M0OSF.Y] ATTACK ON BITCH AN AN's STATION 17!t2 73 



Knciwmu.k, Siili'iiiliir II, 77ft/. 

 Sir: You are licivlvy roiiiiimnilcil tn n-iiair witli yniir cDinpany to Knoxville, 

 equi|i|ieil. to ])rotect the frontiers; tliere is iiiiiuiin'iil (lanf;er. Briii}; witli you two 

 days' provisions, if possible; but you are not to delay an hour on that head. 



I am, sir, yours, 



.Tamks WniTi;.' 



A))out iindiii(ilit on tlio Hotli of Scptciiii)^-. ITl'ii. the Iniliun foice, 

 c•on^si.stinJ>• of iscvoral hiuidred Cliu-kaiiiiuioii.s and othrr C'licrokt'c. 

 Creeks, and iShawano, attacked Biifh!uian*.s .station, a few miles .soiitii 

 of Nashville. Although numbers of families had collected inside the 

 stockade for safety, there were les.s than twenty able-bodied men 

 among them. The approach of the enemy alarmed the cattle, by 

 which the garrison had warning just in time to close the gate when 

 the Indians were already within a few yards of the entrance. The 

 assault was furious and determined, the Indians rushing up to the 

 stockade, attempting to set fire to it, and aiming their guns through 

 the port holes. One Indian succeeded in climbing upon the roof with 

 a lighted torch, but was shot and fell to the ground, holding his torch 

 against the logs as he drew his last breath. It was learned afterwaixl 

 that he wtis a half blood, the step.son of the old white trader who had 

 once rescued the boy Joseph Brown at Nickajack. He wtis a desperate 

 warrior and when only twenty-two years of age had alretid}- taken six 

 white scalps. The attack was repulsed at every point, and the assail- 

 ants finally drew off. with considerable loss, carrying their dead and 

 wounded with them, and leaving a number of hatchets, pipes, and other 

 spoils upon the ground. Among the wounded was the chief John 

 Watts. Not one of those in the fort was injured. It has been well 

 said that the defen.se of Buchanan's station bv such a handful of men 

 against an attacking force estimated all the way at from three to seven 

 hundred Indians is a feat of bravery which has scarcely been surpassed 

 in the annals of border warfare. The effect upon the Indians nuist 

 have been thoroughly disheartening.- 



In the same month arrangements were made for protei'ting the fron- 

 tier along the French Broad by means of a series of garrisoned block- 

 houses, with scouts to patrol regularly from one to another. North 

 Carolina cooperating on her side of the line. The hostile inroads still 

 continued in this section, the Creeks acting with the hostile Cherokee. 

 One raiding party of Creeks ha\'ing been traced toward Chilhowec 

 town on Little Tenne.ssee, the whites were aliout to ))urn that and a 

 neighljoring Cherokee town when Sevier interposed and prevented.'' 

 There is no reason to suppose that the people of these towns were 

 directl}' concerned in the depredations along the frontier at this period, 



' Ramsey, Tenne.ssee. pp. 562-565, 18.53. 



- Blount, letter, October 2, 1792, in .\mericiin State Papers: Indian .VlTairs, i, p. 291, 1832: Blount, letter, 

 etc.. in Ramsey, op. eit., pp. 566, .567,,599-601: seealso Brown's narrative, ibid., 511, 512; Koyce, Cherokee 

 Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 170, 1888. 



3 Ramsey, op. eit.. 56S-571. 



