Colonels Cleveland, Hampbright,
Chronicle, and Williams, who were moving to join them. We are not told
who took the lead when they left the known trail, but we may suppose it
was Sevier and his Wataugans, for the making of new warpaths and wild
riding were two of the things which distinguished Nolichucky Jack's
leadership. Down the steep side of the mountain, finding their way as
they plunged, went the overhill men. They crossed the Blue Ridge at
Gillespie's Gap and pushed on to Quaker Meadows, where Colonel Cleveland
with 350 men swung into their column. Along their route, the Back
Country Patriots with their rifles came out from the little hamlets and
the farms and joined them.

They now had an army of perhaps fifteen hundred men but no commanding
officer. Thus far, on the march, the four colonels had conferred
together and agreed as to procedure; or, in reality, the influence of
Sevier and Shelby, who had planned the enterprise and who seem always
to have acted in unison, had swayed the others. It would be, however,
manifestly improper to go into battle without a real general. Something
must be done. McDowell volunteered to carry a letter explaining their
need to General Gates, who had escaped with some of his staff into North
Carolina and was not far off. It then occurred to Sevier and Shelby,
evidently for the first time, that Gates, on receiving such a request,
might well ask why the Governor of North Carolina, as the military head
of the State, had not provided a commander. The truth is that Sevier
and Shelby had been so busy drumming up the militia and planning their
campaign that they had found no time to consult the Governor. Moreover,
the means whereby the expedition had been financed might not have
appealed to the chief executive. After finding it impossible to raise
sufficient funds on his personal credit, Sevier had appropriated the
entry money in the government land office to the business in hand--with
the good will of the entry taker, who was a patriotic man, although,
as he had pointed out, he could not, OFFICIALLY, hand over the money.
Things being as they were, no doubt Nolichucky Jack felt that an
interview with the Governor had better be deferred until after the
capture of Ferguson. Hence the tenor of this communication to General
Gates:

"As we have at this time called out our militia without any orders from
the Executive of our different States and with the view of expelling
the Enemy out of thi