Oct. 20, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
609 
“bill kirby’s” mill. 
The largest log is not over 6 inches thick. A man cannot stand upright inside the 
mill. Capacity, half bushel of corn in 12 hours. Such slow grinding makes the best 
meal in the world, and is particularly favorable to “sprouted corn.” 
A BLOCKADE STILL-HOUSE. 
Despite the looks of the roof, this still-house is not permanently abandoned. The 
wild glen in which this house is hidden is so remote from roads and horse trails, that 
it often re-echoes to the thrum of banjos and the eldritch cries of midnight revelers 
who fear no law of God or man. 
Indians from the rear, but sent many of their 
incomparable riflemen to the front as well. They 
were the first English-speaking people to use 
weapons of precision (the rifle, introduced by the 
Pennsylvania-Dutch about 1700, was used by our 
backwoodsmen exclusively throughout the war). 
They were the first to employ open-order for¬ 
mation in civilized warfare. They were the first 
outside colonists to assist their New England 
brethren at the siege of Boston. They were 
mustered in as the First Regiment of Foot of 
the Continental Army (being the first troops en¬ 
rolled by our Congress, and the first to serve 
under a federal banner). They carried the day 
at Saratoga, the Cowpens, and King’s Mountain. 
From the beginning to the end of the war, they 
were Washington’s favorite troops.f 
And yet these same men were the first rebels 
against the authority of the United States gov¬ 
ernment ! And it was their old commander-in- 
chief, Washington himself, who had the ungrate¬ 
ful task of bringing them to order by a show 
of federal bayonets. 
It happened in this wise: 
Up to the year 1791 there had been no excise tax 
in the United Colonies or the United States. (One 
that had been tried in Pennsylvania was utterly 
abortive). Then the country fell upon* hard 
times. A larger revenue must be raised, and 
Hamilton suggested an excise. The measure was 
bitterly opposed by many public men, notably by 
Jefferson; but it passed. Immediately there was 
trouble in the tall timber. 
Western Pennsylvania, and the mountains 
southward, had been settled, as we above have 
seen, by the Scotch-Irish; men who had brought 
with them a certain fondness for whiskey, a cer¬ 
tain knack in making it, and an intense hatred 
of excise, on general as well as special prin¬ 
ciples. There were few roads across the moun¬ 
tains, and these few were execrable—so bad, in¬ 
deed, that it was impossible for the backwoods¬ 
men to bring their corn and rye to market, ex¬ 
cept in a concentrated form. The farmers of 
the seaboard had grown rich, from the high 
prices that prevailed during the French revolu¬ 
tion ; but the mountain farmers had remained 
poor, owing partly to difficulties of tillage; but 
chiefly to difficulties of transportation. As Albert 
Gallatin said, in defending the western people. 
‘‘We have no means of bringing the produce of 
our lands to sale either in grain or in meal. We 
are therefore distillers through necessity, not 
choice, that we may comprehend the greatest 
value in the smallest size and weight. The in- 
lAny one interested in the extraordinary career of our 
backwoods sharpshooters in the revolution will find 
details, elsewhere unprocurable, in an article on “The 
Birth of the American Armv.” which I contributed to 
Harper s Magazine in May, 1899. 
habitants of the eastern side of the mountains 
can dispose of their grain without the additional 
labor of distillation at a higher price than we 
can after we have disposed that labor upon it.” 
Again, as in all frontier communities, there was 
a scarcity of cash in the mountains. Commerce 
was carried on by barter; but there had to be 
some means of raising enough cash to pay taxes, 
and to purchase such necessities as sugar, calico, 
gun powder, etc., from the peddlers who brought 
them by pack train across the Alleghanies. Con¬ 
sequently a still had been set up on nearly every 
farm. A horse could carry about sixteen gallons 
of liquor, which represented eight bushels of 
grain, in weight and bulk, and double that amount 
in value. This whiskey, even after it had been 
transported across the mountains, could undersell 
even so cheap a beverage as New England rum— 
so long as no tax was laid upon it. 
But when the newly created Congress passed 
an excise law, it virtually placed a heavy tax on 
A MOUNTAIN HOME. 
This cabin is neither better nor worse than the average 
dwelling in the Smokies. The boards and shingles are 
split from the log. 
the poor mountaineers’ grain, and let the grain 
of the wealthy eastern farmers pass on to market 
without a cent of charge. Naturally enough, the 
excitable people of the border regarded such a 
law as aimed exclusively at themselves. lhey 
remonstrated, petitioned, stormed. "From the 
passing of the law in January, 1791, there ap¬ 
peared a marked dissatisfaction in the western 
parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the 
Carolinas, and Georgia. The legislatures of 
North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland passed 
resolutions against the law, and that of Penn¬ 
sylvania manifested a strong spirit of opposition 
to it. As early as 1791, Washington was in¬ 
formed that throughout this whole region the 
people were ready for revolt.” "To tax their 
stills seemed a blow at the only thing which ob¬ 
durate nature had given them—a lot hard in¬ 
deed, in comparison with that of the people of 
the seaboard.” 
Our western mountains (we call most of them 
southern mountains, now) resembled somewhat 
those wild highlands of Connemara to which 
reference has been made—only they were far 
wilder, far less populous, and inhabited by a 
people still prouder, more independent, more used 
to being a law unto themselves than were their 
ancestors in old Hibernia. When the federal ex¬ 
ciseman came among this border people and sought 
to levy tribute, they blackened or otherwise dis¬ 
guised themselves and treated him to a coat of 
tar and feathers, at the same time threatening 
to burn his house. He resigned. Indignation 
meetings were held, resolutions were passed call¬ 
ing on all good citizens to disobey the law, and 
whenever anyone ventured to express a contrary 
opinion, or rented a house to a collector, he, too, 
was tarred and feathered. If a prudent or ultra- 
conscientious individual took out a license and 
sought to observe the law, he was visited by a 
gang of “Whiskey Boys” who smashed the still 
and inflicted corporal punishment upon its owner. 
Finally, warrants were issued against the law¬ 
breakers. The attempt to serve these writs pro¬ 
duced an uprising. On July 16, 1794, a company 
of mountain militia marched to the house, of the 
inspector, General Neville, to force him to give 
up his commission. Neville fired upon them, and, 
in the skirmish that ensued, five of the attacking 
force were wounded and one was killed. The 
next day, a regiment of 500 mountaineers, led 
by one “Tom the Tinker,” burned Neville’s house, 
and forced him to flee for his life. His .guard 
of eleven U. S. soldiers surrendered, after, losing 
one killed and several wounded. ' 
A call was then issued for a meeting of the 
mountain militia at Braddock’s Field. On Aug. 
1 a large body assembled, of whom 2,000 were 
armed. They marched on Pittsburg, then a 
village of 1,200 souls. The townsmen, bager to 
