School History of North Carolina Part 20

8. How did the siege terminate? Why was this surrender disastrous to North Carolina?

9. What did Clinton do after the capitulation ? Who was left in command of the British? What is said of Lord Cornwallis?

10. What was his first military movement? Describe the engagement between Tarleton and Buford.

11. Where did this action occur? What was the condition of North Carolina's defences?

12. What proposition was made to the British by the Governor of South Carolina? What was the sentiment in North Carolina?

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

THE BATTLES OF RAMSOUR'S MILL AND CAMDEN COURT HOUSE.

A. D. 1750.

When the great disaster at Charleston became known to the North Carolina Tories, and they fully realized that British troops were close at hand, the spirit that had seemed crushed at Moore's Creek began to revive. They had suffered indignities from the Whigs on account of their support of the King, and they now determined on swift and b.l.o.o.d.y revenge.

2. John Moore, who was Lieutenant-Colonel in Hamilton's Regiment, returned to his former residence in Lincoln county and a.s.sembled, early in June, thirteen hundred Royalists at Ramsour's Mill.

General Rutherford, hearing of this in his camp near the Waxhaws, thought it impolitic to leave that position because of a threatened movement of the British then in his front. He therefore sent orders to Colonel Francis Locke, of Rowan, to a.s.semble his militia and at once attack the Tories.

3. No command was ever more promptly or bravely obeyed. Locke mustered four hundred of his neighbors and went through the darkness of the night in search of foes outnumbering him threefold. At early dawn on the 20th, with mounted men in front, he charged boldly upon the Tory camp that was pitched near Ramsour's Mill, in sight of the present village of Lincolnton.

The Royalists fled at the first charge, but rallied on a hill and checked the hors.e.m.e.n in pursuit. The Whigs on foot came to the rescue and drove the Royalists routed from the field.

4. This brilliant victory was all-important at that fearful juncture. It was a b.l.o.o.d.y and heroic affair; and was a timely foretaste of the spirit of the brave men of the west. It was a struggle between neighbors and old friends, and carried bitterness and sorrow to many North Carolina firesides.

5. Major Davie, with his small command, commenced a series of daring adventures, which gave him great reputation for bravery and military skill. At Flat Rock, and also at Hanging Rock, in South Carolina, he inflicted such stunning blows, that Tarleton's Legion learned to be very cautious of a foe so daring and so wary. Colonel Isaac Shelby also distinguished himself at Musgrove's Mill.

6. Thus the militia of North Carolina a.s.sumed the defence of their homes and inflicted such frequent and telling blows upon the enemy that Lord Cornwallis halted at Camden to receive further reinforcements before venturing to enter a State whose undrilled citizen-soldiers had shown themselves so formidable.

7. Upon the fall of Charleston, General Horatio Gates had been put in command in the South, in place of General Lincoln. His success at Saratoga had given him great popularity, and some misguided men were advocating his advancement even to the place of General Was.h.i.+ngton. A short time exposed the folly of all such views. He was, at best, but a martinet, who had learned something of military routine in the camps, but was as devoid of real ability as he was vain and rash.

8. He came to Deep River on July 25th, where in camp he found one Delaware and two Maryland battalions of Continentals, Colonel Armand's light-horse and three companies of artillery, under the command of the Baron DeKalb. Learning that General Caswell had a considerable militia force at Cheraw, in South Carolina, he started, two days later, for the neighborhood of Lord Cornwallis and his army at Camden.

9. He reached Cheraw with some additional troops that had joined him on the march. On August 15th, taking a large portion of Caswell's militia, he set out with the purpose of surprising Cornwallis. Colonel Armand was marching in front, when, at midnight, his dragoons recoiled from an unexpected meeting with the British vanguard. The collision was unexpected on both sides, and threw General Gates's column into disorder.

10. His officers vainly besought him to retreat, as the veteran forces of the enemy had not been surprised. Both sides halted and prepared for battle. At dawn Lord Cornwallis sent his regulars with fixed bayonets to attack the militia on the right, and these untrained troops, unable to withstand so fierce an onset from regular veteran soldiers, abandoned the field.

11. Colonel Henry d.i.c.kson held his regiment of North Carolina militia firmly to the front, and with the Continental, or regular troops, they offered a stubborn and gallant defence, but the flight of so many made it necessary to withdraw the few who thus gallantly stood their ground.

12. The American defeat was complete. Two thousand men were killed, wounded and captured. All the stores and transportation were utterly lost. General Gates fled early in the action, and spurred on, without stopping, to Hillsboro, in this State. His defeat nearly ruined the American cause in the South, and his reputation as a military leader received a severe blow.

[NOTE--The capture of General Griffith Rutherford at Camden was one of the most deplorable incidents of the disaster. His courage, military ability and influence among his people made him invaluable to the American cause.]

QUESTIONS.

1. What was the feeling of the Tories in North Carolina after the disaster at Charleston?

2. Where were the Tories a.s.sembling? Who was sent to attack them?

3. Describe the attack. What was the result?

4. In what respect was this an important victory?

5. Mention some of Major Davie's exploits.

6. How did these engagements affect Cornwallis?

7. Who was put in command of the Southern forces? What kind of man was General Gates?

8. What was his first military movement?

9. What occurred on August 15th, 1780?

10. How did the engagement result?

11. What was said of Colonel d.i.c.kson and his regiment?

12. What was the termination of this affair? How did General Gates act?

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

SECOND INVASION OF THE STATE--BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN.

A. D. 1780.

The disaster at Camden left North Carolina without defence against invasion by the British under Lord Cornwallis. But the spirit of Governor Nash and his people was high, and they did not for a moment relax their efforts for the support of the war. In a short time five thousand Continental and militia troops were in motion for the neighborhood of Charlotte.

2. Generals Jethro Sumner and William L. Davidson were put in command of two camps, where the raw levies were drilled and equipped for the field. Colonel Davie was still continually in the enemy's front, to watch and report every movement. Since the rout and dispersion of General Sumter's command by Tarleton, on August 19th, Davie's Battalion was the only mounted force left in the South.

3. In September, Lord Cornwallis at last moved forward from his camp at Camden. He sent Colonel Patrick Ferguson toward the scene of the late Tory defeat at Ramsour's Mill. This Colonel Ferguson was one of the ablest officers in the British army. He was cool, daring and well skilled in everything relating to the conduct of military affairs. He could command men in camp and in battle, and excelled all others in arousing the spirit of the Tories. He induced hundreds of men to take sides with the King when another would have failed.

4. As Lord Cornwallis marched upon North Carolina, Colonel Davie hung upon his front and fell back only as compelled by the advance of the British. He made but one dash against his pursuers before reaching Charlotte; but on arriving there he and Major Joseph Graham halted under the courthouse, in the middle of the village, and surprised Cornwallis and the whole British army by a resistance so b.l.o.o.d.y and stubborn as to prove the right of that place to the name of "Hornet's Nest," which Cornwallis bestowed upon it.

[NOTE--Davie's whole force did not number more than two hundred men, and yet so cool and bravely did they meet the British a.s.sault that the enemy was several times driven back. Major Graham was, at that time, just twenty-one years old, and he exhibited such courage and conduct as have never been excelled.

In one attack upon him he received nine wounds and was left for dead on the field, but made his escape.]

5. The English commander was so hara.s.sed by the daring attacks of the militia upon his men at McIntyre's Farm and elsewhere in that neighborhood that he concluded to remain at Charlotte until he could hear from Colonel Ferguson. That officer had halted at a place called Gilberttown, where his one hundred and fifty British Regulars were soon reinforced by large numbers of native Royalists, who came to the English flag to take service in its behalf.

6. Colonel Charles McDowell and others, hearing that Ferguson was enrolling the Tories, met at Watauga and took counsel against him. No general was present, and McDowell was so old they feared he would be unable to endure the probable hard marching necessary to overtake their wily foe. Colonel Campbell, of Virginia, as a courtesy to one belonging outside of the State, was put in command by the North Carolina officers, and they set out with about eleven hundred men to look for the enemy.

7. Colonels Shelby, Sevier, Cleveland, and Major Joseph McDowell, of North Carolina, together with Colonel Williams, of South Carolina, selected nine hundred picked men from their mounted force, and through the stormy thirty hours of their march kept their saddles, until, on the morning of the 7th of October, they found the foe with eleven hundred and twenty-five men on the summit of King's Mountain. It was a strong position, but the heroic mountaineers at once surrounded it and began the attack.

8. Ferguson fought like a lion at bay, but the deadly rifles of the a.s.sailants were plied upon his ranks as the Royalists were pushed back step by step. Time and again the British commander headed the Regulars, and by desperate charges down the mountain side drove back a portion of the advancing Whig lines. At last Ferguson was slain, after being many times wounded, and soon the British fire slackened, and then to the nine hundred militiamen of the hills the remnant of the Royalists laid down their guns.