Chapter XXIV: ```"We marched to the Cowpens, Campbell was there, (2)

{639}tured two American videttes, and learned from them the place of Morgan s encampment. At eight o'clock he came in sight of the advanced guard of the patriots, and fearing that Morgan might again retreat, and get safely across the Broad River, he resolved to attack him immediately, notwithstanding the fatigue of his troops.

The Americans were posted upon an eminence of gentle descent, covered with an open wood.

They were rested, had breakfasted, and were thoroughly refreshed after their flight from the Pacolet. And now expecting Tarleton, they were drawn up in battle order. On the crown of the eminence were stationed two hundred and ninety Maryland regulars, and on their right the two companies of Virginia militia, under Major Triplet. These composed the rear line of four hundred and thirty men, and were under the general command of Lieutenant-colonel Howard. One hundred and fifty yards in advance of this line was a body of militia, about three hundred in number, all practiced riflemen, and burning with a spirit of revenge, because of the cruelties which the British and Tories had inflicted. A part of these were commanded by Captain Beatty and Samuel Hammond, of South Carolina. *

They were commanded by Colonel Andrew Pickens, who, with his followers, had joined Morgan during the night. About one hundred and fifty yards in advance of this first line, were placed the best riflemen of the corps of M'Dowell and Cunningham. Those on the right were commanded by Cunningham, and those on the left by M'Dowell. These were directed to operate as circumstances should direct, after delivering their first fire, which was to be

* No accurate plan of the arrangement of the troops on this occasion has ever been made. Captain Hammond made a sketch many years afterward from memory, which is published in Johnson's Traditions and Reminiscences of the Revolution. As it does not fully agree with official reports, I forbear copying it.

** John Eager Howard was born in Baltimore county, Maryland, on the fourth of June, 1752. When the war commenced, he entered the service as captain of one of those bodies of militia termed flying camps. He was present at the battle near White Plains, New York. His corps was dismissed in December, 1776 and at the solicitation of his friends, he accepted of the commission of major in one of the Continental battalions of Maryland. In the spring of 1777, he joined the army under Washington, in New Jersey, with which he remained until the close of June, when he returned home, on account of the death of his father. A few days after the battle on the Brandywine, he rejoined the army, and was distinguished for his cool courage in the battle at Germantown, of which he wrote an interesting account. In that engagement, he was major of the 4th regiment, commanded by Colonel Hall, of Maryland. Major Howard was present at the battle of Monmouth, in 1778. On the first of June, 1779, he received a commission as lieutenant colonel of the 5th Maryland regiment, "to take rank from the eleventh day of March, 1778." In 1780, he went with the Maryland and Delaware troops to the South, and served under Gates until the arrival of Greene. Soon after this, we find him with Morgan, winning bright laurels at the Cowpens; and for his bravery there, Congress awarded him the honor of a silver medal. Howard again distinguished himself at the battle of Guilford, where he was wounded. At the conclusion of the war, Colonel Howard married Margaret, the daughter of Chief-justice Chew, around whose house at Germantown he had valiantly battled. In November 1788, he was chosen governor of Maryland, which office he held for three years. He was commissioned major general of militia in 1794, but declined the honor. Washington invited him to a seat in his cabinet at the head of the War Department, in 1795. That honor he also declined. He was then a member of the Maryland Senate. In 1796, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, where he served until 1803, when he retired from public life. When, in 1814, Baltimore was threatened with destruction by the enemy the veteran soldier prepared to take the field. The battle at North Point, however, rendered such a step unnecessary. He lost his wife in 1827; and on the twelfth of Oetober, 1827, he, too, left the scenes of earth, at the age of seventy-five years. Honor, wealth, and the ardent love of friends, were his lot in life, and few men ever went down to the grave more truly lamented than John Eager Howard.

* The following are the device and inscriptions: An officer mounted, with uplifted sword, pursuing an officer on foot hearing a stand of colors. Victory is seen descending in front, over the former, holding a wreath in her right hand over his head. In her left hand is a palm branch. Legend: "The American Congress to John Eager Howard, commander of a regiment of infantry." Reverse: A laurel wreath, inclosing the inscription, "Because, rushing suddenly on the wavering line of the foe, he gave a brilliant specimen of martial courage at the battle of the Cowpens, January 17,1781."

[[[Morgan prepared to Fight--His Address to his Troops.--The Attack.--Tarleton's Charge.]]]

{640}given when the British should be within one hundred and fifty yards. In the rear of the second line, under Howard, and behind an eminence of sufficient height to conceal them, * the American reserve was posted. These consisted of Washington's cavalry, and M'Call's mounted militia of Georgia, armed with sabers.

Tarleton was rather disconcerted when he found that Morgan was prepared to fight him, for he expected to overtake him on a retreat. He rode cautiously forward to reconnoiter, but the shots of the advanced corps of riflemen obliged him to retire precipitately to his lines. Yet, feeling sure of an easy victory, Tarleton quickly arranged his line in battle order upon the Spartanburg road, within three hundred yards of Morgan's first line. At this moment, Morgan, with solemn voice and sententious sentences, addressed his troops. He exhorted the militia of the first line to be steady, and fire with sure aim; and expressed his conviction that, if they would pour in two volleys at a killing distance, victory would be theirs. He addressed the second line in a similar manner, informed them that he had ordered the militia to fall back after delivering two volleys, and exhorted them not to be disconcerted by that movement. Then taking post with his line, near Lieutenant-colonel Howard, he awaited in silence the approach of the British van, already in motion. It consisted of the light troops and the legion infantry, with the 7th regiment, under Major New-marsh. In the center of this line were the two pieces of artillery. Upon each flank was a troop of cavalry; and in the rear, as a reserve was Major M'Arthur, with the battalion of the 71st regiment and the remainder of the cavalry. Tarleton placed himself in the first line.

It was now about nine o'clock in the morning. The sun was shining warm and bright over the summits of Thicketty Mountain, and gave brilliancy to the martial array in the forests below. At a signal from Tarleton, his advance gave a loud shout, and rushed furiously to the contest, under cover of their artillery and an incessant discharge of musketry. The riflemen, under Cunningham and M'Dowell, delivered their fire with terrible effect, and then fell back to the flanks of the first line under Pickens. The British still shouting, rushed forward, and poured in a close fire upon the militia. These stood firm, until assailed with bayonets, when they fell back to the second line. M'Call s militia fled to their horses, while the remainder, under Pickens, took post upon Howard's right. Upon the main body Tarleton now made a vigorous charge, and was met with equal valor and determination. The contest was close and severe, and the British line began to bend, when M'Arthur, with the reserve, was ordered to advance. This movement reanimated the quailing Britons, and they plied ball and bayonet with incessant force. While the contest was raging, M'Arthur

* Between this eminence and the one on which Howard was stationed, the Mill-gap road passes.

[[[Charge of Tarleton.--Bold Maneuver of Howard.--Americans Victorious.--Colonel Washington.]]]

{641}attempted movement His order to gain the American flank under Colonel Howard. That officer perceived the and its intent, and instantly ordered his first company to charge the British 71st. was mistaken, and the company fell back.

The whole line also gave way at the same moment, and Morgan ordered it to retreat to the eminence behind which the cavalry were posted. Tarleton, believing this maneuver to be a precursor of flight, ordered another charge, and, with shouts, his infantry rushed forward impetuously, in disorder. When close to Howard, that officer ordered his line to face about and give his pursuers a volley. Instantly a close and murderous fire laid many of the British line dead upon the earth, and the living, terrified by the unexpected movement, recoiled in confusion. Howard perceived the advantage of the moment, and followed it up with the bayonet. This decided the victory in favor of the Americans. At the same time, a portion of Tarleton's cavalry having gained the rear of the Americans, fell upon M'Call's mounted militia. Now was the moment for Lieutenant-colonel Washington * to act. With his cavalry, he struck the British horsemen a decisive blow, and drove them in confusion before him. The reserve, under M'Ar-

* William Augustine Washington, "the modern Marcellus," "the sword of his country," was the eldest son of Baily Washington, of Stafford county, Virginia. He was educated for the Church, but the peculiar position of public affairs led him into the political field. He early espoused the patriot cause, and entered the army under Colonel Hugh (afterward General) Mercer, as captain. He was in the battle near Brooklyn, Long Island, distinguished himself at Trenton, and was with his beloved general when he fell at Princeton. He was afterward a major in Colonel Baylor's corps of cavalry, and was with that officer when attacked by General Grey, at Tappan, in 1778. The following year, he joined the army under Lincoln in South Carolina, and was very active in command of a light corps, in the neighborhood of Charleston. He became attached, with his corps, to the division of General Morgan, and with that officer fought bravely at the Cowpens. For his valor on that occasion, Congress presented him with a silver medal. He was an active officer in Greene's celebrated retreat, and again fought bravely at Guilford Court House. He behaved gallantly at Hobkirk's Hill, near Camden, and at the battle at Eutaw Springs be exhibited signal valor; but his horse being shot under him, he was there made a prisoner. He remained a captive until the close of the war. Having become attached to a South Carolina lady during his captivity, he married her and settled in Charleston. He represented that district in the State Legislature. His talents as a statesman were so conspicuous, that he was solicited to become a candidate for governor. He declined the honor, chiefly because he could not make a speech. When President Adams appointed General Washington commander-in-chief of the American army, he chose Colonel Washington to be one of his staff, with the rank of brigadier. Colonel Washington died on the sixth of Mardi, 1810. He was tall in person, possessed of great strength and activity, and in society was taciturn and modest.

* The following are the device and inscriptions: An officer mounted at the head of a body of cavalry, charging flying troops; Victory is flying over the heads of the Americans, holding a laurel crown in her right hand and a palm branch in her left.' Legend: The American Congress to William Washington commander of a regiment of cavalry. Reverse: 17th January, 1761--"Because, having vigorously pursued the foe with a small band of soldiers, he gave a brilliant specimen of innate valor in the battle at the Cowpens, seventeenth January, 1731." This inscription is within a laurel wreath.

[[[Retreat of the British.--Encounter between Washington and Tarleton.--Result of the Battle.]]]

{641}thur, were too much mixed up with the main forces of Tarleton, to present a rallying point, and the whole body retreated along the Mill-gap road to the place near Scruggs's, delineated on page 636, then covered with an open wood like the ground where the conflict commenced. There the battle ended, and the pursuit was relinquished. It was near the northern border of that present open field that Washington and Tarleton had a personal conflict. In the eagerness of his pursuit of that officer, Washington had got far in advance of his squadron, when Tarleton and two of his aids, at the head of the troop of the 17th regiment of dragoons, turned upon him. An officer on Tarleton's right was about to strike the impetuous Washington with his saber, when his sergeant came up and disabled the assailant's sword-arm. An officer on Tarleton's left was about to strike at the same moment, when Washington's little bugler, too small to wield a sword, wounded the assailant with a pistol-ball. Tarleton, who was in the center, then made a thrust at him, which Washington parried, and gave his enemy a wound in the hand. * Tarleton wheeled, and, as he retreated, discharged a pistol, by which Washington was wounded in the knee. During that night and the following morning, the remnant of Tarleton's force reached Hamilton's Ford, on Broad River, and also the encampment of Cornwallis, at Turkey Creek, about twenty-five miles from the Cowpens. For this defeat, Tarleton's cotemporaries censured him severely. **

The loss of the Americans in this decisive battle was about seventy men, of whom, strange to say, only twelve were killed. The British, according to Cornwallis's letter to Sir Henry Clinton, written a few days afterward, lost ten officers and ninety privates killed, and twenty-three officers and five hundred privates taken prisoners. Almost the whole of the British infantry, except the baggage guard, were killed or taken. The two pieces of artillery, *** eight hundred muskets, two standards, thirty-five baggage wagons, and one hundred dragoon horses, fell into the possession of the Americans. **** To the honor of the victors, it is declared that, notwithstanding the cruel warfare which Tarleton had waged had exasperated the Americans to the last degree, not one of the British was killed or wounded, or even insulted, after they had surrendered.

The defeat of the British at the Cowpens has not been inaptly compared to that of the Germans of Burgoyne's army near Bennington. The disaster, in both cases, dealt a severe blow against the success of the main army. The battle near Bennington paralyzed the energies of Burgoyne's army; the battle at the Cowpens equally affected the power of Cornwallis. He was advancing triumphantly toward the heart of North Carolina, having placed

* It is related that this wound was twice the subject for the sallies of wit of two American ladies, who were sisters, daughters of Colonel Montfort, of Halifax county, North Carolina. When Cornwallis and his army were at Halifax, on their way to Virginia, Tarleton was at the house of an American. In the presence of Mrs. Wilie Jones (one of these sisters), Tarleton spoke of Colonel Washington as an illiterate fellow, hardly able to write his name. "Ah! colonel," said Mrs. Wilie, "you ought to know better, for you bear on your person proof that he knows very well how to make his mark.'" At another time, Tarleton was speaking sarcastically of Washington, in the presence of her sister, Mrs. Ashe. "I would be happy to see Colonel Washington," he said, with a sneer. Mrs. Ashe instantly replied, "If you had looked behind you, Colonel Tarleton, at. the battle of the Cowpens, you would have enjoyed that pleasure." Stung with this keen wit, Tarleton plaeed his hand on his sword. General Leslie, who was present, remarked. "Say what you please, Mrs. Ashe, Colonel Tarleton knows better than to insult a lady in my presence."--Mr. Ellet's Women of the Revolution.

** See Siedman, ii., 324.

*** These two pieces of artillery were first taken from Burgoyne at Saratoga; then retaken by the British at Camden; now were recovered by the Americans, and afterward fell into the hands of Cornwallis at Guilford. They were of the kind of small field-pieees called "grasshoppers."

**** Ramsay, Gordon, Marshall, Lee, Johnson, Tarleton, Moultrie.

[[[The Heroes of the Cowpens.--Departure from that Place.--Cherokee Ford.--Indians in the Carolinas.]]]

{643}South Carolina, as he thought, in submission at his feet. The defeat of Ferguson at King's Mountain, and now of Tarleton, his favorite partisan, withered his hopes of Tory organization and co-operation. His last hope was the destruction of Greene's army by his own superior force, and for that purpose he now commenced the pursuit which we have considered in a preceding chapter, the capture of Morgan and his prisoners being his first object.

The victory of the Cowpens gave great joy to the Americans throughout the confederacy. Congress received information of it on the eighth of February, and on the ninth of March that body voted an award of a gold medal to Morgan; a silver medal to Howard and Washington; a sword to Colonel Pickens; and a vote of thanks to the other officers and men engaged in the battle. *

It was almost sunset when I left the Cowpens to return to a house of entertainment upon the road to the Cherokee Ford, seven miles distant; for the resident there could not find a corner for me in his dwelling, nor for Charley in his stable, that cold night, "for love nor money," but generously proposed that I should send him a copy of my work when completed, because he lived upon the battle-ground! To a planter on horseback, from Spartanburg, who overtook me upon the road, I am indebted for kindness in pointing out the various localities of interest at the Cowpens; to the other for the knowledge that a small building near his house was the depository of a field-piece used by an artillery company in the vicinity, when celebrating the anniversary of the battle.

After dark, I reached the house of Mrs. Camp, where I was comfortably lodged for the night; and early the following morning, accompanied by one of her sons on horseback, I proceeded to the Cherokee Ford, on the Broad River, ten miles distant. The road was very rough most of the way, and quite hilly. At the ford, on the west side of the river, is a large iron manufactory. The ore is brought from the neighboring mountains, smelted there, and wrought into hollow-ware, nails, spikes, tacks, &c. Around the establishment quite a little village has grown up, and there, as at Matson's Ford (Conshohocken), on the Schuylkill, where hostile parties were seen during the Revolution, and all around was a wilderness, the hum of busy industry is heard, and the smiles of cultivation are seen. Here, as we have observed (page 633), the Americans, who gained the victory at King's Mountain, crossed this stream on the morning of the battle.

Before crossing the Broad River, the _Estwawpuddenah_ of the Cherokee Indians, let us take a historical survey of the most important occurrences westward of this stream, in the beautiful country watered by the Tyger, the Ennoree, and the Saluda, and further on to the noble Savannah. Standing here upon the western selvage of civilization when the war broke out, and where the aborigines were sole masters but a few years before, let us glance, first, at the record of events which mark their conflicts with the over-reaching white race, who beat them back beyond the mountains. **

We have already noticed, on page 562, the efforts of the Corees, Tuscaroras, and other Indians of the Neuse and Cape Fear region to expel the Europeans.[[1712]] This conflict was soon succeeded by another, more serious in its character. For a while, the very existence of the Southern colony was menaced. The powerful nation of the Yamassees, who

* Journals of Congress, vii, 47.

** South Carolina was occupied by twenty-eight Indian nations when the Europeans first made a permanent settlement upon the Ashley River. The domain of these tribes extended from the ocean to the mountains. The Westos, Stonos, Coosaws, and Sewees occupied the country between Charleston and the Edis-to Rivers. They were conquered by the Savannahs, and expelled from the country. The Yamassees and Tuspahs held the territory in the neighborhood of Port Royal. The Savannahs, Serannahs, Cussobos, and Euchees occupied the middle country, along the Isundigia, or Savannah River. The Apalachians inhabited the head waters of the Savannah and Alatamaha, and gave their name to the mountains of Apalachy, and the bay of Apalachicola. The Museoghees or Creeks occupied a part of the country between the Savannah and Broad Rivers, being divided by the latter from the country of the Cherokees. The Congarees, Santees, Waterees, Saludas, Catawbas, Peedees, and Winyaws lived along the rivers which bear their respective names. The Museoghees and Catawbas were the most warlike; the Cherokees were more numerous than either, but more peaceful. These various nations, when Charleston was founded, could muster, probably, fifty thousand warriors.--See Simms's History of South Carolina, page 67.

[[[War with the Indians.--Peril of the White People.--Defeat and Conquest of the Indians.--Seminoles]]]

{644}possessed the territory around Port Royal, where the French Huguenots first attempted settlement, had long evinced their friendship for the Carolinians, whose first settlement was in the neighborhood of the present city of Charleston, by engaging with them as allies in their wars against the Spaniards and some Indian tribes. The Spaniards at St. Augustine, who were the mortal enemies of the Carolinians, finally succeeded in uniting the Cherokees--"the mountaineers of aboriginal America" * --the Muscoghees, Apalachians, and other Indian nations, in a league for the destruction of the colony. They also won the confidence of the Yamassees, and suddenly that powerful tribe appeared in arms against the Carolinians. Already the Apalachian tribes, occupying a large portion of the present State of Georgia, instigated by the Spaniards, had desolated some of the frontier settlements.[[1703]] Governor Moore, at the head of a body of Carolinians and friendly Indians, penetrated into the very heart of the Apalachian settlements, between the Savannah and the Alatamahaw Rivers.

He laid their villages in ashes, devastated their plantations slew about eight hundred people, and, with a large number of captives, marched back in triumph to Charleston. This invasion broke the spirit of the tribe, and made the power of the Carolinians thoroughly respected among their neighbors.

When the confederacy of the tribes of the upper country was effected, and the Yamassees lifted the hatchet against the white people,[[1715]] Governor Craven, who had promptly sent aid to the people of the northern provinces, as promptly met the danger at his own door. So secretly had the confederation been formed, and their plans matured, that the first blow was struck, and almost a hundred people were slain, ** before the Carolinians were aware of danger. The Yamassees, the Muscoghees or Creeks, and Apalachians, advanced along the southern frontier, spreading desolation in their track. The Cherokees, the Catawbas, and the Congarees joined them, and the Corees, and some of the Tuscaroras, also went out upon the war-path. Almost a thousand warriors issued from the Neuse region, while those of the southern division amounted to more than six thousand. Within forty days, the Indian tribes from the Cape Fear to the St. Mary's, and westward to the Alabama, were banded together for the destruction of the colony at Ashley River.

Governor Craven, whose character was the reverse of his name, acted with the utmost energy when the confederation and its purposes were made known. He immediately proclaimed martial law; laid an embargo on all ships to prevent men or provisions from leaving the colony, and seizing arms wherever they could be found, placed them in the hands of faithful negroes, to co-operate with the white people. With twelve hundred men, white and black, he marched to confront the Indians, now approaching with the knife, hatchet, and torch, in dreadful activity. In the first encounters of his advanced parties with the enemy the Indians were victors, but Craven finally compelled them to fall back to their chief camp upon the Salk-hatchie, *** whither the governor pursued them. Desperate were the conflicts which ensued, and for a while the victory was doubtful. The fate of the whole colony was suspended upon the result, and the Carolinians contended with all the energy of men fighting for life, home, and family. The Indians were repulsed, and, hotly pursued by the white people and their black aids, they were driven across the Savannah and sought shelter under the guns of the Spanish fortress at St. Augustine. No longer useful to them, the Spaniards drove their savage allies into the wilderness, and fearing to return to their hunting-grounds north of the Savannah, the Indians set up their wigwams among the everglades of Florida, and became, it is believed, the ancestors of the powerful Seminoles of our day.

When the division of the Carolinas occurred,[[1729]]and the southern portion became a

* Bancroft, iii., 246.

* This massacre was at Pocotaligo, an old village in the parish of Prince William, in Beaufort District. It then contained about three hundred inhabitants. There stood Fort Balfour, which was captured, during the Revolution, by a few Americans under Colonel Harden.

*** This is the name of the south fork of the Combahee River, which empties into St. Helena Sound. The place of the encampment was near Barnwell, the capital of Barnwell District.

[[[Embassy to the Indians.--Erection of Forts.--War with the Cherokees.--Small pox at Charleston.]]]

{645}royal province, the first care of the administration was to secure the friendship of the neighboring tribes. In 1730, an embassy under Sir Alexander Cumming, visited and explored the Cherokee country, three hundred miles from Charleston. They made a favorable impression, secured advantageous treaties, and laid, as they hoped, the foundation of a permanent peace. For twenty years the treaty remained unbroken. In 1755, the Cherokees renewed their treaty with the Carolinians, and at the same time made cessions to them of large tracts of land. Upon this ceded territory, stretching along the Savannah to the Tennessee River, Glenn, then governor of South Carolina, built forts, and named them respectively Prince George, * Moore, and Loudon. The first was upon the Savannah, three hundred miles from Charleston; the second was about one hundred and seventy miles below; and the latter was upon the waters of the Tennessee River, five hundred miles from Charleston. These forts were garrisoned by troops from Great Britain, and, promising security, settlements rapidly extended in that direction. They served to awe the Indian nations, and peace might have been always secured, had the white people exercised ordinary prudence. But one rash act scattered the power of treaties to the wind, and lighted the flames of war along the Carolina frontier.

In 1757, during the administration of Governor Lyttleton (afterward Lord Wescott), while a large party of the Cherokees, who had been assisting the English against the French on the Ohio, were returning home, they took possession of some horses from the back settlers of Virginia. The white people pursued them, killed a number of warriors, and took several captive. This violence exasperated the Indians, and they retaliated by scalping every white man whom they met. Parties of young warriors fell upon the border settlements of the Carolinas, and war was kindled along the whole frontier. Lyttleton called the Carolinians to arms. The Cherokee chiefs were alarmed, and sent a deputation to Charleston to appease the wrath of the English. Lasting friendship might have been at once secured had not Lyttleton indiscreetly refused to listen. He collected fourteen hundred men upon the Congaree, conducted the Cherokee delegation thither, under guard, and, extorting a pledge of peace and alliance, he returned to Charleston, after sending to Fort George twenty-two hostages, whom he had demanded for the delivery of the warriors who had desolated the border settlements. The Cherokees were very indignant, and the governor had scarcely reached his capital, when he received intelligence that fourteen white people had been murdered within a mile of Fort George. Soon the Cherokees surrounded that fortress, led on by Occonastota, a chief of great influence, and the implacable enemy of the English. Perceiving the power of his arms to be vain, he had recourse to stratagem. Withdrawing his warriors, he spread them in ambush, and while conferring with the commander of the garrison and two other officers, whom he had decoyed to the margin of a stream by expressions of friendship, he gave a signal, and instantly they were surrounded by armed savages. The commander was slain, and the other two were wounded and made prisoners. The garrison proceeded to put the hostages in irons. They made a deadly resistance, and were all slain. This event maddened the whole Indian nation, and, with gleaming hatchets, they swept along the Carolina frontier like the scythe of Death. Men, women, and children were butchered without mercy; and the war-belt was sent to the Catawbas and other tribes, inviting them to confederate for the extermination of the English.

About this time, Charleston was severely scourged by the small-pox, and was too weak to send efficient succor to the frontiers. Lyttleton had been appointed governor of Jamaica, and, sailing for that island about this time, was succeeded by William Bull, a native Carolinian. Bull sent to Virginia and North Carolina for aid, and those states furnished seven troops of rangers for the service. These, with the British regulars under Colonel Montgomery (afterward Earl of Eglinton), sent from Canada by General Amherst, marched into the

* Fort Prince George was a strong work. It was quadrangular, with an earthen rampart six feet high, upon which stockades were placed. Around it was a ditch, and it had a natural glacis on two sides. At each angle was a bastion, on which four small cannons were mounted. It contained barracks for a hundred men.

[[[Montgomery's Expedition against the Indians.--Peace.--Renewal of War.--Grant and Middleton's Expedition.]]]

{646}Indian country. Before proceeding, Montgomery rendezvoused at Monk's Corner,[[April, 1760]] near Charleston, where volunteers flocked to his standard. The Cherokees were advised of these preparations for invading their territory, and were at first uneasy. Their beautiful domain spread out between the Broad and Savannah Rivers, and was fenced in by rugged mountains. They had then sixty-four towns and villages, and upon an emergency could call six thousand warriors to the field. Reflecting upon this force, they felt strong. Montgomery, with only two thousand men, proceeded against the Indians. In several engagements he chastised them severely, and pressed on to the relief of Fort Prince George, then closely invested by the red warriors. The Indians fled at his approach toward the secure fastnesses of the mountains and morasses, and hither Montgomery pursued them. The wilderness was vast and fearful over which he marched, and the streams to be forded were often deep and turbid. The enemy finally made a stand at Etchoee, the nearest town of their middle settlements. Within five miles of this village a severe battle was fought. The Cherokees fell back slowly before the cold bayonet; and when they saw the English pressing toward the town, they fled thither precipitately, to save their women and children. Montgomery, feeling unsafe in that far off and desolate region, returned to Fort Prince George, and from thence toward Charleston. All the way to the populous settlements, he was annoyed by the Indians, who hung upon his rear, and the purpose of the campaign was only half accomplished. Montgomery and his regulars soon afterward returned to New York.

While this retreat was in progress, the distant post of Fort Loudon, on the Tennessee, was invested by the Cherokees. The garrison of two hundred men was daily melting away by famine. The Virginia Rangers attempted its relief, but without success. The garrison finally surrendered. Safe guidance to the frontier settlements, with ammunition and other baggage was promised them; but they had gone only a short distance on their way, when their guides forsook them, and another body of Indians fell upon and massacred twenty-six of them. A few escaped, and Stuart, their commander, and some others, remained captives a long time.

The Cherokees were now willing to treat for peace, but the French had sent emissaries among them, who kept their fears and animosities constantly excited. Soon the war was renewed with all its former violence, while Carolina was left almost wholly to her own resources. She raised a provincial regiment of twelve hundred men, and gave the command to Colonel Middleton, a brave and accomplished officer. Among his subordinates were Henry Laurens, Francis Marion, William Moultrie, Isaac Huger, and Andrew Pickens, all of whom were very distinguished patriots during the Revolution. This was their first military school, and the lessons they were there taught were very useful in a subsequent hour of need. When this little band was ready to march into the Cherokee country, Colonel James Grant, with the regiments formerly commanded by Montgomery, landed at Charleston.[[April, 1761]] The united forces of Grant and Middleton, with some of the Chickasaw and Catawba Indians as allies, in all twenty-six hundred men, reached Fort

Prince George on the twenty-ninth of May. Nine days afterward[[June 7]] they advanced toward Etchoee, where, upon the ground where Montgomery fought them, a large body of Cherokees were gathered. Well skilled in the use of fire-arms, and now well supplied by the French, they presented a formidable front. They also had the advantage of superior position, and the battle which ensued was severe and bloody. For three hours the conflict raged in that deep wilderness; and it was not until the deadly bayonet, in the hands of desperate men, was brought to bear upon the Indians, that they gave way. Inch by inch they fell back, until finally, completely overpowered, they fled, hotly pursued by their conquerors. How many were slain is not known; the English lost nearly sixty men. Like Sullivan in the Seneca country, Grant followed up his victory with the torch. Etchoee was laid in ashes; the cornfields and granaries were destroyed, and the wretched people were driven to the barren mountains. * So terrible was the punishment, that the name of Grant was to them a synonym for _devastation_.

* Marion, in a letter quoted by Weems, mentioned the wanton destruction of the corn, then in full ear, and said, "I saw every where around the footsteps of the little Indian children, where they had lately played under the shelter of the rustling corn. No doubt they had often looked up with joy to the swelling shocks, and gladdened when they thought of their abundant cakes for the coming winter. When we are gone, thought I, they will return, and, peeping through the weeds with tearful eyes, will mark the ghastly ruin poured over their homes, and the happy fields where they had so often played. 'Who did this?' they will ask their mothers. 'The white people; the Christians did it!' will be the reply."

[[[Treaty of Peace and Friendship.--Influence of Royal Emissaries.--Indian Hostilities renewed.--John Stuart.]]]

{647}By this victory, the spirit of the Cherokee Nation was broken, and the French, whose machinations had urged them to continued hostilities, were hated and despised by them. Through the venerable sachem, Attakullakulla, who had remained a friend of the white people, the chiefs of the Nation humbly sued for peace. "The Great Spirit," said the old man, "is the father of the white man and the Indian; as we all live in one land, let us all live as one people." His words of counsel were heeded; a treaty of amity was concluded, and a bloody war was ended. The Treaty of Paris, between the English and French, was concluded in 1763, and, except the feeble Spaniards on the South, the Cherokees had no enemies of the English thereafter to excite them to war.

From 1761, until the war of the Revolution commenced, the Indians upon the Carolina and Georgia frontiers were generally quiet and peaceful. Pursuant to the secret instructions which the royal governors received from the British ministry, to band the Indians against the colonists, Tory emissaries went up from the sea-board and excited the Cherokees and their neighbors to go upon the war-path. Among the most active and influential of these emissaries of the crown was John Stuart, a Scotchman, and at that time his majesty's Indian agent for the Southern colonies. * Stuart arranged a plan with Wright, Campbell, Martin, Dunmore, and other royal governors, to land a British army at St. Augustine, in Florida, which, uniting with the Indians and Tories, might invade the state at an interior point, while a fleet should blockade its harbors, and land an invading army on the sea-board. This plan was discovered by the Carolinians, but not in time entirely to defeat it; for, when Parker and Clinton made their attack upon Charleston,[[June 28, 1776]] the Cherokees commenced a series of massacres upon the western frontiers of the province. Already a few stockade forts had been erected in that section, and to these the terrified borderers fled for safety. Colonel Williamson, of the district of Ninety-Six, who was charged with the defense of the upper country, raised about five hundred true men, and in his first skirmish with the Indians, in which he took some prisoners, discovered thirteen white men, Tories, disguised as savages, and wielding the tomahawk and scalping knife. The indignation excited against these men extended to their class, and this discovery was the beginning of those bloody scenes between bands of Whigs and Tories which characterized many districts of South Carolina. The domestic feuds which ensued were pregnant with horrid results; the ferocity of the tiger usurped the blessed image of God in the hearts of men, and made them brutes, with fearful power to be brutal.

When intelligence of the affair at Charleston reached the interior, the patriots were encouraged, and Williamson soon found himself at the head of a force of twelve hundred men, and daily augmenting. With a detachment of three hundred horsemen, he proceeded to attack an Indian and Tory force at Oconoree Creek. He fell into an ambuscade, and himself and companions narrowly escaped destruction. His horse was shot under him; his squad-

* John Stuart came to America with Oglethorpe, probably with the Highlanders under M'Intosh, the father of General Lachlin M'Intosh, of the Revolution, who settled upon the Alatamahaw, and called the place New Inverness. The Indians were greatly pleased wilh the dress and character of the Highlanders, and to this circumstance is attributed Stuart's influence among them. Stuart went to Charleston; became Indian agent; married Niss Fenwick, daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the province, and finally became one of the king's council. He lived in the house on the corner of Wadd and Orange Streets. Charleston, now (1851) owned by William Carson. Esq. He had commanded a corps on Cumberland Island, who gallantly repulsed the Spaniards in 1745, and this was the commencement of his popularity which led up to the civil station that he held in council. He chose the royal side when the Revolution broke out, and to him was attributed all of the difficulties with the Indians upon the frontier during the first year of that strangle. Alarmed for his personal safety, he fled to St. Augustine. His estate was confiscated. He died in England. His son, Sir John Stuart, became a distinguished general in ihe British army.--See Johnson's Traditions of the Revolution, page 107.

[[[Desolation of the Cherokee Country.--Expeditions under Rutherford and Pickens.--Present Condition of the Cherokees]]]

{648}ron were thrown into disorder; and but for the skill and coolness of Colonel Hammond in rallying them, they would have been routed, and many slain. They were victorious, and shortly after this event, Williamson marched, with two thousand men, to lay waste the Cherokee country. Again he fell into an ambuscade, in a narrow defile among the rugged mountains, near the present town of Franklin. From the rocky heights, and from behind the huge trees of the forest, twelve hundred warriors, with some Tories, poured a destructive fire upon the Whigs. But again the Indians were repulsed, and Williamson pressed forward cautiously but efficiently in the work of conquest and desolation. The valleys were smiling with crops of corn, and numerous villages dotted the water-courses. Towns were laid in ashes; the standing corn was trampled down and destroyed; and over all the Indian settlements eastward of the Apalachian Mountains, the broom of desolation swept with terrible effect. The destruction of food invited famine to a revel, and, to avoid starvation, five hundred warriors crossed the Savannah and fled to the Loyalists in Florida.

In the mean while, General Rutherford, of North Carolina, with a force fully equal to Williamson's, crossed the Blue Ridge at Swannanoa Gap, and proceeded to the valley of the Tennessee River, laying waste the Indian country on the line of his march. There he joined Williamson on the fourteenth of September. The work of destruction being completed, Rutherford returned to Salisbury in October, where he disbanded his troops. The conquest was consummate. The Cherokees sued for peace, but they had no Attakullakulla to intercede for them, for he had gone down into silence. They were compelled to submit to the most abject humiliation, and to cede to South Carolina all their lands beyond the mountains of Unacaya, now comprised within the fertile districts of Greenville, Anderson, and Pickens, watered by the tributaries of the Savannah, the Saluda, and the Ennoree. *

Only once again did the Cherokees lift the hatchet, during the war. In 1781, British emissaries induced them to go upon the war-path. With a large number of disguised white men, they fell upon the inhabitants in Ninety-Six, massacred some families, and burned their houses. General Pickens, with a party of militia, penetrated the Cherokee country, and in the space of fourteen days he burned thirteen of their villages, killed more than forty of the Indians, and took nearly seventy of them prisoners. They sued for peace, promised never to listen to the British again, and from that time they remained quiet. **

The spirit of the North Carolina Regulators was infused into the back settlers of South Carolina, beyond the Broad River, and about 1769, the leading men of that region took the law into their own hands. To suppress their rising power and importance, the governor employed a man of low habits, but of haughty demeanor, named Scovill, to go thither and enforce the laws of the province. He gave him the commission of colonel, and, with the mistaken policy of a narrow mind, he used rigorous measures, instead of evincing forbearance and a spirit of conciliation. The sufferings which they endured made them reprobate all government, and when asked to espouse the cause of Congress, they refused, on the ground that all congresses or instruments of government are arbitrary and tyrannical. These formed the basis of the Tory ascendency in that section of the state at the beginning of the war; and before the names of Whig and Tory became distinctive appellations, the name of Scovillites was applied to those who opposed the Republicans. There were also many Dutch settlers between the Broad and Saluda Rivers, who had received bounty lands from the king.

* Moultrie, Ramsay, Simms, Johnson.

** A greater portion of the Cherokee Nation, now in existence, occupy territory west of the Mississippi. A remnant of them remain in North Carolina, at a place ealled Qualla Town, in Haywood county. They were allowed to remain when the general emigration of their nation took place. They have a tract of seventy-two thousand acres of land. Almost every adult can read in the Cherokee language, and most of them understand English. They manufacture all their necessaries; have courts, lawyers, and judges of their own, and have all the political rights of free citizens of the state. They are sober, industrious, and religious. Their present business chief (1851) is William H. Thomas, Esq., senator from that district (50th). The Qualla Town Cherokees exhibit some remarkable cases of longevity. In 1850, Messrs. Mitchell and Smoot, while on an official visit there, saw Kalostch, who was then one hundred and twenty years old. His wife "went out like a candle," as Kalosteh said, the year before, at the age of one hundred and twenty-five years. It is said that people one hundred years old are not uncommon there.

[[[The Western Settlers.--Growth of Party Spirit.--The Cunninghams.--Seizure of Powder.]]]

{649}Government emissaries persuaded these settlers to believe that an espousal of the rebel cause would be the sure precursor of the loss of their lands. These augmented the loyal population when the inhabitants were called upon to make a political decision. Still another class, the Scotch-Irish Protestants, had experienced the bounty of the king, and these, with a feeling of gratitude, adhered to the royal government. Over all these, Lord William Campbell, the royal governor when the war broke out, had unbounded influence, and probably in not one of the thirteen colonies was loyalty more rampant and uncompromising than in South Carolina. Many, whose feelings were all in harmony with the opposers of royal rule, were urged by self-interest to remain quiet; for they felt secure in person and property under present circumstances, and feared the result of commotion. Thus active and passive loyalty sat like an incubus upon the real patriotism of South Carolina; and yet, in every portion of the state, the Tories were outnumbered by the Whigs, except in the section we are now considering, between the Broad and Saluda Puvers. The inhabitants there could not be persuaded to furnish men and arms for the army of Congress, nor to sign the American Association.

Early in 1776, William Henry Drayton, Colonel William Thomson, Colonel Joseph Kershaw, and Reverend William Tennent, were sent by the Council of Safety at Charleston into that district, to explain to the people the nature of the dispute. Emissaries of government counteracted their influence by persuading the people that the inhabitants of the seaboard desired to get their tea free of duty, while those in the interior would be obliged to pay a high rate for salt, osnaburgs, and other imported necessaries. The baneful seeds of suspicion and mutual distrust were sown broad-cast among the settlers. The men of each party banded together in fear of the violence of the other, and soon opposing camps were formed. Moderate men endeavored to prevent bloodshed, and a conference of their respective leaders was finally effected. A treaty of mutual forbearance was agreed to, and for a while agitation almost ceased. But restless spirits were busy. Among these, Robert and Patrick Cunningham, ** Tory leaders, were the most active, and they soon disturbed the repose of party suspicion and animosity. By their machinations, it was aroused to wakefulness. The Whigs, fearful of Robert Cunningham's influence, seized and conveyed him to Charleston, where he was imprisoned. His brother Patrick raised a force to attempt a rescue.

At about this time, a thousand pounds of powder, on its way as a present to the Cherokees, was seized by these Loyalists. This excited the already vigorous efforts of the Council of Safety to more efficient measures. Colonel Williamson (the same officer who chastised the Cherokees), with a party of patriots, was sent to regain the powder. They seized Patrick Cunningham, the leader, when the Tories gathered in strength, and drove Williamson into a stockade fort at Ninety-Six. Alter remaining there some days, an agreement for a cessation of hostilities was concluded, and both parties dispersed to their homes.

* Mr. Drayton was, at this time, quite a young man, a descendant of one of the leading families of South Carolina. He was a nephew of Governor Bull. When Republican principles began to work up to the surface, and become visible at the South, in 1771, his pen was employed on the side of government, in opposition to Christopher Gadsden and others. 'These essays brought him into notice. He was introduced at court, and was appointed one of Governor Bull's council. As the Revolution advanced to a crisis, Drayton saw the injustice of Great Britain, and espoused the Republican cause. He became a favorite of the people, and, while a delegate in the Continental Congress, he died in their service in 1779.

** Robert Cunningham was an Irish settler in the District of Ninety-Six, now Abbeville, where he was commissioned a judge in 1770. After his release, in 1776, he removed to Charleston. In 1780, he was appointed a brigadier general to command the Loyalists of that province. His estate was confiscated in 1782, and not being allowed to remain in the province at the close of the war, he went to Nassau, New Providence, where he died in 1813, at the age of seventy-four years. The British government indemnified him for his losses, and gave him a pension. His brother Patrick was deputy surveyor of the colony in 1769. He received the commission of colonel, under Robert, in 1780. His property, also, was confiscated in 1782, and at the close of the war he went to Florida. The South Carolina Legislature afterward treated him leniently, and restored a part of his property. He was elected a member of the Legislature by his Tory friends. He died in 1794.

[[[Tory Faithlessness.--Expedition against them--Battle at Musgrove's Mill.]]]

{650}The treaty at Ninety-Six was soon violated by the Tories, when the Provincial Congress, resolving no longer to rely upon words, sent a large body of militia and newly-raised regulars, under Colonels Richardson * and Thomson, ** to apprehend the leaders of the party which seized the powder, and to do all other things necessary to suppress the present and future insurrections. *** They were joined by seven hundred militia from North Carolina, under Colonels Thomas Polk and Griffith Rutherford, and two hundred and twenty regulars, commanded by Colonel James Martin. This was a wise step. It gave the Tories an exalted idea of the strength of the friends of government, and entirely destroyed their organization. Colonel Richardson used his discretionary powers with mildness. The most obstinate leaders were seized and carried to Charleston. Quiet was restored, and the Loyalists made no demonstration of moment until after the reduction of Savannah, when a considerable party arose in favor of the royal government, having for their leader Colonel Boyd, who had been secretly employed by the British government to head the Tories. These were routed and dispersed at Kettle Creek, while on their way to the British posts in Georgia. This event will be noticed in detail hereafter. From that time until the British took possession of Charleston, in 1780, the Tories remained rather quiet upon their plantations. On the eighteenth of August, 1780, Colonel Williams (who was killed at King's Mountain a few weeks afterward), with Colonels Shelby and Clarke, attacked quite a large body of British under Colonel Innis and Major Fraser, near Musgrove's Mill, upon the Ennoree River, in the northeast corner of Laurens's District. Many Tories were collected there, and were joined on the seventeenth by Innis and Fraser. The whole force was about three hundred strong, and were encamped upon the south side of the river, where they commanded a bad, rocky ford. The Americans, whose force was much less, took post upon the north side, upon a small creek which empties into the Ennoree just below the Spartanburg line, about two miles above Musgrove's Mill. It was agreed that Williams should have the chief command. He drew up his little army in ambush, in a semicircle within a wood, and then proceeded to entice his enemy across the river. For this purpose he took a few picked men, appeared at the ford, and fired upon the enemy. The stratagem was successful. Innis immediately crossed the ford to dislodge the "rebels." Williams and his party retreated, hotly pursued by Innis until within the area of the patriot ambuscade, when a single shot by Colonel Shelby gave the signal for attack. With a loud shout, the concealed Americans arose, and within two minutes the Tories were completely surrounded. Colonel Innis was slightly wounded, but with the larger part of his regulars he escaped. Major Fraser was killed, with eighty-five others. Colonel Clary, the commander of the militia, escaped, but