e to rise, in defense of their state and in
protection of their homes. Two hundred Tennessee riflemen from
Sullivan County, under Colonel Isaac Shelby, were engaged in
minor operations in South Carolina conducted by Colonel Charles
McDowell; and conspicuous among these engagements was the affair
at Musgrove's Mill on August 18th when three hundred horsemen led
by Colonel James Williams, a native of Granville County, North
Carolina, Colonel Isaac Shelby, and Lieutenant-Colonel Clark of
Georgia repulsed with heavy loss a British force of between four
and five hundred.

These minor successes availed nothing in face of the disastrous
defeat of Gates by Cornwallis at Camden on August 16th and the
humiliating blow to Sumter at Rocky Mount on the following day.
Ferguson hotly pursued the frontiersmen, who then retreated over
the mountains; and from his camp at Gilbert Town he despatched a
threatening message to the Western leaders, declaring that if
they did not desist from their opposition to the British arms and
take protection under his standard, he would march his army over
the mountains and lay their country waste with fire and sword.
Stung to action, Shelby hastily rode off to consult with Sevier
at his log castle near Jonesboro; and together they matured a
plan to arouse the mountain men and attack Ferguson by surprise.
In the event of failure, these wilderness free-lances planned to
leave the country and find a home with the Spaniards in
Louisiana.

At the original place of rendezvous, the Sycamore Shoals of the
Watauga, the overmountain men gathered on September 25th. There
an eloquent sermon was preached to them by that fiery man of God,
the Reverend Samuel Doak, who concluded his discourse with a
stirring invocation to the sword of the Lord and of Gideon--a
sentiment greeted with the loud applause of the militant
frontiersmen. Here and at various places along the march they
were joined by detachments of border fighters summoned to join
the expedition--Colonel William Campbell, who with some
reluctance had abandoned his own plans in response to Shelby's
urgent and repeated message, in command of four hundred hardy
frontiersmen from Washington County, Virginia; Colonel Benjamin
Cleveland, with the wild fighters of Wilkes known as "Cleveland's
Bulldogs"; Colonel Andrew Hampton, with the stalwart riflemen of
Rutherford; Major Joseph Winston, the cousin of Patrick Henry,
with the flower of the citizenry of Surry; th