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KING'S MOUNTAIN
ft
AND
ITS HEROES:
HISTORY OF THE
Battle of King's Mountain,
OCTOBER 7TH, 1780,
AND THE
EVENTS WHICH LED TO IT,
BY
LYMAN C. DRAPER, LL. D.,
Secreiary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and vtctnber of various Historical and Antiquaria7i Societies of the Country,
WITH STEEL PORTRAITS, MAPS, AND PLANS.
CINCINNATI : PETER G. THOMSON, PUBLISHER.
1881.
r
A^^U
^
/CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
COPYRIGHT :
1881.
BY PETER G. THOMSON.
INTRODUCTION.
WITH the siege and fall of Charleston, early in 1780, the rude shocks of war were transferred from the Northern and Middle States to the Carolinas and Georgia. Gates, the victor of Saratoga, was sent to command the Southern army ; but his lucky star failed him, and he was disastrously routed near Camden, and the gallant Sumter shortly after surprised at Fishing Creek. Gloom and dismay overspread the whole Southern country. Detachments from the victorious British army were scattered throughout the settlements; and the rebellious Colonies of the Carolinas and Georgia were reported to the Home Government as completely humiliated and subdued. Ferguson, one of the ablest of the Royal commanders, was operating on the western borders of the Carolinas, enticing the younger men to his standard, and drilling them for the Royal service.
At this gloomy period, when the cause of Liberty seemed prostrate and hopeless in the South, the Whig border leaders, Campbell, Shelby, Sevier, Cleveland, Lacey, Williams, McDowell, Winston, Hambright, Hawthorn, Brandon, Chronicle, Hammond, and their compeers, mar- shalled their clans, united their forces, overwhelming Ferguson and his motley followers, crushing out all Tory opposition, and making the name of King's Mountain famous in our country's history. This remarkable and fortunate battle deserves a full and faithful record. The story of its heroes has in it much to remind us of an epic or a romance. They were a remarkable race of men, and played no incon- siderable a part in the long and sanguinary struggle for American Independence. Reared on the outskirts of civilization, they were early inured to privations and hardships, and when they went upon the " war- path," they often obtained their commissaries' supplies from the wild
i V JNTR on UCTION.
woods and mountain streams of the region wliere they carried on tlieir successful operations.
As early as 1839, '^^ collection of materials was commenced for this work. Three of the lingering survivors of King's Mountain were visited by the writer of this volume, and their varied recollections noted down — James Sevier, of Tennessee, John Spelts and Silas McBee, of Mississippi; and Benjamin Sharp, of Missouri, and William Snodgrass, of Tennessee, were reached by correspondence.
The gathering at King's Mountain in 1815, to collect and re-inter the scattered remains of those who fell in the conflict was limited in attendance. In 1855, the seventy-fifth anniversary was appropriately celebrated, with Gen. John S. Preston, and Hon. George Bancroft as the speakers. But it remained for October seventh, 1880, to eclipse the others, in a Centennial celebration, when thousands of people assembled, making a memorable civic and military display, with an address by Hon. John W. Daniel, and poems by Paul H. Hayne and Mrs. Clara Dargan McLean. Then followed the unvailing of a massive granite monument having a base of eighteen feet square, and altogether a height of twenty- eight feet. It slopes from the upper die to the top, which is about two and half feet square, capable of further addition, or to be crowned with a suitable statue. Inscriptions are cut on marble slabs, imbedded two inches in the granite masonry.
This worthy King's Mountain Centennial very naturally excited much interest in the minds of the public regarding the battle itself, and its heroic actors, and prompted the writer to set about the preparation- of his long-promised work. Beside the materials collected in former years — in ante bellum days — more than a thousand letters were written, seeking documents, traditions, description of historic localities, and the elucidation of obscure statements. Old newspaper files of the Library of Congress, Philadelphia Library Company, and of the Maryland and the Wisconsin Historical Societies, have been carefully consulted, and information sought from every possible source in this country, England and the British Colonies. Truth alone has been the writer's aim, and conclusions reached without prejudice, fear or favor.
The following deceased persons, who were either related to, or had personal intercourse with. King's Mountain men, kindly contributed in years agone, valuable materials for this work :
THE NEW MONUMENT, KING's MOUNTAIN.
INTRODUCTION. v
Ex-Gov. David Campbell, of Virginia; Hon. Hugh L. White, Col. Wm. Martin, Ex. Gov. Wm. B. Campbell, Col. George Wilson, Col. George Christian, Maj. John Sevier, Jr., Col. Geo. W. Sevier, and Mrs. Eliza W. Warfield, of Tennessee; Hon. Jos. J. Mc- Dowell, of Ohio ; Maj. Thos. H. Shelby, of Kentucky ; Hon. Elijah Callaway, Dr. James Callaway, Hugh M. Stokes, Shadrack Franklin, Silas McDowell, Adam and James J. Hampton, of North Carolina; Hon. Wm. C. Preston, Gen. John S. Preston, Dr. M. A. Moore, D. G. Stinson, Jeremiah Cleveland, Mrs. Sallie Rector, Dr. A. L. Hammond, and Abraham Hardin, of South Carolina; Gen. Ben, Cleveland, of" Georgia; and Dr. Alex- ander Q. Bradley, of Alabama.
Special acknowledgements are due to the following persons.
Tennessee: — Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey, Rev. Dr. D. C. Kelley, Hon. J. M. Lea, Anson Nelson, Hon. W. B. Carter, Col. H. L. Claiborne, Mrs. Mary A. Trigg, John F. Watkins Thos. A. Rogers, and Col. H. A. Brown.
Virginia: — R. A. Brock, Hon. A, S. Fulton, W. G. G. Lowry, John L. Cochran, and Col. T. L. Preston.
North Carolina:— T>t. C. L. Hunter, Col. J. R. Logan, W. L. Twitty, Dr. R. F Hackett, Col. Wm. Johnston, Hon. W. P. Bynum, Dr. W. J. T. Miller, Mrs. Mary A. Chambers, Hon. S. McDowell Tate, Col. W. W. Lenoir, Mrs R. M. Pearson, W. M. Rcinhardt, Hon. J. C. Harper, Hon. C. A. Cilly, Miss A. E. Henderson, Dr. G. W. Michal. Wm. A. McCall, Rev. W. S. Fontaine, W. S. Pearson, T. A. Bouchelle, John Banner, J. L. Worth, Dr. T. B. Twitty. M. O. Dickerson, A. D. K. Wallace, John Gilkey, A. B. Long, Dr. J. H. Gilkey, Hon. J. M. Cloud, Rev. W. S. Bynum, J. C. Whitson. Geo. F. Davidson. Mrs. R. C. Whitson. Miss N. M. McDowell. Miss A. M. Woodfin. James E. Reynolds, Lewis Johnson. G W. Crawford. W. H. Allis, Thos. D. Vance. Dr. J. C. New- land, W. M. McDowell, Rev. E. F. Rockwell, D. Burgin. A. Burgin, Wylie Franklin, James Gwyn, Jesse Yates, Dr L. Harrill. John H. Roberts, Mrs. M. V. Adams, Mrs. P. E. Callaway, Dr. B. F. Dixon, and Mrs. M. M. Thruston.
South Carolina: — Rev. James H. Saye. Ex-Gov. B. F. Perry. Hon. Simpson Bobo, N. F. Walker, A. H. Twichell, Mrs. Edward Roach, Gen. A. C. Garlington, D. K. Craw- ford, Hon. John B. Cleveland, Elijah Keese, James Seaborn, and J. T. Pool.
Georgia:— Jir. J. H. Logan, Gen. W. S. Wofford, W. T. Hackett, and A. N. Simpson.
Alabama : — Rev. Z. H. Gordon, Col. J. H. Witherspoon, and Mrs. Lewis E. Parsons.
Mississippi:—}. R. Hill.
Arkansas : — Gen. D. H Hill.
Missouri : — Dr. A. N. Kincannon.
Kentucky :—Is3l?lc Shelby, Jr., and Col. H. H. McDowell.
Illinois : — Sprague White.
Ohio: — Mrs. Jennie McDowell Stockton.
Wisconsin : — Hon. John A. Bentley.
Pennsylvania : — G. R. Hildeburn.
New York :—Gm. J. Watts DePeyster, and Geo. H. Moore, LL. D.
Maryland: — Miss Josephine Seaton.
Washington :— Col. J. H. Wheeler, and Hon. D. R. Goodloe.
:Englana .-—Viscount Holmesdale, Col. Geo. A. Ferguson, and Alfred Kingston.
New Brunswick .'—J. De Lancey Robinson.
Nova Scotia .-—George Taylor.
Ontario .-—Rev. Dr. E. Ryerson.
vi INTR on UCTION.
While in the long years past the materials for this work have been collected, ample facts and documents have also been gathered for a continuation of similar volumes, of which this is the commencement — to be called, perhaps, the Border Series, embracing, in their sweep, the whole frontier from New York and Canada to the gulf of Mexico — Sumter and his Men — Pickens and the Battle of Cowpeus — Life and Campaigns of Gen. George Rogers Clark — Boone and the Pioneers of Kentucky — Kenton and his Adventures — Brady and his Scouts — Mecklenburg and its Actors — Tectimseh, the Shawanoe Leader — Brant, the Mohawk Chief— -m^A. a volume on Border Forays and Adventures. If there is a demand for these works, they will be forthcoming.
Should King's Mountain and its Heroes be received with favor, and regarded as shedding new light on an interesting portion of our revolu- tionary history, not a little of the credit is deservedly due to the enterprising publisher, Peter G. Thomson, who warmly encouraged the undertaking, and has spared no pains in bringing it before the public in a style at once tasteful and attractive.
Madison, Wis., September i, 1881.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
176S to May, 1780.
Causes of the Revolution. — Alternate Successes and Disasters of the Early Campaign of the War. —Siege and Reduction of Charleston.
CHAPTER II.
May, 1780.
Further Incidents Connected with the Siege. — Tyranny of the British Leaders. — Subjugation of South Carolina^
CHAPTER III.
1741 to May, 1780.
Early Life of Patrick Ferguson. — Brandywine Battle — Refrains from Shooting Washington. — Wounded. — Conducts Little Egg Harbor Expedition. — Nearly Killed by an Accidental Attack by his own Friends. — Biggon Bridge and Monk's Corner Affair. — Resents In- sults to Ladies. — Siege of Charleston.
CHAPTER IV.
1780— May— July.
Colonel Ferguson sent to the District of Ninety Six. — Organizing the Local Militia. — Major Hanger' s Accotmt of the up-country Inhabi- tants— his own bad reputation. — Ferguson' s seductive promises to the people. — The Tory, David Fanning. — Ferguson' s adaptation to his Mission — Mrs. fane Thomas' Adventure. — Colonel Thomas repels
vii
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
a Tory assault at Cedar Spring. — Fergicson advances to Fair For- est.—Character of the Tories—Stories of their phmderings.— Col- onels Clarke and Jones of Georgia— the latter surprises a Tory Camp —Dnnlap and Mills attack McDowell's Camp on North Pacolet. — Captain Hampton s pursuit and defeat of the Tories.
CHAPTER V.
1780— July— August.
McDowell sends for the Over-Mountain Men. — Clarke joins him, and pushes on to Sumter's Camp. — Capttire and Escape of Captain Patrick Moore. — Moore's Plunderers. — Story of Jane Mcjunkin and Bill Haynesworth. — Shelby and the Mountaineers arrive at McDowell's Camp. — Capture of Thicketty Fort. — Expedition to Brown's Creek and Fair Forest. — Fight at the Peach Orchard, near Cedar Spring, and Wofford's Iron Works, and its Incidents. — Saye's Account of the Action. — British Report. — Contradictory Statements concerniitg the Conflict.
CHAPTER VI.
1780— August IS.
Mitsgrove's Mill Expedition and Battle. — Rencontre of the Patrol Par- ties.— British Alarm. — Information of the Enemy's Reinforcement.
— Whigs throw up Breast-works. — Captain Inmari s Stratagem. — Enemy drawn itito the Net prepared for them. — Desperate Fight- ing.— Bines and other British Leaders Wounded. — Tory Colonel Clary's Escape. — Captain Inman Killed. — The Retreat and the Rout. — Incidents at the Ford. — Sam Moore's Adventttre. — The Brit- ish and Tory Reserve. — A British Patrol Returns too late to share in the Battle. — Burial of the Slain. — Length and Severity of the Action. — Respective Losses. — News of Gates' Defeat — its Influence.
— Whigs' Retreat. — Anecdote of Paul Hinso7i. — The Prisoners. — Williams' Reward. — Cornwallis' Confession. — Comparison of Au- thorities.
CHAPTER VII.
1780— Summer and Autumn.
Incidents of the Up-coimtry — Major Edward Musgrove. — Paddy Carr and Beaks Musgrove. — The Story of Mary Musgrove. — Samuel
TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix
Clowney's adventure. — William Kennedys Forays Against the Tories. — Joseph Hughes' Escape. — William Sharp Bagging a British and Tory Party. — Tories' Attack on Woods, and how dearly he sold his life. — Plundering Sam Brown.
CHAPTER VIII.
August, 1780— March, 1781.
Cornwallis" Hanging Propeitsities. — Sumter a thorn in his Lordship's side. — Dispersion of Whig Bands. — F'erguson' s Success in Training the Loyal Militia. — Action of the Alarmed Tory Leaders. — Ferguson Moves into Try on County. — Colo7iel Graham Repels a Party of Plun- derers.— Ruse for Savijig Whig Stock. — Mrs. Lytle and her Beatier Hat. — Engagemettt on Cane Creek, aud Major Dunlap wounded. — Apprehension of Jonathan Hampton. — Dunlap' s Insolence. — Sketch of Dunlap' s Career and Death.
CHAPTER IX.
July— October, 1780.
Gathering of the King's Mountain Clans. — Williams' failure to get coiJi- jnand of Sumter's men — his tricky treatment of Sumter. — Fergu- son sends a threat to the Over-Mountain Men. — Shelby s patriotic efforts to titrn the scales on Ferguson. — Sevier, McDowell, Hamp- ton and Campbell unite in the Enterptise — Cleveland invited to join them . — Sevier's success inproz iding Supplies for the Expedition. — Rendezvous at the Sycamore Shoals. — Prcparaticns for the March. — Parson Doak commends the men to the protection of the Good Father. — Their March over the ?no7intains. — Joined by Cleveland and Winston. — Campbell chosen to the Chief Command. — Mc- Dowell's mission for a General Officer.
CHAPTER X.
September— October, 1780.
Further gathering of the King's Mountain Men.— Williams' North Carolina Recruits. — Movements of Stmiter's Force under Hill and Lacey.— Troubles with Williams.— March to Flint Hill.— The
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Mountaineers at their South Mottntain Camp. — Patriotic Appeals of the Officers to their Men. — Resume of Ferguson s Operations in the Upper Catawba Valley. — Alarming hitelligence of the Ap- proxch of the Back Water Men. — Why Ferguson Tarried so long on the Frontiers. — British Schejne of Suppressing the Rebellion by the Gallows. — Ferguson Flees from Gilbert Town. — Sends Messen- gers for aid to Cornwallis and Cruger. — Frenzied Appeal to the Tories. — Ferguson's Breakfast Stolen by Saucy Whigs. — His Flight to Tate's Ferry. — Dispatch to Lord Cornwallis. — Takes Post on King's Mountain, and Description of it. — A^otives for Ling- ering there.
CHAPTER XI.
October, 1780.
Uncertainty of Ferguson's Route of Retreat. — A small party of Georgians join the Mountain Men. — Whig forces over-estimated. — Report of a patriot Spy froin Ferguson's Camp. — Williams' attempt to Mislead the Mountaineers. — Lacey sets them Right. — The South Carolinians treatment of Williams. — Selecting the fittest Men at Green river to pursue Ferguson. — Arrival at the Cowpens. — The Tory, Saunders — his ignorance of Ferguson, his Beeves and his Corn. — Story of Kerr, the cripple Spy — Gilmer, the cunning Scout, duping the Tories. — The Cowpens Council, further selection of Pursuers, and their Number. — Night March to Cherokee Ford. — Straying of Camp- belFs Me?i. — Groundless Fears of an Ambuscade. — Crossing of Broad river. — Stormy Times. — Jaded Condition of Men a}id Horses. ■ — Tory Information. — Gilmer's Adventures. — Pla7t of attacking Ferguson . — Colonel Graham Retires. — Chronical assigned Command of the Lincoln Men. — Young Ponder Taken. — Fergusons Dress. — Pressing towards the enemy's Camp.
CHAPTER XII.
King's Mountain Battle, October 7th, 1780.
Ferguson and his Men Resolve to Fight. — The Bayonet their Main Re- liance.— British Strength. — Character of the Provincial Ratigers. — Different Classes of Loyalists Described. — Traits of the Mountain- eers.— The Holston Men, and Frontier Adventures. — Assignment of the Whig Corps to the Attack. — Campbeirs Appeal to his Men.
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi
— WinstorCs tnis- Adventures. — Cleveland not the First to Commence the Action. — Surprising the Enemy's Picket. — Shelby's Column An- noyed by the Enemy. — Campbell's Men Rush into tlie Fight— At- tack on the British Main Guard. — The Virginians Advance up the Mountain. — March of Cleveland's Men— Patriotic Speech of their Commander. — Drive in a Picket. — Movements of Lacey's ' Me?i. — Campbell's Corps Driven before the Bayonet — Rally, and Renew the Contest. — Shelby, too, Retired before the Charging Columns. — 'The Right and Left Wings take part in the Action. — Culbertson's Heroism. — Captain Moses Shelby Wounded. — Ensign Campbell Dis- lodging Tories from their Rocky Ramparts. — Terrific Character of the Conflict. — Amusing Incident of one of Lacey's Meii. — Heroic Efforts of Campbell and his Corps.- — E?tsign Campbell's Good Con- duct.— Captain Edmundson's Exploit and Death. — Lieutenant Reece Bouuen's Disdain of Danger, and his Lamented Fall. — Camp- bell's Active Efforts and Heroic Appeals. — Death of Major Chron- icle.— The South Fork Boys Charged, and Several Wounded. — Robert Henry Transfixed, and yet Survived all his Associates. — William Twitty and Abram Forney. — Cleveland and his Men. — Lieutenant Samuel Johnson' and other Wounded Officers. — Intre- pidity of Charles Gordon and David Witherspoon. — Singular Adventure of Charles Bowen and Colonel Cleveland.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Battle— October 7th, 1780.
Further Progress and Incidents of the Contest. — Heroic Act of William Robertson. — Thomas Robertson Shoots a Tricky Tory. — Treatment of the Tory Branson, by Captain Withrow. — Captain Lenoir's Part in the Battle. — Captain Robert Sevier Wounded. — Alarm concerning Tarleton. — Mistake caused by Campbell's Bald Faced Horse. — Campbell's Daring Reconnoiter. — Anecdote of Cleveland. — Colonel Williams' Patriotic Conduct. — William Giles "Creased" — Revives, and Renews the Fight. — Thomas Young's Relation of Colonel Williams' Fall. — Major Hammond's Desperate Charge, and singular Premonition of one of his Men. — Campbell and Shelby Renewing the Attack. — Lieutenant- Colonel Hambridge Wounded. — Ferguson's Pride and Recklessness — Attempting to Escape, is Mortally Wounded. — Various Statemetits of Colonel Williams' Fall.— Furious Charge of Campbell's and Shelby's Men.— Several Corps driven down the Mountain.— British Over-Shoot the Whigs. — North Carolina Tories first to Weaken.— Colonel Graham's Unex-
xii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
pected Reiiirn. — Fergusons Fall — DePt-ystcr Vindicated. — Whigs slow to Recognise the White Flag. — Young Sevier's Shooting Paroxysm. — Efforts of Shelby and Campbell to Quell the Firing of the Whigs. — 'Three Rousing Cheers for the Great Victory. — Colonel Williams' Shot — a?z Exciting Scene. — Conflicting Stories of his Fatal Charge. — British Officers Sicrrender their Swords. — • Ferguson's Heroic Conduct in the Battle — his Mistakes. — He was Mortally Wounded, not Killed Out-Right. — Curiosity of the Whigs to View his Body. — His Mistresses. — Privations and Sifferings of the Mountaijzeers. — Strefigth of the Tones. — Absence of their Leaders. — Their Fighting Qualities. — Dismay of the Southern British Commanders.— Their Ignorajtce of the Over-Mountain IVhig Settlements. — Boone not 07i the Campaign. — Duration of the Battle.- — Strength and Losses of the British and Tories. — Colo?tels fohn and Patrick Moore. — Number of Prisoners Taken. — Errors in Report of Losses. — Names of Whigs Killed and Woimded. — Death of Captain Sevier. — William Moore Wounded. — Remarkable Losses in Campbell's Regiment. — Captains Weir and Shannon Arrive. — Counting the Dead. — Caring for tlie Wounded. — Guard- i7ig the Prisoners. — Scarcity of Provisions. — King's Mountain Souve7iirs. — Heart-Rending Scenes of the Battle Field. — The Night after the Action.
CHAPTER XIV.
October, 1780.
Battle Lncidents. — Long Sam Abney Coerced into Ferguson's Army. — Death of Arthur Patterson. — Drury Mathis' Rough Experience. — A Tory Woman Finding her Slain Son. — Fatality of the Rifllemen. — Preston Goforth and three Brothers Killed. — A Brother kills u Brother. — The Whig and Tory Logans. — Williain Logan Noticed. — Prepariitg to Retire. — Burning Captured Wagons. — Horse-Litters for the Wounded. — Gray's Kindness to a Wounded Tory. — A Termagant Prisoner Released.^Messengers sent to the Foot-Men. — Arms Captured. — Tories made to Carry Them. — Trophies of Vic- tory.— A Whig Woman Refusing to Share in the Plunder.— Rumor of Tarleton's Approach.— Burial of the Whig and Tory Dead.— Treatment of Ferguson Considered. — Re-Interment of Remains. — March of the Army.— Death of Col. Williams.— Camp at Broad River.— Williams' Burial.— Discovery of his Long- Forgotten Grave. — Six Tory Brothers Escape. — Notice of Colonel Walker. — Bran-
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii
don's Barbarity. — Campbell Protecting the Prisoners.—Grav' s Retort to a Tory Vixen.— Graf s Services.— Suffering for Food.—Feedi7ig Prisoners on Corn and Pumpkins. — Billeting the Wounded.— March to Bickerstaff's Old Field.
CHAPTER XV.
October— November, 1780.
Colonel Campbell Denounces Plundering. — Complaints Against Tory Leaders.— Their Outrages on the Whigs.— A Court Called to Con- sider the Matter. — Retaliation for British Executions Demanded. — A Law Found to Meet the Case. — Charges against Mills, Gilkey, and McFall. — Colonel Davenport Noticed. — Number of Tories Tried and Cotidemned. — Case of James Crawford.- — One of the Prisoners Released. — Cleveland Favoring Severe Measures. — Motives of the Patriots Vindicated. — Shelby's Explanation. — Tories Executed — their names and Residence. — Paddy Carr's Remarks, and Notice of Him. — Baldwin's Singular Escape. — Further Executions Stopped. — Tories Subsequently Hung. — Rumor of Tarleton's Approach. — Whigs Hasten to the Catawba. — A Hard Day' s March — Sufferings of Patriots and Prisoners. — Major Mc- Dowell's Kindness. — Mrs. McDowell's Treatment of British Offi- cers.— Some of the Whig Troops Retire. — Disposition of the Wounded. —^Prisoners Escape — One Re-taken and Hing. — March to the Moravia7i Settlements. — Bob Powell' s Challenge. — Official Accoimt of the Battle Prepared. — Campbell and Shelby Visit Getteral Gates. ■ — Cleveland Left in Command. — His Trial of Tories. — Escape of Green a7td Langum. — Cleveland Assaults Doctor fohnsoti. — Colonel Armstroftg Succeeds to the Command. — Escape of British Officers.
CHAPTER XVI.
October— December, 1780.
Disposition of King's Mountain Prisoners. — Proposition to Enlist Them — Needed for Exchange. — Congress refers the Matter to the States where the Prisoners Belong. — How They Dwindled Away. — Colonel Arjftstrong Blamed. — Renuiant Confined at Salisbury. — DePeyster and Ryerson Paroled. — A Plucky Band of Whigs Scare a Large Tory Party. — Tarleton Frustrates Cornwallis' Design of Relieving Fe?guson. — Intercepting Fergusons Messengers. — Tarleton at
xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Length in Motion. — His Instructions. — Effect of King s Mountain Victory. — Ewin and Barry Alarm the Neutrals and they Alarm Coniwallis. — Crowning of David Knox. — Cornwallis flees to South Carolina, with the Imaginary Mountaineers in Pursuit. — A Tricky Guide Misleading the Retiring Troops. — A Panic. — Illness of Corn- wallis.— Sickness and Fatality among the Troops. — Privations and Sufferings of the Petrogradcrs.—Aid Rendered by the Tories.— Nmety Six Safe. — Cornwallis Threatens Retaliation for Execution of King' s Mountain Prisoners. — Gates and Randall on the Sittta- tion. — The (Juestion Met by Geticral Greene. — Corn-wallis Drops the Matter. — 'Case of Adam Ciisack. — The IVidows and Orphans of Ninety Six District. — Good Words for King's Mountain Victory. — Gates Thanks the Victors. — Washington Takes Courage. — Resolves of Congress. — Greene and Lee Commend the Mountaineers. — Lossing, Bancroft, and Irving on the Result. — The British Leaders Recognize the Disastrous Effects of Ferguson's Miscarriage. — Gates and Jef- ferson's Encomiums. — King's Mountain Paves the Way for York- town and Independence.
CHAPTER XVII.
Gen. 'William Campbell.
His Scotch-Irish Ancestry. — His Father an Early Holstoji Explorer. — William Campbell' s Birth and Education. — Settles on Holston. — A Captain on Dunmore' s Campaign. — Raised a Company for the first Virginia Regiment in 1773. — Return for the Defense of the Fron- tiers.— His Military Appointitients. — Rencounter with and Hanging of the Bandit Hopkijis. — Suppressing Tories up New River. — King's Moimtain Expedition — his Bravery Vindicated. — Public Thanks for his Services. — Marches to Long Island of Holston. — At Whitzell's Mills and Guilford. — Resigyis from Ill-treatment. — Made Brigadier-General. — Serves tinder La Fayette. — Death and Character. — Notices of his King' s Mountain Officers.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Cols. Shelby and Sevier, and their Officers.
Notice of Evan Shelby. — Isaac Shelby's Life and Services. — Officers under him at King' s Mountain — Evan Shelby, fr. — Gilbert Chris- tian— Moses Shelby — fames Elliott — John Sawyers — George Max- well, and George Rictledge. — John Sevier's Life and Services. — His King' s Mountain Officers — Jonathan Tipton — Valentine and Robert Sevier — Christopher Taylor — Jacob Brown — Samuel Weir.
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xv
CHAPTER XIX.
Col. Ben. Cleveland, Maj. Joseph "Winston and their
Officers.
Cleveland's Ancestry. — His Early Life and Hunting Adventures. — Trip to Kentucky.— Elk Hunt and Narrow Escapes. — Revolution- ary War. — Suppressing Scotch Tories. — Rutherford' s Cherokee Campaign. — Marches to Watauga. — Appointed Colo7iel. — Serves in Georgia. — New River Scout. — King's Mountain. — Hangs Coyle and Brown. — Captured by Tories and his Rescue. — Riddle and Wells Hung. — Other Tory Brigands Taken — Nichols, Tate, and Harrison. — Thumbing the Notch. — Reforming Tories. — Removes to Tugalo. — Hangs Dinkins. — Appointed Judge. — Anecdote. — Great Size, Death, and Character.
Major Joseph Winston Noticed. — Be7i. Herndon. — Micajah and Joel Lewis. — Robert and John Cleveland. — Jesse Franklin. — William I^noir — John Barton — William Meredith, and Minor Smith. — John Brown and Samuel Johnson. — David and John Wither- spoon. — Jo. Herndon, Richard Allen, and Elisha Reynolds.
CHAPTER XX.
Laeey and Other "Whigs. — British and Tory Leaders.
Lacey, Hawthorne, Tate, and Moffett. — Williams, Hammond, Hayes, Dillard, Thompson, and Candler. — Brandon, Steen, and Roebuck. — Maj. McDowell, Capt. McDowell, Kennedy, Va7ice, and Wood. — Hampton, Singleton, Porter, Withrow, Miller, and Watson. — Hambright, Grahain, Chronicle, Dickson, Johnston, White, Espey, Martin, and Mattocks. — British and Tory Leaders.
APPENDIX.
Allaire's Diary, and Other British Accounts. — Letters of Williams, Davidson, and Gates. — Gates' Thanks to the Victors. — Official Re- port of King' s Mountain. — -Shelby's and Catnpbe It's Letters. — Wash- ington's General Order. — Arthur Campbell and Unknown Writer's Statements. — Col. Campbell's General Orders. — Thanks of Virginia Legislature. — Lee and Greene's Letters. — LaFayette on Campbells Death. — Monroe's Letter. — Robert Campbell, Shelby, Graham, Lenoir, and Sharp's Naratives. — " Narrator' s" Charge. — Shelby and Sevier's Correspondence. — Shelby's Pamphlet. — Synopsis of Re- joinders.— Various Certificates Vindicating Col. Campbell. — Old Ballads. — Index.
CHAPTER I.
176S to May, 1780.
Causes of the Revolution— Alternate Successes and Disasters of the Early Campaigns of the War— Siege and Reduction of Charleston.
For ten years before the outbreak of the American Revo- lution, the great question oi taxation witJiout representation agitated the minds of the American people. They rejected the stamps, because they implied a tax ; they destroyed .^^; the tea, because it imposed a forced levy upon them without;. their consent, to gratify the insatiate demands of their trans- Atlantic sovereign, and his tyrannical Ministry and Parlia- ment. Should they basely yield one of their dearest rights, they well judged they might be required, httle by little, to yield all. They, therefore, manfully resisted these invasions as unbecoming a free people.
When, in 1775, Great Britain determined to enforce her obnoxious laws, the people, under their chosen leaders, seized their arms, forsook their homes and families, and boldly asserted their God-given rights. A long and embit- tered contest was commenced, involving mighty interests. Freedom was threatened — an empire was at stake. Sturdy blows were given and received, with various results. The lirst year of the war, the Americans beat back the British from Lexington and Concord, and captured Crown Point, but were worsted at Bunker Plill ; they captured Chambl}- and St. Johns, and repulsed the enemy near Longueil, but the intrepid Montgomery failed to take Quebec, losing his life in the effort.
The second year of the contest, which brought forth the immortal Declaration of Independence, proved varying in
(17)
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its fortunes. The Scotch Tories in North Carolina were signally defeated at Moore's Creek, and the British, long cooped up in Boston, were compelled to evacuate the place ; and were subsequently repulsed at Sullivan's Island, near Charleston ; while the Americans, on the other hand, were defeated at the Cedars, and were driven from Montreal, Chambly and St. Johns, worsted at Long Island and White Plains, and lost Fort Washington, on the Hudson. Mean- while the frontier men of Virginia, the Carolinas, East Ten- nessee, and Georgia, carried on successful expeditions against the troublesome Cherokees, whom British emissaries had in- veigled into hostilities against their white neighbors.
Yet the year closed with gloomy prospects — despair sat on many a brow, and saddened many a heart — the main army was greatly reduced, and the British occupied New York, and the neighboring Province of New Jersey. Wash- ington made a desperate venture, crossing the Delaware amid floating ice in December, attacking and defeating the unsuspecting enemy at Trenton ; and, pushing his good fortune, commenced the third j'ear of the war, 1777, by securing a victory at Princeton. While the enemy were, for a while, held at bay at the Red Bank, yet the results of the contests at Brand3-wine and Germantown were not encouraging to the American arms, and the British gained a firm foot-hold in Philadelphia. And subsequently they captured Forts Clinton and Montgomer}', on the Hudson.
Farther north, better success attended the American arms. St. Leger, with a strong British and Indian force, laid siege to Fort Stanwix, on the Mohawk ; but after repel- ling a relieving party under Gen. Herkimer, he was at length compelled to relinquish his investiture, on learning of the approach of a second army of relief, retiring precipitatel}' from the country ; while the more formidable invading force under Burgoyne met with successive reverses at Benning- ton, Stillwater, and Saratoga, eventuating in its total sur- render to the victorious Americans.
AND ITS HEROES. 19
In June, 1778, the fourth year of the war, the British evacuated Philadelphia, when Washington pursued their retreating forces, overtaking and vigorously attacking them at Monmouth. A large Tory and Indian party defeated the setders, and laid waste the Wyoming settlements. As the result of Burgoyne's signal discomfiture, a treaty of alli- ance between the new Republic and France brought troops and fleets to the aid of the struggling Americans, and pro- duced some indecisive fighting on Rhode Island.
The adventurous expedition under George Rogers Clark, from the valleys of Virginia and West Pennsylvania, down the Monongahela and Ohio, and into the country of the Illinois, a distance of well nigh fifteen hundred miles, with limited means, destitute of military stores, pack- horses and supplies — with only their brave hearts and trusty rifles, was a remarkable enterprise. Yet with all these obstacles, and less than two hundred men, Clark fear- lessly penetrated the western wilderness, killing his game by the way, and conquered those distant settlements. Though regarded at the time as a herculean undertaking, and a most successful adventure, yet none foresaw the mighty influence it was destined to exert on the subsequent progress and extension of the Republic.
Varied fortunes attended the military operations of 1779, the fifth year of the strife. The gallant Clark and his intre- pid followers, marched in winter season, from Kaskaskia across the submerged lands of the Wabash, sometimes wad- ing up to their arm-pits in water, and breaking the ice before them, surprised the garrison at Vincennes, and succeeded in its capture. The British force in Georgia, having defeated General Ashe at Brier creek, projected an expedition against Charleston, and progressed as far as Stono, whence they were driven back to Savannah, where the combined French and Americans were subsequently repulsed, losing, among others, the chivalrous Count Pulaski. At the North, Stony Point was captured at the point of the bayonet, and Paulus
20 KING'S MOUNTAIN
Hook surprised ; while General Sullivan's well-appointed army over-ran the beautiful covintry of the Six Nations, destroying their villages, and devastating their fields, as a retributive chastisement for their repeated invasions of the Mohawk and Minisin settlements, and laying waste the lovely vale of W3'oming.
The war had now dragged its slow length along for five successive campaigns, and the British had gained but few permanent foot-holds in the revolted Colonies. Instead of the prompt and easy conquest they had promised themselves, they had encountered determined opposition wherever they had shown the red cross of St. George, or displayed their red-coated soldiery. Repeated defeats on the part of the Americans had served to inure them to the hardships of war, and learned them how to profit by their experiences and disasters.
New efforts were demanded on the part of the BritisTi Government to subdue their rebellious subjects ; and South. Carolina was chosen as the next field of extensive opera- tions. Sir Henry Clinton, who had met so signal a repulse at Charleston in 1776, and in whose breast still rankled the mortifying recollections of that memorable failure, resolved to head in person the new expedition against the Palmetto Colony, and retrieve, if possible, the honor so conspicu- ously tarnished there on his previous unfortunate enterprise.
Having enjoyed the Christmas holiday of 1779 in New York harbor. Sir Plenry, accompanied by Lord Cornwallis, sailed from Sandy Hook the next day with the fleet under Admiral Arbuthnot, transporting an army of over seven thousand five hundred men. Some of the vessels, however, were lost by the way, having encountered stormy weather in the gulf-stream — one bark, carrying Hessian troops, was dismasted and driven across the ocean, an ordnance vessel was foundered, while several transports were captured by bold and adventurous American privateers, and most of the horses for the expedition perished. The place of rendez-
AND ITS HEROES. 21
vous was at Tybee Bay, near the entrance to Savannah river, whence Clinton, on his way towards Charleston, was joined by the troops in Georgia, making his force nine thousand strong, besides the sailors in the fleet ; but to ren- der his numbers invincible beyond all peradventure, he at once ordered from New York Lord Rawdon's brigade, amounting to about two thousand five hundred more.
Charleston, against which this formidable British force was destined, was an opulent city of some fifteen thousand people, white and black, and was garrisoned by less than four thousand men — not near enough to properly man the extended works of defence, of nearly three miles in circum- ference, as they demanded. Governor Rutledge, a man of unquestioned patriotism, had conferred upon him by the Legislature, in anticipation of this threatened attack, dicta- torial powers, vi^ith the admonition, " to do every thing necessary for the public good ; " but he was, nevertheless, practically powerless. He had few or none of the sinews of war ; and so depreciated had become the currency of South Carolina, that it required seven hundred dollars to purchase a pair of shoes for one of her needy soldiers. The defeat of the combined French and American force at Savan- nah the preceding autumn, in which the South Carolinians largely participated, had greatly dispirited the people ; and the Governor's appeal to the militia produced very little effect. The six old South Carolina regiments had been so depleted by sickness and the casualties of war as to scarcely number eight hundred, all told ; and the defence of the citjf was committed to these brave men, the local militia, and a few regiments of Continental troops — the latter reluctantly spared by Washington from the main army, and which, ho thought, was " putting much to nazard" in an attempt to defend the city, and the result proved his military foresight. It would have been wiser for General Lincoln and his troops to have retired from the place, and engaged in a Fabian warfare, harassing the enemy's marches by ambus-
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cades, and cutting off his foraging parties ; but the leading citizens of Charleston, relying on their former success, urged every argument in their power that the city should be defended to the last extremity. Yet no experienced En- gineer regarded the place as tenable.
On the eleventh of February, 1780, the British forces landed on St. John's Island, within thirty miles of Charles- ton, subsequently forming a depot, and building fortifications, at Wappoo, on James' Island ; and, on the twenty-sixth of that month, they gained a distant view of the place and har- bor. The dreaded day of danger approached nearer and nearer ; and on the twenty-seventh, the officers of the Con- tinental squadron, which carried one hundred and fifty guns, reported their inabilit}^ to guard the harbor at the bar, where the best defence could be made ; and " then," as Washington expressed it, "the attempt to defend the town ought to have been relinquished." But no such thought was entertained. Every thing was done, that could be done, to strengthen and extend the lines of defence, dig ditches, erect redoubts and plant abatis, with a strong citadel in the center.*
Preparations, too, were steadily progressing on the part of the enemy. On the twenty-fourth of March, Lord Corn- wallis and a Hessian officer were seen with their spy- glasses making observations ; and on the twenty-ninth, the British passed Ashley river, breaking ground, on the first of April, at a distance of eleven hundred yards from the American lines. At successive periods they erected five batteries on Charleston Neck.
Late in the evening of March thirtieth, General Charles
=:= There was published, first in a Williamsburgh, Va., paper of April 8th, 1780, copied i ito Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet of April i8th, and into the New York Royal Gazette of same date, an account of a Colonel Hamilton Callendine having made drawings of Charleston and its fortifications, was directing his course to the enemy, when an American picket guard sent out to Stono, captured him; he, thereupon, exhibited his drafts, supposing that the party belonged to the British army. They soon disabused him of his error, carried him to General Lincoln, who ordered him for execution, and he was accordingly hanged on the 5th of March, As none of the South Carolina historians, nor any of the Charleston diarists or letter-writers during the siege, make the slightest reference to any such person or circumstance, there could have been no foundation for the story.
AND ITS HEROES. 23
Scott, commanding one of the Virginia Continental bri- gade, arrived, accompanied by his staff, and some other officers. "The next morning," says Major Croghan, "I accompanied Generals Lincoln and Scott to view the batteries and works arovmd town ; found those on the Cooper river side in pretty good order, and chiefly manned by sailors ; but the greater part of the remainder not complete, and stood in need of a great deal of work. General Scott was very par- ticular in inquiring of General Lincoln as to the quantity of provisions in the garrison, when the General informed him there were several months' suppl}^ by a return he had re- ceived from the Commissary. General Scott urged the necessity of having officers to examine it, and, as he ex- pressed it,_/br them to lay their hatids on it."*
A sortie was planned on the fourth of April, to be com- inanded by General Scott — one battalion led by Colonel Clarke and Major Hogg, of North Carolina ; another by Colonel Parker and Major Croghan, of Virginia, and the light infantry by Lieutenant-Colonel Laurens ; but the wind proved unfavorable, which prevented the shipping from going up Town creek, to fire on the enemy, and give the sallying party such assistance as they might be able to ren- der, and thus it failed of execution. General Woodford's Virginia brigade of Continentals arrived on the sixth, and some North Carolina militia under the command of Colonel Harrington. They were greeted by the firing of a yeu de joie, and the ringing of the bells all night. f
Admiral Arbuthnot's near approach to the bar, on the seventh of April, induced Commodore Whipple, who com- manded the American naval force, to retire without firing a gun, first to Fort Moultrie, and afterward to Charleston ; and the British fleet passed the fort without stopping to engage it — the passage having been made, says the New Jersey
"MS. Journal of Major William Croghan, of the Virginia Line. Siege of Charles- ton, 123.
\ Croghan's MS. Journal.
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Gazette,'^ while a severe thunder storm was raging, which caused the ships to be " invisible near half the time of their passing." Colonel Charles C. Pinckney, who commanded there, with three hundred men, kept up a heavy cannon- ade on the British ships during their passage, which was returned by each of the vessels as they passed — the enemy losing fourteen men killed, and fifteen wounded, while not a man was hurt in the garrison. f One ship had its fore- topmast shot away, and others sustained damage. The Acteus transport ran aground near Haddrell's Point, when Captain Thomas Gadsden, a brother of Colonel Gadsden, who was detached with two iield pieces for the purpose, fired into her with such effect, that the crew set her on fire, and retreated in boats to the other vessels. The Royal fleet, in about two hours, came to anchor within long shot of the American batteries.
By the tenth of April, the enemj' had completed their first parallel, when Clinton and Arbuthnot summoned the town to surrender. Lincoln answered : "From duty and inclination I sh'all support the town to the last extremity." A severe skirmish had previously taken place between Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens and the advance guard of the enemy, in which the Americans lost Captain Bowman killed, and Major Hyrne and seven privates wounded. On the twelfth, the batteries on both sides were opened, keeping up an almost incessant fire. The British had the decided ad- vantage in the number and strength of their mortars and royals, having twenty-one, while the Americans possessed only two ;]: and the lines of the latter soon began to crumble under the powerful and constant cannonade maintained against them. On the thirteenth. Governor Rutledge was
* May i2th, 1780.
t Croghan's MS. Journal.
I Such is the statement of Dr. Ramsay, who was present during the siege. The British official returns show nine mortars, ranging from four to ten-inch caliber, and one eight-inch howitzer, surrendered at Charleston, and a ten-inch mortar taken at Fort Moul- trie; but probably the most of these were either unfit for use, or more likely, the limited quantity of shells enabled the defenders to make use of only two of this class of ordnance.
AND ITS HEROES. 25
persuaded to withdraw from the garrison, while exit was yet attainable, leaving Lieutenant-Governor Gadsden with five members of the Council.
On the same day. General Lincoln, in a council of war, revealed to its members his want of resources, and suggested an evacuation. " In such circumstances," said General Mc- intosh, " we should lose not an hour in attempting to get the Continental troops, at least, over Cooper river ; for on their safety, depends the salvation of the State." But Lin- coln only wished them to give the matter mature consider- ation, and he would consult them further about it. Before he met them again, the American cavalry at Monk's Corner, which had been relied on to keep open the communication between the city and the country, were surprised and dis- persed on the fourteenth ; and five days later, the expected British reinforcements of two thousand five hundred men arrived from New York, when Clinton was enabled more completely to environ the devoted city, and cut ofi'all chance of escape.
A stormy council was held on the nineteenth, when the heads of the several military departments reported their respective conditions — of course, anything but flattering in their character. Several of the members still inclined to an evacuation, notwithstanding the increased difliiculties of effecting it since it was first suggested. In the midst of the conference, Lieutenant-Governor Gadsden happened to come in — whether by accident, or design, was not known — and General Lincoln courteously proposed that he be allowed t(^ take part in the council. He appeared surprised and dis- pleased that a thought had been entertained of either evacu- ation or capitulation, and acknowledged himself entirely ignorant of the state of the provisions, etc., but would con- sult his Council in regard to the proposals suggested.
In the evening, an adjourned meeting was held, when Colonel Laumoy, of the engineer department, reported the insufficiency of the fortifications, the improbability of holding
26 KING'S MOUNTAIN
out many daj-s longer, and the impracticability of making a retreat ; and closed by suggesting that terms of honorable capitulation be sought from the enemy. Lieutenant-Gov- ernor Gadsden, with four of his Councilors, coming in shortly after, treated the military gentlemen very rudely, the Lieut- enant-Governor declaring that he would protest against their proceedings ; that the militia were willing to live upon rice alone, rather than give up the town on any terms ; and that even the old women had become so accustomed to the ene- my's shot, that they traveled the streets without fear or dread ; but if the council were determined to capitulate, he had his terms ready in his pocket.
Mr. Thomas Ferguson, one of the Councilors, declared that the inhabitants of the city had observed the boats col- lected to carr}- off the Continental troops ; and that they would keep a good watch upon the army, and should any attempt at evacuation ever be made, he would be among the first to open the gates for the admission of the enemy, and assist thern in attacking the retiring troops Colonel C. C. Pinckney soon after came in abruptly — probably having been apprised by the Lieutenant-Governor of the subject under discussion — and, forgetting his usual politeness, ad- dressed General Lincoln with great warmth, and in much the same strain as General Gadsden, adding that those who were for business needed no council, and that he came over on purpose from Fort Moultrie, to prevent any terms being offered to the enemy, or any evacuation of the garrison at- tempted ; and particularly charged Colonel Laumoy and his department with being the sole authors and promoters of such proposals.*
It is very certain, that these suggestions of evacuation or capitulation, occasioned at the time great discontent among both the regulars and militia, who wished to defend the city
*The details of this military council are taken from Major Crochan's MS. Journal ; and from Gener,ilMc'ntosh's Journal, published entire in the Mngnrtlm Masrmntt. Dec. 1842. and cited in Simms' South Carolina in the Revolution, 127-129, both of which are in this case identical in language.
AND ITS HEROES. 27
to the last extremity ; and who resolved, in view of continu- ing the defence, that they would be content, if necessary, with only half rations daily.* All these good people had their wishes gratified — the siege was procrastinated, and many an additional death, suffering, sorrow, and anguish, were the consequence.
General Lincoln must have felt hurt, it not sorely nettled, by these repeated insults — as General Mcintosh acknowl- edges that he did. Wlien matters of great public concern result disastrously, scape-goats are always sought, and all participants are apt to feel more or less unamiable and fault-finding on such occasions. Or, as Washington ex- pressed it, referring to another affair, "mutual reproaches too often follow the failure of enterprises depending upon the cooperation of troops of different grades." Looking at these bickerings in the light of history, a century after their oc- currence, one is struck with General Lincoln's magnanimous forbearance, when he confessedly made great sacrifices in defending the place so long against his better judgment, in deference to the wishes of the people, who, we may well conclude, were very unfit judges of military affairs.
At another council of officers, held on the twentieth and twenty-first, the important subject of an evacuation was again under deliberation ; and the conclusion reached was, " that it was unadvisable, because of the opposition made to it by the civil authority and the inhabitants, and because, even if they should succeed in defeating a large body of the enemy posted in their way, they had not a sufficiency of boats to cross the Santee before they might be overtaken by the whole British army."f It was then proposed to give Sir
'■=MS. letter of John Lewis Gervais, cited in Simms. 129.
f The enemy were constantly on the watch for any attempted evacuation on the part of the Americans. Capt J. R. Rousselet, of Tarleton's cavalry, has left this MS. note, written on the margin of a copy of Steadman's American War, referring to the closing period of the siege: " Some small vessels, taken from the Americans, were armed, manned with troops, and stationed off Town Creek, to prevent the escape of the garrison should they attempt to evacuate the town by that channel. Capt. Rousselet commanded an armed sloop, with his company o-a. board, under Capt. Salisbury, Royal Navy."
28 KING'S MOUNTAIN
Henry Clinton quiet possession of the city, with its fortifi- cations and dependencies, on condition that the security of the inhabitants, and a safe, unmolested retreat for the gar- rison, w'lXh baggage and field pieces, to the north-east of Charleston should be granted. These terms were instantly rejected. On searching every house in town, it was found that the private supplies of provisions were as nearly ex- hausted as were the public magazines.
On the twenty-fourth, at daybreak, Lieutenant-Colonel Henderson sallied out with two hundred men, chiefly from Generals Woodford's and Scott's brigades, surprising and vigorously attacking the advance flanking party of the enemj% bayoneting fifteen of them in their trenches, and capturing a dozen prisoners, of whom seven were wounded, losing in the brilliant affair, the brave Captain Thomas Gads- den and one or two privates. A considerable body of the enemj', under Major Hall, of the seventy-fourth regiment, attempted to support the party in the trenches ; but were obliged to retire on receiving a shower of grape from the American batteries.* A successful enterprise of this kind proved onl}' a momentarj^ advantage, having no perceptible influence on the final result.
It is said Colonel C. C. Pinckney, and Lieutenant-Colonel Laurens, assured General Lincoln they could supply the gar- rison with plenty of beef from Lempriere's Point, if they were permitted to remain on that side of Cooper river with the force then under their command ; upon which the Commissary was ordered to issue a full allowance again. But unfortunately the first and only cattle butchered at Lempriere's for the use of the garrison were altogether spoiled through neglect or mismanagement before they came over. These gentlemen, are said, also, to have promised that the communication on the Cooper side could, and would, be kept open. Being in- habitants of Charleston, and knowing the country well, per- haps the General, with some reason, might be inclined to the
*Croghan's MS. Journal.
AND ITS HEROES. 29
same opinion ; and besides furnishing the garrison with beef, they were to send a sufficient number of negroes over to town for the militarj^ works, who were much wanted. But Colonel Pinckney with the greater part, or almost the whole of his first South Carolina regiment, and Lieutenant-Colonel Laurens with the light infantry were recalled from Fort Moul- trie and Lempriere's * — and thus ended this spasmodic hope. Probabl}' this failure caused a strict search to be made, about this time, in the houses of the citizens for provisions ; "■ some was found," says Major Croghan, " but a much less quantitjr than was supposed."
The Americans were not slow in perceiving the utter hopelessness of their situation. On the twenty -sixth, General DuPortail, an able French officer and Engineer-in-Chief of the American army, arrived from Philadelphia, having been sent by Washington to supervise the engineer depart- ment. He frankly informed General Lincoln that there was no prospect of getting any reinforcements very soon from the grand army — that Congress had proposed to General Wash- ington to send the Maryland Line to their relief, f As soon as General DuPortail came into the garrison, examined the military works, and observed the enemy, he declared the defences were not tenable — that they were only field lines ; and that the British might have taken the place ten days ago. " I found the town," wrote DuPortail to Washington, " in a desperate state. "| He wished to leave the garrison imme- diately, whileitwas possible ; but General Lincoln would not allow him to do so, as it would dispirit the troops. On learning General DuPortail' s opinion, acouncilwas called the same day, and a proposition made for the Continental troops to make anightretreat ; and when the citizens were informed of the subject under deliberation, some of them came into the council, warmly declaring to General Lincoln, thatif he attempted to withdraw the troops and abandon the citizens,
* Croghan's MS. Journal ; and Mcintosh's Diary.
t Croghan's MS. Journal.
} Letters to Washington, ii, 450.
30 KING'S MOUNTAIN
they would cut up his boats, and open the gates to the enemy. This put an end to all further thoughts of an evacuation.*
As late as the twenty-eighth, a supernumerary officer left town to join the forces in the country ; but the next day the small party remaining at Lempriere's Point was recalled, the enemy at once occupying it with a large force ; and thus the last avenue between the city and country was closed. General Lincoln informed the general officers, privately, this day, that he intended the horn work as a place of retreat for the whole army in case they were driven from the lines. General Mcintosh observing to him the impossibility of those then stationed at South Bay and Ashley river, in such a contingency, being able to retreat there, he replied that they might secure themselves as best they could. And on the thirtieth, in some way, Governor Rutledge managed to con- vey a letter to General Lincoln, upon which the General con- gratulated the army, in general orders, on ;^car2'M_§-of a large reinforcement, which may again open the communication with the country. f It was the old story of drowning men catching at straws.
It is unnecessary to dwell upon the daily details of the protracted siege. Some of the more unusual occurrences only need be briefly noticed, so that we may hasten on to the melancholy catastrophe. Eleven vessels were sunk in the channel to prevent the Royal fleet from passing up Cooper river, and enfilading the American lines on that side of the place ; while a frigate and two galleys were placed above the sunken obstructions, to cooperate with the shore batter- ies in thwarting any attempt on the part of the enemy for their removal.
But the work of destruction went steadily on. Cannon balls hy day and by night went streaking through the air, and crashing through the houses. One morning, a shell burst very near Colonel Parker, a large piece of which fell
* Moultrie's Memoirs, i, 80. f Croghan's MS. Journal,
AND ITS HEROES. 31
harmless at his feet, when he said, with much composure, "a miss is as good as a mile;"* and, that very evening, while the gallant Colonel was looking over the parapet, he was shot dead. Shells, fire-balls, and carcasses, ingen- iously packed with combustibles, loaded pistol barrels, and other destructive missiles, were thrown into the city, setting many buildings on fire, and maiming and destroying not a few of the citizens and soldiery. On one occasion, when a pastor and a few worshipers, mostly women and invalids, were gathered in a church, supplicating the mercies of heaven on themselves and suffering people, a bomb-shell fell in the chuch-yard, when all quickly dispersed, retiring to their several places of abode.
Some of the cases of fatality were quite uncommon. Meyer Moses' young child was killed while in the arms of its nurse, and the house burned down. A man and his wife were killed at the same time, and in the same bed. A sol- dier who had been relieved from serving at his post in the defence of the city, entered his humble domicil, and while in the act of embracing his anxious wife, with tears of gladness, a cannon ball passed through the house, killing them both instantly. Many sought safety in their cellars ; but even when protected for the moment from the constantly falling missiles of death and destruction, they began to suflier for want of food , since all the avenues to the city for country supplies, had been cut off.
General Moultrie has left us a vivid picture of this period of the siege : "Mr. Lord and Mr. Basquin, two volunteers, were sleeping upon the mattress together, in the advanced redoubt, when Mr. Lord was killed by a shell falling upon him, and Mr. Basquin at the same time had the hair of his head burnt, and did not awake until he was aroused from his slumbers by his fellow soldiers. The fatigue in that advanced redoubt was so great for want of sleep, that many faces were so swelled they could scarcely see out of their eyes . I was obliged to re-
* Virginia Gazette, May i6, 1780.
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Heve Major Mitchell, the commanding officer. They were constantly on the lookout for the shells that were continually falling among them. It was by far the most dangerous post on the lines. On my visit to the battery, not having been there for a day or two, I took the usual way of going in, which was a bridge that crossed our ditch, quite exposed to the enemy, who, in the meantime, had advanced their works within seventy or eighty yards of the bridge, which I did not know. As soon as I had stepped upon the bridge, an uncommon number of bullets whistled about me ; and on looking to my right, I could just see the heads of about twelve or fifteen men firing upon me from behind a breast- work— I moved on, and got in. When Major Mitchell saw me, he asked me which way I came in? I told him over the bridge. He was astonished, and said, ' Sir, it isathou- sand to one that you were not killed,' and told me that he had a covered waj;- through which to pass, by which he con- ducted me on my return. I staid in this battery about a quarter of an hour, giving the necessary orders, during which we were constantly skipping about to get out of the way of the shells thrown from their howitzers. They were not more than one hundred j'ards from our works, and were throwing their shells in bushels on our front and left flank."*
Under date of the second of May, Major Croghan records in his Journal, which is corroborated by General Mcintosh's Diary, that the enem)^ threw shells charged with rice and sugar. Simms tells us, that tradition has it, that it was not rice and sugar with which the shells of the British v/ere thus ironically charged, but wheat flour and molasses — with an inscription addressed : ' ' To the Yankee officers in Charleston," courteously informing them that it contained a supply of the commodities of which they were supposed to stand most in need. But the garrison could still jest amid suffering, volcanoes and death. Having ascertained that the shell was sent them from a battery manned exclusively
*Moultrie*s Memoirs^ i, 83.
AND ITS HEROES. 33
by a Scottish force, they emptied the shell of its contents ; and filling it with lard and sulphur, to cure them of the itch, and sent it back to their courteous assailants, with the same inscription which originally accompanied it. " It was understood," says Garden, " after the siege, that the note was received, but not with that good humor that might have been expected, had it been considered as aycM d''esfrit, re- sulting from justifiable retaliation."
" Provisions," as we learn from Johnson's Traditions, "now failed among the besieged. A sufficiency had been provided for the occasion ; but the beef and pork had be- come tainted and unfit for food." But the British "were misinformed," says Moultrie, "if they supposed us in want of rice and sugar." Of the latter article, at least during the earlier stages of the siege, such was its plentifulness that it was a favorite amusement to pursue the spent hot shot of the enemy, in order, by flinging sugar upon the balls, to convert it into candy. But towards the close of the siege, the supply of sugar must have become limited. " On the fourth of May," says Major Croghan, " we received from the Commissary, with our usual allowance of rice, six ounces of extremely bad meat, and a little coftee and sugar. It has been very disagreeable to the northern officers and soldiei-s to be under the necessity of living without wheat or Indian bread, which has been the case during the whole siege." So that the Scotch jokers who sent their shot, laden with either rice and sugar, or flour and molasses, iron- ically hinting at the deficiencies of the beleaguered garri- son, did not, after all, hit very wide of the mark.
Clinton, on the sixth of May, renewed his former terms for the surrender of the garrison. With the limited store of provisions on hand, with no prospects of receiving fur- ther supplies or reinforcements, and with the admission on the part of the Engineers that the lines could not be main- tained ten days longer, and were hable to be carried by as- sault at any time. General Lincoln was disposed to accept the
34 KING'S MOUNTAIN
terms tendered ; but he was opposed by the citizens, as they were required by Clinton to be prisoners on parole, when the}^ wished to be regarded as non-combatants, and not subject to the rigorous laws of war, It was only putting ofl' the evil day for a brief period ; and again the twenty- four and thirty-two pound carronades, the mortars and howitzers, belched forth their shot, shell and carcasses upon the devoted town and garrison, setting many buildings on fire, and keeping up the most intense excitement. So near were now the opposing parties, that they could speak words of bravado to each other ; and the rifles of the Hessian Ya- gers were so unerring, that a defender could no longer show himself above the lines with safety ; and even a hat raised upon a ramrod, was instantly riddled with bullets.
Captain Hudson, of the British Navy, on the fifth of May, summoned Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island to surrender ; the larger portion of its garrison having previously retired to Charleston. Lieutenant-Colonel William Scott,* who com- manded, sent for answer a rollicking reply : "Tol, lol, de rol, lol — Fort Moultrie will be defended to the last extremity." The next day, Fludson repeated his demand, threatening that if he did not receive an answer in fifteen minutes, he would storm the fort, and put every man to the sword. Scott, it would seem, was at first disposed to resort to bravado of the "last extremity" character; but recalled the officer bearing it, saying on further reflection the garrison thought better of it — the disparity of force was far too great — and begging for a cessation of hostilities, proposed terms of sur- render, which were granted by Captain Hudson. The sur- render formally took place on the seventh. f Thus the historic
* Scott was a brave, experienced officer. He served as a Captain during the attack on Charleston, in 1776, and died in that city in June, 1807.
I Gordon's History 0/ the Revolutioji, iii, 354; i\Ioultrie's Memoirs, ii, 84; Ramsay's Revolution in South Carolina, ii, 56, Bancroft, a, 305, and others, give May 6th as the date of surrender, but that the 7th was the true date of this occurrence mr.y be seen by com. paring Tarleton's Cajnpai^n, 53-55; Botta's Revohition, New Haven edition, 1842, ii, 249; Johnson's Traditions, 259; Pimms' South Carolina in the Revolution, 146; and Siege 0/ Charleston. Munsell, 1867, p. 167.
AND ITS HEROES. 35
Fort Moultrie, which four years before had signally repulsed a powerful British fleet under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, now surrendered to the enemy without firing a gun.
The seventh of May was further noted by an unfortunate disaster — the partial destrucdon of the principal magazine of the garrison, by the bursdng of a shell. General Moultrie had most of the powder — ten thousand pounds — removed to the north-east corner of the exchange, where it was carefully bricked up, and remained undiscovered by the Bridsh durino- the two years and seven months they occupied the cAy.
Another summons was sent in by Clinton on the eighth a
truce was granted till the next day ; when Lincoln endeav- ored to secure the militia from being considered as prisoners of war, and the protecdon of the citizens of South Carohna in their lives and property, with twelve months allowance of time in which to determine whether to remain under ■British rule, or dispose of their efiects and remove else- where. These articles were promptly rejected, with the announcement on the part of Clinton that hostilities would be re-commenced at eight o'clock that evening.
"After receiving his letter," says Moultrie, "we re- mained near an hour silent, all calm and ready, each wait- ing for the other to begin. At length, we fired the first gun, and immediately followed a tremendous cannonade — about one hundred and eighty, or two hundred pieces of heavy cannon were discharged at the same moment. The mortars from both sides threw out an immense number of shells. It was a glorious sight to see them, like meteors, crossing each other, and bursting in the air. It appeared as if the stars were tumbling down. The fire was incessant almost the whole night, cannon balls whizzing, and shells hissing, continually among us, ammunition chests and temporary magazines blowing up, great guns bursting, and wounded men groaning along the lines. It was a dreadful night ! It was our last great effort, but it availed us nothing. After it, our military ardor was much abated, and we began to cool.''
36 KING ' S MO UNTAIN
When, on the eleventh of May, the British had crossed the wet ditch by sap, and were within twenty-five yards of the American lines, all farther defense was hopeless. The militia refused to do duty.* It was no longer a question of expedi- ency ; but stern necessity demanded a speedy surrender, and the stoppage of farther carnage and suffering. General Lin- coln had proved himself brave, judicious and unwearied in his exertions for three anxious months in baffling the greatl}- superior force of Sir Henrj^ Clinton and Admiral Arbuth- not. Hitherto the civil authorities, and citizens of Charles- ton, had stoutly contended that the city should be defended to the last extremity ; but now, when all hope was lost, a large majority of the inhabitants, and of the militia, peti- tioned General Lincoln to accede to the terms offered by the enemy. The next day articles of capitulation were signed.
The loss of the Americans during the siege was ninety- eight officers and soldiers killed, and one hundred and forty- six wounded ; and about twenty of the citizens were killed by the random shots of the enemy. Upward of thirty houses were burned, and man}' others greatty damaged. Besides the Continental troops, less than two thousand, of whom five hundred were in hospitals, and a considerable number of sailors, Sir Henry Clinton managed to enumer- ate among the prisoners surrendered, all the free male adults of Charleston, including the aged, the infirm, and even the Loyjdists, so as to swell the number of his formid- able conquest. In this way, his report was made to boast of over five thousand six hundred prisoners, when the Loyal- ist portion but a few days afterwards offered their congratu- lations on the reduction of South Carolina. The regular troops and sailors became prisoners of war until exchanged ; the militia from the country were permitted to return home on parole, and to be secured in their property so long as their parole should be observed.
:*Du Portail to Washington, May 17th, 1780.
AND ITS HEROES. 37
CHAPTER II.
May, 1780.
Further Incidents Connected with the Siege. — Tyranny of the British leaders. — Subjugation of South Carolina.
A sad accident occurred shortly after the surrender. The arms taken from the troops and inhabitants, amounting to some five thousand, were lodged in a laboratorj^, near a large quantity of cartridges and loose powder. A number of the British officers desiring some of the handsome mounted swords and pistols, went to the place of deposit to select such as pleased their fancy, when through cai-elessness in snapping the guns and pistols, the loose powder was ig- nited, which communicated to the cartridges, blew up the building, and, in an instant, guards, officers, arms, colors, drums and fifes were sent high into the air — the mangled bodies of the victims were dashed by the violent explosion against the neighboring houses, and, in one instance, against the steeple of a contiguous church edifice. The work-house, jail, and old barracks were destroyed. Captain CoUins, Lieutenants Gordon and McLeod, together with some fifty of the British guard, and upward of fifty of the citizens, lost their lives by this unhappy occurrence.*
It is a singular fact, that at least during a portion of the siege, Major John Andrd, Deputy Adjutant-General of the British army, managed in some way to get into the city, and made his home with Edward Shrewsberry, on the east side of East Bay street. William Johnson, a prominent Whig, and others, saw the young man at Shrewsberry's dressed in plain homespun ; and were told that he was a
* Ramsay's Revolution, ii, 62-63 i Moultrie's Memoirs ii, 109-112 ; Pennsylvania Journal, July 5th, 1780; Simms' South Carolina in the Revolution, 156-157; Mackenzie's Strictures, 34.
38 KING 'S MO UNTAIN
back countryman, connected with the Virginia troops, and had brought down cattle for the garrison. By this cattle- drover ruse, he probably gained access to the city. He was, of course, there tor a purpose — to make observations, and gain intelligence, and in some secret way, communicate the result to Sir Henry Clinton The historian, Ramsay, who was pres.ent during the siege, admits that there were secret friends of the Royal Government in the city, foment- ing disaffection, and working on the fears of the timid ; and Moultrie, another eye-witness, tells us that when the British marched in, to take possession of the city. Captain Roch- fort said to him, " Sir, you have made a gallant defence; but you had a great many rascals among you, (and men- tioned names,) who came out every night and gave us in- formation of what was passing in your garrison."*
Stephen Shrewsberry becoming sick, stopped with his brother Edward awhile, and repeatedly saw Andrd there — of course, bearing some assumed name ; and after his re- covery, and the surrender of the city, he was introduced to the same person at his brother's as Major Andr^. Stephen Shrewsberry mentioned this singular circumstance to his brother Edward, who frankly acknowledged that he was the same person ; but asserted his own ignorance of it at the time of his brother's illness. Marion's men subsequent])' sought the life of Edward Shrewsberrj^, charging him with treachery to the American cause ; but he survived the war, leaving a daughter, a very amiable lady, who lived till 18^4, dying childless.
Certain it is, that Andrd was the devoted friend and pro- tegd of Sir Henry Clinton, who made him his Aid, and pro- moted him to the position of Deputv Adjutant-General of the British army in America ; and it is equally certain, as shown by Beatson's Memoirs, that "Adjutant-General, Ma- jor John Andr^ " was with the "force that embarked at New York under Clinton and Arbuthnot." Tarleton shows
* Ramsay's Revolution, ii, 58; Moultrie's Meinoivs, ii, 108.
AND ITS HEROES. 39
that Andre was performing service in front of Charleston prior to Arbuthnot's passage of Fort Moultrie early in April ; a letter of Andrd's is in print, dated at " Headquarters, be- fore Charleston," on the thirteenth of April, 1780, while ^the schedule of Charleston prisoners, in May, was reported by him in his official capacity — all going to show, beyond a question, that he was at or near Charleston during the whole period of its investment. It was far less dangerous for him to pass to and from the city during the siege, than it was to visit West Point on his subsequent mission to tempt the Judas of the American Revolution.
However fascinating his talents and deportment, he was not entitled to the commiseration of the American people as an honorable but unfortunate foe. Twice he acted the part of an insidious spy, corrupting and deceiving with falsehoods and mean dissimulation; and he was twice, at least, guilty of theft — once while stationed in Philadelphia, plundering from the library of the University of Pennsylvania, a complete set of that valuable work, L' Encyclofcdm, received as a present from the French Academy of Science by the hands of Dr. Franklin ; on the other occasion, taking from Dr. Franklin's residence, which he occupied a while, a portrait of the philosopher.*
An incident connected with the siege and surrender of Charleston, serving to illustrate the peculiarities and perils of the times, will very appropriately find a place here. Rev. Dr. Percy resided on a plantation not very far from Monk's Corner, with Mrs. Thomas Legard for a near neighbor. One day — probably the thirteenth of May — while Mrs. Le- gard was present, Mrs. Gibson, a poor woman, was an- nounced while the family and their visitor was at their meal. As she was usually the bearer of ill news, her visit very natur-
* Johnson's L?7>£7/"t7rcf«^. i, note 208-209; Johnson's Traditions of the Rer'oiuiion, 255-257; Snrgent's /-//f o/^srf'-^', 225-228; Mmon's Remeiii'tritncer. x. ^6-■JT, Dawson's Battles 0/ the United St.il.-s. i. 578; Cirrinjton's B.iUles of the Re-jolution. 497; Tarlcton's Campaigns, 12, 64; 15eat<on's Naval and military I^re.noirs. vi, 203-204; Moore's Diary 0/ tl-.e Revolution, ii, 484; and Lossing's Field Booli o/the Revolution, ii, 104.
40 KING ' S MO ZTNTAIN
ally excited the anxiet}- of all. She exclaimed, " Good morn- ing people ; ha\'e you heard the news ? Charleston has fallen, and the devilish British soldiers have cut to pieces all the men, all the cats, all the dogs, and now they are coming to kill all the women and children." Terrified by her excited and incoherent statement, the ladies looked ready to faint ; and Dr. Percy cried out, "For shame, Mrs. Gibson ; do you not know that Mrs. Legare's husband and son are in Charleston, and you will frighten her to death by your wild talk." " Bless you, good woman," replied Mrs. Gibson, turning to Mrs. Legare, " I have a husband and four sons there, too, and God only knows if anv of them live." In the course of a few da-\'s, Mrs. Gibson received the sad in- telligence that her husband and four sons had all been killed during the siege.* Such are some of the vicissitudes of war.
It may well be asked, wh}^ did such military men as Lincoln, Moultrie, Mcintosh, Scott, Woodford and others, sufier themselves, with a body of brave troops, to be cooped up in a city \\hich they were not capable of successfully de- fending ? At first they relied on the promises of Congress and the Executive authorities of North and South Carolina of sending near ten thousand men, one-half of whom should be regulars, for the defence of the place. f In the latter part of Februarj^ it was reported that General Hogan was advancing with troops from North Carolina ; that General Moultrie was forming a camp at Bacon's Bridge, which was subsequendy transferred to the command of General Huger ; that a thousand men were expected from General William- son's brigade in the region of Ninety Six ; and that the veteran General Richardson, and Colonel Kershaw, were embodying the militia of the Camden region. J General Richardson sickened and died ; General Moultrie from ill-
* Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch. of South Carolina, 471.
t Ram'^ny's Revolution, ii, 59; Gordon's American War, iii, 348; MarshaU's Washing- ton, iv, 141-42:
J Colonel Laurens, ill Almon, x, 53 ; Moore's Materials /or History, 175.
AND ITS HEROES. 41
ness had to return to the city. Colonel Sumter at that time had no command, and Marion was hiding away for the recovery of a broken limb. To enthuse the militia, and expedite their movements, Governor Rutledge, the Patrick Henrjr of South Carolina, and a part of his Councilors, left the beleaguered city in April ; but they met with little suc- cess. The people relied too much upon succors from the North; besides, they were almost destitute of ammunition.
Hogan's party finally reached the city ; and about that time another North Carolina contingent under General Lillington, whose term of enlistment expired, mostly availed themselves of their privilege and retired before the serious part of the siege had commenced ; and less than . two hundred of the South Carolina militia, probably mostly from the Charleston region, shared in the defence of the place. Congress and the States were alike crippled in resources, and everything moved tardily. General De Kalb had started, past the middle of April, with fourteen hundred Continentals from head quarters in New Jersey ; Colonel Armand's corps, and Major Nelson's horse, were on the way ; and, as late as the second of May, General Caswell, of North Carolina, had reached Lanneau's Ferry, on the Santee, with eight or nine hundred Continentals and militia ; some militia were being gathered at Orangeburg ; and Col- onel Buford's and Lieutenant-Colonel Porterfield's Virginia detachments, were within the borders of the State. Gen- eral Huger, with Colonel Horry's cavalry, and the remnants of Colonel White's and Colonel Washington's dragoons, were scattered somewhere about the country. There was no concert or unity of action, and probably not sufficient supplies to admit of their concentration. But all these hopes of succor to the suffering garrison were as illusive in the end as the tgnis-fatuus to the benighted traveler.
General Lincoln was not altogether destitute of military supplies ; for he had four hundred pieces of ordnance of various caliber, for the defence of the city and the neighbor-
42 KING'S MOUNTAIN
ing works ; but the mortars were few, and of shell there would seem to have been a very limited supply. Powder was so plenty that there were fifty thousand pounds at the surrender, besides ten thousand pounds more bricked up at the Exchange. But even with the aid of six hundred ne- groes, the defensive works, from their great extent, were totally inadequate to the purpose ; and had there been force enough to have properly manned them — of which there was a sad deficiency — the scanty supply of provisions would have been all the sooner exhausted. Food supplies had been stored, in large quantities, to the north eastward of Charleston ; but from the little value of the depreciated paper currencjr, the want of carriages and horses, together with the bad condition of the roads, they could not be transported to town before the investiture was completed. With all these disappointments and discouragements, and the power- ful army and nav}^ with all the appliances of war, con- fronting them for nearly three months, it is not a little siir- prising that General Lincoln and his brave garrison were able to hold out so long.
Nor were the whites the only sufferers. As in Prevost's invasion of 1779, so in Clinton's of 1780, the negro servants flocked in large numbers to the British army, and were employed in throwing up their defences and other laborious operations. Crowded together, they were visited by the camp fever ; and the small-pox, which had not been in the Province for seventeen years, broke out among them, and spread rapidly. From these two diseases, and the impos- sibility of their being provided with proper accommodations and attendance in the British encampments, they were left to- die in great numbers in the woods, where they remained unburied. A few instances occurred, in which infants were found in unfrequented retreats, drawing the breasts of their deceased mothers some time after life had expired.*
The reduction of Charleston struck the people with pro-
* Ramsay's Revolution, ii. 67.
AND ITS HEROES. 43
found amazement, coupled with something akin to despair. The futile attempts of the British against the city in 1776, and again in 1779, ^'^^ inspired nearly all classes with a fatal confidence that then- capital city would again escape the snares of the enemj^ — to be accomplished in some Providen- tial way, of which they had no verj^ clear conception. But in matters of war, as of peace, God helps those who help themselves. Had the people of South Carolina repaired in large numbers to their capital, with proper supplies for a long siege ; or had they, while their fellows were cooped up within the devoted city, embodied under such men as Sum- ter, Williamson, Pickens, Kershaw, Williams and other popular leaders, harassed the besieging army, cut off its foraging parties, kept the communication open, and encour- aged the beleaguered garrison to make sorties, and perhaps capture supplies from their enemies, the approaches of the British might have been retarded, and the siege prolonged till, perhaps, the arrival of DeKalb and other forces from the North.
Could the enemy have thus been retarded, they would soon have encountered a yet more dangerous foe in the rapidly approaching hot season, when camp life and expos- ure in that malarial climate, would have rapidly decimated their forces. And there was, perhaps, still another end to be gained by prolonging the siege On the second of May, a large French fleet, under the Chevalier de Ternay, trans- porting an army of nearly six thousand of the choicest troops of France, commanded by the Count de Rochambeau, had sailed from Brest, destined to aid the young Republic in its struggle for independence. On the twentieth of June, the}' encountered a Bridsh fleet, in ladtude 30°, a httle south of the Bermuda Islands, when some distant exchanging of shots occurred between them. Several days before this event, the French fleet had captured a Bridsh cutter con- veying several British officers from Charleston to the Ber- mudas, by whom they learned of the siege and capture of
44 KING 'S AlO UNTAIN
Charleston ; and, soon after taking another vessel, one of Admiral Arbuthnot's fleet, on its return to New York, they learned by its papers and passengers a full confirmation of the fall of the devoted city.*
According to Moultrie, it was the plan of Ternay and Rochambeau to have attempted the relief of Charleston, had they not have learned of its capture. Their intention was, to have entered Ball's Bay, landed the troops at Sevee's Ba}^ then marched down to Haddrell's Point, crossing thence over to Charleston; "which," saj's Moultrie, "they could very easily have done, and would have effectually raised the siege, and taken the British fleet in Charleston harbor and in Stono Inlet, and, in all probability, their whole arm}'.' Had the news of this approaching fleet been known in time by General Lincoln, and the people of the surrounding country, the defence of the city might have been prolonged, and, perhaps, the mortification of surren- der averted — and the salvation of Charleston been celebrated in history as one of the grandest achievements of the Revo- lution.!
But all this misadventure was not without its compensa- tions ; for Rochambeau's fine army landed safely at New- port, and, in time, joined Washington, giving new life and hope to the American cause, and sharing in the capture of Cornwallis the follo\\'ing j'ear. It was a knowledge of the fitting out of Ternay's fleet, and its probable American des- tination, that prompted Sir Henry Clinton to hasten the capture of Charleston,]; and then to expedite the larger part of his forces to the northward, lest New York should be attacked and taken by the combined French and American
"'■'Rochambeau's Memoirs, Paris, 1824, i, 241-243; Almon's Remembrancer, x. 273
t Moultrie's Memoirs, ii, 202-203; Johnson's Traditions. 262.
X The British Government had kept a close watch on this large French fleet during the long period of its fitting out at Brest; and, no doubt, apprised Sir Henry Clinton of the approaching danger. The Virginia Gazette of May 31st, 1780 has a Philadelphia item under date of May gtb, saying a gentleman from New York stated, that it was reported in that city that a French and Spanish fleet was expected upon the American coast, and that the enterprise against Charleston was to be abandoned.
AND ITS HEROES. 45
troops and navy ; and thus were the Southern Colonies left with CornwalHs' crippled army, rendering possible the noble services of Greene, Sumter, and Marion.
Taking advantage of the calm, British detachments were sent out in all directions to plant the Royal standard, over-awe the people, and require them to take protection. Conspicuously observable was the greediness of the con- querors for plunder. The value of the spoil, which was distributed by English and Hessian Commissaries of cap- tures, amounted to about three hundred thousand pounds sterling ; the dividend of a Major-General exceeded over four thousand guineas — or twenty thousand dollars. There was no restraint upon private rapine ; the silver plate of the planters was carried off; all negroes that had belonged to Rebels were seized, even though they had themselves sought an asylum within the British lines ; and, at a single embark- ation, two thousand were shipped to a market in the West Indies. British and Gei-man officers thought more of amassing fortunes than of re-uniting the empire. The pa- triots were not allowed to appoint attorneys to manage or sell their estates. A sentence of confiscation hung over the whole land, and British protection was granted only in return for the unconditional promise of loj^alty.*
The dashing Colonel Tarleton had been dispatched with his cavalry in pursuit of Colonel Buford's regiment, which had arrived too late to join the Charleston garrison ; and which were overtaken near the Waxhaw settlement, and many of them cut to pieces with savage cruelty. One hun- dred and thirteen of Buford's men were cut down and killed outright.; a hundred and fifty too badly hacked to be re- moved, while only fifty-three could be brought as prisoners to Camden. If anything at this time could have added to the general depression so prevalent among all classes of people, it was just such a barbarous butchery as this of
■*Ramsny's Revolution, ii, 66-67; Gordons American War, iii, 382; Bancroft's History United States, a, 305-6.
46 KING'S MOUNTAIN
Tarleton's. The highest encomiums were bestowed by Cornwallis upon tiie liero of this sickening massacre.
On the twenty-second da}- of May, it was proclaimed that all who should thereafter oppose the King in arms, or hinder any one from joining his forces, should have his property con- fiscated, and be otherwise severel}- punished ; and, on the first of June, Clinton and Arbuthnot, as Royal Commissioners, offered by proclamation, pardon to the penitent, on condition of their immediate teturn to allegiance ; and to the loyal, the pledge of their former political immunities, including free- dom from taxation, save by their own chosen Legislature. On the third of that month, another proclamation by Clinton, required all the inhabitants of the Province, " who were now prisoners on parole." to take an active part in maintain- ing the Ro3'al Government; and they were assured, that "should they neglect to return to their allegiance, they will be treated as rebels to the Government of the King."
Thus tyrannical measures were advanced step by step till the poor paroled people could no longer be protected, as they had been promised, by remaining quietly at home ; but must take up arms in defence of the Government they ab- horred, and which was forging chains for their perpetual enslavement. On the eve of his departure for New York, leaving the Southern command under Lord Cornwallis, Clinton reported to his Royal masters in England: "The inhabitants from every quarter declare their allegiance to the King, and offer their services in arms. There are few men in South Carolina who are not either our prisoners or in arms with us."
A few weeks later, when two prominent men, one who had filled a high position, and both prominently concerned in the rebellion, went to Cornwallis to surrender themselves under the provisions of Clinton and Arbuthnot's procla- mation, the noble Earl could only answer that he had no knowledge of its existence. And thus his Lordship com- menced his career as Commander-in-Chief of the South-
AND ITS HEROES. 47
em department, ignoring all ideas and promises of a policy of moderation. He sowed the wind, and in the end reaped the whirlwind.
The people of South Carolina, as we have seen, were not sufficiently aroused to a sense of their danger, undl it was too late to avert it — if, indeed, they, alone and single- handed, could by an}' possibilit}' have warded off" the great public calamity. When they learned the appalling news of the surrender of Charleston, they had little heart to make any further show of opposition to the power of the British Government. Many of the country leaders, when detach- ments of the conquering troops were sent among them, un- resistingly gave up their arms, and took Royal protecdon — among whom were General Andrew Williamson, Gen- eral Isaac Huger, Colonel Andrew Pickens, Colonel Peter Horry, Colonel James Mayson, Colonel LeRoy Hammond, Colonel John Thomas, Sr., Colonel Isaac Hayne, Major John Postell, Major John Purvis, and many others. Sumter braved the popular tide for submission, retired alone before the advancing foe, leaving his home to the torch of the enemy, and his helpless family without a roof to cover their defenceless heads, or a morsel of food for their susten- ance ; while Marion, who was accidently injured at Charles- ton, was conveyed from the city before its final environment, and was quietly recuperating in some sequestered place in the swamps of the lower part of the country. And, so far as South Carolina was concerned,
" Hope for a season bade the world farewell."
48 KING'S MOUNTAIN
CHAPTER III,
1741 to May, 1780.
Early Life of Palrick Ferguson. — Brandywine Battle — Refrains from ShootingW'ashington — Wounded. — Conducts Little Egg Harbor Ex- pedition.—Nearly Killed by an Accidental Attack by his own Friends. — -Biggin Bridge and Monk's Corner Affair. — Resents Insults to Ladies, — Siege of Charleston.
No man, perhaps, of his rank and years, ever attained more military distinction in his day than Patrick Ferguson. As his name will hereafter figure so prominently in this narrative, it is but simple justice to his memory, and alike due to the natural curiosity of the reader, that his career should be as fully and impartially portrayed as the materials will permit.
He was the second son of James Ferguson, afterward Lord Pitfour, of Pitfour, an eminent advocate, and for twelve years one of the Scotch Judges, and was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1744. His mother was Anne Murray, daughter of Alexander, Lord Elibank. His father, and his uncle, James Murray, Lord Elibank, were regarded as men of large culture, equal, in erudition and genius, to the authors of the Scottish Augustan age. Having acquired an early education, "young Ferguson," says a British writer, "sought fame by a different direction, but was of equally vigorous and brilliant powers.'''' When only in his fifteenth year, a commission was purchased for him, and he entered the army July twelfth, 1759, ^^ ^ Cornet, in the second or Royal North British Dragoons, serving in the wars of Flanders and Germany, wherein he distinguished himself by a courage as cool as it was determined. He soon
AND ITS HEROES. 49
evinced the great purpose of his life — to become conspic- uously beneficial by professional skill and effort.
Young Ferguson joined the army in Germany soon after the engagement on the plains of Minden. Some skir- mishing took place in the subsequent part of that year. On the thirtieth of June, 1760, the Dragoons, to which he was attached, with other corps, drove the French cavalry from the field, and chased their infantry in disorder through Warbourg, and across the Rymel river, gaining from the Commander-in-Chief the compliment of having performed " prodigies of valor." On the twenty-second of August, the Dragoons defeated a French party near Zierenberg, making a brilliant charge, and deciding the contest. In the follow- ing month they captured Zierenberg, with two cannon and three hundred prisoners. During the year 1761, the Dragoons were similarly employed ; but suffered much from the bad quality of the water. Ferguson becoming dis- abled by sickness, was sent home, and remained the most of the time in England and Scotland from 1762 until 1768.
On the first of September, in the latter year, a commis- sion of Captain was purchased for him in the seventieth regiment of foot, then stationed in the Caribbee Islands, in the West Indies, whither he repaired, and performed im- portant service in quelhng an insurrection of the Caribs on the Island of St. Vincent. These Caribs were a mixture of the African with the native Indian tribes ; they were brave, expert in the use of fire-arms, and their native fastnesses had greatly aided them in their resistance to the Govern- ment. The troops suffered much in this service.
The regiment remained in the Caribbee Islands till 1773. About this period. Captain Ferguson was stationed a while in the peaceful garrison of Hahfax, in Nova Scotia ; and disdaining inglorious ease, he embarked for England, where he assiduously employed his time in acquiring military knowledge and science. When the disputes between the Mother country and her Colonies were verging toward
50 KING'S MOUNTAIN
hostilities, the boasted skill of the Americans in the use of the rifle, was regarded as an object of terror to the British troops. These rumors operated on the genius of Ferguson, and he invented a new species of rifle, which could be loaded with greater celerity, and fired with more precision than any then in use. He could load his newly constructed gun at the breech, without using the ramrod, and with such quickness and repetition as to fire seven times in a minute. He was regarded as the best rifle shot in the British army, if not the best marksman living — excepting, possi- bly, his old associate, George Hanger ;'^ and in adroitness and celerity in loading and firing, whether prostrate or
*This possible exception should be somewhat qualified. The British writers, including several who knew whereof they wrote, unite in ascribing this high character to Ferguson's skill in the use of his improved rifle. Major Hanger, in his Life and Opinions^ written after Ferguson had been twenty years in his grave, claims not simply equal, but superior skill. The redoubtable Major relates, with no little naivete, this ludicrous anecdote, as occurring in New York City, in 1782, when Sir Guy Carleton had become Commander-in- Chief of the British forces. Sitting opposite the Major at dinner one day. Sir Guy said : " Major Hanger, I have been told that you are a most skilful marksman with a rifle-gun — I have heard of astonishing feats that you have performed in shooting." Thanking him for the compliment, I told his Excellency, that "I was vain enough to say, with truth, that many officers in the army had witnessed my adroitness. I then began to inform Sir Guy how my old deceased friend, Colonel Ferguson, and myself, had practiced together, who, for skill and knowledge of that weapon, had been so celebrated, and that Ferguson had ever acknowledged the superiority of my skill to his, after one particular day's practice, when I had shot three balls into one hole." Sir Guy replied to this ; " I know you. are very expert in this art." Now, had T been quiet, and satisfied with the compliment the Com- mander-in-Chief paid me, and not pushed the matter further, it had been well for me ; but I replied; "Yes, Sir Guy. I really have reduced the art of shooting with a rifle to such a nicety, that, at a moderate distance, I can kill a flea with a single ball." At this, Sir Guy began to stare not a little, and seemed to indicate from the smile on his countenance, that he thought I had rather out-stepped my usual out-doings in the art. Observing this, I respect- fully replied: "I see by your Excellency's countenance that you seem doubtful of the singularity and perfection of my art ; but if I may presume so much, as to dare offer a wager to my Commander-in-Chief. I will bet your Excellency five guineas that I kill a fllea with a single ball once in eight shots, at eight yards." Sir Guy replied : " My dear Major, I am not given to lay wagers, but for once I will bet you five guineas, provided you will let the flea hop." A loud laugh ensued at the table ; and. after laughing heartily myself, 1 placed my knuckle under the table, and striking it from beneath, said : '' Sir Guy, I knock under, and will never speak of my skill in shooting with a rifle-gun again before you."
Neither Ferguson nor Hanger were aware of a remarkable youth at that time in the Wheeling region. Lewis Wetzel, who had learned to load but a common rifle as he sped swiftly through the woods with a pack of Indians at his heels. Killing one of a party, four others singled out, determined to catch alive the bold young warrior. First, one fell a vic- tim to his unerring rifle, then another, and finally a third, in the race for life; when the only survivor stopped short, gave a yell of despair and disappointment, saying: "No catch dat man — gun always loaded."
AND ITS HEROES. 61
erect, he is said to have excelled the best American fron- tiersman, or even the expert Indian of the forest. He often practiced, and exhibited his dexterity in the use of the rifle, both at Black Heath and Woolwich. Such was his exe- cution in firing, that it almost exceeded the bounds of credibilitjr, having very nearlj' brought his aim at an ob- jective point almost to a mathematical certainty.
On the first of June, 1776, Captain Ferguson made some rifle experiments at Woolwich, in the presence of Lord Townshend, master of ordnance. Generals Amherst and Hawley, and other officers of high rank and large military experience. Notwithstanding a heavy rain, and a high wind, he fired during the space of four or five minutes, at the rate of four shots per minute, at a target two hundred }-ards distance. He next fired six shots in a minute. He also fired, while advancing at the rate of four miles per hour, four times in a minute. He then poured a bottle of water into the pan and barrel of the rifle when loaded, so as to wet every grain of powder ; and, in less than half a minute, he fired it off, as well as ever, without extracting the ball. Lastly, he hit the bull's eye target, lying on his back on the ground. Incredi- ble as it might seem, considering the variations of the wind, and the wetness of the weather, he missed the target only three times during the whole series of experiments. These military dignitaries were not onty satisfied but astonished at the perfection of both his rifle and his practice. On one of these occasions, George the Thii-d honored him with his presence ; and, towards the close of the year, a patent was granted for all his improvements.
According to the testimony of eye-witnesses, he would check his horse, let the reins fall upon the animal's neck, draw a pistol from his holster, toss it aloft, catch it as it fell, aim, and shoot the head off a bird on an adjacent fence.* "It is not certain," says the British Annual Register for
* General J. W, D. DePeyster's King's Mountain, in Historical Magazine March 1869, p. 100.
52 KING'S MOUNTAIN
1 781, " that these improvements produced all the effect in real service, whicli had been expected from those astonishing specimens of them that were displayed in England."
Anxious to take an active part in the American war, a hundred select men were chosen for his command, whom he took unwearied pains to instruct in the dextrous use of his newly invented rifle. In the spring of 1777, he was sent to America — to him, a much coveted service. Joining the main army under Sir Henry Clinton, he was placed at the head of a corps of riflemen, picked from the different regiments, and soon after participated, under Sir William Howe, in the battle of Brandy wine, on the eleventh of September. ■ ' General Knyphausen," says a British writer, " with another division, marched to Chad's Ford, against the Provincials who were placed there. In this service the German General experienced very important assistance from a corps of riflemen commanded by Captain Patrick Fer- guson, whose meritorious conduct was acknowledged by the whole British army.''
In a private letter from Captain Ferguson, to his kins- man. Dr. Adam Ferguson, he details a very curious incident, which occurred while he lay, with his riflemen, in the skirt of a wood, in front of Knyphausen's division. " We had not lain long," says Captain Ferguson, " when a Rebel of- ficer, remarkable by a hussar dress, passed towards our army, within a hundred yards of my right flank, not per- ceiving us. He was followed by another, dressed in dark green and blue, mounted on a bay horse, with a remarkably high cocked hat. I ordered three good shots to steal near to and fire at them ; but the idea disgusting me, I recalled the order. The hussar, in returning, made a circuit, but the other passed within a hundred yards of us, upon which I advanced from the wood towards him. Upon my calling, he stopped; but after looking atme, he proceeded. I again drew his attention, and made signs to him to stop, levelling my piece at him ; but he slowly cantered awaj^ As I was
AND ITS HEROES. 63
within that distance, at which, in the quickest firing, I could have lodged half a dozen balls in or about him, betbre he was out of my reach, I had only to determine ; but it was not pleasant to fire at the back of an unoffending in- di^'idual, who was acquitting hiinself very coolly of his duty — so I let him alone. The day after, I had been telling this story to some wounded officers who lay in the same room with me, when one of the surgeons, who had been dressing the wounded Rebel officers, came in, and told us, that they had been informing him that General Washington was all the morning with the light troops, and only attended by a French officer in hussar dress, he himself dressed and mounted in every point as above described. [ aninot sorry that I did not know at the lime who it z^as.'"*
A British writer suggestively remarks, in this connection, that, "unfortunately Ferguson did not personally know Washington, otherwise the Rebels would have had a new General to seek." Flad Washington fallen, it is difficult to calculate its probable effect upon the result of the struggle of the American people. Flow slight, oftentimes, are the inci- dents which, in the course of events, seem to give direction to the most momentous concerns of the human race. This sin- gular impulse of Ferguson, illustrates, in a forcible manner, the over-ruling hand of Providence in directing the operation of a man's mind when he himself is least of all aware of it.
There is, however, some doubt whether it was really Washington whom Ferguson was too generous to profit by his advantage. James Fenimore Cooper relates, in the New York Mirror, of April sixteenth, 183 1 , on the authority of his late father-in-law. Major John P. DeLancey, some interesting facts, corroborating the main features of the story. DeLancey was the second in command of Fergu- son's riflemen, and had seen Washington in Philadelphia
* Percy Anecdotes, Harper's edition, ii, 52 ; British Annual Ke^^isier, 1781, 51 ; Political MaE;nzine, 1781. 60; Hist, of IVar in America, n\, 149; Andrews' Hist 0/ the War. iv. 84; James' I,ife 0/ Marion. 76-77; Irvinjr's Washington, iv, 51-52; Ttiiy's Pennsylvania Hist. Colls., 213; National Jntelligeticer, May, 1851.
54 KING'S MOUNTAIN
the year before the commencement of the war. " During the manoeuvres which preceded the battle of Brandy wine,'' said Mr. Cooper, "these riflemen were kept skirmishing in advance of one of the British columns. They had crossed some open ground, in which Ferguson was wounded in the arm, and had taken a position in the skirts of a thick wood. While Captain DeLancej^ was occupied in arranging a sling lor Ferguson's wounded arm, it was reported that an Ameri- can officer of rank, attended orAj by a mounted orderly, had ridden into the open ground, and was then within point- blank rifle shot. Two or three of the best marksmen stepped forward, and asked leave to bring him down. Fer- guson peremptoril}^ refused ; but he went to the wood, and showine himself, menaced the American with several rifles, while he called to him, and made signs to him to come in. The mounted officer saw his enemies, drew his reins, and sat looking at them attentively for a few moments.
"A sergeant," continues Mr. Cooper, "now offered to hit the Iiorse without injuring the rider, but Ferguson still withheld his consent, affirming that it was Washington re- connoitering, and that he would not be the instrument of placing the life of so great a man in jeopardy by so unfair means. The horseman turned and rode slowly away. To his last moment, Ferguson maintained that the officer whose life he had spared was Washington. I have often heard Captain DeLancey relate these circumstances, and though he never pretended to be sure of the person of the unknown horseman, it was his opinion, from some particulars of dress and stature, that it was the Count Pulaski. Though in error as 'o the person of the individual whom he spared, the merit of Major Ferguson is not cit all diminished " by its supposed correction.
Captain Ferguson, as we have seen, encountered some American sharp-shooters in the battle as keen and skillful as himself in the use of the riffe, and received a dangerous wound which so shattered his right arm, as to forever after
AND ITS HEROES. 55
render it useless.* During the period of his unfitness for service, General Howe distributed his riflemen among other corps ; but on his recovery, he again embodied them, and renewed his former active career. When satisfied that he would never regain the use of his right hand, he practiced, and soon acquired the use of his sword, with the left. A writer in the Political J\/agazine for 1781, states that Fer- guson was in the battle of Germantown, on the fourth of October ensuing — was there wounded, and there came near bringing his rifle to bear on Washington ; but it is not prob- able that he was sufficiently recovered of his severe wound received at Brandywine, to have taken the field three weeks afterwards — besides, the authorities show, that it was at Brandywine where he so narrowly escaped the temptation to tiy the accuracy of his rifle on the American Commander- in-Chief, or some other prominent officer, making observa- tions, and where he was so grievously wounded.
When the British evacuated Philadelphia, in June, I77S> Captain E'erguson accompanied the retiring forces to New York, and, of course, participated in the battle of Mon- mouth on the way. It was fought on one of the hottest days of the summer, when many of the British soldiers died from the effects of the heat. For some time after reaching New York, Captain Ferguson and his rifle corps were not called on to engage in any active service.
Little Egg Harbor, on the eastern coast of New Jersey, had long been noted as a place of rendezvous for American privateers, which preyed largely upon British commerce. A vast amount of property had been brought into this port, captured from the enemy. " To destroy this nest of rebel pirates," as a British writer termed it, an expedidon was fitted out from New York, the close of September, 1778, composed of three hundred regulars, and a body of one hundred Royalist volunteers, all under the command of Cap-
*'S,as.l!,OTi% Naval and Military Memoirs, vi, 83; Mackenzie's Strictures on Tarle- ton, 23.
56 KING'S MOUNTAIN
tain Ferguson. Captain Henry Colins, of the Navy, trans- ported the troops in eight or ten armed vessels, and shared in the enterprise, From untoward weather, they were long at sea. General Washington, hearing of the expedition, dispatched Count Pulaski and his Legion cavalry, and at the same time sent an express to Tuckerton, as did also Governor Livingston, giving information, so that four priva- teers put to sea and escaped, while others took refuge up the Little Egg Harbor river. Ferguson's party reached the Harbor on the afternoon of the fifth of October, and, taking his smaller craft, pushed twent}^ miles up the stream to Chestnut Neck, where were several vessels, about a dozen houses, with stores for the reception of the prize goods, and accommodations for the privateers men. Here were some works erected for the protection of the place, and a few men occupying them ; but no artillery had yet been placed there The prize vessels were hastily scuttled and dismantled, and the small American party easily driven into the woods, when Captain Ferguson's force demolished the batteries, burning ten vessels and the houses in the village. The British in this aflair had none killed, and but a single soldier wounded. Had he arrived sooner, Ferguson in- tended to have pushed forward with celerity twenty miles farther, to "The Forks," which was accounted only thirty- five miles from Philadelphia. But the alarm had been spread through the country, and the local militia had been reinforced by Pulaski's cavalrjf, and five field pieces of Colonel Proctor's artillery ; so the idea of reaching and destroying the stores and small craft there, had to be aban- doned.
Returning the next day, October the seventh, down the river, they reached two of their armed sloops, which had got aground on their upward passage, and were still fast. They were lightened, and got off the next morning. Dur- ing the delay, Captain Ferguson employed his troops, under cover of the gunboats, in an excursion on the north
AND ITS HEROES. 57
shore, to destroy some principal salt works, also some stores, dwellings, and Tucker's Mill ; these were sacked and laid in ashes^all, as was asserted by the British, being the property of persons concerned in privateering, or "whose activity in the cause of America, and unrelenting persecution of the Loyalists, marked them out as the objects of vengeance." As those persons were pointed out by the New Jersey Tory volunteers, who accompanied the expedition, we may well imagine that private pique, and neighborhood feuds, entered largely into these proscriptions.
To cover Ferguson's expedition, and distract the attention of Washington, Sir Henry Clinton had detached Lord Corn- wallis with five thousand men into New Jersey, and General Knyphausen with three thousand into Westchester county. Learning of Colonel Baylor's dragoons being at old Tappan, Cornwallis selected General Grey to surprise them which he effected much in the same manner as Ferguson subsequently struck Pulaski's infantrj^, unawares — eleven having been killed outright, twenty-five mangled with repeated thrusts, some receiving ten, twelve, and even sixteen wounds. It was a merciless treatment of men who sued for quarter. Among the wounded were Colonel Baylor and Major Clough — the latter, mortally; and about forty prisoners taken, mostly through the humane interposition of one of Grey's Captains, whose feelings revolted at the orders of his san- guinary commander — the same commander who had, the year before, performed a similarly bloody enterprise against Wayne, at Paoli.
Recalling these predatory parties to New York, Sir Henry Clinton directed Admiral Gambler to write Captain Colins in their joint behalf, that the)^ thought it unsafe for him and Captain Ferguson to remain longer in New Jersey. But Captain Colins' vessels being wind-bound for several days, gave Captain Ferguson time for another enterprise. On the evening of the thirteenth of October, some deserters from Pulaski's Legion gave information of that corps being
58 KING'S MOUNTAIN
posted, within striking distance, eleven miles up the river; when Ferguson formed the design of attempting their sur- prise.
The chief of these deserters was one Juliet, a renegade from the Hessians the preceding winter, who was sent by the Board of War to Pulaski, without a commission indeed, but with orders to permit him to do the duty of a Sub-Lieu- tenant in the Legion. This man was treated with such dis- respect by Lieutenant-Colonel Baron De Bosen, whose high sense of honor led him to despise a person, who, even though a commissioned officer, could be guilty of deserting his colors, that the culprit determined to revenge himself in a manner that could not have been foreseen or imagined. Under pretence of fishing, he one day left the camp with five others, and as thev did not return at the proper time, and it could not be supposed that Juliet would have the har- dihood to rejoin the enemy, they were thought to have been drowned. But Juliet had the duplicity to debauch three of the soldiers, and the other two were forced to go with them.
Pulaski's corps, as the deserters correctly stated, con- sisted of three companies of infantiy, occupying three houses by themselves, under the Lieutenant-Colonel Baron De Bosen ; while Piilaski, with a troop of cavalry, was sta- tioned some distance beyond, with a detachment of artillery, having a brass field piece. Accordingly Fergvison selected two hundred and fifty men, partly marines, leaving in boats at eleven o'clock on the night of the fourteenth ; and, after rowing ten miles, they reached a bridge at four o'clock the next morning, within a mile of Pulaski's infantry. The bridge was seized, so as to cover their retreat, and fifty men left for its defence. DeBosen's infantry companies were sur- rounded and completely surprised, and attacked as they emerged from their houses. "It being a night attack," says Ferguson, in his report, "little quai'ter could, of course, be given" — so they cut, and slashed, and bayoneted, killing all who came in their wajr, and taking only five prisoners.
AND ITS HEROES. 59
The Americans, roused from their shimbers, fought as well as they could.
The hapless Baron De Bosen, on the first alarm, rushed out, armed with his sword and pistols ; and though he was a remarkabh' stout man, and fought like a lion, he was soon overpowered by numbers and killed. So far, at least, as the double-traitor, Juliet,* was concerned, revenge on De Bosen seems to have been his object ; and his voice was distinctly heard exclaiming, amid the din and confusion of the strife: " This is the Colonel — kill him ! " De Bosen's bod}' was found pierced with baj-onets. Lieutenant De La Borderie, together with some forty of the men, were also among the slain. It was a sad and sanguinaiy occurrence.
On the first alarm, Pulaski hastened with his cavalrjr to the support of his unfortunate infantry, when the British, hearing the clattering hoofs, giving note of their approach, fled in disorder, leaving behind them arms, accoutrements, hats, blades, etc. Pulaski captvired a few prisoners ; but between the place of conflict and the bridge was very swampy, over which the cavalry could scarcely walk. Reaching the bridge, they found the plank thrown off, to prevent pursuit by the cavahy. The riflemen, and some of the infantry, however, passed over on the string-pieces, and fired some volleys on the rear of the retreating foe, which they returned. "We had the advantage," says Pulaski, "and made them run again, although they out-numbered us." As the cavalry could not pass the stream, Pulaski recalled his pioneers ; and he adds, in his report, that his party cut off about t^venty-five of Ferguson's men in their retreat, who took refuge in the woods, and doubtless subse- quently rejoined their friends. Ferguson's loss, as he reported it, was two killed, three wounded, and one missing.
* Juliet seems not to have been crowned with honors by the British on his return, A British Diary of the Revolution, published in Vol, iv of the Historical Magazine, p, 136, under date Newport, R. I., January irth, 1779, states: "In the fleet from Long Island arrived several Hessians, among them is one Lieutenant Juliet, of the Landgrave regiment who deserted to the Provincials when the Island was besieged by them, and then went back to New York. He is under aji arrest."
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He attempted to excuse the butchery of Pulaski's unsus- pecting infantiy, by alleging that he learned from the deserters, who came to him, that the Count had, in public orders, forbade all granting of quarters — information which proved to be false, and which Ferguson should never have trusted, especially on the word of deserters. It is credit- able, however, to his humanity, amid the excitements and horrors of war, that he refrained from wantonly destroying the houses of non-combatants, though they sheltered the personal effects of his enemies. " We had an opportunity," sa3^s Ferguson, in his report to Sir Henry Clinton, "of destro3dng part of the baggage and equipage of Pulaski's Legion, by burning their quarters, but, as the houses belonged to some inoffensive Quakers, who, I am afraid, have sufficiently suffered already in the confusion of a night's scramble, I know. Sir, that you will think with us, that the injury to be thereby done to the enemy, would not have compensated for the sufferings of these innocent people."
As the fleet were going out of Little Egg Harbor, the Zebra, the flag-ship, grounded, and to prevent her from falhng into the hands of the Americans, Captain Colins ordered her set on fire ; and as the fire reached her guns, thejr were discharged, much to the amusement of the Amer- icans, who beheld the conflagration. Besides their military operations. Judge Jones, the Roj^alist historian of New York, states of Ferguson and his men, that they "plun- dered the inhabitants, burnt their houses, their churches, and their barns ; ruined their farms ; stole their cattle, hogs, horses, and sheep, and then triumphantly returned to New York" — evidently conve}nng the idea that this mode of warfare was not honorable to those who ordered, nor to those who were engaged in it.
L-ving denounces Ferguson's enterprise as "a marauding expedition, worthy of the times of the buccaneers." Sir Henry Clinton, on the other hand, reported it to the Home Government, as a " success, under the direction of that
AND ITS HEROES. 61
very active and zealous officer, Ferguson," while Admiral Gambler pronounced it " a spirited service." Ferguson fully accomplished the purpose for which he set out — the destruc- tion of the vessels, stores, and works at Little Egg Harbor ; and, in addition, infficted a severe blow on a portion of Pulaski's Lep'ion.*
During the campaign of 1779, Captain Ferguson was engaged in several predatory incursions along the coast, and on the Hudson — having been stationed awhile at Stony Point before its capture by Wajme ; steadily increasing the confidence of his superiors, and extorting the respect of the Americans for his valor and enterprise. On the twenty-fifth of October, in this year, he was promoted to the rank of Major in the second battalion of the seventy-first regiment, or Highland Light Infantry, composed of Frasers, Camp- bells, McArthurs, McDonalds, McLeods, and many others of the finest Scotch laddies in the British service.
When Sir Henrjr Clinton fitted out his expedition against Charleston, at the close of 1779, he very naturally selected Major Ferguson to share in the important enterprise. A corps of three hundred men, called the American Volunteers, was assigned for his command — he having the choice of both officers and soldiers ; and for this special service, he had given him, the- rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. At his request, Major Hanger's corps of two hundred Hessians were to be joined to Ferguson's. Early in February, the seventy-first regiment and Ferguson's corps were sent from Savannah to Augusta ; and, early in March, the American Volunteers for«ied a part of the Georgia troops, who were ordered, under General Patterson, to march towards Charles- ton, and join the main force under Sir Henry Clinton.
*Touchin,ar this Little Egg Harbor expedition, see reports of Sir Henry Clinton. Admi- ral Gambier, Captains Ferguson and Colins, in Ahnon x. 150-56; Pnlasl<i's report, Pennsyl- vania Packet, October 20, 1778; Rivington's Royal Gazette, October 24, 1778; Pol'tiral Miigazine, 1781, p. 60: I\Tarsha!!'s ]Vas]ihigton, revised edition, i, 270-71; Re^ly to Jnelge Johnson, vindicating Count Pulaski, by Paul Tentalou. senior captain in PulaF^ki's Legion, 1826, 36-37; Irving's Washington, iii. 472-75; Bancroft's History, x, 152; Lossing's Field Book. ii. 529; Barber & Howes' Nenn Jersey, 108-9; ^"^ Jones' History of Nczv York During the Revolutionary IVar, 1,287.
62 KING'S MOUNTAIN
On the thirteenth of the month, Lieutenant-Colonel Fer- guson, with his Volunteers, and Major Cochrane, with the infantry of Tarleton's Legion, were ordered forward to secure the passes at Bee Creek, Coosahatchie, and Tully Finny bridges, about twenty-six miles in advance of the army, which \\as as promptly effected as the obstacles in the way would permit. It was a toilsome march through swamps and difficult passes, having frequent skirmishes with the opposing militia of the country. These active offi- cers, with their light troops, received intelhgence of two parties of mounted Americans at some distance in advance, and at once resolved to surprise them by a night attack — a kind of service for which Colonel Ferguson had an especial fitness, and in which he took unusual delight.
Arriving at nine o'clock in the evening near the spot from which he meant to dislodge the Americans, at Mc- Pherson's plantation, Ferguson discovered that they had decamped, and he consequently took possession of their abandoned position, camping there for the night, and awaiting the arrival of the main British force, who were to pass near it the next morning. Major Cochrane, with his party, piloted hy another route, through swamps and by- ways, arrived, before morning, just in front of Ferguson's camp ; and, judging by the fires that the Americans were still there, led his men to the attack with fixed bayonets. Ferguson, expecting that the American party might return, had his picket guard out, who, seeing the approach of what they regarded as an enemy, gave the alarm, when the Legion rushed upon them, driving them pell-mell to Fergu- son's camp, where the aroused American Volunteers were ready to receive them. " Charge I " was the word on both sides ; and, for a little season, the conflict raged. Ferguson, wielding his sword in his left hand, defended himself, as well as he could, against three assailants, who opposed him with fixed bayonets, one of which was unfortunately thrust through his left arm. When on the point of falling, amid
AND ITS HEROES. 63
the confusion and clashing of arms, Major Cochrane and Colonel Ferguson, almost at the same moment, recognized each other's voices, and exerted themselves to put a stop to the mistaken conflict. Two of Ferguson's men, and one of the Legion, were killed in this unhappy affair, and several wounded on both sides. Lieutenant McPherson, of the Legion, received ba3-onet wounds in the hand and shoulder.
But for the timely recognition, on the part of the com- manders, of the mutual mistake, Colonel Ferguson would most likely have lost his life — "a life," says Major Hanger, " equally valuable to the whole army, and to his friends."
" It was melancholy enough," wrote a participant in the affair, near three weeks afterwards, " to see Colonel Fergu- son disabled in both arms ; but, thank God, he is perfectly recovered again." Tarleton commends "the intrepidity and presence of mind of the leaders," in this casual engage- ment, as having saved their respective parties from a more fatal termination. "The whole army felt for the gallant Ferguson," says Hanger ; and the peculiar circumstances attending this unlucky conflict, long furnished the camp and bivouac with a melancholy topic of conversation.*
The fleet having crossed the bar, and gained the water command thence to Charleston, enabled Sir Henry Clinton to bestow more attention than he had hitherto done, to cut- ting off the communications of the Americans between the city and countrjr. A body of militia, together with the remains of three Continental regiments of light dragoons, led by Colonel Washington and others, and all under the command of General Huger, were stationed at Biggin Bridge, near Monk's Corner, about thirty miles from Charleston. To destroy or disperse this party, and thus prevent supplies of food and reinforcements of men to the beleaguered citj^ was a capital object with Sir Henr}' Clin- ton ; and its immediate execution was assigned to Colonel
*Tarleton's Campaigns, 7-8; Mackenzie's Strictures on I'-irlcton, 23; Hanger's Reply to Mackenzie, 24-25 ; Sie^e 0/ Charleston, 15S-SQ.
64 KING'S MOUNTAIN
Tarleton and his Legion, to be seconded by Lieutenant- Colonel Ferguson and his riflemen. Tarleton was dashing, tireless, and unmerciful. "Ferguson," sa}'S Irving, "was a fit associate for Tarleton, in hardy, scrambling, partisan enterprise ; equally intrepid and determined, but cooler, and more open to impulses of humanity."
As a night march had been judged the most advisable, Tarleton and Ferguson moved, on the evening of April thirteenth, from Goose creek, half way from Charleston, to strike, if possible, an effective blow at Huger's camp. Some distance beyond, a negro was descried attempting to leave the road, and avoid notice. He was seized, and was dis- covered to be a servant of one of Huger's officers. A letter was taken from his pocket, written by his master the pre- ceding afternoon, which, with the negro's intelligence, pur- chased for a few dollars, proved a fortunate circumstance for the advancing party. The}' learned the relative positions of Huger's forces, on both sides of Cooper river, and had in him a guide to direct them there, through unfrequented paths and by-ways.
Destitute of patrols, Huger was, in effect, taken com- pletely by surprise ; and the bold and sudden onset, about three o'clock in the morning of the fourteenth, quickly scattered the astonished Americans. They had, indeed, some slight notice of the attack ; but they were not properly prepared for it. The cavalry was posted on the side of the river where the first approach was made, and the infantry on the opposite bank. "Although," says Ramsay, "the com- manding officer of the American cavalry had taken the pre- caution of having his horses saddled and bridled, and the alarm was given b}' his videttes, posted at the distance of a mile in front ; yet, being entirely unsupported by infantrjf, the British advanced so rapidly, notwithstanding the opposi- tion of the advanced guard, that they began their attack on the main body before they could put themselves in a posture of defence." Then Major Cochrane, with Tarleton' s Legion,
AND ITS HEROES. 65
quickly forced the passage of Biggin Bridge, and drove General Huger and the infantry before him. " In this affair," says James, " Major James Conyers, of tiie Ameri- cans, distinguished himself by a skillful retreat, and by call- ing oft' the attention of the enemy from his sleeping friends to himself. In this surprise, the British made free use of the bayonet ; the houses in Monk's Corner, then a village, were afterwards deserted, but long bore the marks of deadly thrust and much blood-shed."
Several officers, who attempted to defend themselves, were killed or wounded. The assailing party lost but one officer and two privates wounded, with five horses killed or disabled. General Huger, Colonel Washington, and Major Jameson, with most of their troops, fled to the adjacent swamps and thickets ; while three Captains, one Lieutenant, and ten privates were killed ; one Major, one Captain, two Lieutenants, and fifteen privates were wounded, and sixty- four officers and men, including the wounded, were made prisoners. Some two hundred horses, from thirty to forty wagons, and quite a supply of provisions and military stores, were among the trophies if the victors. If it was not a " shameful surprise," as General Moultrie pro- nounced it, it was, at least, a very distressing affair for the Americans. Poor General Huger, and his aid, John Izard, remained in the swamp from Friday morning, the time of the surprise, till the succeeding Monday ; it was a long fast, and the exposure produced severe sickness on the part of the General, causing him to retire awhile from the service.*
Among the American wounded was Major Vernier, a French officer, who commanded the remains of the Legion of Count Casimir Pulaski, who had lost his life at Savan- nah the preceding autumn. " The Major," says Steadman, a British historian and eye-witness, "was mangled in the most shocking manner ; he had several wounds, a severe
* Ramsay's Revolution, ii, 64; Moultrie's Memoirs, ii, 72; Tarleton's Campaigns, 15-17; Steadman's American War, ii, 182-83; James" Life of Marion, 36-37; Siege of Charleston, 124, 164 ; Simm's South Carolina in the Revolution, 125, 138 ; Irving's Washington, iv, 51-52.
66 KING'S MOUNTAIN
one behind his eai". This unfortunate officer lived several hours, reprobating the Americans for their conduct on this occasion, and even in his last moments cursing the British for their barbarity, in having refused quarter after he had s^irrendered. The writer of this, who was ordered on this expedition, afforded everjr assistance in his power, and had the Major put upon a table, in a public house in the village, and a blanket thrown over him. In his last moments, the Major was frequently insulted by the privates of the Legion." Such merciless treatment of a dying foe, was eminently befitting the savage character of Tarleton and his men.
British historians repel, with indignant language, the charge of permitting the violation or abuse of females to go unpunished ; yet Commissary Steadman relates a case highly derogatory of the conduct of some of Tarleton's Legion. In the course of this maraud, several of the dra- goons broke into the house of Sir John Colleton, in the neighborhood of Monk's Corner, and maltreated and attempted violence upon three ladies residing there — one, the wife of a Charleston physician, a most delicate and beauti- ful woman, was most barbarously treated ; another lady received one or two sword wounds ; while an unmarried lady, a sister of a prominent Am.erican Major, was also shamefully misused. They all succeeded in making their escape to Monk's Corner, where they were protected ; and a carriage being provided, they were escorted to a house in that region. The guilty dragoons were apprehended, and brought to camp, where, by this time, Colonel Webster had arrived and taken the command. " Colonel Ferguson," says Steadman, "was for putting the dragoons to instant death ; but Colonel Webster did not conceive that his pow- ers extended to that of holding a general court-martial.* ■ •
Mt must not be inferred that Colonel Webster, who was the next year killed at Guilford, was indifferent to such offences; for, we are assured, that to an officer under his command, who had so far forgotten himself as to offer an insult to a lady, he hurled many a bitter imprecation, and had him immediately turned out of the regiment. — Political Magazine^ 1781, 342.
AND ITS HEROES. 67
The prisoners were, however, sent to head-quarters, and, I believe, were afterwards tried and wliipped." This decisive action on the part of Colonel Ferguson was highly credit- able to his head and his heart. "We honor," says Irving, " the rough soldier, Ferguson, for the fiat of ' instant death,' with which he would have requited the most infamous and dastardly outrage that brutalizes warfare." Tarleton, possessing none of the finer feelings of human nature, failed to second Fergvison's efforts to bring the culprits to punishment; for, "afterwards, in England, he had the effrontery to boast, in the presence of a lady of respecta- bility, that he had killed more men, and ravished more women, than any man in America.'' *
The long protracted siege of Charleston was now draw- ing to a close. In the latter part of April, Colonel Fer- guson marched down with a party, and captured a small redoubt at Haddrell's Point, half a mile above Sullivan's Island ; and, on the seventh of May, he obtained permission to attack Fort Moultrie, and while upon the march for that object, he received intelligence of the surrender of the Fort to Captain Hudson, who was relieved of the command by Colonel Fei-guson.f And shortly thereafter, General Lincoln gave up the city he had so long and so valiantly defended.
*Steadman's American War, ii, 183; Irving's Washington, iv, 52-53; Garden's Anec- dotes, Field's Brooklyn edition, 1865, ii, App'x viii: Mrs. Warren's Hist. Am. Revolution, ii, 197.
\ Siege 0/ Charleston, 165-66; Tarleton's Campaigns, 50,
68 KING'S MOUNTAIN
CHAPTER IV.
1780— May— July.
Colonel Ferguson sent to the District of Ninety Six. — Organizing the Local Militia. — Major Hanger s account of the up-country inhabi- tants— his own bad reputation. — Ferguson's seductive promises to the people. — The Tory, David Fanning. — Ferguson s adaptation to his Mission — Mrs. fane Thomas' adventure. — Colonel Thomas repels a Tory assault at Cedar Spri?ig. — Ferguson advances to Fair Forest. — Character of the Tories — Stories of their plunderings. — Colonels Clarke and Jones of Georgia — the latter surprises a Tory camp. — Dunlap and Mills attack Mc Do-well's camp on North Pacolet.— Captain Hamptoii s pursuit and defeat of the Tories,
On the reduction of Charleston, Sir Henry Chnton was, for the ensuing few weeks, busily emploj^ed in issuing proclamations and forming plans for the complete subjuga- tion of the Carolinas and Georgia. He had on the eigh- teenth of May, dispatched Lord Cornwallis with a strong force on the north-east side of the Santee to Camden ; while Colonel Ferguson, at the same time, with a hundred and fifty to two hundred men of the Provincial corps, marched from Nelson's Ferry via Colonel Thomson's, Beaver creek, and the Congaree Store, crossing the Saluda above the mouth of Broad river ; thence on to Little river and Ninety Six, where they arrived on the twenty-second of June. They performed their marches in the cool of the morning, and now and then apprehended prominent Whigs on the route. His orders were to have a watch-care over the extended district of country from the Wateree to the Saluda, well nigh a hundred miles. Resuming his march he passed on to Ninety Six, whence, after a fortnight's rest, he advanced some sixteen miles, and selected a good location on Litde
AND ITS HEROES. 69
river, where he erected some field works, while most of his Provincials pushed on to the Fair Forest region.* This camp was at the plantation of Colonel James Williams, in what is now Laurens County, near the Newberry line, where the British and Tories long maintained a post, a part of the time under General Cunningham, till the enemy evacuated Ninety Six the following year.f
Sir Henr^' Clinton had directed Major Hanger to repair with Colonel Ferguson to the interior settlements, and, jointty or separately, to organize, muster, and regulate all volunteer corps, and inspect the quantity of grain .and num- ber of cattle, etc., belonging to the inhabitants, and report to Lord Cornwallis, who would be left in command of the Southern Provinces.]: The powers of this warrant were very extensive to meet the exigencies of the case. It was needful that commissioners should be sent out prop- erl}' authorized to receive the submission of the people, administer oaths of fealty, and exact pledges of faithful Royal service. It was needful, also, that the young men of the country should be thoroughly drilled and fitted for recruits for Cornwallis' diminished forces ; and it was equally neces- sary for that commander to know where the necessary sup- plies of grain and meat could be found. It will thus be seen how comprehensive was this mission and its purposes.
Nor were these the only powers vested in these officers. All Royal authority had, for several years, been superseded by enactments and appointments of the newly created State, and these, of necessity, must be ignored. So Colonel
*Tarleton's Memoirs, 26, 80, 87, 100: O'NealVs //?>^. of Neivberry, -l^-j, t Williams' place was about a mile west of Little river, and between that stream and Mud Lick crock, on the old Island Ford road, followed by General Greene when he retreated from Ninety Six, in 17S1. Ferguson's camp was near the intersection of a road leading to Laurens C H.. about sixtf an miles distant. MS. letters of General A. C. Garlington. July 19th and 28th' 1880, on authority of Colonel James W. Watts, a descendant of Colonel Williams and Major T. K. Vance and others. D. R Crawford, of Martin's Depot, S. C, states that three miles above the old "Williams' place, on the west side nf Little river, opposite the old Milton store, must have been an encampment, as old gun barrels and gun locks have been found there.
X Hanger's Life and Opinions, ii, 401-2.
70 KIA^G'S MOUNTAIN
Ferguson and Major Hanger had superadded to their mili- tary powers, authority to perform the marriage service. Whether they had occasions to officiate, we are not informed. However this may have been, the Major evidently formed no high estimate of the beauties of the up-country region. " In the back parts of Carolina," says Major Hanger, "you may search after an angel with as much chance of finding one as a parson ; there is no such thing — I mean, when I was there. What they are now, I know not. It is not impossible, but they may have become more religious, moral, and virtuous, since the great affec- tion they have imbibed for the French. In my time, you might travel sixty or seventy miles, and not see a church, or even a schism shop — meeting-house. I have often called at a dog-house in the woods, inhabited bv eight or ten persons, merely from curiosity. I have asked the master of the house : ' Pray, my friend, of what religion are you?' 'Of what religion, sir?' 'Yes, mj^ friend, of what religion are you — or, to what sect do you belong?' 'Oh! now I understand you; why, for the matter of that, religion does not trouble us much in these -parts.^
"This distinguished race of men," continues Hanger, "are more savage than the Indians, and possess every one of their vices, but not one of their virtues. I have known one of these fellows travel two hundred miles through the woods, never keeping any road or path, guided by the sun by day, and the stars by night, to kill a particular person belonging to the opposite party. He would shoot him before his own door, and ride away to boast of what he had done on his return. I speak only of back-woodsmen, not of the inhabitants in general of South Carolina ; for, in all America, there are not better educated or better bred men than the planters. Indeed, Charleston is celebrated for the splendor, luxury, and education of its inhabitants : I speak only of that heathen race known by the name of Crackers.'" *
Such were Major Hanger's representations of the back-
* Hanger's Life and Opinions^ ii, 403-5.
AND ITS HEROES. 71
woods people of Carolina in his recorded reminiscences of twenty-one }'ears thereafter. His slurs and insinuations on the virtues and morals of the " angels," probabl}' referring to the females of the country, may well be taken with many grains of allowance, coming, as they do, from the intimate friend and associate of the profligate Prince Regent of England, and Colonel Tarleton, both in turn the keeper of the beautiful, but fallen "Perdita;" and, moreover, his own reputation in America was that of a sensualist. The probabilities are, that he met with well-deserved rebuffs and rebukes from the ladies of the up-countiy of Carolina, and did not long remain there to thrust his insults upon a virtu- ous people. As if anticipating his own rich deservings, he gives, in his "Life," and "Advice to ye Lovely Cj^prians," a portrait of himself, dressed in his regimentals, and sus- pended from a gibbet. Yet, in the end, he "robbed the hangman of his fees," and the gallows of its victim.
In a letter from Lord Cornwallis to Sir Henry Clinton, June thirtieth, 1780, he mentioned having dispersed Lieu- tenant-Colonel Balfour's detachment from the Forks of the Santee, by the Congarees, to Ninety Six, while he and Lieutenant-Colonel Innes, and Major Graham, are giving orders for the militia of those districts ; and then adds, con- firmatory of Major Hanger's representation of the mixed character of Colonel Ferguson's services : "I have ordered Major Ferguson," says his Lordship, "to visit every district in the Province as fast as they get the militia established, to procure lists of each, and to see that my orders are carried into execution. I apprehend that his commission of Major- Commandant of a regiment of militia, can only take place in case a part of the second-class should be called out for service, the home duty being more that of a Justice of Peace than of a soldier."*
Major Hanger did not remain many weeks with Colonel Ferguson m the Little river region ; for, early in August,
* Life and Cor. of l^r^ Cornwallis, i, 486.
72 ■ KING'S MOUNTAIN
he entered Tarleton's Legion as Major, to which he had recent]}' been appointed, and participated in the battle of Camden, and in the aflair at Charlotte. In his reckless manner of expression, the Major remarks, that had he remained with Ferguson, he might have shared the same fate as he did at King's Mountain; and, "if, indeed, as Mahomet is said to have done, I could have taken my flight to Paradise on a jackass, that would have been a pleasant ride ; but Fate destined me for other things."
"We come not," declared Ferguson, "to make war on women and children, but to relieve their distresses." This sounded grateful and pleasant to the ears of the people — a large majority of whom, under the leadership of the Cun- ninghams, Fletchall, Robinson, and Pearis, were at heart Loyalists, and honored the King and Parliament. To Colonel Ferguson's standard, while encamped at Little river, the Toi'ies of the country flocked in large numbers. Companies and regiments were organized, and many offi- cers commissioned for the Royal service. David Fanning, who had long resided in Orange and Chatham Counties, in the North Province, subsequently so notorious as a Tory leader for his dare-devil adventures and bloody work gener- ally, was among those who repaired to Ferguson's encamp- ment ; and evidently, on his personal recommendation and influence, secured, in Juh^ from Colonel Ferguson, com- missions, from Ensign to Captain, for no less than sixty-two persons in the five Counties of Anson, Chatham, Cumber- land, Orange, and Randolph, in North Carolina, whose names and residence he records in his published Narrative . Fanning and Captain Richard Pearis had received General Williamson's submission, and granted protection to him and his followers ; and three days thereafter to Colonel Pickens. Colonel Robert Cunningham had taken the com- mand in the Ninety Six region, and formed a camp of Loyalists ; * and British authority was fully recognized in all the up-country of South Carolina.
* Fanniiig's Narrative, 12, 13, 19-21,
AND ITS HEROES. 73
The younger men were thoroughly drilled by Colonel Ferguson and his subordinates in military tactics, and fitted for active service. No one could have been better qualified for this business than the distinguished partisan whom Sir Henry Clinton had selected for the purpose. He seemed almost a born commander. His large experience in war, and partiality for military discipline, superadded to his pei-sonal magnetism over others, eminently fitted him for unlimited influence over his men, and the common people within his region. He was not favored, however, with a commanding personal presence. He was of middle stature, slender make, possessing a serious countenance ; yet it was his peculiar characteristic to gain the aflections of the men under his command. He would sit down for hoin^s, and converse with the countiy people on the state of public affairs, and point out to them, from his view, the ruinous effects of the disloyalty of the ring-leaders of the rebellion — erroneously supposing that it was the leaders onh' who gave impulse to the popular up-rising throughout the Colo- nies. He was as indefatigible in training them to his way of thinking, as he was in instructing them in military exer- cises. This condescension on his part was regarded as wonderful in a King's officer, and very naturally went far to secure the respect and obedience of all who came within the sphere of his almost magic inffuence.*
Parties were sent out to scour the north-western portion of South Carolina, and apprehend all the Rebel leaders who could be found. Among those who had taken protec- tion, and were yet hurried off" as prisoners to Ninety Six, was Colonel John Thomas, Sr., of the Fair Forest settle- ment, then quite advanced in life. His devoted wife rode nearly sixty miles to visit him, and convey to him such com- forts as she had it in her power to bestow. While there, Mrs. Thomas overheard a conversation between some Tory women, of which her quick ear caught these ominous
* Political Magazine, March, 1781, 125.
74 KING ' S MO UNTAIN
words : "The Loyalists intend, to-morrow night, to surprise tlie Rebels at Cedar Spring." This intelligence was enough to thrill a mother's heart, for Cedar Spring was but a few miles beyond her Fair Forest home, and with the Whig force were manjr of her friends and neighbors, and some even of her own children. No time was to be lost — she intuitively resolved to do her best to apprise them of the enemy's intention before the meditated blow could be struck. She started early the next morning, and reached Cedar Spring that evening in time to give them warning of the impending danger, when she quietly repaired to her home, conscious of having done her duty to her country, as well as performed an act of the noblest humanity.*
This was on the twelfth day of July, f Colonel John Thomas, Jr., the son of our heroine, had succeeded his father in command of the Fair Forest regiment, and headed the small band, some sixty in number, now encamped at the Cedar Spring. J Joseph Mcjunkin was one of the party. It seems to have been a camp formed for collecting the regiment, and drilling them, preparatory to joining Sumter. On receiving the timely intelligence of the intended British attack. Colonel Thomas and his men, after a brief consultation, retired a small distance in the rear of their camp fires, and awaited the impending onset. The enemy, one hundred and fifty strong, rushed upon the camp, where they expected to find the luckless Rebels pro-
*In crediting Mrs. Jane Thomas with this heroic act, we are aware that Mills, in his Statistics of South Carolina, has accorded it to Mrs. Mary Dillard ; but the uniform testi- mony of the Thomas family, including Major Mcjunkin, who married a daughter oi Col- onel Thomas, gives the narrative as we have substantially related it. The occasion of her visit to Ninety Six, and residing in the neighborhood of Cedar Spring, go far to sustain this view of the matter. Mrs. Dillard. on the other hand, lived fully thirty miles south-east of Cedar Spring, and south of the Enoree river, in Lauren's District— and on the route Tarle- ton pursued when on his way to attack Sumter at Blackstock's on Tyger ; and Tarleton relates, that "a woman on horseback had viewed the line of march from a wood, and, by a nearer road, had given intelHgence '' to Sumter. That woman was Mrs. Dillard.
-J- Compare McCall's Georgia, ii, 310; Moore's Diary, ii, 351 ; and Allaire's Diary, July 14th and 15th.
X Cedar Spring derived its name from a large cedar tree, that formerly ornamented the banks of this fine spring, which is about fifty feet in circumference. It has three principal fountains or sources of supply, which force the water from the bowels of the earth, forming a beautiful basin three feet deep. The water is impregnated with a small portion of lime.
^ AND ITS HEROES. 75
foundly enwrapped in slumber ; but, on the contrary, they were wide awake, and astonished the assailants with a volley of rifle balls. Several were slain, and the survivors scampered off badly demoralized. It was a short, quick, and decisive affair. Among the slain was a Tory named John White, well known to Major Mcjunkin, and who, in the early part of the war, had declined bearing arms against the Indians, on the trumped-up plea of being a non- combatant.* It was fortunate for Thomas' party, that this was a night attack, as the enemy had no opportunity of discovering their decided superioritj' ; and doubdess retired with the belief that the Americans must have num- bered several hundred. This embodying of the friends of liberty in the Fair Forest settlement, probably hastened the movement of Ferguson to that quarter. ^ When Colonel Ferguson left his camp on Little river, he crossed the Enoree at Kelly's Ford, and encamped in the Fork, at the plantation of Colonel James Lj'les, who was then in service farther east, with Sumter. John Robison and others of this region were plundered bj' Ferguson's men. The desperate, the idle, the vindictive, who sought plunder or revenge, as well as the youthful Loyalists, whose zeal or ambition prompted them to take up arms, all found a warm reception at the British camp ; and their progress through the country was " marked with blood, and lighted up with conflagration.'' Irving graphically describes the character of these Tory recruits : "Ferguson," says Irving, " had a loyal hatred of Whigs, and to his standard flocked many rancorous Tories, beside outlaws and desperadoes, so that with all his conciliating intentions, his progress through the country was attended by many exasperating excesses." To coerce the Whigs to submission, and embody the Tories, and train them for war, Ferguson kept moving about the country, and sending out his detachments in every
* Major Mcjunkin's MS. Statement, among the Saye papers; Mr. Saye's Memoir of Mcjunkin, al£0 Judge O'Neall's, in the Magnolia Magazine for Jan., 1843 ; Hist. Presbyte- rian Ch. 0/ So. Carolina, 534.
76 KING'S MOUNTAIN
direction. In the prosecution of these designs, he marched into Union District, camping on the south side of Tyger river, about half a mile below Blackstock's Ford, where the cripple spy, Joseph Kerr, made such observations as he could, and returned with the intelligence to Colonel Mc- Dowell, that about fifteen hundred of the enemy were penetrating the country ;* and thence Ferguson passed into the settlement then called "The Quaker Meadow," but since known as the Meadow Woods. On Sugar creek, a southern tributary of Fair Forest creek, f resided a number of determined Whigs named Blasingame, one of whom was arrested. Thence Ferguson moved up into the Fair Forest settlement, on the main creek of that name, camping at different times at McClendon's old field ; then between where J. Mcllwaine and J. H. Kelso since lived ; thence to where Gist resided a few years since, and thence to Cunningham's. He camped a while at Fair Forest Shoal, in Brandon's Settlement ; and subsequentl}' for three weeks on a hill, on the present plantation of the Hon. John Winsmith, eleven miles south of Cedar Spring, and two south of Glenn's Springs. During this period of several weeks, the Tories scoured all that region of country daily, plundering the people of their cattle, horses, beds, wearing apparel, bee-gums, and vegetables of all kinds — even wrest- ing the rings from the fingers of the females. Major Dun- lap and Lieutenant Taylor, with fort)^ or fifty soldiers, called at a Mrs. Thomson's, and taking down the family Bible from its shelf, read in it, and expressed great surprise that persons having such a book, teaching them to honor the King and obey magistrates, should rebel against their King and country ; but amid these expressions of holy horror,
* Kerr's MS. personal statement, communicated by Colonel J. H. Wheeler; Hunter's Sketches of Western North Carolina, 120-21.
\ " What 2. fair forest is this ! " exclaimed the first settlers. The name attached itself to the place, and then to the bold and lovely mountain stream, which sweeps on till its waters mingle with those of Broad river. — Rev. James H. Saye's Memoir of Major Joseph Mifi/rikin, and Sketches of the Reztolutionary History of South Carolina, 3.n interesting newspaper series published over thirty years ago.
AND ITS HEROES. 77
these officers suffered their troops to engage in ransacking and pkindering before their very eyes.
From what we have seen, it is not wonderful that the Tories were soon as heartily despised by the British officers as by their own countrymen, the Whigs. But Ferguson was not the man to be diverted from his purpose by any acts of theirs of treachery and inhumanity. The crown had honors and rewards to bestow, and his eye rested upon them. He knew that "the defender of the faith" generally gave much more cash and more honors, for a single year of devoted service in mihtary enterprises, than for a life-time spent in such pursuits as exalt and ennoble human nature.
The horses of Ferguson's men were turned loose in to any fields of grain that might be most convenient. Foraging parties brought in cattle to camp for slaughter, or wantonly shot them down in the woods and left them. As many Whigs as could be found were apprehended, not even excepting those who had previously taken protection. A few had been prompted to take protection, rather than for- sake their families, trusting thereby to British honor to secure them from molestation ; but thejr were soon hurried off to Ninety Six, and incarcerated in a loathsome prison, v^rhere they well nigh perished for want of sustenance. But most of those, at this time, capable of bearing arms, had retired to North Carolina, or were serving in Sumter's army ; so that Ferguson had an excellent opportunity to drill his new recruits, and support his men by pillaging the people. Occasionally small parties of Whigs would venture into the neighborhood — about often enough to afford the enemy good exercise in pursuing them while within striking distance.*
Such an invasion as Ferguson's, with its terrors and aggravations, and the up-rising of the Tories in the western part of North Carolina, under the Moores, and Bryan, soon led to blows, with all the sufferings attendant on war and
*Saye's MSS., ana Memoir 0/ Mcjunkin.
78 KING'S MOUNTAIN
carnage. The barbaiities meted out to the Americans at Buford's defeat, sarcasticallv denominated by the Whigs as Tarletoiis quarters, very naturally tended to embitter the animosities of the people. The Moores were signally defeated, in June, at Ramsour's Mill, and Bryan and his followers subsequently driven from the country.
A noted partisan of Georgia, Colonel Elijah Clarke, now comes upon the scene. A native of Virginia, he earty settled on the Pacolet, whence he pushed into Wilkes County, Georgia, where the Revolutionarj- out-break found him. He was one of those sturdy patriots, well fitted for a leader of the people — one who would scorn to take protec- tion, or yield one iota to arbitrary power. When British detachments were sent into various parts oi Georgia, it became unsafe for such unflinching Whigs as Clarke longer to remain there. He and his associates resolved to scatter for a few days, visit their families once more, and then retire into South Carolina, where they hoped to find other heroic spirits ready to co-operate with them in making a stand against the common enemy. Some small parties had already left Georgia, and passing along the western frontiers of South Carolina, had sought the camp of Colonel Charles McDowell, who was then embodying a force on the south- western borders of the North Province.
On the eleventh of July, one hundred and forty well- mounted and well-armed men met at the appointed place of rendezvous ; and, after crossing the Savannah at a private ford in the night, they learned that the British and Loyalists were in force on their front. Clarke's men concluded that it would be hazardous to continue their retreat on that route with their present numbers. As they were volunteers, and not subject to coercion. Colonel Clarke was induced to return to Georgia, sufier his men to disperse for a while, and await a more favorable opportunity to renew the enterprise. The majority of the party returned.
Colonel John Jones, of Burke County, however, objected
AND ITS HEROES. 79
to a retrograde movement, and proposed to lead those who would go with him, through the woods to the borders of North Carolina, and join the American force in that quarter. Thirty-five men united with him, choosing him for their leader, and John Freeman for second in command, pledg- ing implicit obedience to their orders. Benjamin Lawrence, of South Carolina, a superior woodsman, and well ac- quainted with the country, now joined the company, and rendered them valuable service as their guide. Passing through a disaffected region, they adroitly palmed them- selves off as a Loyalist party, engaged in the King's ser- vice ; and, under this guise, they were in several instances, furnished with pilots, and directed on their route.
When they had passed the head-waters of the Saluda, in the north-eastern part of the present county of Green- ville, one of these guides informed them, that a party of Rebels had, the preceding night, attacked some Loyalists a short distance in front, and defeated them — doubtless the British repulse at Cedar Spring, as already related, and which occurred some twenty-five or thirty miles away. Jones expressed a wish to be conducted to the camp of those im- fortunate Loyalist friends, that he might aid them in taking revenge on those who had shed the blood of the King's faithful subjects. About eleven o'clock on that night, July thirteenth, Jones and his little party were conducted to the Loyalist camp, where some forty men were collected to pursue ftie Americans who had retreated to the North. Choosing twenty-two of his followers, and leaving the bag- gage and horses in charge of the others, Colonel Jones resolved to surprise the Tory camp. Approaching the enemy with guns, swords, and belt-pistols, they found them in a state of self-security, and generally asleep. Closing quickly around them, they fired upon the camp, killing one and wounding three, when thirty-two, including the wounded, called for quarter, and surrendered. Destroying the useless guns, and selecting the best horses, the Loyal-
80 K/NG'S MOUNTAIN
ists were paroled as prisoners of war ; when the pilot, who did not discover the real character of the men he was conducting until too late to have even attempted to pre- vent the consequences, was now required to guide the Americans to Earle's Ford on North Pacolet river, where a junction was formed the next day with Colonel McDowell's forces. As McDowell had that day made a tedious march with his three hundred men, they, too, were in a fatigued condition.
Within striking distance of McDowell's camping ground, some twenty miles in a nearly southern direction, was Prince's Fort, originally a place of neighborhood resort in time of danger from the Indians, in the early settlement of the country, some twenty years before. This fort, now occu- pied by a British and Tory force, under Colonel Innes, was located upon a commanding height of land, near the head of one of the branches of the North Fork of Tyger, seven miles north of west from the present village of Spartanburg. Innes, unapprised of McDowell's approach, detached Major Dunlap, with seventy dragoons, accompanied by Colonel Ambrose Mills, with a party of Loyalists, in pursuit of Jones, of whose audacious operations he had just received intelligence.
McDowell's camp was on rising ground on the eastern side of the North Pacolet, in the present county of Polk, North Carolina, near the South Carolina line, and about twenty miles south-west of Rutherfordton ; and Dunlap reaching the vicinity on the opposite side of the stream dur- ing the night, and supposing that Jones' party only was en- camped there, commenced crossing the river, which was narrow at that point, when an American sentinel fled to camp and gave the first notice of the enemy's presence.* Dunlap, with his Dragoons and Tories, dashed instantly, with drawn swords, among McDowell's men, while but few of them
* McCall, in his Hzst. of Georgia, asserts that the sentinel fired his gun, but James Thompson, one of Joseph McDowell's party, states as in the text, which seems to be cor- roborated by the complaint of Col. Hampton, and the general surprise of the camp.
AND ITS HEROES. 81
were yet roused out of sleep. The Georgians being nearest to the ford, were the first attacked, losing two killed and six wounded ; among the latter was Colonel Jones, who received eight cuts on his head from the enemy's sabres. Freeman, with the remainder, fell back about a hundred yards, where he joined Major Singleton, who was forming his men behind a fence ; while Colonels McDowell and Hampton soon formed the main body on Singleton's right. Being thus rallied, the Americans were ordered to advance, when Dun- lap discovering his mistake as to their numbers, quickly re- treated across the river, which was fordable in many places, and retired without much loss ; its extent, however, was un- known, beyond a single wounded man who was left upon the ground.
Besides the loss sustained by the Georgians, six of Mc- Dowell's men were killed, and twentj'-four wounded. Among the killed were Noah Hampton, a son of Colonel Hampton, with a comrade named Andrew Dunn Young Hampton, when roused from his slumbers, was asked his name; he simply replied "Hampton," one of a numerous family and connection of Whigs, too well known, and too active in opposition to British rule, to meet with the least forbearance at the hands of enraged Tories ; and though he begged for his life, they cursed him for a Rebel, and ran him through with a bayonet. Young Dunn also suffered the same cruel treatment. Colonel Hampton felt hard towards Colonel McDowell, his superior officer, as he wished to have placed videttes beyond the ford, which McDowell opposed, believing it entirely unnecessary. Had this been done, due notice would in all probability have been given, and most of the loss and suffering have been averted.*
* McCall's Hist, of Georgia, ii, 308-12; Saye's MSS.; MS. pension statements of Gen- eral Thomas Kennedy, of Kentucky, Robert Henderson, and Robert McDowell ; Moore's Diary 0/ the Revolution, ii. 351, .gives the date of the Pacolet fight as occurring "in the night of July fifteenth." and this on the authority of Govenor Rutledge, who was then at Charlotte. Judging from Allaire's Diary, it niust have been the night before. The par- ticulars of the killing of young Hampton and Dunn are derived from the MS. communi- cations of Adam. Jonathan, and James J. Hampton, grandsons of Colonel Hampton.
82 KING ' S MO UNTAIN
The reason, presumably, why Colonel McDowell was over-confident of security was, that he had, the day before, detached his brother, Major Joseph McDowell, with a partjr to go on a scout, and ascertain, if possible, where the Tories lay ; but taking a wrong direction, he had consequently made no discovery.* Not returning, Colonel McDowell very naturally concluded that there was no portion of the enemy very near, and that he and his weary men could, with reasonable assurance of safety, take some needed repose. It was that very night, while Major McDowell was blundering on the wrong route, that Dunlap was able to advance undiscovered, and make his sudden attack.
Before sunrise the ensuing morning, fifty-two of the most active men, including Freeman and fourteen of his party, mounted upon the best horses in the camp, were ordered to pursue the retreating foe, under the command of Captain Edward Hampton. After a rapid pursuit of two hours, they overtook the enemy, fifteen miles away ; and making a sudden and unexpected attack, completely routed them, killing eight of them at the first fire. Unable to rally his demoralized men, who had been taken unawares. Dun- lap made a precipitate, helter-skelter retreat towards Fort Prince, during which several of his soldiers were killed and wounded. The pursuit was continued within three hundred yards of the British fort, in which three hundred men were securely posted. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Hamp- ton and his men returned to McDowell's camp, with thirty- five good horses, dragoon equipage, and a considerable portion of the enemy's baggage, as the trophies of victory, and without the loss of a single man. It was a bold and successful adventure, worthy of the heroic leader and his intrepid followers.
It is not a little remarkable, that three successive night fights should have occurred within a few miles of each
* Statement of Captain James Thompson, of Madison County, Georgia, one of Major McDowell's party, preserved among the Saye MSS.
AND ITS HEROES. 83
other, and the two latter as military sequences of the former. First, the Tory attack on Colonel Thomas, at Cedar Spring, on the evening of the thirteenth of July ; then Colonel Jones' surprise of the remnant of this Loyalist party, on the night of the fourteenth ; and finally, the attack of Dunlap and Mills, in retahation, on Colonel McDowell's camp, ^t Earle's Ford of North Pacolet, on the night of the fifteenth. And in all three of these affairs, the Tories got the worst of it.
McCall's Georgia, li, 312-13; and MS. pension statement of Jesse Neville, one of Hampton's party. It may not be inappropriate, in this connection, to add a few words relative to the hero of this courageous exploit. Captain Hampton was a brother of Colonels Wade, Richard, and Henry Hampton, of Sumter's army. He was a very active partisan, and reputed one of the best horsemen of his time. In May, 1775, with his brother, Preston Hampton, he was delegated by the people of the frontiers of South Carolina to visit the Cherokees, and see if, by a suitable "talk," they could not be made to comprehend the causes of the growing differences between the Colonies and the mother country. They met with a rude reception, Cameron and the British emissaries instigating the Indians to oppose their views ; and Cameron made them prisoners, giving their horses, a gun, a case of pistols and holsters, to the Indians. By some means, they escaped with their lives.
The following year, 1776, while Edward Hampton was, with his wife, on a visit to her father, Baylis Earle, on North Pacolet, the Cherokees made an incursion into the valleys of Tyger, massacring Preston Hampton, his aged parents, and a young grandchild of theirs. Edward Hampton served on Williamson's expedition against the Cherokees, in the summer and autumn of that year; and though only a Lieutenant, he had the command of his company, and distinguished himself in a battle with the enemy, receiving the special thanks of his General for his bravery and good conduct on the occasion.
After the destruction of the Hampton family, on the Middle Fork of Tyger, where he resided, he seems to have made his bome for a season on a plantation he possessed at Earle's Ford, where his father-in-law, Mr. Earle, resided. That he was the Captain Hampton who led the dashing foray against Dunlap on his retreat to Prince's Fort, is par- tially corroborated by Dr. Howe, in his History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, p, 542, though erroneous as to the place of the occurrence; but Jesse Neville's pension statement renders the matter conclusive, supplying the first name of his Captain, which McCall fails to give in his details of that affair.
Captain Hampton was killed the ensuing October, at or near Fair Forest creek, in the bosom of his family, by Bill Cunningham's notorious " Bloody Scout." He was in the prime of life, and in his death his country lost a bold cavalier. He was the idol of his family and friends. His descendants in Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas, are among the worthiest of people. Baylis Earle became one of the early judges of Spartanburg District, and was living in 1826, in his eighty-ninth year — MS. statement of Colonel John Carter, Watauga, May 30th, 1775; MS. letter of Colonel Elijah Clarke to General Sumter, October 29th, 1780; Governor Perry's sketch of the Hampton Family, in the Magnolia Magazine, June. 1843, with a continuation, which appeared in the South Carolina papers, in 1B43, written by Colonel Wade Hampton, Sr., father of the present Senator Hampton, of that State.
84 KING'S MOUNTAIN
CHAPTER V.
t780— July— August.
McDowell sends for the Over-Mountain Men. — Clarke joins him, and pushes on to Sumter's Camp. — Capture and Escape of Captain Patrick Moore. — Moore s Plunderers. — Story of Jane Mcjunkin and Bill Haynesworth. — Shelby and the Motmtaineers arrive at McDowell's Camp. — Capture of Thicketty Fort. — Expedition to Brown's Creek and Fair Forest. — Fight at the Peach Orchard, near Cedar Spring, and Wofford' s Iron Works, and its incidents. — Saye's Account of the Action. — Bri.tish Report. — Contradictory Statements concerning the Conflict.
When Colonel McDowell became convinced that Fer- guson's movement to the north-western portion of South Carolina, threatened the invasion of the North Province also, he not only promptly raised what force he could from the sparsely populated settlements, on the heads of Catawba, Broad and Pacolet rivers, to take post in the enemy's front and watch his operations ; but dispatched a messenger with this alarming intelligence to Colonels John Sevier and Isaac Shelby, on Watauga and Holston, those over-mountain regions, then a portion of North Carolina, but now of East Tennessee ; urging those noted border leaders to bring to his aid all the riflemen they could, and as soon as possible. Sevier, unable to leave his frontier exposed to the inroads of the Cherokees, responded at once to the appeal, by send- ing a part of his regiment under Major Charles Robertson ; and Shelby, being more remote, and having been absent on a surveying tour, was a few days later, but joined McDow- ell, at the head of two hundred mounted riflemen, about the twenty-fifth of July, at his camp near the Cherokee Ford of Broad river.
AND ITS HEROES. 85
Colonel Clarke did not long remain in Georgia. While there, he and his associates were necessarilj' compelled to secrete themselves in the woods, privately supplied with food by their friends. This mode of life was irksome, and soon became almost insupportable, without the least prospect of accomplishing anything beneficial to the public. The regi- ment was re-assembled, in augmented numbers, when, by a general desire, Colonel Clarke led them along the eastern slope of the mountains, directing their course towards North Carolina, where they could unite with others, and render their services useful to their country. Without mis- hap or adventure, they were joined by Colonel Jones, as they neared the region where they expected to find friends in the field. Clarke was soon after joined by the brave Cap- tain James McCall, with about twentj' men, from the region of Ninety Six, For want of confidence in Colonel Mc- Dowell's activity, or from some other cause, Clarke pushed on, and joined Sumter on or near the Catawba.
The story of the captivity of Captain Patrick Moore, a noted Loyalist, now claims our attention. He had probably escaped from the slaughter at Ramsour's Mill, on the twentieth of June, when his brother, Colonel John Moore safety retired to Camden. Anxious lor the capture of Cap- tain Moore, Major Joseph Dickson and Captain William Johnston were sent out, in the fore part of July, with a party to apprehend this noted Toiy leader, and others of his ilk, if they could be found. The veteran Captain Samuel Martin, who had sensed in the old French and Indian war, was one of the party. On Dawson's Fork, of Pacolet river, near the Old Iron Works, since Bivingsville, and now known as Glendale,'* the parties met, and a skirmish ensued, in which Captain Johnston and the Tory leader had a personal rencontre. Moore was at length
* Glendale is located on the Southern side of Lawson's Fork, while the Old Iron Works were on the same bank, fully half a mile above, where the old road once crossed the stream. " These Works," says Mills, in (826 "were burnt by the Tories, and never rebuilt."
86 KING'S MOUNTAIN
overpowered and captured ; but in the desperate contest, Johnston received several sword wounds on his head, and on the thumb of his right hand. While bearing his prisoner towards the Whig lines, a short distance away, he was rap- idly approached by several British troopers. Quickly attempting to fire his loaded musket at his pursuers, it unfor- tunately missed, in consequence of the blood flowing from his wounded thumb, and wetting his priming. This mis- fortune on his part enabled his prisoner to escape ; and, perceiving his own dangerous and defenceless condition, he promptly availed himself of a friendly thicket at his side, eluded his pursuers, and shortly after joined his command.*
At this time, or soon after, Moore had command of Fort Anderson, or Thicketty Fort, as it was more generally called, situated a quarter of a mile north of Goucher Creek, and two and a half miles above the mouth of this small water-course, which empties into Thicketty Creek, a west- ern tributary of Broad river, uniting with that stream a few miles above its junction with Pacolet. It was a strong for- tress, built a few years before for defence against the Chero- kees, and was surrounded by a strong abatis, well fitted for a vigorous defence. It became a great place of resort and protecrion for Tory parties. They would sally forth from Thicketty Fort, and plunder Whig families in every direc- tion— so that women and children were often left without clothing, shoes, bread, meat, or salt.
In the absence of Captain Nathaniel Jeffries, of that region, one of these phindering parties visited his house, appropriated such articles as they chose, built a fire on the floor, abused Mrs. Jeffries as the meanest of all Rebels, and drove off" the horses and cattle. On another occasion, the house of Samuel Mcjunkin, in Union District, a warm patriot, but too old for active military service, was visited by a party under Patrick Moore. They stayed all
* Hunter's Sketches of Western North Carolina, 242; MS. Pension Statement of Cap- tain Samuel Martin.
AND ITS HEROES. 87
night ; and, when about to depart, stripped the family of bed-clothes and wearing apparel. A noted Tory, Bill Haynesworth, seized a bed-quilt, and placed it upon his horse, when Mcjunkin's sturdy daughter, Jane, snatched it, and a struggle ensued for the possession. The soldiers amused themselves by exclaiming — " Well done, woman ! " — "Well done. Bill ! " For once Moore's gallantry predomi- nated over his love of plunder ; and he swore roundly if Jane could take the quilt from Haynesworth, she should have it. Presently in the fierce contest. Bill's feet came in contact with some dirty slime in the yard, and slipped from under him, and he lay prostrate and panting on the ground. Jane, quick as thought, placed one foot upon his breast, and wresting the quilt from his grasp, retired in triumph, while poor Bill sneaked off defeated and crest-fallen. This brave woman was the sister of Major Mcjunkin.
Nor was Miss Nancy Jackson, who lived in the Irish Settlement, near Fair Forest creek, less demonstrative in defence of her rights ; for she kicked a Tory down the stairs as he was descending, loaded- with plunder. In his rage, he threatened to send the. Hessian troops there the next day, which obliged the heroic girl to take refuge with an acquaintance several miles distant.*
The intrepid Sumter, hearing of Ferguson's inroads beyond Broad river, directed Colonel Clarke and his Georgians, together with such persons in his camp as resided in that region, and desired to aid in its protection, to repair to that quarter. Captain William Smith, of Spartanburg, and his company, availed themselves of this privilege. Arriving at the Cherokee Ford, they met Colo- nel McDowell, when Colonel Shelby, together with Colonel Clarke, Colonel Andrew Hampton and Major Charles Robertson, of Sevier's regiment, were detached with six hundred men, to surprise Thicketty Fort, some twenty
*MS. Saye papers; Saye's Memoir of Mcjunkin : Mrs. EUet's IVamen of the Revolu- tion, i ,i6a.
88 KING'S MOUNTAIN
miles distant. The)' took up the line of march at sunset, and surrounded the post at day-break the next morning. Colonel Shelby sent in Captain William Cocke, a volun- teer— in after years, a United States Senator from Ten- nessee— to make a peremptorj^ demand for the surrender of the garrison ; to which Moore replied that he would defend the place- to the last extremity. Shelby then drew in his lines to within musket shot of the enemy all around, with a full determination to make an assault.
Shelby's gallant " six hundred " made so formidable an appearance, that on a second message, accompanied, we may well suppose, with words of intimidation, Moore, per- haps fearing another Ramsour's Mill onslaught, relented, and proposed to surrender, on condition that the garrison be paroled not to serve again during the war, unless exchanged, which was acceded to — the more readily, as the Ameri- cans did not care to be encumbered with prisoners. Thus ninety-three Loyalists, with one British Sergeant-Major, stationed there to discipline them, surrendered themselves without firing a gun ; and among the trophies of victory were two hundred and fifty* stand of arms, all loaded with ball and buck-shot, and so arranged at the port-holes, with their abundant supplies, that they could, had a Ferguson, » Dunlap, or a De Peyster been at their head, have resisted double the number of their assailants. f
Among the spoils taken at King's Mountain, was th^' fragment of a letter, without date or signature — probably a
*This is Shelby's statement; the MS. Cocke papers say "one hundred and fifty stand of arms were taken."
tThe leading facts relative to the capture of Thicketty Fort arc taken from Haywood's History of Tennessee, 64; Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, 214; Memoir of Shelby, in National Portrait Gallery, written by Colonel Charles S. Todd. Shelby's son-in-law, and which appeared, revised, in the ]Vestern Monthly Magazine, in 1836; Breazeale's Life as it Is, 50 — all which statements closely follow a MS. account written by Shelby himself; MS. statement, preserved among the Saye papers, of John Jeffries, son of the plundered woman mentioned in the narrative; MS. papers of Hon. William Cocke furnish the name of the fort ; MS. pension statements of William Smith, of Lincoln county, Tennessee, Alex. Mc- Fadden, of Rutherford county. North Carohna, and John Clark, of Washington county, Tennessee, corroborating, in a general way, the facts of the capture ; and in a personal interview with Silas McBee, of Pontotoc county, Mississippi, in 1842, he confirmed Shelby's statement that ninety-four was the number of Moore's party captured. McBee lived on Thicketty at the time of the capture of Moore and his men.
AND ITS HEROES. 89
copy of a dispatch from Ferguson to Lord Cornwallis — in which this account is given of Thicketty Fort, Moore, and his surrender of the place : "It had an upper hue of loop- holes, and was surrounded by a very strong abatis, with only a small wicket to enter by. It had been put in thor- ough repair at the request of the garrison, which consisted of neighboring militia that had come to [the fort] ; and was defended b}' eighty men against two or three hundred ban- ditti without cannon, and each man was of opinion that it was impossible [for the Rebels to take it.] The officer next in command, and all the others, gave their opinion for de- fending it, and agree in their account that Patrick Moore, after proposing a surrender, acquiesced in their opinion, and offei-ed to go and signify as much to the Rebels, but re- turned with some Rebel officers, whom he put in possession of the gate and place, who were instantlj- followed by their men, and the fort full of Rebels, to the surprise of the gar- rison. He plead cowardice, I understand.!"
The capture of Thicketty Fort occurred on Sunday, the thirtieth of July, as the connecting circumstances indicate, and Lieutenant Allaire's Diary proves. Shelb}' and his men, loaded with the spoils of victor^', returned at once to McDowell's camp near the Cherokee Ford.
McDowell's force at this time could not have exceeded a thousand men, while Ferguson's must have reached fifteen to eighteen hundred. It was, therefore, the policy of the Ameri- cans to maintain their position near Cherokee Ford, guard against surprise, and harass their adversaries, until they should be able, with augmented numbers, to expel them from the country. Shortly after the Thickettj^ expedition, Colonel McDowell again detached Colonels Shelby, and Clarke, with Colonel William Graham, with a combined force of six hundred mounted men, to watch the movements of Ferguson's troops, and whenever possible, to cut off his foraging parties. They directed their course down Broad
f Ramsey's Tennessee, 215.
90 KING'S MOUNTAIN
river some twenty-five miles to Brown's creek, in now Union county, where it was agreed they should assemble, and which was a better situation than the Cherokee Ford, to observe the operations of the British and Tories. But when only a few of the parties fairly began to collect at that point, a superior force of the enemy forced them to retire, when they bore off some thirty or forty miles to the upper portion of the Fair Forest settlement, within the present limits of Spartanburg. On the way, they seem to have gotten their force together. By watching their op- portunity, they hoped to gain some decided advantage over their opponents, whom they well knew they would encounter in large numbers in that quarter. Hearing of these bold Rebel troopers, Ferguson made several in- effectual attempts to surprise them. But our frontier heroes were too watchful to be caught napping. Clarke and Shelby, with their men, were constantly on the alert — hav- ing no fixed camp, so that they were difficult to find.
On the evening of August seventh, Clarke and Shelby, with their troops, stopped for refreshment — and, if not dis- turbed, for a night's repose — on Fair Forest creek, nearly two miles west of Cedar Spring, at a point where the old road crossed that stream, leading thence to Wofford's Iron Works, and thence onward to the Cherokee Ford. Several trusty scouts were sent out to make discoveries, who re- turned before day the next morning, with the intelligence that the enemy were within half a mile of them. About the same moment, the report of a gun was heard, in the direction of the British party, which was afterward ascer- tained to have been fired by one of Dunlap's men — one who felt some compunctions of conscience at the idea of surpris- ing and massacring his countrymen, but who, protesting that it was accidental, was not suspected of treachery. The Americans, from prudential motives, retreated toward the old Iron Works, on Lawson's Fork of Pacolet, leaving Cedar Spring apparently a mile to the right ; and taking
AND ITS HEROES.
91
position not very far from the old orchard on the Thompson place, which was some three or four miles from the ford over Fair Forest, and something like a mile and a half from the Iron Works, and about a mile from Cedar Spring. Here
PLAT OF REGION NEAR CEDAR SPRING.
A — Thompson's Place and Peach Orchard. B— Where one part of the battle is said to have been fought. C — Old Iron Works. D — Glendale or Bivingsville. E — Peach Tree Grave. F — Pacolet Hill, G — Cedar Spring.
suitable ground was chosen, and the men formed for battle, when the spies came running in with the information that the enemy's horse were almost in sight. Before their re- tirement from their former temporary camp at Fair Forest, Josiah Culbertson, one of the bravest of young men, who had recently joined Shelby, had obtained permission to return home, two or three miles distant on Fair Forest, spend the night, and make such observations as he might, of any enemy in that quarter. About day-light the next morning, he rode fearlessly into the encampment he had left the evening before, supposing it still to be occupied
92 KING ' S MO UNTAIN
by his American friends, not knowing that they had de- camped, and Dunhip had just taken possession of it. But Culbertson \\'as equal to the emergenc}', for, seeing ever}-- thing so different from what it was the previous evening, he was quick to disco^•er his mistake ; and with extraordinar}^ coolness and presence of mind, he rode ver^- leisurely out of the encampment, with his ti^usty rifle resting on the pom- mel of his saddle before him. As he passed along, he ob- served the dragoons getting their horses in readiness, and making other preparations indicating an immediate renewal of their line of march. No particular notice was taken of him in the British camp, as it was supposed that he was one of their own men, who had got ready for the onward move- ment before his fellows. But when out of sight, he dashed olT with good speed in the direction he inferred that Clarke and Shelbj' had gone, and soon overtook his friends, and found they had chosen their ground, and were prepared for the onslaught.
Major Dunlap was an officer of much energ}' and promptitude, and soon made his appearance, with a strong force, part Colonial dragoons and part mounted militia, and commenced the conflict. The Whigs were as eager for the fray as the over-confident Britons. The action lasted half an hour, and was severely contested. Dun- lap's mounted volunteer riflemen, it is said, who were in front, recoiled, giving back at the verj^ first fire of their op- ponents, and their commander found it difficult to rally them, riaving at length succeeded, he placed himself at the head of his dragoons, and led them on to renew the contest, followed by the mounted riflemen, who were, how- ever, averse to coming into very close quarters. Dunlap's dragoons, with their- broad-swords, played a prominent part in the action ; and from the disproportion of Tories killed over the dragoons, according to the British account, which is doubtful, it would appear that Clarke and Shelby's rifle- men must have been busy in picking them off". During the
AND ITS HEROES. 93
mentioned the cii-cumstance of his ceasing, in the midst of the battle, to witness, with astonishment and admiration, the remarkable and unequal struggle Clarke was maintaining with his foes. In the fierce hand-to-hand contest, he re- ceived two sabre wounds, one on the back of his neck, and the other on his head — his stock-buckle saving his life ; and he was even, for a few minutes, a prisoner, in charge of two stout Britons ; but, taking advantage of his strength and acrivity, he knocked one of them down, when the other quickly fled out of the reach of this famous back-woods Titan. Clarke was every inch a hero, and was indebted to his own good pluck and prowess for his escape from his enemies, with only shght wounds, and the loss of his hat, in the ■mcIee.'':
Culbertson, with his characteristic daring, had a personal adventure worthy of notice. Meeting a dragoon, some distance from support, who imperiousl}^ demanded his sur- render, the intrepid American replied by whipping his rifle to his shoulder and felling the haughty Briton from his horse. When the dead were buried the next day, this dragoon was thrown into a hole near where he lay, and covered with earth. He happened to have at the time some peaches in his pocket, from which a peach tree grew, and for many years after, bore successive crops of fruit. The grave is yet pointed out, but the peach tree has long since disappeared. A worthy person in that region recently died nearly a hundred years of age, who used to relate that he had, in early life, eaten fi-uitfrom that tree.f The graves of some twenty or thirty others, who fell in this engagement, says Governor Perry, were yet to be seen as late as 1842.
*McCall mentions that Colonel Clarke and his son were wounded both at Wufford's Iron Works and at Musgrove's, giving the particulars as occurring at the latter; while Shelby notices their having been wounded only at the former, instancing his heroic ren- contre there ; and an eye-witness, William Smith, of Tennessee, relates that Clarke received a sword wound in the neck, and lost his hat near WofFord's, returning to McDowell's camp bare-headed.
-|-MS. letters of N. F. Walker, Esq., of Cedar Spring, June 15th and July 7th, 1880.
94 KING ' S MO UN TAIN
It is questionable, however, if so many, on both sides, were killed in the action.*
By some adroit management, a number of British pris- oners were captured, and at length Dunlap was beaten back with considerable loss. Mills states that he was pur- sued a mile, but could not be overtaken. About two miles below the battle-ground, Dunlap's fugitives were met by Ferguson with his whole force, who together advanced to the Iron Works, from which, as they came in sight, a few hours after the action, Clarke and Shelby were compelled to make a hasty retreat, leaving one or two of their wounded behind them — not having time or conveni- ences to convey them away ; but they were treated by Ferguson with humanity, and left there when he retired. As Clarke and Shelby expected, Ferguson now pursued them, with the hope of regaining the prisoners. The American leaders retired slowly, forming frequently on the most advantageous ground to give battle, and so retarding the pursuit, that the iirisoners were finally placed beyond recapture.
Three miles north-east of the old Iron Works, they came to Pacolet ; just beyond which, skirting its north- east border, rises a steep, rocky hill, fifty to sixty feet high, so steep where the road passed up at that day, that the men, in some cases, had to help their horses up its difficult ascent. Along the crest of this hill or ridge, Shelby and Clarke displayed their little force ; and when Ferguson and his men came in view, evincing a disinclination to pursue any farther, the patriots, from their vantage-ground, ban- tered and ridiculed them to their hearts' content. But Ferguson, having maintained the chase four or five miles,
* Major A. J. Wells, of Montevallo, Alabama, a native cf Spartanburg, ni.rrates a singular incident which must relate to this battle. After the war, the widow of a Tory came to the neglected burial place, and had the fallen dead disinterred, from which she readily selected the remains of her husband, for he was six and a half feet high, and piously bore them to her distant home for a more Christian interment.
AND ITS HEROES. 95
now abandoned it, with nothing to boast of, save his superior numbers.*
Mr. Saye's account of this affair, as gathered from the traditions of the neighborhood, and published thirty-three years ago, may very properl}^ supplement the narrative just related — with the passing remark, that what he describes as the battle at the peach-orchard, was probably but one of the episodes of that day's heroic exploits, and yet it ma}' have been the principal one : Shelby's force occupied a position near the present site of Bivingsville. Various attempts were made to fall upon the Americans by surprise ; but these schemes were baffled. About four miles from Spartanburg Court House, on the main road to Unionville, is an ancient plantation known as 'Thompson's Old Place.' It is an elevated tract of country, lying between the tribu- taries of Fair Forest Creek on one side, and those of Law- son's Fork of Pacolet on the other — and about midway between Cedar Spring and the Iron Works.
A road leading from North Carolina to Georgia, by the way of the Cherokee Ford of Broad river, passed through this place, and thence by or near the Cedar Spring. A person passing from the direction of Unionville towards Spartanburg Court House, crosses this ancient highway, after passing which, by looking to the right, the eye rests upon a parcel of land extending down a hollow, which was cleared and planted in fruit trees prior to the Revolutionary war. Beyond this hollow, just where the road enters a body of woodland, there are yet some traces of a human habitation. In this orchard, two patrol parties met from the adverse armies. The party from Dunlap's camp were in the orchard gathering peaches ; the Liberty men fired on them, and drove them from the place. In turn, the victors entered the orchard, but the report of their guns brought out
* MS notes of conversations with the late Colonel George Wilson, of Nashville, Ten- nessee, who derived the facts from his father-in-law, Alexander Greer, one of Major Robertson's men on the expedition. MS. letters of Hon. Simpson Bobo and A, H. Twichell, showing the locality of the Pacolet hill.
96 KING'S MOUNTAIN
a strong detachment from the Cedar Spring, as well as a reinforcement from Shelby. The commander of the patrol, when he saw the enemy approaching, drew up his men under cover of the fence along the ridge, just where the old field and woodland now meet, and where traces of an old residence are now barely visible. Here he awaited their approach.
The onset was furious, but vigorously met. The conflict was maintained against fearful odds till the arrival of reinforcements from Shelby's camp. The scale now turned, and the assailants now fell back. The whole force of Shelby and Clarke were soon in battle array, confronted by the whole British advance, numbering six or seven hun- dred men. The struggle was renewed with redoubled fury. The Liberty men drove back their foes, when the whole British army came up. A retreat was now a matter of necessity. Such is the local tradition ; but local tradition, especially in this case, is extremely liable to error and con- fusion, from the fact that but few of the people of that quar- ter were present in the action — for the actors were mostly from other States, and probably strangers to the neighbor- hood. Thus far, Mr. Saye's narrative.
Onl)' two British accounts of the action at Cedar Spring have come to our knowledge — one bears date Savannah, Georgia, August twenty-fourth, 1780. It appeared in Riv- mgton's TVezt' 2'drk Royal Gazette^ of September fourteenth, copied into the London Chronicle, of November sixteenth, ensuing. It has every appearance of being a one-sided and diminuitve statement of the affair : " We learn from Augusta, that a Captain of the Queen's Rangers, with twenty-four dragoons, and about thirty militia, lately charged about three hundred Rebels above Ninety Six. Whilst they were engaged. Colonel Ferguson happily got up with some men to the assistance of our small party, which obliged the enemy to take to their heels. Fifty of the Rebels were killed and wounded ; a Major Smith was among the slain,
EngiyedljyJCBattre
leiOTT. SAMCTFJl. MAMMOT^TB .
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and a Lieutenant-Colonel Clarke was wounded, and died next day. Our loss is said to be one dragoon and seven militia killed."
Allaire supplies the other account : " Got to the ground the Rebels were encamped on, at four o'clock on Tuesday morning, August eighth. They had intelligence of our move, and were likewise alarmed by the firing of a gun in our ranks ; they sneaked from their ground about half an hour before we arrived. Learning that the Rebel wagons were three miles in front of us at Cedar Springs, Captain Dunlap, with fourteen mounted men, and a hundred and thirty militia, were dispatched to take the wagons. He met three Rebels coming to reconnoitre our camp ; he pursued, took two of them, the other escaped, giving the Rebels the alarm. In pursuit of this man, Dunlap and his part}' rushed into the centre of the Rebel camp, where they lay in ambush, before he was aware of their presence. A skirmish ensued, in which Dunlap got slightly wounded, and had between twenty and thirty killed and wounded — Ensign McFarland and one private taken prisoners. The Rebel loss is uncertain — a Major Smith, Captain Potts, and two privates were left dead on the field. Colonel Clarke, Johnson [Robertson,] and twenty privates were seen wounded. We pursued them five miles, to the Iron Works ; but were not able to overtake them, they being all mounted."
Among the slain was Major Burwell Smith, who had contributed greatly to the setdement of the frontier portion of Georgia, where he had been an active and successful partisan in Indian warfare, and his fall was deeply lamented by Colonel Clarke and his associates. Captain John Potts* and Thomas Scott were also among the slain. Besides Colonel Clarke's slight wounds with a sabre, Major Charles Robertson, a volunteer from the Watauga troops, and Cap-
=^'This is stated on the anthority of Colo:icI Graham, who participated in the action, corroborated by Lieutenant Allaire's Diary, A. H, Twichel]^ Esq., of Glendale, states as the tradition of an old resident of that region, that an American officer named Potter was shot out of a peach tree at Thompson's place. This doubtless refers to Captain Potts.
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tain Jolin Clarke, the youthful son of the Colonel, yet in his teens, and several others, were also wounded in the same manner. This close hand-to-hand sabre fighting, which McCall describes, contradicts his previous description of the action as if it were simply a " distant firing " upon each other. It shows, too, that the back-woods riflemen did not take to their heels on the approach of the dragoons with their glittering broad-swords.
It is not easy to determine the actual strength of the parties engaged in this spirited contest, nor their respective losses. McCall does not specify how many on either side took part in the conflict — only that the Americans were out- numbered ; erroneously naming Innes as the British com- mander ; and states that the enemy pursued Colonel Clarke to Woffbrd's Iron Works, where he had chosen a strong position from which the British endeavored to draw him, and that a distant firing continued during the after- noon, until near night ; that the Americans lost four killed and five or six wounded, while the enemjr lost five killed and eleven wounded. Mills mentions in one place in his work, that Clarke's force was one hundred and sixty-eight, in another, one hundred and ninety-eight, evidently ignorant of the presence of Colonels Shelby and Graham, witli their followers ; that Ferguson and Dunlap combined, numbered between four and six hundred, of which Dunlap's advance consisted of sixty dragoons and one hundred and« fifty mounted volunteer riflemen ; that the Americans had four killed and twenty-three wounded, all by the broad-sword ; while Dunlap lost twenty-eight of his dragoons, and six or seven of his Tory volunteers killed, and several wounded. Shelby, in Haywood, states Ferguson's full force at about two thousand strong — which Todd augments to twenty-five himdred — of which Dunlap's advance was reputed at six or seven hundred ; that the strength of the Americans was six hundred ; and acknowledges that ten or twelve of the latter were killed and wounded, but does not state the loss
AND ITS HEROES. 99
of their assailants. Colonel Graham gives no numbers, but asserts that many of the enemj' were killed. These several statements differ very much from the British reports, and from each other.
In Shelby's account as originally pubhshed in Hay- wood's Tennessee, and then in Ramsey's, the number of prisoners taken is stated at "twenty, with two British offi- cers," which in Todd's memoir of Shelby, are increased to " fifty, mostly British, including two officers ; " and Colonel Graham in his pension statement, places the number at only half a dozen, and Allaire at only two.
As to the particular time in the day in which the contest took place, there is also quite a variety of statements. Mills places it before day, when so dark that it was hard to distinguish friend from foe — his informant doubtless refer- ring, not to Dunlap's fight, but to the prior attack upon Colonel Thomas, at Cedar Spring, which he so signally repelled. ,
McCall states that it occurred in the afternoon ; Shelby is silent on this point ; while Governor Perry's traditions convey the idea that it was in the morning or fore part of the day, and in this he is corroborated by Captain William Smith,* as well as by the MS. Diary of Lieutenant Allaire.
Colonel Graham onlj'- refers to the time of dajr inferen-
* Captain Smith was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, September 20th, 1751, and earlj' settled in what is now Spartanburg County, South Carolina. He served in Captain Joseph Wofford's company on the Snow campaign, in 1775 ; and the next year as Lieuten- ant on Willi.amson's expedition against the Cherokees. Jd 1777, he was made a Captain in the militia and was stationed in Wood's Fort on Tyger. In December, 1778, he was ordered to Georgia, serving under General Lincoln; and shared in the battle of Stono, in June, 1779; in the contests, as we have seen, near Wofford's Iron Works, Hanging Rock, and Musgrove's Mill, in August, 1780 ; and subsequently at the battle of Blackstocks, in the siege of Fort Granby, at Guilford Court House, Quinby Bridge, the affair at the Juniper, and the capture of some British vessels at Watboo Landing under Colonel Wade Hampton. In the latter part of the war he ranked as Major. After the war, he was chosen County Judge, member of Congress from 1797 to 1799, and State Senator for twenty years. Few men served the public longer or more faithfully in military and civil life than judge Smith. He died June 22d, r.837, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. His widow survived till October 2d, 1842.
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tiall}', b}' stating that it was "several hours" after the action before Ferguson, with his combined force, came in sight, when Slielby and liis men precipitately retired.
Precisely where the fight took place has also been a subject of dispute — the result, no doubt, of the general vagueness of the descriptions. Mills says it occurred at the Green Springs, meaning Cedar Spring, near Wofford's old Iron Works ; Shelby says at Cedar Spring, as does Samuel Espy, of North Carolina, who was also in the action. Had these two men, and Mills' informant, stated the locality with more exactitude, they might, and probably would, have said, that they named the Cedar Spring as a permanent landmark, near which the contest transpired, and so located it — the same as Gates' defeat is frequently referred to as having occurred at Camden, when it really took place some seven miles distant. Colonel Graham, one of the prominent officers in that affair, refers to it as " at Wofford's Iron Works ;" Alexander McFadden, a survivor of the contest, speaks of it as "the battle of Wofford's Iron Works ;" while McCall, the historian, sa3's the enemy pur- sued the Americans "to Wofford's Iron Works, where they chose their ground, and awaited the attack."
William Smith, of Tennessee, another survivor of the contest says, "we had a battle near Wofford's Iron Works ; " and Captain William Smith, of Spartanburg, who was an intelligent officer in the fight, and resided within a few miles of the battle-ground the most of his long life, states that the contest took place "near the old Iron Works.'' His son, Hon. John Winsmith, in a historical address he made at Cedar Spring, in 1855, and verbally repeated to the writer in 1871, describes the hill, then covered with timber, nearly half a mile north-east of Cedar Spring, as the locality of the battle. It is possible that the first half-hour's contest, where Clarke had his desperate personal rencontre with unequal odds, may have taken place near this hill, as Dr. Winsmith believes. " On this locality," says N. F. Walker,
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"within my recollection, a musket-barrel was found, and near where we think the dead were buried."*
But as Cedar Spring seems not to have been on the old route pursued by the contending parties, the weight of evidence, and all the circumstances, go to show that the chief fighting was "near the old Iron Works," as Captain William Smith positively asserts. Mr. Saye's traditions of the neighborhood, collected there prior to 1848, fix the locality of, at least, one portion of the con- test, at the old orchard on the Thompson place, between the Cedar Spring and the old Iron Works, about one mile from the former, and nearly two from the latter. The fact that the graves of the Tory dead, including the one from which the peach tree sprung, are near the old Thompson orchard, and between it and Cedar Spring, sufficiently attest the locality where, at least, the principal part of this notable passage at arms occurred.
More space has been devoted to these two somewhat blended affairs — the one at the Cedar Spring, where Colo- nel Thomas repulsed the enemy, and the other near Thomp- son's peach-orchard — than, perhaps, their real importance in history would seem to warrant. At the period of their occurrence, they exerted a marked influence on the people of the upper region of Carolina, as demonstrating what brave and determined men could accomplish in defense of their own and their country's rights ; and how successfully they could meet an insolent foe, alike in ambush, or on the battle-field. As no contemporary records of these events have come down to us, save the vague and unsatisfactory British ones which we have given entire, and the tradition- ary accounts have become more or less intermixed and con- fused, it seemed proper to sift them as thoroughly as possi- ble, and present the simple narrative of the occurrences as the facts seem to indicate.
* It may well have been at this hill where the previous Tory attack was made on Colonel Thomas. It was a fit place, then covered with timber, to have formed his success- ful ambuscade.
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The difficulty has hitherto been, on the part of histori- cal writers, in attempts to blend the two affairs, when the time, details, and different commanding officers, all go very clearly to prove that they were entirely distinct, and had no connection whatever with each other. It is due to the Rev. Mr. Saye, to state that he was the first person who discovered the incongruity of applying the details to a sin- gle action ; but he was unable to fix their respective dates, or determine which took the precedence of the other in point of time. McCall's History of Georgia has furnished the key to unlock the difficulty with reference to the time of the attack on Thomas' force at Cedar Spring, and all the circumstances go to confirm it ; while the hitherto unpub- lished Diary of Lieutenant Allaire determines the date of the affair near Wofford's Iron Works.*
*The authorities consulted in the preparation of this notice of the action near Cedar Spring and Wofford's Iron Works, are: McCall's Georgia, ii. 314; Haywood's Tennessee, 64-65; Mills' Statistics of South Carolina, 256,738-39; Todd's Meinoir 0/ Shelby : Governor Perry's account in the Magnolia Magazine, August, 1842 ; New York Royal Gazette, Sep- tember 14th, 1780; London Chronicle, November i6th, 1780; Saye's Memoir of Mcfunkin, and the Saye MSS.; MSS. of Dr. John H, Logan ; Allaire's MS. Diary; Winsmith's Ad- dress^ 1855 ; together with the MS. pension statements of Colonel William Graham, Cap- tain William Smith, of Spartanburg, Samuel Espy, Alexander McFadden, and William Smith, of Tennessee, all participants in the action ; also MS. notes of conversations with Colonel George Wilson, of Tennessee. I am indebted to N, F, Walker, Esq., of Cedar Spring, and A. H. Twichell, Esq., of Glendale, for traditions, and descriptions of the localities connected with the battle and the retreat.
Ramsay, Moultrie, Lee"s Memoirs, Johnson's Greene, and other early writers, do not even notice this action ; nor such modern historians as Bancroft, Hildreth, and Stevens. Lossing, Wheeler, Simms, Ramsey's Tennessee, and O'Neall's Nenuberry briefly refer to it ; while Mrs. Ellet, in her Women of the Revolution, and her Domestic History of the Revo- lution, simply copies from Mills, misapplying the story of .Mrs. Dillard's adventure.
I have not cited what passes for Colonel Hammond's account of the battle, in a news- paper series, and also in Johnson's Traditions of the Reziohition, simply because he could not have written it; but it was evidently manufactured from Mills' Statistics, with some imaginary interlardings, to give it a new appearance. Dawson, in his Battles of the United Statesj has given a chapter on this affair^ based on the pretended Hammond narrative.
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CHAPTER VI.
1780— August 18.
Musgroves Mill Expedition and Battle. — Rencontre of the Patrol Par- ties.— British Alarm. — Information of the Enemy's Reinforce^nent. — Whigs throw up Breast-works. — Captain Inmari s Stratagem. — Enemy Drawn into the Net prepared for them. — Desperate Fight- ing.— Innes and other British Leaders Wounded. — Tory Colonel Clary's Escape. — Captain Inman Killed — The Retreat and the Rout. — Incidents at the Ford. — Sam Moore's Adventure. — The Brit- ish and Tory Reserve. — A British Patrol Returns too late to share inthe Battle. — Bicrial of the slain. — Length and severity of the Actioft. — Respective Losses. — News of Gates' Defeat — its Influence. — Whigs' Retreat. — Anecdote of Paul Hinson.^- The Prisoners. — Williatns' Re- ward.— Cprnwallis' Confession. — Comparison of Authorities.
Returning from their Fair Forest expedition, Clarke and Shelby's men needed a little repose. McDowell soon after removed his camp from the Cherokee Ford, taking post, some ten miles below, on the eastern bank of Broad River, at Smith's Ford. By his faithful scouts, Colonel McDowell was kept well informed of Ferguson's movements and out-posts. Learning that a body of some two hundi-ed Loyalists were stationed at Musgrove's Mill, some forty miles distant on the Enoree, to guard the rocky ford at that place, it was regarded as a vulnerable point — all the more so, since Ferguson, with his main force, was stationed considerably in advance, between that place and the American encampment, thus tending to lull into security those in their rear.
The term of enlistment of Colonel Shelby's regiment was about to expire, and that enterprising officer was desirous of engaging in another active service before retir- ing to his home on the Holston. Colonels Shelby and
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Clarke were appointed to lead a party of mounted men to surprise or attack the Loyalists at Musgrove's. With Clarke was Captain James McCall and Captain Samuel Hammond. Colonel James Williams, whose home was in that region, but who had been driven from it, had, on the sixteenth of August, joined McDowell with a few followers — prominent among whom were Colonel Thomas Brandon, Colonel James Steen, and Major Mcjunkin ; and these united with Shelby and Clarke, together with several other experienced officers, who volunteered to share in the enterprise, among whom were Major Joseph McDowell, the brother of the Colonel, Captain David Vance, and Captain Valentine Sevier, and with the latter, a number of Watauga and Nolachucky- rifle- men.
It was largely rumored, that a military chest was either at Musgrove's, or was being conveyed from Ninety Six to Ferguson's camp ; and the Whigs hoped to intercept it on the way. Whatever influence this prospect of obtaining British treasure may have exerted on the volunteers, as we hear no more of the chest, we may conclude that it was a camp 5'arn, gotten up for the occasion; or, if a reality, it certainly eluded the grasp of the adventurers.
Secrecy and dispatch were necessary to success. A night march was therefore chosen, when less likely to be observed, and cooler for the horses to travel. Shelby and his two hundred adventurous followers left camp an hour before sun-down, on the seventeenth of August. Williams, Brandon, and their men, were well acquainted with the country, and knew the best route to effect their purpose. They traveled through the woods until dark, when they fell into a road, and proceeded on all night, much of the way in a canter, and without making a single stop — crossing Gilky's and Thicketty creeks, Pacolet, Fair Forest, and Tj'ger, with other lesser streams, and passing within three or four miles of Ferguson's camp on their left, v\'hich was, at this time, at Fair Forest Shoal, in Brandon's settlement,
AND ITS HEROES. 105
some t\vent3'-six miles from Smith's Ford ; and from Fair Forest Shoal, it. was still twelve or fourteen miles to Mus- grove's. It was a hard night's ride.
Arriving, near the dawn of da}-, within a mile nearlj' north of Musgrove's Ford, the Whig party halted at an old Indian field, and sent out a party of five or six scouts to reconnoitre the situation. They crossed the mouth of Cedar Shoal Creek, close to the Spartanburg line, a short distance below Musgrove's Mill, and then passed up a by-road to Head's Ford, a mile above Musgrove's, where they forded the Enoree, and stealthily approached sufficiently near the Tory camp to make observations. Returning the sa