MooNEY) CONCENTRATION INTO STOCKADES 1838 IMl 



exile. A woiiuin. on tiii(lin<^' the house surrounded, went to the door 

 and culled up tlie ciiickeTis to ))e fed for the last time, aftei" wiiicli. 

 takiny her infant on her back and her two other children by the hand, 

 she followed her husband with the soldiers. 



All wei-e not thus submissive. One old man named TsalT, ''Charley," 

 was seized with his wife, his brother, his three sons and their families. 

 Exasperated at the brutality accorded his wife, who, beinijc unabh^ to 

 travel fast, was prodded with bayonets to hasten her steps, li(> ur_<,M'd 

 the other men to join with him in a dash for liberty. As he spoke in 

 Cherokee the soldiers, although they heard, understood nothing until 

 each warrior suddenly sprang upon the one nearest and endeavored to 

 wrench his gun from him. The attack was so sudden and unexpected 

 that one soldier was killed and the rest tied, while the Indians escaped 

 to the mountains. Hundreds of others, some of them from the \arious 

 stockades, managed also to escape to the mountains from time to time, 

 where those who did not die of starvation subsisted on roots and wild 

 berries until the hunt was over. Finding it impractica])le to secure 

 these fugitives, General Scott tinally tendered them a proposition, 

 through (Colonel) ^V. H. Thomas, their most trusted friend, that if 

 they would surrender Charley and his party for punishment, the rest 

 would be allowed to remain until their case could be adjusted by the 

 government. On hearing of the proposition, Charley voluntarily 

 came in with his sons, ottering himself as a sacrifice for his ]ieo])l(\ By 

 command of General Scott. Charley, his brother, and the two elder 

 .sons were shot near the mouth of Tuckasegee, a detachment of Chero- 

 kee prisoners being compelled to do the shooting in order to impress 

 upon the Indians the fact of their utter helplessness. From those 

 fugitives thus permitted to remain originated the present eastern 

 band of Cherokee.' 



"When nearly seventeen thousand Cherokee had thus been gathered 

 into the various stockades the work of removal began. Earlv in June 

 several parties, aggregating about five thousand persons, were bi-ought 

 down ])y the troops to the old agency, on Hiwassee, at the present 

 Calhoun, Tennessee, and to Ross's landing (now Chattanooga), and 

 Gunter's landing (now Guntersville, Alabama), lower down on the 

 Tennessee, where they were put upon steamers and transpoi'ted down 

 the Tennessee and Ohio to the farther side of the Mississippi, when 

 the journey was continued by land to Indian Territory. This removal, 



' The notes on the Cherokee round-up anrl Uemoval are almost entirely from author's information 

 as furnished by actors in the events, both Cherokee and white, among whom may be named tlie 

 late Colonel W, 11. Thomas; the late Colonel Z. A. Zile, of Atlanta, of the Georgia volunteers; the 

 late James Bryson, of DiUshoro, North CnroHuB, also a volunteer; James D. Wafford, of the western 

 Cherokee Nation, who eominauded one of the emigrant detachments; and old Indians, botli east and 

 west, who remembered the Removal and had heard the story from their parents. Charley's story is 

 a matter of eommon note among the East Cherokee, and was heard in full detail from Colonel Thonnus 

 and from Wasitfina ("Wa.shington" l, Charley's youngest son, who alone was .spared by Ceneral Seott 

 on aeeount of his youth. The incident is also noted, with some slight inaecuraeics, in Lanman, 

 Letters from the .Vlleghany Mountains. See p. 157. 



