Book Review -- John Sevier as a Commonwealth-Builder: A Sequel to The Rearguard of the Revolution

John Sevier ("Nolichucky Jack")

While we were at the beach I finished reading John Sevier as a Commonwealth-Builder: A Sequel to The Rearguard of the Revolution by James R. Gilmore (Edmund Kirke), which was first published in 1898. I was in a hurry at the library and wanted to quickly select a couple of books on John Sevier to take on vacation, and I did not learn until I got the book home that it was a sequel, so I may go back and read The Rearguard of the Revolution. The sequel tells of Sevier's activities in the attempt to establish the State of Franklin, which died in infancy, his role in successfully establishing the State of Tennessee and his leadership of Tennessee until his retirement and death.



The author is an unashamed admirer of Sevier, and the book struck me as terribly biased in favor of Sevier and against anyone adverse to him. I recently had a conversation about bias in our modern media and made the point that such bias has been present since the nation was founded, and Commonwealth-Builder certainly shows that such bias was in existence at the time it was published in 1898. I am as big a fan of John Sevier as anyone, but I suspect advocates for his adversaries, John Tipton and Joseph Martin, would present the facts differently.



I learned something about a couple of my favorite campgrounds that I did not know from this book. Apparently Abrams Creek, which flows into the Little Tennessee River just below the campground, was named for a friendly Indian (Native American, if you prefer) called Abraham, who lived in the area. Indians massacred the family of a man named Kirk, who lived on the Little River. Another man, Hubbard, known for his hatred of Indians, arranged through Abraham to assemble the Cherokee chief Old Tassel, of whom I have read before, and several of his lieutenants at a cabin on the south side of the Little Tennessee River just across from where Abrams Creek flows into it. Settlers surrounded the cabin with the Indians inside it and Hubbard allowed Kirk to tomahawk the native to death. I've camped on that side of the river many times without knowing it was the site of such atrocity. I now have a story I can scare the kids with next time we go up there.