On Monday, the twenty-fifth of September
[1780], at the place of rendezvous,
at the Sycamore Flats or Shoals, at the foot of the Yellow Mountain, on the
Watauga, about three miles below the present village of Elizabethtown, Colonel
[William] Campbell's two hundred men assembled,
together with Colonel [Isaac] Shelby's
and Lieutenant-Colonel [John] Sevier's
regiments of two hundred and forty men each. There [Charles] McDowell's
party had been for some time in camp; but Colonel McDowell himself, as soon as
the expedition had been resolved on, hurried with the glad news over the
mountains, to encourage the people, obtain intelligence of [Patrick] Ferguson's movements, and hasten the march
of Colonel [Benjamin] Cleveland and the gallant men of Wilkes and Surry. While yet in
camp, all hearts were gladdened by the unexpected arrival of Colonel Arthur
Campbell, with two hundred more men from his County, fearing the assembled
force might not be sufficient for the important service they had undertaken;
and uniting these new recruits with the others, this patriotic officer immediately
returned home to anxiously watch the frontiers of Holston, now so largely
stripped of their natural defenders.
Mostly armed with the Deckard rifle, in
the use of which they were expert alike against Indians and beasts of the
forest, they regarded themselves the equals of Ferguson and his practiced
riflemen and musketeers. They were little encumbered with baggage — each with a
blanket, a cup by his side, with which to quench his thirst from the mountain
streams, and a wallet of provisions, the latter principally of parched corn
meal, mixed, as it generally was, with maple sugar, making a very agreeable
repast, and withal full of nourishment. An occasional skillet was taken along
for a mess, in which to warm up in water their parched meal, and cook such wild
or other meat as fortune should throw in their way. The horses, of course, had
to pick their living, and were hoppled out, of nights, to keep them from
straying away. A few beeves were driven along the rear for subsistence, but
impeding the rapidity of the march, they were abandoned after the first day's
journey.
Early on the twenty-sixth of September,
the little army was ready to take up its line of march over mountains and
through forests, and the Rev. Samuel Doak, the pioneer clergyman of the Watauga
settlements, being present, invoked, before their departure, the Divine
protection and guidance, accompanied with a few stirring remarks befitting the
occasion, closing with the Bible quotation, "The sword of the Lord and of
Gideon;" when the sturdy, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians around him, clothed
in their tidy hunting-shirts, and leaning upon their rifles in an attitude of
respectful attention, shouted in patriotic acclaim: "The sword of the Lord
and of our Gideons !" 1
I know that the
reenacting community has mentioned the use of the parched corn/maple sugar
foodstuff but this is the first time I’ve seen it mentioned in a book, so I was
pleased to see that. I also found the
picture of the men dressed in their hunting shirts and rifles standing around
the Presbyterian preacher who prayed for their Divine protection as a welcome
departure from some of the prevailing beliefs that all backwoods people were
degenerate pagans. Were all men who
lived in the more primitive conditions along the frontier completely debauched,
immoral people? Perhaps some might have been, but it
is not likely there were many. If we
desire to portray to the public a fair representation of these men, it is not
enough that we dress (insofar as we may) like them; we must also act like them. Rough dress does not necessarily equal rough
lives and so we ought to honor the memory of these “heroes” by giving an honest
portrayal of their lives.
Christ, not man, is King!
Dale
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