324 The Winning of the West 



of the circle of flickering firelight, and began their 

 night journey. A few determined footmen fol- 

 lowed, going almost as fast as the horse, and actual- 

 ly reached the battlefield in season to do their share 

 of the fighting. 



All this time Ferguson had not been idle. He 

 first heard of the advance of the backwoodsmen on 

 September 3Oth, from the two tories who had de- 

 serted Sevier on Yellow Mountain. He had fur- 

 loughed many of his loyalists, as all formidable re- 

 sistance seemed at an end; and he now sent out 

 messengers in every direction to recall them to his 

 standard. Meanwhile he fell slowly back from the 

 foot-hills, so that he might not have to face the 

 mountaineers until he had time to gather his own 

 troops. He instantly wrote for reinforcements to 

 Cruger, at Ninety-Six. Cruger had just returned 

 from routing the Georgian Colonel Clark, who was 



earlier narratives, nine hundred and ten ; Hill, nine hundred 

 and thirty-three. The last authority is important because 

 he was one of the four hundred men who joined the moun- 

 taineers at the Cowpens, and his testimony confirms the ex- 

 plicit declaration of the official report that the nine hundred 

 men who fought in the battle were chosen after the junction 

 with Williams, Lacey, and Hill. A few late- narratives, in- 

 cluding that of Shelby in his old age, make the choice take 

 place before the junction, and the total number then amount 

 to thirteen hundred; evidently the choice at the Cowpens is 

 by these authors confused with the choice at Green River. 

 Shelby's memory when he was old was certainly very treach- 

 erous; in similar fashion he, as has been seen, exaggerated 

 greatly his numbers at the Enoree. On the other hand, 

 Robert Campbell puts the number at only seven hundred, 

 and Lenoir between six and seven hundred. Both of these 

 thus err in the opposite direction. 



