Another incident relating to the advance of the British army is to the following effect.  As Tarleton’s cavalry passed through the southern part of Lincoln county (now Gaston) they rode up to the residence of Benjamin Ormand, on the head-waters of Long Creek, and tied one of the horses, which they had taken, to the top of a small white oak, growing in his yard.  This little Revolutionary sapling is still living in the serenity of a robust old age, and now measures, two feet from the ground, twenty-seven feet in circumference! Its branches extend all around in different directions from forty to fifty feet, and the tree is supposed to contain at least ten cords of wood.

When Tarleton’s cavalry were on the point of leaving, they took the blanket from the cradle in which James Ormand, the baby, was lying, and used it as a saddle-blanket, and the large family Bible of Benjamin Ormand was converted into a saddle!!

The Bible was afterward found near Beattie’s Ford, on the Catawba river, in the line of the British march, and restored to its proper owner.  Mr. Z.S.  Ormand, a grandson of Benjamin Ormand, and a worthy citizen of Gaston county, now lives at the old homestead, where the Bible, considerably injured, can be seen at any time, as an abused relic of the past, and invested with a most singular history.  Tarleton’s cavalry also seized and carried off the bedding and blankets in the house, and some of the cooking utensils in the kitchen.

Mr. Ormand also informs the author that he frequently heard his grandmother, who then lived near Steele Creek Church, say that she was present at the great meeting at Charlotte, on the 20th of May, 1775, and that she exhibited, on that occasion, a quilt of her own manufacture.  She said it was a large turn out of people from all parts of the county, and was considered a suitable time for the fair sex to exhibit productions of their own hands.

Having replenished his commissary department as much as possible while encamped on the Ramsour battleground, and having experienced too much delay in his late march in consequence of the encumbrance of his baggage, Cornwallis destroyed, before moving, all such as could be regarded as superfluous.  The baggage at head-quarters was first thrown into the flames, thus converting the greater portion of his army into light troops, with a view of renewing more rapidly the pursuit of Morgan, or of forcing General Greene into an early action.

It is said “pewter plates” were freely distributed among some “loyal” friends in the immediate vicinity, or thrown into the mill-pond; and large numbers of very strong glass bottles, originally filled with English ale, or something stronger, were broken to pieces on the rocks, fragments of which may be seen scattered around at the present time.