Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Shelby, Evan 1720-1794

Pioneer; born in Wales in 1720; accompanied his parents to Maryland in 1735; rose to the rank of captain in the French and Indian War. Early in 1779 about 1,000 Indians assembled at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Ga., to join the Northern Indians in Hamilton's conspiracy. To restrain their ravages, the governments of North Carolina and Virginia appointed Shelby to the command of 1,000 men, called into service chiefly from the region west of the mountains. These were joined by a regiment of twelvemonth men who had been enlisted to reinforce Clarke in Illinois. In the middle of April they went down the Tennessee River in canoes and pirogues so rapidly that the savages were surprised, and fled to the hills and woods, pursued by the white troops. Forty of the Indians were killed. Their towns were burned, their cultivated fields were laid waste, and their cattle were driven away. For the rest of the year there was peace among the Western settlements, and a stream of emigrants flowed through the mountains into Kentucky, increasing the number of settlements. Shelby afterwards attained the rank of brigadier-general. He died at King's Meadows, Tenn., Dec. 4, 1794.