She was a young woman nearing her twenties and, if
legend has reported her truly, "Bonnie Kate Sherrill" was a
beauty. Through a porthole Sevier saw her running towards the
shut gates, dodging and darting, her brown hair blowing from the
wind of her race for life--and offering far too rich a prize to
the yelling fiends who dashed after her. Sevier coolly shot the
foremost of her pursuers, then sprang upon the wall, caught up
Bonnie Kate, and tossed her inside to safety. And legend says
further that when, after Sevier's brief widowerhood, she became
his wife, four years later, Bonnie Kate was wont to say that she
would be willing to run another such race any day to have another
such introduction!
There were no casualties within the fort and, after three hours,
the foe withdrew, leaving several of their warriors slain.
In the excursions against the Indians which followed this opening
of hostilities Sevier won his first fame as an "Indian
fighter"--the fame later crystallized in the phrase "thirty-five
battles, thirty-five victories." His method was to take a very
small company of the hardiest and swiftest horsemen--men who
could keep their seat and endurance, and horses that could keep
their feet and their speed, on any steep of the mountains no
matter how tangled and rough the going might be--swoop down upon
war camp, or town, and go through it with rifle and hatchet and
fire, then dash homeward at the same pace before the enemy had
begun to consider whether to follow him or not.
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