Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-10-04
4oRnlar &eaoing.
OF KINGS MOUNTAIN.
nv w. GILMORE SIMMS.

p~f CO
BATTLE OF KINGS MOUNTAIN.
BY W. GILMORE sIMMs.
THE battle of Kings Mountain, fought
October 7, 1880, constituted aturning point
in the war of the Revolution in the South ;
the British and Tories, under Colonel Fer.
guson, being defeated, with great slaughter,
by the mountaineers of Virginia, Georgia,
aud the two Carolinas. The battle took
place in South Carolina, but only a mile
and a half south of the North Carolina line.
Colonel Furguson was one Of the most dis.
tinguished of the British p~artizan warriors
in America, during the Revolution. He
was especially opposed, as a great leader of
riAemen, to the Southern riAemen was him
self an inventor Of an improved rifle which,
in that day, gained him large reputation.
His bravery was remarkable, as we'll as his
skill. During the battle he used a silver
whistle, which was to be heard sounding
everywhere through all the din of the con-
Aict. The Tory chiefs were executed on
the spot soon after the battle. Tradition
says that ten were hung from the tree
which appears on the right in our view of
the battle-ground. The Deckard rifle was
named, we believe, from a famous maker
of that region; it was the weapon most 10
use among the mountaineers of the South
during the period of the Revolution 1t is,
perhaps, not so generally known that along
the dividing ridges of the two Carolinas,
there have been manufacturers of the rifle
famous for the excellence of this weapon
from a very early period. Even in the
Revolution the native rifle has been Known
to kill across a river ESQ yards wide. This
at that period was held to be almost
miraculous.]
Hark tits the voice of the mountain,
And it speaks to our heart in its pride,
As it tells of the bearing of heroes
Who comprised It's SUBMITS and died!
How they gather'd to the strife as the eagles,
When the foeman had clamber'd the height f!
How, with scent keen and eager as beagles,
They hunted him down for the fight!
Hurrah!
Hark through the gorge of the valley,
TITS the bugle that tells of the foe;
Our own quickly sounds for the rally,
And we snatch down the rifle and 60.
As the hunter who hears of the panther,
Each arms him and leaps to his steed,
Rides forth through the desolate antre,
With his knife and his rife at need.
Hurrah!
From a thousand deep gorges they gather
From the cot lowly perch'd by the rill,
The cabin half hid in the heather,
Meath the crag where the eagle keeps still ;
Each lonely at first in his roaming,
Till the vale to the sight opens fair,
And sees the low cot through the cleaning,
When his bugle gives tongue to the air.
Hurrah!
Thus a thousand brave hunters assemble
. For the hunt of the ~insolent foe;
And soon shall his myrmidons tremble
Meath the shock of the thunder bolts blow.
Down the long heights now wind they together,
As the mountain brook flows to the vale,
And now, as they group on the heather,
The keen scout delivers his tale.
Hurrah!
The British-the 1Jries are on us,
And now is the moment to prove,
To the women whose virtues have won US,
That our virtues are wcr' y their love!
They have swept the vast valleys below US
With fire, to the hills from the sea;
And here they would seek to o'erthrow us
In n realm which our eagle makes free :?
Hurrah
No war council! suffcr'd to triae
With the hours devote TO the deed;
Swift FOLLOWED the grasp of the rifle,
Swift FOLLOWED the bound of the steed;
And soon, to the eyes of our yeomen,
All painting with rage at the sight,
Cleaned the long wavy tents of the foemen,
As he lay in his camp on the height.
Hurrah!
Grim dash'd they away as they bounded,
The hunters to hen in the prey,
And with Deckarl's long rifles surrounded.
Then the British rose fast to the fray;
And never, with arms of more vigor,
Did their hayonets pass through the strife,
Where, with every swift pull of the trigger,
The sharp shooters fash'd out q life!
Hurrah
Twas the meeting of the engles and lions,
Twas the rushing of tempests and waves,
Insolent triumph 'gainst patriot defiance,
Born freemen 'gainst sycophant slaves;
Scotch Ferguson sounding his whistle,
As from danger to danger he flies
Feels the moral that lies in Scotch thistle,
With its touch me who dare " and he dies!
Hurrah
An hour and the battle is over,
The eagles are rending the prey;
The serpents seek flight into cover,
But the terror still stands in the way:
More dreadful the doom that on treason
Avenges the wrongs of the State;
And the oak tree for many a season
Bears its fruit for the vultures of Fate
Hurrah!
A MONSTER PREss.-The Scientific
american thus describes a monster steam