Colonel William Campbell was a native of Augusta County, and removed early to the County of Washington. Fame has awarded him the title of "the hero of King's Mountain." Colonel Ferguson was an excellent marksman, and brought the art of rifle shooting to high perfection. He invented a gun of that kind which was said to surpass anything of the sort before known, and he was said to have outdone even the Indians in firing and loading and hitting the mark, standing or lying, and in no matter what position of the body. It was reported that General Washington owed his life, at the battle of Brandywine, to Ferguson's ignorance of his person, as he was within his reach.[700:A] He afterwards, upon discovering the fact, remarked that he was not sorry that he did not know him.
FOOTNOTES:
[693:A] From verses supposed to have been written about this time by St. George Tucker:—
"Virtue and Washington in vain
To glory call this prostrate train."
* * "Each eager votary hugs his reams,
And hoards his millions in his dreams.
Ruin with giant strides approaches,
And quartermasters loll in coaches."
[693:B] The expression is from Smollet's Ode to Independence.
[694:A] Anburey mentions a Dr. Fauchee as resident at Charlottesville—probably Foushee.
[695:A] Colonel Bland, in some verses written during this year, alludes thus to Mr. Jefferson:—
On yonder height I see a lofty dome;[695:B]
But, hapless fate, the master's not at home.
His high aspiring soul aloft had towered,
That like a God he was by men adored.
But envy now has placed him in Jove's car
To rule the tempest of the mighty war,
That he, like Phaëton, may tumble down,
And by his fall astonish all the town.