The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-08-29
BAcKwcoDsMEN AND BRITISH.

Frontier Patriots Gathered to Oppose the
| Forces of CORVALLIS.
When CORVALLIS invaded North
Carolina, he sent Ferguson into the
western part of the state to crush
out any of the patriot forces that
might still be lingering among the
foothills. Ferguson was very gal
liant and able officer and man of
much influence with the people
wherever he went, so that he was
peculiarly fitted for this scrambling
border warfare. He had under him
Ia battalion of regular troops and
several battaljons of Tory militia
In all 1, 100 or 1, 200 men. He shat
tered and drove the small bands of
Wings that were yet in arms and
finally pushed to the foot of the
mountain wall till he could see in
his front the high ranges of the
Great Smokes. Here he learned for
the first time that beyond the noun
taiEs there lay few hamlets of from
tiersmen whose homes were on what
were then called the Western Waters
that is, the waters which flowed
into the Mississippi. To these he
sent word that if they did not prove
loyal to the king he would cross the
mountains, hang their leaders and
burn their VILLAGES
Beyond the mountains in the val
leys of the Holston and the Watauga
dwelt men who were stout of heart
and mighty in battle, and when they
heard the threats of Ferguson their
hearts burned with fame of sullen
| anger. Hitherto the foes against
whom they had warred had been
not the British, but the Indian allies
of the British-Creek and Cherokee
and Shawnee. Now that the army of
the king had come to their thresh-
olds they turned to meet it as
fiercely as they had met their Indian
allies. Among the backwoodsmen of
this REGION there were at that time
three men of special note-Sevier,
who afterward became governor of
Tennessee; Shelby, who afterward
became governor of Kentucky, and
Campbell, the Virginian, who died
in the Revolutionary war. Sewer
had given a great barbecue, where
oxen and deer were roasted whole,
| horse races were run, and the
backwoodsmen tried their skill as
marksmen and wrestlers. In the
midst of the feasting Shelby appear
ed, hot with hard riding, to tell of
the approach of Ferguson and the
British. Immediately the feasting
was stopped, and the feasters made
ready for war. Sewer and Shelby
sent word to Campbell to rouse the
men of his district and come with
out delay, and they sent messengers
to and fro in their own neighborhood
I'd summon the settlers from their
log huts on the stump dotted clear
ings and the hunters from their
smoky cabins in the deep woods.
The meeting place was at the Syca-
more shoals. On the appointed day
the backwoodsmen gathered, 1000
strong, each man carrying a long
| rifle and mounted on a tough, shay
gy horse. They were O grim and
fierce people, accustomed to the
chase and to warfare with the In
dams. Their hunting shirts of buck
skin or homespun were girded in by
bead worked belts, and the trappings
! of their horses were stained red and
yellow.
AT the gathering there was black
frocked Presbyterian preacher, and
before they started he addressed the
tail ridemen in words of burning
zeal, urging them to stand stoutly
in the battle and to smite with the
sword of the Lord and of Gideon"
Then the army started, the back
woods colonies riding in 'front.'
Hero Tales From American His
tory" by Theodore Roosevelt, in st.
Nicholas