Randy,
Yes, that is my understanding. So, there were three rifles against roughly a
thousand. I suppose you have heard/read that when "they" found Alexander
Cavitt after the massacre "they" found that he had four rifle balls stored in
his
cheek, so that he could spit them down the barrel in order to load faster.
Whether that is really true or not, I have no idea.
Alexander and Moses Cavitt were both very experienced frontiersmen. They
both signed the Articles of Confederation at Watauga in 1772 which was the first
written constitution in what eventually became the United States; both were in
Captain David Looney's Militia Company in 1776 on the "frontier of
Fincastle"
which at that time ran all the way to the Mississippi River. Alexander was a
Corporal in the Commissioner's Guard during the Revolutionary War (for which
he was awarded a warrant good for 480 acres of land) while Moses served two
years active duty in the Sullivan County Militia under Shelby and later under
Sevier and participated in the battle at King's Mountain in 1780. Moses' son
Richard was in the Militia unit that hunted down the Creek and Cherokee band
that had attacked Cavitt's Station, and Moses went in among the Creek and
Cherokee villiages fourteen months after the massacre trying to locate Alexander's
little boy whom the Indians had kidnapped and carried away. What do you want to
bet that he earned his money on that trip.
Howard Roach