t
challenger to those other mountaineers who also had a chivalry of their
own, albeit they too were wolves of war.

When Shelby on the Holston received Ferguson's pungent letter, he flung
himself on his horse and rode posthaste to Watauga to consult, with
Sevier. He found the bank of the Nolichucky teeming with merrymakers.
Nolichucky Jack was giving an immense barbecue and a horse race. Without
letting the festival crowd have an inkling of the serious nature of
Shelby's errand, the two men drew apart to confer. It is said to have
been Sevier's idea that they should muster the forces of the western
country and go in search of Ferguson ere the latter should be able
to get sufficient reinforcements to cross the mountains. Sevier, like
Ferguson, always preferred to seek his foe, knowing well the advantage
of the offensive. Messengers were sent to Colonel William Campbell of
the Virginia settlements on the Clinch, asking his aid. Campbell at
first refused, thinking it better to fortify the positions they held and
let Ferguson come and put the mountains between himself and Cornwallis.
On receipt of a second message, however, he concurred. The call to arms
was heard up and down the valleys, and the frontiersmen poured into
Watauga. The overhill men were augmented by McDowell's troops from Burke
County, who had dashed over the mountains a few weeks before in their
escape from Ferguson.

At daybreak on the 26th of September they mustered at the Sycamore
Shoals on the Watauga, over a thousand strong. It was a different
picture they made from that other great gathering at the same spot when
Henderson had made his purchase in money of the Dark and Bloody Ground,
and Sevier and Robertson had bought for the Wataugans this strip of
Tennessee. There were no Indians in this picture. Dragging Canoe, who
had uttered his bloody prophecy, had by these very men been driven far
south into the caves of the Tennessee River. But the Indian prophecy
still hung over them, and in this day with a heavier menace. Not with
money, now, were they to seal their purchase of the free land by the
western waters. There had been no women in that other picture, only the
white men who were going forward to open the way and the red men
who were retreating. But in this picture there were women--wives and
children, mothers, sisters, and sweethearts. All the women of the
settlement were there at this daybreak muster to cheer on their way the
men who were going o