to join him.  He crossed Broad river, ravaging the country through which he marched.  About the last of September he encamped at Gilberttown, near the present town of Rutherfordton. la his march to this point, his force-increased to upwards of one thousand men.  All of his Tory recruits were furnished with arms, most of them with rifles, and a smaller portion with muskets, to the muzzles of which they fixed the large knives they usually carried with them to be used as bayonets, if occasion should require.

Although Ferguson failed to overtake the detachment of “mountain men,” previously alluded to, he took two of them prisoners who had become separated from their command.  These he paroled and sent off, enjoining them to tell the officers on the western waters that if they did not desist from their opposition to the British arms, and take protection under the royal standard, he would march his army over the mountains and lay waste their country with fire and sword.  This was no idle threat, and its execution would have been attempted had not a brief stay in Gilberttown satisfied him from the reports of his spies that a storm of patriotic indignation was brewing among and beyond the mountains that was destined soon to descend in all its fury upon his own army.  He knew that most of the inhabitants were of Scotch-Irish and Huguenot descent, mingled with many Germans, whose long residence in the wilds of America had greatly tended to increase their love of liberty.

As soon as General McDowell heard that Gates was defeated, he broke up his camp at Smith’s Ford on Broad River, and passed beyond the mountains, accompanied by a few of his unyielding patriots.  While there in consultation with Colonels Sevier and Shelby as to the best means for raising troops and repelling the invaders, the two paroled men arrived and delivered the message from Ferguson.  It produced no terrific effects on the minds of these well-tried officers, but on the contrary tended to stimulate and quicken their patriotic exertions.  It was soon decided that each one should use his best efforts to raise all the men that could be enlisted, and that these forces should assemble at the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga river, on the 25th of September.  The plans for raising a sufficient number of men to accomplish their purpose were speedily devised and carried into execution.  To Col.  Sevier was assigned the duty of communicating with Col.  McDowell and other officers in voluntary exile beyond the mountains.  To Col.  Shelby was assigned a similar duty of writing to Col.  Campbell of the adjoining county of Washington, in Virginia.  Among the refugees beyond the mountains was Col.  Clarke, of Georgia, with about one hundred of his overpowered but not subdued men.  Their story of the sufferings endured by the Whig inhabitants of upper South Carolina and Georgia served to arouse and intensify the state of patriotic feeling among the hardy sons of Western North Carolina.