USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 24
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"Loss of the tories, two colonels, three captains, and two hundred and one privates killed; one major and one hundred and twenty-seven pri- vates wounded and left on the ground not able to march ; one colonel, twelve captains, eleven lieutenants, two ensigns, one quarter-master, one adjutant, two commissaries, eighteen sergeants and six hundred pri-
245
THE EXPEDITION WAS PATRIOTIC AND SUCCESSFUL.
vates taken prisoners. Total loss of the enemy, eleven hundred and five men at King's Mountain. "Given under our hands at camp.
WILLIAM CAMPBELL, ISAAC SHELBY, BENJAMIN CLEVELAND. .
"The loss on our side- Killed-1 colonel,
Wounded-1 major,
1 major, 3 captains,
1 captain,
3 lieutenants,
2 lieutenants,
53 privates.
4 ensigns,
19 privates.
. 60 total wounded.
28 total killed."
On the 10th, Cornwallis ordered Tarleton to march with the light infantry, the British Legion and a three-pounder to assist Ferguson, no certain intelligence having arrived of his defeat. Tarleton's instructions directed him to reinforce Ferguson wherever he could find him, and to draw his corps to the Catawba, if after the junction advantage could not be obtained over the mountaineers ; or upon the certainty of his defeat, at all events, to oppose the entrance of the victorious Americans into South-Carolina. Intelligence of Ferguson's defeat reached Cornwallis, and he formed a sudden determi- nation to retreat from Charlotte. Tarleton was recalled, and North-Carolina was for the present evacuated.
The expedition against Ferguson was chivalric in the ex- treme. It was undertaken against a distinguished and skil- ful leader, at the head of a large force which could easily have been doubled. It was composed of raw and undisciplined troops, hastily drawn together, against fearful odds and under the most appalling discouragements.
The expedition was also eminently patriotic. When it was projected, disaster and defeat had shrouded the South with an impenetrable cloud of despondence and gloom. Ruined expectations and blasted hopes, hung like a pall over the paralyzed energies of the friends of America.
The expedition was, moreover, entirely successful. The first object of it, Ferguson, was killed and his whole army either captured or destroyed. This gave new spirit to the desponding Americans, and frustrated the well concerted
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946
HUNTING SHIRT OF THE VOLUNTEERS.
scheme of strengthening the British army by the tories in its neighbourhood.
The whole enterprise reflects the highest honour upon the patriotism that conceived and the courage that executed it. Nothing can surpass the skill and gallantry of the officers, nothing the valour of the men who achieved the victory. The whole history of the campaign demonstrates that the men who undertook it, were not actuated by any apprehen- sion that Ferguson would attempt the execution of his idle threat against themselves. For, to these mountaineers, noth- ing than such a scheme would make prettier game for their rifles ; nothing more desirable than to entice such an enemy from his pleasant roads, rich plantations, and gentle climate, with his ponderous baggage, valuable armory, and the booty and spoils of his loyalists, into the very centre of their own fastnesses, to hang upon his flank, to pick up his stragglers, to cut off his foragers, to make short and desperate sallies upon his camp, and finally, to make him a certain prey with- out a struggle and without a loss.
Nor was it the authority or influence of the state, that led to this hazardous service. Many of them knew not whether to any or to what state they belonged. Insulated by moun- tain barriers, and in consequent seclusion from their Eastern friends, they were living in the enjoyment of primitive inde- pendence, where British taxation and aggression had not reached. It was a gratuitous patriotism that incited the back-woodsmen. In those days, to know that American liberty was invaded, and that the only apparent alternative in the case was American independence or subjugation, was enough to nerve their hearts to the boldest pulsations of free- 'dom, and ripen their purposes to the fullest determination of putting down the aggressor .*
From the colonels to the privates, all of the mountain men were attired in hunting shirts. Speaking of this costume, Mr. Custis says :
" The hunting shirt, the emblem of the Revolution, is now banished from the national military, but still lingers among the hunters and pio- neers of the Far West. This national costume was adopted in the out-
. Foster's Emsay.
·
247
RESULTS OF FERGUSON'S DEFEAT.
set of the Revolution, and was recommended, by Washington, to the army in the most eventful period of the war of Independence. It was a favourite garb with many of the officers of the line. The British beheld these sons of the mountain and the forest, thus attired, with wonder and admiration. Their hardy looks, their tall athletic forms, their marching in Indian file with the light and noiseless step peculiar to their pursuit of woodland game, but above all, to European eyes, their singular and picturesque costume, the hunting shirt, with its fringes, wampum belts, leggins and moccasins, the tomahawk and knife; these, with the well known death-dealing aim of. these matchless marksmen, created, in the European military, a degree of awe and respect for the hunting shirt which lasted with the war of the Revolution. And should not Ameri- cans feel proud of the garb, and hail it as national, in which theit fathers endured such toil and privation in the mighty struggle for inde- pendence-the march across the wilderness-the triumphs of Saratoga and King's Mountain ? But a little while, and, of a truth, the hunt- ing shirt, the venerable emblem of the Revolution, will have disap- peared from among the Americans, and will be found only in museums, Like ancient armour, exposed to the gaze of the curious."
In Tennessee, the hunting shirt is still worn by the volun- teer, and occasionally forms the costume of the elite corps of a battalion or regiment. It once constituted, very com- monly, a part of the citizen's dress. It is now seldom seen in private life, though admirably adapted to the comeliness, convenience and comfort of the farmer, hunter and pedes- trian. In all the early campaigns in the West, and in the war of 1812, the soldiery uniformly wore it. Many of them did so in the war with Mexico, but the volunteer's hunting shirt is evidently going out of use.
Important results followed the defeat of Ferguson. Emis- saries* had been despatched to the loyalists on Deep and Haw Rivers, in advance of Lord Cornwallis, with instruc- tions to hold themselves in readiness to act in concert with the British army. His lordship had boasted that Georgia and South-Carolina were subdued, and that North-Carolina was but the stepping block to the conquest of Virginia. There was no army south of the Delaware to oppose him. In the realization of this boast, he had passed Charlotte and was advancing to Salisbury, where he had directed Ferguson to join him with the three or four thousand loyalists in his train. On his route, Cornwallis received the intelligence of
· Steadman.
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248
CORNWALLIS'S RAPID RETREAT.
the catastrophe at King's Mountain. Rumour had magnified the number of the riflemen, and converted their return with the prisoners, into a march upon himself with a force three thousand strong. Abandoning, for the present, his progress northward, he ordered an immediate retreat, marched all night in the utmost confusion, crossed the Catawba, and retrograded as far as Winnsboro', eighty or one hundred miles in his rear." There, for the present, he confined his operations to the protection of the country between Camden and Ninety-Six, nor did he attempt to advance until rein- forced by General Leslie, three months afterwards, with two thousand men from the Chesapeake. In the meantime, the whigs of North-Carolina, under General W. L. Davidson and Captain.W. R. Davie, assembled in considerable force at New Providence and the Waxaw. General Smallwood, with Morgan's light corps, and the Maryland line, advanced to the same point. General Gates, with the shattered re- mains of his army collected at Hillsboro', also came up, and one thousand new levies from Virginia, under General Ste- phens, also came forward. Of these, early in December, General Greene assumed the command. The cloud that had, till the fall of Ferguson, hung over the whole South and enveloped the country in gloom, was dispelled, and from that moment the American cause began to wear a more promi- sing aspect.
Referring to the signal victory obtained at King's Moun- tain, Mr. Jefferson says : "It was the joyful enunciation of that turn in the tide of success, that terminated the revolu- tionary war with the seal of our independente."
The General Assembly of North-Carolina, at its first ses- sion after the defeat of Ferguson, held at Halifax, January 18, 1781, passed a resolution that a sword and pistols should be presented to both Shelby and Sevier, as a testimony of the great services they had rendered to their country on the day of this memorable defeat The finely finished sword, thus presented by the State of North-Carolina to Colonel John Sevier, was inherited by his son, the late Colonel
* It was upon this retreat of the enemy that Andrew Jackson, then a boy of fifteen, received and resented so manfully, the insult of a British officer.
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249
SWORD PRESENTED TO SEVIER AND SHELBY.
George Washington Sevier, of Davidson county, and by him given to the State of Tennessee. It is now in the office of Colonel Ramsey, Secretary of State. On one side of the handle is engraven-
STATE OF NORTH-CAROLINA TO COLONEL JOHN SEVIER.
And upon the other side-
KING'S MOUNTAIN, 7TH OCTOBER, 1780.
On the third of February, of the same year, Governor Nash signed a commission, appointing John Sevier colonel commandant of Washington county. Theretofore, he had acted as colonel at the spontaneous desire of the troops he commanded.
Though adopted in 1781, the resolve of North-Carolina was not carried into execution till 1813, when Governor Hawkins wrote to General Sevier, under date,
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, NORTH-CAROLINA, Raleigh, 17th July, 1813.
Sir :- In compliance with a resolution of the General Assembly of this state, passed at their last session, I have the honour of tendering you the sword, which this letter accompanies, as a testimonial of the distinguished claim you have upon the gratitude of the state for your gallantry in achieving, with your brothers in arms, the glorious victory over the British forces, commanded by Colonel Ferguson, at the battle of King's Mountain, on the memorable 7th of October, 1780. This tribute of respect, though bestowed at a protracted period, will not be considered the less honourable on that account, when you are informed that it is in unison with a resolution of the General Assembly, passed in the year 1781, which, from some cause not well ascertained, it is to be regretted, was not complied with.
Permit me, sir, to make you an expression of the high gratification felt by me, at being the favoured instrument to present to you, in the name of the State of North-Carolina, this testimonial of gratitude, this meed of valour, and to remark, that contending as we are at the pre- sent time, with the same foe for our just rights, the pleasing hope may be entertained, that tho valorous deeds of the heroes of our Revolution will animate the soldier of the existing war, and nerve his arm, in lau- dable emulation, to like achievements.
I beg you to accept an assurance of the just consideration and re- spect, with which I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM HAWKINS. GENERAL JOHN SEVIER.
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250
LEGISLATURE CALLS AGAIN
Gen. Sevier was at that time a member of Congress from the Knoxville district, and replied to Governor Hawkins from Washington, acknowledging the honour conferred on him and his brothers in arms, and specially the compliment to himself, implied by the presentation of the elegant sword that had been handed to him :
" With that memorable day," alluding to the 7th Oct., 1780, " began to shine and beam forth the glorious prospects of our American struggle. . In those trying days I was governed by love and regard for my common country, and particularly for the state I then had the honour of serving, and in whose welfare and prosperity I shall never cease to feel an interest. I was then ready to hazard everything,dear to man to secure our Independence. I am now as willing to risk all to re- tain it. . It is to be lamented that the heroes and fathers of our Revolution have fallen into the arms of old age and death, and that so few of them remain to benefit the country by their advice or their ser- vices in the field. Our countrymen must become acquainted with the arts of active warfare, and then I am proud in thinking they will become better soldiers than those of any other nation on the globe, and we will soon be able to meet the enemy at every point."
We shall not stop to dwell upon Morgan's spirited affair
1781 - at the Cow Pens, nor Greene's masterly retreat through
North-Carolina to Virginia, nor the marches and coun- ter-marches of that prudent commander and his skilful anta- gonist, Cornwallis. It is sufficient for the purposes of these annals to say, that the authorities of North-Carolina had placed a suitable estimate upon the services of the Western riflemen, and now, when ther own state was overrun, called for their aid to rescue it from foreign invasion and domestic outrage. The Assembly, while in session at Halifax, turned their eyes to Shelby and Sevier, and rested their hopes upon them. On the 13th of February, it was
" Resolved, That Colonel Isaac Shelby, of Sullivan county, and John Sevier, Esq., of Washington county, be informed by this resolve, which shall be communicated to them, that the General Assembly of this State are feelingly impressed with the very generous and patriotic services ren- dered by the inhabitants of the said counties, to which their influence has in a great degree contributed. And it is earnestly urged that they would press a continuance of the same active exertion; that the state of the coun- try is such as to call forth its utmost powers immediately, in order to preserve its freedom and independence."
By the same resolutions, Sevier and Shelby were requested
251
UPON SHELBY AND SEVIER.'
to procure again the military co-operation of Cols. Campbell and Preston, and their gallant riflemen, from Virginia.
Governor Caswell, in communicating this resolution, took the opportunity of depicting to Shelby the melancholy cir- cumstances in which North-Carolina was involved. The tories were in motion all over the state-their footsteps were marked with blood, and their path was indicated by devasta- tion and outrage. The British army was advancing, under Cornwallis, through the most populous and fertile district of the state, and detachments from it, under different leaders, were committing ravages upon the lives and property of the inhabitants. Under this condition of things, the governor con- jured Shelby to return to the relief of his distressed country. Gen. Greene also addressed to the Western leaders who had signalized their zeal at King's Mountain, the most earnest and flattering letters, reminding them of the glory already acquired and calling upon them to come forward once more to repulse the invaders.
Col. Sevier was at this time, with most of the militia of Watauga and Nollichucky, engaged in protecting their own frontier and chastising the Cherokees, as will be elsewhere narrated. Neither of the Western commanders could, there- fore, go to the assistance of General Greene. A few of the pioneers of Tennessee, however, were under his command as volunteers at the hardly contested battle of the. fifteenth of . March, at Guilford Court House, and are said to have behaved well.
Could the safety of the frontier allowed the entire com- mands of Shelby and Sevier to have joined the army of Greene, the catastrophe that afterwards overtook Lord Corn- wallis at Yorktown, might have overwhelmed him at Guil- ford Court House ; as it can scarcely be doubted that the battle of the fifteenth of March, with the joint assistance of the riflemen from Watauga and Nollichucky, would have re- sulted in the complete overthrow and capture of the British army. Their additional numbers would have made the affair hard by the field of Alamance-the first blood shed in defence of American rights-the last great scene in the drama of the Revolution ; and North-Carolina, so early in her
L
250
GREENT'A DASCENT ON SOUTH-CAROLINA.
declaration of independence, would have contained the field on which that great achievement was consummated.
After the battle at Guilford Court House, Lord Corn wallis, with his crippled army, retired to Wilmington, and after ro- freshing his troops there, marched by way of Halifax, into Virginia. His precipitate retreat from Deep River; to which place General Greene had followed . and offered him battle, induced that commander to carry the war immedi- ately into South-Carolina.
By this movement he hoped the enemy would be obliged to follow him or give up the posts he held in that state .. In the prosecution of this plan he broke up his camp on the 7th of April, and on the nineteenth, made his appearance before Camden. Lord Cornwallis declined to follow him, and directing the march of his army towards the Chese- peake, little expectation could be entertained of a. reinforoo- ment from that direction, to support Greene in his descent upon South-Carolina. He was, of course, compelled to de- pend upon the militia of the three Southern States and the volunteers from the mountain. Active measures werb promptly adopted to concentrate these forces for future operations. The expedition that had been carried on a short time previous by the frontier militia, having liberated them from the danger that threatened their firesides with Cherokee invasion and massacre, Shelby and Sevier were enabled to promise the assistance of the riflemen. Greene appointed the latter end of August, and Fort Granby, as the time and place of rendezvous. The volunteers promptly obeyed the call of their leaders, and collected in a large force for the purpose of rescuing South-Carolina from the enemy. They had actually advanced far on their way to Greene's camp, when intelligence reached them that Cornwallis had left North-Carolina, and that the American commander, by cutting off the supplies between Camden and Charleston, had compelled Lord Rawdon to evacuate the former place ; that the post at Orangeburg, Fort Motte, another post at Nelson's Ferry, Fort Granby and Georgetown, had in like manner been captured or evacuated in rapid succession ; and that Col. Hampton had, with a party of dragoons, charged within
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253
SEVIER CROSSES THE MOUNTAIN.
five miles of. Charleston. They learned, furthermore, that Fort Cornwallis at Augusta, had surrendered to Pickens and Lee, assisted by the brave riflemen of Georgia under Clarke, and that the British had retreated from their stronghold at Ninety-Six, and had contracted their operations almost en- tirely within that small extent of country which is enclosed by the Santee, the Congaree and Edisto ; and to all this was added, that the enemy were driven into Charleston. This information so changed the complexion of affairs in South- Carolina, as to admit the return of the mountain men to their homes, and Sevier* accordingly wrote to General Greene, that as his recent successes had rendered the services of the Western riffemen unnecessary, they had returned and dis- banded. It was on account of these considerations, that the troops from the mountains of Tennessee had not the good fortune to participate in the battle of Eutaw Springs, which occurred not long after they were disbanded.
In the meantime Greene received information, through General La Fayette, that Lord Cornwallis's movements in- dicated an intention of retreating from the pursuit of the · allied army on the Chesapeake southwardly. This intention was supported by the simultaneous rising of all the royalists in the different sections of the South. They began immedi- ately to assemble and renew their ravages, and to harass the whigs in every quarter. At this crisis, and on the six- teenth of September, General Greene wrote to Col. Sevier, informing him of the posture of affairs near Yorktown, and of the suspicions which were entertained that Lord Corn- wallis would endeavour to escape by marching back through North-Carolina to Charleston; to prevent which, General Greene begged that the colonel would bring as large a body of riffemen as he could, and with as much expedition as was possible, and march them to Charlotte. Sevier immediately raised two hundred mounted riflemen in Wash- ington county, and marched with them across the mountain. The well affected in South-Carolina were suffering extremely by the cruelties which the tories were inflicting upon them. Sevier joined his forces to those of General Marion, on the
* Johnson.
254
BEVIER AND SHELBY JOIN MARION,
Santee, at Davis's Ferry, and contributed much to keep up resistance to the enemy ; to raise the spirits of those who were friendly to the American cause, and to afford protection to those who were in danger from the infuriated royalists.
Lord Cornwallis being now besieged in Yorktown, and his retreat through North-Carolina being no longer appre- hended, General Greene, with a view of stopping the depre- dations of the enemy, who were now committing their ra- vages in St. Stephen's Parish, endeavoured to collect a force sufficient to drive them into Charleston, and only awaited for the arrival of the mountain men before he began his opera- tions.
Col. Shelby had also been called upon by Greene, to bring his regiment to his relief in intercepting Cornwallis, should he effect his escape from the blockade by the French fleet in the Chesapeake bay, and attempt a retreat through the Caro- linas. His lordship's surrender took place on the nineteenth of October, and the riflemen of Shelby were also attached to Gen. Marion's command below on the Santee. To this both Shelby and Sevier consented with some reluctance. Their men were called out upon a pressing emergency, which no longer existed. They had been, moreover, enrolled only for sixty days. Much of that time had already expired, and the contemplated service under Marion would take them still further from their distant homes. Besides, Shelby was a member of the General Assembly of North-Carolina, from Sullivan county, and its session at Salem took place early in December. Notwithstanding these considerations, they promptly joined Marion early in November, with five hun- dred mounted riflemen. With these were associated, under the command of the same distinguished leader, the forces of Col. Mayhem and Col. Horry. Together they formed a most efficient corps of cavalry, mounted infantry and riflemen.
The enemy, at that time under General Stewart, lay at a place called Ferguson's Swamp, on the great road leading to Charleston. General Marion, some weeks after the arrival of the mountain men at his camp, received information that several hundred Hessians, at a British post near Monk's Corner, eight or ten miles below the enemy's main army,
255
AND CAPTURE A BRITISH POST.
were in a state of mutiny, and would surrender the post to any considerable American force that might appear before it, and he soon determined to send a detachment to surprise it. Sevier and Shelby solicited a command in the detach- ment. Marion moved down eight or ten miles, and crossed over to the south side of the Santee River, from whence he sent a detachment of five or six hundred men to surprise the post, the command of which was given to Col. Mayhem, of the South-Carolina dragoons. The detachment consisted of parts of the regiments of Sevier and Shelby, one hundred and eighty of Mayhem's dragoons, and twenty or thirty lowland militia. The line of march was taken up early in the morning, and the detachment marched fastly through the woods, crossing the main Charleston road, leaving the ene- my's main army three or four miles to the left ; and on the evening of the second day, struck the road again leading to Charleston, about two miles below the post which it was in- tonded to surprise. The men lay all night upon their arms across the road, so as to intercept the Hessians in case the enemy had got notice of the approach of the Americans, and bad ordered them to Charleston before morning. In the course of the night, an orderly sergeant from the main Bri- tish army rode in among the riflemen and was taken pri- soner. No material paper was found upon him that night (which was very dark) before he made his escape, except some returns, which contained the strength of the enemy's main army, and their number on the sick list, which was very great. As soon as daylight appeared, the detachment advanced to the British post. Gol. Mayhem sent in a con- fidential individual to demand an immediate surrender of the garrison, who returned in a few minutes, and reported that the officer commanding would defend the post to the last ex- tremity. Col. Shelby immediately proposed to Mayhem that he would go in himself and make another effort to obtain a surrender. This was readily assented to. On his approach to the garrison, Shelby declared to the commander that if he was so mad as to suffer the post to be stormed, he might rest assured that every soul within should be put to the sword, for there were several hundred mountain men at hand, who
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