Colonel Clarke's plans were laid with skill and judgment, and the part he had to act in them was well executed. Colonel Brown must soon have yielded for want of water and provisions, and would not probably have held out so long as he did, had it not been under a certain expectation of being relieved from Ninety-six. There are but few instances, where the plans of a commanding. officer do not suffer more or less by disclosure ; and there are many instances where the causes of failure require secrecy for a time: consequently, his reputation is sometimes liable to suffer by acts of caution and prudence. If a powerful besieging army was compelled to retire from a feeble fortress for want of ammunition, what fatal consequences might there result from an immediate disclosure of the cause. Fatal disasters were not unusual during the revolutionary war, which can be traced to the gratification of inquisitive militia officers, who refused to act without being made acquainted with the motives. It is the business of a commander to think, and of his army to act: if this confidence cannot justly be reposed in him, he is not worthy of the station.

After colonel Clarke raised the siege at Augusta, he retreated to Little river. His men dispersed in small parties to return to their homes for the purpose of taking leave of their friends, and making preparations to leave the country; and a time and place were appointed for their rendezyous. The prospects of poverty and want of sub.

sistence, induced many of those, whose families were not too unwieldy, to carry them off to some place where they could be provided for. About the last of September, the distressed remain of Clarke's regiment met at the place appointed. When he was ready to march, he found himself at the head of three hundred men, who had in their train four hundred women and children. The political condition of the country, for two years, had been such, that the vestiges of cultivation were scarcely any where to be seen, and to leave families behind under such circumstances, was subjecting them to certain want, if not to starvation, in a country under the control of an enemy, whose barbarity has been heretofore described.

With this helpless multitude, like Moses from Egypt of old times, and with not more than five days subsistence, Colonel Clarke commenced a march of near two hundred miles, through a mountainous wilderness, to avoid being cut off by the enemy. On the eleventh day, they reached the Wattauga and Nolachuckie rivers, on the north side of the mountains, in a starved and otherwise deplorable condition. Many of the men and women had received no subsistence for several days, except nuts; and the last two, even the children were subsisted on the same kind of food. This is a distressing picture, to which the pen cannot do justice; therefore, it must be filled up by the ima gination. Many of the tender sex were obliged

to travel on foot, and some of them without shoes; and notwithstanding the difficulties they had to encounter, they yielded without murmuring, and by their smiles cheered the drooping spirits of their husbands. The tenderness of the female heart, is always open to the sufferings of the brave and the honourable.

The inhabitants of the country, where these families were distributed, have been justly famed for their hospitality, and in no instance have the feelings been more completely verified, than in the alleviation of the distressing demands, which these unfortunate people now made upon them. They had nothing to recommend them, but their poverty, and the cause in which they suffered : these were sufficient. Supplies of clothing, subsistence and shelter, were in no instance withheld from them: nor were these gratuities momentary: they ceased only with the demands which the occasion called for upon their bounty.

So soon as lord Cornwallis heard of the retreat of colonel Clarke from Augusta, he ordered colonel Ferguson of the British army, with one hundred British regulars, to march to the frontier of South-Carolina, where he was well informed that his numbers could be augmented by loyalists, so as to form a sufficient force to overcome colonel Clarke and cut off his retreat, supposing that he would be obliged to return through South-Carolina. Apprized of the danger which would attend this route, Clarke secured himself against it by

crossing the mountains. M'Call made good his retreat on the eastern side, near the slope of the mountains, but suffered much for want of subsistence.

Flushed by the success of the British arms against generals Gates and Sumpter, and the retreat of colonel Clarke from Georgia; colonel Ferguson flattered himself with the subjugation of the country, without opposition. Elated by the field for plunder, which was opened in NorthCarolina, the loyalists flocked to the royal standard in such numbers, that Ferguson was at a loss to furnish them with subsistence and employment, until they could reach the promised land; where they were to join the British army under lord Cornwallis. This junction was to be formed on the north side of Cataba river, at Charlotte, in Mecklinburgh county.

While the loyalists were amused with these golden fancies, which were to be reaped from the fields of honest industry: the hardy race of republican mountaineers were embodying for their destruction. The wanton depredations committed by the followers of Ferguson, were indiscriminately directed to all classes. The well wishers to the royal cause were not exempted from pillage, if they refused uniting with them and taking up arms. This procedure excited in the breasts of the republicans, the highest indignation; and like a stream advancing from its source, by branches falling into it on the right and left, the American

army increased as it progressed. Colonel Camp bell was nominally the commanding-officer, and the troops were arranged in four divisions under the command of colonels Cleveland, Shelby, Sevier, and Williams. Colonel Ferguson had taken his position on the top of King's mountain, where he was attacked by the Americans from four different points. The militia were ordered to fight in their own way, by securing their bodies behind trees from the enemy's fire, and to take deliberate aim. Ferguson and his whole army, consisting of eleven hundred men, with a few exceptions, were killed, wounded, and taken prisoners, and all their arms, ammunition, camp equipage, horses, and baggage of every description, fell into the hands of the victorious Americans. While colonel Clarke was on his way crossing the mountains he met captain Hampton, who informed him that colonel Campbell was collecting a force on the west side of the mountains to attack Ferguson. Major Chandler and captain Johnston, with thirty men, filed off and formed a junction with colonel Campbell, at Gilbert's town, and had a share in the defeat of Ferguson. After disposing of their fami lies among the hospitable inhabitants of Kentucky, and securing them against the want of the actual necessaries of life, colonel Clarke collected the remains of his regiment, re-crossed the mountains and returned to his former position on the borders of South-Carolina, about the 20th of October. These men had been so long employed in