USA > North Carolina > North Carolina, 1780-'81 : being a history of the invasion of the Carolinas by the British Army under Lord Cornwallis in 1780-'81 > Part 7
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*Joseph Graham received nine wounds, three with ball and six with sabre, and was left on the ground.
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They taught us a lesson of the kind, which in over. instances was practiced against them before the end of the war. During the whole day they committed noth- ing to hazard, except when the cavalry first charged up to the court-house, and received a heavy fire in front and both fluks at the same time, which compelled them to retreat before their infantry were thrown forward on their flanks. Had we omitted fighting on this day, kept our men and horses fresh fexcept a few to reconnoiter and give intelligence of the enemy's movements) and been in readiness to strike the foraging parties which his new position would have compelled him to send out, and thus endeavored to take him by detail, it would have been better policy than, with three or four hundred mounted militia men, of whom not one-fourth were equipped as cavalry, atracking a regular army, completely organized, of ten times their number, in an open field, when every person was sure we would be beaten. The sinall damage sustained in proportion to the risk appeared providential. "Several of the british officers stated afterwards, if Colonel Tarleton had commanded their van instead of Major Hanger it would have been worse for us. General Davidson retired in the night to Phifer's plantation, twenty miles from Charlotte, and Colonel Davie behind Rocky River, sixteen miles from Charlotte, and four miles in front of Davidson."
This chivalrous defence of their homes and fire- sides by the men of Mecklenburg and Lincoln and Rowan, reckless as it may seem in the light of future events, is to be commended for the noble and patriotic impulses which prompted it. The lesson of experience in Parthian warfare which the
MAJOR JOSEPH GRAHAM. WOUNTED MEANTBY 780-8 Afterward General of Com.a. Histoman Manufacturer & LINCOLN CONC
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British taught them that day more than compen- sated for the loss they suffered in learning the lesson.
It also taught the militia that the British troops were not so dreadful in attack or destructive in the charge as they may have anticipated. It was well that they were led by so experienced and intrepid a soldier as Major Joseph Graham, whose heroic courage was so conspicuous in the fight. His soldiers were deprived of his example for two months while tender hands dressed his wounds and tender hearts sympathized with his suffering.
" He fell with nine sabre wounds and three from lead. His life was narrowly and mercifully pre- served by a large stock-buckle which broke the violence of a stroke which, to human view, must have proved fatal. He received four deep gashes of the sabre over his head and one on his side, and three balls were afterwards removed from his body. After being much exhausted by loss of blood he reached the house of Mrs. Susannah Alexander, where he was kindly nursed and watched during the night.">
It was these wounds which prevented Major Graham from sharing in the glory of King's Mount- tain a month afterward. He was only twenty-one years old when he received this baptism of blood ; but he lived to avenge it all and to see his country independent among the nations of the earth,
. *Wheeler's History, vol. 2, p. 234.
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Tarleton says "the King's troops did not come out of this skirmish unhurt. Major Hanger, who was in command of the Legion" (Tarleton being sick of a violent fever "ard Captains Campbell and McDonald were wounded and twelve non-commis- sioned officers and mon killed and wounded."
Tarleton was evidently not impressed very favor- ably with what he discovered in this new region into which, for the first time, the King's army had penetrated, and his disparagement of the people is so honorable to their manhood and patriotism that I cannot forbear to give a few extracts from his narrative. He petulantly says:
"The town and environs abounded with inveterate enemies; the roads were marrow and crossed in every direction and the woods were close and thick. It was evident, as had been frequently mentioned to the King's officers, that the counties of Mecklenburg and Rowan were more hostile to England than any others in America. No British commander could obtain any information in that position which would facilitate his designs or guide his future conduct. The foraging parties were every day harassed by the inhabitants, who did not remain at home to receive payment for the produce of their farms, but generally fired from covert places to annoy the British detachments. Notwithstanding the different checks and losses sustained by the militia of the district, they con- tinued their hostilities with unwearied perseverance, and the British troops were so effectually blockaded in their present position that very few ont of a great number of messengers could reach Charlottetown in the beginning of October to give intelligence of Ferguson's situation."
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Tarleton had discovered a wonderful difference in the temper and disposition of the people of the two Carolinas. The leading men of North Carolina did not hasten to express their penitence for rebellion, but met the foc with arms in their hands and when their regulars were captured, they organized the militia for defence; when these were scattered by British troopers the inhabitants fired upon them, singly and in squads, from the coverts, and scorned the British gold that was offered for the produce of their plantations. Our enemies being our judges, the men of North Carolina "were more hostile to England than any others in America." These splenetic utterances of disappointment and rage have become the pride and boast of those who pro- voked them. They can well respond in the old Hebrew idiom, "Thou sayest it."
The "amiable Cornwallis" seems to have become as impatient and irascible as his lieutenant, and in his cooler moments even, when writing to Colonel Balfour, of the British army, he could not find decent language sufficiently strong to express his indignation and descended to profane epithet to relieve his chafed spirit.
"Charlotte is an agreeable village," says his lordship, "but in a d-d rebellious country."
The British army which entered Charlotte the 26th September, 17So, consisted of three brigades besides the Legion infantry and cavalry and some Tories who accompanied them. The brigade on the right. commanded by Colonel Webster, encamped
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on the southeast of the court-house, forty piles from it. The brigade of lord Rawdon encamped across the street leading to Salisbury, thirty poles from the court-house; O'Hara's brigade on the southwest of the court-house; the cavalry, infantry and Tories encamped across the street by which they came (South Tryon ;. #
Corn wallis immediately took possession of Colonel Thomas Polk's mill, where he found 25,000 pounds of flour and a quantity of wheat, and killed, on an average, 100 cattle per day. The army could only be supported by Webster moving one day and Rawdon the next as covering parties to protect the foragers.+
The vicinity was aptly characterized by lord Cornwallis as a " Hornet's Nest," and this appella- tion elings to it until this day as the highest enco- mium which British malignity could unwillingly bestow upon the county.
We can imagine with what suspense and anxiety the British commander was harassed during his short stay, with his sources of information cut off, his messengers intercepted and an enemy concealed along every pathway. Here we shall leave him to contemplate the difficult task of conquering North Carolina, while we follow Ferguson to his fate at King's Mountain.
We have seen that when Cornwallis advanced towards Charlotte that orders were issued to Lieu-
"General joseph Graham. +Steadman.
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tenant Colonel Patrick Ferguson to advance towards Ninety-Six," in what is now Abbeville County, South Carolina, on the upper waters of the Saluda River and about sixty or seventy miles directly south of King's Mountain. The purpose of this expedition was to blend the loyalists into military organiza- tions, overawe the Whigs, and to exercise such civil power as might. be necessary to place that region of South Carolina completely under the British yoke. He was jocularly said to have had power plenary enough to justify him in celebrating the marriage ceremony. Ferguson was an intrepid soldier and had the entire confidence of his con- mander. His career had been bold, dangerous and brilliant.
He was the second son of James Ferguson, lord Pitfour, an eminent advocate and for twelve years a Scotch judge. When only fifteen years of age a commission was purchased for him, and on the 12th day of July, 1759, he entered the British army as cornet. He had a varied fortune on the Continent in many battles and when the war of the revolution began he found his way to America as a captain. He had heard much of the superiority of the Americans in the use of the rifle, and this inspired his genius to the invention of a weapon which would counteract the effect of this arm. Ferguson invented a new species of rifle which could be loaded at the breech, without a ramrod, and could be fired seven times in a minute.
*Took its name from being 96 miles from Keowee, principal town of the Cherokees.
He was at that time the best title shot of the British army, and in adroitness in loading and firing is said to have excelled the best American frontiers- man or even the expert Indian of the forest. He was also famous as a pistol shot. While riding he would check his horse, draw a pistol from his holster, toss it aloft, catch it as it fell, aim, and shoot off a bird's head on an adjacent fence .?
In 1777 Sir Henry Clinton placed him at the head of a corps of riflemen picked from the different regiments, and he participated in the battle of Brandywine. Here he was made to experience the accuracy of American aim and the excellence of the American rifle. A rifle-ball shattered his right arm and disabled it for life: but Ferguson, with undaunted resolution, practiced sword exercise with his left until he was a formidable and skilled antagonist with that weapon.
It was at this battle, he relates. that General Washington came in the range of his rifle, but he scorned to shoot so illustrious a man in the back of allow his men to do so. There is doubt, however. as to the identity of the person and many reasons to believe that it was Pulaski and not Washington. It is, however, creditable to Ferguson as a soldier that he spared either of them from assassination.
I11 1779, when Sir Heury Clinton fitted out his expedition to Charleston for the subjugation of the Southern provinces, Ferguson was assigned to command a corps of three hundred men and was
Draper's Heroes of King's Mountain, pp. 50-5 !.
allowed to choose both his men and officers. He was given the rank of lieutenant colonel com- mandant. Early in March, 17So, Ferguson and Major Cochrane, with Tarleton's Legion infantry. were sent in pursuit of some American force and the Americans having been advised of their approach abandoned their camp, which Ferguson occupied.
Cochrane subsequently arriving in the vicinity, and supposing the persons in the camp to be Americans, charged them furiously, and a dreadful conflict took place in the night between these Eng- lish detachments, until at last Cochrane recognized Ferguson's voice and stopped the carnage. Fergu- son defended himself gallantly, wielding his sword in his left hand against three assailants until one of them thrust his bayonet through Ferguson's Jeft arm. It was at this moment that Cochrane recog- nized Ferguson's voice and rescued him.
Ferguson was also at the surprise and defeat of Huger at Mouk's Corner. Three of Tarleton's dragoons committed violence on some ladies near the village and were apprehended in the diabolical act. "Ferguson was for putting them to instant death, but Tarleton rescued them." Tarleton it was who afterwards had the "effrontery to boast that he had killed more men and ravished more women than any man in America."#
Ferguson is described as of "middle stature, slender make and possessing a serious countenance,
*Draper, p. 67.
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vet it was his peculiar characteristic to gain the affections of the men under his command."
Irving says "Ferguson was a fit associate for Tarleton m hardy, scrambling partisan enterprise: equally intrepid and determined, but cooler and more open to impulses of humanity."
This was the man who was to lead the left wing of the army of Cornwallis into North Carolina and humiliate the "over-mountain men" and reduce them to subjection and obedience.
Mr. Lyman C. Draper spent twenty years of an industrious and energetic life in writing his splen- did work "King's Mountain and its Heroes"-a book perfect in all its parts, evincing a research unsurpassed by any American writer, and so just to North Carolina and her soldiers in the King's Mountain campaign that I hope I will be pardoned for drawing almost entirely upon it for the facts connected with that battle. Mr. Draper has ex- hausted the sources of information on this portion of history, and nothing can be added to it, and, as far as my examination goes, nothing can be taken from it, without marring the truth.
The meagreness of the account by Tarleton and Steadman is astonishing. It seems to have been a historical bog to them, out of which they floundered with all haste and energy; but to the American student it is the first ebbing of the long tide of mis- fortune which had swept over the States of Georgia and South Carolina and submerged them in its billows. It was the first ray of hope that gleamed
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through the darkness and desolation of that period of conquest and wretchedness' which followed the advance of a victorious invader.
It was the pivot upon which the steady line of defeat and disaster first devinted from its course and swung from the American arms.
It was the appalling defeat which brought terror to the heart of Cornwallis and drove him sick and faint from the confines of North Carolina and forced him to plunge through the mud of the Waxhaws to the rear line of his defences at Winnsboro.
Mr. Draper has therefore wisely selected this battle as one of the central events of the war for independence, and while many who were conver- sant with the circumstances attending it were still living, has gathered the rich stores of information and woven them into the most charming narrative of American history.
The camp of Ferguson was on Little River, which is the northern prong of the Saluda. He had come to this place with "from one hundred and fifty to two hundred of the Provincial corps." and was here joined by "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 with conflagration."*
*Draper, p. 72.
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The young men of this multifarious collection were thoroughly drilled and disciplined by Fergu- son in military tactics, and transformed into a body of formidable soldiers.
It was here that David Fanning, the Tory leader of Orange and Chatham counties, in North Caro- lina. visited Ferguson and obtained commissions for his followers who were expected to organize when Cornwallis took possession of the State; but this ยท dream was never realized. It was Fanning, too, who forced Andrew Pickens to take British protec- tion. It was this that so embittered General Pickens and gave impetus to his subsequent military career.
In order to train his little army and embody the Tories. Ferguson continued to move abont the country and send detachments in every direction. He marched into Union district on the Tyger River and thence northward, through Spartanburg dis- triet, South Carolina, to the "Quaker Meadows," in Burke County, North Carolina, the home of Colonel Charles MeDowell. The Tories plundered the citizens as they went, of cattle, horses, beds. wearing apparel, even wresting rings from the fingers of ladies, until they were beartily despised by the British officers as well as their countrymen who were contending for liberty.
I,Sc. In July Colonel Elijah Clarke, the noted partisan leader of Georgia, formerly a Virginian, and well known to all the Whigs in upper South Carolina and western North Carolina, attempted to pass through from the Savannah River to join
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Colonel Charles MeDowell, but was so pressed that most of his followers retraced their steps and dis- persed for a while. Colonel John Jones, of Burke County, however, proposed to lead those who would follow to North Carolina. Jones was chosen the leader of this little band and John Freeman as second. in command. Passing through a Tory settlement they assumed the disguise of loyalists and hearing of a Tory gathering near by. they attacked and captured them and with them a lot of good arms and stout horses. Next day at Earle's Ford on the Pacolet, in what is now Polk County, they formed a junetion with Colonel Charles MeDowell.
About twenty miles south of MeDowell's camp was Princes' Fort, on the north bank of the Tyger River, occupied by a British and Tory force under Colonel Innes. Uuapprised of Colonel MeDowell's approach Colonel Innes sent out Colonel Ambrose Mills, a Tory leader of Rutherford County, N. C., in pursuit of Jones. Mills surprised MeDowell's camp, supposing the troops of Jones were alone there, and killed and wounded about thirty of them. Among the latter was Jones, who received eight cuts from the sabre. Young Noah Hampton, a son of Colonel Andrew Hampton, was roused from his slumbers and asked his name. He responded "Hampton." This was enough for the "Mills" party. They thrust him through with a bayonet while he was begging for mercy and Colonel Mills
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paid the pebalty for this ac: under a limb at Gil- bert town."
Colonel McDowell was censured by Hampton for not placing videttes further from his camp. across the river.
Before sunrise the next morning Captain Edward Hampton, with fifty-two active men, including Free- man, began the pursuit of Colonel Mills, and over- taking him routed his party, killing eight at the first fire, and continued the pursuit to the very entrance of Fort Prince.
At 2 o'clock Hampton returned with thirty-five good horses and much baggage, without the loss of a man. Noah Hampton was avenged. It was more than "an eye for an eye.";
I have related in previous pages the campaign of Colonels Charles McDowell, Shelby, Clarke and Williams and the affair at Musgrove's Mill, which it is not necessary to repeat.
1,80. On the 29th August Lord Cornwallis writes Sir Henry Clinton, "Ferguson is to move into Tryon County (since Lincoln) with some militia whom he says he can depend upon for doing their duty and fighting well; but I am sorry to say that his own experience, as well as that of every other officer, is against him." As McDowell,
*Mills was also accused of hanging Adam Cusack on the Pee Dee. Gordon, vol. 4, p. 29.
+Captain Edward Hampton was a brother of Colonel Wade Hamp- ton of Sumter's command. He was killed by Colonel Cunningham's " Bloody Scouts" in October, ou Fair Forest Creek.
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Shelby. Clarke and Williams had now retired to the back parts of North Carolina and many across the mountains to their homes in Sullivan and Washington counties. Ferguson followed in that direction, and for awhile encamped at Gilberttown, three miles north of the present village of Ruther- fordton. Here he issued his proclamation calling on the citizens to renew their allegiance and join the King's army. Some were overawed by this 'bold display of royal power in their very midst. and hearing of the rout and flight of the only Conti- nental ariny then in the South, they were induced to take protection ; and a few from premeditation, and by advice of the Whig leaders, took the oath in order that they might save the cattle and prop- erty of that region, as much as possible, for the use of the Whig forces and their families.#
*NOTE .-- While in this mountain region Ferguson found he had a case of small-pox developing itself. It was one of his officers, who was left at a deserted house, taking his favorite charger with him. and there this poor fellow died in this lonely situation. It is said his horse lingered there till he died. It was long before any one would venture to this pest-house.
: There lay the ruler. distorted an i pale With the lew on his brow and the rust on his mail."
Finally some one ventured there and carried off the sword, holsters and pistols, selling them to John Ramsour of Lincoln, who gave them thirty years after to Michael Reinhardt. - Draper's King's Moun- tain, p. 147.
This sword was given by W. M. Reinhardt, son of Michael Rein- hardt. to Dr. D. R. Schenck, by whom it was presented to the Guilford Battle-Ground Company in ISS;, and it now hangs, at that battle- ground, among the Revolutionary relics collected by that company.
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But Ferguson was not allowed to ravage the country with impunity. He warched, with a detachment, in search of Colonel Charles MeDowell. He found sim, but not where he expected or wished to find him. McDowell laid an ambuscade for him at Bedford Hill, three miles southwest of Brindle- town, near a crossing of Cane Creek, called Cowan's Ford. While the British were crossing the Whigs fired upon them, severely wounding Major Dunlap. one of the favorite and most energetic officers of Ferguson's corps, in the leg, and killing others. Ferguson was forced to retire to Gilberttown to escape with his own life.
MeDowell being unable to resist the large British force now in North Carolina, retreated across the Blue Ridge to the " Watauga Settlements." as the region where Shelby and Sevier lived was then called. He related to Sevier and Shelby the deso- lation which marked the advance of Ferguson, and urged them to join the mountain men on the other side and resist his approach.
I-So. Colonel Shelby, with the approbation of Major Robertson, then proposed that an army of volunteers be raised on both sides of the mountain, in sufficient numbers to cope with Ferguson." All the officers and some of the privates were consulted and all cordially coincided with the proposition. It was agreed that the over-mountain men should recruit and strengthen their numbers, while Colo- nel Charles McDowell should send a messenger to
*Draper, p. LIS.
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Colonels Cleveland and Herndon of Wilkes County, and Major Joseph Winston of Surry County, North Carolina, urging them to raise a volunteer corps and shere in this patriotic enterprise. MePowell was moreover requested to convey intelligence con- stantly to the "over-mountain" men of Ferguson's movements, and to preserve, as much as possible. the beeves of the Whigs in the upper, Catawba, which would be needed by them.
Colonel Clarke took the mountain trails and returned to Georgia. Colonel Williams, who had a few years before resided in Orange County, North Carolina, conducted the Musgrove prisoners to Hillsboro, in that county."
Ferguson continued his headquarters at Gilbert- town. Major Dunlap, who was perhaps the most hardened of all the Tory leaders, and whom Mc- Dowell's men had severely crippled at Cane Creek, was on crutches at the house of William Gilbert, a lovalist. He had followed the fortunes of Fergu- son in his northern campaigns, and Johnson, in his life of Greene, says, "Dunlap had rendered him- self infamous by his barbarities." Numerous instances of his oppression and cruelty at Gilbert- town are related by Draper, and he thus describes an attempt on Dunlap's life :
*Very many of the facts relate I by Draper are derived from a manuscript prepared by Captain David Vance, the grandfather of Senator Z. B. Vance, of North Carolina, which was preserved by Robert Henry, of Buncombe County. Both were American soldiers at King's Mountain.
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" When Ferguson suddenly left Gilberttown on the approach of the over-mountain men, Dunlap was left behind. The avenger of blood wa- nigh. Two or three men from Spartanburg rode to the door of the Gilbert house, when the leader, Captain Gillespie, asked Mrs. Gilbert if Major Dunlap was not up stairs. She frankly replied that he was, supposing that the party were loy- alists, and had some important communication for him. They soon disabused her of their character and mission, for they declared that he had been instrumental in put- ting some of their friends to death, and moreover had abducted the beautiful Mary McRea, the affianced of Captain Gillespie, as she would not encourage his alllo- rous advances, and kept her in confinement. trusting that she would in time yield to his wishes ; but death came to her relief; she died of a broken heart. They had now come for revenge, Gillespie particularly uttering his imprecations on the head of the cruel destroyer of all his earthly hopes. So saying they mounted the stairs, when Gillespie abruptly approached Dunlap as he lay in bed. with the inquiry : ' Where is Mary MeRea?' In heaven " was the reply. Whereupon the injured Cap- tain shot Dunlap through the body, and quickly mount- ing their horses, Gillespie and his associates bounded away to their homes."
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