the Indian rifle and tomahawk. The
dwelling-houses were forts, picketed, and flanked by block-houses, and the
inhabitants, for mutual aid and protection, took up their residence in
groups around different stations, within a short distance of one another.

Not long after the Bledsoes established themselves upon the banks of the
Holston, Colonel Anthony Bledsoe, who was an excellent surveyor, was
appointed clerk to the commissioners who ran the line dividing Virginia and
North Carolina. Bledsoe had, before this, ascertained that Sullivan County
was comprised within the boundaries of the latter province. In June, 1776,
he was chosen by the inhabitants of the county to the command of the
militia. The office imposed on him the dangerous duty of repelling the
savages and defending the frontier. He had often to call out the militia
and lead them to meet their Indian assailants, whom they would pursue to
their villages through the recesses of the forest. The battle of Long
Island, fought a few miles below his station, near the Island Flats, was
one of the earliest and hardest fought battles known in the traditionary
history of Tennessee. In June, 1776, more than seven hundred Indian
warriors advanced upon the settlements on the Holston, with the avowed
object of exterminating the white race through all their borders. Colonel
Bledsoe, at the head of the militia, marched to meet them, and in the
conflict which ensued was completely victorious; the Indians being routed,
and leaving forty dead upon the field. This disastrous defeat for a time
held them in check: but the spirit of savage hostility was invincible, and
in the years following there was a constant succession of Indian troubles,
in which Colonel Bledsoe was conspicuous for his bravery and services.

In 1779, Sullivan County having been recognized as a part of North
Carolina, Governor Caswell appointed Anthony Bledsoe colonel, and Isaac
Shelby lieutenant-colonel, of its military company. About the beginning of
July of the following year, General Charles McDowell, who commanded a
district east of the mountains, sent to Bledsoe a dispatch, giving him an
account of the condition of the country. The surrender of Charleston had
brought the State of South Carolina under British power; the people had
been summoned to return to their allegiance, and resistance was ventured
only by a few resolute spirits, determined to brave death rather than
submit to the invader. The Whigs had fl