37 The Winning of the West 



rest of the Indians in every direction. A succession 

 of these blows completely humbled the Cherokees, 

 and they sued for peace; thanks to Sevier's tactics, 

 they had suffered more loss than they had inflicted, 

 an almost unknown thing in these wars with the for- 

 est Indians. In midsummer peace was made by a 

 treaty at the Great Island of the Holston. 



During the latter half of the year, when danger 

 from the Indians had temporarily ceased, Sevier and 

 Shelby led down bands of mounted riflemen to as- 

 sist the American forces in the Carolinas and 

 Georgia. They took an honorable share under Mari- 

 on in some skirmishes against the British and Hes- 

 sians; 11 but they did not render any special service, 

 and Greene found he could place no reliance on them 

 for the actual stubborn campaigns that broke the 



11 Shelby MSS. Of course Shelby paints these skirmishes 

 in very strong colors. Haywood and Ramsey base their ac- 

 counts purely on his papers. Ramsey and his followers en- 

 deavor to prove that the mountain men did excellently in 

 these 1781 campaigns; but the endeavor is futile. They 

 were good for some one definite stroke, but their shortcom- 

 ings were manifest the instant a long campaign was at- 

 tempted; and the comments of the South Carolina historians 

 upon their willingness to leave at unfortunate moments are 

 on the whole just. They behaved somewhat as Stark and 

 the victors at Bennington did when they left the American 

 army before Saratoga ; although their conduct was on the 

 whole better than that of Stark's men. They were a brave, 

 hardy, warlike band of irregulars, probably better fighters 

 than any similar force on this continent or elsewhere ; but 

 occasional brilliant exceptions must not blind us to the gen- 

 eral inefficiency of the Revolutionary militia, and their great 

 inferiority to the Continentals of Washington, Greene, and 

 Wayne. See Appendix. 



