308 The Winning of the West 



their commander, fleeing over the mountains to take 

 refuge with the Holston men. Except for an occa- 

 sional small' guerilla party there was not a single 

 organized body of American troops left south of 

 Gates's broken and dispirited army. 



All the Southern lands lay at the feet of the con- 

 querors. The British leaders, overbearing and ar- 

 rogant, held almost unchecked sway throughout 

 the Carolinas and Georgia; and looking northward 

 they made ready for the conquest of Virginia. 13 

 Their right flank was covered by the waters of the 

 ocean, their left by the high mountain barrier-chains, 

 beyond which stretched the interminable forest; and 

 they had as little thought of danger from one side 

 as from the other. 



Suddenly and without warning, the wilderness 

 sent forth a swarm of stalwart and hardy riflemen, 

 of whose very existence the British had hitherto 

 been ignorant. 14 Riders spurring in hot haste 

 brought word to the king's commanders that the 

 backwater men had come over the mountains. The 

 Indian fighters of the frontier, leaving unguarded 

 their homes on the western waters, had crossed by 



13 The northern portion of North Carolina was still in pos- 

 session of the remainder of Gates's army, but they could have 

 been brushed aside without an effort. 



14 "A numerous army now appeared on the frontier drawn 

 from Nolichucky and other settlements beyond the mountains,, 

 whose very names had been unknown to us." Lord Raw- 

 don's letter of October 24, 1780. Clarke of Georgia had 

 plundered a convoy of presents intended for the Indians, at 

 Augusta, and the British wrongly supposed this to be like- 

 wise the aim of the mountaineers. 



