the hospitalities of General White's house. Their horses, which were belled and turned loose to graze, sometimes wandered to a distance; when their owners often hired young Hugh and his brothers to seek them. In doing this he ran great risks; and in such youthful enterprises and exposures he learned and proved, even in early boyhood, the dauntless courage which so strongly characterized him in after life.

Of the luxuries of civilization the family of General White, as well as their neighbors, were wholly deprived. Added to the other discomforts of their situation was the difficulty of obtaining bread; there being at that time but a single "tub-mill" in the neighborhood. It was Hugh's business to act in the capacity of mill-boy, which he regularly did, despite the constant danger from lurking savages. And after his return home, he often found way-faring guests enough to dispose of all his meal; whereupon, he and the rest of the family would make their repast of pounded hominy and milk.

It will easily be seen that the circumstances of a youth passed amid such scenes must have precluded young White from the enjoyment. even of such opportunities of study as are now offered to all. In the wild regions where he lived, refined and extensive scholarship was hardly known; and existed, if at all, in the persons of some few whose acquirements were elsewhere made. He attended such schools as the country afforded, during the winter, laboring industriously upon his father's farm through the remainder of the year. In this manner he might acquire a knowledge of those studies which were necessary to qualify him for the competent discharge of the plainest practical duties of life, but nothing more. And if afterwards he rose to distinction, his success in so doing is one more example of the success of noble ambition, and honorable and unfaltering exertions victorious over surroundings the most unfavorable and disheartening. Though hundreds of miles from any college, he applied himself, at the age of fifteen, to the study of the ancient languages, under the tuition of Rev. Samuel Carrick, with some assistance from Mr. (afterwards Judge) Roane, both gentlemen and scholars of eminence.

But these literary pursuits were soon and sadly interrupted. Indian hostilities still continued. The inconveniences and sufferings to which the settlements were exposed by savage depredations, were extreme. Almost daily, reports were brought into the stronger settlements of the murder and scalping of men and lads, of the brutal abuse of women and children. The burning of Cavat's Station, in 1793, and

the cruelties inflicted upon the settlers at that point by Double Head, the Creek chief, and his followers, while on their way to attack Knoxville (of the failure of which enterprise an account was above given), so effectually aroused the apprehensions and indignation of the whites, that a force of seven hundred volunteers was immediately raised for the pursuit and punishment of the marauders. At such a time, it was impossible for Hugh L. White to sit quietly over his books, congenial as literary pursuits were to his tastes and disposition. With native generosity and bravery, he abandoned his studies, and at the age of nineteen volunteered as a private soldier in the Indian campaign. Of the battle of Etowah, at which young White did good service, the following account is extracted from Ramsey's Annals of Ten

nessee:

"Finding no Indians to attack at Estimaula, Sevier took up his line of march in the direction of Etowah, with the Coosa on the right. Near the confluence of these streams, and immediately below, was the Indian town, Etowah. The river of the same name had to be crossed before the town could be attacked. Firing was heard in the direction of the town; and apprehending a general attack, Sevier judiciously ordered a halt, and sent forward a detachment from the main body against the town. By mistake of Carey and Findleston, the guides, the party was led to a ferry half a mile below the fording-places, and immediately opposite the town. A few of the foremost plunged into the stream and were soon in swimming water, and pushing their way to the opposite bank. The main body, however, discovering the mistake, wheeled to the left, and rode rapidly up the river to the ford, where they crossed with the design of riding down to the town, and attacking it without delay.

"The Indians, having previously obtained information of Sevier's approach, had made excavations in the bank of the river nearest their town, each of them large enough for one man to lie with his gun poised, and with a leisurely aim to shoot our men as soon as they came in sight. In these, the warriors were safely entrenched; but perceiving the movement of horsemen down the river, and suspecting some other project was devised against their town, they quitted precipitately their places of ambush, crossed the river, and hurried down on its other side to defend it.

"A fortunate mistake of the pilots thus drew this formidable party out of its intrenchments, exposed it in the open field, and left to the invaders a safe passage through that bank of the river so recently lined with armed men. But for this mistake, the horsemen could not have escaped a most deadly fire, and in all probability, a summary defeat. But the method of fighting was now entirely changed. The crossing by the horsemen was too quickly done to allow the Indians to regain their hiding-places; their

ranks were scattered, and the main body of them hemmed in between the assailants and the river. This done, the men dismounted, betook themselves to trees, and poured in a deadly fire upon the enemy. They resisted bravely, under the lead of the King Fisher, one of their most distinguished braves. He made a daring sally within a few yards of where one of the party, Hugh L. White, was standing, and the action was becoming sharp and spirited, when White and a few comrades near him, levelling their rifles, this formidable champion fell, and his warriors immediately fled.*

"The town was set on fire late in the evening, and the troops encamped near it. During the night they were attacked by the Indians. McNutt and Grant were standing as sentinels in an exposed point of the encampment. The Indians approached stealthily upon them, and each of them fired. Grant was shot through the body, but ultimately recovered.

"After the engagement the Indians made good their escape into the secret passes of the adjoining country. The army, after the town was burned, rescued from the places in which they were obliged to conceal themselves, Col. Kelly and the five horsemen who had swam their horses at the lower crossing.

"Sevier having accomplished thus much of the object of the expedition, desired to extend his conquests to Indian towns still lower down the country. The guides informed him there was but one accessible path by which the army could reach these distant villages, and that it could be passed only under disadvantageous circumstances. Little hope remained of meeting the enemy in such numbers as to inflict upon the perpetrators of the mischief at Cavat's suitable punishment for their atrocities. They had been expelled from the frontier, the heart of their country had been penetrated, their warriors defeated and baffled, and their towns and crops burnt up and destroyed. Orders for the return march were given, and the army soon reached their homes in safety. This was Gen. Sevier's last military service."

"The troops employed in this expedition"-we quote from Rev. Mr. Hume's address, above referred to-" were refused payment, on the ground that it was undertaken without authority from the President, and in violation of instructions from the Department of War to Governor Blount, forbidding offensive operations against the Indians. In 1796, Hugh L. White, who served in the campaign, petitioned Congress for remuneration, with the view of establishing a precedent that might apply to all his fellow-soldiers. In January, 1797, Andrew

* Judge White shot the King Fisher. Yet such was his instinctive horror at the idea of destroying human Jife, that he could never endure to have the deed mentioned; and explicitly forbid Dr. Ramsey, the historian, so to state the fact in his "Annals."

Jackson, from the Committee of the House of Representatives, to which the petition was referred, reported in favor of a provision by law for the payment of the troops."

That this was not the only occasion upon which Hugh L. White displayed a lofty and honorable bravery in the defence of his country, we have the following testimony from the narrative of the same events, by one conversant with the history of those times of peril and suffering.

"It was about the year 1793 that a large body of Indians came into the settlements on Holston, murdered a family, and carried off all the plunder which fell within their reach. A force was immediately raised to pursue them. Hugh L. White, then a youth under twenty, made one of the party. The battle was fought on the banks of a river whose current was rapid, and its crossing difficult. The Indians took advantage of this position, and attacked the white men as they passed the stream; one detachment of the latter having rushed forward, rose the steep ascent, and were in the midst of the enemy at once, when an obstinate conflict ensued; whilst the other party waited under the bank to form, where they continued until the battle was fought and won-until the war-whoops ceased to be heard, and until the report of the rifle died away in the distance; then they formed a most excellent line, presented an unbroken front, marched boldly up, and deliberately took possession of all the plunder, to the last beaverskin. When the fighting-men returned from the pursuit, White, who had been from the start amongst the foremost of them, found that one of these bank-men, in his eagerness for the spoils of victory, had taken possession of his wallet of provisions, which had got lost in the scuffle. But he demanded that as his own right, and made him give it up." Upon this unimportant occasion, as often afterwards in more critical contingencies, young White, though he scorned to strive for, or to appropriate, any share of the spoil, contended obstinately and uncompromisingly for the full extent of the rights involved.

During this expedition, while the Tennessee troops were encamped at Estimaula, on the Coosa River, a little adventure occurred, which gave quite unexpected evidence of the dexterous strength contained in the slender frame of our young soldier. Colonel Blair, of the Washingington District, had given to Colonel Christy, of the Hamilton District, a sort of challenge, after the old Scriptural fashion of Abner's suggestion to Joab. "Let the young men arise and play before us." He said, in other words, that a certain man in his regiment

could "whip any other man on the ground." With this, of course, a wrestling-match was arranged; and Colonel Christy appointed to the championship, on his part, Hugh L. White, who was by far the most delicate-looking man in the regiment. The challenger made his appearance; his gigantic stature and brawny frame inspiring the stoutest with awe; the combatants laid aside their coats, and entered the ring; both regiments being quite confident that the victory was safe for the "biggest bones." But, to the astonishment of all, the slender White, after a long and doubtful struggle, overthrew his burly antagonist, and retired with his laurels, amidst the shouts of the whole multitude.

At the age of twenty, Hugh L. White was appointed Private Secretary to Governor Blount; for his strong and elastic intellect, his habits of laborious application, and his determined practice of doing well and thoroughly whatever he undertook, had already rendered him conspicuous for talent and ability. Mr. Blount, in addition to the office of Territorial Governor, held the important and responsible post of Superintendent of Indian Affairs; which devolved upon him the management of all negotiations and transactions with, and concerning the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw tribes. The duties of these two stations were arduous and complicated in the extreme; requiring the most wise, patient, and skilful management. The Federal authorities restricted the Territorial Government to purely defensive warfare; and the settlements were but scantily pro, vided with able-bodied men. The Indian nations, however, were strong in numbers and in physical power. Naturally ferocious and relentless, their savage passions were, moreover, continually nourished and stimulated by the contrivances of Spanish and British traders, interested against the quiet and prosperity of the white settlers. In each tribe there was a minority which faithfully adhered to the United States. This circumstance produced continual dissensions and disputes among themselves, for the adjustment of which resort was had to Governor Blount. In all the intricate and critical duties of this active service, as well as in the accompanying heavy official correspondence with individuals and public functionaries, the young Secretary so faithfully and efficiently aided the Governor, as to secure to himself the life-long confidence and affection of that eminent man, as well as the esteem of his fellow-citizens of the Territory.

Having thus borne himself with gallantry and honor during the war, young White, at its close, determined to pursue a course of