of dressed deer-
skins and other valuables were carried off. Everything was swept clean,
and the Indians who were not killed or taken were driven, homeless
refugees, into the dark recesses of Nantahala or painfully made their
way across to the Overhill towns in Tennessee, which were already
menaced by another invasion from the north.'
In -Inly, while Williamson was engaged on the the upper Savannah,
a force of two hundred Georgians, under Colonel Samuel .lack, had
marched in the same direction ami succeeded in burning two towns on
the heads of ( 'hat t ahoochee and Tugaloo rivers, destroying the corn
ami driving oil' the cattle, without the loss of a man. the Cherokee
having apparently fallen hack to concentrate for resistance in the
mountains. 2
The Virginia army, about two thousand strong, under Colonel
William Christian (18), rendezvoused in Augustat the Long island
of the Ilolston. the regular gathering place on the Tennessee side of
the mountains. Among them were several hundred men from North
Carolina, with all who could he spared from the garrisons on the
Tennessee side. Paying hut little attention to small bodies of Lndi
ans, who tried to divert attention ortodelay progress by flankattacks,
they advanced steadily, hut cautiously, along the great Indian war-
path (19) toward the crossing id' the French Broad, where a strong
force of ( 'hcrokec was reported to he in waiting to dispute their pas-
sage, .lust before reaching the river the Indians sent a Tory trader
1 For Williamson's expedition, ••<■<■ Ross Journal, with Rockwell's notes, in Historical Magazine,
October, 1876; Swain.Sketch of the rndian War in n~u, in North Carolina University Magazine for
May, 1852, reprinted in Historical