Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-10-08

Six. But there came the terrible news
Of the complete defeat of Gates Conti-
mental Army at Camden, 80 they, too,
must retreat-the mountain men to
their homes beyond the Blue Ridge,
and the rest over the border into
North Carolina. These are now the
dark days Of the Revolution, darker
than any time since the drear winter
of Valley Forge. Marion was in hid
ing; Sumter had been surprised and
beaten at Hanging Rock and his force
had scattered; the shattered remnants
of Gates demoralized army had fed
to Hillsboro, North Carolina; Cornwall
lis was at Charlotte, prepared to do In
North Carolina what he had done in
its sister stale to the south, and then,
moving into Virginia to strike Wash
ington, and put down forever the cause
of human liberty on these shores; Fer
guson had swept up to the very foot
Of the mountains on the west driving
everything before him, awing the cow
ardly, winning over the weak and hes
itating, and Staying where he could
those stubborn patriots who yet held
out and destroying their homes. Well
could he and CORVALLIS report that
the rebellion was at an end in South
Carolina. Dark and desperate seemed
the cause Of free men and free in
would seem but the futile dream Of
those who took no sane reckoning OF
conditions. Further resistance were a
vain and useless waste Of life and
property. The sun Of liberty had gone
down in the stormy darkness Of a
starless and uncertain night.
Early in September, Ferguson, be-
fore moving eastward from Gilbert
Town, sent a message to the mountain
chieftains on the Watauga, the Nola-
chucky, and the Holston, that If they
did not desist from their opposition to
British arms, he would march his
army over the mountains, hang their
leaders, and lay waste their country
with fire and sword" Wrong
ly he reckoned in the real effect of
such a message. 1t came as a chal-
lenge to men little accustomed to let
a challenge pass without taking 1t up.
Besides, It held out threat Of inva-
sion and the destruction Of homes, but
recently won from the wilderness and
the savage. Humble log cabins though
they were, resting under the shadow OF
great mountains, they were yet the
homes of American free men, and with
the blood in their veins and the race
memories that cling about their tradi-
tions, their first duty was to keep
these homes sacred within and safe
from any attack without. Moreover,
these men were not Of the sort to
wait for the foe to come to them. They
were accustomed to seek their foes.
On the 25th Of September, at the call
of their leaders, the mountain men met
at Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga.
1t is a fateful and significant gather
ing. The destiny Of the future republic
is involved in it. Campbell is there
with his four hundred Virginians;
Shelby has brought two hundred and
forty of his Holston men to join them
to an equal number from the banks
of the Watauga under Sewer. Looking
back upon them from this distance Of
time, one must say that that Is ro-
mantically picturesque company of
men who gathered together on that
bright September day, with the clear
flowing Watauga at their feet and
their great hills towering above them,
glowing in the first gorgeous penciling
! of autumn. AS they move to and fro
in groups discussing the supreme ques-
tion Of the hour or gather In mass to
hear what their leaders have to say,
they are well worth our considering,
who and of what sort they are. Clad
in the familiar fringed hunting shirt
of the frontiersman,, their long hair
flowing from beneath coonskin or
minkskin caps, their feet Shod in the
moccasin Of their Indian foes, in their
belt the knife and tomahawk, and in
their hands, ever ready, reaching from
foot to chin, the long deadly rifle, in
| the use of which they had become
marvelously expert, they step before
our modern eyes as singularly roman
| tic and picturesque figures. They are
our Knight-errant Of the wilderness
"the advance guard Of western civiliza-
| ton and the rear guard or the ReVo-
lutiCn;" tall, grim, gaunt, keen-eyed,
| toll hardened men, with nerves Of steel
and muscles of iron, rude of speech,
rough of manner, and stern OF deed,
| their struggle to subdue the wilderness
and their contests with the Indians had
made them resourceful, self-reliant,
| independent, brave. They were essen
TALLY a product of their surroundings
and Of their manner of life. They
were not builders of towns; they were,
however, home builders in the wilder
ness, and therefore woodmen, hunters,
indian fighters.
| But they were far more than this.
Before the middle Of the eighteenth
century Scotch-Irish settlers had come
over from the Old World, and pushing
beyond the seacoast, beyond even the
Piedmont hills, had crossed the Blue
| Ridge and claimed for their own the
fertile valleys between the two Appa-
lachian ranges. They were a strong,
virile, vigorous folk, and having the
blood of the Covenanters in their
veins, they were committed unalterahly
by instinct, tradition, and practice to
civil and religious liberty. They and
their descendants became the most
American of Americans. By and by
the thin line of settlements which they
first established was strengthened by
the enterprising men of other faiths
and blood who also loved liberty
Swedes Germans, English and even
ISprinkling of HuguenOts. But in the
course of time all became subdued to
the prevailing stern Scotch-lrish Pres
Ibyterian type, a type, If not always
IcOnsiderate of other peoples rights, at
least ever tenacious of their own. In
their rude cabins in the shadowy gloom
of the unbroken forest, fighting In
dians, clearing a bit of land for next
years crop, enduring all manner OF
lhardships, today q son or father or
brother slain by treacherous foe, to-
morrow wife or daughter or sister car
ried off to captivity worse than death,
they were trained in an iron school OF
lexperience. and 1t made iron men of
q stock already possessed of not a few
of the iron virtues.
And in this school they lost none
of their love of liberty, nor abated one
lot of their StubbornnesS in holding 1t,
or their quick willingness to fight for
lit AS early as 1872 they had set up
on the banks of the Watauga the first
organized form Of government ever set
up by American born men on this con-
tinent And their articles Of govern
ment show two things-first that they
knew what freedom was, and secondly,
that they knew how to organize 1t
practically into Institutions
They naturally, from the beginning,
ardently espoused the cause Of the