Today in Chickamauga History - During the Month of April
1789, April: Prisoner exchange - Word of Watts’ defeat at Flint Creek did not reach Running Water until April 1789, when it arrived with an offer from Sevier for an exchange of prisoners which specifically mentioned the surviving members of the Brown family, including Joseph, who had been adopted first by Kitegisky and later by The Breath. Among those captured at Flint Creek were Bloody Fellow and Little Turkey's daughter.
Joseph and his sister Polly were brought immediately to Running Water, but when runners were sent to Crow Town to retrieve Jane, their youngest sister, her owner refused to surrender her. Bob Benge, present in Running Water at the time, mounted his horse and hefted his famous axe, saying, “I will bring the girl, or the owner's head”. The next morning he returned with Jane. The three were handed over to Sevier at Coosawattee on 20 April.
McGillivray delivered Mrs. Brown and Elizabeth to her son William during a trip to Rock Landing, Georgia, in November. George, the other surviving son from the trip, remained with the Creek until 1798.
1792, April: Raiding season, spring and summer 1792 - Emboldened by the American loss at the Wabash River, Cherokee and Creek warriors and their Shawnee guests began raiding both districts of the Southwest Territory. The Miro District had it worse, suffering at least one a week, often more.
In April 1792, a Cherokee-Shawnee war party led by Bob Benge and Shawnee Warrior invaded the Holston region and began raiding the settlements.
Though they didn't stop, the raids slowed to a handful in the summer. However, one of those raids served as one of the most notorious incidents of the period.
In the summer of 1792, a war party from Running Water led by Little Owl and Shawnee Warrior joined them in their raids. On 26 June, the same day that Dragging Canoe was being memorialized at the national council in Ustanali, the combined group of Cherokee, Shawnee, and a few Creek destroyed Zeigler’s Station in Sumner County. This action led the governor of Miro District, James Robertson, to call up a battalion of troops to spread throughout the region as guards.
1816, April: Once more Lovely and his Cherokee charges turned to Clark for help, and in April 1816 Tahlonteskee and John Chisholm led another delegation to St. Louis. Clark responded by promising to forward their complaints against the Osages to Washington. Also, he said, he had applied for a military post to be established on the Arkansas River.37 But Tahlonteskee and Lovely were not willing to wait on the slow turn of U.S. government. They arranged for a council with the Osages in early July 1816 at Clermont's village.