The Governor appointed justices
of the peace and militia officers who in the following year
organized the new county and its courts. And so Watauga's
independent government, begun in the spirit of true liberty, came
as lawfully to its end.
But for nearly three years before their political status was thus
determined, the Wataugans were sharing "in the glorious cause of
Liberty" by defending their settlements against Indian attacks.
While the majority of the young Cherokee warriors were among
their enemies, their chief battles were fought with those from
the Chickamaugan towns on the Tennessee River, under the
leadership of Dragging Canoe. The Chickamaugans embraced the more
vicious and bloodthirsty Cherokees, with a mixture of Creeks and
bad whites, who, driven from every law-abiding community, had
cast in their lot with this tribe. The exact number of white
thieves and murderers who had found harbor in the Indian towns
during a score or more of years is not known; but the letters of
the Indian agents, preserved in the records, would indicate that
there were a good many of them. They were fit allies for Dragging
Canoe; their hatred of those from whom their own degeneracy had
separated them was not less than his.
In July, 1776, John Sevier wrote to the Virginia Committee as
follows:
"Dear Gentlemen: Isaac Thomas, William Falling, Jaret Williams
and one more have this moment come in by making their escape from
the Indians and say six hundred Indians and whites were to start
for this fort and intend to drive the country up to New River
before they return.
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