In the Cherokee war of 1760 when small bodies of the enemy, according
to Haywood, were pushing their inroads eastward almost to Salisbury,
a party of six or eight warriors was discovered, watched, and followed
until they were seen to enter a deserted cabin to pass the night. The
alarm was given, and shortly before daylight the whites surrounded the
house, posting themselves behind the fodder stack and some outbuildings
so as to command both the door and the wide chimney top. They then
began to throw fire upon the roof to drive out the Indians, when, as
the blaze caught the dry shingles, and death either by fire or bullet
seemed certain, one of the besieged warriors called to his companions
that it was better that one should be a sacrifice than that all should
die, and that if they would follow his directions he would save them,
but die himself. He proposed to sally out alone to draw the fire of
the besiegers, while his friends stood ready to make for the woods
as soon as the guns of the whites were empty. They agreed, and the
door was opened, when he suddenly rushed forth, dodging and running
in a zigzag course, so that every gun was emptied at him before he
fell dead, covered with wounds. While the whites were reloading,
the other warriors ran out and succeeded in reaching the woods before
the besiegers could recover from their surprise. The historian adds,
"How greatly it is to be regretted that the name of this hero is not
known to the writer, that it might be recorded with this specimen
of Cherokee bravery and patriotism, firmness and presence of mind in
the hour of danger." [502]
More than once women seem to have shown the courage of warriors when
the occasion demanded. At the beginning of the last century there was
still living among the Cherokee a woman who had killed her husband's
slayer in one of the Revolutionary engagements. For this deed she was
treated with so much consideration that she was permitted to join
the warriors in the war dance, carrying her gun and tomahawk. The
Wahnenauhi manuscript has a tradition of an attack upon a Cherokee town
and the killing of the chief by a hostile war party. His wife, whose
name was Cuhtahlatah (Gatûñ'lati, "Wild-hemp"?), on seeing her husband
fall, snatched up his tomahawk, shouting, "Kill! Kill!" and rushed
upon the enemy with such fury that the retreating Cherokee rallied
and renewed the battle with so great courage as to gain a complete
victory. This may be a different statement of the same incident.
In Rutherford's expedition against the Cherokee, in 1776, the
Indians made a stand near Waya gap, in the Nantahala mountains, and
a hard-fought engagement took place, with a loss to the Americans
of nineteen men, although the enemy was finally driven from the
ground. After the main body had retreated, an Indian was seen
looking out from behind a tree, and was at once shot and killed by
the soldiers, who, on going to the spot, found that it was a woman,
painted and striped like a warrior and armed with bow and arrows. She
had already been shot through the thigh, and had therefore been unable
to flee with the rest.