the frontier.  The entire force of the settlers was now two hundred and ten, forty of whom were at Watauga under Sevier and Robertson, the remainder at and near Fort Patrick Henry under no less than six militia captains, no one of whom was bound to obey the command of any of the others.  This many-headed authority would doubtless have worked disastrously to the loosely-jointed force had there not been in it as a volunteer a young man of twenty-five who in the moment of supreme danger seized the absolute command and rallied the men to victory.  His name was Isaac Shelby, and this was the first act in a long career in the whole of which “he deserved well of his country.”

Thus, from the 30th of May till the 11th of July the settlers slept with their rifles in their hands, expecting every night to hear the Indian war-whoop, and every day to receive some messenger from Nancy Ward with tidings that the warriors were on the march for the settlements.  At last the messengers came,—­four of them at once,—­as we may see from the following letter, in which Sevier announces their arrival to the Committee of Safety of Fincastle County, Virginia: 

     “FORT LEE, July 11, 1776.

DEAR GENTLEMEN,—­Isaac Thomas, William Falling, Jarot Williams, and one more, have this moment come in, by making their escape from the Indians, and say six hundred Indians and whites were to start for this fort, and intend to drive the country up to New River before they return.

     JOHN SEVIER.”

He says nothing of the feeble fort and his slender garrison of only forty men; he shows no sign of fear, nor does he ask for aid in the great peril.  The letter is characteristic of the man, and it displays that utter fearlessness which, with other great qualities, made him the hero of the Border.  The details of the information brought by Thomas to Sevier and Robertson showed how truthfully Nancy Ward had previously reported to them the secret designs of the Cherokees.  The whole nation was about to set out upon the war-path.  With the Creeks they were to make a descent upon Georgia, and with the Shawnees, Mingoes, and Delawares upon Kentucky and the exposed parts of Virginia, while seven hundred chosen Ottari warriors were to fall upon the settlers on the Watauga, Holston, and Nolachucky.  This last force was to be divided into two bodies of three hundred and fifty each, one of which, under Oconostota, was to attack Fort Watauga; the other, under Dragging-Canoe, head-chief of the Chickamaugas, was to attempt the capture of Fort Patrick Henry, which they supposed to be still defended by only about seventy men.  But the two bodies were to act together, the one supporting the other in case it should be found that the settlers were better prepared for defence than was anticipated.  The preparation for the expedition Thomas had himself seen:  its object and the points of attack he had learned from Nancy Ward, who had come to his cabin at midnight on the