Meanwhile, Oconostota, with his three hundred and fifty warriors, had followed the trail along the Nolachucky, and on the morning of the 20th had come upon the house of William Bean, the hospitable entertainer of Robertson on his first visit to Watauga, Bean himself was at the fort, to which had fled all the women and children in the settlement, but his wife had preferred to remain at home.  She had many friends among the Indians, and she felt confident they would pass her without molestation.  She was mistaken.  They took her captive, and removed her to their station-camp on the Nolachucky.  There a warrior pointed his rifle at her, as if to fire; but Oconostota threw up the barrel and began to question her as to the strength of the whites.  She gave him misleading replies, with which he appeared satisfied, for he soon told her she was not to be killed, but taken to their towns to teach their women how to manage a dairy.

Those at the fort knew that Oconostota was near by on the Nolachucky, but he had deferred the attack so long that they concluded the wary and cautious old chief was waiting to be reinforced by the body under Dragging-Canoe, which had gone to attack Fort Patrick Henry.  News had reached them of Shelby’s victory, and, as it would be some time before the broken Cherokees could rally and join Oconostota, they were in no apprehension of immediate danger.  Accordingly, they went about their usual vocations, and so it happened that a number of the women ventured outside the fort as usual to milk the cows on the morning of the 21st of July.  Among them was one who was destined to occupy for many years the position of the “first lady in Tennessee.”

Her name was Catherine Sherrell, and she was the daughter of Samuel Sherrell, one of the first settlers on the Watauga.  In age she was verging upon twenty, and she was tall, straight as an arrow, and lithe as a hickory sapling.  I know of no portrait of her in existence, but tradition describes her as having dark eyes, flexible nostrils, regular features, a clear, transparent skin, a neck like a swan, and a wealth of wavy brown hair, which was a wonder to look at and was in striking contrast to the whiteness of her complexion.  A free life in the open air had made her as supple as an eel and as agile as a deer.  It was said that, encumbered by her womanly raiment, she had been known to place one hand upon a six-barred fence and clear it at a single bound.  And now her agility was to do her essential service.

While she and the other women, unconscious of danger, were “coaxing the snowy fluid from the yielding udders of the kine,” suddenly the war-whoop sounded through the woods, and a band of yelling savages rushed out upon them.  Quick as thought the women turned and darted for the gate of the fort; but the savages were close upon them in a neck-and-neck race, and Kate, more remote than the rest, was cut off from the entrance.  Seeing her danger, Sevier and a