University of Virginia Library

24. CHAPTER XXIV.
FIRE IN THE MOUNTAINS.

At length the army was again in motion—the horses having recovered the
use of their legs, and the riders their spirits. They were now passing thro'
a country wholly new, even to the scout, and one of surpassing magnificence
and beauty. The forest crowned hills, and the bright sparkling streams

tumbling over their rocky beds, succeeded each other with astonishing
rapidity, exhibiting some of the finest landscapes in nature.

The general course of the expedition was along the banks of these water
courses—supposed to have their rise near or beyond the mountains—but their
devious windings were not pursued—so that they often crossed the same
stream some twenty times a day, in pursuance of the more direct compass
line of the old chief.

Towards night of the first day's march after leaving the “horse-shoe,”
some twenty miles, the great range of mountains began to appear distinctly
in view, so that it was confidently predicted that another day's journey would
bring them up to the base.

How gloriously the blue mountains loomed up in the distance to the
astonished and delighted gaze of the young Cavaliers, who supposed
themselves just ready to grasp the magnificent prize for which they
had so long toiled! But as the next day's march drew towards
its close, they were very much surprised to find the mountains still
apparently as far off, as though they pursued an ignis fatus—so delusive
were the distances to eyes accustomed so long to view objects on a dead
level. These daily disappointments and vexations at length, however,
began to revive the Governor's youthful experience and recollection of
such things. Still that experience was not exactly in point, because here,
the towering heights were clothed in dense forests, over which the changing
seasons were now throwing the gorgeous drapery of their autumnal
hues, so that he was nearly as much at fault as his juniors.

In enthusiastic admiration of the matchless succession of panoramas which
hourly greeted his sight, he was not a whit behind any of them. Often
would he halt his suite, as they preceded the main body over some high
hill, and all, with one voice, would burst out in admiration at the new
scenes presented, sometimes stretching far away into green secluded valleys,
and then towering up from their very borders into the most majestic
and precipitous heights. As they advanced nearer and nearer to the mountains,
these characteristics gradually thickened upon them, until now the
army was often closed up entirely between surrounding hills, and at other
times the front ranks of the imposing array would be ascending one hill.
while the rear guard was descending another. Often, too, were the echoes
of the mountains awakened by the martial music of the trumpets and bugles,
notwithstanding the oft repeated remonstrances of the scout. Any one
who has not heard a bugle among the mountains, can form but a faint
idea of the charming effect, produced by the reverberation resounding from
hill to valley, and from valley to hill. For the greater part of the journey,
it was more like a triumphal procession, than an army marching to new
conquests through an unknown country.

On one of the last nights spent on the eastern side of the mountains,
after the usual bustle of pitching tents and building fires had somewhat
subsided, when soldiers and officers were lying about in lazy attitudes,
seeking that repose made so necessary by the fatigue of a long day's
march, powerfully induced, likewise, by one of those delightful Virginia
autumnal twilights—Lee and Moore were resting themselves on the grass
and exchanging congratulations upon their prosperous journey, thus far,
and the fine prospects of the morrow, when they observed the scout, instead
of seeking that repose in which so many of his superiors were indulging,
bustling about at a great rate. Our two adventurers soon discovered
that something more than common was in hand, and they called
the scout to them and inquired what new scheme against the “varmints”
he was now plotting?

“Oh, Gents,” replied Joe, “its another sort of cattle I'm arter now—rare
sport a comin' Gents, but its a secret.”

“No, no, Jarvis,” replied Lee, as they both rose from their recumbent
position, “no secrets from us, that is against our compact.”

“Well then,” said Joe, “we are to have a grand fight to night.”

“What! to night?” exclaimed both with one accord, springing to their
feet, “where, and with whom?”

“Ha! ha! ha!” not so fast, not so fast, its not with the yaller niggers.”

They both turned away disappointed, and as they walked off, Joe called
after them. “It's a grand cock fight, Gents.”

Both turned again almost as eagerly as before, and enquired of the scout
how, in the name of all the wonders, the game cocks had been brought so
far from home. Joe told them that the servants of some of the young gentry
had brought them by their master's orders, and as they found it impossible to
carry them farther, they were determined to have one fight out of them, before
they were abandoned to their fate. “To tell you the truth” continued the
scout, “I thought the critters would 'a been made into cock broth afore now
along with that dog 'o mine, Squire Lee,” and he indulged again in a sort of
inward chuckle, at the idea of eating the tough fowls, and dining from his
dog's carcass, to which he still persisted in saying, they were to come, before
they reached their journey's end. As the walked toward the hastily arranged
cock pit, he went on to tell them what the Governor had said, when he
(Jarvis) had made the prediction to him, that they would at last have to return
for want of forage and provisions. “The Governor said, says he to me, do
you see those military boots, scout?” “Yes Sir,” says I. “Well,” says he,
“when I have supped upon them, and dined upon my saddle, then we may
talk about going back without crossing the mountains. That's the sort of
commander for me, there is no back out in his breed, depend upon it. They
do say among the messes of the old life guard that he's eat his boots afore
now, and June swears he had a bull frog cooked the other night, and that he
eat him up. Now I reckon that's the next thing to eating tanned leather.”

By this time they arrived at the place already designated, by many torches
and a crowd gathered round a rope fastened to stakes driven in a circle of
considerable extent, on the borders of the encampment. A couple of cocks,
belonging to some of the soldiers, were already engaged by way of prelude,
while they waited the arrival of the young gentry. They fought without
gaffs;—nevertheless it was a bloody encounter, and one of them was soon
gasping in the death struggle.[7]

When the rest of the young gentry had arrived and the cocks were pitted,
how eagerly were the bets offered and taken!—how excited became every
eye! The rope was bent almost to the ground, with the eager pressing forward
of the excited men. The exclamations flew round “ten to one on the
red and white”—“done!”—“an even bet on the brindle,”—“hurra! that
was a home thrust!” &c., &c.

Now it so happened, that the tents of the encampment were pitched just
under one of those spurs of the mountains, which they were daily encountering
and which had more than once deceived them with the idea that they
had at last arrived at the foot of the real Apalachee. Whether this was the
real Blue Ridge, (for the Blue Ridge and the Alleganies were then all confounded
together,) they had not yet ascertained, but an incident now occurred
which induced them to believe, that they had at last arrived at the base of the
true mountains. While so many were crowded round the cock pits absorbed
in the national amusement, an astounding crash was heard, like an avalanche
coming down the mountains. Some huge object seemed to be coming directly
toward them, bending and crashing the trees, and tracking its course in
sparks of fire. Some thought a volcanic irruption had occurred—while

others supposed it to be an avalanche; but in far less time, than we have
taken to record it, a huge fragment of reck, weighing several tons, and carrying
before it a shower of lesser bodies of the same sort came leaping and
bounding toward the very spot where the cock pit was located. Fortunately
a large tree stood directly between the crowd and the track of the fragment,
or hundreds would have been instantly killed. As it was, several were badly
hurt by the bursting of the rock and the scattering of its fragments. Jarvis
shouted at once, that it was the Indians, and in a few moments his sagacity
was verified, for the whole side of the mountain seemed suddenly belted with
a ribbon of fire. Appalling as the salutation had been, the young cavaliers
stood lost in admiration at the grand and novel sight, which now saluted their
wondering eyes, until roused from their dangerous trance, by the loud and
commanding voice of Lee, who was already on horse-back, and calling his
comrades to arm, by the command of the Governor. When he had drawn
them sufficiently away from their dangerous propinquity to the base of the
mountains, and while they were speedily mounting, a thought occurred to
him, which was productive of the happiest results. He had ordered the
camp fires extinguished, but suddenly countermanded the order and directed
them to be furnished with fresh fuel, while he galloped off, to communicate
his scheme to the Governor.

He found the veteran already in the saddle, and eager for the contest,
which he supposed about to ensue. His first order was to remove the tents
and horses away from the base of the mountain, and out of reach of the new
sort of artillery with which they were threatened. This was executed with
alacrity and promptitude—the opposite side of the plain or valley furnishing
an equally commodious site for the encapment and sure protection against
the enemy. The next was to extinguish the fires, as before ordered at first,
by Frank Lee, but here the latter interposed, and suggested to the Governor
to have them burning, and to avoid all signs of the kind at the new camp
ground. Scarcely were the tents and horses removed, before the wisdom of
this course was made manifest—for the thundering missiles were again heard
crashing down the mountain.

Frank also suggested, that a body of volunteers should be sent round the
spur or projection from the main body of the mountain, and thus out-flank the
enemy, while they were engaged in loosing and hurling down the huge fragments
of rock. He expressed his belief that such a force, might ascend on
foot, before daylight, and either get above them, or hold them in check, while
the main body ascended more leisurely with the baggage.

The Governor listened with attention to his scheme and proposed that they
should ascend the eminence behind them on the other side of the valley and
reconnoitre, and suggested that then they could form a more accurate idea of
the position of the enemy and the feasibility of the plan. Accordingly he
took his aids-de-camp and those in whose sagacity he had confidence, and
ascended the eminence. By the time they had attained the desired elevation,
however, the whole scene on the opposite mountain had changed its appearance.
The wind, which had been sometime blowing a moderate breeze from
the north-west, suddenly chopped round to the north-east and blew almost a
gale, sweeping the belt or cordon of fire with which the savages had surrounded
themselves on three sides, into magnificent eddies, and curling and
sweeping over the mountains with a rapidity inconceivable to those who have
never witnessed such a scene. For some moments, the Governor and his
party were lost in admiration at the grandeur of the spectacle, and the army,
the threatened battle, and every thing else, but the sight before them, were
forgotten for the moment. The towering objects around, threw fantastic and
collossal shadows over the sides of the mountain, and sometimes the entranced
officers imagined that they could see spires, and domes, and huge edifices,
encircled with the flames, when suddenly these fairy creations of the furious

element would vanish and leave nothing behind but a cluster of pine trees,
with the curling flames encircling their now livid trunks, and occasionally
pouring in one continuous sheet from their centres, presenting again an
almost exact resemblance to the stock of some huge furnace, burned white
hot with the ungovernable fury of its own fires. Sometimes too, they
imagined they saw a fearful array of grim warriors marshalled behind the
long line of fire, but as the fury of the latter would become exhausted for
lack of new combustibles in the course of the wind, or by the interposition of
a ledge of rock, the warriors would dwindle into the trunks of black jacks,
and mountain laurels and other products of the soil. The leaves were hung
with magnificent festoons of crimson and purple, constantly changing its
hues like the dying dolphin, as the fire burnt out over one track, and pursued
its resistless career to another.

Every one saw now, that they had indeed arrived at the veritable Blue
Ridge, for the fire that had commenced in the spur beneath which the army
had encamped, had by this time, swept around its base, and entered upon the
wider field of the main mountain, revealing what the Governor had been so
fearful of not being able to find, the gap of the mountains. This was a depression
made by nature, as if on purpose to afford a passage for man. The
buffalo first make their path along the winding track of these, and the
Indians with true savage sagacity, are sure to follow in their foot-steps.
While one party on the hill were expressing their delight at this discovery,
the scout was heard, ascending just beneath them on foot, singing in loud
and joyous tones, the old song beginning:

When Jarvis had attained to the same level, the Governor suffered him to
run his eye over the scene, before he addressed him. The sagacious woodsman
saw into the whole geography of the scene before him at a single survey,
and no sooner had he done so than he seized his old coon skin cap, and
tossed it into the air with boyish delight, exclaiming with the action, “we've
caught 'em in there own trap! we've caught 'em in their own trap!”

The Governor rode round to his side, and asked him if he thought it possible
to convey the horses and baggage over the gap!”

“Sartin, sure, your honor,” replied Joe without the least hesitation, “haven't
they gone over before us, and is'nt there a buffalo path all the way over,
beginning at the hollow!”—(a ravine which separated the spur from the
main mountain,) and with his finger he traced out, along the sides of the
mountain, the probable course of the winding path. He was then told of
Lee's scheme of ascending with a picket company on the other side of the
spur, and getting behind the savages.

“The very thing itself,” said Joe, “the very idee, I was going to propose to
you, and I'll tell you what it is, Governor, as fine a scout was spiled when
Squire Frank was made a gentlemen of, as ever wore a moccasin.”

At this regret of Joe's, all the young cavaliers laughed.

It was evident enough to the veteran leader, that here the savages had
concentrated their whole force to make one last and desperate effort against
the encroachment of the whites. They were evidently determined to dispute
the passage of the mountains.