David Crockett: His Life and Adventures

From the opening

David Crockett certainly was not a model man. But he was a representative man. He was conspicuously one of a very numerous class, still existing, and which has heretofore exerted a very powerful influence over this republic. As such, his wild and wondrous life is worthy of the study of every patriot. Of this class, their modes of life and habits of thought, the majority of our citizens know as little as they do of the manners and customs of the Comanche Indians.

No man can make his name known to the forty millions of this great and busy republic who has not something very remarkable in his character or his career. But there is probably not an adult American, in all these widespread States, who has not heard of David Crockett. His life is a veritable romance, with the additional charm of unquestionable truth. It opens to the reader scenes in the lives of the lowly, and a state of semi-civilization, of which but few of them can have the faintest idea.

It has not been my object, in this narrative, to defend Colonel Crockett or to condemn him, but to present his peculiar character exactly as it was. I have therefore been constrained to insert some things which I would gladly have omitted.

Rustic Courtship.--The Rival Lover.--Romantic Incident. The Purchase of a Horse.--The Wedding.--Singular Ceremonies.--The Termagant.--Bridal Days.--They commence Housekeeping.--The Bridal mansion and Outfit.--Family Possessions.--The Removal to Central Tennessee.--Mode of Transportation.--The New Income and its Surroundings.--Busy Idleness.--The Third Move.--The Massacre at Fort Mimms. . . . 54

War with the Creeks.--Patriotism of Crockett.--Remonstrances of his Wife.--Enlistment.--The Rendezvous.--Adventure of the Scouts.--Friendly Indians,--A March through the Forest.--Picturesque Scene.--The Midnight Alarm.--March by Moonlight.--Chagrin of Crockett.--Advance into Alabama.--War's Desolations.--Indian Stoicism.--Anecdotes of Andrew Jackson.--Battles, Carnage, and Woe. . . . 93

The Army at Fort Strother.--Crockett's Regiment.--Crockett at Home.--His Reenlistment.--Jackson Surprised.--Military Ability of the Indians.--Humiliation of the Creeks.--March to Florida.--Affairs at Pensacola.--Capture of the City.--Characteristics of Crockett.--The Weary March,--Inglorious Expedition.--Murder of Two Indians.--Adventures at the Island.--The Continued March.--Severe Sufferings.--Charge upon the Uninhabited Village. .

A short sample. Read the whole book

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