CHAPTER XXXII.
SECOND INVASION OF THE STATE—BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN.
A. D. 1780.
The disaster at Camden left North Carolina without defence against invasion by the British under Lord Cornwallis. But the spirit of Governor Nash and his people was high, and they did not for a moment relax their efforts for the support of the war. In a short time five thousand Continental and militia troops were in motion for the neighborhood of Charlotte.
2. Generals Jethro Sumner and William L. Davidson were put in command of two camps, where the raw levies were drilled and equipped for the field. Colonel Davie was still continually in the enemy's front, to watch and report every movement. Since the rout and dispersion of General Sumter's command by Tarleton, on August 19th, Davie's Battalion was the only mounted force left in the South.
3. In September, Lord Cornwallis at last moved forward from his camp at Camden. He sent Colonel Patrick Ferguson toward the scene of the late Tory defeat at Ramsour's Mill. This Colonel Ferguson was one of the ablest officers in the British army. He was cool, daring and well skilled in everything relating to the conduct of military affairs. He could command men in camp and in battle, and excelled all others in arousing the spirit of the Tories. He induced hundreds of men to take sides with the King when another would have failed.
4. As Lord Cornwallis marched upon North Carolina, Colonel Davie hung upon his front and fell back only as compelled by the advance of the British. He made but one dash against his pursuers before reaching Charlotte; but on arriving there he and Major Joseph Graham halted under the courthouse, in the middle of the village, and surprised Cornwallis and the whole British army by a resistance so bloody and stubborn as to prove the right of that place to the name of "Hornet's Nest," which Cornwallis bestowed upon it.
[NOTE—Davie's whole force did not number more than two hundred men, and yet so cool and bravely did they meet the British assault that the enemy was several times driven back. Major Graham was, at that time, just twenty-one years old, and he exhibited such courage and conduct as have never been excelled. In one attack upon him he received nine wounds and was left for dead on the field, but made his escape.]
5. The English commander was so harassed by the daring attacks of the militia upon his men at McIntyre's Farm and elsewhere in that neighborhood that he concluded to remain at Charlotte until he could hear from Colonel Ferguson. That officer had halted at a place called Gilberttown, where his one hundred and fifty British Regulars were soon reinforced by large numbers of native Royalists, who came to the English flag to take service in its behalf.
6. Colonel Charles McDowell and others, hearing that Ferguson was enrolling the Tories, met at Watauga and took counsel against him. No general was present, and McDowell was so old they feared he would be unable to endure the probable hard marching necessary to overtake their wily foe. Colonel Campbell, of Virginia, as a courtesy to one belonging outside of the State, was put in command by the North Carolina officers, and they set out with about eleven hundred men to look for the enemy.
7. Colonels Shelby, Sevier, Cleveland, and Major Joseph McDowell, of North Carolina, together with Colonel Williams, of South Carolina, selected nine hundred picked men from their mounted force, and through the stormy thirty hours of their march kept their saddles, until, on the morning of the 7th of October, they found the foe with eleven hundred and twenty-five men on the summit of King's Mountain. It was a strong position, but the heroic mountaineers at once surrounded it and began the attack.
8. Ferguson fought like a lion at bay, but the deadly rifles of the assailants were plied upon his ranks as the Royalists were pushed back step by step. Time and again the British commander headed the Regulars, and by desperate charges down the mountain side drove back a portion of the advancing Whig lines. At last Ferguson was slain, after being many times wounded, and soon the British fire slackened, and then to the nine hundred militiamen of the hills the remnant of the Royalists laid down their guns. Six hundred men became prisoners of war.
9. This was a bloody but a glorious victory. The number of British dead was unusually great. Their proportion of wounded was perhaps smaller than was ever seen in a modern battle. The Whigs lost three field officers, one captain and fifty-three privates.
10. It was a most opportune success, and apprised Lord Cornwallis of what dangers might await his further advance. He became so disheartened upon learning of the disaster that he at once fell back to Winnsboro, in South Carolina. North Carolina was again free from invaders, and the tories of every section felt their hopes sink as they realized the swiftness and completeness of this overthrow. Every patriot heart, however, once more beat with hope and joy.
11. The victory of King's Mountain was the turning point of the war in the South, and foreshadowed the final success of the American armies in the following year. The arrival of General Nathaniel Greene, who now took command of the Southern army, in place of General Gates, secured every advantage of the situation. He was from Rhode Island, and had been a blacksmith, but was a man of rare military genius, and as such had been singled out by General Washington to occupy an important place.
12. General Greene soon proved himself a great commander. He was gentle, unselfish and true, and loved the cause for which he fought better than his own life. He was brave, cautious and quick to seize upon all the faults of his opponent. He could patiently wait until battle was proper, and even in apparent defeat was really more dangerous than less competent commanders with a foe beaten and in full flight.