The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 245 



gress, hampered as it was and powerless to under 

 take new responsibilities, could accept the gift until 

 the two years were nearly gone; and meanwhile 

 North Carolina would in all likelihood pay them 

 little heed, so that they would be left a prey to the 

 Indians without and to their own wrongdoers with 

 in. It was incumbent on them to organize for their 

 own defence and preservation. The three counties 

 on the upper Tennessee proceeded to take measures 

 accordingly. The Cumberland people, however, 

 took no part in the movement, and showed hardly 

 any interest in it; for they felt as alien to the men 

 of the Holston valley as to those of North Carolina 

 proper, and watched the conflict with a tepid absence 

 of friendship for, or hostility toward, either side. 

 They had long practically managed their own af 

 fairs, and though they suffered from the lack of 

 a strong central authority on which to rely, they did 

 not understand their own wants, and were inclined 

 to be hostile to any effort for the betterment of the 

 national government. 



The first step taken by the frontiersmen in the di 

 rection of setting up a new State was very charac 

 teristic, as showing the military structure of the 

 frontier settlements. To guard against Indian in 

 road and foray, and to punish them by reprisals, all 

 the able-bodied, rifle-bearing males were enrolled in 

 the militia ; and the divisions of this militia were ter 

 ritorial. The soldiers of each company represented 

 one cluster of rough little hamlets or one group of 

 scattered log houses. The company therefore formed 



