LV; 
 
 
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 LIBRARY 
 
 University of North Carolina 
 
 Endowed by the Dialectic and Philan- 
 thropic Societies. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00032701498 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION 
 
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 A HISTORICAL ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 THE HON. DAVID SCHENCK, 
 
 Saturday, May 5TH, \\ 
 
 THE GUILFORD BATTLE GROUND. 
 
 The Battle of Guilford Gourt House, 
 
 Fought Thursday, March 15, 1781. 
 
 Published by "The Guilford Battle Ground Company" by request. 
 
 GREENSBORO: 
 Thomas Brothers, Power Book and Job Printers. 
 
 1888. 
 
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V HISTORICAL ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 THE HON. DAVID SCHENCK, 
 
 Saturday, May 5TH, 1888, 
 
 AT 
 
 THE GUILFORD BATTLE GROUND. 
 
 The Battle of Guilford Gourt House, 
 
 Fought Thursday, March 15, 1781. 
 
 Published by " The Guilford Battle Ground Company" by request. 
 
 GREENSBORO : 
 Thomas Brothers, Power Book and Job Printers. 
 
 1888. 
 
 *^ C 
 
 v\^_>o-M^ 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil 
 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/historicaladdres01sche 
 
In pursuance of the following' correspondence and 
 numerous individual requests from all parts of the coun- 
 try, the "Guilford Battle Ground Company " has con- 
 cluded to print one thousand copies of the address of the 
 HON. David SCHENCK, delivered May 5th, 1888, on the 
 battle field of "Guilford Court House." It will be sold 
 at fifty cents a copy, a little above cost, and the profits, 
 if any, will be devoted to the improvement of the grounds 
 purchased by the Company. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Thomas B. Keogh, 
 
 Sec'y of the Co. 
 
 Greensboro, May 15th, 1888. 
 
 Greensboro, May 5th, 1SS8. 
 Hon. David Schenck : 
 
 My Dear Sir : I heard to-day with profound satisfaction your noble 
 and complete vindication of the North Carolina militia who fought at 
 the battle of Guilford. For years these brave volunteers have rested 
 under charges that dishonored them and were a source of mortification 
 to the peoi^le of the State. To-day the stigma is wiped out, and hence- 
 forth they will stand in history as men who fought bravely and most 
 efficiently for the cause of American independence, and did not retire 
 from the field until they did so in accordance with the orders of Gen- 
 Greene himself. 
 
 Deeply' appreciating the importance of the facts so strongly portrayed 
 by you to-day to the memory of these brave men and to their de- 
 scendants and to all North Carolinians, as well as to history itself, I 
 in common with the State officers present, as well as a large number 
 of prominent gentlemen throughout the State, earnestly request that 
 the Guilford Battle Ground Company (of which many 7 of us are mem- 
 bers) will cause your address to be published in pamphlet form and 
 distributed throughout the State. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 A. M. SCALES. 
 
Greensboro, May 10th, L888. 
 Box. A. M. Scales, Governor of Xorlh Carolina: 
 
 Dear Sir:— I am in receipt of your letter of May ">th. in which you, 
 in common with the State officers present a- well a- a lar^e number of 
 prominent gentlemen throughout tec state, earnestly request that the 
 Guilford Battle Ground Company will cause my address, delivered on 
 the battle -round, to be published in pamphlet form and distributed 
 throughout the State. 
 
 There is no deeper stain on American history than the injustice 
 done to North Carolinians in the battle of < tuilford Court House, and 
 being impressed with this fact, I have devoted every leisure hour at 
 my command for many nmntris to wipe out this stain. I have not 
 taken l'i >r granted the aspersions of those who have sought to contemn 
 our people, nor relied on the " vain repetition" of superficial and in- 
 considerate writers, but have endeavored to collect the testimony of 
 those who participated in the hat tie. and " know whei*eof they speak," 
 and, from such testimony given by soldiers and historians, have drawn 
 the conclusions which I submitted to my fellow citizens on the occa- 
 sion to which \( Hi allude. 
 
 It is therefore a pleasure unspeakable to me that you and the dis- 
 tinguished and enlightened gentlemen who were present and heard 
 my argument should pronounce it "a complete vindication of the 
 North Carolina militia who fought at the battle of Guilford." If my 
 vindication shall redound to the honor of North Carolina and make 
 history speak the truth. I shall desire no greater reward than shall 
 attach to the consummation of such a work. 
 
 1 shall comply with your request by placing the address in the 
 hands of the Company, and trust that it will soon he accessible to 
 all who love our dear old State and sympathize with every effort 
 to rescue her good name from those "who would defame her." 
 I am. with great respect. 
 
 Your sincere friend. 
 
 D. SCHENCK. 
 
The Battle of Kuilford Sourt House. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen — 
 
 Fellow-Citizens of our Common Country: 
 
 Having been inspired, by frequent visits to this sacred 
 spot, to institute a patient, thorough and impartial inves- 
 tigation of the truth as it relates to the history of the 
 Battle of Guilford Court House, my friends have honored 
 me with the request that I deliver to you, this day, a his- 
 torical address upon this great and decisive battle. 
 
 The task is no easy one, as the events which led to it 
 were so varied and important, the incidents of the battle 
 so numerous and interesting, and the results which flowed 
 from it so blessed and glorious to the American people, 
 that it is difficult, by selection even, to condense the story 
 in the space of a popular address. I, therefore, bespeak 
 your indulgence if I shall fail to meet your expectations 
 or to collate all that might be said in regard to this fruit- 
 ful theme. 
 
 Let us approach it with calmness and listen with pa- 
 tience, as I shall endeavor to tell the story. 
 
 As a North Carolinian, with a heart full of love for his 
 native State and "swelling with gladness whenever we 
 name her," I shall endeavor to repel the slan*ders which 
 the jealousy and ignorance of others have heaped upon 
 her and to get out of the ruts of "vain repetition" into 
 the smoother road of investigation and inquiry, not taking 
 for granted what one or two men have said in their haste 
 or their wrath, and which a hundred have repeated, but 
 venturing to produce the cotemporaneous facts and de- 
 
ducing from them my own opinions, I shall submit them, 
 with confidence, to your reason and judgment. I shall 
 not detract from the record of others nor "set down 
 aught in malice'" of any one, but attempt to portray the 
 scenes of more than a century ago, as they appear to me, 
 through the long vista which intervenes. 
 
 We stand to-day on sacred soil, in the very midst of 
 the place where, on Thursday, the 15th day of March, 
 1781, was fought, what I verily believe to be, in its re- 
 sults, by far the most important battle of the revolution- 
 ary war; it was the beginning of the end. The retreat 
 of Cornwallis from the field was the acknowledgement, 
 bv a proud am! reluctant heart, th.it the attempt to sub- 
 ject the Southern States and cnA the rebellion was a fail- 
 ure, and with sorrowful step he followed his inevitable 
 doom to the prison walls of Yorktown where on the 19th 
 i.\ay of October, 17S1, he became a humiliated and 
 conquered captive. 
 
 The splendid army of Burgoyne, coming in all the 
 pomp and pride of discipline and numbers had been 
 beaten and captured at Saratoga in October, 1777; the 
 army of Sir Henry Clinton had been compelled to seek 
 the shelter of its fortifications and the protection of the 
 British fleet at New York. British invasion at the North 
 had failed in the fall of 1779, when the English govern- 
 ment determined to transfer the seat of war to the South 
 and make a desperate and final attempt to overrun the 
 Carolinas and Georgia and separate them from their sister 
 colonies; hoping, with this foothold, to follow up their 
 victor}" with the subjection of Virginia and the ultimate 
 conquest of the country. Lord Germain had carefully 
 prepared the plan of the campaign and marked the par- 
 ticulars of its cruel progress. North Carolina was to be 
 invaded from Wilmington and the Cape Fear as a basis 
 of operations and supplies; South Carolina was to be 
 
conquered by first capturing Charleston and then keep- 
 ing the people of the. coast in subjection by the threat of 
 turning loose upon them the numerous slaves of that re- 
 gion of the State; the upper country was to be kept in awe 
 by the menace of Indian invasion from the frontiers, and 
 all the horrors that this calamity suggested to their 
 minds. 
 
 By these means it was expected that the spirit of the 
 rebellion would be crushed and the loyalists become nu- 
 merous enough to hold the country in submission to the 
 government. 
 
 Sir Henry Clinton sailed for the South and began the 
 seige of Charleston on the 9th day of February, 1780, 
 and ended it on the 12th day of May by the capture of 
 General Benjamin Lincoln and the American army under 
 his command. North Carolina had gone to its rescue, 
 and every regiment of the Continental line of North Car- 
 olina Regulars, under General Hogun, numbering about 
 one thousand men, had been embraced in the capitula- 
 tion. A few only of the officers who had lost their 
 positions by a consolidation of the regiments in May, 
 1778, had escaped from the fate of their comrades. 
 
 The fall of Charleston left the South without an army 
 to oppose the invaders; the citizens of that State were 
 panic stricken with this sudden and overwhelming mis- 
 fortune. Their civil government entirely dissolved, their 
 Governor became an exile in North Carolina, the loyal- 
 ists embodied in every part of the State; the stoutest 
 Whigs, even those who had served in the Continental 
 Congress, submitted to the conqueror* and renewed their 
 allegiance to the royal government. 
 
 All regular opposition to British power ceased. Marion, 
 with a few devoted men, took refuge in the swamps of 
 the Pee-Dee and Sumpter and his handful of followers 
 -Bancroft. Vol. 5 p.393. 
 
sought the fast less of the mountains, that last refuge of 
 patriots in every land, as the only hope of safety. 
 
 The whole State was prostrate, and the King rejoiced 
 and the parliament exulted that at least one State was 
 thoroughly reclaimed and that their plans were a success. 
 
 Sir Henry Clinton returned to New York to enjoy the 
 congratulations of his friends and the glory of his victory, 
 leaving Lord Cornwallis to command the Southern army 
 and push his conquest into North Carolina. 
 
 The English outposts were extended to Georgetown, 
 Camden and Ninety-Six, and proclamations, breathing 
 vengeance and cruelty to the Whigs, were issued. Plun- 
 der and bloodshed and anarch} 7 rioted over the land un- 
 restrained. 
 
 The Provincial Congress was filled with gloomy fore- 
 bodings; but rallied sufficiently to organize a small band 
 of regulars from Maryland and Delaware, under the Baron 
 DeKalb to occupy North Carolina and co-operate with 
 its militia for defence. In an evil hour to American in- 
 dependence General Horatio Gates was entrusted with 
 the command of this skeleton army and it soon fell a 
 victim to his rashness and folly at Camden, where he 
 was routed and his army almost destroyed. The struggle 
 now seemed ended in the South. The nation looked on 
 with amazement and horror at this swelling tide of mis- 
 fortune which seemed to be swallowing up every hope of 
 liberty as it spread over the land. 
 
 The government was paralyzed; its armies were 
 captured and beaten; its treasury was empty; its regular 
 soldiers were languishing in the filthy prison ships of the 
 enemy; the loyalists were organizing for rapine and re- 
 venge and the savage was painting for the war path and 
 for blood. 
 
 Cornwallis, willing to carry out the unrelenting and 
 merciless plans of Germain, selected Lieutenant-Colonel 
 
9 
 
 Banistre Tarleton of his cavalry and Colonel Patrick 
 Ferguson, who led a body of picked infantry, as the 
 instruments of his oppressive purpose. 
 
 The former made himself conspicuous by the massacre 
 of Buford's command in the Waxhaws and received the 
 commendations of his commander for the bloody work. 
 
 Ferguson's mission was to organize the tories and 
 overawe the Whigs in the up country districts, which 
 meant to hang and imprison those who refused to take 
 the oath or resisted his power. A thousand loyalists 
 had joined his battalion of Regulars and marched from 
 Ninety-Six through the upper counties of South Carolina, 
 unopposed, into Rutherford and Burke counties in North 
 Carolina. Mis will was law and his command was death. 
 Right and mercy were disregarded and the people fled 
 in terror and dismay before his advance. Bold in his 
 movements, profane and denunciatory in his proclama- 
 tions, he went forth breathing threats upon all who with- 
 stood his authority. Whole families and neighborhoods, 
 gathering what they could in the moment of danger, 
 fled from his approach. 
 
 The men of Burke, who had dared to strike his out- 
 posts, were unable to oppose his advance and fled across 
 the mountains to the Holston and the Nollichucky where 
 they found refuge with Shelby and Sevier. There Col- 
 onels Charles McDowell of Burke, Isaac Shelby of Wash- 
 ington, and " Nollichucky Jack," as Col. John Sevier was 
 familiarly called by all North Carolinians, agreed to 
 form a volunteer corps of their mountain soldiers and 
 march to the rescue of their friends; to hunt for Ferguson 
 and to revenge themselves upon him and his marauders. 
 At Quaker Meadows, the home of the McDowells, on 
 the Catawba, two miles North of Morganton, on the 
 30th day of September, 1780, assembled these hardy sol- 
 diers; men who had felled the forests, destroyed the wild 
 
Id 
 
 beasts which surrounded them and driven back the 
 Indians who opposed the march of their civilization. 
 
 They knew nothing of the stamp tax and the use of 
 tea but they found men seizing their cattle, plunder- 
 ing their houses and insulting their wives, and they 
 determined on revenge. 
 
 Cleaveland from Wilkes, Winston from Surry, Ham- 
 bright and Chronicle, from Lincoln joined the Mc- 
 Dowell's, Charles and Joseph, from Burke. Campbell 
 from Virginia came to the rescue, Hill, Lacy and Wil- 
 liams from South Carolina joined the pursuit. 
 
 On the 7th day of October they brought Ferguson to 
 bay at Kings Mountain. 
 
 They were ignorant of military tactics and knew less 
 of the science of war. They had been trained to shoot 
 the deadly Deckhard rifle and to close with the knife and 
 tomahawk which they carried in their belts. The}- fought 
 from tree to tree and were vigilant and quick - in all their 
 movements. Officers, as well as men, were armed alike 
 and during the combat the)' fought on an equality, only 
 expecting the control of an officer when decisive move- 
 ments were to be made. No printed circulars announced 
 their order of battle; there were no glittering uniforms to 
 inspire authority, each was dressed in the hunting shirt 
 of the da)', with his powder horn on one side and his 
 bullet pouch on the other, with knife and hatchet in his 
 belt. 
 
 They were drawn up in line and told that they were to 
 form a circle around the hill and press forward to the 
 centre until Ferguson was killed or captured. 
 
 Campbell of Virginia who had been honored with the 
 nominal command had but few words to say. He in- 
 structed each regiment and battalion as to the position 
 assigned it, and, waiting till they formed the magic circle, 
 he advanced to the head of his column and gave but one 
 
1 I 
 
 command: "Now, boys shout like hell and fight like 
 devils!" 
 
 In a moment the war whoop of the frontier echoed in 
 the forest and the keen crack of the rifles mingled with 
 its sound. From tree to tree they advanced and with 
 every discharge of their rifles a British soldier fell. Fer- 
 guson amazed at their reckless daring, ordered his regu- 
 lars to charge with the bayonet and push them back. 
 
 The charge came and the riflemen retreated before the 
 bayonet; but as the British turned to regain their line a 
 volley thined their ranks one-third, and the "shouting 
 devils" were again at their heels. Thrice this charge 
 was repeated until only twenty regulars survived the 
 dreadful carnage. 
 
 The circle had become smaller each time, Winston 
 had reached one summit and Hambright another, leav- 
 ing Chronicle a corpse behind them. The portly form 
 and stentorian voice of Cleaveland were seen and heard 
 near their camp exhorting his men to " shoot low and aim 
 well." Williams fell at the head of his men, but Lacy 
 and Hill Rushed over his prostrate form to revenge his 
 death. 
 
 The whistle of Ferguson, the signal for a charge, was 
 heard in the din of battle. The Whigs knew his signal 
 and his checked shirt that he wore in battle, and were 
 watching for him to come in sight. In a moment, wield- 
 ing his sword in his left hand and spurring his white 
 charger to a furious speed, he made a dash for life and 
 freedom. 
 
 One Gilleland, of Sevier's command, a North Caro- 
 linian, first discovered his approach, and though wounded 
 and sick, he raised his rifle, but it failed to fire; then 
 turning to Robert Young, a comrade near by, he shouted, 
 "There is Ferguson — shoot him!" Young, perceiving 
 the prey, raised his pet rifle to his shoulder and replied: 
 
I 2 
 
 "I'll sec what Sweet Lips can do." The music from 
 "Sweet Lips" had not yet brought back the echo from 
 the rocks when Ferguson fell, unconscious, with a bullet 
 through his brain. North Carolina was avenged. 
 
 The battle was ended, the white flag ran up and with 
 the exception ot hanging a dozen or so of rapacious to- 
 nes, the carnage ceased. Not a single man of Ferguson's 
 command escaped. 
 
 This victory of undisciplined troops, who had sprung 
 like tabled soldiers from the ground; who had organized 
 their regiments without a General, who marched without 
 a commissar} - or quartermaster; who fought and bled 
 without a surgeon to dress their wounds; who neither 
 asked nor received a soldier's wages; who came, unbid- 
 den, as volunteers, to save a prostrate country and to 
 punish a devouring foe; these untutored men of the Car- 
 olinas and Virginia were the first to hurl back - the invaders 
 and strike dismay into their ranks — the first to "relight 
 the torch of freedom" on their beacon hills and call to 
 their saddened countrymen still to hope. 
 
 While we honor the comrades who fought by their 
 sides, let the facts be imperishable as the eternal hills, 
 from whence came these men, that this was a North Car- 
 olina victory — conceived ami organized by North Caro- 
 linians, with two-thirds of the soldiers who executed it 
 from the ( )ld North State. .That the vanguard of attack 
 was led by Winston and Chronicle, from Surry and Lin- 
 coln, the latter of whom yielded his youthful life a heroic 
 sacrifice to the land he loved. 
 
 Cornwallis was at this time in Charlotte, smarting with 
 the sting of "The Hornets" who surrounded him. I lis 
 couriers were shot d< >wn and his news gatherers slain. The 
 defeat and death of Ferguson was first announced to His 
 Lordship by the joyful Whigs who shouted it in the ears 
 of his pickets and lighted bonfires in sight of his camp. 
 
Every shadow now seemed a soldier to his distempered 
 vision; every soldier seemed a troop rising out of the in- 
 visible distance beyond. Exaggerated accounts of the 
 gathering backwoodsmen, who seemed innumerable and 
 invulnerable, were circulated through his camp. Dismay 
 was in every countenance. On the night of the 14th of 
 October, though weak and sick, he (led in the darkness 
 and [dunged through the historic mud" of the Waxhaws, 
 never resting his feet till he reached a place of safety at 
 Winnsboro, South Carolina. Here he sate down to real- 
 ize the mutations of fortune, and to learn that North 
 Carolina was yet unconquered and determined to be free. 
 
 It taught him another lesson — that his bloody tragedies 
 would be avenged; that his oppressions could not con- 
 tinue with impunity. Above the roar of battle at Kings 
 Mountain, his soldiers had heard the ominous words 
 "Tarleton's quarters" and before the hand of vengeance 
 could be stayed a hundred crouching loyalists had fallen 
 victims to the spirit of retaliation. From this time forth 
 Cornwallis behaved as a soldier, not from choice, but 
 from necessity and personal danger. 
 
 Hut we must hasten on with our story. 
 
 On the 14th day of October, 17S0, General Washing- 
 ton, acting under the powers delegated to him by Con- 
 gress, announced his selection of Major-General Nathanael 
 Greene to succeed General Gates, and on the 4th day of 
 December he assumed command at Charlotte. 
 
 He found at Charlotte scarcely eleven hundred troops 
 of whom only eight hundred were fit for duty. Many of 
 them with garments so tattered that they could not 
 appear on parade, but under those rags were indomitable 
 spirits. Here was the fragment of the first Maryland, 
 under Major Anderson, the only organized force that 
 retreated from Camden, one hundred of the "Blue Hen's 
 Chickens," Kirkwood's Delawares, and a small remnant of 
 
'4 
 
 Colonel Hal. Dixon's battalion of North Carolinians, 
 "who fought a^ long as there was a cartridge in their 
 pouches" and who have been made immortal in history 
 by the pen of Lee, men who fought over the dying 
 body of DeKalb. These men were patriots and soldiers, 
 though covered with tatters and rags and only waited 
 the first opportunity to capture a wardrobe from the 
 enemy. 
 
 Greene, finding that this region was exhausted of 
 provisions, divided his forces. Taking his main army to 
 "Camp Repose" on the l'ce Dee, in Anson count)', he 
 detached General Morgan, on the 16th day of December, 
 across the Catawba to watch the enemy and strike a blow 
 if oppi irtunity offered. 
 
 His force consisted of 320 men detached from the 
 Maryland line, a detachment of Virginia militia of 200 
 men under Triplett and Tate who had seen hard service, 
 and Col. William Washington's cavalry, about 80 men. 
 In all about 600 men. These were to be reinforced by 
 the militia of that section. 
 
 He was ioined by Major Joseph McDowell, of Quaker 
 Meadows, with i</3 of his Kings Mountain veterans from 
 Burke and Rutherford counties- and 120 men from Meck- 
 lenburg and Lincoln countiest 70 militia from South 
 Carolina that came with Pickens, who had just escaped 
 from prison and about ioo Georgians under MacCall and 
 Cunningham. In all 1055 men of whom at least 310 
 were from North Carolina or more than one-half of all 
 the militia. 
 
 Tarleton's force consisted of 550 dragoons, (which 
 constituted his Legion) about 500 regulars and two pieces 
 of artillery, giving him greatly the advantage in num- 
 bers, discipline and weight of arms over Morgan. 
 
 * Johnson's life of Greene, p. 8HS. 
 1 Bancroft Vol. 5, p. 190. 
 
'5 
 
 It is important that we give the plan of this battle, 
 which had so much influence over General Greene in the 
 arrrangement of his troops at Guilford Court House. 
 Morgan formed two lines of militia in front, the first 
 line being on each side of the main road on which Tarle- 
 ton was approaching, the right commanded by Colonel 
 Cunningham, of Georgia, the left by Major Joseph 
 McDowell, of Quaker Meadows, North Carolina. 
 
 The second line of militia was under the command of 
 General Francis Pickens and the third line was composed 
 of the regulars and 200 Virginia militia, who were veter- 
 ans in service. 
 
 This you will hereafter observe was exactly General 
 Greene's order of battle at Guilford Court House. 
 
 Before the battle began and while Tarleton was form- 
 ing his troops, in sight, General Morgan walked along 
 the lines of the militia, exhorting them to firmness, in- 
 structing the first line to "select the men with the 
 epaulettes" "and announcing that" all he asked of them 
 was "TWO DELIBERATE DISCHARGES AT FIFTY YARDS 
 AND THEN TO RETIRE BEHIND THE REGULARS.*" Judge 
 Johnson, in his life of Greene, states this fact with great 
 particularity and emphasis, but strangely neglects to state 
 that this same order was given by General Greene to the 
 militia at Guilford Court House. 
 
 The plan was successful. The militia killed so many 
 of the British officers that when the enemy reached the 
 third American line they were in confusion for want of 
 orders and officers and fell an easy prey to the disci- 
 pline and courage of the regular troops. So great was 
 their demoralization that a whole regiment threw down 
 their arms and fell upon the ground and begged for 
 quarter. The battle had been won already by the mil- 
 itia, of whom a large majority were North Carolinians. 
 
 *. Johnson's life of Greene, Vol. 1, rl. 37S. 
 
1 6 
 
 The mountain men had destroyed Tarleton's command, 
 whom they hated as the Vandals of their day, and the 
 men of Mecklenburg had made good the resolutions oi 
 May, [775. 
 
 At that time Cornwallis lay to the Southwest at Fish- 
 ing Creek, in the North Western portion of what is now 
 York count)-, South Carolina, about twenty miles distant, 
 waiting for Tarleton to return in his triumphal march 
 with Morgan a captive at his heels; but Tarleton re- 
 turned under whip and spur, a beaten and disgraced 
 leader, lie had won his last victory at the butchery of 
 the Waxhaws and the sun of Ids fortune set in darkness 
 at Yorktown. Thenceforth he was despised but not 
 feared. Cornwallis was again appalled at the destruction 
 of his finest troops by the undisciplined militia of North 
 Carolina, and paused in his camp for twenty-four hours 
 before he regained his self-possession, and then too late 
 to intercept the "old waggoner" who was retreating in 
 haste through Rutherford, Burke and Lincoln with lii^ 
 prisoners and boot) - . Tins stupid and fatal delay of 
 Cornwallis made Morgan's retreat into North Carolina 
 and his junction with the main army at this spot on the 
 iith of February, possible. 
 
 1 have not time to relate the thrilling incidents of this 
 wonderful retreat ol Morgan — almost equal in skill and 
 courage to the retreat of the Ten Thousand. Superficial 
 and superstitious writers, of so called history, have been 
 so astounded at its thrilling incidents that they have ig- 
 nored the wisdom and courage of Morgan and Greene 
 and ascribed their escape to supernatural intervention. 
 The)' have declared that in turn as the Americans crossed 
 the Catawba and the Yadkin and were in the very jaws of 
 the British Lion, God sent the flood of waters and sepa- 
 rated them from their pursuers. God has been good and 
 merciful to this blessed land, but has not performed miracles 
 
'7 
 
 to save it as yet. He raised up General Greene as the mil- 
 itary deliverer of the South and inspired him with sagacity 
 to have the Dan, the Yadkin and the Catawba rivers ex- 
 plored, and to have ever)' ford marked and every boat 
 secured, and to General Greene's superior knowledge of 
 these streams and the roads of the country is due this 
 masterly retreat. Morgan was two days ahead of Corn- 
 wallis when he crossed the Catawba" at Sherrill's Ford 
 and rested for his Lordship to approach, and the Ameri- 
 can forces gave him battle as he waded the river at 
 Cowen's Ford. On the 31st of January, 178 1 , Greene 
 rested, too, at the Yadkin, and calmly wrote his dis- 
 patches while British cannon balls were unroofing the 
 little cabin that sheltered his table. He crossed the Dan 
 in ferry boats that waited, a week, his coming and the 
 enemy were unable even to harass his rear. It is one of 
 the wonders of literature that this superstitious view of 
 the great retreat has so often been repeated as to be re- 
 ceived by the masses of our people as history. It is about 
 as silly and groundless as the assertion made by this 
 same class of sensational writers that the North Carolina 
 militia fled here without firing a shot, and to our everlast- 
 * Johnson's Greene, Vol. l, pp. 40. r )-406. 
 
 Note.— Morgan reached the Catawba River, at Sherrill's Ford, on Wednesday, 
 the 24th day of January, 1781, and crossed it. He had kept Pickens further up the 
 river. Pickens crossed the Catawba, with the prisoners on the way to Virginia, 
 at Island Ford. He made no halt, but hastened on to Virginia. 
 
 Morgan, with his regular corps, halted at Sherrill's until the 30th of January, 
 six days, and then moved down that evening, with Gen. Greene, who, with his 
 staff, had reached him that day, to Beattie's Ford. 
 
 Cornwallis came through old Tryon Court House, now in Gaston, then down 
 the Flint Hill road, crossing the South Fork at Gattis' Ford, ,1ust above the pres- 
 ent Phifer's Factory, and reached Ramsour's Mill on Tuesday, the 23rd of "Janu- 
 ary. Here, in order to lighten his march, he spent two days, the 24th and 25th, 
 burning his wagons and heavy baggage— the step which proved fatal to him in 
 the end. It rained the 2™th and 28th, raising the Catawba. The river subsided 
 on the 30th. 
 
 Morgan retreated the evening and all night of the 3lst (Wednesday) towards 
 Salisbury with his corps. Greene remained to bring off the militia and barely 
 escaped capture. 
 
[8 
 
 ing shame be it said that until the day of Caruthers, that 
 noble Christian and lofty patriot, no North Carolinian has 
 taken time to expose the gross slander heaped upon 
 those patrii 'tic men. 
 
 It is not alleged that the riflemen of Winston and 
 Armstrong of Surry, or the gallant Scotch-Irish of Guil- 
 ford, who fought under Forbis, or the North Carolina 
 Cavalry, under the Marquis of Bretigny, fled, or that a 
 single officer oi the militia even flinched from duty. For 
 all these men words n\ encomium have been written and 
 the chivalrous conduct ol Davie has extorted from the 
 jealous)- of our traducers the highest meed of praise. 
 
 It is against the undisciplined and poorly armed militia, 
 whom Lee said it was murder to pit against English vet- 
 erans and British bayonets, that these anathemas have 
 been hurled hurled, too, to shield their own misfortunes 
 ,{\m\ blunders. The author who has asserted it loudest 
 and with unpardonable exaggeration has not been able 
 to stand himself before the bar of history uncondemned 
 for his own conduct in this battle.""' This gross injustice 
 has gone unchallenged, but in due time it shall lie ex- 
 posed and North Carolina shall be vindicated. 
 
 The retreat of General Greene ended when he crossed 
 the Dan at Irving's Ferry the 15th of February, 17X1, a 
 whole day ahead ol his pursuers. 
 
 Cornwallis was foiled, now, the third time and with dis- 
 gust and disappointment he turned his face to Hillsboro; 
 and concealed his chagrin by issuing high sounding 
 proclamations recounting how he had conquered North 
 Carolina and driven the last rebel from her borders. In 
 one month from the date of this military gasconade he 
 was burning bridges behind him in his flight to the sea, 
 and his feet never rested until he crouched behind the 
 breastworks at Wilmington. 
 
 -See Appendix. 
 
19 
 
 General Greene rested his troops, and being joined by 
 a thousand Virginia militia, re-crossed the Dan on the 
 23rd of February and formed a camp at Speedwell Iron 
 Works on Troublesome Creek, fifteen miles Northwest 
 of Guilford Court Mouse. 
 
 Col. Otho Williams had already been detached with 
 1300 light troops to harass Cornwallis's camp; 700 of 
 this gallant band were North Carolina militia from Rowan, 
 Mecklenburg and Surry, who with about 30 Georgians un- 
 der MacCall constituted the brigade of Pickens and which 
 Johnson, in his history, calls Pickens' South Carolinians. 
 The Palmetto State did not require such a misrepresenta- 
 tion to sustain her character. These men were the troops of 
 Graham and Davidson and Locke, who were left without 
 a leader by the bullet of 1 lager, the tory, who slew his 
 neighbor to enslave his country and tied thenceforth like 
 Cain, a wanderer through the earth. Pickens was then 
 an exile in North Carolina, brave, chivalric, burning to 
 avenge the oppressions and wrongs of his people but 
 without men or arms to execute Ins purpose. In all the 
 generosity of unselfish patriotism these North Caro- 
 linians elected General Pickens to take the place of 
 that noble patriot whose name is perpetuated in the 
 counties and colleges of his State. Pickens appreciated 
 the honor and difficulty of filling the place of General 
 William Davidson, the brave martyr of the Catawba, but 
 he rose with the clanger and won renown at the head of 
 this famous command. 
 
 Cornwallis was so beset and goaded by the daring of 
 this brigade that he sallied forth in his rage like a wounded 
 bear to avenge himself upon his tormentors — tormentors 
 whom his proclamation said had (led from the State. 
 
 The tory band of Pyles had been cut to pieces on the 
 Alamance, and Tarleton had fled with courier after courier 
 shouting: in his ear the advance of Pickens and Lee and 
 
20 
 
 Graham who were galloping over hill and valley to over- 
 take him. 
 
 With bitter determination Cornwallis marched his army 
 to the Alamance and made a dash at Wetzell's mills, for 
 the North Carolina militia, under Butler and Eaton, who 
 were marching to reinforce General Greene. This was 
 the only spurt of energy or enterprise shown by Corn- 
 wallis in the whole campaign and it was foiled by the 
 watchful eye of Otho Williams who reached the mill ten 
 minutes in advance and drawing up his force on the op- 
 posite hill gave the enemy such a check" that the enter- 
 prise ingloriously ended. The reinforcements reached 
 Greene's camp on the evening" of Saturday, the ioth of 
 March. The North Carolina brigades numbered about 
 five hundred each. Butler's Brigade from Granville and 
 Orange, Eaton's from Bute, now Warren and Franklin, 
 and Halifax; the Virginians under Generals Stevens and 
 Lawson, both of whom were veterans, and who were 
 now supernumerary Continental officers in command of 
 militia, numbered about 1650 men — 600 of these under 
 General Stevens were veterans also. 
 
 The Sabbath was spent in rest. This was one of the 
 Quaker habits Greene had not lost in his thirst for mili- 
 tary glory. 
 
 Cornwallis lay then at New Garden with his whole 
 army and was watching, with sullen inactivity, for the 
 next movment of his wily ami determined foe. 
 
 The English nobleman, enlightened by education, 
 trained to the art of war under the ablest commanders 
 and with four years experience in American warfare, had 
 been taunted and baffled by a yeoman, the son of a 
 blacksmith, whose youth was spent at the plow, and his 
 Lordship felt the deep humiliation of his failure. Corn- 
 wallis was brave, but his antagonist never came within 
 reach of his blow. lie was insulted in his camp and 
 
21 
 
 driven to desperation and rage but his foe, though visible 
 at every outpost, was too wary for his snares. He wanted 
 to fight — his provisions were low — he was in an enemy's 
 country where every day increased his danger; but 
 Greene had attained to that degree of military skill that 
 he could not be forced to fight until he chose his ground 
 and the time for the battle. 
 
 On Monday, the 13th of March, General Greene made 
 every preparation for an advance and the morning of the 
 14th found him at Guilford Court House in eight miles of 
 the enemy's camp. 
 
 Lee and Washington were called in, and the 14th was 
 spent in reconnoitreing the grounds and acquainting the 
 army with every road around it. Ammunition was dis- 
 tributed and the men encouraged to do their duty. 
 
 Thursday, the 15th, Greene's army was rested and 
 ready for battle. 
 
 Cornwallis was soon apprised of this advance of Gen- 
 eral Greene and knew it was a banter for battle. Indeed, 
 it is said that General Greene caused a message to be 
 communicated to his Lordship that he was ready to ac- 
 commodate him if he was anxious to test his strength in ' 
 battle. 
 
 Cornwallis immediately sent his baggage South, to 
 Bell's mill, under the escort of Colonel Hamilton's regi- 
 ment of loyalists and advanced to accept the American 
 General's challege. 
 
 The army of Cornwallis was small but every soldier in 
 it was a disciplined veteran whose skill in arms had 
 been ripened by long and arduous service. 
 
 Its commanders were brave men, devoted to the crown, 
 who had won renown on the continent and had been 
 selected for their fitness to^nake this last and desperate 
 attempt to crush the South and destroy the Confederation 
 of the States. 
 
Cornwallis was 43 years old, his judgment was mature, 
 his strength unimpaired and he was ambitious to a fault. 
 
 Unscrupulous in his conduct, cruel in his oppressions, 
 he was an implacable and relentless foe. Disappointed in 
 his pursuit of Morgan, he had burned his heavy baggage 
 and destroyed every incumbrance to his march, at Rani- 
 sour's mill, and, stripped oi almost every comfort, he 
 had plunged forward after Greene with a blind fury which 
 was foreign to his phlegmatic temperament; but neither 
 fury nor courage nor privation availed against the watch- 
 ful genius of his skilful antagonist. lie was now com- 
 pelled to fight in an enemy's country, where he declared 
 he had "not beenabletogainoneloyalrecruit." Without 
 transportation ami with a scant supply of ammunition, 
 he determined, with an obstincy characteristic oi the 
 man, to risk his reputation as a General and the lives and 
 safety of his army in this last desperate struggle. Mis 
 force hardly reached two thousand men, including the 
 remnant of Tarleton's Legion which participated but 
 little in the battle. He had Generals O'Hara, Howard 
 and Leslie, all distinguished officers, an 1 that Prince of 
 soldiers, Lieutenant Colonel Webster of the 23rd, to 
 execute his purposes. I he 33rd had been the regiment 
 of his Lordship and under his eye they were ready to 
 dash at any foe. Idle 23rd, the Welsh Fusiliers, of which 
 the Prince of Wales was by courtesy of his rank the 
 Colonel, and commanded by Webster, constituted with 
 the 33rd a brigade unexcelled by any corps 111 the world 
 of equal number. 
 
 I hese were on his left, supported by the second bat- 
 talion of the Queen's Guards under Lieutenant Colonel 
 James Stuart — a gallant but unfortunate soldier. 
 
 ( )n ins right were the Seventy-first Scotch Highlanders, 
 enthusiastic and dashing, with whom were the hireling 
 mercenaries of the elector of Hesse Cassel, coarse and bru- 
 
^3 
 
 tal, without principle or sentiment, they were the irre- 
 sponsible slaves of the tyrants who led them to battle and 
 slaughter and received so much money per capita for all 
 who were slain, thereby making profit out of carnage. 
 
 These were supported by Lieutenant-Colonel Norton, 
 of the first battalion of British Guards. 
 
 The artillery under McLeod moved in the centre along 
 the New Garden road, with Tarleton's Legion in their 
 rear and the Grenadiers and Yagers on their flanks for 
 support. 
 
 This was the order of battle formed by the British 
 commander in the valley of Horsepen Creek, which is in 
 sight, half a mile west of where we stand. It was at 
 noon when their scarlet uniforms and burnished arms 
 were glistening in the sunlight of that beautiful day. Not 
 a furrow had been turned in the fields, not a bud was 
 yet seen on the trees nor a flower in the valleys; but the 
 first warm sunshine of spring was beginning to cast its 
 fays upon the earth and enliven nature into activity again 
 after a dreary winter of repose. It was not a day that 
 suggested the conflict of arms or shedding of blood; but 
 rather the lassitude of peace and the dreaminess of rest. 
 But war, like death, "has all seasons for its own," and 
 places its iron hand upon ever}' scene of beaut) - and 
 loveliness without consideration or remorse. 
 
 The last remnant of the Continental army in the South 
 was now arrayed in front of the British commander and he 
 fondly hoped that its rout or captivity would be succeeded 
 by the fall of Virginia and the subjection of the States. 
 
 It was a supreme moment in the life of Cornwallis and 
 the crisis of the revolution. This victory won, there was 
 no foe to obstruct his passage into the defenceless prov- 
 ince of Virginia; North Carolina would be at the mercy 
 of the crown, and Georgia and South Carolina, already 
 prostrate and subdued, could never rally for defence again. 
 
24 
 
 Should Greene be beaten, Cornwallis could take up his 
 triumphal march to the sea to be welcomed by the En- 
 glish fleets which rode unchallenged in the harbors of 
 Norfolk and New York. 
 
 The prisoners of war at Charlottesville, Virginia, would 
 be set free to plunder and pillage their captors. France, 
 capricious and fickle, would forsake the waning fortune of 
 the colonies, and making peace for herself, leave her 
 allies to their fate. Washington would be crushed by the 
 arm}' of Clinton in his front and that of Cornwallis in 
 his rear, or be driven into the frozen regions of the North 
 for refuge. Congress would be scattered from its halls 
 and carry dismay wherever the)' fled for safety. 
 
 These were the precious hopes and dazzling visions 
 that stimulated the ambition and nerved the hand of 
 Cornwallis for the battle now before him. The greater 
 the odds against him, the greater would be the glory of 
 his triumph and the more important its results. 
 
 Not only hope and glory allured him to battle but re- 
 taliation and revenge rankled in his breast and drove him 
 to desperate deeds. llis Lieutenants, Ferguson and 
 Tarleton, had been defeated and humbled by the militia 
 of North Carolina whom they despised, and British pride 
 demanded that the insult be avenged. 
 
 Every officer and soldier remembered King's Mountain 
 and Cowpens and were eager to wipe out the disgrace of 
 those disastrous fields. 
 
 Nothing but news of misfortune had gone to Clinton 
 from the army of invasion since the frosts of October, 1780, 
 had chilled their zeal, and the great rival of Cornwallis 
 was secretly gloating oyer the misfortunes of his personal 
 and political enemy. 
 
 The recovery of prestige and the restoration of royal 
 confidence added a powerful incentive to the achievement 
 of victory. 
 
25 
 
 Cornwallis resolved, threfore, that "lie would conquer 
 or die" on this- field, and the reckless exposure of his 
 person during the battle indicated the determination with 
 which he entered the conflict. 
 
 None the less was the appreciation of the American 
 army and its officers of the decisive crisis which was now 
 upon them. 
 
 General Greene, the confidential friend and trusted 
 counselor of Washington, had been selected by him as 
 the Commander in Chief of the Southern Department of 
 the American army. Their friendship had begun at 
 Boston with the first enthusiastic outburst of the revolu- 
 tion and had steadfastly matured in the camp and the 
 council. 
 
 "The order of the Commander in Chief, which assigned General 
 Nathanael Greene to the command of the Southern Department, 
 bears date the 14th of October, 17S0. Until that period, his stand- 
 ing in the army was of the first order in respectability; he enjoyed 
 the cofidence of Washington and of the country, and had ever dis- 
 charged the duties of the man and the soldier with fidelity and abil- 
 ity. But no opportunities had yet been afforded him of displaying 
 those eminent talents which then broke upon the American people, 
 and exhibited a splendour of military character excelled only by him 
 whom none can equal. 
 
 " He was at that time in the thirty-ninth year of his age. His 
 stature about five feet, ten or eleven inches; his frame vigorous and 
 well proportioned ; his port erect and commanding; nor was his 
 martial appearance diminished by a slight obstruction in the motion 
 of his right leg, contracted in early life. The general character of 
 his face was that of manly beauty. His fair and florid complexion 
 had not entirely yielded to the exposure of five campaigns-; nor was 
 a slight blemish in the right eye observed, but to excite regret that 
 it did not equal the benevolent expression and brilliancy of the left. 
 Such is the portrait of General Greene." — Johnson, Vol. 2, p. 1. 
 
 Washington, himself in need of reinforcements, had 
 reduced his own army to the last degree of weakness to 
 
26 
 
 strengthen Gates, and had nothing to give the South but 
 a skillful General and a pure patriot, whose personal influ- 
 ence and military reputation might arouse the martial 
 spirit of his department and enable him to create an 
 army for defence. lie came clothed with power almost 
 dictatorial, and with an undaunted spirit entered on the 
 work ot his mission. lie found a few soldiers at Char- 
 lotte, naked and hungry. He led a portion ot them t<> 
 the fertile fields of the Yadkin where he rested them in 
 comfortable cabins in the forest. 
 
 By entreat}' and seizure he obtained for them a scant 
 supply of clothing and an abundance of food. 
 
 Their desponding spirits were revived; their physical 
 strength was regained and once more the)' felt like sol- 
 diers struggling tor freedom. Greene mingled daily with 
 his men, encouraging and instructing them, bringing 
 them together for acquaintance, th.it mutual confidence 
 might be established. 
 
 Discipline and drill were rigidly enforced, guns re- 
 paired, ammunition gathered and every preparation, that 
 the resources ot the country afforded, was made for the 
 campaign which he expected to open in the early spring. 
 
 These were the men who were suddenly summoned in 
 the very depths of winter to leave their camps and cabins 
 to protect the retreat of Morgan, who was flying before 
 the whole British army. 
 
 riie)- were veteran soldiers, though their numbers did 
 not exceed 750 men. They had heard of the splendid 
 victor}' ot their comrades at Cow pens and were impatient 
 to emulate them in deeds of glory. To the victors of 
 the Cowpens, and soldiers of the camp, was added the 
 second Maryland regiment, a new levy of regulars, who 
 were as yet untrained ami inexperienced, and the regi- 
 ment of Colonel Green of Virginia of the same class of 
 troops. These constituted the Continental line, i4gostrong. 
 
^7 
 
 To these were added about <So cavalry and So infantry 
 of Lee's Legion — a corps of picked men from the veter- 
 ans of the Northern arm}', of whom about 20 were \ r ir- 
 ginians, including their Lieutenant Colonel. 
 
 Colonel Washington's cavalry numbered about 90 men, 
 recruited here and there in the Carolinas. To these were 
 added a fine company of cavalry from North Carolina, 
 which was led by the Marquis of Bretigny, a French 
 nobleman, who had trained them to arms. They num- 
 bered 40 select men and were an honor to North Carolina 
 and the Captain who led them. 
 
 There was still another class of soldiers who came to 
 participate in this battle for liberty, the Volunteer Militia, 
 as distinguished from the general levy. Men wdio were 
 not compelled nor hired to fight. They were patriots 
 from honor and principle, generally of the intelligent 
 and religious classes who came voluntarily to offer their 
 lives and fortunes, if need be, as sacrifices to their coun- 
 try. The}' had calculated the danger and taken the risk 
 and in their zeal and courage and noble impulses were a 
 formidable and dangerous enemy. 
 
 The State was without muskets or ammunition; but 
 each of these volunteers shouldered his hunting rifle and 
 went to the field of battle. Generally they elected their 
 own leaders who fought with the rifle as did the soldier 
 by his side. It was the Volunteer Militia who alone 
 fought the battle of Kings Mountain and won the battle 
 Cowpens. They were all experienced in Indian warfare 
 and accustomed to the hardships of the camp. All of 
 them shot the rifle with unerring aim and steady hand. 
 Their courage was unflinching and their hearts were 
 devoted to liberty. They came from the mountains and 
 foothills of Virginia and North Carolina. 
 
 Greene had been promised by Colonel William Camp- 
 bell, of Virginia, that he would bring: to his assistance 
 
28 
 
 one thousand of these hardy "over-mountain men" and 
 that the heroes oi Kings Mountain should accompany 
 him. 
 
 Cornwallis had declared that he would hang Campbell 
 in retaliation lor the execution oi the tories at Gilbert- 
 town, it he ever captured him, and Campbell had notified 
 Cornwallis that his riflemen would shoot his Lordship as 
 law ful game, wherever the}' found him. The two horses 
 shot under the British commander showed how nearly 
 they fulfilled the threat. 
 
 Hut Colonel Campbell was doomed to disappointment 
 in raising the force he contemplated. Cornwallis, appre- 
 hending the danger from the riflemen of' the mountains, 
 had early after his arrival in the up country sent emissa- 
 ries among the Cherokees with presents and falsehoods 
 to stir them up to invade and plunder and desolate the 
 frontiers. This same Cornwallis, whom Colonel Lee, in 
 his exuberance of generosity, has called the "amiable 
 Cornwallis," was as destitute of humanity or mercy as 
 the savage whom he incited by deception and fraud to 
 these deeds of cruelty. lie was newer "amiable" until 
 the blood of his own men was made to atone for their 
 cruel deeds by the victors at Kings Mountain. 
 
 In February, [781, the Cherokees invaded the frontiers 
 of North Carolina and Virginia, and the over-mountain 
 men under Shelby, Sevier and Colonel Arthur Campbell 
 [the brother-in-law of Colonel William Campbell] had 
 embodied all their forces to repel them. 
 
 Their hands were full, resisting the tomahawk and 
 scalping knife and torch which the "amiable Cornwallis" 
 had placed in the hands of the savage for their destruc- 
 tion. Colonel William Campbell, in the bitterness of dis- 
 appointment, had to report to General Greene on the 7th 
 of March, with only 60 followers, but "one blast from his 
 bugle horn were worth a thousand men." The author of 
 
2 9 
 
 the "Rear Guard of the Revolution," an avowed and un- 
 principled enemy of North Carolina, may perhaps be 
 quoted as a witness when he permits his enmity and 
 malignity to speak a word of truth for the State. 
 
 He states that General Greene had written Sevier re- 
 minding him of his glorious deeds at Kind's Mountain 
 ami earnestly urging him to come to his aid with all the 
 mountaineers he could muster. These appeals fell on 
 willing ears but Sevier's hands were tied — his men had 
 now again to fight for their own homes and firesides. 
 
 "However, he despatched a small force under Charles 
 Robertson to General Greene and they soon after gave a 
 good account of themselves at Guilford." These men 
 were from Sullivan count}', North Carolina, which county 
 Sevier often represented in the Legislature of this State. 
 
 Ramsey, in his Annals of Tennessee, page 251, also 
 says that in response to Greene's earnest entreaties "a 
 few of the pioneers of Tennessee were under his (Greene's 
 command) at the hardly contested battle of Guilford Court 
 House." I beg that this fact be noted because no official 
 report of General Greene, or his Adjutant General, pro- 
 fesses to give an account of the volunteer forces in the 
 action and we can only get credit for what is due North 
 Carolina by these little incidents of history casually 
 mentioned by authors who received it from the soldiers 
 of that day, f or from tradition in their families. 
 
 Here then was undoubtedly a small body of as good 
 soldiers and hardy riflemen as "ever drew a bead on a 
 red-coat" — perhaps one hundred strong, all North Caro- 
 linians. 
 
 Would it be invidious to suggest, as Colonel William 
 Campbell lived in the county of Virginia contiguous to 
 Sullivan and Washington, North Carolina, that for the 
 time these men placed themselves under his command, 
 while his own fellow-citizens were absent fighting the 
 
30 
 
 Indians, and that these constituted the mountain-men 
 with whom Campbell reported to Greene. 
 
 Tin's swapping of men on the border was an every day 
 occurrence where but little attention was paid to general 
 laws defining military boundaries. The population was 
 sparse, inter-married with each other, far from the central 
 government and were a 'daw unto themselves," in both 
 a military and civil capacity. 
 
 At any rate, here were North Carolina riflemen in the 
 battle for whom no historian has given us credit. Let us 
 estimate them .it [oo men. Johnson's Life of Greene, the 
 author oi which was unkindly disposed to North Caro- 
 lina, relates that on the day of Pyle's defeat, the 26th 
 day ot February, [781, "two small detachments of about 
 100 men each, under Majors Winston and Armstrong" 
 joined the command of Pickens. This you will note was 
 oid_\- [8 daws before the battle and we learn from Colonel 
 Lenoir's narrative, in his application for a pension, under 
 the act of [832, that this force, with which he was con- 
 nected were with Pickens up to the 7th of March, when 
 he joined Greene, and that Lenoir being clerk of the 
 Court, at that time, of Wilkes count)', and the week for 
 court having arrived, he obtained leave of absence for 
 six weeks, leaving his comrades with Greene. They 
 were to seiwe, therefore, for six weeks longer which 
 placed them in service far beyond the battle. If con- 
 firmatory testimony were necessary we have the direct 
 testimony of Lyman C. Draper, who gives the biography 
 of Major Winston in his just and admirable book entitled 
 "Kings Mountain and its Heroes." He states positively 
 that Winston was present and "shared with Greene the 
 fortunes of Guilford Court House." 
 
 It is not only true that these riflemen of Surry were 
 present but the) - were the very last to leave the field 
 after Tarleton's final charge which dispersed the Ameri- 
 
3i 
 
 can forces on the left; for in that charge Tolliafferro "of 
 Surry was killed" and Jesse Franklin, afterwards Gover- 
 nor of North Carolina and United States Senator from 
 this State, made a very narrow escape. The narrative 
 of these occurrences is given by Caruthers, in his sketches 
 of North Carolina, Second Series, upon the authority of 
 the present Judge Jesse Franklin Graves, a grandson of 
 Governor Franklin, than whom no better man or purer 
 Judge now adorns the bench of the old North State. 
 
 Here now were two hundred more Volunteer riflemen 
 from North Carolina who did not figure on the military 
 rolls of Greene's Adjutant General. 
 
 Major Joseph Winston was the Major of the militia of 
 Surry county as we learn from his title and rank at Kings 
 Mountain; exactly how his comrade in arms, Major 
 Armstrong, obtained his title or what was his christian 
 name we cannot ascertain now with certainty, as there 
 were two of the Armstrongs from Surry who bore them- 
 selves gallantly in the revolutionary war. Most probably 
 it was John Armstrong who was afterwards distinguished 
 in the Legislature from 1782 to 1784. 
 
 No officer had been more distinguished for courage 
 and fortitude at Kings Mountain than Major Winston. 
 He led the van of attack on the right and by his heroic 
 daring conducted his men straight forward to the British 
 camp without faltering or temporal')- retreat." 
 
 Pie was an educated gentlemen, of patriotic impulses, 
 early devoted to the cause of liberty and a soldier of 
 uncommon merit. He survived to represent his county 
 in the State Senate and his district in the Congress of the 
 United States. One of the wealthiest and most attrac- 
 tive cities of the State bears his name. 
 
 Another patriot band from Guilford county is to be 
 
 * Ramsey's Tennessee, p. 235-6. 
 
32 
 
 added to the riflemen of Surry and the over-mountain 
 men of Sullivan. 
 
 When the junction oi Morgan's and Greene's forces took 
 place at Guilford Court I rouse on the toth day of February, 
 1781, they found there 200 men from Guilford county, 
 armed with rifles, under the command of Colonel James 
 Martin, at that time Colonel of the militia. 
 
 In the council oi war held here General Greene re- 
 luctantly submitted to the majority of his officers, who 
 opposed giving Coj'nwallis battle, and the conclusion of 
 the majority, to retreat over the Dan, was adopted. The 
 Guilford militia under Martin were not compelled to leave 
 the State but about 100 of them volunteered to follow 
 the fortunes of Greene's arm)- wherever it led them and 
 to remain till the British were driven from the State. 
 Thenceforth they belonged to the patriot band of volun- 
 teers. Nearly all of these men were Scotch -Irish Pres- 
 byterians, belonging to the churches of Alamance and 
 Buffalo of which Rev. David Caldwell, 1). \)., was pastor. 
 rile)' were of the better class of citizens, who were in- 
 telligent enough to understand the principles which were 
 involved in the struggle for liberty, and men of property 
 sufficient to give them interest in the result. The)' had 
 inherited from their church and ancestry the principles 
 of civil liberty and the courage to maintain those principles. 
 
 They were no hireling mercenaries nor substitutes, no 
 drafted militia, but manly .patriots who came to contend 
 for liberty or to shed their blood, if need be, in its 
 defence. 
 
 The\' had been Whigs from the beginning of the strug- 
 gle, and following the doctrines inculcated by their dis- 
 tinguished pastor had steadfastly adhered to the cause 
 of independence. 
 
 Most of them had been sympathizers with the "Regu- 
 lators" in the inception of that movement when its 
 
33 
 
 objeects were lawful and just, but had not adhered to 
 their fortunes when they ran into excess and licentious- 
 ness under the leadership of Herman Husbands and 
 others. They were willing to resist the payment of ex- 
 tortionate fees to sheriffs and clerks, but they would not 
 endorse the dishonest resolutions that no taxes nor debts 
 should be paid. 
 
 When the legitimate struggle for liberty came they 
 were still Whigs and rebels; but found many of those who 
 had gone to excess as regulators, fighting them, on the 
 British side, as tories; mostly those who had been par- 
 doned by the Crown and seduced by blandishments and 
 office to forsake the principles they had avowed. 
 
 These one hundred Guilford county men, Volunteer 
 soldiers, had been marching and countermarching with 
 General Greene, and when the 15th day of March came 
 it found them in line of battle, as a separate organization 
 under the command of Arthur Forbis, a ruling elder of 
 the Alamance Presbyterian church. 
 
 He had been elected Captain by the men of Alamance, 
 the Wileys, Paisleys, Gillespies, Montgomerys and others, 
 whose names I do not know, but on the eventful day of the 
 battle here, Colonel James Martin was assigned to other 
 duty and the captaincy of this ' 'Centurions Band" devolved 
 upon Forbis. He yielded up his life for the cause and 
 from that day forth, as Colonel James T. Morehead has 
 so happily described it, "He was brevetted as Colonel 
 by the unanimous voice of his fellow-citizens," and has 
 gone into the annals of history as Colonel Arthur Forbis 
 of Guilford. 
 
 These men fought under the eye of Lieut-Colonel Lee, 
 and he has so far relaxed his predjudices as to say that 
 they refused to fly before the British bayonet and adhered 
 to the command of Campbell throughout the bloody 
 conflict on the left. 
 
34 
 
 So that of the Volunteer soldiers, who fought so gal- 
 lantly here on this day, we have: 
 
 Winston's Command ioo men. 
 
 Armstrong's Command ioo men. 
 
 Sevier's Men, under Robertson ioo men. 
 
 The Men of Guilford ioo men. 
 
 North Carolina Cavalry 40 men. 
 
 Total 440 men. 
 
 For whom North Carolina has heretofore received no 
 credit, owing to the fact that they were not regular sol- 
 diers and did not appear on the muster rolls of the army. 
 
 There was still another indefinite number of North 
 Carolinians, volunteers, who fought under Greene that 
 day. About the 10th of March, General Greene detached 
 Pickens and his Brigade of North Carolinians to the 
 Yadkin to collect a force in the rear of Cornwallis. Their 
 time had expired, but a number of these men, perceiving 
 that a pitched battle was imminent, determined to remain 
 and share the fortunes of the American Commander. 
 
 Among this number was Abram Forney, of Lincoln, 
 a prominent citizen of that county, whose testimony to 
 an incident of this battle I shall hereafter use, and 
 Caruthers names a dozen citizens of Guilford and the 
 surrounding counties who shouldered their rifles and 
 marched to the Court House when the)" heard that Gen- 
 eral Greene had advanced to that point. When asked, 
 "Where are you going?" the response was, "To the big 
 Shooting Match," and if space were allowed for humor I 
 could relate how well and how often they "drove the 
 centre" on that day. 
 
 We ma}' safely and justly assert that North Carolina 
 had at least 500 Volunteer Riflemen in this field of battle. 
 Hereafter we shall show their positions and their conduct. 
 
 Virginia had her volunteer soldiers too. Colonel Wil- 
 liam Campbell, he of Kings Mountain, towered above 
 
35 
 
 them all. He had but few personal followers, but his po- 
 sition, experience and skill entitled him to the command. 
 He had 60 men when he united with Pickens on the same 
 day that Winston and Armstrong did. Colonel Lynch, 
 with his riflemen two hundred strong, came also, and 
 Captain Thomas Watkins, with a company of cavalry, 
 one of whom was the giant, Peter Francisco, so well 
 known in Virginia history — in all perhaps 40 men* — the 
 whole aggregating about 600 volunteers. 
 
 These were divided, as we shall see, on the right and 
 left flanks. 
 
 Colonel Lee refused to allow Captain Watkins to join 
 his Legion because they were not well enough dressed; 
 but Washington, who was the old "Rough and Ready" 
 of his day, gladly gave them welcome and they fought 
 like Turks under his command. 
 
 The militia was the third class of troops in Greene's 
 army. The North Carolina militia, composed, as we 
 have incidentally stated, of two brigades. The old 
 honest regulator, General John Butler, of Orange, who 
 had spent his life fighting against British oppression, com- 
 manded one Brigade of 500 men, and General Eaton, of 
 Halifax, commanded the other — the whole about i,ooomen. 
 
 The Virginia militia were commanded by Generals 
 Stevens and Lawson, both of whom had been regular 
 soldiers. In Stevens' command were about 600 veterans 
 who had seen three years service under Washington and 
 many of whom were now hired substitutes for drafted 
 Virginians. These two brigades have been variously 
 estimated at from 1,200 to 1,900 men — perhaps the mid- 
 dle is the safe ground, about 1,650 men. 
 
 The artillery force consisted of sixty men and four six 
 pounder brass pieces of cannon. They were under the 
 command of Major Singleton. 
 * Foote's Sketches of Virginia, First Series, p. 403. 
 
After a careful and patient research among the various 
 authors who have described the battle I believe the above 
 to be a true statement of the number and class of troops 
 under General Greene's command on that day, the whole 
 number being about five thousand one hundred and forty 
 [5,140] men of all arms. Cornwallis estimate 1 the Amer- 
 icans at 7,000, but this is an exaggeration. Colonel Lee 
 says about 4,000, but the truth, as usual, lies in the middle. 
 
 There was one North Carolinian more, whose name 
 deserves the encomium bestowed upon it. 
 
 Colonel William Richardson Davie was at this time 
 General Greene's Commissary-General. He was then 
 but twenty-five years old and yet his brilliant and dash- 
 ing career had given him renown as a soldier. He was 
 a young lawyer at Salisbury when the tocsin of war was 
 sounded. His fortune was not large but he spent it all 
 to equip a company of cavalry which he led against the 
 enemy. He was the most successful partisan leader of 
 his State and had struck terror into the British outposts 
 and exhibited a daring at Charlotte, in facing the army 
 of Cornwallis, that made him the center of attraction 
 in the whole army. General Greene discovering his 
 genius and power offered him the position of Commissary- 
 General, which at first he repelled with some impatience; 
 but when the like promise was made to him that was 
 made to Greene at the time he was appointed Quarter- 
 Master-General of the arm>- of Washington, -that he 
 might participate freely in the fighting, he yielded re- 
 luctantly to the earnest request of General Greene to 
 accept the office. He was in closer confidential rela- 
 tions with General Greene than an)- officer of his army 
 and this confidence continued to the end without abate- 
 ment or cause for complaint. One who often fought by 
 his side says: 
 
 " Davie was not only distinguished as an intelligent but an in- 
 
" trepid soldier. His delight was to lead a charge; and possessing 
 ''great bodily strength, united with uncommon activity, is said to 
 "have overcome more men in personal conflict than any individual 
 "' in the service."* 
 
 Another author (Moore) thus describes him: 
 
 '•He was then fresh from hi=> law books and but twenty-five years 
 of age. Tall, graceful and strikingly handsome, he had those graces 
 of person which would have made him the favorite in the clanging 
 lists of feudal da\s. To this he added elegant culture, thrilling 
 eloquence and a graciousness of manner which was to charm in after 
 days the gilded salons of Paris. His dauntless valor was supervised 
 by a sleepless outlook against surprise." 
 
 By his intrepid daring and fearless exposure of his 
 person on every hand he encouraged the soldiers to firm- 
 ness and fortitude, and set them an example which in- 
 cited them to the discharge of duty. 
 
 He lived to represent North Carolina in Congress, to 
 become her Governor, to found her University and to 
 represent the Nation at the splendid Court of Versailles. 
 
 The order in which General Greene fought his troops 
 was, as much as possible, an imitation of the arrange- 
 ment of General Morgan at the Cowpens. It had proven 
 emminently successful in that instance, though fought 
 against a foe superior in numbers, in discipline and arms 
 and it was but natural that General Greene should repeat 
 the experiment when fighting the same foe under much 
 more favorable circumstances. General Greene had no 
 experience in the mode of Southern warfare and hav- 
 ing great confidence in Morgan who had been brought 
 up from boyhood to fight the Indians on the frontier, it 
 was not strange that he should defer greatly to his 
 counsel and advice. Morgan had been stricken down 
 with rheumatism on the retreat from Cowpens and was 
 
 * Garden's Anecdotes of the Revolution. 
 
38 
 
 compelled to seek rest and medical aid, but his affection 
 for Greene and his ardent patriotism induced him to write 
 to his commander, on the 20th of February, nearly a 
 month before the battle, and surest to him how he 
 should fight Cornwallis: "Put the militia in the centre" 
 said he, with some picked troops in their rear with orders 
 to shoot down the first man that runs, select the riflemen 
 and fight them on the flanks under enterprising officers 
 who are acquainted with this kind of fighting." 
 
 Greene knew that Washington had disapproved this 
 arrangement of troops. That he did not think that un- 
 disciplined or inexperienced militia, without bayonets, 
 who had newer been in battle, nor subject to the demoral- 
 izing influence of a cannonade on raw troops, should be 
 placed in front to receive the first and fiercest onset of 
 regulars and veterans who had been converted into mili- 
 tary machines by long discipline and arduous service. 
 Washington's plan was to place his best troops in front 
 and use the militia as a reserve. 
 
 General Greene has also been criticised for placing his 
 lines too far apart, so as not to be in supporting distance 
 of eacli other. It was argued, therefore, that Cornwallis 
 was not compelled to fight but one line at an}' one 
 time and that he was superior to any one of the single 
 lines. But it is reasonable and customary in all the 
 affairs of human life, whether civil or military, to imi- 
 tate that which has proven successful under like circum- 
 stances before. We should not therefore be ready to 
 condemn General Greene for following the example and 
 advice of General Morgan because his victor}' was not so 
 complete as Morgan's. Perhaps if Morgan had fought 
 Cornwallis instead of Tarleton the result of Cowpens 
 would not have been so decisive and glorious to the 
 American arms; and it must also be carefully considered 
 that the militia under Morgan were all volunteers who 
 
39 
 
 had been in main- battles on the frontiers and were but 
 recently flushed with their magnificent victor}' at Kings 
 Mountain. General Morgan too "was at that time the 
 ablest commander of light troops in the world.""" 
 
 General Greene, as we have heretofore stated, had 
 selected this battle field on the iith of February, on his 
 retreat, and he had now been here a whole day and sur- 
 veyed the ground and roads in the vicinity anew and was 
 familiar with every avenue of approach and escape. He 
 had taken his field officers over the grounds and thor- 
 oughly instructed them in the parts they were to act in 
 the approaching conflict. 
 
 The strongest reasons for the selection of this spot were: 
 
 First. That the highways diverging from Guilford 
 Court House afforded three lines of retreat in case of 
 disaster, so that his army could not be totally routed or 
 destroyed as was that of Gates at Camden. 
 
 If the American left were turned, as it was, the retreat 
 was open by the road going North to McQuistian's 
 bridge; if the right flank were turned, the High Rock 
 Road, running Northeast was an avenue of escape, or in 
 the last resort the road going directly east to Hillsboro 
 might be utilized. 
 
 The second reason was that there was space enough, 
 and strong positions in the forest, wdiere the militia could 
 fight to advantage behind fences and trees as was their 
 custom, and be able to protect themselves from the 
 charge of cavalry. Nothing in the warfare of that day 
 was so terrible to the minds of militia as exposure to 
 cavalry, and especially when commanded by so brutal a 
 butcher as Tarleton. 
 
 With these considerations and hopes, General Greene 
 formed his army, early in the morning of the 15th of March, 
 into three lines of battle which I shall now endeavor to 
 describe and point out to you as intelligently as possible. 
 
 * Bancroft, Vol. 5, p. 480. 
 
41 
 
 To our right and west of where we stand, about 2<So 
 yards, behind a rail fence, in the skirt of the wood, facing 
 the field in front, which had been in corn the year before, 
 were placed the North Carolina militia, about iooo strong; 
 the left flank of General Eaton's brigade resting on the 
 New Garden or Old Salisbury road, which is just to the 
 rear of our stand, and the right flank of General John 
 Butler's brigade resting on the same road and to the left 
 and South of Eaton's brigade. The old broom sedge field 
 which we see now, where Eaton stood, was in forest at that 
 day. On the right flank of Eaton's brigade were placed 
 Colonel William Washington's cavalry, the North Caro- 
 lina Cavalry under the Marquis of Bretigny, Capt. Wat- 
 kin's cavalry, Kirkwood's Delawares and a portion of 
 Lynch's riflemen. 
 
 On the left of Butler's brigade was Capt. Arthur Forbis 
 with his Guilford county Volunteers, about ioo strong, 
 and Colonel William Campbell's command consisting of 
 Preston's volunteers from Virginia, Winston's and Arm- 
 strong's Volunteer riflemen from Surry count}', North 
 Carolina, Robertson's ioo men from Sullivan count)-. 
 North Carolina, Colonel Campbell's 60 men and Lee's 
 Legion. This Legion was recruited as picked men from 
 the whole Northern army, and now 7 numbered about one 
 hundred and sixty men, about equally divided as cavalry 
 and infantry. 
 
 Both these flanking, or covering parties, were in a line 
 oblique to the militia, so as to give a raking fire upon the 
 British flanks as they approached. Campbell's line was 
 nearly perpendicular to the North Carolina militia on the 
 left and was also behind a fence skirting the wood. 
 
 In the New Garden road, between Eaton's left and 
 Butler's right, were placed two six pounder brass pieces 
 under the command of Major Singleton. 
 
 The second line was parallel to the first, very nearly 
 
4^ 
 
 three hundred yards to the east of it, and just about where 
 this stand is now located. 
 
 General Lawson's brigade was on the north side of the 
 New Garden road, with its left resting upon it. General 
 Stevens' brigade was on the south side, with its right 
 resting on the road. 
 
 In the rear of this second line, by the advice of Mor- 
 gan, Genera] Stevens had placed a row of riflemen, called 
 sentinels, with orders to shoot down the first Virginia 
 militiaman who deserted his post. This weakened the 
 force of riflemen in front, who were to fight the enemy, 
 and transformed them into an enemy's line in the rear, 
 rhe orders to fire on every recreant soldier were very 
 positive. General Stevens had witnessed the shameful 
 stampede <^( his men, "without firing a shot," at Camden 
 in tlie August before, and had determined to arrest an- 
 other such disgrace here. To this sanguinary order is 
 perhaps attributable the slightly greater loss in the bat- 
 tle of the Virginia, over the North Carolina militia. How 
 many of the Virginians were shot down by these senti- 
 nels is not reported. The order, however, must have 
 been rigidly enforced on Stevens' side of the road, for 
 his command fought longer and better than Lawson's. 
 
 The third line of battle was formed about 350 yards to 
 our left, and east of us in the old field to the north of the 
 New Garden road. It was composed of four regiments, 
 the left, or Second Maryland regiment, commanded by Col- 
 onel Ford, resting on the New Garden road near where it 
 crosses the rivulet. On its right, in a line oblique to the 
 highway, and following the slope of the hill, was the First 
 Maryland under Colonel Gunby. These two regiments 
 formed the Maryland Brigade under the command of 
 Colonel Otho Williams. On the right of the First Mary- 
 land was Colonel Hawes' regiment of Virginians. To its 
 right was Colonel Green's regiment of Virginians, the 
 
43 
 
 two forming a brigade under General Huger, of South 
 Carolina. On the right of the First Maryland and be- 
 tween it and the left of Hawes' regiment, at the point of 
 the line, were two more brass six pounders under Lieut. 
 Finley. 
 
 In the earl\- morning Colonel Lee, with his Legion and 
 a detachment under Campbell, had been sent forward, 
 west, on the New Garden road, to feel the enemy and 
 give notice of his advance. A very sharp engagement 
 soon followed between Lee and Tarleton, at New Garden 
 meeting house, in which Lee was unhorsed, but it was not 
 long before Lee was compelled to retreat before the ad- 
 vance of the whole English army. He advised Greene of 
 the advance of Cornwallis, and then took his place in the 
 wood near to and in the rear of the line of Volunteers 
 under Forbis. 
 
 General Greene was at this time at the front line and 
 there received the news of the coming battle. 
 
 He again imitated the example of General Morgan at 
 Cowpens by riding along his front line of militia and 
 exhorting it to a firm discharge of duty. 
 
 The scene is thus depicted by George Washington 
 Greene in his Biography of his Grandfather, vol. 3, p. 
 196: 
 
 "When these arrangements were completed General Greene passed 
 along the first line. The day was hot, and holding his hat in one 
 hand, he was wiping the perspiration from his ample forehead with 
 the other. His voice was clear and firm as he called his men's at- 
 tention to the strength of their position and, like Morgan at the Cow- 
 pens, asked only three ronnds. " Three round?, my boys, and then you 
 may fall back." "Then taking hisposition with the Continentals he 
 held himself in readiness to go wherever his duty might call him." 
 
 The only error in this statement is in the number of 
 rounds required of the militia before they were to fall 
 back. 
 
44 
 
 All historians agree that Morgan only required two 
 rounds instead of three. Garden, who was one of Lee's 
 Legion and heard the speech says: 
 
 " The Xorth Carolina militia were assured by General Greene 
 that if they would only preserve their station long enough to give 
 their enemy two fires they should obtain his free permission to re- 
 tire from the held. — Garden's Anecdotes, p. 40." 
 
 Gordon's History, Vol. 4, page 55, has also this lan- 
 guage: 
 
 " General Stevens had the address to prevent his brigade from 
 receiving any bad impression from the retreating Xorth Carolinians 
 by giving out that they had orders to retite after discharging their 
 pieces. To cherish this idea he ordered his men to open their riles 
 to favor their passage." 
 
 It is evident that General Stevens and his whole com- 
 mand were apprised of the order to the Xorth Carolina 
 militia 'as they should have been,; to prevent surprise 
 ami panic in their ranks by the retreat ol the Xorth Caro- 
 linians in their front. Gordon affects to believe this was 
 a ruse of General Stevens but in this he is manifestly in 
 error. The order was given just as General Stevens 
 communicated it to his command. 
 
 Rev. L. W, Caruthers, D. D., who wrote the life of Rev. 
 Dr. David Caldwell in 1842, had been over the battle 
 field of Guilford Court House very often in company with 
 the soldiers who participated in the battle and had con- 
 versed with many old people of the neighborhood who 
 knew its history from their cotemporariesand was therefore 
 familiar with the incidents and traditions of the battle. 
 Robert Rankin, a member of the Buffalo church, often 
 pointed out the different localities of the field, especially 
 on the left where Rankin fought under Colonel Campbell 
 among the Xorth Carolina riflemen. With this familiar 
 knowledge of events, Dr. Caruthers assumes in his Life 
 
45 
 
 of Caldwell, as an established fact, known by everybody, 
 that the militia were ordered to fire twice and then re- 
 treat. Speaking of Capt. Forbis' command, page 236, 
 he says: 
 
 " They stood firm until they had fired twice, according to orders" 
 Again he says: 
 
 "They were placed in the front rank, stood firm and tired the 
 number of times prsscribed in the general order. Forbis himself fired 
 the first gun in that division, and killed his man " 
 
 There are several incidental allusions to this "order" 
 to fire twice and always as one of the unquestionable facts 
 connected with the battle. 
 
 It is not, however, emphasised because the Doctor was 
 writing the biography of a minister of the Gospel and 
 not a defence of the North Carolina militia and the order 
 was only a collateral fact in the narrative. 
 
 Subsequently, in 1S56, Dr. Caruthers, in his Sketches — 
 Second Series — vindicated the North Carolina militia 
 from the charge of inefficiency in the battle. 
 
 G. W. Greene says it was communicated to him as a 
 tradition. It was indeed a fact well known and often 
 spoken of by old persons to succeeding generations, and 
 it is incomprehensible that a fact so w r ell known and un- 
 derstood should have been omitted, in his Memoirs, by 
 Colonel Lee who must have heard it, for he was on the 
 front line when the order was given. It is inexplicable 
 that Johnson too, who had 'access to General Greene's 
 correspondence and papers should have suppressed it, 
 while he gives great prominence to the like order of Gen- 
 eral Morgan at Cowpens. 
 
 I have in my possession also an interesting letter from 
 Captain James F. Johnson, of Charlotte, N. C, giving 
 me the statement of Abram Forney, of Lincoln county, 
 
46 
 
 who remained for the battle after Pickens' brigade had 
 gone Forney state- distinctly that it was " two rounds " 
 and adds that his portion of the line obeyed the order 
 fully. 
 
 There can be nothing settled by testimony more 
 certainly than the fact that the North Carolina militia 
 were, by the personal order of General Greene, directly 
 instructed/,' ft re twice and assured that he required no 
 more of them. And it is the failure to observe and 
 state this all important fact that has placed these 
 troops in a false light before their posterity. \\ hen we 
 reflect for a moment, this order is so reasonable and 
 natural that we cannot doubt the truth oi the assertion 
 that it was given. We may suppose that Morgan's order 
 was further imitated by advising that the fires be given 
 " at fifty yards." 
 
 Idle North Carolinians were armed with their hunting 
 rifles. The_\' carried their powder in. a powder horn with, 
 a charger attached. Their bullets and patching were in 
 a pouch to their left side and the tallow to grease the 
 patching under a spring in the stock of the rifle. To 
 load a rifle required that the powder be measured in the 
 charger and poured carefully into the small muzzle bore 
 of the rifle, ddie patching was to be greased and placed 
 over the muzzle and the ball placed upon it and pressed 
 into the gun. A knife was then used to cut off the sur- 
 plus patching. The ball was to be rammed down the 
 gun with a ramrod which was then to be replaced in the 
 thimbles along the barrel. The last operation was to 
 prime the pan in the flint and steel lock before the rifle- 
 man was read\- to fire upon his enemy. The operation 
 required at least two or three minutes to perform it. 
 
 If the British line were fired upon at fifty yards they 
 could be over the intervening ground in less than fifty- 
 seconds, or if at one hundred yards in one and a half 
 
■ 47 
 
 minutes. So that unless the British line was repulsed in 
 its advance by the deadliness of the fire they would he 
 upon the militia before it was possible to load three times, 
 or if the operation of loading were delayed, by trepida- 
 tion, before they could fire t'wice. 
 
 It is evident that General Greene, as well as every rea- 
 sonable person, expected that the militia would give way 
 whenever the bayonet did reach them; for against it they 
 had no arm of defence nor discipline to beat it back. John- 
 son well remarks in speaking of the terror of the bayo- 
 net that " nothing but the absolute subjection of every 
 human feeling to the restraints of discipline can dissipate 
 the real or imagined terrors of such a • conflict " and Lee- 
 has said that "to expose militia to such a charge, without 
 discipline or arms to repel it, is murder." Therefore, Gen- 
 eral Greene instructed them, so the}' could understand it, 
 to fire until the bayonet did reach them, which he calcu- 
 lated would be two rounds, and then to retire. To re- 
 quire more of them, as Lee says, in discussing this mode 
 of warfare, " would be murder." It would be to expect 
 more of them than of the conquerors of Ferguson at 
 King's mountain. 
 
 The sequel will show that the North Carolinians diso- 
 beyed no order in retreating before the bayonet, and that 
 they performed the whole duty required of them that day, 
 and if the day had gone as did Cowpens, the order of 
 Greene to the militia would, most probably, not have 
 been suppressed. 
 
 General Greene, having now retired to the Continental 
 line, exhorted the second Maryland, which was a fresh 
 regiment, though regulars, to firmness and courage. He 
 was no more on the front line and as to its conduct he 
 could only afterwards speak from hearsay. 
 
 It was not long until the fire from Singleton's guns upon 
 the British column, as it came in view, across Horse-pen 
 
48 
 
 Crock, about half mile west of the line, announced the 
 presence of the British Army. 
 
 It made a rapid descent to the valley of the creek 
 under cover of its artillery, which replied to Singleton's, 
 and there " displayed " their line, to use the technical 
 word of that period. Webster on the left and North 
 and Leslie on the right and South ^f the road. 
 Webster fronting Eaton's brigade an 1 Leslie fronting 
 Butler's, The artillery in the road — the cavalry in the 
 die rear. 
 
 The second battali »n of British Guards under General 
 ( >'Hara being in reserve to Webster and the first battal- 
 lion under Lieutenant-Colonel Norton in reserve to Leslie. 
 
 The battle began first on the North of the road, where 
 Baton's brigade was posted, the ground in their front, as 
 you will perceive, is comparatively level and as the Brit- 
 ish line came in fair, unobstructed view, first in that part 
 of the field theyreceived the first fire at perhaps ioo yards 
 distance, the militia being impatient to fire and to have 
 time to reload their rifles before the English could push 
 upon them with the bayonet. 
 
 Colonel Tarleton, who was in the road, in the rear of 
 Webster's brigade, and in full view of its advance against 
 Eaton's brigade, thus describes the scene transpiring be- 
 fore his eyes: 
 
 "The order and coolness of that part of Webster's brigade which 
 advanced across the open ground exposed to t/ie enemy's tire cannot 
 be sufficiently extolled. The extremities were not less gallant, but 
 were more protected by the woods in which they moved. The 
 militia allowed the front Jine to approach within 150 yards before 
 they gave their fire." 
 
 Stedman, the English historian, who was the Commis- 
 sary General of Cornwallis and was also a spectator of the 
 scene, repeats this account of Webster's advance and 
 vouches for Tarleton's general description of the battle. 
 
49 
 
 Colonel Leo, who know Stedman's character well and the 
 incidents of the whole campaign, in correcting an uninten- 
 tional error into which Stedman had fallen about the de- 
 feat of Pyles, says: " I have acknowledged my conviction 
 
 of Stedman's impartiality and respect for truth./ There- 
 fore this account of Tarleton's comes endorsed by Sted- 
 man, and Stedman's character is endorsed by Lee. 
 
 This is a prominent and important fact, because if "the 
 order and coolness of" Webster's brigade under the fire of 
 the North Carolina militia cannot be "sufficiently extolled," 
 the fire must have been very deadly and continuous. 
 
 Tarleton and Stedman would not acknowledge the in- 
 sufficiency of the English language to describe this charge 
 unless it was made in the face of a galling and destruc- 
 tive fire. The tribute to the "coolness and courage" of 
 Webster's brigade involves the highest tribute to the 
 firmness of the North Carolina brigade. 
 
 Another English historian, Lamb, who was at that time 
 an officer of the Thirty-third regiment and participated 
 in this charge, has also quoted Tarleton's language with 
 approbation, and in order to give further and greater em- 
 phasis to the coolness and courage of Webster's brigade, 
 he says: 
 
 " As the author belonged to Colonel Webster's brigade, he is en- 
 abled (and the reader will naturally expect it of him) to state some 
 circumstances unnoticed by any historian, from his own personal ob- 
 servation. After the brigade formed across the open ground, Col. 
 Webster rode on to the front and gave the word, 'Charge. ' Instantly 
 the movement was made in excellent order at a sharp run, with arms 
 charged ; when arrived within forty yards of the enemy's line it was 
 perceived that their whole force had their arms presented and resting 
 on a rail fence, the common partition in America. They were taking 
 aim with the nicest precision, 
 
 "Twixt host and host but narrow space was left 
 
 A dreadful interval, and front to front, 
 
 Presented, stood in terrible array." 
 
5° 
 
 " At this awful period a general pause took place: both parties 
 surveyed each other a moment with most anxious suspense. Colonel 
 Webster then rode forward in front of the Twenty-third regiment 
 and said, with more than his usual commanding voice, which was 
 well known to his brigade, "Come on, my brave Fusiliers!" This 
 operated like an inspiring voice. They rushed forward amidst the 
 enemy's fire — dreadful was the havoc on both sides." 
 
 " Amazing scene ! 
 What showers of mortal hail, what flaky fires !" 
 
 " At last the Americans gave way and the^brigade advanced to the 
 attack ot the second line."* 
 
 Lamb wrote his work in 1809, after seeing other ac- 
 counts of this battle and felt constrained to give his per- 
 sonal recollections of this particular part <>i the engage- 
 ment, because he was an active participant in it anil no 
 other historian had described, the action in detail in that 
 part of the field. This author is one of the highest re- 
 spectability and is frequently quoted by American his- 
 torians. In Carrington's "Battles ot the American Revo- 
 lution," a standard work of recent date, copious quota- 
 tions are made from Lamb. He is also quoted by George 
 Washington Greene in his biography of the General. 
 Lamb's work was published by subscription and among 
 the list of subscribers are most of the noblemen and lit- 
 eratti of his day. Lamb was a teacher in a High school 
 in Scotland and a man of letters as well as a soldier. 
 
 Can any- one doubt the truth of such a statement com- 
 ing from a participant in the scene, who gives such em- 
 phasis and particularity to details, and who is of unim- 
 peachable character for truth and intelligence. 
 
 I can safely rest the reputation of that part of the North 
 Carolina militia, under General Laton, on these splendid 
 tributes to their courage and firmness. 
 
 It establishes the fact that they- had fired once and re- 
 *Lanab's History of the American Revolution, p. S61. 
 
?1 
 
 loaded and when the enemy were in forty paces were 
 resting their rifles on the rails and aiming with the "nicest 
 precision " at their foe. So appalling was their martial 
 array that even the British veterans, who had faced so 
 many dangers from Quebec to Camden, paused and 
 stood aghast at the spectacle, and that only the magic 
 voice of their commander, accompanied with Ids reckless 
 exposure in their front, could prevail upon them to ad- 
 vance. 
 
 The "havoc" was great, says Lamb, and we may well 
 believe it. Riflemen who could take a squirrel's head 
 from the highest tree would not be likely to miss a scar- 
 let uniform at fort}- paces. 
 
 In Foote's Sketches of Virginia, Second Series, p. 149, 
 is a biography of the Rev. Samuel Houston, a Presbyte- 
 rian minister, whose simple epitaph tells the story of his 
 useful and honorable and pious life. 
 
 SACRED 
 
 TO THE MEMORY f 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Rev. SAMUEL HOUSTON, 
 
 WHO IN EARLY LIFE WAS A SOLDIER OF THE 
 REVOLUTION, 
 
 AND FOR 55 YEARS A FAITHFUL MINISTER OF THE 
 
 LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 HE DIED ON THE 20TH DAY OF JANUARY, 1839, 
 AOED 8l YEARS. 
 
 Mr. Houston was a student at Lexington Academy but 
 responded toa call for volunteers, and was one of General 
 Stevens' command at this battle and kept a diary of his 
 movements from February 26th to March 23rd, in which 
 
52 
 
 rae related man)- interesting incidents. He was fond of 
 telling the story of this battle, and thus describes its 
 opening: 
 
 "The Virginia line was in the forest, the Carolina militia pirtlyin 
 the forest and partly in the skirt of the forest and partly behind the 
 fence inclosing the open space, across which the British force was 
 advancing with extended front. 
 
 "According to ordt rs the Carolina line, when the enemy were very 
 near, gave their fire, which on the left of the British line zoas deadly, 
 and having repeated it, retreated. Some remained t-> give a third 
 fire and some made such haste in retreat as to bring reproach upon 
 themselves as deficient in bravery, while their neighbors behaved 
 like heroes. " 
 
 Here is a direct confirmation of Lamb's account of the 
 "deadly fire'' of Webster's brigade, ami a positive asser- 
 tion that the fire was " repeated," and that some remained 
 to fire the third time, and that the}- acte 1 "according to 
 orders." 
 
 That there was haste in the retreat when it began, is 
 conceded, but no military man or intelligent reader oi 
 the history of militia contests, would have expected it to 
 be otherwise. Idle Virginians and North Carolinians, 
 being undisciplined troops, were alike disorderly when 
 retreating from the- field. Idle North Carolinians had 
 done all the}' were commanded or instructed to do, and 
 hastened to the rear where the}' were ordered to rally 
 again. Air. Houston was frank' and just as well as truth- 
 ful, for in describing the advance of the British on 
 Stevens' brigade, after the North Carolinians retreated, 
 he relates as the first fact occurring that "Our brigade- 
 Major, Mr. Williams, fled." 
 
 ddie Rev. J. Henry Smith, D. D., one of the most dis- 
 tinguished ministers of the Presbyterian church in the 
 South, and for twenty-five years pastor at Greensboro, has 
 seen Mr. Houston in his old age and knew his character 
 
53 
 
 well, and testifies to the great esteem and reverence in 
 which he was held byall whoknewhim. He wasoneof the 
 leading spirits of the Presbyterian church in Virginia in 
 his day. 
 
 These men of North Carolina did their duty and after 
 firing every shot possible, before the bayonet was upon 
 them, obeyed orders, and retreated behind the second line, 
 who were in readiness to give the enemy a similar recep- 
 tion. 
 
 On Butler's side of the road the North Carolina militia 
 and Forbis' Volunteers gave the British a bloody repulse. 
 The Scotch Highlanders, a regiment of Leslie's brigade, 
 rested its left on the New Garden road and therefore was 
 immediately in front of Butler's militia, chiefly from 
 Orange, Granville and Guilford. 
 
 Captain Dugald Stuart who commanded a company in 
 the 71st regiment (called "Scotch Highlanders") on that 
 day, when writing to a relative in this country under 
 date of October 25th, 1825, uses the following language: 
 
 " In the advance we received a very deadly fire from the Irish line 
 of the American army, composed of their marksmen, lying on the 
 ground behind a rail fence. 
 
 " One half the Highlanders dropped on that spot. There ought to 
 be a very large tumulus on that spot where our men were buried."* 
 
 This letter was written by Captain Stuart to a relative 
 in Guilford county who had suggested that most of the 
 Highlanders had been killed in the charge on the Con- 
 tinental line and these particulars were given to correct 
 that error. 
 
 The centre of the State had among its population, at 
 that period, many Irish and Scotch-Irish, and for that 
 reason the militia line was called the Irish line. 
 
 The tumulus to which Captain Stuart refers is no doubt 
 
 *Caruthers' Sketches, Second Series, p. 134. 
 
; 4 
 
 the large grave, sixteen feet square, and six feet deep, 
 near the Hoskins' residence, which was filled with the 
 dead of the English army, thus confirming Capt. Stuart's 
 memory in regard to it. 
 
 A further confirmation oi this positive statement of 
 Captain Stuart is an extract from "Brown's History of 
 the Highland Clans" as quoted by Caruthers. Vol. 2, p. 134: 
 
 "The Americans covered by a fence in their front reserved their 
 fire till the British were in thirty or forty paces, at which distance 
 they openeda destructive tire, which annihilated nearly one-third of 
 Webster's brigade." 
 
 I he Highlanders, however, were under Leslie, instead 
 of Webster, that day but joined Webster's left. 
 
 The Hessians were opposed by the left of Butler's men 
 and the Volunteers under Forbis. These latter, Lee re- 
 luctantly confesses, were firm and never gave way except 
 to sullenly and slowly retreat before the English bayonet 
 and adhered to Campbell's command to the very last. 
 
 It was a North Carolina rifle that brought down the 
 first English officer in this battle. 
 
 Colonel James Martin in his petition for a pension thus 
 describes the scene: 
 
 " I was posted on the front line with a company commanded by 
 Captain Forbis, a brave, undaunted fellow. We were posted behind 
 a fence and I told the men to sit down until the British who were ad- 
 vancing, came near enough to shoot. When they came within about 
 100 yards, a British officer with a drawn sword was driving up his 
 men. I asked Captain Forbis if he could take him down. He said 
 he could for he had a good rifle. I told him to let him come in fifty 
 yards and then take him down, which he did. It was a Captain of 
 the British army." 
 
 It was stated by Peter Rife of Virginia, one of Lee's 
 Leg-ion, to Caruthers, that he witnessed the fact with his 
 
own eyes, that the men of Alamance fired till the Hes- 
 sians mounted the fence and then clubbed their rifles and 
 fought them back, hand to hand. When asked if this 
 was not done by Campbell's men, he replied indignantly, 
 "No, it was the North Carolinians. I sat on my horse 
 and saw them with my own eyes." 
 
 There was deadly work there. At the foot of yonder 
 ancient poplar, in full view of us, now sacred from the 
 woodman's axe, fell that "brave, undaunted fellow" 
 pierced by one bullet in his neck and another through 
 his thigh, and by his side lay Thomas Wiley and Wil- 
 liam Paisley, whose descendants still live among us. 
 
 The granite monument at the foot of the poplar is the 
 second raised to the memory of Capt. Forbis by his grateful 
 countrymen. This noble patriot, after his fall, was pierced 
 with a bayonet by a cowardly tory and lay upon the 
 ground all night through the dreadful storm that ensued. 
 He was found next day by Miss Montgomery and carried 
 to his home on a horse. Refusing to submit to the am- 
 putation of his leg, mortification took place and he died 
 several weeks after the battle." 
 
 It is perhaps a gratification to know that "Shoemaker," 
 the Tory who thrust the bayonet through Forbis' body, 
 was caught not long thereafter and was soon dangling at 
 the end of a rope and died the death of a felon. 
 
 With this record history of officers and privates on both 
 sides, who participated in the battle, and the testimony 
 of historians, who were observers of and actors in the 
 scenes, I confidently submit that the North Carolina 
 militia obeyed their orders to give two deliberate fires and 
 retreat, and the omission to state this order, as both 
 Johnson and Col. Lee have so unjustly done in their 
 histories, has been the cause of the greatest wrong 
 to North Carolina; but any North Carolinian who care- 
 
 *Comniunieated to me by the family 
 
fully reads Johnson's numerous exposures of Lee's 
 "surprising general inaccuracies" and observes the per- 
 version of facts and the misrepresentations of history by 
 Johnson, himself, in regard to North Carolina, will not be 
 surprised at the unpardonable and unjust omission to 
 state this order of General Greene. The omission, to an 
 intelligent mind, seems, in the face of the testimony to be 
 studied and intentional. lucre can be no reasonable 
 excuse f< ir it. 
 
 Lee has not hesitate.1 to indulge in vituperation in re- 
 gard to the North Carolina militia, characterizing their 
 retreat as "desertion ;" but when the Virginia militia fled 
 from the field and left Greene's camp he speaks of 
 Greene's army as being "reduced by the fliglit of the 
 North Carolinians, and the voluntary and customary re- 
 turn of the Virginia militia to their homes. Such effron- 
 tery is refreshing and provokes a smile. 
 
 North Carolinians, according to this, fled once audit 
 was "desertion," but when the Virginians repeate 1 it so 
 often as to become "customary" it was no longer dis- 
 honorable. 
 
 Idle fact is that a larger proportion of North Carolinians 
 rallied after the battle,"''" than \ irginians. I quote from 
 Rev. Mr. Houston's Journal of the i~th of March to show- 
 how this "customary return to their homes" was made. 
 
 "Saturday, the ijt/i. On account of the want of some of our 
 blankets and some other clothing, many postponed returning-home, 
 which was talked of, in general, in McDowell's batallion, till at last 
 they agreed and many went oft": a few were remaining when Gen. 
 Lawson came and raged very much : about 10 o'clock a//but McDow- 
 ell came off." 
 
 They left in the face of a "raging" officer's protest, 
 ddus savors of "desertion" whether "customary" or not. 
 * Johnson, Vol. l, p. 462. 
 
57 
 
 I do not make an attack on the Virginians, many of 
 whom did their duty nobly on this field; but when we are 
 traduced by invidious comparisons, it is due to history 
 that the facts should be stated. Colonel Lee, himself, 
 has been severely censured by Johnson for his conduct 
 in this battle;- but I refrain from commenting upon 
 charges which may be unjust to a man, who was one 
 of the best partisan officers in Greene's command. I only 
 strike in defence. 
 
 Having digressed from the narrative in order to vindic- 
 ate the truth of history and repel the aspersions on the 
 North Carolina militia, I resume the story of the battle. 
 
 When the militia gave way before the bayonet on the 
 right, Webster pushed his advance in the forest but was 
 met by a shower of bullets on his left flank, from Kirk- 
 wood's Delawares and Lynch's Riflemen and was com- 
 pelled to face the Thirty-third to the north and repel the 
 assault, while the Twenty-third took position on the left 
 made vacant by this move, and the Second Battalion of 
 Guards under O'Hara filled the gap by filing in on the 
 right of the Twenty-third and next to the road. 
 
 On the south of the road, Leslie advanced rapidly into 
 the forest for protection from the riflemen of Campbell, 
 Winston, Armstrong and Preston on their right flank, and 
 passed many of the riflemen, who fired deadly volleys 
 upon them from flank and rear. So destructive was this 
 fire that Lieutenant Colonel Norton, of the first battalion 
 of guards, who was in reserve, came speedily into line 
 and attacked the riflemen, while the Hessians under 
 Dubuys were faced south and in a right angle to their 
 first line and attacked Lee's Legion which was on Camp- 
 bell's right. The conflict here was stubborn and hotly 
 contested. The riflemen gave way to the bayonet, and 
 reloading, returned to the charge, and firing from trees 
 * Johnson, Vol. 2, p. 14-20. 
 
5* 
 
 in every direction, soon routed the guards and drove 
 them back to the skirt of the woods. 
 
 The Hessians made more progress on Campbell's right 
 and pressed the Volunteers 'back in the direction of the 
 "Ross Residence," and the riflemen fell back with them. 
 It was at this period oi the battle that Cornwallis, riding 
 into the midst ol the Guards and leading them back to 
 the charge, had his iron-grey horse shot under him at 
 tlie spot now indica I by a very large persimmon tree, 
 a few hundred yards in front of us, which still lives." 
 
 It was by this combined charge ol the Hessians and 
 the Guards that Campbell's men were driven south and 
 entirely separated from the left flank of Stevens' brigade, 
 upon which they >vere ordered to form in case of retreat. 
 Cornwallis, leaving the Hessians to contend with the 
 North Carolina and Virginia riflemen, recalled Norton, 
 and with his Guards and the 71st Scotch Highlanders, 
 charged Stevens' brigade, while Webster assaulted Law- 
 son on the left. Lawson gave way early, as his troops 
 were raw militia, and only lost one man killed. Wash- 
 ington, however, protected their retreat and they swung 
 around on their left into the forest in the rear oi Stevens 
 to avoid the fields where Tarletoh might fall upon them, 
 and thus made their way to the Court House. 
 
 Webster, having driven Lawson from his front, and the 
 flanking detachment under Washington having retired to 
 the Continental line, the British moved along the left of 
 the road rapidly, until they reached the Bruce road in 
 
 '■Note.— Lamb relates the following incident as having occurred just after the 
 retreat of Katun's brigade, on the north of the New Garden road. 
 
 "On the instant, however, I saw Lord Cornwallis riding across the clear ground. 
 His Lordship was mounted on a dragoon's horse, his own having heen stint, the 
 saddle-hags were under the creature's belly, which much retarded his progress, 
 owing to the vasi quantity oi underwood thai was spread over the ground; his 
 Lordship was evidently unconscious of his danger. I immediately laid hold of 
 the bridle of his horse and turned his head. I then mentioned to him that if his 
 Lordship had pursued the same direction he would, in a tew moments, have been 
 surrounded by the enemy, and perhaps cut to pieces or captured. I continued to 
 run along the side ,,t' the horse, keeping the bridle in my hand, until his Lordship 
 gained the 23rd regiment, which was at that time drawn up in the skirt of the 
 woods."— p. 382. 
 
59 
 
 the edge of the old held about 300 yards to the east of 
 us, where he discovered the Continental line across the 
 ravine on the opposite hill. Flushed with victory and 
 eager to lead the advance and complete the destruction 
 of Greene's arm}-, Colonel Webster formed the Thirty- 
 Third into line, the second battalion of Guards not being 
 up, and with this regiment charged the Continentals. 
 
 I'he first Maryland, under Colonel Gunby, received the 
 charge with cool and determined courage, firing a deadly 
 volley in the British line at fort}- paces, which mortally 
 wounded Colonel Webster and threw them into con- 
 fusion, then following their fire with the bayonet, as they 
 did at Cowpens, the}- fell upon the enemy and com- 
 pletely routed them, pursuing them back into the forest. 
 
 General Greene, not knowing the fate of Campbell, 
 who had been driven nearly a mile to the South, though 
 still fighting, hesitated to advance his whole line, fearing 
 that he might be cut off on his left flank, and therefore 
 ordered the first Maryland to fall back to their original 
 position. 
 
 Here, Tarleton says, Greene lost the battle, by not 
 
 following up this advantage and severing the British 
 
 army in twain, but the distrust that Greene had of raw 
 
 « 
 troops, induced him to choose the wiser and safer 
 
 plan by which he could save his arm}- if he was com- 
 pelled to retreat. 
 
 While Gunby was retiring from the pursuit of Webster, 
 Lieutenant Colonel Stewart, with the Guards (General 
 O'Hara having been wounded) had arrived at the old 
 field, and without waiting for orders, charged the second 
 Maryland, under Colonel Ford, whose left rested on 
 the rivulet at the foot of the hill. The second Maryland 
 made but a feeble resistance and fled, but at this critical 
 moment, the first Maryland struck the Guards on their 
 left flank with the bayonet, and while they turned to 
 
6o 
 
 resist this unexpected attack, Washington, who was on 
 the hill, in the new Salisbury road, descended the slope, 
 crossing the rivulet and charged the guards in the rear. 
 The slaughter was terrific* 
 
 Peter Francisco the giant, of Captain Watkin's Vir- 
 ginia cavalry, killed eleven British soldiers with his 
 terrible sabre. It was a valley of death and the Guards 
 refusing to surrender were being cut down on every 
 hand. Never soldiers fought with more desperation and 
 courage than these devoted and gallant men. ( hie can- 
 not read the story without admiration for their courage 
 and devotion to the Crown. 
 
 There Lieutenant-Colonel James Stewart came in con- 
 tact with Captain John Smith, of the firstMaryland and they 
 recognized each other as having crossed swords at Cow- 
 liens. The duel was renewed. Stewart thrust at him 
 with his sword, Smith parried it with his left arm and 
 with his right swung aloft hi-- heavy sabre which in its 
 descent cleft the skull of Stewart to the neck.t 
 
 Conwallis, descending the hill, saw that a desperate 
 remedy was necessary, and riding up to the artillery, 
 which had now arrived at the Bruce Road, he command- 
 ed MacLeod to open on the melee with grape shot. Near 
 
 *Note.— The third escape from danger by Lord Cornwallis, took place, at the 
 foot di' the steep hill jusl beyond the fork of the Bruce road, near the ancient 
 white oak which still marks the spol . 
 
 Cornwallis came down from his post where the Salisbury (New Garden) road 
 enters to the hollow to see the condition of the battle, ami under the cover of the 
 smoke, rode up to that old oak, just in the skirts of the fiery contest. Washington 
 who had drawn off his troops, was hovering round to watch his opportunity for 
 another onset and approached that same oak unperceived by his Lordship ; Stop- 
 ping to beckon on his men to move and intercept the officer, then unknown to 
 him, he happened to strike his unlaced helmet from his head. While he dis- 
 mounted to recover it, a round of grape from the British artillery so grievously 
 wounded the officer next in command to Washington, that incapacitating him to 
 manage his horse, the animal wheeled around and carried him off the field, fol- 
 lowed by the rest of the cavalry who, unhappily, supposed that the movement 
 had been directed. Thus Cornwallis escaped. 
 
 *Se ■ \;ip sn Ux B. 
 
6i 
 
 the guns lay General O'Hara, the Brigade Commander 
 of the Guards, bleeding with many wounds. He turned 
 his pale face to the British Commander and begged that 
 his brave soldiers should not be killed by their own guns; 
 but Cornwallis was in desperate and dreadful earnest, 
 and repeated the sanguinary order, while O'Hara hid his 
 face in his hands and wept. The remedy was awful but 
 effectual. The Americans were compelled to retreat and 
 the few bleeding Guards that were left made their way 
 out from the scene of carnage.* 
 
 Greene reformed his line, placing the first two pieces 
 of artillery in the New Garden road, with the First Mary- 
 land on its right, then the other two six-pounders and in 
 regular order Kirkwood's Delawares and Hawes and 
 Green's Virginia regiments — the last forming the ex- 
 treme right of the line. 
 
 Washington's Cavalry was in the concave side of this 
 semi-circular line, in the rear, so as to act as emergency 
 might require. He was the ubiquitous and intrepid sol- 
 dier, rough, but awful in combat, whose sabre had left its 
 mark on Tarleton at Cowpens, and he was now panting 
 to renew the conflict. 
 
 " Col. Washington is described as being six feet in height, broad, 
 stout and corpulent. Bold in the field, careless in the camp ; kind 
 to his soldiers ; harassing to his enemies; gay and good humored, 
 with an upright and a gensrous hand, a universal favorite." — Irving's 
 Life of Washington, Vol. 4, p. 44. 
 
 Cornwallis, under fire of his artillery and a musketry 
 fusilade, formed his line anew. The Thirty-third had 
 
 ♦Note— Johnson also relates the narrow escape made by General Greene during 
 the fight with the Continental line, as follows: 
 
 " Such also had been the apprehensions for the consequencies of the defeat of 
 the Second Battalion of the Guards, that the First Battalion had been ordered up 
 from the left and had reached the Xew Garden road on which Greene was anxi- 
 ously observing the progress of events. The bush on the roadside had so effect- 
 ually concealed the advance of this corps from view that Gen. Greene had ap- 
 proached within a few paces of them, when they were discovered by his aid, 
 Major Morris, and pointed out to him. He had the presence of mind to retire in a 
 walk ; a precipitate movement would, probably, have drawn upon him a volley of 
 musketry." 
 
62 
 
 been rallied, the Twenth -third was in line with the 
 Seventy-first and Xorton on its right and the few surviv- 
 ors of the First Battalion of Guards, refusing to be held 
 back, came also to the front. With the loss of the First 
 Maryland, and knowing nothing oi the Tate of Lee 
 and Campbell. General Greene determined not to risk 
 his whole Continental line in a last desperate struggle 
 but rather to retreat ami hold them strong and fresh as a 
 nucleus, around which lie could gather his scattered 
 militia ami organize for another battle it the enemy dared 
 t< > advance. 
 
 Throwing Green's regiment of Virginians, who had 
 not yet been brought into action, in the rear, to cover his 
 retreat, he withdrew across Hunting Creek and took tin/ 
 road to Mc< >uistian's bridge on Reedy Fork. Cornwallis 
 made a demonstration of pursuit, but a few shot< from 
 Green's regiment am! a charge from the cavalry under 
 Washington, caused Tarleton to halt and return to camp. 
 
 ddie artillery was necessarily left in the enemy's pos- 
 session as the horse- had all been killed and there was 
 no way to carry off the guns. 
 
 Idle fight with Campbell's men had been steadily kept 
 up and the Hesians had been driven back in confusion, 
 when Tarleton was sent to their aid. 
 
 For some reason, hitherto unexplained, Lee withdrew 
 his Legion and left Campbell and the North Carolina and 
 Virginia riflemen exposed to Tarleton's cavalry and the)" 
 were soon ridden down and compelled to disperse. ' Col- 
 onel Compbell was greatly incensed at Lee's abandon- 
 ment of the riflemen, and shortly after the battle retired 
 in disgust from the army.""" 
 
 Johnson says that Lee came to the Court House and 
 was a spectator of the struggle in the old field between 
 the British Regulars and the Continentals but never 
 "Drapers's Kings Mountain and its Heroes, p. 394. 
 
offered assistance or made his presence known. He 
 retreated by the High Rock road and his fate was un- 
 known for twenty-four hours, until he rode into the 
 American camp next day.t 
 
 To Washington's cavalry, the North Carolina and Vir- 
 ginia riflemen on the left, and the first Maryland regiment, 
 with Kirkwood's Delaware's, are due the highest honors 
 of this day so fruitful in all that constitutes victory to the 
 American Arms. 
 
 Greene halted three miles from the battle field for rest 
 and to allow his stragglers to gather in. He was so 
 prostrated with the long and arduous labors through 
 which he had been passing for weeks that in this hour of 
 relaxation he fainted from sheer exhaustion and for 
 awhile was unconscious. He wrote his wife after the 
 battle that he had not taken off his clothes for six weeks. 
 
 Cornwallis, who had but little means of transportation, 
 and a very scant supply of provisions and medicines, 
 found his ammunition nearly exhausted and more than 
 one-third of his force, over 600, killed or wounded. 
 Stewart was cold in death, O'Hara and Howard wounded 
 and sick, Webster, the pride of the army, valiant in 
 battle and wise in council, had received a mortal wound, 
 and the mournful spectacle of the dead and dying on 
 every hand was enough to dishearten the British Com- 
 mander. He gathered his wounded as best he could, 
 and buried his dead, and realizing that his only safety 
 now was in flight, he left the field on the 17th and, 
 placing those of his wounded whom he could not trans- 
 port, in care of the humane Quakers at New Garden 
 Meeting House, he hastened to put the Deep River 
 between him and his adversary and gave no rest to his 
 feet until he reached the forks of that river, at Ramsey's 
 
 t Jolmson, Vol. 2, p 20. 
 
6 4 
 
 Mill. Here he could burn a bridge behind him on either 
 stream as necessity required. From thence he fled to 
 Wilmington, leaving the corpse of Webster in North 
 Carolina, near Elizabethtown. He had died in passing 
 through the town while swung in a litter between two 
 horses. He literally died in the flight. 
 
 The next morning after the battle, as was the English 
 custom, Cornwallis sent his officers to the \~u\v prisoners 
 he had captured with offers of liberty and money if they 
 would join his service. The)' had been confined all that 
 dreary, rain)', cold night in a rail pen, herded like cattle, 
 and listened to these appeals with silence and sullenness. 
 The}' were then told that the American army had been 
 routed and Greene had lied from the State, but still these 
 staunch old Whigs, drenched with rain and shivering 
 with cold, maintained their stolid indifference. 
 
 lust then the sound of the morning guns from Greene's 
 camp came reverberating from the hills. 
 
 An old Tar Heel wdio had squatted in a corner of the 
 rail pen heard the familiar signal, and rising with a smile, 
 he cried out: "LISTEN BOYS! THE OLD COCK IS CROW- 
 ING AGAIN," and a shout of defiance went up from the 
 rail pen that convinced the English officer that patriotism 
 in the old North State was above the temptation of 
 bribery or the intimidation of British power. 
 
 ddiat "old cock" Xathanael Greene, and the "blue 
 hen's chickens" around him continued to crow until Corn- 
 wallis was admonished of his sins and his danger and 
 prepared for flight. 
 
 Eager to meet the American army which he had been 
 pursuing for two months through mud and rain; thirsting 
 for the glory of annihilating his foe, Cornwallis had 
 marched out from his camp with fluttering banners and 
 martial music to accept the challenge of the American 
 General; he looked with pride on the veteran soldiers of 
 
65 
 
 his line and the splendid officers who led them: the half 
 clad soldiers of the American army and the untutored 
 militia of the State were contemptible in his eyes; the 
 scene at Camden was to be repeated, the militia would 
 flee at his approach, the Continentals would be outnum- 
 bered and crushed and Tarleton would revenge the de- 
 feat of Cowpens by putting the retreating masses to the 
 sword. Greene would forsake the field and find a refuge 
 in the mountains of Virginia and the Royal Government 
 would be restored in North Carolina. 
 
 These were the exultant visions that floated before his 
 lordship's eyes as he gave the command "forward for 
 Guilford Court House." 
 
 He sought the American army and advanced upon the 
 militia but he found them in " fort}- paces with their rifles 
 resting on the rails and aiming with the "nicest precision " 
 at his line, and the next moment there was "havoc" in 
 Webster's brigade. He looked to the right and witness- 
 ed haJfthe Highlanders drop; he galloped his charger into 
 the midst of the fight but in a moment was unhorsed by 
 the riflemen on the flank; in fury he rode to the valley 
 where his guards were weltering in blood and returned 
 to shoot them down in promiscuous carnage with his own 
 guns, he called for Webster to lead the last charge for 
 victory but found him in the hands of the surgeon; he 
 looked for O'Hara and saw him bleeding at his side; to 
 the inquiry for Gen. Howard came the response "wounded 
 and carried to the rear;" gazing anxiously at the Guards 
 who were emerging from the smoke and carnage under 
 the hill, he missed the stalwart figure of Stewart, now 
 stiff and cold in death. Still he hoped for the realization 
 of his dreams when he saw the Americans turn from the 
 field of blood and calling for Tarleton, he ordered him to 
 charge the retreating foe. Tarleton came with a rifle 
 ball through his hand, but was met by Green and Wash- 
 
 • 
 
66 
 
 ington and hurled back to his commander with disordered 
 ranks. 
 
 The visions of glory had vanished; the truth came 
 rushing over his mind that the victor oi this battle was 
 not the man who held the field, and that the ground on 
 which he stood would soon become the scene of his cap- 
 tivity if he tarried to rest his bleeding comrades. 
 
 Greene had lost but three hundred and twenty [320] 
 men and by the evening of the 17th, he found still around 
 him 1 $50 Continental soldiers, more than 1 500 militia and 
 the 600 riflemen, and on the [ 8th, began the pursuit of 
 the British commander. 
 
 An American officer relates that his compassion was 
 so excited by the pitiable condition of the English army 
 that he had no heart to strike them a blow. The road- 
 side was strewn with the dead who had vainly tried to 
 drag their wounded bodies along with the retreating 
 army. 
 
 The march was tracked by the blood that flowed from 
 the wounds of those who were borne in litters, and here 
 and there a soldier, wounded and forsaken, begged for 
 mercy and protection. When pressed in their camp at 
 Ramsey's Mill, they made a hurried flight across the 
 bridge and burned it behind them. Reaching Cross 
 Creek his lordship expected to glide safely down the 
 Cape bear in boats but found Lillington's militia lining 
 the river and read} - to pick off his men from every cover- 
 ing on the banks. Sadly lie resumed his mournful march 
 and only found safety under his guns at Wilmington. 
 
 Cornwallis had boasted in the spring of 1780 that he 
 was only waiting for the harvest to ripen in North Caro- 
 lina to subsist his troops and he would then hasten to ef- 
 fect its subjection. The harvest had ripened but his lord- 
 ship had not garnered the sheaves: he came to the fields 
 of Mecklenburg but a voice from Kings Mountain sent 
 
6; 
 
 dismay and terror to the hearts of his reapers and they 
 forsook the State. 
 
 Another spring had come with its sunshine and warmth 
 and the earth was waiting for the seed. The furrows 
 were drawn but the sowers were freemen still: the sum- 
 mer came and patriots rested undismayed under the shade 
 of their own vines and fig trees: no royal standard floated 
 over their heads and North Carolina still was free. Geor- 
 gia and South Carolina were trodden under foot but the 
 proud hearts of the "Old North State" were never hum- 
 bled before the British throne. They declared for liberty 
 and maintained it unsubdued to the end. The Battle of 
 Guilford Court House made it impossible that another 
 British soldier should invade her soil, and thenceforth 
 she had peace and rest and a free government for her 
 people. 
 
 No longer able to maintain the conflict in the Caro- 
 linas, his lordship continued his flight to Yorktown and 
 before the frosts of October had tinged the leaves of the 
 forest, he marched out of his breast-works an humbled 
 and heart broken captive, and with the surrender of his 
 army came independence to the colonies. 
 
 The fatal wound, to royal authority from which it lin- 
 gered, and lingering died, on the 19th day of October, 
 1 78 1, was given on the spot where we are now assembled 
 to do honor to the men who accomplished the deed. 
 
 It is sacred ground and worthy of our veneration and 
 affection, worthy to be reclaimed from the hand of deso- 
 lation and decay and adorned by the artist with monu- 
 ments as imperishable as the memory of those heroes 
 who were made immortal here. 
 
 There was not a tree of this noble forest that did not 
 give shelter to the riflemen who contended against Eng- 
 lish bayonets on this bloody field. And we may appro- 
 
68 
 
 priately paraphrase the verse of Morris with all its pathetic 
 
 tenderness and truth, — 
 
 " Woodman, spare that tree," 
 
 Touch not a single bough : 
 It helped to make us free, 
 
 And we'll protect it now." 
 
 Let ns hold it as a sacred heritage from our fathers; as 
 a shrine of liberty where all may worship in the genera- 
 tions which shall Continue to the end of time. 
 
6 9 
 
 At the close of JUDGE SCHENCK'S Historical Oration, 
 Governor A. M. Scales was introduced, who said: 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 Enough has been said. A new chapter has been added 
 to the history of the Guilford Battle Ground, and now, 
 after more than one hundred years, the conduct and fame 
 of the North Carolina militia have been vindicated. 
 Hitherto North Carolinians, acquiescing- in a history 
 made up at the time from rumors, rather than facts, have 
 been subjected to humiliation . and mortification when 
 ever this, one of the most important battles of the Rev- 
 olution, was mentioned. 
 
 When, as a boy at school in the town of Greensboro, 
 I roamed over this field in search of war relics, it was in 
 honor of the brave men who fought and died here in de- 
 fence of liberty; but I had no reverence, love or respect 
 for the memory of the great bod}- of North Carolina mil- 
 itia, who, the history of that day taught me, threw away 
 their arms and basely fled on the approach of the enemy, 
 without firing a shot. 
 
 -The battle ground itself has been neglected and left 
 without a monument to mark the spot, save its desola- 
 tion. It has been reserved for my distinguished friend, 
 Judge Schenck, the orator of the day — more distinguished 
 to-day than ever before — to uncover the truth of 
 history and tell the tale of this battle as it was actually 
 fought. He it was, that while a comparative stranger to 
 our people, though a native North Carolinian, conceived 
 the idea of forming the Guilford Battle Ground Company, 
 to purchase and adorn the grounds. He it was who 
 
7° 
 
 raised the money that was necessary, contributing a large 
 share thereof himself, to investigate the truth of history, 
 and he it is that by patient and wide research and 
 months of incessant labor collected the evidence from 
 friends and foes, at home and abroad, which has enabled 
 him to wipe out forever the stain that rested upon our 
 home militia. In the n imj of the descendants of these 
 brave men, in the name oi our great State, I thank him 
 for this great work. 
 
 I am gratified to see so large an audience gathered 
 together on this occasion, giving unmistakeable evidence 
 of the deep interest felt by them in a battle fought by 
 their fathers over one hundred years ago in defence of a 
 united people and a common country. It tells me in 
 language not to be mistaken that notwithstanding our 
 late troubles we .ire -till in heart, as well as in fact, one 
 undivided people. God grant that when another hun- 
 dred wears have passe 1, he who shall stan 1 here to cele- 
 brate this day, may still look upon a people free, happy 
 and united. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 Col. Lee had observed that, " Had General Greene 
 known how severely his enemy was crippled, and that 
 the corps under Lee had fought their way to the conti- 
 nental line, he would certainly have continued the conflict; 
 and, in all probability, would have made it a drawn day, 
 if not have secured to himself the victory." 
 
 Why was General Greene not informed on those two 
 points ? 
 
 Col. Lee could have foreseen the weight of respon- 
 siblity which this observation casts on himself. The first 
 would have soon been discovered by the General, had 
 time been allowed to make the necessary observations; 
 and this time was denied by the rapid approach of the 
 regiment of Boze on his exposed wing. 
 
 Had Col. Lee, therefore, continued to occupy the regi- 
 ment of Boze, by means of the Light Corps, it would 
 have allowed the American commander the time and 
 leisure necessary to reconnoitre the remaining strength 
 of the enemy. 
 
 And as to the second point, from whom ought the in- 
 formation to have come, but Col. Lee himself? 
 
 There was no want of time on his part, for he informs 
 us, that his cavalry and infantry had both been sent off 
 before the movement of Col. Tarleton to that quarter; 
 and even the riflemen of Campbell, who seemed to have 
 been left to shift for themselves, would most probably 
 have reached the vicinity of the American left sooner 
 than the extricated regiment of Hessians. 
 
 The cavalry and Col. Lee himself certainly did reach 
 the rear of the American left, before the regiment of 
 
72 
 
 Boze; and this important piece of information could 
 have been communicated, either by message, or -more 
 properly, by a junction with the left of the American 
 army. 
 
 That this was not clone, is acknowledged by Col. Lee, 
 and could be proved, if necessary, by other evidence; 
 and its not being done certainly leaves Col. Lee exposed 
 to the charge, which he attributes t<> the want of intel- 
 ligence in the American commander. 
 
 Nay, the acknowledged, and otherwise well known 
 fact, of his having retreated by another route, leaves 
 himself also exposed to the charge of separating from 
 the possible fate of the army, ami thereby adding to its 
 difficulties and exposure — Johnsons Life of Greene, \'d. 
 
 -?, p. 20. 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 Two combatants particularly attracted the attention of 
 those around them. These were Colonel Stuart of the 
 Guards; and Captain John Smith of the Marylanders — 
 both men conspiscuous for nerve and sinew. They had 
 also met before on some occasion and had vowed that 
 their next meeting should end in blood. Regardless of 
 the bayonets that were clashing around them they rushed 
 at each other with a fur}" that admitted of but one result. 
 The quick pass of Stuart's small sword was skillfull}' put 
 by with the left hand, while the heavy sabre of his an- 
 tagonist cleft the Briton to the spine. In one moment 
 the American was prostrate on the lifeless body of his 
 enemy; and in the next was pressed beneath the weight 
 of a soldier who had brought him to the ground. These 
 are not imaginary incidents — they are related on the best 
 authority. A ball discharged at Smith's head as his 
 sword descended on that of Stuart had grazed it, and 
 brought him to the ground, at the instant that the bayonet 
 of a favorite soldier, who always sought the side of his 
 captain in the hour of danger, pierced the heart of one 
 who appears to have been equally watchful over the safety 
 of the British colonel. This incident, it will be found in 
 the sequel of these sketches, was productive of some in- 
 teresting consequences. — Johnson 's Life of Greene ', Vol. 2. 
 
74 
 
 LlRRARY OF COXCRKSS, 
 Washixcitox, 1). C, June 1st, [888. 
 
 Dear Sir: I have at last discovered Colonel James 
 Stuart's family. lie was the fifth son of Robert Stuart, 
 seventh Baron Blantyre, in the Peerage of Scotland. 
 The present Baron Blantyre is his grand nephew. I 
 have not been able to find the date of his birth. His 
 eldest brother, the eighth Baron was born in 172; or 
 172b. His father died in 174;,. The family residence are 
 Lennoxlore, Haddington, and Erskine House, Renfrew- 
 shire, some ten miles below Glasgow on the Clyde. 
 When killed at Guilford he held the rank of Captain and 
 Lieutenant-Colonel in the hirst Regiment of hoot 
 Guards. I can find no trace oi his having been married. 
 With regards, Yours faithfully, 
 
 David Hutchesox, 
 .1 ssistaut Librarian 
 HOX. 1 ). SCHEXCK, 
 
 Greensbon 1, \ . L . 
 
f 
 

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