Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1880-02-26
Nollicbucky Among the mountains of
Burke and Rutherford, Mcdowell

Nollchucky. Among the mountains of
Burke and Rutherford, Mcdowell
"sprang forth and seized the fatal sign; -
Campbell and his Virginians saw the 'cross
of fire,
%And pressing forward . I'd like hosts the w,,ind'
and wherever the fiery symbol flew
"The fisherman forsook the strand,
The swarthy smith took dirk and brand,
With changed cheer the mower blithe,
| Left in the halfcut swarth his scythe.
The herds without keeper ssrayed,
| The plough was in mid furrow staid;
| Prompt at the signal of alarms,
Each son Of Freedom rushed to arms,
And as they came, the signal cry was heard
The muster-p place is Lanric Mead;
Speed for the signal, comrades, speed!'
Sycamore Shoalr was the muster place, and
the 25th of September the time for the gath
ering. And at the appointed day the clans
men were there ready for the battle charge.
Selecting from those that had mustered the
best material, they began their search for him
who had threatened them with a traitors
doom. After few days they found him at
Kings Mountain. 1t is not necessary to my
purpose to recite the details of that engage
ment. Suffice it to say their victory was
complete. Ferguson and three hundred Of
his men were slain and wounded. The re-
naming eight hundred, with all their arms
and munitions of war, fell into the hands of
the victors Here fell Chronicle and the
brave Williams, and twenty-six of their pa
triot followers. Peace to their noble ashes !
Gathered to their fathers, they live in the
history of the country they died to save. 1t
was day of triumph to the struggling States,
and one Of terror to the loyalists. Cornwall
lis lost here one fourth of his army, and with
communications threatened by Marion and
Sumter and Pickens, he fell back to Camden
and abandoned his projected conquest of
North Carolina. 1t checked the invasion Of
Virginia by Gen. Leslie, who depended upon
CORVALLIS cooperation, and thus two States
we're rescued from British subjugation. The
day of disaster had now closed. CORVALLIS,
depleted in forces, was unable afterward to
strike decisive blow Defeated at Cowpens,
profting nothing by his victory at Guilford
Courthouse, he retreated to Wilmington; /;
thence to Virginia, where at Yorktown he
surrendered to our own Washington. For
these facts | am indebted to Frost's and Der
ry's History of the United States, and Rev.
+ Robert Lathans sketch of the battle Of
Kings Mountain.
The storm of revolution that had swept in
such fury over the Young Republic had now
spent its force. Fainter and fainter grew its
mutterings; more distant and less frequent
were the flashes of its wrath; for the sunshine
of peace was dispelling the exhausted clouds,
and the bow of promise was arching, with
its splendor, the gloomy grandeur Of the re-
firing storm.
Happy realization Of patriotic hope and
prophetic promise! Revolution had brought
disaster and bankruptcy and death, yet it had
brought liberty and independence. Asthe star
that rose over Judea's plain guided the wise
men of the East until it stood over lowly Beth
lehem, where lay the promised Saviour, "born
to set his people free so the star of Revolution
that rose over Lexington went before our pa
triot fathers at Bunker Hill and Trenton, at
Camden and Saratoga, at Monmouth and
Kings Mountain, until it stood still over
Yorktown, where lay the infant Goddess of
Liberty, cradled in revolution and baptized in
blood the herald Of "peace on earth and good
will toward men,"
Peace was now achieved, and q feeling Of
Joy and enthusiasm pervaded the country.
Seven years from the laying ofits foundations,
was Solomon in "building house unto the
Lord" which gave to the Hebrew worship a
magnifcence that bound Israel more closely
to her national rites; and for seven years our
fathers were building the temple of freedom,
the splendor of whose service has challenged
the admiration of the world.
A century has finished its cycle since its
completion, and though tempests have swept
over it and the earthquake Of revolution has
shaken its foundation, the ark Of the cove
nant is still "in the oracle Of the house," and
the cherubim of peace covers it with her out
stretched wings.
In that temple, Liberty erected her affairs
and promulgated a new ritual Of political
ethics for the government of mankind. The
first high priest that oficiated around those
affairs was Washington, who, uniting the he
roism of the soldier to the wisdom of the
statesman, rolled the tide of invasion back
ward to its trans atlantic source and gave an
offering of freedom to those who had shared
soldiers danger, and the blessing Of inde-
pendence to nation that had been saved by
his soldier daring. Upon these altars shone
the light of new Civilizations civilization
which was the fostering mother of new princi-
pies of government, and which marked an
important period in the annals of the human
race a period characterized by the establish
ment of the principles of popular government
on the basis of representation a period OF
written constitution with its grants and limi.
tations; period of religious tolerance, edu-
cational advantages and civil liberty.
Hail, eventful era, hail ! Birthday Of In
dependence; dawning morning of Liberty !!
Never did storm-tossed mariner, rocked by
the billow and lashed by the tempest through
stormy night, his vessel dismantled, her
rudder gone, hail with more delight the morn
ing when the king of day would silence the
tempest and calm the waves, than did our
war-worn fathers hail that morning when the
day.star of liberty arose, dispelling the war
clouds gloom, and suffusing its radiance over
homes, people and country. Joy filled every
heart; enthusiasm swelled every bosom; while
from hilltop and valley, from woodland and
town, rolled the songs Of victory in strains
as exultant as those
''That foated over the waves
From Miriam's timbrel and from Moses tongue"
Across the rolling deep shone the light of
that morning star. All Europe was enthused
with the glory of its rising and the efulgence
of its beams. France caught the spirit OF
liberty, and her Marseilles of freedom filled
hovel and palace hall, temple and camp, un'
til the throne of the Bourbons, and royalty,
crownless and spendorless, wept over its ruins
But the Republicanism of France was the
desnotism of liberty: and because of want