THE COLDWATER SETTLEMENT

When Colonel Donelson and his company drifted down the Tennessee River in 1780, they encountered hostile Indians at both ends of the

Muscle Shoals, and at the lower end five of their party were wounded. The Indian villages were on the south side of the river, and contained only a few crude huts inhabited by refractory people who refused to be governed by the laws and customs of their nation. They were first attracted to this locality by the prospect of plundering the hapless emigrants who might be stranded in descending the dangerous rapids of the shoals; and while they constituted a menace to the navigation of the Tennessee River, they were too far removed, and too insignificant in numbers to cause the slightest uneasiness on the Cumberland. For some years the pioneers did not give them a thought and it was only by accident that they discovered in them a dangerous enemy.

The year 1783 witnessed a rapid growth in the Cumberland settlements, and in the same year they were recognized by the State of North Carolina and erected into the County of Davidson, of which the Bluff, under the name of Nashville, became the capital. At the same time a trade was opened with the Muscle Shoals Indians by a party of French adventurers from the Wabash, and their settlement also began to assume an unwonted importance. They established a new town of considerable consequence, called Coldwater, some miles lower down the river, at the month of Coldwater Creek, that takes its rise in the bold stream that gushed from beneath a bluff of limestone, at the present Town of Tuscumbia, Ala. So well did they guard the secret of its existence that Coldwater was not discovered until 1787, though it mustered a force of fifty-four men, made up of thirty-five Cherokees, ten Creeks, and nine Frenchmen.

A5 long as Monsieur Veiz conducted the trade, the Indians did not Molest the Cumberland settlers, but in 1784 or 1785 the business fell

Being ignorant of the existence of the Coldwater town, Colonel Robertson attributed the sufferings of his people to the depredations of the Chickamaugas, and raised a body of men and marched nearly to their towns, but wishing to avoid open war with them, be contented himself with this demonstration, and returned. He left them, however, an offer of peace, in consequence of which they sent a commission, composed of the Little Owl and some other chiefs, to Nashville, under a flag of truce, to bold a conference with him. In the meantime hostilities continued as before. Several men were killed near Nashville while the conference was in session; one at Colonel Robertson's house, in the presence of the commissioners. Colonel Robertson thought the Chickamaugas were the guilty parties; the Chickamaugas charged the mischief to the Creeks; really it was the work of the Coldwater warriors, as we shall presently see. A number of people were also killed about the same time in Sumner County.

Sumner, the second county established in Middle Tennessee, was erected in 1786. Among its first magistrates was Maj. William Hall, a man of high character and wide influence, who immigrated to Cumberland in 1785, and settled at Bledsoe's Lick. He was at once accorded a leading part in the affairs of his community. When, therefore, the Chickamauga conference met, Colonel Robertson summoned Major Hall to Nashville to take part in its deliberations. A few weeks before the conference a party of Indians had stolen some horses from Morgan's Station, and were pursued and overtaken by the whites, who killed one of their number, and recovered all the stolen horses. As the Indians had stolen all of Major Hall's horses, twelve or fifteen in number the preceding year, it is probable that he took a lively interest in this affair. But. However that may be, on the third day of June, 1787, while he was absent attending the conference at Nashville, a party of fifteen Indians formed an ambuscade between his house and that of his neighbor, Gibson, about a quarter of a mile distant. Ten of them hid behind some logs on the roadside, and five in a treetop at the entrance of the pasture, some fifty yards beyond.

While they were thus secreted, Major Hall's two little boys, William and James, went up to the pasture for their horses. They passed the ten Indians unmolested. William was in advance, and as he turned to speak to his brother, he saw the Indians rise up behind them, with guns and tomahawks in their hands, and commence hemming them in. Their situation looked so hopeless to William that he thought only of surrender. But at this moment his brother James, who was in the rear, turned around facing the enemy, when two warriors sank their tomahawks into his brain. Seeing the fate that awaited him should he surrender, William instantly determined to make a race for his life. In dodging the ten Indians who were surrounding him, he ran upon the five who were concealed in tire treetop. He passed so close to them that some of them raised their tomahawks to strike him down. Escaping these, he dashed into the canebrake, closely pursued by two of their number.

He was an athletic backwoods boy of thirteen, and being unencumbered, was able to make better time through the dense cane than his pursuers, burdened as they were with their guns and tomahawks. Presently a grapevine caught him under the chin and threw him backwards to the ground but quickly recovering himself he dashed onward at the limit of his speed. He now approached the point of a ridge near his father's house where he would have to leave the canebrake. One of his pursuers was encircling the hillside. where the cane was thinnest, making for the same point. Fortunately for the boy a large tree had fallen across the Indian's way, crushing and tangling the cane until it became impenetrate. To this impediment William probably owed his life. Before his pursuers could circle the top of the fallen tree, he was safely in the lead, though they chased him to within 100 yards of his father's house. Half a dozen young men, with their sweethearts, had just arrived at Major Hall's when William returned. Being armed, they at once jumped off their horses, and ran with him to the scene of the tragedy. They found James' body and brought it to the house; the Indians had scalped him, and fled. Word was immediately carried to Bledsoe's Station, and Maj. Jams Lynn, with five men started in pursuit of the Indians. Instead of following their trail, which might have led him into an ambuscade, Major Lynn took a parallel trace that intersected their path at Goose Creek, at which point he discovered and fired upon the Indians, wounding two of their number, when they beat a precipitate retreat, leaving their knapsacks arid tomahawks behind. James Hall's scalp was found tied to a pack, and one of the tomahawks was still red with his blood. While these events were transpiring on the Cumberland, a couple of young Chickasaw warriors were out hunting on the Tennessee. In their peregrinations they unexpectedly came upon the Town of Coldwater, where they were received in a friendly manner, and spent the night While there they learned that the Coldwater Indians, encouraged by the French traders, who supplied them with arms and ammunition, were stealing horses and killing white people on the Cumberland at every opportunity. When they returned to the Chickasaw Bluffs, they informed Piomingo of their discoveries, and that friendly chief immediately dispatched them to Colonel Robertson at Nashville, and advised him to break up the Town of Coldwater without delay. Colonel Robertson was particularly incensed at the unfriendly conduct of the French traders, and on June 12, 1787, he and Colonel Bledsoe jointly wrote Governor Caswell, of North Carolina, expressing the wish that they might be removed from the Tennessee, and asking his advice in the matter.."

On the next day, the Indians killed Mark Robertson, the younger Brother of Colonel Robertson near the latter's home. This brought on the crisis. Without waiting for Governor Caswell,s reply, after taking the advice of the civil and military officers of the county, he determined to pursue the enemy to their own country anti destroy their town. For this purpose he raised a force of 130 men, under Cols. Robert Hays and James Ford, arid assuring the chief command, immediately took the trail of the Indians who had killed Mark Robertson. At the same time he sent fifty men, under command of Capt. David Hay, around by water to the mouth of Duck River, in order to prevent the French traders, who had instigated the Indian hostilities, from escaping down the river.

As there was no one of the settlers who had ever penetrated

through the forest as far south as the Tennessee River, Colonel Robertson employed the two Chickasaw messengers as guides. They followed a circuitous route, by the mouth of Harpeth, up Turnbull Creek to its head, down lick Creek, and on to Duck River at the Chickasaw trace. From Duck River they ascended Swan Creek to its head, and thence to Blue Water Creek, that empties into the TennesseeRiver about a mile and a half above the lower end of the Muscle Shoals. Leaving Blue Water Creek to their left, they hurried on until they could hear the roaring of the falls, when they halted and sent forward spies. About midnight the spies returned, reporting that the river was still ten miles away. In the morning the whole force moved forward, and reached the lower end of the shoals at 12 o'clock.

Though they concealed themselves in the woods until night, some Indians discovered and fired upon their back pickets, and alarmed a small Cherokee town across the river, which was immediately evacuated. Scouts were now sent down to the river to reconnoiter. Hid in the cane where they could observe the opposite shore, they saw some Indians cautiously approach the river, stooping and dodging from tree to tree, apparently looking for Colonel Robertson's troops. They then waded out to an island near the south bank, took an old canoe and paddled out to the middle of the stream. Seeing nothing suspicious; they appeared to be reassured, stopped their canoe, and leaping into the river, swam and disported themselves in the water; after which they took their canoe again, and returned as they had come. In the meantime Captain Rains was dispatched, with fifteen Then, on a well beaten path up the river, with orders to take an Indian alive if possible. About sunset he was recalled by Colonel Robertson, without having discovered any sign of Indian life.

The whole force was now assembled on the river bank, under orders to cross the stream before morning. The scouts who had watched in the cane during the afternoon, now swam the river, and after inspecting the Indian huts, which they found still deserted, they crossed over to the island where the Indians had left their canoe, and unfastening it rowed back to the north bank. Forty men now boarded the canoe and started across, but being old and leaky, it began to sink, and swimmers had to carry it back to the shore. By the use of lin bark they finally rendered her seaworthy, and made the crossing successfully. As soon as the canoe was landed, the remainder of the troops plunged into the river with their horses, and swam over; but the obstacles they had encountered delayed their passage until daylight.

After a short time spent in the Indian huts, they took a plain path leading in a western direction, and following it briskly for eighteen miles reached Coldwater Creek. The town was on the west side of the creek, about three hundred yards from the river. The Indians were expecting the invasion, and after three days counseling had unanimously agreed to fight Colonel Robertson if he crossed the Tennessee, but for some reason their spies had failed to discover his a approach. Although the path up the west bank of the creek was only wide enough to admit a single horseman, the troops crossed it at a charge. A detachment under Captain Rains had been sent down the east bank of the creek to cut off the enemy's retreat. When the troops appeared on the west bank of the creek, the Indians, taken completely by surprise, made a dash for their boats in the river at the mouth of the creek. To avoid their pursuers on the west, some of the Indians crossed over to the east side of the creek, where they received a deadly fire from Captain Rains' scouts. Many Indians were killed in their boats, and three Frenchmen and a Frenchwoman who gained the boats along with them, and refused to surrender, suffered the same fate. In all about twenty Indians were killed, and several others were wounded. Among the killed were six Creeks, one of them a chief of some consequence. The whites did not lose a man.

Colonel Robertson took the goods of the French traders, consisting of tafia, sugar, coffee, cloths, blankets, handkerchiefs, beads, paints, knives, tomahawks, tobacco, powder, and lead, and such like articles, and had them racked in three or four captured boats, which were put in charge of Jonathan Denton, Benjamin Drake, and John and Moses Eskridge. He then burned the town, and bivouacked on the east side of the creek. Next morning, after burying the white people who had been killed in the action, he gave each of the Chickasaw guides a horse and gun, and as many blankets and clothes as they could carry, and dismissed them, well pleased with their treatment. The prisoners, consisting of six Frenchmen, a child, and an Indian squaw, were put aboard the boats in which the goods were stored. The boats were now directed to proceed down the river to a suitable crossing place, and there await the troops. The next day the troops found a satisfactory crossing place, afterwards widely known as Colbert,s Ferry. With the assistance of the boats, they crossed the river without accident. Here the prisoners, after having their trunks and wearing apparel restored to them, and being furnished with a canoe, and given a portion of the sugar and coffee, were released, and took their departure up the river. The horsemen then moved northward until they reached the Chickasaw Trace, which they followed to Duck River. From that point they returned to Nashville by the same route by which they had gone out, the expedition having consumed nineteen days.

The boats proceeded down the river, and after a few days met five Frenchmen with two trading boats laden with goods. The French traders, Supposing they were meeting their returning countrymen, fired their guns in salutation. Before they could reload the Cumberland boatmen, having their guns charged and ready for action, pulled alongside them and captured boats and crews. After carrying their prisoners up the Cumberland River nearly to Nashville, they gave them their choice, either to continue on to the settlement and stand trial for what they had done, or to go home at once without their goods. They chose the latter, and taking a canoe returned down the river, leaving their boats and cargoes behind. The goods captured in the expedition were brought to Eaton's Station and sold, and the proceeds divided among the troops.

The detachment of fifty men sent around by the river did not fare so well. They proceeded without interruption to the month of Duck River, but their movements were observed by the Indians, who arranged a cunningly devised ambuscade, into which they were unfortunately drawn. When they reached the mouth of Duck River, they found a canoe fastened to its bank. Capt. Moses Shelby, commanding one of the boats, steered in to the shore to examine the canoe, when a large party of Indians arose from the thicket on the bank, and poured a destructive fire into his boat, killing Josiah Renfroe, and wounding John Topp, Hugh Rogan, Edward Hogan, and five others. This sudden and deadly fusillade threw the crew into confusion, and it was with difficulty they succeeded in putting out into the Tennessee River before the Indians could reload. After this serious disaster they returned to Nashville, in order that their wounded might receive proper medical and surgical attention.

Tennessee, the Volunteer State Moore and Foster, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1923