ed into North Carolina, whence they
returned as soon as they were able to oppose the enemy. Colonels Tarleton
and Ferguson had advanced towards North Carolina at the head of their
soldiery; and McDowell ordered Colonel Bledsoe to rally the militia of his
county, and come forward in readiness to assist in repelling the invader's
approach. Similar dispatches were sent to Colonel Sevier and to other
officers, and the patriots were not slow in obeying the summons.

While the British Colonel Ferguson, under the orders of Cornwallis, was
sweeping the country near the frontier, gathering the loyalists under his
standard and driving back the Whigs, against whom fortune seemed to have
decided, a resolute band was assembled for their succor far up among the
mountains. From a population of five or six thousand, not more than twelve
hundred of them fighting men, a body of near five hundred mountaineers,
armed with rifles and clad in leathern hunting-shirts, was gathered. The
anger of these sons of liberty had been stirred up by an insolent message
received from Colonel Ferguson, that, "if they did not instantly lay down
their arms, he would come over the mountains and whip their republicanism
out of them;" and they were eager for an opportunity of showing what regard
they paid to his threats.

At this juncture, Colonel Isaac Shelby returned from Kentucky, where he had
been surveying land for the great company of land speculators headed by
Henderson, Hart, and others. The young officer was betrothed to Miss Susan
Hart, a belle celebrated among the western settlements at that period, and
it was shrewdly suspected that his sudden return from the wilds of Kentucky
was to be attributed to the attractions of that young lady; notwithstanding
that due credit is given to the patriot, in recent biographical sketches,
for an ardent wish to aid his countrymen in their struggle for liberty by
his active services at the scene of conflict. On his arrival at Bledsoe's,
it was a matter of choice with the colonel whether he should himself go
forth and march at the head of the advancing army of volunteers, or yield
the command to Shelby. It was necessary for one to remain behind, for the
danger to the defenceless inhabitants of the country was even greater from
the Indians than the British; and it was obvious that the ruthless savage
would take immediate advantage of the departure of a large body of fighting
men, to fall upon the enfeebled frontier. S