Wichita eagle., 1889-05-01
7RRsA!,p!Ezs
"a ssSI asal
KINGS MOUNTAIN.
The Most Extraordinary Battle Of
the Revolution.
How One of CORVALLIS Colonies Insulted
the Settlers in the Cumberland Mount
aims and Thereby Caused His
Own Destruction.
lSt. Louis Republican,

The battle of Kings Mountain was
fought one hundred and six years ago. 1t
was not only the most extraordinary bat
tie Of the revolution, but the very happiest
IN its effect On the temper of the almost
nespalring patriots, and on the plans
which resulted in the final event of the
war the capture of CORVALLIS army,
Just one year afterward 1t was absolute
ty unexpected. There was not only no
place for il either in the strategy of Wash
lngton or CORVALLIS, but there was no
body of men known to the Continental
Congress to fight it. A few settlements
Of emigrants from Virginia and North
Carolina, it was vaguely known, existed
over the Cumberland Mountains, in re-
gion which now forms part of the State Of
Tennessee; but they were thought to be so
few in numbers, with as much as they
rould do in defending their lives against
the repeated fierce attacks of the Creek
Indians, that no reckoning whatever was
taken of them by the Continental
Congress, nor by the colony of North Caro-
lima, to whom, without knowing it, they be-
longed. Indeed, they were so far away
from the fields of the struggle that they
might as well have belonged to the Span
tsh authorities in the Southwest for all the
good any one dreamed they would ever be
to the patriot cause. And, indeed, they
might have been content to remain in their
rude cabin homes in the charming valleys
Of the HOlston, French Broad, Watauga
and NOlachucky, without much concern in
the sluggish war going on east of the
great mountains, had it not been for the
rash insolence of Colonel Patrick Fergu-
son, of Corvallis army. Ferguson was a
rugged and daring fighter, and, having
learned that the patriot leaders whose COM
mands he had routed and dispersed in the
Carolinas had found refuge in the over
mountain settlements, he sent word to
Isaac Shelby and John Sewer, chief men
in the mountains, that if they and their
friends did not at once submit to and rec
ogni8e the Kings authority he would cross
the mountains and lay waste their country
Shelby was not man TO be subdued by
such menace as this. He was
Marylander by birth, of Welsh
descent, and had seen some rough serv-
ice against the Indians and British in
Virginia and the Carolinas. Bancroft says
Of him: shelby was man of the hardest
make, stiff as iron, among the dauntless
singled out for dauntles sness, who went
right onward and upward like a man who
had but one thing to do, and but one
thought-to do it," When, therefore. Fer
guson's letter reached him, he mounted
his horse and rode forty miles to the capa-
cious log mansion of his friend, John
Sewer, on the Watauga. They consulted
q night ard a day, and the result was
what might have been eXpected-a deter.
m!nation to fight, and not only to Il ght, but
TO go IL search of Ferguson and fight him
on his own ground. The settlements were
rallied by runners, and in a short time all
the aole-bodled gun-men were assembled
a. Sycamore Shoals on the 25th of Septem-
Der. Even old men and boys obeyed the
order, and IT was actually found necessary
60 make a draft-not to decide who should
60, but who should stay at home, for the
mountaineers were stern, wild fighting
presbyterians, who, when piece Of work
had TO be done, went about il in true
Scotch-Irish spirit. They called themselves
she Western army They were not under
the authority of Washington nor of the
Continental Congress. They knew no au-
thority but that of Shelby and Sewer. and
that they cheerfully recognized and obeyed
with alacrity. They had no guns
but their own hunting rifles; no bullets
but what they nodded with their
own hands; no baggage train, and
no commissariat, but the bags of
corn SWStNclSU Win ma
pie strip, which each man carried for him
sell and the sweet potato patches that lay
along the line of march As they marched
they were Joined by body of Virginians
under Colonel Campbell and Triplett, some
patriot refugees under Mcdowell, Clark,
cleveland, Williams and Chronicle, till they
had larger force than was needed, and
ene-fourth the men were dismissed, leav-
ing only slo in the expedition Ferguson
hau nesrd OF their coming, and for once in
us NE was forced TO take counsel of dis
eretlon and post himself on the slight ele-
vat-on called Kings Mountain, near the
aortnern boundary of South Carolina, to
await 'he STACK In this position he felt
SO secure that he declared t.hell itself eoul6
not dlslodge him. And yet, if the mount
ain men themselves had had the posting
of him, the position could not have SHIFTED |
their purposes better ~ forced march |