35 Battles, 35 Victories...

35 Battles - 35 Victories
His Indian War Cry:
"Here They Are Come On Boys, Come On"

John Sevier's monument and grave site
at the Old Knox County Courthouse,
Knoxville, Tennessee.
Author photo.

   To this day, John Sevier's relationship with the Native American tribes of the Overmountain region remains a remarkably complex topic clouded in hagiography and embellishment. As a well-known Indian fighter with "35 Battles and 35 Victories" to his credit, Sevier led a tenacious assault upon the Cherokees, rapidly moving from village to village destroying everything in sight. Sevier usually employed a small but well-trained army of frontiersmen to penetrate the contested Native American territory, destroying villages and supplies, and capturing or killing adversaries. At times these skirmishes devolved into bloody confrontations of hand-to-hand combat between white settlers who sought to defend their newly acquired land, and Native Americans who saw the white man's ever increasing encroachment on their territory as a threat.

   Sevier's relationship with these noble warriors, however, could never be characterized simply as a fight between adversaries. Sevier had a deeply complicated military and diplomatic relationship with the Cherokees and other Native American tribes of the region--a relationship that has eluded scholarly examination in most of the narratives of John Sevier's life.

   By most historical accounts--albeit from the white man's perspective--the Cherokees both feared and respected Sevier for his leadership, diplomacy and fighting prowess. As a diplomat on the frontier, Sevier engaged in many negotiations with the Cherokees in order to avoid bloodshed. In one particular letter written on July 28, 1781, Sevier wrote to the "Warriors and Chiefs, Friends and Brothers" of the Cherokee Nation and proclaimed:

   "I never hated you as a People, nor warred with you on that account. I fought with you, but it was for our own safety & not from any delight I had in hurting you. I am not afraid to fight with men, but I never hurt women & children, they are innocent human beings. It is true I took some of them prisoner, but it was only with a view to exchange for our People you have as prisoner. I have fed them well, kept them at my own home, and treated them as my own children; and you shall have them every one as soon as you bring in our People."

   In the same letter Sevier later expressed his feelings of adoration for the Cherokee Nation. "I am now pleased with you of your Nation," Sevier wrote. "I love for you. I shall always... You may believe me, I speak from my heart." However, as a soldier of the frontier and later as governor of Tennessee, Sevier never hesitated to bring "fire and sword" to the Cherokee people whenever he believed his fellow frontiersmen were under threat of imminent danger.

   In the last engagement of his military career, through his own account, Sevier cemented his reputation as an Indian fighter and frontier hero in the town of Etowah located in the present-day city of Rome, Georgia at the Battle of Hightower. In September of 1793, General Sevier and his 800 men descended on Etowah from Tennessee, in retaliation for an earlier attack by Cherokees who had scalped and killed thirteen people at Cavett's Station near Knoxville. Sevier and his men caught up to the Cherokees and their chief, King Fisher, at present day Myrtle Hill and a battle ensued. Sevier's men emerged victorious after Chief King Fisher died in battle when a minie ball pierced his chest, and soon afterward the Cherokee warriors retreated. Sevier pursued them to Etowah where he ultimately defeated the remaining Cherokees.

   In the only written account of this battle, in his official report to Tennessee's territorial governor, William Blount, on October 25, 1793, Sevier documented his troop movements through the mountains, rivers and valleys of the Hiwassee, Estanaula, and Coosa Rivers, his engagement with the Creek and Cherokee Indians, his destruction of villages and supplies, and his capture of Native American prisoners. On this last point, the General goes out of his way to suggest that he was benevolent toward his Native American adversaries:

   "Many women and children might have been taken, but from motives of humanity I did not encourage it to be done, and several taken were suffered to make their escape. Your Excellency knows the disposition of many that were out on this expedition, and can readily account for this conduct."

   Was John Sevier a benevolent adversary or brutal antagonist? The answer to that question remains unclear. In his diary entry of October 14, 1793, Sevier quotes the following order to his men:

   "It is ordered that from this time forward no person presume to set fire on any Indian hut or town in which there is corn or provision without there are orders from me to do the same. No firing of guns in or out of camp except leave from me or a field officer be first obtained, and as the officers of every rank are sensible of the baneful consequences of such unwarrantable conduct, it is earnestly requested that they will use their utmost exertion to prevent the same."

   Yet despite these orders, on October 20, 1793, Sevier warned the Cherokees with the following proclamation:

Camp Head of Amutekah Creek, 25 miles from Last Encampment, 20 Octo. 1793.

To the Cherokees and their Warriors, if they have any:

   Your murders and savage barbarities have caused me to come into your country expecting you would fight like men, but you are like the bears and wolves.
The face of a white man makes you run fast into the woods and hide. I pity your women and children, for I am sure they must suffer and live like dogs, but you are the cause of it. You will make war and then are afraid to fight. Our people whipped you mightily two nights ago crossing the river and made your people run very fast.

“John Sevier”

   As governor of the fledgling state of Tennessee, Sevier had to walk a more delicate line with his rhetoric, balancing his concern for the safety of his fellow citizens against the federal government's desire to limit their encroachments on Indian lands. In a letter dated July 20, 1796, Sevier wrote:

   "I shall always be desirous of preserving and supporting peace between the frontiers and our Indian neighbors, by restraining, as much as possible, the former from intrusion and encroachments of every kind; at the same time hope the latter will be suffered to pass off with impunity, and any violences and depredations they may unprovokedly and wantonly commit. It is a well known fact and shamefully obvious, that all the erratic tribes are accustomed and habituated to licentiousness; and educated to a vagrant, lawless, debauched and immoral life, and nothing but a sufficient conviction of being chastised will ever deter those itinerant nations from their common desperate and rapacious practices.

    It is to be lamented measures so harsh and cruel in the operation must inevitably be inflicted on any part of the human race; but in case of self preservation, and the enjoyment of tranquility, a nation is not only warranted to punish unjustifiable attacks; but may put the aggressors in such a condition as will prevent them in future from being guilty of like offenses."

   Later in his political career, as a member of Congress, Sevier's rhetoric toward the Indians became more forceful and direct as the United States prepared for war. In the moments leading up to the War of 1812, Sevier joined seventy-eight of his congressional colleagues and voted for a formal declaration of war against Great Britain. In a letter to Tennessee governor Willie Blount, Sevier expressed his contempt for the British and their Creek Indian allies. "Fire and sword must be carried into that country before those wretches will be reduced to reason or become peaceable neighbors," Sevier raged. He continued, "There can be no reliance or trust placed in them. No doubt British emissaries are among them."

Creek war scene with Indians defending their village against American soldiers. (Photo Credit: American Heritage Picture Collection). Scene also featured in Museum of the Cherokee Indian Exhibit.

   Several decades following his death, writers and antiquarians of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries attempted to place Sevier's Indian campaigns in a broader historical context, using the rhetoric of patriotism to cast Sevier in the role of savior of the Republic. Within the pages of history, scholars and storytellers amplified incidents of Indian depredations against white settlers with words laced with suspicion, fear and hatred. These chroniclers of early Tennessee history reenforced Sevier's justification of the use of force against the Cherokee population, no matter the costs. In their view, Native Americans existed as mere obstacles to Manifest Destiny.

   Efforts to document Sevier's battles with the Native Americans began in earnest in the aftermath of the Civil War at a time when the nation sought healing through the stories of heroism of our past. For example, in his 1889 book, History of Tennessee, James Phelan wrote:

   "If his mode of warfare was barbarous, he was waging war against barbarians, brave, cruel, relentless, and treacherous, without any of the things which civilization gave except its engines of destruction. Sevier was not the man to trifle with his task. Indian incursions could only be stopped by exterminating the Indians. Hence he tried to exterminate them. General Sheridan in the valley of Virginia was not more thorough. Every grain of corn was destroyed. Everything which could be used was burned, broken, or carried away. Every wigwam received the torch. Every boat was sunk. Nothing was spared except a few helpless human lives."

   In another example, Oliver Temple Perry's biographical sketch, John Sevier: Citizen, Soldier, Legislator, Governor, Statesman -- written in 1893 and eventually published in 1910 specifically to honor Sevier following the re-internment of his remains in 1889 -- equated Sevier's "35 Battles and 35 Victories" with the battles fought by the patriots of the Revolutionary War. He wrote:

   "The far-reaching importance of this Indian fighting has not been, and is not now, half appreciated. Few men ever think that when Sevier and Robertson, Boone and Logan were repelling Indian attacks, or invading the Indian country, they were doing anything more than protecting the white settlements. Whereas, in fact, they were unconsciously fighting the battles of the Revolution. The same great power which put in motion the armies of Clinton and Cornwallis, for the subjugation of the colonies along the Atlantic, and encircled them with a line of fire, also set in motion the fierce savage nations from Canada to Florida, bent on the destruction of all the infant settlements west of the Alleghenies and the Blue Ridge."

   History's chroniclers later carved John Sevier's legend into stone on the grand obelisk marking his final resting place on the grounds of the Old Knox County Courthouse in Knoxville, Tennessee. The words inscribed on that monument -- "35 Battles, 35 Victories" -- left little doubt how posterity chose to remember "Tennessee's First Hero."


 
Gordon Belt is an information professional, archives advocate, public historian, and author of The History Press book, John Sevier: Tennessee's First Hero, which examines the life of Tennessee's first governor, John Sevier, through the lens of history and memory. On The Posterity Project, Gordon offers reflections on archives, public history, and memory from his home state of Tennessee.

 


SELECTED SOURCES

---

George Magruder Battey, Jr., "Chapter II: John Sevier, John Floyd and the Indians," A History of Rome and Floyd County, State of Georgia, United States of America, Including Numerous Incidents of More Than Local Interest, 1540-1922. Volume I, Atlanta, GA: 1922, pages 22-25.

Carl S. Driver, John Sevier: Pioneer of the Old Southwest. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1932, pages 33-38.

Col. John Sevier, "Talk to the Cherokee warriors and chiefs," July 28, 1781, Tennessee Papers, Lyman C. Draper Manuscripts. Wisconsin Historical Society.

Samuel Gordon Heiskell, Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History, Tennessee: Ambrose Printing Co., Volume 1, Second Edition, 1920, Chapter 19, pages 328-330.

Oliver Temple Perry, John Sevier: Citizen, Soldier, Legislator, Governor, Statesman,, Knoxville, Tenn., The Zi-Po Press, Printers, 1910.

J.G.M. Ramsey. Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century. (Electronic ed.). Rockwood, TN: EagleRidge Technologies. (Original work published 1853).

Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West, Part IV. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1906, pages 217-219.

Samuel C. Williams, ed., "Executive Journal of Gov. John Sevier," East Tennessee Historical Society Publications, No. 1 (1929), 113.

Grace Steele Woodward. The Cherokees. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

Dueling personalities: Nolichucky Jack versus Old Hickory

Echoing E. E. Miller's observation about Tennessee's frontier roots, Carl S. Driver noted in his biography, John Sevier: Pioneer of the Old Southwest, that Tennessee has had "no real state hero since the pioneer days. The list began with John Sevier and ended with Andrew Jackson."

Miniature portrait of John Sevier by James Willson Peale.
Image courtesy of the Tennessee Portrait Project
National Colonial Dames of America in Tennessee

Indeed, the Volunteer State has had no larger political figures in its history than "Nolichucky Jack" (Sevier) and "Old Hickory" (Jackson). The interaction between these two men has been the subject of considerable inquiry by historians. What I find particularly fascinating is how John Sevier was portrayed in the press of the day, and much later by his biographers, following their famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) duel on October 16, 1803.

The personal rivalry between John Sevier and Andrew Jackson began in 1796 when Jackson offered himself as a candidate for major general of the state militia. Governor Sevier, however, favored another person, George Conway, and helped to secure Conway's election to that post. Jackson became infuriated, but Sevier brushed the young upstart politician aside, claiming that he cared little about the charges of a "poor pitiful petty fogging Lawyer."

The feud between Sevier and Jackson escalated after Sevier himself was denied the same position in the state militia by then-Governor Archibald Roane in favor of Andrew Jackson. Sevier used the political defeat as motivation to earn a second term as governor, but during the election, Sevier was greeted with charges of bribery and scandal. Andrew Jackson produced documents claiming Sevier had engaged in a massive land fraud, asserting that Sevier conspired to destroy original records of land ownership, replacing them with forged claims. He further alleged that Sevier resorted to bribery to keep the replacement quiet.

Despite these claims, Sevier was successful in his campaign for governor, but he was still chafing under the humiliation of Jackson’s accusation. So when the two men encountered one another on the courthouse steps in Knoxville, Tennessee on October 1, 1803, a confrontation was inevitable.

H.W. Brands writes a vivid account of this courthouse confrontation in his book, Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times:

"One day they met outside the courthouse and exchanged words. Their voices rose as their emotions engaged, and onlookers gathered around. After heated words, Sevier apparently challenged Jackson to draw arms. But since Jackson carried only a cane, against Sevier's sword, he declined. The hot language continued. Evidently Sevier alluded to Jackson's lack of military experience before becoming major general, for Jackson defended his services to the state and the nation." "'Services?'" Sevier riposted. 'I know of no great service you rendered the country, except taking a trip to Natchez with another man's wife.'"

With that insult, John Sevier crossed a line from which he could not retreat. Stunned silence filled the air, but soon afterward "Old Hickory" came to the defense of his wife's honor. "Great God! Do you mention her sacred name?" said Jackson, who then lunged at Sevier. The crowd quickly separated the two men but this was only the beginning of their confrontation. The next day Andrew Jackson launched into a written tirade against the Governor and challenged him to a duel:

"The ungentlemanly expressions and gasconading conduct of yours relative to me on yesterday was in true character of yourself, and unmasks you to the world, and plainly shows that they were the ebullitions of a base mind goaded with stubborn proofs of fraud and flowing from a source devoid of every refined sentiment or delicate sensation... The voice of the people has made you a governor. This alone makes you worthy of my notice or the notice of any gentleman. To the office I bear respect... As such I only deign to notice you, and call upon you for that satisfaction and explanation that your ungentlemanly conduct and expressions require. For this purpose I request an interview (duel)... My friend who will hand you this will point out the time and place when and where I shall expect to see you with your friend and no other person. My friend and myself will be armed with pistols. You cannot mistake me or my meaning."

Sevier responded in kind to Jackson's challenge in a letter of his own filled with words of equal vitriol, matching almost word-for-word Jackson's own letter in a mocking rebuke:

"Your ungentlemanly and gasconading conduct of yesterday, and indeed at all other times heretofore, have unmasked yourself to me and to the world. The voice of the Assembly has made you a judge, and this alone has made you worthy of my notice or any other gentleman's. To the office I have respect... I shall wait on you with pleasure at any time and place not within the State of Tennessee, attended by my friend with pistols, presuming you know nothing about the use of any other arms. Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina are all within our vicinity... You cannot mistake me and my meaning."

The stage was set and a duel was imminent. Andrew Jackson agreed to meet John Sevier saying, "If it will obviate your squeemish fears, I will set out immediately to the nearest part of the Indian boundary line... you must meet me between this and four o'clock this afternoon, or I will publish you as a coward and poltroon." The two men traded barbs in several letters over the next few days, but finally on October 16, 1803 Sevier and Jackson crossed paths as Sevier was making his way to a conference with the Cherokee Indians.

Portrait of Andrew Jackson by Charles Willson Peale, 1819.
Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

The chaotic events of that day were blurred by loyalties to both parties, and chronicled by partisan newspapers representing both sides of the dispute -- a tradition going back to the founding of our nation. An affidavit signed by a witness favoring Jackson reported that after Sevier refused to accept a note from Jackson he dismounted his horse and drew his pistols. Jackson then did the same, and soon after Sevier took refuge behind a tree. According to the witness, Jackson remarked that, as both were armed, Sevier should come out from behind his protection and fire. "After some time," the witness concluded, "I prevailed General Jackson to desist, finding that General Sevier would not defend himself."

News accounts favoring Jackson portrayed John Sevier's actions as that of a "rogue" and a "coward." Sevier's partisans, however, saw no weakness in their Governor. The Tennessee Gazette of November 25, 1803, defended Gov. Sevier against charges of cowardice in an anonymous article written by a "Citizen of Knox County":

"The Judge has published the Governor a coward, and for what reason? Why, because he says so himself and that the Governor would not turn out Don Quixote like, to fight a duel at the seat of government, and in the face of the General Assembly, and for doing of which was sure to have been fined, imprisoned sixty days without bail or mainprize and deprived of his citizenship for twelve months, which would have been gratification to the judge and his party, immeasurably indeed. Now, let us ask, how many hundreds of respectable characters are in this and several other states, who have been eye witnesses of the Governor's courage; where he displayed as much as was necessary to be found in the most experienced veteran? Who is it that have fought the battles of this country, and drove from its borders its numerous and desperate enemies? Who are the people beholden to for the settlement of the same? Is he not the man, whose exertions have taken from the numerous hords the savage wilds and placed thereon a rising, growing and respectable republic...? Strange indeed that after so many battles and engagements the governor has encountered that such a thing as cowardice should be imputed to him!!!"

"...he (Jackson) met the Governor on the great road, armed with great rifle pistols in his hands, swearing by his maker that he had come on purpose to kill him, and that he would do it, why did not the judge fire...? I answered that at a time when the governor's horse had run off with his pistols in the holsters and was left without arms to return the fire, and of course the heroic judge had nothing to fear!"

Many years later Sevier's biographers would put no less of a partisan spin on these events. In 1898, James R. Gilmore published his book, John Sevier as a Commonwealth-Builder. In his account of the duel, Gilmore writes:

"Both were mounted, and Sevier was surrounded by about twenty horsemen. Jackson was much more thinly attended, and armed only with a cane and a brace of pistols; but, putting his cane in rest, like the lance of a plumed knight, he charged down upon Sevier most furiously. The latter dismounted to meet the assault; but a collision was prevented by the attending gentlemen, who soon pacified Jackson, and induced him to give his hand to the Governor."

Gilmore's account of the scene does not mention whether or not Sevier hid behind a tree to avoid Jackson's onslaught, and seems to go out of the way to portray Sevier as a gentleman and a peacemaker.

Another Sevier biographer, Francis M. Turner, goes even farther to defend John Sevier. In 1910, Turner published Life of General John Sevier containing prose rife with respect and admiration for his subject. Read how Turner approached the subject of the duel, downplaying Sevier's insult toward Rachel Jackson, and elevating Sevier's temperament to that of a statesman:

"Although Sevier was elected by the popular vote, there were those who, jealous of his popularity, tried to destroy his political favor by circulating false reports about him. They accused him of speculation in land-warrants and even of forgery... Sevier's popularity seems not to have been affected by these efforts to injure his reputation. But his indignation was aroused against Andrew Jackson, whom he had appointed Judge of the Superior Court. Jackson was of a very different temper from Sevier. Sevier's temper was fiery, but he was ever ready and eager to atone for any wrong he had done, while, on the other hand, Jackson rarely forgave an enemy."

"Jackson was so bold in his attacks upon Sevier's character that the old Governor became deeply angered and used some abusive language in his speeches about Jackson. Not long after the State election, Sevier and Jackson met on the public square in Knoxville, where Jackson was holding court. A quarrel ensued and Sevier accused Jackson of having been the prime-mover of the attacks upon his reputation, and further made a reference to an incident in Jackson's domestic life, upon which point Jackson was very sensitive. Jackson tried to attack Sevier on the spot, but was restrained through the intervention of his friends. The next day Jackson challenged Sevier to fight a duel."

Turner goes on to describe the dueling tradition and the correspondence between Jackson and Sevier leading up to their confrontation, but then downplays the whole event. Reading this, one might have the distinct impression that John Sevier charmed Andrew Jackson into submission:

"It seemed that a duel was inevitable; but, through negotiations of friends on both sides, matters were finally adjusted, and the two heroes were induced to join hands in friendship."

In 1932 another Sevier biographer, Carl S. Driver, provided a more scholarly approach to his subject, but still left room for admiration. In John Sevier: Pioneer of the Old Southwest, Driver stated that Sevier had "cleverly sidestepped his opponent and left Jackson with an injured reputation" immediately following their encounter. It is interesting to note that while Gilmore and Turner seemed to have glossed over Sevier's feud with Jackson, Driver acknowledged that Sevier "could not forget what he considered an unprovoked attack upon his reputation and popularity" which, according to Sevier's own diary, disturbed his thoughts and haunted his dreams:

"Curious dream. I dreamed my Father came descending in the air in what appeared at first like a cloud... I asked him if there was any news where he had been he answered that nothing existed there but the utmost peace and friendship, that he had heard much conversation respecting the Quarrel between Judge Jackson & myself, I then asked him if it was possible that affair had reached so far? He then replied that long before he had arrived the news was there and also every other transaction that had taken place in Tennessee -- I then asked him what was said? He told me that Jackson was viewed by all as a very wicked base man, and a very improper person for a judge, and said I have it in charge to intimate you either by dream or some other mode, that you have nothing to fear provided you act a prudent part for they are all your friends -- on his saying by a dream I began to think I was dreaming & immediately awaked."

So, was John Sevier a coward who trembled at the mere thought of "Old Hickory," or was he a fearless statesman and gentleman who saw Jackson as a temperamental political opportunist? Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between.


SELECTED SOURCES:

• Paul H. Bergeron, Stephen V. Ash, and Jeanette Kieth, Tennesseans and Their History. University of Tennessee Press, 1999.

• H.W. Brands, Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times. New York: Doubleday, 2005.

• Carl S. Driver, John Sevier: Pioneer of the Old Southwest. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1932.

• John R. Finger, Tennessee Frontiers: Three Regions in Transition. Indiana University Press, 2001.

• James R. Gilmore, John Sevier as a Commonwealth-Builder; A sequel to The Rear-Guard of the Revolution, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1898.

• Harriet Chappell Owsley, “The Marriages of Rachel Donelson,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly Winter 1977, Vol. xxxvi no. 4, pp. 490-91. See also: James Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, New York, 1860, I, p. 164.

• Robert V. Remini, The Life of Andrew Jackson (abridgement), Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1988.

• Francis M. Turner, Life of General John Sevier, The Neale Publishing Company, 1910.

 

Gordon Belt is an information professional, archives advocate, public historian, and author of The History Press book, John Sevier: Tennessee's First Hero, which examines the life of Tennessee's first governor, John Sevier, through the lens of history and memory. On The Posterity Project, Gordon offers reflections on archives, public history, and memory from his home state of Tennessee.