may truly say, with the German poet :
' Anf den Bergen ist Freiheit ; der Hauch der Grufte
Steigt nicht hinauf, in die reinen Lufte.'
That means —
' On the mountain is Freedom ; the breath of the vales
Rises not up to the pure mountain gales.' "
East Tennessee has been sometimes called the
Switzerland of America, and certainly there are
26
INTRODUCTION.
strong resemblances between the two countries.
They are unlike in that the former is wanting in
the lake feature that distinguishes Switzerland.
East Tennessee, however, abounds wonderfully in
natural springs of pure and limpid water, and has
a multitude of creeks and rivers. Some of these
last bear euphonious names, as Watauga, Nola-
chucky, Tellico, Hiwassee and Tennessee. The
climatic advantages of the region result, parti)-, at
least, from its having a Southern location and a
Northern elevation — peculiarities which a Swiss
gentleman who visited it thirty years ago, in ful-
fillment of his long cherished desire, was quick to
observe.
Following the first immigrants to the region,
who were from Virginia and North Carolina, and
among whom were some of Scotch-Irish ancestry,
others came, particularly to the county seats, di-
rectly from the north of Ireland ; but the great
majority of the settlers were of American birth —
hardy and adventurous spirits, in great variety,
such as are apt to seek a frontier life.
In the valleys and along the highways and rivers
have always been much intelligence and moral
worth, with admixtures, as elsewhere found, of
ignorance and vice. Sufficient public schools have
been sadly wanting in former years; yet education,
by which comparatively few profited, has been
esteemed and promoted in the Commonwealth
from its beginning. Three colleges were estab-
lished in East Tennessee before the Territory be-
came a State : one each in Washington, Greene
INTRODUCTION. 27
and Knox counties ; and soon after this century
began, county academies were chartered through-
out the State.
At first the Presbyterian Church existed almost
if not altogether alone, but before long it was suc-
ceeded by Methodist and Baptist churches. *
Accustomed as have been the people of the more
mountainous counties to ruder modes of living and
narrower means of education, their social condition
is freer, even from healthy restraints. They are
gifted with good natural qualities, but these have
not been always cultivated to the repression of
other traits and tendencies. They are brave, but
many of them are liable to needless tests of per-
sonal valor ; independent, but prone to notions of
individual liberty inconsistent with right ideas of
law and order ; social, but inclined to promote
good cheer by artificial means of excitement.
In 1848 a recent diplomatic agent of the United
States in Indiaf found his way to this very se-
cluded region, seeking, under the pressure of severe
domestic bereavement, to " get rid of himself."
He succeeded in doing so by dwelling for the win-
ter at the southern base of the Cumberland Mount-
ains. Afterwards he ascribed to the Highlanders
among whom he hibernated, three favorite sources
of excitement, namely, political stump-speakings,
religious camp-meetings, and home-made liquors.
An unlearned population, far removed from the
world and its thoroughfares, they highly prize their
* See Appendix: Note A. -j- Mr. Balestier.
28
INTRODUCTION.
right of suffrage to make legislatures and judges,
members of congress, governors and presidents.
Their religious instinct, once awakened, is quick
to respond to fervent preaching that is sustained
by stirring devotional songs. Their animal spirits
are apt to be depressed by the monotony of their
daily life, and the juice of Indian corn gives relief.*
That corn is the grain that is chiefly grown in the
highlands. Its meal and the salted flesh of hogs
are principally their food. Eager candidates for
office supply them with mental aliment at heated
discussions pending the elections, and the result is
that although many of them are without the
knowledge acquired at school, all of them are
informed concerning questions of public policy.
Probably no people of equal numbers can be found
in the land who excel those of East Tennessee in
acquaintance with current politics. It is to be con-
fessed that more than a few of the mountaineers
are deficient in historical lore. Certain great
events of the Nation's earlier life, whose results
they have exaggerated, have a firm lodgment in
their minds, but lie there unqualified by knowledge
of later occurrences. An anecdote related by
John Mitchell will illustrate.
Scarcely had the United States diplomatic agent
just now spoken of, departed upon an Oriental
mission, when the weary Irish patriot arrived from
Australia, in this isolated region. He, too, sought
retirement, and in Tuckaleechee Cove, near the
* In 1SS7 East Tennessee voted in favor of a State prohibition law by a ma-
jority of nearly 13,000.
INTRODUCTION. 29
Smoky Mountains, he found it, with his family.
One day some of the neighbors met together, after
the not unfrequent idling custom of men in the
mountains — perhaps for friendly gossip, or to shoot
at a mark in rivalry of skill for a prize. One
said :
" Who is this stranger, anyhow ? He don't do
nuthin' only him and his son go fishin' and shootin'."
" O," another replied, " don't you know who
that is ? That's John Mitchell, the exile of the
British Government."
" British Government indeed ! " said the first
speaker. " I thought we had whipp'd that con-
sarn out long ago." *
One virtue obtains almost universally among the
people of East Tennessee — that of hospitality. It
has to some extent diminished in the valleys, where
the inhabitants live as did their ancestors from
plentiful tables and various dishes, but where, since
the war ended, the increase of travel and of com-
mercial intercourse with other parts of the country
have checked generosity and enlarged prudence.
Yet it has lost none of its olden-time proportions
in the mountains, where the table lacks nothing in
abundance but a good deal in variety ; where the
narrow range of habitual diet affords small oppor-
tunity for skill in cookery, and even that opportu-
nity has not been improved. There the signs of
an advanced civilization — the steam-engine, the
telegraph and the telephone — have never invaded
the air with whistle or wires ; but the stranger will
* The mountaineers are innocent of the dialect given them in recent novels.
3° INTRODUCTION.
be kindly entertained for the night at little or no
charge, and probably when he departs in the morn-
ing, will be cheered on his way by the expressed
hope of his host that he will come again. Not
that the landlord thinks money is worthless. For
he and his countrymen are sharp traders. With-
out adventuring at the start upon fixed sums, they
" beat about the bush " to find out how much can
be had or how little be paid by them, and both
buyer and seller are wide awake to " get the. best
of the bargain." They also know points of law,
and are unduly given to litigation in defense of
their real or supposed rights.
Slavery, even in the modified, domestic garb it
wore among them, had a depressing, degrading
influence upon the white common laborers. This
was more obviously so with the several thousands
of inert, improvident people, such as are to be
found more or less in all regions, but who are apt
to be more numerous where the climate is genial
and a few acres of land with a poor tenement can
be cheaply rented. These led an Arab sort of life,
living in a log cabin and growing a crop of corn,
then, not "folding their tents," but packing up their
"plunder" — the synonym for household goods —
and flitting away with their children and dogs to a
cabin of another proprietor. For this class, who
lived " from hand to mouth," and whose content-
ment was partly due to the fact that their covet-
ousness had no incitements to indulgence, the ne-
groes of substantial families had an unconcealed
contempt. Another and better class consisted
INTRODUCTION. 3 T
more numerously of diligent and thrifty farming-
people. In them slavery induced, by some subtle,
indefinable influence, an industrial languor. It ap-
proximated them to the slaves, despite their differ-
ence in color and personal relation to the masters;
and it barred their way to improvement of condi-
tion, by pushing them as tenants from the more
fertile acres which the slaves tilled, to the thin soil
of the hillsides. Now, under the reign of free-
dom, these small but industrious farmers have
access by lease to the richer lands.
The mountaineers, strictly speaking, felt no con-
cern about the institution of slavery itself, and
knew but little. Here and there among them were
men of competent means, some of whom owned a
few negroes. Generally they looked upon slavery
as something foreign to their social life, but they
had no imperative, philanthropic impulses to con-
tend against it. They would have been displeased
at its coming near their homes in the imperious
majesty it wore in the cotton States. At the same
time they were satisfied to let men of the South
keep serfs at pleasure, but they counted it no bus-
iness of theirs to help in the work. If the perpe-
tuity of the Union or that of slavery were the
question at issue, they would have no hesitation in
deciding. Let slavery perish and the Union live.
Yes ! the Union — the Government handed down
to them from Washington and his compatriots !
It must survive. For it they would fight, and, if
necessary, die.
While the men high up on the hills had no phil-
3 2 INTRODUCTION.
osophic reflections nor any humanitarian hate to-
wards slavery, a strong aversion to it had been
manifested from an early period by some men of
the valleys. " A powerful appeal for the abolition
of slavery" was published as a communication in
the Knoxville Gazette, 1797. It called a meeting
of the citizens of East Tennessee at a town in
Washington County, March, 1797, to form a Man-
umission Society. The communication bears in-
ternal evidence of having been written by a mem-
ber of the Society of Friends. Not then, but in
18 1 5 the proposed society was organized.* The
Rev. John Rankin, born February 4, 1793, Jeffer-
son County, East Tennessee, graduated at Wash-
ington College, was ordained a Presbyterian min-
ister, but having imbibed anti-slavery sentiments
from his mother in Rockbridge County, Virginia,
he removed his residence from Tennessee to a free
State and became a leading abolitionist. Before
his recent death at the advanced age of nearly
ninety years, at Ironton, Ohio, he gave authority to
the statement that " the sentiment of abolitionism
originated in Tennessee about 18 14, there being
then an anti-slavery society in Jefferson County,
East Tennessee.f The Manumission Society first
mentioned, prosecuted its work diligently for years.
In March, 18 19," The Manumission Intelligencer,' 1 ''
a weekly newspaper, was issued at Jonesboro, and
its publication gave place, the year following, to
* Moses White, Esq., in an address to the Tennessee Press Association, has
made these historical statements.
f See letter of " Gath " (George Francis Townsend) — Cincinnati Enquirer,
September, 1SS5.
INTRODUCTION. 33
" The Emancipator" monthly, by Elijah Embree,
one of two brothers, Friends, from Pennsylvania,
who manufactured iron near Elizabethton. On
his death, it was succeeded by " The Genius of
Universal Emancipation" at Greeneville, pub-
lished by Benjamin Lundy, a Friend, from New
Jersey. It lived until 1824.
After that date, the sentiment of aversion to
slavery survived and in various ways was mani-
fested, and although it was eventually counteracted
by the political strife which grew out of the sub-
ject, it never ceased to exist firmly in many minds.
A home in the great valley of East Tennessee was
not formerly adapted to the cultivation of pro-
slavery sympathies in persons of humane disposition
and healthy sensibilities. For along the highway
through that valley, slave-dealers transported ne-
groes whom they had bought in Virginia and in-
tended to sell in Southwestern States. The sales
of these unfortunates, often because of their mas-
ters' necessities, had in some instances separated
families : and lest the men, moved by sorrow over
the disruption, by aversion to their destined mar-
ket, or by desire for freedom, should escape on the
way, the dealers fettered them two and two to a
strong chain running lengthwise between. It was
pathetic to see them march, thus bound, through
the towns, and to hear their melodious voices in
plaintive singing as they went. By-standers then
saw slavery without the disguise, with which Lau-
rence Sterne pronounced it " still a bitter draught,"
and the spectacle was apt to create or strengthen
A
34 INTRODUCTION.
antipathy to the institution in unbiased minds.
Knoxville, the central town of this entire region,
stands on the northern bank of the Tennessee
River, four miles below the junction of the Holston
and French Broad rivers, which rise, the first in
Virginia and the second in North Carolina. From
1792 to 1796 it was the capital of the "Territory
south of the river Ohio," and from 1796 to 18 16,
that of the State of Tennessee. Its society had at
that time a relative distinction for character and
influence which it has never lost In 1865 the
town received a strong impulse to growth, from
which its population in 1870 was 8,682, in 1880 it
was 9,693, and in 1886 it was about 30,000. The
great, and of late, rapid increase is largely owing
to immigration from Northern States. Thrifty and
enterprising new-comers have added in a marked
degree to the trade and prosperity of the place.
Like results have followed more or less through-
out East Tennessee, especially at Chattanooga,
since the war disclosed the natural advantages of
the whole region to the knowledge of the world
outside of it. So obvious are the benefits that will
accrue to it from worthy immigrants, that even
the most zealous sectionalists have yielded their
prejudices so far as to give even "Yankees" not
only a welcome, but an invitation to dwell in the
land.
Lloyd P. Smith and Frederick Collins, of Phila-
delphia, visited the region in March, 1864, upon a
benevolent errand. In their published report of
the visit they said : " The existing war is clearly
LLOYD P. SMITH.
INTRODUCTION. 35
destined to introduce Northern men, Northern
ideas and Northern enterprise into the border
States, and, as our military lines advance, through-
out the whole South. * * * East Tennessee,
with its fertile lands, its rich mines and valuable
water-power, presents a fine field for the applica-
tion of Northern labor and capital ; and when this
calamity is overpast, and a direct railroad commu-
nication with the North is secured, it will prosper
as never before. Especially will this be the case
when the incubus of slavery is thrown off." These
â– words are now in a measure fulfilled prophecy.
Topographically, East Tennessee is at the very
heart of the Atlantic States. It has been observed
that " Knoxville is the exact geographical center
of the eastern half of the United States : the cor-
ners of the eastern half being Eastport in Maine,
Key West in Florida, the mouth of the Rio Grande
in Texas, and a point in Lake Superior on the
northwest boundary (water or lake) line of Mich-
igan. The point is north of Isle Royal in the
lake. The opposite sides of the figure formed by
lines drawn from and to these corners are respect-
ively parallel and equal, and its diagonals intersect
at Knoxville. The more exact the map, the more
exactly is Knoxville found to be at the point of
intersection." *
* Hon. Henry R. Gibson.
The Loyal Mountaineers
of Tennessee.
chapter I.
Early History — The Frontier — Patriotic
Spirit — Call to Arms — March to Bat-
tle.
"Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain;
* *.* * * * * *
These constitute a State."
Sir William Jones.
THE hardy and brave settlers on the Watauga,
Holston and Nolachucky rivers, among lofty
mountains, dwelt in such peace as their savage
neighbors permitted, and in contentment with their
great distance from the busy world. Having
leased the territory from the Indians, they pro-
ceeded to organize the
FIRST REPUBLIC EVER FORMED IN AMERICA.
There was no established government of any
kind within their reach, whose protection they
3& THE LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS.
could enjoy while they owned its authority.
Therefore, under the pressure of a civil necessity,
they met in convention, entered into a written as-
sociation, prescribed laws and elected commission-
ers for the administration of justice and the con-
duct of public affairs. Their commonwealth ex-
isted for several years.
In 1774 the Shawnees and other Indian tribes
assailed the western frontier of Virginia. Lord
Dunmore, Governor of that State, called for vol-
unteers to resist the invasion, and of those enlisted
from southwestern counties of the colony, a regi-
ment under Col. Christian assembled at New River.
To it a company of more than fifty men from Sul-
livan and Carter counties (East Tennessee), com-
manded by Capt. Evan Shelby, joined themselves,
and with it went to Greenbrier, where Gen. Lewis,
commander in chief, assembled his forces. From
there the army marched with difficulty for twenty-
five days through the wilderness, along the rugged
banks of the Kanawha River, to Point Pleasant on
the Ohio. Two of Capt. Shelby's men were in-
strumental in preventing the Indians, before day
on the 10th of October, from surprising and prob-
ably overthrowing the army of Gen. Lewis. In
the hotly contested battle which immediately fol-
lowed, some of the same company dislodged a
body of the savages from an important vantage
ground, and thus ensured victory to the Americans.
The defeat of the Indians was so complete that
they were subdued into a peace which lasted for
two years. Judge Haywood, in commenting upon
PATRIOTIC SPIEIT. 39
the unexpected discovery of the enemy by men
from East Tennessee, to the salvation of the whole
army of the provincials, remarks : " Thus it has
happened that East Tennessee, in the earliest
stages of her infancy, has been called on to con-
tribute all in her power to the common defense,
and seems to have been made much less for her-
self than for the protection of her neighbors."
In the resistance made by the American Colonies
to the Government of Great Britain, these settlers
early expressed their sympathy. Important events
touching the welfare of a people may be remotely
separated in space while they are closely related
in time. On the fifth day of September, 1774,
when the army of Gen. Lewis at Greenbrier was
about starting on its hard march down the Ka-
nawha River, to win a victory that would compel
the Indians into peace, the first Continental Con-
gress met in Philadelphia, to deliberate for the lib-
erty and welfare of the American people. The
King of Great Britain rejected the offers of that
Congress. The British Parliament met in Novem-
ber, and again after the holidays. The twentieth
day of January was the first day of the session in
the House of Lords. On the very same day the
men of the settlements beyond the Alleghanies,
where the Watauga and the Holston flow to the
Tennessee, united with the men of the southwest-
ern corner of Virginia in council near Abingdon.
On hearing what Congress had done, they unani-
mously declared their adhesion to it. To the Vir-
ginia delegates in Congress they wrote :
4° THE LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS.
" We explored our uncultivated wilderness, bor-
dering on many nations of savages, and surrounded
by mountains almost inaccessible to any but these
savages. But even to these remote regions the
hand of power hath pursued us, to strip us of that
liberty and property with which God, nature and
the rights of humanity have vested us. We are
willing to contribute all in our power, if applied to
constitutionally, but cannot think of submitting our
liberty or property to a venal British Parliament or
a corrupt ministry. We are deliberately and res-
olutely determined never to surrender any of our
inestimable privileges to any power upon earth,
but at the expense of our lives. These are our
real though unpolished sentiments of liberty and
loyalty, and in them we are resolved to live and
die."
The War of the American Revolution began at
Lexington and Concord April 19, 1775 (on the an-
niversary of which day, eighty-six years afterwards,
was the fight at Baltimore). In describing the
swift travel of the war message from Massachu-
setts throughout the Colonies, the historian Ban-
croft represents it as overleaping bays and rivers
and the Dismal Swamp, passing through pines and
palmettoes, and transcending hills and mountains.
" The Blue Ridge took up the voice and made it
heard from one end to the other of the valley of
Virginia." And westward still : " The Allegha-
nies, as they listened, opened their barriers that the
1 loud call ' might pass through to the hardy rifle-
men on the Holston, the Watauga and the French
PATRIOTIC SPIRIT. 4 1
Broad," who, for some years after the beginning
of the war, knew that it was going on, but the
scenes of its battles were far removed from their
secluded homes. The echoes of their wooded
hills were now and then awakened by the notes of
the " spirit-stirring drum and ear-piercing fife," but
never by any martial sounds from conflicts with
arms in the American Revolution. Georgia, in
1 779, was brought into subjection to the King.
About a hundred patriots, led by Col. Clarke, had
fled to the mountaineers for refuge, and obtained
helpers in their conflict with the British, in order
to renew which, they returned home. Refugee
Whigs had also come from east of the Alleghanies
to the Washington District, into which North Car-
olina in 1777 organized the Watauga and adjacent
settlements. The accounts given by all these of
the persecutions and cruelties inflicted by the Brit-
ish and Tories, had moved the frontier men to
friendly sympathy with the sufferers, and to slum-
bering wrath against the oppressors, and they only
needed opportunity to actively join their brethren
in the struggle of the Colonies for independence.
The summer of 1780 had opened, and that oppor-
tunity was soon offered.
On the nth of May, Charleston was surrendered
by General Lincoln to Sir Henry Clinton. Shortly
afterwards the British power was so triumphantly
extended over South Carolina as to rally to its
support all timid, wavering and disaffected people.
North Carolina was in danger of being conquered.
Col. Ferguson, of the British army, was marching
42 THE LOYAL MOUNTAINEERS.
towards it and threatening it with invasion. Col.
Charles McDowell, temporarily chief commander
of the Whig forces in North Carolina, called on
Colonels John Sevier and Isaac Shelby, of Wash-
ington District, for help, "as soon as possible,"
against the invader. They promptly responded,
and in July, Sevier, with two hundred mounted
riflemen from Washington County, and Shelby,
with an equal number from Sullivan County,
joined McDowell's camp on Broad River, South
Carolina. They did good service in several con-
flicts with the enemy, in capturing the fort held
by Col. Moore on the Pacolet River and its garri-
son, and in winning the battle at Musgrove's Mill,
where more than two hundred British prisoners
were taken. Upon the heels of this victory came
news to McDowell of Gen. Gates' defeat at Cam-
den and Sumpter's disaster. This disheartened
the army; it was in a position of danger and
could only withdraw. So great indeed were its
apprehensions and sense of inability to hold its
own in the field, that it fairly dissolved. Shelby
and Sevier, with their regiments, returned at once
to their distant homes, yet ready of mind soon to
renew the warfare. Not long after, McDowell,
with a company of several hundred men, sought
refuge in the same hospitable region.
Meanwhile, Cornwallis, flushed with his victory
over Gates (August 16) at Camden, was eager for
other triumphs, and by his direction Ferguson and
his troops pressed their way up to the present
Rutherfordton, North Carolina. The result was to
CALL TO ARMS. 43
encourage the Tory inhabitants and rally them to his
support. Already, to his displeasure, the moun-
taineers had given him lessons of their prowess in