354 The Winning of the West 



overwhelmed by a force three times the number of 

 all their warriors. The plan succeeded well, al- 

 though the Virginia division was delayed so that its 

 action, though no less effective, was much later than 

 that of the others, and though the latter likewise 

 failed to act in perfect unison. 



Rutherford and his North Carolinians were the 

 first to take the field. 59 He had an army of two 

 thousand gunmen, besides pack-horsemen and men 

 to tend the drove of bullocks, together with a few 

 Catawba Indians a total of twenty-four hundred. 60 

 On September ist he left the head of the Catawba, 61 

 and the route he followed was long known by the 

 name of Rutherford's trace. There was not a tent 

 in his army, and but very few blankets; the pack- 

 horses carried the flour, while the beef was driven 

 along on the hoof. Officers and men alike wore 

 homespun hunting shirts trimmed with colored 

 cotton; the cloth was made from hemp, tow, and 

 wild-nettle bark. 



He passed over the Blue Ridge at Swananoa Gap, 

 crossed the French Broad at the Warrior's Ford, 

 and then went through the mountains 62 to the mid- 

 dle towns, a detachment of a thousand men making 

 a forced march in advance. This detachment was 



59 That is, after the return of the South Carolinians from 

 their destruction of the lower towns. 



60 "Historical Sketches of North Carolina," John H. 

 Wheeler, Phil., 1851, p. 383. 



61 "Am. Archives," 5th Series, Vol. II, p. 1235. 



62 Up Hominy Creek, across the Pigeon, up Richland Creek, 

 across Tuckaseigee River, over Cowee Mount. 



