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00:00:00david crockett scout by charles fletcher allen chapter i the young frontiersman the antecedents of david crockett are irish although his mother was rebecca hawkins a native of maryland and probably of english descent
00:00:18after the execution of king charles i in the seventeenth century many irishmen were transported to north america as rebels and there sold into a state of slavery among the english colonists
00:00:32many of them were sent to virginia and to the somers or bermuda islands and in sir j h lefroy's memorials of bermuda occurred the names of james sheehan and david
00:00:46as two of the slaves bought and sold in those islands as we might expect the same records often make mention of the unruly and riotous nature of the irish rebels
00:01:00and of the complaints of those who thought the colony might well be rid of them it was the blood of the fighting race that told and one by one the slaves became free men
00:01:14to follow every bugle call or rolling drum that has led into the storms of shot and shell on our country's battle-fields david crockett's grandparents left ireland for america after the birth of william their oldest son
00:01:33and it is supposed that john crockett another son and the father of david was born during the voyage the family which eventually included four boys settled in pennsylvania
00:01:46here john crockett lived as a farmer for some time removing while still a young man to lincoln county north carolina and afterwards to the tennessee mountain country
00:01:59his parents displaying the same restlessness that characterized the career of david came into what is now hawkins county tennessee and settled near the site of the present town of rogersville
00:02:13it is not unlikely that the county took its name from the family to which rebecca hawkins belonged the creek indians had now begun to feel the pressure of immigration into their sacred hunting-grounds and were at all times dangerous
00:02:29frequent encounters occurring between them and the settlers both of davy's grandparents were killed during an indian foray near the holston river in hawkins county
00:02:41in this bloody affair their son joseph had his arm broken by a bullet though he finally escaped his brother james who was near deaf and dumb remained a prisoner for more than seventeen years
00:02:55it was without doubt due to his being deaf and dumb that he was finally heard of and identified by davy's father and uncle william who paid some sort of ransom and obtained his freedom
00:03:10he lived for many years in cumberland county kentucky davy crockett was the fifth of six sons and there were three sisters besides
00:03:21or nine children in all in the family of john crockett in his own story davy makes little use of the names of his relatives and although some of them are known they are not material to this narrative
00:03:37davy crockett was born on the seventeenth of august seventeen eighty six at this time the gateses lees and rough yankee generals as carlyle styled them had returned to their own shores and were striving to form a permanent union of the states
00:03:55the courts of the old world were vying with each other in extravagance and riotous living but the great smoky mountains were full of peace and from the eunaca range to the far blue crest of the cumberlands the troubles of the far-off world were but echoes faintly heard
00:04:15the new and short-lived state of franklin was a year old and john crockett veteran of the revolution was content to work there from dawn till dark that his children might be fed and housed
00:04:27the mountains were full of game corn could be raised when the ground was cleared and the autumn yielded bountiful stores of nuts wild grapes berries and apples until from one source or another the cabin was filled with winter supplies
00:04:44yet somehow there always seemed to be insufficient for the long months before the anemones and azales came again beside the leaping brooks or under the tender green of the wakening trees
00:05:00the log cabin of the crockett family stood where the limestone creek joined the nolachokee river ten miles north of the great bend in the bald mountain range
00:05:11there the rocky summons angling abruptly about the watersheds of indian creek are like fortifications of the titans crowned with battlements of the appalachian range whose peaks stand more than six thousand feet above the sea higher than any others east of the mississippi
00:05:30from the rocky escarpments between the black forests of pine and hemlock shone the signal fires of the creek and chickasaw and from unseen nooks between their giant flanks the thump thump thump
00:05:45of the tom-tom caused the pioneer to look to his stockades and his flintlock guns the fierce ebb and flow of war that had given kentucky the name of the dark and bloody ground had now and then swept over parts of tennessee
00:06:02the massacre of fort loudon was a red spot upon the pages of her history but the rivalries of the english french and spanish had promoted indian raids in the disputable regions of the ohio and the mississippi
00:06:19rather than in the lowlands of the western part of this state and in the alabama plains where tennessee was sparred in earlier days she knew in the civil war in eighteen sixty one to eighteen sixty five when from knoxville to donelson and shiloh
00:06:37and from lookout mountain to the cumberland gap her fields were filled with unknown graves and the wreck and misery of a terrible conflict
00:06:47it was not until many years after the birth of crockett that it became safe to travel the rugged roads between virginia and north carolina and the nashville country in the twenty or more trips that andrew jackson made between johnsboro and nashville in the days when he was foremost in the practice of law
00:07:06he had many a close call and indian fights more than a score of times he came upon the bodies of men women and children robed and slain and scowled little davy listening in nightfall beside the river hearing above its murmur the hoot of the owl and the dismal trees
00:07:23the howl of the wolf on the mountain top or the panther's anguished cry floating out of the vague unknown would make good use of his sturdy little legs until he was safe at his mother's side
00:07:36as the boy grew older he lost the instinctive sense of fear that was perhaps a part of his natural heritage for the cry of the banshee had filled the souls of his irish forebears with terror in their lowly cabins across the seas
00:07:51something of the daring of sir john and of richard his son of the hawkins kin slavers freebooters sea-scourgers admirals had come to him on his mother's side and now too the fighting blood of his father's race began to show
00:08:09davy was scarce six years old when four of his brothers and a boy named campbell had left him on the shore of the nolichoke while they put out into the river in the rude boat that was used in crossing the stream
00:08:25had it not been for the bravery of a man named kendall who saw their danger the five boys would surely have gone over the falls a little way below which would have meant certain death davy seems partly to have realized their danger but said he was too fighting mad at being left behind to care what happened to them
00:08:45when they were safe again his greatest satisfaction was in telling them that the scrape they had been in was what they had earned for not taking him long
00:08:56like every boy of the frontier davy was quick to idolize the great flintlock rifles powder-horns and other implements of the hunter he loved to watch his father mulled bullets from the well-nigh priceless supply of lead or cut and grease patches for loading
00:09:15the boy would sometimes shoulder his stick and imagine himself a hunter stimulated perhaps by the loan of a powder-horn and a hunting-knife all this was evidence of what was working in his mind
00:09:28an old man who knew the boy and always called him the quirkconian said that the only diff between a crowbar and a gun is that the gun do have a hole in it and a stock
00:09:42the hunter's rifle was made from a bar of iron weighing about the same as a crowbar from eleven to fifteen pounds being the usual weight of the gun from this it is easy to see that the small boy of seventeen ninety five
00:09:55could not take a very active part in the hunting that furnished the greater portion of the supply of food for the pioneer and his family
00:10:03in talking with general grant who had suggested a way in which the reserves might be of use while not needed at the front abraham lincoln once said oh yes i see that as we say out west if a man can't skin he can hold a leg for the one that does
00:10:21a five-year-old boy might not be able to hunt and kill deer but he could hold a leg the boy of to-day can go forth with a four pound twenty-two with less fatigue than his grandfather felt in handling a rifle when ten years older
00:10:38at the age of fifteen a boy might learn to shoot but he was hardly able to range the mountains for game it was on a day in august when davy was six years old that his father and his uncle took him with them on a hunting trip into the dark forests of pine on the northern slopes of the bald mountains
00:10:57they were gone but a single day but every moment was a revelation to the little fellow they were looking for wild turkeys and had begged several when they came to an opening surrounded by maples beeches and other deciduous trees
00:11:13the grass was fresh and a dozen sorts of flowers were under their feet as they tied their single horse on which davy rode with the game the men were talking of the west and as they pointed out across the peaceful land of the chickasaws the boy heard often the names of the great rivers
00:11:31the tennessee the tennessee the holston the cumberland the ohio and the mississippi the spirit of unrest that was in their hearts was already in his own and from that day the nillichucky was no longer satisfying to him he wanted something bigger
00:11:48in the faint echoes of ringing steel and bloody threats that came from the cities of the old world those august days there was somewhat that excited the natural restlessness of the pioneer the events in france were terrible and momentous
00:12:05on the twentieth of the month before the black-browed marsilas the reds of the midi had finished their long march from the shores of the mediterranean and had entered paris six hundred strong armed with forks and scythes and pikes and singing the song of
00:12:22rougue de lys that forever afterwards was to be the war hymn of unrest the few who had left for the new world had not been missed in the ranks of the starving people of europe's overcrowded streets and lands
00:12:37the black chaos of insurrection had burst upon the last defences of the french king and it may have been a while the three looked westward to the promised land that the swiss guards hunted like wild beasts died to the last man in the place de grieve
00:12:55the time for blood-letting had come to france and the whole world was in a ferment that was soon to set the red men of america in battle against the aggressions of the colonists there could never have been peace in the old world until the opening of the new and that also meant war to the knife
00:13:14from then until he went forth into the strange places of the east davy grew in thought and stature in the knowledge of the common things but without any education other than that obtained by the use of sharp ears and keen sight
00:13:29when he was seven or more the whole crockett family moved to a place about ten miles north of greenville from the habit john crockett had of going from one place to another it seemed that he depended mostly upon game and pelts for a living
00:13:44he could not have been much of a farmer in a country where land had to be cleared before crops could be raised it was while in green county that joseph hawkins brother of davy's mother shot a man while hunting having mistaken him for a deer
00:13:58the man was gathering wild grapes and as he reached for the clusters above him hawkins thought he saw the moving ears of a deer
00:14:06as all kinds of game were common in such a place and hunters were scarce he took a careful aim and shot the grape-gatherer through the chest the man finally recovered from the effects of the wound but davy tells that he saw his father draw a silk handkerchief through the bullet-hole and through the man's body
00:14:25such accidents were less frequent in those days when the human target might be one of a party of indians skulking in the thickets in such a case the hunter would be tomahawked and scalped before he could reload or bound fast and he might be tortured to death later
00:14:44a chicago paper obtained a list of one hundred and thirteen men who were killed in the year nineteen ten through such mistakes and careless handling of guns in war the killed are far less in number than the wounded but in nineteen ten only eighty-seven were wounded as against one hundred and thirteen killed
00:15:04this shows that the hunters who do the killing are much more careful in their aim than in finding out what they have for a target it is a pretty sure thing that the immediate scalping of such blunderers would save one hundred lives every year
00:15:20davy crockett's father used to tell him when he began to use a rifle look mighty hard before you shoot it may be a man you see but you can always get a man
00:15:29from greene county john crockett moved after a year or so to the mouth of cove creek some twenty-five miles below the mouth of the limestone chapter one read by elijah fisher
00:15:50the mill on cove creek swept away lock stock and barrel the crockett family keeps moving andrew jackson and the corn thief a boil be after trouble before his ears are dry the empty cupboard
00:16:05lasses boilins bean stringins butter stirrins bobtail pigs and bawling calves davy is sent to virginia on foot with jacob seiler he gets homesick and longs to see his family good friends come to his aid and he returns home
00:16:23it would appear that john crockett had some funds upon moving to cove creek for he had once began the building of a mill in partnership with a man named galbraith they had about finished the mill undoubtedly a primitive affair when trouble came
00:16:38over all the flanks and summits of the appalachian range the snow lay deep in the shelter of the pines it was the accumulation of the long winter compact and covered with a glaze of ice
00:16:51all through the winter the creek on which the mill was built flowed quietly in its course held in check by the icy rain of the zero weather but the stream grew deeper and swifter as the days advanced and when the swamp apple and the wild cherry were like woodland fairies in their robes of tender pink and creamy white
00:17:09when the rumble of the partridges wings was heard and the violets were scarfs of blue hung here and there the south wind swept along the range with lowering clouds the heavens were opened and the rain began
00:17:22in the twinkling of an eye the stream they had relied upon to run their mill swept every vestige of their labor out of sight lock stock and barrel as crockett described the disaster
00:17:33few men cared to build upon the scene of ruined hopes and john crockett moved on again we follow him next to a place on the road that was frequented by travelers between virginia and nashville here he kept an inn for the wayfarer a poor kind of affair where only such people as wagoners were likely to halt
00:17:52they were as rough as the roads over which they came and in feeding such guests there was small profit the western settlers were always ready to take arms against any authority that held too tight a rein and each man was as quick to show fight in his own behalf
00:18:09in his later years david crockett remembered the little tavern between jonesborough and knoxville as a place of hard times and plenty of em it was there that davy first saw andrew jackson who was afterwards his leader in the creek war of eighteen thirteen
00:18:26already the renown of the state's attorney had become a household subject in tennessee jackson feared no man and brought to justice the most defiant of the mountaineers the men of that day had a habit of settling their differences out of court which caused many to die with their boots on
00:18:44much the same system even now prevails in some parts of kentucky and tennessee to those who have deplored the passionate natures and the crimes of the foreign element in our country
00:18:56it may be said that the most lawless and cruel of our citizens are primitive americans the feudists of the dark and bloody ground and the big bend state
00:19:06the reason why jackson had most of the court cases in those days was because they were criminal suits and to him as public prosecutor came the duty of conducting them
00:19:16one day there stopped at the crockett tavern a man from the head of the limestone who had come down the knollachucky with a load of corn that he had stolen from a neighbor
00:19:25of this he openly boasted and he defied any one to interfere with him john crockett told him he did not care to take stolen corn as payment for feeding him and his horses and asked him to go
00:19:38but the unwelcome guest said he would stay as long as he liked the next day towards dark appeared a number of horsemen who had been belated by a storm in the mountains among them was andrew jackson and there were also two or three constables and prisoners on the way to knoxville
00:19:54then in his twenty-seventh year jackson was an ideal leader of men more than six feet tall slender but muscular the glance of his dark blue eyes meant more than verbal threats
00:20:06to him john crockett told the story of the vainglorious thief jackson told the man that he was under arrest whereupon the latter at once became violent and threatening
00:20:16the room of the tavern in which the wagoners spent the spare hours was large and dingy built of logs and had been the scene of more than one desperate quarrel there were enough bullet holes in the logs to prove it
00:20:29jackson whispered to a constable and under the directions of the latter every one left the room except jackson and the thief ten minutes afterwards the latter came out of the room without his rifle or knife and sullenly left the place
00:20:44the horses in the wagon-load of corn were left behind and were afterwards turned over to the man from whom they had been stolen davy who was a lad of eight or nine years at the time had been terrified by the threats of the corn thief and always wondered at the quiet way in which andrew jackson had disposed of him
00:21:02the small boy's days are short but full of zest having as yet no conscience or at least a dormant one he feels no regrets for his misdeeds but sleeps the sleep of the just and wakes with all his faculties for mischief wedded
00:21:17where two or three are gathered together there is always danger in the air davy had brothers whose experiences gave him a good start and he profited by their example
00:21:28up to the age of five when he had danced with rage on the banks of the shore where he had been left alone he tells us that he had never worn any breeches from this we infer that as he was easy to overhaul in flight and was without any protection from the usual application of punishment
00:21:45he had to grow and be clothed before he became a serious source of trouble an irishman fresh from the old sod will tell you that a boy'll be after hunting trouble before his ears are dry and once started he never quits
00:21:59in davy's time there were no jam closets for him to rob for the cupboard was always empty except for the great loaves of bread that were baked from corn and rye everything being devoured as fast as it was cooked none of the boy's time was taken up with watching the pantry and his time was his own
00:22:18if there happened to be such neighborhood events as corn huskins lasses boilins log rollins bean stringins or butter stirrins which still prevail in the mountains there was a respite for his victims
00:22:31upon one occasion when his parents had gone to a corn husking davy and one of his brothers with another boy rounded up all the hogs that were fattening on beechnuts in the woods penned them up cut off their tails and let them go
00:22:45it was some weeks when their villainy was detected they were forced to confess that they were guilty and that the tails had been roasted in hot ashes and eaten such mild pastimes as robbing birds nests were diversified by practical jokes on the traveling public and many a beating fell to the lot of the crockett boys
00:23:04one of the tricks they played was to take the calves away from their bovine mothers after dark this meant all-night bawling and human wakefulness until the cows were united with their lost offspring if elisha had lived in the tennessee mountains the bears would have been busy all the time
00:23:21when davy was twelve in seventeen ninety eight he had become a strong and useful lad with a fully developed conscience the wishes of his parents were the only law he had known and when at last the time came when his father said to him as saul to him of old david go and the lord be with thee
00:23:41he went forth as a pilgrim it is not certain with what words he was sent forth but he seems to have made no appeal from the bargain that sent him four hundred miles over the mountains on foot in the keeping of a stranger
00:23:55perhaps he had come to know that his father found it hard to feed so many mouths at any rate he took up the long march with an old german jacob seiler who was bound to virginia with a herd of cattle where he proposed to remain
00:24:10how many have read with sympathy and keen appreciation davy's simple story of his departure with a heavy heart perhaps never to return siler treated the boy kindly and paid him five or six dollars for his help
00:24:24when he reached the end of his journey he tried to persuade davy to stay with him at first davy thought it his father's wish that he should remain so for some weeks he tried to be content but the yearning to see his family again was strong within him
00:24:39one day as he was playing in the road there came along three familiar faces those of a man named dun and two sons each with a good team the sight of them was like a sight of home for they were bound to knoxville and the way led past the lowly crockett inn and davy was soon telling his plight to sympathetic listeners
00:24:57as his disappearance in the day time would soon be known and might result in his being brought back they told him that if he could get to the place where they were to put up for the night seven miles away they would take him home
00:25:09all the tiresome journey there davy had come on foot and at the prospect of riding all the way back heaven opened before him to his delight he found that the good old dutchman and his family had gone to a neighbor's davy's own story of what followed is this
00:25:26i gathered my clothes and what little money i had and put them all together under the head of my bed i went to bed early that night but i couldn't sleep for though i was a wild boy yet i dearly loved my father and mother and could not sleep for thinking of them
00:25:42and then the fear that i should be discovered and called to a halt filled me with anxiety and between my childish love of home on the one hand and the fears of which i have spoken on the other i felt mighty queer
00:25:56it was three hours before daylight when davy crawled out of his bed he got away from the house without waking any one and found it snowing hard eight inches already having fallen
00:26:07in the absence of moonlight it was a difficult matter to reach the main highway half a mile off but once in that he steered his way toward the place appointed guided by the opening made through the woods
00:26:19he was two hours trudging through the snow up to his knees and his tracks were covered as fast as they were made the siler family must have wondered at his disappearance davy found the duns up and feeding their teams and was kindly received
00:26:33as he warmed himself by the fire he forgot his struggle with the storm in his thankfulness for the goodness and help as soon as the breakfast was over the wagoners set out and the boy found himself counting the seemingly endless miles of the homeward journey
00:26:48when they reached the roanoke valley his desire to get home was too great for him to endure the slow progress of the loaded wagons he could travel twice as fast a foot so at the house of john cole on the roanoke he thanked his kind friends for what they had done for him and started out alone on what must have been a tramp of three hundred miles
00:27:08he was near the first crossing of the river in a few hours and dreaded it as he would have to wade or swim to the other side in water that was very cold then he heard the clatter of horses feet behind him and a cheery hail from a man who was returning from where he had sold some stock
00:27:24he had an extra horse saddled and bridled and as he had had also a soft spot in his heart for boys in a moment davy was mounted as proud as a king
00:27:35in this way he travelled until within fifteen miles of home when he went his way on foot full of gratitude toward the stranger for his goodness towards a poor little straggling boy
00:27:45chapter three davy takes to the woods
00:27:57davy is welcomed home a schoolhouse in the mountains he makes anemone wildcat style of fighting davy takes to the woods john crockett cuts a stout hickory switch
00:28:11davy is off for virginia again he goes to baltimore the clippers and the privateer prevented from sailing for london he leaves his self-appointed guardian and starts for home
00:28:24he crosses new river through slush ice the trail in spring a strange boy at the family table it's davy come home davy reached his father's inn the same night and his welcome may be imagined
00:28:40it was late in the fall and he lived at home until the red flames of the sumac and the poison oak were again fiery spots and streaks upon the hills then john crockett took it into his head to send the boy to a school near by
00:28:54a crude log cabin with benches hewn from logs and a floor of earth offered its single room to those who came a great slab of wood three feet wide and standing on hickory stakes reached across the room and was used as a table for the scholars
00:29:13readin spellin and cypherin were the principal studies writing of course was taught but the quill pens and poor ink they had to use were as hard to get as was paper and the blackboard seldom made a penman of an awkward lad
00:29:29on the fourth day davy spent in school he had an altercation with a boy larger and older than he when the children were dismissed davy hid in the bushes and waited for his enemy
00:29:41as the boy was passing the ambush davy set on him like a wild cat scratched his face to a flitter jig and made him cry for quarter in good earnest
00:29:52young crockett was now in a bad fix for he knew there was a flogging in store for him the next day and for several days he left home in the morning ostensibly for school but spent the time
00:30:05in the woods until the children went home his brothers attended the same school but he had persuaded them to say nothing of his playing hooky when the schoolmaster wrote to john crockett telling him of davy's absence the whole story came out
00:30:22i was in an awful hobble davy wrote of this for my father was in a condition to make the fur fly he called on me to tell why i had not been to school i told him that i was afraid to go for i knew i should be cooked up to a cracklin in no time
00:30:40my father told me in a very angry manner that he would whip me an eternal sight worse if i didn't start at once to school
00:30:50while davy was begging not to be sent back the elder crockett was cutting a stout hickory switch and from past experience the boy knew what this meant
00:31:00at his father's first move towards him he broke into a run the chase lasted a mile when the boy dodged aside into the bushes and his father then gave up the hunt
00:31:12davy had been careful to lead off in a course away from the schoolhouse having a keen idea of his fate if both the teacher and his father should get him at the same time
00:31:23fearing to return davy kept on for several miles and put up for the night at the house of a man who was about to start for virginia with a drove of cattle
00:31:34the boy at once hired out to go with him and before starting one of the older crockett boys joined them thus was davy again a pilgrim with a journey of nearly four hundred miles before him
00:31:46the trail they follow was probably about the same as the route of the norfolk and western railroad of the present time through abington wytheville and blue ridge springs to lynchburg passing south of hanging rock to which place davy had travelled the previous year
00:32:03from lynchburg the drove went on to charlottesville and orange court house up the headwaters of the rapidin again through the blue ridge mountains to front royal on the shenandoah river where the stock was sold
00:32:17davy and a brother of the man with whom he had started out with a single horse for the two now took the homeward trail they were together three days travelling with so little rest that the boy finally told the man to go ahead and that he would come when he got ready
00:32:34he bought some provisions with four dollars that the man had given him for the four hundred miles journey and plodded stolidly along until he met a wagoner who lived in tennessee and who intended to return after his trip was finished
00:32:48he was bound for winchester not very far away and he was a jolly sort of fellow davy gladly accepted his offer to take him along two days later they met davy's brother and the rest of the former party but davy refused to go with them
00:33:04he says that he could not help shedding tears as he watched his brother disappear but the thought of the schoolmaster and of his angry father with the big hickory switch was too potent
00:33:17at jaredstown virginia davy worked for twenty-five cents a day for a man named john gray adam myers the wagoner was engaged all winter in hauling loads to and from baltimore
00:33:30when spring came davy had money to buy decent clothes and something like seven dollars besides he took it into his head that he would go with myers to baltimore to see what kind of place it was and how people lived there
00:33:44this came near being davy's last trip for on reaching ellicott's mills he had perched himself on top of the barrels of flour that made the load when the horses ran away at the sight of a road gang with wheelbarrows
00:33:56the frightened animals turned short about snapped the pole and then both axle-trees and nearly buried the boy in the falling barrels escaping with nothing more serious than bruises the two went on with a hired wagon and soon arrived in baltimore
00:34:13at this place davy crockett nearly became a sailor the harbor was full of shipping gay with flags and the glories of fresh paint loading and discharging the riches of all nations there were never such ships as the baltimore clippers
00:34:30their memory lives in the hearts of every true sailor the flying cloud and the cockatoo the southern cross the caribou the polar bear and the northern chief the yankee blade and the maple leaf
00:34:44the names of the vessels in the good old clipper times were those that set a boy's heart to thumping and the sight of a great full-rigged ship sweeping out to sea was enough to make sailors a farmer's sons
00:34:57it was the spring of eighteen hundred and in the port there was a vessel flying the english flag and then called the polly as much of davy's time as possible was spent on the wharves and finally he took courage and went on board a vessel about to clear for london
00:35:13she was a yankee ship for in those days every vessel that flew the stars and stripes from eastport to savannah was a yankee seeing the boy gazing about the decks and aloft one of her men began talking with him
00:35:28the polly being at a wharf near by it was not long before davy heard the history of the old privateer which had sailed from baltimore in seventeen seventy eight and before her return in november had fought with and captured three british armed merchantmen
00:35:45the reindeer four hundred tons and fourteen guns with a cargo worth one hundred and fifty thousand dollars the ullah of same tonnage and ten guns and a hundred thousand dollar cargo
00:35:58and the jane of the tonnage and armament of the reindeer and with a cargo also worth one hundred and fifty thousand dollars one-third of all this treasure was the share of the government
00:36:11before the polly was unlawfully seized in a neutral port and handed over to the english she had captured nearly thirty prizes in many cases fighting desperate battles for the mastery
00:36:23the master of the ship either took a fancy to davy or thought that he might prove useful for before the boy's second day in baltimore had passed he had arranged to go to london as a cabin boy
00:36:35but when he returned for what spare clothes he had on shore and told myers of his intent the latter refused to give him either his money or clothing and swore that he should not go
00:36:48he kept watch over him prevented him going to the ship and started back with him as soon as ready giving him no chance to escape as he had become very harsh with davy threatening him with his whip the boy left him one morning before daylight
00:37:04davy had not a cent in his pockets but he resolved to go ahead and trust to providence this trait was the prominent feature of david crockett's nature he made up his mind and went ahead it was hard to turn him and he went at everything hammer and tongs
00:37:22as the historian contemplates the spectacle of this penniless thirteen-year-old youngster bravely facing towards his home four or five hundred miles away
00:37:33it is but natural to wonder what would have become of him if he had sailed for london he might have become a famous sailor a reckless privateer or merchant with ships in every sea
00:37:44up to this time davy had had no schooling except the four days at the place to which he had been afraid to return many a boy of the present time is graduated from a high school at fourteen
00:37:56but davy crockett did not know a single letter of the alphabet as it was however the fates had no idea of sending him to sea and while the great ship was beating her way along the atlantic coast he was resolutely facing west
00:38:11it was more than a year and a half before davy was destined to see his home again working for two or three employers after reaching montgomery court house he saved up a little money and finally made another start for tennessee
00:38:26for eighteen months he had worked for a hatter who failed before paying his wages and it was a poor and a half-clothed stripling that was now returning with a better record but in no better luck than the prodigal son
00:38:39at the crossing of the new river only forty miles on the old trail he was now retracing he found high water and stormy weather no one would row him across and in his impatience he disregarded all warnings
00:38:54hired a canoe and put out into the stream he finally reached the other side the boat half full of water and his clothing soaking wet and freezing upon his back after going up the river for three miles he found a warm shelter and food
00:39:11as davy finally went down the old road into the tennessee valleys the woods were full of wakening life the tender green of the beech and maple shimmered on every slope
00:39:22beside his path the arbutus showed its pink white petals and the azaleas and june berries full of bloom were eagerly sought by droning bees the spring wind sang in every pine and the breath of the hemlock and the balsam was like a rare perfume to the homesick boy
00:39:41in sullivan county he encountered the brother who had in vain begged him to return home perhaps davy still dreaded the sight of the old school-house for it was some weeks before he left his brother's cabin and sought his father's
00:39:57he had travelled all day and as he drew near to the wayside inn he saw the teamsters caring for their horses and covering the wagons for the night he noticed that the poles of some of the wagons pointed eastward while the others showed that the loads were on the westward journey
00:40:14the latter were the ones that looked good to davy who had had enough of wandering in the east his heart seemed in his throat as he saw his sisters and brothers going in and out
00:40:26and he feared at any moment to see his father with the seasoned hickory or perhaps old kitchen the schoolmaster looming over him like an inexorable fate
00:40:36he hung about unseen until the jangle of a horseshoe and a poker called all hands to supper when they were plying knife and fork he slipped in and took a seat quietly at the long table
00:40:49a great pewter platter was heaped with chunks of boiled meat another was filled with corn on the ear and still another with potatoes with their jackets on bowls of gravy and bread broken into pieces as the loaves went round completed the bill of fare
00:41:05white bread was hardly known in the mountains corn and rye or rye and indian seeming to answer every demand of the wayfarer in those times some taverns had menus to suit the purse and fastidiousness of the traveller
00:41:20for corn bread and common doings the charge was fifteen cents but for white bread and chicken fixings the bill was two bits or twenty-five cents
00:41:31davy tackled the platters as they went the rounds but in spite of his hunger he was conscious that there were sharp eyes awake to the fact that a strange boy was at the table
00:41:41his eldest sister had ceased eating in the intentness of her gaze he was so much larger than when he had left home that she was full of doubt but at last as her eyes met davy squarely
00:41:54and his face became red with blushing she sprang from her seat at the table and screaming it's davy it's davy mother it's davy come back she threw her arms about his neck clinging to him with tears of joy running down her face
00:42:10this was his restoration to those who loved him and whose reception of the wanderer so touched his boyish heart that he humbled himself before them no longer fearing that they had forgotten him during the long and weary time he had spent away from them
00:42:25davy was now a strong and healthy youngster almost fifteen years old with much worldly wisdom but unable to read or write
00:42:36end of chapter three chapter four the indian's visit
00:42:49davy davy pays his father's debts the old man's tears gets a suit of clothes calf love barks up the wrong tree finds another girl
00:43:03sweet plugs and snuff as evidences of affection he is gaily deceived and wants to die pretty polly
00:43:15davy marries at last other events of the times moves to lincoln county in eighteen o nine another move
00:43:27red eagle and the creeks three hungry braves tecumseh and big warrior the earthquakes of eighteen eleven
00:43:40the next year of davy's life was one of hard work and no pay he had been at home but a short time when his father told him that if he would work for six months for a man named abraham wilson
00:43:55wilson would in return give up a note of john crockett's for thirty-six dollars as a reward davy could thereafter work for himself without waiting to become of age
00:44:08the boy fulfilled the compact without missing a day in a place where some of the roughest of the settlers made a practice of meeting to drink and gamble at last the note was his and the joy of his father at its surrender was davy's recompense
00:44:28it was always a satisfaction to davy crockett to know that his father was a man who honestly tried to pay his debts the son appears to have had the same spirit
00:44:39when he asked to be given work at the home of an honest old quaker john kennedy he found that the man held another note of his father for forty dollars
00:44:51davy was offered the note for another six months work and with a keen desire to do his duty and to ease his father's burdens as much as he could he disregarded his newly acquired right to work for his own account and started in
00:45:08at the end of the time he received the note borrowed a horse and went home for a visit some time after i got there davy afterwards said i pulled out the note and handed it to my father who supposed mr kennedy had sent it for collection
00:45:27the old man looked mighty sorry and said to me that he had not the money to pay it and didn't know what he would do i then told him i had paid it for him
00:45:40and it was then his own that it was not presented for collection but as a present from me at this he shed a heap of tears and as soon as he got a little over it he said he was sorry he could not give me anything but he was not able he was too poor
00:46:00for two months after going back to the quakers davy worked to get something decent to wear the last good clothing he owned had been left with adam myers together with his seven dollars of hard-earned cash when he had quit that troublesome person a few days out of baltimore
00:46:19this was nearly three years ago so it is easy to imagine the boy's shabby appearance about the time when davy was able to spruce up and aspire to polite society of the kind about him
00:46:33he fell in love with the quaker's niece who had come on a visit from north carolina who was much older than he all the symptoms of what the mountaineers called calf love
00:46:47were forthcoming he couldn't keep out of the girl's sight yet nearly choked when he tried to talk to her when he had reached the proper state of desperation he acted with his usual headlong energy and told the young lady that he would die without her
00:47:05he says that the girl listened kindly enough but told him that she was to marry a son of the quaker davy concluded that his troubles were mostly due to his lack of learning
00:47:19he was now in his seventeenth year with a record of four days at school he soon arranged with the old quaker's son who kept a school a mile or so away to work for him two days in the week for board and tuition and go to school the other four days
00:47:36this plan was followed for six months in this time says davy in his later account of his boyhood i learned to read a little in my primer to write my own name
00:47:49and to cipher some of the first three rules of figures and this was all the schooling i ever had in my life davy had now grown to be a stout young fellow and as he had learned to use a rifle with great accuracy he became a successful hunter
00:48:08this was to a great extent a warrant for his plans for securing a wife and he laid siege to the heart of a pretty young girl whom he had known since his early days his courting was done without the knowledge of the quaker with whom he was now living
00:48:25in the evening when all were asleep davy would let himself out of the upstairs window by means of a sapling and ride ten miles to the girl's home always returning before daylight
00:48:39she at last agreed to marry him and the day was set lovers were not then given to sentimental tokens of affection a plug of sweet tobacco or a bladder of snuff for dipping was quite the thing to show the state of a young man's feelings
00:48:57flowers were nothing but yarbs and the present of a bouquet of mayflowers or laurel blossoms would have caused inquiry as to his sanity the mountaineer took no more notice than the indians of the beautiful things in nature
00:49:15a few days before the expected wedding davy set out as he told his employer for a hunt deer being then numerous instead of hunting he went to a shooting match on the way to the girl's home making a deal with another rifleman who must have had a little money
00:49:33they took chances in the shoot for a beef and when it was over davy had won after selling the prize the partners each had five dollars and with that in his pocket and his head above the clouds the boy went to claim his bride
00:49:50two miles from the girl's home her uncle lived and there he found her sister as soon as he began to talk with her he saw that something troubled her and then the whole pitiful story came out
00:50:04the girl had played with him and was to be married the next day to another man for a time davy was speechless his pride was hurt
00:50:17and he turned homeward his lonesome and miserable steps like a wounded animal stricken with mortal pain he was thought to be sick for several weeks for he was too proud to tell his trouble
00:50:32and in his story of suffering there is ample evidence of the strength of his attachment to those whom he loved for some time davy was too low-spirited to care for anything even hunting
00:50:48but one day he took his rifle and set out for the woods on his way home he stopped at the cabin of a dutch widow whose daughter he says was as ugly as a stone fence
00:51:00it was this girl however who pointed out to him how great a mistake he made in mourning over the loss of a single fish when the sea was full of others as good
00:51:12she told him of a pretty irish lass who was to be at a reaping-bee in a few days and induced him to come too by the end of the evening the charms of polly finlay took possession of his thoughts and davy found life more worth living
00:51:29as in so many cases the course of true love did not run smooth for the girl's mother had selected another suitor for her daughter and she bitterly opposed davy's suit
00:51:40after some weeks of courting davy won the girl's heart but when he went to ask for his bride the old lady ordered him out of the house with the girl's consent and the tacit permission of her father the young man secured the services of a justice to marry him on the following thursday
00:52:00and made arrangements to have his wife received at the tavern kept by his own father in ellis's story of crockett's life he quotes the following from the records of weekly county tennessee
00:52:14davy crockett with thomas doggett security binds himself in a bond of twelve hundred and fifty dollars to governor john severe august first eighteen o six to mary polly finlay
00:52:31no record of this kind really exists as weekly county was not organized until eighteen twenty three we do not know what the wedding fee was in those days but it was probably in the shape of worldly goods of small value
00:52:46as all sorts of pelts were used for currency we may imagine davy paying the justice in coonskins or muskrat hides to obtain a horse davy had agreed to work six months board and lodging free
00:53:01by giving up his rifle he came into possession of the animal before the time was up and when he went to the finley cabin he was able to tell the young woman that he would come for her on the day set with a horse saddle and bridle
00:53:17when the day came a thursday davy went to the finleys accompanied by two brothers and a sister a brother's wife and some others and found a number of neighbors there waiting for the wedding
00:53:29mrs finley was up in arms but davy rode up to the door and asked the girl if she was ready to light on a horse he was leading he was displaying his usual determination which ended in winning the day
00:53:44after the bride had taken her seat on the lead horse and the party was about to leave a parley was brought about by the girl's father the old lady melted at the thought of her girl being married away from home and the wedding took place without further opposition
00:54:02what ceremonies the outsiders observed davy never related he says that they were treated as well as could be expected they were not subjects for a
00:54:13but it is likely that the free use of gunpowder liquor and vocalized mountain air must have made the night one to be forever remembered by the two young people who were made man and wife
00:54:26the next day davy and his bride went to the crockett tavern for a visit the young wife's going-away dress was a dark blue homespun and at her throat was a scarlet kerchief that had been brought from baltimore by her mother
00:54:41she is said to have been a very pretty girl with warm gray eyes and a tender smile the girl's parents gave them their blessing together with two cows and two calves
00:54:52and when the kind old quaker john kennedy had arranged for a credit of fifteen dollars at the store they were able to get what they most needed for the cabin they had rented in the vicinity of john crockett's inn
00:55:06polly was skilled in the use of the loom and for some years they managed to make a living on the rented land the homestead system was not then in practice and the settler was called a squatter and seldom had any other tenure than the pleasure of the landowner
00:55:24about the time davy and his wife were making their new home pleasant lewis and clark were returning to washington from their expedition to the pacific coast napoleon was forming his confederacy of the rhine and becoming the terror of all europe
00:55:41and the alleged conspiracy of aaron burr was discovered and frustrated though burr still had the support of henry clay who claimed him to be innocent two months after davy's wedding napoleon made his triumphant entry into berlin and was at the summit of his career
00:55:59the insolence of english naval officers in disregarding the rights of american seamen found fruit in the war of eighteen twelve yet the most dramatic events of modern times scarcely drew the attention of the people of the western slope of the mountains
00:56:17only when some painted prophet from the tribes of the north or those with whom the french or the spanish intrigued went through the borderlands leaving a trail of unrest and superstitious passion behind him did the pioneers think of war
00:56:33the creeks and the chickasaws had been peaceful for many years but among the former tribe and its confederates a faction of the dissatisfied was slowly gaining ground
00:56:44so little fear of the indians prevailed that davy crockett did not hesitate to move from jefferson county to the region about fifty miles west of lookout mountain near the elk river where there were all kinds of game
00:56:58though bears were not as numerous as in the northwestern part of tennessee when davy moved to this new home in lincoln county in eighteen o nine he had two boys both under two years of age his wife's father with his own horse helped the family in moving
00:57:18davy again moved in eighteen ten this time to franklin county settling ten miles below winchester deer were abundant wild turkeys were found in every forest and it was an easy matter to supply food for the family
00:57:34at times some of the creeks strayed up from the coosa country across the alabama line and were always treated with courtesy
00:57:43but after davy's last shift the alabama indians were not always friendly the united states government had secured a right-of-way for a highway across alabama into the tom bigby region into which the settlers had begun to go in great numbers
00:58:02the sight of such an influx of whites had alarmed the creeks and red eagle or weatherford was the leader of those who now planned to go to war if necessary for the preservation of their ancient hunting-grounds
00:58:18red eagle was hardly one-fourth indian his father having been a scotch trader his mother the creek princess sahoy the daughter of a scotchman named mcillivray red eagle was also known as weatherford after his father charles weatherford
00:58:35soon after davy crockett settled in franklin county there came to his cabin three creeks whose manner was not to his liking they were evidently spying upon the land and one of them who wore a head decoration made of twenty or thirty silver florins asked for food
00:58:55injun hungry injun heep hungry walk long time no eat white man make em supper davy went into his cabin conferred with his wife and soon reappeared with a large piece of corned beef which he intended to boil in the kettle
00:59:12that hung from a tripod of steaks in front of the door the braves took a look at the meat held a short consultation and their leader spoke again
00:59:22salt meat no good white man eat em injun no eat em then he pointed to a fine fat calf that was the pride of the family and said no eat em corned beef injun kill em calf eat em
00:59:40davy shook his head in refusal of the plan proposed and reached for his rifle which was always at hand the indian spokesman thereupon made another suggestion
00:59:52kill em calf white man half injun half right hand across his body injun half while the indians were making this effort at compromise with nothing to lose in any event
01:00:06polly crockett untied the calf let it into the cabin and shut the door the three braves went scowling away during the year eighteen eleven the great chief tecumseh acting as an agent of the british
01:00:21traveled from the lake region to florida where he succeeded in persuading the warlike seminoles to promise help in fighting the whites on his way south he visited the chickasaws in western tennessee
01:00:36and although these indians did not listen with favor to his plans his visit created an uneasy feeling among the few settlers in their country in october tecumseh
01:00:47with thirty naked braves marched into the tucobacha town while colonel hawkins was holding a grand council for the purpose of placating the war party among the creeks as long as colonel hawkins remained tecumseh was silent but after his departure
01:01:05the renowned chieftain soon won the majority of the creek nation to his side it was in october eighteen eleven that tecumseh resumed his journey to the north with the assurance of red eagle's readiness to make war when the time should be ripe
01:01:23in november the next month the battle of tippecanoe was fought and general harrison defeated the indians who were commanded by elsquotowa the prophet brother of tecumseh
01:01:35before leaving the creek country tecumseh quarreled with the chief big warrior who refused to join in his schemes tecumseh told him so the tradition runs
01:01:47that when he reached detroit he would stamp upon the ground and all the houses in tucobacha would fall to the ground some writers mentioning this threat seemed to be in doubt regarding the promised earthquake but on the midnight of december fifteenth eighteen eleven
01:02:06after the arrival of tecumseh after the arrival of tecumseh in the north earthquakes along the mississippi valley suddenly began the town of new madrid disappeared the face of the country was much changed and what is known as real foot lake fifty miles long and very wide was formed close to the main river of this lake there is more to tell in a later chapter
01:02:33end of chapter four
01:02:40davy is a scout farmer and trapper tall grass and his boys the blowguns of the chickasaws loony joe
01:02:50little warrior starts trouble and punishment follows davy dreams of higher things the spanish at pensacola aid the british and the hostile indians
01:03:00hurricane ned brings news from alabama the red sticks the massacre at fort mimms and the call to arms davy becomes a scout under jackson gets his dander up the independence of the mountaineer volunteers
01:03:17the year of eighteen hundred eleven was a busy one for davy who was then coming twenty-five he was still boyish and rather awkward in some ways but with the rifle and in securing pelts of the most valuable sorts he had few rivals
01:03:33shot guns or scatter guns were not much used in hunting powder and lead were the most precious of all the pioneers possessions and nothing smaller than a wild turkey was considered worth the cost of a shot for that reason small game was always abundant and almost fearless in the presence of the hunter
01:03:51one autumn morning davy was talking with tall grass a chickasaw who had two of his boys with him they were from ten to twelve years old and each carried a reed blowgun nearly ten feet long
01:04:05davy had heard of these weapons of the chickasaws and asked the boys to show them how they were used they all started for the woods a mile away where small game was plenty
01:04:15in a swampy spot the logs lay here and there across the ground as the result of a cyclone or wind storm in the years gone by in the northern states such a place would be called a windfall in tennessee it was called a hurricane
01:04:31the boys went ahead their reeds that tilt like spearmen of feudal days each carried small darts tipped with steel with thistle-down tied at the opposite ends
01:04:44a rabbit flashed from under a bush as they advanced and stopped fifty feet away the older boy slipped a dart into his reed brought it to a steady aim filled his lungs and cheeks
01:04:56and put all his young strength into the puff that sent the twelve-inch arrow on its course the rabbit leaped from its mound of moss and fell struggling with the dart in its side
01:05:08a partridge that perched in the limbs of a hickory came tumbling down when the younger boy tried to his skill with dignified pride tall grass said to davy some day big chiefs
01:05:20the boys soon secured all the game they could carry tall grass not offering his aid and the party started to return suddenly a terrifying yell rang through the woods startling the indians until they saw a grin on davy's face
01:05:34the noise of feet was heard and there soon appeared what was intended to represent a warrior in full attire with paint turkey feathers bow and arrows scalping knife and moccasins as the strange creature came closer the indians saw that it was a white boy evidently half-witted
01:05:52he had trailed them all the way and had sounded his war-cry in what seemed to him the fittest spot for dark and bloody deeds tall grass gave him a disgusted glance and turned away heap full was all he said the boy was allowed to go back with them and was shown the use of the blowgun
01:06:11he afterwards made one and became of some use in hunting small game but he never could get rid of the notion that he was an indian warrior he was known as loony joe
01:06:23some weeks later the creek chief little warrior who had gone north with tecumseh returned to alabama with his thirty braves of the war faction of their nation
01:06:34in the chickasaw country not far north of where davy lived they murdered several families of settlers in cold blood the leaders of the creek nation which was at peace with the whites answered the demands of the united states government by hunting down and killing the whole party
01:06:51justice was satisfied but the war faction of the creeks grew fiercer and angrier with each rising sun the alabamas an associated tribe became especially truculent and killed one of the mail carriers employed by the government
01:07:07when big warriors sent a creek messenger to the same tribe inviting their chiefs to a council they murdered his envoy and a desultory war began
01:07:18the danger of an indian uprising became imminent during eighteen twelve and after the united states had formally declared war against great britain on june eighteenth every pioneer looked towards rifle and supply of ammunition
01:07:31while tecumseh's messengers were distributing the calendars of red sticks to the creek chieftains the british warship guerrier was taking new england sailors from the decks of american vessels in sight of new york city
01:07:44england was landing supplies and agents in pensacola for use against the restless indians the spanish acting as go-betweens uncle sam was surrounded by the growling dogs of war without a friend in the world
01:07:57while thus the clash of arms drew near davy still hunted and farmed and trapped on beans creek adding to his fame as a rifleman and as he said when he had become known in congress laying the foundation of all his future greatness
01:08:13we should not blame him for his overestimate of his own importance when the flattering attentions of great men who were equally great politicians had been thrust upon him
01:08:23if he at one time seriously thought that he might become president only his lack of education made his imaginings unjustifiable in a nation that has so often chosen its leaders from the humble cabins of the poor
01:08:36every day the two parties among the alabama indians became more truculent and frequent encounters ended in bloodshed in the spring of eighteen thirteen the prophet francis made the order and ordained by tecumseh peter mcqueen
01:08:53and high head jim began a predatory warfare upon the peaceful indians and half-breeds who had good houses and farms
01:09:04with more than three hundred followers the hostile leaders set out for pensacola with their plunder under colonel collar assisted by so many lieutenant-colonels majors and captains that his force was like artemus ward's regiment of brigadier-generals
01:09:21a force of two hundred american volunteers overtook the indians at burnt corn sent them flying and proceeded to divide the plunder left by the enemy before they had finished this the indians attacked them in turn having rallied when no longer pursued
01:09:37and the volunteers were driven back and dispersed as they are not known to have lost more than two of their number they do not seem to have been very desperate fighters
01:09:47when hurricane ned an old hunter of hurricane fork brought the news of this to franklin county he predicted an attack by the creek war party who were being urged by british agents to paint themselves for battle
01:10:01red eagle would have temporized with his chieftains but they seized his children and his negro slaves as hostages while he was away from home so he prepared perforce to strike a decisive blow at the progress of civilization
01:10:16the red sticks were thrown away day by day until but few were left when the last was gone and the tom-toms were beating the frenzied braves smeared themselves with vermilion till their naked bodies were like flames of fire
01:10:29the white settlers and the friendly indians flocked to the various forts hastily built of logs in fort mims three or four hundred men women and children with about two hundred volunteers sent as a garrison by general claiborne
01:10:43came together in the middle of august about the twenty seventh of the month a badly scared negro returned to fort mims from a hunt for stray cows he had seen the woods full of indians apparently covered with blood their red skins being ominous of trouble
01:11:00major beasley who was in command sent out scouts to the place where the negro had been the scouts failed to find red eagle and a thousand braves with him and the negro had a close escape from being flogged for lying
01:11:16two days later two other negroes claimed to have seen the indians and were whipped one of them was still triced up when the bell called the people of the fort to dinner as they went their way red eagle and his savages crept from their hiding-places and were within a hundred feet of the gates before they were discovered
01:11:34then it was found that the gates were blocked by drifted sand and could not be closed for some hours the battle raged and before sunset all but twenty or thirty of the people in the fort had been killed and scalped
01:11:48a few had escaped through the stockade and some had been spared as slaves after in vain trying to stop the fury he had fanned to action red eagle rode away from the scene of butchery and when he returned on his fine black horse
01:12:03more than five hundred lay dead and mutilated within the fort no half-way position was now possible and until the end of the war he was active and aggressive
01:12:16the whole western slope of the mountains now awoke to the danger calls from men were answered by north and south carolina and georgia and tennessee
01:12:26whose volunteers for the defense of new orleans had recently been recalled from natchez also took up the gage of battle all her people agreed that andrew jackson should be the one to lead the volunteers into alabama
01:12:40but he was in bed suffering from a wound in his left shoulder caused by two slugs from the pistol of thomas h benton in a free-for-all fight the two men were afterwards reconciled and became friends
01:12:53but jackson could never wear one of his heavy epaulets for any length of time while jackson had generally spoken of as a great indian fighter he was not at this time entitled to such a reputation
01:13:05a few years before he had been chosen major-general of volunteers but most of his actual fighting had been with his personal and political foes he had killed charles dickinson in a duel for slurs upon mrs jackson and had ridden full tilt at governor sevier with the intention of running over him
01:13:24before jackson could take the saddle a rally was held at winchester ten miles from davy crockett's as davy there enlisted as a volunteer it would be worth while to hear what he had to say upon the subject
01:13:40i for one had often thought about war and had often heard it described and i did verily believe that i couldn't fight in that way at all but my after experience convinced me that it was all a notion
01:13:57for when i heard of the mischief that was done at the fort i instantly felt like going and i had none of my dread of dying that i had expected to feel
01:14:08in a few days a general meeting of the militia was called for the purpose of raising volunteers and when the day arrived for the meeting my wife who had heard me say i meant to go to the war began to beg me not to turn out
01:14:28she said she was a stranger in the parts where we lived had no connections living near her and that she and our little children would be left in a lonesome and unhappy situation if i went away
01:14:41it was mighty hard to go against arguments like these but my countrymen had been murdered and i knew that the next thing the indians would be scalping the woman and children all about there if we didn't put a stop to it
01:14:58i reasoned the case with her as well as i could and told her that if every man would wait until his wife was willing for him to go to war we would all be killed in our own houses
01:15:11that i was as able to go as any man in the world and that it was a duty i believed i owed to my country seeing that i was bent on it all she did was to cry a little and turn about to her work
01:15:25the truth is my dander was up and nothing but war could bring it right again when the militia was paraded at winchester volunteers were called for and davy was one of the first to step forward in a short time a company was raised officers were chosen and they arranged to make a start on the monday following
01:15:44the company were all mounted and when the day came davy said farewell to his wife and his little boys and rode away to the rendezvous from there the command went to huntsville ala forty miles south then to beady spring
01:15:59where they were joined by other mounted men until they mustered thirteen hundred davy's company was one that stuck together under the same leader captain jones until they returned to tennessee jones was later sent to congress
01:16:15davy's experience as a scout now began major gibson who was about to go into the coosa country to get information about the indians asked captain jones to let him have two men who could be relied upon as woodsmen and riflemen
01:16:31the captain called davy who was now twenty-seven and strong and healthy with a full beard davy expressed his willingness to join the scouting expedition if he might choose his own mate
01:16:44this being granted he picked out a friend named george russell when gibson saw russell he said he hadn't beard enough to suit him he wanted men not boys
01:16:56at this davy's dander was up and he told the major that by this rule a goat would have the call over a man that he knew what sort of a man russell was and that he was not likely to be left behind on a march
01:17:11seeing davy's warmth the major relented and took them both the temper of the western volunteers recalls mcclay's story of the backwoodsmen who took part on board of the hyder alley
01:17:24in cape may rhodes in the fight with the general monk he stood near lieutenant barney in the action picking off the enemy with the same deliberation with which he reloaded under a sharp fire
01:17:37his buck county blood was up but his curiosity was not asleep twice he had turned to barney to ask the same question say cap who made this gun i'm using resenting such a breach of naval decorum in the marine barney answered him roughly ignoring the question
01:17:56but as it was again asked he sharply inquired his reason for wanting to know wal replied the man with the drawl peculiar to mountaineers
01:18:07this ere bit of iron is just the best smoothbore i ever fired in my life with the mountaineer's independence and who jackson had strenuous dealings before the end of the creek war
01:18:22end of chapter five
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