311 Efforts of Genet, the French minister, to arouse the West to drive the Spaniards from Louisiana — George Rogers Clark CONTENTS. XIII PAGE speedily enlists over two thousand men for an expedition against New Orleans — Carondelet, thoroughly alarmed, makes hasty preparations for defense, and sends an emissary to Kentucky to renew the attempt at disunion made in 1788 — Remonstrance of the Spanish minister against the hostile preparations in Ken tucky — Jefferson urges Governor Shelby to put down the movement — Shelby's curious logic — Washington sends a special mes senger to Shelby, and the hostile expedition is abandoned — The Spanish Cabinet, alarmed at the threatening attitude of Western affairs, and the undisguised hostility of Shelby, now concludes a treaty which opens the Mississippi to American commerce — A general peace follows, in which the Cumberland colony is aston ishingly prosperous — Its enormous increase in fifty years — Rob ertson a private citizen, but still the patriarch of the settlements — His friendship with Sevier, and influence over the Choc taws and Chickasaws — His residence among the Chickasaws at a critical period, and last services to his country— Dis character and death. THE ADVANCE-GUARD OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION.

Chapter I. On The Outposts

The crisis was great in American affairs when the first Western settlers took their way across the Allegha nies. The country was on the eve of the Revolution. The revolted colonies were about to engage in a death grapple with the gigantic power across the ocean. Not less than fifty thousand savage warriors beyond the mountains were to be enlisted by that power to descend upon the rear of the colonists, while its regular forces should undertake the subjugation of the seaboard. In folded thus in the coils of an anaconda, it was expected that the infant republic would be strangled in its cradle ; and this result might have been realized, but for the gathering of a small band of riflemen upon the banks of the Watauga, along the western base of the Alleghanies. That handful of riflemen beat back the rear assault.

On three distinct occasions they cut the anaconda coil in which the British sought to envelop and crush the struggling colonies, and so securely did they hold the mount ain-passes that in all the war no savage band ever broke through to carry the torch and the tomahawk to the seaboard settlements. Thus were they the immovable rear-guard of the Revolution. And they were more than that. They were the advance-guard of Western civilization. They hewed out a pathway through the wilder ness for the uncounted millions who are to people the western half of this continent ; and they did this while exposed by day and by night, for more than twenty years, to the assaults of a foe more crafty, cruel, and treacherous than any ever encountered in modern times. They plowed their fields with an armed sentry beside them, and never went to their beds, or gathered to re ligious worship, without the trusty rifle within reach of their hands.

A race less heroic would have succumbed to the hardships and dangers they encountered ; but in them hardship merely developed endurance, and danger a courage that was without fear, and swift to grapple with enemies of twenty times their number. And they were not merely hard toilers and brave fighters ; they were thinking men, with clear ideas of civil policy, and so generally educated that not more than one of them among a hundred has banded his name down to us signed with a cross. No people without their peculiar qualities could have been the pioneers of the hundred mill ions of freemen who are to occupy the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries before the close of another century. Nothing more heroic is recorded of these people than the migration of three hundred and eighty of their num ber from Watauga into the wilds of West Tennessee, under the lead of James Robertson, in the winter of 1780.

They left the ease and security of a well-ordered settlement, and, for a second time, encountered the perils of unknown forests and rivers, to found a civilized community in the heart of an untrodden wilderness, where they would be surrounded by savage enemies, and three hundred miles remote from the most westerly white settlement. It was the coldest winter ever known on this continent ; their way would be beset by lurking enemies, and they far be yond all human succor ; yet they set out trusting only in God, their own strong arms, and their unerring rifles. One hundred and thirty of them were women and children. These, unable to endure the fatigue of the long overland journey, were sent, under John Donelson and a guard of thirty men, in boats down the Holston and Ten nessee ; while the remainder, under Robertson, followed the five-hundred-mile trace which had been blazed by hunters through the woods of Kentucky.

Their destina tion was what was then known as the French Lick of the Cumberland ; and it was expected that the party under Robertson would arrive long enough in advance of the other to have in readiness homes for the reception of the coming women and children. Robertson's party set out from Watauga about the 1st of November, 1779; but the route through the woods soon became deep with snow, and, encumbered as they were with cattle, and pack-horses laden with pro visions and farming-utensils, their progress was slow, and they did not arrive at the Cumberland till Christ mas-day in 1779. They suffered much from cold on the way, and found the river frozen so solid as to admit of the passing over of their animals. Crossing at once, they began building on the bluff that lines the southern bank the fort and the half-score of log-houses which were the nucleus of the present capital of Tennessee.

The place is beautiful for situation. The bluff is of a height of from sixty to eighty feet, and at its base flows a wide and winding river ; while away at the south and southwest rises a chain of conical hills, crowned then with towering oaks, walnuts, and poplars, which had stood there for untold centuries. On both banks of the river lies a valley about twenty miles in width, its surface undulating, but ascending in long gradual slopes, here and there dotted with isolated eminences. One of these, covering several acres, and resembling a huge burial-mound, breaks abruptly but symmetrically from the plain and overlooks all the sur rounding country. It is now the site of the Capitol building, and is distant about half a mile from where the fort was located. Other hills, rising still higher, and at greater distances, seem designed by Nature for fortifications, and events have fulfilled the design ; for their crumbling breastworks bear to-day the names of Negley, Morton, and Casino, which have become famous in recent history.

All these hills were, at the period of which I write, covered with thick forests, while on the bluffs, and along the margin of two narrow streams which flow down from the encircling hills, were wide brakes of cane, standing ten and twenty feet high — excellent fodder for cattle, but at the same time secure hiding-places for the settler's lurking enemies. Dense woods covered the country in every direction, except around the fort, and the spring which gave name to the place. There a few heaps of decaying logs showed where the French hunters under Charlville had built their cabins in 1714 ; and the trodden cane told of the countless herds of deer and buffalo which had frequented the spring for innumerable ages. These two facts had given the name of French Lick to the locality. The soil was deep and fertile, and the land abundantly watered ; and seen, when covered with foli age, the spot would have been most inviting to a settler.

But now it was everywhere clad in ice and snow — one broad expanse of frozen magnificence, silent, cheer less, and desolate. Firm of purpose and stout of heart must the men have been who could set about building their homes in such an icy wilderness, encompassed as it was by a cloud of savage enemies. The fort erected, the two hundred and twenty-six set tlers already arrived organized themselves into a military body, electing Robertson colonel, John Donelson lieutenant-colonel, Robert Lucas major, and George Freeland, Isaac Bledsoe, James Lapier, Andrew Buchanan, and John Rains, captains. Donelson was still away with the women and children ; but all of these men were yet to write their names in a bloody history. Thus organized, the settlers separated, to select locations and prepare homes for their coming families.

Twenty miles of fertile country was within sight of the fort ; but, having the pioneer's ideas of space, they spread for forty miles up and down the Cumberland, and located their lands around no less than eight "stations" — stockades, inclosing block-houses, and strong enough to resist as sault from any small band of Indians. In the event of attack from a large body it was expected the settlers would concentrate at the Bluff, where the fort was intended to be strong enough to resist any number of assailants that would be likely to come against it. Robert son, however, discouraged this scattering of the settlers. "Keep in sight of the bluff," he said, "where we can see your signal-fire or hear your alarm-gun. The out lying stations will be the first to invite the savages ; and if you are too far away we shall not know of an attack, or be able to come to the rescue."

It had been well for the settlers if they had heeded these words of Robertson. Some of the outlying stations were not only far away, but hastily or carelessly constructed. Those built under Robertson's own eye were patterned after the one erected by John Sevier at Watauga, which had withstood assault from a strong force under the Cherokee king, Oconostota. These were the one at the Bluff; another at Eaton's, two and a half miles away on the northern bank of the river ; and a smaller one at Freeland's, a mile distant at the west, and near the location selected by Robertson. The stations erected, the settlers waited in anxious suspense for the coming of their wives and children. The three months allowed for their voyage had expired, but the sound of their approach had not yet broken the stillness of the river solitudes.

Had they fallen victims to the prowling savage, or perished of the cold that had slain the deer, the catamount, and even the wild turkeys, with which the woods abounded ? The settlers did not know and could not conjecture ; and for a full month they went silently about, oppressed by harrow ing apprehensions. Thus it was till the close of April, when spring had come, unlocking the river, and cloth ing the woods in an umbrageous beauty that was won derful. Then, as the sun arose one glorious morning, a solitary four-pounder echoed along the Cumberland, and a few hours thereafter the little fleet of forty scows, canoes, and pirogues came to anchor under the walls of Eaton's Station, amid such rejoicing as never before was known in the wilderness. But all the immigrants had not arrived in safety.

Thirty-three had perished by the way, and, of those who escaped, nine were more or less wounded. Among those who had come through were the wife and five children of Robertson ; the mother of the lute Hon. Bailie Peyton ; and Donelson, and bis son John, and daughter Rachel, who subse quently became the wife of Andrew Jackson. The voyage has no parallel in modern history. Nearly two thousand miles they had journeyed, in frail boats, upon unknown and dangerous rivers, never before navi gated by a white man. The country through which they passed was infested by hostile Indians, and their way had been over foaming whirlpools and dangerous shoals thirty miles in extent, where for days they had run the gantlet and been exposed to the fire of the whole nation of Chickamaugas, the fiercest Indian tribe on this continent.

For more than a month they were unable to move because of the intense cold, and one of their number was frozen to death on the passage. Of the other dead, one was drowned, one was burned by the Indians, and the rest fell by the rifle and tomahawk of the savages. The flight of the Tartar tribe across the steppes of Asia, Xenophon's famous anabasis of the Ten Thousand, or Kane's heroic struggle for life in the arctic regions, is not a more thrilling story than the simple narrative of this expedition, which John Donel son has left to his descendants. In it he says the voyage was "intended by God's permission" ; clearly not a soul could have come safely through it but by God's special providence. Thus, amid ice, and snow, and the intense cold of 1780, was planted the first civilized settlement in the valley of the Mississippi, where soon will be the center of American population.

The settlers, as I have said, were in the heart of a wide wilderness, and surrounded by hostile savages. They were encroachers upon the favorite hunting-ground of the Indians, especially valued by them for the abundant game that subsisted on the luxuriant vegetation of the great natural park which stretches from the Cumberland to the Ohio, and is now familiarly known as the "blue-grass region." Moreover, their position was peculiarly exposed to incursions from the savages. It was accessible by water from the most distant tribes. Descending navigation could bring upon it from the Ohio and Mississippi the canoe - fleets of the northern nations ; while down the Tellico, the Hi wassee, and the Tennessee could come nearly ten thousand Creeks and Cherokees, and, uniting at the Bluff before the whites had erected their forts and stockades, these Indians, twenty thousand strong, might in one night sweep the settlers from existence.

All the savage tribes were now in friendship with one another, and in alliance with Great Britain. They knew every movement of the whites, and their wildest energies and fiercest passions were aroused by this invasion of the red man's Eden, which they justly regarded as the signal for their own expulsion. Why, then, did they not descend upon the settlers and annihilate them before they were in a position to defend themselves ? They intended to have done so. In his stronghold at Detroit, the British Governor, Hamilton, had planned their extermination. "We will make wolf -bait of them," he said; "we will drive every rebel beyond the Alleghanies ! " He had concerted for a universal upris ing of the savages, and appointed a general gathering, of the tribes at the mouth of the Tennessee, whence they were to descend upon the entire border.