* (v) Those of his recruits who were without arms Ferguson furnished with rifles. Some of them so fixed the large knives which they usually carried about them, in the muzzle of their rifles, as to be used as bayonets, if occasion should require.
Leaders of the Mountain Men.—Ferguson West of the Broad River.—Expedition against him.—Concentration of Troops.
bodies of volunteers assembled simultaneously, without concert, and placed themselves under tried leaders, the chief of whom were Colonels Campbell, of Virginia; Cleaveland, Shelby, Sevier, and M'Dowell, of North Carolina; and Lacy, Hawthorn, and Hill, of South Carolina.
They all had but one object in view—the destruction of the marauders under Ferguson. They were men admirably fitted by their daily pursuits for the privations which they were called upon to endure. They had neither tents, baggage, bread, or salt, and no Commissary Department to furnish regular supplies. Potatoes, pumpkins, roasted corn, and occasionally a bit of venison supplied by their own rifles, composed their daily food. Such were the men who were gathering among the mountains and valleys of the Upper Carolinas to beat back the invaders.
On his way to Gilbert Town, Ferguson had succeeded in capturing two of the Mountain Men. These he paroled, and enjoined them to tell the officers on the Western waters, that if they did not desist from their opposition and "take protection under his standard, he would march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay waste their country with fire and sword." * While Colonel Charles M'Dowell, ** of Burke county, who, on the approach of Ferguson, had gone over the mountains to obtain assistance, was in consultation with Colonels Shelby and Sevier, the paroled prisoners arrived, and delivered their message. These officers were not dismayed by the savage threat of Ferguson, but decided that each should endeavor to raise all the men that could be enlisted, and that the forces thus collected should rendezvous at Watauga on the twenty-fifth of September. It was also agreed that Colonel Shelby should give intelligence of their movements to Colonel William Campbell, of Washington county, in Virginia, hoping that he would raise a force to assist them.
The following official report of events from the meeting of these several forces at Watauga, until the defeat of Ferguson, I copied from the original manuscript among Gates's papers. It is full, yet concise, and being official, with the signatures of the three principal officers engaged in the affair, attached, it is perfectly reliable: ***
"On receiving intelligence that Major Ferguson had advanced up as high as Gilbert Town, in Rutherford county, and threatened to cross the mountains to the Western waters, Colonel William Campbell, with four hundred men, from Washington county, of Virginia, Colonel Isaac Shelby, with two hundred and forty men, from Sullivan county, of North Carolina, and Lieutenant-colonel John Sevier, with two hundred and forty men, of Washington county, of North Carolina, assembled at Watauga, on the twenty-fifth day of September, where they