USA > Kentucky > Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 89
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Cornstalk, abandoned the ground under cover of the night. Their loss, according to the official report, exceeded that of the Americans, the latter amounting to sixty-three killed and eighty wounded. This report was drawn up by Captain Russell, reputed to be the best scholar in camp, and the father of the late Colonel William Rus- sell of Kentucky. The fortune of the day, as stated in Doddridge's Notes of Border War, was decided by a bold movement to the rear of the left wing of the Indians, led by Captain Evan Shelby, in which the subject of this memoir bore a conspicuous part.
The garrison at Kanawha was commanded by Captain Russell, and Lieutenant Shelby contin- ued in it until the troops were disbanded, in July, 1775, by order of Governor Dunmore, who was apprehensive that the post might be held for the benefit of the rebel authorities. He proceeded immediately to Kentucky, and was employed as a surveyor under Henderson & Co .; who styled themselves proprietors of the country, and who had established a regular land office under their purchase from the Cherokees. He resided in the then wilderness of Kentucky for nearly twelve months, and being without bread or salt, his health was impaired, and he returned home.
In July, 1776, during his absence from home, he was appointed captain of a minute company by the committee of safety of Virginia. In the year 1777 he was appointed by Governor Henry a commissary of supplies for an extensive body of militia, posted at different garrisons to guard the frontier settlements, and for a treaty to be held at the Long Island of Holston river with the Cherokee tribe of Indians. These supplies could not have been obtained nearer than Staunton, Virginia, a distance of three hundred miles; but by the most indefatigable perseverance (one of the most conspicuous traits of his character) he accomplished it to the satisfaction of his country.
In 1778 he was engaged in the commissary de- partment, providing supplies for the Continental army, and for an expedition, by way of Pittsburg, against the Northwestern Indians. In the early part of 1779 he was appointed by Governor Henry to furnish supplies for the campaign against the Chickamauga Indians, which he ef-
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fected upon his own individual credit. In the spring of that year, he was elected a member of the Virginia legislature from Washington County and in the fall of that year was commissioned a major by Governor Jefferson in the escort of guards to the commissioners for extending the boundary line between that state and the state of North Carolina. By the extension of that line, his residence was found to be within the limits of the latter state, and shortly afterwards he was appointed by Governor Caswell a colonel of the new county of Sullivan, established in conse- quence of the additional territory acquired by the running of that line.
In the summer of 1780 Colonel Shelby was in Kentucky, locating and securing those lands, which he had five years previously marked out and improved for himself, when the intelligence of the surrender of Charleston and the loss of the army reached that country. He returned home in July of that year, determined to enter the ser- vice of his country and remain in it until her independence should be secured. He could not continue to be a cool spectator of a contest in which the dearest rights and interests of his coun- try were involved. On his arrival in Sullivan, he found a requisition from General Charles Mc- Dowell, requesting him to furnish all the aid in his power to check the enemy, who had overrun the two southern states, and were on the borders of North Carolina. Colonel Shelby assembled the militia of his county, called upon them to volunteer their services for a short time on that interesting occasion, and marched in a few days with three hundred mounted riflemen across the Alleghany mountains.
In a short time after his arrival at McDowell's camp, near the Cherokee ford of Broad river, Colonel Shelby and Lieutenant-Colonels Sevier and Clarke-the latter a refugee from Georgia- were detached with six hundred men to surprise a post of the enemy in front, on the waters of Pacolet river. It was a strong fort, surrounded by abbatis, built in the Cherokee war, and com- manded by that distinguished loyalist, Captain Patrick Moore, who surrendered the garrison, with one British sergeant-major, ninety-three loyalists, and two hundred and fifty stand of arms.
Major Ferguson of the British army, though a brigadier general in the royal militia and the most distinguished partisan officer in the British army, made many ineffectual efforts to surprise Col. Shelby. His advance, about six or seven hundred strong, came up with the American com- mander at Cedar Spring, and before Ferguson approached with his whole force, the Americans took two officers and fifty men prisoners, and safely effected their retreat. It was in the se- verest part of this action that Col. Shelby's atten- tion was arrested by the heroic conduct of Col. Clarke. He often mentioned the circumstance of his ceasing in the midst of the battle, to look with astonishment and admiration at Clarke fighting.
The next important event was the battle fought at Musgrove's mill, on the south side of Enoree river, distant forty miles, with seven hundred men, led by Cols. Shelby, Clarke and Williams of South Carolina. This affair took place on the 19th of August, and is more particularly described in the sketch of Col. Shelby, inserted in the first volume of the "National Portrait Gallery," pub- lished in 1834, under the direction of the Ameri- can Academy of Fine Arts. It has been intro- duced into the historical romance called "Horse- Shoe Robinson," and noticed also in McCall's History of Georgia, where the British loss is stated to be sixty-three killed and one hundred and sixty wounded and taken; the American loss, four killed and nine wounded; amongst the for- mer, Capt. Inman; and amongst the latter, Col. Clarke and Capt. Clarke. Col. Innes, the British commander of the "Queen's American Regiment," from New York, was wounded, and all the Brit- ish officers, except a subaltern, were killed or wounded; and Capt. Hawsey, a noted leader among the tories, was killed.
The Americans intended to be that evening before Ninety-Six-but at that moment an ex- press from Gen. McDowell came up in great haste, with a short note from Gov. Caswell, dated on the battle-ground, apprising McDowell of the defeat of the American grand army under Gen. Gates, on the 16th, near Camden. Fortunately, Col. Shelby knew Caswell's handwriting, and by distributing the prisoners among the companies,
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so as to make one to every three men, who car- ried them, alternately, on horseback, the detach- ment moved directly towards the mountains. The Americans were saved by a long and rapid march that day and night, and until the evening of the next day, without halting to refresh. Col. Shelby, after seeing his party and prisoners out of danger, retreated to the western waters, and left the prisoners in charge of Clarke and Williams, to convey them to a place of safety in Virginia, for at that moment there was no corps of Ameri- cans south of that state. The brilliancy of this affair was obscured, as, indeed, were all the minor events of the previous war, by the deep gloom which overspread the public mind after the dis- astrous defeat of Gen. Gates.
Ferguson was so solicitous to recapture the prisoners, and to check these daring adventures of the mountaineers, that he made a strenuous effort, with his main body, to intercept them; but failing of his object, he took post at a place called Gilbert-town, from whence he sent the most threatening messages, by paroled prisoners, to the officers west of the mountains, proclaiming devastation to their country if they did not cease their opposition to the British government.
This was the most disastrous and critical period of the Revolutionary war, to the South. No one could see whence a force could be raised to check the enemy in their progress to subjugate this portion of the continent.
Cornwallis, with the main army, was posted at Charlottestown, in North Carolina, and Ferguson, with three thousand, at Gilbert-town; while many of the best friends of the American government, despairing of the freedom and independence of America, took protection under the British stand- ard. At this gloomy moment, Col. Shelby pro- posed to Cols. Sevier and Campbell to raise a force from their several counties, march hastily through the mountains, and attack and surprise Ferguson in the night. Accordingly, they col- lected with their followers, about one thousand strong, on Doe run, in the spurs of the Alleghany, on the 25th of September, 1780, and the next day commenced their march, when it was dis- covered that three of Col. Sevier's men had de- serted to the enemy. This disconcerted their first
design, and induced them to turn to the left, gain his front, and act as events might suggest. They traveled through mountains almost inaccessible to horsemen. As soon as they entered the level country, they met with Col. Cleveland with three hundred men, and with Cols. Williams and Lacy, and other refugee officers, who had heard of Cleveland's advance, by which three hundred more were added to the force of the mountaineers. They now considered themselves to be sufficiently strong to encounter Ferguson; but being rather a confused mass, it was proposed by Col. Shelby, in a council of officers, and agreed to, that Col. Campbell of the Virginia regiment-an officer of enterprise, patriotism and good sense-should be appointed to the command. And having deter- mined to pursue Ferguson with all practicable dispatch, two nights before the action they se- lected the best horses and rifles, and at the dawn of day commenced their march with nine hun- dred and ten expert marksmen. As Ferguson was their object, they would not be diverted from the main point by any collection of tories in the vicinity of their route. They pursued him for the last thirty-six hours without alighting from their horses to refresh but once, at the Cowpens, for an hour, although the day of the action was so ex- tremely wet, that the men could only keep their guns dry by wrapping their bags, blankets and hunting shirts around their locks, which exposed their bodies to a heavy and incessant rain during the pursuit.
By the order of march and of battle, Col. Camp- bell's regiment formed the right, and Col. Shelby's regiment the left column, in the center; the right wing was composed of Sevier's regiment, and Maj. Winston's and McDowell's battalions, com- manded by Sevier himself; the left wing was composed of Col. Cleveland's regiment, the fol- lowers of Cols. Williams, Lacy, Hawthorn and Hill, headed by Col. Cleveland in person. In this order the mountaineers pursued, until they found Ferguson, securely encamped on King's Mountain, which was about half a mile long, and from which he declared the evening before that "God Almighty could not drive him." On ap- proaching the mountain, the two center columns deployed to the right and left, formed a front,
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and attacked the enemy, while the right and left wings were marching to surround him. In a few minutes the action became general and severe- continuing furiously for three-fourths of an hour; when the enemy, being driven from the east to the west end of the mountain, surrendered at dis- cretion. Ferguson was killed, with three hundred and seventy-five of his officers and men, and seven hundred and thirty captured. The Americans had sixty killed and wounded; of the former, Col. Williams.
This glorious achievement occurred at the most gloomy period of the revolution, and was the first link in the great chain of events to the south, which established the independence of the United States. History has, heretofore, though improper- ly, ascribed this merit to the battle of the Cow- pens, in January, 1781 ; but it belongs, justly, to the victory on King's Mountain, which turned the tide of war to the south, as the victory of Trenton, under Washington, and of Bennington, under Stark, did to the north. It was achieved by raw, undisciplined riflemen, without any authority from the government under which they lived -- without pay, rations, ammunition, or even the ex- pectance of reward, other than that which re- sults from the noble ambition of advancing the liberty and welfare of their beloved country. It completely dispirited the tories, and so alarmed Cornwallis, who then lay only thirty miles north of King's Mountain with the main British army, that, on receiving information of Ferguson's to- tal defeat and overthrow by the riflemen from the west, under Colonels Campbell, Shelby, Cleveland and Sevier, and that they were bearing down upon him, he ordered an immediate retreat-marched all night, in the utmost confusion-and retro- graded as far back as Winnsborough, sixty or eighty miles, whence he did not attempt to ad- vance until reinforced, three months after, by Gen- eral Leslie, with two thousand men from the Chesapeake. In the meantime, the militia of North Carolina assembled in considerable force at New Providence, on the border of South Caro- lina, under General Davidson; and General Small- wood, with Morgan's light corps, and the Mary- land line, advanced to the same point. General Gates, with the shattered remains of his army, col-
lected at Hillsborough, also came up, as well as the new levies from Virginia, of one thousand men, under General Stevens. This force enabled General Greene, who assumed the command early in December, to hold Cornwallis in check.
The histories of the war at the south have never done justice to the sagacity and judgment of Col. Shelby upon another interesting occasion, just following the affair on King's Mountain. As soon as he had placed the prisoners beyond the reach of the enemy, he repaired to the headquarters of General Gates, and suggested to him the plan of detaching General Morgan towards the moun- tains. The details of this arrangement were sub- mitted by him, and approved by Gates, and Greene had the good sense to adopt them, after he assumed the command. The result of his ad- vice was exhibited in the splendid affair at the Cowpens, which added fresh laurels to the vet- eran brows of Morgan, Howard and Washington.
In the campaign of the fall of 1871, Colonel Shelby served under General Marion, a distin- guished partisan officer, of the boldest enterprise. He was called down by General Greene to that lower country, with five hundred mounted rifle- men from the western waters, in September, 1781, to aid the General in intercepting Cornwallis, at that time blockaded by the French fleet in the Chesapeake, and who, it was suspected, would en- deavor to make good his retreat through North Carolina to Charleston; but, upon his lordship's surrender in Virginia, Colonel Shelby was at- tached to General Marion's command below, on the Santee, and was second in command of a strong detachment of dragoons, under Colonel Mayhem, ordered to carry a British post at Fair- lawn, near Monk's Corner, eight or ten miles be- low the enemy's main army, under General Stuart. Information had been received by General Mar- ion that five hundred Hessians at that post were in a state of mutiny, and would surrender to any considerable force that might appear before it. But the officer commanding the post having some apprehensions of their fidelity, had marched them off to Charleston, the day before Colonel Mayhem appeared before it. The post, however, was surrendered, with one hundred and fifty Brit- ish prisoners. The British General at Fergu-
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son's Swamp, nine miles in the rear, made great, though unavailing efforts to intercept Mayhem's party on their return with the prisoners to Gen- eral Marion's encampment. Immediately after this excursion, the British commander retreated with his whole force to Charleston.
As the period for which the mounted volun- teers had engaged to serve was about to expire, and no further active operations being contem- plated, after the retreat of the enemy towards Charleston, Colonel Shelby obtained leave of ab- sence from General Marion, to attend the assem- bly of North Carolina, of which he was a mem- ber, which would sit two hundred miles distant, about the first of December. Marion addressed a letter on the subject to General Greene, which Colonel Shelby was permitted to see, speaking in high terms of the conduct of the mountaineers, and assigning particular credit to Colonel Shelby for his conduct in the capture of the British post, as it surrendered to him after an ineffectual at- tempt by an officer of the dragoons.
In 1782, Colonel Shelby was elected a member of the North Carolina assembly, and was appoint- ed one of the commissioners to settle the pre- emption claims upon the Cumberland River, and to lay off the lands allotted to the officers and soldiers of the North Carolina line, south of where Nashville now stands. He performed this serv- ice in the winter of 1782-3, and returned to Boons- borough, Kentucky, in April following, where he married Susanna, second daughter of Captain Nathaniel Hart, one of the first settlers of Ken- tucky, and one of the proprietors styled Hender- son & Co., by their purchase of the country from the Cherokees.
After completing the organization of the gov- ernment under the provisions of the constitution, by filling the various offices created by it, the earnest attention of the Governor was directed to the defense of the state against the Indian incur- sions, and the border war to which the people were exposed by their remote and unprotected position in the wilderness. General Washing- ton's paternal regard to the same high object was manifested in the cautious and extensive arrange- ments which were made under the direction of General Wayne for a strong expedition against
the northwestern Indians, who were stimulated and aided by the British and provincial forces oc- cupying posts within our boundary. The confi- dence of Washington, as well as of the people of Kentucky, was reposed in the energy and patriot- ism of Governor Shelby. This was evinced in his almost unanimous elevation to the chief magis- tracy, as well as in the answer of the first Legisla- ture to his message, and in a letter from General Knox, secretary of war, of July 12, 1792.
In the subsequent letter from the war depart- ment, the defensive operations for the protection of Kentucky were committed exclusively to his judgment and discretion, and whenever there was a prospect of acting offensively against the In- dians of the northwest, the president made an ap- peal to his patriotism and that of the state, in fur- nishing mounted volunteers in aid of the regular force. His energy and the gallantry of Kentucky was signally displayed in the valuable succor ren- dered to General Wayne on the memorable 20th of August, 1794. His enlightened forecast, and the valor of Kentucky, presented on this occa- sion, as on the equally glorious 5th of October, 1813, the means of victory both in men and trans- portation, at a critical moment to the scene of ac- tion-to victories the most decisive in their results to any heretofore known in Indian warfare.
Whilst the people of Kentucky were interrupted in their business and prosperity by the attention necessary to the progress of the Indian War, they were annoyed by continued apprehensions of los- ing the navigation of the Mississippi, on which their commercial existence depended. In the midst of these difficulties, a new and unexpected occasion presented itself for the display of Gov- ernor Shelby's diplomatic sagacity. The com- plaints and remonstrances of the Spanish minister induced the general government to open a cor- respondence with Governor Shelby, for the pur- pose of suppressing an expedition, which was rep- resented to be in contemplation, by La Chaise and other French agents, against the possessions of Spain on the Mississippi. Governor Shelby had no apprehensions that they would succeed in or- ganizing the necessary force, and under this im- pression his reply to the department of state, Oc- tober 5th, 1703, was forwarded, without consider-
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ing that he had not authority under existing laws to interfere in preventing it. But the granting of commissions to General Clark and other influ- ential individuals, and the actual attempt to carry the plans of French emissaries into effect, induced the Governor to examine the subject more thor- oughly, and conceiving that he had no legal au- thority to interfere, he addressed a letter, Janu- ary 13, 1794, to the secretary of state, expressing these doubts, and assuming an attitude, which, though professing the most devoted regard to the Union, had the effect of drawing from the general government a full development of the measures which had been pursued for securing the naviga- tion of the Mississippi. These explanations by the department of state, and by the special com- missioner, the eloquent Colonel James Innes, at- torney-general of Virginia, who was deputed by General Washington to proceed to Kentucky to communicate with the Governor and Legislature, removed all ground of uneasiness, and created a tranquillity in the public mind which had not ex- isted since the first settlement of the state.
At the close of his gubernatorial term, he re- turned to his farm in Lincoln, with renewed rel- ish for the cares and enjoyments which its man- agement necessarily created. He was as distin- guished for the method and judgment and indus- try, which he displayed in agricultural pursuits, as he had exemplified in the more conspicuous duties of the general and the statesman. He was the model of an elevated citizen, whether at the plow, in the field, or in the cabinet.
He was repeatedly chosen an elector of presi- dent, and voted for Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madi- son. He could not yield to the repeated solicita- tions of influential individuals in different parts of the state, requesting him to consent to be a candidate for the chief magistracy, until the exi- gencies of our national affairs had brought about a crisis which demanded the services of every patriot. In this contingency, he was elected, upon terms very gratifying to his feelings, a second time to the chief magistracy, at the commence- ment of the war, in 1812, with Great Britain.
Of his career at that eventful period, it would be impracticable, in the limits of this sketch, to pre- sent even an outline. His energy, associated with
a recollection of his Revolutionary fame, aroused the patriotism of the state. In every direction he developed her resources, and aided in sending men and supplies to the support of the northwest- ern army under General Harrison. The legisla- ture of Kentucky, in the winter of 1812-13, con- templating the necessity of some vigorous effort, in the course of that year, to regain the ground lost by the disasters at Detroit and at the River Raisin, passed a resolution authorizing and re- questing the Governor to assume the personal di- rection of the troops of the state, whenever, in his judgment, such a step would be necessary. Un- der this authority, and at the solicitation of Gen- eral Harrison, he invited his countrymen to meet him at Newport, and to accompany him to the scene of active, and, as he predicted, of decisive operations. Upon his own responsibility he au- thorized the troops to meet him with their horses. Four thousand men rallied to his standard in less than thirty days; and this volunteer force reached the shore of Lake Erie just in time to enable the commander-in-chief to profit by the splendid vic- tory, achieved by the genius and heroism of Per- ry and his associates. It was a most interesting incident, which augured favorably of the issue of the campaign, that Governor Shelby should ar- rive at the camp of General Harrison precisely at the moment when Commodore Perry was disen- barking his prisoners. The feelings of congratu- lation which were exchanged by the three heroes, at the tent of the General on the shore of Lake Erie, may be more readily conceived than de- scribed. The writer of this article had been pre- viously dispatched by General Harrison to Com- modore Perry, to ascertain the result of the naval battle, and, returning with Perry, was present at this interview.
In all the movements of the campaign, whether in council or execution, monuments of his valor and of his energetic character were erected by the gratitude of the commander-in-chief, of all his troops, and of the president of the nation, who spoke officially of his services with the veneration which belongs only to public benefactors. The Legislature of Kentucky and the Congress of the United States expressed their sense of his gallant conduct in resolutions which will transmit his
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