was set in motion. A very few went by the river
route; the rest, nearly all of the 13,000, went overland. Crossing to
the north side of the Hiwassee at a ferry above Gunstocker creek,
the}' proceeded down along the river, the sick, the old people, and the
smaller children, with the blankets, cooking pots, and other belong-
ings in wagons, the rest on foot or on horses. The number of wagons
was fI45.
It was like the march of an army, regiment after regiment, the
wagons in the center, the officers along the line and the horsemen on
the flanks and at the rear. Tennessee river was crossed at Tuckers (?)
ferry, a short distance above Jollys island, at the mouth of Hiwassee.
Thence the route lay south of Pikeville, through McMinnville and
on to Nashville, where the Cumberlandwas crossed. Then they went
on to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where the noted chief White-path,
in charge of a detachment, sickened and died. His people buried
him by the roadside, with a box over the grave and poles with stream-
ers around it, that the others coming on behind might note the spot
and remember him. Somewhere also along that march of death — for
the exiles died by tens and twenties every day of the journey — the
devoted wife of John Ross sank down, leaving him to go on with the
bitter pain of bereavement added to heartbreak at the ruin of his
nation. The Ohio was crossed at a ferry near the mouth of the Cum-
berland, and the army passed on through southern Illinois until the
great Mississippi was reached opposite Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It
was now