These were loaded with wild fowl, bear's meat,
venison, beef, johnny-cakes, ash-cakes, hominy, and applejack. Should you
not like to have been one of the guests?
During one of these merrymaking feasts (1780) news was brought that Major
Ferguson, one of the ablest officers in Cornwallis's army, was threatening
to make an attack on the back-country settlements. At once Sevier, along
with Isaac Shelby and others, set out to raise an army of frontiersmen to
march against Ferguson. Soon a thousand men were riding through the
forests to find the British force, of which every man except the commander
was an American Tory.
They came upon it in a strong position on King's Mountain. Without delay
the Americans made a furious attack. They fought with great heroism,
charging up the steep mountainside with reckless bravery.
They were divided into three bodies, one on the right of the British, one
on the left, and another in front. Sevier commanded the division on the
left. At just the right moment he led his men in a resistless rush up the
mountainside and made victory certain for the Americans. The British
raised the white flag of surrender. All of Ferguson's soldiers who had not
been killed or wounded were made prisoners.
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