Officer of Guard. God bless us!
Whereupon David Knox jumped on a pile of fire-wood in the street, slapped his hands and thighs, and crowed like a cock, exclaiming “Day is at hand!” Hence he was called Peter’s Cock, having some analogy to the crowing of the cock when Peter denied his Lord the third time.
It was generally considered about Charlotte and elsewhere, that this exaggerated account, given by the Neutralists, of Col. Campbell’s army, foot and horse, at 4000, which carried a strong air of plausibility with it, was the reason why Lord Cornwallis immediately left Charlotte in the night, after the waters were passable, and did not stop day nor night until he met Gen. Leslie at or near Winnsborough.
Mem.—Carefully transcribed from the original Manuscript in Robert Henry’s hand-writing, sent me by mail for the purpose, by Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, of Asheville, N. C., Jan. 26th, 27th, 28th and early the 29th, 1874.
L. C. DRAPER.
[8]. There is an interesting sketch of Major William Chronicle in “Hunter’s Sketches of North Carolina.” He lived in the S. E. part of Lincoln, now Gaston county, was born in 1755; his mother first married a McKee, and lived near Armstrong’s ford: When McKee died she married a Chronicle, by whom she had Major William Chronicle. Perhaps Col. Graham would have shared Chronicle’s fate, at the hand of the sharpshooters if he had remained.