whole flavor or point of view of the work will be affected by the mighty conflict of nations. But the war will be best taught and studied in its proper relation to the development of history as a whole. There can be no question, however, that the teacher will be called on to prepare himself or herself to meet new demands for leadership in thought. The teacher must be ready to use the war and the problems which it has raised as a means of stimulating interest in history, to give talks upon the war in all its phases, and to answer questions on the part of the students and of the community generally. These new demands have received the thoughtful consideration of many writers and students, both in the field of history and in many allied subjects. The History Teacher's Magazine, to which so many references have already been made, has devoted, during the last year, particular attention to this matter, with most excellent results. Special articles have appeared, and others will be published in the future, directed to just this matter of helping school teachers to interpret the war in the best possible way. Particular mention must be made of Collected Materials for the Study of the Great War, compiled by Albert E. McKinley and issued by the publishers of the History Teacher's Magazine,-the McKinley Publishing Company of Philadelphia. This includes an elaborate Topical Outline of the War, by Samuel B. Harding; a Syllabus for a Course of Study upon the Preliminaries of the Present Conflict, by H. L. Hoskins; excellent maps for the study of the war with comments, by S. B. Harding and W. E. Linglebach; a Bibliography of Publications in English relating to the World War; and extensive selections from President Wilson's War Addresses, Statutes of the United States relating to the State of War; and Executive Proclamations and Orders. Published at the low cost of 65 cents. this volume would seem to be a nearly indispensable guide to the study and teaching of the war. ST. GEORGE L. SIOUSSAT. INDIAN WARS AND WARRIORS OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST, 1730-1807. (Copyright, 1918, Albert V. Goodpasture.) CHAPTER V.-Continued. The assault on Freeland's Station was the last engagement the settlers had with the Chickasaws, though the latter, before they retired, united with a party of Cherokees and did much damage to the stock and plantations on the Cumberland. Our historians say that Colonel Robertson made peace with them in 1782, but I do not find any evidence of such a treaty. Peace was restored by the removal of the original cause of irritation. The Chickasaws, as has been stated, resented the appropriation of their hunting grounds without their consent. Upon the erection of Fort Jefferson they at once put themselves in communication with the British at Pensacola. November 23, 1780, Major General John Campbell, commanding his Majesty's forces in the province of West Florida, appointed James Colbert, leader and conductor of such volunteer inhabitants, and Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and other Indians as should join him, for the purpose of annoying, distressing, attacking, and repelling the King's enemies.127 Colbert conducted the siege of Fort Jefferson. At the end of five or six days the garrison was reduced to the utmost extremity, when they were fortunately relieved by Colonel Clark;128 the post, however, which had been inconsiderately established, was evacuated and About the last of August, 1782, Simon Burney and two Chickasaw warriors, under a flag of truce, delivered to Colonel Logan, of Lincoln County, Kentucky, a talk signed by Poymace Tankaw, Mingo Homaw, Tuskon Patapo, and Piomingo, in which they expressed their desire for peace. They admitted they had done mischief in Kentucky, as well as on the Cumberland, but alleged that the building of Fort Jefferson on their hunting ground, without their consent, made it necessary to take up arms to defend what they deemed their natural right; but that the cause being then in some measure removed, they desired to be again at peace with the American States. On the receipt of this talk, Colonel John Donelson, who had gone to Kentucky after the breaking up of his station on the Cumberland, wrote the Governor of Virginia, urging the ap 127 Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Vol. 1, p. 391. 128 Collin's History of Kentucky, p. 40. permanently abandoned June 8, 1781.129 129 Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Vol. 2, p. 313. pointment of commissioners to negotiate a treaty with them, and suggesting the French Lick, on the Cumberland River, as the place most agreeable to the Chickasaws for a meeting.130 Acting upon this information and advice, Governor Harrison appointed Colonels John Donelson, Joseph Martin, and Isaac Shelby commissioners to treat with the Southern Indians. The intermediary between the Governor, the Commissioners, and the Chickasaws was Major John Reid. Major Reid visited the Governor at Richmond; delivered Donelson's commission to him at New London; carried additional instructions to Martin at the Great Island of Holston; called upon Shelby in Kentucky, and arrived at the French Lick on Cumberland, on his way to the Chickasaws, May 2, 1783. Colonel Robertson opposed the assembling of the Chickasaws in the Cumberland settlements, and refused to allow Major Reid to proceed further until he had called a meeting of the Committee. 131 The committee at first agreed with Colonel Robertson, but upon Major Reid's pressing the necessity of the matter, they reached the conclusion set forth in their minutes, as follows: June 3, 1783. Major John Reid moved the Committee of Cumberland relative to the assembling of the southern tribes of Indians at the French Lick on Cumberland, for holding a treaty with the Commissioners appointed by the State of Virginia; when the Committee, considering how difficult it will be for the handful of people, reduced to poverty and distress by a continued scene of Indian barbarity, to furnish any large body of Indians with provisions; and how prejudicial it may be to our infant settlement, should they not be furnished with provisions, or otherwise dissatisfied with the terms of the treaty; on which consideration the Committee refer it to the unanimous suffrages of the people of this settlement, whether the treaty shall be held here with their consent or no, and that the suffrages of the several stations be delivered to the Clerk of Committee on Thursday evening, the fifth instant. Result: Freeland's Station, no treaty here, 32. Heatonburg, no treaty here, 1; treaty here, 54. The other stations of Gasper Mansker's and Maulding's failing to return their votes.132 It being agreed that the treaty should be held at the French Lick on Cumberland, it was arranged that the conferences should take place at the large Sulphur Spring, on the Charlotte Road, where General Robertson afterwards resided. The time named by the Chickasaws was the full moon in October. The Indians arrived on time, and were ten days in advance of 130 Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Vol. 3, pp. 282, 284. Commissioners Donelson and Martin. Shelby did not attend, on account of one of his brothers having recently been killed by the Indians in Kentucky.133 The treaty was finally concluded November 12, 1783.134 By the terms of the treaty the Chickasaws ceded a large body of land on the south side of Cumberland River, which they afterwards confirmed at the treaty of Hopewell in 1785. In addition to the cession of land, which was important, the Cumberland settlers won the warm friendship of the Chickasaws, which was never afterwards interrupted, and which proved of the greatest value to the settlement. No other man ever had their confidence quite so completely as General Robertson. His last public service was in their nation, where he died, September 1, 1814. On the other hand, their leader, Piomingo, also called the Mountain Leader, was well known and universally respected on the Cumberland. John Robinson borrowed his name as a pseudonym, under which he wrote a volume of essays, of considerable merit, contrasting the usages of civilized man with those of the savage, first published in 1810.135 An unfortunate confusion of the life of Piomingo with that of General William Colbert, by the great Indian biographer, Samuel G. Drake, has almost obliterated his personality from our histories. Drake says, "from the circumstance that the name Piomingo is not signed to any of the treaties after that of Colbert appears, induces the belief that he is the same person, and that, from his attachment to the whites, he took one of their names." He then proceeds to commingle the acts of the two chiefs as though they were one and the same person. It now becomes necessary, therefore, to tell who General Colbert was. 29136 The Colbert family was for many years the most powerful family in the Chickasaw Nation, and, in common with the rest of the tribe, was uniformly friendly to the United States. It was founded by James Colbert, a Scotchman, who married a Chickasaw woman and adopted the Indian life. He was the same who bore the English commission and conducted the siege of Fort Jefferson. Then for some years he conducted extensive 133 Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Vol. 3, p. 533. 134Haywood and Ramsey do not undertake to give the date of this treaty. Putnam (History of Middle Tennessee, p. 196) says it was held in the month of June, 1783; but Major Reid, in his report to Governor Harrison, gives the exact date, as stated in the text. Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Vol. 3, pp. 562-4. The Savage. By Piomingo, a Headsman and Warrior of the Muscogulgee Nation. Philadelphia, 1810. 138 Drake's Indians of North America, 15th Ed., p. 401. piratical operations against the Spanish on the Mississippi River, which gave them great annoyance, and caused much uneasiness on the Cumberland. June 3, 1783, the committee of Cumberland resolved to send two men to the Illinois, with letters to be transmitted to the Spanish Governor, denying any connection or sympathy with Colbert's proceedings. 137 Suspicion was especially directed against Colonel John Montgomery, who had seen service in the Illinois, and the Governor of North Carolina issued a proclamation charging him with aiding and abetting Colbert. The county court of Davidson County, at its first session, in 1784, placed Colonel Montgomery under bond to appear at the next term of the court and answer said charges.138 But before the next term of the court the governor's proclamation had been withdrawn, and the proceedings were dismissed as of course. When Colonel Robertson, having located two negroes, one taken at Mattattock and the other on the Arkansas, offered to assist in their recovery if the owners could be found, Monsieur Cruzat replied that Colbert and his people, scattered in several bands, were carrying on war by robbery and pillage everywhere, and consisted of so large a number of persons that it was impossible to procure the necessary proofs." 140 139 This James Colbert had four sons, William, George, Levi, and James. General William Colbert, who succeeded Piomingo as the principal chief of the Nation, distinguished himself as the friend of the United States. He served under Gen. eral Wayne against the Indians of the Northwest, and in 1794 made war on the Creeks to avenge their depredations in the Cumberland settlements. When the Creek war broke out in 1813, he hastened to join the third regiment of United States infantry for service against the old enemies of the Chickasaws. He served five months in the regular infantry, when he returned to his Nation and raised an independent force, which he led against the hostile Creeks, whom he pursued from Pensacola almost to Apalachicola, killing many, and bringing eighty-five prisoners back to Montgomery. In June, 1816, he headed a Chickasaw delegation to Washington, and in the treaty that followed, he is styled Major General, and is granted an annuity of $100 during life. Later, he supported the emigration principle, and, to give to it the weight of his example, he went him 127 American Historical Magazine, Vol. 7, p. 134. 138 Putnam's History of Middle Tennessee, p. 211. 159 American Historical Magazine, Vol. 7, p. 318. 140 American Historical Magazine, Vol. 7, pp. 75-6. |