When, towards the close of 1792, the ravages became very serious, Sevier, the man whom the Indians feared more than any other, was called to take command of the militia.  For a year he confined himself to acting on the defensive, and even thus he was able to give much protection to the settlements.  In September, 1793, however, several hundred Indians, mostly Cherokees, crossed the Tennessee not thirty miles from Knoxville.  They attacked a small station, within which there were but thirteen souls, who, after some resistance, surrendered on condition that their lives should be spared; but they were butchered with obscene cruelty.  Sevier immediately marched toward the assailants, who fled back to the Cherokee towns.  Thither Sevier followed them, and went entirely through the Cherokee country to the land of the Creeks, burning the towns and destroying the stores of provisions.  He marched with his usual quickness, and the Indians were never able to get together in sufficient numbers to oppose him.  When he crossed High Tower River there was a skirmish, but he soon routed the Indians, killing several of their warriors, and losing himself but three men killed and three wounded.  He utterly destroyed a hostile Creek town, the chief of which was named Buffalo Horn.  He returned late in October, and after his return the frontiers of Eastern Tennessee had a respite from the Indian ravages.  Yet Congress refused to pay his militia for the time they were out, because they had invaded the Indian country instead of acting on the defensive. [Footnote:  Robertson MSS., Blount to Robertson, Oct. 29, 1793; Knoxville Gazette, Oct. 12, and Nov. 23, 1793.]

    Destruction of Nickajack and Running Water.

To chastise the Upper Cherokee Towns gave relief to the settlements on the Holston, but the chief sinners were the Chickamaugas of the Lower Cherokee towns, and the chief sufferers were the Cumberland settlers.  The Cumberland people were irritated beyond endurance, alike by the ravages of these Indians and by the conduct of the United States in forbidding them to retaliate.  In September, 1794, they acted for themselves.  Early in the month Robertson received certain information that a large body of Creeks and Lower Cherokees had gathered at the towns and were preparing to invade the Cumberland settlements.  The best way to meet them was by a stroke in advance, and he determined to send an expedition against them in their strongholds.  There was no question whatever as to the hostility of the Indians, for at this very time settlers were being killed by war parties throughout the Cumberland country.  Some Kentuckians, under Colonel Whitley, had joined the Tennesseeans, who were nominally led by a Major Ore; but various frontier fighters, including Kaspar Mansker, were really as much in command as was Ore.  Over five hundred mounted riflemen, bold of heart and strong of hand, marched toward the Chickamauga towns, which contained some three hundred warriors.