that he is said to have declared that "all the rebels out- I 7 8 0 side of hell" could not drive him from it. On the evening of the same day, Colonel Campbell selected his best-mounted men and, leaving the rest to follow, pushed forward from the Cowpens to fight Ferguson wherever he could find him. The command marched all night and so timed their movements that Ferguson was almost surrounded before he knew of the presence of his enemy. Ferguson's command had been recruited from the loyalist population; Draper says that Ferguson himself was probably the only British soldier present. The impending battle was to be fought between Whigs and Tories; he who loses need little hope for mercy.

Mountain

On the afternoon of the seventh of October, the The Battle of Americans dismounted, secured their horses under guard King's and out of gunshot, and advanced to the attack. From different sides of the hill they crept up the wooded slopes, firing when they saw an enemy. Colonel Campbell threw off his coat and cried: "There they are, my brave boys; shout like hell and fight like devils!" The order seems to have been literally obeyed. Three times were the assailants driven back by desperate bayonet charges. only to reform their lines, return to fight, and to repay twofold the slaughter that swept down from the hilltop. Ferguson behaved with great gallantry, rushing from point to point to encourage his men. Twice the Tories ran up white flags and twice Ferguson cut them down. Rather early in the action, he fell, pierced by half a dozen balls and the command passed to Captain Abraham de Peyster, a New York Tory, of "The King's American Regiment." After the action had raged for more than an hour, the enemy displayed the white flag and asked for quarter. Just then, a foraging party that Ferguson had sent out began an attack on the American rear-an adequate reason for continuing the action although the foe in front was begging for quarter. At all events, some of the Whigs shouted "Give 'em Buford's play," and it was some time before the slaughter ceased. Had King's Mountain been a British

178o victory, some American historians would have called it a "massacre."

The Effect of the Battle

The British force had been completely enveloped and few if any of the Tories escaped; about nine hundred

Sunday,
October 8

Map of the Battle of King's Mountain

were killed, wounded or taken. The Whig loss was officially reported at twenty-eight killed and sixty wounded; the loss was probably greater. The Americans captured arms largely in excess of the British loss in men, Ferguson having had a surplus supply for the arming of the loyalist recruits who flocked to his army as it advanced through the country. The victors slept upon the field and, at dawn of the next day, buried the dead. On the morning of the ninth, the hurried homeward march was begun, victors and vanquished alike half famished. On the thirteenth, a court was improvised, thirty or forty of the hated Carolina Tories were

sentenced to death, and nine were hung in retaliation for 178 0 Cornwallis's execution of influential patriots. The battle of King's Mountain cost Cornwallis a quarter of his army and changed the course of the war in the South. Cornwallis fell back from Charlotte to Winnsboro between Camden and Ninety Six, and "the hero of Saratoga," following at a respectful distance, placed the remnants of his "grand army" in camp at Charlotte.

Small as were the numbers engaged, the battle of King's Morgan Mountain was one of the most important of the war. Congress was sending needed aid; as hope rose in the hearts of the southern patriots, they increased their activities. Among the reinforcements was Colonel Daniel Morgan. No man except Arnold had done so much in the conflicts with Burgoyne, but in its distribution of rewards, congress had ignored him. Justly indignant at this ingratitude, Morgan resigned his command and retired to his home in Virginia. In June, 1780, congress directed that he should be reëmployed in the southern army but Morgan showed no eagerness to serve again under "the hero of Saratoga." After the disaster at Camden, his patriotism got the better of his indignation and he hastened to the front; he arrived at Hillsboro in September and congress soon made him a brigadiergeneral.

At Valley Forge, in March, 1778, General Greene Greene had accepted the thankless offer of quartermaster-general, reserving the right to command on the field of battle as he did at Monmouth. In August, 1780, he resigned that office and, in October, he was appointed to the command at West Point, a place made vacant by Arnold's treason as will be related in the next chapter. When the failure of Gates's southern campaign forced the choice of a new commander, all eyes turned toward Greene as his successor. On his way to his new command, Greene left Steuben in Virginia to recruit and organize a force as quickly as possible. Washington said: "I think I am giving you a general, but what can a general do without men, without arms, without clothing,

1 7 8 0 without stores, without provisions." But the "gift" of the general changed the aspect of affairs. Greene relieved Gates at Charlotte on the second of December. He was destined not to win a single victory where he personally commanded and yet to emerge from the southern conflict with the reputation of being the second soldier of the Revolution.

A

Winter

FTER the battle of Monmouth, Washington had Washington's taken up his headquarters at White Plains Army in whence, in September, he sent to congress a Quarters copy of the report of a board of officers that he had appointed "to consider what would be the most eligible plan for invading Canada." A few weeks later, he received "a plan and sundry resolutions of Congress for attacking Canada the next Campaign" and replied express- November 11, ing his disapproval of the plan. Later in the month, 1778 he reported that his army was in motion to the places of the respective cantonments for winter quarters. Nine brigades were to be stationed on the west side of the Hudson, exclusive of the garrison at West Point, seven at Middlebrook, and one at Elizabethtown to cover the lower part of Jersey. Six brigades were to be stationed at West Point and east of the Hudson, for the immediate defense of the Highlands and the protection of the country lying along the sound. In closing his communication, Washington said: "The Troops must again have recourse to the expedient of hutting, as they did last year. But, as they are now well clad, and we have had more leisure to make some little preparations for winterquarters, I hope they will be in a more comfortable situation, than they were in the preceding winter."

On the twenty-seventh of March, 1779, Washington A Gloomy wrote to George Mason: "I have seen without despond- Outlook ency even for a momt.-the hours which America have