spectators.  He then had the pleasure of listening to the reading of the first Declaration of Independence in the United States, and joined in the shout of approval which burst forth from the assembled multitude.  In a short time after the Convention in Charlotte, Col.  Thomas Polk raised a regiment of infantry and cavalry, and marched in the direction of Cross creek (now Fayetteville) to disperse a body of Tories.  In this service, he joined a corps of cavalry under Captain Chas. Polk.  Soon after the return of this expedition, he commenced his classical studies at Clio Academy, in the western part of Rowan county, (now Iredell) under the instruction of the Rev. James Hall.

About this time the Cherokee Indians were committing numerous depredations and occasional murders near the head sources of the Catawba river.  Upon this information, Gen. Rutherford called out a brigade of militia from Guilford, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Lincoln and other western counties, composed of infantry and three corps of cavalry.  In one of the companies commanded by Captain, afterwards Col.  Robert Mebane, he acted as Lieutenant.  Two skirmishes took place during this campaign, in which several Indians were killed and a considerable number made prisoners, among the latter, Hicks and Scott, two white traders, who had married Indians and espoused their cause.  After his return from the Cherokee expedition, he resumed his classical education at Queen’s Museum, in Charlotte, under the control of Dr. Alexander McWhorter, an eminent Presbyterian clergyman from New Jersey.  In the summer of 1780, this institution, having assumed in 1777, the more patriotic name of “Liberty Hall Academy,” was broken up by the approach of the British army under Lord Cornwallis.  The school, then in a flourishing state, was dismissed; the young men were urged by Dr. McWhorter with patriotic appeals, to take up arms in defence of their country; and upon all he invoked the blessings of Heaven.  At this time Gen. Gates was on his way to the Southern States.  Under orders from Gen. Rutherford, a brigade was promptly raised to rendezvous at Salisbury.  In this brigade Hunter acted for a short time as Commissary, and afterward as Lieutenant in the company of Capt.  Givens.  This force first marched from Salisbury down the northeast side of the Yadkin, scouring the Tory settlements of the Uwharrie and Deep rivers, previous to its junction with Gen. Gates at Cheraw.  From this place Gen. Gates moved forward to Clermont, where he arrived on the 12th of August.  On the 15th he marched towards Camden, progressing as far as the Gum Swamp, where sharp skirmishing took place in the night between advanced parties of the Americans and the British.  On the 16th of August, 1780, the unfortunate battle of Camden was fought.  A contagious panic seized most of the militia early in the action, and a precipitate retreat was the natural consequence.  The regulars of Maryland and Delaware, with a small portion of