We tied our horses near the grave of Ferguson and his fellow-sleepers, and ascended to the summit of the hill whereon the British troops were encamped and fought. The battleground is about a mile and a half south of the North Carolina line. It is a stony ridge, extending north and south, and averaging about one hundred feet in height above the ravines which surround it. It is nearly a mile in length, very narrow upon its summit, with steep sides. From its top we could observe Crowder's Knob in the distance, and the hills of less altitude which compose the range. ** The sun was declining, and its slant rays,
* This view is from the foot of the hill, whereon the hottest of the fight occurred. The north slope of that eminence is seen on the left. In the center, within a sort of basin, into which several ravines converge, is seen the simple monument erected to the memory of Ferguson and others; and in the foreground, on the right, is seen the great tulip-tree, upon which, tradition says, ten Tories were hung.
** The range known as King's Mountain extends about sixteen miles from north to south, with several spurs spreading laterally in each direction. One of these extends to the Broad River, near the Cherokee Ford, where I crossed that stream on my return from the Cowpens. Many of its spurs abound in marble and iron, and from its bosom a great number of streams, the beginning of rivers, gush out. The battleground is about twelve miles northwest of Yorkville, and one hundred and ninety from Charleston.
Past and Present.—Major Ferguson detached to the Upper Country.—Gathering of Tories.—Surprise at Greene's Spring.
gleaming through the boughs dripping with melting snows, garnished the forest for a few moments with all the seeming splendors of the mines; gold and silver, diamonds and rubies, emeralds and sapphires, glittered upon every branch, and the glowing pictures of the Arabian Nights, which charmed boyhood with the records of wondrous visions, crowded upon the memory like realities. Alas! on this very spot, where the sun-light is braiding its gorgeous tapestry, and suggesting nothing but love, and beauty, and adoration, the clangor of steel, the rattle of musketry, the shout of victory, and the groans of dying men, whose blood incarnadined the forest sward, and empurpled the mountain streams, were once heard—and there, almost at our feet, lie the ashes of men slain by their brother man! History thus speaketh of the event:
On the sixteenth of August, 1780, the Americans, under General Gates, were defeated by Cornwallis, near Camden, and dispersed. Two days afterward, Tarleton defeated Sumter at Rocky Mount, and elsewhere the American partisan corps were unsuccessful. The whole South now appeared to be completely subdued under the royal power; and the conqueror, tarrying at Camden, busied himself in sending his prisoners to Charleston, in ascertaining the condition of his distant posts at Ninety-Six and Augusta, and in establishing civil government in South Carolina. Yet his success did not impair his vigilance. West of the Wateree * were bands of active Whigs, and parties of those who were defeated near Camden were harassing the upper country. Cornwallis detached Major Ferguson, a most excellent officer and true marksman, of the 71st regiment, ** with one hundred and ten regulars under the command of Captain Depuyster, and about the same number of Tories, with an ample supply of arms and other military stores. He ordered him to embody the Loyalists beyond the Wateree and the Broad Rivers; intercept the Mountain Men, *** who were retreating from Camden, and also the Americans, under Colonel Elijah Clarke, of Georgia, who were retiring from an attack upon Augusta; endeavor to crush the spirit of rebellion, which was still rife; and, after scouring the upper part of South Carolina, toward the mountains, join him at Charlotte. Ferguson at first made rapid marches to overtake the Mountain Men, and cut off Clarke's forces. Failing in this, he proceeded leisurely, collecting all the Tories in his path, until about the last of September, when he encamped with more than a thousand men, at a place called Gilbert Town, west of the Broad River, near the site of the present village of Rutherfordton, the county seat of Rutherford, in North Carolina. **** These were all well armed, (v) and Ferguson began to feel strong. True to their instincts, his Tory recruits committed horrible outrages upon persons and property wherever they went, and this aroused a spirit of the fiercest vengeance among the patriots. At different points, large
* The Wateree River is that portion of the Catawba which flows through South Carolina. It is the Catawba to the dividing-line of the states, and, after its junction with the Congaree, is ealled the Santee. The Congaree is formed by a union of the Broad and Saluda Rivers at Columbia, the head of steam-boat navigation upon the Santee and Congaree, from the ocean.
** This was the regiment that behaved so gallantly at the battle of Guilford.
*** The pioneers who had settled in the wilderness beyond the mountains, now Kentucky and Tennessee, were called Mountain Men.
**** While Ferguson was in Spartanburg District, on his way toward Gilbert Town, a detachment of his little army had a severe skirmish with Colonel Clarke and his men at Greene's Spring. Clarke and his company, some two hundred in number, had stopped at the plantation of Captain Dillard, who was one of them, and, after partaking of refreshments, proceeded to Greene's Spring. The same evening Ferguson arrived at Dillard's, whose wife soon learned, from the conversation of some of his men, that they knew where Clarke was encamped, and intended to surprise him that night. She hastily prepared supper for Ferguson and his men, and while they were eating she stole from the room, bridled a young horse, and, without a saddle, rode to the encampment of Clarke, and warned him of impending danger. In an instant every man was at his post, prepared for the enemy. Very soon Colonel Dunlap, with two hundred picked mounted men, sent by Ferguson, fell upon the camp of Clarke. Day had not yet dawned, and the enemy were greatly surprised and disconcerted when they found the Americans fully prepared to meet them. For fifteen minutes the conflict raged desperately in the gloom, when the Tories were repulsed with great slaughter, and the survivors hastened back to Ferguson's camp.