334 The Winning of the West 



The Americans were discovered by their foes when 

 only a quarter of a mile away. They had formed 

 their forces as they marched. The right centre was 

 composed of Campbell's troops; the left centre of 



statements, the evidence being the other way. Apparently 

 they are unconscious of the fact that they thus wofully 

 diminish the credit to be given to the victors. It may be 

 questioned if there ever was a braver or finer body of rifle- 

 men than the nine hundred who surrounded and killed or 

 captured a superior body of well posted, well led, and cour- 

 ageous men, in part also well drilled, on King's Mountain. 

 The whole world now recognizes how completely the patriots 

 were in the right ; but it is especially incumbent on Ameri- 

 can historians to fairly portray the acts and character of the 

 tories, doing justice to them as well as to the whigs, and con- 

 demning them only when they deserve it. In studying the 

 Revolutionary-war in the Southern States, I have been struck 

 by the way in which the American historians alter the facts 

 by relying purely on partisan accounts, suppressing the in- 

 numerable whig excesses and outrages, or else palliating, 

 them. They thus really destroy the force of the many grave 

 accusations which may be truthfully brought against the 

 British and tories. I regret to say that Bancroft is among 

 the offenders. Hildreth is an honorable exception. Most of 

 the British historians of the same events are even more ran- 

 corous and less trustworthy than the American writers ; and 

 while fully admitting the many indefensible outrages com- 

 mitted by the whigs, a long-continued and impartial exam- 

 ination of accessible records has given me the belief that in 

 the districts where the civil war was most ferocious, much 

 the largest number of the criminal class joined the tories, 

 and the misdeeds of the latter were more numerous than 

 those of the whigs. But the frequency with which both 

 whigs and tories hanged men for changing sides, shows that 

 quite a number of the people shifted from one party to the 

 other ; and so there must have been many men of exactly 

 the same stamp in both armies. Much of the nominal chang- 

 ing of sides, however, was due to the needless and excessive 

 severity of Cornwallis and his lieutenants. 



