The War in the Northwest 361 



The plan worked well. The scouts soon came up 

 with the warriors, and, after a moment's firing, ran 

 back, with the Indians in hot pursuit. Sevier's men 

 lay hid, and, when the leading warriors were close 

 up, they rose and fired. Walton's wing closed in 

 promptly ; but Tipton was too slow, and the startled 

 Cherokees ran off through the opening he had left, 

 rushed into a swamp impassable for horsemen, and 

 scattered out, each man for himself, being soon be- 

 yond pursuit. Nevertheless, Sevier took thirteen 

 scalps, many weapons, and all their plunder. In 

 some of their bundles there were proclamations from 

 Sir Henry Clinton and other British commanders. 

 The Indians were too surprised and panic-struck to 

 offer any serious resistance, and not a man of Se- 

 vier's force was even wounded. 3 



3 Campbell MSS. Copy of the official report of Col. Arthur 

 Campbell, Jan. 15, 1781. The accounts of this battle of Boyd's 

 Creek illustrate well the growth of such an affair under the 

 hands of writers who place confidence in all kinds of tradi- 

 tion, especially if they care more for picturesqueness than 

 for accuracy. The contemporary official report is explicit. 

 There were three hundred whites and seventy Indians. Of 

 the latter thirteen were slain. Campbell's whole report shows 

 a jealousy of Sevier, whom he probably knew well enough 

 was a man of superior ability to himself; but this jealousy 

 appears mainly in the coloring. He does not charge any 

 material fact, and there is no reason for questioning the sub- 

 stantial truth of his statements. 



Forty years afterward Haywood writes of the affair, try- 

 ing to tell simply the truth, but obliged to rely mainly on 

 oral tradition. He speaks of Sevier's troops as only two 

 hundred in number; and says twenty-eight Indians were 

 killed. He does not speak of the number of the Indians, but 

 from the way he describes Sevier's troops as encircling them, 

 VOL. VI. P 



