t was all true as preaching, and the Colonel
believed it every word."

There was indeed cause for alarm. Many of the Indian chiefs displayed
military ability of a very high order. Our officers were frequently
outgeneralled by their savage antagonists. This was so signally the
case that the Indians frequently amused themselves in laughing to scorn
the folly of the white men. Every able-bodied man was called to work in
throwing up breastworks. A line of ramparts was speedily constructed,
nearly a quarter of a mile in circuit. An express was sent to
Fayetteville, where General Jackson was assembling an army, to summon
him to the rescue. With characteristic energy he rushed forward, by
forced marches day and night, until his troops stood, with blistered
feet, behind the newly erected ramparts.

They felt now safe from attack by the Indians. An expedition of eight
hundred volunteers, of which Crockett was one, was fitted out to
recross the Tennessee River, and marching by the way of Huntsville, to
attack the Indians from an unexpected quarter. This movement involved a
double crossing of the Tennessee. They pressed rapidly along the
northern bank of this majestic stream, about forty or fifty miles, due
west, until they came to a point where the stream expands into a width
of nearly two miles. This place was called Muscle Shoals. The river
could here be forded, though the bottom was exceedingly rough. The men
were all mounted. Several horses got their feet so entangled in the
crevices of the rocks that they could not be disengaged, and they
perished there. The men, thus dismounted, were compelled to perform the
rest of the campaign on foot.

A hundred miles south of this point, in the State of Alabama, the
Indians had a large village, called Black Warrior. The lodges of the
Indians were spread over the ground where the city of Tuscaloosa now
stands. The wary Indians kept their scouts out in all directions. The
runners conveyed to the warriors prompt warning of the approach of
their foes. These Indians were quite in advance of the northern tribes.
Their lodges were full as comfortable as the log huts of the pioneers,
and in their interior arrangements more tasteful. The buildings were
quite numerous. Upon many of them much labor had been expended.
Luxuriant corn-fields spread widely around, and in well-cultivated
gardens they raised beans and other vegetables in considerable
abundance.

The hungry army found a good supply