During colonial times, the early American frontier was a proving ground for rugged individualism and survival. A part of our American spirit of determination was born on the frontier, when our forefathers encountered a harsh wilderness and often unfriendly Indians. Only those men who were tenacious and resourceful enough managed to survive the frontier experience.

One such instance is recorded in the experiences of James Smith, a longhunter who accompanied a party of men into what is now Tennessee in the summer and fall of 1766. The men comprised one of the first parties of longhunters ever recorded, and they explored and hunted over much of East and Middle Tennessee throughout the end of 1766 and well into 1767.

Upon reaching the mouth of the Tennessee on the Ohio in the summer of 1767, the group decided to head onward to the Illinois country. Everyone, that is, except James Smith, who missed his wife and children, and feared that he’d been gone so long his wife would think him “killed by Indians.” So he traded his horse to the other men for spare ball and powder, and acquired the services of a mulatto slave who was with the party, named Jamie. The hunters parted on good terms, and James Smith and Jamie turned east.

But eight days into their journey, Smith received a painful and debilitating wound when he stepped on a cane sliver that penetrated the sole of his moccasin and lodged in his foot. Suddenly Smith found himself incapacitated, with no horse to carry him, alone in the wilderness with only the supplies in his pack and Jamie to assist him.

The story of James Smith might have ended there, as it must surely have for many other men stranded and injured in the backcountry with less resolve and knowledge. But James Smith was an experienced woodsman. At only 29 years of age, he had already fought numerous skirmishes with Indian war parties, endured five years of Indian captivity, and had ridden with the “Black Boys” who patrolled the North Carolina back woods. Finding himself unable to travel, facing starvation, Indian capture, and death, James Smith relied on his knowledge and experience to survive.

Knowing the importance of first tending to his serious injury, Smith pulled from his pack a leather awl, a knife, and a bullet mold. With these impromptu surgical instruments, he gives the following account:

 “I struck the awl in the skin, and with the knife I cut away the flesh from around the cane and then I commanded the mulatto fellow to catch it with the bullit molds, and pull it out, which he did. When I saw it, it seemed a shocking thing to be in any person’s foot; it will therefore be supposed that I was very glad to have it out.”

Besides being extremely painful, the wound was surely deep. Realizing the danger of infection, Smith further instructed Jamie to: “…search for Indian medicine, and told him to get me a quantity of bark from the root of a lynn tree, which I made him beat on a stone with a tomahawk, and boil in a kettle, and with the ooze I bathed my foot and leg; what remained when I had finished bathing, I boiled to a jelly and made poultices thereof. As I had no rags, I made us of the green moss that grows upon logs, and wrapped it around with elm bark, by this means (simple as it may seem) the swelling and inflammation abated.”

During the summer, the “lynn” tree (linn, linden tree, or basswood) would have been easy to find. Its blooms still would have been bright and fragrant, and the creamy-white flowers are known to attract swarms of bees. Today, we know that linn trees contain certain compounds which are known to lower blood pressure and swelling, and act as anesthetics. The fact that Smith boiled the jelly-poultice would have provided him with a sterile dressing for his wound.

Still barely able to move, Smith noticed clouds moving in, and saw the signs of a coming storm. He told Jamie to: “make us a shelter, which he did by erecting forks and poles and covering them over with cane tops like a fodder house.” This half-faced shelter, common among longhunters, would keep the two men and their gear comfortable and dry during Smith’s convalescence.

Next came food. As he had situated his camp near a well-worn buffalo trail, Smith gave Jamie his gun. With Smith’s instruction, Jamie was able to kill a buffalo and assisted the longhunter as they: “jirked (dried over a low scaffold over a slow fire) the lean and fried the tallow out of the fat meat, which we kept to stew our jerk as we needed it.”

But meat was not the only thing Smith knew how to derive from the wildlife they killed. As they made their way slowly back to the east, Jamie’s clothes began to wear out. According to Smith, Jamie eventually wore breechclout, leggings, and moccasins of deer or elk hide, as well as a bearskin that was “dressed with the hair on which he belted around him.”

Finally, after three months since his injury, “seeing no bread, money, or spirituous liquors”, James Smith and Jamie arrived back in the Yadkin River settlements. But his troubles were not over, for the wary North Carolina frontier people did not believe the two strange men dressed in pelts and fur caps could have possibly survived such an ordeal to return safely over the mountains. Smith and Jamie were actually placed in jail for a time, until a friend supplied them with proper clothing that allowed the people to see them as normal men again.

The story of James Smith’s wilderness survival during the summer of 1767 was remarkable at that time, and still is today. But what is interesting is the fact that Smith made do with what he had in his pack and with what medicines, food, and clothing he could manufacture from the woods around him. Men like James Smith had taken the time to learn woodcraft, and were able to make application of his knowledge. His story is a lesson in survival and self-reliance in the face of death and danger, far back in the frontier of history.

Joe D. Guy is a nationally published author, newspaper columnist, and historian residing in McMinn County, TN. He may be reached via email at guyjd@hotmail.com or at PO Box 489, Englewood, TN 37329.