Part 2
Part 2
Now that Kings Mountain men were assembled, they were looked over by their commanding
officers. Each man had a small-bore rifle, tomahawk and scalping knife. Only a few
officers had swords. There were no tents in the entire group. The grim-visaged thousand
stood silent as Rev. Samuel Doak offered a solemn benediction.
Unfortunately, two of the thousand had changed their minds and deserted, making a change
of route necessary for the others. This march was said to have been over the roughest
country ever traversed by an array of horsemen. The infantry found the going easier and,
from time to time, some of the horsemen were left behind as the ascent of the mountain
started. Col. Williams of South Carolina and his men fell in with Shelby and Seviere's
men at this juncture. As the going kept getting more difficult, they had to leave behind
the cattle they were driving and live entirely on wild game and parched corn each man
carried in his bulging shirt blouse.
Draper's "King's Mountain Men", probably the most quoted of all accounts
of the desperate fighting of the mountainmen to secure their homes, tells of the selection
of Campbell to lead the attack on Ferguson's men who, by this time, knew from the two
deserters that the mountainmen were coming. At a stop near the foot of the final rise,
Campbell inquired of a farm family the whereabouts of the British soldiers. As they came
out of the farmhouse, they were followed by a young girl who asked, "Show many are
there of you?" The answer was, "Enough to whip Ferguson if we can catch
him." The girl pointed to the top of King's Mountain and said, "He's on
that mountain."
The last orders were given just before the troops were disposed all around the mountain
for the ascent were, "Every man fight for himself, shout like hell and fight like
devils."
Ferguson had said when he reached the summit, "I now hold a position God Almighty
cannot drive me from," but when his men had to be moved from side to side of the
position as first one division and then the other of the mountairmen appeared up the
opposite sides of the mountain, he was not sure he had spoken wisely. The Americans were
repulsed time after time by the British bayonets, but regrouped while their compatriots
from the other side engaged the frustrated British. Someone finally recognized Ferguson
and six guns fired simultaneously, killing him instantly.
The battle that had begun at three o'clock in the afternoon was ended at ten past
four, seventy minutes of the fiercest fighting of the war, ending what Thomas Jefferson
said vas the battle that turned the tide of the Revolution.
In this battle, Moses Cavet II (Major), serving under Shelby was killed. His son, Richard,
15 years old, fought by his Side after several attempts to join his father and being sent
home to protect the family against
Indians now being paid by the English to depradate the settlements.
Shelby and Sevier ultimately paid back every cent of the money to finance the seige of
King's Mountain....and in
his memoirs Sevier noted for this service to his country, the toil, the privation (and
getting together
$13,000) he was rewarded with six yards of middling
broadcloth....an expensive suit if he ever had it made
up!
To be continued....