USA > Tennessee > The history of Tennessee, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 8
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FOR the most perfect understanding of the im- portant services which were rendered by the riflemen of Tennessee, during the War of Inde- pendence, it will be necessary to trace briefly the progress of events in the united colonies from the outbreak of the war to the defeat of Gates in South Carolina. In March, 1776, Ge- neral Washington succeeded in forcing Lord Howe to evacuate Boston ; and during the fol- lowing June, it will be remembered that the British fleet signally failed in an attack upon Charleston, through the admirable defence of Moultrie. On the 4th of July, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. At this pe- riod, the continental army under Washington was encamped in and around New York, which
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. |1777.
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was closely invested by the military and naval forces of Great Britain. The defeat of the American troops on Long Island toward the close of August, compelled Washington to evacuate New York and retreat to White Plains, where, on the 28th of September, a battle was fought, which induced Washington to break up his camp at White Plains, and cross the Hudson into New Jersey. Fort Washington being captured soon after by the British, and Fort Lee abandoned by the Americans, the advance of the enemy com- pelled Washington, who, with his army diminished to three thousand men had moved southward to Newark, to retreat through the Jerseys. In the midst of the almost universal gloom and despond- ency he passed over into Pennsylvania, and went into winter-quarters on the right bank of the Delaware. Reinforced by some militia, and the regulars under Lee, Washington recrossed the Delaware on the night of the 25th of December, captured at Trenton a thousand Hessians under Rahl, and after eluding the superior forces of the enemy, which were soon in motion, fell sud- denly upon the British rear-guard at Princeton, routed two regiments, captured nearly the whole of a third, and obliged Cornwallis to fall back upon New Brunswick. Through the remainder of the winter the American army was encamped at Morristown.
During the summer of 1777, General Howe,
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WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.
1779.]
sailing up the Chesapeake with sixteen thousand men, marched from the head of Elk toward Phi- ladelphia, the capture of which had been made the principal object of the campaign. Washing- ton hastened to oppose him ; but losing the bat- tle of Brandywine on the 11th of September, was obliged to retire before the victorious co- lumns of Howe, which took possession of Phila- delphia without any further molestation. On the 11th of September, Washington made a serious attack upon the British advanced post at Germantown, in which the Americans again suf- fered a severe repulse. In the mean time, how- ever, General Burgoyne, descending from Canada upon New York, had gradually involved his army in a network of difficulties from which there was no escape. The defeat of Baum at Bennington by the militia of Vermont under Stark, was fol- lowed by the battles at Saratoga, and the sur- render to General Gates of the entire army of Burgoyne. The following year France formed an alliance offensive and defensive with the united colonies of North America, and General Howe thought it prudent to evacuate Philadel- phia and retreat to New York. The British commander now turned his attention to the southern provinces, and succeeded with but little difficulty in making a complete conquest of Georgia. In 1779, General Lincoln, assisted by a French squadron under Count D'Estaing, made
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780.
a bold but ineffectual attempt to recapture Sa- vannah, and drive the British from the province. At the north, the capture of Stony Point by Wayne was hailed as a brilliant and daring achievement, though productive of no more than a temporary triumph, as it soon after fell again into the hands of the enemy.
In 1780, Sir Henry Clinton, who had suc- ceeded Howe as commander-in-chief, set sail from New York, and investing Charleston, which was defended by the southern army under General Lincoln, succeeded in forcing the latter to ca- pitulate. The garrison numbering five thousand men became prisoners of war.
Leaving Cornwallis to complete the reduction of the province, Clinton returned to New York. Undismayed by the loss of Charleston, and the capture of the southern army, a new force was speedily organized under the direction of Con- gress, the command of which was given to Ge- neral Gates. Less fortunate than when opposed to Burgoyne, Gates suffered a severe defeat at Camden on the 16th of August, by which the whole of his army was broken up and dispersed.
So complete at this period did the subjugation of South Carolina and Georgia appear to be, and so little resistance did Cornwallis anticipate in North Carolina, that he projected a junction, at an early day, with the British forces already ravaging Virginia under Phillips and Arnold,
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THE MOUNTAINEERS.
1780.]
while some of the more ardent loyalists calculated upon the reduction of all the States south of the Hudson before the close of the campaign.
But the activity of the mountaineers of Vir- ginia and North Carolina was destined to turn the scale of victory, and to afford time for a general arming of the Whigs. On the ap- proach of the British to Charleston, General Rutherford of North Carolina summoned the militia of the state to arm in defence of the common cause. The requisition was promptly met by John Sevier, as lieutenant-colonel of Washington county, and by Isaac Shelby in the adjoining county of Sullivan. In the absence of Rutherford, who had hastened with the main body of the militia to join the forces at this time collecting under Gates, the command in North Carolina devolved upon Colonel McDowell, who directed Sevier and Shelby to meet him with all the mounted riflemen they could collect at his camp in South Carolina, near the Cherokee ford of Broad River. These orders were promptly responded to. Five hundred mounted men from the Holston and the Watauga, led by Sevier and Shelby, crossed the Alleghanies, and presently made their appearance in the camp of McDowell. To this rendezvous also repaired Colonel Clark, a daring refugee officer from Georgia.
At this period the British troops occupied all the important posts in Georgia and South Caro-
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780.
lina. The steady and uninterrupted advance of Cornwallis inspirited the Tories on the borders of North and South Carolina to place themselves under the command of Colonel Patrick Moore of Tryon county, who, with a detachment of ninety- three men, proceeded to Pacolet River, and took possession of a strong fort which had been built there during the Cherokee war.
As this post was but little more than twenty miles distant from the camp of McDowell, the latter despatched Shelby, Sevier, and Clarke, with six hundred men, to attempt its surprise. The enterprise was completely successful. Sum- moned by Shelby to surrender, Moore at first resolutely refused ; but when he saw the moun- taineers preparing to carry the post by storm, he consented to capitulate "on condition that the garrison be paroled not to serve again during the war." By this bloodless exploit the victors _ obtained two hundred and fifty stand of arms, and a small but welcome supply of ammunition.
The effect of this bold and decisive movement not only led the Tory inhabitants of the Caro- linas to repress their exultation, but to reflect more seriously upon the risks to which they ex- posed themselves by joining the British standard. The forces under General Gates were also at this period rapidly increasing in numbers. While Cornwallis was marching to Camden to reinforce Rawdon against the approach of the American
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1780.] MOVEMENTS OF ROYALISTS.
army, he directed Colonel Ferguson, a brave, popular, and energetic officer, to proceed with a detachment of regulars to Ninety-Six, and sum- mon to his assistance the loyalists of the adjoin- ing provinces. Being presently joined by two thousand disaffected Americans, exclusive of a small troop of horse, Ferguson made several in- effectual attempts to surprise McDowell in his camp. Shifting his rendezvous frequently, and keeping Shelby and Clarke with six hundred mounted men on the constant watch for detached parties of the enemy, McDowell was not only enabled to baffle the designs of Ferguson, but frequently to cut off his foragers. A skirmish of this kind occurred on the 1st of August, when Ferguson's advance, seven hundred strong, en- countered the mounted men under Shelby and Clarke, who, though forced from the field of battle by the approach of the main body under Ferguson, succeeded in carrying off with them as prisoners, two officers, and fifty rank and file.
While lying at Smith's ford of the Broad River, McDowell learned that a body of Tories were collected at Musgrove's Mill, on the south side of the Enorée, and distant from his camp about forty miles. Although Ferguson with his whole force lay midway between, Shelby, Clarke, and Williamson of South Carolina, whose re- spective commands amounted in the aggregate to six hundred mounted men, determined by a
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780.
rapid night march to evade the vigilance of Fer- guson's patrols, and fall suddenly upon the Tory camp beyond. Taking a circuitous route through the forest, during the night of the 18th of Au- gust, they reached the vicinity of the enemy before dawn the following morning, drove in the outposts, and were preparing for a general as- sault when they were informed by a countryman that the Tories had been reinforced the previous evening by six hundred regulars commanded by Colonel Innes. To retreat with horses already fatigued from hard riding would have laid the mountaineers open to a successful attack from a vigorous and superior foe, while to advance was equally dangerous. In this emergency it was decided to throw up a rude breastwork of logs and brush on the edge of a thick wood, facing a narrow lane, and in this position await the ap- proach of Innes. Captain Inman was thrown forward with twenty-five men to skirmish with the enemy at the crossing at the Enorée. In obedience to previous orders, he kept up, for a short time, a sharp fire, and then retreated. Supposing that the whole force of the Americans had been routed, the British and Tories followed in pursuit, until they came within range of the American rifles, when a deadly and destructive fire opened upon them, which was kept up for more than an hour. The dragoons and mounted militia, after being repulsed in an attempt to
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1780.]
BATTLE OF MUSGROVE'S MILL. -
force the American lines, fell back in disorder upon the regulars, who, being confined within the limits of the narrow lane where they had not room enough to form, were borne back in confu- sion. While they were thus huddled together, the rifles of the mountaineers proved terribly destructive. Sixty-three of the enemy, including all the officers with the exception of a single sub- altern, were either killed or wounded. Hawzey the Tory leader was among the former. Innes himself being also disabled, his troops became disheartened, and at length giving way on all sides, sought safety in flight. The gallant Inman pursued them to the crossing of the Enorée, where he fell mortally wounded in a hand-to- hand conflict. The loss of the British, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was two hundred and twenty-three. The American loss was four killed and nine wounded. Flushed with their recent success, Shelby and his associate partisans re- solved to proceed at once against the British post at Ninety-Six ; but in the midst of their pre- parations a messenger, despatched by McDowell, placed in the hands of Shelby a letter from Go- vernor Caswell, containing a brief account of the defeat of Gates at Camden, and advising the confederated officers to disband their respective corps until a better opportunity should offer for successful resistance. An immediate retreat across the mountains now became necessary. 12*
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780.
Mounting his prisoners behind his men, one to every three, and shifting them alternately, Shelby set out on his return, marching all night, and all the next day, without waiting for refresh- ments. This saved the troops and secured the prisoners, for the next day Ferguson sent out a strong detachment in pursuit ; but baffled by the superior activity of the mountaineers, Dupoister, the officer in command, after a chase which was continued until the evening of the second day, returned to the British camp.
CHAPTER XI.
Mountaineers disbanded-Advance of Ferguson-His message to Shelby-The mountaineers called to arms-Assemble at Watauga-Advance against Ferguson-The latter retires from Gilbert town-American reinforcement-Conference of the partisan leaders at the Cowpens-Pursuit of Ferguson- Campbell selected to command the mountaineers-Approach to King's Mountain-Order of battle-Sevier comes under fire of the enemy-The attack commenced-Courageous conduct of Ferguson-Effect of his bayonet charges-Reso- lute perseverance of the mountaineers-Flag of surrender twice torn down by Ferguson-His defiant conduct-His death-Surrender of the British and Tories-Tarleton sent to relieve Ferguson-His recall -- Retreat of Cornwallis- His subsequent movements-Battle of Guilford Court House -Capitulation at Yorktown.
AFTER the brilliant exploit at Musgrove's Mill, the mountaineers were disbanded and re-
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1780.] ADVANCE OF FERGUSON.
tired to their respective homes. The prisoners captured by Shelby were sent for safe keeping into Virginia, in charge of Colonels Clarke and Williams. The success of Cornwallis at Camden, and the subsequent disaster of Sumpter, had so thoroughly paralyzed all effort on the part of the Whigs, that, for a short period, the hope of recovering Georgia or the Carolinas from British domination seemed utterly futile. Gates was indeed striving to reorganize the scattered rem- nant of his army ; but in this desperate condition of affairs it was with great difficulty that the militia could be persuaded to report themselves for service.
At this period the main army under Cornwal- lis lay at Charlotte, North Carolina. Ferguson, with two thousand regulars and loyalists was at Gilbert Town, in Rutherford county. The posi- tion of the latter was such as enabled him to overawe the surrounding Whigs, while keeping a sharp watch upon the movements of the moun- taineers. Exasperated by the capture of Pacolet fort, and the defeat of Innes at Musgrove's Mill, he had drawn his forces nearer to the mountains ; and, on the return of the detachment sent out to recapture the prisoners taken in the last- named battle, he despatched a messenger to Washington and Sullivan counties, threatening, "that if the officers west of the mountains did not cease their opposition to the British arms,
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
- [1780.
he would march his army over, burn and lay waste their country, and hang their leaders."
Shelby received this insolent missive toward the close of August, and immediately rode from fifty to sixty miles to concert with Sevier a new plan of action. After an earnest conference, it was resolved to call in the assistance of Colonels Campbell and McDowell, and with the forces thus hastily raised in North Carolina and Vir- ginia, to make a rapid march across the moun- tains and surprise Ferguson in his camp. On the 25th of September, one thousand and forty men, in obedience to the summons of their re- spective commanders, assembled at Watauga. The following morning they commenced their march. On the 30th of September, after tra- versing the difficult defiles of the mountains, they were joined by Colonel Cleaveland and other refugee officers, with three hundred and fifty volunteers from Wilkes and Surry counties.
Fully advised of the danger by which he was threatened, Ferguson broke up his camp at Gil- bert Town, and despatched a messenger to Corn- wallis, soliciting aid. Calling at the same time upon the loyalists for reinforcements, he fell back on the 4th of October to the Cowpens. The following day he crossed Broad River to Tate's Ferry, recrossed the river at that point, and encamped about a mile above. On the 6th, he marched by way of the Ridge Road to King's
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MOVEMENT AGAINST FERGUSON.
1780.]
Creek. Passing the gap, he ascended King's Mountain and encamped upon its summit. Using an impious expression, he is said to have de- clared that here was a place from which he could not be driven. After being reinforced by the volunteers under Cleaveland, the mountaineers moved with great expedition to Gilbert Town, from whence Ferguson had already retreated. Here a council of officers was held, at which it was decided that the mounted men should hasten in pursuit, leaving the foot and weaker cavalry under the command of Major Hendon to follow after. In accordance with this arrangement, between five and six hundred picked men, mount- ed on the best horses, left Gilbert Town on the morning of the 6th of October. Fortunately for this advance party, they were reinforced on the way by additional volunteers from North Caro- lina, and by some South Carolina troops under Colonel Williams. At the Cowpens they halted for a short time to refresh; but learning that a large body of Tories was collecting at Major Gibbs's, with the intention of forming a junction with Ferguson the following day, they broke up their meal, and hurried off to bring Ferguson to an engagement before his reinforcements should arrive.
Learning that he was encamped near the Cherokee ford of the Broad River, thirty miles distant from the Cowpens, they pressed forward
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780.
all night, in the midst of a heavy rain, and crossing Broad River early the next morning encountered, soon after, two men fresh from Ferguson's camp. The information obtained from these men revived the drooping spirits of the detachment. Notwithstanding their fatigue and exhaustion from muddy roads, hunger, cold, and wet, the officers, after holding a brief con- sultation on horseback, determined to form their men in four columns, and proceed at once to the attack. The right wing, commanded by Colonels Winston and Sevier, was composed of the troops brought into the field by those officers and of the battalion of McDowell. Colonels Campbell and Shelby's regiments formed the centre, while the left was made up of Cleaveland's regiment, and the volunteers under Colonels Williams, Lacy, Hawthorne, and Hill, led by Cleaveland in per- son. By courtesy the command of the whole was given to Colonel Campbell of Virginia. Keeping the locks of their rifles dry by covering them with bags, blankets, and hunting-shirts, they took up the line of march until they ap- proached the base of King's Mountain, when " the two centre columns deployed to the right and left, pushed forward to attack the enemy in front, while the right and left wings were march- ing to surround him."
Leaving their horses in charge of a few guards, the respective columns, led by men already fami-
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1780.] BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN.
liar with the ground, proceeded with alacrity to take up the several positions assigned them. The right column was the first to come under the fire of the enemy. The action immediately com- menced. Shelby, with a part of his men, dashed up the ravine in the direction of Ferguson's camp, while the remainder of the column ascend- ed by a circuitous route to the summit of the mountain. The heaviness of the firing, and its destructive effects, obliged Ferguson to send Dupoister with a part of the regulars to the other end of his line, for the purpose of making a charge upon the American right. Thus reinforced by the regulars and the tories, they succeeded in driving the right column of the Americans to the foot of the mountain. But at this moment the left column under Cleaveland reached the opposite extremity of the encampment, and opened so destructive a fire upon the British troops in that quarter, that Ferguson was com- pelled to recall his regulars from their successful charge, and the Americans who had retreated before them returned with increased ardour to the attack.
On their way back to repel the assault of the left column of the assailants, the regulars suf- fered severely from the fire of the riflemen led by Williams. Their disorder was however speedily remedied, and by a dashing charge they drove the Americans on this side also to the foot
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780.
of the hill. In the meanwhile the mountaineers under Sevier and Winston, having regained their former position, commenced plying their rifles with so much effect that Ferguson ordered a second charge to be made upon them by his regulars. But the latter had already become so much shattered that, although supported by a number of Tories with butcher-knives fitted to the muzzles of their guns, they failed in accom- plishing the desired effect.
By this time the central columns of the Ame- ricans had reached the plateau, and the British forces being now completely surrounded, were exposed on all sides to an incessant fire from enemies who were themselves protected from injury by intervening trees, and by the rugged slope of the hill. To free himself from this desperate strait, Ferguson resorted to a succes- sion of charges with the bayonet, but as one part of the American line receded another ad- vanced; and when these were assaulted in their turn, those who had previously retreated, re- lieved from the pressure of the enemy, reascended the mountain and became in their turn the as- sailants.
Finding that a resort to the bayonet made no more than a temporary impression, and that at the close of each charge the mountaineers suc- ceeded in restricting his efforts to a narrower circle, Ferguson determined upon making an
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1780.] BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN.
attempt to break the lines of his adversaries with his cavalry. But his men were no sooner seated in their saddles than they were picked off by the unerring rifle, and the design was pre- sently abandoned. Still undaunted, Ferguson rode "from one exposed point to another of equal danger, encouraging his troops to prolong the conflict. He carried in his wounded hand a shrill sounding silver whistle, the signal of which being universally known in the ranks, was of immense service throughout the battle, and gave a kind of ubiquity to his movements." Keeping close under the crest of the hill, the American riflemen, with that accuracy of aim which had already made them famous, maintained the ground they had won with the utmost coolness and daring. At length, alarmed at the manner in which their ranks were ceaselessly swept away on every quarter, some of the Tories raised a white flag as a sign of surrender. It was in-
stantly torn down by Ferguson. "A second flag was hoisted at the other end of the line. He rode there too and cut it down with his sword." Dupoister, the next officer in command, counselled him to surrender, but he indignantly spurned the advice. Cheering those nearest him with voice, mien, and example, and rousing the faltering confidence of those more distant by the shrill notes of his whistle, he succeeded in infusing a portion of his own indomitable spirit
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HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780.
into the breasts of all under his command; and the contest was contined with a sort of blind, confused, reckless desperation, until Ferguson fell dead from his horse, pierced by a bullet from the rifle of some unknown mountaineer.
The Americans now advanced upon the pla- teau, and closed more firmly around the strug- gling masses of the enemy. Although suffering a considerable loss by this more perfect ex- posure of their persons, they vigorously fol- lowed up their success until Dupoister, losing all hope of extricating his men, raised a flag of surrender and cried out for quarter. Along some portions of the assaulting line the firing was immediately suspended ; but as it still con- tinued in other quarters, under the impression that the surrender was not general, Shelby shouted to the enemy to throw down their guns; and this being done, 'the attack immediately ceased. After the confusion incident to the surrender had subsided, the prisoners were or- dered from their arms and marched to another part of the plateau, where they were securely surrounded by a double guard. The loss of the British and Tories in this well-fought battle was two hundred and thirty-five in killed, one hun- dred and eighty in wounded, and seven hundred made prisoners of war. Fifteen hundred stand of arms, with a large amount of baggage and plunder, fell into the hands of the victors. The
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DEFEAT OF TARLETON.
1781.]
loss of the Americans was twenty-eight killed, and sixty wounded. The principal officers who fell on this occasion were Colonel Williams and Major Chronicle. The latter was struck down early in the action, the former in the moment of victory ; Like Wolfe, he lived just long enough to express his satisfaction at the signal triumph of his countrymen, and died with a smile upon his lips.
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