Kings Pinnacle (40 page)

The fact that Fort Patrick
Henry was under attack reinforced Alex’s earlier determination that
all the other frontier forts in western North Carolina were
probably also under attack in a coordinated attempt to drive the
settlers out. A Cherokee chief named Dragging Canoe commanded the
assault on Fort Patrick Henry. He was the main chief of the
Cherokee warriors who were camped outside the fort on the flats as
well as leading the entire Chickamauga tribe. His attack on Fort
Patrick Henry, and all the settlers along the Holston River, was
apparently timed to coincide with the Raven’s attack on Fort
Watauga.

“Och, it’s nae guid,” said
Hugh. “There’s got to be less than a hundred men inside the fort,
and there’s at least twice that number of warriors camped out on
the flats.”

“We’ve got to figure out a
way to help them,” said Alex, looking at the fort.

“
I’ve got an idea, but I
don’t know if it will work or not,” said Robert.

“What is it that ye have in
mind, Robber?” asked Hugh.

“Well, this entire flat is
covered with dry prairie grass that is at least waist high and as
much as shoulder high in some places. The wind is blowing very
strongly out of the southeast. If we start a string of fires in a
line along the south side of the flats, the wind will whip it up
into a raging prairie fire headed right toward the Cherokees camp.
The smoke and fire might be enough to drive them away from the fort
and across the river so that we can get past them and into the fort
to help them.”

“That is as good a plan as
any I can come up with,” said Alex. “Let’s give it a
try.”

They all gathered in a small
clearing located in the center of the south border of the prairie
grass plain. Alex started a small camp fire with his flint and
steel, and they all made torches out of dried limbs and grass.
After they lit their torches, they all hurried to predetermined
spots, spread out in a straight line about one hundred yards apart.
At a signal from Alex, they all started walking east at the same
time, holding their flaming torches into the prairie grass,
lighting a line of fire in the grass.

It didn’t take long for the
dry grass to flame up, and the strong southerly wind soon pushed
the fire line northwest. The fire moved slowly at first, and then
as it grew, it raced north faster than a man could run.

The Cherokees sitting in the
camp first smelled a faint whiff of smoke from the approaching
fire. By the time they became alarmed and could see the flames, it
was almost too late for them to escape it. They gathered what they
could collect from their camp and ran for the river, both to the
east and west of their camp. Of course, there weren’t enough canoes
tied up to the bank, so most of them swam across the river alone or
on horseback to escape the smoke and fire.

As soon as the fire burned
itself out at the main gate of Fort Patrick Henry and the smoke
cleared, the men inside the fort unbarred the gate and came out to
watch the Cherokees depart. Alex, Martha and the rest of their
group finally walked out of the smoke of the burned prairie grass
and up to the fort, as if they had appeared out of a
cloud.

“I am Captain Alex
Mackenzie,” said Alex. “Who is in charge here?”

“Colonel Russell is our
commander,” volunteered one of the men.

“Please take me to him,”
said Alex, who walked through the gate and into the fort with
Martha and the rest of his party.

They were led into the
office of the fort commandant, who was waiting for them.

“I am Captain Alex
Mackenzie. Are you Colonel Russell?” asked Alex.

“That I am, lad,” replied
the colonel, standing up to shake hands with Alex. “Are you the one
who is responsible for driving off the Cherokees?”

“We set the fires that drove
off the warriors,” replied Alex, gesturing to his wife, brothers
and friends who were standing with him in front of the
colonel.

“Well, we are indeed
grateful for you and your friends. We owe you a great
debt.”

“Don’t thank me too quickly;
the Cherokees may come back.”

“I don’t think that they
will. Your fire and smoke seems to have broken their spirit and
their will to fight, for now anyway. I have men out following them,
and if they do decide to come back, we’ll be ready for
them.”

“Sir, I am here to report
that Fort Watauga is under siege right now by the Cherokee also,
and we need your help.”

“I thought that might be the
case. Are you all from Fort Watauga?”

“Yes, sir, we are,” answered
Alex.

“How can I help
you?”

“How many men can you
spare?”

“I can give you twenty-five
right now and more if Dragging Canoe and his band don’t come back,
which I doubt they will.”

“Twenty-five should be
enough. There are far fewer warriors at Fort Watauga than there
were here, but I don’t think I can use the fire and smoke trick
down there. I will have to come up with another idea,” said
Alex.

“Dinna fash yersel, lad,
we’ll come up with something,” said Hugh who was standing behind
Alex listening to the conversation.

Robert just shook his head,
looked down, and then glanced at Alex. Alex smiled at him in
return.

* * * *

The Raven

“
We’ve burned all the
cabins and farms in this valley. The only thing left is this fort.
We need to burn it also,” said the Raven to his war
council.

“How are we going to do
that?” asked one of the warriors.

“The sly white man has given
me an idea. Let us shoot fire arrows at the fort like the one that
the white man used to signal the men in the fort when they tricked
us and rescued the white woman,” said the Raven.

“We can fire flaming arrows
at the fort into places where they cannot easily put out the fires.
Perhaps we can burn enough of it so that we can get inside it and
burn the rest to the ground. If we can get inside, we can also kill
all the invaders.”

The warriors all agreed with
the plan and decided to execute it after the sun had set, when
there would be less chance of being shot by the men in the
fort.

The Raven’s braves spent the
day making fire arrows for the nighttime assault on Fort
Watauga.

* * * *

Alex

After spending the night at
Forth Patrick Henry, all the men were ready to go, including the
twenty-five men that Colonel Russell had assigned to go with Alex.
Alex had persuaded Martha to remain at Fort Patrick Henry as the
guest of Colonel Russell, who had insisted that she stay. The
colonel was extremely grateful to Alex for saving the fort and was
very happy to oblige. He had helped Alex persuade her to stay at
the fort, which turned out to be a difficult task. She put up a
fight, but in the end they convinced her to remain
behind.

“The shortest route to Fort
Watauga is to follow the river valley of the south fork of the
Holston and the Watauga Rivers. It is about twenty-five miles due
southeast of here as the crow flies, but the river meanders a bit.
So, it will be more like thirty-five miles of hiking. We should be
there before nightfall if we move fast,” said Alex.

The men left the fort on
foot, moving at a ground-eating trot, since there were not enough
horses for everyone to ride. They would alternate between trotting
and walking depending on the trail and the terrain as the day wore
on.

The strong south wind of the
previous day that had stoked and pushed the grass fire toward the
Cherokees just outside Fort Patrick Henry was ushering in a strong
weather front from the northwest. Robert and Hugh collected their
horses when they got to the place where they had left them hobbled
the previous day. The plan that Alex had developed was for the
Longhunter and Hugh to ride ahead of the group toward Fort Watauga.
By the time the men had traveled most of the distance to Fort
Watauga, the wind had shifted around to the west and dark low
clouds were beginning to appear on the western horizon as the sun
was just beginning to sink behind the clouds.

When the Longhunter and Hugh
arrived near Fort Watauga on horseback, the Longhunter took off on
a side trail as planned and circled the fort through the trees. He
worked his way around behind the fort, dismounted, and then ran
straight toward it. He hailed the fort as soon as he was under the
pickets. It wasn’t long before a rope dropped over the side, and he
climbed up the fort’s wall. As soon as he was in the fort, he
reported to Colonel Tipton and then gathered Alex’s men, who were
still inside defending the fort. The Longhunter told them the plan
Alex had devised and prepared them to execute it.

Hugh dismounted at a
location behind the Cherokees to survey the situation while waiting
for Alex and the rest of the men to arrive.

As Alex and the men from
Fort Patrick Henry approached the fort, the Cherokees, led by the
Raven, were on the move toward the fort also. The sky was
darkening, and the Raven thought that the musket fire from the fort
would be less accurate in the dark conditions. The warriors lit a
fire in a small hollow about one hundred yards from the fort, just
at the extreme limit of musket range, where they had staged some
fuel and tinder. They used the fire to light the flaming arrows
they had previously prepared. Then they shot them in high arcs at
the fort, trying to land the fiery arrows in places where the
settlers could not reach them, such as the roofs of the buildings
inside the fort.

By the time Alex and his men
arrived in the trees behind them to join Hugh, the warriors already
had several fires burning at the fort, and the men inside were
having a difficult time putting them out. Some of the roofs were
fairly well engulfed in flames.

The gist of Alex’s plan was
to first kill the Raven, which he felt would be like cutting off
the head of a snake. As soon as the Raven was dead, Robert and Hugh
would signal the Longhunter in the fort to sally forth with Alex’s
men. Then Alex and the twenty-five men from Fort Patrick Henry
would attack the warriors from the rear. Alex thought that the
attack on two fronts would confuse the Cherokees and make them look
to the Raven for guidance. If the Raven was dead, there was a good
chance that the warriors would flee rather than fight.

Alex spotted the Raven just
after he had fired a flaming arrow toward the fort and run back to
prepare another fiery arrow to shoot at the fort. Alex did not want
to use his musket because he knew that he would need it for the
attack on the warriors, and he might not have time to reload it. So
he pulled his longbow off his shoulder and strung the bow string.
He notched an arrow into the center of bow string, drew it back,
and took aim at the Raven. He let the arrow fly just as the Raven
bent over to light another arrow in the fire. Alex’s arrow flight
was a bit too high. As it passed just over the Raven’s back, it was
close enough that the sound and wind of its passage alerted the
Raven. The Raven suddenly looked up, aware of the danger he was in.
As he gazed around to seek out the source of the danger, he spied
Alex with the longbow and realized that Alex had fired an arrow at
him.

“A da-his-di ni-hi!” yelled
the Raven running straight at Alex.

Alex didn’t understand
Cherokee, but he suspected that the Raven had yelled, “I am going
to kill you,” or something close to that. Alex was correct. As the
Raven approached him, still running straight at him, Alex had no
choice but to risk a pistol shot and perhaps spoil his plan, so he
pulled his pistol from his belt, cocked the flintlock, and took
deadly aim at the Raven. At this range, there was no way he could
miss killing the Raven.

But the weather front had
moved closer to Fort Watauga, and it had spawned a wall cloud that
was moving in from the northwest. Lightning lit up the sky, and the
sound of thunder masked the war whoops of the braves. The first few
drops of rain were just beginning to come down ahead of the wall
cloud.

Luck was not with Alex,
because just as he pulled the trigger, a drop of rain landed in the
pistol’s pan, instantly wetting the dash of gunpowder in it. The
sparks from the flint and steel flintlock fell harmlessly on the
wet gunpowder, causing the pistol to misfire. Alex re-cocked the
flintlock and pulled the trigger a second time, but the results
were the same. The sparks from the flint would not ignite the wet
gunpowder.

Alex tossed the pistol aside
as the Raven neared him. The Raven didn’t hesitate, and when he was
just a few steps away, leaped straight at Alex in a flying dive
just like the one he had performed at the Watauga River bank. Alex
grabbed the Raven by the front of his buckskin tunic and rolled
down to the ground on his back, throwing the Raven over the top of
him and pulling down on him at the same time. The Raven flew right
over the top of Alex and then stopped, lying on the ground on his
back. Alex held on to the Raven’s buckskin tunic and rolled
backwards, coming up on top of the Raven. Alex pulled his knife out
of his boot and pressed it to the Raven’s throat. Anger flashed in
the Raven’s eyes as he glanced down at the knife at this throat.
The wall cloud had passed over them, and they were drenched as the
pouring rain suddenly engulfed them.