worked disastrously to the
loosely-jointed force had there not been in it as a volunteer a young
man of twenty-five who in the moment of supreme danger seized the
absolute command and rallied the men to victory. His name was Isaac
Shelby, and this was the first act in a long career in the whole of
which "he deserved well of his country."

Thus, from the 30th of May till the 11th of July the settlers slept with
their rifles in their hands, expecting every night to hear the Indian
war-whoop, and every day to receive some messenger from Nancy Ward with
tidings that the warriors were on the march for the settlements. At last
the messengers came,--four of them at once,--as we may see from the
following letter, in which Sevier announces their arrival to the
Committee of Safety of Fincastle County, Virginia:

"FORT LEE, July 11, 1776.

DEAR GENTLEMEN,--Isaac Thomas, William Falling, Jarot 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.

JOHN SEVIER."

He says nothing of the feeble fort and his slender garrison of only
forty men; he shows no sign of fear, nor does he ask for aid in the
great peril. The letter is characteristic of the man, and it displays
that utter fearlessness which, with other great qualities, made him the
hero of the Border. The details of the information brought by Thomas to
Sevier and Robertson showed how truthfully Nancy Ward had previously
reported to them the secret designs of the Cherokees. The whole nation
was about to set out upon the war-path. With the Creeks they were to
make a descent upon Georgia, and with the Shawnees, Mingoes, and
Delawares upon Kentucky and the exposed parts of Virginia, while seven
hundred chosen Ottari warriors were to fall upon the settlers on the
Watauga, Holston, and Nolachucky. This last force was to be divided into
two bodies of three hundred and fifty each, one of which, under
Oconostota, was to attack Fort Watauga; the other, under Dragging-Canoe,
head-chief of the Chickamaugas, was to attempt the capture of Fort
Patrick Henry, which they supposed to be still defended by only about
seventy men. But the two bodies were to act together, the one supporting
the other in case it should be found that the settlers were better
prepared for defence than was ant