* General Joseph Graham, who lived in the vicinity of King's Mountain, and knew many of those who were employed in the battle, wrote a graphic account of the events connected with that affair. His account is published in Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, page 264—269, inclusive.
** The M'Dowells were all brave men. Joseph and William, the brothers of Charles, were with him in the battle on King's Mountain. Their mother, Ellen M'Dowell, was a woman of remarkable energy. Mrs. Ellet relates that on one occasion some marauders carried off some property during the absence of her husband. She assembled some of her neighbors, started in pursuit, and recovered the property. When her husband was secretly making gunpowder in a cave, she burned the charcoal for the purpose upon her own hearth, and carried it to him. Some of the powder thus manufactured was used in the battle on King's Mountain.—Women of the Revolution, iii., 356.
*** General Gates sent a copy of this report to Governor Jefferson for his perusal, and desired him to forward it to Congress. His letter to Jefferson is dated Hillsborough, November 1, 1780.
**** Isaac Shelby was born on the eleventh of December, 1750, near the North Mountain, a few miles from Hagerstown, in Maryland. His ancestors were from Wales. He learned the art of surveying, and at the age of twenty-one years settled in Western Virginia. He was with his father, Evan Shelby, in the battle at Point Pleasant, in 1774. He was afterward employed as a surveyor under Henderson & Co., in Kentucky. In July, 1776, he was appointed captain of a company of minute-men by the Virginia Committee of Safety. Governor Henry appointed him a commissary of supplies in 1777, and in 1778 he was attached to the Continental Commissary Department. In the spring of 1779, he was elected a member of the Virginia Legislature, from Washington county, and in the autumn Governor Jefferson gave him the commission of a major. He was engaged in defining the boundary-line between Virginia and North Carolina, the result of which placed his residence in the latter state. Governor Caswell soon afterward appointed him a eolonel of the new county of Sullivan. In the summer of 1780, he was engaged in locating lands for himself in Kentucky, when he heard of the fall of Charleston. He returned home to engage in repelling the invaders. He raised three hundred mounted riflemen, crossed the mountains, and joined Colonel Charles M'Dowell, near the Cherokee Ford, on the Broad River. In that vicinity he was very active, until he joined other officers of like grade in an attaek upon Major Ferguson, on King's Mountain. Colonel Shelby soon afterward suggested to Greene the expedition which resulted so brilliantly at the Cow-pens. In the campaign of 1781, Shelby served under Marion, and was in the skirmish at Monk's Corner. Colonel Shelby was a member of the North Carolina Legislature in 1782; and ten years afterward, he was among the framers of the Constitution of Kentucky. In May of that year, he was elected the first governor of the new state. He served one term with great distinction; and in 1812, consented again to an election to the chief magistracy of Kentucky. His energy and Revolutionary fame aroused the patriotism of his state when the war with Great Britain broke out. At the head of four thousand volunteers, he marched to the shores of Lake Erie, to assist General Harrison in his warfare with the British and Indians in the Northwest. During the whole war, his services were great and valuable in the highest degree; and for his bravery at the battle of the Thames, Congress honored him with a gold medal. In 1817, President Monroe appointed him his Secretary of War, but on account of his age (being then sixty-seven), he declined the honor. His last public act was that of holding a treaty with the Chickasaw Indians, in 1818. in whieh General Jackson was his colleague. He was attacked with paralysis, in February, 1820, which somewhat disabled him. He died of apoplexy, on the eighteenth of July, 1826, at the age of seventy-six years. Shelby county, in Kentucky, was named in honor of him in 1792. A college at Shelbyville also bears his name.
Selection of a Commander-in-chief.—March to the Cowpens.—Colonels Shelby, Campbell, and Williams.
were joined by Colonel Charles M'Dowell, with one hundred and sixty men, from the counties of Burke and Rutherford, who had fled before the enemy to the Western waters. We began our march on the twenty-sixth, and on the thirtieth we were joined by Colonel Cleaveland, on the Catawba Priver, with three hundred and fifty men, from the counties of Wilkes and Surry. No one officer having properly a right to the command in chief, on the first of October we dispatched an express to Major-general Gates, informing him of our situation, and requested him to send a general officer to take command of the whole. In the mean time, Colonel Campbell was chosen to act as commandant till such general officer should arrive. We marched to the Cowpens, on Broad River, in South Carolina, where we were joined by Colonel James Williams, *** with four hundred men, on the evening of the
* Colonel Charles M'Dowell. His brother, Major M'Dowell, commanded his regiment till his return.
** William Campbell was a native of Augusta, Virginia. He was of Scotch descent, and possessed all the fire of his Highland ancestors. He was among the first of the regular troops raised in Virginia in 1775, and was honored with a captain's commission. In 1776, he was made lieutenant colonel of the militia of Washington eounty, and, on the resignation of Evan Shelby, the father of Governor Shelby, he was promoted to colonel. That rank he retained until after the battle on King's Mountain and at Guilford, in both of which he greatly distinguished himself, when he was promoted by the Virginia Legislature to the rank of brigadier. La Fayette gave him the eommand of a brigade of riflemen and light infantry. He was taken sick a few weeks before the siege of Yorktown, and soon afterward died at the house of a friend. He was only in the thirty-sixth year of his age when he died. His military career, like those of Warren and Montgomery, was short, but brilliant, and on all occasions bravery marked his movements. Foote relates that in the battle on King's Mountain he rode down two horses, and at one time was seen on foot, with his coat off, and his shirt collar open, fighting at the head of his men. He also says, that on one occasion Senator Preston, of South Carolina, a grandson of Campbell, was breakfasting at a house near King's Mountain, and, while eating, the old landlady frequently turned to look at him. She finally asked him his name, and remarked, apologetically, that he appeared very much like the man she had most dreaded upon earth.. "And who is that?" Preston inquired. "Colonel Campbell," replied the old lady, "that hung my husband at King's Mountain." *
*** James Williams was a native of Granville county, in North Carolina. He settled upon Little River, Laurens District, in South Carolina, in 1773, where he engaged in the pursuit of a farmer and merchant. He early espoused the patriot cause. Williams first appears as a colonel in the militia, in April, 1778. In the spring of 1779, he went into actual service, and he was probably at the siege of Savannah. He was with Sumter in 1780, but does not seem to have been permanently attached to the corps of that partisan. In the early part of that year, he was engaged in the battle at Musgrove's mill, on the Ennoree River. After that engagement, he went to Hillsborough, where he raised a corps of cavalry and returned to South Carolina; and during Ferguson's movements, after crossing the Wateree, Williams continually hovered around his camp. In the sanguinary battle upon King's Mountain, he was slain. He was near Major Ferguson, and both officers received their death-wound at the same moment. He died on the morning after the battle, and was buried within two miles of the place where he fell. Tradition says that his first words, when reviving a little soon after he was shot, were, "For God's sake, boys, don't give up the hill!"
* Sketches of North Carolina, page 271.