In 1778, he was drafted into Captain John Brownfield’s company, Colonel Frances Locke’s regiment, and marched by way of Camden, to the defence of Charleston.  After his return, he served under the same officers in the battle of Ramsour’s Mill, in Lincoln county.

When Cornwallis was in Charlotte in 1780, he served under Captain James Thompson, the gallant leader of the Spartan band against the foraging party at McIntire’s farm, seven miles from Charlotte, on the Beattie’s Ford road.

In December, 1780, he joined the company of Captain John Sharpe, at which time, General Davidson, with his accustomed vigilance and activity, announced that all who would then promptly volunteer for six weeks, such service should stand for a three months tour.  On this occasion he volunteered, and served under Captain William Henry.

After the death of General Davidson at Cowan’s Ford, he was placed in Colonel Locke’s regiment, General Pickens commanding, which forces were ordered to harass and impede the march of Cornwallis to Guilford Court House.  This was his last important military service.

HENRY HUNTER.

Henry Hunter was born in the county of Derry, Ireland, on the 11th of August, 1751.  About the time he became of age, he married Martha Sloan, and, after remaining a little upwards of one year longer in Ireland, he emigrated to America, and landed at Charleston, S.C., after a long and boisterous voyage of thirteen weeks.  After reaching the shores of the New World, to which his fond anticipations of superior civil and religious privileges had anxiously turned, on surveying his situation, grim poverty stared him in the face; for, his stock of cash on hand was just “one silver half dollar.”  Yet, being raised to habits of industry, he did not despair, feeling assured that, “where there is a will there is a way” to act in earnest, and battle against the adverse fortunes of life.

Finding in Charleston a wagon from North Carolina, he made suitable arrangements with its owner, and accompanied it on its return to Mecklenburg county, whither his mother and four brothers had emigrated several years before, and settled in the neighborhood of Poplar Tent Church.  Here, by strict economy, and persevering industry, he was prospered as a farmer; blest in his “basket and his store,” and soon enabled to purchase a comfortable homestead for himself and his rising family.

When the war of the Revolution broke out, being deeply imbued from childhood with the principles of liberty, and the justness of the American cause, he did not hesitate to assist in the great struggle for freedom.

He first entered the service of the United States as a volunteer in Captain William Alexander’s company, Colonel George Alexander’s regiment, and marched to suppress a large body of Tories assembled under Colonel John Moore at Ramsour’s Mill, near the present town of Lincolnton, but failed to reach that place before the battle had been fought and the Tories signally routed by Colonel Locke and his brave associates.