USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 22
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Having completed these arrangements in South-Carolina, his lordship, on the eighth of September, marched towards North-Carolina ; and as he passed through the most hostile and populous districts, he sent Col. Tarleton and Major Fer- ยท Ramsey.
223
FERGUSON TAKES POST AT RUTHERFORDTON.
guson to scour the country to his right and left. Arrived at Charlotte, and conceiving it to be a favourable situation for further advances, he made preparations for establishing a post at that place. While he was thus engaged, the com- manders of his detachments were proceeding in their respec- tive expeditions. The detachment under Ferguson, as bas been already seen, had been for several weeks on the left of the main army, watching the movements of McDowell, Sevier, Shelby, Sumpter and Williams, and Clarke and Twiggs. His second in command, Dupoister, had followed in close pursuit the mountain men as they retired, after their victory at Enoree, to their mountain fastnesses. Ferguson himself, with the main body of his army, followed close upon the heels of Dupoister, determined to retake the prisoners or support his second in command, if he should overtake and engage the escaping enemy. Finding that his efforts were fruitless, Ferguson took post at a place then called Gilbert Town, near the present Rutherfordton, in North-Carolina. From this place he sent a most threatening message by Samuel Philips, a paroled prisoner, that if the officers west of the mountains did not lay down their opposition to the British arms, he would march his army over, burn ,and lay waste their country and hang their leaders.
Patrick Ferguson, who had sent this insolent message, was at the head of a large army. Of the loyalists compo- sing a part of his command, some had previously been across the mountain, and were familiar with the passes by which these heights were penetrated. One of them had been subjected to the indignity of a coat of tar and feathers, in- flicted during the past summer, by the light horsemen of Captain Robert Sevier, on Nollichucky. He proposed to act as pilot to the command, which now stood at the foot of the Blue Ridge, ready to carry into execution the threat made by Ferguson. This gentleman had already displayed that combination of intrepid heroism, inventive genius and sound judgment, which constitute the valiant soldier and the able commander. In early youth he entered the British army, and in the German war was distinguished by a courage as cool as it was determined. The boasted skill of the Ameri-
1
294
FERGUSON AT NINETY-AIX. . .
cans in the use of the rifle was an object of terrer to the British troops, and the rumors of their fatal aim operated upea and stimulated the genius of Ferguson. His invention pre- duced a new species of that instrument of warfare, which he could load at the breech, without using the rammer er turning the muzzle away from the enemy, and with such quickness of repetition as to fire seven times in a minute."
After the reduction Charleston, Lord Cornwallis called for the assistance of Ferguson in procuring the submission of South-Carolina. Among the propositions of that commander to secure this object, one scheme was to arm those of the inhabitants who were well-affected to the British cause and embody them for their own defence. Ferguson, now a lieu- tenant-colonel, was entrusted with the charge of marshall- ting the militia throughout the upper districts. Under his direction and conduct, a military force, at once na- merous and select, was enrolled and disciplined. These he divided into two classes ; one, of the young men, who should be ready to join the king's troops to repel any enemy that infested the country ; another, of the aged and heads of families, who should unite in the defence of their houses, farms and neighbourhoods. t
" In completing this organization, Ferguson had advanced to Ninety- Six, and, with a large body of troops, was, with his usual vigour and success, acting against small detachments of Americans, who, under all the discouragements that surrounded them, still remained true to the cause of independence, and determined to maintain possession of the country against the overwhelming force of the British and the royal militia. At Ninety Six Ferguson received intelligence that a corps of Americans, under Col. Clarke, had made an attempt upon the British post at Augusta, and, being repulsed, was retreating by the back settle- ments to North-Carolina. To this information, the messenger further added that the commandant at Augusta, Col. Brown, intended to hang upon the rear of Clarke, and urged Ferguson to cut across his route and co-operate in intercepting and dispersing his party. This service seemed to be perfectly consistent with the purposes of Ferguson's expe- dition, as it would give employment to his loyalists, prevent the con- centration of whig forces, and prevent their junction with Gen. Gates. Clarke was able, however, to elude his vigilance, and was present, has been seen, at the battle of Enoree, and assisted in that masterly engagement, and the remarkable retreat by which he and his comrades
Bissett.
+ Idem.
225
SHELBY AND BEVIER APPEAL TO THE. VOLUNTEERS.
escaped from Ferguson. The pursuit of the retiring Americans brought Ferguson so far to the left as to seem to threaten the habi- tations of the hardy race that occupied and lived beyond the moun- tains. He was approaching the lair of the lion, for many of the fami- lies of the persecuted whigs had been deposited in this asylum."*
The refugee whigs received a hearty welcome from their hospitable but plain countrymen on Watauga and Nolli- chucky. The door of every cabin was thrown open, and the strangers felt at once assured of kindness, of sympathy and assistance. Among the neighbours of Sevier and Shelby the exiles from the Carolinas and Georgia were at home.
Among the refugees, soon after, came Samuel Philips, the paroled prisoner, by whom Ferguson sent his threatening mes- sage as already mentioned. It reached Shelby about the last of August. He immediately rode fifty or sixty miles to see Sevier, for the purpose of concerting with him measures suited to the approaching crisis. He remained with him two days. They came to the determination to raise all the riflemen they could, march hastily through the mountains and endeavour to surprise Ferguson in his camp. They hoped to be able, at least, to cripple him so as to prevent his crossing the moun- tain in the execution of his threat. The day and the place were appointed for the rendezvous of the men. The time was the twenty-fifth day of September, and the Sycamore Shoals, on Watauga, selected as being the most central point and abounding most in the necessary supplies.
Col. Sevier, with that intense earnestness and persuasive address for which he was so remarkable, began at once to arouse the border-men for the projected enterprise. In this he encountered no difficulty. A spirit of congenial heroism brought to his standard, in a few days, more men than it was thought either prudent or safe to withdraw from the settle- ments: the whole military force of which was estimated at considerably less than a thousand men. Fully one half of that number was necessary to man the forts and stations, and keep up scouting parties on the extreme frontier. The remain- der were immediately enrolled for the distant service. A dif- ficulty arose from another source. Many of the volunteers
* Johnson.
15
226
PATRIOTISM OF MRS. BEVIER.
were unable to furnish suitable horses and equipments. The iron hand of poverty checked the rising ambition of many a valorous youth, who
" had heard of battle, And who longed to follow to the field some warlike chief"
"Here," said Mrs. S., pointing to her son, not yet sixteen years old ; "Here, Mr. Sevier, is another of our boys that wants to go with his father and brother to the war-but we have no horse for him, and, poor fellow, it is a great distance to walk." Colonel Sevier tried to borrow money on his own responsibility, to fit out and furnish the expedition. But every inhabitant had expended the last dollar in taking up his land, and all the money of the country was thus in the hands of the Entry-taker. Sevier waited upon that officer and represented to him that the want of means was likely to retard, and in some measure to frustrate, his exertions, to carry out the expe- dition, and suggested to him the use of the public money in his hands. John Adair, Esq., late of Knox county, was the Entry-taker, and his reply was worthy of the times and wor- thy of the man. "Col. Sevier, I have no authority by law to make that disposition of this money. It belongs to the im- poverished treasury of North-Carolina, and I dare not appro- priate a cent of it to any purpose. But, if the country is over- run by the British, liberty is gone. Let the money go too. Take it. If the enemy, by its use, is driven from the country, I can trust that country to justify and vindicate my conduct. Take it."
The money was taken and expended in the purchase of am- munition and the necessary equipments. Shelby and Sevier pledged themselves to see it refunded, or the act of the Entry- taker legalized by the North-Carolina legislature. That was scrupulously attended to at the earliest practicable moment. The evidence of it is before this writer, in the original receipt now in his possession :
" Rec'd., Jan'y. 81st, 1782, of Mr. John Adair, Entry-taker in the county of Sullivan, twelve thousand seven hundred and thirty-five dol- lars, which is placed to his credit on the Treasury Books.
12,735 Dollars. Per ROBERT LANIER, Treas'r. Salisbury Dist."
227
CO-OPERATION OF COLONEL CAMPBELL.
Sevier also undertook to bring Col. McDowell and other field officers who with their followers were then in a state of expatriation amongst the western settlers, into the measure. In this he succeeded at once. All of them had been driven from their homes, which were now deserted and exposed to the depredations of the disorderly and licentious loyalists who had joined the foreign enemy. Most of them had friends and kindred, on whom Ferguson and his tories were even then wreaking their vengeance. These homes and these friends, they longed to rescue and protect from further violence and desecration.
To Shelby was assigned the duty of securing the co-ope- ration of the riflemen of Western Virginia. These had, in many a past campaign, with the pioneers of Tennessee, bivouaced and fought and triumphed together over a savage foe, and it was now deemed essential to the preservation of liberty and independence to obtain the aid of these gallant men in resisting the invasion of the common country. Shel- by accordingly hastened home, wrote a letter to William Campbell, colonel commandant of Washington county, Vir- ginia, and sent it by his brother, Moses Shelby, to the house of Campbell, a distance of forty miles. In this letter Col. Shelby stated what had been determined on by Sevier and himself, and urged Campbell to join them with his regiment. That gallant officer, true to the general cause, but most loyal to Virginia, replied, by the same messenger, that he did not approve of the measures that had been adopted, and that he should pursue his original intention and march his men down by way of the Flower Gap, and get on the southern borders of Virginia, ready to meet and oppose Lord Cornwallis when he approached that state. With this answer Shelby was much disappointed. He was unwilling that the whole mili- tary force of Sullivan and Washington counties should be taken upon the contemplated expedition, and thus leave the frontier exposed to attacks from the Cherokees, from whom they were threatened with, and had good reason to expect, an immediate invasion. He, therefore, wrote a second letter and sent it by the same messenger, immediately back to Col. Campbell, giving additional reasons in favour of the projected
THE CAMP AT WATAUGA.
campaign. To this letter Campbell replied that he would co-operate with his whole force.
. Col. Campbell commanded four hundred men from Vir- ginia, Col. Sevier two hundred and forty from Washington, and Col. Shelby two hundred and forty from Sullivan county, in North-Carolina. The refugee whigs mustered under Col. . McDowell. All were well mounted, and nearly all armed with a Deckhard * rifle.
The camp on Watauga, on the twenty-fifth of September, presented an animated spectacle. With the exception of the few colonists on the distant Cumberland, the entire military force of what is now Tennessee was assembled at the Syca- more Shoals. Scarce a single gunman remained, that day, at his own house. The young, ardent and energetic had generally enrolled themselves for the campaign against For- gason. The less vigorous and more aged, were left, with the inferior guns, in the settlements for their protection against the Indians ; but all had attended the rendezvous. The old men were there to counsel, encourage and stimulate the youthful soldier, and to receive, from the colonels, in- structions for the defence of the stations during their absence. Others were there to bring, in rich profusion, the products of their farms, which were cheerfully furnished gratuitously and without stint, to complete the outfit of the expedition. Gold and silver they had not, but subsistence and clothing, and equipment and the fiery charger-anything the frontier- man owned, in the cabin, the field or the range, was offered, unostentatiously, upon the altar of his country. The wife and the sister were there, and, with a suppressed sigh, wit- nessed the departure of the husband and the brother. And there, too, were the heroic mothers, with a mournful but noble pride, to take a fond farewell of their gallant sons.
The sparse settlements of this frontier had never before seen assembled together a concourse of people so immense and so evidently agitated by great excitement. The large
*This rifle was remarkable for the precision and distance of its shot. It was generally three feet six inches long, weighed about seven pounds, and ran about seventy bullets to the pound of lead. It was so called from Deckhard, the maker, if Lancaster, Pa. One of them is now in the possession of the writer.
229
CAMPBELL, SHELBY, BEVIER AND M'DOWELL.
mass of the assembly were volunteer riflemen, clad in the home-spun of their wives and sisters, and wearing the hunting shirt so characteristic of the back-woods soldiery, and not a few of them the moccasins of their own manu- facture. A few of the officers were better dressed, but all in citizens' clothing. The mien of Campbell was stern, authoritative and dignified. Shelby was grave, taciturn and determined. Sevier, vivacious, ardent, [impulsive and ener- getic. McDowell, moving about with the ease and dignity of a colonial magistrate, inspiring veneration for his virtues and an indignant sympathy for the wrongs of himself and his co-exiles. All were completely wrapt in the absorbing subject of the revolutionary struggle, then approaching its acme, and threatening the homes and families of the moun- taineers themselves. Never did mountain recess contain within it, a loftier or a more enlarged patriotism-never a cooler or more determined courage.
In the seclusion of their homes in the West, many of the volunteers had only heard of war at a distance, and had been in undisputed possession of that independence for which their Atlantic countrymen were now struggling. The near approach of Ferguson had awakened them from their secu- rity, and indignant at the violence and depredations of his followers, they were now embodied to chastise and avenge them. This they had done at the suggestion and upon the motion of their own leaders, without any requisition from the governments of America or the officers of the continental army. Indeed, at this moment, the American army in the South was almost annihilated, and the friends of the Ameri- can cause were discouraged and despondent. The British were everywhere triumphant, and the loyalists, under the pretence of promoting the service of his Britannic Majesty, were in many sections perpetrating the greatest outrage and cruelty upon the whigs. The attitude of these volunteer detachments was as forlorn as it was gallant. At the time of their embodiment, and for several days after they had marched against the enemy, flushed with recent victories and confident of further conquest, it was not known to them that a single armed corps of Americans was marshalled for
200
DIVINE PROTECTION IMPLORED.
their assistance or relief. The crisis was, indeed, dark and gloomy. But indomitable patriots were present, prepared and willing to meet it. The personnel of no army could have been better. There was strength, enterprise, courage and enthusiasm. The ardour and impetuosity and rashness of youth were there, to project and execute, with the wisdom of mature age, to temper and direct them ; the caution of the father and the irrepressible daring of the son.
Without delay, early on the morning of the next day after its rendezvous at Watauga, the little army was on the march. -Before the troops left the camp, the officers requested that they should assemble for the purpose of commending the army to Divine protection and guidance. They promptly com- plied with the request. Prayer, solemn and appropriate, was offered by a clergyman present, and the riflemen mounted their horses and started on the distant campaign.
After leaving the rendezvous at the Sycamore Shoals, the troops took up the line of march ; passing along the valley 1780 of Gap Creek, they encamped the first night at the ( mill of Mr. Matthew Tolbot. They pursued Bright's trace across the Yellow Mountain. The staff was incom- plete ; rather, there was no staff; no quarter-master, no commissary, no surgeon, no chaplain. As in all their Indian campaigns, being mounted and unencumbered with baggage, their motions were rapid. Each man, each officer, set out with his trusty Deckhard on his shoulder. " A shot pouch, a tomahawk, a knife, a knapsack and a blanket, completed the outfit. At night, the earth afforded him a bed and the heavens a covering ; the mountain stream quenched his thirst ; while his provision was procured from supplies ao- quired on the march by his gun." Some beeves were driven in the rear, to furnish subsistence while in the settlements, but they impeded the rapidity of the march, and, after the first day, were abandoned. After passing the mountain, the troops, sparing the property of the whigs, quartered and subsisted upon the tories.
On the second day, two of the men were missed. They had deserted, and would doubtless escape to the enemy, and apprise them of the approach of the mountain men, and the
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231 '
THE VOLUNTEERS CROSS THE MOUNTAIN.
route by which the march would be conducted. Owing to this apprehension, which was subsequently ascertained to be well founded, the troops, after passing the top of the Alle- ghany, left the frequented trace, and turned to the left, de- scending by a worse path than was ever before travelled by an army of horsemen. Reaching the foot of the mountain, they fell in with Colonel Cleveland, of Wilkes county, and Colonel Winston, of Surry county, North-Carolina, with three or four hundred men, who were creeping along through the woods, desiring to fall in with and join any party that might be going to oppose the enemy.
After reaching the settled country east of the mountain, additions were constantly made to their numbers-of officers with men, and of officers without men, and of men without officers ; some few on horses-most of them on foot-but all eager to find and fight the enemy.
The junction of the party from Wilkes and Surry took place about the first of October. The second day following was so wet that the army could not move. The delay was improved by the commanding officers, meeting, as if by instinct, in the evening and holding a council. At this meeting it was deter- mined to send to head-quarters, wherever it might be, for a general officer to take the command of the several corps ; and that in the meantime they would meet in council every day to determine on the measures to be pursued. Col. Shelby was not well satisfied with these regulations ; and in support of his objections, observed to the council that they were then in striking distance of the enemy, who lay at that time at Gil- bert Town, sixteen or eighteen miles distant-that Ferguson would either attack or avoid them until he gathered together such a force that they dared not approach. He therefore advised that they should act with promptness and decision, and proposed that they would appoint one of their own num- ber to command and march the next day and attack the enemy at Gilbert Town. He further proposed that Colonel Campbell was known to him as a gentleman of good sense and warmly attached to the cause of the country-was the only officer from. Virginia and commanded the largest regiment in the army,-and that he would accordingly nomi-
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289
FERGUSON LEAVES GILBERT TOWN,
nate him as their chief. Shelby made this proposition for the purpose of quieting the expectations of some that Colonel McDowell should assume the command. He was the senior officer present, the army was then in his military district, and he had commanded during the past summer against the same enemy-was, moreover, a brave man and a decided friend to the American cause. But he was considered too far advanced in life and too inactive a man to take charge of such an enter- prise, against such an antagonist as was immediately before them. McDowell proposed that he would be the messenger to go for a general officer. He started immediately, and his brother, Joseph McDowell, took command of his men. On his way, about eight miles from camp, he fell in with Colonel . James Williams, of South-Carolina, and a number of other field officers from that state, with near four hundred men. The intelligence of this opportune reinforcement McDowell communicated by express.
KING'S MOUNTAIN.
Gilbert Town is distinguished as the extreme point of British invasion in the direction of the home of the mountain men. To that place Ferguson, in the execution of his vain threat to invade and burn up their villages, had advanced and there erected his majesty's standard, with the double purpose of . securing the co-operation of the loyalists and of preventing the rising and concentration of the whigs. At that place he received intelligence of the avalanche of indignant patriotism accumulating along the mountain, and ready to precipitate itself upon and overwhelm his army. From that place, en- terprising as he was, he found it necessary to fall back and seek safety by a junction with the main army of Cornwallis, at Charlotte. Every movement of Ferguson, from the time he left his camp at Gilbert Town, indicated his apprehension of the impending danger. He commanded the loyalist militia, he importuned them, he held out the language of promise and of threatening, to stimulate their allegiance and their courage. He called in vain. A cloud was gathering upon the mountain, and his loyal militia knew that it portended a storm and a disastrous overthrow .. Ferguson changed his
233
AND RETIRES BEFORE THE RIFLEMEN.
language and appealed to them in the words of bitter reproach and contemptuous ridicule. On his retreat he issued a circu- lar letter to the tory leaders, informing them of an " inunda- tion of barbarians"-calls the patriotic riflemen "the dregs of mankind," and importunes his loyalists tbus : " If you wish to live and bear the name of men, grasp your arms in a mo- ment and run into camp. The backwater men have crossed the mountain, McDowell, Hampton, Shelby and Cleveland are at their head-so that you know what you will have to depend upon. If you choose to be degraded for ever and ever by a set of mongrels, say so at once, and let your women turn their backs upon you and look out for real men to protect them."
Ferguson, after breaking up his camp at Gilbert Town, had despatched Abram Collins and Quinn, to Lord Corn- wallis, informing him of his critical situation and begging a re- inforcement. After despatching his letter, Ferguson marched, on the fourth, over Main Broad River to the Cow Pens. On the fifth he continued his march to Tate's, since Dear's Ferry, where he again crossed and encamped about a mile above. On the sixth, he marched about fourteen miles and formed his camp on an eminen.ce, where he waited for the expected reinforcements, of loyalists in the neighbourhood, and of regulars from the royal army. The loyalty of the former quailed at the approach of the riflemen, and in this hour of need their assistance was withheld ; they remained out of Ferguson's camp.
On Wednesday, the fourth of October, the riflemen ad- vanced to Gilbert Town. But Ferguson had decamped, having permitted many of the loyalists to visit their families, under engagement to join him on the shortest notice. In the meantime, he took a circuitous march through the neighbourhoods, in which the tories principally resided, to gain time and avoid the riflemen until his forces could be collected and had joined him. This retrograde movement betrayed his apprehensions, and pointed out the necessity of a vigorous effort to overtake him. Having gained a know- ledge of his designs, the principal officers determined, in council, to pursue him with all possible despatch. Accord-
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