from which Ferguson might more certainly
be cut off from Cornwallis, that the mountain leaders lingered with such
wily delay upon their march.

Ferguson was all intent upon Clarke--little suspecting the power which
could summon up, with such incredible alacrity, an army from the woods
fit to dispute his passage through any path of the country; and,
profiting by this confidence of the enemy, Shelby and his associates
were preparing, by secret movements, to put themselves in readiness to
spring upon their quarry at the most auspicious moment. In accordance
with this plan, Colonel Williams, who yet preserved his encampment on
the Fair Forest, was on the alert to act against the British leader, who
still marched further south--at every step lengthening the distance
between himself and his commander-in-chief, and so far favoring the
views of his enemy. Shelby and his comrades only tarried until their
numbers should be complete, designing as speedily as possible after that
to form a junction with Williams, and at once enter upon an open and hot
pursuit of their adversary.

Their uncertainty in regard to the present condition of Clarke added
greatly to their desire to strike, as early as possible, their
meditated blow. This officer had, a few weeks before, commenced his
retreat from Augusta through Ninety-Six, with some five hundred men,
closely followed by Brown and Cruger, and threatened by the Indian
tribes who inhabited the wilderness through which he journeyed. The
perils and hardships of this retreat arose not only from the necessity
Clarke was under to plunge into the inhospitable and almost unexplored
wilderness of the Allegany, by a path which would effectually baffle his
pursuers as well as escape the toils of Ferguson; but they were
painfully enhanced by the incumbrance of a troop of women and children,
who, having already felt the vengeance of the savages, and fearing its
further cruelties, and the scarcely less ruthless hatred of the Tories,
preferred to tempt the rigors of the mountain rather than remain in
their own dwellings. It is said that these terrified and helpless
fugitives amounted to somewhat above three hundred individuals.

There were no incidents of the war of independence that more strikingly
illustrated the heroism which grappled with the difficulties of that
struggle at its gloomiest moment, than the patient and persevering
gallantry of these brave wanderers and their confederates, whom we have