Part 25 (2/2)

”Loss of the Tories, two colonels, three captains and two hundred privates killed; one major, and one hundred and twenty-seven privates wounded and left on the ground not able to march; one colonel, twelve captains, eleven lieutenants, two ensigns, one quarter-master, one adjutant, two commissaries, eighteen sergeants and six hundred privates taken prisoners.

”Total loss of the enemy eleven hundred and five men at King's Mountain.”

The loss on the Whig side was, one colonel, one major, one captain, two lieutenants, four ensigns, and nineteen privates killed, one major, three captains, three lieutenants, and fifty-three privates wounded. Total Whig casualties, twenty-eight killed and sixty wounded.

Of the latter, upwards of twenty died of their wounds, making the entire Whig loss about fifty men.

The victory of King's Mountain was the ”turning point of the fortunes of America,” and foreshadowed more clearly than ever before, _final success_.

As soon as the battle was over, a guard was placed around the prisoners and all remained on the mountain that night. On the next day, after the dead were buried and the wounded properly cared for, the c.u.mbrous spoils of victory were drawn into a pile and burned.

Colonels Campbell, Shelby and Cleaveland then repaired, with as little delay as possible, to the headquarters of General Gates, at Hillsboro, and made out to that officer on the 1st of November, an official statement of their brilliant victory. Col. Sevier, Major McDowell and other officers returned to the mountains and to their own neighborhoods, ready at all times, to obey any future calls of their country. The prisoners were turned over to the ”mountain men” for safe keeping. Having no conveyances, they compelled the prisoners to carry the captured arms (about fifteen hundred in number) two guns each being a.s.signed to most of the men. About sunset the Whigs who had fought the battle, being extremely hungry, had the pleasure of meeting the footmen, who had been left behind at Green river on their march to King's Mountain, pressing forward with a good supply of provisions.

Having appeased the cravings of hunger, they all marched to Bickerstaff's old field, in Rutherford county, where the princ.i.p.al officers held a court-martial over the ”most audacious and murderous Tories.” Thirty-two were condemned to be hung; after nine were thus disposed of, three at a time, the remainder, through mitigating circ.u.mstances and the entreaties of their Whig acquaintances, were respited. Several of the Tories, thus leniently dealt with, afterward joined the Whig ranks, and made good soldiers to the end of the war.

In 1815, through the instrumentality of Dr. William M'Lean, of Lincoln county, a head-stone of dark slate rock, was erected at King's Mountain, near the spot where Ferguson fell. It bears this inscription: On the east:

”Sacred to the memory of Maj. Wm. Chronicle, Capt. John Mattocks, William Robb and John Boyd, who were killed at this place on the 7th of October, 1780, fighting in defence of America.”

On the west side:--”Col. Ferguson, an officer of his Brittanic Majesty, was defeated and killed at this place on the 7th of October, 1780.”

Incidents: Among the captured Tories were Captain W---- G---- and his lieutenant J---- L----, both of whom were sentenced to be hung next morning at sunrise. They were first tied separately, with leather strings, and then closely together. During the night they managed to crawl to the waters edge, near their place of confinement, and wet their strings; this soon caused them to stretch so greatly as to enable the _leather-bound prisoners_ to make their escape, and thereby deprive the ”Mountain Boys” of having some contemplated fun. Like the Irishman's pig, in the morning ”they came up _missing_.”

As a foraging party of Tories, belonging to Ferguson's army, was pa.s.sing up King's Creek, they took old Arthur Patterson and his son Thomas prisoners; who, being recognized as noted Whigs, were carried to Ferguson's camp, threatened with hanging, and a guard placed over them. As the battle waxed warm and the issue of the contest seemed to be turning in favor of the American arms a call was made upon the guard to fall into line and a.s.sist their comrades in averting, if possible, their approaching defeat. During the commotion the old man Patterson moved gently to the back ground and thus made his escape.

Thomas Patterson, not liking the _back movement_, watched his opportunity, _between fires_ and charge of the enemies' position, dashed off boldly to the Whig lines, about one hundred yards distant, and reached them safely. He immediately called for a gun, which being furnished he fought bravely to the close of the engagement.

For several particulars connected with the battle of Kings Mountain, hitherto unknown, the author acknowledges his indebtedness to Abraham Hardin, Esq., a native of Lincoln County, N.C., and relative of Col.

Hambright, now (1876) a worthy, intelligent, and christian citizen of York County, S.C., aged eighty-seven years.

COLONEL WILLIAM CAMPBELL.

Colonel William Campbell was a native of Augusta County, Va. He was of Scottish descent (his grandfather coming from Inverary) and possessed all the fire and sagacity of his ancestors. He a.s.sisted in raising the first regular troops in Virginia in 1775, and was honored with a Captain's commission. In 1776 he was made Lieutenant Colonel of the militia of Was.h.i.+ngton County, Va., and on the resignation of Evan Shelby, the father of Governor Shelby, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel, that rank he retained until after the battles of King's Mountain and Guilford Court-House, in both of which he distinguished himself, when he was promoted by the Virginia Legislature, for gallantry and general high merit, to the rank of Brigadier General in the Continental service. La Fayette, perceiving his fine military talents, gave him the command of a brigade of riflemen and light infantry, and he was ordered to join that officer below Richmond, who was covering Was.h.i.+ngton's approach to Yorktown in September 1781, previous to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown on the 19th of October following.

Colonel Campbell, suffering from the severe wound received in the battle of Guilford, was taken ill and soon after died at La Fayette's head-quarters, about twenty-five miles above Williamsburg, in the thirty-sixth year of his age. His military career was short, but brilliant; and on all occasions, bravery, unsullied patriotism and manly rect.i.tude of conduct marked his movements. La Fayette's general order, on the occasion of his decease is most highly complimentary to his efficient services and exalted worth. He is buried at Rocky Mills, in Hanover county, Va. About forty years afterward, his remains were removed to Was.h.i.+ngton county, to repose with those of his family.

Col. Campbell married a sister of Patrick Henry and left but one child, the mother of the late Hon. William C. Preston and Col. John S.

Preston, both of Columbia, S.C. He was a man of high culture, a good cla.s.sical scholar, but was chiefly given to the accurate sciences and _practically_ to land surveying for himself and his kindred who were large land-holders in Virginia, east Tennessee and Kentucky. When under thirty years of age, he commanded a company in the Point Pleasant expedition on the Kenhawa river, in which occurred one of the most sanguinary battles in the history of Indian warfare and there acquired that early experience in arms which qualified him to perform a conspicuous part in the Revolutionary War.

When the emergency arose for expelling the boasting Ferguson from the soil of the Carolinas, Col. Sevier sought the a.s.sistance and co-operation of Col. Campbell, of Virginia, whose bravery and gallantry had become widely known. On the first application, Col.

Campbell deemed it imprudent to withdraw his forces from their place of rendezvous, for fear of an attack from the neighboring Indians, but on a second urgent application, his a.s.sent yielded to the appeals of patriotism and he promptly marched with his regiment to co-operate with Colonels Sevier, Shelby and other officers to gain an undying fame, and glorious victory at King's Mountain.

The preceding statement of facts, corrects an error into which several historians have unintentionally fallen by confounding Lieut. Col.

Campbell, a brave officer of a South Carolina regiment, who was mortally wounded at the battle of the Eutaw Springs, with Col. Wm.

Campbell, of Virginia, one of the heroes of King's Mountain, who died a natural death in his native State a few weeks before the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. The two officers were of no close family relations.h.i.+p, but resembled each other in unflinching bravery and genuine exhibitions of true patriotism.

COLONEL ISAAC SHELBY.

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