342 The Winning of the West 



lied by their officers, and again went up the hill. 

 One of the backwoodsmen was in the act of cock- 

 ing his rifle when a loyalist, dashing at him with the 

 bayonet, pinned his hand to his thigh ; the rifle went 

 off, the ball going through the loyalist's body, and 

 the two men fell together. Hambright, though 

 wounded, was able to sit in the saddle, and continued 

 in the battle. Cleavland had his horse shot under 

 him, and then led his men on foot. As the lines 

 came close together, many of the whigs recognized 

 in the tory ranks their former neighbors, friends, or 

 relatives; and the men taunted and jeered one an- 

 other with bitter hatred. In more than one instance 

 brother was slain by brother or cousin by cousin. 

 The lowland tories felt an especial dread of the 

 mountaineers ; looking with awe and hatred on their 

 tall, gaunt, rawboned figures, their long, matted hair 

 and wild faces. One wounded tory, as he lay watch- 

 ing them, noticed their deadly accuracy of aim, and 

 saw also that the loyalists, firing from the summit, 

 continually overshot their foes. 



The British regulars had lost half their number; 

 the remainder had been scattered and exhausted in 

 their successive charges. The bayonet companies 

 of the loyalist militia were in the same plight; and 

 the North Carolina tories, the least disciplined, could 

 no longer he held to their work. Sevier's men 

 gained the summit at the same time with Camp- 

 bell's and part of Shelby's. The three colonels were 

 heading their troops ; and as Sevier saw Shelby, he 

 swore, by God, the British had burned off part of 



