[patriotic fife and drum music] [mortar fire booming] ♪ [musket fire popping] ♪ [mortar fire booming] ♪ [mortar fire booming] ♪ Dr.

Lumpkin> The old frontier of the South, the 18th-century frontier, lay along of the edge here of the great Indian lands, the lands of the five important warrior tribes... the Cherokee, the Creeks, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws- a smaller tribe but a very warlike one- and further to the South, the Seminoles.

Now, these were not wandering, nomadic peoples.

They were a settled folk with rather a complicated system of tribal government.

By the time of which we're speaking, in the middle 18th century, most of their warriors were musket-armed.

Now, it's an interesting fact that all of these tribes- with the exception of Catawba here in South Carolina, who served with the Americans against the British and Loyalists- all of these five great warrior tribes sided either actively or passively with the British.

The Cherokees actually took the warpath with some 3 to 5,000 warriors.

They took the warpath, and if they had been able to coordinate their movements properly - this is a matter of communications- with the British fleet and army moving in on Charleston in 1776, it is quite possible that the story of the war in the South might have been different.

Also, if the British agents had been able to raise the warriors of the Creeks, the Choctaws, the Chickasaw, and the Seminole to cooperate with the Cherokes and thus put in the field some 15, possibly 20,000 fighting men, that, too, could have had a very serious effect.

As it was, in the '76 campaign of which we are speaking, the Cherokee Campaign, the Cherokee power was successfully broken.

The Cherokees made peace, a peace which gave up much of their land, although small numbers of Cherokees, the so-called Chickamauga band, retreated to the westward and continued to fight on the side of the British against the white settlements, on the side of the Americans.

It's Andrew Pickens who later on, in 1782, finally carries out a climactic campaign against these same Cherokees.

Now let us go to the Cherokee land itself.

♪ ♪ Standing, looking over Whiterwater Falls, one of the loveliest spots in the Carolinas, with the swell of your Appalachian Mountains over here to the left and down in the valley, the Ring Fight, not too many miles away, near Tamassee, where Andrew Pickens, forming his riflemen in a circle, fought off a Cherokee attack during this campaign.

This is the Cherokee country all around us, right here.

In the same summer of 1776 that the British directed the first and unsuccessful attack on Charleston, South Carolina, the entire frontier blazed up in savage warfare.

Fortunately for the Americans, only the powerful Cherokee Nation took the warpath.

The equally strong Creeks and Choctaws, lying further westward, generally maintained an uneasy neutrality.

A Cherokee war was bad enough.

The tribe at that time, here in this area, probably numbered about 15,000, with a fighting potential of some 3 to 5,000 warriors armed with musket, hatchet, and knife.

They made formidable and merciless opponents.

The white settlers of the backcountry, trained in this grim school, were to introduce in the civil war against each other and against the British a concept of war to the death, a total departure from the stylized, limited war of 18th-century Europe.

Now, the royal superintendent of Indian affairs for the whole Southern District at this time was a Scot, a Captain John Stuart.

His area covered the frontiers of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, with all the tribes and subtribes dwelling therein.

He was trusted completely by the Indians, had great influence among them, and was a most loyal subject of his king.

Realizing that events in the Carolinas and Georgia were moving toward a crisis, John Stuart, in June of 1775, abandoned his house in Charleston and went south to Florida, leaving his wife and his daughter, a Mrs.

Fenwick, behind.

John Stuart in Florida communicated with the Cherokees in upper South Carolina, Georgia, and in the area now East Tennessee.

He also wrote to the British commandant, General Thomas Gage, in Boston, to coordinate possible operations.

John Stuart used Alexander Cameron, another Scot and his agent to the Cherokees, and his brother, his own brother, Henry Stuart, to work among the Indians here in these mountains and in the foothills.

The dedicated South Carolina Loyalist, Moses Kirkland was employed as his emissary to Gage in Boston.

John Stuart reported to Thomas Gage on October 3, 1775, that a large majority of the frontier and backcountry White settlers were generally loyal to the royal cause.

He... also, he personally, also was opposed to indiscriminate attack by the Indians but would try to dispose of these Indians to join in executing any concerted plan and to act with and assist their well-disposed neighbors.

It should be brought out here that the intelligent and benevolent attitude of the royal government to the Indians kept the great fighting tribes, North and South, on the British side during the Revolution.

With the exception of the Catawbas in the South and some minor groups in the North, the Indians either maintained a neutrality or served actively with the British.

This is both a commentary on British Indian policy and American frontier attitudes to their red neighbors.

The letter sent by John Stuart to General Thomas Gage fell into American hands when the vessel on which his agent Moses Kirkland had sailed was captured by an American privateer.

Learning on July 1, 1776, two days after the repulse of Admiral Sir Peter Parker at Sullivan's Island, that the British fleet and army had arrived, the Cherokee struck, killing and burning.

On that day, one of Captain Aaron Smith's sons arrived at the plantation house of Francis Salvador on Corn Acre Creek in the Ninety Six District.

Young Smith, with two of his fingers shot away, told how his father's house on Little River had been attacked by the Cherokees.

His father, mother, five younger children, and five Black slaves all had been butchered.

Francis Salvador, a 29-year-old English Jew who'd taken up 7,000 acres near Ninety Six, already had established himself as a person of consequence in the backcountry, an active member of the Provincial Congress and in the defense affairs of his district.

He promptly mounted and rode to Major Andrew Williamson's house, 28 miles away, to raise the area against the attack.

Other families were killed in the same attack, among them, the Anthony Hampton's, who had settled on the Tyger River in what would become Spartanburg County.

Anthony Hampton had removed from Virginia to South Carolina during the previous decade.

Three of his sons, Edward, Henry, and Richard, who, with their brothers John and Wade, were destined to distinguish themselves as leaders in the Revolutionary War, had come to the Cherokee to try and keep the peace.

Alexander Cameron's agents had gathered there before them.

In the absence of the young men, the Cherokees attacked the Hampton farm.

They killed Anthony Hampton.

They killed his wife, his son Preston, and an infant grandson, the child of his daughter, Mrs.

James Harrison.

The Indians also burned the house and outbuildings.

Mrs.

Harrison, who, with her daughter, was visiting a neighbor, her husband, James Harrison, and the five Hampton sons already mentioned were the sole survivors of that family.

The Indian rising terrified the backcountry from Georgia to Virginia since they already knew from terrible experience what it could and probably would be.

Frankly, there's been a lot of false sentiment wasted on the poor redskin.

Indian warfare was ultimately brutal, complete with surprise attack on unsuspecting settlements where the White and Black inhabitants were murdered, tortured, and mutilated without regard to age or sex.

The White population reacted in kind against the Indians, who were considered, unhappily, less than human... a strange and grim battle school, a battle training for the Americans destined to fight in the Revolution.

To add to the danger of the attack by some 3,000 warriors, most of the best muskets and rifles in the backcountry had been sold to provide weapons for the militia called up or the ranger regiments raised to meet the crisis with Great Britain on the coast.

Panic-stricken settlers and their families fled the frontier areas, leaving the land desolate and desolated.

Major Andrew Williamson, to whom Francis Salvador had brought the first word, could only raise 40 men in two days.

Moving his little force- now increased as they marched, to 222- about four miles from the Cherokee line, he camped at DeWitt's Corner, now Due West, South Carolina.

On July the 16th, having collected 450 men, he and Andrew Pickens advanced to Baker's Creek in what is now Abbeville County.

The settlers living along the Saluda had gathered with their families for protection in an old fort called Lindley's near Rabon Creek.

But on July 15th, they were attacked by 88 Cherokee warriors and over 100 White men, Loyalists dressed and painted like Indians.

Reinforcements fortunately had arrived, 150 men, the evening before.

And the fort beat off the attack, and making a sally, pursued the attackers.

Nine White men were captured and sent to Ninety Six, where they were imprisoned.

The word of this small victory heartened the frontier.

The news of the British repulse at Charleston on June 28th, which finally reached the backcountry settlements after the battle at Lindley's Fort, also persuaded many doubters, and men now joined Williamson and Andrew Pickens' little army.

Reinforced by Colonel Jack's Georgia militia, the whole force now numbered about 1,150 militiamen.

Having learned that the Cherokee agent, Alexander Cameron, had arrived in South Carolina from the Overhill Cherokee towns with 13 White men and was camped about 30 miles away on Oconee Creek, Williamson decided to attack and capture Cameron.

In spite of the fact that the South Carolinians were operating deep in Indian country, Andrew Williamson... oddly seems to have had very little knowledge of Indian warfare.

He continued to sound morning and evening formations in proper militia style in spite of Andrew Pickens' warning that this would successfully betray their presence to the ever-alert savages.

About six o'clock on the evening of July 31, 1776, Andrew Williamson with 330 men- on horseback- marched against Alexander Cameron.

He was guided by two prisoners who were threatened with instant death if they gave warning in any way of the column's approach.

The Keowee River ran between the two forces, and Andrew Williamson was forced to use the Esseneca Ford, the only crossing place on that stretch of the stream.

He also proceeded against Indians without adequate scouts in advance or flank guards and without full knowledge of the force opposing him.

About two in the morning, about two in the morning, Andrew Williamson and his men were ambushed by Alexander Cameron... and over 1,200 Cherokee warriors.

Andrew Williamson's force, completely surprised, broke and ran.

But tragically, Francis Salvador was shot down and, I'm sorry to say, scalped while still alive by the pursuing Cherokees.

In the confusion, a Captain Smith, the son of the man whose murder, with his family, began the Cherokee War, saw the scalping take place.

He thought it was Francis Salvador's servants helping him and did not ride to his aid.

Francis Salvador died later of his wounds and injuries, an early casualty in the War of Independence and certainly one of the first, if not the first, Jew to die valiantly and gallantly in the service of his new country.

Fortunately, Lieutenant Colonel Hammond with some 20 men charged the Indians, thus covering the retreat for the rest of the militia.

Andrew Pickens, commanding a support force, came up just before daylight and poured a hot fire on the Indians from a low ridge overlooking the area.

The Indians withdrew at sunrise with one dead warrior and three wounded.

Andrew Williamson lost three dead and 14 very seriously wounded men.

That morning Andrew Williamson and Andrew Pickens advanced and burned Esseneca town- Esseneca town on the east bank of the river- while Colonel Hammond crossed and burned the town on the west bank, destroying some 6,000 bushels of corn in the process.

Having failed to capture Alexander Cameron and suffering at least a partial defeat in the ambush, Andrew Williamson fell back to his camp on Twenty-Three Mile Creek and began preparations for a major attack on the Cherokee Nation.

Here a detachment of Colonel Thomas Neal's and Colonel John Thomas's regiments of militia joined him.

This was on August 2, 1776.

The completely ruthless campaign was begun to break the power of the Cherokees.

A strong force was sent out on August 4th which totally destroyed the Lower Cherokee towns of Sugar Town, Soconee, and Keowee.

Four days later, on August the 8th, 640 men razed the Cherokee towns at Estatoe and Tugaloo.

Andrew Williamson then marched into what is now Pickens County and pitched his camp on Little River.

It was from here on August 12th that Andrew Pickens, with 25 chosen men and a half-breed scout named Cornell, was sent out on a scouting mission and fought his famous Ring Fight about 20 miles right down here in the valley near Tomassy.

A scouting party had not proceeded more than two miles from their camp, when crossing an old Indian cornfield grown up in tall grass, they were surprised and surrounded by about 185 warriors.

Andrew Pickens ordered his men to form a countercircle and fire in relays... two men firing and crouching in the grass to reload, the next two firing and crouching.

The Indians tried to rush the ring.

And a few broke through to be killed in bloody, hand-to-hand combat.

The rest, unable to face the steady-aimed fire, finally dispersed when Joseph Pickens, Andrew's brother, heard the gunfire and came to the rescue with a volunteer force from the camp.

Andrew Williamson advanced with his full force, also on August 12th, and attacking a large war party, defeated it with a loss of only 6 killed and 17 wounded.

The Indians left 16 dead behind when they retreated.

It was during this expedition that Williamson and his men destroyed the towns of Tomassy... and Eustash.

All dried corn and peas- Indians' food for the winter- also were burned throughout the Lower and Middle Cherokee settlements, the tribe now being forced to live on roots and berries, wild fruit, and whatever game they could kill in a devastated countryside.

After these operations, Andrew Williamson and Andrew Pickens fell back to the main camp on Twenty-Three Mile Creek, where they found to their consternation that some of the militia, as was their unfortunate habit, had gone home!

Most of those who remained, fatigued by long service and lacking necessary clothing, now were given furloughs.

Orders were issued that all men should return on August 28th and rendezvous at Esseneca.

Andrew Williamson then marched back to that ruined town with his remaining 600 men, where he built a fort and called it Fort Rutledge in honor of the state's president.

When the war with the Cherokees first broke, the South Carolina government had requested North Carolina and Virginia to carry out cooperative operations against the Indians.

Each of these states had agreed and raised forces to aid in this campaign.

The North Carolinians, under General Rutherford, were to act in conjunction with the South Carolinians, east of the mountains, against the Lower and Middle settlements of the Cherokees.

The Virginia force, under a Colonel Christie, were to march west of the mountains, against the Overhill Cherokees.

It must be stated, however, that Williamson already had destroyed many of the Lower and Middle towns before Brigadier General Griffith Rutherford and his army ever took the field.

On September 13th, Andrew Williamson, leaving some 300 men behind to guard Fort Rutledge at Esseneca, now Seneca, South Carolina, marched with 2,000 men to coordinate the operations with General Griffith Rutherford and his North Carolinians, guided by Catawba Indian scouts.

A Siouan tribe from the York District would serve with great distinction on the American side throughout the Revolution.

The South Carolinians now pushed through Rabun Gap and marched down the headwaters of the Tennessee River.

The army reached Coweechee on September 17th, where it hoped to rendezvous with Griffith Rutherford.

The North Carolinians were not there, so Andrew Williamson pushed on... and was very terribly ambushed in the Black Hole on the Coweecho River, about nine miles south of what is now Franklin, North Carolina.

Fairies, whose diary is one of our best sources, again describes this bloody, little battle where Andrew Williamson and Andrew Pickens might have been disastrously defeated if Lieutenant Edward Hampton, one of the famous brothers, had not arrived with support forces and driven the Indians out of the narrow, dark pass.

The army then pushed on deeper into Indian territory and finally met Griffith Rutherford at Hiwassee.

The combined force- North Carolina, South Carolina- now proceeded to destroy all the valley towns until the Cherokees, in early October, abjectly sued for peace.

Attacked from the east by the South Carolinians, from the south by Colonel Jack and his Georgians, and from the north and east by North Carolinians and Virginians, the Cherokee were very thoroughly broken indeed.

The South Carolinians lost some 90 men, and the other states' losses were equally light.

It was estimated, estimated- we don't really know- that the Cherokee dead numbered 2,000, although this may, and probably does, include dead of all ages and both sexes.

However, a large proportion of Cherokee fighting manpower was eliminated from the war.

A conference took place on May 2, 1777, where Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina representatives were present, and a treaty of pacification with the Cherokees was signed.

By this, the Cherokees ceded a large portion of their lands in upper South Carolina, including the present counties of Anderson, Pickens, Oconee, and Greenville.

They retained only a small strip along the Chattooga River, though some Cherokees, led by the war chief Dragging Canoe, refused to sign the peace treaty and went down the Tennessee River to Chickamauga Creek.

They swore to support the British agent Cameron and remained at war with the Americans and were joined later there by disaffected Creeks, Shawnees, and even a few White Loyalists.

From the new Chickamauga settlements, raids continued on the Southern frontier during the later years of the war, so Indian warfare in the Southern theater was to go on throughout the Revolution.

♪ ♪ As we have said... the militia of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia savagely punished the Cherokees... 2,000 dead.

This Cherokee War, however, was to have a by-product which the British did not realize at the time would take place.

The fact that the British, in the minds of the Southern frontiersmen... had instigated and supported an Indian war on the frontiers of the South, that most dreadful of occurrences... ♪ was to prejudice completely... hundreds, probably thousands, of American frontiersmen against the British.

This was a serious, a very serious... tactical and strategic error on the part of the British high command.

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