with them early the next
summer, and set a good example to his companions by industriously
cultivating his farm, and volunteering his assistance, whenever it
seemed needed, to the many immigrants who were now pouring into the
country, and erecting new Stations in the neighborhood of Boonesborough.
He was a good as well as a great man in his sphere, says Mr. Gallagher,
(our chief authority for the foregoing incidents); and for his many and
important services in the early settlements of Kentucky, he well
deserved the title of Patriarch which was bestowed upon him during his
life, and all the praises that have been sung to his memory since his
death.[38]

[Footnote 36: "Life of Daniel Boone."]

[Footnote 37: Gallagher.]

[Footnote 38: W.D. Gallagher, in "Hesperian."]

CHAPTER XIII.

Captain Boone tried by court-martial--Honorably acquitted and
promoted--Loses a large sum of money--His losses by lawsuits and
disputes about land--Defeat of Colonel Rogers's party--Colonel
Bowman's expedition to Chillicothe--Arrival near the town--Colonel
Logan attacks the town--Ordered by Colonel Bowman to
retreat--Failure of the expedition--Consequences to Bowman and to
Logan.

Some complaint having been made respecting Captain Boone's surrender of
his party at the Blue Licks, and other parts of his military conduct,
his friends Colonel Richard Callaway and Colonel Benjamin Logan,
exhibited charges against him which occasioned his being tried by
court-martial. This was undoubtedly done with a view to put an end to
the calumny by disproving or explaining the charges. The result of the
trial was an honorable acquittal increased popularity of the Captain
among his fellow citizens, and his promotion to the rank of Major.[39]

While Boone had been a prisoner among the Indians, his wife and family,
supposing him to be dead, had returned to North Carolina. In the autumn
of 1778 he went after them to the house of Mrs. Boone's father on the
Yadkin.

In 1779, a commission having been opened by the Virginia Legislature
to settle Kentucky land claims, Major Boone "laid out the chief of his
little property to procure land warrants, and having raised about twenty
thousand dollars in paper money, with which he intended to purchase
them, on his way from Kentucky to Richmond, he was robbed of the whole,
and left destitute of the means of procuring more. This heavy misfortune
did not fall on himself alone.