The former part of the year 1780, was one of gloom and despondency in the Southern States.  Charleston surrendered, Gates defeated, and other minor reverses; Tories becoming daring and insolent; the British overrunning South Carolina and Georgia; the Indians upon the borders, bribed and inflamed against the Americans—­all tended to increase the gloom and darken the prospect of achieving our independence.  But amidst all the obscurity which shrouded the sun of American independence, there was a gallant band of patriots in the mountains of North Carolina and upper South Carolina, who never quailed in duty before the enemy, struck a severe blow at every opportune moment, and never despaired of final success.

In the brilliant victory of King’s Mountain, Col.  Sevier, with his regiment, displayed the most consummate bravery.  In June of the same year, he marched into South Carolina and assisted Col.  McDowell and other officers in the successful battle of Musgrove’s Mill.

In 1781, Colonel Sevier was appointed by General Greene a commissioner to treat with the chiefs of the Cherokees and other tribes of Indians, which trust he faithfully performed.  During the years 1781 and 1782, he was almost constantly engaged in leading expeditions into the Cherokee country.

On the 14th of December, 1784, a convention of five delegates from each county of the extreme western portion of North Carolina, met at Jonesboro, now in Tennessee, of which body Col.  Sevier was made President.  They formed a constitution for a new State, to be called “Frankland,” which was to be received or rejected by another body of similar powers, “fresh from the people,” to meet at Greenville in November 1785.  This anomalous state of things, as might be expected, caused Governor Caswell, who was both a soldier and a statesman, to issue his proclamation “against this lawless thirst for power.”

The prescribed limits of this sketch forbid a full recital of all the angry discussions and violent acts of the opposing parties which unfortunately, for about three years, seriously disturbed the peace and welfare of Western North Carolina.

In 1789, Colonel Sevier was elected the Senator from Greene county to the Legislature of North Carolina.  In 1790, he was elected a member of Congress.  He was twice elected Governor of Tennessee.  In 1811, he was elected a Representative to Congress, and in 1813, re-elected to the same position.  In 1815, he was appointed by President Madison a commissioner to adjust difficulties with the Creek Indians.  Whilst engaged in the performance of this arduous duty, he was taken seriously ill, and soon thereafter died near Fort Decatur, Ala., on the 24th of September, 1815, aged about eighty-one years.

Gen. Gaines, then in command of the regular troops near that place, though quite ill at the time, paid the last sad tribute of respect to a brave fellow-soldier, and had him buried with the honors of war.