me he had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in
the line. As the troops passed through North Carolina, Colonel
Davidson obtained a furlough for a few days to visit his family, whom
he had not seen for three years. This saved him from the fate which
befell Gen. Lincoln and his army at Charleston; for, when he
approached that city, he found it so closely invested by the British
Army that he was prevented from joining his regiment. When Lincoln
surrendered, Davidson returned to Mecklenburg, and rendered important
services in subduing the Tories, who, encouraged by the success of the
British arms, became numerous, daring and oppressive.

A strong force of Tories having assembled at Coulson's Mill, General
Davidson raised a troop of volunteers and marched against them. A
fierce skirmish took place, in which he was severely wounded by a ball
passing through his body near the kidneys. This wound nearly proved
fatal, and detained him from the service about two months. After his
recovery, he again took the field, having been promoted for his
bravery to the rank of Brigadier-General in the place of General
Rutherford, made a prisoner at the battle of Camden. He was active,
with General Sumner and Colonel Davie, in checking the advance of the
British, and throughout this darkest period of the Revolution gave
ample evidence of his untiring zeal in the cause of his country.

After the battle of the Cowpens, on the 17th of January, 1781, in
which General Morgan, with an inferior force, chastised the temerity
and insolence of Tarleton, General Davidson was actively engaged in
assembling the militia of his district to aid General Greene in
impeding the advance of the British army in pursuit of General Morgan,
encumbered with more than five hundred prisoners, on his way to
Virginia. General Greene, accompanied by two or three attendants, left
his camp near the Cheraws, rode rapidly through the country, and met
General Morgan at Sherrill's Ford, on the eastern bank of the Catawba
river, and directed his future movements.

General Davidson had placed guards at Tuckasege, Toole's, Cowan's and
Beattie's Fords. When Cornwallis approached the Catawba, on the
evening of the 28th of January, he found it considerably swollen and
impassable for his infantry.

This Providential obstacle caused him to fall back five miles from the
river to Jacob Forney's plantation, a thrifty farmer of that
neighborhood. General Davidson had assemb