e Ferguson
was to retreat and rejoin his leader. The Battle of King's Mountain is
hardly famous in the annals of the world, and yet, in some ways, it
was a decisive event. Suddenly Ferguson found himself beset by hostile
bands, coming from the north, the south, the east, and the west.
When, in obedience to his orders, he tried to retreat he found the way
blocked, and his messages were intercepted, so that Cornwallis was not
aware of the peril. Ferguson, harassed, outnumbered, at last took refuge
on King's Mountain, a stony ridge on the western border between the two
Carolinas. The north side of the mountain was a sheer impassable cliff
and, since the ridge was only half a mile long, Ferguson thought that
his force could hold it securely. He was, however, fighting an enemy
deadly with the rifle and accustomed to fire from cover. The sides and
top of King's Mountain were wooded and strewn with boulders. The motley
assailants crept up to the crest while pouring a deadly fire on any of
the defenders who exposed themselves. Ferguson was killed and in the end
his force surrendered, on October 7, 1780, with four hundred casualties
and the loss of more than seven hundred prisoners. The American
casualties were eighty-eight. In reprisal for earlier acts on the other
side, the victors insulted the dead body of Ferguson and hanged nine of
their prisoners on the limb of a great tulip tree. Then the improvised
army scattered.*

* See Chapter IX, "Pioneers of the Old Southwest", by
Constance Lindsay Skinner in "The Chronicles of America."

While the conflict for supremacy in the South was still uncertain, in
the Northwest the Americans made a stroke destined to have astounding
results. Virginia had long coveted lands in the valleys of the Ohio and
the Mississippi. It was in this region that Washington had first seen
active service, helping to wrest that land from France. The country was
wild. There was almost no settlement; but over a few forts on the upper
Mississippi and in the regions lying eastward to the Detroit River there
was that flicker of a red flag which meant that the Northwest was under
British rule. George Rogers Clark, like Washington a Virginian land
surveyor, was a strong, reckless, brave frontiersman. Early in 1778
Virginia gave him a small sum of money, made him a lieutenant colonel,
and authorized him to raise troops for a western adventure. He had less
than two hundred men when he appeared a little l