ere, at about nine o'clock of the evening,
Colonel William Campbell was appointed to the chief command. The
mountain horsemen rode on in the night through a rain, with their guns
under their arms to keep the locks dry; the leader in front, and each
colonel at the head of his troops. In the morning they halted for half
an hour to eat a frugal breakfast, and at twelve o'clock, when the sky
cleared, they found themselves within three miles of the British camp.
They halted, and the order passed along the line: "Tie up overcoats,
pick touch-holes, fresh prime, and be ready to fight." At three o'clock
in the afternoon of the seventh of October an express from Ferguson to
Cornwallis was captured, and his despatches, declaring his position on
King's Mountain impregnable, were read to the troops. Galloping off they
came in twenty minutes within sight of the British camp. They dismounted
on the banks of the little stream, tied their horses to the limbs of
trees, and left them in charge of a small guard. The force being
divided, the mountain was surrounded. As each column moved on to the
attack it was driven back a short distance by the charge of the British,
who were soon compelled to wheel, in order to face another column
advancing on the opposite side. Ferguson, finding his troops hemmed in
and huddled together on the summit of the mountain, fought with
desperate valor, and fell, charging at the head of his men and cheering
them on. The white flag was now raised. Of Ferguson's force, amounting
to rather more than eleven hundred men, two hundred and forty were
killed and two hundred wounded; upwards of seven hundred were taken
prisoners, with all the arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. The loss of
the patriots was thirty killed and fifty wounded. The gallant Williams
was slain, as also was Major Chronicle, and several other officers. The
battle lasted one hour. A number of the tories were hung on the next
day. The sword used by Colonel Campbell on this occasion is preserved in
possession of William Campbell Preston, of South Carolina, the orator,
his grandson; it is more than two centuries old, and was wielded by the
ancestors of Colonel Campbell in Scotland in the wars of the Pretenders.
One of the rifles employed at King's Mountain is also preserved. This
battle was the turning-point of the war in the South.

Colonel William Campbell was a native of Augusta County, and removed
early to the County of Washington. Fame has awarde