The uniforms of the officers and men was a hunting-shirt of domestic, trimmed with cotton:  their arms were rifles, and none knew better how to use them.  Many of the hardy sons of the west there experienced their first essay in arms, and their bravery was nobly maintained afterwards at King’s Mountain, the Cowpens, and elsewhere in the South.

General Rutherford commanded a brigade in the battle of Camden, (16th of August, 1780), and was there made a prisoner.  After he was exchanged he again took the field, and commanded the expedition which marched by way of Cross Creek (now Fayetteville) to Wilmington, when that place, on his approach, was evacuated by the British, near the close of the war.

He frequently represented Rowan county in the Senate during and subsequent to the war, showing the high appreciation in which his services were held by the people.  Shortly after his last service in 1786, he joined the strong tide of emigration to Tennessee, where his well-earned fame and experience in governmental matters had preceded him.  The Knoxville Gazette of the 6th of September, 1794, contains the following announcement: 

“On Monday last the General Assembly of this territory commenced their session in this town.  General Rutherford long distinguished for his services in the Legislature of North Carolina, is appointed President of the Legislative Council.”

General Rutherford died in Tennessee near the beginning of the present century, at a good old age, and it is to be regretted more has not been preserved of his life and services.

LOCKE FAMILY.

Matthew Locke, one of the first settlers of Rowan county, and the patriarchal head of a large family, was born in 1730.  He was an early and devoted friend of liberty and the rights of the people.  His stability of character and maturity of judgment caused him to be held in high esteem in all controversial matters among his fellow citizens.  In 1771, during the “Regulation” troubles, he was selected by the people, with Herman Husbands, to receive the lawful fees of the sheriffs, and other crown officers, whose exorbitant exactions and oppressive conduct were then everywhere disturbing the peace and welfare of society.  In 1775, he was a member of the Colonial Assembly, and in 1776 member of the Provincial Congress, which met on the 12th of November of that year, and formed the first Constitution.  From 1793 to 1799 he was a member of Congress, and was succeeded by the Hon. Archibald Henderson.  He married a daughter of Richard Brandon, an early patriot of the same county.  He died in 1801, aged seventy-one years.