rch of Liberty overseas, and to show the white stars in their flag
side by side with the ancient cross in the flag of England against which
their forefathers fought.

Chapter X. Sevier, The Statemaker

After King's Mountain, Sevier reached home just in time to fend off a
Cherokee attack on Watauga. Again warning had come to the settlements
that the Indians were about to descend upon them. Sevier set out at once
to meet the red invaders. Learning from his scouts that the Indians were
near he went into ambush with his troops disposed in the figure of a
half-moon, the favorite Indian formation. He then sent out a small body
of men to fire on the Indians and make a scampering retreat, to lure the
enemy on. The maneuver was so well planned and the ground so well chosen
that the Indian war party would probably have been annihilated but for
the delay of an officer at one horn of the half-moon in bringing his
troops into play. Through the gap thus made the Indians escaped, with a
loss of seventeen of their number. The delinquent officer was Jonathan
Tipton, younger brother of Colonel John Tipton, of whom we shall hear
later. It is possible that from this event dates the Tiptons' feud with
Sevier, which supplies one of the breeziest pages in the story of early
Tennessee.

Not content with putting the marauders to flight, Sevier pressed on
after them, burned several of the upper towns, and took prisoner a
number of women and children, thus putting the red warriors to the depth
of shame, for the Indians never deserted their women in battle. The
chiefs at once sued for peace. But they had made peace often before.
Sevier drove down upon the Hiwassee towns, meanwhile proclaiming that
those among the tribe who were friendly might send their families to the
white settlement, where they would be fed and cared for until a sound
peace should be assured. He also threatened to continue to make war
until his enemies were wiped out, their town sites a heap of blackened
ruins, and their whole country in possession of the whites, unless they
bound themselves to an enduring peace.

Having compelled the submission of the Otari and Hiwassee towns, yet
finding that depredations still continued, Sevier determined to invade
the group of towns hidden in the mountain fastnesses near the headwaters
of the Little Tennessee where, deeming themselves inaccessible except
by their own trail, the Cherokees freely plotted mischief and sent out
raiding