side of Abbott's Creek, a tributary of the Yadkin), at half past two in the afternoon, not a flake of snow remained. Charley and I had already lunched by the margin of a little stream, so I drove through the village without halting, hoping to reach Salisbury, sixteen miles distant, by twilight. I was disappointed; for the red clay roads prevailed, and I only reached the house of a small planter, within a mile of the east bank of the Yadkin, just as the twilight gave place to the splendors of a full moon and myriads of stars in a cloudless sky. From the proprietor I learned that the Trading Ford, where Greene and Morgan crossed when pursued by Cornwallis, was only a mile distant. As I could not pass it on my way to Salisbury in the morning, I arose at four o'clock, gave Charley his breakfast, and at earliest dawn stood upon the eastern shore of the Yadkin, and made the sketch printed upon page 601. The air was frosty, the pools were bridged with ice, and before the sketch was finished, my benumbed fingers were disposed to drop the pencil. I remained at the ford until the east was all aglow with the radiance of the rising sun, when I walked back, partook of some corn-bread, muddy coffee, and spare-ribs, and at eight o'clock crossed the Yadkin at the great bridge, on the Salisbury road. * The river is there about three hundred yards wide, and was considerably swollen from the melting of the recent snows. Its volume of turbid waters came rolling down in a swift current, and gave me a full appreciation of the barrier which Providence had there placed between the republicans and the royal armies, when engaged in the great race described in this chapter.
From the Yadkin the roads passed through a red clay region, which was made so miry by the melting snows that it was almost eleven o'clock when I arrived at Salisbury. This village, of over a thousand inhabitants, is situated a few miles from the Yadkin, and is the capital of Rowan county, a portion of the "Hornet's Nest" of the Revolution. It is a place of considerable historic note. On account of its geographical position, it was often the place of rendezvous of the militia preparing for the battle-fields; of various regular corps, American and British, during the last three years of the war; and especially as the brief resting-place of both armies during Greene's memorable retreat. Here, too, it will be remembered, General Waddell had his head-quarters for a few days, during the "Regulator war." I made diligent inquiry, during my tarry in Salisbury, for remains of Revolutionary movements and localities, but could hear of none. ** The Americans, when fleeing before Cornwallis, encamped for a night about half a mile from the village, on the road to the Yadkin; the British occupied a position on the northern border of the town, about an eighth of a mile from the court-house. I was informed that two buildings, occupied by officers, had remained until two or three years ago, when they were demolished. Finding nothing to invite a protracted stay at Salisbury, I resumed the reins, and rode on toward Concord. The roads were very bad, and the sun went down, while a rough way, eight miles in extent, lay between me and Concord. Night approached, brilliant and frosty; the deep mud of the road soon became half frozen, and almost impassable, and I was beginning to speculate upon the chances of obtaining comfortable lodgings short of the village, when a large sign-board by the way-side indicated a place of entertainment, and relieved my anxiety. Such an apparition is so rare in the upper country of the Carolinas, where the traveler must depend upon the hospitality of the planters, that it is noteworthy. Passing through a lane, I came to the spacious mansion of Mr. Martin Phifer, one of the largest planters in Cabarras county. It is in the midst of one of the finest districts of North Carolina for the production of upland cotton. Practical observations upon that great staple of the South was the chief topic of our evening's conversation, which was protracted to the "small hours of the morning;"
* The Yadkin rises in North Carolina, on the east of the Alleghany range, and flows east and southeast into South Carolina. A few miles below the Narrows, in Montgomery county, it receives the Rocky River, and from thence to its mouth at Winyaw Bay, near Georgetown, it bears the name of the Great Pedee.
** An ancient stone wall exists at Salisbury, but tradition has no knowledge of its origin. It is laid in cement, and plastered on both sides. It is from twelve to fourteen feet high, and twenty-two inches thick. The top of the wall is a foot below the surface of the earth at present. It has been traced for three hundred feet. Six miles from Salisbury there is a similar wall, and may connect wilh the other. Conjecture alone can read its history. May it not be a part of the circumvallation of a city of the mound builders?
A Patriot's Grave at the Red Hills.—Picturesque Scenery.—Arrival at Charlotte.—Ancient Chureh and Congregation.
and I left his hospitable abode a wiser man than when I entered it. Mr. Phifer is a grandnephew of John Phifer, one of the leading patriots of Mecklenburg, whose remains lie buried at the Red Hills, three miles west of Concord. A rough, mutilated slab covers the grave of the patriot. Tradition avers that when the British army was on its march from Charlotte to Salisbury, a fire was built upon the stone by the soldiers, in contempt for the patriot's memory.
Departing from the post-road, a little distance from Mr. Phifer's, I traversed a nearer, though a rougher route to Charlotte than through Concord, passing that village about three miles to the westward, close by the Red Hills. The scenery through this whole region is extremely picturesque. Wooded hills, deep ravines, broad cultivated slopes and uplands, and numerous water-courses, present diversified and pleasing pictures at every turn of the sinuous road. In summer, when the forests and fields are clad, the roads hard, and the deep shades of the ravines and water-courses desirable, I can not imagine a move agreeable tour for a traveler of leisure than that portion of my journey from the Roanoke to the Cowpens, across the Broad River, back to the eastern side of the Catawba, and so down to the verge of the low country, near Camden. In the vicinity of Concord are the head-waters of several tributaries of the Yadkin and Catawba, and between that village and Charlotte I crossed the Coddle, Stony, and Mallard Creeks, and one of the main branches of Rocky River. The latter, which is a considerable tributary of the Yadkin, is here a small stream, but very turbulent, and broken into numerous cascades. I reached Charlotte at half past three o'clock, having traveled only twenty-one miles since morning. * It was SaturdayJan 6, 1840 and I eagerly coveted the Sabbath's rest, after a week of excessive toil. Charley, too, was jaded, and needed repose; for a large portion of the circuitous journey from Hillsborough hither had been through a region abounding in red clay, saturated with rains and melting snows.
Charlotte has historical notoriety, chiefly on account of its being the place where a convention of patriots assembled in 1775, and by a series of resolutions virtually declared themselves and those they represented free and independent of the British crown. To this event I particularly directed my inquiries, but was singularly unsuccessful. Two gentlemen, to whom I had letters of introduction from President Polk, were absent. I called upon another, whom he named, but could not obtain information of much value. Being an entire stranger, I knew not unto whom to apply, and I left Charlotte on Monday, with feelings of disappointment not to be expressed. Since my visit, I have received varied and important information from James W. Osborne, Esq., superintendent of the Branch Mint, and others in that vicinity, which compensates me, in a measure, for my failure..
By the merest accident, I ascertained that the mill upon Sugar Creek, two or three miles
* Charlotte is the capital of Mecklenburg county, and contains about fourteen hundred inhabitants. It is pleasantly situated upon a rolling plain, on the east side of the Sugar or Sugaw Creek, a small tributary of the Catawba. It is in the midst of the gold region of North Carolina, and here a branch of the United States Mint is established. Eastward of Charlotte are several productive gold mines, which are now but little worked, partly on account of the more inviting field for miners in California. The first settlers in Mecklenburg county were principally the descendants of the Puritans, Scotch-Irish, and Roundheads; and, near Charlotte, the "Sugar Creek Congregation," the first on the Catawba, was established. I passed the brick meeting-house" about three miles from the village, where worshiped the tarent of the seven congregations from which came delegates to meet in political convention in 1775 * This meeting-house is the third erected by the Sugar Creek Congregation. The first stood about half a mile west from this, and the second a few feet south of the present edifice. In the second, the mother of Andrew Jackson, late president of the United States, worshiped for a-while, when she took refuge in the Sugar Creek Congregation after the massacre of Burford's regiment, near her residence on the Waxhaw, in May, 1780. Near the site of the first church is the ancient burying-ground. Therein is the grave of Alexander Craighead, the first minister of the congregation. His only monument are two sassafras-trees, one at the head, the other at the foot of his grave, which are the living poles used as a bier for his coffin, and stuck in the ground to mark, temporarily, his resting-place. **