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ensigns, one quartermaster, 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.

"Given under our hands at camp.

"William Campbell,
"Isaac Shelby,
"Benjamin Cleveland.

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An incident in the battle which all Tennesseans and admirers of the Sevier family should never forget is the conduct of young Joe Sevier, then about eighteen years old, who heard that his father, Colonel John Sevier, had been killed in battle, which report doubtless arose and was circulated because Captain Robert Sevier had been shot, and finally died. Joe kept firing on Ferguson's men when practically everybody else had stopped, and some of the soldiers told him to stop, and Joe replied with tears running down his cheeks: "The damn rascals have killed my father, and I'll keep on shooting until I kill every--of--of them." Colonel Sevier, about that time, came up, and his son discovered the mistake and ran up and threw his arms around his father's neck, and, of course, did not shoot any more.

Another incident which occurred after the battle, and which will interest North Carolinians generally, and especially those who had ancestors in the fight, was the ride of twelve miles of Margaret Ewart Adams on an unruly stallion to the battlefield of King's Mountain in search of her husband, William Adams, who fought in the American army. She was the great-greatgrandmother of Miss Margaret Gist, Historian of King's Mountain Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, of York, South Carolina.

Mrs. Adams and William Adams were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and Whigs to the core. The day of the battle, she being at home alone with only one colored servant, and knowing of the engagement, was, of course, very much concerned for the safety of her husband. Failing to receive any news that day of the result of the battle, her anxiety increased to such an extent that the next morning she resolved to go to King's Mountain, twelve miles distant. She had the old negro servant on the place to saddle the only riding animal left, the balance of the stock having been hid in the swamp to put them out of the way of the Tories, and this animal was a stallion which she had the courage and determination to ride, and did ride, to the battlefield; and to her great joy she there found her husband safe and unhurt. With other good women of the neighborhood she proceeded to do all that was in her power to help take care of the wounded.

This dangerous and picturesque ride of this fearless and patriotic North Carolina woman deserves a better fate than to pass into oblivion, and it is introduced here not only to attempt to memorailize her and her ride, but to add a touch of attractive color to the narrative of the events of that day which so profoundly concerned both North Carolina and Tennessee.

THE STORM YEARS AFTER.

On July 1st, 1822, Colonel George W. Sevier published in the Nashville Gazette four letters written by Colonel Isaac Shelby to Governor John Sevier which touched upon the battle of King's Mountain, and Colonel Campbell's part in that battle, and these letters, doubltess without such intention on the part of Colonel Sevier, raised a storm, and entered into the politics of the day in the State of Kentucky. The controversy that arose from the letters is interesting historically.

On January 1, 1880, Colonel Shelby wrote to Governor Sevier the first letter in reference to King's Mountain, in which he said:

"The Legislature of Virginia, shortly after the defeat of Ferguson upon King's Mountain in 1780, voted an elegant horse. and sword to be presented to Colonel William Campbell as a testimony of the approbation which his country bore towards him on account of the part that he had borne in that memorable. affair. The horse was delivered to him, but owing to neglect. or some other cause, the sword was not presented to him before he died. I am lately informed that the friends of Colonel Campbell not long since have made application to the Legislature of

that State for the sword—that they voted the sum of 1,500 crowns for the purchase of the most elegant sword that could be procured in France, and through our Minister in Paris a most superb sword was obtained which was presented by the government of Virginia to young John Preston, a grandson of Colonel Campbell, as an honorable reward due to the memory of his

ancestor.

"Now, sir, what did Campbell merit more than you and I did? It is a fact well known, and for which he apologized to me the day after the action, that he was not within less than a quarter of a mile of the enemy at the time they surrendered to you and myself. But I do not mean to detract from the honors of the dead, yet it is a fact I have told to many, both before and since his death."

On February 24th, 1810, Colonel Shelby wrote a second letter to Governor Sevier in which he said:

"At the time I wrote to you on this subject I had but just heard of the fine sword given by the State of Virginia to a descendant of the late Colonel Campbell, and for a moment I felt a degree of indignation and resentment that my country had attributed the achievement of the victory of King's Mountain to a man who had little share in the action, and it determined me to address a letter to you on the occasion. It may be fairly stated that the great body of the men that crossed the mountains on that expedition were raised and embodied by your and my own united exertions."

* *

On August 12, 1812, Colonel Shelby, being at that time a candidate for Governor of Kentucky, wrote a third letter to Governor Sevier in which he said:

"I shall be elected Governor by a majority of at least ten thousand votes. Among other falsehoods that were circulated against me, it was said that I was not in the action at King's Mountain, and by some that I was only a Lieutenant, or some inferior officer on that occasion, and this story had gained some credit among better informed people. The object of this letter is to request you to be so obliging as to state to me in a letter as early as convenient, the station in which I commanded in the expidition against Ferguson. You know that the expedition was concerted by you and myself and that it took some address to induce Campbell and his men to join us."

The publication of these letters aroused the descendants of Colonel Campbell and they made answer in the public prints of the day, and a newspaper controversy followed, and each side produced statements from survivors of the King's Mountain battle, which were duly given to the public.

In April, 1823, Colonel Shelby published a pamphlet reviewing the controversy in full, and made the additional charge as follows:

"About ten o'clock on the day after the battle I was standing alone about forty yards south of the spot where Colonel Campbell came to me after the surrender, enjoying the warmth of the sun-for I had been very wet the day before, and was exposed to the cold dew of the mountains all night-when I saw Colonel Campbell leave the line of guards that surrounded the prisoners and walk slowly toward me, with his sword under his arm, till he came near touching me; he then in a lower tone of voice than usual, and with a slight smile on his countenance made the following expression: Sir, I cannot account for my conduct in the latter part of the action.'

In a letter to Colonel Shelby dated January 17, 1810, Governor Sevier said:

"It is true Colonel Campbell was not within one-quarter of a mile when the enemy surrendered to yourself and me. Without detracting from the merits of Colonel Campbell, there were other officers in the battle of King's Mountain that merited as much notice from their country as himself."

In another letter dated August 27, 1812, to Colonel Shelby Governor Sevier said:

I

"It is well known you were in the heat of the action. frequently saw you animating your men to victory; at the surrender you were the first field officer I recollect to have seen. I have no doubt you must recollect Colonel Campbell was some considerable distance from that place at that time, and that you and myself spoke on that subject the same evening."

Further details of the controversy need not be given, and the reader who is curious enough to pursue it further can do so in the different histories written of King's Mountain. That a controversy of this kind would raise a very active and even virulent quarrel goes without saying, and so this one turned out to be.

CHAPTER 23.

King's Mountain Years Afterwards-George Bancroft's Speech-The Monuments.

The Battle of King's Mountain was fought on Saturday, October 7, 1780, and the Americans on Sunday began their march homeward; there was little time, therefore, for the burial of the dead and caring for the wounded. There were two very urgent reasons why they started so soon on their journey: the first was, that for two days and nights they had had very little to eat, neither horses nor men, and the second, the news that Colonel Tarleton was on his way, and they were not ready for a second battle. For the disposal of the many dead, pits were dug and the slain placed in them, with blankets thrown over them, and covered with earth, the work of burial for both American and British being very hurriedly performed; and besides that, some of the bodies were not found and therefore not buried at all; as a result, the smell of flesh and blood soon attracted wolves to King's Mountain where they had access to the unburied bodies and scratched up those that were deposited in the shallow graves; vultures began to scent the bodies, and they came and took part with the wolves, and history records that long after that men hunting wolves went to King's Mountain. Knowing these conditions it is not surprising that everybody except the wolf hunter avoided King's Mountain, and that it grew to be a heavily wooded, avoided, deserted spot. The fact that human bones were there that had never had a burial, and others that had been scratched up by the wolves, was a barrier against its becoming a place to visit.

Major Ferguson was also buried on the mountain, and his remains lie there to-day, and in reference to his burial, Draper, who generally is the most thorough and accurate of all the historians of King's Mountain, gives a tradition of long standing:

"It was probably where he was conveyed, and breathed his last, that he was buried-on the southeastern declivity of the

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