Wilmington journal., 1876-02-18
AVENGERS.
A Story of Partisan Days.
This for gallant Ferguson |

The foregoing five words had insti
tuted a reign of terror in one of the
lovGest districts of the Palmetto State,
district watered by the Catawba
and Pacolet rivers, and their gentle
tributaries.
In the month of September, 1880,
CORVALLIS detached the notorious
Col. Ferguson to the frontiers OF
North Carolina, for the ostensible pur-
pose of encouraging the tories of that
| region to take up arms for the king
Ferguson's force consisted in part OF
the most profigate and abandoned
| characters of tue partisan days, ind
his march was marked by atrocities
of the most shocking description
The hardy men of the Carolinas, Ken
tucky, and Virginia, rose against the
marauders, and, led by Boone and
other backwoods worthless, gave them
a decisive defeat at Kings Mountain.
Ferguson was slain in battle, and his
fellow foragers, numbering about one
thousand, were nearly all captured or
killed.
We shall have rest now, the patriots
said, after the battle. Ferguson, the
dreaded, is dead, and the few tories
who escaped with their wretched lives
are not strong enough to do us harm.
But the settlements were soon to
learn that the victory of Kings Mount
ain had nerved the arm of a foe more
terrible than any which they had
hitherto known.
The existence of the new terror was
discovered by a boy one morning
about fortnight after the battle. He
found the family of Archibald Mettson
murdered in their own house, and to
the corpses had been pinned pape1
bearing these words:
This for the gallant Ferguson
This terrible atrocity aroused the
country, and the excitement was
quickly heightened by the finding of
the body of another murdered patriot.
On the cold breast, which had been
pierced by pistol balls, was the paid
paper and its words of terrible import,
and the country knew that fearful
vengeance would be taken for Kings
Mountain.
During the week that followed the
discoveries have mentioned, the work
of the Avengers was terrible. They
fell upon patriot houses at the dead of
night, and left on the bosom of their
victims the five words which had
already terrorized the country. Il was
in vain that the patriots summoned
their cunning and energy for the cap
ture of the band of demons, which, as
it Lad been discovered, numbered six
men, masked and mounted on black
horses. They came and went like
ghosts, but always left behind the ter
rlble sentence which had made their
existence execrable At times they fell
upon the hunters, and left them by the
roadside marked with the sign of
vengeance.
Fear began to paralyze the Carroll
mans; many abandoned their homes
for the sake of their families; and it is
probable that the entire district would
have been depopulated in short time,
had it not been for the courage of one
woman.
Her name was Alice Beauchampe.
1t was dark night in the last week
of November, when the heroine of my
story left the house of a friend. Her
own house which had been deserted
for several days, was not far away, and
she had determined to return to it for
the purpose of securing an article of
apparel she had left behind in her re-
cent fight.
She could enter the old house
through the kitchen, in the rear, find
the garment without light, and then
return safely to her friends.
The path she had often traversed
was barely discernable; but she made
good headway, and reached her home
without incident. The silence of the
grave hung about the forsaken place,
and the lifting of the latch sent chill
of terror to the young girls heart.
Through the kitchen, across the de-
serted parlor, and up the stairs, she
crept to the room where she had left
the object of her nocturnal quest. The
drawer of the old bureau yielded with
out noise, and Alice was drawing forth
the garment when voices of men fell
upon her ears.
She started, dropped her prize, and
with her heart in her throat, crept to
the window that overlooked the porch
in the front of the house.
She could see nothing, for the night
was too dark; but the voices of men,
mingled with the champing of bits,
continued to salute her ears.
This is old Beauchampe's house,
said one. 1t has been deserted for sew
eral days. The daughter, frightened
by the manner in which we treated her
father, has fed somewhere for protec-
ton.
These words drove every vestige of
color from the listeners face; they told
her who the men below were, though
she could not see even the outlines of
their persons. One week prior to her
visit, her father, one of the Kings
Mountain heroes, was found dead in a
palmetto grove, and the words of Fer
guson's Avengers lay on his breast
Then she had deserted her home,
knowing that the hand that struck the
father would certainly not spare the
daughter.
Well might the lone girl tremble
when she found herself so near the
dreaded scourges of the country, and
she did not move until she heard the
front door opened by kick, and
heavily booted feet in the room below.
Then a calm thought of her situation
drove fear from her heart, and Alice
Beauchampe prepared to perform one
Revolutionary War.
The noise in the house increased,
and oaths and rude jests preceded
duu lOlIO"ou Luo llSAbIuS VI d AIo Ou
the hearth.
Alice, who had longed for sight OF
the dreaded six, crept to a spot near
the bureau where there was a crack in
the floor Then applying her eye to
the peep hole she saw six wild look
ing men directly beneath her.
Tney were beyond donbt, the aven-
gers of Ferguson's death. for several
masks lay on the table. along With
three or four bottles of wine which
they had taken from some patriot s
cellar Tall and rongh looking fei-
lows they were, armed with pistols.
carbinas and sabres, the kind of men
who never court the mercy or listen 20
the pleading of Innocence. Just such
fellows as tIey were. Aloe had sD5-
posed them TO he, Tor she had seen
many of the priseiets taken at King
Mountain, ard shs longea for the pres.
ence OF a i,and Of patriots. There
were true men IN Sonth Carolina at
that time who would hava gwen their
right arm for chance to exterminate
the Avengers, aud Alice knew where 4
little party of patriots las, but alas