David Crockett_ The Lion of the West - Michael Wallis [0]
OTHER BOOKS BY MICHAEL WALLIS
Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride
Oil Man: The Story of Frank Phillips and the Birth of Phillips Petroleum
Route 66: The Mother Road
Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd
Way Down Yonder in the Indian Nation: Writings from America’s Heartland
Mankiller: A Chief and Her People
En Divina Luz: The Penitente Moradas of New Mexico
Beyond the Hills: The Journey of Waite Phillips
Songdog Diary: 66 Stories from the Road (with Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis)
Oklahoma Crossroads
The Real Wild West: The 101 Ranch and the Creation of the American West
Heaven’s Window: A Journey through Northern New Mexico
Hogs on 66: Best Feed and Hangouts for Roadtrips on Route 66 (with Marian Clark)
The Art of Cars (with Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis)
The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate (with Michael S. Williamson)
Frontispiece: Portrait of David Crockett painted by John Gadsby Chapman, Washington, D.C., 1834. (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin)
Copyright © 2011 by Michael Wallis
All rights reserved
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,
write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wallis, Michael, 1945–
David Crockett: the Lion of the West / Michael Wallis.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-0-393-06758-3
1. Crockett, Davy, 1786–1836. 2. Pioneers—Tennessee—Biography.
3. Legislators—United States—Biography. 4. United States. Congress. House—Biography.
5. Alamo (San Antonio, Tex.)—Siege, 1836. I. Title.
F436.C95W35 2011
976.8'04092—dc22
[B]
2011000216
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
www.wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.
Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT
FOR SUZANNE FITZGERALD WALLIS FOR NEVER LOSING FAITH IN ME
AND
JOE SWANN, A TRUE SON OF TENNESSEE
CONTENTS
Personal Introduction
Preface
PART I
1. “Kilt Him a B’ar”
2. Born on a Riverbank in Franklin
3. The Crocketts Arrive
4. Over the Mountain
5. On the Nolichucky
6. A Boy’s Learning
7. Coming of Age
8. The Odyssey
9. Rise Above
10. Lovesick
11. Polly
12. Finley’s Gap
PART II
13. Kentuck
14. “Remember Fort Mims”
15. “We Shot Them Like Dogs”
16. Riding with Sharp Knife
17. “Root Hog or Die”
18. Cabin Fever
19. A Tincture of Luck
PART III
20. “Itchy Footed”
21. “Natural Born Sense”
22. Gentleman from the Cane
23. Land of the Shakes
24. In the Eye of a “Harricane”
25. A Fool for Luck
26. Big Time
27. “The Victory Is Ours”
PART IV
28. Man without a Party
29. Trails of Tears
30. Lion of the West
31. Bear-Bit Lion
32. Go Ahead
33. Just a Matter of Time
34. Gone to Texas
35. Time of the Comet
36. El Alamo
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Map of Tennessee when it was part of North Carolina, 1795. (Courtesy of Birmingham Public Library Cartographic Collection)
Tennessee’s first governor John Sevier (1745–1815), portrait circa 1790. (Courtesy of the C. M. McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County Public Library)
Tsi’yu-gunsini (“Dragging Canoe”), Cherokee war chief. (Mike Smith, artist)
Nine hundred “Overmountain men” from Virginia and Tennessee assemble at Sycamore Shoals for the King’s Mountain campaign, September 1780. The Overmountain Men by Lloyd Branson. (Courtesy of the Tennessee State Museum, Nashville)
Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7, 1780 by Alonzo Chappel. (Courtesy of the C. M. McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County Public Library)
Treaty of the Holston, July 2, 1791. (Courtesy of the C. M. McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County Public Library)
Replica of David Crockett’s 1786 birthplace by the Nolichucky River. (Photograph by Michael Wallis)
The Crockett Tavern Museum, Morristown, Tennessee. (Photograph by