abandoning their
farms to seek safety in the garrisoned forts. On one occasion an
at t aids by two hundred of the enemy, half of them being Tories, stripped
and painted like Indians, was repulsed by the timely arrival of a body
of Americans, who succeeded in capturing thirteen of the Tories. The
invasion extended into Georgia, where also property was destroyed
and the inhabitants were driven from their homes.'
Realizing their common danger, the border states determined to
strike such a concerted blow at the Cherokee as should render them
passive while the struggle with England continued. In accord with
this plan of cooperation tin; frontier forces were quickly mobilized and
Ramse) Tenne ■. pp L50-159 1858
Eto aevelt, Winning of the West, I, pp. 293-297, 1889.
i nkv] RUTHERFORD AND WILLIAMSON EXPEDITIONS 177«> 49
in the summer of 1776 fourexpeditions were equipped from Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to enter the Cherokee
territory simultaneously from as many different directions.
In August of that year the army of North Carolina, 2,400 strong,
under General Griffith Rutherford, crossed the Blue ridge at Swan-
nanoa gap, and following the main trail almost along the present line
of the railroad, struck the first Indian town, Stika'yi, or Stecoee, on
the Tuekasegee, near the present Whittier. The inhabitants having
fled, the soldiers burned the town, together with an unfinished town-
house ready for the roof, cut down the standing corn, killed one or
twostraggling Indians, and then proceeded on their mission of destruc-
tion. Every town upon Oconaluftee, Tuekasegee, and the upper
part of Little Tennessee, and on Hiwassee to below the junction of
Valley river — thirty-six towns in all — was