Instantly after Ferguson’s defeat, McGirt, Cunningham and Brown quit their robbing, murdering, burning and destroying, and played the game of “the least in sight,” and “shut-mouth” into the bargain. Lumpkin, Moore, etc., fled to Nocachey; the petty larceny squads of Tories began to seek their hiding places and holes, like rats and mice when the cat would make her appearance. When Generals Greene and Morgan came from the North with all the force that could be spared from that quarter, with the fragments of Gates’ defeated army, the brave and cautious Gen. Morgan found that he was unable to fight Tarleton, fled before him, until Williams’ troops, being chiefly South Carolina and Georgia refugees, who fought under Williams at Ferguson’s defeat, and the other troops who lived on the east side of the mountains, who fought at the same place, heard of Morgan’s retreating before Tarleton, and rushed to his assistance. Being thus reinforced, Gen. Morgan turned about and defeated Tarleton at the Cowpens; Gen. Greene had to retreat before Lord Cornwallis until reinforced by the Mecklenburg Hornets, composed of volunteers from Rowan, Lincoln and Mecklenburg counties. Greene turned upon Cornwallis, and at Guilford made an equal fight, neither having the victory. How would it have been with Generals Greene and Morgan if Ferguson had not been defeated? Tarleton’s force would have been greatly increased, and Cornwallis’ army would have been more than double the number that appeared on the field of battle at Guilford. All then that Morgan and Greene could have done would have been to retreat and keep out of their way, and permit Cornwallis, agreeably to his avowed intention, to have entered Virginia with the most numerous army that had been in the field since the commencement of the war. Virginia would then have had to contend single-handed with that formidable force, with the assistance of Gen. Greene.
In short, Ferguson’s defeat was the turning point in American affairs. The loss of this battle would, in all probability, have been the loss of American Independence and the liberty we now enjoy. I never on any occasion feel such dignified pride as when I think that my name counts one of the number that faced the hill at King’s Mountain the day of that battle. Others may think and speak disrespectfully of that transaction who are in favor of monarchy and individual oppression; but that is not Joseph McDowell, nor you, my friend Bob.
I have written down my narrative, and Gen. McDowell’s reply to Musentine Matthews which he delivered to the boys at head of the Round-About, on the Stone Mountain, as nearly as memory would serve—thinking that reading it might fill up a blank in your leisure hours, reflecting on the situation of the times to which the recited facts refer.
Your Friend,
D. VANCE.
[4]. Member of the House of Commons from Burke, 1791.
[5]. Member of House Commons from Iredell from 1789 to 1802.
[6]. Col. William Graham must not be confounded with Major (afterwards General) Joseph Graham. They were not related to each other—Col. Graham came from Augusta County, Virginia and settled on the First Broad river then Tryon now Cleveland County. He married Susan, daughter of William Twitty. Previous to this battle he had been a good soldier and Indian fighter and was a popular man. See an honorable sketch of him in “Hunters’s Sketches of North Carolina,” p. 522.
[7]. All we know about Mussentine Matthews is that he represented Iredell County in the House of Commons from 1789 to 1802 continuously. He was either a Tory or a cynic, it seems.