as thrown into disorder; but a body of
light infantry, and in particular a corps under command of Colonel
Porterfield, of Virginia, maintained their ground with constancy. This
brave officer, refusing to give way, fell mortally wounded. The battle
was resumed in the morning, and Gates' army was utterly discomfited: the
militia fled too soon; the regulars fought too long. The fugitives
retreating in promiscuous disorder, were pursued by the unrelenting
sabres of cavalry; and the horrors of the rout baffle description. Thus
Gates, verifying General Lee's prediction, "turned his Northern laurels
into Southern willows." The defeated general retired to North Carolina
to collect the scattered remains of his army. In August, Sumpter was
overwhelmed by Tarleton; and for a time the British army were in the
ascendant throughout the South.

Cornwallis[698:C] detached Colonel Ferguson, a gallant and expert
officer, across the Wateree, with one hundred and ten regulars; and in a
short time tory recruits augmented his numbers to one thousand; and,
confident of his strength, he sent a menacing message to the patriot
leaders on the western waters. This was, for the South, "the time that
tried men's souls:" many of the leading patriots captives or exiles, the
country subjugated, British and tory cruelty desolating it, hope almost
extinct,--Marion alone holding out in his fastnesses. The spirit of the
hardy mountaineers was aroused, and hearing that Ferguson was
threatening to cross the mountains, a body of men in arms were
concentrated by the twenty-fifth on the banks of the Watauga--four
hundred from Washington County, Virginia, under Colonel William
Campbell; the rest from North Carolina, under Colonels Shelby, Sevier,
McDowell, Cleveland, and Winston. Crossing the mountains they advanced
toward Ferguson, who began to retreat, and took up a position[699:A] on
an eminence of about one hundred and fifty feet, called King's Mountain.
It is situated in the northern part of South Carolina, near the North
Carolina line, its sides steep and rocky, a brook flowing at its
foot,--the surrounding scenery thickly wooded, wild, and picturesque. It
was resolved to pursue the enemy with nine hundred picked men. Near the
Cowpens, where Ferguson had encamped on the fourth, and about thirty
miles from King's Mountain, the mountaineers were re-enforced by four
hundred and sixty men, the greater part of them from South Carolina,
under Colonel Williams. H