In the Current of the Revolution 267 



Among these troops was a company of rangers 

 who came from the scattered wooden forts of the 

 Watauga and the Nolichucky. Both Sevier and 

 Robertson took part in this war, and though the 

 former saw no fighting, the latter, who had the 

 rank of sergeant, was more fortunate. 



While the backwoods general was mustering his 

 unruly and turbulent host of skilled riflemen, the 

 English earl led his own levies, some fifteen hun- 

 dred strong, to Fort Pitt. 3 Here he changed his 

 plans, and decided not to try to join the other 

 division, as he had agreed to do. This sudden 

 abandonment of a scheme already agreed to and 

 acted on by his colleague was certainly improper, 

 and, indeed, none of the earl's movements indicated 

 very much military capacity. However, he de- 

 scended the Ohio River with a flotilla of a hundred 

 canoes, besides keel-boats and pirogues, 4 to the 

 mouth of the Hockhocking, where he built and gar- 

 risoned a small stockade. Then he went up the 

 Hockhocking to the falls, whence he marched to 

 the Scioto, and there entrenched himself in a forti- 

 fied camp, with breastworks of fallen trees, on the 

 edge of the Pickaway plains, not far from the In- 

 dian town of Old Chillicothe. Thence he sent out 

 detachments that destroyed certain of the hostile 

 towns. He had with him as scouts many men 

 famous in frontier story, among them George 

 Rogers Clark, Cresap, and Simon Kenton after- 

 ward the bane of every neighboring Indian tribe, 



3 Do., p. 872. 4 Doddridge, 235. 



