In the Current of the Revolution 337 



marching against them, they took refuge in their 

 wooden forts or stations. Among the most impor- 

 tant of these were the one at Watauga, in which 

 Sevier and Robertson held command, and another 

 known as Eaton's Station, 28 placed just above the 

 forks of the Holston. Some six miles from the 

 latter, near the Long Island or Big Island of 

 the Holston, lay quite a large tract of level land, 

 covered with an open growth of saplings, and known 

 as the Island flats. 



The Indians were divided into several bands; 

 some of their number crossed over into Carter's 

 Valley, and after ravaging it, passed on up the 

 Clinch. The settlers at once gathered in the little 

 stockades ; those who delayed were surprised by the 

 savages, and were slain as they fled, or else were 

 captured, perhaps to die by torture men, women, 

 and children alike. The cabins were burnt, the 

 grain destroyed, the cattle and horses driven off, 

 and the sheep and hogs shot down with arrows; 

 the Indians carried bows and arrows for this ex- 

 press purpose, so as to avoid wasting powder and 

 lead. The bolder war-parties, in their search for 

 scalps and plunder, penetrated into Virginia a hun- 

 dred mires beyond the frontier, 29 wasting the coun- 

 try with tomahawk and brand up to the Seven- 



28 Hay wood and his followers erroneously call it Heaton's; 

 in the Campbell MSS, as well as the "Am. Archives," 5th 

 Series, I, p. 464, it is called Eaton's or Amos Eaton's. This 

 is contemporary authority. Other forts were Evan Shelby's, 

 John Shelby's, Campbell's, the Wommack Fort, etc. 



%29 "Am. Archives," 5th Series, I, 973. 



O VOL. V. 



