Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-04-07
SEWERS HEROIC EXPLOIT.

The General who in the course of twenty
years fights thirty-fve battles, all against
desperate odds, and is always victorious,
must be military genius. Such Gen
eral was John Sewer, who broke the power
of the British over the Thirteen Colonies
at Kings Mountain, and subsequently, for
fifteen years, was the first Governor of
Tennessee. His field was narrow and his
forces were small; but what he did was
essential to the securing of American in
dependence. He was most remarkable
man, and had he acted in wider sphere
his fame would have filled the world. 1t
may be questioned if any one of the Gen
erals of our late war will compare with
him in military ability They accom-
plished great results, and they handled
immense resources. He knew how to Sc
cure great ends by slender means. Before
Napoleon was born he discovered that
principle of dynamics by which small
body, driven with immense force, deals
heavier blow than much larger one,
having only the ordinary momentum.
In Sewers time the people beyond the
Alleghenies were too much engrossed in
making history to give any thought to the
writing of it, and hence the country knows
very little of his great services; but now
that careful investigator is exploring his
career and making it known to the public
we have another hero added to our roll of
honor, and not merely a hero, but also one
of those pivotal characters on whom turn
the hinges of history. For we think it
not too much to say that had not John
Sewer been victorious at Kings noun
tain, and SO heroically held the rear all
through the revolutionary war, this coun-
try could not have achieved its independ-
ence. From Edmund Kirke's recently
published Rear Guard of the Revolution"
we extract an account of one of Sewers
exploits soon after the battle of Kings
mountain.
The western country was infested with
the Cherokees, one of the bravest and
strongest of the Indian tribes that sided
with the British during the revolution.
They did not appear in any large body,
but small parties hung about the more re-
mote settlements, descending upon some
unguarded dwellings and whelming men,
women and children in indiscriminate
massacre. Instantly garrisons were sta
toned in the most exposed positions, and a
Gordon of light troops was placed all along
the frontier.
The wide extent of territory to be
guarded involved the employment of so
many OF SEWERS men that it would seem
TO have been impossible for him to muster
force strong enough for any important
offensive operation. And yet, at this very
time, he undertook and executed one of
the most brilliant exploits in his history
one which, think, has no parallel in the
achievements of George Rogers Clark, or
any other border soldier He had been
convinced that some of the recent raids
had been perpetrated by Erati Cherokees,
who had their homes high up in the
gorges of the Smoky mountains, the gil
gantic range which is now the southwest
ern boundary between Tennessee and North
Carolina. These Indians were body of
bold, hardy mountaineers 200 strong, and
their country was intrenched amid rocky
Businesses that were reported to be impreg-
nable. Few white men had ever visited
their stronghold, and those who had re-
ported it unassailable by any civilized SOL
diery. By any route that could be taken it
was 200 miles from Watauga, and the way
to it was through trackless forests, across
torrents and dangerous rivers, and over
mountains steep and rugged, and loftier
than any east of the Mississippi Only
one white man at Watauga-IsaacT Thomas
had ever entered this stronghold, and
I. L . al. T.
country, on its southwestern side, from
which it was always approached by its in
habitants. No Indian, no white trader,
was known to have ever entered it from
the eastern side, and of this region civil
lied man was as ignorant as of the interior
of Africa. 1t is to-day as wild a country
as is anywhere to be found on this con-
tinent Bur from this side Sewer deter
mined to approach it, and with but one
hundred and thirty men to storm this in
accessible position, defended as it was by
twelve hundred brave mountaineers. He
took but one hundred and thirty, because
not another man could be spared from the
defense of the settlement With Isaac
Thomas as guide, be set out early in the
month OF March, when the streams are at
their highest, and the snow still lies upon
the upper slopes of the mountains. /
say with Isaac Thomas as guide-but
Thomas knew nothing of the route he
could only direct Sewer when they should
have arrived in the enemy's country.
So with only compass to direct his
way, Sewer set out on his adventurous
expedition Crossing the Nolichucky
near his home, he followed up the western
bank of the French Broad, fording the
river at what is now known as the Painted
Rocks, and thence passing on to Warm
Springs, which had been discovered by
two hunters in 177S, but had not as yet a
single inhabitant. Here he climbed the
banks of Laurel Run, and then striking
southwark, assembled the Walnut noun
tains--a trackless waste of rock and tang
led forest with not path, nor a trail, nor
even a trace blazed by passing hunter.
Thenceforward his way for more than 4
hundred miles lay through wilderness,
where human foot had scarcely trod, and
man was so strange sight that even the
timid deer and wild rabbit came out from
their coverts TO gaze on the csgalcade as it
passed.
Over fallen trees and through matted
anderbrush the eyer-mountain men held
way, now sealing hotue uuSc oilPpery Iock.
now floundering along some steep stony
rsgine, where one false step of his horse
might plunge the rider down headlong,
and at the end of twenty miles from Warm
Springs they came to the Ivy-z noun
tain torrent then 200 feet wide and rush
ing to the French Broad with the speed of
frightened animal.
Its waters were too deep to ford, and the
furious current would have appalled, even
the boldest swimmer; but these skiliful
horsemen plunged fearlessly into the tor
rent, and, although swept nearly a thou
sand feet down the stream. gained the op-
posite bank in safety.
Then their way lay through less
broken country. over gently rolling hills,
gradually descending and sloping south
ward-the home now of the fragrant
golden leafn Of fame among tobacco
smokers. Till then the French Broad had
been lined with inaccessible cliffs, but soon
they came to sIoping banks, along which
they wound for another twenty miles till