“It was mighty hard,” writes Crockett, “to go against such arguments as these.  But my countrymen had been murdered, and I knew that the next thing would be that the Indians would be scalping the women and children all about there, if we didn’t put a stop to it.  I reasoned the case with her as well as I could, and told her that if every man would wait till his wife got willing for him to go to war, there would be no fighting done until we all should be killed in our own houses; that as I was as able to go as any man in the world, and that I believed it was a duty I owed to my country.  Whether she was satisfied with this reasoning or not she did not tell me, but seeing I was bent on it, all she did was to cry a little, and turn about to her work.”

David Crockett hastened to Winchester.  There was a large gathering there from all the hamlets and cabins for many miles around.  The excitement was intense.  The nation of Creek Indians was a very powerful one, and in intelligence and military skill far in advance of most of the Indian tribes.  Mr. Crockett was one of the first to volunteer to form a company to serve for sixty days, under Captain Jones, who subsequently was a member of Congress from Tennessee.  In a week the whole company was organized, and commenced its march to join others for the invasion of the Creek country.  It was thought that by carrying the war directly into the Indian towns, their warriors might be detained at home to protect their wives and children, and could thus be prevented from carrying desolation into the settlements of the whites.

In the mean time David Crockett revisited his humble home, where his good but anxious and afflicted wife fitted him out as well as she could for the campaign.  David was not a man of sentiment and was never disposed to contemplate the possibility of failure in any of his plans.  With a light heart he bade adieu to his wife and his children, and mounting his horse, set out for his two months’ absence to hunt up and shoot the Indians.  He took only the amount of clothing he wore, as he wished to be entirely unencumbered when he should meet the sinewy and athletic foe on the battle-field.

This company, of about one hundred mounted men, commenced its march for an appointed rendezvous called Beatty’s Spring.  Here they encamped for several days, waiting the arrival of other companies from distant quarters.  Ere long there was collected quite an imposing army of thirteen hundred men, all on horseback, and all hardy backwoodsmen, armed with the deadly rifle.  A more determined set of men was perhaps never assembled.  While they were thus gathering from far and near, and making all preparations to burst upon the foe in one of war’s most terrific tempests, Major Gibson came, and wanted a few men, of tried sagacity and hardihood, to accompany him on a reconnoitring tour across the Tennessee River, down through the wilderness, into the country of the Creek Indians.  It was a very hazardous enterprise.  The region swarmed with savages.  They were very vigilant.  They were greatly and justly exasperated.  If the reconnoitring party were captured, the certain doom of its members would be death by the most dreadful tortures.