The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1852-07-28

ana 1aiapoosa rivers. Anxiety and alarm
spread among the white settlers, ami The
scattered families sought shelter in the
nearest forts. Twenty-four had thus con-
gregatcd at Fort Mimms, mere, block
house, situated on the Alabama, rear the
junction Of the Tombigbee. Itwas garri-
soned by hundred and forty mop, com
manded by Major Beasely, and, with pro-
per care, could have resisted de attack of
the savages. But the rumouTs of rising
among the Indians were discTeditcd. 4
negro who stated he had seen them in
the vicinity, was chastised for spreading a
false alas4H. The night preceding the
massacre, the dogs growled and barked,
showing that they scented indians in the
air. But all these warnings were pnhce-
ded, when suddenly, in broad mid taa, ,tlle
saeaEes, some sevefIShundred strong, made
thar appearance before the Fort, and with
in thirty feet of it, before they were dis
covered. The gate was open, and with
one terrific yell they dashed through into
the outer enclosure, driving the panic-strick-
en- soldiers into the houses within. Noun
ting these they set them on fire, and shot
down every soul that attempted to escape
Seeing, at once, their inevitable doom, the
soldiers fought with the energy of despair.
Rushing madly on their destroycrs, thew
gave blow for blow, and laid sixty of them
around the burning buildings before they
were completely ovcrpowcred. At last, II
yell of savage triumph rose over the crack
ling of flames, and cries and shrekS Of ter
riticd women and children. Then follow
ed scene which may not be described.
The wholesale hutchcry-thc ghastly spec
taclc of nearly three hundred mutatcd
bodies, hew"d and hacked into fragments,
were nothing TO the inhuman indiguities
perpctratcd on the women. Children were
ripped from the maternal womb, and
swung As war-clubs against the head Of
the mothers, and all those horrible excess
cs, which seem the offspring of demons,
were committed on the dead and DIVING
Not more than twenty or thirty Of the
whole, escaped.
The news of this terrible disaster
broke, like sudden thunder-clap Oh the
uclghbormg States. Georgia, Tennessee,
North and South Carolina flew at once to
arms. On the l7th Of September a mass
meeting assembled at Nashville, which,
with one voice, nominated jackson com
mander-in-chief of the troops of tile State
Ten days after, the nomination was con-
tirmed 10y the Legislature, and 100000
voted To carryson the war. Jackson inl-
mcdiately issued stirring appeal to the
people, III which, after describing the state
of things, he urged them to assemble to
his standard with all speed, saying. y
ready reisCrge bodies orthe lISstfI.i SrsgfSs
marching to your borders, with u sSit seal-
ping-knivcs unsheathcd to butcher your
women and children time is .iot to be
lost. We must hasten to the frontier, or
we shall find it drenchcd in the blood OF
our citizens" At this time he was suffer
ing from the arm which had bceHmutla-
ted in his encounter with Benton, and was
unable to DC present at Fayetteville, the
rendezvous, on the 4th of October; but he
sent an address TO be read to the troops,
and rules regulating the police ofthc camp.
Although too feeble to take the field, he,
three days after, with his ann in n sling
put himself at the head of the army. The
next evening, despatch arrived from Col.
Coffee, who had been previously sent for
ward with Il large detachment to Hunts
vile, thirty-two miles distant, stating that
II body of nearly thousand Indians were
on their way to ravagc the frontiers of
Georgia, and another party approaching
Tennessee. The day after came second
express confirming the report. by nine
o'clock the following morning, Jackson put
his army of twenty-five hundred men in
motion, and at eight in the evening
reached Huntsville, making the thirty-two
miles in eleven hours. Finding here that
the rumour was without foundation, he
proceeded leisurely to Dtto's Landing,
where Colonel Coffee with his regiment
was cncampcd. Here he paused to wait
for supplies, and survey his position.
With promptness Oh the part Of those
cooperating with him, lie saw that the
hostile Greeks could be crushed with one
blow; for on the west Of their settlements
were six hundred Mississippi volunteers
and the third regiment of regular infan-
try, six hundred strong, under Colonel
Russell a; on the east were twenty-five hun
dred Georgia militia, commanded by Gen
eral Floyd; while from the north five
thousand volunteers and militia; twenty
five hundred from East Tennessee, under
Generals Cooke and White, and the same
number from the western section of the
State, were moving down on the devoted
tribes. This army Of five thousand Ten
nesseans was under the command Of Jack
son, the western half of which he led in
person. There were, besides this formida-
bic array, few posts held by small, de-
tachments, and few hundred friendly In
dians, most of them Cherokees. When
these separate armies should close around
the hostile settlements, encircling them in
a girdie of fire, it was universally believed
that the war would he over.
While Jackson remained at Ditto's Lam
ding, waiting anxiously for the supplies