Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-06-28
CHAPTER VIII.
Shall we resign
Our hopes, renounce our rights, forget our wrongs
Because an impotent lip beneath crown
Cries, "Be it so?"
Shall we resign

shall we resign
Our hopes renounce our rights, forget our wrongs
Because an impotent lip beneath crown
Cries, "Be it 90
SIR A. HUNT's JULIAN
sAll that is best springs from the heart,
and this sudden and spontaneous gathering
on the banks of the Wautauga, sprang from
the heart of the mountains west of the AL
leghanies. 1t was voluntary act of pa
triotism, planned by no congress, ordered
by no executive. Human charity called
them together-the need of their fellow
men. These rude denizens of the forest,
these strange wild men from unknown
mountains where mature dwelt in awful
solitude assembled together not only from
the love of country but their love Of virtue !;
though pever witnessing the horrors of civil
war, their spirits were fired, their souls
indignant at the records of crime and
slaughter that were daily brought to their
ears. They heard of human brothers, who
for the crime of loving their country, were
bound to their own door posts-their wives
and daughters ravished before their eyes,
and they at length perishiug in the flames
of their dwellings; they heard of women
ripped open by the butcher-knife of the
Tory, for the crime of refusing to betray
their own husbands; they heard of sons
hung ike dogs or butchered like beasts,
because they were the children of Whig
parents. They heard of American States
men, the pure patriots who had sacrificed
their all for freedom, bound with the Brit
ish felou, suffering indignities and distress
in common with those who were accused
of crimes, tending to subvert the peace and
existence of society. They heard of others
tenderly nurtured, accustomed to the CON-
forts and ,uxuries of life, obliged to aban-
don their homes and seek safety in their
native woods and swamps Rapine, out
rage and murder seemed to be the pas
time of their enemies civil rights and Or
der were now no longer objects of attention,
but the will of the strongest was law
Reused to a righteous horror against the
perpetrators Of such crimes, they left their
homes, encouutering dangers from which
the bravest might shrink, to battle for the
sympathies and sweet charities of life
And their courage and fortitude lay not on
ly IN attacking an enemy superior to them
selves in numbers and munitions of war an
enemy established in the strongest military
posts of the State, from Savannah to North
Carolina-at Augusta, Ninety-Six, CRANKY,
Wiuusboro', Camden and Charlotte-but
they knew their departure from their homes
was signal for British emissaries to ex-
cite herds of savages to burn their dwell
liDgs and murder ther wives and children.
Every breeze echoed, in imagination, the
Indian war whoop with the shrieks of their
murdered families and the dying groans of
loved and dear ones. But trampling this
fear in the dust, this noble band in abiding
trust in God and their cause, nerved their
hearts not ouly in their courage to meet
their foe, but in the faith, to trust their
wives aud little ones to His keeping. The
army had received intelligence that Major
Ferguson had advanced as high as Gilbert
Town, in Rutherford County, North Caro-
lima, and threatened to cross the mountains
to the western waters to entrap, if possible,
our gallant partisan Clarke, who was now
retreatiug from Augusta towards the noun