MooNEYl DESTRUCTION OF CHICKAMAUGA TOWNS 1779 55 



ward Hiiwkins t'ouiul tli(> jropulation of ^^'illstowtl, in cxtrt'iiK' western 

 Goorgfia. entii'ely made u}) of i^efiiijiM's from the Savannah, and the 

 ehildren so familiar from their parents witli stories of AViliiamson's 

 in\asion that they ran screaming fi'om tlie face of a white man (22).' 



In Apiil. 1777. the legislature of North Carolina, of whicli Tennes- 

 see was still a part, authorized bounties oi land in the new teriitory to 

 all ahle-liodied men who should volunteer against tiie remaining iiostile 

 C'hei-okee. I'nder tiiis act comiJanies of rangei's were kept along the 

 e.\])osed l)order to cut off I'aiding i)ai'ti(»s of Indians and to protect the 

 steady advance of the pioneei-s, with the result that the Tennessee set- 

 t lements enjo\'od a brief respite and were even able to send some assist- 

 aiK'e to their bi'ethren in Kentucky, who were sorely pressed by the 

 Shawano and other northern trii)es.' 



The war betw(>en England and tiie colonies still continued, however, 

 and tiit> British government was unremitting in its effort to secui'c the 

 acti\e assistance of the Indians. AVith the Creeks raiding the Georgia 

 aud South Carolina frontier, and with a British agent, Colonel Brown, 

 aiul a number of Torv refugees regularlv domiciled at Chickamauga,^ 

 it was impossible for the Cherokee long to remain cjuiet. In the 

 spring of 1779 the warning came fi'om -Robertson, stationed at Echota, 

 that three hundred warriors from Chickamauga h;id stai'ted against the 

 back settlements of North Carolina. Without a day's delay the states 

 of North Carolina (including Tennessee) and Virginia united to send a 

 strong force of volunteers against them under command of Colonels 

 Shelby and Montgomery. Descending the Holston in April in a fleet 

 of canoes built for the occasion, they took the Chickamauga towns so 

 completely by surprisi^ that the few warriors remaining fled to the 

 mountains without attempting to give battle. Several were killed, 

 Chickamauga and the outlying villages were burned, twenty thousand 

 busliels of corn were destroyed and large numl)ers of horses and cattle 

 captured, together with a great ([uantity of goods sent l)y the British 

 Governor Hamilton at Detroit for distribution to the Indians. The 

 success of this expedition frusti'ated the execution of a project by 

 Hamilton for uniting all the northern and southern Indians, to lie 

 assisted by British regulars, in a concerted attack along the whole 

 Auiei'ican fi'onti(M-. On learning, through ruimers. of the blow that 

 had befallen them, the Chickamauga wari-iors gave uj) ;ill idea of 

 invading the settlements, and returned to their wasted villages.* They, 

 as well as the Creeks, however, kept in constant communication with 



' Hawkins, manuscript joiirnnI, 17%. with <ici)rj;iu Historical Siiciety. 



-Kiiiiise.v. TcMines.soe. pp. 174-178. ISM. 



'Campbell letter. l'S'>. Virginia State Tapers, in. p. 271. ISK?. 



<Ramsc.v, op. cit. pp. ISG-ISS; Roosevelt, WinniiiK of the West. n. pp. 236-288, 1889. Ramse.v's stiUc- 

 ments. chiefly on Haywood's authority, of the strength of the exportition, the number of warriors 

 killed, etc., are so evidently overdrawn that they are here omitted. 



