In this conflict Colonel Hambright was severely wounded by a large rifle ball passing through the fleshy part of the thigh.  It was soon discovered by the soldiers near him that he was wounded and bleeding profusely.  Samuel Moore, of York county, South Carolina, requested him to to be taken from his horse; he refused by saying, “he knew he was wounded but was not sick or faint from the loss of blood—­said he could still ride very well, and therefore deemed it his duty to fight on till the battle was over.”  And most nobly did he remain in his place, encouraging his men by his persistent bravery and heroic example until signal victory crowned the American arms.

At the close of the action, when Colonel Hambright alighted from his horse, the blood was running over the top of the boot on the wounded leg.  He was then conveyed to the cabin erected on his own land, as previously stated, before the war, where he was properly cared for until he was partially recovered.  Although the wound, in process of time, seemed to have healed, yet its deep-seated injury caused him to falter in his walk during the remainder of his life.  The reason he assigned for refusing to be taken from his horse when severely wounded does honor to his exalted patriotism.  He said if he had complied his men would neglect to load and fire as often as they should; would gather around him to administer to his wants, and thus fail to do their whole duty in opposing and conquering the enemy.

Such true devotion to the cause of freedom is worthy of our warmest admiration, and forcibly illustrates the heroic spirit which animated the band of patriots who achieved, on King’s Mountain, one of the most important and decisive victories of the American Revolution.

Colonel Hambright was long a worthy member and elder of the Presbyterian church at Shiloh, in the present limits of Cleaveland county.  On his tombstone we have this plain inscription: 

     “In memory of Colonel Frederick Hambright, who departed this
     life, March (figures indistinct) 1817, in the ninetieth year
     of his age.”

CHAPTER VIII.

BURKE COUNTY.

Burke county was formed in 1777 from Rowan county, and was named in honor of the celebrated orator and statesman, Edmund Burke, an Irishman by birth, and possessed of all the warm and impetuous order of his countrymen.  He early employed his pen in literature, and his eloquence in politics.  Having been introduced to the Marquis of Rockingham, he made him his secretary and procured his election to the House of Commons.  He there eloquently pleaded the cause of the Americans.  During his political career he wrote much, and his compositions rank among the purest of English classics.  This true friend of America died on the 8th of July, 1797, in the seventieth year of his age.