304 The Winning of the West 



to the call. Sevier remained to patrol the border 

 and watch the Cherokees, while Isaac Shelby 

 crossed the mountains with a couple of hundred 

 mounted riflemen, early in July. The mountain 

 men were joined by McDowell, with whom they 

 found also a handful of Georgians and some South 

 Carolinans; who when their States were subdued 

 had fled northward, resolute to fight their oppres- 

 sors to the last. 



The arrival of the mountain men put new life 

 into the dispirited whigs. On July 3Oth a mixed 

 force, under Shelby and two or three local militia 

 colonels, captured Thickett's fort, with ninety tories, 

 near the Pacolet. They then camped at the Chero- 

 kee ford of Broad River, and sent out parties of 

 mounted men to carry on a guerilla or partisan war- 

 fare against detachments, not choosing to face Fer- 

 guson's main body. After a while they moved south 

 to Cedar Spring. Here, on the 8th of August, they 

 were set upon by Ferguson's advanced guard, of 

 dragoons and mounted riflemen. These they re- 

 pulsed, handling the British rather roughly; but, 

 as Ferguson himself came up, they fled, and though 

 he pursued them vigorously he could not overtake 

 them. 10 



10 Shelby's MS. Autobiography, and the various accounts 

 he wrote of these affairs in his old age (which Hay wood and 

 most of the other local American historians follow or ampli- 

 fy), certainly greatly exaggerate the British force and loss, 

 as well as the part Shelby himself played, compared to the 

 Georgia and Carolina leaders. The Americans seemed to 

 have outnumbered Ferguson's advance guard, which was less 

 than two hundred strong, about three to one. Shelby's ac- 



