aps, even more facility
than the cavalry, and appeared in no degree to regret the toil of the
march, which was so far the lighter to them, as they were exempt from
the solicitude which their companions suffered of providing forage for
their beasts.

The officers in command of this party were young men, in whose general
demeanor and bearing was to be seen that bold, enterprising, and hardy
character, which at that period, even more than at present,
distinguished the frontier population. The frequent expeditions against
the savages, which the times had rendered familiar to them, as well as
the service of the common war, in which they had all partaken, had
impressed upon their exteriors the rugged lines of thoughtful
soldiership.

The troops now associated, consisted of distinct bodies of volunteers,
who had each assembled under their own leaders, without the requisition
of the government, entirely independent of each other, and more
resembling the promiscuous meeting of hunters than a regularly-organized
military corps.

They had convened, about a week before the period at which I have
presented them to my reader, at Wattauga, on the border of Tennessee, in
pursuance of an invitation from Shelby, who was now one of the principal
officers in command. He had himself embodied a force of between two and
three hundred men, in his own district of the mountains; and Colonel
Campbell, now also present, had repaired to the rendezvous with four
hundred soldiers from the adjoining county in Virginia. These two had
soon afterwards formed a junction with Colonels M'Dowell and Sevier, of
North Carolina, who had thus augmented the joint force to the number
which I have already mentioned as constituting the whole array. They had
marched slowly and wearily from the mountains into the district of
country which lay between the forks of Catawba, somewhere near to the
present village of Morgantown--and might now be said to be rather
hovering in the neighborhood of Ferguson, then advancing directly
towards him. The force of the British partisan was, as yet, too
formidable for the attack of these allies, and he was still in a
position to make his way in safety to the main army under Cornwallis--at
this time stationed at Charlotte, some seventy or eighty miles distant.
It was both to gain increase of force, from certain auxiliaries who were
yet expected to join them, as also, without exciting suspicion of their
purpose, to attain a position