282 The Winning of the West 



wars waged between the Elizabethan English and 

 the Irish. But it is not unfair to compare this bor 

 der warfare in the Tennessee Mountains with the 

 border warfare of England and Scotland two cen 

 turies earlier. There is no blinking the fact that 

 in this instance Sevier and his followers stood on 

 the same level of brutality with "keen Lord Evers," 

 and on the same level of treachery with the "as 

 sured" Scots at the battle of Ancrum Muir. 



Even on the frontier, and at that time, the better 

 class of backwoodsmen expressed much horror at 

 the murder of the friendly chiefs. Sevier had 

 planned to march against the Chickamaugas with 

 the levies that were thronging to his banner; but 

 the news of the murder provoked such discussion 

 and hesitation that his forces melted away. He 

 was obliged to abandon his plan, partly owing to 

 this disaffection among the whites, and partly owing 

 to what one of the backwoodsmen in writing to 

 General Martin termed "the severity of the In 

 dians," 35 a queer use of the word severity which 

 obtains to this day in out-of-the-way places through 

 the Alleghanies, where people style a man with a 

 record for desperate fighting a "severe man," and 

 speak of big, fierce dogs, able to tackle a wolf, as 

 "severe" dogs. 



Elsewhere throughout the country the news of 

 the murder excited great indignation. The Con 

 tinental Congress passed resolutions condemning 



35 State Department MSS., 150, III, Maxwell to Martin, 

 July 7, i?88. 



