Before that battle (referring to Ferguson’s defeat,) we had sustained two shameful and disastrous defeats—that of Gates by treachery; and that of Sumter by carelessness, in quick succession one after the other—upon which, the Tories flocked to the British camps, and increased their numbers to two or three fold; that the country was over-run, and fairly deluged with them, so much that from the pressure of their numbers, the souls of the brave, from necessity were obliged to cower under its weight, and none but the bravest of the brave withstood the shock.
At the time when the news of Gates’ defeat reached Col. Charles McDowell, he had detached Cols. Shelby and Sevier to go round Ferguson’s camp to dislodge some British and Tories on the Ennoree, near to Ninety-Six. He then sent an express to Shelby to take care of himself, for Gates was defeated. Whereupon Shelby made the best of his way round Ferguson, and fell in with Charles McDowell and the main body, retreating towards Gilbert Town. Then it was suggested by Shelby, that a sufficient force could be raised over the Mountains, with the assistance from Wilkes and Surry counties, to defeat Ferguson. This was agreed to by all the officers present. The troops were raised without Government orders; each man had to furnish his own provisions, arms, ammunition, horse, and all his equipage, without the value of a gun flint from the public; without pay, or expectation of pay or reward, even to the amount of a Continental dollar depreciated to eight hundred to one. They were all volunteers; they were under no compulsion to go, but each man in advance consulted his own courage, well knowing he was going to fight before his return. They started in a rainy, inclement season of the year, without baggage wagon, pack-horse, or tent cloth, across the most rugged bar of mountains in the State, and almost pathless, having only a hunter’s trail to travel, followed Ferguson through all his windings; at length over took him at King’s Mountain, where he boasted the morning of the battle, that “he was on King’s Mountain, and that he was king of that Mountain, and that God Almighty could not drive him from it.” There we over-hauled him, fought him two to one—hence their fire was double that of ours; yet we killed 287 [247] of them, to 143 they killed of us. Yet the fate of nations and of battles turn on a pivot. Ferguson, a prudent officer, finding himself beset and surrounded on all sides, ordered his regulars, who had muskets and bayonets, to charge bayonets on Major Chronicle’s South Fork boys: The regulars having discharged their muskets at a short distance with effect, in turn the Fork Boys discharged their rifles with fatal effect, and retreated, keeping before the points of the bayonets about twenty feet, until they loaded again, when they discharged their rifles, each man dropping his man. This was treatment that British courage could not stand; they in turn retreated with precipitation; then the flag was hoisted, and all was over.
If they had succeeded in the charge, it would have made a pass-way for his army, and they might have turned on our line on the one side of the hill, and defeated us in detail, or have made good their march to Lord Cornwallis at Charlotte, either of which would have been disastrous to the American cause. We had neither a coward or a traitor to face the hill that day. We were the bravest of the brave; we were a formidable flock of blue hen’s chickens of the game blood, of indomitable courage, and strangers to fear. We were well provided with sticks; we made the egg shells—British and Tory skulls—fly, like onion peelings in a windy day; the blue cocks flapped their wings and crowed—“we are all for Liberty these times;” and all was over; our equals were scarce, and our superiors hard to find.
Taking the whole campaign, including the battle, I know of no parallel to it in the annals of ancient or Modern warfare; the nearest was that of the Grecian Leonidas and his army at the battle of Thermopylae with the Great Xerxes. Leonidas and his army were found, victualled and clothed at public expense; each individual of our army had to find at his own expense; Leonidas’ army were under Governmental orders; we were under no government at all, but were volunteers; Leonidas’ army were furnished with arms and camp equipage: We had to find our own arms, ammunition and horses at our own expense; Leonidas’ army were under Government pay; we were under no pay or reward, or the expectation of any; Leonidas’ army had choice of ground at the pass at Thermopylae; our enemies had the boasted choice of ground; Leonidas’ army had to fight superior numbers—so had we; Leonidas had never a coward—neither had we any; but Leonidas had a traitor who was his over-throw and destruction of all but one man: We had neither coward or traitor to face our enemy—hence we were successful: Leonidas would have been successful, and have defeated or put to flight the great Xerxes if he had not had a traitor aboard; Leonidas’ defeat was the destruction of the fine country of Greece, and the burning and destruction of their fine city of Athens, the labor of ages: Our success was the salvation of our country and our liberty. There is no parallel here: We will see if there is any in modern times.
The generosity and patriotism of the great Washington has been justly boasted of; he did not charge the United States anything for his services during the Revolution; he was found his food and camp equipage by the public, and every thing else that he stood in need of; his necessary incidental expenses he kept an accurate account of, and they were paid by the public; he was paid for every thing else but his military services. This has been justly considered as great generosity and patriotism, and ought never to be forgotten. But this fight of the blue hen’s chickens threw this into the shade of an eclipse.
Now we will make the comparison. Washington was rich, and had no family to provide for; we were poor, and had families to provide for; he was provided with a horse, victuals, clothing, arms, camp equipage and necessary attendance. We had to provide our own horse, victuals, clothing, arms, ammunition and blankets at our own expense. He charged nothing for his military services; neither did we charge any thing for military services, nor did we receive anything for them; he fought the battles of our country with success; we did the same. The expedition against Ferguson, including the battle at King’s Mountain, did not cost the State, or the United States, the worth of a single Continental dollar depreciated down to eight hundred to one. It was all done at the expense of bravery of the actors in that transaction. There is no parallel here.
We will now take a view of the situation of the country after the defeats of Gates and Sumter, and before Ferguson’s defeat. Cornwallis was in Charlotte with a large army; Rawdon was in Camden with another large army; Leslie was at Winnsborough with a considerable army; Cruger at Ninety-Six with a large army; McGirt, Cunningham and Brown, each having considerable force, carrying on a savage war-fare of murdering, robbing, burning and destroying. George Lumpkin, Ben. Moore and others in Lincoln county, the chief of plunderers. Tarleton & Wemyss having large bodies of dragoons, the best mounted of any that were ever in the United States. For on the fall of Charleston, the British deluged the country with Counterfeit Continental bills, sending emissaries through the three Southern States to purchase up all the best horses belonging to the Whigs, at any price. Beside these armies, numerous squads of Tories, whenever they could collect ten or twelve, were plundering, robbing, and destroying the last piece of whig property they could lay their hands on belonging to the whigs. To finish the list, Ferguson with about 1,200 men, three Fourths Tories, whose principal business it was to destroy whig stock: It is to be observed, that more than one half of their armies consisted of Tories.
This is a statement of facts that needs no proof; they cannot be contradicted or denied, for every body knows them to be true. This statement does not take into view the garrisons at Charleston, Savannah, Augusta and other places in the lower country, or the numerous bodies of Tories in the lower part of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia completely under British rule, and North Carolina at the eve of it. We had no army in any of the three Southern States, under Governmental orders, of any account that I know of except the poor fragments of Gates’ defeated army, lying near the Virginia line. Marion’s troops were volunteers, for the State was under British rule. The Mecklenburg Hornets were volunteers from the counties of Rowan, Lincoln and Mecklenburg.
From this State of things, Cornwallis could easily have carried out his avowed purpose of again defeating Gates, and entering Virginia, with the most numerous army that had been on the Continent, by calling in some of his needless out-posts, and these numerous squads of petty-larceny plunderers, who were raised from poverty to affluence in a few days plundering, and having still the expectation of further advancement by getting the whig plantations if he had succeeded—the patriotic State of Virginia would have had to contend with him and his army almost single handed, for it could have received little aid from the conquered States, and but little from Washington, or the Northern States, as they had their hands full with Clinton and his New York Tories. This was the most disastrous period for Liberty and Independence from the time of its Declaration to the end of the war. Liberty and Independence were then shrouded in Egyptian darkness. Ferguson’s defeat was the turning point in American affairs. The battle, extraordinary as it was, was not more extraordinary than its effects were.
Cornwallis on hearing that Ferguson was defeated, immediately dropped the notion of again defeating Gates and entering Virginia with a numerous army, being already galled by the Mecklenburg Hornets, was panic-struck to think that he would, alas! have, at the same time, to encounter the gaffs and spurs of the blue hens’ chickens as soon as he could filch a few days provisions from under the wings of the Hornets, took night’s leave of the Hornets’ Nest, lest he should disturb the wasps, made a precipitate retrograde march, stopping neither night nor day until he joined Leslie of Winnsborough.