The Winning of the West 



could not change his plans ; but on receiving a sec- 

 ond and more urgent message he agreed to come as 

 desired. 18 



The appointed meeting-place was at the Sycamore 

 Shoals of the Watauga. There the riflemen gath- 

 ered on the 25th of September, Campbell bringing 

 four hundred men, Sevier and Shelby two hundred 

 and forty each, while the refugees under McDowell 

 amounted to about one hundred and sixty. With 

 Shelby came his two brothers, one of whom was 

 afterward slightly wounded at King's Mountain; 

 while Sevier had in his regiment no less than six 

 relations of his own name, his two sons being 

 privates, and his two brothers captains. One of the 

 latter was mortally wounded in the battle. 



To raise money for provisions Sevier and Shelby 

 were obliged to take, on their individual guaranties, 

 the funds in the entry-taker's offices that had been 

 received from the sale of lands. They amounted 

 in all to nearly thirteen thousand dollars, every dol- 

 lar of which they afterward refunded. 



On the 26th 19 they began the march, over a thou- 



18 Shelby's MS. Autobiography. Campbell MSS., especially 

 MS. letters of Col. Arthur Campbell of Sept. 3, 1810, Oct. 

 18, 1810, etc. ; MS. notes on Sevier in Tenn. Hist. Soc. The 

 latter consist of memoranda by his old soldiers, who were 

 with him in the battle; many of their statements are to be 

 received cautiously, but there seems no reason to doubt their 

 account of his receiving the news while giving a great 

 barbecue. Shelby is certainly entitled to the credit of plan- 

 ning and starting the campaign against Ferguson. 



19 "State of the proceedings of the Western army from 

 Sept. 25, 1780, to the reduction of Major Ferguson and the 



