After Cornwallis left Charlotte, in October, 1780, he raised a
company, placed himself under Colonel Williams, of South Carolina, and
fought under him and Colonel Lee, at Pyles' defeat, on Haw River. He
also acted for some time as Quartermaster, at the Hospital, in
Charlotte.

In 1781 he volunteered under Colonel Davie, and was with him at the
battle of Hanging Rock.

This was Captain Caldwell's last important service.

The distinguished physician, Dr. Charles Caldwell, also of Irish
parentage, and nearly related to Captain Thomas Caldwell, was born in
the immediate vicinity of Poplar Tent Church, in Cabarrus county, on
land now owned by Colonel Thomas H. Robinson, a worthy son of Dr. John
Robinson, D.D., who so long and faithfully proclaimed the gospel of
salvation to this congregation. No vestige of the family mansion now
remains, but its site is easily recognized at the present time by a
large fig bush, growing at or near where the chimney formerly stood,
as a lingering memento of the past, and producing annually its
delicious fruit.

Although this eminent physician, in his ardent pursuit of material
Philosophy, wandered for many years "after strange gods," until much
learning made him mad; yet, it is pleasing to know, in his maturer
age, and under calm reflection, the early gospel precepts so
impressingly instilled into his youthful mind by his pious parents,
yielded at length their happiest results, and that he died at the
Medical College of Louisville, in Kentucky, in 1853, full of years and
of honors, and in the faith of his fathers, many of whom sleep in the
graveyard of Poplar Tent Church.

CHAPTER III.

ROWAN COUNTY.

Rowan county was formed in 1753 from Anson county. In 1770 Surry, and
in 1777 Burke counties were severally taken off, previous to which
separations Anson county comprehended most of the western portion of
North Carolina and Tennessee. Like a venerable mother, Rowan beholds
with parental complacency and delight her prosperous children
comfortably settled around her. Salisbury, her capital, derives its
name from a handsome town in England, situated on the banks of the
classic Avon, and near the noted Salisbury Plain, a dry, _chalky
surface_, which accounts for the origin of its Saxon name, which means
a _dry town_.

Rowan was first settled by Protestants, about 1720-25, from Moravia,
fleeing from the persecutions of Ferdinand, the Second, by the Scotch,
after the unsuccessful